OMG, yes, I know, but you need to understand the situation. Not living in my own house, things being different, the corona thing and two kids at the same school this year, has resulted in Freddie’s weeks, becoming Freddie’s whenever-I-can-remember-or-have-a-second-to-myself-to-blog.
I went from blogging three times a week to zero, fast, in the last year and I so wish it was different. What I am looking forward to most, when I move in to my home, is having my own office space and to get back my ‘work time’ that I so love and have worked so hard for over the years.
So, this post, is to make up for the last six months of Freddie’s (weeks, months) and I hope it is just like we never lost touch!
Freddie, my big 2.5 year old, I still look at him like my baby and I often think that if I did have another baby (if I was going to, I assume it would have happened by now) that he would look soooo big compared, but because he is my youngest, he will always be the baby, forever. Although, if you put him next to any baby, or kid for that matter, he looks like a giant! His cousins call him “baby giant”.
The last six months have been quite wonderful, apart from his random stints of waking up in the night screaming, which would last for around two weeks per stint and the only way to stop him screaming would be to put him in my bed and sometimes even put the tv on for him so he would fall asleep watching it (at 3am). I am positive it was when he was cuttting his molars. If you have followed along from the start (if not, hi! Welcome, you have a bit of reading to do) he got all his teeth at 13months and his molars started to cut through around 2 years and 2 months.
Mostly, Freddie is a terrific sleeper. He naps from 12:30pm or 1pm until we wake him around 4:30pm, however, when we were at school, I would have to wake him at 2:15 so I could do the school pick up. In isolation, he is living the nap time dream with us being stuck at home, I will truly miss this when school starts. The hours he sleeps has given me the time to get things done and help the other boys and if I am feeling like I really want to live the iso dream? I give the other boys you tube time (which I never used to do) and I get the entire nap time to myself to do what I want, aka clean or fold washing. At night, Freddie would then go down at 8:30pm and he would be fine.
Freddie is a bit of a copycat, he does everything his brothers do, which includes wrestling, falling over intentionally, saying what they say with a lot of words being replaced for the words “bum bum” and of course, he gets injured a lot thanks to the big boys. It is actually cute, all of it, and warms my heart to see them play together and I suppose it is teaching him a lot too as he listens so well. I won’t be surprised if he is my smartest child (did I say that out loud?) but only because he is learning now what they are learning now. Freddie comes over to me daily and says “Mummy, reading eggs?” “Mummy, family movie?” “Mummy, you tube?” gah! Mind you, he doesn’t get screen time on iPad.
Food? He is a good little eater, but recently, he has gotten a sweet tooth and boy, is it sweet! He want’s Nutri Grain for breakfast every day, which was not in my plan, he is a chocolate monster and we have to hide it from him or he will go crazy and oranges? He could eat 10! Apart from that, he does eat very well, all my boys eat veggies and fruit and most meals, our go to’s are: Peanut butter sandwich, ham cheese toasty, chow mien, pasta, sausages, meatballs, soup, tuna and avo.
Today, I started to teach him to toilet train. I went straight for the toilet for training, no potty. It is funny, for my first son, we got a potty, then he moved to the toilet step seat and then we got him to sit on the toilet. But, then we had to teach him to stand up to go to the toilet, so for Freddie, its straight to standing. So far so good, but I am taking him every 20mins or so. Let’s see if I can last or will I cave, give up and postpone it?
With our renovation move-in date very soon, I am also getting ready to transition him into a big boy bed. He will stay in a cot until we move in, but some things I am doing now is putting him in a sleep suit that has his legs separate- so not in a sleeping bag- and also giving him a blanket to get used to. The sleep suit is great because if the blanket goes off him, he can still be warm. I am not buying him a new bed, he will have Aston’s old king single bed and Aston will upgrade to my Queen bed and I will finally upgrade to a King! Eeeeek!
What does Freddie like to play with? He loves Duplo! Freddie is such a mix between his older brothers, he likes Lego like Aston and outdoors and ball sports like Will. Freddie loves playing with baby dolls, animal toys, cars and stuffed toys and will do anything to get outside and ride a scooter or jump on the trampoline. He also plays independently which is very good for me, but also confuses me when I think he is playing quietly but he is actually in my ensuite smooshing my make-up into the tiles.
What else? Speech? Freddie is saying a lot more words and likes to copy what I say (but I don’t say ‘bum bum’) and he is inquisitive, he will often say “what’s this?” “what are you doing?” “what’s that?” and I will answer him and he will repeat the words.
Freddie is very skilful, he is a natural with balls and I can’t wait to get him into soccer or footy as soon as its back up and running.
Oh, so I cut Freddie’s hair myself the other day. I thought it was the right decision for now and I could imagine him coming out of a hair salon with no hair left! I simply chopped a little off each curl.
Child care! Oh, have I even spoked about this on here? I think I was going to but then COVID-19 happened. It was horrific. He would cry and cry and cry and so much so, he would fall asleep in an educators arms. It is heart wrenching for a mother to leave her crying child and as you walk away you can still hear them screaming for you as though you have abandoned them forever. I think he was only at care for about a month and a half before I took him out because of COVID-19, he was only slightly getting better at being away from me but only slightly. I don’t think he made any friends and not sure he really got crafty or anything. I do think that I will send him back on his two days, just to see if perhaps this time in isolation has changed him, but something tells me, he will be the same.
Me? Well, I am in over my head with this home schooling. You know what is hard to help teach? Spanish! I can’t speak Spanish!! I find that from the moment I wake up, I am a slave to everyone in the house. I make breakfast, I print off the school work, I clean up, I get Freddie dressed, I send Aston into his dungeon study to go to class, I chase Will around the house to get him to do some work before his class starts so they think we have done something other than Reading Eggs (praise be to the Reading Eggs Gods!), I am feeding and feeding children of all ages, all day long and I am feeding and feeding myself chocolate and anything with bread , I am in and out of the dungeonstudy to help Aston and forever yelling at him to get back in there or else I know I have lost him for the entire day if notices a glimpse of fun outside of the ‘school google meet’ and it is not until 1:30pm that I can actually have a shower! I tell you, if Freddie didn’t sleep all those hours, I would be a, no joke, an actual, I don’t even know what! But it would be hideous.
Freddie’s routine? Well it isn’t much now that he (apparently) isn’t a baby anymore.
Wake
Breakfast
Play
Lunch
Nap
Play
Dinner
Bath
Bed
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