Peanut Pronounciation

I have always been amazed by mums who can listen to (what sound like to me) the incoherent babbling of their child and seem to know exactly what the youngster is saying.

Now I think I might be turning into one of those people! I say "think" and "might" because there are many time that Peanut will say something to me and wait for a reply and I have no idea what to say back - other "I have no idea of what you are talking about, so here is a picture of a rabbit with a pancake on it's head".


But there are a few words, in fact an ever growing list of words that Peanut says that i do understand. And I must admit the feeling of self satisfaction I get when Peanut rambles something and someone next to me will cock there head to the side and say "what did he say?", and I can answer, is pretty darn good. It is one of those good, glowing, see-I-know-my-child feelings.

So here is the list (or part of the list) of what I like to call 'Logan Language' -

hulloo - hello (well, i like to start with the easy ones)
luv dew - love you
lala - water (now we are getting to only a parent would understand territory)
lalala - waterfall
eatlicks - wheatbix
borbee - strawberry
beepop - grandpop
danny - granny
gape - grape
ock - socks
aa-la-aarm - other arm (when getting dressed, there is one arm then other arm)
ill - Will (Peanut's cousin)
eeaawa - Xavier (Peanut's friend)
eeum - Liam (another of Peanut's friends)
toked namwich - toasted sandwich
pissmiss - Christmas

Hummmm, these are all I can think of for know. But next Peanut and I have a conversation I will take note of the words he is saying (and how he is saying them) and update this post.

(: Reggie

Child's Play

So my main question is – are kids these days born more technology savvy or is technology becoming child's play.

M34tb4LL bought himself a new toy for his birthday – a brand spanking new ipod touch, and a couple of nights ago he was showing Peanut photos on it. M34tb4LL was scrolling through the photos (for those of you not familiar with the ipod touch, one finger is used to scroll – or swipe across the screen to go to the next photo) and Peanut was telling us who was in each photo.

Well the next thing we know, Peanut had take the ipod out of M34tb4LL's hand and was scrolling through the photos all by himself! and of course he was still identifying people he knew in the photos as he went.

But then he did something that even M34tb4LL didn't know could be done. Peanut did a double tap on the screen and zoomed in on the photo. He then zoomed out again and scrolled to the next photo.

And is not just the ipod touch that Peanut has sussed out, He knows that a remote control should be pointed at the entertainment unit to make thing work, and he knows difference between a real remote and a toy one. He knows that to work a computer you use a mouse, and if he is sitting my knee while i am at the computer and he doesn't like what i am doing he will grab my hand and guide it to the mouse to give me the hint. He knows what a mobile phone is for and when he gets a hold of my mobile he talks into it, he even tries to press the buttons to get it to work. And he will hand the mobile back to me say “cheese” in the hope that i will take his photo.

I would say he is too smart for his own good where it comes to technology, but the truth is more like that he is too smart for my own good! At the speed that he is picking things up he will be able to beat me and M34tb4LL on every game we own by the time he is three!!!

(: Reggie

Seeing things through his eyes

I have brown eyes, I was born with them in fact. M34tb4LL has blue eyes, also his natural colour.

When I was pregnant with Peanut I found a website that you put in the eye colour of each parent and of each parents parent and it will give you the percentage change for different eye colour for your child.

Going by this website Peanut had a 50% chance of having brown eyes, 37.5% chance or having blue eyes and 12.5% of green. The website also predicted that our first child would have blue eyes, the next two would have brown, then there would be another two blue eyed children and a finally one more brown. Not sure where they think they are going with assuming that we are going to have 6 children though...

But what I got from that website was that Peanut had a 50% chance of not having brown eyes.

That last comment might sound a bit harsh, but what are you going to do?

I have brown eyes, I have often been known to refer to my eyes as, rather than just brown, as "sometime they are nearly hazel" or "closer to amber really" or even "they change all the time, if you look close you can see green flecks around the pupil". And all of these descriptions are to avoiding saying "I have brown eyes".

So back to when I was pregnant with Peanut, this website said that we had a 50% chance of having a non-browned baby. And I kind of liked those odds. I really like the thought of being able to say "he has eyes like his father".

When Peanut was born he had blue eyes, as I have often been told is the case with all newborn babies. They were a very dark, almost steely blue colour. The first time we went to see our MCHN (Maternal & Child Health Nurse) she commented on the colour of Peanut eyes and how they will be changing to brown very soon. She then clarified this comment with her observation that babies born with light blue eyes take a while for the colour to change (or not if they are to remain blue) where as babies born with dark blue eyes tend to change quite fast.

