I do have other photos, but I just came across these and thought to myself "I must post _something_ on the blog!!" The girls are neglected too. Life is so hectic, but for good reasons, but I know it'll be nice to look back at some pictures and remember how it was, so I'm trying to make the effort, to do it at least sometimes....
Herbie is totally lovely at the moment (apart from when he wakes us at night, which is usually only once or so at the moment, unless you consider 530am to be the middle of the night, which I do even though he sometimes thinks it's morning...). His language is starting to take off, mainly with single words, (hot, poo, chocolate, up, bike, bang, shoe... all the essentials!) but he seems so capable at communicating with us by taking my hand, dragging me off somewhere and pointing, that he probably doesn't really see the point... I would really appreciate him talking a bit more though as we might avoid the tantrums if we could communicate better. He seems to understand almost everything we say to him.
He loves just going out and walking. Touching everything and trying to walk on every different surface. Running a lot. Climbing on things. Copying everything his sisters do. I am usually dashing somewhere, so this does lead to conflict on occasion... but fortunately he has a completely wonderful babysitter called Zita, who patiently takes him wherever he wants to go. He has a great time with her.
Herbie seems to be constantly hungry - his favourite things to eat are kiwi, banana, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, yoghurt, cereal, soup, broccoli, he tolerates pasta, which is of course his sisters' favourite so that's a relief. He's getting really big now, but still finds our numerous stairs a bit tiresome and likes to be carried up and down them...hopefully he'll get better that soon because he is so heavy.
I'm mainly amazed at how quickly he seems to pick things up. I think that this may in contrast to his sisters who are very good at selective hearing, whereas Herbie doesn't seem to need to be told very often before he gets the message. Just a few weeks ago, he kept climbing on the table, but now he's stopped. He won't sit in his high chair anymore, which makes it difficult to keep him still at the dinner table, but he's not too bad if the girls are sitting still too (which happens for about 1 minute per meal..).
Mainly we are exhausted keeping up with him, but he's a delightful bundle of energy to have to chase around.
