A genius colleague threw her daughter's fourth birthday party here. We lucked out with the warmest day of the year so far and now I think every parent is thinking the same: cute animals, several playgrounds, mini steam train - bingo!
29 April 2008
Beale Park
A genius colleague threw her daughter's fourth birthday party here. We lucked out with the warmest day of the year so far and now I think every parent is thinking the same: cute animals, several playgrounds, mini steam train - bingo!
20 April 2008
Mission accomplished
Belated picture of Izzy after successfully completing the Easter egg trail at the Cabinet War Rooms.
Helmet heads
Some kind friends have given us their child bike seat so of course we have to accessorise. Izzy now keeps insisting on wearing her hat indoors.
16 April 2008
Another red-letter day - kind of!
Apparently Izzy today spent all day at nursery in pants (that's panties to us non-Brits). Apparently three of the other nursery kids are doing the same so it's mass potty training time there. Anyway it turns out she managed to stay dry all day, telling people she was going for a wee when she needed to - and actually doing it! Astounding!
At home, having been told on Monday that they were ramping up the potty training since four of the kids were doing it, I tried to get her to go last thing at night and first thing this morning. She sat on the potty but - as before - was more keen on the reward for doing so (sticking stickers on a card) than actually weeing. Anyway so I certainly wasn't expecting her to have done anything like actually use a potty for the intended purpose.
She was showered with praise and offered a cornucopia of sugary delights as a special treat when we got home. Unfortunately although she then went for a wee twice more (only once to tiny effect) she then forgot herself while eating dinner. And again afterwards. At this rate we're going to run out of the seven or so panties she has pretty quick. Still... you gotta start somewhere I suppose.
Have told her, as incentive, that we can go try and find some more cute panties for her this weekend.
Apparently Izzy today spent all day at nursery in pants (that's panties to us non-Brits). Apparently three of the other nursery kids are doing the same so it's mass potty training time there. Anyway it turns out she managed to stay dry all day, telling people she was going for a wee when she needed to - and actually doing it! Astounding!
At home, having been told on Monday that they were ramping up the potty training since four of the kids were doing it, I tried to get her to go last thing at night and first thing this morning. She sat on the potty but - as before - was more keen on the reward for doing so (sticking stickers on a card) than actually weeing. Anyway so I certainly wasn't expecting her to have done anything like actually use a potty for the intended purpose.
She was showered with praise and offered a cornucopia of sugary delights as a special treat when we got home. Unfortunately although she then went for a wee twice more (only once to tiny effect) she then forgot herself while eating dinner. And again afterwards. At this rate we're going to run out of the seven or so panties she has pretty quick. Still... you gotta start somewhere I suppose.
Have told her, as incentive, that we can go try and find some more cute panties for her this weekend.
12 April 2008
Ah sweet innocent
She thinks the toy gun Alex got as part of his leaving gift (the PCE sheriff) is a vacuum cleaner.
The remains of the snowman
Izzy mourns the last little bit of our snowman. It lasted a good three days in the shade of our house.
10 April 2008
Portrait of us
Sam came to play and have supper with us last night and while he was here he drew us! That's our shopping in the bag. I love this so much I think I'm going to frame it. Izzy's nursery friends have been drawing portraits of her and themselves recently I think I might frame them all starting with one Alexander drew of her at a year old where she looked like a disjointed insect.
Izzy is poorly
The poor poppet is packed off to bed - amazingly she dropped off at 2030 - in a week when we have not managed to get her to sleep anytime before 2300. She was doing quite well until we went to Malaysia, which screwed her previous 2100, 2130 bedtime. Then the clocks went forward and her kind-of-2200 became 2300 plus lots of frustrated ordering to lie down and CLOSE YOUR EYES!
I think we have to wean her off TV as well really. Because we come home, she gets to watch it while I cook dinner and then we watch it somemore while we eat. Basically so that I get some time to myself. The problem is that two of the better shows I like her watching - Little Einsteins and Bear in the Big Blue House - are quite late, usually after dinner.
Little Einsteins is a pompous little show but at least the music on it is nice. And it's less annoying than Dora. But - and aha - get this: On our Easter egg hunt at the Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Office (we went there because we got the date for the hunt at the Foundling Museum wrong and it was the next closest and they were surprisingly good), there was a model of Churchill's house in Kent. When you opened the front door you saw changing pictures of Churchill with famous people. One was Einstein. I was explaining this to Izzy: "See, this man was Albert Einstein and he was very, very clever."
"Like Little Ein-tein?" she said.
"Like what?"
"Little Ein-tein!"
