Constant surprise

Rye is constantly surpising me of late with his learning.
On Friday I made some bread, finishing off the plain flour. Rye managed to get the bag off the worktop (waiting to go out into recycling) and played with it for ages, managing to get every little last grain of flour out of the bag onto the table in the kitchen and later the footstool in the lounge. He then helped himself to the baking powder from the larder. When I asked him to put it back he said "NOOOOOO" very emphatically, so I asked him if he was going to bake and he nodded. Bless.

He's also very comfortable with his room now and Friday he slept in his room for a good couple of hours for his nap. I did feel a bit at a loss though so didn't make as good of the time as I could have.

Saturday morning was beautifully peaceful; Rye's little feet slapping against the laminate as he rushed into my room upon waking and climbed into bed with me, snuggled down under the duvet and began a marthon nursing session combine with delightful snuffling snoozes. I simply adore the mornings with my little boy snuggled beside me, his small, warm hand stroking my skin as he feeds and snoozes. I love how he buries his head into my boob if I try to de-latch him before he's ready. And I love the way he will nudge my nipple with his nose and then grin at me before opening his mouth wide and latching on. I pray there will be many, many more morning nursing sessions to enjoy.

Today as been a invigorating day. Another lazy snoozy nursing morning, followed by a lazy breakfast of american pancakes with chocolate spread (I initially was thinking it was mothering Sunday lol). Phone call from J to suggest a trip down to the harbour to the farmer,fisher and creative market that is on each Sunday ensued in a rushed to finish dying my hair (purple, fed up of the grey) and then get dressed and over to J's to drive down to the harbour.

The market is quaint, small and quite expensive. There were some nice stalls but I must admit I was slightly disappointed; although I managed to buy some lovely sweet potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, leeks, mushrooms and rubarb. Mmm, rubarb crumble my favourite - oh and a few tangerines.

Today has been a good test of the Mei Tai too. While walking around the market I had Rye on my back; once we reached a quieter spot along the sea wall I allowed him down to run off some energy (while trying to curb my paranoi about the edge of the sea wall - there are barriers but the gap is, of course, at toddler height!). The tide was in so we were unable to go down onto the sands and instead walked the length of the sea wall and back again. Then once again I popped Rye on my back and J helpfully pulled up the back of the mei tai for me. He was up on my back in a jiffy much to the astonishment of a lady perhaps in her 50's. She called over to me as I walked past to say how astonished she was, and what a clever way to carry a child :) Hehehe. I wasn't the only one baby wearing either; although one was a structured back carrier and the other was a crotch dangler with a little baby. Both times it was the dad's doing the carrying too. I nearly stopped the crotch dangler dad but my natural shyness took over and I just walked past. I really don't like those type of slings because a baby's legs and spine are in an awkward position which can hinder development and strength... and as babywearing does become a bit more popular those type of carriers are unfortunately the one's that many parents find in bog standard shops. If I remember rightly, I think it's Boots that is now selling Napack Mei Tais on their online store. Woohooo.

And other news; Christine from Daisychain will be cutting out my Mei Tai next week. I'm so excited. I did ask if she could do wrap style straps but sadly she can't as she's not tested them out and said she wouldn't feel comfortable selling me a mei tai with such a large design change that had not been thoroughly tested. Still, her straps are 5 in wide so that's not too bad and I have heard so many good things about her mei tai's for toddlers - not forgetting my love for the fabric - that I asked her to continue anyway (bless she did recommend other mei tais with wrap style straps). So I should have my mei tai in a week or two - very excited indeed.

Ohh and before I forget; Rye has somewhere along the line learned the makaton sign for "please". As usual, my son had found illicit buscuits in J's house and brought them to me while asking for a buscuit. I allowed him one. Then he asked for another and I said "no". At that point he started saying "pease, pease, pease", I was so chuffed that I allowed him another buscuit and J said to me; "Was he signing please too?" at which point we realised he was. I can only assume he's picked it up from "Something Special" the Ceebbc programme. At one stage I was going to see if I could teach him baby sign language but I was never consistent enough so it never happened. I do try and do some of the signs when we sit and watch "something special"... again I just hadn't realised that he'd picked up any of the signs. Aren't kids amazing!