15 mths+

Can I brag?
I don't even know if it's something to brag about but what the hey. Yesterday Boo was playing with the drawer where we keep the tools. She noticed the screwdrivers and started playing with them. And then she saw the big screwdriver I'd used maybe a month ago to replace the batteries in one of her toys. She picked it up, marched up to the same toy and began trying to unscrew the compartment for the batteries. I'm so impressed she remembers exactly what to do with it!

Must stop swearing in front of her now. Right now.

Oh one more thing: I noticed today that she's learned to hold her crayon properly, as if she's about to write, instead of gripping it like a sausage she's about to scoff. Hurray Boo! Have taken a pic of it with the new mobile phone.

Alex and I have upgraded our crappy phones - what an annoyance. For years I've never had to worry about anyone wanting to steal my phone because its scratched, canary-yellow plastic shell would surely only appeal to maybe a three-year-old with bad taste. Now I have to worry in case some ASBO child casts its eyes on its 2MP camera.

But it was a sweet deal. My monthly tariff for the first year is working out at about £7.50 a month, for which I get er... I haven't worked it out entirely. I only know it included enough texts and minutes for talking each month. And I've spent £3 of my free £5 for music downloads already (Razorlight's Golden Touch, Jose Gonzalez's Heartbeats and the Black Eyed Peas' My Hump if you were wondering).

On the plus side I may be able to blog straight from the phone in the future. Once I work out how to do it. It's taken all of an hour and a half to work out how to transfer music files to the phone. The £35 1GB memory stick looks very alluring now as the 64MB one that came with the phone is only managing to hold 16 songs.

Anyway back to Boo.

We are loving this hat


Even if poor Boo isn't so fond of it because it's been such a warm winter it's not often cold enough for her to be completely comfy in it. She started being more amenable about wearing it once the nursery girls told her she was cute in it though.

Ah, and remember my knitting?




Hat on the left was my first, rather disasterous freestlye attempt at a hat. I call it the cowpat hat owing to the unfortunate resemblance. Boo understandably refuses to wear it. However, I'm pleased to report I have now graduated to hats acceptable for wearing in public (see right). Will post a better picture of it once I've taken one. It's actually got two pompoms, not one, I would like to point out.

Alex is quaking over the fact that I am now working on one for him in the same green that is on the trim of Boo's hat. He's always wanted something to match her so I proposed the hat but, somehow, he's a bit wary now. Maybe because I've been saying I'll put pompoms in pink on his. Hahaha.

On the subject of head adornment


Isn't it amazing how one little hair clip can make Boo look angelic, even when she's got her defiant face on? (I don't think we've thanked Baby Raphael for this birthday present, so Raphael's mummy, if you're reading thank you! We love the clips!)

I've also been sticking stickers on Boo's hair in an effort to provide alternative entertainment for her when I'm cooking. I started out with all the flowers out of this big book of assorted stickers we have. But when I let Boo choose something for herself, she demonstrated exactly how passe I have become. Tres avant-garde, Ms Stylo-mylo.

We've had a couple of days out
Despite the crappy illnesses... oh I haven't mentioned. Boo's impeccable timing again meant that we jetissoned a plan to hop over to Paris during the Christmas week. She caught hand, foot and mouth disease and then passed it to Alex. Nothing to do with the animals' foot and mouth disease but it's pretty nasty.

Fever, aches and pains and then blisters all over the inside of the mouth and on her hands and feet. We thought she was teething again or had an ulcer and didn't realise till the blisters appeared on her limbs, by which time she'd more or less recovered.

Alex is amazed at her stoicism because he says he felt rotten as heck when he got it. His hands were so tender he almost yelped when he unthinkingly picked up a pen to write. He's amazed babe didn't complain more than she did. I did do a lot of kissing of her toes - still do now, she loves it - during the week, but he's right, she was amazingly good considering.

We took Boo to the Science Museum, which has a great section in the basement for under-sixes, which purports to teach them the principles of science. It's great, the water section is a big tub separated into different sections and allows you to build dams, divert water flows, pump it up, turn on taps, float boats and squirt all sorts of toys. All in a bright silver basin, and they even provide aprons so the kids don't get soaked. And boy do they love it.

We let her play for about 20 minutes and then had to drag her away from it. Who cares what she learns, we're definitely going back there!

We went to Hyde Park one day
The trip started out so promisingly. First dim sum with E&V at Royal China, which put Boo in a very good mood. Then a stroll to the duck pond, feeding a squirrel and bird along the way. The squirrel wanted nothing to do with our stale rice cake though. Which might be just as well because babe was obviously wary and a little afraid of it. Strange considering she wanted to toddle up to every single dog we passed along the way, even an enormous sheep dog which was half again as tall as she is.

Unfortunately, however, once we reached the duck pond, the feeding of the squirrel and some bright bird had obviously emboldened her and she kept wanting to feed the swans and geese out of her hands. I tried demonstrating the throwing of rice cake, took pieces from her hands to throw out etc but no, she wanted to feed the swans. And I was petrified they'd break her fingers or something if they pecked them.

Thus ensued a little struggle where she refused to back away from the swans, then refused to sit on my lap. Then decided sitting on all the poo available on the ground was the way forward. Gaaah. I don't know which words were screaming more loudly in my head, meningitis or bird flu. She screamed all the way to the bathroom, which was closed for cleaning, so babe was stripped almost bare on the park bench instead.






She's such a cheeky monkey



Definitely doing the testing of boundaries thing already. Nursery girls told me today she was trying out her favourite trick of the moment: pulling tissues from their box, one by one, then tossing the entire pile into the bin. Amy said they watched her do it, warned her not to, and then she did the inching to the box, while looking very guiltily at them the whole time.

She does that a lot at home now too. For some reason she loves transferring food from one plate to another - or to the table top, or to a cup of water, or just to the floor. In very casual flips of the spoon over her shoulder. Now, when I use my downward, very stern voice to say 'No, Izzy, put it back in your plate," you see her pausing. She looks into the distance, obviously pretending she didn't hear, while she works out whether or not she'll get away with it. Sometimes she listens if she sees me looking at her. But if we take our eyes away for a second, she just carries on. Monkey.

See the pram pictures? We came home to an overheated house one day, she refused to wear her change of clothes and then took great delight in defying mama by standing on the pram even when told not to. If you click on the pictures and see the bigger versions, you'll see the glee in her eyes.

But how to resist her? When she's good, she is so angelic. She'll run up to me and throw herself into my arms, or walk over to Alex and kiss him for no reason. She still likes teasing him as well though. In the pic below on the left, she's pretending she has no idea what grape Alex is asking for. And on the right? I see that face EVERY DAY when I am cooking dinner. She always wants to help and if Alex is around we let her do things like put things in the pan, or set up a the big salad bowl on her stool, give her a big spoon and something to stir in it - like beans or our packet of star anise - and that occupies her for a bit. Sometimes.



We're also trying to potty train the goon

But she doesn't get it!!! She does ask to sit on it, when she follows us to the loo sometimes, but then she'll sit on it for a few minutes, smiling in bemusement as either one or both of us hiss 'shh shh, come on Boo, shh shh', then demand to be taken off again.

When I've tried to demonstrate what to do, she has that same bemused smile. Usually, we try to get her to pee just before she takes her bath. Not infrequently she prefers to do it just after her legs enter the warm bath water.

I've just had a brainwave. I need to submerge her feet in warm water while she's on the seat! Will let you know if it works.

Other random pix of baby I thought were cute. Too tired now to explain further.