Waterboy!

Right now I have the house to myself, with music up loud and actually have time to sit and write up blog entries, and it’s only been a couple of DAYS since the last one, not weeks!! This feels soooo weird. But Karl has taken both the boys to the home show, which I wasn’t interested in checking out after being totally bored with it last year, so thought I should make the most of actually having spare time.
I’ve been wondering just how many different nicknames Xani will get as he grows up. So far he’s had Xani or Xan (nothing more than name shortenings, but still a nickname… Xani seems to be what he gets called more than his proper name, which is probably due to my habit of shortening names where I can), Yoda (given to him by Karl when he was born because he looked very much like the Star Wars character, with his face all scrunched up and those big eyes, but he’s pretty much grown out of this one now), Quasi(modo) (this was my one, because when he hunches his shoulders, and again with those big wide eyes, he looks sooo much like the hunchback from the kids’ movie “Hunchback of Notre Dame) and then there’s “Toad” which he’s had almost since day 1, and is very much living up to at the moment. Constantly poking his tongue out, that wide-eyed look that’s almost bug-eyed, and his legs constantly kicking out like a frog/toad hopping, all gained him that nickname, but even more so is his apparent love of water! As long as he’s not too tired and grouchy and already grizzling when we start the bath, he absolutely loves it. Lies there on the little supportive ramp I bought for him (I had one for Gordy when he was a baby, and he always loved it too), and kicks like mad, arms swishing about, gurgling and cooing (and quite a few “almost” smiles), then cries when I take him out. I’ve tried him in both the baby bath and the big bath, but the bigger the space the better it seems. So I can’t wait to take him swimming for the first time! He sometimes seems to be trying to kick himself backwards off the ramp, especially if I keep my hand below his bottom so he can’t slip downwards where his face would be in the water. So it seems he’s determined to escape… probably wants to go and float like he does when I’m in the bath with him. Bath time has definitely become one of my favourite parts of the day. Even Gordy has had a bath with Xani, and yesterday, thanks to a MAJORLY horrible nappy causing him to need hosing down (the joys of being “bunged up” for a while… the aftermath is absolutely horrendous, and sooooo stinky!!), Karl got to wash him for the first time, while Xani had his first ever shower. Apparently he absolutely LOVED it, and when Karl brought him out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and snuggled against him, Xani was lying there, eyes wide, cooing quietly. A definite success Daddy!!
Another bonus that seems to happen when Xan has a bath… he has a nice big long SLEEP afterwards. I’ve noticed after most of his baths he tends to sleep longer than the usual 4 hours – quite often he sleeps for 6-8 hours afterwards, which is absolutely lovely, and now has me trying to aim his bath for later in the evening to try and get him to sleep through the night. Last night, he had his bath around 8/9pm, and didn’t wake up til about 4.30am. 7.5/8.5 hours sleep!! Of course, silly me didn’t make the most of it by getting an early night, and didn’t get to sleep til just after 1am, but I think that might change if this is going to become a regular thing. We’ll see!Well, time to try and quickly get one of my other blogs updated as the boys will be back shortly… it still feels really weird (but most definitely in a GOOD way! *s*) saying boys/sons etc, LOL!