While visiting Andrew & Belinda a while ago, Hugo stumbled onto one of his cousin Ben’s toys – a radio controlled car. Hugo hadn’t seen one before and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. We’ve been looking for one similar but they’ve been sold out at the big department stores like Kmart until Claire chanced upon the last one on a shelf yesterday. Hugo still has some learning to do with the controls but is having a blast none the less!
I’m absolutely delighted to announce that we have a new baby girl to add to the greater Lattimore family, Grace Ivy Lattimore.
After a long wait and a lot of heartache, my oldest brother Phil & his wife Tammi welcomed Grace into the world 10 days early at 1:48PM on Saturday 12th March 2011 – weighing in at 5lb 15oz and 46cm long!
Claire, Hugo, Evie and I dropped into St. Vincents Hospital in Toowoomba on the way back to the Gold Coast to meet our newest niece/cousin and it was such a happy meeting.
Grace is a gorgeous little girl and I’m now looking forward to Evie having another cousin a similar age to play with in the near future. There is just something completely amazing about meeting a fresh baby, it is the miracle of birth realised in the flesh so to speak.
It seems like I only just wrote about Evie being six months old, however that was a month ago already!
December was an eventful month for Evie, as she learned how to balance sitting up on her own. While by no means an expert, as she’d still over balance periodically – I think Evie really enjoyed being able to sit up as it gave her a different perspective on the world; after all, you’re bound to get sick of laying on your stomach or back sooner or later. While Evie can roll over front and back now, she is still completely uninterested in getting up onto all fours and crawling – maybe next month?
In addition to learning to sit up unassisted and balance, Evie also began using her legs more and more as well. This saw her standing up, like a big girl – though still with a lot of support from Claire and I.
Hugo's dramatic crying pose, with hands on face. Not quite the reaction from today but I'm sure he felt that way inside.
Hugo has had a dummy from a relatively early age and he loves it. When combined with his favourite plush toy Boris, Hugo is a happy little man. Unfortunately he had progressively become more and more dependent on the dummy and wanted it more often than was required.
In the last couple months, Claire and I have been quietly reducing his access to the dummy throughout the day and telling him it is only for sleeping. If he took it in the car, he was allowed it while we were driving but knew he had to take it out when we stopped – which he was very good about.
Today for the first time in over two years, Hugo went to sleep for his lunchtime nap without his dummy. He was asking Claire where his dummy was and Claire let him know it was lost but that he shouldn’t worry about it. He talked to himself for a little while in bed and got up to check his bedroom to make sure it wasn’t there and then put himself back in bed and went off to sleep.
Tonight, it wasn’t quite as smooth – he still hadn’t had it all day and after his bath – like clockwork he asked me where Boris & his dummy was. We play a game after bath and go ‘hunting’ throughout the house to find them – unfortunately I was only able to find Boris again. He went to bed okay and then talked, cried, complained and talked some more for about 30-40 minutes before he went off to sleep (in the doorway of his bedroom).
I’ve now just tucked him back into bed and I’m so proud of him for getting through the day and hopefully the night without his dummy. It has been one of his most treasured possessions in the lsat two years, so I can understand why he was upset but I’m so pleased that we’re making steps to get rid of it as well.
I’m under no delusions that this will be our final encounter with the dummy but we up for the challenge and hopefully within the next week or two it’ll be a distant memory!
