Kirsten's Diary

Halloween

2008-11-02T01:20:00.004Z

We didn't actually celebrate Halloween - I've been mad busy setting up the shop and Kirsten's been feeling pretty off-colour and not wanting to do much (and today we found out why - she has chicken pox). But I can't resist a bargain so here is my cutie in her new dressing-up clothes, despite the spots and general yuck factor.

A good witch, she says

Apparently this is not a "devil fairy" outfit, as it says on the label, nor is it the "fire fairy" I suggested. Oh no.
This is a DRAGON DRESS!

Multitasking

2008-09-21T17:43:00.003Z

Chatting away to Grandma on the phone today whilst driving Bee. Think we'd better explain phoning and driving is illegal...

Creation

2008-09-19T16:57:00.003Z

I will update on preschool shortly but for now just wanted to share this snap. We've had a lovely afternoon with our friends Kerry and Toby, strolling in the sun, feeding the ducks and eating fresh flapjacks. In the last hour before Daddy comes home, Kirsten has been making butterflies, which she showed to me with the announcement "I've just created these, Mummy". I have no idea where she's heard this phrase, but I think I'd better lock up my craft gear or I'll have none left!

Preschool

2008-09-02T14:33:00.003Z

Not quite her first day. She's now had two "settling sessions" at preschool, with me there with her, and seems quite happy and relaxed with the staff. The big drop-off is next Monday and if she settles well she'll be going Mon/Tues for the next year or so, with possibly more afternoons if she wants to. She was very keen to show off her t-shirt after the session today!

Daddy's Birthday Cake

2008-08-30T17:04:00.000Z

Kirsten decided that a Strawberry Cake was the order of the day for Daddy's birthday, so a quick query to Those Who Know delivered this wonderful Spiced Strawberry Cake recipe.

Here she is stealing the strawberries she'd just halved
with her little knife and put on the central layer...

Freshly baked...

...and topped with cream, ready for Daddy.

Dressing Up

2008-08-28T16:58:00.000Z

Today Katie and Celia came to visit - first stop, dressing up box!

I will be a butterfly...

...would you like to be a rabbit?

Running

2008-08-22T16:52:00.001Z

A day when the rain stopped for long enough to have a quick run about in the park. It was terribly muddy and we couldn't stay long. We did spot a late clutch of ducklings, though, so it was worth the trip!

Crafting

2008-08-20T16:50:00.000Z

You gotta love blu-tack. Although I wasn't too thrilled with the avalanche of glitter that followed...

How old is she again?

2008-08-16T22:15:00.003Z

People often mistake Kirsten for older than she is as her speech is pretty good and very clear. Sometimes I wonder just how old she really is, though...

"Kirsten, after we finish tidying up here, we've got to go clothes shopping as Daddy needs some new jeans."
"But I do too."
"Oh really? Why do you need new jeans?"
"Because I haven't got ENOUGH."

To be fair she is now finally growing out of her 18-24mo size and they'll be practical for preschool, but oh dear. Two and three-quarters going on eighteen...

Blood of my blood

2008-08-13T22:20:00.002Z

Lovely one tonight. Cuddling Kirsten off to sleep, we were chatting quietly about what we're doing later this week (having a "smelly bath" - we've been to Lush! Take note, she really likes the "Ickle Baby Baff ballistics") and meeting up for cake with our new friends Kerry and Toby in the afternoon tomorrow. All drowsy-like, she says...

"Mummy...can we do crafty things tomorrow too?"

That's MY daughter right there, oh yes.

I must absolutely do dancing now

2008-08-13T12:00:00.001Z

So, the big day...

It was pretty good! We got there for about 12noon as I'd looked at the website this morning and it said they were signing people in for the sessions from 12.15pm, with it being so busy. I managed to keep it a secret until we were opposite the art gallery and then asked Kirsten who she could see on the banners outside: "OH MUMMY!!! IT'S CHARLIE AND LOLA!!!". She almost fell over when I said we were going to do dancing. We booked in for the 1.20pm session and then went off for lunch (which was not very good, sadly, we'd have done better to head over to Chinatown. Maybe next time!).

We had fun in the "pop up drawing room" which was a room papered over to look like Charlie & Lola's kitchen and you could draw all over it like so:

The dancing session was ok - Kirsten did her usual freezing-up-in-a-new-group thing but she got into it after ten mins or so and seemed to quite enjoy it. They used a music snippet from I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato and got the children "squashing peas" with their feet and raining "green drops" and stuff like that. It was very hard to get a shot of her as she wanted me to stay with her for most of the session, and when I did finally get a moment to run over and get the camera, she was well on the move and all the snaps were blurry!

Doesn't she look like she's having fun, though!

The exhibition is on the 2nd floor and was a little cramped - with so many families there it was hot, noisy and you couldn't get a little one in to explore and play with the props too well. We couldn't get near the badge-making for love nor money, sadly. However, the exhibition is going on tour in September and will eventually make it's way up to our beloved Seven Stories in Newcastle in late 2009 - I doubt she'll have grown out of Charlie & Lola by then so we'll be making a date to visit it again!

We came away with a copy of That Pesky Rat, which isn't a C&L story but it's become a firm favourite here and has been read every night since!

After that we walked back across Manchester (with Kirsten stopping dead in Market Street and announcing "I miss my dad!" - she really didn't like him working late last week!), and had cake at Cafe Rouge, then treated ourselves to some Lushy goodness. Happy days.

Tomorrow is Surprise Day!

2008-08-12T22:26:00.002Z

When Gymtots finished in the middle of July, I racked my brains to come up with fun things to do over the hols. I also wanted to show Kirsten that Gymtots wasn't over forever, and quietly slip in the idea that starting preschool was something fun and to look forward to. So I printed three month pages off my Google calendar and stuck them to the wall where she could reach them. Over the weeks, we've drawn little pictures on the days we're doing things - like swings if we're going to the park, stickmen and women on the beach for our visit to Grandma & Grandad's, a steam train, and so on. Preschool has the yard with little kids on bikes in and Gymtots has parallel bars and a stick-Debbie, the teacher, who she adores. It's been an absolutely roaring success and I can highly recommend doing it.

Our Summer calendar

Anyway. Kirsten is a HUGE Charlie & Lola fan and in my travels around the net looking for stuff to do, I ran across this at Manchester Metropolitan Art Gallery:

Lauren Child Exhibition & Activities

Tomorrow we're going to this:

"I absolutely MUST do dancing now.

Wednesdays 30 July, 6, 13, 20 and 27 August, 20 minute sessions, 1 - 3pm
Let the kids bounce, shimmy and jump around in our dance workshops."

And there are loads of other things to do, plus other sessions we could go to over the next few weeks like musical stories.

But I've kept it a secret for weeks - I just put a big exclamation mark on the calendar with SURPRISE! under it and she's been desperate to find out for ages - "where are we going? what will we do? how will we get there?". It's so funny and so hard not to tell her. I've been dead sneaky - made sure all her C&L books just happened to be highly visible on the shelf tonight for bedtime stories, and I'm about to pack her C&L backpack with snacks and so on to take on the train with us in the morning. And I am RIDICULOUSLY excited. I have no idea how she's managed to go to sleep (so glad it wasn't my turn!) but I can't wait to get her there tomorrow.

Don't hurt yourself...

2008-08-11T22:19:00.001Z

Pride goeth before a fall...

I was busy with my sewing machine yesterday afternoon, working on a new project which I'd designed from scratch. I was almightily pleased with myself and remarked to Andrew:

"If this turns out as well as I think it's going to, I shall give myself a very big pat on the back!"

Kirsten: "Don't hurt yourself, Mummy..."

She did later clarify she meant I should be careful of the pins, but it certainly popped my bubble!

Out in the garden

2008-08-08T00:17:00.001Z

...what do you see?

This spider enthralled us for ages.

With the sunflowers we planted and raised on Kirsten's windowledge months ago. Kirsten is 95cm tall at the moment!

Weaned

2008-08-07T21:48:00.004Z

So Kirsten's been going through a patch of ambivalence over the last few months - missing her am or pm feed occasionally, then both, then having 48hrs off before asking again. I figured this could go on for ages - months or even a year or more, and although I've been finding it more and more uncomfortable (and we have had some cross words, too), I was reasonably happy to keep going through starting preschool. She has been telling me more often that there's nothing there, which I suspect is because I went back on the pill four months ago, but she'd still settle in for a few minutes at a time. We've been working on a better latch and so there have been some nicer feeds over the last fortnight.

We went away on Friday and got back yesterday night. She hasn't asked at all in the last week other than one tiny attempt, which failed as she was only mucking about (pulling her "pushing it" face). She doesn't seem bothered at all. Grandma has some baby books up there for her and one had a formula bottle in it, so I had to explain what that was all about; we heard a small baby crying in a cafe, to which she said "aww, poor baby - he needs mummy milk". And that's it. She seems completely blase about it, not at all bothered even when I'm not dressed or she's tired - it's like it doesn't occur to her to ask any more.

Very mixed feelings here...it seems like our relationship has improved quite a bit as I'm no longer worried about being hurt; it's like I can cuddle her more because I know she's not going to ask. But it's a hard thing to let go of, and I'm still wondering if she'll be back in a few days just to see if there's anything left, whether being on hols was just a distraction. I don't think there is anything there any more, though I do ache when I think too much about it. And I worry about what will happen the next time she's ill or hurts herself, or wakes from a nightmare. I'm not entirely sure how to manage without the magical boobs!

I'm so glad she's done this herself, though, just like she did with going into her own bed. I'm glad that we had some nice feeds in the middle of last week, though I can't actually remember when the last one was. And if this really is it, I'm glad that we made it to TWO YEARS, NINE MONTHS!

Here's to the next phase. And in memory, some nice snaps from June...we weren't sure how much longer things were going to carry on for and I'm so glad we got these then.

A peaceful bedtime milky

Hey, no paparazzi!

Holiday Day 6

2008-08-06T23:07:00.000Z

Home time. Boo, hiss, teenage sulk. And that was just Mummy.

Holiday Day 5

2008-08-05T22:55:00.000Z

Wheee!!

'Nuff said. Another warm, bright day, not as scorching as yesterday but definitely swimsuit weather. And a surprise visitor - David, an old work colleague of Andrew's, up visiting Newcastle whilst his step-son is on a course at the Sage.

Willing slaves to Her Ladyship's whim...

...her own personal lagoon to play in!

Holiday Day 4

2008-08-04T22:26:00.000Z

Picture postcard stuff, no?

Daddy and daughter take a stroll in the sunshine whilst Mummy has a little sunbathe. What a gorgeous day - a wonderfully warm morning, again all very quiet with just a few dog walkers and horse riders along the beach.

"Well, you had the lemonade, Uncle James, and I had the apple juice...that comes to eighty-four hundred and two pence...I think..."

A passable pub lunch at the Astley Arms in the company of Uncle James, ducking wasps and deciding to come home for toffee cheesecake and chilling out in the garden.

Of course, the young 'uns never run out of energy...

...but there's those pesky birds of Grandma's to look after, so let's get to work!

Holiday Day 3

2008-08-03T19:01:00.001Z

Day three on the beach - a quiet Sunday, a little cooler (hence the leggings). Big black clouds were heading in for later on the tail of a wind good enough for kite-flying, but for now here we are enjoying the morning quiet.

Check out that model pose

Our sand-mermaid

Showing off his dune-jumping skills

Official inspection of Grandad's allotment

Having checked out the allotment and decided to come back later, we headed off to Collywell Bay round the corner for a good stone-chucking session.

"What do you reckon, mum - chuck this stone in the sea
or see what kind of noise dad's head makes?"

