Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Teaching Daddy a song

Tonight, at bed-time, Elizabeth asked me to sing Twinkle, Twinkle, so I did. She joined in, with hand movements.Then she asked me to sing Chocolate Bar. I had to confess I didn't know that song. So she taught me it:
Twinkle, twinkle, chocolate bar,
My Daddy bought me a motor car.
Push the button, pull the choke,
Off we go in a puff of smoke.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
With hand movements.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Art for art's sake (2)


About a month ago, Elizabeth and I were drawing spiders. First I'd draw a thorax, then she'd copy me. Then, in turn, we'd go through head, abdomen and legs, with her copying me each step of the way, except that she really wasn't very good. The precision of her hand movements seemed to be about 2cm. If she drew a circle 10cm in diameter, it looked not too bad, but if she tried to draw a spider's head 2cm in diameter, it just didn't work. That, as I say, was about a month ago. Yesterday she drew these, without prompting - and those heads are less than 2cm across.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

In the swim

We've been going swimming every Sunday for a few weeks now, and Elizabeth's been taking lessons on Fridays for almost as long. Last Friday, it seems, she was getting the hang of it and could doggy-paddle quite happily, with armbands. Today we went swimming and she tried it without armbands - the experience dented her confidence a bit.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Art for art's sake


We often get art-works home from the nursery with Elizabeth - paintings, collages, greeting cards, a calendar every year. The ladies at the nursery are obviously quite imaginative, but nobody's fooled that Elizabeth's contribution to these is significant. Yesterday was different; Helen was told that Elizabeth spent an hour on this, with very little assistance. Obviously it's a stencil. Presumably the stencil was taped or otherwise fixed in place. Even so, I'm impressed.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

In the picture

When Elizabeth was only a couple of weeks old, I sent a picture of her, just out of the bath, to BBC Scotland's Web site. They didn't publish it. I decided not to send them another one. I did consider this one of the ball-pit, but I thought it didn't really work in the small format they use. Last week I sent them another one and this time they published it.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Big girl's bed

Thursday night saw a milestone in Elizabeth's life - her first night without the bars on the front of her cot-bed. I've been keen that we should get her used to the idea before we go on holiday next week, because she's really too big for our travel cot and we don't know what sort of cot will be provided in the cottage we're renting.

So, for the past week or so, we've been taking the bars off before putting her to bed - in fact, since she found out it's possible, she's insisted they come off in the morning. But once she's been put to bed she's always asked to have them back on. It was difficult to refuse when they were propped up at the foot of the cot, but on Thursday I had hidden them out of the room.

After her bed-time story, she likes to have the book under her pillow. When I went in to get her up this morning, she was sitting up in bed reading Sharing a Shell. How long before she realises she can get out of bed?

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Breakfast of champions

She wants to sit in Mummy's chair, not the booster chair. She doesn't want a bib. She doesn't want a cup with a lid on it. I try to explain that, if she really wants a cup without a lid, then she really must have a bib; we agree on a bib of her choice. She doesn't want Shreddies ("Daddy's") or Special K ("Mummy's"), but muesli (which she insists on calling "boogit").

Friday, March 16, 2007

Too clever

At bathtime this evening, I left Elizabeth alone in the bathroom for perhaps seven or eight seconds, while I went to get a towel. She's tried to climb into the bath before, but never really come close, so I didn't think there was much risk. I didn't reckon on her bolting the door! She opened it about a second after I first tried it, but it was a scary second. I've since removed the bolt from the door.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Words of wisdom

Elizabeth's been speaking for some time now, but up until recently it's just been one or two words at a time. Last week, when I asked her (not for the first time) to come upstairs with me, she said, indignantly, "No, Daddy! I told you that!" But even that was mostly just parroting a phrase she'd heard. Today she went one better. I went to collect her from nursery. As we were leaving, she pointed out a couple of things on the shelf above the coat-hooks: "Clara's baby", "Alistair's hat". Then one of the staff said "See you later!" And Elizabeth replied, "Elizabeth* later you!" Now that's not something she's overheard somebody else saying; she constructed that sentence herself. It's the most obvious case I've heard since her cousin Lisa used to refer to "me's Mummy" when she was about the same age.

*Well okay, it's more like "Dabidabeth".