Sproutese

Okay, I realise it's been ages since I've posted here - I'm sorry about that. Sproutling is the grand old age of seventeen months now, and running around making mischief like a little whirlwind.

I just wanted to post a little snap shot of what Sprout's vocabulary is like at the moment, since he makes me laugh every day with his words for things. He's a real little parrot too, so we have to watch what we say around him now!

Anyway here's a bit of Sproutese. Many of these have only appeared over the last couple of weeks, but he's adding more every day! I'm trying to write them sort of phonetically, so pardon the spelling.

Food

• Bo-bo - Strawberries (your guess is as good as mine)
• Nana - Banana
• Tayto (sometimes ma-tay-to) - Potato
• Dee-see - Kiwi
• Ah-nee - Orange
• Oh-tsee - Oats
• Bee-bis - Weet-bix
• Meeee - Meat (of any type - will sometimes say chicken but not often) 
• Ben - Bacon
• Seeees - Eggs
• Cheee - cheese
• yo - yoghurt
• ma-no - tomato
• bum-ba - cucumber
• bickie - bickie (biscuit)
• ma-ha-moo - mushroom

Animals

• Minnie and Boo-ey - Minnie and Bluey, our cats
• bunny - bunny
• sssss - snake
• woo-woo - dog
• ka-ka - duck
• neeil - snail
• puckoh - octopus (not to be confused with pucka, jumper or bucka, butterfly)
• bucka - butterfly (see above)
• bish or bishy - fish
• see-saw - seahorse (he has one in the bath)
• di-cah - crocodile
• can generally say a lot of animal sounds, but not many actual names.

Other things

• Home (sometimes "go home")- home
• da care - day care
• Shoh - shops
• Boo - book
• puta - computer
• *blows out of his mouth* - hot
• pucka - jumper  (not to be confused with puckoh, octopus or bucka, butterfly)
• shoooo - shoe (actually one of his first words)
• caaar - car
• pen - pen
• paper or pepper - paper (refers to anything that isn't a book, eg junk mail, letters, daddy's study notes, etc)
• beckul - buckle (in the car)
• too-too! - train
• boh-too - bottle (water bottle)
• cookie - cooking
• poo - spoon

No matter how many times I try to get him to say words properly (eg Me: "say kiwi, ki.. wi... " Him: "dee see!"), he persists with the Sproutese. Oh well :)

There are lots more, but these are all I can think of at the moment... I'll update as I think of more!

How you doin'?

Work work

The 10-month mark has come and gone in a whirlwind of activity. I've been back in full-time work for four weeks now and it really feels like I never left.

Looking after Sprout
The Sproutling has been looked after mostly by Dad, but also by his Nanna. He doesn't seem too bothered by this - he is occasionally a little upset when I leave for the day, but is still sleeping and drinking his milk with no problems during the day.

Sprout has been to day care twice now, just for one day each week. The family day care co-ordinators at our local office found us a lovely local lady, and the small group size (no more than four children at once) means that I don't feel quite so guilty about leaving Sproutling with her. That didn't stop both him and me from being really upset when we left him the first time! It's important that he has this time to learn to play with other children and to be away from familiar faces for a little while. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.

Work
Going back to work has been really tough. For the first couple of weeks I was like a walking zombie - the lack of sleep really caught up with me and to top it off, Sprout was waking up an extra time during the night. He's settled back into a sort of routine again now though, which makes me slightly more energetic at work.

I get up early and pump milk, then usually get Sprout up for a feed before leaving for work. I like to catch the train early so I can be home early-ish. I pump milk once or twice more during the day and store the milk in Medela freezer bags. I'm not sure what my colleagues think about all this, but I'm sure they all know by now that the buzzing noises coming from the bathrooms aren't suspect. In the afternoon I get home to a very happy and hungry little boy, and usually a worn-out Daddy. There's usually time for a couple of hours of playing before dinner, bath and bedtime for Sproutlings.

I'm coping okay with it all at the moment, but I do miss Sprout terribly while I'm at work. I also miss our music lessons and days with the mums' group! Hopefully we'll get a few opportunities to catch up with them soon on the weekends.

Why read just one book?

Progress
So, ten months in and Sproutling is crawling, climbing and generally getting into every cupboard he can reach. I've seen him stand up on his own for a few seconds a couple of times, but he's still very wobbly so I think proper walking is still a way off. He'll happily babble on to himself all day, but he does actually seem to say "num num num" when he wants milk. We are still trying to teach him to use his "dadada" and "mum mum" to refer to us, but he mixes them in with "gok" and sounds starting with "b" so I just think he's making up his own language at this stage.

He loves to read books, but he's still a bit violent with them so he's only allowed the cardboard ones for now. He seems fascinated by turning the pages on his own, not really paying attention to the story or the pictures!

He's still drinking plenty of breast milk and I'll keep pumping and feeding him for as long as he still wants it. He has finally just cut his top front teeth, and I'm expecting this to make eating solid foods a bit easier so perhaps he'll start actually eating more rather than just biting chunks off and spitting them out like he has been doing. His motor skills are very good now so he can eat dinners involving rice quite well, even if they do end up all over the room!

That's pretty much it for this month's news! 

Sprout's Christmas

Happy New Year, one and all!

The Sproutling is now nine months old and has been out longer than he was in. He's growing up so fast and getting better at things each day - it seems like just yesterday he was tiny little helpless creature, but now he's a real little person!

The last two months has seen a big change around here. Not long after posting at the start of November, Sprout learned to crawl properly and shortly afterwards to pull himself up to standing. Thus began the Big Babyproofing of 2011.

The weeks around Christmas was a whirlwind of family activities and parties of every type. Meeting so many new faces was rather overwhelming for the little guy, and for a few weeks there his sleep routine was rather disrupted by late nights and unusual activities. I am very relived that he seems to be settling back into sleeping through most nights - I would rather not be up all night once I'm working again.

Sproutling now has a list of things he likes to play with if they are not locked down. If the wooden door on the TV cabinet is not closed, he will head straight for the stereo inside it. He also loves, in no particular order: The TV remotes, iPhones, paper (especially advertising junk mail), cat toys, opening drawers in the kitchen, standing up at the screen door and banging and/or licking it, and climbing the stairs (a gate came out pretty fast) - in fact pretty much anything that isn't actually one of his toys. He also loves to play at the cat door, although he hasn't quite worked out how to get through it yet.

Watch out, Bluey!

One of our cats runs away if he comes near her, but our ginger one is very patient with the fur-pulling and tail-munching. I am trying to teach Sprout to play gently with him but he just doesn't understand just yet. Poor Bluey.

On the language front we are now hearing all sorts of different sounds, but no real words yet. At home, he keeps up a pretty much constant stream of babble. He can be quite shy around other people.

Sproutling will eat pretty much anything we give him these days, although I don't trust him with a bowl and spoon just yet. Finger foods are the way to go, with fruit and chicken being firm favourites. I'm still mostly breastfeeding him and will try to pump some milk when I go back to work so that we can keep that going as long as possible.

The next month will be an interesting one as I am about to go back to work five days a week. Mr Ang is still on holidays for a couple of weeks but once he starts classes again, the Sproutling will be looked after by his Nanna on two days.  The third day will (hopefully) be at childcare. We're still trying to organise this, but if all else fails we have back ups.

Please, wish us luck on the next phase of the journey!