Sproglet is two!
Sproglet turned two on Friday, which was also my last day of school. Starting tomorrow, I'll have three hours to kill every weekday morning while the children are at school. Admittedly, I have to-do lists as long as my arm to get through, but it's going to be bliss
We celebrated Sproglet's birthday with presents on our bed first thing in the morning. We were severely lacking in ideas for presents, but she got a mish-mash of things and was excited by the opening of them and by the fact we kept saying "Happy birthday!" to her. She telescoped that into "Ha'tday," which seemed a delightful sentiment.
It rained, which was frustrating from a school point of view, but I'd baked banana bread to share with the class as a happy birthday to Sproglet and a farewell from me. Half of them refused to try it and the other half loved it, which is about as much as I could hope for! For this past week, the new teacher has been in the class with me. Sproglet has been much more settled, and she accepts attention from the new teacher readily. I'm not sure how she's going to react this week, when I drop her off instead of going in with them, but I'm satisfied that she won't need a big adjustment to work without me.
She's loving the stimulation of school and the social interaction with her classmates. She's been learning her colours lately. She still mixes them up quite often, but she's getting much better at distinguishing them. Her favourite remains purple, but I notice she often says 'purple' about something that's actually pink. I was afraid of this... I am squashing down my prejudices though and buying her things that are purple. Her birthday cake even had purple and pink icing, odious combination though I might find it.
After school, we decided to go to the aquarium. My husband had taken the day off, so we had lunch, made a few skype calls to doting grandparents and then went out. We haven't been to the aquarium for about a year, and Sproglet loves fish, so we figured this would be a good call. It was. Sprog tended to be impatient, rushing ahead to the interactive science displays while Sproglet would stand in front of the tanks completely mesmerised, but we managed to get round mostly together.
There's a nature trail between one part of the aquarium and the other, so we walked over a fair bit of ground--I think it's the first time since Sprog was born that I've done the aquarium without the stroller. Sprog got hungry and whiny, but Sproglet only asked to be carried once, and did not fight it when I put her off. I am hugely relieved by that, since we've had problems with her not wanting to walk before. We're planning on doing a lot of walking on our April holiday, and it would be nice if we're not having to persuade her through every step!
We ate out at chick-fil-a on the way home, which both children were ecstatic over, but that was about as much of a birthday dinner as she got. I was saving my energies for the party the next day. Still, she must have had a good day, since she was saying: "Happy!" by the end of it.
For yesterday's party, we kept it small, inviting just three children, including a brother and sister (the brother is Sprog's friend). The third child was a little girl from Sproglet's class, whose mother is the new teacher. She is so like Sproglet in personality, it's hysterically funny, and Sproglet admires her greatly. We did, however, lose Sprog for the bulk of the party, because he fell asleep on the sofa during the set-up and when he was roused, started crying and wanting to go to bed. We worried that he was sick, but he was just tired after some bad nights of sleep. He woke up again after the cake had been eaten and joined in with the playing.
We used the same set-up as in Sprog's third birthday: ballpool and roller-coaster. The little girls also played with some of the dolls lying around and Jake and the Neverland Pirates got pulled out too. When it came time for the cake, Sproglet managed to blow out her own candle when encouraged, which was a nice surprise--I had suddenly been afflicted by the thought that we should have practised!
When the guests had gone, we left everything up (we put the ballpool away this evening, just before the children went to bed), and let the children play as they liked. Cuddling up to me on the sofa, she achieved the lovely milestone of saying her name. For so long, she's refused to attempt it, but last night, she repeated "Shoo-yet" several times. She calls her brother "Bee-bee", and today, she made a game of turning her "No, Bee-bee!" catchphrase into "No, Shoo-yet!"
Phrases have been bursting out of her lately though. She says "Wait me!" as we go up the stairs, and "me turr" for "my turn" on a frequent basis. "I want more X" (pronounced "awa mo' ...") is a common four word phrase. Right now, she's fascinated by the word 'too', and repeats it whenever I use it, trying to grasp its meaning. Yesterday, she surprised me with a two sentence argument. Maddeningly, I can't remember what it was, but in essence, she protested my suggestion of activity and then demanded her choice.
Sprog was crestfallen when she didn't magically start talking properly on her second birthday (he had it in his head that two was the age when you learn how to talk), but she's really not that far off joining in fully with our conversations. She loves to sing and joins in as best she can with all our songs (usually saying the final syllable of each line). We have a classroom book at school, a rip-off of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? using pictures of each child ("I see [name] smiling at me!"). Yesterday in the car, I heard her reciting this from memory, adapting it to our family: "Daddy, Daddy, ... see? I see Mummy... me!"
Pigtails!
This was the first picture Sprog ever took (technically second, but the first three were all of the same thing and this was the one that was most in focus). Although I don't think he intended to crop off our heads, I love the composition.
Playing in the fake snow at Christmas town. She wasn't fooled and kept saying "Bubble!" But she loved it.
Still at Christmas town, we broke out the cold weather gear after night fell. She loves her hat so much I had to include a picture of her wearing it. She is less enthusiastic about her gloves.
This is actually one from Sprog's birthday. The camera caught a very cute pose... I love it.
A recent outing on a windy day. Her hair and expression crack me up, plus this is one of my favourite outfits.
Getting the hang of opening her birthday presents.
Meeting a turtle at the aquarium. This turtle was pretty friendly and kept swimming to each face at the glass, peering back at us.
We did the cheesy eaten-by-shark photo opportunity.
Sproglet failed to understand how the puppet-show theatre worked. Sprog enjoyed it though.
Banzai!
Blowing out the candle.
"I blow out this candle and all I get is some lousy cheers? When do I get to eat the cake?"
"Mmm... cake." Looking back at the video, we're lucky she didn't just faceplant it at this point.
