My little geek

Mmm it's annoying - there are several incidents about Izzy that I meant to blog about over the past weeks and already they're slipping through this sieve of a pregnant memory. What I can remember includes:

She's started playing games on the computer. She really, really likes them. Part of me is slightly appalled because she can play for half an hour at a time, easily, and her favourite site is the Disney Playhouse one, but part of me is also rather awed at what she can do - and actually at how well-designed some of these websites are. OK how well-designed the Disney one is.

For instance her favourite Mickey Mouse game is called the Mousekespotter - and you are shown three 'clues' for a logic game eg stripes, green and yellow - and you have to choose from three presents; one of which is spotty in green and yellow; another stripey in green and yellow; the last stripey in green and blue. You get the picture. She likes that. 

Her favourite Tigger and Pooh game is one in which she should really navigate as well as work out clues but I think she does rather well just working out the clues: riddles are read out and shown as text on screen, and then she has to click on the answer in the pictures of things on the game. 

I can't remember them all exactly - some are easy enough, along the lines of 'it's on a balloon, the number that comes after three'; others are more tricky, eg something something about blossoms in a basket, the colour of a frog, a lime and a leaf.

With this game the first few times she made me sit with her and repeat the clues slowly - sometimes she just can't understand what's being said because it's said with an American accent - and of course I emphasise the bits that I think she'll know (eg colour of a frog, yes, colour of a lime, no). 

What impressed me slightly was that I think there are 10 or so variations of this game; I may be wrong but I don't think each game repeats any of the five clues used in each and, after the first few games of me explaining, she began to catch on fast enough to work out the clues herself most of the time. 

Sadly the CBeebies website bears no comparison at all to the juggernaut that is the Disney site in terms of design and usability for tots (with the Disney site I think you could almost leave a non-reading three-year-old to it and, assuming they know how to use a mouse, they'd probably work it out), though there are one or two worthy things on it.

One of the best is the drawing game under this character Squigglet or Squiggler or whatever the furry orange thing is called. It's basically an online drawing tool - but quite cool in that it also records your actions so when you've finished your picture you can playback your actions and see the artwork re-created. It does take an age to load though. 

Izzy was playing with it the night of Obama's inauguration and I was trying to explain why it might be that it was taking an unusually long time (even for the CBeebies site) to load: 

'Izzy, you see the man on TV? That's Barack Obama...'

'Mummy -'

'Yes?'

Points to screen. 'That's Squigglet.'

My affectionate little geek

I don't know what it is that's triggered it either - maybe the realisation it gets her pretty much anything she wants - but she's become really huggy-kissy these last few weeks. When we wake up in the morning - correction, when she wakes up, she'll crawl into bed next to me and often as not, will give me a bit hug and several kisses before going 'Mummy, are you awake now? Can we go downstairs?'

Sometimes I think it's a ploy, for example, to get out of finishing her meal. She'll get up from it, come and put her arms around my neck and nuzzle my cheek, or insist on holding my face and solemnly kiss each cheek whichever sacred number of times she feels like, or kiss my nose. And after that it's 'Ive had enough now...'

Still it doesn't all feel like manipulation so I think whatever it is, she can keep it up! It can be a wee bit tiring sometimes having to lean over for the umpteenth kiss goodnight - especially when you have a belly the size of a whale like mine getting in the way, but hey I'll take it anytime!

Limits

We're also getting a little bit better in regards to the TV, in that Alex and I are trying to set clear time limits now on her TV-watching. 'No more till after tea; no go and do something other than TV!' Usually after a little flouncing she'll agree and will go play with her kitchen set or dolls or something. Sometimes an offer to play what she calls snap - really the memory game involving finding pairs in cards - or to read her one of her books suffices. Sometimes I am evil and allow her the easy option of playing a computer game instead (hey they involve thinking!)

If anyone has any other suggestions though, let me know!

Nonsense

She still quite enjoys chattering away and quite frequently now makes me do nonsense rhymes with her. She'll just make up a line and then think of another set of nonsense words and insist I say them after her line, so they rhyme. 

Eg tonight she kept calling from the sofa, 'Mummy, I want youuu... On a slice of coo!' And when I went over she kept insisting I say something like 'mistake' - couldn't work out what it was, and couldn't work out why she kept insisting I say it until I heard her mumble the first line under her breath - which was also all nonsense so I can't even remember it, all I know is that its last word rhymed with 'mistake'.

Go figure.

'It's not fair!'

I was wondering how long it would take for this phrase to surface! And here it is. The other day I was putting her dinner on her little table as she watched TV (yes, I know it's terrible but it's the only way I get to have dinner in peace too) and asked her to come over and eat it. She leaned off the sofa and put her feet onto the stool she sits on. After three warnings not to do that in case she tipped over the table, she tipped over her stool and of course sent her dinner onto the floor.

'Right, no more sitting here then. Go and eat at the dining table, right now.'

She looked guilty for all of five seconds then became defiant.

'But I won't do it again.'

'I don't care. I just warned you only about three times to sit still, sit on the stool properly and you didn't listen so now no more sitting at the little table, go sit at the big table. NOW.'

She huffed, folded her arms and stamped her foot.

'It's not fair.'

'Tough.'

'But I won't do it again!'

'Too late.'

'It's not fair!'

And she came over and glared at me, arms still across her chest. 

