Three-word sentences

She now says
"I like (s)nack!" - I think this was her first three-word sentence as spoken to me (and therefore official).
"Nana make huu-huu." (susu, milk)
"Mama make umm."

Are you spotting a pattern?

She's definitely picking up more words now. She can finally say 'Amy' to Amy at nursery, although Tarnya says she still won't say it when Amy asks her to. I think she's picked up daddy's clever knack of winding people up. She says things like 'Martha's pushchair' - actually 'ma-aa ush air' but close enough.

And she still orders me to 'Mama, dat dere' as she pats the sofa. (As in sit on that there piece of cowhide, mama.)

Izzy's little loves
She loves Felix. She luuurves little Felix. Half the time the sentences she volunteers to me concern Felix. 'Lick-lick aa-aa, Mama. Ra-ra aa-aa.' Which translates as Felix and Tara said 'Aa-aah' in nursery today. And if you ask 'Oh, were they being little monkeys?' She happily nods yes. Sometimes on the way to nursery I hear a forlorn sigh, then a plaintive 'Lick-lick, Mama... Lick-liiiick.' So funny.

She's also started to try to sing a bit. She can definitely do the 'quack quack' bit in Five Little Ducks but recently when I've sang Baa Baa Black Sheep, she'll try to sing the first line too. And she'll kind of mutter bits of set-set-set to herself. 'Se-se-se... bom bom... onnne, twooo, boom!'

And to my surprise the other day, when I was counting fingers with her, she volunteered the numbers four, eight and nine before I said them aloud. In the right places too. Wow. She IS a genius.

20 mths+

Carseat palava
I know it's been a while since I've blogged and that's because nowadays I try to get about eight hours sleep which is hard because our daughter doesn't seem to require many more than 10 hours each night! The upshot of it all is that I've now 90 per cent decided we are going to move to be closer to work. This has partly been because, until I started bribing (reinforcing good behaviour), we were having twice-daily battles to get her to into her car seat. Ha, I say we but I mean ME.

Alex did help one day by playing the good cop when I threatened to leave her at home (ie saying 'OK baby you stay at home with Daddy, alright?' which he knew would make her wail and cry for me).

Anyway the bribing worked brilliantly. I offered her M&Ms if she would get in and she not only got in, she got in herself! Ever since then, she only has to catch sight of the little bag in the car to climb into the seat, it's fantastic. I think she's even learned to count to three because that's how many she can have and she usually knows to hand the bag back after three. (I usually wait for her to eat them so she doesn't choke, mom.)

I've also found out her favourite colour is nannow (yellow) because when there's a choice she will only eat yellow ones. More recently I think she just likes the thrill of running her hands through them. Part of me hopes she gets sick of them so she's not eating M&Ms most days. Part of me worries how the heck I'm going to get her to sit down if the bribe loses its efficacy.

Part of the problem is that she wants to drive the car of course, which I usually let her do, for about 15 minutes when we first get in, on the way home, and part of it is that she wants to sit in the big people's seats. Not in her car seat. God only knows why when her seat can recline so far for her to snooze! She can now put a seat belt on if you pull it out for her, and put the key into the slot. I only hope we get a car requiring a security number before her feet reach the pedals.

Home sweet home
Our lives have pretty reasonably totally changed in that a hot day out on the weekends for me now is walking down the high street and maybe picking up something new for the garden. Our oriental salads are coming up a treat and the lettuce Alex planted is turning a deeper shade of green, even if it doesn't appear to be growing any new leaves (garden centre plants, eh?)

But slugs decimated my beautiful pea shoots and as revenge today I planted a beer trap. I only hope it works otherwise I'm sure the courgettes will go next. I've also put down broken egg shells around the plants. Am considering moving everything back into pots and going on a super terracotta pot-buying spree. Anyone got more suggestions? Don't really want to resort to slug pellets yet.

Yes, the gardening bug has bitten so bad that I am considering making raised beds at the entire end of the garden and actually going to collect the advertised free manure from some stables nearby to put in it. Only the certainty that Izz will throw herself in the horse crap as soon as we put it down is stopping me from doing this. Am certain it would benefit the five or so tomato plants we have though.

