What a talker!

He really is. Totally blows Chris and I away on a daily basis with his talking and constructing little sentences - it's amazing to watch him think about it, or get annoyed when he gets a word wrong or puts it in the wrong place. He's so clever and really uses his brain - it truly is freakin' amazing to watch. He's now using please in sentences and oh my god - it really is a magic word! One day last week he kept coming up to me while we were at home saying "Up Mama" for me to pick him up. I explained to him that he didn't need to be picked up and carried right then, I told him Mama was doing something and he was fine. There's no freakin' way I want a child that demands to be carried all the time when I've got a newborn that has no choice but to be carried. So we don't pick him up every time he wants for no reason. Well of course, him being the age he is, it got more and more urgent sounding "Up Mama", "Up Mama", "Up Mama" and quite sad sounding. I told him no and Mama was doing something and he should go and read a book or play in his room. Well that was it, the whimpering then turned into sobs and a full-blown crying. Then out he cracked, whilst looking at me with tears running down his face, in the saddest little crying cracked sobbing voice "Up please Mama". Holy moly - if that aint gonna melt your heart I dunno what is!!! Made me cry.

Well that paragraph above was written about 2 weeks ago now and he's progressed even more. He's so clever, really he is, he sentences are amazing and he thinks so much about what he wants to say before he says it. Sometimes his sentences take a while to finish cause he's thinking really hard about the next word and wants to get it right. But that's ok, we just let him finish, even though at times it's really hard and you just wanna tell him you know what he's trying to say. But we don't and we can see he feels really proud when he's finished it and we talk back and tell him how clever he is for knowing that and how well he did. So nice this age seeing all the development and changes which are huge!

Aside from another bloody cold, ear infection, throat infection and hacking cough which before clearing up has kindly developed into a different green-snotted cold, throat thing which is causing his voice to sound rather husky and horrible hacking cough. Sooooo aside from that - he's really good at the moment! hahaha

He knows there's a bubba in Mama's puku and he kisses and rubs it which is cute. He probably doesn't understand, but he'll get there, hopefully before the bubba is born!!!

On the bubba front - we had another scan today and all was good. Though something that Chris and I both thought wasn't a good sign, the bubba is head up and high up by my ribs like Caelan always was. The woman doing the scan thought it was odd that the baby would be up there when it has all the space down below. Which also was hard for her because it was tough doing the scan and finding all the bits with the bubba tucked up there. Eekkk - this is just where Caelan was the whole time and something that I'd been noticing is that I'm getting all kicks down really low this time again. So of course this made Chris and I both say "Uh oh, not a good sign" as soon as she started the scan and told us about the position and how it was odd. It is early days yet, still got 16 weeks to go before they class the baby as really breech. Soooo fingers crossed that this one doesn't play the same game, I really want a natural birth please little bubba.

Caelan and Butterscotch

Caelan rides his pony every morning and he's really improving. This morning when we went for our ride, I hardly had to steady him at all, just when trotting. Otherwise he was great and is really getting the hang of it and absolutely loves it. Here are a few photos taken after his ride this morning. So cute!

Crazy kid

He's sooooo full-on and crazy at the moment. Like on speed loopy doo crazy! hehe But he's also totally and utterly adorable and so freakin' cute it's just not funny. Not all the time though of course, sometimes we think - ugh will you stop screaming or just go away, far away, out of earshot and make that ugly sound and face. He totally blows us away with his talking though, yeah I know I've said this before. But he really does. He knows stuff. He knows stuff that we haven't made an effort to say a lot to him or teach him. He knows stuff just because he's clever. Tis true, I know all parents say this - but I truly don't think I'm one of "those" parents. You know the ones that talk about how their child is the cutest in the world, how their child is the most clever in the world, how their child is the best in the world - well I'm not one of "those" parents. I don't think it makes me any less of a mother - but I'm just real about my child, I can see him for what he really is. Which is of course the cutest and most clever and amazingly advanced 18 month old to have ever lived. Hahahahahahahaha

He's putting more words together now to form little sentences which is so adorable. I have to make sure to get it on video because one day when he's talking we wont think it's so amazing or so cute. I want to remember being this blown away and thinking that it's the sweetest thing I've ever heard when he says to me "No Mama" in his adorable little voice while pointing a finger at me. When we were de-boxing a new car we got in last weekend and he was waiting excitedly he came out with "Cool car!" - we hadn't even tried to teach him cool but he'd just heard it in our everyday language obviously and learned it himself. Cutie and last night while I was cooking dinner he walked in a said "Cooking. Yum! Yum! Yum! YUM!" - it's so cute. He knows so much, it really is amazing.

