This weeks progress report

I thought that I would start to include a weekly report on what progress we have made as a family along our journey.

Life has settled quite a bit, the novelty of being part of something wonderful is wearing off and everyone is beginning to act out.  Child 3 shouts at me quite a lot, well almost all the time, child 1 and 2 have returned to normal behaviour pretty much, except that we see more of child 1 now than we did before child 4 arrived. Poor old Dylan the Dog is slightly psychotic and has regressed back to being a puppy in some of his behaviours especially the stealing and chewing ones. Even child 4 tells him off.

Child 2 is loving being a big brother, he who we were so concerned about in the Spring has taken this whole adding another, completely in his stride. He adores his baby brother and loves to provide all the rough and tumble a toddler requires, he even puts up with fingers being shut in a door and a door being slammed on his head!! Child 4 wanders the house when his big brother is at school calling for him and his whole face lights up and his body quivers with excitement when child 2 wakes in the morning or returns home from school.

Child 4 is definitely settling in well, he is confident in running around the house, he knows where everyone sleeps and where the bathroom is because there is nothing better than turning the taps on and leaving the water running or decorating the house in toilet roll. He laughs more and tantrums more. His speech has improved , I suspect that he could always speak fairly well, he just kept it under wraps. He calls me Mummy and all other women mum, so is differentiating between me and other women, he knows all the immediate family names. He no longer just lies in his cot waiting for someone to get him, he knows that if he calls someone will come and get him ( I may not be too impressed with this at 5.20am though!). When he is hurt he looks for me to show me instead of just carrying on. He still doesn't cry though. I spent yesterday morning moving furniture in the living room so we can now set up his toys in the middle of the floor, at last he has started to attempt to play with some toys instead of just running around. He will sit for a bedtime story and sings and dances, especially when the children are all joining in.



All in all, the last couple of weeks have gone so much better that I thought they would? I am so proud of all my children, they show so much love and resilience. I know that everything will be okay in the end.