Month 26 - January 2012

Dear Lexi-Loo,

You have had quite a month!

The first thing I want to talk about is the most recent - 7 days ago we started potty training you. We started on a day when we had loads of family around for dinner to jointly celebrate Gran and Jackie's birthdays, and so we got 20 pairs of princess pants for you and you made lots of puddles on the floor.



By day 3 you seem to have pretty much nailed the potty, with decreasing puddle incidents. One week later and we have had no accidents for a couple of days! I can't believe how quickly you seem to have 'got it' and I am partially braced for any kind of regression - especially when Charlie comes along. You have blown us away with this superfast potty training. Georgie was pretty good but you are flipping amazing. To be fair to Georgie, your enthusiasm for the potty and your new pants is pretty much inspired by all your recent achievements - to be 'big girl like Georige'. Its often annoying (for you and for us) when you try to be like your big sister because so much of the time you simply can't do the things she can do, even though you try, it's too early.



But the other leaps you have recently made include dressing yourself (you need a bit of help but you're very persistent and generally successful, you rock at putting on your own mittens now, even the tricky thumb part,) swapping your high chair for a normal chair (you kneel on your chiar to get to the right height) and using a knife and fork (sort of, but it's progress!) So well done little Lexi, I haven't had to change a pooey nappy for a whole week now and I'm not missing it. In a way this is probably a bad thing because come May, baby Charlie will be turning out a whole mess of them and I'll be unused to it - but I'll risk it! Of course you still have a nappy at night, but that's fine, I have no problem with that at all.



You recently decided you don't mind dressing up anymore - the yellow 'Belle' dress seemed to capture your imagination almost over night and you went from a staunch 'No!' to all dressing up to begging for the Belle dress and some dangerous ELC princess heels to totter around in almost every day!



You've been getting into the Willow's Farm experience, although you really want to be allowed to range through the 'big kid' part. I would go with you, but I'm big anyway, and now I'm pregnant I can't really bend at the waist and run a serious risk of getting stuck in there, so I spend a lot of time fending you off from that area and attempting to decant you into the 2 - 4 area, which you sometimes take to and sometimes reject. Hopefully this will change soon.

You are so funny, and seem to find everything so funny - you're favourite exclamation is 'Woo-hooooo!' and we heard that a lot in January. As your independence grows it's wonderful to watch you develop even more personality (can it be possible?) and so exciting to see more and more of the person you're turning into!

We love you little girl, with your fabulous princess pants!

Love from your Mama xxx

September, October, November and December 2011

So, Lexi,

I'm cobbling together four months into one post - sorry about that. I've been feeling morning sick, making you a baby brother or sister (due in May 2012), I'm back at uni and when life speeds up, my ability to keep a monthly blog seems to go right out the window. But you know that :-D



So Georgie started school in September - you covet her uniform openly and put it on when ever you think you can get away with it!


Stolen school uniform

Of course we still get to spend time with Georgie, and on the whole you are very sweet to each other - you annoy her and she annoys you but people often comment on how nicely you can play together. Let's hope it's a trend that sticks!


Bed time milky with Georgie


Playing tea parties


Brushing teeth together


Swinging sisters


Building sand castles

Among other things, Georgie's forray into the world of big school left us with a new routine - Mondays and Fridays you go to Nanny and Grandad while I try to get some work done - you did go for the whole day but since you sleep most of the afternoon away until I have to get Georgie, we modified that to just the mornings and then I keep working while you sleep until pick up.


Nanny and Lexi

Tuesdays we go to playgroup at The Vineyard, which you love. You totally monopolise the toy police car. You get in there, put bunny on a back shelf, pull the police radio out and ride around, saying: "I'm driving! I'm driving!" Actually your live commentary on your action of the moment has been a major feature of the last few months - "I'm running!" while running and particularly "I'm scooting!" while scooting, especially since Father Christmas brought you a scooter - but we'll get to Christmas later.


You don't usually eat much, but I seem to take a lot of pictures of you sitting down to meals! At least you look cheerful enough!

So back to the routine - Wednesday mornings you spend with your Linda while I go to counselling (it's for my course and is actually one of the best parts of my week! Therapy is like a spa for the mind! Mmmmm) - anyway, yes, your Linda - that is what you call her "my Linda!" and as soon as you have had breakfast you prattle on about your Linda and seeing her and her son, your friend, Dante until you do see them.


Butterfly Baby

I pick you up (quite often beautifully and expertly face-painted,) just after 1pm (sometimes having to rip you away from your Linda, you love her so much) and then deposit you at Gran and Gramps' house until five or six pm.


Lexi, Henry and Amy

Sometimes on Wednesdays we see Kerry, Leah and Sarah and their kids before we go to Linda's - it depends on how sick everyone is - autumn brought out so many sickness bugs and colds we could go for weeks either infectious or trying to avoid infection!


