Update on my little flower

So Daisy is almost 10 months old and is developing so quickly, I can barely keep up! She is now pulling herself up on everything and cruising around the furniture. She can also walk really well with the v-tech walker...which I find amazing, as Jamie didn't master it til almost 15 months.



Her latest tricks are clapping and waving - she understands the phrase "clap your hands" and will oblige happily.




Her sleep has been a lot better recently - we usually only get one wake up a night now, although she does wake for the day pretty early, around 6am. This is fine in the week, but I could really do with her sleeping a bit later at weekends. Still, I shouldn't complain - I'm just glad we're not having the 3 wake ups and staying wide awake thing anymore.



She's just a joy, so happy and content and smiley. She and Jamie are playing together more and more - his favourite game is "Daisy chase me", which involves him running into a room, waiting for her to crawl after him, cracking himself up laughing and then running away to somewhere else. The sound of the pair of them giggling and laughing is just magic.

As much as I love seeing her grow and learn new things, it's tinged with a little bit of sadness that her babyhood is slowly slipping away. It honestly seems like yesterday that she was a tiny little thing lying in her moses basket on the kitchen table, sleeping most of the day away. Which is why I love sneaking into the bedroom when she's asleep and having a look at her in her cot - because when she's asleep in her babygro, inside her grobag, she looks like a little baby again...it's like stepping back in time for a moment.

Fun at the farm

We had a lovely day out at Cotswold Farm Park today. It was the first day of the new season, so very busy, but there are enough activities and things to do and see, that it didn't feel too overcrowded. Jamie enjoyed stroking some very cute new lambs and chicks, going on a tractor ride and playing in the sandpit and on the bouncing pillows. Daisy also loved the sand and was an angel all day, even though she didn't get her lunchtime nap until we left at 3pm.

There's a weird symmetry about going today, as I took Jamie there almost exactly 2 years ago when he was Daisy's age. I remember thinking that it would be a brilliant place to go once he'd got a bit bigger, and I was right. We'll definitely be going back.

Spoke too soon...

The crying at playgroup drop-off has begun *sob*

Yesterday morning, we told Jamie about going to his special playgroup, and he seemed happy about it, talking about playing on the slide with the boys and girls. In the car on the way there, he was still fine, but as we pulled up, his little face fell into a huge pout and he said, "want to go home". We went into the foyer to wait for them to open the doors, and he was clearly not happy about being there, asking to go back in the green van. I took him in and kissed him goodbye, and he started crying, really sobbing :( His key person gave him a cuddle and I left as quickly as possible. When I picked him up, they said he'd been fine - although still not sitting still for stories, and still going into the bathroom to play with the taps whenever they turned their backs.

So I was very apprehensive about dropping him off today, although I did try and be really positive about it to him. He started wailing as soon as we got inside, and once again I had to leave him crying, which was really hard. Another mum, who I know fairly well, came out and said he'd settled down fine and was playing with her daughter, which was nice to hear. When I went to pick him up at lunchtime, they said he'd been really good today, had settled fine, no more crying and had followed all the rules about sitting down, etc. I was really happy to hear that he'd been good, as I was starting to worry a bit that he was causing them trouble - running around when he should have been sitting down, etc.

I've decided that it's best if I walk him to playgroup each day - that way I can time it so that I arrive bang on 9am and we can go straight in - instead of getting there early when we drive and having to wait around (necessary in order to get a parking space). I think I also need to accept that he'll probably cry most of the time when I drop him off for a good while. It's not as though he's going every day - it's only Thurs and Fri, so there's a long gap in between the days he attends. As long as he's fine once I've gone, then I think it's pretty normal and probably happens with most kids.

I still feel that starting playgroup now is a good thing for him, in order to ease him in gradually to being away from me. It's just so hard leaving him crying and walking away.

Slow down...

Time, that is. It's all going too quickly and I want to stretch it out a bit longer because I feel as though I don't get enough chances to savour the moments with these two little people...before the moments are gone forever.

Recently I talked about how Jamie suddenly seems so grown up. It hit me the other day that, however challenging it can be sometimes having a 2 year old, he'll never be 2 again. He'll never be at THIS particular moment and stage again. Will I forget what he was like at 2 years 9 months old? It scares me that I probably will - in the same way that I find it hard to remember him as a newborn or a 1 year old.



It's the same with Daisy. Most of the time I still think of her as a little baby, but she's not. When I look at her objectively, as others would, I can see that she's slowly but surely becoming more like a toddler. And yet to me, it feels like no time at all since the night she was born. I find it hard to believe that she's only a couple of months away from her 1st birthday.



It's all going too quickly and I could really do with time slowing down for a while and letting me embed each memory in my mind so it stays forever. That's why this blog is important to me - a way of grabbing hold of moments and pinning them down in print and pictures, describing them and trying to capture the essence of what our lives are like RIGHT NOW. So that in years to come, when I try to remember what it was like having a 2yr9m old and a 9 month old, I can look back and have my memory jogged.

Slight running fail...

What with going away for the weekend and the stress/excitement of Jamie starting playgroup, I've slacked off with the running a little recently. I am determined to crack on with it again though now, as our 5 mile fun run is coming up in a couple of months and I want to feel comfortable running that distance and try and do a half-decent time.

