off to a good start

A photo of Tadhg, just because.

Both Steve and I had been a little nervous about him going to Texas this week. My main worry was about those times in the day/week when you are absolutely knackered and that stuff called 'patience' is nowhere to be seen and you normally hand over the baby or toddler or cooking or whatever for a break. Well, that is what happens in our house anyway:). I've discovered I don't have a very high tolerance level when it comes to the sound of a baby crying. Brendan rarely cried and when he did the problem he was yelling about was usually sorted fairly pronto and the crying stopped. But Tadhg... actually he doesn't cry that much, he just has a period in the evenings when he cries on and off and I just feel so bad for him and I get upset and frustrated because I can't always make it better. So Steve and I take turns walking around with him. Anyway, despite that rant, this evening he's been pretty happy so far even though he has a cold and a slight temperature- it must be really annoying to be breathing through a stuffed up nose while trying to eat.
So today we kept busy. We...
- played with the dolls house and opened another room set for it.
- played with a new set of alphabet cards- B can say them all and recognises a few letters and can put abcde in order (I haven't tried to actively teach him this, he just picks it up- amazing to see!)
- made a calendar to cross off the days till Daddy comes home
- did painted footprints of both boys on canvas for a blank bit of wall somewhere
- made a jungle book village with houses made out of toilet roll tubes and cupcake papers, more loo rolls for the fence, a blue scarf for a river, green wooden blocks for trees and some schleich and wooden animals. He wasn't that interested to begin with but a few hours later he went back to it and started playing on his own moving the animals around and naming them all (he loves the films)
- and, of course, played with the train set, did some colouring and watched some of the jungle book and Brendan's favourite bit of Cars which he asks for like this "Mater tow truck tractor cow moooo fall dooowwwwn yep ok hehehehe" That is more or less how he speaks at the moment.

Other sentences of sorts...
"more cookie please tractor cookie?" (our cookie jar is a tractor)
"daddy plane sky airport yep flying wheeeeeee" (with arms flying)
"mummy come back two minutes Brendan bed"
"downstairs TV on, DVD, animals on please yep open gate"
And if he's angry at us about something eg. been told not to hit the baby/climb on the table/ turn on the dishwasher etc he shouts as loud as he can a variation on "TV on, ice cream cone, more cookie, TV on"

Talking of TV, on Friday I flipped out with the whole TV thing and we took the plunge. We now have no TV in the living room and it is MUCH better. Should have done it ages ago. We now have to make an effort to do other things when in here and TV watching happens only in the basement for short times. It's only been three days but we are all much calmer as a result, Brendan actually looks at us when we talk to him rather than staring at the TV (which he was starting to do even if it was off!!) Here's a photo taken before the TV was banished.Enough waffle. I might try to go to bed. I'm anticipating a long sleepless night. I think I'll need to be propped up with Tadhg on my chest if he's going to get any sleep.