A short shower of rain and a potty break forced us to adjourn to the nearby cafe (oh, what a shame) where Kirsten enjoyed the first ever glass of pink milk that's been to her taste, along with a rather large slice of chocolate fudge cake shared with Daddy!

Following that we headed back to the allotment to dig up potatoes, onions and a lettuce amidst a rainstorm - well, we were already wet by that point from washing the soil off the veg! We enjoyed a very tasty potato bake that evening.

Holiday Day 2

2008-08-02T18:40:00.001Z

Grandma, Grandad and George are off to Skye on their holidays today, so Kirsten has undertaken to look after the garden. She is very, very serious about this job. What could possibly go wrong, with access to an enormous waterbutt and two watering cans...?

Our morning - first paddle in the sea with Grandad and George.

Daddy cuddles before lunch

More beach, this time with friends Robin and Max.

Fabulous action shot of Robin & Max...

...good job we packed Kirsten's trike as well!

And yes, she did go through four outfits...that's the price of a waterbutt!

Holiday Day 1

2008-08-01T18:32:00.000Z

Look at those skies! Yesterday we went to the park in Edgerton with our friends Laura, Grace, George and Evie and had a wonderful time scoffing cake at the Poppy Cafe, then playing for hours whilst grey clouds moodily threatened us with rain off and on. Wet shoes, wet knees and bottoms, but much fun was had by all.

Then, up early today and the race to ram the car full of stuff before Kirsten finished her breakfast was on. We had an uneventful drive to Newcastle into wonderful weather and were on the beach with Grandma before 3pm - that's got to be some kind of record.

Zoo-riffic

2008-07-29T18:00:00.001Z

Today we went to Chester Zoo with Nanny, Grandad and Auntie Katherine. The day started off fine and clear, with elephants playing in the water. We had lunch with the giraffes...

...and visited the chimp house (that right there is a lemur hanging from the netting, ultra-relaxed!), and lots and lots of other animals.
Then it turned into a rain forest...

...so we had a trip on the monorail!

BBQ Time

2008-07-27T17:04:00.000Z

Today we visited our friends Katie, Celia and Ed over the border in Yorkshire for a wonderful summer BBQ - probably the hottest and brightest day of the year! The girls have just eleven days between them so they are very much into the same sorts of things at the moment and often spend most of their time in fits of shrieking and giggles which are completely incomprehensible to the rest of us!

Hooting at each other through Lily the rabbit's tunnel
(Lily, sensibly, was hiding in the bushes).

Post-lunch footpainting session - showing off their creations to Celia.

"It's YELLOW, mum!"

Rinsing off...

"Rinse me again, dad!"

Katie on clean-up duty (Kirsten did go and help her in the end!)

Big thanks to Katie, Celia and Ed for having us and we look forward to having you here again soon!

MOSI Visit

2008-07-24T22:28:00.002Z

Kirsten looooves the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester - and so do I, always have. So today we took a trip along on the train and this is what we did:

Pumping up the water to the tank and then releasing it to turn the waterwheel.

Having fun with the heat-sensitive pads.

Making huge square bubbles!

Chilling out in the gardens between Urbis and Chetham's School of Music.

Swinging along

2008-07-20T22:11:00.002Z

Kirsten's favourite pose whenever a camera is pointed in her direction.

Weather is still dire, but we went down to a park just across the moor today as there was supposed to be a Victorian Fair on. There was very little there - apparently it'll get warmed up tomorrow - but we made the most of it and did plenty of swinging and ice-cream eating!

Chuffed

2008-07-17T22:04:00.001Z

Today we went on the East Lancashire Railway! It's not the first time we've been on it, but the first Kirsten remembers. It was miserable weather but we had a lovely trip and she's now thoroughly enamoured of Thomas The Tank Engine.

Afterwards, we went for pizza (Kirsten is adept at spotting a Pizza Hut log at 1000m distant) and introduced her to the delights of the all-you-can-eat bar. She only really ate the sprinkles off the top but it was such fun!

Summer Holidays

2008-07-13T21:54:00.001Z

Well, it's the beginning of the holidays - no more Gymtots over Summer, the schools are breaking up and we have just seven weeks until Kirsten's first day at preschool. There's lots to do and see! We have plenty planned in - let's just hope we get plenty of days like this:

Snail

2008-06-17T11:56:00.000Z

Hard to see as it's in pencil but this is Kirsten's first proper drawing - she drew the snail shell all by herself and then I gently guided her hand for the head; she put the eyes and smile on herself.

So proud!

Pretty

2008-06-10T15:48:00.004Z

Just realised I've put this pic up in lots of places but not here! So here you go, pretty girl in a pretty mummy-made hat.

All is quite well here...very much in that "terrible twos" phase of pushing boundaries to make sure they're always the same (forty times a day for each one, sigh) but we're coping. Overall, I don't think it's all that terrible when you know the reasons, but it can be frustrating. On the other hand when she's not doing that she is absolutely brilliant. We've made a good friend through IWMM recently; another little girl of the same age called Katie, with a lovely mummy. We all get on very well and the girls really seem to look forward to seeing each other and are so excited when they do! I'm constantly amazed at how good she is at sharing despite the fact she has no sibs or cousins and doesn't go to nursery...in fact I've just realised I didn't upload any pictures of Kirsten and Bethany, who visited us from New Zealand recently. Here are the girls playing together.

Potty Perfect

2008-05-30T16:36:00.002Z

I am very proud to say Kirsten is now perfectly happy to potty! She's been completely reliable for two weeks now bar one accident when she was very distracted. We can go anywhere and do anything (with a little persuasion at times) and she now has a drawerful of big girl knickers which she is so pleased with. She's still got a nappy at night for the time being but I'm sure it won't be too long before she works out that she needs to get up first thing. The whole thing was a lot less hassle than I'd thought it would be - she insisted on knickers one monday morning and by friday she'd completely cracked it. I must admit, a sunny week when she could run around the yard and wear sundresses instead of bulky trousers helped a great deal, but I do think she was ready this time and so pleased with herself when she did work it out.

Not much else is really going on at the moment, otherwise - she's playing with her trike outdoors right now, her feet are just about long enough for the pedals but she still needs a little more height to make the most of it. She will jump at any opportunity - in fact, she was having a go at skipping today! And she's quite into yoga as well, we are expecting a kid's yoga DVD any day now which might be a bit more appropriate than mine!

Sometimes I wonder if we explain too much...

2008-05-13T13:00:00.005Z

Kirsten is having some chocolate buttons after her lunch, her "treat" for the day. She's examining the packet minutely:

"Kirsten is looking at the instructions. It tells people to eat chocolate buttons..."

I think she's got this marketing thing sussed, anyway!

Playing under a "tent" constructed from a duvet cover and the washing line - much cooler!

Another great comment from earlier today - "Look at the blue sky, Mummy! It suits the trees".

Indeed it does.

Adventures in Spelling

2008-05-06T18:03:00.003Z

Kirsten's taken to trying to spell out words when she sees them. Often, she's spot on with her letters - on Sunday she walked into Nanny's and spotted instantly that the T in her name had fallen off the toybox.

Tonight, she's sitting at the table looking at her dinner plate, which has Humphrey the elephant on it. Around the edge are some words about Humphrey dressing up as a pirate, and small pictures of a whale, a heart and a flower. She is tired and frustrated so isn't really paying attention to the letters...

"B-A-N-E, Mummy. That spells WHALE!"

A Thousand Words

2008-04-26T19:18:00.002Z

I don't need to say anything else, do I.

Well yes, ok, I do need to do a BIG write-up, but just enjoy this gorgeous picture for now...

A short roundup of pictures

2008-04-06T19:23:00.003Z

A few pictures from the past few days. A great big tower that we made one morning:

Ready to go out for a meal with Nanny and Grandad and looking terribly serious for some reason...

Still in serious mode with Charlie Cook's Favourite Book:

And out the back with a bowl full of bubbles!

Swimming like a Mermaid

2008-03-20T18:26:00.002Z

Well, my flabber has been well and truly gasted, I must say. We've been going swimming for 30-45mins every week for the past few months, and whilst Kirsten's been enjoying it, she's also been doing a mighty good impression of a limpet for most of each session. She really hasn't wanted to let go of me at all for the first 20mins and has only been floating by herself with some persuasion for a few minutes each time.

Last week, we missed going. This week, we walked down the steps into the small pool and she let go of my hand to reach for a toy. The next thing I knew, she was halfway across the pool! Suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, she's found her confidence in the water - she can move herself around, float happily, tread water, get to where she wants to go (slowly, but the motion is there!), and doesn't mind getting water in her face at all. In fact what she likes most is being thrown up and caught as she splashes back in!

She has wanted to "swim like a mermaid", she says, for a few weeks now and since we're going up to Grandma & Grandad's this weekend and the weather will be bad, it was suggested we go swimming up there. This necessitated buying a new swimsuit this morning as we didn't think we'd get everything washed and dried quickly enough tonight to leave early tomorrow (we also needed to get Daddy some swim shorts too). Perhaps it was sheer excitement at having a new cozzie, who knows! She's seemed to be getting a lot more confident over the last few weeks - I am often told "don't want Mummy, Mummy sit over there" at Gymtots. This morning I left her to her sliding as soon as we got there and let her know I was just popping to the loo next door. She came and looked where I was and also very cleverly went and asked the play leader to double-check I was there too - once she knew I hadn't left she was completely happy to carry on playing.

It bodes well, I think - whilst we probably won't look for a nursery at the moment, she will probably be happy and secure enough to go to preschool later in the year. Amazing kid, she is...always taking me by surprise.

Supermodel

2008-03-12T18:08:00.004Z

Yeah baby, she's got it...

No time for a big update right now but had to share this fab pic of Kirsten in the dress and hat I finished making for her today. She loves them!

She's currently sitting at the table tearing up plasticine and singing her latest song "Hula, hula, pop! Hula, hula, pop!". I have no idea what this means but she's happy. It's an improvement on "Stir up the porridge, icky sticky goo" over and over again - Gymtots has a lot to answer for!

Crosspost to my craft journal for more cute piccies.

Sartorial Comment

2008-02-25T13:31:00.002Z

Couple of howlers from the last few days...

Friday:
I put on a new dress that morning, short, floaty and probably too young for me, but I loved it. Ten minutes later, Kirsten came over, stroked the fabric and said:

"Ooh, dat is a nice dress, Mummy. Mummy looks like a girl!"

I can't decide whether it was a compliment or an insult (as in, I wear jeans far too much!), but I'm taking it as the former cos I felt ten years younger!

Today:
Kirsten was loading the washer for me whilst I hung up clothes. After a few minutes she came through, wielding a pair of her daddy's underpants.

"These are all manky, Mummy..."

(They were NOT, I hasten to add, although the elastic was a little saggy...!)

Big Little Girl

2008-02-19T12:41:00.004Z

Of course, now that I've said that she'll regress by months...

Today Kirsten is wearing Big Girl Knickers for the first time. She knows where the potty is and can get her knickers up and down, so we'll see if she remembers what to do when the need arises. She did manage a wee at the weekend but was very distracted by her grandparents being here, so today is starting over, really. She (and I, to be honest) have been getting fed up of nappies for quite a while but so far she hasn't made the leap mentally. So I figured that perhaps if we did the same thing we did with her bed - get it ready and just point it out gently every so often - she might decide it's The Thing For Her. Hence, Pingu knickers: "They're very smart, mummy". She was keen to put them on today and had chosen a dress rather than jeans, so it seemed an opportune moment to take Pingu for a test drive.

