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

Month 20 - July 2011

See-Sawing with Mummy in Chiswell Green Park

Dear Lexi Loo,

This month you have mostly been super cross. Don't get me wrong, you have had your fair share of giggles, but you have been markedly annoyed of late. Some of that can be put down to teething, some to your sister tormenting you, as sisters do - but a good proportion I lay at your door. It's a nice door. A slightly cross patch door at the moment. But I'm always happy to stop by.


Swinging in the rain in Fleetville

Things that can bring down your wrath upon unsuspecting onlookers include:

* Singing "Have you any wool?" when you sing the line "Baa baa back shp" and then stop.
* Being Daddy when you want Mummy
* Being Mummy when you want Daddy
* Being Mummy or Daddy when you want Nanny
* Being Mummy, Daddy OR Nanny when you want Gwandad...you get the idea...
* Brushing gently past you.
* Offering you the milk you asked for.
* Existing.

It's been a LONG month....!


Snacking in the shade at Clarence Park

Hair Today.....

You've had enough hair to put up for some time now, but only recently have you shown any interest in having it done and allowing it to endure for any length of time. Now when I brandish a brush and announce "Time to brush our hair!" you run towards me, rather than away, shouting "Me! MEEE! My preeettty!" like a much cuter but perhaps no less obsessive Gollum.

You tolerate hair bands better than clips, so I've developed a partial bunches stylee that allows the shorter back parts of your hair to stay down (rather than fight their seemingly undefeatable ability to wiggle free of hair clips). Georgie insists on 'matching' you, and sports a similar look, although on her it looks a bit odd - still pretty (because it's still Georige - yes, I know I'm biased) but distinctly odd. Still, who cares? Anyway...

When it's (finally) Georgie's turn, you like to scramble onto the sofa and stand behind me, holding on to my shoulders and pee-bo-mummy-ing over each of my shoulders as quickly as you can until you fall off - I do catch you though xxx Too too cute xxx


Swinging Sisters, Fleetville Rec

The Verbal Runs

You still talk a lot of nonsense but there is a lot more sense in there these days than non...if you see what I mean. You delight in your ability to communicate verbally and virtually glow when you realise that you are making words that other people can understand.

It's particularly sweet to hear you and Georgie chatting - I don't know if you actually understand most of what she says to you, but you respond as though you do know, and not always in Georgie's favour, so I'm hopeful that you have noticed that although she is lovely, she's not always proposing game plans that have your best interests at heart. There's my smart baby.

What is cute is to hear you calling out in the morning over the baby monitor and, because we are lazy bad parents who try to steal a few more minutes, we can hear Georgie get up and come and see you, and hear the chatter and play pre-breakfast, which is really sweet and totally unfeigned, I think, because neither of you seem to grasp that we can hear what you are saying in the room.


Yet another park, this time Long Acres - thank goodness St Albans has a lot of parks!

We lost your bunny earlier this month - looked everywhere - I knew it was around because I unwisely allowed Georgie to carry it from the car but once she crossed the threshold, bunny fell off my radar and was lost to us. Neighbours came to help, such was the caterwauling. I ordered another bunny, and presented him to you full of trepidation...but you just grabbed him, contemplated the newness and then set to, chewing on his ears to make this new bunny as gross as the original bunny.


The bunnies

We found old bunny last week, under the mattress of an old dolly pram that stays in the garden. You saw him and said "Ugh! Diirrty!" and that was that. Old bunny is in the dirty washing pile now until I do another whites wash. In the mean time new bunny is tucked up with you. Thanks for not being quite as fussy as some people [Georgina].


Sporting an off the shoulder new party dress, courtesy of Auntie Izzie

You're taller and you are losing the remnants of your babyish characteristics hearbreakingly quickly now. Obviously we want you to grow up and pass your developmental milestones, but you might be my very last baby, and even if you're not, you're my one and only Lex, and I only have baby Lexi for a limited time. As annoying as a baby can be, with continual demands and fearless forays into mortal danger, babies are also the proverbial buttons of cuteness, and to me, Lexi Loo, you are an exemplary baby button, and it pains me to see the babyness fall from your features.

