Mmm, shiny things

One thing Lilia loves to do is get crafty. She's very creative, and left to her own devices will come up with unusual ways of doing things, because she's not bound by conventional thinking.

No wonder that she often hands me stuff she's made at preschool saying "they made me do that". She hates being told how to do things, and having to follow a proscribed method; she much prefers experimenting and getting creative.

Which is not to say that doesn't want help, but it's better to give her ideas and options and then let her loose!

The other day she got a very belated Christmas present from Auntie George, of plastic beads and coloured elastics, so as I'm still not very mobile (you can read all about me at www.beyondbunions.blogspot.com) I decided to do some jewellery making with her on the sofa.

This will eventually feature on my crafting blog (www.frettychervil.blogspot.com) but that's very much a work in progress at the moment and only has a couple of things on it right now although there are lots of projects waiting to be written up!

So I offered Lilia the option of making bracelets, necklaces or a tiara-style headband and she chose to make one necklace and one tiara.

So that we didn't spill the beads, and to help her see them all easily, I put them into the plastic trays from some chocolate selection boxes, which worked really well.

She has great fine motor skills, so threading them on was no problem.

With a bit of help from Mummy to tie the knots, she made a necklace with beads all along, and a tiara with a small section of beads held in place with knots, to be born at the front of the head.

And once they're made, it's important to throw some model shapes for the camera.

She spent about an hour making both of those, and there are plenty of beads and elastic left for some more sessions, too.

London Zoo again

Last Tuesday we went on a family visit to London Zoo, about 18 months after our first visit.

This time, the Penguin Beach was finished and it turned out to be Lilia's favourite bit of the zoo. In fact, she loved it so much we could hardly drag her away!

It has a round viewing hole on one side under water level, as well as one whole glass side, so you can see the penguins swimming, and we were lucky enough to be there when they fed them so there was lots of diving going on.

I particularly liked the heron which has set up home there - he's obviously worked out there is a plentiful supply of fish! At one point the keeper had to shoo him off and rescue the penguins' lunch!

It was hard to get good pictures, but here are a few.

Lying by the porthole was a popular thing to do, and once we'd seen off the French tourists she had it all to herself. In fact, we had to go back to it after lunch because she loved lying there and watching the water.

We also noticed that the sun shining through the glass enclosure made a rainbow, which was an opportunity for an impromptu science lesson on refraction, as well as a chance to wear a rainbow. Lilia was very pleased with that.



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Her other favourite was the giraffes. But once again we got see just a zebra bottom as it ran inside! Next time we need to go and see them first. Late afternoon doesn't seem to be their best time.

Obviously, no day out is complete without an ice cream, even if it is freezing. Although she didn't object when we eventually took it off her and threw it away because she was turning blue!

And obviously, there is always a point in the day when we need some Daddy time:

There are also loads of new playgrounds at the zoo, and as Lilia's latest 'thing' is climbing, jumping and generally being physical, she loved it. She did need some help getting onto the swinging ropes, but once she was up there she was in her element.

Note the model-style facial expression!


And finally, we went to Pizza Express in Camden for tea (like we did before).

And then Lilia wanted to take some pictures:







To explain, Lilia loves sticking out her tongue and wanted us to do it too!

To finish the day off, we managed to find a puddle:




She really enjoyed herself but did wake up twice that night. First, crying about 'the snakes, the snakes' and second about 'the ants are all over me'. oops. Maybe we won't go to the bug house next time!

Now I am three

Wow, has it really been over a year since I wrote on this? Interesting, now that Lilia can actually talk for herself, it feels all wrong to write it in her voice, so this is Mummy speaking.

What has changed since April last year? It would be easier to say what hasn't! Lilia is a proper child now, no longer a baby. Her toddler tummy is gone, her chubby thighs have thinned, her face has altered, she's even had her first haircut!

She talks non-stop, and her favourite word is 'why?'.

Although as she has now started pre-school at least her teachers can take some of the pressure of answering those questions.

Yes, my little girl has gone to 'school'. And she loves it, enabling me to laugh in the faces of those who'd told me she needed to go to nursery or she wouldn't know how to socialise. All those hours out and about meeting people did the job.

On her first day, as soon as she saw a familiar face she was off. I had to call after her to remind her to say goodbye and Daddy had to drag her out literally kicking and screaming at the end of the day.

Things she can do now:

Get completely dressed all by herself.
Undo buttons (this is only in the last week).
Climb on everything - nothing is safe!
Work almost any bit of technology.
Get a decent score on Angry Birds.
Swim!! (with arm floats. She did two lengths on holiday with Granddad).
Ballet.
Yoga. Her downdog is MEAN.
Thread beads.
Stand on one leg, but only for a millisecond.

Ah, there's probably loads more, it's so hard to keep track.

I hope to post some pictures and more posts. I'll try and keep on top of this a bit more basically, as I know it's annoying not to have updates.

Please post a comment on this post if you are reading, it helps me feel I'm not just writing this into the ether.

xxx

London Zoo!

