Arthur is 30 months old

As is becoming the normal for me these days, this post is a little late!  
At least this month I’ve had Christmas as an excuse!  So anyway, Arthur is 30 months old,  2.5 years.  Crazy.

For most of this month, we’ve had Mark home with us.  Arthur has absolutely loved it.  Every time Mark is off work, Arthur and him get a little closer, it’s always so lovely to watch.  Daddy is definitely big favourite right now!!  

We’ve had so much lovely family time together with trips to the vallee de Mai, going to the pool and lots of trips to the beach.

Right at the end of term before Mark finished for Christmas, Arthur was starting to get very restless.  We were fighting nap times, more on that in another post!  He was also quite often acting up to get attention.  It was tough, we all needed the Christmas holidays!  Once Mark was home, Arthur’s behaviour improved massively.  I have put it down to Arthur needing more stimulation.  I’ve given myself quite a hard time over it all, but I have to be realistic, with Freddie still being so small I can’t give Arthur all of the stimulation he needs all the time.  It’s times like these where I wish we had clubs or classes for little kids here, or even an indoor soft play place!
 *i can feel all you uk mamas cringing at the mention of soft play, but you have to admit it’s a great way for kids to burn off all that energy in a confined area!!!*  
I think once Freddie is able to sit up by himself I will be able to take them both to the beach to run around but right now it’s just not really do-able! 

I think Arthur’s “bad behaviour” has also been about testing limits, all normal for a toddler I’m sure.  It’s frustrating for me when I know he knows he’s not supposed to do something but he goes and does it anyway.   When he does he’s watching me the whole time to see how I react.  It’s difficult to remain consistent ALL the time, particularly if I’m feeding Freddie at the time but I’m trying my best!  It’s been much easier with having Mark home!

Apart from our cheeky monkey testing his limits (i’ll use that phrase as opposed to “being a little shit” which is the phrase I have been using of late!) Arthur continues to be so loving and so funny.  He is still so so gorgeous with Freddie which I can’t get enough of. He loves making Freddie smile and laugh and loves to give him cuddles and kisses.
His smile can turn my mood around in an instant – I think he knows that too!!

Arthur’s speech is getting so good, we can’t believe how much it’s come on!

Obviously this month there has been lots of build up to Christmas.  We did our decorating right at the start of December so as to help build the excitement for Arthur (and us obviously!).  It was really amazing to see Arthur beginning to grasp the idea of Christmas, although he definitely still did not totally get it!  He has loved our Christmas tree and all the decorations, he also loved leaving a mince pie out for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve.  
I think he found Christmas Day pretty overwhelming.  On reflection it’s quite intense!  He loved seeing all the presents under the tree but didn’t quite get that they were to be opened, we then had presents to open with our parents on Skype which is quite a lot for him to deal with.  At the end of the day he enjoyed going back to things and checking our all his new toys on his own terms!!  

We are now 100% nappy free for Arthur, even at night time.  I am so proud of how well he has done, it really is quite amazing!  I wrote a post on our potty training journey and shared a few tips if you want to check it out! 

What Arthur is loving this month

In perfect timing, for the festive season, Arthur’s current favourite movie is….. Hotel Transylvania *typical Arthur to go against the grain!*  

I actually think this movie is pretty good too, I’m looking forward to getting the second one for him to watch too!

Arthur is really starting to get into his Duplo, he has a few different sets now; a little airport, a pirate island and a little farm.  

Climbing.  This boy is amazing at climbing.  His most recent obsession is climbing on top of our car.  Right up on the roof.  Pretty dangerous, but also pretty impressive!!! I snapped this picture quickly before I had to tell him off for getting up on the car, again, hence the rubbish quality of the pic! Isn’t it so hard to tell him off when he does things like this because I find it so funny!