Having begun this post with a list of things guaranteed to send you into paroxysms of rage, I feel it only fair to sign off with a short run-down of things that always seem to make you happy. Then I'll pop in my poem of the month and we'll be done and dusted for July, my baby x

* Peppa Pig
* Ritz crackers
* Bunny
* Planes
* Upsy Daisy
* Nanny
* Gwandad
* Cars
* New dresses (Preeety)

I picked the Plath poem below for a couple of reasons; firstly it reminds me of what it was like during those first few months with newborn-you, which I find particularly poignant this month as I (once again) note your fading babydome; and secondly because I love love love the first line of the poem, a line that came to me often when I was pregnant with you and with your sister:

"Love set you going like a fat, gold watch."

I am endlessly satisfied by the way that sentence tick-tock-trips off the tongue, how perfectly it captures the expectant clock watching of my pregnancies, which eventually produced baby-shaped bombs that duly exploded on contact, shattering my life before into a million glittering pieces. I'll spare you anymore of my A Level poetry gush and get straight back to Plath...

MORNING SONG, Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness Shadows our safety.
We stand round blankly as walls.

I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses.
I wake to listen: A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Here's to August, and surviving the summer holidays!

Love to you now my baby Lulu,

Your Mama xxx

Month 19 - June 2011

Tricycling at Evie's birthday party

Dear Lexina,

It's June, it's hot, it's humid, it's raining and you're not snoozing as you should be but counting to seven over and over. I'm trying hard to pretend you are asleep - it won't be long until you drop your afternoon sleep. Not yet, please! :-D

I love the above picture so much, because it reminds me that this was the first time you went to a party in a 'party dress' - in fact Georgie's favourite party dress for some time. She was gutted when she saw you wearing it, even though I bought her two lovely new ones that she adores.
When I put it on you, you stood up, smoothed it down, took a good look and then gentle swished your skirts back and forth. A delighted smile spread slowly across your face and you looked up at me coquettishly and you breathed 'Preeettty!' To say my heart melted would be a total understatement, but melt it did, bless you.


She was happy to sit there...


until it started moving!

You don't seem to like fairground rides much. You were pretty solemn at the funfair at Willows Farm, and once the machines really got going, you let your displeasure be known via great wailing and gnashing of teeth!At the moment you much prefer the playround, where you swing, dig and sail to your hearts content.





Your hair is now finally long enough to put up, although you often pull it straight out the bands and clips that I painstakingly place for you. Hopefully you'll learn to tolerate them, because I think you look especially lovely with pigtails!





Your talking is coming on very well, we're evening getting some three word sentences - for example I asked you where your lolly was and you said "Lolly over there!". Despite this progress you seem unable or unwilling to say Georgie's name, but what you call her is very sweet, you call her either "Ju-Ju" or "Ju-Jee". Georgie was very excited when she realised you were trying to say her name. You have also been trying to say your own name - "Acks-eee" seems to be your best shot at the moment, but give it time! And you seem to call the dog, Seska, Axa. It's odd, the things kids can and can't say at this age, because you can say 'chocolate' pretty well, and yet Georgie called it "Cocklelick" until she was nearly three, but could say her own name pretty easily.



You can definitely say Emily, and you luuurve Emily. You hold you arms out to her whenever you see her, shouting "Duddle!!!" (Cuddle).



You have adopted Georgie's love of drawing, and can often be found dancing around underneath the craft cupboard shrieking "Paaaaaaaaper! PAAAaaaaaaPERRRRRRRRRRRR!! PAAAAAPEEEEERRRR!", a performance that can only be arrested with the immediate production of paper and pencils. Furious scribbling then ensues, with triumphal bursts of "Ta-DAAAAH!" every few squiggles, which all are called upon to admire. Sometimes you even get a few marks on the paper. (Thank goodness the table cloth is vinyl). If you didn't tear up your artwork and eat it almost immediately after it was produced, I would have photographed some and posted it here. I'll try to be faster, and if I manage it, I'll get some of your work up here.

