Bank holiday

The end of the bank holiday weekend...
We didn't do alot this weekend. Saturday we went to Grandma's, Kayne practised on his bike, he is getting better at peddling it - but he is a long way off having his stablisers off. He comments on every child on a 2 wheel bike he sees.They both had fun at the park.
Sunday we went to Reading. We went to Hobby Craft. I bought some colouring books for myself. I love colouring in, i find it relaxing. I like when you've finished something and it looks good. We bought Kayne some Hama beads. We got some glow in the dark ones for when we decorate thier room. Kayne chose a UFO mobile. He had a good go at it but he struggled with the size of the beads. I've noticed more and more this holiday that he seems to have trouble with fine-motor. We also found some great adult puzzles so we bought 2 for us. We bought Kayne a 300 piece Horrible Histories' castle puzzle, Kayne and I have been doing it together. After we went into Toys'R'Us, Kayne, Mark and I oogled the Lego. we let Lani pick something and she wanted some 'Littlest Petshop' frogs (surprise surprise!). We noted that Schleich do knights and things - we are mentally doing some xmas shopping.
Today we nipped to town because i wanted to get some colouring pencils and water colour pencils. The kids played in the park on the way back. Lani insisting on going really high and fast in the swing. Kayne managed to traverse the cargo net bridge without falling in.
This evening Mark has gone to Ninjutsu/Taijutsu again. I hope he isn't as battered when he comes back as he was last week. But if he likes it then thats ok with me.
I think we have decided to go to the Saturday of the NAGC weekend - i just need to find our check book. We have also been putting together some ideas about how to organise the flat.

Lani and the outside

Lani isn't a baby anymore... Suddenly she is saying 2-word sentences and learning things from her secret stash of baby notes(!). I will have to try working out how many words she has but it has dramatically increased since the last count of 56 on the 20/07/08. She said things like 'mumma mole' (grandma's mole), 'ball blue', 'ayne no!' (Kayne no). She was also counting objects 'uno, dos tres' she doesn't count in english, i'm not sure if she is 1:1 counting or just repeating - more likely the latter, i doubt that if i asked for 3 objects she would bring me 3, or even bring me any!!
Her personality is so strong. She does what she wants, not that they aren't /disciplined/ but she is so sure of her self that she makes me question why i'm telling her no. Her physically skills are shocking, i'm not sure if hers are advanced or if Kaynes were/are behind. Actually i think Kaynes are a bit behind; which is something i'm worrying a little about.
They have spent to whole day playing in thier sand pit at Grandma's and in water, with cups and jugs and generally having a whale of a time in the nude!! Lani also enjoyed the compost again and the dirt and the pebbles and chased a butterfly around the garden. At the park she had no qualms about running of into the bushes and being roared at, she heard a dog barking and decided she was going to look for it. She did inform us - put her hand to her ear (signing heard/listen) and yelled dog! then said bye! and ran in to the bush.
My gorgeous girl just seems full of love for life :)

Climbing

It's day 2 of the holidays. We have been to the park both yesterday and today. I'm going to try and keep this up. I think (hope) the more we go the more he will gain confidence. I've managed to get him to swing on the swing on his belly - Massive!! he HATES the swing. He is starting to climb the big rope frame thingy too I took a picture today and hope that he will get better so i can get a series of 'highest place' so he can see that he is progressing. I noticed that he seems to lack co-ordination, he can't seem to move himself to get to where he wants to, he doesn't seem to know which arm or leg to move - this is similar to him on a trike he doesn't seem to get the alternating pumping of his legs. Is it lack of practice? I don't know.
I took video of Lani going up a 'ladder' on the play frame but i've managed to take it sideways again!! For now a few pictures:

A few video's of Lani

Gosh i have bad cameraman skills!! But anyhoo...
Lani and twinkle twinkle little star...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And then Lani pretending to be a frog and then signing/being a bird...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

She is growing up...

Lani has 2 or 3 new teeth.. i think it's 3 the way shes been with it. She is suddenly talking in 2 word sentances, she is making up signs because we aren't keeping up. She has something like 60 words, rough estimate. She is pretending to be a frog?!? She can't jump yet but she bends her knees, springs up whilst yelling ribbit! ribbit! She makes the little people kiss with sound effects mmmmwah! Is just growing at an astonising rate!!

