Growing and maturing

I seem to have jumbo jets as children!!! Not only can they produce as much WIND as one of those, no, they can also take off like one, at least in growing (that's what I mean, off course they can't fly so they can't take off in that way). When Ned was younger (I can't really say "When he was little") he took off like a jumbo and looked always older then he actually was (he still does, but his growing rate has slowed down considerably) and now (not so) little Ced follows in his foot steps. On the check up at the doctors he proudly measured 63cm and weighed 6.2kg... that's 10cm longer and 2.4kg heavier than when he was born and it's way outside the normal size for a 6 weeks old. At least now I'm not worried that I'm over feeding him or something, but I know that it's just the way my kids seem to be, big, very alert and happy (and good sleepers, we average something around 5-7 hours at night, PTL!!!). I guess the only disadvantage of a big baby is that they are more expensive: they grow out of their cloths faster, drink more milk (which unfortunately I can't produce and have to buy) and when flying they don't fit in the bassonet thing by the age of 6 months (which doesn't have anything to do with being more expensive, but it's a fact none the less).



With Ced being a tummy sleeper there are certain benefits as well: his neck and shoulder muscles are so strong that he can lift his head for several minutes, no problem. Laying on ones tummy, I suppose, also helps with passing WIND (I tell you, a jumbo is almost nothing compared with my -not so- little fellow.... he happily farts away like a (not so) little farting cushion... hmm but maybe you don't wanna know :o)) (too late, I wrote it already) Talking about things you might not want to know, I share another little fact you actually might not want to know. Did you know that you can poo-condition babies???? It sounds crazy, but it really works!! Friends of ours told us about it, and with Ned being a super poo-er in another class we didn't want (not so) little Ced follow in his footsteps there as well. So we thought we give the poo-conditioning a go, and it really works. We started to train from when he was around 3 or 4 weeks. Every time we change his nappy at his feed time we lift up his legs and push the just very slightly onto his belly (mind you, we don't press the poo out, but just put him in a good "shooting" position). Even if he took a while to do anything, we'd keep him in that position and wait for a while, give him a little tummy massage and wait a bit longer. But after a couple times doing that he really started to poo when he was in this position, and now, for at least one or two weeks we haven't had a single poo in his nappy while the nappy was on normally, but only when we had him 'in position'. He wouldn't poo every every time we put him in his poo-position but he'd only poo when he was in the position, or he'd give me signals that it is actually time to de-poo, but normally it would always be during his normal de-poo-times in a break during his feed time.
*********** Hmmm, it is a couple of minutes since I wrote the section above, and just when I finished the last sentence I came to be convinced that my kids read my blog and want to prove me wrong. When I just finished the last couple of words of the last sentence, Ced, who was sitting on the edge of the table between my arms leaning against me, farted mightily like a machine gun and at the end of that went "PFFFFT".... and the poo was in the nappy. Great, just there goes my point!! Oh well, he did give me some signals which I didn't read correctly... but in 99% of the time the poo-conditioning does work (exceptions confirm the rule, as we'd say in German).
Ned is also maturing a lot. Having said that, I'm also convinced that he read my blog in the past, because when I wrote about him maturing another time, the very next day he produced some wonderful tantrums worthy of Hollywood, but still, generally he is SOOO much better and his vocabulary improves almost daily now. He's like a little parrot and tries to repeat everything you say. But he also starts to say little sentences, and they are sentences which melt away every parents heart: "Mama, lav you" and "Daddy come kiss" :o))))))
Yesterday I took the boys and we went for a walk in the forest. Ned did such a great job, he walked all the 1 1/4h and only needed a little encouragement towards the end (but we DO NOT bribe our kids, never!!) First he played with some big sticks laying around, but pretty soon he abandoned the big one for a tiny little one, no idea what he saw in that one and why he picked this particular one out amongst thousands of other tiny little sticks... oh the mysteries of the mind of a two year old.

That's the big stick:

And that's his new friend, the little stick:


So, they are both growing and maturing. The one who shouldn't be growing anymore is myself. Luckily I don't anymore, but getting rid off my extra baby fat is quiet a little challenge again (great, GETTING the baby fat isn't a challenge whatsoever). Luckily I do enjoy roller blading a lot which helps getting back into shape (a shape other than round, that is, and no, "wobbly" is not a shape). Unluckily roller blading is only possible when it is dry (aqua planing and roller blades ain't no good a combination) so I decided to start going running again (oh how I love running.. ahmmm, NOT) but anyway, while listening to an audiobook it isn't too bad. So today I started again, and I actually went running at 5 am..., do you hear me?? FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING... ME!!! I went RUNNING at FIVE in the MORNING, I almost couldn't believe it myself, but after Ced had his bottle I couldn't fall back to sleep and I thought, instead of wasting time trying to fall asleep I could use the time in a better way and I got up and dressed and ran my first 20 min (with a 3 min walking break in between) this year... I know it doesn't sound very impressive to you sporty people out there but for someone who doesn't like running and was pregnant up to 7 weeks ago and gained a bit too much while being pregnant it was pretty good (I will be sore and aching tomorrow but tomorrow takes care of itself:o)
Well, Ned is at his grandparents, in fact he will be with them until Monday, 6 days in total, because the rest of "us" are going for a little road trip over East to visit some friends near Chemnitz (Bine, Bekka and Antony if you'd like to know) and then go on to visit Prague. I hope mum and dad and Ned will be doing okay and that the rest of "us" won't miss our big boy too much.