I decided to start posting a poem at the end of every post - assuming I can continue to find poetry that I love - the details behind my inspiration for doing so can be found here.

So let's start with this one, a poem which I have loved for a long time:

Wild Geese
by Mary OLIVER

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

---

You are a delight, an imp, a cheeky chops, a little madam and we love you so very much!

Love from your Mama xxx

Month 18 - May 2011

Dear Lexi,

Check you out, a year and a half. Oooh, get you! Such a little girl now. And so cute!

This month we did a lot of stuff, not least, we went on holiday. We got you and your sister onto a plane, and despite all of being exceedingly sleep-deprived, we managed the four and a bit hour flight (just) without killing each other. And this is just as well for all sorts of reasons, not least the fact that you really seemed to enjoy yourself.

You didn't care much for the pool. This was a bit of a fly in the Tenerife ointment, because Georgie loved the pool, and you just liked dashing about near the pool, threatening to fall in all the time, teetering on the brink, making it a less than relaxing experience for Steve and me.

The fact that you have previous for jumping into swimming pools and sinking like a stone was another worrisome factor that sapped the relaxation right out of my poolside visits. This unfortuante event happened about a week before we went on holiday, which was bad timing, and probably contributed significantly to your pool-o-phobia.




Lex in the Ball Crawl, Tenerife, May 2011


Consequently we spent a lot of time at the playground and outdoor soft play facility, which you crawled in balls, slid on slides (and occasionally fell off slides), swung on a swing and generally dashed about like a crazy thing.

You didn't sleep brilliantly on holiday - we had to walk you in the pram to get you to drop off, and to be fair, you slept most obligingly through the whole evening entertainment, which was very loud indeed. But you tended to wake around 5 or 6, which was less well received.



Lexi, with the remnants of tiger face paint, after a morning creche session, tenerife, May 2011


After a bumpy start at the creche, you suddenly took to it, and so we were afforded a bit of a break from you antics. I think I will like this kind of holiday better when you're old enough for kids club. So that'll be when you're about 3. No hurry or anything... :-P x



Georgie and Lexi Swinging in Tenerife, May 2011


We're getting more and more words, and please and thank you are starting to come, which is always oddly gratifying. You love to give hugs and kisses, and snuggle into our arms, which is beyond sweet. In the morning, when I come to get you, you like to just cuddle for a few minutes. You bury your face in my neck or shoulder and stay perfectly still, as though movement will break the hug-spell, as if by remaining motionless, we could stay that way all day. Sometimes I wish we could. But then we both think 'beverage' - milk for you, coffee for me, and so we're off again, eating, dressing, cleaning teeth, brushing hair and so on.

You're getting pretty tall - a lot of your clothes are sized 2-3 - this is as much about the size of your head as anything. I wouldn't worry, baby, you just have a big brain, and so require a large skull to house your smarts. And bigger clothes to accomodate your giant, beautiful bonce. x



Lexi at Bricket Wood Fun Fair, May 2011


You spend a lot of time playing with Georgie, and you hold your own fairly well, and to be fair, she's pretty good with you, most of the time. You guys seem to play best in the sand pit - you don't do so well together in the trampoline - Georgie can't resist bouncing you beyond your endurance. Running, hiding and raaaaa-ing games are also favourites. And any game with a puppet. You do love hand puppets. Especially Mr Dinosaur. Which reminds me, you are totally loving Peppa Pig, or should I say "Bebba Peeek - Snort!"

At the moment you spend a lot of time shouting "Mummaayeee!" and "Daddayeee!" in an almost Brummy accent. Not sure where that came from but it is quite amusing.



Sticky-out-tongue, Tenerife, May 2011


You enjoy singing and dancing - for some reason you seem to think that dancing must involve rotating slowly round and round. It's very cute.