I'm not sure how he's going to go with a little brother or sister when the baby is born. He's a bit of a Mama's boy so no doubt he'll hate sharing and suddenly becoming seemingly less important cause this new, squeeky thing is taking up all of Mama's time. But I'm sure he'll adapt, it's not as if we've always entertained him or made sure that we're with him all the time. We made certain not to do that right from day one to encourage him to pay well alone and be confident in himself, so it's not going to completely turn his world upsidedown (we hope!!! hehe). Not sure what I'm going to do about the blog now - I think the best option is to change it's name and make it on both the kids. Cause I really can't be arsed updating two regularly!

The pregnancy is going ok - well aside from the constant morning sickness. But that's much more under control with medication cause it was going to kill me, doesn't take the nausea away completely DAMN IT, but at least I'm not vomiting all the time. Sheesh I'm just not a very good breeder. I had hideous back and pelvis pain towards the end of Caelan's pregnancy and it's already started so I'm scared of how bad it'll be when I'm big - at least I've still got the support belt for that. Have heard the baby's heartbeat twice and had the first scan earlier this week. Have to go for another one next week again because the baby is measuring two weeks smaller than it should (kinda scary and odd cause Caelan was always bigger), will see how things are next week. I'm thinking it's to do with celiac disease, cause I wasn't eating stuff I shouldn't have been for a couple of years before getting pregnant with Caelan so there was no damage to the stomach and Caelan was able to get all the correct nutrients from the food I ate and grow well. But since getting pregnant with Caelan I've been eating what I shouldn't have, this means that for the last 16 months I've been damaging my stomach and this can cause problems in growth of the baby in pregnant women and sometimes miscarriage (though I'm past the scary time for this thank god!!). The whole time I've been pregnant (and before) I've been having major stomach problems (totally different to the morning sickness) - major cramping and pain and have constantly had diarrhea - used to get this all the time before I cut out pretty much all carbs (and in effect gluten) for the triathlons and kickboxing. So it wouldn't surprise me if this is why the baby is 2 weeks smaller than it should be, so as of yesterday I've altered my diet and hope things start to improve - and grow!!

Plane Swing

Talking on the phone

This is pretty old - but it so damned cute! Taken at 15 months.

Lambies!!

We got two little orphan lambs in the weekend - they're so cute and Caelan absolutely LOVES them. He's not too keen on holding the bottle when they're feeding for some reason though. He's always cuddling, kissing and trying to pick them up - though we're enforcing a no picking up the lambs rule. They need to be fed four times a day and Caelan loves coming out to watch them feed, I'm sure soon enough he'll enjoy holding the bottles. I think he doesn't like them pushing at it when he's holding it.

We saw other people and another kid last night! Poor Caelan must have thought that he was the only kid left in the world after so long of not seeing anyone! hehehe It's been AGES due to all this sickness. It was sooooo good!!! Caelan and George had great fun playing together - yay :)

Well here's a photo of Caelan with Met (white ewe lamb) and Code (black and white ram).

Hand, foot and mouth disease sucks!

Well when Caelan got home last night, after having fun at Grandma and Grandad's, I was pretty concerned about the state of his rash. It had turned from tiny red raised dots to bigger angry looking blisters. I instantly thought it must be chicken pox - even though I hadn't seen a case of chicken pox recently (if ever actually!) but knew that the first red dots then turned into fluid filled blister like things. So first thing this morning called the Doctor cause that was a pretty drastic change in the rash, though I was pretty sure I knew what it was, but best have it confirmed by a real doctor HEHE. But I was wrong he has a pretty severe case of hand, foot and mouth disease (which apparently is often confused with chicken pox), the worst the doctor has seen and the horrid part is, there's nothing you can do about it. So wait and let it run it's course and hope we don't go crazy in the meantime - it's highly contagious so we can't go anywhere or visit anyone. Stinko. Might call Playgroup to let them know cause I'm pretty certain he must have caught it off someone there last week, he hasn't been around any other kids, so it must be from there. They might wanna tell others, or not, I dunno what's the story with this kind of thing, but I'll tell them anyway just to be safe. So he's got a cold, ear infection and hand, foot and mouth disease - poor kid.

