Got the Sniffles

Me and my boy

I'm not feeling the greatest today. Nathan and the boys were very generous and shared their sore throat and snotty noses with me; thanks guys! I've spent the best part of the day sitting and playing with Felix, or watching him while he played on his own. It's days like today, with no other distractions, that I can really observe Felix and sometimes notice things I wouldn't in a usually busy day.

Felix writing his blog

Nathan rides his motorbike to work, so he always carries a bag on his back. When he got home from work today, Felix sat quietly on the floor and unpacked Daddy's bag and spread the contents of it all over the floor. He pulled out a couple of containers which Nathan had brought home to refill with coffee and sugar for his breaks at work. Felix played with them for a while, inspecting the contents and stacking them on top of each other. The next thing he did was fantastic. I looked over and saw him holding his hand like a scoop and pretending to scoop up the coffee (the lid was shut) and then putting his hand to his mouth like he was eating it and saying "Ummmmmm" (Yum). It's the first time I've ever seen him use imaginary play, and I was really impressed!! He continued with the scooping and 'eating' for a couple of minutes before he moved on to something else.

Another thing I noticed today was that Felix is starting to recognise boundaries a bit more. We have had to place a latch on the sliding door into our ensuite bathroom because Felix had a fascination for crawling in there and pulling everything out of the drawers or trying to play with the bin or the toilet (not terribly hygienic). Today, Nathan forgot to close the door and latch it. Straight away Felix crawled as fast as he could to the door and then stopped before he went through it. He turned around and looked straight at me. He knew he wasn't meant to go in there. When Nathan went over to him to move him away, he didn't even try and race in there like he usually would. What a good boy! Although, I have to say that often if we say 'No' he will give us a grin and do it anyway. He's definitely cheeky!

Finger puppet fun

We are still making progress with Felix using the toilet. We had one day when he didn't do anything on there all day and I thought it had all been too good to be true, but he was back to it the next day. After Felix 'does his business' on the toilet, I always clap and make sure I give him a lot of praise to let him know I'm proud of him. The funny thing is, he will nearly always sign "Daddy" straight after I clap, like he wants to share the moment with him too. He will lean forward as far as he can on the toilet, without falling off, to see if he can see Nathan in the room. If he's home he has to clap and praise Felix as well.

Loving time with Daddy

He really thrives on attention from Daddy. He is standing for longer periods of time on his own and sometimes I'm sure he digs his heels into the floor until he has Nathan's attention (claps and cheers) before he'll allow himself to sit back down again. If he wants to show Nathan something and he is looking at the computer or the TV, Felix will lean his head between the screen and Nate's face, looking up at him the whole time. Once he's got his attention, he gives him a big grin and moves away again. He just likes to check that Daddy saw whatever it was he was trying to show him or what he's signing to him.

I keep forgetting that a lot of kids by Felix's age would be able to shout out, "Mum" or "Dad" by now. Felix has to get a little bit more creative in his endeavours to get our attention. He is touching our faces much more now and turning them towards the things he wants. He can ask for something to eat, but the word 'eat' is very general. We are slowly learning to sign more specific foods he likes, but sometimes Felix has to be extra patient with us until we work out which food he is asking for. He will usually push our hand away (which is holding the food he doesn't want) and he will keep pointing until we get it right. It really reinforces to us the importance of signing with him.

Felix's nose has been running all day, he has been pulling on his ear and his cheeks are looking very rosy. I'm thinking we may not be getting much sleep tonight. The joys of winter!!