Strange Machines

Some days I am too exhausted to carry Kitten for her nap and really need to lie down. Wolf on the other hand wants to play and we have a situation with one sleepy kid who won’t sleep because her brother is playing noisily in the bright room.

This afternoon, I got Wolf to turn off the light and pretend he is in a dangerous zone somewhere with wandering monsters (so he needs to be very quiet) and he needs to recruit stuffed friends scattered around the bed to be his soldiers (he learns to id them from touch) and he has to build a fort from blankets and pillow and assign jobs to his soldiers.

So far so good! He does whisper questions to me and I issue instructions on the scenario but it is quiet time.

Mommy Doll (see previous post) has been assigned the role of Commander because she is the most powerful. :p

Update: The game lasted an hour till he wanted to rest too.

The sweet cloth dolls arrived today.

Interestingly Wolf chose the cat because she is “pretty and has a ribbon” and insisted I leave the skirt on. Kitten was happy hugging the sweet rabbit.

Wolf christened the rabbit Floppy (after suggestions like Clocky and Rabbitty – latter of which is already belongs to another cloth friend) and the cat Girly.

Note the scale.

Since she turned one, almost overnight Kitten became incredibly attached to me. She would howl if I was out of sight and inconsolable till I picked her up.

I read on Babycenter that this is normal for her age (and vaguely recollect that her brother was the same). Funnily enough, Wolf is the same now too.

It is like they are feeding off each other’s emotions. Night time it is a competition: who can nurse more. But I take it in my stride.

Maybe 4 years of night waking has made me immune and/or I’ve learnt to cherish the late night cuddle time with my little ones before they grow up all too fast and I have to start bribing for a cuddle.

There must have been an invite I missed out on cos tonight is apparently a nightwaking party. Every hour the kids would take turns waking. Nurse them each to bed. Sneak off to comp. Howl goes another kid. Sigh. I think I know why my name wasn’t on that list now.

My best friend Shen just gave me a great idea for painting when you have 2 kids. You see, since Kitten was mobile, we stopped all painting activities at home because she would just get into the paint and eat it. So Shen, who has two as well, had a great idea of having her son paint in the shower. The bonus is that Wolf would be contained.

Yes, we are still tandem nursing and some nights like tonight, the kids literally take turns waking and by morning I would have barely slept at all.

I’m criticised a lot for this, especially in a society where most women don’t breastfeed past a month. Wolf gets the brunt of it for still nursing at 3+.

But as I read other blogs where moms practice peaceful parenting (well more peaceful than me), self-weaning is the natural way to go.

Critics had similar reservations about his potty training, even commenting he would be in diapers till he was 10. But one day he just decided he was ready for the toilet himself and he never looked back.

I believe for nursing it will be the same.

For now I will enjoy our nursing relationship as long as he cares to continue, knowing one day he won’t need to curl up in my arms to nurse anymore.

It is easy to be pensive and philosophical this late at night. The brain practically demands it.

Wrote NAK.

Kitten is starting to mimic words. She holds up an object and I say the word and she’ll try to repeat it.

Today it was marker and book. She keeps saying book now, although tickle is her favourite word as it never fails to elicit a laugh from everyone.

My guess is her brother talks non stop so she’s babbling too to keep up.

I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been falling asleep a lot while nursing both kids to sleep. They both latch on and nurse till they sleep. Kitten usually unlatches first and rolls over to her crib and then Wolf rolls over to his side and sleeps too.

But when the nightwaking party begins, all bets are off. Sometimes one wakes and calls for me, waking the other if I don’t hear the escalating calls, and I’m back to tandem nursing them both back to bed. Maybe that is more efficient, because often after nursing one back to bed, the other wakes.

Still, I am grateful I have my iPhone and usually play some inane game or read some news offline to pass the time. I could look lovingly at them as I nurse them to sleep but it is too dark. Sometimes I do shine a bit of light on their sweet sleeping faces and think aww…

Me: Are you glad to have Kitten in your life?

Wolf nods.

Me: Why?

Wolf: Because she’s so cute!