10 things about Duncan

continuing on from last post, having been tagged by Lora to write 10 things about our kids, I started with Matthew yesterday, and will now do Duncan. My oldest. My Big Boy.

1. Duncan is my oldest son, but not my firstborn. He was 2 weeks early and arrived just 13 months after our son Andrew died.
It was a pregnancy that was filled with a lot of stress, anxiety and complicated further by me having the worst boss in the world and making my job an absolute nightmare. thankfully that boss resigned, and I left work 2 months before my due date so I could prepare myself both physically and mentally for our newest arrival. My doctor insisted that I was having a large baby - approaching the 10lb mark as I consistently measured large, and was measuring full term nearly a month ahead of my due date.
When he arrived (2 wks early) he was 6lbs 15 oz - and silent due to a traumatic face up delivery that caused deep gashes to his head and bruises all across the front of his face. His initial apgars were 3 and 3.

2. Within a few days our baby boy was home and looking every bit the angel we thought he was . Ok he looked like a little old man, but he was still beautiful to me. He went back into the hospital at 4 days old with severe jaundice and stayed under the bili lights. I cried. but he was fine.

3. After such a rough start, he was remarkably healthy - never ever sick, and although he hugged the small end of the charts up until this year (where he is average now) he grew steadily, and amazed us with his talents. He began to recognize letters before a year old. His first letter was "o". He was putting lego together at 14 months and could say his alphabet before he was 2.

4. Duncan was named after "The Highlander". We both loved the name, and the character is pretty cool, and since Duncan comes from a Scottish background, it seemed appropriate. Family wasn't exactly thrilled with the name at first, but I think it's grown on them. Duncan could not be anything BUT a Duncan now.

5. He taught himself how to tell time when he was 3. He was very enthusiastic about it at first, and fascinated that the numbers on the clock seemed to correlate with the time - he figured out that the big hand on 12 was an indicator of the hour mark, and on the 6 it was the 1/2 hour mark, and that the small hand told you which hour it was. Pretty clever I'd say. He loves numbers and was always asking me to count with him every night before bedtime. One night he got up to 200, and then stopped and told me that 300 was next, then 400, 500 etc etc, but it took too long to count up that high, so he was just going to do 200. I have no doubt that he can count up to 1000+ - he understands numbers like no 4 yr old I've ever seen. His daddy was a math major in university, so he comes by his affection for numbers quite honestly.

6. He loves to tell knock knock jokes.

7. He loves tools of any kind - and emulates his dad constantly, building, drilling, sawing, using screwdrivers. He is very quick to pick up a new skill, provided he is interested in it.

8. He loves water, and playing in water. He has always loved playing with the garden house out the back, and for a few years now has gotten new hose nozzles from Santa, that he loves. He has a collection of at least 12 different hose nozzles in various colours and shapes that he keeps track of. He used to sleep with his nozzles, but has realized that they aren't really very comfortable under one's pillow, so a special 'nozzle bin' will suffice.

9. Duncan is left-handed like mummy and daddy. this was VERY evident by the time he was a year old. While they say that kids don't develop a hand preference until they are 2 and often 3 yrs old, we knew Duncan was a lefty very early on.

Duncan at about 7 months:


10. He became a big brother at 14 months old, and has had his own built in best friend/worst enemy for over 3-1/2 years now. He does not recall being an only child, and was only jealous for about a week. He's a pretty laid back kid most of the time, but when he has a tantrum look out - they are magnificent! Oh, and he can run. He can run fast. He can run as fast as Dash from the Incredibles. He IS Dash. he told me so.

Again, I'm sure I could do 20 things are more. In case you haven't figured it out, I love talking about my kids.
Duncan in particular is brilliant, sensitive, loving, silly, quick witted, but quick tempered, and a champion for 'fairness' and equality. He is my joy, my boy who still occasionally wants me to sing him to sleep, who takes delight in figuring something out for himself, who longs to "be 40lbs" so he can get out of the 5 pt harness carseat, but at the same time wants me to carry him to bed because "I'm not 40lbs yet mummy". He tells me 'secrets' that consist of "I love you mummy" which melts my heart.
He holds a special place in my heart,

and I love him unconditionally with all my heart.