July 24, 2011

Kiran and Maia are absolutely delicious. I've had my moments...my ups, my downs and after a bit of a roller coster last year while I found my feet as the mother of two, I have to say that lately, I find myself thinking about how Kiran is my last "baby" and that this body has finished the task of carrying and birthing babies. It is a strange feeling when you come to the realisation that although you don't want any more children that there will not be any more. I recently wrote on my facebook page that Kiran has hit such an adorable stage in his development that it is almost as though Mother Nature is calling, "Are you sure you don't want to do it all over again and have another one of these gorgeous creatures?" He looks up at me with those gorgeous, deep brown eyes and says, "Mama, Cuddle." And yes, I melt and pick him up and kiss his checks over and over again. Or when he crawls around on the floor pretending he is a kitten. Gosh, now that really plucks at my heart strings. At 18 months of age, quickly approaching 19 months, Kiran is a very verbal little fellow and today has strung three words together for the first time, "Poncho on me." He wanted me to put on Maia's rainbow Poncho. He also has been gaining confidence in putting two words together such as, "Bath Time, Thank You, and Dinner Time, Joovey Out, Puddle Splashing." He can identify most things easily and verbally say what he points to. The most amazing thing he did this week was when he drew on Maia's drawing and she was upset, he went over to her and said, "Sorry," and then went to the other room, found the box of tissues and brought them to her. Now that is compassion at a young age. He is a very cheerful little fellow and he loves to push the line and do what you tell him not to such as eating the tips of coloured pencils, crayons and putting pens in his mouth or throwing food off his try or doing things such as hitting himself on the head or biting himself on the hand, which was a new behaviour this week that he seemed to enjoy because he was getting extra attention. He loves to try and ride Maia's scooter and even has gotten the foot peddling motion down although he is too small to really ride it the way that he would like to. He likes to say, "Higher," when he is riding on the swing. When we say excited, he screams. He loves to dance and bounces and spins in circles when we play music. He is attempting to jump, but can't yet get his feet off the ground, so he just ends up bouncing. Puddle splashing is a real favourite and both kids enjoy bath time with Mom and Dad if we feel up to getting in with them.

Maia is always interested in drawing and writing letters. She recently went to a sewing class during the school break and at the age of three made a beautiful heart by using needle point. She copies words and today saw the word "Tuna" and wrote it next to her drawing of a cat and thought and she had spelled the word, "cat." She is trying to read, but she still has not gotten the concept of how each letter makes a sound and the sounds together made a word, but I have a feeling she will get there sometime in the coming year as she is so interested in trying to read. We would no longer classify her as shy and she is comfortable in her own skin. When she is excited she takes a deep breath between words and she aspires to learn every musical instrument in the world. She loves to "play" the guitar and sing and perform for us. She cuts out little paper tickets for her performances. Recently, David and I took her to hear the Soweto Gospel Choir and she really enjoyed herself. We were lucky to have the front row and the entertainers were frequently catching her eye and smiling at her. I was between Maia and a lady who was just turning 97 years old. The oldest and youngest in the whole theatre.

We move to our home in two weeks and we can not wait! Maia is looking forward to the trampoline at the yellow house and that is all she talks about. We just got Kiran sleeping through the night and finally had to tell him day is for eat and night is for sleep as I was getting up almost every night bar one in the last month to give him "Milkie Cuddle." It was hard to refuse him, but I finally hit the wall and we had a few night with some tears, but we are all happier for a good night's rest. He and Maia will share a room at the yellow house and we hope that it will work out for the two of them. Anyway that is the latest. We are loving our life in Berry and each day we pinch ourselves with our good fortune. What a lovely place for these little people to grow up.

Sound of Music

Today, Maia and I took Nanna to the Nowra Anglican College's production of the Sound of Music. It was at the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre and we were really impressed by the staging and the quality of the acting and singing. During the performance, Maia turned to me and said, "Momma, I am going to have kids. I am not going to have a shop. I will just have a house of my own." I wonder if she thought the convent was a shop...laugh. She was excellent and for a small child made it through the three hours like a star. She is such an easy going and pleasant little person. Maia takes time to adapt to new environments and experiences and she was worried about the curtain opening and the noise level of the show and so she held her ears for the first two hours on and off. This is typical of her when she is not comfortable with some thing.