The second part of my plan for domestic goddessness is also proceeding afoot ie training Izzy to do the housework before she realises it's work haha. I bought one of those Pledge dusters a few weeks ago, must really remember to break them out for her to er play with. Show me a happier maid.













Uh oh her highness, having woken thoroughly from her nap now is demanding we go downstairs. I think it might be time for dinner (rice, peas and steamed egg tonight as poor daddy is at work). Back later.

Quick guide to other pictures:












Boo does Japanese tourist look, harasses daddy on walk by the river, insists on opening the front door herself.





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Is getting into cooking, haha. Pours about five packets of pork into the shopping basket (never taking her shopping after work again, too high a rise in blood pressure) - Uncle Qiang would be so proud of her inherent Chinese nature. Insists on helping me pound toasted sesame seeds for current Japanese food phase - then pours cup of water into pestle, ruining seeds.













Demonstrates her Iron Chef technique with wooden knife and velcro veg.










Boo at her own cooking range, with pots and pans from Ikea - so cute! Now also insists on buttering and marmite-ing own toast.










Rolls around on ground with boyfriend Sam. ("Ham, mama, haaam.") Rolls around ground by self in tantrum over too big sunhat. Generates plenty of laughs from passers-by, only shamed into standing up by laughs from neighbour and peer Daira.










Is trapped by evil daddy in playground apparatus.

About Alan Johnston
I know this is baby's blog but every little...

Where does she get it?
As if you had to ask. We kept her busy today - pouring water and soil over herself while planting a range of things in the garden, some of which I hope will sprout despite us emptying the seeds haphazardly into pots for germination - and then with the sand pit in a park after lunch.

19 mths+

Baby's first sentence!
It is: 'Hi, Nana.' By which she meant 'Hi, Dad', Nana being what she is currently calling him - no idea why.

This morning, Alex actually got up earlier than we did because he was on some team-building, community-aiding project that the big corporation he works for sponsors once a year to make up for ripping other people off all the time.

Izzy was deep asleep when he left as we were out till quite late last night at the work football club annual grudge match and post-match party. The party was fun for baby I think as she was one of only two little girls there and so got lots of doting attention by all the lovely (and probably quite bored) women there. Even the little boys, most of whom we see at our weekly game, tend to be very sweet to her.

Anyways so when she woke up, she toddled to the side of our bed, half asleep still, and then clocked that Alex wasn't lying there asleep, as he usually is.

Turns to me with surprised, quizzical expression: 'Nana?'
'Mm, Nana's not there, baby.'
Looks at bedroom door and beyond searchingly: 'Nana?'
'No sweetie, Daddy's already left the house. He kissed you bye-bye, but you were asleep.'
Dismay: 'Nanaaaa?'

What else are free videophone minutes for if not this? I cannnot say enough how having a baby justifies a 3G phone.

Fortunately Alex was on the platform waiting for a train so he answered the phone. Aah how her chubby little face lit up when she heard and saw Nana.

'Nana!'
'Eh? Why are you calling me?'

Two minutes and one satisfied baby later, we ended the call as Alex's train arrived. She picked up the phone after I put it down.

'Hi, hi... bye... Hi... Nana. Hi, Nana!'

Whoo-hoo! Sentence!

Nennow video
Hurray I forgot all about some free webspace we have so here is the 'nennow' (yellow) video I mentioned earlier. Have confirmed that Izzy knows it means yellow because she calls the yellow marker pen (and the blue one, and the red one) the same thing.

We've have a good Easter break so far. Spent all Friday eating with Weif, Lucy and Elaine in Canary Wharf, and then all of today getting to London Zoo and walking around there. The silverback gorilla is quite something to see. Especially since he kept going over and thumping on the glass, right in the faces of the gawping visitors. Don't blame the poor fellow.

The animals were in fine form. We saw ducks, the lions, African hunting dogs and a strange nocturnal rainforest animal called a potoo or something like that, all mating.

Click on the picture below and then you can either view the video, or save it and then view it. The latter option will probably give you a better result unless you have great broadband connection. Will upload more videos later!