"Wha- oh yes, yes! Little Einsteins! That's right! That's right, they're named after Albert Einstein, see, because - "
But by this point Izzy had wandered off to look at Churchill's interactive fish pond. But there goes my belief that there is no way on god's earth a tot is going to learn anything about blinking Bizet's Carmen or anything from that show. Maybe years from now we'll be in a lift in a swanky hotel and she'll be 35 and suddenly she'll say "Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, mummy. Listen!"
Oh yeah...
Anyway I digress because I was going to go on about her masterful new skills of manipulation. She'd been pretty whiny last night and did have an absolutely horrendous bunged up head and nose. I knew because she kept trying to breathe and then crying about every other breath because her nose was totally stuffed. I did sympathise. I haven't had a cold like that in a while but I know what a pain in the arse it is.
So I gave in to her pleas for Calpol after a while. Partly because she was quite warm and partly because any placebo effect when it comes to Calpol and Izzy is quite marked anyway. She dropped off quite peaceably to sleep after that. Just as well because I'd fallen asleep twice before this waiting for her to fall asleep. (The whining kept waking me up)
She tossed quite a lot in the early morning and then when we finally got up was really floppy and down, her cheeks encrusted with snot. She looked so miserable and was still doing the "uuuurrrgh" high-pitched whine with every other breath that I finally decided we'd maybe better stay at home instead.
So plopped her on the sofa and gave her some milk then began making calls to work and the nursery to cancel meetings etc. An hour and a half later, after Dora and I can't remember what I decided I might as well start thinking about food and went to make myself some toast. On the way to the kitchen I asked if she might like any food at all. I expected the downturned mouth, sunken-eyed shake of her head.
Instead she whipped round, looked me in the eye and ordered smartly: "Yes - marmite toast and juice please." Then whipped back to the TV screen. I'm new at this but I'm pretty sure that is not the response of a child so sick she cannot go to nursery.
Anyway after breakfast she really gave herself away by asking who was at nursery today. And whether she could do somersaults off me. I told her my rule book says any child capable of doing somersaults is capable of going to nursery. To which she replied, "No, I'm not well yet! Need to stay at home... watch TV."
So I dressed her, called nursery and off we went. She and her friend Alessia were lying on their backs in the playground when I came to pick her up, feet in the air and giggling away. Once we came home though the sunken-eyed look returned. She didn't want food, was getting warm again and so, in accordance with the best advice I've received from a GP in relation to tots and colds - he says he does this with his own kids - I gave her the maximum doses of Calpol and Ibuprofen together, let her have a bottle of milk, and she was asleep in 10 minutes.
It's just a shame this sort of thing happens so rarely that Alex and I are in shock and don't know what to do. We tentatively planned to watch one of the many DVDs we have yet to get round to watching but I'm quite sleepy and may need to go to work early to catch up on today's missed hours, so sadly I think we will just join her in bed. Family life - whoooa Nelly!
PS more on those skills of manipulation: yesterday was cooking dinner and as is usual, once the shows she really likes finished, she kept coming into the kitchen to try to get me to sit outside with her. (This is why dinner nowadays is governed by the simple rule: can I cook it in 10 minutes?) Her pleas escalated from
"Mummy, come outside." to
"I want you, mummy, come outside and sit with me." to
"Mummy, I waant you." to
"Mummy I've done a poo." to
"Mummy I've done a big poo! Change my nappy pleeease." to
"Mummy I've done a big poo - my bum hurts, I need you to change my nappy..."
That last one finally worked and of course when I went outside and checked - no poo.
"Did you just say that so I would come out with you?"
Looking at the corner of the ceiling: "Yes."
The poor poppet is packed off to bed - amazingly she dropped off at 2030 - in a week when we have not managed to get her to sleep anytime before 2300. She was doing quite well until we went to Malaysia, which screwed her previous 2100, 2130 bedtime. Then the clocks went forward and her kind-of-2200 became 2300 plus lots of frustrated ordering to lie down and CLOSE YOUR EYES!
I think we have to wean her off TV as well really. Because we come home, she gets to watch it while I cook dinner and then we watch it somemore while we eat. Basically so that I get some time to myself. The problem is that two of the better shows I like her watching - Little Einsteins and Bear in the Big Blue House - are quite late, usually after dinner.
Little Einsteins is a pompous little show but at least the music on it is nice. And it's less annoying than Dora. But - and aha - get this: On our Easter egg hunt at the Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Office (we went there because we got the date for the hunt at the Foundling Museum wrong and it was the next closest and they were surprisingly good), there was a model of Churchill's house in Kent. When you opened the front door you saw changing pictures of Churchill with famous people. One was Einstein. I was explaining this to Izzy: "See, this man was Albert Einstein and he was very, very clever."
