We've had some very apple-y days lately

Our friends Charlotte and Sam gave us some apples from their tree, which we made into a pie.

Apple day at Greys Court - these organic heritage varieties (imperfect) were free for the taking.

Izzy the health monitor

Izzy normally pours our milk into our coffee and puts sugar into it for us too. After she put the first round in for Alex, she didn't see him pour himself another cup and sneakily start putting sugar into his own cup, to bypass the faff of her shaking the packet, tearing off the top, tipping half of it onto the saucer etc. Then she whipped round and saw him guiltily emptying the sachet into his fresh cup. 'Daddy! Is that ANOTHER sugar?!'

That's Izzy, mystery friend, me and Alex at the playground

Izzy and new best friend at the playground

Given up

Sod it we are so not having a summer this year. It was 11 degrees this morning. I'm no longer going to wait for a late Indian summer. I'm going to start having marshmallows with my hot chocolate, roasting pumpkins and buying expensive mushrooms to make meals with. Stews are going to feature on my dinner menu. The sun on Sunday was just probably the equivalent of a desert mirage.

Perhaps we'll be able to take a week off in November and go somewhere vaguely warm. I've been so busy at work though it's really hard to work out where to go and what to do! I still haven't organised Izzy's birthday party! Arrrgh!

Partly it's because a major project I'm involved with at work has just kicked off. So we're scrambling around getting that organised. Partly it's because of the Malaysian political shenanigans, which have meant that I've been hanging onto websites and blogs in any free time at work and at home.

I had some really nice chicken soup from yesterday warming up on the stove today and I wound up burning the remnants after losing track of time sitting reading the websites. Izzy's been sweet as pie, because Alex has broken out the Barney DVDs he bought her back home and she LUUUUUURVEs the evil things. That was really sore. I've never burnt soup before and I was going to use it to make risotto tomorrow. Grrrr.

Anyway got to go take a bath now, get Izzy off the Barney and apparently get her a plaster for a finger injury. Today Izzy went to nursery with three plaits. Two just won't do anymore now that she's a big girl.

Secret Pregnancy Post II

Well I've finally seen the midwives and I'll finally have the first scan of the baby next Wednesday, after which I'll happily announce it. Was a bit shocked when the midwives went 'Hmmm if you think your last period was in April... you could be 18 weeks gone.'

Because I was all like er I think it's been 12 weeks. I'm reasonably certain, god only knows why, I conceived around mid-May. So in my head at worst I'm going to be like 16 weeks before I get this scan. But I suppose er they could be right in which case I could be 20 weeks gone and actually, it would be no bad thing to be halfway through pregnancy!

Just in case, I've stopped playing football, dammit. I'm over the sickness really, and the belly is definitely showing a bit, and I'm no longer falling asleep quite so instantly after work, but I'm still a little tired. Last time round that meant I was definitely in my second trimester. Anyway we'll see after Sep 24.

Izzy is a cutie. She's constantly wanting to see the bump - which she has definitely named Charlie Dexter - and she'll kiss it and croon 'Chaaarlie.... Charlie Dex....' to it. Less endearing is when she bounds onto the bed in the morning, demands to see Charlie Dexter, and then proceeds to throw off my duvet and pull up my t-shirt to see the bump. I've resorted to saying Charlie Dex sleeps when I sleep. But she's a cutie. I think she can't wait to have a little baby to boss around.

What happens if I take too long brushing my teeth

Daddy insisted on attempting a saxon hedge maze

Izzy wasn't in the best mood as she had a filthy cold - we all do, damn the weather - and whe maze was harder than we expected so we missed having cakes in the cafe after. Boo.

The easiest way to get round town

Izzy quite likes her bike seat.

We visited the local fair

Where Izzy spent about 90 per cent of her time playing in this bouncy caterpillar.

Izzy's birthday cake

She made it at nursery with her friends and they decorated it together, which is really nice. As usual there was a more-than-generous slice left for us, which she insisted on cutting up and serving to us. The difference between this year and last is that she was actually managing to cut rough geometric shapes for us. Last year she just left enormous slashes in the cake.

A few minutes later...