I went out and did a 7K run yesterday, which was ok but I was sooo slow. Not helped by a posh woman in a range rover stopping me to ask directions to the racecourse...ahh, the joys of race week are upon us! Couldn't she see I had my Runkeeper app going?? Anyway, it was good to do a longer distance than I've ever done, just to see what it feels like mentally (as I find the mental side as challenging as the physical - just convincing myself to keep going) to keep running for almost an hour.

Today, Wayne and I went out intending to do an 8km/5mile run. I think he got a bit overconfident though - the most he's ever done up to now is 5k and I reckon he thought those extra 3k would be no problem at all. After a while he asked how far we'd gone (the lovely lady on the Runkeeper app tells me every 0.5km), and was shocked to find we'd only done 3.5k. He quickly revised his target distance to 5K, so we completed that in a time way off my PB.

I now have the beginnings of a cold (thanks, kids!), so I'm not sure when I'll get out again, but I need to keep the momentum going and not leave it so long this time.

When did he get so grown up?

Jamie has now done two more days at playgroup, and it's still going well. In the morning, when I tell him he's going to his "special playgroup", he isn't fazed at all and seems happy to be going. He runs in and straight off to play with barely a backward glance at me, and tells me afterwards about all the things he's been doing.

One of the first things his keyworker said to me when I picked him up today was, "he likes water doesn't he?"...apparently he keeps going to flush the toilet and wash his hands, every time her back is turned. I explained about us having chickens, making hand-washing a frequent thing, and also that he's very recently been toilet trained...I think these two things together have resulted in a bit of an obsession with all things hygiene and bathroom-related.

He seems so grown up all of a sudden...he's morphed from a toddler into a preschooler in the past couple of weeks. I'm so impressed with how well he took to potty training - we've had no accidents for ages now and it seems to be totally sorted. And I'm even more impressed with how he's handled starting playgroup. I've said before about how I've worried about him being shy and finding new social situations difficult. But I've seen no sign of any of that - he's just accepted it and thrown himself into it, as I'd always hoped he would.

You question yourself a lot as a parent and worry all the time about whether you're doing a good job...hoping that you aren't screwing them up and just wanting them to be happy, well-adjusted people. The past few weeks have shown me that we aren't doing too badly with Jamie. I still want to be better - I still feel that I don't do enough with him at home and rely on TV to entertain him too much. But I am ridiculously proud of him at the moment, as I see his personality develop and reveal itself...he's such a lovely little boy!

Sun, sand and swimming

We got back yesterday from a fab long weekend down in Woolacombe. The sun shone pretty much the whole time, although it was chilly, and we were able to spend a lot of time on the beach. Jamie and Daisy loved playing on the sand (I think Daisy might have eaten a fair amount..!), making sandcastles, collecting shells, and digging holes. We also went swimming every day at the holiday park, which Jamie absolutely LOVED...in fact, since we've been back, he's asked to go to the "'wimming pool" many times, and I think I'll have to start making it a regular thing for him.



It was great to have some time together, to relax (as much as you can with 2 children who insist on still waking up at 6.30am, despite being on holiday!!) and have fun together.



Before we went away, Jamie did his first session at playgroup on his own. He was a total star - he went in with no tears at all, said goodbye and ran off happily, and was apparently fine for the whole time. Not sure whether I should be offended that he didn't seem to miss me! No, really I'm absolutely thrilled that he's taken to it so well, it's such a relief as I'd expected him to hate it at first.

Playgroup Day 1 complete!

I took Jamie for his first session at playgroup today. I was so nervous beforehand, wondering how he'd react to the new environment and how he'd behave, even though I was staying with him. I thought that if it went badly, I'd have a nightmare bringing him again tomorrow when he'd be staying on his own. All in all though, he did really well. He ran straight off and played when we arrived, and the playleader actually said "oh he's very confident, has he been to nursery?" He enjoyed all the free play time, but was less keen on sitting still for the songs and stories. Still, it's all new to him and perhaps he'll "conform" more with the rules and do what the other kids do when I'm not there.

So tomorrow he goes it alone, and then we'll be picking him up and heading straight down to Woolacombe for a long weekend!

Daisy the intrepid stair climber!

Eeeek! She's started pulling herself up to standing on the bottom step of the stairs and trying to climb upwards. Time to reinstate the stairgate I think! We've moved it onto the door of Jamie's room, so I suppose we'll have to buy a new one.







She's getting herself into everything at the moment, and her crawling is amazingly fast when she sees something she wants. Latest favourite is muddy shoes, yuk! The other day, I went out into the garden with Jamie very quickly, just to chuck a bucket of food into the chickens, and had left Daisy on the kitchen floor. A moment later, I turned back towards the house to see her trying to climb out of the back door!!

A little sleep update - we had a bad night on Sunday night, where she was awake from 1-3am and just would not settle unless I had my hand on her tummy. We tried leaving her to cry for quite a while, but she just got hysterical and her cry is soooo hard to hear - it's like a fear or pain cry - actually more of a scream than a cry. I think we both decided that controlled crying isn't going to work on her - especially not when she's in our room with us.

Anyway, last night I moved her into our big travel cot, and we had a much better night. She woke once at 3.45am - the longest stretch she's gone without waking for absolutely ages - and then at 6am. I noticed that she's rolled onto her tummy to sleep, so perhaps learning to sleep on her front is the breakthrough we needed. Fingers are tightly crossed!