Friday 24 July 2009

The Kids Part Three: JoJo

Ah, the beautiful JoJo! A joy and delight to us all, most especially to his adoring Papy and Mamie who will be very sad at his departure. It is interesting how well he gets on with them both, especially compared to the girls. He will run over to Papy, and I don't think it is solely for his biscuits! The other day he practically ran down the stairs dragging me with him in order to sit on Mamie's knee!

Bertie took JoJo to the dispensaire for his final check up last week. Vital statistics:
10.3 kg (a bit under the half way line, so he is no longer a big boy!)
82 cm (over the half way line)
I forget head circumferenc and who is bothered anyway except the French health system?!
Bertie took him this time and returned to tell me that JoJo had had two vaccinations, much to my horror! He received the second MMR and the DPT booster, which according to my red book are for 3-5 year olds. I worried over this and crazy french doctors for a while then was relieved to read online that the second MMR can be given a month after the first. He will just need one more vaccination (pneumaccochal) when we are back then that is him done for many years! (Barring swine flu of course...)

He is definitely taking after his daddy in most features, very slim and with a definite M head! His hair is riotous curls now, I had to cut the fringe a bit as it was down to his nose! I think he could be mistaken for a girl (LissaLou was playing hairdressers with him today and had it tied up! Nevermind, he will just look like his maternal grandfather...). He has so many teeth, possibly only two left to come through. And the loveliest smile, that still crinkles up his little face and puts a horizontal crease between his blue eyes. (Do words convey the same effect that one little photo would?)

Food - JoJo is his grandparents' (and parents') delight as he eats more or less everything and with such gusto and enjoyment! He feeds himself pretty much entirely now (ironically we still have to feed CassCass and occasionally LissaLou!) and will not start his meal until he has his fork in his hand. He loves drinking out a proper cup now, though does spill it a bit. Still a morning and evening breastfeed. He enjoys it so much (!) and I figured it would make flying and settling into the UK a bit easier for him. And me!

Movement - JoJo doesn't walk now, he runs! A funny little toddling run all around the place! He is constantly investigating here and there, following chicks and people, and to my horror crawling up the stairs and bumshuffling back down again. He is very confident and will go anywhere, or climb anything. The French word for him is casse-tete which I find very appropriate! He has plenty of war wounds, which may have worried me if he were the firstborn but just seem par for the course now.

Playing - JoJo is perfectly happy entertaining himself, if people let him get on with it. They don't usually though. That spoil sport mother of his is always taking him off the stairs, his sisters always remove the toys, his grandparents always shout to get away from the water etc. Honestly....
He is getting interested in Happyland now and likes placing objects in boxes etc. He has also done a couple of scribbles.

Reading - still loves it! Particularly anything with animals. His latest favourite book is the one mum and I made following our trip to London Zoo last year. He moos his way through it, despite there not being one cow within, and gets very excited with the penguins!

Speech - not a lot happening here. Well, there probably is a lot happening, but it is still all internal so not a lot to report! LissaLou is always telling me he said this or that, and he does occasionally repeat a sound. I think he repeated JoJo and he repeats rhythms accurately. He still does a great lion roar. His most regular word is Amen! after we have said grace! It is more like AhhhhMennnn!

GBH - plenty of this. He is constantly thwacking his poor sisters, particularly annoying in the car when we are limited to stop him. We are considering sticking him on his own in the third row...! He loves banging his hands down, with or without something within. First thing in the morning (we are talking before 6am) he will climb on Bertie and jog up and down and then....THWACK! throw his whole body and arms down on his poor father! We can definitely see the difference between girls and boys, he is so much more physical and daring, even than CassCass was.

Obedience - life is certainly a lot simpler with a 16 month old, but you can already see that glint in his eye as he redoes the action that you just said a very firm no to.... Won't be too long till another one will be learning about the merits of obedience!

4 comments:

evie winter said...

Ahh what a joy to read about the kids and how they are, should be very useful. Cass never struck me as the sensitive type - bless her!
It will be so so lovely to have my girls and Jojo back, I spend far to mach time in the company of everyone else's kids, most of seems to be threatening time out. My main ammunition to get them to behave - being less violent and to listen more! Only two more weeks!!!!

Grandma said...

I'm thinking of doing a book called 'Happyland on the High Seas'!
Looking forward to getting to kknow JoJo all over again.
Yesterday I got the high chair out for him and the box of toys.Soon I will be getting out the travel cot and Lissa's pink sleeping bag. I need to get another for CassCass.

Hevs said...

I am sure that everyone else's children will be all the better because of it!
Like the title mum! We could always borrow a sleeping bag for CassCass, that is, if she doesnt sneak her way into our bed for even more reassurance!!

Susan said...

Happy anniversary! xxx