A bit of everything

This is gonna be a tired ranty kind of post. I have the knotted feeling in my stomache and i have no idea why.

i think Lani is teething again. She's grumpy at best. The only taking one brand/flavour of medicene is annoying as i can't keep her pain free. She is waking early, then is overtied at nap time. Today she had 45mins instead of the normal 2-3 hours. I'm so worried she is going to drop her nap. There will be no hope for me when she does. I haven't figured her out yet. She gets so frustrated sometimes and i'm not used to it. Or aleast not like she does it. Kayne got frustrated but he had more verbal ability (at the same age) than she does, i could talk to him about it but with her she just screams, stamps her feet and cries.

It's strange that they are so different, some how i seem too think that he had better language than Lani at the same age but i'm not so sure. Maybe the difference is that she NEEDS that thing right now! she MUST look at that particular blade of grass even though we have seen a gazillion in the past 3 steps....maybe this is the intensity i read about in other children that i feel Kayne is lacking in the assigned title of 'giftedness'.
Maybe i am looking at her too closely in comparison to Kayne. So lets see what does she do that is different to Kayne, that is unqiuely Iolani....
~ Pretend play... She loves her bears! She has been feeding them, puts them in push chairs etc, since she was about 13 months. She makes tea for everyone at Grandma's with their tea-set.
~ Mimicary... she repeats words, sounds, and sentance sounds instantly. Diego: can you say larga, lani: lar -ga . Her signing is good too, she understands the concept of signs and so when i show her one she repeats it quickly (the latest one is 'again').
~ Birds... I have just this second realised that she is obsessed with birds. She gets so excited when she sees one. she stamps her feet and shakes herself, shouting birdy! and signing at the same time. Nature i suppose is her big joy.
~ Climb...She is very physically gregarious, she climbs everything, up slides, onto our bed, moves toy boxes so she can get things.

Kayne is his uniform on his first day.

I was really pleased to get kayne's reading age, i thought it would help. But it seems weird, the books at his reading level he won't touch. The school ones he gets are good so far, i've noticed that they are slowly getting more lines on a page. Hopefully then he will be more inclined to pick books that aren't 'learn your ABC's' or something similar.
We've had a wobbly school week, 'i don't like it', 'it's got too much playing' 'i don't like it when they call me a star', comments which threw me a bit until i found out that the boy he likes is away at the moment - so i'm hoping that it's all to do with that.

I think i need to reconnect with my children. It sounds weird but i think that when you get comfortable with how things swing you forget that they grow, change and become new people right infront of you and in such a small space of time. I think that i have been trying hard to look at whether i am parenting the way i want to. I have needed this time to adjust myself and my goals - now though i need to be involved and relax (not that i've been letting them run riot, just been very introspective).

Adorable

Anyway on with a new day...

A video of Lani.

I sound awful in this video (but nobody likes the sound of thier own voice right?) But it's got Lani in it and she's cute, so i'm hoping that will make up for it :)

She says a few words in this video, but she's really tired (as you can see) having just drunk a whole bottle of milk. She signs a few baby signs but you really have to watch her hands and know them to see them.

Ditched it...

So we are now not using the cream the Dr. gave us, we switched back to Eumocream and her eczema went from really red and hot back to a bit red in a few hours.
She is teething and has got one of the first molars on the left side. So that brings us to 7 teeth.

Walking and Parent-teacher meeting.

Lani is walking really well now, she carries things with her and is generally growing at a rate that shocks me. She now gets her shoes from the front door as she understands that means she can go outside - but has learnt the art of tantrums when we say we aren't going out. She can say about 23 words now - i'm not sure if other people would understand them but they are words!

I've been trying to remember Kayne at this age but i can't. That makes me sad; the thought that when they grow you lose their former selves but i suppose new people grow in thier place and with them grow new challenges and delights.

It's half term, Kayne is alot easier to deal with this week, not so difficult, or so easily 'set-off'. It's horrible to see him when he gets upset. It's not just crying...he looks like he is falling apart at that moment - like someone has taken the foor from underneath him. His face shows sheer disbelief. His fingers go into his mouth -which is his sign of anxiousness- and he emits a awful noise. He just stands stock still and freezes.

We had parents evening the other day. Mrs M didn't say anything really that good about him, which was annoying... maybe she figured that if she said he was doing well in something i'd want to know what they were going to do next?
.....Anyway She said:
She was worried about his -fine motor control- mainly because he refuses to colour in,
That he will not do some of his teacher led activities.... This confuses me..