I think she is also weaning, at least a bit. She's only had her bedtime feed twice in the last five days - again, she has been shattered with her grandparents being here and has just been forgetting to ask, but the milk's gone all salty, which is apparently weaning milk. She doesn't forget mornings, but if we just got up instead of cuddling in bed for a while, I don't think she'd really miss it. It feels like a huge step, to let breastfeeding go - it's still so beneficial immunologically that it seems mad to stop. So I hope she will carry on with the morning feed for at least a while, even if it's not the most comfortable thing in the world for me.

And she's starting to grow out of her 18-24mo trousers, too!

I'm not ready for all this - not when she can still crash out like this:

Isn't that a lovely pic? She had a good hour's nap there after a weekend of dragging Grandma and Grandad to the park and out for lunch all weekend.

What else have we been up to...not a lot really, the usual weekly round of chores and baking and drawing and playing and singing and so on. We started swimming on a Thursday - we found a pool nearby to where Daddy works so it's very convenient, but with Gymtots in the morning too and a full afternoon with Auntie K the day before, she is absolutely shattered by Friday.

TV

2008-01-26T17:20:00.001Z

Channel-hopping with Daddy. Harry Potter is on.

K: "Who's that?"
A: "That's Harry Potter."
K: "Oh."

*channel changes*

K: "Where's Harry Bottom?!"

Swimming!

2008-01-25T00:18:00.000Z

Thursdays are becoming a busy day here, what with Gymtots in the morning (a half-structured, half free-play session with some singing and lots of physical activity) and swimming in the afternoon! We finally found a pool near where Daddy works which has open sessions in the little pool at a convenient time, so we went last week, loved it, went again this week and poor Kirsten absolutely wore herself out. She is quite anxious - "Kirsten wants a cuddle!" - but building up her confidence surprisingly rapidly, especially now that she has armbands. Since the small pool shuts at 4pm we go into the shallow end of the big pool, and I think this is a good thing as she then doesn't spend all her time on the steps or playing with toys. Undoubtedly fun, but not great for getting confidence in the water quickly. She spent some time just floating without my hands holding her and although she's anxious she also seems rather proud of herself (we had quite a few surprised "all by myself!"s).

Her sense of how to behave in public grows ever more acute, too. Getting changed after the session this afternoon, a couple of teenage girls were pratting about, wittering on and generally acting like they'd had a massive sugar overdose. Kirsten pipes up "What are the silly girls doing, mummy?"

Lordy.

The Shape Of Things To Come

2008-01-19T21:10:00.000Z

Had a sudden HUH? moment tonight, thought I was living with a teenager, not a two year old...

Me, calling from kitchen: "Kirsten, can you come and lay the table please, tea's ready!" (it is her job to put the knives and forks out)

Kirsten, from the living room: "Pleee-aaase! I'm just reading dis book!"

...and she was indeed surrounded by her library books and had her nose stuck in "Captain Rainbow"...not like her mother AT ALL, no...!

Muddy Puddles

2008-01-11T17:13:00.000Z

About time for an update now that the chaos of Christmas is over! But first, here is Kirsten in a muddy puddle, wearing a Muddy Puddle...her red overalls are absolutely brilliant (and currently covered in mud!).
Taken today just before she discovered a huge puddle and fell over on her bum into it!

Christmas was loads of fun. Here she is with the tree - we had it delivered after she'd gone to bed and decorated it that night, this is her just after we opened the curtains.

She loved all the ornaments; there are some she made herself on there too so she was really chuffed. Christmas Eve we visited Nanny & Grandad & Auntie Katherine, which was fun, and Christmas day we had just with the three of us (and a delicious lunch!). We played with her super new garage which Daddy made and her city mat from Auntie K and lots and lots of cars from everybody!

On the Thursday we visited MOSI with some friends from IWMM, and on Friday we headed up to Grandma & Grandad's for the weekend. Kirsten spent a lot of time on the beach (in her waterproofs!) with Grandad, we went to a great park in Blyth with a fantastic water play area, and visited the wonderful Seven Stories Centre for Children's Books. This had a display of We're Going On A Bear Hunt, which is one of her favourite books, and she was mesmerised by the video of Michel Rosen telling the story. We also bought rather a lot of books for her in the shop...!

Since then we had a quiet New Year and have spent most of the time playing with her new toys; we actually had to go out and buy a new storage system (er, shelves and baskets) as she has so much stuff! We've also been doing lots of craft work; this week we made painted butterflies (where you paint one half then fold it over) which we glittered, glued onto card and then cut out. Kirsten was very keen on having them on her bedroom door, as you can see!

She's really into butterflies at the moment, having just got a butterfly duvet cover, and here she is a couple of days ago with her very own wings.

She's really seemed to take another leap forward recently - she's been concentrating on learning to sing and remember the words (a big help with my new S&S syllabus!). Her pretend play is lovely and she's so observant - last night she went out looking at the stars with Daddy and told him that the constellation Casseopeia was "a necklace in the sky"! Physically she's very competant - she can jump with both feet and run along the balance beam at Gymtots without any problems at all.

First Stitches

2007-11-27T12:49:00.001Z

Look at this!!!!
Yes, you are seeing that right - it is Kirsten with a big plastic needle, making her first stitches in a hastily-put-together piece of card. And she's really got the knack of pushing and pulling the needle and making sure all the thread is through without tangling - amazing. She decided she wanted to learn after seeing me do a wee bit this morning and has commented "Kirsten likes sewing!"

Whizzing on

2007-11-20T15:35:00.000Z

It's hard to keep up with Kirsten's achievements as they come so fast, but I just wanted to record that as of today she can put her own socks on all by herself! She can undo buttons no problem, too.

She can also now count from one to ten perfectly without skipping over five, and suddenly demonstrated a great love for audio books. So there's a set on the way thanks to some birthday money from great-gran!

I've yet to catch a photo of her on her trike but she is really enjoying it; we've been out for new wellies and boots too and there's an all-in-one waterproof on the way - the park is getting so muddy now and most of her clothes are new, having just gone up a size (well, 2-3 tops and dresses, 18-24mo trousers, rolled up and yanked in at the waist!). She is also enjoying her new shopping trolley and tea set with her kitchen, and her blackboard with letters and magnetic animals. At the moment one of her favourite things to do is put up an animal or get me to draw something, then have me write the name of it underneath. She is also keen that I label the pictures - so if we do a house, I have to write "door" and "window" and "roof" and put arrows from the word to the picture. Not a scientist in the making, OH NO.

Here's a fun picture from today - she is really the spit of her Uncle James at the moment:

Happy 2nd Birthday!

2007-11-08T13:15:00.000Z

Today is Kirsten's second birthday - we are celebrating with family on Sunday, but I just wanted to mark the occasion today. It has been an amazing two years - can't believe where it's gone and how our lives have completely changed. She is a wonderful little girl!

Here is a picture of her two years ago:

And here she is just a few minutes ago:

A bit blurry, but then that's Kirsten for you - always on the move!

Joey Sling

2007-11-02T23:45:00.001Z

A quick pic of us with the travelling Joey Sling. It has been a...somewhat "spirited" day; you can see she's really tired without her nap but she absolutely won't have it that it might be a good idea. Still, so far she is sleeping well at night so I am trying not to argue much!

We also went to look at a local nursery today, which Kirsten was chuffed with - she is opening up to the idea of being around other children more at the moment. I'm trying not to make any judgements just yet as there's at least one other I want to look at and we may even delay until she's old enough for preschool...but I think she needs something else over the next year. Mind, now that she's not napping it does open up our options a bit more...maybe we'll finally get to go swimming again!

Crashed Out

2007-10-29T16:06:00.000Z

Kirsten is trying to drop her nap at the moment - going from a fairly happy-go-lucky person with a 1-2hr nap daily to a stressed-out bundle of grump with no nap almost overnight. For the last week she's absolutely refused to drop off other than one nap in the pram when she was exhausted and yesterday evening riding home in the new car from Nanny's.

Today, we've been to the library and I carried her in the travelling IWMM JoeySling (rather nice, like it, but needs longer straps for me) on my back - we did hop on the bus as it looked like rain, but even that was enough to knock her out. Amazingly I was even able to "sling down" onto the sofa, take off her shoes and get her comfy whilst still asleep - this is doable for a lot of babies and children but Kirsten's always been quite sensitive to changing position when asleep.

So here she is, absolutely crashed out...

...bedtime is going to be hellish!

23-25 Months Assessment

2007-10-25T10:59:00.000Z

Today we went to the Health Centre for Kirsten's "23-25 Months Assessment" - really a formality for us as we have no concerns, but worth going for the BookStart pack, if nothing else!

This is what the HV recorded for her:

Height: 91cm - on the chart she's actually shot up from 25th to between the 91st and 98th centiles, but she did have her shoes on and it wasn't a very good measure. We'll check on her birthday for her height chart, but I'd guess she's about 88cm, which is still taller than expected from previously. She really has had quite a growth spurt recently!

Weight: 12.4kg - just above 50th centile, which is another jump from betweem 25th-50th centile, but given the height gain, hardly surprising at all and absolutely within normal range (and no, she's still not too heavy to sling).

Feeding: Breast and solids introduced at 6mo - was v. happy to answer "She IS breastfed" when asked "Was she breast or bottle fed?" - looks like we are going to hit the WHO target of 2 years nicely. She is more or less nightweaned now (not withstanding the odd tantrum when asked to wait for breakfast time, and the occasional feed when poorly), and just has morning, nap and bedtime feeds most days. It's enough to keep her immune system well-supported, although she does report "dis one's firlistd" (she can't say "finished", it's her one major mispronunciation) quite often so may be on the path to self-weaning over the next few months.

Vision: Satisfactory - Lazy eye in family but has been checked and there are no concerns (the senior optician checked for us when I had my eyes tested last month, so I'm happy)

Hearing: Satisfactory - No parental concerns, no family history (she can hear you open a packet of raisins from three rooms away)

Locomotion: Satisfactory - Normal gait, jumps, climbs, runs, kicks a ball, uses pushalong (she can also walk the balance beam at Gymtots without help)

Manipulation: Satisfactory - Crayoned, good progress, completed jigsaw (she actually drew a circle with eyes, mouth, nose and hair, and completed the very easy 4-piece peg jigsaw in under a minute. Wasn't at all interested in the blocks, but I know she can do that)

Speech/Lang: Satisfactory - 5-6 word sentences, 250+ words, all words very clear, very clear speech heard today (I explained that we'd signed and how she is able to use the concepts she's learned through signing to empathise eg by understanding another child is sad and why, and that she can pronounce words such as peculiar, saxophone, vegetable, bolognese, telephone and almost all phonic sounds including "qu", etc, and that she knows her alphabet and numbers by sight and sign)

Behaviour: Satisfactory - good behaviour, good sleep routine, eats well, introduced to potty, family have dentist, ok for safety, Bookstart pack given (our only behaviour difficulties come with overtiredness, which given that she's not napping well and has a cold was evidenced in a small meltdown as we left, but she was laughing before we'd even left the building).

Cars and blocks

2007-10-16T11:46:00.000Z

Yesterday evening we got the blocks out with Kirsten and built a road for her little cars. She really likes the blocks and so far, though she builds small towers herself, has mostly enjoyed having us build things for her to knock down. Last night was something new, and she's definitely got the hang of the cars now.

Here she is in action as I start to try getting her ready for her tea:

Full tummy

2007-09-18T12:41:00.001Z

We have just dined on the most delicious curried butternut squash soup for lunch. Kirsten has declared it "yummy and cosy".

First try with plasticine - very messy indeed!

Don't ask the question if you're not prepared for the answer...

2007-09-17T13:27:00.000Z

It's recently been Nanny's birthday and before that, Daddy's, so Kirsten has been thinking a little about birthdays and cakes and cards and so on. She's currently practicing "Happy Birthday Grandma" for next month.

