Bodmacity

I thought I’d mark Jake’s 20th Month milestone. His speech is coming on nicely. The other day Amy and I tried to count all the words we though he knew. We think it is in the region of 200 words that he recognizes and can say. He has recently started to join words together. One of his favourites is “mummy cow” which he learnt after reading “Little Spotted Calf”.

He is really starting to come into his own and his personality is growing. Yesterday I was laughing after he started wringing his hands. He immediately started to do it again while laughing too.

One of his favourite TV programmes is “In The Night Garden”. He likes Iggle-piggle and also Makka Pakka. He does a great impersonation of Makka Pakka’s walk :-).

Jake has not been well this week. What started as a benign cold has turned into a nasty chest infection. We took him to the Doctors today and he was prescribed antibiotics for the first time because of his chest :-(. His sleeping went to pot a few days ago. He was refusing to go into his cot or even take his “radish” in the cot. What he wanted was to come into Mummy and Daddys bed for “night night”. We are relenting now because he is so poorly.

I am working from home today and the day is going so slowly. Both of us are feeling ill. I have started to get a sore throat and a snuffly nose. Ames is suffering also from a lack of sleep. She is in bed with Jake as I write this, hopefully getting some rest.

Just a quickie to record a momentous event. Tonight I whipped off Jake’s nappy and told him that if he needed to do a poo or wee he just needs to say so and I will bring the potty from the bathroom. A few minutes after Jake said ‘poo!’. I was wondering whether he was just saying it, but gave him the benefit of the doubt and brought the potty down.

He sat down on it and to my amazement did the ‘pooing face’. Seconds later a great big log was sitting in the potty. Jake looked very proud of his accomplishment and then to my horror stuck his finger in the log. You can’t win them all I suppose.

I jokingly told Amy that Jake would be potty trained by the time she gets back from Texas. Maybe he will. 🙂

Today Jake woke is a bit of a mood. I went in and he was sitting there with his hair all ruffled. He had balanced Pumba on top of his cot in the corner. I took Pumba down and Jake said ‘Pumba’ and laughed.

After my shave we went downstairs. I gave him his milk and he sat like a big boy watch Numberjacks. Every time he saw the Spooky Spoon he would shout ‘poon’ and ‘gaw-ty’ which translates as ‘spoon’ and ‘naughty’. Unfortunately I had to rush so after my porridge and coffee I headed for Brockley station. Jake was waving at the window. These mornings go so quickly!

Tomorrow I am working from home so I can see more of him if I start early .

I bought a cycle to reduce my travelcard costs. Let’s tot up my total cycling costs to date (which is since May 2007).

Bicycle, mudguards, helmet and lock £350
Pedals Free (thanks Paul W!)
Shoes and pump x 2 (first one was nicked!) £66
Baby seat £80
Leg warmers £8
Rain Jacket £45
Shorts £40
2 technical t-shirts £40
1 long sleeve base layer £13
1 technical long sleeve top and 1 t-shirt £17
Puncture repair kit £4
Cleaner and lube £20
Degreaser £5
Bottle cage and bottle £8
Light set £22
2 lightweight jackets, bib tights, winter jacket from Aldi £30
3/4 length shorts – £11
Padded under shorts £10
Ronhill Bikester Winter tights £23

I have probably missed something out but the total cost is £792 which works out at £132 per month(the 6 months from May to October)! Of course most of these costs are one-offs, in fact in terms of servicing costs I have only spent £29 which is a respectful £7 per month. There are other savings too. Petrol costs have been reduced by using the bike instead of car at weekends.

So the real question is how long (assuming I don’t buy anything else) before I have ‘broken even’? So far I have saved £240 so that leaves £552.

I am saving £40 per month using the bicycle to commute so all the above costs will have been recouped in another 13 months in November 2008!

One of his Latest words is ‘night night’. He loves to climb into our bed and tuck himself in under the covers. Other new words :

‘oh no’ – when something has been dropped
‘wow wee’ – when something exciting happens, such as climbing onto his car and then doing no handed.
‘more’ – obvious this one!
‘gargash’ – eyelash – for tickles with my eyelashes
‘worm’ – we keeping finding worms on the compost bin lid
‘uh oh’ – similar to ‘oh no’
‘gangad’ – GC
‘gargar’ – GDK
‘fork’ – fork
‘poon’ – spoon
‘bow’ – bowl
‘bar’ – bike

He talks all the time in his own language and sometimes it is difficult to work out what he is saying. He will look up at us and earnestly say something and we will not have a clue what he is on about!

Jake can be feast or famine either eating for England or eating like a tiny Wren. Now he is in a feast mood.

This morning, for instance, he ate a bowl or porridge and THEN wanted more ‘bib on’ so ate Amy’s porridge. In the end he ate an adult-sized portion and still wanted some toast. Similarly yesterday for lunch he had stew, then three pears and a banana.

I thought I should write something about Jake and his development. After all it would be a shame to lose the little details that will eventually drift from our memories. We bought Jake his potty, step-up stool and padded toilet seat lid. We thought it was a good idea because he has started to say wee and poo. He likes his potty which he calls his ‘pottis’.

He was practising sitting down on it and making wee noises, as well as amusing himself by wearing it as a hat. On Sunday GDK came to visit. We were all in the lounge. Jake was saying ‘wee’ so we whipped off his nappy to see if he would take a wee. Of course he didn’t he just capered around loving the feeling of being free from the nappy. After a while I noticed that he was standing by his toy box very still with a look of concentration on his face. Too late! I looked down and there was a big fat poo on the rug. He then trod in the poo. I scooped his frame up to take him to the shower while Amy had the lovely job of cleaning the rug.

We have put Jake’s potty away for the moment. I think we were a little premature!

I was amazed yesterday at the playground in Hilly Fields. Amy said “watch this”.

Jake proceeded to haul himself up the slide by gripping onto the sides. At the top he deftly turned himself around and then perfectly slid down in a sitting position. One of the other parents said “he’s good at that”.

I had to agree having seen in for the first time myself! 🙂

Today Jake started to pronounce the t at the end of words!!!

Ahhhhrrgghhh! I had another puncture on the way home. I had just overtaken a lady cyclist and was coming up to the Lambeth Road when I heard a loud pssst sound. I immediately thought it was the rear tyre. Within seconds though it became apparent that the front tyre was completely flat. What made it worse was that it was tipping it down with rain :-(.

Fortunately though it had stopped raining and I had remembered to pack my repair kit. I didn’t have a spare so I fixed it which only took ten minutes or so. It was lucky it was a big puncture as that made it easy to find.

I really should invest in some Schwalbe Marathon tyres as this is taking the mickey. Two punctures in as many months.