Now please don't get wrong at this point, I am in way saying that I think Peanut's eye colour is not to my liking! Quite the opposite!!!

I know need to fast forward a bit, well actually fast forward to tonight.

Peanut has a new game he likes to play. He will lie on the couch in the family room and call out "night night" - grinning all the while. We then cover him over with a blanket (face included) and do through the whole "where's Peanut?" routine. He then throws the blanket back and laughs while we pretend to get a fright. I'm not saying it is the most exciting game in the world but to a 20 month old (or close enough to) it is most enjoyable.

Tonight while we were playing it, when Peanut was covered up with the blanket, he was peeking out from under the blanket and his brown eyes were staring right into mine.

It made me kind of catch my breath a little bit, these gorgeous brown eyes staring at me with such innocence yet intensity. Looking into his eyes all I could think was how beautiful they are. I them caught myself thinking "but they are a darker brown than mine", but are they really? I'm not sure. All it would take is for me to look in the mirror, but I do that I do not really study my own features. Not like the way I study Peanut's features, and admire the colour of his eyes.

Since the day Peanut was born I can not tell you how many times people have commented on "how much he looks like his father!" and my response is usually along the lines of "He looks just like his daddy, but he has my eyes."

(: Reggie

The sound of silence

Peanut is now over 18 months old - my sweet lord how the time has flown by - and up until a week ago he was still having a night time feed (he was down to just that one feed a day). Going for 18 months? thank you, i am quite proud of that! But yes, the night feed has been stopped.

We tried to stop giving a night feed about a month ago but after the fourth night of him going to bed and screaming for the best part of an hour we gave up.

When we had Peanut's 18 month check-up with the maternal & child health nurse i asked her advice on how to go about getting him to give up his night feed. She said that rather than supplementing the night feed with formula to change that part of his night time routine.

So instead of sitting in the same chair that we always did and giving him formula in a sippy cup we gave him normal cows milk in a sippy cup and sat on the couch and read a book and sang songs while he drank. This kind of worked, he would go to bed and settle relatively quickly, but was still grizzling a little bit.

Then last Thursday night i was not home to put him to bed. M34tb4LL made a bit more of change to night time routine that went down quite well. M34tb4LL and Peanut sat in front of the computer and while Peanut drank his milk M34tb4LL played him youtube videos of Simon and Garfunkel songs - "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", "The Boxer" and "The Sound of Silence". He then put Peanut to bed and he went to sleep with little trouble!

So for the past few nights we have been sitting Peanut in front of good ole youtube and playing those videos for him and I think it is fairly safe to say that that he is now weened.

There is one slight change to the routine that still needs to made however - when i go to put Peanut in his cot he does not want to give back the sippy cup (whether he has drank all the milk or not). So i have to sneak into his room and take it off him once he is asleep. But in the grand scheme of things i don't see this as being a major thing. He will give that up in time.

I just ask myself the question "how many adults do i know that go to bed holding onto a sippy cup?". None, so i figure he will give that up in his own time.

(: Reggie

No More Babycinos

It is with much sadness that we have to report the closing of our local Starbucks (along with 60 other stores). The coffee house and more importantly its staff has become a huge part of our lives over the last few years.

It was always the ideal spot to meet up with someone, catch up with friends, or just sit and people-watch ("Ooh, she doesn't look happy/what's that guy doing to the fruit in the fruit shop/look it's the matching track-suited blue-tooth headset couple").

It was also always great to catch up with our friends behind the counter. They were the first people we told that we got married. It was my first stop after leaving the hospital on the day Peanut was born (armed with two blurry pictures on my mobile phone) and when Reggie and Peanut came home, the first thing we did was pack up the pram and walk over to Starbucks for a coffee.

Initially reluctant to comment, Peanut finally released this statement.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Thanks for the babycino's Bec, Jess, Nat, Ruth (Barry), Toni, Louise, Damien, James, Sarah, Kat, Casey, Sheshi, Joel and Amy.

M34tb4LL

I'm SPARTICUS! (part 2)

So if you had read my last post (and if you have not, read it first then come here) you will know about my recent renaming and the strangeness of becoming one in a crowd. Well now i am going to get to the one to one.