Not really expecting an answer, I asked her just now "What would you like for your birthday?"

She thought hard for a moment and then replied "Chocolate".

Guess I'm making chocolate cake for November, then...!

We built this child on rock and roll...

2007-09-07T13:53:00.001Z

Kirsten has very definite taste in music. Today when we put the radio on as we were getting dressed, she pointed and said "Golden Brown, please!" Of course, it didn't get played so I have now listened to it three times downstairs...

...and the funniest thing is that she can't quite pronounce the "l" in golden, so it's coming out "Gorden Brown"...

Can't quite believe this

2007-09-04T08:28:00.000Z

Just a short update - a bigger one is coming, promise, it's just a lot to collate and will probably be backdated. But I feel I really must record the following details...

As of yesterday, Kirsten can:

Speak in sentences of at least 3-6 words regularly
Count to around 12 (she often misses 5 and 7 but it's coming)
Count 3-5 objects of any kind (i.e., she's not just reciting numbers by rote)
Recognise and name numbers 0-9 (e.g. on house numbers)
Recognise and name phonetically at least 22 letters of the alphabet in both capitals and lower case anywhere she sees them
Recognise and name phonetically 23 signed letters
Recognise that letters make up words, and has started to sound out letters in short words to put them together (i.e. the beginning of reading)
Draw a circle
Recognise and name at least six shapes anywhere
Name at least ten colours accurately
Climb onto our bed and her own
Open the door to her bedroom
Take off socks and cardigans, and has attempted to fasten buttons
Put her shoes on the right feet
Build block towers of at least seven blocks
Understand the possessive (Mummy's, Kirsten's)
Understand the future tense for short periods of time ("we are doing x tommorrow", "you can have y at bedtime" etc)

All this she's done out of her own curiosity - she's constantly asking "what's that?", and seems to have a phenomenal memory, particularly for stories.

Painting

2007-07-06T14:07:00.000Z

Well, the heavens opened about two seconds after we left the house yesterday! We did see the ducks, but the goslings are nearly mature now and were quite scary, so we didn't stay long.

Today we are painting. Gooey gooey! Actually Kirsten seems to prefer the brush to using her fingers - she was drawing circles on her chalkboard this morning - but either way, she's very much at home. Her favourite colour seems to be blue.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

2007-07-05T09:04:00.000Z

Rain is certainly on the agenda a lot here. Drifting off to sleep last night, I heard the following...

"...iss rainin again! *mumblemumble* drip drop, splish splash...inna puddles....needa wellies, da boots! *mumble* anan umbella!"

Big Girl Bed lasted two nights - Tuesday she went all the way through with no problems, but last night she woke up coughing about 11.30pm and was hard to resetttle - she was clearly tossing and turning for a while so eventually she came into our bed and then into the cot in the middle of the night. Tiring, but at least she knows she has the option now, which I was a bit worried about - didn't want her to feel exiled into the other room. She wasn't 100% yesterday anyway and was rather quiet after lunch, then pretty loopy at teatime. Oh well!

Yesterday we splashed out (groan) on some finger paints and other arty stuff and I'm really looking forward to trying them out with her. She was most intruiged by the boxes, anyway! Today, however, is the first day we've woken up to drier weather (though it is clouding rapidly now), so painting may be postponed in favour of a trip to the park if at all possible.

Big Girl Bed

2007-07-03T10:53:00.000Z

About a month ago, we had more or less finished sorting out the decorating in Kirsten's room and put a nice new duvet cover on her bed. We've been in no real hurry as co-sleeping suited us all very well, but she was starting to sleep for longer stretches and beginning to ask to sleep in her cot at the side of us rather than snuggled up on some nights. Again, perfectly fine - we'd half-expected it with the warmer weather anyway and our guiding principle has always been "whatever gets the most sleep for the whole family and keeps us all rested and healthy". So every so often we'd point out the nice new bedding and say "Look, that's your Big Girl Bed. When you're ready, you can sleep there at night if you want to".

Kirsten rather liked this idea, although she did have some difficulties climbing up and down at first, quickly getting the idea that she could lie down and it was a place for "night night". She seems to have grown a little bit, though, as she can easily get up and down now. Her sleep-cycles have been getting longer and longer, and over the last three weeks she's developed the ability to drop off for her nap all by herself - as long as she has something to snuggle (currently a great hairy spider and a bat!) and can hear you quitely in the next room, she's perfectly happy. So we knew the shift was coming, though we hadn't expected it for a little while yet.

Last night as we were getting her ready for bed on an otherwise perfectly normal night, she clambered up onto her bed and delcared "lie down! night night!" and curled up on the pillow. So I asked if she wanted to sleep on her Big Girl Bed tonight and the idea was greeted with enthusiasm. After a rapid declutter, fixing a guard rail to the side of the bed and shifting the monitor in, she then refused all her usual bedtime routine and insisted on going to bed there and then. She was very excited and hard to settle, but after about half an hour of messing about, swapping the duvet for a grobag and telling Daddy all about the colours she'd been drawing with and stickers she'd been sticking, she fell asleep.

We, of course, spent the evening glued to the monitor. But she slept. And slept. And slept. I woke up to her coughing and the odd moan a few times, but since she settled straight back each time I didn't need to get up. Finally - having peeked in on her at 7.20am - she stirred at 7.40am. I whizzed straight through in case she was confused or upset at being alone, but she opened her eyes, smiled, sat up and said "Mummy! Milky." So we went back to the big bed together and had a lovely feed and a long snuggle. She seems perfectly happy - there has been absolutely no trauma, no seperation anxiety, nothing but peaceful sleep. It was a wonderful night (for her, anyway...we were pretty antsy!), and I hope it's the start of many more. She will always be welcome in our bed, though, and we won't be taking the cot down just yet. Anything can upset the balance of a child's sleep - teeth, illness, wild weather, new experiences or simple overexhaustion - so we'll continue to be guided by whatever gives us all the most peace.

So that's the huge big exciting news at the moment. Over the weekend we visited Grandma and Grandad in Newcastle, which was lovely - Kirsten had a whale of a time on the beach and in the park with the dogs (who were absolutely lovely with her), enjoyed her first take-away curry, visited The Baltic Art Gallery, which she seemed to enjoy very much (particularly the large video projections), and bounced all along the Tyne Millenium Bridge. Her speech has bounced up a notch again and she is regularly using 3-5 word sentences; admittedly many of those are phrases she's picked up from us, like "end of the book", but she's pretty smart at applying these to different situations. She really likes describing what she's been doing, too, and has mastered the fine art of fibbing to get a laugh:

"Iss a spider!"
"Where?!"
"Dere, onna floor."
"Is there really a spider on the floor?"
"Reeeeelly, reeeeelllly!"
"Are you sure?"
"Nope. N'spider."
Cue the giggling fest...

The Perfect Traveller

2007-06-26T12:16:00.000Z

Kirsten has become very good at travelling over the last six months, now that she can see so much more out of her seat. She still doesn't like the seat much, but being able to see and tell us what she can see ("Oooh. Iss tuckie. Iss rain. A plane!") is making all the difference.

Daddy & Kirsten taking a well-earned rest from the motorway...

Over the weekend we went to visit her Daddy's Aunt in Bristol, who much to Kirsten's delight is known as Lolo - since Charlie & Lola is one of Kirsten's favourite things at the moment she was very pleased to be able to say Lolo immediately. They seemed to get on extremely well, despite the fact that Kirsten really wasn't herself - we have all had a nasty ear/throat bug, which gave her a fever on Friday and a rotten rattley cough that she's still shaking off. She also had what we think was a night terror on the Saturday night - thrashing around the bed screaming, eyes wide open but absolutely not here and not connecting with anyone. In the end I took her into the garden and we waved at the moon for a little while, which seemed to calm her down enough to go back to sleep. On Sunday she was absolutely fine, though.

On the Saturday we went to Bristol Zoo, where she thoroughly enjoyed seeing the monkeys and was strangely fascinated by the dwarf crocodiles. Surprisingly she was less than impressed by the penguins, but it was very crowded. Naughty Aunt Lolo treated her to "Pa-wot", which she absolutely adores and is currently cuddled up with asleep in the pram. As you can see, it's nearly as big as she is!

On the Sunday we had a lovely Indian for lunch and then took a little boat trip down the river. We were really lucky with the awful weather this weekend - driving down and back up was very hard, lots of spray, but we stayed dry at both the zoo and on the boat. We also popped into
@ Bristol, an interactive science museum, but we decided it was rather too old for her and best kept for another visit when she's a bit older. I did, however, pick up some great books in the shop: Creative Play for 2-5s, Bring Out the Genius in Your Child (awful title but actually a great book), and Word and Music Games for Toddlers and Twos. Since I also happen to have a spare Amazon gift voucher, Earthwise: Environmental Crafts and Activities with Young Children is also on the way. The first three I've had a good read of already and there are so many brilliant fun ideas in them! I can't wait to get stuck in with her, I enjoy craft work so much and did so much when I was little that I'm really looking forward to sharing it with Kirsten. It's great to get some ideas on fun things to do and also on stretching her gently whilst keeping learning loads of fun.

One more pic, cos I think this one is great:

I quite often call her a "cheeky monkey" and when she knows she's being cheeky she now beats me too it and shouts "iss a MUNKEY!!" with a fit of the giggles.

Can't quite believe this...

2007-06-13T19:31:00.001Z

...first wee on the potty!

Ok, it was just a few drops but wow! She was ready for bed and then all of a sudden pointed to her nappy and said "iss poo", so I undressed her and got the potty. We sang a few songs, I asked her to tell me about her day and after a few minutes chattering she stood up and there it was - a teeny tinkle.

She did say "iss mess" afterwards, but I gave her a big cuddle and told her it was exactly right and absolutely fine and WELL DONE, what a big girl.

Have a new picture - how gorgeous is this?

Chain of Events

2007-06-12T09:31:00.000Z

She has a new word, and I blame her father squarely for this.

Kirsten woke me up this morning by standing up in the cot (she's gladly going back to sleep in her own space atm after any wakes as it's so hot), rubbing her nose, examining her fingers and announcing:

"Iss bogey. Issu pees."

Then, after a feed, she sat up in bed and lifted my pyjama top up over me, saying "away", before pointing and saying "side peese" (meaning she'd finished with one boob and was ready for the other!).

She's also just swiped my copy of No-Cry Potty Training Solution and is flicking through the pages, pointing at the photos of children on the potty or loo and commenting "Iss baybee. Iss pooooo. Iss putty! Flllaaaash....hands!". So I think she's got the idea of chains of events...

Another funny from this morning. It will make absolutely no sense unless you've seen the film Serenity, and. I should also add that we have a little collection of "fake" adverts, that is, film clips for products in TV shows and films which don't exist. Fruity Oaty Bars from Serenity is one of our favourites as it's just so bonkers.

Recently I purchased this Fruit Oaty Bars vest-top, for lo, I am a sad Firefly fan and I thought it was funny. I put it on today and immediately Kirsten started singing the jingle: "OOOty oooty bar....manmanman MOUSE!" complete with the sign for "mouse" (the lyric is "Fruity Oaty Bars, make a man out of a mouse" for the uninitiated).

I don't know whether to be proud or disturbed that one of the first songs she's remembered without prompting is the jingle for a non-existent product...

First Sentence

2007-06-10T19:24:00.000Z

Pretty sure Kirsten uttered her first sentence this evening! I was marking some recipes in a book with post-it notes and she'd borrowed a few to play with. I'd left the rest of the pad on the arm of the chair, and after a little while, she brought a piece over and pointed to the pad with what sounded very much like "I put it dere". Sure enough, she then put the paper back onto the pad and grinned.

How fab is that!