Promised pictures

Feats of daredevil grace - as performed by the Ng-Ong girlies
























Now that it's spring
The clocks have gone forward again so it's usually light when we go home, which is really nice. Although this often prompts Boo to want to wander round my office grounds or mess about in the car before going home. She loves sitting in the front seat, putting on my gloves and then pretending to drive the car before she'll agree to sit in the back seat.

Fortunately my latest ploy - the five-minute countdown is working. After a frustrating week of forcing her to sit in the seat, disregarding her stiff, protesting body and wails of outrage and dismay, this Friday, as I said 'OK, get into your seat now' she actually did. Dropped jaw, could have knocked me over with a feather etc etc etc. But I think I hid my amazement well. And I only rewarded her with several kisses, masses of praise and an orange biscuit. Fingers crossed she'll do it again!

All those time-wasting ploys





















On weekends
Scarcely a weekend goes by now where we don't visit one playground or another. If Boo doesn't leave the house, pretty much all three of us will be going spare by 5pm. So we make sure we go out for a walk at least, even if it's only to the supermarket to buy some more milk.

We've always loved the parks but now I love them even more because they are an endless source of activity with which to tire out the daughter and ensure she falls asleep by 10pm - oh alright 11pm really - at night.
We went cycling in Battersea Park recently and this week we visited the animals in Golder's Park, which was quite sweet.

Boo went off the swings for quite a few months but all of a sudden these last two weeks it's all she wants to do. About a month ago, she refused to get out of the one at the playground near home even though the sun was sinking and it was getting really cold. This week at Ravenscourt Park she refused to get out of the swing for about an hour and when she finally did all she wanted to do was push the other swings around a bit. It took quite a while before she would allow us to pack her into her pram and push her off to see the ducks.

She's starting to interact more with things as well now. Simona, my colleague, gave her a little doll for Christmas and until recently she's only ever put it in the pushchair and wheeled it round the room. Now though, she'll feed it with a spoon and the bottle that came with it, and give it baths. Most of all though, she insists on taking the doll's clothes off. She does enjoy being a nudie rudie. Several times a weekend I have to convince her to put her pants on otherwise she will be cold.

'What's baby's name?'
'Mong.'
'Very nice. Hello, Mong.'

And she keeps insisting on doing things I do now, like sweep up with the small brush and dustpan, and washing things with a sponge. Most of all though she likes playing with our mop. Contrary to the impression this picture gives - that I am making the most of the child labour available to me - she will actually take the mop out of the closet herself and start mopping the floor. Where it all goes wrong is when she tries to mop the carpet. Because the mop won't move smoothly over it. And then it's all 'Waaah!'

But I like this development. Simona allows Sam to hoover the stairs when he's good. I think that is a model of reward behaviour to strive for.

18 mths+

So busy...
It's getting annoying. Both Alex and I have been so busy at work that I'm seriously starting to think about cutting back my working days to four. Or switching jobs. But I'll rant more on that later. Just wanted to post the funny things babe has been doing this week before I forget.

Babe channels Linda Blair
'Baby, are you sleepy? Shall we go upstairs?' (I start putting away her book)
'No, no, no, NOOOO, NOOOO.'
The two loud burps in the middle of her nos elongated and deepened them to quite startling effect. And then I just fell about laughing for five minutes.

Nennow is the colour...
Am cutting a green pepper to put in our quinoa for dinner (yep, that's right, the super-high-protein organic health food chosen by top mums everywhere. Especially ones impressed by its ability to be cooked in 15 minutes simply by boiling). Give baby the red and yellow peppers to hold in hopes they will amuse her for a while.

Whaddyaknow, they do. She takes up the yellow pepper excitedly.
'Nennow! Nennow!'
'Waah baby you know the colours? Yellow? Yes, yellow! So clever, Izzy! What colour's this then?' (Hold up red pepper.)
'Nennow!'
'No, it's red.'
'Nennow!'
'Red.'
'Nennow!'
'OK what about this one?' (Hold up green pepper.)
'Nennow!'
'No, green!'
'Nennow!'
'Green!'
'Nennow!'
I have a video of this conversation. When I get round to looking up how to do it I'll definitely post it.

