Saturday shorts

Six Saturday night short excerpts from Alice at seventeen months:

1. During the pre-bedtime cuddle, I'll often wind her - from habit rather than a genuine need. She leans over my shoulder and pats and winds me right back.

2. Some nights she shh's us back as we are leaving the room. Her finger is usually firmly hooked in one nostril, rather than over her lips, but she has good intentions.

3. By day, she can now get through most of a meal on her own with her spoon, which makes dining together much more satisfying since everyone can actually dine. Tonight's shepherds pie, "per-pie", and peas were consumed with minimal assistance. This is a good milestone.

4. In other table manners news, the nice daycare ladies have taught her to put her spoon in her bowl when she has finished and to pass her plate. We are a long way from the old days of projectile food spitting and throwing things on the floor, thank goodness.

5. She is generous with her kisses and will press her mouth to your cheek, then pull back and say "mwah". It's pretty damp, but heartfelt and appreciated. Enthusiasm did build to a point today where I had to ask her to refrain from using teeth and/or tongues.

6. She yells "poo" at the top of her voice every time I use a public convenience. When corrected, she simply hollers, "weeeee-eeee?" until we leave the vicinity. I have started to wait until we get home.

...t...

This week's blog is brought to you by the sound of a small person practising the letter "T", (as in "cat", "seat", "Weet-bix") and the number 2 (screeching "two" when both lifts at Myer were showing that they were on level 2. She had no other reason to say the word - my child obviously is a genius or just screeching, who knows).

With regards to last week's profanity, we're hopeful she won't start practising swear words that end in T...

Eating

In Alice's defence: walking - she'll get there. When it comes to eating, on the other hand, she's now brilliant. Gone are the days of throwing it across the kitchen and here are the days of placing the spoon nicely in her bowl when she has finished (please blog-gods don't curse me for typing this..!)

We met an 18 month old this week who will still only eat pureed food. Nothing but Rafferty's Garden or Ella's Kitchen squeezey stuff. Yes, he's running about, but it just shows that they all have their "thing". You rarely see a grown adult tucking into carrot, apple and sweetcorn mush or popping out to the shops in a kneeling position, so all these "things" must pass. In a special roll call of Alice's food achievements, this week's varied menu has included special egg rice (not fried), pork chow mein, chicken nuggets, fish cakes, spag bol, spinach and ricotta ravioli with pesto and parmesan and the usual copious portions of peas. I should add that all of these meals were homemade with indgredients from the farmers market - I am not simply trying to earn loyalty points at the local Chinese takeaway. Much to her father's chagrin, most probably. He must also lament that Alice will still not eat fish fingers or alphabetti spaghetti, as I am trying for us all to eat the same meal wherever possible.

This morning the blogged and the blogger went out for a coffee and babycino. Alice can now manage most of the babycino by herself with a spoon, so it is a very pleasant and sociable experience, sitting side by side, babbling and watching the world go by. Picking up the cup at the end to drink the milk went awry this morning, but hey ho, it was someone else's floor. And she still chose a rice cake over a bit of my cookie. This really can't last, but it's good while it does.

Walking

Ha ha, fooled you.

If only.

She can nearly say "walk" though, which is definite progress.

Actually yesterday, I attended my regular meeting of the Mothers whose Toddlers won't Toddle support group (my mothers group friend Anna, who works in the next building and I have a coffee sometimes. We carry notepads and pens and pretend that we are holding meetings). Personally, I don't think Anna is a bona fide member, as Little Friend Clare will walk between her parents, even if nowhere else, but I humour her. So we exchanged complaints about how we can't take the littlies out, even when it stops raining, as their knees would get wet; compared bicep muscles and had chocolate cake. I felt much better afterwards.

I thought that in tracking her development, I would take a little film of her knee walking. She is really the fastest knee walker on the block; it is a sight to behold. However, the excerpt below in fact contains an illustrated history of the last week or so in the life of Alice at 17 months minus 5 days.

