Our baby had his 2nd birthday almost 2 weeks ago, and it’s hard to think that he is actually not a baby anymore. I guess I won’t be able to call him Baby G anymore… So I’ll be calling him G-force from now, since that is his granny’s nickname for him…
Measurements on 13/12/2013:
Weight: 11.41 kg
Height: 86 cm
Head circumference: 50 cm
Our little guy is doing so well in every way; I’m still almost every day in awe of how much the Lord has blessed us.
Crèche: He’s gone to the next class in crèche, but he is with the same teacher he had last year. Usually they go over somewhere between 2 and 3, but they have to be ready for it. The criteria are that they must be able to speak well and know the different colours. Well, he doesn’t know every colour (he usually gets blue and red right, but he is not so good with the other colours), but they decided to let him go anyway. So far it looks like he is the only boy that graduated to the next class, along with 2 other girls. Last year there was 1 girl that could only go to the next class when she was almost 3 and I know there was also 1 boy in his class that turns 3 in March and he is still in the old class. I was totally surprised when the teacher told me (very proudly) that he is ready to go to the next class. My dad made a comment that we shouldn’t push him before he is ready, but we didn’t and it wasn’t our idea. We were quite happy to have him stay in the old class for probably the next 6 months. The teacher said that he does very well with most of the activities that they do, and he was the best with sticking stickers onto a picture of all the kids in his class.
Talking: G-force is talking really well for his age. Every day he uses a lot of new words, and he only needs to hear them once to repeat it. He speaks 4-6 word sentences regularly and he is also starting to speak English. He must have learnt that from school, from the new teacher’s assistant that took over for the last 3 months of the year. He says words like: “No,” “let’s go,” “naughty,” “move,” “mine,” “bubbles,” & probably a few more that I can’t think off now.
The other day we were visiting friends and their 4,5 year old daughter told me how their one dog bit the other dog on the ear and that we shouldn’t touch the ear because it was sore. I was holding G-force while she told this to me and did not notice that he was listening intently to what she was saying. DH came and stood next to me and immediately G-force told his daddy; “Pappa, Goo.gle stout! Pappa, Goo.gle eina daai ene.” The translation is: “Daddy, Goo.gle (the dog’s name) naughty! Daddy, Goo.gle hurt that one (pointing to the other dog).” Such a good summary of what the little girl told me, so he completely understood what she said and he could retell the story.
Eating: In general G-force eats quite well. Especially when we give him something that he likes, but there are still times when we really struggle to get him to eat something. We are also worried that he eats less than other kids his age. They tell me that he eats well at school, but he is quite skinny, and when we speak to friends of ours who have a boy 3 weeks older than G-force it’s obvious that G-force eats a lot less at a time, and that little boy is not a fat or even chubby little boy at all. I suspect we have a picky eater on our hands and he will rather not eat at all than eat something he does not want. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because I was not a good eater either as a kid and from what I’ve heard from my MIL, neither was any of her kids. Both DH and I were incredibly skinny kids, as a matter of fact we were both still very skinny when we met in 1993, when he was 22 and I was almost 22…
Sleeping: O boy, did we sleep poorly for a week or two in December! I felt like a zombie and one morning I actually broke down and cried, because I was so tired! We narrowed it down to 2 reasons – teething and a disrupted routine. We don’t like to give G-force meds regularly but we started to give him medication for teething to help him sleep at night and we got quite strict on things like naps and eating at the right time. Almost immediately things got better and he now only wakes once anytime from 3am to about 5am, and he will go back to sleep again afterwards. As a matter of fact G-force often slept until 7h45 and sometimes even later. One morning he woke us all up at 9h30 (that morning he woke after 6 am and I brought him back to bed with me). It was really nice for all of us to be able to sleep in a bit at the same time!
Teeth: We had lots of teething symptoms in December – those horrible teething poo’s that immediately gives a nappy rash, chewing on fingers, and G-force even complained that his mouth was sore several times. About 2 weeks ago I tried to feel if he has new molars, but I could not feel any new teeth yet. G-force thought it was very funny to bite mommy’s fingers, as I tried to feel for new molars, so I won’t be trying it again soon. This past weekend though we played and he was laughing loudly and I could see a tiny white triangle peek through behind the molar on the top left, so I think at least one has started to cut through. I could only see from a certain angle though, so there can be more.
Potty training: Well the plan was to start potty training as soon as the crèche closed for the December holidays, but 2 weeks before G-force decided that he did not want to sit on the potty anymore, and he would cry when we tried. So I did not push him since I don’t want to force it on him and get negative emotions associated with potty training. When we heard that he graduated to the next class and that from this year they will do potty training with him at the crèche, the pressure was off. I tried again a week ago with the incentive of sticking stickers onto a piece of paper or unto himself if he is successful, and he is now happy again to sit on the potty. So I send underwear and pull up nappies to school now and we will see how it goes.
2nd birthday parties: For his first birthday we had 1 birthday party for G-force on his actual birthday, but it was so stressful for me, because we had so many Christmas activities before his birthday, and it was hard to get everything ready in time for his birthday, since all of the Christmas activities were at other people’s houses and the shops are closed on Christmas day. I then said that we would have his next party before Christmas, since a lot of people would be away over Christmas anyway. We had the official part a few weeks before his birthday and it was fun, and a lot less stress to plan and organize. Once again I baked his cake and I think it turned out better than the cake for his first birthday. It still took me almost a whole day to make though…
On G-force’s birthday we had another celebration at MIL and FIL’s house since they have an indoor heated pool as the weather forecast for the day was rain. It was a lot more informal, just us, my dad, MIL, FIL, DH’s grandmother and his sister. So not a lot of pressure on me like his first birthday party. DH asked everyone to club in so that we can buy G-force a trampoline, so he got the one big present and a few smaller presents. That suits us well because G-force has so many toys already and we actually threw quite a lot away, donated some to the crèche and packed a lot that we want to keep into boxes.
G-force understood what his birthday was all about this time, unlike his first birthday. When I showed him his cake the day before his party he recognized it for what it was, because just a little while later we heard him sing “Happy Birthday”. He loved to open his presents and by his actual birthday he was so spoiled by all the presents he received within such a short time if you count the Christmas presents too.
Keeping my eyes on Jesus... 