Roll on summer!

Poor Caelan's sick again, had to take him to the Doctor yesterday cause he'd had a really bad day and night before with a fever, horrible green snot clogging him up, being really, really miserable and having a horrible rash all over his body. Poor little boy! He has a horrid cold, viral infection, red dotty rash, diarrhea and a nasty ear infection (for a freakin' change!!). Though it seems like the worst of it was on Monday and Monday night (not much sleeping for the Clark household that night), yesterday he was so much happier. YAY! Hopefully all of this doesn't last too long now. He'll be contaigous for a while so we're gonna go mad cooped up in the house together - we'll have to invent some new games and do many sundances, cause it'll suck if we can't go outside.

Aside from being sick he's doing well, his talking is improving all the time. It's amazing. He has a pretty large vocabularly now which is growing every day nearly. It's so cool. Let's see if I can remember all the words he says - up, down, plane, light, more, bye, ta-ta, hello, hi, ouch, oh-oo, hot, Mama, Daddy, yummy, yucky, yum, ball, poo-poo, nappy, yeah... I'm sure there are more but I can't remember them.

We had a lovely fathers day - had a huge delicious breakfast on the deck in the sun together which was cool. Then hung out for the rest of the day having fun together. YAY! Caelan wore his new Daddy Rocks t-shirt which was super cute. Here are some pics from fathers day.

We all survived!

Well we had our first real time away from each other and nobody died! I was scared I was gonna die of worry and missing my boy, but I was ok. It was pretty stressful but I live to tell the story... Chris and I went to Melbourne for three nights and Caelan had a wee holiday with Grandma and Grandad Clark - he would have loved it I'm sure. Hopefully he missed Mama and Daddy though!!! hehe

He has been horrendously clingy with me since we got back though, so I'd say he missed us. It is really frustrating and sometimes I just wanna go out to the paddock and shake my leg, then run! LOL He's really precious when going anywhere and if anyone talks to him, he attaches himself to me (if he's not already there, which usually he is) and buries his face in me. Hopefully this doesn't last too long cause I can't take him anywhere with him being ok with it. He cries and has to be attached to me at all times and if it is somewhere we've been a lot and he knows well, he still has to be attached to me at the beginning and then if he can't see me it's all on, he's screaming and thinking I've run away to Melbourne and left him. Poor boy. Poor Mama. Poor Daddy too. Short may this phase last.

He's really, really good at the moment (aside from the usual colds of course!). He's talking all the time and saying heaps of real words, it's so cute. He understands so much, possibly too much Daddy might say... tonight Caelan hit me with a piece of Lego and when I told him very firmly that we don't hit and looked at him angrily, he smiled, then looked sad and kissed me, as if to say sorry. Chris said quite quietly and fast cause it wasn't actually to Caelan - "You can hit me if I get a kiss afterwards", not thinking Caelan was even paying attention to understand or hear, he was just wanting a kiss. Well Caelan left my side, went around all the lego on the floor and walked right up to him, whacked him in the face and then gave him a kiss on the lips. Be careful what you say! HAHAHA

The cutest boy in the land.


BOO!


After shower, Mama and me have towels on our heads.


Playtime after shower.

15 month Plunket check-up

We just got back and our new Plunket nurse in Clevedon is lovely and she thinks Caelan's amazing. Thought he was so clever with all his talking and stuff - of course he is. He is 13.7kg and 85cm tall - right along the 97% line. He sure is a biggun - even with all the weight he's lost with the lack of eating while being sick over the last month! Thank goodness he had extra to lose and hasn't suffered at all with it, even if he looks skinny to Chris and I now. Well that's all - just wanted to put the update and had to post this photo. It's absolutely classic!!!

