Puddles and Ponds

It rained all day yesterday, and again this morning, so when the sun came out we wrapped up warm and got outside. Ivy wanted to wear my hat, so I got her a matching one - both knitted by my Grandma!

A pit stop for coffee and carrot stix. Refreshing to sit outside.

We arrive at the park after a toddler paced walk with pauses for jumping off ramps and stomping in puddles. Last time I was here it looked like Autumn, now it looks like Winter. The trees are bare, it looks so cold.

Usually at this point Ivy would let go of my hand and run free, but today if I let go of hers she reminds me "Mummy hand". It is too cold not to hold hands (and she won't wear gloves. Although she will wear socks on her hands in the house and call them gloves!).

She remembers that she is still carrying her carrot stix, the walk to the top of the hill is slow now!

We find puddles at the top! This is a pretty reliable spot when on a puddle hunt, actually. Ivy also recalls from a family walk here "Ball... Daddy ball... kicking" that Kwojo had been bouncing and kicking the ball on a wall here. I'm impressed by her memory, that was a while ago!

We reach the playground, and find an even bigger and better puddle. A pond that's not meant to be there.

She sits down next to me after some satisfying puddle poking, splashing, and for the first time, wading.

All that adventuring must have tired her out because she rode on my back home, and I could see her head lolling as she didn't bother to try fighting sleep, and slept soundly on the sofa when we got home.

Our Halloween

Ivy's second Halloween, and she is old enough to enjoy some of the Halloween activities. She also chose to wear an orange dress that day, total coincidence!

We bought two little pumpkins, and Ivy got to play along at carving. While I drew my design on with pen, she drew (scribbled) with wax crayons. While I carved it out, she used her little metal but not at all sharp knife too. She also helped me scoop out the guts and seeds, sort of... she'd not keen on "yucky" stuff. I asked her how it felt and she said wet and soft. Picking up the slippery seeds required immense concentration, it required what we call Duck Face!

We went out with some little friends, had a little fire in a garden and toasted marshmallows. Ivy was confused by the marshmallows so she fed them to me instea. She loves being on my back these days, and if she see's our Ergo carrier she insists "Mummy back!". I love it too, and wish I could wear her more (damn you SPD). |Even though she is behind me, we can still have conversations and she will point things out to me. She bounces up and down in it with joy and I can somehow hear her smiling. She also nuzzles her head into my back, such a cuddley girl.

While Ivy was walking she lost her balance as she was tired from having skipped her nap. She fell forehead first onto the road and got a graze, bruise and big lump there. It was literally the worst injury of her life. It's all healed and now she has a white scar where the graze was. She keeps remembering and telling me the story of what happened. Our conversation goes like this:
Ivy: Hurt head
Me: Did you hurt your head Ivy? What happened?
Ivy: (with a sigh) Road.

Poor little skeleton.

Wellies

On Monday we went to the park so Ivy could try out her new wellies properly, rather than just wearing them around the house! We found some puddles and she was SO happy splashing in them and turning around saying "splash, splash, splash!". And "mummy splash", she is very inclusive like that. It struck me how grown up she looked suddenly, somehow the wellies made her look like a child and not even a toddler and a long way from a baby. While splashing she observed "Wellies wet" and when she had finished splashing "Mummy wipe it. Wipe it wellies." She can be a bit of a princess about things like that sometimes, and usually doesn't like gettinng her hands mucky either!

Autumn

I don't want it to be Autumn because that means it's no longer Summer. The main thing I dislike about Autumn is that it means Winter is coming. Just like my favourite thing about Spring is that soon it will be Summer.



Autumn would be likeable if it was pretty red leaves and sunny but cool. But today it was wind you have to brace yourself against, grey skies and drizzle. As we walked to the park my baby was scowling and Kwojo informed me that she was thinking "I miss the womb".



I just don't like the cold. The slight redeeming feature is hats. I do like wearing warm hats. Ivy has reached the hat wrenching-off stage. But I persist.



On sunny days we go to the park to sit on the grass and enjoy the weather. On days like this we go to the park because the playground is deserted. This was only the second time Ivy has tried out the playground and this time she loved it, especially the swing (although it did take her a while to decide what she thought). She actually seemed to like being swung quite high, and was even leaning in the correct way to swing herself!



First attempt at swinging, back in June on a day that felt a lot colder than it looks in that photo. Ivy was 5.5 months old and indifferent to the whole experience. She then tried to eat the chain. (Also, she looks so chubby! Like maybe she is too chubby to smile. THAT chubby.)



And today it strikes me just how long she looks.

Ivy was loving it!