19 Months Old Today

2007-06-08T12:34:00.000Z

Complete coincidence, actually, but I have some great pics to share from yesterday's trip with some IWMMers to Eureka in Halifax. Excellent place, we really enjoyed it - it's a little bit grown-up for Kirsten yet but I think it's somewhere we'll go back to many times as she grows up.

Here she is having just "painted" her own butterfly on the touchscreen and sent it off to fly on the big projection on the wall behind - she was absolutely delighted with this little game and it was hard to prise her away!

And here she is in the environmental section, learning about "pingies"...

But in the end, it was all too much for my little baby...this is how she travelled home:

She really is doing fabulously - I've definitely given up counting words as they're coming so fast and we're starting to get a lot of two-worders, signing along to songs and so on. She's going to come to my last two classes of Sing & Sign this term in a couple of weeks, which I'm sure she'll love!

Most of the teeth from the last batch seem to be through now, we are just waiting on one premolar, I think, then we'll have all incisors, canines and premolars through. It's been ok - she's needed a dose of Nurofen to settle down most nights but it's seemed less painful than before. She is an absolute star at teeth cleaning now which is great as we've had a lot of struggles with that. It's been the one difficult flashpoint for us all, really.

Her naps are a bit all over the place at the moment - it seems like she's not needing one every day, or not until later on that day, which is a bit difficult to manage. On the other hand she is mastering the art of self-settling and can crash out in her pram by herself now. At bedtimes she's become more and more choosy about her stories and over the last few nights has insisted on Green Eggs and Ham, which is great fun as she loves to sign "fox" and "mouse" along with it.

Clothes-wise she's *just* getting into 18mo tops but everything else is falling around her ankles; she is just a slinky girl really. Her favourite item of clothing right now is her swimsuit, as you can see below (and look, her hair's just about long enough to get into a scrunchie now!), but she's getting really good at saying what she wants to wear; this morning she wanted the "geen dess pees".

Favourite sign and word is definitely "funny".

Deja Vu

2007-05-11T17:13:00.000Z

We've had to get new shoes again - happened to be going past Mothercare yesterday and I had noticed she wasn't walking so well in her shoes, so we popped in to get measured. Sure enough, she'd gone up to a 4.5G. Naturally, they didn't have anything in that size so we're now on a 5F, which should last a wee while longer. The only thing is, they're exactly the same as her first pair of shoes! The range is so limited as to be untrue - the choice was between these navy blue ones, pale green boots (in summer?) and white and pink shoes the same style as the last pair. I swear, nobody else's little girl runs round in the park...how on earth are you supposed to keep white shoes clean?! Have also invested in quite a bit of summer clothing in the next size up, her tops are really starting to look a bit short now, though her trousers are still a bit too long! So I've only bought a couple of pairs of shorts and some cropped trousers in 18-24, it's really not worth buying anything else clothing-wise until we see how the weather pans out. She has two beautiful blue dresses now and some really nice cotton tops, but that's it until we see how she grows. She is back to eating like a horse again and has that tell-tale chubbiness around the face which suggests she'll shoot up any day now...

We met baby ducklings today! There are about a dozen now on the pond and two even came out to meet us and get some bread (good job we took loads, they were really hungry!). Kirsten's favourite thing now is "peep peep peep", of course.

18 months old today

2007-05-08T19:02:00.000Z

Good grief, where has the time gone!

Let's have some statistics.

Weight: 1st 8lbs
Height: approx 80cm tall (we need to measure that!)
Clothes Size: Size 12-18 clothes, starting to look a little tight across the top, but length is fine.
Nappies: size 4 Moltex, size 2 clothies.
Shoe Size: 4F
Hair Length: the front is down to her nose, the back about 2ins down from the nape.
Hair Colour: dark blonde
Eye Colour: Blue
Teeth: Eight through fully, one half-through and at least five tiny nubs poking through
Eats: like a horse
Sleeps: much better, often goes through for six hours at a time now (shame it's 8pm-2am!); half the night in her cot and half with us. Usually 1hr nap around 11am.
Signs: 131
Spoken Words: approx 220
Favourite Mode of Transport: reins or Kozy carrier

What else can I say...her pretend play is wonderful and often hilarious, she's learning to throw and catch, she loves playing in water, adores music, and is an excellent mimic.

Have a picture, too - this from last Wednesday, playing in the park with Auntie K.

Ankoo

2007-05-03T12:50:00.000Z

We've been trying hard to remember to say and sign "thankyou" to Kirsten over the last couple of weeks - she does say/sign it sometimes but not consistently and usually needs a reminder. Today she's cracked it. She's seemed increasingly hungry over the last week or so, wanting to feed all the time and asking for "beeesk" non-stop. She's especially cranky when waking up from her nap, so today I presented her with a breadstick just as she woke up. Sure enough, the wail turned to a smile, and even more so as I helped her out of the pram and she clocked the snack tray I'd filled with crackers and dried fruit.

I turned away to put the pram back where it belongs and this little voice said..."ankoo" and then as I turned back, she passed me a breadstick and said "mummummy - steeek!", and signed "eat".

Napsack

2007-05-02T11:32:00.000Z

Here we are at Rivingon Arboretum on Sunday, enjoying a nice walk in the sun. The sling is a Napsack, currently doing the rounds from IWMM - we all chipped in a few quid to get it and it's travelling around the country (and has been to Italy too, actually!). So this is our contribution. Kirsten didn't actually last long in it on this walk - she was keen to get down and have a good old shuffle in the leaf mould and later get covered in chocolate ice-cream!

It is a lovely sling but I think I like my Kozy better, sorry.

Words, words, words

2007-04-23T12:21:00.000Z

I said a week ago I was going to start compiling a list of Kirsten's spoken vocab for when she's 18mo. Have made a start and am absolutely shocked to find that in ten minutes I've noted down over 160 words - and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. That's over three times the widest suggestion the red book makes.

I know, I'm totally sad, but I think I will have to make a Venn diagram (remember those?) of the overlap between signed word and spoken word as they're not all shared, and it's fascinating to see which she uses/has used both for and which are seperate.

Over the weekend she stayed at Nanny & Grandad's for a few hours whilst Daddy and I trudged round the hell which is Ikea to get her a wardrobe. It's coming on Thursday, so hopefully we'll be able to tidy her room up some more and make it a more liveable space for her when she's ready to have her own bed. She is certainly sleeping for longer periods at night generally, but over the last few days has been waking up very upset at around 10.30-11pm and seeming quite frightenened. I think it may be down to bad dreams and shadows and quite possibly some more teething as well, but it's quite hard to get the concept of a "dream" over - try explaining it to an adult sometime! Hopefully it will pass soon.

Pony

2007-04-20T18:14:00.000Z

Kirsten's favourite book at the moment is That's Not My Pony, which she requests ALL the time ("pohnee, pohnee")...I guess that "little girls and horses" thing has kicked in early. Actually she doesn't seem all that bothered about the ponies themselves, perhaps it's the only TNM... book she can say at the moment! Her real obsession is finding the mouse on every page. She's also now a dedicated fan of Maisy Mouse ("meemowss") and insisted on bringing home Maisy's Rainbow Dream (Maisy) from the library last time. This is actually a really nice book as we can sign everything except "indigo" and "leaf", I must find out what they are.

Her speech and comprehension really is tremendous; still generally in the one-word category but at the moment there's no real need for her to speak in sentences - it's so obvious what she means by combining words with gestures and signs. She's very creative with it - I forgot to mention last time, but when we were at the Aquarium a couple of weeks ago, we saw some seahorses. Kirsten immediately said "sea" and signed "horse" at the same time, thus getting her meaning over instantly.

Time flies

2007-04-16T12:26:00.000Z

...and babies grow up. Have been having loads of trouble logging into Blogger recently but will attempt to update as much as I can remember!

Let's see - we went to London shortly after the last entry for my training day. Kirsten was sick before we even set out, but we put it down to teething. She was a little angel for the whole journey down even though she must have been feeling pretty rough, and she slept very well that night. She even had a nice little nap Saturday morning just laid out on the bed - in fact, we didn't unpack the pram all weekend. At lunchtime we caught up with our friends Angela and Jas and had a lovely meal out, though Kirsten was not impressed by the bland children's menu, preferring mine instead. By evening she was getting pretty ropy again and didn't settle well at all in the evening - poor little thing was signing "hurt" but couldn't tell us where, so again we figured it was teething. That was, until about midnight when I started throwing up and aching in every joint. By 6am Andrew had started with it too, though Kirsten seemed better and was happy to watch cartoons, bless her, whilst we pulled ourselves together enough to drive over to Barnet for the training. Unfortunately Kirsten was sick again on the way there, and as we couldn't find anywhere to stop, she had to sit for five minutes covered in sick, and spent the whole time saying "no no no, oh dear, oh dear, no no..." in the saddest little voice you ever heard.

She and Daddy spent the day back at the hotel trying to sleep it off and missed out on a visit to friends in Cambridge, but was able to eat something that evening. By Tuesday we'd more or less thrown it off - in retrospect Kirsten had it the least badly of the three of us, which is down to the extra antibodies she was getting from me.

Another very busy week followed and for Easter weekend we went up to Newcastle to visit Grandma and Grandad (or "big" "J", as Kirsten signs!), and she had a whale of a time going to the playground with Grandma, pottering around the allotment with Grandad and George the dog, then on the beach with us. On the Sunday we went to Blue Reef Aquarium in Tynemouth, and I'm hard pushed to say who enjoyed it more - Kirsten or Uncle James! She also had a big sleep-through on the Sunday night, going from bedtime at about 8pm right through till probably 5-6am, not even stirring when we came to bed. Again, she travelled very well indeed and was delighted to discover that Mummy had aquired the Sing & Sign CD for the car.

Again, another busy week for me getting the final bits and pieces ready for the new term. Daddy was also away in London, so we had the car for a day or two. We went to visit Nanny and Grandad, and brought Auntie Katherine back with us to help with bedtime. Good job too - Kirsten and I were in the local newspaper on the Wednesday night and the phone went crazy next day, so Kirsten had someone to play with all day whilst I dealt with all the enquiries. We picked Daddy up from work at the end of the day and that was lovely. Friday I tried really hard to have a "normal" day, so we went for a long-overdue visit to Punky Duck and friends...it won't be long now before the ducklings (and possibly goslings) arrive as there were a distinct lack of female ducks on the pond! Kirsten is learning to throw at the moment and loves to have her own piece of bread to give to the ducks.

Over this weekend I ran my first S&S class in Bolton, which was brilliant, and Kirsten had her Daddy all to herself in the morning. Our friend Glyn came to visit and we had a lovely picnic in Whitehall Park on Sunday, with Kirsten having a great run around and throwing her balls with Daddy and Glyn. She loves to watch juggling and even tries herself!

So that's what we've been up to. In terms of development, she's moving so fast it's hard to keep up! Her vocabulary seems huge - I am going to start making a list as it'll be nice to see what she can say by 18mo. She's still picking up a few signs here and there, too, and is well over 100 now. She likes to come down the stairs holding on to the bannister where she can reach, and can climb onto the sofa with very little help from leaning on the table or whatever. She is very decisive and can now vocalise it - when offered books at bedtime, she takes the one she doesn't want and hands it to me, saying "bye!".

However, her most recent eye-popping moment was this morning when she handed me two of the balls from her ball pool and announced "two!", then found another and gave me that, saying "free!".

Toof

2007-03-29T09:05:00.000Z

This morning, Kirsten sat up after a marathon feed and said "Tooof!" in some surprise. She then signed "hurt" and "medicine" "please", took my thumb and put it into her mouth. And what do you know, one of her canines has come through at long last! She seemed happy with some Bongela, though, so is probably not in too much pain.