Peanut has no problems letting people in the room when he want me. If he wants my attention he will say in a very clear voice mummy mummy mummy mummy mummy until I respond to him. And sometimes, even when i am giving him my total time he will still sing the mummy chorus.

Of course there is the times when he calls for me because he is not happy and thinks that i can make all things better. Well of course i can make all better, for i am mummy! Anyway... There are many things that a cuddle from mummy can not fix. And the fact that Peanut can not actually explain what is upsetting him, a mummy cuddle is all i need to offer.

A couple of nights ago Peanut woke up after only a couple of hours sleep. Normally if he wakes up (which is actually not that often these days) M34tb4LL and i will leave him in cot for a little bit to see if he will settle himself back to sleep. Sometimes he will wake up and let out a few crys because in his sleep he has lost 'Lannie' (Lambie). And once he finds Lambie (looks under the covers) he will go back to sleep. But the other night he woke up and was not able to settle himself. He was standing up in his cot, hanging his hands over the rail and calling out "mummy mummy mummy".

Though there is so much joy in hearing ones child saying mummy, there is also some times you wish that he had never learned to say it. A child crying is distressing enough, but when they add the mummy bomb it can cause an emotion explosion.

(: Reggie

I'm SPARTICUS!

Before Peanut was born I never looked twice when I was out in public and I heard a young voice call out "Mummy!", but now things have changed.

Now the word mummy seems to take up about 60% of my conversations with Peanut. I don't mean that i say mummy 6 out of every 10 words say, I just mean that over half my conversation (no matter how one sided it is) will be in context to myself.

Can mummy have a cuddle?
Give that to mummy!
Do you want to play outside with mummy?
Would you like mummy to help you there?
Mummy would prefer that you didn't eat the random stuff you find on the floor!!!

Peanut has been saying mummy for a while and I remember the joy I felt the first time he said it and held his hands out to me, asking me to pick him up. It is one of those take-your-breath-way moments, you know?

And the bizarre thing is that now when some says my name it takes me a few moments to register that they are talking to me. It is like "who? oh, right that is me! Yep, I'm here".

But now when I am out and about, and I hear a small voice calling out "MUMMY", I think for a moment - "hey that's me, but the child's voice I heard is not my child's voice, and who is that woman who is calling herself mummy, I'm mummy!". Then of course I realise that there are many people out there who respond to the name mummy.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I am having an identity crisis. But it was a very strange feeling when a realised that the special name our little peanut has for me is a very common name.

(: Reggie

Night moves

Peanuts night time routine, as i believe i have gone over before, is fairly simple and non-time consuming for us - nappy change, PJs on, five minutes more of play, final milk drink, Daddy will give him Lambie to cuddle and i put him into his cot. Easy! Well i think it is easy. It works for us.

However once Peanut is in his cot there a period of anything a couple of minutes up to half an hour where he is still awake, and if we walk past the door too slowly or he can see one of us there is chance that he will start to crack it and may even need to be taken out of bed and "re-settled".

And it is during this 'not yet asleep' time that i most want to know what he does! Let's take tonight as an example. We put him to bed and he was chattering to himself (ducca ducca ducca ducca ducca ducca) then there was quiet for a few minutes, then we heard a strange thudding noise, there was almost a rhythm to it!

Now i very much wanted to see what Peanut was doing, but did not want to go to the door to look in case it ended with him stopping what he was doing and having him think that i was coming to get him out of bed. It almost sounded like he was trying to work out how to get out of the cot and i half expected him to come walking out of his bedroom door with his arms in the air in victory.

The cot that Peanut sleeps in has solid wooden ends on it. When we started looking for a cot, that was one thing that i knew i wanted the cot to have. Not sure why i wanted at the time, but know i find it great as we can put toys at the end of the cot and he can't see them.

Anyway, back to my point here - i would love to know what Peanut does after we put him to bed and before we hear the first snore coming from his room. Tonight, while listening to the thudding, i mentioned to M34tb4LL that we need to put a webcam in Peanuts room so we can sit and watch what he is doing. I then corrected myself that we would need a night-vision webcam. I tend told myself that that is a silly thought, it would not be possible to get a night-vision webcam

WRONG AGAIN...

...you can get them, and i have found a website where, if we were to get one, it would not cost a fortune. I say if, i have not bought one, of course i also have a another word - yet. I have not bought one YET.

