Living Arrows 2019: Week Twenty Two

Is it just me that’s looking forward to a normal week soon? It feels like we’ve been all over the place for the last month; bank holidays, birthdays and funerals have all collided to leave me with shorter working weeks and an overflowing to do list. The last few weeks have been emotional for one reason or another and I’m determined that I’m going to work hard on calming life down and regaining control of things in the next few. Not this week though, this week my baby turns one and I know I’ll be feeling all the emotions once again! Argh, where has the last year gone?! Anyway, enough about this week, lets focus on the one just gone.

Him

I’m so proud of the young man that this boy is becoming. He’s kind, polite and well-behaved… for the most part! The last few weeks he’s been testing boundaries again every now and then and we’ve had to think more about the way in which we want to discipline him. A few months ago we trialled the naughty corner/step but he loved it too much and kept putting himself in there. More recently we’ve been using a time out system. Removing him from the situation and sitting him quietly on the sofa has proven to be the most effective. The tv goes off and he has to sit there for a couple of minutes to re-group after I’ve explained to him why he’s there. It’s been the best thing we’ve tried and removing both of us from the moment has meant that I’m far calmer with him as well… which is good because he was really learning how to push all the wrong buttons!

Last week he officially moved up to the pre-school in the nursery that we use, given that he’s three now (and if you knew him he would have told you this fifty times already!). It’s funny seeing him go from the big boy of the old room to one of the smallest again. I have to say dropping him off really pulls on your heart strings – god only knows how we’ll cope when he starts school. He seems so shy and little in the mornings although by pick up he’s a different child all together; grubby, noisy and (hopefully) worn out from a busy day playing. He had an extra day last week whilst we attended a funeral and we were all a little nervous about it; a new room, a different day, different kids but he aced it. Kids are so good at these things aren’t they? I just need to nab a little of his confidence in him I think!

Her

I’m going to take a moment to just sob quietly about the fact that this week she’ll be a whole year old. I can’t believe that this time a year ago I was STILL pregnant and dreading impending induction (can’t believe I haven’t finished that blog post either yet!!). That aside, oh my goodness is this little one growing up quickly. The weekend before last her confidence in walking really exploded and since then there has been no stopping her – you can see a super cute video of her waddling around here! – well that hasn’t stopped. She’s still doing the odd bit of crawling but for the most part she’s strolling across the room whenever possible. I’d forgotten how bizarre it is to see them doing that at first, it keeps completely throwing me!

Aside from walking, her personality is also blossoming. She’s definitely going through a cheeky stage at the moment and it’s lovely to see her playing games with her brother. That said, she already likes to wind him up. Every single toy he has, she wants and vice versa… I know this is only the beginning as well! Her favourite thing to do at the moment is to go in to the beanbag in the play room and lounge around on it. It’s incredibly cute to watch; she just flings herself backward on it at any opportunity, lies there and says ‘Aahhhhhhhh’. Can’t believe she’s not even one and she’s cracked the ‘chillax’ already!

This post is linking up with the Living Arrows series over at What The RedHead Said. If you’d like to see more of our weekly updates, you can find them here!