Naturally the other three canines are bound to make an appearance this weekend, given that we're going away.

Yesterday we went to Whitehall Park and had a go on the swings and slides - she really loves the swings! Not so sure about the slides, though - she doesn't seem too bothered about coming down them, but very keen on trying to climb up them. She gets a good long way, too!

Word of the moment is "stuck", and she's added a few new signs (sit down, tired, elephant, bubbles), bringing her up to 97.

Still learning

2007-03-22T22:56:00.000Z

I had thought that Kirsten had pretty much given up learning new signs now - at a total of 94, she knows nearly as many as I do to teach the course, for heaven's sake. But she added "broken" to her vocabulary (in both sign and word) this morning when the radio wouldn't tune in properly. Her speaking is really racing along - she's a fine mimic, even picking out words to say from songs she's never heard before. She tends to say the word when she signs too, even when really sleepy - just as she was going to sleep tonight she was telling us a "mobike" had gone past outside. She's also much closer to mastering "Ash" - it comes out "A! tch" now, which is quite a step.

Poor little thing has had the most rotten cold - she was absolutely streaming yesterday and is finding it really hard to sleep (mind, this is only the fourth cold she's ever had in her life - yay for antibodies in the breast milk!). She's still her lively self, though, if a bit tired and sore. On Tuesday her Auntie came round to play for the afternoon whilst I got on with phonecalls and paperwork (I will be SO glad when this bit is over and classes are running well!), and the two of them went off to the park together all by themselves. It's the first time I've seen her walk away from the house without me - she waved "byebye Mummy" and off they went...had a whale of a time feeding the ducks. I really missed her! The house was very quiet. Today she stayed with Nanny and Auntie whilst I went to the bank and although she missed hearing my key in the door, she came running up for a big hug when I came back in...that was just lovely.

She's so affectionate...one of her favourite things at the moment is to pause mid-feed, wrap her hands gently around me and lie her face against my skin, looking up into my eyes and saying "booooooob", with such a happy, contented look on her face. Fantastic...it's a wonderful reward!

Oh, potty - not mentioned that for ages. Whilst we've not had a formal success on that yet, she's quickly getting used to the idea that you don't have to have a nappy on to have a wee or a poo - she's been very close to hitting the spot a couple of times recently. She has a practice of sitting on the potty every night and is getting really agile at getting on and off it, which can only bode well. She also sits poor Monkey on it and whispers "pssss, pssss....wee wee", which is ever so cute. I think she's really getting the hang of it, so I'm just going to roll with it and see how we go. She's taught herself everything else in her own time, I'm not going to rush her with this. When the weather's warmer and she can run around with not much on, she might find it easier to just go and find it. That said, she has asked for the potty several times and begun to pull her own trousers up afterwards...we've got the process really coming, we just need to work on the timing.

Breakfast

2007-03-16T09:04:00.000Z

Conversation this morning:

"Would you like some toast, Kirsten?"

no

"Oh. How about porridge?"

no

"Oh. Er...what about grapefruit?" (we use the sign for orange but since you always say the word it's a good substitute - invented by Kirsten herself, actually).

please! please! runs to kitchen door

It seems she rather likes grapefruit and polished off a half in no time at all.

Oh dear. It really has been a long time since this has been updated; I have been rushed off my feet setting up my Sing & Sign classes. Kirsten has valiently borne with me - but then, she gets extra Sasha time and new songs by watching the training DVD with me so I don't think she minds too much. I can't wait to see her face when I put my teacher's tshirt on for the first time!

Actually we are finding her signs are starting to drop away now as she gains more words - we're not seeing gone as much, for example, because she can say it. She will have a go at saying absolutely anything - "umbeya" is a favourite at the moment, and just as she enjoyed pointing at pictures and signing what she could see, now she's saying anything she can manage. She knows the cats' names, too - Tomsk comes out "Toom" and Ash is just "A!" at the moment but it'll come - sh and sk are hard sounds for little ones. I would guess her vocab is probably upwards of 30 words, being fairly conservative. Given that the red book suggests around 6-20 is normal for 18mo, I think she's doing great. One thing she's picked up that cracks me up is saying "oh dear, oh dear, oh dear" when something falls or accidents happen - my fault entirely, that one! It is lovely not to see her frustrated by speech and for her to see it as something fun.

What else...physically she's doing well; we measured her height last week and she's 75cm tall (so no wonder 12-18mo clothes are still a tad long!), which is consistent with where she "should" be on the growth charts. Haven't had her weighed in forever but she is certainly getting heavier, or so my arms tell me! She walks absolutely brilliantly and rarely falls now - we can just about reach to hold hands and she loves running about in the park. She also seems to have really taken to the Kozy - we often walk into town like this now and she'll chatter all the way there about the birds and the flowers and cars, and snuggle in on the way back.

Still no new teeth, though pain seems to come in waves - some nights are worse than others. We are having a mostly medicine-free time right now and in fact she actually slept through from 7.30pm-5am the night before last - the first time she's ever gone that long. Again, I'm so glad we've waited for her to do this on her own rather than try to push her into it and cause her distress. She seems to be coping very well with the fears that often come to toddlers around this age - loud noises like a truck going by startle her and she looks for reassurance (an "it's ok, it's a truck going by" will usually do it, but in the last day or two she's learnt she can put a name to it and it's not scary. She also knows she can ask to look at something that worries her safely with us, as we did with a tanker which had parked outside the other day.

Me, Myself, I

2007-03-08T12:34:00.000Z

We've been watching for this development for some time, curious as to when and how it would happen. It seems Kirsten's really becoming aware of herself as a person. We've been playing a little pointing game of "mummy", "Kirsten", "mummy", "Kirsten" for a few days now, which has just been fun really - she absolutely loves pointing between two objects and getting you to tell her what they are (hence we often get "map", "picture", "map", "picture" at mealtimes since that's what she can see on the walls).

This morning whilst brushing her teeth, I said "Who's in the mirror...? It's Kirsten!" and she laughed delightedly and pointed to herself, peering in the mirror and waving. So pretty much proof that not only does she know her own name, she recognises her own reflection (actually I sort of spotted this on Tuesday when we walked into town - she kept waving at the reflection of herself riding in the Kozy in the shop windows). She's always loved mirrors but they seem to be extra-special for her at the moment.

I should also add that one of her favourite sounds at the moment is "me, me, me"...and she signed mummy for the first time today.

All by myself

2007-03-06T09:56:00.000Z

Kirsten's become even more of a climber in the last week or so and her legs must really be getting longer - she's actually gone into quite a few 12-18mo trousers now. Best of all, she can climb onto her Dino rocker all by herself! She is a whizz with her Wheelybug now but the Dino has been quite a challenge up to this point.

Her pretend-play is coming along nicely too - she likes "pouring" from her toy teapot into all sorts of other receptacles - and sometimes from her actual water cup into anything remotely cup-like.

Here she is yesterday looking terribly grown-up - the top was a gift from Auntie Jus at xmas, she's finally grown into it, and we were experimenting with some hairclips as her hair is starting to get into her eyes and isn't heavy or long enough to sweep back by itself yet.

Kozy

2007-03-04T12:46:00.000Z

At last - our new aquisition has arrived from Rumplebums: a Kozy carrier. This is a type of sling known as a Mei Tai or ABC (Asian Baby Carrier as it originates from the Far East), and I've got it primarily for back carries although it will easily do front and side carries too (but I prefer my Ellaroo Wrap for front carries and Maya Ring Sling for hip carries). The Kozy is just SO comfortable - although I can do a back carry with the wrap I'm not confident and can never seem to stop it slipping. No fear of that with the Kozy, Kirsten is firmly and comfortably snuggled in, and there's enough length in the straps to do my favourite Tibetan-style tie across the front which spreads her weight evenly across my shoulders and hips.

She looks a little sleepy and not-quite-comfy here as she'd just woken up from her nap and hadn't worked out where her arms were best, but she got the knack of it a little later and was very happy.

We had a lovely day out in Manchester yesterday - it's fabulous not to have to bother with a pram (particularly since we had lunch at Cafe Rouge and the lift was broken!). Kirsten had a whale of a time; since she's at grown-up height she can chat to everybody and generally be as cheeky and involved in the world as she likes. She also loves to snuggle in with her head against my shoulders.

Boo in Blue

2007-03-02T14:36:00.000Z

Playing peek-a-boo this morning. Although she still looks very much like Andrew, there really is some of me in there too...actually she looks more like my mum here than me, though those dimples are a dead giveaway for my genes.

We made it

2007-03-01T15:23:00.000Z

Kirsten is now officially in 12-18mo clothes, the first time she's been in the "correct" clothing size for her age. Only three months late, but this is a Good Thing as quite a bit of the new stuff is fairly summery. We definitely don't need anything more in this size until it's warm enough for a few summery dresses and shorts, and I'm not buying those yet as knowing my luck she'll be just going into 18-24mo clothes at that point. Somehow she's ended up with about a zillion tops, and her trousers aren't going to fit for some time.

I do quite like these change-overs in size, it's really exciting to dig out all the clothes I've had put away for her and see what she likes! I still think that even with her being in clothes for a lot longer than most kids, she still doesn't get a lot of wear out of them and so much of it is like new. Guess she must be easy on her clothes at the moment - though quite what a summer rolling around in the park is going to do to them, I don't know!

Pridge 'n' Blumber

2007-02-27T15:10:00.000Z

Pridge and Blumber* is what Kirsten asked for for breakfast yesterday - can you work out what she wanted? She absolutely loves blumbers at the moment and signs for them at every meal. Today she sampled Kiwi fruit for the first time, so I am anxiously watching for signs of allergy although there's not much reason to - we really only have one or two things left to try now and strawberries are the only things with any family history. She even had Thai food over the weekend on a visit to Uncle E - red peppers went down a treat (but not green peppers) and we both enjoyed Khao Niaow Ma Muang (mango with coconut milk and sticky rice) for pudding. For lunch today we had the most amazing cheese and banana bread, so we're doing well on the fruit front! I'm really looking forward to taking her out for a Chinese or an Indian sometime.

She is a lady who very definitely knows what she wants - for example, we had some music on here in the back room just now. She didn't like it, however, and took me through to the living room, whereupon she pointed at the TV and signed music. She wanted the playlist her daddy had set up for her. Pah!

Her speech seems to be coming on very well - she is picking up parts of words at the same time as signs at the moment. You have to be quite tuned in to catch what she means, but it's certainly coming. One of her favourite games is chanting "up, dowm - up, dowm" as you lift her up and down in a kind of vertical row-your-boat.

Here's a pic of her generously handing me a toy, wearing her newly-girlyfied dungarees.

*Porridge and Blueberries

Pancakes and Wellies

2007-02-23T13:39:00.000Z

A few pics, it's been a while! Two of Kirsten enjoying (possibly) her first taste of pancakes on Tuesday:

Doesn't she look like her Uncle James in that second picture?

Here's one of her right now having insisted on wearing her new size 4 wellies as soon as she woke up from her nap. Look how much shorter that dress is on her now from just three weeks ago - it's well above her knee now!

Shooooooooes

2007-02-21T18:14:00.000Z

Kirsten has new shoes, and new wellies too - she is now a size 4 (but not yet into her 12-18mo Inch Blues, they're still a bit clown-shoe on her). I'm waiting for her to shoot up any minute, really. Her upper half is fitting quite nicely into 12-18mo, but some of her 9-12mo trousers are still too long! It's nice to see her starting to go into the "right" size clothes for her age at last, though I'm sure she'll be in them long past the 18mo mark. Still tricky to predict what's going to fit her, though - Boots and Vertbaudet seem very small and Next are very large (SO annoying because their adult clothes are definitely a small fit!), with Mothercare falling somewhere in between. I can see I'm going to end up buying boys' trousers in a smaller size to get the right leg length at some point. Nappies are also a problem, because although she has the cutest little toddler belly, I just can't get nappies to stay round her waist in some trousers. I think she may well end up wearing clothies a bit more just to keep her pants up! I've ordered a few more wraps from Baby Bean to make that a reality.

