--Lion Cubs - Mummy and Baby Group!-- We are all One Year Old!

[Shiv]

I'm the same Cleck, unless Sophia says something properly, in context, many times it doesn't go on her "can say" list, and i have even been known to take words off of the list again!

I think it is amazing how much they understand, I guess i didn't realise that before they can really speak they would be able to understand so much of what we say to them. It's so cool to be able to ask them to go do something and they do it!

on the poo in bath front (I forgot to answer earlier!), Sophia has only done it once when she was little(r). She is pretty predictable with her poos 12.30 (lunchtime) and 6pm (after dinner!) like clockwork, unless she is teething and then it can be every half hour

 

[spidey]

Kira understands everything too. She shakes her head yes and no with meaning, which is so cool! Sometimes she does really weird things and after a minute I realize why.. for example. Yesterday she stood on the scale at my moms house and I said "are you weighing yourself?" and then she waved "bye bye", LOL. weigh=wave! It makes me realize how complicated language really is, so our babies are quite fast learners for understanding what we say

I'm curious what everyone does in terms of language practice. Do you ask them to repeat words back to you? Do you correct their pronunciation? I always get Kira to "practice" by saying "say chocolate" and then she'll say "choc" and I'll say "chocolate, good girl" So even though she doesn't say it correctly, I still praise her for trying.

 

[cleckner04]

Emma weighs herself all the time! Almost every morning she walks over to the scale before we go downstairs. Because that's what I do every morning. It's quite cute. Her weight hasn't changed in over a month. Is that normal? Is every else's babies slowed down with weight gain now?

I don't practice speech with Emma. Am I supposed to? We will repeat words to eachother somewhat I guess. I'll say diesel, she says diesel. And we keep repeating it like parrots. But that is just me being funny and she laughs and I laugh.

 

[Shiv]

We practice speech but not in a structured way, if I am reading to her I will say "can you say.........." and if she tries I'll correct her, but always praise. And if she tries words during the day I'll correct and praise etc

Sophia hasn't really put on any weight in about 3 months! she still has the biggest pot belly I've ever seen (i would put it on a par with an 8 month pregnant woman by comparison!) so I'm not worried that she is wasting away

 

[cleckner04]

I think it's that toddler belly. Emma has it too! It's so cute. I have a few naked pictures of her from the side that are the cutest. You can see Emma's ribs quite clearly and she doesn't really have much fat on her body but her belly sticks out and she has sort of chubby thighs. I truly think she is taking after DH with weight. I was huge at Emma's age.

 

[spidey]

Kira hasn't gained in forever. She started out big and she gained alot in the beginning, but since about 9 months old she's only put on 2 pounds. But she has the cute pot belly too Its hard for her to see her belly button

haha.. I don't sit down and say "okay, it's language lesson time" , but I make sure we practice during normal play. I had very delayed speech as a kid and ended up needing intense speech therapy at 4 years old since I still wasn't talking. I have clear memories of being frustrated and embarrassed about my inability to communicate and I don't want Kira to go thru that. I also have no idea what I'm doing as a parent so I want to make sure I'm doing things as "normal" as possible, LOL!

 

[cleckner04]

Well tonight I did what you said you do. Emma pointed at my phone and tried to say phone. So I repeated it and she'd try to say it. So I guess I can start doing that a bit more to encourage her. I have a feeling once she starts talking I'll hate it because she won't shut up. She already talks constantly. She's talking behind me as I type this.

 

[jelr]

Hey girls

I do practice words with Natasha but not structured practice - just like you did with the phone tonight - when she says something knew I will repeat it and she usually repeats it too (well as best she can) and then I will say it again and praise her - we have lots of words here and all in the correct context but a lot of them are not the full word - like innie for minnie, ink for drink or peas for please etc. I reckon once Natasha can talk properly she wont shut up either but then I'm a talker ha ha so I guess I will see if from the other side lol.

I do love that she can understand so much now - although she is very fond of the word no at the moment and I wouldn't mind but I have done what all the books and have tried to prevent saying it too much myself - but at the moment when you say things like - will we get your coat on or do you want your nappy changed she says no if she doesn't want to and is very clear about it too lol, whereas if she does want to do something she tends to say please rather than yes or just grabs her coat etc.

Regarding pooing in the bath - we have never had it thank god and I'm definitely knocking on wood here.

Regarding weight - Natasha used to gain about a 1 or 2 a month until she hit 11 months and it has slowed down drastically since then and it is usually only a 1/2 lb in the month now or every second month or so she doesn't gain at all. We also have the pot belly - same as the rest you can see her ribs and then this swollen looking belly. In fact sometimes after eating and so on she actually looks like her belly button is an outie and then other times like first thing in the morning it looks like she has an innie one - Any one else's LO's have this.

 

[Shiv]

Yep Sophia's got that, except it is actually quite rare for it to be an innie these days as she is quite a pig!

 

[cleckner04]

m (edit: No clue when I wrote 'm' and posted it. Must've been Emma she's always screwing around with my computer and has nearly posted on here a few times.)

 

[spidey]

Kira's belly button is an outie some days and an innie others

I think things just started to click with Kira. After my last post, Kira has started trying to say words without my urging. She was looking at a picture of a pig, and she said "pig"! Kira also saw a picture of my dad and she said "mmm PA!" (for Grandpa) LOL, so it's all starting to click with her.

