The past four weeks have been taken up with Christmas and new year celebrations, with visits to both Clacton and Stoke. Both girls have had colds over Christmas and as we started the new year both me and Tom came down with it too. This, combined with Polly’s overnight shenanigans, made the first week of 2016 rather difficult. However, it’s good to be back to normal again and this weekend just gone we took the girls swimming which was lovely. Tabitha was a tiny bit apprehensive initially but she soon overcame that and loved every minute. Polly had a huge smile on her face and enjoyed splashing and kicking in the water.
T A B I T H A
- Tabitha is now two-and-three-quarters! Her third birthday is just three months away.
- I’ve noticed that she no longer refers to herself in the third person but rather calls herself ‘me’.
- Since the new year Tabitha’s managed several wees and even a poo on the potty. It’s amazing what the incentive of a white chocolate button can do! I’ve not attempted her without a nappy for any length of time yet, but at least it’s a baby-step in the right direction.
- ‘I might fall down’ is a phrase I’m hearing a lot at the moment, which is Tabitha’s pre-warning of displeasure at not getting her own way.
- ‘My poor back is hurting’ is another thing she says all the time, to the extent that I took her along to the doctors just before Christmas to see if anything was wrong. However, I think it’s just another thing she automatically says when things are not going how she wants them to.
- Often when we ask Tabitha to do something or fetch something, she’ll pick up the nearest thing to her and say ‘I can’t my hands are full’.
- Unfortunately Tabitha’s going through a (hopefully short) phase of hitting (usually Polly on the head either with her hand or a toy), which we repeatedly tell her she mustn’t do. She’s also forever snatching toys out of Polly’s hands which drives me round the bend.
- Buddy’s not excluded from Tabitha’s brutishness either – she’s constantly bashing Buddy’s cage, closing her doors and terrorising her with big toys. Thankfully Buddy seems to take it all in her stride. Tabitha’s pretty obsessed at the moment.
- Over the past month it hasn’t been out of the ordinary for Tabitha to have a nap in the day (I think because we’ve been so busy). And her sleeping overnight is amazing now. It’s very rare that she wakes up in the night and sleeps in until about 8am at the moment.
P O L L Y (Poll-Poll-a-ding-dong)
- Polly’s sleeping has taken a turn for the worst in the past few weeks, leaving me and Tom constantly exhausted. I don’t know if teething or a change of setting triggered it, but while we were up north Polly would spend hours at a time awake overnight. Since being back she has improved slightly but now always wakes for at least a couple of feeds (the first around 11ish, the second around 3ish) and often won’t settle straight back down after the second feed. I used to be able to settle her a lot more with the dummy, rather than have to do a feed, but that no longer seems to work either.
- I feel happier now that I’ve got Polly onto three meals a day and batch-cooked her some meals for the freezer (although now it’s a constant stream of milk feeds and solids throughout the day). She’s currently enjoying Annabel Karmel’s lovely lentils, salmon and sweet potato, and Mediterranean medley as well as porridge, weetabix, yoghurt and banana, yogurt and avocado etc. She now uses the highchair and Tabitha sits in her new Oxo tot booster seat.
- Polly now sits up very well unaided. She is still yet to crawl but can turn herself around 360 degrees on her tummy.
- She’s forever babbling dadadadadadada – especially in the middle of the night when she’s meant to be sleeping.
- She currently has two naps a day (both in the pram) and goes at least 3 hours between sleeps, if not longer.
Life with Peachy & Polp 