Speaking of pants up and down, the potty thing is all a bit strange. She can sign potty and asks for it at every nappy change, but doesn't much like to sit on it. She has tried the loo seat and seems happier on that, though hasn't done anything yet. I have taken a note from the EC (elimination communication) style of doing things and whispered "psss" when she sits on the potty, and she's started saying that herself too. I'm not sure if that's going to backfire on me, though, as out of the corner of my eye this afternoon I spotted her hovering over the wooden box that contains her play food and whispering "psss" to herself. Sadly tonight, the one night she forgot to ask for the potty, she piddled all over my socks.

Poor little thing is really suffering with her teeth at the moment - getting them brushed is a huge trial for all of us. Medicine seems to barely blunt it at all. So she's not 100% herself; on the bright side she does seem to have got the concept of signing "hurt" and pointing to where it's painful ("teeeeeeeeeeeeef, teeeeeeeeeeeeef" - absolutely heartrending).

Friend

2007-02-20T08:43:00.000Z

Absolutely gobsmacked last night to see Kirsten spontaneously sign "friend" at her current favourite toy monkey. We'd read "Pocoyo and Friends" yesterday morning, during which I introduced a few signs - she did already know "friend" and "sad", for example, from the S&S songs, but I think this was the first time she'd seen them in context. I didn't really think anything of it, just that we like to sign stories together, but before teatime last night she went over to where her monkey was sitting and signed "friend" several times before picking him up for a cuddle. After a few minutes she'd put him down again, so we asked "Where's your friend?" and she signed it again and picked him up.

I never cease to be amazed, both by this child and by sign.

More signs

2007-02-17T19:17:00.000Z

You'll notice we've put Kirsten's signing vocab up on the side of this journal - we were just having a really hard time keeping track of what she knew so this seems a sensible way of doing it. You'll understand when I say that today's new signs are:

come
pink
home
peas
chips

She's also signing in constructive and creative ways - asking for blueberries after lunch by signing "blue", and on biting into a piece of breaded scampi she described it as "toast". We told her it was fish, so I'm half expecting to see her ask for "toast fish" one day.

She came out with a real gem this morning though - sitting with her Daddy in bed this morning, prodding his chest and saying "boob" caused a bit of a giggle, but signing "spider" for hair was really quite amazing...

Down on the Farm

2007-02-16T14:38:00.000Z

Such a lot to update this week! First of all, new signs: flower, red, blue, spider, boat, puzzle and potty; she can also say blue, purple, curtain (!) and triangle (!!), though not frequently - it's as though she gets the word, says it and then files it away, as though one day she'll open her mouth and complete sentences will come out. She is babbling constantly and really trying to tell you things, but her brain's obviously going faster than her mouth or hands. Luckily she's not too frustrated yet but it could get problematic soon as I just can't work out what she's trying to say sometimes, which is upsetting to me even if she's ok. Thank heavens for sign, at least she can get her immediate needs and wants seen to, even if she can't tell us in detail what she's seeing, reading or asking about.

I think the most recent growth spurt is over - she has cut her feeding down drastically (4-5 times a day now rather than every 2 hrs) and isn't eating as much (though still well; she could easily go through a punnet of blueberries and six yoghurts at a sitting if she wanted!). Her vests and tops are certainly looking a little tighter and shorter in the sleeve - some of her 12-18mo tops fit well now. She hasn't got any taller yet, though. For the last couple of nights she's slept much better, too - not sure why as she's still eating her hands a lot and seems to be in pain sometimes. No new teeth through as yet.

On Wednesday we went to Smithills Open Farm, which was really nice - cold and muddy, but we saw rabbits, chicks, guinea pigs, calves, lambs, kids, donkeys, pigs and a wonderful owl! Kirsten got to touch and fuss all of them (except the owl, we weren't close enough) and can approximately sign each animal. She was entranced by the co-sleeping piglets! Startlingly, twin goats were born whilst we were there, and about an hour after their birth we went through to see them whilst they were having a feed. Kirsten got very excited and was signing "milk" with both hands and pointing at the babies. So now she knows that other animals have milk from their mummies, and she worked that out all by herself!

Finally there's going to be a whole lot more signing going on - my (our) application to teach Sing & Sign has been accepted, so assuming all goes well with the paperwork I'll be teaching in Darwen in the summer term. I am hoping Kirsten will be able to come with me, but we may have to make alternative arrangements such as nursery for a couple of afternoons a week. By 18 mo I should think she'll be able to communicate well enough to be left for a little while, at least, though right now I'm not comfortable with it. We will see.

Our Other Little Madam

2007-02-10T09:20:00.000Z

Again, I'm baffled by what just happened. Kirsten has a box of fabrics to play with, and the current favourite is a piece of pale blue voile with silver stars on it. She's been sitting here eating her toast and playing with it, and all of a sudden she came over and made some curious signs - not quite "all gone" but something like it, and pointing towards the clothes dryer saying "tat". I didn't understand what she meant, so I asked her to sign again, and she pointed rather urgently at the clothes dryer.

Hiding underneath all the clothes is Ash (our grey she cat, a bit of a terror sometimes), perched on top of the fabric. And like an idiot, I reach out to retrieve the fabric and receive a pawful of claws for my trouble. How sensible is Kirsten, to get dopy Mummy to brave the beastie for her?

And...

2007-02-09T14:14:00.000Z

Add "snow" and "butterfly" to the signs list, if you please.

Snowing again, so I guess we're going to be standing up Punky Duck this afternoon. I remembered to take my camera to the park this morning. Here's Punky Duck and some cronies in his somewhat fuzzy glory, and a shot of just how frozen the pond is.

It was a very good day to remember my camera as we also were lucky enough to see this visitor for the first time ever (bear in mind I've been walking past that pond almost daily for the last year...).

L33t Sk1llz

2007-02-08T12:28:00.000Z

I've been keeping a record over the last month of Kirsten's speech, signs and skills and I have to say I'm pretty flabbergasted - she's adding new signs and words at a rate of at least one a day and I had no idea she knew that many signs. Yesterday we got a treble word score of the signs for "toast" and "ham", and the word "ham" (well, "am", but it's very clear what she means). So here's a list.

In other news, it is snowing here but not drastically - I think it was worse last year. So far Kirsten has taken a look, said "Hmm!", then signed for toast, so she seems rather underwhelmed by it at the moment. More importantly, she's discovered a passion for dancing. Daddy's not allowed to sit down when he comes in from work, it's on with the Greenday (communicated by signing "music! music!" - would you believe she can recognise the software it's played with, but probably doesn't know what a CD is?) and let's have a mosh. This morning we discovered she's an Egyptian dancer in the making - not only can she twirl, but gesture with her arms and do some steps just like Mummy...

Words, Signs, Sounds and Skills as at 08/02/07 - 15 months exactly

Words
map, i-tchur (picture), cat, tractor, clock, please, clean, bee, cheese, hat, chick, baby, tea, coh-ca (chocolate), kiss-ma-tee (christmas tree), wat dat?, tah (tiger), eeyore (donkey), tee (teddy), uky (monkey), up, og (dog), il-yo (Pocoyo), o-ra (orange), mop, daddy, am (ham), teee (teeth)

Signs
please, milk, drink, eat, clock, change, wet, daddy, bath/splash, dirty, open, shut, hat, hi, byebye, car, duck, bird, all gone, more, baby, grandad, yoghurt, medicine, stinky, yes, no, hot, sign, fish, thankyou, dog, orange, what?, where?, rabbit, monkey, cake, biscuit, up, down, crocodile, story, dunk biscuit, toast, ham

Sounds
dee-dee, eer-yu-go, iggle, tweet, beep-beep, roar, neeze, gurgle, parp-parp, burp, pop, bugabugabuga, boogglyboogly, mmmm, mamamama, megamega, booey, nanana, moo, baa, sss

Skills
Walks; feeds self with fork and spoon; opens and closes cupboard doors (inc washer); understands open/shut, in/out, wet/dry; understands the difference between mummy and daddy's things (eg shoes) and her own; can fetch and return items when asked; crawl up and down stairs; can make requests and choices such as selecting a particular story to read; recognises her own shadow; kiss and blow a kiss; recognises other people can be ticklish; hides/finds someone hiding; anticipates where something will appear; understands the absurd and finds it funny (such as wearing something like a bowl as a hat); joins in with action songs; role-playing/pretend play such as pouring "tea" from a toy pot; dances to music; asks to be shown the sign for an item; climbs; comes downstairs facing forward (with assistance); scribble with chalk/crayon; post letters; tell you something is missing or out of sight by signing "all gone" and pointing; imitate a panting dog; strings words and signs together into short sentences (more please etc); twirl; undo a zip

Show me the sign for...

2007-02-05T16:07:00.000Z

I honestly don't know how Kirsten makes her intuitive leaps - sometimes she's so bright it scares me. Yesterday we were at Nanny & Grandad's house and there's a large toybox with a detachable lid, which had been taken off and stowed behind the couch. Kirsten went over, picked it up (it's almost bigger than her), carried it over to me and put it down; whereupon she pointed at it and signed "sign". *blinkblink* She wanted to know what it was and moreover, what the sign was to describe it. She also discovered that if she signed "monkey" at her auntie, she could get auntie to pull a face and make monkey noises.

She's decided that climbing down the stairs backwards is for babies, too - now she stands at the top and demands that you hold her hands whilst climbing down face first. It's very hard for her because her legs really aren't long enough to cope with our steep stairs, but she's extremely determined and laughs all the way.

Yesterday must have been especially tiring, or teething is having a break for a moment (and when she yawned widely yesterday we discovered a HUGE molar had come through!) as last night she slept for a full five hours in a row, between about 9.30pm and 2.30am. This is unheard of as she's had a feed at 11pm or thereabouts every night of her life so far; she also slept through both myself and her dad coming to bed at seperate times. Naturally I barely slept as I was paranoid she wouldn't wake up and was straining to catch every breath and rustle. Still...it was nice that she slept for such a long stretch of time, she hasn't done that in ages and she's seemed very chirpy today. I have a theory that there are three parts to Kirsten's sleep and you can only have 1.5 of them perfect at any one time - so if her naps are good (ie, two hours and going to sleep without a fight) then one of either evenings or night sleep will be ok and the other will be rubbish. Last night blew that out of the water, but we'll see what happens...I don't think it's the beginning of her sleeping through, not with another 11 teeth to come!

Finally, she is starting to get some awareness around toileting - signing "stinky" and "wet" and "change" sometimes and various other things that are showing she knows something is going on. So a potty, step stool and toilet seat are winging their way to us at the moment. This is a bit sad really, as these are the last real "baby" purchases we'll need for her - her car seat goes up to 12 years, her pram should last till she's 4, she already has a bed when she's ready for that. Next thing you know, it'll be a bike...then a car...then a deposit on a flat or a round-the-world air ticket...!

Armchair climbing, the proof

2007-02-03T09:59:00.000Z

Here is Kirsten climbing on to the armchair.

Climbing Rose

2007-01-31T15:55:00.000Z

Pictures of Kirsten climbing onto the armchair to get a story. It wasn't just a fluke yesterday - I thought she'd got up there because I'd left a cushion nearby which she could have used as a step, but no, she can get up without. These aren't great quality as I was standing across the room hiding to catch her in the act...but she was too fast for me and was up onto the chair before I could get the camera ready.