Oh. My. God. Moment

Last night there was a knock on the door and when I asked who it was a man said, 'Er... I have something which belongs to Alex Ong.' So I got the keys out while simultaneously preparing to poke anyone in the eyes if they looked suspicious and there was this guy looking like a very tall Billy Conolly, holding out Alex's backpack in front of him - the one that got stolen a month ago!

'Erm yes I'm one of the nice people living around here,' he joked. 'I saw this by the children's playground and there's a wallet in it, which is how I knew where you live.'

It turns out it didn't contain just Alex's wallet, but mine, as Alex found after leaving the bag out overnight (it was crawling with earwigs). Only now does the stupidity of doing this strike me, but honestly there were a lot of earwigs.

So gone are our worries about ID theft at least, gone my need to take a half-day off to go report my missing IC at the Malaysian High Comm. We'd replaced everything else by now of course but pheeew. So Mom, maybe there has indeed been something about my carrying around all those temple charms for years in my wallet!

Yiyi borrows our blog

hallo hallo

facebook is being a rather big pain in the ass and i cant upload any photos from the last week. which is a pity because they are all rather cool. i went to the field islands (jandayan - so small you wont see it unless you look at a blow up of the visayas islands), spent 3 days there getting used to diving in the environment and learning how to ID fish and estimate their sixzes underwater.

now, i'm on a little holiday island called panglao, which is just off bohol, which is where rean lives, rean being one of the community officers who works with the foundation as well. he basically deposited me at my hotel and visits periodically to check on me and take me sightseeing. on monday, we return to jandayan. next week, with any luck, i'll be able to either get somewhere with a better connection or get my hands on a laptop so i can shrink the photos and then upload them.

love you! glad everything's returning to normal for you!

can't tell you how much i appreciate flushing toilets now. i mean, i've always been grateful. but it aint till your sphincter refuses to budge till the 4th day that you begin to really, really, really appreciate them. sigh.

Later...

hi dad! hi mom! i went snorkling a lot today on panglao island, where i am for the weekend. it's a bit of a resort type place. the fish are amazing. moorish idols, pipefish, millions of anchovies and tonnes of damsel fish. clown fish, and this weird thing which was kinda flat with a long flag-like projection on it's forehead, and it swam with the ocean surge, mimicking a dead leaf. very exciting. it's a lot more impressive than pulau payar i can tell you, and even some of theeast coast islands.

i pickedup lots of urchin skeletons for you today, partlybecause they were so pretty, but partly to replace theone izzy broke haha. i've taken a photo ofthem but none ofthe computers in the internet cafes here can cope with the size of the images and i dont have a computer on which i can shrink them with me. i'll just have to wait for the next tmie i'm in cebu and i can use one of the foundation's computers.

everything's giong fine here, the seahorse epopel are very friendly and encouraging and i'm ot ebing pressured to do ahything beyond my abilities or stamina. am elarning just how weak i've become in tbe last 5 years of working at a desk! my real survey dives have not begun in earnest, but i've gone for two dives on our house reef to get familiar with it and the visibility (which isnt too good - apparently the other sites are a lot betetr). i've also been doing fish ID, size estimation and coral life form ID classes with the biologists. mom, dont worry - i'm diving with jesus. literally. jesus rey dongallo is one of the biologists har har har.

anyways. if you want to call me, reception's kinda dodgy on Jandayan island, where i will be mon-fri. best bet is to try me on the weekends - i'll either be back in cebu or bohol, where the reception's much better. walter managed to call for a few minutes one day when i was on jandayan, but that was more frustrating than functional becaue there were many moments of hello??hello?? hello???

that be all for now from me. am hungry after a day of swimming and swapping life stories! tomorrow morning we head back to jandayan and work :|

love you all! hugs!!

thanks carch!!

'I'm not a young lady! I'm Izzy'

Izzy is getting funnier and more exasperating. I suppose that, sadly, this pattern is only going to continue for the rest of her life. For one thing, she's parroting my phrases back to me more and more - and she's not just using the words but the tones as well. As I'm typing this she's just gone 'Tsk. I think you can sit there. On. Your. Own.' I'm setting a bad precedent by saying 'If you say so.' And she's just said 'You. Sit. There. You just DO your work.' And she's tutting repeatedly.