So anyway we have had quite a lovely weekend as it was sunshiney and warm and baby has been doing less coughing and subsequent voiding of her stomach contents. Most agreeable.

Latest achievement
Yesterday, in Ravenscourt Park, babe managed to cling onto the sides of a slide - quite a big one too, taller than I am, and walk all the way up it. She was so delighted at the top. I knew she was because she has always tried to climb the slides in the playground near us and they are shorter than this one was but she's never managed because they're quite wide. This slide was narrow and so she managed to jam her heels in and move steadily upwards. Today she also managed to climb into the bouncy chair in the playground all by herself. Go, baby, go!

More on our holiday home
Hmm as posted earlier the holiday didn't get off to the best start. Izz had conjunctivitis and a lousy cold, which she passed to me. It liked me so much it came back the following week for a few days. And then Alex got it. And then my dad caught Izzy's conjunctivitis. And Alex's dad caught the flu. Terrible all round but it made for a very quiet and relaxing holiday.

The only downside to it was the tempting flesh Izz posed to the mosquitos. Poor baby was bitten so many times and the bites would swell to terrible-looking red bumps. I think her body must just not had developed the immunity ours have after years of being eaten by mosquitos back home. In all the pictures from home you can see the mozzie bites or the scars the mozzie bites left.

Fortunately they have now all pretty much faded. Or at least can't be seen beneath the layers of clothes she wears.

What did we do?
Eat. Eat lots. What else is there to do? I didn't feel hungry at all the first two weeks we were home. But after that we made up for the lack of food with a trip to Penang - how is it posssible to eat five meals in one day? - and many trips to Raju's, my favourite roti canai restaurant with outdoor seating.

I must be going native though because I found myself thinking several times, I must remember to tell them 'REALLY, really kurang manis' (less sweet) everytime I drank a one of our condense milk-saturated drinks.

While we were home, Izz took to using the word 'ane' (pron: uh-naay) to indicate her interest in anything. And when we pointed this out to the nice waiters there she instantly became a little favourite. Because 'ane' means 'older brother' in Tamil in Malaysia. Just like abang or tai ko. That was good because it meant no stinting on the poppadoms available to our keropok muncher.

We also went quite a bit to a deli called Delicious - so clever - which I loved because there, when you pay RM10 for an iced lemon tea, it's real tea, real lemon, a large old-fashioned sundae-style glass of shaved ice and a sprig of fresh mint on top. Not like at Starbucks, which seems to be tea granules flavoured with lemon and some cubes of ice. Yuck.

We managed to meet most, but not all, our friends. (We're sorry! We were sick! And unorganised! It's all Izzy's fault!) Shame that but now that quite a few of us have sprogs it actually requires some forward planning to meet up.

And child-friendly places are not so easily found. Especially for big groups of people. Delicious was good in this respect - they had a huge table which fit all 10-12 adults, Alex's old uni mates, and the six or seven tots got to bounce around on the flat square sofa in the front of the restaurant after they ate.

Argh very sleepy again. Continue later.

Almost 1.5 yrs

Back in cold, grey London
Sigh. Well I'm still reasonably cheerful on account of my one month of the most sleep I have had since baby came along. Alex says he spent this trying not to be more homesick than he could help. I think he really misses all the family. I try not to look back since there were a couple of things I wish I'd eaten more of ... and, sigh, I have to admit I kind of rather really miss the family too.

Izzy seems quite unaffected, though she's continuing to do everything she learned in Malaysia: speaking and yelling about ten times louder than she used to; fake crying; demanding to be fed anything we are eating, but also licking each first portion gingerly; and stating that her milk, the sugared ginger and chilli prawn crackers are 'ot' (hot) - like her mama never warns her anyway.

She's been quite jet-lagged in a good way. The first couple of days she kept going to sleep at about 6pm or 7pm. Whoo hoo, baby-free dinner preparation, I forgot how much fun that is. But then she would also then wake at 4am, demanding milk. Ouch. These last two days we've woken her up once home from work/nursery though because I couldn't take the 4am wakings and demands to be taken down to watch tv ('No tv Izz, no CBeebies now.' 'WAAAAAHHHH!').

