Moments

A few moments recently that I want to remember...

Ivy going out for an afternoon with Grandad and Charlie, backpack on and snack bag in hand, waving and saying "Bye bye Mummy!" with a beautiful smile on her face. It makes me so happy to see her confident and excited to spend time with the special adults in her life. I feel so grateful that we have these people, and feel like I have done something right for her to be so comfortable leaving me. I love hearing about the adventures they have (and if I'm lucky seeing photos!).

Ivy in the garden wearing her wellies, with her apple and milk, watching the builders with total fascination  Me watching her from inside while I hang up laundry. Another moment of feeling happy that she can feel comfortable without me, and how useful it is when there are those boring but necessary things to do. She also found a stick.

Ivy and I in a cafe, Ivy drawing, and for the first time she tells me what she is drawing (without any prompting).
"Apples! Apples! Apples!"
"Are you drawing apples, Ivy?"
"Drawing apples!"
I'll be honest, it didn't look like apples. It looked very much not at all like apples. It looked like blue zig zag lines.
"Wow, are you drawing round apples Ivy?"
Excitedly "Round apples!"
And then she did, she drew a curve. She knows what round means, and then she realised that she could actually do it. Gradually with lots of praise and more reminders of "Are you drawing round apples?" she drew lots of curves that even met to resemble circles. She was very excited by this, and then went on to draw a "Suma" (satsuma) and "manges" (mangoes). I even took photos.

You can also see on the other sheet of paper that she discovered painting with coffee. Hmm...

Ivy's first full English breakfast!

We went out for anniversary brunch, to the farm (we are so romantic like that!). Ivy just sat and ate her food, and we sat and enjoyed conversation with each other. At one point Ivy turned to me and said "Mummeeeey!" and you could tell from her voice that she was smiling, it was almost as if she was laughing my name. I replied "Iveeeeey!" in the same way and she was just so adorable that I couldn't not hold cup her face with my hand and kiss her cheek. She said "Mummeeey!" again, so I replied "Iveeeey!" and kissed her forehead, and we just carried on like that.

I noticed an oldish couple watching and smiling and I thought "they can see the love". And I could feel the love from Ivy in the way she was looking at me and saying my name.

Recently

- Ivy found a Barbie doll. She calls her "lady", which is much nicer so I'm trying not to mention the B-word around her. She is obsessed with putting the lady's shoes on. She also makes her walk and does "do-de-do-de-do" walking sound effects.

- Ivy learnt the word cuddle and has started requesting them, she also requests that other people cuddle, or kiss, like Kwojo and I. When she started saying cuddle it sounded like "turtle" which made it all the more adorable when she'd ask for one!

- I may or may not have a little bit encouraged her to laugh at burps and farts. She knows both of these words now, but at least I also taught her to say "pardon me", which she says when other people burp too!

- She thinks that TV is called Neighbours, which she pronounces "naybiz".

- I have learnt that when Ivy is very excited to have visitors, she emits a high pitched (and painful) screech. Repeatedly. She loves having little friends round and the thing to do with them is bounce on her bed, which is an excellant icebreaker.

- Ivy is obsessed with drawing on the box. It is all we are allowed to do. "Mummy, drawing?" she'll have found me and be handing me a wax crayon and leading me off to the box. I even hid the box under the sofa once. She found it. But it is a lovely thing that she so loves drawing. But I do kind of want to do something else sometimes.

Ivy, recently

- Says "door" (did I mention she likes going outside??) and "owl" (when she wants me to make an owl sound)

- Is into closing doors and drawers, even if you are using it at the time.

- Learnt the sign for "more" in an afternoon. We decided to start teaching her it at lunch time, and by dinner she was using it!

- This week she gave up on signing and words and gestures and anything else and instead used whining to try to communicate everything. Oh my god. Most irritating sound. With lots of encouragement and positive reinforcement she is starting to use communication that doesn't make my brain hurt.

- Is pretty good at kicking and dribbling a ball. She learnt this just from watching Kwojo. It's amazing/scary how much they pick up on when your aren't even try to teach them!

- Effectively used a fork for the first time to spear a piece of sweetcorn and eat it. It was impressive, and the concentration required was immense. (Another example of learning from observation).

- Has started using Kwojo's afro comb! She also uses forks to brush her hair.

- I unintentionally taught her to say "Wow" when she looks at the sky. She occasionally notices that it's there, throws her head back and stares skyward with a look of awe on her face. So I'd say "Wow, Ivy! Look at the sky, wow!". So now when she throws her head back she says "Waaaw!". Yes, the sky is pretty amazing.

- A while ago, when she had her immunisations, she was offered a chocolate button by the nurse and as she was really upset we gave it to her. She reluctantly took it, and then fed it too me! She was so sad and confused, and all she could think to do was give it to me - so sweet.

- Loves anything with wheels, and makes a "brrrrm" sound for toy cars as she moves them around.

- Is quite cuddly. She wraps her arm around my neck and rests her head into my shoulder. It's lovely. She didn't used to be as affectionate, she was too busy and on the move.

- Will put the lens cap on the camera while I am using it.

- Has a reading voice when she opens a book or sees words anywhere. She usually says "de doh di dah" in a soft slightly sing songy voice - I guess this is what we sound like to her when we read?!

- Enjoys the keyboard, and the many ways of playing it.

Ivy, recently

- Now says: shoes, cheese, toes, toast.

 - Really is obsessed with going outside. As soon as we are downstairs she finds her coast and asks for it to be put on, and then zipped up. She rubs the ends of the zip together until she gets frustrated that she can't do it and asks us to make it work. She also finds her shoes and asks for them to be put on. If she can see her backpack, that goes on too. Then she will either stand at the front door pointing and gesturing "come on" or whine to get in the pram. This is usually before I am dressed or have had breakfast. If we go out, and then come home, she wants to go in the garden as soon as possible. Indoors simply will not do.

- Has discovered her belly button and loves it. Over winter she would be dressed in tights under trousers and a long sleeve vest that pops up between the legs, so the only skin she would see would be her hands. When good weather came, tights and vests were no longer needed and she realised that she has skin in places other than her hands. She pulls up her trousers and slaps her legs with glee, and will pull up her top to find her bellybutton on demand!

- In the mornings Ivy calls for me by saying "Mum"

 - Is really good at holding hands, and has learnt that she can lead people where she wants. She has strong grip! She also does it for a sense of security, sometimes.

- Still loves dogs and gets excited, points and barks when she sees any. We finally got a video of her version of barking. She also makes this sound if she hears someone say 'dog' or 'Charlie'.

- Prefers to eat from a plate or bowl (rather than straight from the table), and it usually doesn't end up on the floor. She is also keen to use cutlery, because she sees us using it. She can get a pre-loaded spoon or fork into her mouth, just can't load it up with food herself yet. She's working on it. Meals aren't usually as messy as this anymore:

- Ivy likes the wobbly chair at the park, and wobbles herself on it with surprising force (it scares Kwojo). She is now keen to sit on normal chairs and tries very hard to wobble them too!

- Signs a lot. Now signs 'hot', 'sleep' and sometimes 'drink'. As well as 'eat' and 'milk'. Between these signs, the few words she says and general gesturing and sounds she is quite effective at communicating with us. She is signing 'eat' here:

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!