5 Months and Counting (+ 3 years)...An overview of the Dobson clan

Baby Tahlia and Baby Jory are now 5 months old; their older brother Zachary is now 3 years. We are enjoying going out to toddler groups and the babies get a lot of attention wherever we go. 

Chillin' out on the sofa

Tahlia is growing extremely well, looking particularly chubby next to Jory and is gaining weight rapidly. She has now hit the 1 stone mark!

Tahlia looks almost as big as Zachary! (She is now half his weight)

Jory is also now growing well, after a slow start due to lots of reflux (bringing up feeds) and now weighs almost 13 lbs. The reflux is already a little better than at the beginning but we expect that it should further improve once he is introduced to solids. He does sometimes get very upset after feeding until he is sick, then he feels better, but he feeds more often than Tahlia because of it. 

Poor Jory has a bout of reflux; poor Daddy's shoulder is a little worse for wear

Tahlia always smiles when you approach her (in fact, both babies are very smiley). They both love to be held and chatter away to you when you speak to them.

Smiley little girl

Happy babies

Cuddles with Daddy

Jory is ultra inquisitive with huge eyes and is always interested in what's happening. In between his bouts of reflux, he's content and enjoys cooing when anyone talks to him.

Gazing into Mummy's eyes for a photo

Jory, in particular, enjoys lying on his play mat, attempting to grab the various hanging toys. He responds well when an object is placed in front of him, showing a lot of interest.

Reaching for the dangling toys

Jory loves being outside, especially when it's sunny. He enjoys lying in the pram, looking up at the tops of trees as we walk underneath them. 

All ready for the sunshine!

Tahlia prefers to be sitting up, either in a bouncer or a Bumbo seat. She is generally happy sitting near Zachary so she can watch him play. She hates being left in a room on her own and always wants someone nearby. She enjoys interesting sounds, particularly the crunching of a crisp packet which she stares at, then attempts to grab.

 

She has been teething recently (no sign of teething in Jory yet), so has been a little more grumpy, red faced and dribbly than normal. She also tries to bite on things. We haven't seen any new teeth as of yet.

Comfy seat

Mummy very much enjoys having a girl to dress up in lots of pretty outfits!

Tahlia's shoe collection

Pretty blue dress

If only she'd smile for the camera

Both babies tend to have a long lie-in and a bit of a nap in the morning. The rest of the day involves several 5 minute power naps and nothing else until bed time. They also gradually get more fussy through the day. Zachary still has an afternoon nap, so Mummy would very much like to get them all in sync with their nap times. All of the children go down for bed at around 7pm and are all asleep by 8pm, giving Mummy and Daddy a few hours on their own. For bedtime and overnight Mummy does a mixture of tandem feeds with two pillows and separate feeds, depending on when they awaken. The babies had a wonderful phase at about 2-3 months of sleeping solidly for 6-7 hours in the night, but recently this has been closer to 2-3 hours, due to colds and teething.

Jory all ready for bed

When Tahlia gets tired she is grumpy and constantly bats her ears. She likes to be in a seated position and rocked to sleep for her daytime naps, but if she's nice and comfortable, she'll sometimes go to sleep on her own. She always cries for about one minute before she falls asleep.

Time for bed soon

Too late for bed now!

Jory prefers to lie down for his naps. You lie him down somewhere soft, then realise he's gone quiet! He also likes to fall asleep while feeding, but tends to remain asleep when you put him down. Both babies fall asleep when being driven around in the car, but we always struggle to keep them that way in traffic jams.

Asleep on several layers of play mat

Both babies are getting stronger and are having some 'tummy time' most days. Tahlia, in particular, lifts her head and shoulders very well when placed in this position. Jory isn't a huge fan of tummy time, and even managed his first roll a few weeks ago, when he was getting a little stressed.

Tummy time trying to eat the sofa

Jory about to do his first ever roll

Roll successful!

Zachary is doing very well. He loves his new brother and sister and wants to include them in his play. He invites Tahlia into his ball pool tent (Mummy has to hold her up) and likes having pretend meals with Jory, who likes to sample the plastic fruit and vegetables.

Playing farms with Jory

He enjoys 'holding' them, especially to have his photo taken, and enjoys giving them cuddles and kisses (albeit a little on the rough side).

Happy cuddles

Zachary goes in for a hug with a confused Jory

Zachary is learning fast and particularly enjoys numbers, letters, spelling and reading words. He loves to identify and memorise sequences, so he found it quite easy to learn to count to a thousand, learn the days of the week, months of the year and in which month people's birthdays fall. He's also very interested in time, always wanting to know the date and time, and is trying to work out the pattern of minutes on a clock. He loves dice and can often add up the different numbers. One of his favourite games, however, (which we try to keep for just in the car) is the mind-numbingly dull game that he calls 'points', in which you each in turn have to name any number and the person with the highest number wins (he hasn't realised that the last person always wins anyway). He enjoys repeating things we say and it's always amusing to hear him use phrases such as 'it's ridiculous!', 'come on!' and 'oh man!'.

Zachary calls Jory 'Pory', as an amalgamation of 'poor' (due to his reflux problem) and 'Jory'

Zachary eats well, as long as he hasn't had a snack too close to tea time. He's recently become a little less fussy and will eat more of what we're having, not minding mixed-in sauces quite as much. There are still two things we have to avoid though: anything fizzy and anything even remotely spicy - with the latter, he gobbles it down, then cries when the heat comes through, asking Mummy to make it stop. He loves having ketchup or BBQ to dip things in. His new favourite food for tea time is corn on the cob, which he can devour in just a few minutes.