Home sweet home












Man did we have a ball back home though. If our family are reading this - let's not kid myself, who else is besides my pregnant friends? - thank you, thank you, thank you for all the sleep. Boy was it good. It was so good. It was possibly the highlight of my year after Izzy.

Izz would probably say her highlights were her cousins, the lavish attention from her grandparents and all the keropok (fish crackers) she could eat. Though if I'm honest, let's face it family, we all know the keropok would probably have been top of her list. Never has she eaten so much, so non-stop, for so long.

All that plus po-po's (grandma) wo-wow (dog). She really seems to have taken a shine to dogs, particularly her toy dog from Ah Khor (her father's older sister), which she constantly has been asking for in the house and on the way home and which she kisses more than her father and I put together.

I meant to blog more but I wasted too much time earlier trying to find the name of the track playing in a particular episode of Sex and the City so will type more later and post more pictures of our trip home then. Including those of our nieces performing breath-taking feats of dare-devilry for baby's amusement.

The weekend with cousins
Didn't go quite as raucously as I thought it might, which was nice. Baby was very good with them - or rather they were very good with her - and so there was quite a lot of nice playing together. Not so with the two nearest in age to her, because they are still territorial and defend toys in their possession to the death, but the two older girls took baby under their wings and were really rather sweet in ferrying her. Kai Li, in particular, the eldest, was really very nice to baby and humoured her tugging on her clothes quite a bit.

They found it hilarious that we call her Boo Boo, and that she was born in the year of the chicken. And not one of them deigns to believe us when we say they used to commit the deplorable sins of a) sucking on a dummy; b) pooping unbelievably smelly poos; and c) not sharing their toys.

Hurray!
Today is the first day I felt human again. This, despite baby waking at 1.30 last night and then partying hard with the whole family until about 3.30. She refused to go back to sleep after waking and so I took her downstairs as she was requesting. I thought I would humour her, give her some milk and then take her back to bed drowsy.

But Dad came downstairs to play with her; woke Yang (baby's kao-fu, or uncle), who'd been sleeping by the dog; and once they'd got baby a bit stoked, Ling (baby's yi-yi, or auntie) came back with Amir and so baby had a merry audience to watch her eat apples, then cornflakes and milk, run away from the dog, gesture along to her nursery rhymes, and play with her toys. After an hour and a half Alex and I even slipped away and she didn't notice. Most excellent. When she finally returned to bed everyone was completely pooped out.

We thought we would slip away early this morning for breakfast with Alex's friends, since everyone was still asleep then, but of course they woke to give the princess a bit of a send-off. So we were half an hour late but hey, still not the last to appear. Dim sum at the Mandarin was very nice; the staff were lovely to baby, completely humouring her every wave and not scowling too noticeably when she stepped in front of their feet despite their laden trays.

Later we took a quick walk in the KLCC shopping centre next door but that was not entirely enjoyable. It was a public holiday in KL so the place was absolutely heaving. But we did find some very nice presents for people we absolutely needed to buy so that was good. Also we were reminded that there is a beautiful paddling pool for children there so we'll probably bring Bel back when she is better.

Best of all is the fact that when I woke up this morning, neither of my tonsils hurt and the kinks in my neck, back and hip, all of which have plagued me since the plane flight, had all gone. I'm about a day or two behind Boo in recovery and man does it feel good to have finally reached this stage!

Wow so that was the worst flight I've ever had
Baby was so unsettled. It was bad enough she looked like she'd come off worst in a playground free-for-all: her conjunctivitis made one eye swell half-shut and the other squint a bit; plus her cold meant that her nose was constantly streaming and, to top it off, I think she had a sore throat and was teething. If I've caught what she had I can imagine why she was so grizzly. I now have a sore throat and one of those annoying headaches that comes on when you move your head too quickly.

And she threw up on me. Twice. I had thought to pack one spare t-shirt in my hand luggage, but not two. I will certainly be doing so on the way back. And I definitely will not give her any of blinking MAS's 'orange juice'. She only had a few sips but I'm convinced that it was the cause of the enormous burp she gave just before barfing all down the back of my sweaters and hair. Poor, poor baby.