Dior on the floor?!?!
What everyone (man, woman or baby) must do should you come across an unwatched Christian Dior handbag on the floor, ah it was a proud moment - 'That's my boy!' hahaha

Nurses are nasty

Caelan now hates the nurse he used to love. He got his 15 month immunisations yesterday and he really doesn't like her, she tried to give him a jellybean (I know!!!! You're shocked huh? I was going to let him have a lolly!! hehe But I thought he deserved it, so the first one was going to be yesterday) - he threw it at her angrily saying "No, no, no, no!". She tried again and it got the same treatment. My poor, poor little boy. But the good news is, one ear is only slightly infected still and the other one has completely cleared up. HURRAH! He opened his hand and said "Ouch" to show her his ouch hand (before she horribly jabbed him) and she just about died, she asked what happened and how he got it. I'll just go back to Friday... Caelan and I were hanging outside, I was tidying up the deck and he was on the lawn. There was this horrible scream, when I got to him he was holding the top of the solar light crying, I asked him what happened and he turned and pointed to the rest of the light, still in the garden, and told me all about what had happened. The problem was, it was in his language, not mine. So I gathered that it must have bitten him. I gave him a cuddle, he stopped crying, I took the top of the light off him and all was happy again. He was next to the car and screamed in pain again, I went up to him and noticed his hand had blood dripping all down the fingers onto the ground. I turned it over and just about screamed in shock and then had to calmly tell him that it was ok and we'd better clean it, that it looked ouchy though. I took him inside and my god there was some blood! The light sure had bitten him - it looked like some sharp plastic had scraped a whole lot of skin off the palm of his hand. It looked hideously sore! I cleaned it, savloned and bandaged it, the whole while he was pointing at it saying ouch.

Anyway, when I saw the doctor yesterday I didn't even think to show him the hand, I thought it was fine, it wasn't infected, I'd kept cleaning it with Savlon liquid and had it covered for the first couple of days and it was now scabbing over. All good, or so I thought. Well, obviously not! It needed special cream and it needed it now, it needed to be bandaged, what did the doctor say?!? She was horrified when I told her I thought it was ok and didn't even show the doctor. Opsy. Anyway we now have special cream to be applied twice daily and it is bandaged. Whewf! So aside from having a rather relaxed mother he's doing well now! hehe

My god he's a boy. It astounds me how boys really are boys, without seeing anyone else do grotty boy things, they just do them. Last Wednesday morning after his breakfast, I was wiping his table and he did the funniest thing. He pretended to pick a scab on his knuckle and feed it to me. WTF!??! He was laughing his head off while holding it right infront of my mouth offering it to me. What a grot!!! He's never seen anyone do anything like this, but the boy brain looked at his scab and thought it would be really funny to pretend to pick it and feed it to Mama. He loved my "Eeeewwwwwww!!! Nnnoooooo! YUCK!!!" response of course and did it throughout the day numerous times. Then he offered it to Daddy when he got home and upon Chris' disgusted response he proceded to pretend to eat it himself, laughing the whole time. Funny, funny little boy!

Me and Mama on her birthday.

Some photos

Having lunch with George.


Looking super cute in my awesome cardie Grandma knitted.


Patting Maddy.


Wow! What's this? I can see myself in it.


How messy can a little boy and a bowl of yoghurt get? Pretty damned messy!!

Playin in da mud!

This was taken on Tuesday while we were outside stomping in the puddles and getting VERY muddy. Ah it's good to be a kid!

Oh and took him to the doctor again today, he now has a nasty ear infection in both ears. Bugger it. Ah well, that's what you get when you're a baby in winter though right? Will post more pics sometime soon when I have more time and patience to deal with this damned dial-up speed and constantly getting kicked offline. Bye!

Running, talking little boy

He really is just that - he runs just about everywhere and is constantly talking and he's such a little kid. His real words now consist of Daddy, Mummy/Mama (still calls me Mummy sometimes even though I'm Mama dammit!! Hehe I think he hears other people say it and picks up on it), plane, ear, ouch, hot, dog, Toa, bye-bye, ta-ta, yummy, yucky, says ta when he wants something or is giving something to you and meows like a cat, neighs like a horse, moos, baas and barks like a dog (well kinda - the barking is still a funny closed mouth bark!).