(: Reggie

Army of darkness

Easter last year Peanut's Auntie Lulu (who is also my sister of course) gave Peanut a little soft toy lamb that M34tb4LL and I have aptly named "Lambie".

After a while the lamb became Peanut's one of favourite toys, not to play with during the day, but to cuddle at night.

The little soft toy has become a vital part of Peanut's night night routine and when he wakes up in the morning he is always holding the lamb in his hand as he reaches out for over the side rail of his cot.

A couple of months ago Peanut had a rather nasty bout of gastro and unfortunately poor Lambie got in the way of one of Peanut projectile emissions, and of course had to be removed so it could be washed. It was fortunate that for his first birthday (that had taken place not long before this illness) Auntie Lulu had given him a cute little teddy bear - similar in size and colour to Lambie - and it was a welcome substitute while Lambie had a wash.

Of course after a couple of days, after Lambie was cleaned up and dried out he was gratefully received and poor Berlin (the name given to the little teddy - that's another story) went back to a day time friend to play with rather than night time cuddling buddy.

There has been a couple of times since then that Lambie has needed a wash and Berlin has had to fill the void, but each time we have had to give Lambie a wash Peanut has been less and less willing to do the soft toy swap. In fact the last time that tried to give him Berlin instead of Lambie, Peanut smacked it from M34tb4LL's hand and he took twice as long to settle down to sleep!!!

So a plan was hatched, to get a few more lambs so we could have one in the wash, one on stand by and Peanut could have one with him. I asked Auntie Lulu when she got the lamb from, and if she could look to see if she can get another one or two (or three or four) for Peanut. She went looking in every store she could to for another one of those lambs but with no luck.

I then emailed the Australian distributors of the company to see if they knew where i might be able to find some more, they were of no help. So I broadened my search to the whole world, thanks to a little local store I know called the Internet. And it took quite some searching, but I found a couple of sites that had the lamb for sale. However all the sites that had the toy listed were in America.

Now I'm not a stranger to getting the odd trinket from overseas, and with the exchange rate the way it is at the moment, getting the toy from overseas was a more than reasonable option.

I tried to place an order from the site that had the lamb at the best price, but i got an email from them saying that they didn't have any of the soft toys and that they are a discontinued item and will not be getting any stock in the future. So i started emailed a few of the sites that listed the lamb for sale, asking if they actually had any lambs in stock.

After about two weeks of random searching and emailing i got an email from one store based in Texas saying that they had the lambs in stock and they could post to Australia if i emailed my address. So i placed an order, sent an email agreeing to pay extra for postage to Australia and confirming my postage address.

And low and behold, in just over a week, a package arrived containing four identical little lambs. Let the lamb swapping commence!


So do you get the title? Army of darkness? The lambs are for Peanut to cuddle in his sleep - he sleeps in the dark - we now have a small army of lambs... Sorry!

(: Reggie

Do babies dream of miniture sheep?

Peanut has his 'night night' routine, and i must admit i have played with it a little to see what would happen. The current routine is -

• change into pyjamas
  
• have a milk feed
• say goodnight to Daddy (and if we have visitors - them as well)
• cuddles into Lambie (his favourite soft toy lamb)
  
• then we put him on his back in his cot
• pull up the covers
• say night night sleep tight
• leave the room

He will then kick off the covers, turn around and flip over - mind you he does not let go of Lambie!!!

M34tb4LL asked me the other day if i have tried to put Peanut in cot more in the position that he seems to be more comfortable sleeping in, saving him the trouble of doing the whole turning around and over and stuff. I have, but it just seemed to make him upset and it took him longer to settle down so he could go to sleep!

If there is one thing I have figured out about our Peanut, he likes his bed time routine as it is - and he likes to get himself comfortable by himself!!!

Before we go to bed we always look in at Peanut for a few seconds and for those of you that keep tabs on Peanuts youtube account will know he is a bit of noisy sleeper. Plus he is a real wriggler - he moves around a lot while he is asleep. So do people (Peanut is people) move around in their sleep because they are not 100% comfortable? Or because of the dreams they are having!!!

And that makes me wonder, what do babies dream about? Dreams tend to draw references from all elements of the whole world around us and a baby's experience of the world is limited.

Mind you, it does amaze me how much Peanut seems to take in, and how fast he is learning about the world around him. So does he dream about things that they may have seen but is yet to understand? Or are his dream completely random and abstract? These are questions that we will probably never be able to answer!

