Some Successes

I must admit I do get a bit jealous when I see friends posting pics of their uber-cute offspring on Facebook, or uploading videos of them demonstrating their latest skills.  I can't do that with the boys, but even though I'm not their parent, I still get an awesome rush when they do something new or cute or clever, so I thought I'd shamelessly post a few of our most recent successes here!

• NB came up to me the other day pointing to his newly-filled nappy and saying urrgh!  This is a big step forward for us in the potty-training stakes!
• OB can now say 'no' and 'oh no' and shake his head.  He can also say 'dirty', 'tigger', 'whassat!', 'fish', 'ta', 'bye bye' and a few other things :)
• Both boys have recently learned to make the noises for lions, cows, dogs and sheep!
• NB has added ears and head to the list of body parts he knows.  This is slow going but we are working on it :)
• Both boys have transitioned from formula to cow's milk totally effortlessly.  This was a particularly big thing for NB as the hot chocolate he was used to having in his bedtime bottle has now disappeared!
• NB seems to have accepted the reality that what is in his drinking cup is now almost always water and not the juice he used to comfort-drink in startling quantities - today for the first time he drank a whole cup of water and even asked for more!  Makes a change from all the face-pulling we had when we first made the switch.
• OB is feeding himself with a spoon :)  Some of the food even goes into his mouth!
• NB knows and uses the Makaton signs for please/thank you, book, fish, milk, eat, drink and coat.
• At his latest Schedule of Growing Skills assessment, NB came out normal or better for everything except language/communication!  A big improvement on last time!
• Both the boys love dancing and clapping along to music.  One of them will strum the tiny guitar while the other one dances - those of you who know them will have to imagine just how cute they look doing this! :)
• OB has a new big-boy bedtime routine, with his bottle downstairs and then straight into his cot while still awake.  He laughs and smiles at me when I wave and say 'night night'.  Such an improvement on all the bedtime crying we used to have.  He also seems to have mostly got over his night-time screaming attacks which I always thought were caused by nightmares.
• NB is learning to tidy up, helping me put the toys in boxes at bedtime.  Sometimes OB follows his example.
• The other day, NB built a tower out of mega bricks which was nearly as tall as he is!  He even looks for the same type of brick, so he builds a tower of 2s or 4s.  I am pretty impressed by this :)
• When I get OB's shoes out, he undoes the velcro straps ready for me to put them on!
• NB now climbs unaided into his car seat.  This makes the whole car thing sooooo much easier for me!

Well, maybe that's enough blatant pride in their achievements for now - don't want to come across as one of those people who are always going on about how their kids are geniuses!

Truth is, almost every family loves to celebrate the achievements of their kids.  These two boys haven't had a lot of that in their lives from their own families, so I'm not ashamed to go a bit over the top in saying what a pair of smashers they are :)