He's been sick for a while - a couple of weeks now. This horrible cold has gone from a blocked up, runny-nose normal cold to a chest infection. Yep he has bronchiolitis again - look the poor little guy to the doctor on Friday as he'd gotten my horrible wheezy cough and he was given some medication to clear up the blockages to ensure that it doesn't turn into an ear infection again. My ears had been blocked and sore for days so I was worried that as he'd gotten the horrid cough his ears could feel like mine and then get infected and lord knows we don't want another freakin' ear infection! Had to go back today for the checkup and he's been put on some ventolin as he's very, very wheezy. We're hoping like hell it's just due to the bronchiolitis and doesn't turn into fulltime asthma like Chris'.

So aside from normal winter illnesses he's doing so well and always astounds us with his gorgeousness and intelligence! The other night he sang along to an ad in tune - Chris and I just about shat ourselves! He's a genius!!! hehe As I'm sure all parents say.

He loves living on the farm

Caelan's so great and really enjoying living out here. He loves the horses and absolutely loves pointing and waving to the planes - it's so cute he says plane and points or waves at them. He's got cold at the moment, just getting used to the much colder house - but he'll be fine. He's really good on his feet now and runs excitedly - so very cute to see. He was running around heaps at CJ's new place - must be because it's HUGE and has big wide open spaces - made him run everywhere. Well this is really just a quick update to post some of the latest pics before he wakes up.

From walking to running

Just like that! He's now running around flapping his arms wildly - it's so damned cute!! He's also taken to picking toys and things up and walking around with them, thinking he's really important. It's adorable. He's adorable. That's all really, that's all I came on to say. Probably wont be posting for quite a while with the big move coming up, we'll be busy packing, cleaning and sorting out the new place. Not sure when the comptuer will be set up there either cause we wont even have an office or spare room till we converted the shed into one. Will try to post before we move though - even if it's just some latest pics. Ta ta - bed calls, I'm buggered from scrubbing the filthy new place all day.

1 year old little boy

Watch the video above!!! You just HAVE to! Really you do.

What a lovely birthday Caelan had! It started with us taking him to Jansens petshop after breakfast to look at all the animals - which he always loves, well apart from the huge blue tongued lizards! He thought they were disgusting. He was watching them and copying their tongue inny-outty motions while shaking his head no cause he didn't like them. Very funny. Chris and I were soooooooo tired from being up till 2am making his cake. But my lord it was worth it! It was THE BEST cat cake in the world, we did very well. Of course it had to be a cat cake cause they're his favourite thing ever. He loved it and loved having cake for the first time too. His birthday party was at 3pm and it was sooooo great. He was spoiled silly and loved it. He stole the show with his walking as we'd kept it quiet for a few days cause we wanted everyone to find out when he did it on the day. Twas super cool. He's fully into it now and walking all over the place. It's so awesome! Oh and Caelan said "bye" today, and something that never usually happens - he did it while I was videoing him. Yay! I was about to stop videoing so I said bye and waved to him and he said it back and waved. Our clever little boy.

Still not walking

Everything's going really well with our soon to be one year old. He's still happily barking when you ask him what dogs do, he's now started meowing as well which is super cute. And kisses pictures of cats in books - well they are his favourite! hehe Thankfully the screaming NNNOOOOOOOO when he's told no has stopped, didn't like that at all! He's still not walking, just the 4 or so unaided steps that he'll do between Chris and I, which he's been doing for a while. We thought he'd definitely be walking before he turns one, but now it's not seeming so. Even though he's been walking around the furniture and walls etc. since 9 months and walking holding our hands for yonks before that - ah well, you never can predict these things huh? He absolutely LOVES walking and running around behind his trolley, his favourite game is to chase Toa around - so cute!! They play so well together, is gorgeous to watch. They're becoming closer friends every day - gonna be best of friends soon and always together I'm sure. There's probably way more to update on but I just can't think of it right now sorry!

Here are some of the latest photos:
1. Making playdough for the first time, so much fun!
2. Chasing Toa.
3. All tangled in the mosquito net and really hot!