I am accused of the horrendous crime of changing channels on her. Although all that's happened is that Looney Tunes has finished and some British teen sit-com has started instead. She is sighing and tutting at the other end of the sofa all the time. Also ticked off because I'm not giving her Squiglet on the laptop.

'Mom. Change the channel back. I told you to leave it on. And now, look at the TV. Look Mom. That was your fault... &etc etc etc'

I've already told her I didn't change it about a million times. And the 'I told you...' came from two days ago when she upset her dinner onto the floor, after continually tipping her chair back despite being told three or four times not to do so. It's all so funny but makes me want to drive a spike through my eyes.

Is this what happens? You raise yourself and the punishment for that is: yourself.

Well I whinge but there are also times when - several times a day nowadays - when she launches herself at me while exclaiming 'I LOVE you!' Sometimes because she wants me to do something for her. But sometimes for no reason I can see. And that's kind of nice.

And although we've replaced our stolen TV now she still asks for stories before bedtime, which is also a nice change. Her favourite at the moment is one called Tiger Ways, about a little girl Daisy pretending to be a tiger. And Izzy's face all through the book is a good reason to have memorised it so I can watch her instead of read. She's so solemn. Absolutely serious about the whole thing, and obviously taking in - probably too seriously - lines like 'I'll only eat people I don't like...'

The cartoons now make her laugh. So she no longer just watches enthralled. Goofy falling over and ending up with a smelly shoe hanging from his nose inspires a really deep-throated gurgle of laughter from her. And, having watched it so frequently, she now often explains the plot to me, very earnestly: 'They have to find Donald's little chicken. But the naughty giant has it. I don't like the naughty giant.'

She also likes singing all her songs and changing words round to involve us. She was just singing 'I dry, a boogie-woogie-woogie, that's the way he washes his hair...' and then, jumping up on Alex's back, this became 'I dry, a boogie-woogie-woogie, that's the way the daddy washes ... his ... glasses!' And this is also very, very funny.

In the last two months or so she's also become a lot more mobile. She's running headlong at everything, jumping off things, and climbing others. I'm quite impressed at her new agility. There have been several times I thought she would tip forward onto the ground, because she was running so quickly and with her head so far forward, and she hasn't. But she also has any number of bruises on her knees and shins from all the hurtling. I suppose she is truly ending her toddler days ahead of turning three.

It was fairies and heroes fun day at nursery today


I volunteered to help out and wound up doing the face painting for all the kids. I like to think the results improved as the day went on, largely to do with the water I put into the paints finally seeping in and creating a thicker, more mask-like consistency. Izzy, who was my first customer, had a very thin outline of a butterfly on her face and my last customer, Sam E, had a pretty groovy thick, red Spiderman mask, if I do say so myself.

Unfortunately I was so busy painting I didn't have time to take pictures of the results. But Izzy seemed pleased enough to immediately demand another butterfly when we got home, since we wiped off her first butterfly after she walked into the car door a bit and had to have an ice-pack applied to her head.

When we got home Izzy insisted on another butterfly

This is what Izzy painted on my leg for me - a doggy.

Choosing new books

Message for her cousins

Then scoffs it all

I should really remember to blog in the right order.

Masterchef at home

Izzy makes her favourite meal of steamed egg.

'Izzy's' lipstick

Actually my lip gloss that this 2-going-on-15-year-old has claimed as her own. 'To make my lips all sparkly.' The plus is that she believes it needs to dry so you get a minute's peace after each application.

Izzy makes a sand angel

Sadly not at a real beach but at one of the fake ones set up in town to amuse shoppers. One day we will make it to a real beach.

Izzy does some painting

Secret pregnancy post I

That's right - this will be published AFTER I confirm all is well. But in the meantime if I don't get anywhere to bitch about the fact that one million and one smells in the world are driving me crazy I will go MAD. These first three months are a total pain in the ass because you probably have the most to whinge about - in my case feeling puky come 2pm till about 10pm when Izzy is finally asleep and not being able to stand the smells of just about anything except apples in that same time period - but can't. What kind of lousy system is this, I would like to know?

