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Living Up to My Mommy Blogger Reputation

So the babies are officially 46 weeks old today, or 10.5 months old.

They're really good fun, too. They do so much, and everything is an exploration with them.

They had their first (and, courtesy of a crappy summer, only) paddling pool extravaganza, and it went down a storm. Both babies loved it.

Angus, who has always been clear that he's not huge on newborns but likes it when you can get to the interaction stage, has been playing with them a lot. He and Nick get on like a house on fire, but Angus likes that both of them respond to us, laugh at us, and play with us.

Both babies are in the banging stage, so that everything around them is 100 times more fun if they can be smacking things.

And both babies prefer to sleep on their stomachs. I was quite concerned about this at first and kept flipping them over, but they'd just roll back again. I was told that we shouldn't be so concerned - if they're able to roll in both directions (which they are) then sleeping on their stomachs is fine, as long as we put them to bed on their backs.

What slays me is that they don't just sleep on their stomachs - they sleep on their stomachs and have their bums in the air.

And if I could find a good nappy for Nick that wouldn't result in his wee coming up the front of him, I'd sell a good portion of my soul for it.

Nora is generally a happy baby, but she can be intense. She has three modes - exploratory, delighted, and very un-delighted. There's really nothing in-between with her. She can go between these modes fast, but then she melts you when you feed her a bottle and she reaches up and strokes your face.

Nick is the more serious one, especially around people he doesn't know. We've found that he's flourishing these days though, and that he's becoming an extremely inquisitive, easy-to-laugh kid. He has one million different facial expressions, all of them funnier than the next.

Well, they're funny to us, anyway. I recognize this might be one of those "things only a mother can love".

Nick has been doing really well since starting the new nursery. We decided that nursery was the way to go, and they started it two weeks ago. The new nursery is a mile and a half away, is run by Hampshire Council, and is located on school grounds. There is a waiting list 4 years long to get into it. And best of all, we pay £950 less a month than we were.

We love the place, and not just for the cost. Each baby has their own carer now, two different women. Both of their carers are older and not in the late teens/early 20's that their previous nursery staff were. Both women seem to absolutely adore children, and although they don't have the rivers of expensive toys that the previous nursery had, Nick and Nora seem to love what they do have. Every day is different - one day they played with a huge array of kitchen utensils. One day I walked in and was utterly charmed - the nursery floor had been transformed into a prehistoric dinosaur track and Nick and Nora were trotting large plastic dinosaurs around. Yesterday I went in and a bubble machine was blowing bubbles around, and Nick and Nora were squealing with laughter.

We do have to pay for things now, like lunches, and we have to provide nappies and formula as needed. I don't mind this, though - £30 a month can pay for nappies, and they're a brand I choose instead of the generics the babies had at the other place. If we pay £2 a week the babies can have a morning of singing and hand clapping. The £2 goes directly to a woman who goes to various nurseries and leads these activities, and I think this is excellent value for money.

Most of all, Nick's carer adores him. She calls him gorgeous which no one really ever does (except for me, because I think he is gorgeous). I'm so pleased with how she interacts with him.

Nora, who is charming, beguiling, and can get along with a corpse, was the favorite at the old nursery. It bothered us, but we couldn't get past it. Nick takes a bit of time to get to know you, he can be very reserved and since his first love is lights, he isn't always great at paying attention.

We've seen big differences in him now. He makes lots of eye contact, actively wants to be picked up, and laughs all the time. He's insanely ticklish and we've found lots of games that he loves. He's a huge, happy, sweet giggly baby that we adore. Don't get me wrong - his sister is fabulous as well, it's just nice that Nick is coming out of his shell a bit with other people. We knew how cool he was - now others know it, too.

I'm so glad we chose this nursery.

Both babies love to read.

When I say read, I mean "read to me once, Mum, then let me eat the book".

Neither baby is crawling yet, but both get on their hands and knees and rock backwards and forwards, so it really is only a matter of time (and hopefully we get our floor done in the living room in the next few weeks). Nick and Nora both babble constantly, a stream of "baas" and "daas" that make us laugh.

Both babies are on solids with three bottles a day. They eat grown-up food a lot, and while Nora is clearly her mother's kid and loves her a good carb, Nick is a man's man. He likes meat. He wants meat. Try to fob off some pasta on him and you're wasting your time. He wants meat. I would call him "My little carnivore" only the nickname for that would be carnie, and really that's just unkind.

Nick loves spicy food (and they don't make a mess of the nappies, either.) Maybe it's because I ate a lot of it while pregnant, but the kid goes mad for curry (which means they'll be big on cranberry juice someday too as I drank gallons of that while knocked up.) I had a dream that I fed them some peanut butter and they were fine, so we did check and neither baby is allergic to nuts, which is a good thing as Nick likes fiery hot satay (which he was only given once. They may not have any food allergies but I'm not pushing my luck right now.)

They're really, honestly good fun, and yes I do feel dumb saying that I love spending time with two 10 month olds. But they interact with us and with each other in such a way that it catches you.

And we've learned that when they're shrieking with laughter while in their cots, it's because they're making faces at each other and holding hands through the bars.

I never, ever will take these moments for granted.

-H.

Posted by Everydaystranger at August 20, 2008 08:21 AM • TrackBack .

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