The ball pool made her hair ridiculously static. She came up from each jump looking like a dandelion clock.
Happy icing face.
We celebrated Sproglet's birthday with presents on our bed first thing in the morning. We were severely lacking in ideas for presents, but she got a mish-mash of things and was excited by the opening of them and by the fact we kept saying "Happy birthday!" to her. She telescoped that into "Ha'tday," which seemed a delightful sentiment.
It rained, which was frustrating from a school point of view, but I'd baked banana bread to share with the class as a happy birthday to Sproglet and a farewell from me. Half of them refused to try it and the other half loved it, which is about as much as I could hope for! For this past week, the new teacher has been in the class with me. Sproglet has been much more settled, and she accepts attention from the new teacher readily. I'm not sure how she's going to react this week, when I drop her off instead of going in with them, but I'm satisfied that she won't need a big adjustment to work without me.
She's loving the stimulation of school and the social interaction with her classmates. She's been learning her colours lately. She still mixes them up quite often, but she's getting much better at distinguishing them. Her favourite remains purple, but I notice she often says 'purple' about something that's actually pink. I was afraid of this... I am squashing down my prejudices though and buying her things that are purple. Her birthday cake even had purple and pink icing, odious combination though I might find it.
After school, we decided to go to the aquarium. My husband had taken the day off, so we had lunch, made a few skype calls to doting grandparents and then went out. We haven't been to the aquarium for about a year, and Sproglet loves fish, so we figured this would be a good call. It was. Sprog tended to be impatient, rushing ahead to the interactive science displays while Sproglet would stand in front of the tanks completely mesmerised, but we managed to get round mostly together.
There's a nature trail between one part of the aquarium and the other, so we walked over a fair bit of ground--I think it's the first time since Sprog was born that I've done the aquarium without the stroller. Sprog got hungry and whiny, but Sproglet only asked to be carried once, and did not fight it when I put her off. I am hugely relieved by that, since we've had problems with her not wanting to walk before. We're planning on doing a lot of walking on our April holiday, and it would be nice if we're not having to persuade her through every step!
We ate out at chick-fil-a on the way home, which both children were ecstatic over, but that was about as much of a birthday dinner as she got. I was saving my energies for the party the next day. Still, she must have had a good day, since she was saying: "Happy!" by the end of it.
For yesterday's party, we kept it small, inviting just three children, including a brother and sister (the brother is Sprog's friend). The third child was a little girl from Sproglet's class, whose mother is the new teacher. She is so like Sproglet in personality, it's hysterically funny, and Sproglet admires her greatly. We did, however, lose Sprog for the bulk of the party, because he fell asleep on the sofa during the set-up and when he was roused, started crying and wanting to go to bed. We worried that he was sick, but he was just tired after some bad nights of sleep. He woke up again after the cake had been eaten and joined in with the playing.
We used the same set-up as in Sprog's third birthday: ballpool and roller-coaster. The little girls also played with some of the dolls lying around and Jake and the Neverland Pirates got pulled out too. When it came time for the cake, Sproglet managed to blow out her own candle when encouraged, which was a nice surprise--I had suddenly been afflicted by the thought that we should have practised!
When the guests had gone, we left everything up (we put the ballpool away this evening, just before the children went to bed), and let the children play as they liked. Cuddling up to me on the sofa, she achieved the lovely milestone of saying her name. For so long, she's refused to attempt it, but last night, she repeated "Shoo-yet" several times. She calls her brother "Bee-bee", and today, she made a game of turning her "No, Bee-bee!" catchphrase into "No, Shoo-yet!"
Phrases have been bursting out of her lately though. She says "Wait me!" as we go up the stairs, and "me turr" for "my turn" on a frequent basis. "I want more X" (pronounced "awa mo' ...") is a common four word phrase. Right now, she's fascinated by the word 'too', and repeats it whenever I use it, trying to grasp its meaning. Yesterday, she surprised me with a two sentence argument. Maddeningly, I can't remember what it was, but in essence, she protested my suggestion of activity and then demanded her choice.
Sprog was crestfallen when she didn't magically start talking properly on her second birthday (he had it in his head that two was the age when you learn how to talk), but she's really not that far off joining in fully with our conversations. She loves to sing and joins in as best she can with all our songs (usually saying the final syllable of each line). We have a classroom book at school, a rip-off of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? using pictures of each child ("I see [name] smiling at me!"). Yesterday in the car, I heard her reciting this from memory, adapting it to our family: "Daddy, Daddy, ... see? I see Mummy... me!"
Pigtails!
This was the first picture Sprog ever took (technically second, but the first three were all of the same thing and this was the one that was most in focus). Although I don't think he intended to crop off our heads, I love the composition.
Playing in the fake snow at Christmas town. She wasn't fooled and kept saying "Bubble!" But she loved it.
Still at Christmas town, we broke out the cold weather gear after night fell. She loves her hat so much I had to include a picture of her wearing it. She is less enthusiastic about her gloves.
This is actually one from Sprog's birthday. The camera caught a very cute pose... I love it.
A recent outing on a windy day. Her hair and expression crack me up, plus this is one of my favourite outfits.
Getting the hang of opening her birthday presents.
Meeting a turtle at the aquarium. This turtle was pretty friendly and kept swimming to each face at the glass, peering back at us.
We did the cheesy eaten-by-shark photo opportunity.
Sproglet failed to understand how the puppet-show theatre worked. Sprog enjoyed it though.
Banzai!
Blowing out the candle.
"I blow out this candle and all I get is some lousy cheers? When do I get to eat the cake?"
"Mmm... cake." Looking back at the video, we're lucky she didn't just faceplant it at this point.
The ball pool made her hair ridiculously static. She came up from each jump looking like a dandelion clock.
Happy icing face.