I twigged that I might be pregnant while we were home on holiday I think. Partly because I didn't get my period in June. And partly because I was feeling a bit tired for no reason every day. I mean even more than the usual holiday malaise. y

Whoo hoo!
Alex has bought me a cute little dinky laptop - an Acer - which is smaller than a hardback and about as light; the aim in life of which is to enable us to return to the world of online living (and via Linux! Eat that, MS!) while awaiting replacement vouchers for our stolen laptop. As a result of spending GBP200 I am now trying to reconfigure my fingers to typing on a dinky little keyboard. Works pretty well though and I'm pretty glad. Because Izzy is funnier by the day and I know I've already forgotten a number of gems she's come up with in the last few weeks because I haven't noted them down.

This morning, to my horror she parroted me going 'Oh. My. Gaaaawd', about some cartoon I think. And I think she heard me saying it in response to some hoohah or other over Permatang Pauh. And this morning while I was washing up in the bathroom we had quite a giggle over her going 'Yes-lah' - just like an ang moh - in response to my going 'nolah' when she asked me something.

'Yes-lah. Heee heehehehehehe.'
'Nolah...'
'Yes-lah, heeee heeheheheheh.'
'Nolah.'

OK maybe you just had to be there.

Anyway OK so the next big shock was that we got robbed. And although moms I know you're kind of thinking what ghetto are we living in, I hasten to say that although the insurance woman did say burglary was a bit rife down here in Asboland, it seems it is mainly all opportunistic. And not entirely un-coincidental with the fact that it was during the summer holidays. Apparently the kids around here have a bit of a reputation.

Anyway in the long run, let me reassure you we are looking to moving out. And in the short term, we are definitely not leaving any more windows open at night. However small.

Er so back to the robbery. I awoke one morning to see Alex disappearing down the stairs for work as usual. Izzy and I were still sleeping. Then a minute later he dashed back upstairs, as he sometimes does if he's forgotten something. But this time he just blurted out 'Our TV's been stolen!' before disappearing downstairs again.

After a while I had an uneasy feeling he might not be joking so followed him down. And there, wide open, was one the French windows in the living room. And our TV most definitely wasn't there. And so I looked for our laptop. Which had also disappeared. As had Alex's wallet, which he'd been hunting for. As had my wallet. And his watch. And, we realised later, our SLR.

At first we thought they'd somehow managed to open the front windows. But later, as I walked around the house, I noticed the kitchen window - which I'd left ajar so the rubbish didn't stink up the kitchen - was pushed wide open. And when I looked outside I saw the things that had been on the windowsill neatly lined up outside. So they'd come in that way. And Alex checked, and found our garden gate open.

So that was how they got in.

Fortunately we've been using our mobile phones as alarm clocks, so we still had them, otherwise they would no doubt have gone the way of our more expensive stuff. Alex began calling all the banks to cancel his cards and I dialled 999 to get the police over.

Turns out we weren't the only house in the area to have been burgled. Another house round the corner was hit the same way the same night. So it took a while for the police to arrive. And for Alex to acclimatise. Because after an hour of waiting and more phone calls to cancel credit cards he suddenly asked 'how am I going to go to work?' My answer was short and rather testy.

Izzy in the meantime wasn't particularly perturbed, we got her dressed when she got up and she asked where our TV had gone and quite calmly accepted our explanation that some naughty people had taken it without asking. After a while I decided to bundle her off to nursery and she went quite happily after a bottle of milk as usual.

So then the police arrived and the officer was quite nice, took down our statements - or rather Alex's since he was last to bed and first up. Then we sat around waiting for forensics to arrive. After an hour of no show - we'd been warned they were busy at the previous place too - I went to work anyway and Alex said he would call if they came and needed my fingerprints. Turns out they didn't find anything. Scummy AND professional. So that was that.

After that it was all just waiting for replacement credit cards and documentation. I still have to get round to informing the Malaysian High Comm about my missing ID card. The annoying thing is that work has been so busy - because I'm at the end of one attachment - it's been impossible for me to take a day off to go to the Malaysian High Comm to report it. And it's not like the High Comm operates anything other than office hours either.

