2012: Week 51

Saturday 15 December

 

Jon and I went into London today to see Jersey Boys.  We also booked a pre-theatre meal but were in town an hour or so early so decided to go to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. Note to self: Do not go to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park 10 days before Christmas, especially when you're desperate for the loo.  It took us 10 minutes to get in the gate, then 15 minutes to find the nearest toilet, then I queued for 25 minutes so by the time I was done, it was time to leave :).

Sunday 16 December

 

Butter wouldn't melt...

Monday 17 December

Strawberry Santas, ready for the Slimming World Christmas Party tonight.

Tuesday 17 December

I found out this week that a new soft play area has opened up within walking distance of our house, so we checked it out this afternoon. Daisy HATED it for the first 10 minutes - cried, screamed, wouldn't get out of her buggy, sat on my lap and sucked her thumb - and by an hour and a half later when I told her it was time to leave, she cried again because she didn't want to go :). Here she is before she received the news that it was home time.

Wednesday 19 December

We went to the Little Stars Nativity and Christmas Party this morning, where Daisy ate her body weight in sugar and I felt sure that, despite the fact that she hadn't napped the last couple of days, she wouldn't nap again today either, even though she needed to. My Facebook status from this evening read: "I really wanted an hour to myself this afternoon so in an effort to get Daisy to nap (becoming increasingly difficult these days), we went upstairs and read some stories in her room. Before I knew it she was asleep on my lap. I had so much to do but I reclined the chair, closed my eyes and thanked God for my baby, thinking of the Sandy Hook families whose babies won't fall asleep on their laps again. It was the best hour I've spent in a long time."

Thursday 20 December

Daisy and her friend Harry. It's SOOOO difficult to get a good picture of the two of them!

Friday 21 December

 

Counting her monies, which she keeps in her Hello Kitty purse.  I swear the first time she hears the phrase 'Let's all put some money into a kitty', she's going to think 'But I've been doing that for years...'!

Twenty-Eight Months

So half of this month has been about what Daisy's going to do. Even if she's doing it there and then, she still says 'I'm going to...' For example: "I'm going to throw the ball, Mummy. Mummy, you throw the ball. I'm going to catch it. I've got it! I'm going to put it on the chair. I'm going to pick it up...'

The other half of this month has been about what Daisy doesn't like, or, to be specific, what she 'can't like'.  'Not this one, I can't like it.' 'I can't like nursery.' 'I can't need a bib on.' And so on, ad infinitum...

I managed to get Daisy to count backwards on camera, after a few false starts. Here she is both counting backwards and indulging in a bit of self-admiration...

I'm still amazed every month at how quickly children pick up language (can't like and don't like aside, obviously).  Last week Daisy demonstrated her command of possessives by saying 'Mummy, you've got your gloves on, and I've got my gloves on!'

As far as bedtime stories go, her favourites have moved from the Little Workmates series to a set of four little Charlie & Lola books that Jen got her last Christmas. She always has to read them in the same order, which makes me laugh: first the lellow one, then the blue one, then the green one and finally the purple one.  On the visual entertainment front, the firm favourites are still Mickey Mouse, Peppa Pig and Timmy Time.  Here she is singing a song from 'Aye Aye, Captain Mickey':

 And here she is stopping what she's doing, as always, so she can check the Mousekemap:

This video has been a little while coming, but I finally managed to get her on camera going upstairs like a lion:

Her hair is growing faster than ever, and I've made an appointment for her to have a fringe cut in about 10 days before our wedding. She has a baby fringe that isn't long enough to be pulled back out of her eyes anyway, so I'm hoping that by adding a bit more hair to it, it will look more like a deliberate attempt at a fringe and will make it look a lot tidier than it does at the moment!

Finally, just to show you what a horrible Mummy I am, here's a reject picture from our Christmas-themed photo shoot. I would have loved to use it for our Christmas card, but no amount of editing could get her eyes to look like she hadn't been screaming and saying 'No, Mummy! Put the hood down! I can't like Christmas!'