'Izzy, I'd just told you three times to sit properly in case you tipped the table over. And what did you do? If you don't know how to sit still and eat properly then you aren't going to get to eat at your little table.'

'But it's NOT FAIR!' On the verge of tears she accidentally purposely flung one arm out and hit my arm. And at least had the grace to look very guilty instantly when I gave her the look.

'You do NOT hit mummy. That's a very naughty thing to do. Go and sit down on the carpet NOW.'

Howls - not very sincere ones - and abasement on the carpet.

I ignored her and had my dinner. Then after about five minutes:

'I want my mummy... mummy... I want you.'

'When you're ready to say sorry then talk to me.'

'I am.'

'Alright come over.'

And so she came over and looked up: 'I'm sorry for hitting you mummy.'

Hmm is it good that she apologises so easily? I don't know.

Anyway hugs and kisses later she meekly sits up at the table with me and eats her dinner,  no more complaints.

I suppose if there's anything to be grateful for it's that the tantrum was really quite easily managed. 

The other time she used it was when we turned out the lights on Sunday night. Izzy had insisted on sleeping in our bed between us and when I switched off our bedside light she complained and wanted to turn it on again.

'Izzy if you want the light on go and sleep in your own bedroom.'

'But I can't see.'

'That's the idea.'

'But I want the light on.'

'Well this is our room and our bed and mummy and daddy want the light off. So if you want it on go and put it on in your own bedroom.'

'Humph.' Arms crossed again. 'It's not fair. Humph.'

And she fell asleep like that. I dozed off and woke up to her gentle snoring, arms still crossed.

Maternity leave wk II

As usual it took about two weeks to settle into some sort of pattern of relaxation. Didn't help that the first week of my leave was taken up with two days of Izzy being home - one day genuinely rather ill, the other a drama performance to inveigle more TV hours - and then a rush at the end of the week when we suddenly realised we were going away to a cottage with some friends!

The weekend away was really nice. We stayed in the Cotswolds so it was a short drive for us. Despite Mr Ong's initial misgivings and our packed overnight bag Charley Dex stayed very well put in me, no signs of wanting to come out yet. It was quite a luxury having meals prepared for us and being able to spend so much time with Izzy, so thanks very much the Lewis & Fontes partnership for making it happen! 

Although I'd earlier entertained some notion of going on Sue's much-heralded country walks, just the short walk from our cottage to the centre of town made it quite clear it would be impossible given Izzy's reluctance to walk and the fact that I now waddle at about half the pace of your average pensioner. We visited a bird park instead, which suited Izzy very well, though I think the highlight of her visit was sharing a packet of crisps with me in the cafe. Never mind, I was quite thrilled to see penguins and flamingos at such close quarters. 

We arrived back home on Sunday and suddenly realised it was Chinese New Year the next day. But because the whole last week had been taken up with sick Izzy (who then gave Alex and I her cough), and preparing to go away for the weekend, er our new year celebrations consisted of: noodles on the first night, getting Izzy to record a new year greeting for you folks back home, and then me frantically trying to find us all some new year clothes the following week.

Shopping was very successful for Izz, who now has two snazzy new dresses and a pink silk skirt; slightly less so for Alex (three new pairs of socks and a fine merino wool jumper) and I (one luxe towelling bath robe). But I couldn't bring myself to buy anything really given the size I am right now anyway. So the luxe robe will do for now - as will another skirt I spotted in a White Stuff sale a few weeks ago. It's a size 10 so it will be a while before I can fit into it but will also serve as incentive to get back down to size 10, I figure!

Spa day

Another pregnant colleague and I visited Nirvana Spa last Tuesday, seeing as we are possibly the only two women in our office who do not appear to have ever been there and mmm was it good. What was really surprising was how much more tired it made me! 

We had a good morning lounging round a springwater pool; even did some swimming in it (I think if nothing else we amused many other guests with our enormous bellies); then she had a facial and I had a head massage (not long enough); we had a product demonstration in which we slathered on a multitude of products; and then a session in a flotation pool.

Now I'd heard a lot about this pool so was quite hyped up about it and have to say wish overall that it had been a bit cooler than it was because the first 5 mins or so I'm sure I spent thinking mmm not sure if I'm going to bake in here... and Jude thought the same. Despite this though I found myself waking up two or three times during our 45-min session which meant I'd managed to drop off to sleep. 

Was really quite hard dragging ourselves out of the pool, but we just about managed to get cups of coffee and tea and cake and sit by the pool chatting some more. If the pool's effects were not so apparently immediately I think they were that evening and the day after - I felt absolutely shattered and, after sending Izzy to nursery, for the first time finally took an afternoon nap longer than about half an hour and felt really good when I woke up. 

Perhaps it was also because it was the first time in weeks I hadn't coughed myself awake, or woken to pat Izzy's back because she was coughing, or kicked Alex because he'd snored me awake again. Anyway after that I finally started feeling a bit more relaxed. 

The next days that week I spent mainly going shopping - looking at cot options, the new year clothes and stocking up on food, and er splurging on discounted yarn (mm baby alpaca; cotton silk mix) for my knitting. Anyway now I feel I've got everything I need and will be quite happy to spend the next two weeks indoors knitting booties, doing the laundry, having friends over for tea and making authentic sambal. 

