Ivy, recently

I have been quiet around here for a couple of weeks now because Kwojo has been doing a lot of overtime. This means that my only computer time is once Ivy is in bed at the end of the day, by which time I am incapable of thinking enough to type anything. What is different now? Ivy is napping and I am choosing to ignore the growing pile of washing-up in favour of blogging. Definitely a more worthwhile use of my time!

I have very few photos to share, though, as Ivy is far too wriggly for me to get many in-focus. But this is what she has been doing recently:

- Every time we are in the bathroom she points frantically up at the windowsill where the toothbrushes are and squeaks, asking to clean her teeth. It's great that she loves cleaning her teeth. If she see's me brushing mine then she squeaks in exclamation of the injustice that she isn't brushing hers.

- She loves dogs. We have been teaching her the real animal sounds which originally was because she was scared of Charlie when he would bark, so I'd copy him to show her that it wasn't that scary, and she found it funny. So whenever we see a dog, real, picture or toy, we make the sound. I think this has helped her to feel ok about dogs barking and she isn't ever scared of Charlie any more. Ivy now makes a dog round when she see's one "Woo Woo" or sometimes it gets crossed with a raspberry sound "A-boo-wa!" when she is particularly excited. She points and looks so pleased with herself.

- Ivy loves going outside. She points out of the window, I tell her that is outside, and she beams. She points to the back door and squeaks like she does when she wants something, or goes up to the front door and bashes it. We often go out onto the deck (we have decking! Yay!) to play with the football or one of her wheelie toys. She likes looking at and poking the grass, but doesn't like to walk on it (it is sloping and uneven). Her love of being outside is another confirmation that she is my child.

- As the weather is mild at the moment we have been spending a lot of time in the park again. Ivy is gradually getting more adventurous with trying out the play equipment and walking on the different surfaces (rather than sticking to the paths). She enjoys just standing and watching the dogs and children for quite a long time when we first get to the park. When she wanders away from me it strikes me how little she still is. I love her walk, which is getting faster and faster!

- Today Ivy learnt how to make monkey sounds. I do a pretty good monkey impression, which I demonstrated as she was playing with duplo monkeys. Ivy looked at me in awe, and a big smile on her face. I did it a few more times, just for the look on her face, then she held out the monkey and did it herself "Oooh ooooh ooooh ooooh" followed by screeching. Oh, monkey!