Uh-oh, We're In Trouble

2007-01-30T20:02:00.000Z

Kirsten has discovered she can now climb onto the armchair next to where her storybooks are.

Oh dear.

We're doomed.

Her current favourite phrase is "peeese, steee" whilst madly signing with her hands clasped together. She's trying to sign "storybook", which unfortunately has taken me most of the day to work out, much to her frustration. However, anything with animals in is now a firm favourite, as she's taken to reading the story to you in a mixture of signs and sounds. So for Tiny Chick, we get "smelly" and "pig", then "cow" and "oooo" (she means moo), then "aaa" (meaning baa), then "clopclop" for horse, and finally "chickchickchick" and "chicken" for the last page. Really must get some video of that. She can also point out her hair, ears, nose (beepbeep), chin, tummy and feet, and do the same for you, in case you need to know these things.

We went back to the breastfeeding support group today now that it's found a new venue, and she was great - a little unsure of the new place to start with, but soon went off to play in the water with the other kids and bring me Duplo and the like. I think it did take a bit of a toll on her, it's a while since we've been that social - about halfway through the session her little face just crumpled and she came over for a feed; I think she'd forgotten where I was. She stayed close for the rest of the session and was unusually well-behaved in the supermarket (normally she's complaining about being bored by checkout time). When we got home she helped me unpack the shopping (which she is brilliant at, by the way) and then was very clingy and cuddly for a while - so much so I was convinced she was coming down with something. She seems ok now, though - very pleased to see Daddy, as ever.

In other news, I'm out of a job, it seems - since she was eight weeks old, Kirsten's had three stories before bedtime, two short ones from me and a longer one from Andrew. Now, I'm not allowed to read anything at bedtime and the first story has been dropped. Very sad for me - but in a way I'm thrilled that she's growing up secure and confident that she can order her world the way she needs and wants it to be, within reasonable limits.

A new kitchen and some videos

2007-01-27T14:13:00.000Z

Today Kirsten got a new toy kitchen, which we hope she will get a few years of fun out of - it certainly seemed to make an impression. Here's a video of what happened when we brought her down to it this morning, having set it up while she was asleep last night.

If you can't see it above, click this link to see it on YouTube.

The kitchen itself looks like this:

Despite the fact that Kirsten loves the camera and tries to mug either of us for it whenever it's around, I managed to snap a couple of shots of her this morning too:

She looks very much like my mum in the middle picture, I think.

Here are a few videos from earlier:

Kirsten and the Roomba (our robotic cleaner)
Kirsten the Cossack (dancing)
Kirsten's first (recorded) steps

I think we're in growth spurt territory again

2007-01-26T14:04:00.000Z

Had this conversation with Kirsten at lunch yesterday (signs are shown in bold, I say them at the same time, of course):

Kirsten ate a small baked potato with cheese, and a whole banana. This is her usual fare at lunch and is generally enough.

Me: all finished?

K: more please

Me: more? What would you like to eat?

K: cake

Me: Cake? We have no cake, sorry. Would you like a piece of chocolate?

K: (eyes light up) yes please

...

Me: all finished?

K: more

Me: What would you like?

K: cake(followed by a very cheeky grin and lots of giggles)

Me: (falling about laughing) Sorry, we have no cake. How about an apple?

K: yes please

She then proceeded to eat half an apple before finally signing all gone, then asked for a milky ten minutes later, and also snaffled two biscuits (the Organix sugar-free ones, thankfully) at 4pm. For tea she had a ginormous bowl of vegetable & pasta soup, with second helps from both mine and Andrew's bowl, then asked for a yoghurt!

Today we had more of the same - after scoffing all the cheese and ham and part of her bagel, she had a whole banana, 3/4rs of a nectarine and about 20 grapes. I am definitely not complaining about how much or what she eats, cos it's all healthy stuff and she obviously needs it...I'm just amazed by how much she can pack away in that little belly and still ask for milky!

The sleeves on her vests at night are also starting to seem a bit short, I've had to yank them down in the middle of the night a few times now - that's usually a dead giveaway for going up a size in the next few weeks. Good job I didn't buy too much in size 9-12mo!

More Sing & Sign

2007-01-22T16:40:00.000Z

We are really having fun with the signing at the moment - the addition of the More Sing & Sign DVD to our collection seems to have kicked things up a gear (so it's no wonder we're lacking sleep again). Kirsten's starting to put sentences together now; she was most insistent in telling me that her "wash" was "all finished" this morning, and we're getting things like "drink please" and "biscuit please". One thing that is remarkable about all this is that in the right mood, she can "read" a story to you. She particularly likes the Usborne Touchy-Feely books Kittens and Dinosaurs, and can sign "stinky" for the smelly cat and "hat" for the dinosaur with the bumpy head (which is her own invention, we didn't show her that one).

We've taken the plunge and ordered the play kitchen from Letterbox - I had loads of fun working out what to get with it from all the different companies. She's getting some cookware, some "choppable" fruit and veg, some solid wooden food and a tea tray; and when it comes back in stock , a little toaster as well. I'm hoping the smaller stuff will arrive first, cos I'd like to assemble it all one evening and have it there for her to discover next morning.

We're also about to explore the world of cloth nappies, gingerly. It's always been a problem here as we have no tumbler and it's the rain capital of Europe, I'm sure. On talking to the lovely Victoria at Baby Bean, however, it seems Tots Bots Fluffles are the way to go as they dry very quickly. Having got them out of the washer at around 11.30am this morning, they are indeed almost dry, and that's not being near any kind of heat source. We do use eco disposables rather than the horrible ones, but it's still a lot of waste, they're expensive and I'm never happy that I'll be able to get hold of them in a hurry (though the new supplier I'm using, Naturebotts has proved excellent so far, I've just had bad experiences elsewhere). And I really, really resent chucking away nappies that have only just been put on. We'll give them a whirl and see how they go!

How To Eat

2007-01-19T16:37:00.000Z

(got a bit of a Nigella theme going on here...oops)

With joy and gusto (you needed a whole book to tell you that?). Kirsten, sampling the first of the ginger biscuits we made today.

How To Be A Domestic Goddess

2007-01-17T17:15:00.000Z

by Kirsten Anna Wood, age 1 yr 2 months

First put on your apron.

Take one Mummy and some yellow stuff, and a HUGE bar of co-cah. Stick it somewhere HOT and get Mummy to help you stir it. Make sure Mummy slips you some co-cah by being cute at her. Watch Mummy put some orange wobbly stuff and some brown stuff in a bowl, then get her to put it in the HOT place again and pick you up to stir it.

Wander off while Mummy does weird stuff with those horrible eggy things and some white stuff. Come back for a final stir, then watch Mummy put it all in another pot (this bit is really funny as it goes *schlup*!). Mummy will then put it in another HOT place. Wander off again. Run away giggling when Mummy tries to take your apron off.

After a while, something will smell really really good. Chant co-cah, co-cah, co-cah over and over until you get some. Yum! There's nothing to this cooking lark, honestly, I don't know why Mummy makes so much fuss over it.

Get Up, Daddy

2007-01-14T17:20:00.000Z

This morning, Kirsten rolled over from her 8.30am feed, "beep beep"-ed her Daddy on the nose and announced the following:

"Clock!" (signing "clock")

"Teee!" (signing "eat")

"Peeeese!" (signing "please")

She then proceeded to bounce on him until they got up for breakfast. It's not the first time she's signed "clock" and "eat" together, and it's quite clear she means "time to eat" - we think she says "teee" for all meals at the moment because I tend to say "something to eat" when I sign "eat", so she's trying to say "to eat" rather than "tea time".

This is a child who knows what she wants and how to communicate, no?

Onomatopoeia

2007-01-12T20:35:00.000Z

I guess that's how we learn our first words, really. Kirsten's new words today are "gurgleurgle", which is apparently the noise my belly makes when I skip breakfast (she was delighted by this sound and couldn't stop giggling), and a donkey is not a donkey. It is an "ee-ore", if you please; this despite the fact that she hasn't come across Winnie the Pooh and his crotchety friend yet. She's also learnt how to blow rasperries against someone else's skin and finds this particularly amusing mid-feed - of course, I can't help but laugh too as she looks SO cheeky and feeds are tending to end in gales of laughter at the moment.

I'm afraid to say her latest sign is equally expressive; it is the sign for "stinky". Oh dear.

On another point entirely, there is absolutely nothing like waking up to a warm, snuggly baby who's delighted to see you every morning, particularly when she smothers you in kisses. Co-sleeping rocks. :)

All moved

2007-01-11T20:03:00.000Z

Kirsten's old diary & profiles have all been moved over to here now, so nowhere else will be updated from today onwards. I'll probably add in some more photos and am considering trying to write something about her birth and first six weeks or so sort of retrospectively - it's getting a bit blurry now but will try.

Things are good - had a sleep blip because of the developmental things, she's had another big sign and speech explosion, and then the blasted teeth got in on the act although there's nothing to show for that yet (again - not had any new ones for months now). She can sign all sorts now - I think the most remarkable is "yoghurt"! Naps have gone all wonky again but I'm sure by next week it'll all be a fading memory (fingers crossed, anyway). We stomped off into town today as she wouldn't nap and I figured the bus might help. It worked for a little while, anyway, and we had a nice lunch together.

We've decided we're probably going to buy her a wooden toy kitchen with our Letterbox money, we're just deciding what accessories to get now. There are some beautiful "cuttable" sets of wooden fruit & veg around, and we've seen some great cooking pots, so we're putting all her xmas money towards kitting it out. And because I'm a soft touch, we popped into Early Learning today and I treated her to an apron-and-oven gloves set and some other bits and pieces. I have just got a new apron myself, which she adores (c'mon, it's purple and bright orange - what's not to love!), so when I produced one for her she was thrilled to bits and spent a very happy hour sitting on the kitchen floor stirring porridge oats in a bowl while I made tea. So we changed a naff day into a good one. :)

In her new apron (which is huge on her, but she loves it). She looks a bit stressed here as she was looking for Daddy, who'd just gone upstairs.

The Hungry Caterpillar

2007-01-09T12:10:00.000Z

Words are coming thick and fast here, and Kirsten's started doing her own commentary on some of her stories. The giant board book of The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a favourite atm:

"And on Saturday, he ate through: one piece of chocolate cake..."
(whispers) "Coh-ca!"

"...one ice-cream cone, one pickle, a slice of Swiss cheese..."
"CHEESE!"

"...one slice of salami, one lollipop..."
"POP!"

"...one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon."
"MMMMMMMMM!!!"

"That night, he had a stomachache!"
"Awwwww. MWAH!" (kisses book)

Co-cah

2007-01-09T12:00:00.000Z

"Co-cah!"

I blame Daddy for these (um...the first two, anyway, I'm afraid I taught her the third). Kirsten's favourite words at the moment are "parpparp", "burp" and "co-cah", which means chocolate (and sometimes cake). She says the latter in a whisper, with a very conspiratorial look! I am glad she can have chocolate as it's one of my chief delights in life, but sharing my G&Bs or Hotel Chocolat is slightly painful! Still, because I strictly ration her (it can't be good for those wee teeth!) I am being a bit less generous with myself, which has to be a good thing.

Baby....b*gger.

2007-01-05T12:00:00.000Z

Kirsten learnt to sign and say "baby" yesterday, and now she comes over with her "Go, Baby" book, rocking it in her arms and saying "baaaybeee, peeeese?" when she wants to read it.

Unfortunately I think I've also taught her to swear - we missed the bus by seconds on Tuesday and I couldn't help but say "b*ggerb*ggerb*gger", which she seems to have picked up and took great delight in greeting her dad with last night...