"Like Little Ein-tein?" she said.
"Like what?"
"Little Ein-tein!"
"Wha- oh yes, yes! Little Einsteins! That's right! That's right, they're named after Albert Einstein, see, because - "
But by this point Izzy had wandered off to look at Churchill's interactive fish pond. But there goes my belief that there is no way on god's earth a tot is going to learn anything about blinking Bizet's Carmen or anything from that show. Maybe years from now we'll be in a lift in a swanky hotel and she'll be 35 and suddenly she'll say "Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, mummy. Listen!"
Oh yeah...
Anyway I digress because I was going to go on about her masterful new skills of manipulation. She'd been pretty whiny last night and did have an absolutely horrendous bunged up head and nose. I knew because she kept trying to breathe and then crying about every other breath because her nose was totally stuffed. I did sympathise. I haven't had a cold like that in a while but I know what a pain in the arse it is.
So I gave in to her pleas for Calpol after a while. Partly because she was quite warm and partly because any placebo effect when it comes to Calpol and Izzy is quite marked anyway. She dropped off quite peaceably to sleep after that. Just as well because I'd fallen asleep twice before this waiting for her to fall asleep. (The whining kept waking me up)
She tossed quite a lot in the early morning and then when we finally got up was really floppy and down, her cheeks encrusted with snot. She looked so miserable and was still doing the "uuuurrrgh" high-pitched whine with every other breath that I finally decided we'd maybe better stay at home instead.
So plopped her on the sofa and gave her some milk then began making calls to work and the nursery to cancel meetings etc. An hour and a half later, after Dora and I can't remember what I decided I might as well start thinking about food and went to make myself some toast. On the way to the kitchen I asked if she might like any food at all. I expected the downturned mouth, sunken-eyed shake of her head.
Instead she whipped round, looked me in the eye and ordered smartly: "Yes - marmite toast and juice please." Then whipped back to the TV screen. I'm new at this but I'm pretty sure that is not the response of a child so sick she cannot go to nursery.
Anyway after breakfast she really gave herself away by asking who was at nursery today. And whether she could do somersaults off me. I told her my rule book says any child capable of doing somersaults is capable of going to nursery. To which she replied, "No, I'm not well yet! Need to stay at home... watch TV."
So I dressed her, called nursery and off we went. She and her friend Alessia were lying on their backs in the playground when I came to pick her up, feet in the air and giggling away. Once we came home though the sunken-eyed look returned. She didn't want food, was getting warm again and so, in accordance with the best advice I've received from a GP in relation to tots and colds - he says he does this with his own kids - I gave her the maximum doses of Calpol and Ibuprofen together, let her have a bottle of milk, and she was asleep in 10 minutes.
It's just a shame this sort of thing happens so rarely that Alex and I are in shock and don't know what to do. We tentatively planned to watch one of the many DVDs we have yet to get round to watching but I'm quite sleepy and may need to go to work early to catch up on today's missed hours, so sadly I think we will just join her in bed. Family life - whoooa Nelly!
PS more on those skills of manipulation: yesterday was cooking dinner and as is usual, once the shows she really likes finished, she kept coming into the kitchen to try to get me to sit outside with her. (This is why dinner nowadays is governed by the simple rule: can I cook it in 10 minutes?) Her pleas escalated from
"Mummy, come outside." to
"I want you, mummy, come outside and sit with me." to
"Mummy, I waant you." to
"Mummy I've done a poo." to
"Mummy I've done a big poo! Change my nappy pleeease." to
"Mummy I've done a big poo - my bum hurts, I need you to change my nappy..."
That last one finally worked and of course when I went outside and checked - no poo.
"Did you just say that so I would come out with you?"
Looking at the corner of the ceiling: "Yes."
06 April 2008
05 April 2008
Izzy is learning letters
It's quite clever they will write out letters in light yellow marker and get the kids to trace over it with a darker colour.
02 April 2008
She reads! "Is is for Izzy."
I was reading Boo one of her current favourite books, 'Dummy' - or rather she was reading it aloud to me. I always make her start filling in the words at the end of a sentence once I've read a book about five times. That way she eventually memorises the thing by the time we've been through something er about 10 times and then once I've read the first two pages I can usually con her into reading most of the book herself - anyway we were at the start of another page and she suddenly pointed to the sentence 'Is dummy under the sofa?' and went 'Is, mummy, for Isabel!' It took me a moment to clock what she'd just done. And I went 'Huh?' So she pointed again and said 'Is - for Izzy!'