I'm just hoping the yobbos who took our stuff just chucked it rather than anything else. God only knows what bureacratic nightmare getting a replacement might entail.

Anyway so that was reason number two that I haven't been blogging very much. What follows from that of course is the fact that we had no laptop so I couldn't actually blog.

Why I haven't posted for a while

Well there have been several reasons. First we were totally pooped from the three-week or so party that was our holiday home and Soph's wedding. But then after we got back one thing after another happened. First my grandfather passed away. And then our house got burgled. I'm just about recovered enough from the shocks to start being able to think about them I think. And so now I can of course blog.

Kong-kong
I found out about Kong-kong's passing via text messages on my phone on the morning of July 15th. Three stark messages, from my dad, brother and sister, about what had happened. The good thing was that he went swiftly and, I hope, without realising it. And that my mother was with him at the time and happened to have some of her best friends with her at the time, who were a real comfort and support. I still have to think of a way to thank them.

I haven't totally come to terms with Kong-kong going. I flew back for a short few days to say bye, and scatter his ashes in the sea off Port Klang. But I haven't really, really said bye yet because I suppose I haven't totally accepted it yet. I'm still kind of reeling from realising he's gone. When I was home I kept turning corners and expecting to see him at the table in the kitchen; reading his newspaper on the easy chair on the porch; walking out with the joss sticks.

One of my colleagues asked if we were close. And I said I suppose we didn't have long, deep meaningful conversations. But yes. He was there all the time. And that's a kind of closeness I think, even if we never said much to each other.

Some of it was the little things - like once, in A-level college when a friend who happened to be male came over to borrow some books we'd discussed, and no one else was home, I took him up to my room, where the books were, gave them to him, we chatted standing there, and then he left. I realised that Kong-kong was walking around in the background but that wasn't anything unusual. And then after my mom came back she asked if I'd 'brought a boy up to my bedroom'. And I said yes, it was Jack and I lent him some of my books. And she went ah, hmm, yes, well next time let him wait downstairs. And I realised of course that Kong-kong must have been scandalised! Good thing the bedroom door was always open otherwise goodness knows what he must have thought!

Mmm - by which I mean to say I think we knew he cared about us, even though he never said anything.

And I remember lots of his little kindnesses to us when we were children and he was within his traditional Asian grandparent role to pat us, carry us, and give us rides on his motorcyle. The best thing I ever remember him making us were simple wooden guns, which fired rubber bands that you stretched from the sight to the hammer. They were neat.

As in other instances when I've thought about Kong-kong since, I now feel I have to stop. Not just because I'm running out of lunchtime, but because I still haven't totally come to terms with it. And I think I need a little more time to think before I say anything. So, next post: the burglary...

Is the loss of our TV showing?

We've just come back from two and a half weeks of rest and relaxation at home and at Aunty Sophie's wedding in Bali, which was luuuuverly. I feel completely bloated and lazy from a holiday within a holiday that consisted largely of our villa-Soph'svilla-shopping-our villa-Soph's villa. But what the hey. Better than no holiday at all!

Izzy and Alex stayed home a few days longer than I did because I had to come back early for work, sigh, but appear to have enjoyed it all. Alex said she did miss me but I think she only cried for me when she pooed in her sleep once.

In fact, shortly before my folks took me to the airport, Izzy asked if she could have another sweet and I eventually gave in to her pestering by saying 'After I've gone to the airport, OK?' thinking it might serve as some sort of consolation.

So you know what my 14-hour-labour daughter said when she heard? 'Go, Mom, gooooo! Go to the airport, now!' Sharper, indeed, than a serpent's tooth.

Anyway was very glad to hear there was no howling of any sort and maybe it was the unaccustomed quiet I had for the three days I was on my own but Izzy came back on Saturday morning all bouncy and - it seems to my ears anyway - about three times louder than before.

This time we were glad to see she got on with her cousins pretty much immediately, bar some bewilderment in the first half-hour of meeting them. And though she was all but silent as her three older Ong cousins pranced round her, patted and carried her like a doll, the minute they stepped out the door to go home, Izzy burst into tears and howled 'I want my cousiiiins!'

