Tuesday 21 August 2007

Adding to the family

A good friend of mine was pregnant at the same time as I have been, and it's been a good outlet to have someone to go through this experience with. She also has difficult pregnancies, and so we often leaned on each other for sympathy over the last 6 months.

She gave birth on Sunday (a healthy baby boy - her 4th!) and all of a sudden it really hit me how my family and life is about to change. I got to know her right when her 3rd child was born, so I've only ever known her as a mother of 3. When we got the phone call that she had delivered, it struck me that her family make-up has completely changed. There will actually be another person living there when we visit tomorrow. Not a guest or a boarder, but a permanent family member.

And so it led me to think about how it has been just the three of us (James, Colin and me) in our family for the past 20 months, and how that will be forever altered come November. I don't think I had truly considered that before this time. I don't ever remember feeling this way before Colin was born. I guess the second child is giving me food for thought because from now on my attention will always be divided.

Less than three months to go...

Learning numbers

I am so amazed at how quickly children learn. Over the last few months, Colin has started to learn his numbers. He has always enjoyed reading and has taken a specific interest in letters and numbers. Whenever he sees letters or numbers, it grabs his attention and he points to each individual character, inquiring of us what it says. One of his favourite games is to walk through our appartment parking lot and point to each numbered parking space. We also live on the 5th floor, and so each time we are in the elevator, we count the floors.

I guess it should come as no surprise then that he already knows his numbers. He's definitely got 1 through 5 down, and 6 through 9 come and go. I try not to track his progress against other children, and so I have no idea if this is a unique achievement at his age or not, but to me, seeing this young boy so excited that he can recognize these things, amazes me.

Friday 10 August 2007

The Big Boy Bed

This past week, Colin has been making the transition from crib to bed. My parents picked up a great little blue race car bed, that uses the same mattress from the crib that Colin is used to. So last Sunday we took down the crib and put in the bed.

At first, it seemed to go well. Bedtime routine went on as usual - books to read, songs to sing, and then Colin would point to the bed when he was ready to lie down. James and I had put pillows and blankets on the floor, as Colin is a real mover while he sleeps and we were afraid he might fall out of the bed. But all seemed to be going well.

Then one night James decided to peek in on Colin, just to see how he was doing. (We don't make a habit of this, because Colin often starts awake at the sound of the doorknob turning). He opened the door and immediately had to stifle his laughter. Calling to me, I in turn peeked in to see. There was Colin, sound asleep, curled up in a ball on the armchair! Deciding we'd rather leave him there than wake him up to move him, we moved the pillows from around the bed to around the chair and let him be.

Then, just before heading off to bed, we decided to check in on him again. We quietly opened the door, but found the chair was empty. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we saw our little boy lying spread eagle on a blanket on the floor. Knowing to let sleeping children lie, we let him be and went off to bed.

The next morning I was the one to get up with Colin. Cracking open the door, I peeked in to see what had happened. And there was our precious little man, eyes just beginning to open to the world, lying like an angel in his bed as though he'd never moved! If we hadn't peeked in during the night, we'd have never have known his sleep escapades!

Postscript:
Colin hasn't slept in the bed since. He's taken to sleeping on the floor. I figure I can't control what he does during the night, so for now, I'll let him be. Hopefully he'll eventually realize the bed is much more comfortable.