We're having our first nice weather days here this week, so Kira and I will be outside as much as possible.

 

[Jai_Jai]

Hellooo!! How are you all? We are good, still as busy as ever!

On the pooh front Adriana has done that once in the bath but she was about 6 months old, and like cleck I am going to knock on some wood so she doesn't do it again

Language - she doesn't say a huge amount, and I do forget that she is a month younger than most of the girls I was preg with at the same time! She says Darcey/Dog Mumma Dida (Dad) a few animal names and a couple other things, but again like cleck I don't tend to repeat things very much so maybe I should start doing that too…!! The cutest thing she does is grab your hands and sits down with you and rocks back and forward singing row row row - too cute But yeah she understands absolutely everything I say to her - really amazing and I too never thought they would understand sooo much before they spoke and especially at such a young age!!

I am pleased that some of your babies have the pot belly - Adriana has a very slim build but a huge pot belly like a beer belly haha - it is cute but I was a little worried this week about it as my friends baby does not have a belly at all and she is the only other baby we see now we have moved!

How many of you are back at work? Are any of you finding it hard, and feeling guilty? I feel sooo guilty all the time and wish I had more time with her start my first of 3 nights tonight and just got up at 11am (Adriana is at Nursery) and I will try and sleep again later - I feel ill - got a heavy cold coming I can feel it I hope I can do tonight - it is the first full on night shift I have done - eeeep!! My Birthday on Thurs and I am working wed and thurs night boooo - but maybe I will catch a baby on my Birthday - that will make it nicer! Have been involved in a couple of traumatic births the last couple of shifts and I just hope things are nice and normal for the women over the next few days! They say more births happen at night hey?

Hope you all have a good night - and catch up soon! xxx

 

[jelr]

Hey girls

Good to know N is not the only one.

Hi Jai Jai good to see you. lol at row row row - so cute.

Yes I'm back to work and it is only for 3 days a week but I also feel really guilty all the time that I dont have more time with her as I seem to be cooking or washing or cleaning on the other days during the week when I'm off with her and I'm shattered by the time I come home the evenings I'm working and feel so bad that I'm not full of beans and able to run around with her.

But on the other side - things are really bad job wise in Ireland and I'm very lucky to have my job and that the recession hasn't hit us too badly so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Glad to hear you are keeping well and that the job is going well.

 

[spidey]

Jai Jai- are you a nurse? I bet its exciting working in a labor ward!

I've been working 20 hours/ week since Kira was really little. My mom watches Kira while I'm working and Kira really loves being with my mom. I also get email updates hourly, LOL, so it makes leaving her so much easier.

I'm quite pleased today! I found out that Kira's iron levels are normal I'm sure I've moaned about this too much already, but at 12 months Kira's iron was 10.6 and it was supposed to be 10.5 or higher. So it was in the "normal" range, just low. The doctor told us about this 3 months after the blood test at her 15 month appointment and told us to give her iron drops twice daily. Atleast 1 hour after a meal and 2 hours before the next meal. Also, the side effect is harder poos and at the time we were having to give suppositories since Kira refused to poo on her own. Once I got home I thought about it, and decided to give Kira more iron rich foods and then have her retested. Now her levels are 12.5 (supposed to be 11-13). The doctor called and said "you can stop giving her the iron drops now because her levels are really good!"

 

[Shiv]

That's great news Spidey, well done on getting those levels up, it's great that you can affect her levels through food alone - good work!

 

[Shiv]

oh Sophia made me laugh out loud so much this morning (you may have had to be there but I'll try to explain what happened)

Sophia very rarely says thankyou, so we work really hard on it after we give her anything we do the whole "say thankyou" thing. Anyway every now and again she rewards us with a tank too (or the like), to which I reply "good girl" but David says "you're welcome"

anyway this morning i gave Sophia her cup of milk which she took, so I said "say thankyou" which she ignored as normal, so I said again "can you say thankyou Sophia" too which she replied "you're welcome"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I laughed so hard, she has never said this before and she said it so nicely!

 

[cleckner04]

Shiv, that's so cute!

Spidey- yay for good iron levels!!

 

[spidey]

awww Shiv, that is so cute! I started trying to teach Kira manners yesterday. She likes to spit her pacifier behind my mom's sofa and then she orders my mom to pick it up with this grabber device that we call the "granny grabber" LOL. I'm trying to teach her how to say "please".. she says "psss", which is close! haha

 

[cleckner04]

Just wondering if I'm the only crazy one already planning the 2nd birthday party. We plan on going home in July this year so I might have a little party for Emma while we are there. If I don't, than it'll most likely just be DH and I with Emma for her birthday. If DH doesn't get deployed again of course because his ship will probably be in and out still.

So I've got a list on amazon of gifts to buy for her. I went overboard last year and I am absolutely not doing that again. I think I'll only get like 5 gifts this year for her. My house is running out of room for more.

 

[spidey]

that is sooo funny you mentioned their 2nd birthdays! Today I was looking online at birthday decorations, LOL. As I was browsing thru, I said to myself "stop being so crazy" and I forced myself to close the browser

Kira's half birthday was on Valentines day, so we have almost 6 more months to go!

We'll probably have a small party with close family again. It was fun last time and Kira enjoyed herself too. I'm not too certain on a theme yet, LOL.