She also had jet-lag for the first time ever, which manifested itself on the first night with her waking at 3am, asking about 10 times whether it was brighter yet so she could go downstairs and play, and then eventually resorting to the much more cunning ploy of saying she was starving. My own stomach was grumbling so I reluctantly rose and brought her downstairs for some toast and Milo.

Fortunately her jet-lag was not so bad the other nights but there were definitely a few more episodes of howling some other nights.

My parents are taking indulging her to new heights as well. Yiyi made her 'Barney ice lollies' - ie lurid purple fruit juice ice sticks made with dragon fruit - and Kongkong was handing her near-constant bowls of butterscotch ice-cream.

Missing Izzy and Dad

Hi sweeties gotta so to work now can't wait for you to get back. Love you lots!

Izzy and cousin Jie getting some arcade action

Lap of luxury

Izzy waking for her teatime snack ... At 1.38am.

Got a new phone

Testing the camera now

What could be the start of a bad habit

Izzy chilling with her friends from nursery.

Stretching our legs and new bicycle with lunch at nearby pub

Izzy eats our first home-grown strawberry

The crop

We've both been really busy lately and the weekends have somehow seemed very packed. Probably because, with summer sun creeping up on us, our late starts to the day don't mean as much. At eight in the evening we can come in from trying to dig out the hearts of the dandelions that litter the garden, planting purple dwarf beans and whatever takes our fancy from the enormous bag of seeds a colleague who moved to Seattle left me. This weekend, in Izzy's case, it was after hours of endlessly pouring and repouring gravel and water into her series of stacking cups.

Suddenly I'm starting to understand how it was I spent interminable hours at nurseries and fishing tackle shops when I was growing up. You wake up, potter around in pyjamas, get fed and watered and then finally clean the sleep off Izzy's eyelids. Then it's off for lunch, quick, before these rural restaurants shut their doors at half past two.

After the panic, comfortably bloated again, it's time for gentle pottering around garden tools, rejecting the endless possibilities of Kelvedon Wonder and mottled broad bean seeds. After bribing Izzy with sweets, a tool, a packet of seeds (Alpine strawberries) it may be off to the playground or the allotment for me. Just time to shove some beans under soil in a couple of pots, check that the seedlings aren't drying out in the polytunnel and having one last look at the one row of salad that is very close to bolting. Curse the pigeons for continuing to tear up the young plants. Plan a scarecrow. Plan to name it after a work fiend.

Then home. If not the garden again for an hour or two, it's TV for Izzy. As she monopolizes the screen Alex makes dinner (he cooks on weekends) and I read the paper or knit. Yes knit. A tank top at the moment, with one side done actually.

Dinner. Desert. Izzy's nightly warm milk. Sometimes she wins bargaining for hot chocolate. And then brushing her teeth and bed.

It's nice.

A posy for me

From the er 'meadow' that is our garden.

The smaller joys

Izzy has discovered bubble wrap.

Empress Izzy commands her subjects to play


What she's trying to sing is this:
See the little bunnies sleep
Till it's nearly noon
Shall we wake them up
With a merry tune
Are they still
Are they ill
Wake up bunnies!
Hop little bunnies, hop hop hop
Hop hop hop, now stop!

A chive flower

I had it on my barbecued potatoes for dinner. I know better now than to wait for summer. We've had two barbecues already.

Trying to put a daisy in her hair

Izzy has been watering plants for me at the allotment

Though sadly she still often insists on drowning the same patch of empty soil.

Daddy would be happier with this destination

Says it all, no?

The children's fair was not popular with Izzy though she did ask to watch two people doing face painting for about 20 minutes. Now she paints my face and arms with a chopstick.

Izzy's new chair

It's been a lovely weekend

I'm not quite sure why but Izzy has been behaving really well of late. A month ago we were a bit worried that the combination of taking her dummies away for good and potty training, all at once might prove a bit much to ask.

