The Naming of Things

I am no longer MMMMmmmmummmmmummumuma, I am MAMA!
I much prefer it to Mummy and am hoping it sticks.

Scooby Snack

Lily demolishing a pepper. Prior to this she ate half a bunch of fresh parsley. At playgroup she ignored a plate of cakes and plumped for the decorative fruit instead.
Her eating habits startle and amaze me.
Smoked mackerel, broccoli and peas are a great favourite but she would happily live off oranges if you'd let her.

Staithes

A holiday by the seaside in January might not be everyone's cup of tea but it was exactly what was needed. The winter sun was kind enough to shine, the waves rolled and lashed and the brisk ocean breeze blew away some of the grief that Christmas had left behind. Best of all was our cosy cottage where Lily played in front of a roaring fire and Mama and Dada knitted and read the paper (you will have to guess who did what) and drank some very good wine and ate some excellent Whitby fish.
Sometimes the simplest of holidays are the best and I was very sad to say goodbye to that beautiful coastline and the peacocks who happened to be living in our garden.

Lily at 20 Months

Ps and Qs

Just for the record Lily can say thank you and does so frequently and appropriately and usually accompanied by kisses.

Lily Thank You Art

Radio Lily

Some nights when we tuck Lily up in her cot she chunters through the ever growing list of all the words she knows, giving most airtime to the ones she has learnt that day. It sounds like she is repeating them over and over and over, like a little mantra, so as not to forget them.
We sit and listen to her babbling through the monitor until she drifts off to sleep... it makes great radio.

Speedy

My daughter has learnt to run, which means now I'll have to :(

Lily Art

Butter and Honey

Although Lily's oral vocabulary is still quite small I am constantly amazed at her level of understanding, she will carry out quite complicated instructions to the letter such as "Can you go upstairs and fetch Mummy's bag and take out your stripey cat slippers and put them on please and then come back down and make me some tea and toast with lots of butter and honey?"....well, almost.
Usually going upstairs to retrieve things results in some minor deviation along the way such as collecting assorted cuddly toys to accompany her on the journey down or dive-bombing a sleeping cat. Once or twice she has appeared in a completely different outfit to the one she departed in having rummaged in the dressing up box en route.
Lily is still in the 'obedient/aim to please' phase so is particularly handy to have around at the moment; she is great at tidying up, putting stuff in the bin and hanging out the washing. Unfortunately she is equally fantastic at raiding my linen cupboard for towels to wear on her head as she blindly careers round the house bumping in to things.

A Tidy Bedroom

Postscript to Party Girls

Sometimes I daydream about disappearing from it all, whisking my lovely family off to sunnier climes and leaving civilization behind, bivouacking in the outback or joining some hippy-dippy peace camp in the Ukraine. After Wren's party I was all glowey and waxing lyrical about how delightful it is to have friends nearby, better still that our children are all growing up together. It makes me smile when I think about Wren and Martha and Maisie and Harald (and all the others soon to join them) being such an important part of each other's lives and sharing these wonderful childhood memories together.
I would not leave this behind for the world.

Party Girls

Wren and Lily at Wren's 1st birthday party, messing about in drawers. We haven't gone down the whole baby proofing road and now I'm beginning to wish we had...

Vivienne and Pinky Bunny

Next to Tinker and Daddy and hopefully me, Lily's most favourite things ever...
Having been slightly thrown by the whole doll phenomenon I am much relieved that her best loved has turned out to be a punk with pink fishnets.

Round Two

Been lax of late at blogging but nothing to do with an absence of Lily news more to do with me being up the duff again. Round two of feeling exhausted, nauseous and devoid of fun. 10 weeks I think, maybe 11. Hopefully some energy will appear with the arrival of the next trimester.
How different this pregnancy is to the first, no rest for tired little old me when I have an extremely active toddler to chase about the house and no time for the endless navel gazing I took part in first time round.
Never realised vomiting could be a spectator sport but Lily insists on posting a vigil next to the toilet as I heave up my breakfast repeatedly....this is no time to wonder "just what have I done?"

Getting Organised

Have just bought this for my girl's Xmas present and am very excited. It's not the lovely hand crafted Waldorf/Steiner beauty that I had my eye on but it will serve it's purpose I hope, and give us many plates of imaginary cakes for years to come.

Happy Talking

I have an 18 month old. A vocal 18 month old, it was a long while coming but she is definitely getting the hang of speaking and all it's repetitive possibilities. Star and Car are absolute favourites at the moment and Boo and Biored which I think might be disguising itself as Bird but with a slight New York twang. Fortunately, (or more truthfully) unfortunately we have not managed to loose the pointing. I imagine she will still be playing the delightful pointing game well in to her thirties.

Miss Polly

A world of dolls and prams and pink things have arrived at our house, unannounced. Not sure how this can be as I planted cars and workbenches and tool kits at the bottom of her toy basket but one dolly slipped in unnoticed and suddenly became flavour of the month and they rapidly multiplied, leaving a trail of woollen hats and booties and tiny knitted panties all over my house.
Lily never seems to tire of the undress/dress game or of pushing them endlessly round the block in her (pink) buggy or of tucking them up in her (pink) bunk beds and kissing them repeatedly like they are her long lost orphaned babies.

Nap

I just want to record for posterity that there was brief period of time when Lily would take herself off to bed for a nap in the afternoon...
It didn't last long but it happened.

Brid