Very Recently

- Ivy has learnt to fake sneeze. And then she looks at you with a big grin all expectantly while she waits for you to return the fake sneezing goodness. It is the most adorable sound she makes as she opens her mouth wide, tips her head back and then forward saying "Aaahh tt". I actually die a little from the cute every time I hear it, and that is a lot of dying per day.

- At dinner this evening she was holding up each item of food towards me and looking at me. At first I thought she was offering it to me so I put out my hand to take it and thank her, but she whisked her hand away and with a cheeky grin swiftly popped it in her mouth. Then I realised she was asking "Mmmm?" each time, so I told her what it was. I ended up saying "Pea!" a LOT in a very short space of time. I think she would be quite happy to eat peas and sweetcorn all day.

- Ivy TOOK A STEP for the very first time today. A single step towards Grandad while double waving. Definitely a case of only doing it while distracted! This was just as I was telling Ivy that as she is one now it is ok if she starts walking. And as my parents were telling me about when I took my first steps (a story I had not heard before).

- Ivy had her first trip to the theatre yesterday! We saw Good Clown Bad Clown at The Old Vic. It's meant to be for 4 years plus, but Steph can get free tickets so we took Ivy anyway. Amazingly, it kept her attention for an entire hour. She got a bit fidgety towards the end when she got a bit peckish but as long as I kept the rice cakes coming she didn't take her eyes off the performance. The stage was on the floor, and we chose a seat right at the front, so the performers got a bit close at times which made Ivy grip onto me tightly. There was also the popping of a balloon quite near the beginning (Ivy's first experience of this), which made her grip very tightly. Mostly she sat transfixed and very still on my lap. Towards the end she even started bouncing and dancing to the music (the song that went "Evil evil evil, bad bad bad" !), waving at the clowns, and decided she wanted to sit on Steph's lap. We will definitely be going along to some more kids shows!