I always thought of Kayne as someone who conforms, he will 99% of the time obey what we tell him and don't have many problems. I do notice he manages to talk around other people - My parents, Mark's parents other people we have contact with. He is so able linguistly that it's easy to be won over by his reasons and explianations if you aren't one step ahead all the time. It's so easy to switch off to the endless talking and then say yes to something you haven't been paying attention too.

Nearly there

Well Lani is almost completey walking...she will walk between furniture and stands up and walk to things now. She is also a complete pain and is getting into everything!! She is so different to Kayne it's unreal. She weighs 24lbs now; Kayne is about 28lb!!

Kayne has been awful after nursery for the last month or so. Absolutely awful about eating, whingy moaning, won't do anything for himself, will not/ can not chose something to play by himself - it has to all be directed by me, would not listen.
He hasn't been the past 3 days and he has been fantastic - i do not know what is going on. I thought he may be bored but they seem to be dealing with him approapriately, so mum suggested that maybe he was 'overstimulated'. Which made me think about the 'over-excitabilities' (OE) i had read about. Being a member of NAGC meant i could look at the factsheets for the OE's and i found that he fits in with the Knowledge OE (and possibly others).

There are books on gifted children and what they are like but not how to deal with them. It's like having a map and not being able to read it...It's so hard to get any help... And you can't shout 'I think my child is gifted, what do i do?' well, not without 10 people laughing, or jeering, or putting you down for pushing them too much. i didn't ask for him to be this way, actually sometimes i wish he was 'normal' so the development trackers on the internet actually fitted him, and the 'age-appropriate' toys actually held his interest.

Good Update!

I'm really happy, I'm really shocked, and bewildered. We are moving! I feel a little aprehensive as if they are playing a joke on us. I can't believe that we will have our own place again for Christmas. I can decorate and stuff. Lani will have her first birthday in her own home. For some reason i want to cry, I can't work out why i feel sad. We have been waiting for nearly a year and moving to the ground floor is only going to bring good things - friends can come over etc, but i feel a bit meh... Maybe its the stress lifting, and revealing how i truly feel; tired and worn out.
We are going to see the new place on Wednesday, and then i am guessing that we get the keys on Friday and then hand our keys in on Monday. We have to clean the carpet but that will be easy (won't it?).
The weekend will be busy, and i need to get a few things. Like Mum's birthday pressie, Barts birthday+Sinterklass pressie. I want to get Mark's parents a christmas/thankyou pressie for putting up with us.
Maybe i will be able to get back to studying dutch which i am annoy that i haven't been doing recently.
I didn't mention last time that Lani is now letting go of things and standing for 20/30 seconds, she walks well holding two hands and quite well with one hand. She will be walking soon i think, well soon-ish. We have booked her booster injections they are in a couple of weeks.

November

So here we are nearly another month on and i haven't been keeping this up. The main reason being is that we are at Marks parents and so it's harder to get on etc. Hoping that our christmas present is a new flat away from the noisy upstairs.

So Kayne is doing great, has become a bit more boy-ish, resists things he doesn't want to do. Has a new friend in nursery so it's now a breeze to get him in in the morning. His reading is coming on massively, He is reading different things now, not just books, things like shop signs, the sky information box. If he doesn't get it right he gives a good estimate. I have just bought him some encyclopiedia type books as he is asking questions like 'Where is space?'

Lani will be 11 months in 2 days time. She has seemingly grown up so much in the past week or so. She obviously understands so much. She also knows her own mind. She signs; Where, all gone, hat, clean, milk, clever girl, waves (hello and goodbye), and squeezes her hand in the air for 'press'. She says (in her own way) hiya, mum (mmummm), dad (dada), grandad (ga dad), ta (ta/da), kayne (brrrbrr), no (nuh), bear (bah). She's started doing some 'peg-puzzles'. She some times makes brumming noises when playing with cars. She also has really poor blood circulation, just like me. We have just had an awful week of teething, but still no more teeth.

On the 2nd of December we are going to Paulton's park to see Father Christmas in his winter wonderland, they will get a present and we can go on the rides. It should be good fun. It's just the getting there early that will be the hard bit.
Christmas is coming and we have shopping to do....For just about everyone. I have got a few books for Kayne, but thats just because its easy to buy a few things in one go, and i wanted to get him one about Space.
Got to get Bart a birthday and SinterKlaas pressie. Mum a birthday present, Lani a birthday present.