Merry Christmas, my beautiful girl :).

2013: Week 50

Saturday 8 December

We went to Ben & Kate's in South London today for Jon's annual University Friends' Pre-Christmas Fish Pie Night. The fact that we didn't have Daisy made the trip so much less stressful :). Here are the other kids settling down to some Rapunzel before bed.

Sunday 9 December

We left South London early this morning to get back in time to hear our banns being read at the local church. Daisy came back this afternoon and almost immediately had a fairly long, protracted tantrum. When she finally calmed down, she was lovely and cuddly, if a bit red-eyed...

Monday 10 December

Doing her 'pretties' in the mirror :).

Tuesday 11 December

I went upstairs to the loo this morning and when I came back down, Daisy wasn't in the lounge. I found her hiding here. This picture makes me laugh so much :).

Wednesday 12 December

Daisy's discovered 'Mummy's biscuits', which are my Slimming World bars with marshmallows on them. She must have eaten well today as she got to have one as a treat.

Thursday 13 December

When we got back from nursery today Daisy said 'I want a cuppa tea in my Peppa cup, please!' Seeing as she asked so nicely... it was half milk, half water and a 3-second dunk of the tea bag. She drank it all, though!

Friday 14 December

Daisy's discovered a new hiding place - under the dining table. Looks cute until we're in a hurry and I have to crawl under there to drag her out :).

2012: Week 49

Saturday 1 December

I went to a photography course today, then we had some friends over for dinner so Jon and Daisy went into town this morning to get ingredients and go to the coffee shop. I love this shot Jon took of Daisy in front of the massive coffee cup :).

Sunday 2 December

Just practising my newly-learned photography skills. It helps when you have a beautiful model, of course. But it would help even more if she would sit still and take instruction!

Monday 3 December

Tongue out, concentrating hard on not falling over...

Tuesday 4 December

We've been implementing a new routine this week of eating meals in the dining room, away from the TV. It hasn't gone down all that well so far, and at least part of every mealtime has been spent on the naughty step, but she did so well today that I gave her some chocolate buttons as a treat. Here she is counting them all before eating them.

Wednesday 5 December

This picture's out of focus but there's a story to it so I wanted to add it anyway. This afternoon I put her down for a nap then closed the doors upstairs so it was dark on the landing. Ten minutes later I heard movement upstairs at the same time as I heard a knock at the door. By the time I had signed for the delivery and gone upstairs, I found her here. I guess the door to the bathroom was easier to open than the one to the bedroom, as that would be her room of choice, but the fact that she'd climbed in the bath was what made me laugh. I didn't even know she could do that!

Thursday 6 December

How beautiful is this child's hair??? People pay a lot of money for hair this colour and style. So jealous...

Friday 7 December

Giving her reflection a cheeky smile :).

2012: Week 48

Saturday 24 November

Phew! It's been a funny old week. We arrived at our friends' house in Southampton last night, after setting off from home at 19:00, Daisy's bedtime, in the hopes that she'd go straight to sleep in the car. She didn't. Instead, she was sick within 15 minutes of setting off. Seeing as we were still so close to home, we went back and Jon gave Daisy a bath while I did what I could to clean up the car seat, then we tried again at 20:00. We made it to Southampton in one piece this time, and transferred Daisy from the car seat to her Peppa bed without too much difficulty. Today it was pretty miserable weather all day but there were plenty of toys for Daisy to play with. This was her favourite.