Sliding at Clarence Park

Thursdays now involve going to Willow's Farm, since we bought a family membership in December. Prior to that we used to just chill out, at parks when it was warm enough or just around the house when it wasn't.


Swimming in the leaf-fall at Clarence Park

Sometimes you watch Show Me Show Me, Something Special, Ballamory or more recently Sooty and sometimes you just play.

So you can see that we don't spend loads of time together one on one - I hope this doesn't affect you badly, and I do feel guilty that you are sent away so much. Then again, I think you have much more fun with Nanny, Grandad, Gran, Gramps and Linda than you do with me - play doh, painting, drawing, facepainting and crucially, one on one time with other people who love you, and whom you clearly love. I continually ask myself if I should discontinue my studies and wait until you guys are all at full time school rather than pass you around this way during your most formative years.


Fleetville Park

The reason I'm doing it (so far) is because your Daddy is working so hard to keep us all afloat and I think it's getting harder for him to do it. He works six days a week, at a hard job, working long days, often in the freezing cold or the boiling heat. This uni stuff should lead to the kind of job that will allow me to take the financial pressure of him and hopefully mean that I can set my own hours, and so be able to dictate my own work life balance. That's the theory, but it's going to take a while. Now that we are expcecting another baby, I don't know if I'll be able to get through this course in one go, but I'm going to try really hard - I love the work that I'm learning to do and I really want your daddy to be able to take it easier and spend more time with us (and maybe one day, his golf clubs once more!)


Cheeky chops

Your hairstyle moved from bunches to a rather shorter style, with quite a severe fringe - it's softened up a bit now but it was kind of funny for a while there, I won't lie. You don't seem to mind though. The hairdresser told me it would look a bit high and odd but that it should help your hairline to fall in a more convenient way.


Pensive

This has not happened - bits of your hair that apparently should submit to a different parting continually dangle in your eyes and get stuck to your face with the food, drool and snot that also abide there. It's an attractive look :-D We made this hair cut choice mainly because you suddenly rebelled against your pig tails and all manner of clips. Something had to be done. I loved the pig tails and I hope we will get back to those again some day soon.



2nd Birthday!

You turned two in November and we had a small family party and a slightly bigger, Peppa Pig party for below-school-age friends (and their mums!)


Birthday cake with family


You with your Peppa Pig kitchen, which came from Auntie Izzie, or SheeShee, as you call her.


Pam as Shrek - you kept making her dress up as Shrek and then kept getting scared and running awya from her! Nutter xxx


Cupcakes and biscuits! Sweets for my sweet xxx

Lexi and Gran


You and your Peppa Pig cake


The Peppa Pig magnets from 'my Linda' also went down well and (generally) live on the dishwasher


Nanny, Shee-Shee and Grandad at your party


The only shot I manged to get of the cake with candles alight!

Bye Bye Cot - Hello New Bedroom!

I don't have any pictures of it right now, but shortly after your birthday we moved you into the smaller room, Peppa Pig pimped it and put you in the toddler bed with a little pink guard to stop you falling out of bed and a big white gate on the door to stop you escaping from your room. The first two night you stood at the gate and cried for between 10 and 12 minutes. You didn't sound very distressed so we let you alone and you put yourself back to bed without any further fuss, and have been happy there ever since.

Christmas 2011

We had a good Christmas - didn't manage to get all the decorations up but we had two trees with lights and baubles, which isn't bad!


You guys put out mince pies, a carrot and a gin and tonic for Father Christmas and Rudolph


Unwrapping stockings at the respectable time of 8.45! I can't believe we had to wake you up!

Safety First!

You and your sister both love your new scooters and the saftey gear that came with them - in fact you almost love the helmet and your neon hi-viz vest more than the scooter itself!











Enjoying some TV time with Shee-Shee and Georgie



You have definitely found your terrible twos temper, and like to shriek your defiance when you don't get your own way, but so far, you're tantrums are reasonably short-lived, as long as you've had enough sleep (bit like me really!)

Most of the time you are actually very loving - you spend a lot of time kissing people repeatedly. You often come up to me and for no reason you clamber up into my lap, stroke my hair, wind your arms around my neck and shower me with kisses, hugging me tightly - it's sweet beyond the telling of it. You stroke, kiss and wave at the rapidly expanding tummy bump; you also try to kiss and hug the dog but in general she's having none of it. Usually she gets a big chin to forehead lick on you first - her tongue is longer after all. You are quick to say sorry (even when it's not you who had done something wrong!) You even blow kisses to the people on the checkout at Morrisons!

Since August your speech has come on very rapidly and your prattle away to everyone in a stream of consciousness that varies between crystal clear and rather Dadaist but always entertaining.

We love you very, very much and can't wait to see what the new year holds for you.

Love from your Mama xxx

Month 21 - August 2011

Dear Lovely-Scrummy-Yoghurt-Face,

So August, huh? Well the first thing I'd like to say is that you have been MUCH less cross. Well done!