1. She is getting more confident in her standing - look! one hand! (although there is a slight collapse halfway)
2. She tries to repeat the word "walk" and you can see how it and other words ending in "k" might all sound the same/ like a rude word to a sceptical ear
3. She spies some starlings on the balcony - compared to the usual size of birds, they are "babies". So she is calling out "baby" or "bubby", as the Aussies say, for some time. What the daycare report would call "random and rhythmical babbling". I provide a more sympathetic ear
4. Amazingly, there are two birds there at the time she yells "two". I am sure she doesn't mean it, but you can see my hand shake as I debate whether to move the camera to prove this to you, the viewer. Then I realise that the rest of the lounge is even more untidy than the bit you can see, so I decide not to.
5. Ever affectionate, she is always delighted to come over for a cuddle, which leads us finally to
6. The knee walking. Faster than a speeding bullet.

Wildlife Warrior

Raining and miserable today, so just a few pics of Alice enjoying the natural world. From behind glass, but once you see the first lot of pictures, you'll agree that was the best place for her.



Oblivious


Better viewed from the safety of Dad's arms, once she realised that Jaws was behind her




We feed the birds on the balcony each morning, but usually only attract a few Mynah birds. Slightly bedraggled lorakeets are much more entertaining, not to mention resilient to Alice banging on the window and yelling, "Birds".



She takes after her great-Grandmother as a keen birdwatcher..

In case our (or let's face it, my) parenting skills are in any doubt from the past few posts...ha ha my daughter swears, ho ho, my daughter is accustomed to seeing me drink wine…I thought I would post Alice's report from daycare today. Feeling very proud of this little one.

She's been able to do elephant impressions for a couple of months now, but feeding herself AND getting more in her mouth than down her front is a relatively recent skill. Nonetheless, one we're strongly encouraging.

"Once again the independent reading will be a main feature in our room, to encourage developing language skills and abilities observed amongst the children. We will be introducing a variety of books, to allow for exposure to many different themes and prompting. This week we are focusing on animal based picture books, as the children are familiar and aware of many different types of animals, their names and their associated sounds. We explore new sounds and words as we respond verbally, through random and rhythmical babbling.

Alice is an avid reader amongst our Turtles, and does enjoy a good book! Today was no exception with reading of the Sea Creatures and then the one about Safari Animals, to which she responded with an exceptional Elephant Noise and Action. All part of Alice’s language development, to which she is building upon every day."







"Turtles would like to congratulate their newest graduates to the table at meal times, Alice and Arabella. Who both did a fabulous job at trying out their self help skills of feeding themselves, whilst sitting with their friends on the ‘Big Chairs’. This is a great progress in their steady transition to expressing their independence and in preparation to moving to the older rooms at a later date. "

...ck...

By George, she's got it - finally the "ck" sounds escapes Alice's lips. Bless her little Cotton soCKs, she can now ask for Cuddles (rather than "duddles" [generic, anyone picking her up will do], "muddles" [a cuddle from Mummy] or "daddles" [a cuddle from Daddy]), accurately describe duCKs and booKs, and provide a running commentary during a power cut each time the outer hallway light-on-a-60 second-auto-off-switch went out (annoyingly often when you have your head in a fuse box): "darK".

She is so excited by this new sound that she practises it at every opportunity, combined with whatever other group of letters and enunciations that take her fancy - they don't have to be real words and they don't have to be words that she has heard before - she just babbles away, rhapsodising on a theme of "CK".

Mostly it's cute. Yesterday however, in a twist of fate, one of the daycare ladies remarked that Alice, during one of these oratories, had "dropped the f-bomb".

At 16 months! Ah, the shame.

Farmers Market

We've had a lovely morning today, at the local Farmers Market with Little friend Cora and her Mammy.

There were stalls bedecked with fresh produce for the Mums, a petting farm for the littlies and a playground for more thrills and spills.

Today is the coldest day of the year so far (15 degrees with a 7 degree windchill factor for the UK sceptics out there - you try that with no central heating) so Alice and I got wrapped up before heading out to explore. I put on a scarf and everything.

Alice and Cora happily munched on samples of grain-reared sausages, toast with pesto, marinated goats cheese and gingerbread men [please insert the words, "organic" and "very expensive if you buy them rather than fill up on them" in front of each foodstuff] as we browsed the stalls, throwing dollar after dollar at the kind stallholders. I was a little disappointed when I discovered that the pesto was made at a shop down the road in Bronte, rather than on a farm, but overcame my disappointment when I tried their cheese ravioli with truffle cream. Mmmmm.
The farm animals were met with "Moos" and "Baas" of appreciation from young Alice and it was all I could do to stop her feeding one of the bunnies a newly purchased baby carrot through the fence. Finally, we went to the playground to make sure that Alice's new jeans could gain that much desired faded look as she tootled about.