Blinking Brahmins, which used to be our reliable source of sambal for nasi lemak, has made its sambal all tomato-ey and not pedas anymore. It's more like a spicy ketchup, much to my disgust, so I've gone and bought belacan and asam and dried chillies... now I just need the afternoon free to pound everything up.

I've also already tried knitting one bootie the other day and it only took a couple of hours so hurrah! Pregnant friends, you know what you'll be getting. Now there's only this and the erm remaining 15 or so things to do on my list of things to do ...

Snow!

Decided to keep Izzy at home today, despite being quite curious as to the state of Caversham's roads as well. I'm sure I could've gotten her to nursery OK but it seemed like a nice opportunity to take her out and play in the snow. Click here to see the album on Facebook!

Snow snow snow

Wondering whether to bother sending Izzy to nursery! Especially since it would involve digging out my hiking boots and scraping all this snow off the car.

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

Birdland!

Was a lovely little park. Perfect for Izzy's attention span - worth a good 45-min walk or so, with fish pond for interactivity (you can feed the fish) and flamingos and penguins up close for the exotic. More pix on FB here.

Visiting the Cotswolds

Yahoo!

I am now on maternity leave! In the end it was quite a good thing that I had a whole two weeks off before my last two weeks at work. Initially I was only going to take a week off over Christmas given the amount of work we had to do on the project. But when my boss suggested I take a second week I got fed-up and thought what difference is a week going to make, really? So ta-da, over two weeks of holiday I de-stressed and decided the only things worth doing when I got back for my final two weeks would be to tie up loose ends and try to leave things in as decent a state as possible for the people taking over my jobs.

I'm still finding it amusing that I've had to hand over to two people; and that there should have been a third except they hadn't hired the person in time. I'm not saying I used to do three jobs' worth of work, because I certainly didn't, it was just the legacy of carrying one job to the next and the next and the next, all with the 'do what you can, when you can' understanding until well, there you go, you have to hand over to three people. 

What to do next (26 things and counting)

I've already started drawing up a list of things that need to be done anyway. Top of that relates to our house move - informing the remaining companies or agencies that we've moved and trying to find out from the stupid landlords exactly what they intend to do about the state of things including the blown fuse for the extractor fan above the cooker. We wrote to them before Christmas and still haven't heard anything. 

Originally I thought I would look forward to just the rest. Or the opportunity to nap. And I am, rather, looking forward to that. Because I haven't really slept through the entire night once in the last two months - mainly because of the discomfort of the watermelon I'm hoicking around. Fortunately, because I can fall asleep again really easily, this hasn't really affected me - I am a little more tired than usual - but I do miss the feeling of wellbeing that comes from a solid eight- or 10-hour sleep.

Given the list I have of things to do though I'm now starting to think hmm I really hope this baby isn't early! If nothing else I'd quite like some luxury time to pretend to be a Stepford Wife minus dress sense. I've arranged with a similarly on-leave colleague to go to a local spa but, also, really I'd like to indulge Izzy and Alex a little before our world is thrown into turmoil again.

In the last month or so I've finally regained my appetite properly and I'm quite longing for interesting food again. Now that I'll finally have time to prepare nice meals, I'm intending to cook quite a few more curries for Alex - I know how much he misses his chillies - and preparing pasta for Izzy that isn't just Seeds of Change Roast Garlic and Tomato Sauce (nice though that is) plus whatever meat is handy. 

In fact - haha mom, you may be pleased to know - I've started looking again in particular at the Chinese recipe books we have (including one for tasty ante- and post-natal confinement food) because I think I seriously miss that sort of thing most of all. Since moving to Reading we really have been having majorly bland, routine meals of the requiring-only-20-mins-preparation variety. All in all I think my repertoire of meals - weekdays and weekends - spans perhaps 15 recipes.

Part of it is due to the above-mentioned need for speed, part of it because I have been shopping almost exclusively at the same supermarket for the last year. And Waitrose is a good one but you do tend to end up buying the exact same things. Now I should at least have time to pop into the local butcher's (usually closed before I finish work) and try to find a decent fishmonger, or at least think of recipes beyond steamed sea bass.

I'm thinking of checking out some classes and things to take Izzy to as well, or at least just taking her to things like the pantomime maybe, or to the local museum where they have child activity sessions, and stuff like that. She's now old enough, I think to be able to interact with me quite well and I think she'd enjoy it. 

I've been mulling the idea of trying to find local ballet or swimming classes for her - just to take her along and see if she shows any interest in attending. (She went through a bit of a phase of continuously doing the three steps shown by on one of her favourite TV shows and she does like dancing to music, though she seems a bit more self-conscious in front of Alex and me than she does at nursery or at her friends' houses.)

If I thought we had the space I'd hunt around for the possibility of hiring an electric piano again really, and seeing if she liked that. Because I do have a colleague who teaches and, although I'm sure she's way too young for piano at three, I was thinking of trying to hunt out Suzuki method teachers in the area - where the focus is much more on listening to the music and learning it by ear rather than methodology. Izzy keeps insisting she wants to learn the trumpet though, rather than the piano or violin. 

Ah our jolly princess has just finished a bath with daddy so  I have to scoot and prepare her susu, as promised. I believe she intends to come down to the 'pooter and have more goes at typing her name - something I let her do on Friday and which she now keeps insisting on doing when we have the laptop on. She can type isabel quite quickly now and finds it fun to do it in different fonts. I'm torn over whether to start insisting she use the right fingers for touch-typing.

