What are you watching now?

It can be a bit boring the blurb about how fast children grow and wanting them to slow down. It’s just that it seems to happen without you noticing it and you can’t help but wonder where the time has gone. I guess as we are living it we just don’t notice it until one day you realise you are no longer watching CBeebies but programs on CBBC. He is outside in the garden climbing to the top of the apple tree before you have even had a chance to start risk assessing the situation. He is telling you all of the things he is learning at school and you suddenly realise it’s the end of the school year. You take him to bed at night and suddenly he is reading you his bed time story. Singing “twinkle twinkle little star” with a cuddle suddenly seems too “babyish” now. I can watch him from a distance now playing with his friends; he suddenly looks so tall and hardly needs me now. We will be at the park and suddenly he has made a friend all on his own. A play date now means you can actually sit down and have a cup of tea while the children entertain themselves.

I sometimes refer to him as my baby and he says "Mummy I'm not a baby" but I tell him "you will always be my baby!"

Saying goodbye to baby centre

At the start of my first pregnancy I joined up with Baby Centre, read books and probably underlined and made notes. I was getting prepared after all. It's funny to look back on now.....I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. I still parented pretty much like a headless chicken the first couple of months but lucky me and the wee man finally relaxed about it all and the wee man and I fell into a happy routine. Baby centre has followed us all the way through and so it felt like a milestone when on his 5th birthday I got my last email! It was one of those emails that I used to religiously read, then on the odd occasion then it would mostly get deleted. The email itself started to get less complicated and detailed too. He is no longer my baby, no more a toddler and has said goodbye to preschool status. When I had the diva I quickly forgot what it was like to just parent one and it wasn't until recently that I realised what parenting just a five year old was like. The Diva was settling into nursery and the wee man and I could spend the half term together. It was well easy, not perfect, but the wee man has definately grown up. So many things you no longer have to worry about.... Naps, snacks, having lunch at specific times. He is no longer as quickly distracted and we sat together having the nicest chat and lunch at the café.

Parenting the wee man has changed. The why questions have become a lot more difficult now. He is so busy absorbing and learning new things that he impresses me everyday. The kiss shop has supposedly closed but we get lots of big hugs. So I am happily saying goodbye to baby centre but he will always be my baby anyway.

Summer growth

It's like you showed us this great big ball of yellow in the sky so we had to do so much to compare with it. We were always building up to this and then well we just all burst open together. 

We had longer days to spend time together and we stripped down to the barest minimals to enjoy your warmth. We basked in new salty smells and sandy textures. We managed to get our feet wet in the sea.

There was strawberry flavors coated in sugary sweetness. Chocolatey ice cream flavors to cool us down in your glorious heat. Picnics, lots of picnics. You gave us time, lots of time together as a family. You gave us space to let our imaginations grow. We know our favorite stories by heart.

You have taught us to be bolder and we have practiced and learnt new skills.

 

Summer you were pretty no holds barred.

I'm joining in with Older Mum (In A Muddle) and her beautiful seasonal linky One Week. A few words and photographs reflecting our experience of Summer 2013.

Marking a moment

There is so much I could say about my wee man turning two and a half. He has changed so much in this half year alone. There is an amazing constant flow of words that just seem to grow and grow as the days move on. From one word sentences to whole conversations. To say he makes us laugh with his little statements is an understatement. 

I dreaded the potty training days and now here he is running around in his big boy pants with no need for mummy to worry at all. One day he just seemed to completely accept that he now did his business in the potty and that was that. It was like a hurdle mummy had to jump over more than anything else. 

He is so agile that I'm thinking I might have a gymnast in the making. Of course the list of things that I think he is going to be is endless. Like I am seriously impressed how high he is able to jump, what he loves to jump off and over. He is getting pretty good at catching a ball and also has a pretty impressive kick. 

His curiosity is endless and it's constantly "What's that mummy?" or "What you doing?" He has certainly shown he has quite a stubborn streak and we have great "fun" trying to convince him that he can't always get his way. He abounds with energy and just never seems to stop. 

He still has those moments where he can be quite shy and takes things in his stride. Not a lover of huge crowds he's still the one voice you are most likely to hear in the playground. Sometimes it's hard to keep up as he will love doing one thing one month and it will all change in the next. He loves being outside and making a mess when painting. His love for sticks and stones never seems to change.

He is my fun and cheeky monkey. He knows how to drive me insane and he knows how to wrap me around his little fingers. He gives the best hugs and has a smile that melts butter. I'm just loving every minute of him.

His own personality

Whichever social science you study you are more than likely to come across the nature/nurture debate. As a parent with most things I find the best stance to take with these arguments is the middle ground. 

After all I want my wee man to be open to change and have heroes who can point him in a positive direction. Change can be a good thing, pushing us out of our comfort zone making us try new things that we are not particularly comfortable with. 

Yet I don't want him to loose those pieces that make him well him. From birth his personality started to show through. Often you will hear me or his daddy saying we have no idea where he gets it from. 

It's big and it's cheeky and it's fun and often loud. I swear you can hear my son for miles and he just never stops...the talking, the moving. 

We have gone through different stages of how willing he was to express it but it has always been there. Now he is slowly starting to make friends in the playground, seeking others out and he shows himself willing to share, up for an adventure.

Sometimes it comes across as confidence and then sometimes he is not too sure. Those are the times I think he is most vulnerable to change and influence and I as a mummy try to mould it the best way I can. I don't want to hold him back but I don't want to push him too far. I'll be honest it's a bit tricky.

One thing is for sure his personality is a beautiful thing and as a mummy I have the pleasure of watching it grow.

Big and Smalls

As he grows

The wee man has reached an age where he just seems older, bigger and possibly even wiser. You can actually have a proper conversation with him now and well actually he never stops talking. We have reached that stage where we really have to be careful what we say. His favourite questions is "What's that?" like a sponge absorbing everything. "Mummy look", at even the smallest thing, "it's a tree". "Yes baby just like the other tree next to it that you just pointed out." 

Even his tantrums have "developed" as he becomes ever so smarter and wiser to his mummy. I have a limit I can reach sometimes and I start raising my voice, getting ever more cross and then he does his thing. He looks at you and smiles and says "Mummy" and when I don't answer he says it again looking closer at you with that cheeky grin "Mummy". What is a mother supposed to do really?

The other day I said to him that he needed to take his shoes off before he could play and before I knew it there he was sitting down pulling his own shoes off. I get it, nothing to write home about and jump around screaming "he did it, can you believe it! he did it!" but I'll be honest a small part of me looked on in awe. It's because it is that step towards independence no matter how small it is. That step towards relying less on his mummy. I like to believe and hope that he will always "need" me but he is slowly becoming his own little person and it is always a beautiful thing to watch and be a part of.

I'm linking this up with Small steps Amazing achievments over at Ethan's Escapades