Alice is quite obsessed with her new coat with the flowery buttons (as well as her new Mohican?!) but managed to stop playing with the buttons for long enough to ride the slide, the see-saw and climb all over the place.

Deanz

Alice loves her jeans and is never happier than at the weekend, when we can all usually be found in our denim. She will scoot about from leg to leg, pointing to our "Deanz".

As the knee walking continues, her trousers are really tested to the max. Endurance-wise, an eBay pair lasted about 5 months, while George at Asda could only supply a leg covering to last about 6 weeks. Since she loves them so much, I have been putting patches over the rips and even darning holes, but still they fall apart.

Here, Alice bemoans the sad demise of her "Deanz"


And models her new dark denim pair from "Tar-zhay"


Alice wears Target

Perhaps ripped jeans are trendy again (you'd be asking the wrong person here) but I feel that her little knees need the protection when we are out and about.

Who's a clever girl, then?!

Extracts from Alice today:
1. Pointed at my earrings and said, "earrings"
2. After being introduced to the word, "shapes" through her bathtime shape sorter yesterday, she today, sat in the batt and asked for, "shapes"
3. Pointed at my Chicago Cubs nightdress (who said romance is dead?!) and announced, "bear"
4. Mummy and Auntie Jill had a little glass of wine while the little ones had their dinner today. Alice pointed at the glass and said, "Mummy's".

Queens Birthday Weekend in pictures

Alice has had a lovely few days en famille, over the June long weekend.

There was a bike ride with Dad (no photos because Mario Testino here was having a lie-in) and other activities, including:

Swimming...

[usually I just have one Yardley looking away from the camera, so this is quite a coup...]

Chatting to Nanna on the phone

Reading on her playmat

A trip to an indoor playcentre with Litte Friends Lila, Marley and Izzie

Roast dinner at Auntie Cate's - Alice loved the potatoes au gratin and the Maisie video that was playing to keep her quiet...until someone switched it off.

Righteous indignation with accompanying hand gestures

And breakfast out with Mummy for a treat.

The holiday continues, as we are currently preparing a hearty late lunch for Auntie Sarah and Uncle Nick. Young Alice is napping and preparing for the ensuing adulation and adoration that four adults in her house will bring...

Home movies

It's take a little while to get around to posting these - I've had to do some actual work during naptimes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so have been neglecting the blog.

This is from 3-4 weeks ago. It's not her greatest performance, but cute nonetheless. [For any curious onlookers - we are being ecologically sound by keeping her in the baby bath and using less water. She'll be graduating to the big bath soon though - she's had a little growth spurt and is getting quite tall. She gets that from me.]

And this from last week - we were waiting in the car, while Daddy went off to buy a pie.

Daycare reports

We received these updates from Alice's playgroup this week. They came in a daily report including lots of stories of finger painting etc, where Alice did not appear. You, the loyal fans, will only be interested in our little starlet, so please find abbreviated version of the daily report below.

Pop Turtles

We have continued on with the Pop Turtle resources for a couple weeks now, as the children showed a great deal of interest in them, independently engaging in play episodes around the turtles and their press pop function. As we press each shape one by one we are extending upon our co-ordination and strength in our hands and fingers. With each shape pressed we get closer to the POP of the Turtles head. Alice banged each shape button with an open palm, laughing out loud when the Turtles head finally went POP! This is a great extension upon our cognitive problem solving skills, as we establish an understanding of process and sequencing.

Group Story Time - ‘Up, Down and Around’

We read about all the different ways things grow this morning, for our lunch time group story. As we talked about how some plants grow up, up high, Alice responded by pointing her hands up into the air saying ‘up high’. With the visual prompting of the pictures, we are developing our language skills and abilities. This is also a lovely social time as we are encouraged to interact as a whole group, which follows on into our meal time.

Back to my voice now...note that group story time takes place in highchairs now, so that the other babies don't have to peer around Alice's head to see the pictures!