Jottings (catch-up) – April 24-29 2012

Tuesday 24 April 2012
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7:49 PM:  Today Zac came over to me while I was making his dinner, pulled up on me, held up his arms and grabbed my hands when I reached down. He then proceeded to steer me around so he could go walking! We did three laps of TV to front door and he only relinquished my hands when his legs were no longer able to support him. I now know exactly how we’ll keep him entertained on the flight to Singapore

 

Saturday 28 April 2012
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Zac is such a sensitive little soul. We’ve seen this once when Jed made a joke a little at Zac’s expense – Zac doesn’t like being laughed at. Who can blame him really.
Today in the park we ran into three other families from my mothers’ group. Miss A and Miss I both had little ride-on toys which Zac, of course, wanted to play with. Zac was pushing and pulling the toy that Miss I was riding, until she broke away and scooted away as fast as she could. It was hilarious to watch, she was so determined to get out of his reach and we all laughed, as you do when a toddler does something amusing. Zac was sitting there, a little puzzled I think at her leaving him so abruptly, then he looked at us all laughing and burst into tears. He clearly felt that we were all laughing at him and he had such a hurt look on his face. I picked him up to cuddle and reassure him and he just buried his face into my shoulder and hung on to me for ages. Very different from tears caused by physical hurt- half the time he’s squirming out of my arms before I’ve given him a one second cuddle!
He understands so much more than we give him credit for. I wish I could see inside his head, see what he’s thinking and what he’s wanting to say to us sometimes.

 

Sunday 29 April 2012
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8:54 PM:  Found a great cafe today: Maxii Moo. A bit of a walk but worth it. A great play area, in a neat corner with tables nearby for easy supervision. Yay for cafes that I can go to and won’t have Zac start yelling or banging things because he’s bored.

 

 

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8:57 PM:  Zac picks a piece of play equipment, or a skill, and will focus on it until he gets it right. Today at the pool the focus was on getting in and out of the pool, very specifically getting back in the pool feet first. This was an extension on yesterday’s learning where, for the first time, he approached a step, started to go down head first, realised it was too steep and turned around to go down feet first. This was a huge breakthrough in him working things out and being able to apply different solutions to different situations (he still goes down head first on shallow steps). He also worked out how to go feet first without trying to sit on the next step down, missing and ending up falling down (well, being caught by me actually!)

The last day or two Zac has been a bit niggly; we think teething plus reaction to vaccination. He was unsettled last night, and changeable in mood this morning. Rafe and I were v. tired from last night so we struggled this morning (how do other parents manage to stay up late and keep social lives happening? Seriously, what’s their secret??!!). With perfect timing, Tiggrr suggested a swim, which filled the bulk of the day quite nicely. Zac enjoyed having time and space to work out things in the water on his own. He spent an hour quite happily in the pool, once over his initial misgivings (due I suspect to his recent experiences in swim classes). I am convinced now that swim class is not right for him, certainly not the ones we’ve been going to. I just have to be better at taking him to the pool regularly.