Sunday 25 November

Last night Clare and her boyfriend came over for dinner; it was lovely to see them. This morning seemed to be going fine until Daisy walked up to Jon, who was sitting on the sofa, and threw up all over him without warning. A quick change of clothes and a scrub down of the upholstery later and she was fine again, but then about an hour after that she fell asleep while sitting on Jon's lap. That was when I realised something must be wrong; last time she fell asleep on me was last December when she was poorly, and the time before that I was probably still breastfeeding. She slept for about an hour and by the time she woke up, Clare had come back to pick up her car. They stayed for a cup of tea then when they got up to leave I asked Daisy if she would give Clare a cuddle, not really expecting her to want to - let's face it, it's Daisy, plus she was out of sorts - but she did, and she planted this smacker on Clare :). Again, Daisy seemed fine, and had fish fingers for lunch, then promptly threw them back up again on the pavement as I was going to put her in the car to come home. She slept all the way home but was then sick twice more before bedtime. Mum & Dad arrived at about 19:30, right around the time that Jon and I started to feel unwell...

Monday 26 November

Jon and I both had sickness and diarrhoea through the night. Daisy woke up about 7 times, and each time one of us went straight to see her in case she was being sick too. She wasn't, thankfully. Jon had already e-mailed in sick last night and we were so thankful that Mum & Dad were here - we all slept until about 08:00 when Daisy came into our room. By that point I hadn't been sick for about 6 hours and was feeling OK, if a bit fragile and hungry. Jon still felt achy but not sick any more, and Daisy hadn't been sick for over 12 hours by then but was very tired. At about 09:15 I got out of bed and I thought Daisy had said she would come with me, but she didn't look like she was in any hurry to move, so I left her there. I took this photo at about 10:30 and they both finally woke up at 11:00. Then we found out that Clare was off sick with a diarrhoea & vomiting bug too, so it was obviously something we'd passed around at the weekend...

Tuesday 27 November

Jon felt well enough to go back to work today, and I felt fine too. Daisy was a bit perkier as well, but the weather was miserable again so she, Mum, Dad and I just hung out at home.

Wednesday 28 November

We put the Christmas decorations up today - I know, it's still November but I think Mum & Dad were starting to get cabin fever and needed something to do, plus it was easier to do it when there were more people than just me and Daisy here. Besides, it's only a tree and some lights in the window, so it didn't take long. But Mum & Dad being Mum & Dad, they took the opportunity to wash the windows inside and out while the voile curtain was down :). Daisy wanted to help too!

Thursday 29 November

The aforementioned tree. No Daisy photos today - not because it was nursery day, although it was, but because they rang and asked me to pick her up from nursery as she had a temperature and was just sitting in the cosy corner sucking her thumb. I'm not sure if this is related to earlier in the week, or a separate thing, but either way she was really grizzly and VERY tired - I put her down for her nap at 13:30 as usual but instead of getting her up after an hour I let her sleep till she woke up, which was at 16:00. Then just before bed, while we were reading stories on the chair in her room, she threw up on me...

Friday 30 November

So this week has definitely been all about vomit and laundry. I think I've done 12 loads since Monday. Today Daisy was OK - not great, but OK - although as ever she wasn't in the mood for posing for the camera, and she napped for over 2 hours again. Then at bath time she worked herself up into such a frenzy about the fact that she didn't want to brush her teeth that she was sick again, this time on the bath mat (and a little bit on me). After that, though, she was super cute - I think she understood why it was that she'd been sick, and she calmed down really quickly. We read our usual stories then I told her it was time to get into bed and she said 'No, I fall asleep on Mummy.' So I sat there and cradled her for about 10 minutes before finally tearing myself away and putting her to bed :).

Everything on the top floor of this house smells faintly of vomit. Can next week be a bit calmer, please???

2012: Week 47

Saturday 17 November

Today we saw New York in both the daylight and the dark, from the top of the Rockefeller Center and Empire State Building respectively. We also did a tour of Yankee Stadium and a bus tour of famous New York TV and movie sites and had dinner in a lovely French bistro. Here we are at the 'Top of the Rock'.

Sunday 18 November

Today we did a 'Food on Foot' Tour of Hell's Kitchen then did some shopping this afternoon. Not much to take photos of there, so here's a shot of us yesterday at Yankee Stadium.

Monday 19 November

One of my favourite views in the world :).

