A week of whispers!

Austin has developed his whispering skill after many a whisper in his ear that it's time for sleep! He started whispering on Thursday saying "Bababa" with and without sound and then finally working out the whisper. "Bababa" is by far his favourite word (make that sound, I can't find it in my dictionary!) and when I took him to buy some buttons for his new handknitted stripey jacket yesterday, he was whispering it over and over so I gave him a tube of buttons to shake as I carried him in the sling and told him "Yes buttons". This kid will be chatting away in no time!

He's also trying to learn a new sound at the moment. Currently every thing he says has an ah sound on it (Mamama, Bababa, Dadada, Vavava etc.) but he's been watching me very intently as I say "Ah Boo" He's got the "ah B" bit right but he's still working on the "oo". His favourite new game is peek a boo, and he now pulls his sheet (in his cot) or the rug he is lying on (on the floor) over his head and whips it down again with a huge smile waiting for me to say "Ah boo" or "There he is" after asking him "Where's Austy?" when he has his face covered.

He still watches everything we do, and after a trip to see Aunty Katy on Thursday, learned how to spin his red Fisher Price key after Jakey showed him. Before that I was blowing it around so he'd pout it to his mouth and blow a raspberry, but now Jake has showed him to hold it in one hand and flick it with the pointer on the other hand. He thinks he's ever so clever, and the red key has now taken over as his favoutite toy.

On the topic of Austy's Aunty Katy, his newest cousin is ready to enter the world any day now, as Katy is 37w pregnant. She has never lasted this long with any of her other babies, so is very excited that the babe is nearly here. She's looking very healthy, despite her illnesses and increased medication, and is definitely ALL baby! This one looks like it will be competing with Asuty as far as size goes, looking very healthy tucked up inside her belly. I had to remind Katy that Austy is almost as heavy as Jake (who is nearly 2 already!!) so if she can't pick up Jake, she shouldn't try to pick up Austy. She had to get her Austy fix though and gave him lots of cuddles.

More news: Austin has finally rolled on his own! At 6.5m he was found on his tummy at the top of his cot after Andrew popped him back to bed yesterday morning. We haven't seen him do it again, except for immediately after when I put him on the floor, and while he gets close, it seems like such an effort to haul those kgs over to get all the way onto his tummy. He often rolls to his side and then rolls back to his back again. We suspect he "cheated" and used the cot bars to pull himself the whole way yesterday, as he has rolled several times by pulling himself through the final bits of the roll by grabbing onto my fingers.

He's still a pro at eating, and his mouth has this solids bizzo worked out, but unfortunately his tummy isn't keeping up. Last week he was waking with tummy pains, and a tummy as hard as rock until I massaged it and settled him back to sleep. Against the helpline's advice we took the rice cereal out of his diet (they told me to just feed him the cereal but I was sure that was what was causing the problem) and have just fed him fruit and a little bit of veg this week, and his tummy problems have gone away. (1 point to Mum, 0 for the helpline!) I know he needs the rice cereal for iron, but I will introduce it very slowly as of next week, and no rice cereal after 10am - one of the lovely girls at my mothers group gave me this gem of advice after she had similar issues with her daughter. In the mean time, he tucks into his baby spinach mixed with sweet potato, so we know he's getting his iron there. Personally, I'm not a fan of powdered foods, and would rather feed him natural stuff like fruits and vegies which don't bloat him, but apparently all babies should have rice cereal...

On the sleep issue - now that we've resolved the waking with tummy pains, for some strange reason he has started waking hourly until midnight, crying until I pick him up then settling the instant he is close to my chest. I cuddle him for 5 minutes and then he goes back in the cot, but it has made it hard to get anything done as I'm constantly going back to his room, and then am exhausted in the morning because ther'es no point in going to bed until midnight and then he wakes again at 4am and 6:30am. I think I have kissed his beautiful 12-13hr sleeps goodbye with the onset of solids... I will be cheering when he sleeps through again.

Okay, time to go and grab the little tiger as he is again refusing his day sleep... I'll get this housework done one day, and maybe finish making Elizabeth's nappies, if I'm lucky.