Cross Monday Week 22

Good progress!

Silent Sunday

Rainy Days

This past week have been what we lovingly refer to as "the Great British Summer".  Waking up each day, not knowing what to wear and whether you can go outside to play.  The red flags have been flying on the prom, and the wind and kite surfers have been having a great time.  Not what you would call beach weather!  But actually, this is when I think the beach is at its best!

I dug out Little Owl's waterproofs, popped on her wellies and off we went!  That makes it sound like a great distance, but we were at my parents so all we had to do was cross the road!  Little Owl had a whale of a time, the tide was low and with all the extra rainfall, there were small streams of water for her to play in.  She picked up pebbles and moved them about, found shells, splashed in puddles and the wet sand.  I suspect she could have spent hours there, but the tide was coming in and I was after a cuppa!  

Owlfit of the Week

 

This week Little Owl is living it up in her sari! I bought this beautiful sari on our last night in India so she never got the chance to wear it before we came home.  The sari came ready made with a matching blouse.  Baby saris cheat a little as rather than being one long piece of fabric, they are sewn ready to wear!  The skirt part has a draw string cord so it can be tightened round the waist and the pleats are sewn into this.  The pleats have been sewn into the pallu (the pretty bit that hangs off the shoulder) meaning all you need to do is wrap it round and pin it to the shoulder of the blouse.  Sounds complicated?  Its dead easy if you know how to tie a sari but really isn't too difficult even if you don't.

For anyone traveling to Sangam or Pune, the shop where I bought this sari (and several other children's outfits) is in the Laxmi Road area.  The shop is on Shanipa Mandai Road, which runs from Phule Market to the Black Palace, parallel to Tulshibaug and Laxmi Road.  Its on the same side of the road as the Tulshibaug Temple near the junction with Bajirao Road.  This google map might help, its very near where Cympac Software Solutions Pvt Ltd is labelled!

Now we just need to find some occasions to wear this - it wasn't overly practical at the playground!

Little Owl @ Two and a Quarter

Little Owl is two-and-a-quarter!  A proper two year old - no more pretending!

Physically, I guess she is a bit taller, she has probably grown out of her size 6 shoes but has been living in sandals so I haven't got her measured in a while. Her hair is growing slowly still but she is beginning to develop lovely curls.

Little Owl's speech and conversational skills are amazing me every day, and her ability to link subjects and understand concepts.  She understands big and small (she is a small girl by the way), and uses the word animals as a collective term.  Also Little Owl's recalls things that happened before she could speak so clearly, suggesting that she picked up the language and stored the words in her head although she couldn't say them at the time, and yet now she says them so clearly. 

She made me laugh one day when she handed me a broken hairband and said quite firmly "tell Grandmadad to fix it".

The dreaded "why?" has started. Seriously - where do kids pick this stuff up from?  "Why Mummy why?"  So far I am treating this as a statement rather than a question and therefore ignoring it - and its working!  Little Owl doesn't seem to expect a response and so I don't waste time explaining things only to be followed by another "why".

Little Owl still adds in the occasional sign.  She'll sign please or thank you if her mouth is too full to speak, and nearly always signs sorry.  And cuddle because she knows I find that hard to refuse.  But she'll also use signs in conversation to emphasis certain words such as 'where' which is always accompanied by the sign.

I was tickling Little Owl's belly and she giggled, then said 'laugh' while signing 'fun', which was followed by a great big belly laugh!

I also find it useful to use signs with her, reminding her to say please and thank you but also when we are in a crowded place where she may not hear me.  We were recently at a playground and there was a fence that I had told her not to climb, I said we would go home if she climbed it again.  As soon as I took my eyes off of her, she was back at the fence and I yelled to get her attention.  Little Owl turned round immediately but I realised I was too far away to do anything other than yell, and if I ran towards her, she would think it was a game.  So I signed 'no' and 'home', Little Owl looked at me for a moment and then went off to play with something else.

Little Owl is out of nappies during the day, and showing signs of being dry at night.  She knows her numbers up to 10 and while she can't recite them in order, if I count with her, she generally knows which number comes next.  