Belated birthday things

While clearing out my folders at work I came across the invites I knocked up for Izzy's last two birthday parties:

As you can see we've always gone for joint affairs, to have people to share the pain with.

Posted a lot of pictures from her birthday party this year on Facebook. Click here to have a look here if you're not on Facebook.

Izzy loves her present from Kyrill and Liss

And says thank you very much! Good timing too as we've misplaced her only pair of wrist-warmers and she won't wear mittens despite the recent cold snap.

Two weeks with Izzy
Well the last two weeks have been a panacea. I'm not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow but heck it's only to tie up loose ends and say bye-bye for now anyway, hardly a hardship. Alex has been a champion and done 90% of the packing and unpacking, and he only had a week and a half off, so he's probably exhausted, but I've had a really good rest and it's been really nice being at home with Izzy actually.

That wasn't completely planned. I wasn't paying very much attention and didn't realise till the end of the previous week that nursery was only open two days this week. I thought it would only be closed on New Year's day. As it turned out it's been easier entertaining Izzy than we imagined - er though she's also watched a lot more TV than she should have.

Daddy's little TV addict
Note below the reaction obtained when Daddy turned off the TV for a bit and told her she could only have it back after she'd cooked us dinner on her new stove. It doesn't totally convey the huffing and stomping that ensued. She marched to the stove (stomp, stomp, 'Humph!') then marched back to the living room.

Arms on hips, pout on face: 'Humph! Daddy. What do you want for your dinner?'
Alex: Er fish and chips.
Izzy: Humph! Fish! AND chips! (Stomps to stove then stomps back.) What vegetables do you want, Daddy?
Alex: How about carrots.
Izzy: Carrots. Humph! (stomp stomp back to the stove, then stomps back) There are NO carrots, Daddy. What ELSE do you want?
Alex: Aren't those carrots over there?
Izzy: Humph. (Stomps to stove again.) OK. You can HAVE carrots.

Two minutes later she stomps back to the living room.

Izzy: Daddy! Your dinner is ready! NOW can I have TV?
Alex: What about mummy's dinner?
Izzy: MUMMY?! (Voice rises an octave.)
Alex: Yes, what's mummy going to eat if you don't make her any dinner?
Izzy: Hmph! (Crosses arms) Mummy! What do YOU want for dinner?
Me: Hmm what about roast chicken.
Izzy: Hmph! Roast chicken! Fine!

Repeats performance above. I tell you she doesn't get the drama-rama genes from me...

It's nice now though to be able to launch her into some activity and have her stick with it for about half an hour to 40 minutes before she gets bored. This holiday we've done Play-Doh cookies, real cookies, painting of fridge magnets and play food I'd modelled out of salt dough for her new kitchen.

Sadly she didn't like playing with the salt dough I'd made - I think it needed more flour and/or salt; it was too sticky and defeated even the older and usually very artistically determined Sam E, who tried to make a Power Ranger out of it before giving up.

'I'll be the mummy, OK'
She does a lot of pretend play nowadays - will ferry her doll all over, feeding it with a milk bottle and giving it a bath. And one of her favourite games with a companion is 'mummy and baby' - though I've yet to hear of an instance when she is the baby.

My friend Charlotte had her for a few hours the other day and she was playing it with her son, Sam. Apparently he took off his top and then they had to go to the baby clinic to make sure he was OK. Which Charlotte took as a good sign she was getting ready for Charley Dex's arrival. It all got a bit much though when the two monkeys started pretending Charlotte and another (adult) friend, John, were 'naughty dogs'.

First they kept coming into the room and telling both adults off for being naughty and messy. Then they made poor John sweep up his mess with Sam's pretend broom. Then they were so naughty and messy, apparently, they were going to give them away and get a cat instead.

Izzy and Sam get on really well because I think they're both quite keyed up in the imagination department and quite enjoy pretend play. When Sam was at ours for a few hours the other day my jaw dropped to hear the things Izzy was coming up with. I mean, I think she's reasonably chatty with Alex and I but what she says to me is nothing compared with the non-stop narrative coming from her and Sam when they played together.

They were both being super-heroes, with capes tied round their necks and were leaping on and off the sofa, on a mission to save somebody or something. It was a bit impossible following the story because Sam was riffing off Ben-10 and Power Rangers, and with Izzy it was all Dora the Explorer and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: 'We have to wait for Professor Longdrake (von Drake actually) to show us the way on the map!'

When I sat down with them to play along, I unfortunately disrupted the harmonious complementary narratives. Before I sat down, one person would say something (eg 'Now we're going to jump out of the plane! Make sure you've got your parachute on first!') and the other would go 'Yeah, and then...'

Once I started paying attention though they each looked to me to validate exactly what they were saying and were being forced to listen to each other more closely and pick up the story the other had started. Which clearly didn't suit either of them as well as before. Moral of story, when kids are playing nicely, leave them to it!

We've also started playing I Spy in the car, though with colours and just the occasional phonetic (she does these better than letters). I was quite astounded when she asked to play it and didn't expect her to be able to follow through but, bar the odd escape into imagination once she gets bored (today it was a brown teddy bear she was knitting with my house keys), you can actually get through quite a few rounds with her.