We love love love you, don't grow up yet!

Love from your Mummaaaayeee xxx

December 2010, January, February, March and April 2011

Oh Lex,

What can I say?! I'm so sorry. I am failing to record all these exciting times. Well, better late than never, so here goes...



Out with the baby and her bath water (sob!)

You have left your babydom behind. We all starting waving and crying as it set off around Christmas. You are becoming a toddler just as your sister morphs into a little school girl. It's a gradual transition but the progress is steady and sure.



Walking the walk

Just after Christmas you went from cruising and stumbling to actually walking (and stumbling,) and these days you run, at some speed, from place to place, usually looking for the nearest dangerous outdoor play area. You're a good climber, scarily good, and so I spend a lot of time hoiking you off tall things and attempting to thwart your regular, foolhardy ascents.



Talking the talk

Not only are you increasingly ambulatory, but my God, the sounds, and the words! Daddy, Mummy, these we've had for a while. But Yes and No have been pushing their way in since January - first as nodding (for both). So I could say "Lexi, would you like a drink?" and get a vigorous nod - but if I asked you "Lexi, would you like to be boiled in oil?" still, the vigorous nod. You learned the difference within a few weeks, and although words broke through slowly, it was obvious to me that you understood most of what people said to you.



I remember in particular that we were in the garden and you were attempting to negotiate the step down from the patio to the grass. I said to you "Go over to the wall and hold onto it and step down." and you did, which didn't surprise me, but it shocked the hell out of your daddy, who has less opportunity to watch your language and comprehension skills increase. We were both very impressed.

Latest vocab summary for April 2011 is as follows:

Daddy, Mummy, Ya-ya-ya (yes), NO!, ME!, Star, Nanny, Emily (girl next door), Ry-yi-yi-yi-ya (Riya, another girl next door), Caaaah (Cara, also from a neighbouring house), Baaaa (bath), Bubby (Bunny), Daisy (Upsidaisy) Piggle (Igglepiggle) Ow, wee-wee, poo-poo, Achoo, DOWN! OUT! Garden! Ma' (water) Mak (Milk), Woof (dog) Miow (cat) RAAAA - tiger, lion, cow (??? I think she's screwing with us!)



Singing

You also like to sing - Baaa da bil-tah da da da da Baa da bil-tah A-ya-ya-ya (to the uninitiated, this is Bob the Builder), and you also enjoy singing or trying to single Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ba Ba Black Sheep and Wind the Bobbin up - you're getting quite good at the actions too.



Hair Today

Your hair line has finally filled in, and your hair is more of a bob than a mullet now, although you did not sit patiently or motionless for the hairdresser, nor do you tolerate clips or bands of any kind and therefore you look a little shaggy, but always beautiful.



Toothy Grin

We have a lot of teeth now, molars and everything. I am finally able to start trusting you with raw carrot, pieces of apples and so on, and previously you attempted to mulch them through the medium of wishful thinking, which inevitably led to disturbing (but minor) choking episodes. Of course now we have a lot of teeth, we have a lot of tooth brushing to do, and if I thought Georgie was hard going at this stage well, I hadn't seen anything yet. Now I see it. Every day. Twice. Your dedication to future tooth decay is impressive and annoying. Bless you.

You sleep ok, you eat a lot, as a rule, spend a lot of time bellowing orders at the top of your lungs (like the other women in this house,) and so of course, you fit right in. Luckily you also love to run up to us and bestow multiple, noisey kisses, and you demonstrate your affection for your family by crying when one of us leaves, even if it's for three seconds.



You love your sister, although call her Daddy, rather than Georgie. You follow her and stand up to her as much as you can, and at times, it's you picking on her and jealously trying to dislodge her from my lap. You both pick fights, it's a normal sibling thing but you are also lovely to each other and play funny games, the rules of which often elude me but it keeps you amused, and there's nothing wrong with that.