No 2 knows more words than he is letting on. Today I heard him say Ta..( I have been working on Thankyou but you have to take what you can get) Moon, Duck, Boat, Book.  I know he also says no very clearly and the obvious ones of Mum & Dad and his friends name Lana, oh and banana & Apple.. so all is going well considering he is only 19 months.

Well my baby is growing up. He now has three teeth and today has decided that rolling takes too long to get to where he wants to be and that crawling is so much more efficient. He now crawls across the living room without stopping. It is amazing seeing things click for them and then there is no stopping them.

We now have a 2/1/2 yr old and a 9 month old and finally I feel like I can squeeze in a few moments to update our blog. So many things to catch-up on which will be my aim over the next few weeks.

* Sleep

* Fitting in Exercising with both kids

* Activities to engage both kids

* Balancing kids & my time & husband time.

* Places we love to go as a family &

* Planning an overseas trip with 2 kids under 3 years of age… Are we mad?

I saw the authors of Working Mothers Survival Guide being interviewed on Sunrise and thought of Mum hard at work. It looks like it might be an interesting read for those mums returning to work, covering day care, promotions, negotiating work arrangements etc.

A quick search on Amazon for ‘Working Mothers’ shows there has been a lot written and some might be interesting to you – see Working Mothers @ Amazon

I noticed the they also have Chicken Soup for the Working Mom’s Soul. I’ve heard that the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series of books are very popular.

My little buddy doesn’t seem to need 2 day sleeps any more. I thought I had until 18 months, but at just under 14 months he’s only sleeping once. The problem is that it will sometimes be in the morning, and other times in the afternoon. We haven’t decided. Actually, its not much of a problem, but it would help everyone if there was some consistency and routine. Hopefully that will come with time.

Our little man is usually pretty good at eating. He is still learning how to spoon feed himself, and it does get messy. We’ve noticed that if we ever have trouble feeding him anything, if we just put it on bread it’ll go down a treat! Those veges he’s not interested in, a risotto that doesn’t take his fancy – whatever it is, just put it on bread and he’s happy. Its not that he doesn’t like the food that we’ve given him – I think is just that he can easily finger food bread – and as he gets older he wants to do more and more by himself.

We don’t want him to fill up on bread though – we’d like him to have more veges than bread. This is where mountain bread comes in. Its a thin wrap like bread which we put filling in and then toast in the sandwich press. Just let it cool and then cut into strips and he’s away feeding himself happily.

I guess you can convert any mush/food into finger food this way. Very convenient, quick and best of all the little guy has his independence. Every one is happy.

As our little man grows up, we can see his habits changing. He used to eat very well, always cooperative and willing. Now, he’s getting a bit more feisty and demanding. Eating times are becoming challenging and tedious. I don’t think the problem is the food, I’m more inclined to think that he would rather feed himself than be fed. Finger food is a great option, but not everything can be presented that way.

A while ago he would stop feeding half way through and when I gave him his own spoon to play with, he’d start opening his mouth and let me feed him the rest. Now however, he wants to put the spoon in the bowl and if he’d then put the spoon in his mouth then I’d be set, but the coordination isn’t quite there and it looks like its much more fun to play with the food than eat it.

I think we also need to change our expectations about how much he is going to eat. At over 12 months old now, I don’t think he has quite the same appetite that he used to. They say that as they get older their food requirements drop.

Well what a weekend we had! We went into see Santas Cave in David Jones Department store in Sydney and Calvin had loads of fun. They had a talking tree, helium balloons, carousel, magic mirrors and Santa. He was not convinced about Santa but we got a photo taken, (but Dad and I had to get in it as well so that spoiled it a little) so will send a few over soon. They also have a big Thomas train so we got a picture of Calvin playing in front of that as well.

Then when we got home Calvin decided it was about time he started walking so had pulled himself to standing on the edge of the far couch and then turned around a walked to the gate – 17 Calvin steps – and he was so proud of himself that he spent the rest of the evening pointing at things e.g Boog The bear or his pile of books and then would toddle off in that direction. We have some video footage as well. Such good timing as I was at home to witness it. It is so funny – he stands there and warms his legs up, moving from one leg to the other and then when he is sure that they are working he toddles off.. Very funny. It will keep Dad on his toes as you really can’t leave his toys over the floor or he will stumble.

We’ve found the best bookshop – Elizabeth’s Bookshop has great books at reasonable prices. We’ve picked up several, all between $5 and $7 and little Calvin loves them!

I can’t find the books we got on their online catalogue, but here are their titles (and linked to Amazon):

• My Cats Weird
• Picnic Farm
• Goodnight Lulu

If you are passing by one of their stores, drop in for a look. Their selection and prices are pleasantly surprising.

It’s no longer a clear cut choice between disposable and reusable nappies. It’s become an unclear choice as to which is better because of the water shortage in Sydney. We’ve got one days worth of Fuzzy Bunz cloth nappies and we pretty much have one day in Fuzzy Bunz, and the next in disposables. So, I guess we are kind of half way.

We don’t use a dryer, which means we get much more use out of the Fuzzy Bunz in the summer than the winter.