This was her second term at pre-school and something magical happened for Maia. She spent the majority of the first and second term sitting back away from the circle of children while they had their music class and then all of a sudden on one particular day, she sat in the circle and started participating. When her teacher Kay was telling me, she had tears in her eyes as this was a big step for Maia. She then followed the music teaching into the other room and decided to do the repeat the lesson again. This was the second week that she participated and she not only played the instruments, but she got up with another classmate, Lara and pretended to be a cloud that covered the sun. This is unbelievable as Maia would not normally get up and perform in front of other people. She really enjoys her school. I think the environment is excellent and I am so glad that we found it. I do miss her Montessori school and her teacher Simone as that was just a beautiful room to learn in and she would have gained more in terms of learning about different academic skills there, but social skills and a positive experience is just as important.

When she is home, Maia spends her day drawing most of the time and writing the letters that she knows. She loves to draw and paint and those are her two favourite things. She is extraordinary in her ability to draw and it is magical to see what comes out of her. She is a perfectionist and will scribble over something that she does not think looks right. Maia's verbal skills are excellent and she expresses what she thinks in such detail. I really enjoy being with her. She is a very special little person.

Kiran has made incredible leaps in his language and since my last post in April he started to repeat single words after we would say something. In the last few weeks, he has started to say things pretty much independently and is very, very good at getting his meaning across. The two word phrase he has been saying for the past few months is, "Thank You," and now he has started to say, "Open up," "That one," "Over there." And I swear he has started to recognise colour as I have heard him several times point to something that is blue and say blue and today he seemed to know the colour purple. He loves to play hide and seek, even though he hides in front of you, laugh and he loves to ride his bike through the house with Maia as well as run. He does show signs of having a temper and will hit David and I if we do not do what he wants especially if he wants breast milk in the middle of the night and I have given him some and I am trying to get him back in his bed to go back to sleep, he will hit me with both his hands in frustration and say, "Milkie." Kiran still wakes me up at least once a night every other night and I hear him say, "Momma, cuddle, milkie." He has been teething since last Friday and it has been awful as he has been waking me up for milk several times a night. On top of it, Maia had her first inner ear infection. I thought it was pretty good that we made it to nearly four years of age and she had never had an ear infection. I just gave her panadol as antibiotics have not been shown to be useful.

Maia and Kiran play nicely together. There is the odd occasion when Maia will torture Kiran by taking something that she knows that he wants and he will come to me crying and complaining, but overall, she is very sweet with him. She will often say, "He is cute, isn't he?" or when I breastfeed him she will comment, "It is cute how he latches on, isn't it?" She hugs him and really kisses him. Speaking of kissing, Kiran has started kissing us on our checks if we ask him. He is super duper cute. Very sweet little man. I love this age as they are still in that magic and don't understand how things work like he is trying to get things out of book and will say as we are reading a story, "Out." As if I can get the object out of the book for him. He now does sit on my lap and can look through a book without getting through a few pages and going on to the next one.

We have had a wonderful transition to this beautiful town, Berry and feel so blessed to be here. We are excited that we will be moving in our house finally in five weeks time. I will have to pinch myself to believe it as it feels like such a long three years since we first bought the house. The tenants who are there have been so uncooperative in finding another place that they are riding the lease out till the last minute. So anyway, won't be long now. We are packing and the next month will go by and we will be moving our boxes in before we know it.

Off to bed for me. Tomorrow is a market day in town and we always go to have a walk around, buy Maia a new dress for her doll and listen to the stories told by a lovely woman who is a local mother and sells gorgeous little fairies and puts a blanket down for children to have a listen of different tales that she makes up or uses for traditional fairy tales.

The nice thing that has happened for me is that I am using the local pilates studio in the mornings for meditation and yoga and that has made a big difference in my life. I go in the morning from 6:30 till 7:30 and enjoy an hour to centre myself and find a bit of peace before I start my day.

I am one very lucky lady who is blessed with a wonderful husband and two fabulous kids.