Plus, of course, she refused to sit on Alex at all so most of the time she slept partly or wholly on my lap. I was counting down the hours from 6 hours in, going argh fly faster, you idiot pilot, faster! To be fair we got in slightly early, which was probably quite good going, if the bumpiness of the ride was any indication of the wind resistance. Still feel quite stiff though and I think I've done something to a hip ligament, ouch!

Also we were very lucky because the kind flight check-in person block-booked three seats for us, even though Boo is not supposed to have a seat of her own and, a little into the flight, the old Chinese guy sitting on our right went and found somewhere else to sit. So most of the time Boo got to stretch out on two seats, even though she never looked like she was very comfortable.

We took her straight to the doctor when we got here because I was a bit worried about her eyes and the fact that the antibiotic drops we'd been giving her didn't seem to be working. Got a whole range of things in addition now, darn it. Antibiotics for her overall health, something to relieve her allergy symptoms, cream to put in her eyes and nose drops.

Anyway we've been sleeping on and off all day and I feel a lot better now, thank goodness, though I have yet to shake off this cold I got from her and I think I've also picked up the conjunctivitis. Boo has been sleeping on and off since she barfed on me again last night (throwing up all the steamed egg I was so happy to see her eat, damn, damn) after an ill-judged attempt to force her to take the antibiotics, but at least each time she's woken she's asked for water, which is good. Fingers crossed she wakes up in the morning her usual cheery self, smacking me on the face and going 'Mama?'

16 mths+

A good 10 days
It's been quite a nice week. Boo's been in fine form mood-wise, a little grizzly and drooly one or two days but otherwise actually quite charming.

Weekend before this last one we discovered Queen's Park, which is perfect for tots. We went largely because we'd read it had a little farm section.

And the farm is just right: large trough by the entrance with soap, in case the little ones touch the animals; a few large chickens, all with spectacular hairdos, many rabbits and guinea pigs, two handsome goats, and a number of ducks and geese. I was expecting more animals but, really, you can get bored of looking at too many animals, so we spent a nice 15-20 minutes walking round, with Izzy waving bye-bye (or my-my, she pronounces is) at the various animals, then left.

Several miscreant parents allowed their children to feed the animals despite the numerous signs saying 'DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS'. Where they were giving bread to the chickens and doves, I could turn a blind eye. Where these giggling, twittering 12-year-olds were trying to give the goats tissue paper, however, I wanted to kick them in the pants. Fortunately the goats are used to this sort of nonsense and rightly ignored the twits.

So anyway then we took a long stroll around the park, admiring the flat expanse of well-kept grass. Tufts and bumps become important when your daughter might trip over them and cover herself in mud as a result. It took us about half an hour to get to the playground on the other side, about 400m away, because Boo insisted on walking herself.

This means she'll walk in the right direction for about ten steps, get distracted by her shadow, trip, get up, walk in the opposite direction, decide to look at the grass, stop to point to the nearest dog etc etc etc. All very lovely though when it's a beautiful sunny day and the park is filled with other parents and their kids, rather than impatient, huffing Londoners who want to get somewhere in a hurry.

The play area in Queen's Park is also rather lovely. There's an enormous section for toddlers, with a table for changing nappies, and it's gated, so no large children bouncing the tots off the toys. The area is covered in clean sand, rather than the usual rubberised surface which, while very good for bumps, is quite slippery when wet. Baby had a good time on a slide, shooting entirely off the end one time, she was going so fast, and then spent a good half hour ferrying sand from inside the pit to the outside. She also enjoyed throwing things into the bins, which were shaped like large bears with open mouths.

Alex says her face going down the slide was quite a picture, as she went from glee - sitting at the top of the slide - to panic - when she realised how fast she was going - to surprise - when she landed with a bump on the sand - and then glee again. There's an area for bigger children as well. There was also a beautiful paddling pool in play area and I'm already dreaming of taking weekdays off in summer to go there with her.