Tuesday 20 November

My fifth visit to New York, and I finally got to take a horse and carriage ride round Central Park. The weather this weekend was perfect - chilly but not too cold, sunny and bright, and no rain! Jon loved his first trip to the US, and wants to go to Boston or Washington DC next. Not sure when that will be, but we'll make it back eventually!

Wednesday 21 November

Much as we loved our weekend away, it was nice to see Daisy again. She's showing no signs of getting any better at travelling - she was sick in Rob's car this morning on the way home, so it's probably no wonder she looks a bit green in this photo.

Thursday 22 November

I didn't take any photos today, but we went to Southampton to visit friends for the weekend and I have loads of good photos, so here are a couple, and I'll do two more next week. Here's Daisy making music.

Friday 23 November

Beautiful Hattie. Peekaboo!

Twenty-Seven Months

I've totally let these monthly updates get out of hand, and the longer I leave it, the less I want to do it because I've forgotten what she's learned this month.  So this one is gleaned from the videos I shot of her in the past month; only a couple of them unfortunately, but in my opinion they're hilarious :).

I only made three notes this month about what she can do. The first is that she's learned to count backwards from ten to one.  I didn't teach her it, and I know they only count forwards as far as number five in the group she's in at nursery, so I asked her where she'd learned it, and she said 'It's from Goofy on Mars', which is a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode. See, TV can be educational! Every time I've got the video camera out and asked her to count backwards, though, she's refused. Typical ;).

Secondly, she can count forwards to twenty - just about.  She's very confident but she almost always misses out number sixteen. Oh well. It's not that important, is it?

Thirdly, she's slowly learning the art of sharing. We quite often hear 'And now it's my turn...', 'And now it's your turn...' etc. But more often we hear 'No Mummy! It's mine!'

Here she is singing along to the theme tune from one of her favourite shows, Timmy Time: -

And, although I am ashamed to admit it, here she is putting into practice some choice words she learned from me...

Whoops! Actually every time she goes up pick up that particular bottle she says 'I go get on evans sake.' Double whoops!

2012: Week 46

Saturday 10 November

Daisy tried pancakes for the first time this morning and loved them. Something to add to the 'foods I like' list, at least. A shame, but not a surprise, that it's not something nutritious...

Sunday 11 November

Just call me Sherlock Holmes.

Monday 12 November

Daisy decided she wanted to take the cough medicine downstairs this morning. Not sure why. Don't think she knew either.

Tuesday 13 November

Just catching up on some important reading.

Wednesday 14 November

Toast! Yay!

Thursday 15 November

More toast, this time accompanied by an interesting hair style.

Friday 16 November

Jon and I flew to New York today so no photos, but here's one of the latest addition to my collection, courtesy of the husband of the lady who runs the toddler group on Wednesday.

2012: Week 45

Saturday 3 November

Thumbs up! Until yesterday, when you asked her to do thumbs up, she would extend both her thumb and her first finger, so it looked more like she was doing 'gun'. She's cracked it now, though!

Sunday 4 November

Jen arrived this afternoon for a 2-day visit. She had to take a couple of days off work and come down in the week as we don't have any free weekends left between now and Christmas...

Monday 5 November

Daisy showing Jen something very technical regarding the plastic fruit display from the greengrocer's stall.

Tuesday 6 November

I wanted to get a picture of Daisy lying on the cushion as I was changing her nappy because her hair looked lovely, but as ever, she moved...

Wednesday 7 November

When I went to get Daisy up from her nap today she was already awake, and apparently quite happy to stay where she was :).

Thursday 8 November

This was clearly post-nursery, as a pre-nursery photo would show her with tears running down her cheeks... Actually she's been getting a lot better about going to nursery, but we had a bit of a regression this morning.  She just kept saying 'I can't like nursery', which made me smile and cry in equal measure :).

Friday 9 November

No pictures today, so here's one of the more recent additions to my collection.  Looking forward to a San Diego one next week too.