The other week Mummy and Daddy took me to London Zoo to see all the animals. I know lots of animal names and have seen them in pictures, but this was the first time I saw them for real.

It was all very exciting. If I had to choose a favourite, I would choose what I call the baby monkey having Scrummy, but Mummy says that doesn't count because it was a statue of a baby gorilla feeding from its mum. But it WAS my favourite thing. I stroked it and kissed it and would have spent ages with it but was dragged off to see the real gorillas, which weren't nearly so interesting. I did like the monkeys, though, although I was easily distracted by a human baby - I went straight over and leaned into the pushchair to give it a kiss! I love babies.

Another of my best animals was the tigers. We couldn't see them at first because some people were in the enclosure doing 'Be a keeper for a day' but we went and had a drink and when we came back they were there! I loved them and was very excited to see them. They didn't drink all Daddy's beer like in my book, though.

I will post pictures, but I just tried and it didn't, so I will try another day.

I do dressing-up

I love dressing up. But I don't like to just put any old thing on, oh no. What I like doing is dressing up like a grown-up, because now I am no longer a baby I am very nearly a grown-up, you know.

I love hats, but especially like to wear Mummy and Daddy's shoes. Mummy says I'm not allowed to wear her heels because I might fall and bang my head, but I am allowed to wear her Birkenstocks and any of her flat shoes.

Here I am in some of my favourite outfits.

Pictures

I have had a complaint. Grandma has said there are not enough pictures on my blog, and that I haven't put any on for ages. Well. I am BUSY. Humph. don't I have enough to do, what with learning to talk, and sing, and dance, and climb and going to messy play and on playdates, and shopping, and walks, and all sorts of stuff.

Well. Anyway. I'll post some pictures. Some will be old cos yeah, okay, I haven't posted any for ages.

Will do them in separate posts. I think that will be better.

And no more complaints! Some people are so hard to please.

A post from Mummy

I have decided to hop on here while Lilia is asleep, as it's been a long time since I wrote in her little book about how she is getting on and rather than do that I thought it would make a nice post to update.

She's now 20 months, and in the last six months has really turned into a little girl rather than being a baby any more.

Physically, she is obviously taller! She has that lovely little pot belly all toddlers have, but her legs no longer have her deliciously chunky baby thighs, but instead are proper girl legs, with normal thighs. She does still have one of her baby 'creases' at the top of her leg, but I think that will soon be gone too.

I've noticed her growth most recently because she has suddenly become too big for most of her clothes! Her arms are much longer, but the main difference is a lot of her tops simply stopped being able to stretch over her tummy, and her tights don't quite pull up over her bottom any more.

She is obviously very good at walking now, having been doing it for six months, but she has also started to run, although with varying degrees of success - every so often she will just run too fast and her feet will lag behind until she falls over. She is also trying desperately to jump, which is probably the next developmental milestone. She tries and tries, and watches older children, but can only really manage a kind of bounce at the moment, which is very cute. She loves being held under the arms and 'jumped', and bouncing on the bed is popular.

She has only in the last two weeks mastered climbing steps on slides, so we now have a slide in the garden which she loves. We're hoping to get a swing too but all these things are quite pricey so it will have to wait a bit unless I can get an ebay bargain.

In terms of her speech, she is incredible. It's at the stage of a normal to-and-a-half- to three-year-old, with complex sentences like "I cooking a cake. Needs longer in oven. Ready now. Tastes good." and the hilarious "I done a poo! Change nappy!".

Being able to communicate with her so well makes life much more interesting, and we so far have had almost no tantrums because she is able to tell us what she wants, and we are able to tell her why she can't have it!

She knows all her colours, can count to ten(although seven often gets missed out), knows all the basic shapes, understands and uses big/small, up/down, on/off, on/under, in/out, knows what writing is, and also likes to 'read' to herself. She has also started memorising rhymes and her storybooks and reciting bits of them to herself or to us. It is very cute to see her doing the actions as she says "Two lil dicky birrs sit on a wall, one nay Peter, one nay Paul. Fie-way Peter, fie-way Paul, cuh back Peter, cuh back Paul". She also knows Twinkle Star, I'm a little teapot, Tommy Thumb, Hop Little Bunnies, and probably some more I'm forgetting.

My habit of making up songs all day has come back to bite me on the bum as I now constantly get "do HONG Mummy, do HONG" and have to make up some song about going shopping or putting socks on or whatever.

She is able to clean her own teeth, although we do them as well to be sure, she brushes her own hair, helps wash it, and also is beginning to be able to take off her clothes. And she has very strong opinions on clothes! She chooses er own outfit each day and knows what she wants - today she demanded "deni skirt"" when said denim skirt was in the washing basket and not visible.

Some of her habits are just hilarious, and some are very annoying, like squashing food in her hands while saying "squash it, sqeeeeeeeeeeze it" but mostly she is an absolute joy and pleasure; this is such a lovely age I almost don't want her to grow up!

I'm sure there's more, but it will have to be for another post. Better sign off before she realises I've highjacked her account ;)