Children update

Time for an update methinks.
Lani is 4 days away from being 10months old. I can't believe time has gone so fast! She waves now and also shakes her head, says hi ya! mama, dada, bab ba, ga da, nananana nah, signs milk in a fashion. She cruises and walks when holding your fingers. She eats everything in sight and holds her own bottle. She can be so independant, she doesn't like being left anywhere. She loves to bounce to music and is always smiley and giggles at things.

Kayne, is, well, Kayne. He has learnt to read lots of new words. Has been doing well with writing. We had parents evening yesterday and his teacher said "well we can't move him to yr 1, no school will take him into yr 1" which was funny but kind of heartbreaking in a way. to know that he was already at that level. I find it hard to watch my little boy being so advanced in some ways and to know that there will be a point when he knows that he is different to everyone else. Then again maybe he already does. His teacher is working on getting him to do things that he wouldn't pick himself, like sticking. He is lucky really as he gets a more varied time at nursery than most of the other children. Sometimes he is with the older kids doing things some times he goes with the F1's. I think that that is really good for him, it makes him mix more, and shows that nursery are accomodating him for him not just what he can do.

Oh gosh!

Lani is 9 months old today! I can't believe how quickly that has gone. I remember telling Bart like it was yesterday - that was a weird experience. She is so grown-up now, well not grown-up but you can almost see her learning. She can wave bye-bye, shakes her head when you say no to her.

Kirsty had her baby on the morning of Monday the 17th of September. She had a baby boy, he weighed 5lb 11oz, and they called him Joshua.

The day after the morning before

First thing in the morning Lani learnt to crawl, Mark's mum came to pick up Kayne because he had been driving me barmy on Tuesday.

The HV came at 10 and measured Lani's head circumference, and checked to see if she had a pincer grip. I mentioned her that one of her eyes sometimes turns in if she's tired. Then i said about Kayne and she asked something; and i started crying. I hadn't realised that i was so worked up about it. I tried to explain about how hard he is but i don't think she got it. I mentioned about that two people had mentioned about he doesn't greatly play with other children and his upset when things are not done 'just so'. So she suggested that we had him referred to a paediatrician to see if there is a problem, although she is going to speak to his teacher first. I'm not sure if i have agreed or not. I don't know what to do. I know gifted children exhibit autistic traits and also that that many gifted children have asbergers. I guess when faced with the possibility that it is your child you want to 'do an ostrich' (e.g put your head in the sand). I don't want to do that - it will throw away all the effort i have put in so far NOT to do that.

So I'm not sure now whether it is a good thing. I felt like as soon as i mentioned it it gave the HV something to suggest as she was failing before and kinda was saying that it was because i felt 'unfulfilled' - which is true but not the problem is was talking about.

Week 2 of the Summer Holidays...

Lani has almost cracked crawling - i mean very nearly. she can move her arms forward and her legs but she doesn't get very far. But it will come with time. She gets very annoyed when things aren't going how she wants or when i leave her view. We have had some da-duh noises and some ai ai oi kinda things going on, so her vocal noises are increasing. She learnt to clap today in about an hour - she is so sweet. She also can play peek-a-boo with a cloth and pull it up and down over her face and she blows bubbles/raspberries sometimes. She gets bored very easily she will play with a toy for a few minutes and thats it for the day - So different to Kayne, who would play with things for 20 odd minutes at the same age.

Kayne is starting to get a bit stir crazy without nursery. We've got him the last of the Jolly Phonics books so we can have a go over the next few weeks. Also we are going to try and continue the 'number pairs' but i need to work out a way of making sure we do them properly/in a sensible way. We believe he can read/recognise 20-30 words now. I'm beginning to wonder whether he has a photographic memory. He doesn't seem interested in trying to use his phonics to sound out words he just wants to know what they say now. Maybe he doesn't know how to use them properly yet and also he doesn't know the doubles which makes it hard. I'm going to try and make him some books to learn to sound out the words. like 'fat cat on a mat' and 'dog on a log' Some thing kinda easy and also with things in it he likes.

Mark is off next week and we are hoping to to some things out and about. Go to the beach and maybe to the Didcot railway museum, just have family time and relax and getting Kayne happy with things of interest, to bolster him and his self confidence and do some 'home education' in the fun way.