We've moved
Ahh. All in all, it's been a really nice two weeks. While it would have been nice to have been able to go away on a break I think more importantly we've settled into our new house very nicely. Since it has the exact same layout as the last one, we've rearranged furniture according to what we were actually using in the last one. So the house has a much less cluttered feel to it.

For example, we're using the dining room to store nearly all of Izzy's toys, so at least the hazard of stepping on small plastic things is a bit more confined, and she has a table right by the French windows, which gets a lot of evening sun. And we've taken an armchair out of the living room and put it upstairs so there's more space to walk through the living room. While we've not exactly feng shui-d the house, I can totally see the logic in the concept of having good 'flows' through the house. It helps also, of course, that the house is just decorated more nicely than the last one, so has an immediately more homely feel to it.

Best of all though is what I realised the morning after our first night in it: that I hadn't woken once during the night because of people talking loudly or shouting from outside. It's not that the neighbourhood we're in is particularly rowdy, or that people shout a lot when walking past our house, it was just one of the consequences of living on the main road feeding into most of our neighbourhoods, and having a public walkway next to our house.

If you haven't been told yet what our new address is it's because it was one of those things I meant to do this week, when I thought Izzy would be at nursery the whole week. So now it's going to have to wait for maternity leave - in two weeks - but rest assured we have the last place till the end of January anyway so will be picking up mail from there until then.

Izzy trying to be huffy

But not really succeeding because I'm laughing at her. The cause was Daddy's pronouncement of no more TV till she made us pretend dinner on her new kitchen range.

Two princesses

Happy new year, everyone!

Alex is home early, which is nice. Reading and the rest of London seemed to have shut early today, for the long weekend. Izzy's nursery was open - the first time this week - so I took a jaunt into London. I don't know why, I didn't particularly want to buy anything, and nearly all the shops I went to are available in Reading anyway. But it was nice meeting Max for lunch like a real tai-tai. Mainly I think I was just getting a bit bored here in Reading. Even though there are still boxes of clothes to sort and unpack.

It was surprisingly quiet in town and Reading's roads were completely deserted when I drove up to pick Izzy from her nursery. I guess everyone's just taken two weeks off.

I'm off until the 5th of January and then I have two more weeks of work before I use up my final week of annual leave and begin maternity leave for oh, at least six months. At least. I'm waiting to see how it all goes with number two before deciding when to go back to work, and how many days a week.

I've got mixed feelings about maternity leave this time. Mainly relief that it's finally here because it's been quite hard sleeping these last few weeks - a combination of pregnancy discomforts and work anxiety - but also a bit of regret that I'm having to stop work on a major project - one I'd been waiting only oh a year or two to work on.

But mainly I'm looking forward to being able to rest a bit more. The ligaments around the hips are loosening and my stomach is being squished upwards. So if, like last week, I make the mistake of over-eating (we made a trip to London to eat Vietnamese for lunch and sushi for dinner, with gelato for tea... and all three meals were consumed in the space of five hours), what happens is I spend the whole night trying to find a comfortable position, feeling like I'm having to shift a canonball every time I turn from one side to the next. And then I wake up grumpy, with aching hips and having to wait for a painfully slow digestive system to lighten the load again. Ah the joys of pregnancy.

Izzy's favourite Christmas present

A white mouse puppet she's called Lucy and which she drags everywhere by its tail.

Eating at our fav Vietnamese ah pho bo

Christmas carousel

Each round punctuated with Daddy yelling 'Hold on tight!'

Izzy checks out the skating at the Natural History Museum

In the playground

Playing Izzy's favourite game - making a meal for us but taking an hour to do it because she has to get all the ingredients first.

Izzy at daddy's co Xmas party

But mostly she wanted to watch kids fall over at the fake ice-rink

Izzy discovers hotel life

Giraffe has opened in town

A letter from Nano

Izzy loves a Christmas card she's gotten from our friends Ali, Nadia and Baby Nano because the snowmen are dressed in sweets. Earlier this week, she was looking at the card approvingly then, after a spate of TV-watching, she picked it up again and turned to the back and asked 'Do you know what it says, Mummy?'

'Mm? What, on the inside?'

She put the back of the card up in front of her face. Tsked approvingly while nodding her head and started:

'It says: Dear Izzy, thank you for coming to my birthday party. I hope you had a good time (pause to nod her head approvingly and tsk at the same time). Next time maybe you can -'

Then she turned the card to look at its front again.

'Oh,' she exclaimed in a mix of horror and disapproval. 'It's upside down!' Which it was. She huffed disapprovingly, turned the card the right way up and started again.

'Dear Izzy. Thank you for coming to my birthday party. I hope you had a good time. I had a lovely time playing at the party. (Approving tut and head nod.) Next time maybe you can come to my house again and we can play some more. When I am five I will have a big party. (Approving nod.) With a cake. And all my friends can come and bring presents. Anyway. That's all now. See you soon. Love, Nano.'

She looked at me. 'That's what it says.'

I was completely flabbergasted by the length of time she'd been talking non-stop and making all this up in her head as she went along. But thinking about her indignation on discovering she'd been reading an imaginary letter that was upside-down is still cracking me up.

