23/09/2008

Smart Smartie

Asher and I went to Wizzy World again today, to meet some Mothers' Group friends we haven't seen for a while. Last time we went was really quiet and Asher and Audrey pottered around by themselves most of the time. At one point they had been quiet for a while and when I found them Asher was managing to sneak Smarties out of the lolly machine by the (small) handful. I'm not quite sure how he managed it but he seemed to be flicking the 'release' handle with persistence and a certain gentleness. He was getting so many out that he had a crowd of three or four kids around him enjoying the bounty. To stop Asher eating nothing but Smarties for the day I spoilt the fun by telling the staff who promptly taped up the offending part of the lolly machine.

When we went today it wasn't long before he had disappeared over to the lolly machine again. The middle hopper, which held the Smarties last time, was empty but Asher there were Smarties in another hopper. Asher twiddled and flicked enough to get a few of the lollies out, but since they weren't scattered all over the floor being gathered up by eager children I didn't really worry. I convinced him to come play somewhere else for a while, but periodically he would wander back for another Smartie or two periodically. Now wonder he thinks it's the most fun place in the world!


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16/09/2008

My son

When he isn't biting, kicking, throwing sand, scratching, pulling hair, pushing or snatching he's just delighful. Witness him here, being spun around and laughing with his little mates:


See? When he's happy, he's really happy.

12/09/2008

Fussy little gourmand

Just really quickly* I want to tell you about Asher's dinner last night. It appeared normal at the time but when Bindy called me to check what Asher eats these days I thought back to last night and realised it wasn't normal at all. We gave him smoked salmon wrapped around cream cheese, pieces of ripe soft brie with Turkish bread and some cornichons and olives as 'vegetables.' Although he ate it there were tears at one point because he wanted pate (if there had been some in the fridge we would have given it to him - that much protein and iron's gotta be ok for a kid). Bloody fussy little thing he is!


*I've got a *lot* of cleaning and tidying to do after two days at work. I won't be sitting here playing really mindless facebook games, nope, not me.

11/09/2008

Asher milestones

Isn't this a cute pictutre? Sanjay's parents usually pick Asher up from Kindy one day a week and they are away at the moment so various other people (well, Anil and my dad) have been helping out with picking Asher up from Kindy. Asher actually seems to be getting on a bit better at Kindy these last two weeks, not many tears in the morning before we leave the house and just a bit of distress when we (usually just Sanjay) drops him off. Anil took Asher to the park today when he picked him up and they spent a bit of time playing with Anil's Blackberry camera - I think he sent me this photo to reassure me that they had fun!

I've been meaning to blog quite a lot recently - I've got a lot to say about Asher and what's going on for him - but I haven't been able to find time when I'm not exhausted. I've also been recovering from the cold that has lasted all winter, and I'm finally feeling a bit more on top of things with my health.

The other reason I'm exhasted is that Asher is really finding his two-year-old self. He's really into asserting himself and testing boundaries and, being Asher, that means he's experimenting quite carefully. At the moment he's trying to work out what the story is with physical aggression generally, and biting in particular so he sets up his experiments. He wants to work out what kinds of biting get a neutral or positive reaction from me (food), what kinds get a mildly negative reaction (toys and other objects) and what makes me really angry (other people). He has been biting objects (toys, doorframes, this morning it was the doona on our bed) and notes that he gets told 'no biting' but nobody moves to stop him. He tries biting me and I say 'NO BITING' very sternly and physically move his head away. The very first time he sank his sharp little puppy-teeth into my leg I brushed him away so quickly it was *almost* a smack, which of course shook me more than it shook him. He even tried biting Audrey on Tuesday afternoon which upset me tremendously. I really hope he works it out quickly (I know I have to stay *really* consistant) and can find some other subject to experiment on. I guess I should be happy that it's such a carefully controlled experiment, even if the fact that he's being calculating upsets me, because my suspicion is that biting-in-anger would be harder to manage.

In better news, his language development has really come on, so have both gross and fine motor skills - he is starting to learn to use scissors, he can roll out pizza dough, he can climb things at the indoor playcentre this week that were impossible last week, he can get the soybeans out of their pods when we have edamame, he puts texta/pen lids on with ease, he opens the door to our apartment, he puts bottle tops on and takes them off, the list goes on and on. He's also starting to be more confident (he shoos away pidgeons rather than bursting into tears) and more assertive with his peers (he has been pushing Audrey out of the way when she tries to get in front of him) which I feel are developments that have been helped by going to Kindy.

There'll be more updates over the next week or so, promise!

01/09/2008

Quote of the....

OK, since I don't seem to have many words at the moment I'll just use someone else's words. When I thanked Karen for helping me out while I was helping someone else out she said "if you can't help another woman with kids...." and to me this was a lovely example of The Sisterhood in action. It made me so happy!