#12 Snuggle days

At least once a week we try to have a day at home, doing nothing except snuggling and playing. Whilst I think it's important we go to various activities to give you exposure to different experiences and other children; and there's things that need to be done each week, like shopping, I also think it's important you get some time at home to play with your toys and to make your own entertainment. These days are our "Snuggle Days".

We generally have breakfast a little later than normal and we get dressed at a leisurely pace. You get to watch some tv in the morning, and we do puzzles and drawing and Play Doh and lots more. I really enjoy these days with you. Nowhere to go and nothing much to do, except cuddle and play and enjoy your company.

#11 I'm a Witch!

"The Witch has a cat and a hat that is black, and long ginger hair in a braid down her back. 

How the cat purred and how the Witch grinned as they sat on their broomstick as they flew through the wind.  

But how the Witch wailed and how the cat spat when the wind blew so wildly it blew off her hat."

                        From 'Room On The Broom' by Julia Donaldson & Alex Scheffler

I have just written this passage, the first page in the book, from memory because we have read it so often. You also know pretty much the whole book by heart too and can often be heard reciting lines and paragraphs from it.

You LOVE wearing your witches hat (which incidentally is for ages 3-6 months and you wore it aged 5 months at our Halloween party for our antenatal group).  You wear it all day, every day.  It's the first thing you ask for when you wake up and we have to take it off your head at bedtime.  

Your other favourite accessory is your wand! Because every witch needs a wand!

You run around the house shouting "I'm a witch!" and casting spells "Iggedy zaggedy zoom!"

"Down!" cried the witch and they flew to the ground. 

They searched for the hat but no hat could be found.

Then out of the bushes on thundering paws.

There bounded a dog with the hat in his jaws.

He dropped it politely and eagerly said ...

You are word perfect and so, so cute as you tell the story to yourself and act it out by dropping the hat and the wand and go looking for them.

                          

You are always asking us to draw a witch, a cat, a dog, a frog, a bird - all the characters from the story. Even the scary dragon!

I think it's even safe to say you are more obsessed with this book than you are with Peppa Pig, and that's saying something!

#10 Crafty things

We spend a lot of afternoons doing crafty things like "stickies", painting, curalling (your name for colouring), and Play Doh.  You get really excited at the prospect of painting and getting messy (or "muddy" as you call it) and I like doing these activities as they tend to keep you amused for longer than the usual 5-10 mins when doing other things.

As it's Easter time I have been trying to theme our craft activities to teach you about Easter, chicks, the Easter Bunny etc and you've really enjoyed it.  You are now obsessed with Chicks thanks to your new book: 'Peppa's Easter Egg Hunt' which you were given for Easter (but I let you have early), and you spend most of the day singing the little song from the book and saying "Cheep, cheep, cheep"!

P.S. the witch's hat is THE fashion accessory of the moment and has to be worn most of every day (even though it is way too small as it was bought for you to wear for Halloween when you were 5 months old!).  But together with a home made wand - a chopstick and foil covered card - you are happiest, reciting pages from the book Room On The Broom!

#9 The fruit and veg shop

Every Monday we go to the Green Grocers to do the "Fruit And Veg Shop".  The 30 or so minutes it takes to go around the aisles selecting what we need for the coming week is good fun with you.  Quite often you can be seen dancing in the trolley to whatever music is being played in the shop, a little shoulder, arm and bottom wiggle with a huge grin, as you sit in the trolley.

You like holding the produce as we go.  You like to name each one, inspect it, tell me whether it's warm or cold and sometimes you'll bite it and announce "Yummy!".  You'll then chuck the item of fruit or veg over your shoulder when you are done saying "In the trolley", then reach for the next piece you can investigate.

You'll grab potatoes, apples, tomatoes (anything you can get your hands on) as we go past if I'm not watching or moving fast enough. Quite often we end up with more in the trolley than I thought we had put in!

#8 Waking up

Small cries alert me that you have woken from your nap, which if not answered quickly become much bigger cries with tears. Your big smile greets me as I open your bedroom door, accompanied by demands of "Up, up" or "I want to get out now" with out-stretched arms.

I love those few minutes every day when you are happy to be held for more than five seconds and you relax into me, breathing softly for sleepy snuggles. I breath in the smell of your hair, enjoy the sleepy warmth of your body and feel your heart beating against my chest. 

But soon you are sitting bolt upright telling me which toy or book you want us to go and get, and you are right back to your whirlwind, non-stop, self until bedtime.

#7 Bath, bottle and bedtime stories

Bedtime is a happy time in our house. You like sleeping (you take after your mummy with that!) and you look forward to when it's time to go to bed.

Your love having a bath, splashing & playing. Then we have to fight to get you out, and then fight to get you dressed because you take off as soon as your wet feet hit the floor shrieking "Roonie Noonie" (aka Rudie Nudie, a book you have about running around in the nudie after a bath) and you run around the house, into every room giggling and shouting.

Then it's "Milky time"! Usually drunk in the living room whilst we read you books and we watch the News (watching the News at milky time has become a family tradition).

Bedtime comes and we take you into your room, you choose a bedtime book and finish your milky  whilst daddy reads you the book. Threes verses of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, then clutching Peppa and Bertie you say "Lub Ooo" and snuggle under the covers and sing and chat to yourself until you fall asleep.

#6 Quiet afternoons

Mornings are usually busy, spent swimming, going to Mainly Music, or catching up with friends. But afternoons are quieter. Once you wake from your lunchtime nap you run into the lounge and usually pull a book from the shelf, hold it out to me and say "Read it!". Then you pull out various toys and more books; and you work your way through most of your toys and books over the course of the afternoon because you can't concentrate on most things for longer than 10 minutes. The lounge generally looks like a war zone by bed time, but that's the sign of a fun afternoon right?