Nearly 2009

Not sure where this year has gone, but seems to have just flown by. Or at least the last 6 months have. One week seems to begin and before I know it, it's already Friday again. Anyway, thought I'd try to get another post done before December is over - though I'm not sure anyone is still reading this. However, I felt like posting, so here I am, even if I'm just talking to myself! :-)

Here's Benjamin showing Tigger and his favourite teddy bear (which Evelyn gave him) out the window. He loves to stand on his train table and look at the passing cars, trucks, vans, etc that are on the main road (beyond the row of houses which back onto our gardens). He only gets a passing glimpse of them between two houses, but it's exciting for him even still.

Climbing on mummy's computer chair - I think he's a born climber, which can be rather scary at times (especially when it's the fire guard or bunk bed that he's getting on). But he doesn't seem to have any sense of danger yet - wonder when that will come?!

Not sure what Abigail was doing here, but seems I'm rather low on photos of her today, so thought I'd include it anyway. She likes to help mummy out whenever she can (though isn't always keen on tidying up messes). Having said that, she did a really good job on her bedroom yesterday (without even being told - she just realised it was a mess and was determined to keep working until it was clean). She likes to help with laundry, and even went in the kitchen last week and tried to do the dishes all by herself. Unfortunately she didn't have clean water to do them in, so I had to wash them again later - but I didn't have the heart to stop her, as she was really trying hard to help me, since she thought I wasn't feeling too well.

Benjamin's new pastime: reading the Motor section of the local weekly newspaper! :-) He gets soooo excited when he sees this and thinks it's especially for him - he'll spend ages studying them all. He was telling me this evening (when the above photo was taken) "a black Rover car" - see, he's already into what make/brand the cars are! LOL However, I think it might have been a BMW (or something totally different - don't think it was a Rover, but was certainly a good guess). But he's quite mad about cars and talks about wanting to drive daddy's car.

I'm sure I've mentioned before what a chatter box Benjamin is. He's always surprising me with the big words that he comes out with. He listens carefully to all conversations or whenever someone is reading something and he picks out words that he's not heard before, which sound unusual (like place names in the Bible, or names like Zebedee!) and he repeats them multiple times. His new phrase today is "I think so". But it's amazing how clearly he says things too - I have such fun just listening to him talk. He was being very friendly today in Tesco and kept saying hello to just about everyone he met, and commenting to a lady about the melon in her shopping trolly! He never has really interacted like that before with people in shops, so it was quite funny. He's also really trying to learn letters at the moment - maybe he wants to pass Abigail up and learn to read before her! LOL The other day he found a Z and said "Z for Zoo" and then a G and said "G for Granny" and he likes to spot letters in the middle of words. However, the magnetic M's, he prefers to say they are W's (when upside down), his favourite being a yellow & orange one, which he brought to both lunch & dinner yesterday! I think he knows all the ordinary colours, identifies them correctly, and always says the colour of something at the same time as saying what it is, as colours are very important to him!

My big little boy again - must stop talking about him so much, or this will be a Benjamin post! :-) However, I'll just say that I'm pleased to report that he's doing very well with sleeping at night - yay! Several times in the past week he's slept from 7:30pm to 7:30am, completely in his own bed, in the other room with Abigail. He occasionally wakes up once or twice and stirs a bit, but once I help him with his cup (he seems to get very thirsty in the night) he's back asleep again. A couple of times he got rather cold (having got out from under his duvet) and after trying to settle him back down again in his bed, he sat up and said "Mummy, get Benjy ... cuddle", to which I couldn't possibly say no! :-) So a couple of times I've taken him back to our bed to warm him up and he wraps his arms around my neck, as he *loves* cuddles just now - all day long he'll come up to me and say "Mummy cug" or "Mummy cuddle" - he can say cuddle perfectly, but still likes to use "cug" instead, quite frequently. Anyway, regarding sleep, unfortunately Benjamin sleeping through at night isn't meaning I'm getting all that much extra sleep, as Abigail has started night wakings just at the *very* same time as he started sleeping! :-( She'd occasionally wake up and get a drink from her cup by her bed and climb back in bed quite happily, but lately she's been a bit worried about the dark etc and wanders into our room or climbs in our bed etc. I often take her back to her bed and lie down with her, but she doesn't seem to be falling asleep again as quickly as before. I'm just hoping it's a short phase and she's back to sleeping through the night again as she's done for many months now.

My lovely little girl, who looks very grown up here (along with her brother being silly).

Hmmm, seems I've done enough talking for one night - if not the whole month! ;-) I ought to get to sleep soon. I've not been feeling well lately - well, ever since I had a cold in the middle of September - yes, 3 months ago! I've had lingering cold symptoms (mainly chest congestion and wheezing/short of breath). I've been hoping it would go away on it's own, but I seemed to be getting worse yesterday and was feeling quite weak with the lack of breath/noisy wheezing in my lungs. So, I finally went to see a doctor today. Not sure if he knew exactly what was wrong, but since it seems there might be a bit of infection, I've got a course of antibiotics to take and he's also prescribed me an inhaler to try and help with the wheezing. He thought I sounded a bit asthmatic, but I wouldn't have thought so myself. Anyway, just hope to start feeling better soon.

OK, goodnight everyone - or rather, anyone who might happen to still be reading my boring words.