This is going to be my second to last monthly update for Indiana; can you believe she's going to be TWO next month! I still haven't got my head around it, and if I'm honest I'm trying not to think about it so much, as it makes me so sad haha.

This month Indie has grown up even more. The 'terrible two's have most definitely arrived - although those days are mostly thrown in between the most amazing days ever! She is learning, growing and changing each day and doesn't stop for a minute. She has quite a temper on her, and is a stubborn little madam just like her mummy, but on the flip side, she's also the most loving child I know.

At the moment she's loving playdoh, colouring, Bing, dancing, jumping and using her imagination. She plays so well independently, making her toys 'talk' and making them do things. She carries around crayons and always wants to colour, her grip holding a pencil is quite advanced according to Jack (he works at a nursery so knows these things haha).

I'm always told that at nursery she loves messy play - the sand pit, water table,etc - and seems to be the leader of the pack now she's one of the oldest children in her room. Her new game when we're out is plane spotting and jumping on manhole covers/drains. Everytime we see a plane we have to wave to it and say hello/bye, and we must jump on every drain we see too haha.

We have plenty of new words again this month too. She still refers to herself as 'you' although she knows her name is Indiana haha. She must have picked this up from us pointing her out in pictures saying it, so now we try our hardest to refer to her as Indiana. She can also say: feet, hands, toes, bum, Jack (much to his annoyance haha), penguin, coat, plane, spider, toys, oi (not so keen on that one either haha), there, that way, fix it, gone, finishes, tissue, phone, door, what's that?, wash, hair, bless you - after you sneeze, pardon you - after someone burps haha, toast and grape. She also calls Cbeebies 'beebies' which is rather cute!

Eating has really improved recently as she's eating lots more food than she was; particularly pasta, which she wouldn't even touch before! Sleep has taken a turn for the worse though. We think she's teething again which is making her wake up, and get up earlier than her newborn baby brother!

The final 'new' thing this month is that we've stopped bottles. We knew we wanted her off the by the time she was 2 so decided to take the plunge. We've been offering her milk in a sippy cup/straw cup but she's not interested. Luckily she has lots of dairy in her diet anyway to make up for it. We started off offering water instead in her bottles to wean her off of them, but she doesn't even touch it! We're not sure if it's affecting her sleep, but I suppose we'll find out haha.

We're so so proud of how well Indiana is doing; especially having to adjust to being a big sister, and now just our only priority. She's taking it all in her stride though; and when she turns to her Parker and says 'love you bubba' we know we have nothing to worry about!

What was your little one up to at 23 months? Any tips for getting her to drink milk in a cup?

Parker's 2 Month Update

This update is slightly late due to being SO busy with our wedding, but Parker turned 2 months old on the 4th October! I last had him weighed at 6 weeks old and he was 10lb 7oz (although I'm sure he's much heavier now), and was 56cm long. He's in 0-3 month clothing now which fits nicely in the length but is still slightly baggy, depending on which shop they're from.

We had our final Health Visitor check this month and she was really pleased with his development and weight gain. We won't be seeing her again now which I'm happy about; they're so bloody nosy haha. We were also discharged from the hospital. Parker was born with a slight heart murmur that needed to have further check ups. But after waiting 2 hours at the hospital, for a 5 minute appointment (that was great fun!), it's healed by itself so he's perfectly healthy.

He is dealing much better with his wind now he's getting bigger. He's still having gripe water, but we also made the switch to the comfort version of Cow & Gate. We used this with Indiana and saw massive improvement, and it's seemed to have worked it's magic again! He's now taking between 4/5oz every 3/4 hours.

Colic isn't as much of a problem any more either. The only time he ever really gets very upset is if he's overtired or just wants a snuggle. However at the moment he has been needing extra snuggles due to a nasty cold, courtesy of his big sister. We took him to the doctors on Monday and our poorly boy is now on amoxicillin to try and clear it up.

Before getting ill we were really getting somewhere with tummy time/play time and sleep. He was really starting to enjoy laying on his playmat looking at his toys (bashing them was his new trick), and himself in the mirror. He was also sleeping for bigger chunks at night too which was amazing! He usually settles for the evening after his 7pm(ish) bottle. We then feed him at 10pm just before we get in bed - kind of a dream feed as we try not to change his nappy or disturb him too much - and he has been sleeping until 4/5am, and has even gone until 6.30am a couple of times. We're hoping he goes back to this when he's feeling better.

That's about it for this month. He's still absolutely loving watching his big sister, and gives the biggest, sweetest side smiles I've ever seen! He was such a good boy at our wedding and was happy to have snuggles from everybody there, and slept the best he ever has for Jack's parents... not that I'm jealous at all haha.