The Hughes Zoo

Dad’s at work, Jeremy’s at ‘Little School’ and Mum’s doing the budget at home after her sewing machine broke down yesterday. Will’s in the background catnapping.

Will was awake long enough this morning for both of us to say goodbye to Ben & Jeremy at the front door. It had been quite a trying morning for the whole family and it was only just 8:30!

Arnie, Ben & I were woken up by Jeremy, who decided it would be fun to chase Arnie around the house. Arnie escaped through his cat door by the skin of his teeth. Jeremy was not perturbed and went on to wake Will up so he could unwrap him and give him “milk from Jeremy’s nipples”. More un-fun zooing adventures followed right up until Jeremy was given a naughty ‘time-out’ on the couch with Dad for pushing over the rubbish bin.

The boys eventually got out of the house but sadly for Jeremy he left in tears (cause I had locked the screen door the wrong way). It was hard to listen to his noises slowly muffle as Ben pushed the stroller further away as they walked to school & then work. All I could think was poor Ben having to try and get through the next bit once they got to school!

Will has been doing really well. At 6 weeks, much like Jeremy, he started smiling at people other than me! It was really exciting to see Will smile at Jeremy & Ben while we were all eating dinner at the table (we had Will in his bouncer in the middle of the table). Also at 6 weeks Will discovered he had a voice - at 8 weeks he found out it was loud! His gooing and gaahing is getting along and the tonal variations have started. He is a real heart-breaker when he throws in a few words as a finishing touch to his winning grin. He managed a roll from back to tummy at around 6 weeks too (something Jeremy was doing at that age quite frequently – so it can’t be just a freak Jeremy thing!).

Jeremy is besotted with Will. I can already see the bond between them is becoming quite strong & special. And Will loves nothing better than to feed with Jeremy close enough so that his feet touch Jeremy’s legs or arms. This mostly happens in the morning while the three of us watch Play School (with Ben in the background getting ready for work).

The days are starting to settle into something manageable. Ben and I struggle to get out of the Dad & Jeremy versus Mum & Will routine cause it’s always easier to go with what works now rather than what will work better tomorrow. Hopefully soon Jeremy & I can do more things – just us – together; and Ben & Will the same.

Will is matching Jeremy kilo for kilo in his post-birth weight gain. Will has gained 2 kilos in 2 months! He is still in size 000 but only because his arms and legs are quite spindly. And wow, Jeremy has taken off from size 2 shirts in April 08 to size 4 in November! Quite the achievement, don’t you think? (We were wondering why he’d started sleeping 3+ hours during the day and 12 hours at night!)

Jeremy started sleeping in his big boy bed on Tuesday night. The sudden rush to the big boy bed happened when Jeremy demanded I watch him climb into and out of his cot on Tuesday morning. I told him that boys who can climb into cots don’t need to sleep in them any longer and that he would be sleeping in the big boy bed when he got home from school that night. Without any fuss (and with the help of a Thomas pillow case) Jeremy slept for 12 hours straight that night and the night afterwards in his new bed. I made a lot of changes to his sleeping arrangements that first night so Ben & I can’t help but praise him over and over and over again for his big boy-ness each night.

Jeremy’s also moved onto a big boy chair at the dining table next to Daddy (and without a drop sheet under his feet!). He can get into and out of the bath by himself. And he is incredibly agile on the playground equipment, even in adventure parks he’s never been too!

In amongst all that Nonna Slater and Oma Hogan came for visits. Jeremy just loved having them around and enjoyed getting to know them (though probably not as much as they enjoyed getting to know him). We made special trips to Questacon & Cockington Green. Jeremy had a fabulous time exploring, discovering & sharing the moments with Nonna and Oma (along with showing off his not-quite-civilized cino skills during morning tea time). Ben & I enjoyed the visits too. It was delightfully refreshing to have an extra pair of hands helping out.

Moments after their departures, Jeremy & Ben had a weekend in Wagga with Nan Hughes (minus Will & I). They both had an incredibly fantastic time together. Jeremy got to sleep in the caravan by himself for daytime sleeps (such a grown up thing to do!). And the 3 of the went to the “Wagga park” (Wagga’s botanical gardens have a small Zoo & enormous adventure playground) for a morning play & cino. As an added bonus the model train swap-meet was on that day so Jeremy got to wow & gosh over trains all morning instead of playing in the playground like usual. Needless to say we’ll be planning our trips to match in with these swap-meets from now on.

I’m starting to hear the sounds of a waking Prince William so I will sign off till next month!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 12:19 am and is filed under Ange's Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.