It’s been a year since I posted on this blog. I intended to throughout the year, but life with a toddler leaves little time for much, and when I do have time I seem to spend on music and movies (and trying to relax).

So much has happened in the last year, since the lil’ one’s 1st birthday, we moved house from our tiny flat in Catford to a giant Edwardian in the North of London owned by a friend who was going to be out of the country for 4 months…in the end we were there for 9 months. Our intention was to move out of London all together and what a great end to London it was. A gorgeous area, a beautiful house, and great friends nearby. We’re very thankful to our friend who let us rent this space for a fraction of the cost it should have been. It really gave us room to stretch out and enjoy the gorgeous summer in North London. This is where Flapjack finally learned to walk…at 16 1/2 months of age. It seemed he never would! Truth was he was happy motoring around at the fastest crawling speed I’ve ever seen. It was absolutely ridiculous the speeds he got up to on all fours! The great thing about it was that he was LOUD and you could always tell where he was!

On the 5th of September we moved to Birmingham, to a  2 bedroom house…so warm and cozy which we absolutely love! Flapjack has changed and grown so much since we’ve moved here because we were finally able to give him some sort of free reign and let him spread his toys from one side of the house to the other if that is what he wants. Before, (due to living at someone else’s house, although our friend it must be said was pretty tolerant) we kept him fairly contained and it seemed like we were constantly telling him no. It’s a definite attestation of how exploration and free reign lead to development. His physical and cognitive development has gone through the roof since we’ve been here. In the few weeks since he’s turned two, we’ve noticed him trying to read some words…he certainly has the concept of words being made of letters that have particular sounds. He also counted to five properly in a cab last night on the way to town. He’s now prone to giving giant hugs and kisses and saying “I yub you Mummy/Daddy.” He’s always been an affectionate child, but he’s just learning to vocalise it now.

On physical development, he’s still rather clumsy and just learning to run. But he’s certainly getting better! He’s very nearly running and tries to jump, but isn’t really ready for that yet. I think we’ve been quite lucky on accidents…he had a lot at the house in London…mostly on the coffee table in the lounge…but we don’t have one of those here and I think that has helped cut down on the accidents. He has fallen out of bed a few times here but now he seems more used to the size of the bed and he’s not done that in a while. He’s fallen in the park a few times and scraped his knees and hands…but that’s about it. (whew) I’m sure there’s much more to come in the future. In many ways we’re so lucky to have a very careful child. He understands the concept of careful very well and often tells me…”Mummy, I be careful…OK?” Flapjack also had no major illnesses this year, just a few slight colds. We were very, very lucky indeed.

I’m always impressed with his sense of the absurd and I think his sense of humour is quite developed for a child of his age. Last night as we were reading a book about animals, he pointed to a fish and said “fish”. As it was a goldfish, I wanted to see if he knew what kind of fish it was and after some thought…he said “wet!” and then proceeded to laugh his face off for a few minutes.

His love of animals and horses is beyond anything we ever expected. He reminds me so much of stories of my Mother as a child who loved horses and animals more than anything. He’s so tender and caring towards them, and I sometimes wonder if this is a theme that will carry throughout his life and he’ll want to work with animals like Nanny Dave and Grandpa Les do. We also hope of course that he’ll stay veggie when he gets older, but have both agreed that once he starts school and has free will that he’ll have to make the decision for himself. Funny that it seems so far off, but judging by how fast the last two years have gone, it’ll be here before we know it!

For the second year, we also went to America for 7 weeks. It was certainly more challenging this year but Nanny Dave was with us and she helped us so so so much. I’m not sure how next year will play out, as he understand more, I don’t know if he will be more apt to sit and watch us perform or he’ll want to run around. I guess time will tell.

I know this is getting rather long, this is what happens when you only post once per year! But I also want to talk about his 2nd birthday party.  We had it here at our house in Birmingham and it so many lovely friends came! No children, but Flapjack seems to get more attached to adults so far, though we have seen him trying to make connections to kids when he’s playing at the park, or in a play area. When we’ve taken him to our local playgroup, he’s done mostly parallel play so we need to take him back and see what he does now. A few weeks makes such a difference these days! Anyway, his party was amazing and attended by:

Tim H.
Kev C
Mariolena
Gaby, Nat and Julia H
Fiona and Pete
Laura K
Richard and Jo
Wendy

He also talked to Nanny Dave, his cousins, and Uncle J and Aunt T on video skype. He was rather spoiled with presents, but also had no concept of presents…so it was a bit of novelty opening so many gifts. He got lots of books, a big easel, a small travel easel, headphones, chalks, paints and pens, a pizza making play-dough game, (which he plays EVERY day) puzzles, a Mr. Potato Head, a wooden train set, a wooden shape sorter, two stuffed horses (poppy and horse tumble), and a Mr. Maker DVD. I made him a Swedish horse cake, and his lovely friend Gaby made him a special cupcake with two candles which we used to sing happy birthday and he blew out his candles quite successfully! It was a lovely lovely day and he’s still talking about it. He doesn’t talk about the presents, but about all the people that he loves and how they played. I think having that many people around who care about him (and us) was a big deal for him. Thanks to everyone for making the trek here.

