Big, little boy.

Poppet 1

Rafi is turning into such a big-little boy. Even his little chubby legs have started to disappear and instead he has these little thin preschooler legs which make him seem so much older. His speech is coming along quite well, though I think he is still struggling in some areas. For example, his nanny Dani was having a really difficult time with Raf's behavior a couple of weeks ago. We share Dani with some good friends who have two kiddos. Their oldest has excellent communications skills, and whilst she's a few months older than Raf, it can make it seem as though Raf is being not as cooperative as he might be. We chatted to Dani about it because while Raf is no angel, he is generally pretty cooperative and not especially defiant. It soon became clear to me that it was more to do with Raf not understanding what was being asked, so we worked on clarifying what needed to be communicated and it was as simple as using words that we use and that he's familiar with. For example, we say 'tidy up' and Dani usually says 'clean up'. To get Raf ready to leave the house we say, 'Raf, let's get in the car" and off he trots. These small suggestions have apparently made the world of difference.

Raf is also rising his little bike. He had so much fun this weekend going around the block.

He's even gone up in croc size! Slow down, little boy.

Poppet 2

Not much to report, though I have been feeling a bit better, which is very nice. I've even managed to get back to some running, rowing, and so forth. I do have to confess that a friend loaned me her home-doppler so I have been checking for a heartbeat fairly frequently. I feel very conflicted about it because I think the jury is out on how safe dopplers are but for sanity's sake it's good to be able to check on things from time to time.