Kayne ill, Lani Spikey

Well over the past weekend Kayne was quite unwell, Another temperature spike/mini cold with Kayne as lethargic as possible and getting up to temperatures of 39.9, and considering his normal temperature on that thermometer is about 35.6 it was a bit scary, but 3 days of Calpol and Neurofen alternated got it down. Other than that he is fine now, he has a runny nose and a bit of a cough but thats it.

Lani got a tooth! On wednesday we went to Snelsmore Common with group and she was grizzling and then was crying and screaming. She had had medicene and Bongela and then a bit later Anbesol. All to no effect, i gave her a bottle and she calmed down and she was a little grizzly. I put her in the pram and we kept walking and she fell asleep. Later that afternoon when Mark had come home, we were readying them for bed, i had just finished sorting Kayne out and sat in the living room. Mark said you may wan tto feel in her mouth and she had a tooth. Somewhen between 3pm and 7 pm she had gained a tooth. It disappeared an hour later but is now there properly.

Kaynes 'report'

Oh! i'm a bit gobsmacked. I went to see Kaynes' teacher at nursery today to discuss him because i didn't get a report she said 'there isn't enough space to write about him'.
So i went with mum this afternoon while ill mark looked after ill kayne and grumpy lani.
She said he's gorgeous and polite and very bright.
Very very bright. Admittedly I can't remember all that she said.
Firstly the 'negitive-ish' comment : That he doesn't interact with the other children very much, i said he's always been like that, she was like as long as i'm aware of that and ok with it (e.g not worried) then that was ok.
She hadn't assessed him in anyway not pushed him or expected him to do anything so he could settle in - which i was glad to hear.
Apparently then; of thier 6 or so learning catergories he is near the top end of them all, things like mathematical dev, language dev etc. Read about them here (a PDF file):
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/foundation_stage/eyfs/eyfs_framewk1307_v2.pdf
She said that if he continues like this she will be considering putting him up for the Gifted and Talented register (in YR1 i assume), in his prefered/best subject or all of them! Also that they will start looking at appropriate parts of the Yr1 National curriculum if he surpasses the foundation curriculum.

She's going to 'test' him on some words to gauge what reading level he is at and then tell me what books will be appropriate for him. Also next term they may send him home with some words to learn. Aswell as getting him 'going' with some sum's and writing.

She said that if he isn't interested with the things they are doing he gets up and walks off and uses the computer, it is noted that he is completely competent with the computer eg. can turn it on, select and use programmes, use the keyboard and mouse with ease. Also when the are sat on the carpet learning together he is so intent on listening to Miss House that he seems oblivious to the other children.

There was probably more but i was reeling so i can't remember anymore. It's wierd having all the things that you thought about your child realised to you. It's made me feel a bit more proactive. Now i can stop thinking that i've imagined all of it and we can make some pro-active 'plans' of things to do and do things that we may have thought may have been inappropriate.

She's getting there!

Lani is getting into that crawling position now. She can do it with ease in her baby nest and has done it a couple of times on the floor. She can also maintain it if i put her knees under her. She rocks back and forth, she's so cute. I hope she cracks it soon, she's so desperate to go now, she SCREAMS in frustration and my head is hurting from it!!



I can't wait to see Kayne and Lani chasing each other around the flat. I will be glad when she's mobile so she can follow me and i don't have to move her so she can see me. Although it will mean baracading lots of things as she will be one of those 'pull everything off of the shelf' babies.

Kayne did his first sports day! He did so well and had loads of fun. It did point out to me how much smaller he is compared to the other children but then he is one of the youngest there.

Dumbfounded

I spoke to a nursery team member about getting some stuff to do with Kayne in the afternoons as he gets bored/is just watching the TV.

She said 'talking with Kayne is like talking to a Year 1 pupil'. :O !! a 5 year old! what? is she saying he's mentally 2 years ahead (in so many words)! He knows a few more words ; On Off. I think i need a website to catalouge some of these things.

I'm shocked, she said that they are having to get other things out for him as he just looks at some of the things and is like 'uh no way thats boring'. I am so glad that they are providing him with things more suitable for him. I have my reservations about Wincombe but maybe it will be ok. Will still be checkingout other schools, as it is quite far at the moment (eg until i learn to drive).