Anyway, now that he’s got the concept of presents…he’s asked me for a bike and a kitchen since the party. Good timing as that is what we’re getting him for Christmas. Our lovely friends Gaby, Nat and Julia have a play kitchen set with all the accoutrements that they’ve had since their kids were little and they are gifting it to Flapjack for Christmas. I forgot to mention that his other great loves besides animals are painting, and cooking. It’s always the first thing he does if we’re out and about…if there is a play kitchen in sight…or a real one for that matter he is running towards it. He even tries to go into the kitchens when we are at restaurants! I certainly hope he will retain this love of cooking as he gets older!

So a few last things….everyone asks…is he musical?? And the answer is..we don’t know. He certainly loves music and dancing and he seems to be very into percussion and quite good rythmically. We’ve only ever heard him sing a few times…I know lots of other little kids his age that can sing dozens of songs but he has yet to learn one to sing. Unsure why, I sing to him all the time and he listens to music with Steve every day. Perhaps it because we have never really exposed him to nursery rhymes?   Perhaps that’s been a mistake, I don’t know…because we find most children’s music supremely crap, we just never bought him anything like that. I’ve sung him twinkle, twinkle, little star, the incy wincy spider, and you are my sunshine a bunch of times and he LOVES those and will request them over and over again. So perhaps we’ve gone wrong here. If any of you know of really quality nursery rhyme type music, let me know. If there’s a jazzy one, along the caliber of the Coal Train Railroad stuff that’d be amazing. They’ve just put out a new one. #EXCITING! I so wish that I still had my records from when I was a kid, the Christmas ones in particular. Unfortunately I can’t remember the names of them so even if I were to try and search for them, I wouldn’t know where to begin.

He’s peed in his potty once. Since then he seems to have little interest though he ALWAYS tells us before and after he’s had a poo.

He still uses sign language, but not as often as he used to. Verbal language seems to have taken over. He’s still learning new signs every day though. We guestimate that he’s up over 100 that he knows well now and probably another 40 or so that he’d recognise if someone signed them to him.

He’s learning words at an alarming rate. I’d say somewhere between 5-20 new words a day. His comprehension is amazing, and he speaks quite well, though he substitutes Y’s for L’s. He loves to play around with inflection and timbre, and gets quite excited about intricate sounding words and phrases. His whispering is really great, I remember never being able to whisper properly at his age but he can keep it up for a really long time.

Lastly, yes we are still doing attachment parenting. I’m still breastfeeding although we’re down to a few times per day now (ideally) and he still sleeps with us in bed at night. He has expressed interest in having his own bed…though when I asked him if he’d like to sleep in it at night he said no!! That he just wanted to play in it and have pretend sleeps, He most definitely expressed that he needs to sleep with us at night. This is a big issue with most of our family because they think that he will never want to move out of the bed, but I certainly see him already starting to become more independent and move toward that end. I find it quite likely that he will transition within the next year. He’s one of the most confident and independent kids that I know and I know in my heart that the parenting style that we’ve stumbled onto has made life easier for us and for him. He’s a happy, healthy, intelligent and loving little chap and I enjoy every day with him. I do feel like one of the luckiest people in the world, getting to spend my days with such a marvellous little man, one who can now tell me what he’d like for dinner and which book he’d like to read.

It’s been quite a few weeks since I started this posting and of course things have changed so much! I was having a lie-in this morning until Flapjack came in the room and handed me 5 pence for me to come downstairs and make him some sausages and beans on toast. He then told me that for the same coin, he’d let me have a ride on his horse Nathan. I need to teach him about the bartering system where we just trade services rather than involving money.

He’s properly running now and whilst not really understanding the concept of Christmas, he’s very excited knowing that he’s going to see his Granny Beanz who is coming to stay for 5 days and his friend Gaby, Nat and Julia. (or Daby, Nat, and Joola) as he calls them.  May you have a wonderful Christmas and the happiest of New Years!  Thanks for reading! xoxox

2011 Flapack in pictures!