Afterwards we went to the cafe there. Good menu but boy did it take forever for the food to arrive. We ordered a mushroom sauce pasta and toastie and it took 20 minutes! And we ate at about 1430 because we'd had a large breakfast.

Boo says 'Daddy'!
Finally! Last Wednesday morning, 17 January 2007, Boo, in a mellow, maleable mood, said 'Daddy'. Not mama, or yaya or yeah, but 'Daddy'. Or rather 'Dchaddy'. Which is close enough. She said it twice, we both heard it, but she has refused to say it again since. She really is a terrible tease where her father is concerned.

Boo thumps a celebrity
Baby has had her first celebrity encounter... we think. We ate at Giraffe this Saturday morning and, after she was done stuffing potato wedges into her mouth and scoffing my berry yoghurt smoothie, baby did her tour of the restaurant.

She's quite queenly at the moment; loves taking a stroll down the street and waving to people. I took her for a walk in the closest thing we have to a mall where I work on Thursday night and she had a jolly time waving to every single shop assistant she saw through the shop fronts and to all the diners in the restaurants we passed. It took about 20 minutes just to walk 100m to the one we ate dinner in. She's quite persistant too. If someone doesn't see her, she'll wave until they do and, if they're rude enough to ignore her as they walk past, she turns round and calls out 'bye!' as they go.

Anyway I digress. After a round of the tables, she walked up to a booth and the family sitting there and slapped both her hands onto the lap of the man there, like she owned it. Alex watched in amusement as he kindly smiled down at her and said 'Oh, hello.' She looked up into his beardy face, whimpered and began backing away. Alex came back to the table with her and said: 'On the way out, check out the bald guy sitting there on the right - I think it's Bill Bailey. Boo Boo just thumped him on the thigh.'

Oh no
Took babe to the doctor's this morning for conjunctivitis in her right eye, though it looked better this morning than yesterday. Unfortunately the nursery called to say she now has a temperature of 37.8 degrees! Poor thing. Never lasts, does it? Little consolation that two of my three colleagues also have sick kids at the moment! This darned freaky weather (3 degrees in London this morning).

What a shit-smeared weekend
People who are not parents may want to look away now, as those unaccustomed to this much toilet information may find their stomachs turned.

Twice this week babe has pooed while we were out at lunch. What distinguished this weekend's poos from other, ordinary weekend incidents while out has been that each time they were in places that had no changing facility, and that the poos have been massive, diaper-overflowing wet ones. Thankfully though, each restaurant we were in happened to have these trough-like industrial sinks, which meant that once we realised wet wipes would not cut it, we just placed her in the sink and gave her an impromptu bath from the waist down.

We are still arguing over who dealt with the poo explosions better. I got some on my nose, but Alex got some on Isabel's nose. Which is the more laughable sin? Debate.

Boo eats chilli
After the great wash, we returned to our table so I could eat my char kuey teow (we were in Nonya for any other London-based parents' info - they have high chairs but NO CHILD CHANGING FACILITIES). By this time Alex had eaten all his chicken rice, the pig, which Boo was supposed to share. So she ate some of my char kuey teow instead. Which was fine, except after a few mouthfuls it became obvious there was actually a decent level of chilli in it. By which I mean a level discernible to chilli-hardened me, though the heat level was hardly beyond a tickle.

Not to poor Boo though. She ate a mouthful. Then another and another. And then she suddenly let out a wail. And another. But then she ate some more. Wail. Eat. Wail. It was hard not to laugh. Especially since she would keep going even though we told her not to.

After about the fourth time I began to get the distinct impression the Aussie and American diners on either side of us were beginning to regard us with more than a little hostility. So I convinced Alex to drop his chilli training for Boo and just blinking order her some chicken rice. And when she still wanted to eat the char kuey teow alongside the rice, I wanted to point it out to them and go 'See? It's not my fault she's her father's daughter! Don't report us to social services!'

15 mths+

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway back to Boo.

We are loving this hat


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

Ah, and remember my knitting?




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

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

On the subject of head adornment


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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






She's such a cheeky monkey



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

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

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

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



We're also trying to potty train the goon

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

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

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

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