But since the fairies left her erm a Kit-kat bar in return for all the dummies she gave them for other babies, and since the first two weeks of potty training at nursery, all has been good. Last week she was dry every single day at nursery, except Friday. Which is a big improvement on the two to three changes of clothes a day we were going through the previous week.

Today, the last day of the bank holiday, she has been pretty much angelic. She woke up and Alex took her downstairs since he was on call for work, which means I got a much beloved lie in, and from time to time I could hear various noises which seemed to indicate satisfaction. Exclamations of 'Daddy!' and the sound of toys being poured out of her basket.

When I said I was going to go out and buy some knitting supplies (now I've finally finished on Izzy's scarf, I'm starting on a slouchy tank top (fourth picture down) for me) and lunch, she said she would rather stay at home. And then as I walked to go to the door, I heard 'Wait Mommy!' And braced for the usual last-minute change of mind. But she just ran up to me and said 'I want to give you a cuddle before you go.' And she did and gave me a big kiss for good measure.

Last night Alex said she'd been very good with him too: climbing on him, giving him a hug and generally just messing about with him while he was reading the paper on the floor.

We've not had any tantrums since the ones I posted about when we first moved in to the new house and the worst it gets is days when she's got a stuffed nose and is therefore extremely whiny. Like when we get home from nursery sometimes:

'I can't take my shoes off.'
'Yes you can.'
(Using one heel to stab ineffectively at another) 'I caaaan't. I can't do it, Mommy. Help me.'

When feeling mean I walk into the next room going 'Bend down and use your hands to undo the straps.'

When less mean or on the verge of wanting to asphyxiate myself because it would be less expasperating I give in and undo her shoes for the princesss.

Similarly sometimes in the mornings it's all 'I want to go downstairs. Mommy, I waant to go dooownstairs!'

And the thing that annoys me is that if I snap and say 'Do you think you're going to go asking like that?' she immediately switches to her auto-response, polite 'PleasemommycanIgodownstairsnowplease?'

But ah days like today - and actually the previous two days - she has just been an angel. Partly I think because she has this whole reward system she knows about. She earns treats when she:
* wees in the potty
* poos in the potty
* brushes her teeth well
* sleeps when I ask her to
* turns off the TV quickly when it's time to go
* gets in her car seat quickly
* closes her eyes and opens her mouth and doesn't cry when I rinse the shampoo out of her hair

And fortunately I've learned that she doesn't necessarily have to be bribed with sweets. When we started this whole bribe - er reward system - I'd automatically offer sweets or chocolate. Then one day she asked for a cheese biscuit instead. What a fool I've been. So now she can have grapes, strawberries, cheese biscuits, frozen yoghurt, and I throw in sweets every so often to keep her keen.

I've not quite worked out who's smarter in this whole system yet.

Today we are making tea with Playdoh

If you have cake

You have to have candles too. Or disposable chopsticks at least.

Elephant with yellow hat - joint effort

The cake of everything

See if you can spot a flower, sushi, and a leaf.

Izzy's crocodile

'Fly balloon, fly!'

We've bought her helium balloons before but this is the first time she expressed delight at the fact it could fly.

Bucklebury Farm Park

Shame Izzy was asleep am hour and a half the two and a half hours we were here. Got some great pictures of her on the slides on my camera which I'll download later.

Knitting project five complete

She finally has a scarf to match her hat only a year later, just in time for next winter. The result of reasonably regular half hours once a week at lunchtime.

Eyes are for Izzy

Yes she's still insisting on sucking and chewing fish eyeballs. Don't ask where she learned this, I only like the brains.

Whizzy Izzy

Dad and babe at high speed.

Good day out

We went to our local park today which has a lovely tots playground, sandpit and paddling pool. Afterwards we went to the fair nearby which was very loud.

Kay poh helping me to shop for groceries

Ever since I once forgot to bring my wallet to the supermarket, prompting an anguished episode for Izzy in which we had to give back all the goodies we'd just selected for consumption, whenever I ask if she wants to in to the supermarket, she will gravely ask: 'Do you have your wallet, mommy? Can you pay for things?'

'Mommy you use your camera too.'

...and posing in my heeled wedges. This I think is well-rounded.

She enjoys tractor-driving...