Zachary loves home made potato wedges with sauce for dipping

Zachary is doing well with his potty training, which has been quite a gradual process. He now asks to go on when he needs it and is happy to use the toilet when we're out and about. He does, however, have a fear of hand driers and won't be able to relax until he's been reassured that the hand drier won't be activated during his visit.

Zachary wanted Tahlia and Jory to sit on their "potties" next to him

"Thanks for reading, see you next time!"

Zachary's Quirks

Over the past two years Zachary has changed tremendously. Here are some of his characterisics at the age of two...

Not in the slightest bit cheeky

Most people that meet him think Zachary looks like his Mummy, or her brothers (or maybe Uncle Humphrey), but he does bear a resemblance to Daddy too:

Like father, like son

Zachary loves to copy whatever Mummy and Daddy are doing, which is fine when he wants to help clear his toys away, but not so great when he wants to help Mummy take the dinner out of the oven. One of his favourites is to help unpack the bag after we've been food shopping, but he has now decided that it's his job and no one else is allowed to take things out of the bags without a tantrum.

Helping water the plants

Zachary wanted to get as close as possible to the lawnmower

Zachary is a fruit monster - his current favourites are satsumas, blueberries and sultanas. If you suggest things he might like to eat, he'll continue saying 'no' until you offer one of his favourites. A few days ago when Mummy was dozing on the sofa, Zachary helped himself to a packet of sultanas from the larder cupboard and managed to eat half of the bag before we realised. He later experienced some pretty explosive nappies as he excreted hundreds of whole sultanas. If he has the opportunity, Zachary will always help himself to fruit and he loves picking fruit from a bush such as blackberries and raspberries.

Picking raspberries from Bumble's garden and immediately eating them

Zachary loves to copy the things that other people are doing. Sometimes this can be hilarious. It's always interesting when he learns to do something that you didn't actively teach him and he has learnt it by observation - he's a lot cleverer than he first appears.

Big yawns all round

Zachary loves interacting with maneouvrable objects such as latches, gates, swinging signs, switches and buttons and won't hesitate to try them all out. He loves going in lifts for this reason - pressing the button and watching it move; he gets angry if you try to exit a lift and walk away.

He spent a good 5 minutes opening and closing this gate

He couldn't quite reach the button of the hospital lift, but with Daddy's help he enjoyed 10+ lift journeys

Zachary is amazing at counting. He can count to ten (although he always says the word 'nine' for 5 and 7, as he can't quite say those). He can also count downwards from five, with a loud 'zoom' at the end. When asked to point to specific numbers in a random order, he can do so accurately for the numbers 1-12 and if he sees a number written down, he'll shout out its name. He loves to count objects, and when he counts to ten he uses his fingers to add digits in the sequence.

"Two"

Zachary seems to be left handed, as he will always tend to use that hand first; when I put a pen into his right hand for drawing, he immediately swapped it to his left before proceeding. Our current prediction on what he might be when he grows up is some kind of engineer. 

Zachary also loves to read books and he is constantly bringing you books to read him. He also loves to point to letters for you to read out their names, especially on number plates and signs with large lettering. We have decided to teach him the sounds of the letters, rather than their names, as we think this might help him with learning to read. 

'kicking kuh, ih, ter, curly ceh, heh, eh, neh (sorry Phobe!)

Zachary's talking is going pretty well, although he can only say monosyllabic words and no sentences yet, but he can easily make himself understood with a few words in the right context. For example, if he's hungry he'll always ask for cheese even if that's not exactly what he wanted to eat (because that's the only food word he can say); if he's thirsty he'll ask for juice, if he wants to play in his new playroom he'll say 'ball', but if he's tired he'll never ask for a sleep (because being awake is much more interesting).

Zachary loves to play, but much prefers playing with other people than alone. He loves playing with balls, kicking and throwing them around and he giggles when they bounce. 

Playing 'peek-a-boo' with Auntie Marilla

Zachary is very attached to his ball

We recently had a large conservatory built at the back of our house which is to be Zachary's new play room. It still needs decorating but Zachary has already claimed it as his own...

Hiding in his ball pool tent

As always, Zachary loves going outside, particularly enjoying playgrounds. If you suggest going to a playground in half an hour's time, Zachary will pick up on the word 'playground' in your conversation and immediately bring your shoes, grab your arm and drag you to the front door. He likes the swings best and usually enjoys slides, unless they're enclosed, too fast or have sand at the bottom. To ensure a slow ride, he always sticks his feet out to the edges to control his speed.

A controlled descent

 

If he was able, Zachary would take all of his clothes off , including his nappy and run around as much as possible. He also likes to climb on people who are lying down. This made a bad combination when he managed to achieve his objective while Mummy was asleep on the sofa and climb onto her... the worst part was that he'd left behind a soiled nappy.

Zachary hates wearing hats

Sleep has always been a bit of an issue with Zachary; even now, he goes through phases of sleeping through the night some days, then waking a few times on others. This usually seems to be caused by being away from home for several nights and becoming unsettled on returning home. Depending on how tired he is, he can be fine to get to sleep or he can take many attempts of putting him back down before he finally drifts off. There is, however, nothing worse than the bang of our bedroom door opening at 5.30am, as Zachary enters to get us up for his breakfast (fortunately this isn't every morning).

Daytime naps are usually pretty easy to coordinate; on this occasion, he hadn't quite finished eating when the nap took over

Zachary is a very happy boy with a lot of energy. He knows how he wants things done and is proactive in getting things he wants. He has a great memory for walking routes, knowing which turnings we need to take for the playground, library, toddler group etc.

It's often hard work to look after Zachary but on the whole he's an absolute joy to have around.