Talking is such fun, and other stories

Over the Christmas period Nathan has started talking nineteen-to-the-dozen. His repetoire now includes:

Bye bye! See you!

WOW! Look at that!

Ki-Kyu (thank you)

Car!

NO!

More!

Uppie!

Down!

Mama!

NiNi (Daddy - don't ask, I don't know how NiNi is Daddy, but it is!)

Nel!

Oupa!

Tata!

Wear this! (handing you some or other item of clothing)

Shoes!

Oink

Moo

Miaow

And yes, nearly everything is followed by an exclamation mark.

The cutest use of words this past week has got to be when he handed me a smelly, dirty sock and said, "Shoes! Wear this!" and then got VERY upset with me when I refused. Sweet child!

He continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. This weekend we measured him and he is taller at 19 months than his sister was at 2 years. He's wearing size 8 shoes (and they're on the tight/ small size), and his clothes are now in the 3-4yrs category. Yup. At 19 months. I have no idea how we're going to keep this child in clothes if he continues to grow at this rate, so if any of you parents of boys out there want to pass on any unused clothing our way, I would be most grateful!

Still - he brings such joy into my life that I can't help but love him - or maybe he brings such joy into my life because I love him....

Snip, snip, snip

The Dec hols are my traditional once-a-year luxury of a professional hair-cut. (I simply don't have the money to spend to have my hair cut every 2 months or so - do you know how expensive even the most basic haircut is for a woman? Yet another reason why Jewish men pray daily to thank God for not being a woman. *rueful smile*)

So this year, I decided it was time for a COMPLETE change... and I cut it all off.

I haven't had short hair since 2000, so it's taking a while to get used to - I keep reaching for the ponytail that isn't there. I'm loving it though! Now I remember why I chopped it all off a decade ago. I'm going to have to find a nice cheap hairstylist who will keep it short for me. If you know of anyone, let me know!

There are more photos of the kids' hair cuts on Nellie's blog.