Mischief and Makaton

Having three kids usually means our house is a constant hive of manic activity and I rarely stop to notice the relationships building between siblings. This last couple of weeks however I have really seen such a big change in the way Rosie and Joe interact. If she starts crying he is the first one there to offer comfort. He will happily put his beloved train set aside to sit and play with her, they make each other proper belly laugh and its become apparent to me that their relationship will only continue to flourish as they cotton on that they share the same mischievous nature (already dreading the teenage years!)

Karen has started doing Makaton (signing) classes now and has been attempting to teach me a bit too, in fact its become quite fun and the boys seem to be embracing it too which is great. I was extremely proud of the new words I'd learned to sign and put them together to make the sentence, "Play ball outside with Daddy" – totally useless to Rosie as she can't even crawl yet! I have been persevering with "Daddy" though and it seems to be paying off as she attempts to do the sign by tapping her fingers to her hand and saying Dadda! I've tried to capture it in some pictures below.

Rosie had her first visit to the dentist last week and I'm happy to report they were pleased with her entire set of 'tooth' (a half sized one at that!). As odd as a visit to the dentist seems when your child only has one tooth it is reassuring to know there was no cause for concern around the gums etc. Below is a picture of the bud proudly showing of her first dentist's sticker!

Saturday saw Rosie getting her first flu jab and whilst I wasn't there at the time Karen tells me she was extremely brave and only cried for about 15 seconds. We were informed that she might be a bit grouchy but she didn't appear too bad throughout the day. She did wake up coughing that night though and couldn't settle herself so I took her back downstairs and sat her on my lap until the coughing calmed again. I really cannot remember the last time we shared such a long time cuddling as she is usually so lively, including bedtime. It's even more rare that she falls asleep on me – this time however, when the cough subsided she looked at me for a few seconds with those ridiculously cute big brown eyes of hers then placed her head on my chest and went back to the land of nod...such a special moment – I wish it could have lasted forever.

Stares and Slides

Since I last wrote Rosie's had a few unsettled nights waking with a cough, she's also constantly putting her hands in her mouth so we're pretty sure she's teething again. We're not overly concerned about the cough because it isn't affecting her in the daytime but we'll be keeping a close eye on it as the colder weather creeps back in, hoping we don't have a repeat of last winter where most of December (including Christmas) was spent in hospital with Bronchiolitis. When she does awake coughing it seems the only way to settle her is cuddles with Mummy. After 15 minutes Mummy time she's put back to bed and tends to remain calm for the rest of the night – I'm beginning to think she's employing 'stay up late' tactics as taught by her older brothers but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now!

We enjoyed a visit this weekend from some of the London branch of the family which was great. As the family expands and grows older it becomes increasingly harder to see each other, making the time we do spend together all the more valuable. We had a great time catching up and sharing stories of all the new things the kids are up to. Saturday was spent at a farm allowing all the kids to run riot in the huge play area. Although Rosie wasn't running around she still had loads of fun and even took a trip down the slide with Harry. After a few goes we decided to try her by herself (I held on of course), and after a cautious start she was soon whizzing down with her trade mark smile and giggling!

Today Rosie had a visit from her physio and they're really pleased with the progress she's making with her leg strength. Karen tells me she wasn't so keen to do much else though and when the physio put her into the crawling position she just planted her face into the carpet and refused to move – then gave 'that stare' which shows clear signs of a stubborn (but still cheeky) side developing. Rosie is becoming a bit of a master of facial expressions. Those of you that follow the Facebook page too will have seen I posted a picture of her 'get what I want' look and to follow that up I've included a picture below of her executing it perfectly on me...the little darling.