Now, who of you thought that by the title of the this post I was going to make all sorts of 'Blade Runner' references?

(: Reggie

Step by step ooh baby!

Don't worry folks, I'm not having a bad 80's flash back, actually now i am -

"Step by step
Ooh baby
Youre always on my mind
Step by step
Ooh girl
I really think its just a matter of time"

Sorry for that moment of insanity, what this blog was originally going to be about was this -

PEANUT IS STARTING TO TAKE STEPS!!!

It really amazes me how much Peanut has changed over the past 13 or so months. He has gone from this tiny little baby that does very little other sleep, eat and cry to this little boy who plays, crawls and chatters (and he still sleeps, eats and crys!)

So back to the steps thing. It was a good couple of weeks ago now that he stood for the first time, come to think of it, it was the Monday after his birthday. And he only stood unassisted for a max of ten seconds before he went crashing down onto his butt, but it was a stand.

I am constantly amazed how quickly Peanut manages to master something, like once he figured out how to stand and within days he was able to stand and kind of dance (well, shake his hands and bop his head) when he heard music. And now he is working on walking. It was not long ago that he took his first step on the front lawn - looked at M34tb4LL and me with a "What the hell did I just do???" look on his face and crash down on the ground.

Now he will stand up and we can see the concentration on his face as he takes tentative little steps. He has not managed to take more half a dozen steps before gravity gets the better of him, but it's a start, and he will only get better from here. Who knows, by the end of this weekend he may be running!

Looking at Peanut's face we are seeing less and less of a baby and more and more of little boy. Where has our little baby gone?

(: Reggie

M34tb4LL's First Post

Ok, I started this post about 6 months ago. It originally began "I've been a dad for just over 6 months now. Here are a few of the things I've learnt so far . . . " and approximately once a month, I'd open up the document, aptly named "doc", stare at it for a few minutes, change the number of months, stare at it some more and then close it again. Well, I've had enough. So here it is, with the opening sentence changed just one more time, ready for your enjoyment.

I've been a dad for just over a year now. Here are a few of the things I've learnt so far . . .

One of the lesser known truths about babies is that somewhere deep within them is a small rift in the space-time continuum. They seem to suck time. Hours can be lost just watching a baby sleep or playing with them. I was lucky enough to be able to take a month off work after Peanut was born. No sooner had he let out his first cry, I blinked and suddenly he was four weeks old and I had to go back to work.

Conversely, I was overwhelmed by just how long everyday tasks now took. Not just the new baby stuff but things that we did before. You really need to add 40 minutes to everything. A quick trip to the shops that used to take 5, now needs a bag with nappies, face wipes, hand wipes, bottom wipes, something to remove pumpkin stains, a change of clothes (possibly for you as well), a bottle, a toy and some form of transport for the baby.

Babies also seem to take up a disproportionate amount of space for their size. Get used to stepping over things - toys, play-mats, strollers, other babies, grandparents, etc. And for some reason, everything they own is huge in comparison to them - oversized toy phones, pianos and teddy bears, all nearly as big as he is. If all our own stuff was this big, we'd need a much bigger house. In fact, even with just the stuff he has, we need a much bigger house.

It amazes me just how much learning Peanut has managed to cram into his first year. We've see him sleeping, pooping, playing on the floor (not necessarily in that order). What he's really been doing is learning how to eat (twice), express to us that he wants to eat, smile, laugh, sit up, crawl, climb up on things, express to us that he wants to be lifted up on things, clap hands, cuddle, blow kisses, point to things, say "uh-oh" when he drops things and generally figure out how to look really cute and manipulate those around him.

So with things whizzing by so fast we tend to take a lot of photos - I mean a LOT of photos. Thank goodness we live in a digital age. There would be very few people in the world who could afford to have negatives developed and prints made of the number of photos we've taken and even fewer would have the shoe boxes to store them in. The downside is that I'm now obsessed with making sure we don't lose anything, not just for us but for Peanut and Peanut's children. Regular backups - multiple backups - offsite backups. I have hard drives and DVD's scattered halfway across the state "Just in case".

So here we are, already one year into the journey. It's been a hoot so far. I wonder what I'll learn this year.

M34tb4LL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

It was Peanut's first birthday yesterday - yes it has been a year already!!! And today is his birthday party, nothing major, but family and few close friends. but...

(: Reggie