Oh too good

This shot made Alex and I laugh out loud several times - first when we saw it on the news, then several times after looking it up on YouTube and the Beeb, which kindly provided it in slow motion too. Sadly the embedded video link is now taking about a million years to download as no doubt millions around the world join the laughter so here's the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7782422.stm

The H bar

What IS it with this baby? (Izzy I mean) For months in my womb she would upend herself and dig her feet into my chest. Now, three years out of it, she's still doing the same thing. We all three squashed into our bed last night - we've been sleeping in relays of two and one in separate bedrooms recently to try to get Izzy back into her bedroom (no success). Woken at some point early in the morning by her casual laying of her feet on my chest, I saw she'd managed to do it again.

Alex and I were sleeping at the edges of the bed and our monkey had turned a full 90 degrees to wedge her head into Alex's chest, her feet into mine. Sometime later Alex gave up and went and slept at the bottom of the bed. A position I took up after he left the house early for his 7.30am shift, having had enough feet-in-face experiences for one morning.

Inklings on No 2

A colleague has already issued the dire warning: they never change. I was commenting on a slight worry as to whether Charley Dex's activity may translate into similar boisterousness once born. Izzy just got frequent hiccups and was quite content to shift herself around every now and then before she came out. Charley on the other hand occasionally seems to drum on the walls of my stomach, turns around quite a lot and kicks - and this is only at the 29th week. I don't seem to recall Izzy moving around very much until the last month really.

But maybe this is because I have also expanded about two months more quickly than I did last time (ie I think I looked, at five months gone, the same I looked at seven months last time) and consequently am more prone to waking up in the middle of the night from the discomfort of having to shift this watermelon around when I change positions. (Not helped when Izzy is doing her head-wedging thing into my face or chest.)

Am also worrying slightly as to what's going to happen to Izz when she realises she has to come second in priority to what I'm doing. She's going through a bit of an affectionate phase now where she'll latch onto my arm or something and go 'Maami! Mami! I luuuv you! My mami!' (not followed by request for food or favour!)

Yeah it's sickening, but only if it's not your child.

Trying it on for size

Izzy's negotiation skills are being used to their fullest. In the last two weeks or so, we've seen some attempts at tantrumming and, when faced with stern 'no's she's often resorted, following tears, to manners:
'I want a Tictac... (sobsob) but I want a Tii-ictaaaac.'
becomes
'Mummy, please, can I have Tictacs? Please, mummy.'

Full points for trying!

She is becoming a bit more bumptious as well - to the point where I'm starting to think of revoking all TV-watching privileges, because otherwise it seems to take us ages to get out the door in the morning, and for her to fall asleep at night.

This last one or two nights when I've said 'No more TV', she's run to get to the remote control before me, before returning to clamp a little hand over my mouth: 'Don't say it, mummy. We are NOT changing the channel, OK?'

And when Alex and I have occasionally acquiesed to her staying on the sofa while we watch the news or something else, she's tried propaganda:

'But your show is naughty.'

I accept this charge occasionally applies to daddy's choice of the sci-fi channel but in this case it was David Attenbrough on sea life.

'I don't like the snake. The snake is naughty!'

She really has a thing about animals. All her nightmares ever have seemed to involve animals - the spiders when she was slightly delirious with fever, the doggy in her bedroom, the toy owl on her dresser and, a few weeks ago, it was the snake on the book that she was certain she saw in the middle of the night.

Uses for child labour 3#

One very happy beneficiary

Of a lovely box of chocolates for my birthday, which was doubly welcome as I originally thought would treat myself to the same but compromised much more cheaply on a mid- to pricey bar from the supermarket.

Arctic winds

But at least there was sunshine so we got out to the playground for a bit.

Izzy approves

Of the ice-cream selection at my birthday lunch.

Yesss!

Geek daddy and daughter play some bubble game on the little laptop.

Izzy in her snazzy new shirt

Why is it, do you think?

A man working from home, who doesn't have time to do any of the dishes from his meals throughout the day, would think his wife, working from home AND taking care of their daughter AND preparing dinner for everyone, would have time to arrange and attend a viewing of a house the same day?

What a week

Straight after Halloween last Friday and Boo's birthday party on Saturday, which knocked me for six in themselves, our young lady picked up a stomach bug and now has the sniffles like 95% of all the children in the country I think. Worse, she gave Alex and I the stomach bug. The full effects hit me Tuesday morning, and Alex Tuesday mid-day.

Poor man. Was quite cross that he came back really late (as usual) on Monday night as I'd started to feel quite tired and achy all over by 7pm, while Izzy was obviously on her way to recovery and quite boisterous in two-hour spurts. The whole night I ached and tossed and turned in sleep. So when I woke up Tuesday morning and spewed, I left him entirely to look after her and slept until 4pm.

Then I came downstairs to find him poleaxed on the floor, shivering under a duvet. He said he'd felt a bit ropey in the morning but it wasn't until lunchtime that he really suddenly felt he couldn't stand up anymore. Izzy behaved quite well, he said, when told Daddy was poorly too, and needed to sleep. Except she would come over every 10 minutes or so, kick him and scold, "Daddy! Stop snoring!"

I was looking up "rotavirus" on Google and came across some health website that said it could cause diarrhoea up to 20 times a day in children, "which is distressing for parents as well as the child". Talk about understatement! It made me laugh out loud. Boo fortunately only had the runs at worse three or four times Sunday - it worried me more that she was emptying her stomach every half hour or so between 1.30 and 4.30am - but at least it then went on to note that as distressing as the diarrhoea was, the laundry that it necessitates "can be very exhausting". Too. Damn. Right. What the heck did people do before washing machines? I shudder to think.

