Toddler Diaries 'Milestones'

Haven’t really been in blog mood this week, in fact I haven’t written anything since last weekend, what a slacker. I’ve been preoccupied with stripping wallpaper and predestination, the usual things!! I feel I need to write something today to mark some important milestones. I never wrote anything down with Joshua and Bethany so consequently quickly forgot when they did what. With hindsight I realise it’s quite nice to look back and remember so I’d like to do a better job from now on.

Bethany seems to have potty trained herself at lightning speed, that is once I caught up with her and let her get on with it. A few days of no nappy and that was that, she’s hardly looked back since. More remarkably they have both been dry at night for a whole week. This has surprised me, especially with Joshua whose nappy was never dry in the morning. They seem both to have happily accepted the turn of events, so hopefully that’s it.

Caleb, not to be outdone, has started sleeping through the night (sometimes). He goes to bed at 7pm, I feed him when I go to bed even though he’s still asleep, put him back in his cot and then he usually sleeps until about 6am. I can hardly believe it after the time we had with Bethany. She used to wake up every three hours until she was almost two!! I’m sure starting Caleb on solids has helped him sleep longer (although he’s never been that bad). So far he’s had rice, apple and banana and seems rather pleased to be eating proper food. I actually made some baby food for him yesterday and froze it in ice cube trays just like you’re supposed to. The other two would never eat anything I made and threw it up, so I never got round to this. I feel that as Caleb has so clearly read the baby manual and taken it on board, I should really read it too and try and wean him on real food. Bethany definitely never read the book, or at least only glanced at the front cover and decided it wasn’t for her.

The other thing that happened this week was that Joshua actually started colouring by himself. He usually gets me to do his colouring for him because he can’t colour to the standard he wants. I had a chat with him this week and said I wasn’t colouring in for him any more but he could do it himself. To his and my surprise he sat down at the table and produced an excellent colouring of Woody the cowboy. He went to fetch his toy so that he could get all the colours in the right places. Clearly his skill in colouring and the level he wants his colouring to be at have coincided. Hooray!

All these things have been very nice all happening at the same time, but I have learnt to enjoy them as they come but not hold my breath, because, with babies especially you think you’ve got them sussed and then they go and do something different. They like to keep you guessing. Over all though definitely a good week for parenthood.