Little Owl's swimming is also coming on.  There was a break through a couple of weeks ago where she was able to swim back to the side from the teacher instead of turning round halfway and grabbing on to the teacher.  The trouble is now she thinks she can swim which makes it pretty hairy when I take her, so we've gone back to putting the float belt on her to give her freedom of movement in the water when she isn't with a teacher.

Little Owl is just an incredible little girl who I am in awe of and love with all of my heart.

Cross Monday Week 21

A bit more stitching to show this week as Papa Owl has been in Scotland climbing mountains, leaving me home along in the evenings.  So far I haven't minded repeating the pattern too much - actually I've found it easier as I've been copying that rather than the pattern. My target for next week is to complete the pink flowers, hopefully more!

Silent Sunday

Play Days in the Park

Last summer Papa Owl and I took Little Owl to our local park for a Play Day.  We really didn't have high expectations and were overwhelmed with the activities on offer!

So this year Little Owl and I headed down to the park with bag full of food, water and a change of clothes (for Little Owl, not me!). 

I had images of us flitting from one activity to another.  There were so many activities that Little Owl was well, too little for last year.

We weren't disappointed!  The field was packed with things to do, assault courses, dressing up, woodwork, clay, story telling, tree climbing and a whole section marked out for the under 5s.  It was great!  We walked from one end to the other, waving at friends and looking at everything there was to do.  I started making a mental list of what was suitable and which order we would do it it... but then...

LITTLE OWL FOUND THE MUD KITCHEN!!!

That was it.  For the rest of the afternoon Little Owl was playing in the kitchen, only occasionally popping over to me to grab a bite to eat and then back again!

Little Owl was as happy as a pig in... well, mud of course!

A big thanks to Hastings & St Leonards Children's Centres and all of the other organisations who help to put this event on!

Owlfit of the Week

This.  This is Little Owl's Owlfit of the summer!  I was so excited when I ordered this, that when it arrived I wasn't sure if it was going to live up to my expectations but it does!  This beautiful two piece outfit is from Monsoon and cost £22 (but is currently half price in the sale).  As a friend said to me "its just so Little Owl".  

As I have said previously, I am new to buying clothes from Monsoon but I am so impressed with the quality.  The shorts have an elasticated waist which is very stretchy (sometimes I find they can be quite stiff but these aren't at all).  The straps on the top button onto the front and they have two sets of button holes allowing for growth!  Going further than that, the straps are currently crossed over at the back and so the top could last even longer if they went straight over!

Can you tell that I love this Owlfit and want Little Owl to be in it for ever?!!!

The sunglasses are also from Monsoon and the shoes as ever are from Livie and Luca.

 

A Year On

Its a year since I wrote my first blog post.

I started this blog as a way of recording family life, of Little Owl's development and how the renovation of our house has progressed.

I have posted lots about Little Owl!  She is the universe that our family spins around!  To think a year ago, she wasn't a toddler.  She had taken her first steps but didn't think much of them and only had 9 words - a far cry from the chatter box we have now! 

I haven't posted anywhere near enough about our renovations though.  Probably because progress is very slow!  Our dinning room still has a hole in the ceiling, bare brick walls and half the floor needs replacing!  We do have a new fireplace though, and that was worth a blog post!  

As for me, I've survived a year without a 'proper' job!  I've worked in half a dozen different schools, done tutoring and exam marking, and all of it far less stress full than a permanent job.  I am in the same boat as I was a year ago, without a job to go to in September, but this time I'm not at all worried about it!

And the blog - it appears people are actually reading it!  So thank you to all of you that are here!  There is a website called Tots100 that ranks all the parenting blogs in the UK, there are several thousand blogs signed up and for the last two months I have been ranked in the top 900 which is very exciting.

Since starting the blog you can now find me (and my blog) on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and very recently Instagram!  So if you aren't already following me - hop on over - I'd love to see you there!

Meanwhile, thank you for joining me on this journey, and I hope you stick by me for the forth coming year!