2 years and 6 (month by month)

Huge milestones this month: Reuben is 2 years old and Callum is 6 months.

Miraculous Reuben you:
Sign with your whole heart and soul, sweeping your hand above your head when you sign Sky, munching away when you sign giraffe
Take little walks in between cruising and have taken 12 independent steps
Can stand for longer periods of time unsupported
Love the songs sung and signed at UCLA School, the Froggy Song, Firetruck Song, Bumble Bee and prompt me to sing and sign them with you at home
Love to be tickled until your face grows red and you’re utterly exhausted, signing “more” all the way through
Take doggy Honey for a walk (sign H then Dog) in the stroller and look down at Honey the whole way

Weigh about 27lbs and are 32" tall
Make me so proud every day, astonish me every moment


Sweet yet rascally Callum you:
Brighten up so many people’s days with your denim-blue eyes, the subject of much conversation

Are trying to sit up from a lying down position and are starting to sit unassisted

Can stand holding onto something or me
Like to help to dress yourself through posturing
Love to be tickled under your arms and on your thighs and repay me with an infectious laugh
Like to scratch surfaces with your fingernails
Have developed a very loud and piercing shriek
Eat baby foods with personal favourites being carrots and sweet potatoes, saying “mmmmm” all the way through your meals and with a built no-no radar for anything green
Snatch the bottle away from me to drink your milk
Love to fall asleep face down on my chest for your naps, and will always fall asleep in the car

Are a great sleeper like your brother, sleeping through the night 8pm-6am after which you fall straight back to sleep til 8am having had your first bottle
Have about 4 short naps a day, often in the baby carrier lying against me

Most of the time have a look of utter surprise til that expression is wiped away with a huge smile that lights up the whole room
Have been in a stroller about 5 times, the rest of the time I like to wear you in a sling
Can roll your tongue, blow raspberries
Love to practice singing and stretching your vocal chords with ahhh, uuuggg, mmm, brrr”and when interrupted, you shine a huge smile on your face, your blue eyes shining with love
Like to pat everything with a flat hand, chew on everything, grab anything close to hand, including a stranger’s finger or my computer bag to teeth on
Have learned to dance on your tip toes in your Tigger bouncer and recently, during a huge prune-inspired blow-out, were found dancing quite contentedly away on a poo splattered floor
Enjoy putting your toes in your mouth and feeling grass through your fingers
Love to curl your fingers in my hair and tug it so that I get a double tug: Reuben on one side and you on the other which Reuben finds hilarious, the mock pain I feign on my face
Have a little fang, your front bottom right tooth which has broken through and has caused you endless bother
Have experienced your first earthquake, a 4.7 followed by a smaller aftershock and Mama was by your side
Still have that little peak of hair at the back of your head and above it, a growing bald patch, on top, a little Mohican
Lift your hands in the air for me to pick you up
Have everything so spanking new inside that you have never been sick
Have had your first MRI and howled the hospital down
Have the sweetest kissing lips

Weigh about 20lbs

Callum, I remember thinking when you were born, whilst looking upon big boys, 3 months old, 6 months old, toddlers, your big brother, wow, how tiny you are and how I want to keep you that way because there was a little nook in my arms and you snuggled so beautifully in it when you wanted to sleep. And yet now, there is true loveliness with every step as your personality begins to blossom and shine through.

(PS Sorry I'm so late with this Month by Month post. I know my sister Geraldine enjoys it)