Nearly 1 and nearly 3

What a year it’s been! Oh, Alex has been walking properly for the last 10 days. By that I mean that he now walks everywhere and on the odd occasion when he falls he’s straight back on his feet.

I’m on to something here I just know it. Childcare has been encouraging independence with the kids for quite some time and so we hear “by self” quite a bit. There is a problem with shoes by self though… For some reason 90% of the time the shoes end up on the wrong foot. I always thought the laws of statistics should have evened out at 50:50 but definitely not and with almost all kids not just Luke.

Luke is developing good manners which makes me very proud. One of his regular saying is “please, I have some ….” And he’s not bad on using thank you either.

Alex has his own quirks. One of them is being toothbrush obsessed but never his own. Unlike Luke who needs some encouragement to brush his teeth, Alex can always sniff out toothbrushing time and heads to the bathroom and whinges until you give him one.

When I say whinges I should really admit that Alex is very determined and cries out in a indignant and hurt tone when things don’t go his way – this includes when we take dangerous items off him and when we try to coax him inside the front door. Picking him up to forcibly move him is not fun as he still seems to be a ball of muscle and when he squirms he all but gets out of your arms.

Luke and Alex like all brothers in this world only ever seem to want what the other has. This works just fine at the table to get them both eating but backfires when it’s about toys or other objects. Luke believes that force rules but I can see this strategy unraveling as Alex gets bigger.

Something else I’m loving about Luke is his singing of nursery rhymes. Childcare has obviously been teaching him because we do sing them from time to time but not often. He’s fond of Jack and Jill and loves to play ‘Jack and Jill’ at the playground by rolling down the slope. He asks for ‘rocka baby’ at night when he’s trying to go to sleep and Ba Ba Black sheep seems to be a popular one in the car.

Alex’s climbing is pretty nerve racking. We have so much more stuff than we did when Luke was at this age. In particular Luke’s stool which is how he gets involved in everything in the kitchen. Well Alex loves it as well. He climbs up both steps and gets on to the table where he stands up looking proud. Then outside he climbs up Luke’s table and chairs and then he climbs on top of toys to get higher in the boys bedroom.

Oh and Luke celebrated his birthday with the kids in the street this weekend.