HAAAAAAA-llelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah &etc...
OK I know it's still a long way off to buying her good books and thereby hopefully getting her to entertain herself a lot (yes the benefits are two-fold) but it's a start. Am quite impressed actually. I don't know how they are teaching her at nursery but she is definitely starting to recognise some letters. At the moment it's at the level of where she was pointing to every number and saying 'four'. Every nine out of 10 letters is 'I' but something is obviously starting to click.
While watching Bear in the Big Blue House today, the word 'Hero' came up on screen and she went 'heh, aeh, bee, oh'. So OK I don't think she got anything right except the o but she DID recognise that there were four letters at least! And sometimes when I'm typing or surfing on the laptop she comes over and asks 'Mummy, where's 'heh'?' Or 'Where's 'ah'?'
Must try finding more books with big letters and short words. I think this is where her baby books might come in useful again since, like 'Dummy', they contain a lot of short words. At Waterstones this weekend I momentarily contemplated getting her a pre-school workbook to try and work through and then thought ah why bother she's got all the time in the world. So instead I went to the languages bookshelf to see if I could find a Chinese characters basics book. Sadly nothing. Maybe if I look online...
PS another mild milestone: last Friday we left her with a babysitter, Grace, for the first time ever. Well I mean the first time it was just her and a babysitter and no friends she knew from nursery. And although she kicked up a fuss when we were leaving, we'd actually managed to stop her crying by the time we left and Grace said she was fine when we came back. Obviously we'd thrown in an ice-cream bribe to keep things sweet but Grace said they'd taken pictures on her camera and they must have played hide-and-seek because the curtains behind the TV were mussed up. So although when you moot the question of being with Grace with Izzy now she pouts and still whines 'I don't want you to go anywhere, mummy...' she seems to be much more accepting. Hurray! Hurray! Return of a vaguely couple-y relationship again I hope. Although I also want to burst into tears when I think that soon I doubt she'll be going 'I don't want you to go anywhere, mummy' anymore anytime.
I was reading Boo one of her current favourite books, 'Dummy' - or rather she was reading it aloud to me. I always make her start filling in the words at the end of a sentence once I've read a book about five times. That way she eventually memorises the thing by the time we've been through something er about 10 times and then once I've read the first two pages I can usually con her into reading most of the book herself - anyway we were at the start of another page and she suddenly pointed to the sentence 'Is dummy under the sofa?' and went 'Is, mummy, for Isabel!' It took me a moment to clock what she'd just done. And I went 'Huh?' So she pointed again and said 'Is - for Izzy!'
HAAAAAAA-llelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah &etc...
OK I know it's still a long way off to buying her good books and thereby hopefully getting her to entertain herself a lot (yes the benefits are two-fold) but it's a start. Am quite impressed actually. I don't know how they are teaching her at nursery but she is definitely starting to recognise some letters. At the moment it's at the level of where she was pointing to every number and saying 'four'. Every nine out of 10 letters is 'I' but something is obviously starting to click.
While watching Bear in the Big Blue House today, the word 'Hero' came up on screen and she went 'heh, aeh, bee, oh'. So OK I don't think she got anything right except the o but she DID recognise that there were four letters at least! And sometimes when I'm typing or surfing on the laptop she comes over and asks 'Mummy, where's 'heh'?' Or 'Where's 'ah'?'
Must try finding more books with big letters and short words. I think this is where her baby books might come in useful again since, like 'Dummy', they contain a lot of short words. At Waterstones this weekend I momentarily contemplated getting her a pre-school workbook to try and work through and then thought ah why bother she's got all the time in the world. So instead I went to the languages bookshelf to see if I could find a Chinese characters basics book. Sadly nothing. Maybe if I look online...
PS another mild milestone: last Friday we left her with a babysitter, Grace, for the first time ever. Well I mean the first time it was just her and a babysitter and no friends she knew from nursery. And although she kicked up a fuss when we were leaving, we'd actually managed to stop her crying by the time we left and Grace said she was fine when we came back. Obviously we'd thrown in an ice-cream bribe to keep things sweet but Grace said they'd taken pictures on her camera and they must have played hide-and-seek because the curtains behind the TV were mussed up. So although when you moot the question of being with Grace with Izzy now she pouts and still whines 'I don't want you to go anywhere, mummy...' she seems to be much more accepting. Hurray! Hurray! Return of a vaguely couple-y relationship again I hope. Although I also want to burst into tears when I think that soon I doubt she'll be going 'I don't want you to go anywhere, mummy' anymore anytime.
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