I'm still not sure whether to put down Alex's tentative suggestion on Tuesday - that we perhaps wander out for Bonfire night if she was alright - to ambition, delusion or obviously not doing enough of the housework. Then had a few days of panic wondering if we'd poisoned all of Izzy's little buddies at the party but, fortunately have since found out no other child had a dodgy stomach and so it must be a blinking bug rather than something we ate.

Night before last was another scare as she went to bed complaining of ear-ache; then kept whining to go to the toilet and saying the lights were "too bright, too bright!" everytime we took her there. A 40-minute wait at the GP's office later on Thursday though, the GP confirmed she had a sore throat but no ear infection, thank goodness.

And, all things considered, given that I rather foolishly agreed to have her at home today to keep an eye on her while I tried (partially successfully) to read several documents for work, she's been quite well behaved. Especially since our TV cable box died. Fortunately she hasn't seen her Pocoyo DVDs in a while and children's TV websites have proved quite a lifesaver (see picture below).

Now I am only hoping the sniffles are not the same thing that knocked out two colleagues for four or five days each. They are the kind of colleagues who normally have to be dragged kicking and screaming from their desks.

On the plus side we took some nice pictures and when we get round to installing the (replaced) camera software on our (replaced) laptop, will get round to posting them. Finally! An end to the very blurry pictures our mobile phones produce.

This weekend we'll be seeing Aunty Elaine and Uncle Vik. And I'm really sorry to say the memory of this little elephant is very much intact. On being informed we were visiting people on Sunday, immediately on hearing it was Aunty Elaine, her face clouded over ...

"But not Uncle Vik?" she asked.

"Yes, Uncle Vik too," I said.

"But he pinches..."

Elephant. Memory of.

Jelly for tea

Only three more packets to use up from the party.

Her father's daughter

Some of Izzy's cupcake decorations

I think they have a certain anarchic quality that makes up for the flood of pink.

The invalid

Poor Izzy - don't know what she's eaten but she spent most of last night vomiting and the most of this morning with the runs. I think you can guess how bad it's been when I say we've only staggered out of bed and it's almost 1pm. Fortunately she appears on the mend and has a tonne of presents to amuse her. Am really worried now in case we've poisoned any of her little friends as well with something at the party.

Party time

Izzy is spending her first night at a sleepover which gives us loads me free time - bless the parents who suggested it - to get food ready for her party tomorrow. These are the better looking cupcakes I've made so far. Overloaded the first tray so they came out misshapen but at least now I have enough good looking ones to form their birthday cake stack. Only the fruit salad, sandwiches and chicken drumsticks to go. Alex came back from a training course today and fell asleep on the sofa after insisting he could help. Well there's always the washing up.

The cutest little witches

Izzy's guardian angel Alessia had her over for tea and then another mum did some face painting before they hit the neighbourhood. We came back loaded with goodies. The four kids looked so cute. Three witches and one wizard.

Ah the ghosts of several Peanuts comic strips are exorcised

Ta daa all set for Halloween

Tonight's entertainment

I can't believe it but it's snowing outside. At least I won't have to worry about the pumpkin dehydrating or rotting before Friday.

Play dates are go!

Izzy has her best buddy Felix over and it's bliss! They've been happily playing with each other for the last two hours or so, without bugging me at all! We made some honey biscuits together for a bit and, since then, she has been, I'm afraid, instructing him in the niceities of the domestic arts.

'OK Felix, you be baby, and I'll be mommy.'

'Felix, squirt here, for the ironing! Squirt now, Felix!'

'No, Felix, I'm looking after baby!'

Fortunately Felix seems to be wisely ignoring her for the most part. And Izzy, when pushed, reluctantly does share her squirter, the monkey, and lets Felix come into the school; ie the dining table, under which they have popped two pillows to lie on, arranged their school bags and a handful of soft toys they are co-parenting.

I'm getting a bit worried by the number of times I keep hearing heads bop the bottom of the table but neither one has complained so far.

Izzy is now wailing that I keep waking her up with my typing and they are flying the nest, hurrah! 

'Shall we have a sleepover and a bedtime party?' asks Izzy. 'Mom, we're having a party! Then you (that would be her dad and me) have to go home, so we can be here.'This is only a continuation of a worrying trend that has seen Izzy take over our bed, and Alex and I regularly sleeping on mattresses in her room.

Baking diversion

I went slightly mad in Tesco the other day and wound up spending £84 in one session - I did buy a lot of staples that needed buying - but also spent a good chunk on baking accessories. But boy have they been useful. 

The two silicon baking mats (£5 each; bargain considering they were £10 and £12 in John Lewis and House of Fraser) came in really handy for the two monkeys this morning to roll out their dough on. And the palette knife REALLY helps when you need to lift soft cookie dough from one surface onto a baking tray. Who knew? Can't wait to try icing a cake with it as well now hahaha. 

I keep forgetting how used Izzy and her nursery friends are to what I consider exotic fun - ie baking biscuits - because they do so much of that sort of thing at nursery. I'd hardly plopped two lumps of dough in front of them before they were both reaching for the rolling pin and, without any instruction, cutting the shapes out with the cookie cutters. 

Similarly we bought Izzy her bike last week after meeting Alessia at the playground and a demonstration by Alessia of how she could now cycle without training wheels. Wail after wail we decided Izzy's legs were probably long enough now (we tried a few months ago, having had vague thoughts of getting her a bike for her third birthday and she couldn't reach the pedals when they were at the bottom) and took her to get a bike.