(Of course there have still been patches of crossness, but nothing like July!)

As you will be able to see from the pictures of this month, we have done a LOT of things that begin with the letter p - pig tails, parks, playdates, parties, Peppa Pig, puzzles, painting, paddling pools, pHolland...well, they can't all begin with p but you get the idea...


Swinging


Playdate at Sarah and Joe's new house: Sam, Georgie, Maya, Amy and Georgie


You guys are great at finding shade at high noon in otherwise shade-less parks




Puzzles


Potty-training (your idea, not mine)

We've had quite a few poos in the potty and toilet and you often try to take off your nappy but to be honest, quite selfishly, I'm not ready for you to be ready to potty train, so I haven't gone the whole hog with knickers and continual trips to the loo to see if you need to go. I'm happy to let you have a go now and then but I do not have the necessary patience to potty train you fully at this point. I've watched some of my friends do it, and I'm not saying its wrong, but I just know that I couldn't hack it. You'd be fine :-D



Aaaaaaaargh! The pig! The pig! I slept through most of Georgie Peppa pig obsession because I was very nauseous and tired because I was pregnant with you while it was going on. But I'm fully aware now. Ouch. That pig. Smug mummy. Dappy daddy. George. Mr Dinosaur.Ugh!You would watch it from breakfast until bedtime if I let you. Sometimes I'm tempted to let you. For most of the month you wouldn't watch anything else. I could have made you but then all our heads would have exploded. Georgie watched Scooby Doo in the front room and we watched the pig in the playroom.


Baby Jake

Then Baby Jake reunited us, albeit five minutes at a time. Even I quite like Baby Jake and Georgie likes it almost as much as you. That was the turning point and so now I'm pretty optimistic that September will see the gradual reintroduction of other series though - in fact I know it because a) I can't take much more of the pig and b) yesterday you said "No pig. Baddamory!" which could have been the most surprising and most exciting words said to me all month. (Yes I do know how sad that is !) Baddamory is Ballamory. Lately you have begun to tolerate Mr Tumble and the occasionally Show Me Show Me, so


Paddling pool hijinks in Holland with Holly

We went to visit Cherry, Andy, Holly and Sophie, who were spending the summer in Holland in order to escape the heat of summer in Dubai. There was a lot of soft play, swimming and general amusement, which you loved. You didn't settle at night until we were about to leave, which was a major bummer for me, but you had a whale of a time, and that's the main thing.


Ah, chocolate cake!

Charlotte's 4th Birthday Party



I bought this dress for Georgie to wear to Amy's christening but as it happened, she never got to wear it - I thought at the time that she had been exposed to chickenpox and so I kept her home. It's first outing was on Lexi to Charlotte's party in Muswell Hill, which was more Ps - Pirates and Princesses!



Face Painting



I was blown away by the patience you displayed on this day - you sat in the car and tolerated to long car journey, even slept, which was very convenient. You joined in the party pretty well and then you just sat and sat while a complete stranger (talent, lovely but still a stranger to you) painted your face. I just kept clicking away with my camera because I couldn't believe what I was seeing!







Sisters



Oh Lexi, you are so lucky to have Georgie for your big sister, she looks after you so well. Don't get me wrong, she's not a saint or anything, she's only four years old and so sometimes she gets cross with you, takes things away from you and occasionally hurts you (but almost always by accident, to her credit.) But she loves you, and her exasperation with your babyness never lasts for long. (As if it could, how could she resist you??)



Lately she has been playing with you beautifully and you have repaid her in turn by being a delightful playmate. Most of the time. This is made easier by your burgeoning command of the English language. Actually everything is made easier by that. Once again, well done!



If Georgie is crying, even if she's crying because she's been told off for doing something to you, you immediately find her Spencer bear and bring it to her, and then cuddle her and make soothing noises. You are a sweetheart.



More and more often these days I look over and I see you two, thick as thieves, cuddled up together, casual but close and it makes me smile. I hope it lasts, a sister can be a life-long ally, a major asset, I have one, so I know. You love her too, and have named her Shisshie - everyone in my little family calls her something different, Elizabeth, Liz, Izzie and now Shisshie.


Mutual toothbrushing sessions

I picked this poem because I like Pablo Neruda and because like him, you like things; in your case mainly naming them, licking them and hiding them. Enjoy...

ODE TO THINGS (oda a las cosa) From the collection - ODES TO COMMON THING By Pablo Neruda

I HAVE A CRAZY
Crazy love of things.
I like pliars,
and scisssors.
I love
cups
rings
and bowls -
not to speak, of course,
of hats.
I love
all things,
not just
the grandest,
also
the infinite
ly
small-
thimbles,
spurs,
plates,
and flower vases.

Oh yes.

Love to you my darling, and have a lovely September,

From your Mama xxx