After Anabelle

Zachary is a whole year and a half old (and a tiny bit more) now. My baby Small is becoming my Small toddler at an alarming rate! These last few weeks he has been noticeably transforming from a baby into a little boy - he’s changing in so many ways; his play is more purposeful, his communication is more purposeful and direct, he is cheeky and feisty and funny.

My awesome and incredible little person!

He seemingly understands nearly everything we say to him now. He quite clearly shakes or nods his heads in response to questions and is following instructions and the routine of the day. It is the cutest thing when he toddles off to get his shoes out of the shoe cupboard after asked to find them!  He is pointing at everything and chatty, wanting to join the conversation with his wonderful range of vocalisations

Zachary really is quite the character now, making it perfectly clear when he thinks the situation is not fair or in his favour, letting you know that he thinks he is the one missing out and fighting his corner when he has to! Simply he just wants to be doing whatever his big brother is doing and is most put out when Xander doesn’t want him to join in!

Zac is so strong-willed and determined, much more so than I remember Xander being. We’ve even had a few (but only a few) incidences of biting – which is completely new territory for us and something Xander has never done. Alexander, on the receiving end of those teeth, exclaimed his baby brother had tried to eat him, such his innocence in this behaviour! 

They fiercely love each other as much as ever, it is such a delight to watch their relationship blossom and change all the time.  Alexander loves that Zachary is able to play with him and know the game when it suits him, yet Zachary is equally his annoying little brother and he lets him know it. The scraps are beginning!

These boys are so alike, I read Alexander’s 18 month post back and I see so many similarities in how Zac is now, yet they are so very different too.

My darling Small. At eighteen (and a bit more) months old you are a dinky 22lb 8oz. I say dinky because your brother was as heavy as this at a year old and so to me you feel small. My Small, still very much Mama’s little baby boy.

I hardly dare say it but your sleep is finally improving! You’re not sleeping through all of the time, still far from it, but my boy, you are sleeping through a couple of nights a week now, and when you are waking it seems to just be the once, or sometimes twice. The nights are far easier than they were the last time I updated.

My eighteen month upper limit for breastfeeding appears to have been thrown out of the window with you, as you still very much search for that bedtime comfort, and I’ve no idea how to force the issue just now. The last couple of months we have nudged you into dropping morning feeds, and your middle of the night bottle, but the bedtime feed has remained. For now we’ll keep following your lead and I’ll enjoy this part of baby left with you.   

You’ve had an incredible six months since your birthday. Every day you grow and change, you learn new things. You’re a little sponge soaking up the world and learning all about what it means to be you.

During the Christmas holidays you stood on your own for the first time, and just a few days later on New Year’s eve you took your first steps all by yourself. It was so exciting, you were just 13 months old! But you took your time to turn steps into walking my boy; for the next three and a half months you just stuck with your few steps, you would walk for maybe 3, 4, 5 steps and then drop to your knees and crawl to your planned destination. It wasn’t until the 19^th April that you decided you could crack this walking business – at the grand old age of 16 and a half months old. Just like your big brother, although I had been convinced you were going to walk properly earlier!

 

Every day your little personality shines through some more. You are so cheeky, feisty and funny. I think you’re going to be quite the joker as you already love the reaction of one of us laughing at you! You love to tease and play. You are mesmerised by your world.

You have picked up so many of your brother’s mannerisms. Sometimes it really is like looking at a mini-version of Xander. You have perfected his frown, his eye-roll. You close your eyes just like him and pull the funniest of expressions! You poke your tongue out when you’re concentrating and just like Bampi you have started to walk and stand with your hands behind your back – just like Xander did too!

Your favourite things at eighteen months old are books, ride on toys, your brother, puzzles, Peppa Pig, dancing and climbing but not necessarily in that order!

You are such a little climber. It is a nightmare! We cannot leave the dining room chairs out because if we do you are found on top of the table, climbing across the table and into your highchair. Just as well those chairs are foldable to go away I say. The huge bay window sill is another favourite climb up spot. You are too brave and it makes me too nervous!

But then on the flip side I often find you curled up in the little chair in the playroom, totally immersed in books. You like books that have sound buttons to press or things to feel, you love pointing to the things you can see in the pictures. You are absolutely insistent on your own bedtime story now after making it perfectly clear you felt left out from Xander’s bedtime stories.

Your love affair with Peppa Pig has already begun. You have a handful of words and Peppa is quite clearly one of them. You point at the TV and request Peppa, you point at pictures of Peppa and tell me they’re Peppa, the same with Peppa toys. You are a little bit Peppa mad!!

You are learning new words all of the time, trying to copy sounds and names. At the moment you are learning your animal sounds; you know a cow says moo, a duck says quack and a monkey says oo-oo. You also roar and growl whenever you see a dragon, dinosaur or lion.

So I guess you're officially a toddler now. We'll be watching out for those terrific and terrible twos, and enjoying watching you grow along the way.  

You are such a joy Zachary, my beautiful boy Small, and I adore being your Mummy.