You can see in the picture below that though it was almost dark when Alex finished putting it together, she insisted on taking it out for a spin. I was napping so didn't see her. But when we went together to the playground yesterday I was really surprised by how adept she was on it. But then she has been riding the tricycles at nursery for ages. 

So anyway what with the baking and playground visits you can tell suburban domesticity has totally taken over. Given the lousy weather (it's raining again today although yesterday was alright) I've worked out the only refuge there is, is baking. 

Last week we tried to get up to London but exhaustion, some lousy bug going round at work, and Izzy acting up (to be fair after she'd been to view four houses with us all morning) combined to make me give up in a strop. Now I reckon we can try again another weekend but not until both Alex and I have recovered a little bit from the current spate of serious busy-ness at work.

Am looking forward to this Friday, which I've taken the day off, partly to use up a lot of leave before January, and partly because Izzy's birthday party has finally been organised and is on Saturday afternoon. 

I figure I can spend some of the day preparing food. And the rest of it doing me things like getting my hair cut and shopping for (sigh) maternity clothes. I'm really growing out of my jeans and things and I hid my last maternity jeans so well I can't now find them, which is a pain in the backside. Anyway I need a few more work-type trousers as I am definitely expanding faster (damn the loss of muscle tone) this time than last (sigh sigh).

Izzy preparing for Halloween

She painted a giraffe for me

Izzy sulking

After having the tv channels switched on her and being thwarted in a tantrum after she realised any more tears would mean the end ofthe butterfly painted on her face.

Izzy gets her bike

Insisted on going for a ride on her new bike even though the sun had gone down

At the playground again

Where she insisted we all had to sit within her house and I had to apologise for imaginarily hurting Daddy.

Izzy and a posy of blackberries

Last days of blackberrying

Izzy's wiles

They grow ever more cunning. In the mornings now I sometimes awake to her cooing and stroking my face going 'Mummy, I want a cuddle.' And when I roll over to give her a hug, she gives me a big kiss on the cheek and goes 'Mummy, I looove you!' Then, duty done, she briskly notes 'It's bright outside now. Can we go downstairs, Mummy?'

Doesn't help that our wills these last two weeks haven't been particularly strong. I'm being slowly worn down by a major project at work, which seems to mainly involve convincing managers to put their money where their mouths are and actually make decisions, instead of constantly putting off the decision-making moment with the almighty phrase 'Well it has to be configurable, doesn't it?' 

And Alex was on call last week - bad timing, so he left the house at 5.30 in the morning four days a week and came home only once before 10pm. It's hard to be firm when all you want to do is space out in front of the TV.

And sleeping at night is a little uncomfortable now. Can't sleep on my back and every time I turn to one side I have to position the bump on something otherwise the weight drags my back into all sorts of awkward positions. Am pretty sure this wasn't the case until the seventh month or so last time, darn it.

On the plus side all the old stretch marks are currently stretched out and hardly visible. Silver linings, eh? Hah!

Izzy and the TV

Sadly she is cementing their old relationship, pre-stolen TV. Am starting to think that being without a TV may not have been a bad thing. Well... except I remember having to read her Winnie the Witch five times one night. She's always been a bit wary of participating in the TV. When Dora says 'What was your favourite part?' she normally gives her a slightly incredulous look. Just now though I heard her shout 'Izzyyyyyyy' after the TV instructed 'Shout out your name if you're a friend of rabbit's!' But when I cheerily asked 'Are you rabbit's friend too, Izz?' I only got an embarrased silence. Good girl. At least I know she's kind of got one foot on the ground, haha.

Here's to play dates!

She spent most of Saturday morning at her best buddy Felix's house and was actually fine for me to leave her there. Bliss! Three hours in which we quickly shopped for a new laptop and then had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the high street. Unfortunately Felix's mom says he is likely to be less inclined to be left behind like she is but we will have to try. Having a Saturday morning to ourselves is definitely desirable!

Answers on a postcard please

I am dying for a holiday. Alex doesn't think he can stretch to a week, the spoilsport, but a long weekend away is definitely do-able. And I'm thinking I might as well start taking a few days off to myself to do things like cut my hair and shop for maternity winter wear. Any suggestions for a child-friendly destination, anyone? A bit of sunshine wouldn't go amiss either.

We've been baking again

Am quite soothed by baking with Izzy on weekends. Am quite impressed by these honey cookie recipes simple but definitely yummy.

Everyone, meet Onglette II (due 13 Feb)

We finally had a scan on Wednesday (24 Sep) and confirmed the baby looks alright and that I am indeed almost 20 weeks gone. So it's a good thing I stopped footie a few weeks ago. I kind of had an inkling while we were in Bali, but really only confirmed it when we got back, when I spent several weeks coughing through the afternoons at work because I felt like throwing up but ever only dry gagged. I'll be publishing two previously written secret pregnancy posts now, if you can be asked to trawl back the last one or two months (there were only two) to look.

Izzy has known for weeks now, and has even named the baby after her favourite TV show/book - Charlie and Lola - and her best friend Felix's younger brother, Dexter. She's quite pleased about it although has been slightly less so since the following...

Izzy finds out Charlie Dexter is a girl

And this was better than her initial reaction...