my girls!
Oh dear. So much for weekly updates! Well, last time I posted I mentioned that River had croup. I then caught her throat infection and felt really grotty for a couple of weeks. And then life overtook us. Again.
Willow's larger knitted vest is finished and doing a fine job keeping her lovely round belly nice and warm. River's birthday scarf is finished and apparently the best scarf in the world -- worn with much pride when we go out. My shawl is on the needles but nowhere near finished. I am contemplating a hat. Hats always give me headaches, but I keep making them in the hope that I'll eventually find the one true hat that doesn't hurt my head. Daughters' animal hats are all knitted now but I have a lot of fiddly sewing to do so they've been neglected a little. I need to take photos of these things. For the next entry, maybe...
How are the girls doing?
River is now three, and turned into a crazy person that very night. Here she is when she was still our adorable girl:
(click on image for video)
We then had a few weeks of insane behaviour and tears and shouting, culminating in me being really angry wth her and making her cry because I was embarrassed that she wouldn't share her toys with a friend's daughter. There followed a little regression into bed-wetting for a couple of nights. I'm not proud of myself for shouting. It was knee-jerk parenting -- the kind I was afraid I'd do. Since then I've borrowed How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk from a friend. I've read it twice in the last couple of weeks. Matt and I are working through each chapter together, as he also felt that the joy had gone out of our parenting, and that River was reacting to that. We've already put the ideas in the first chapter into practice (about accepting your child's feelings instead of denying them) and it's been a much happier household.
On Tuesday River started writing capital letters on her blackboard. We haven't tried to teach her, beyond pointing them out at the starts of words (she likes to say "M for Mog" etc) in her book titles. But there you go. Learning is happening all on its own. She's done A, H, J, F, D, O, E and W so far.
I held a concert featuring my pupils last Sunday. I took care to prepare River with the idea that you should sit very still and quiet while people were playing their pieces, and that if she didn't want to do that then she could go and play with the toys in the creche down the corridor. I fully expected her to go straight to the creche but she asked to sit on my knee and actually stayed, still and silent, for the whole concert. The next day, for the first time ever, she said she'd like to learn the piano! And since then she's been much more tolerant of me and Matt playing the piano -- before, she would stop us after a couple of notes and shout that it was her turn or that she didn't like it or that it was too noisy etc.
Here she is, playing Jingle Bells with all the wrong notes (but mostly the right rhythm):
(click on image for video)
Willow continues to blossom. She's chuckled a few times now, and is always ready with a smile. She is in every way an easy-going baby. It'll be interesting seeing how she develops. I can't believe she'll be starting on solids in a couple of weeks! She's rolled over from front to back a few times recently but hasn't shown much interest in her toys -- more fascinated by the people around her. She is delighted by the lights on our Christmas tree at the moment. It's hard not to compare her with River at the same age, especially as she's wearing River's cast-off clothes.
Gosh, though -- it's hard looking after two children!
Willow's larger knitted vest is finished and doing a fine job keeping her lovely round belly nice and warm. River's birthday scarf is finished and apparently the best scarf in the world -- worn with much pride when we go out. My shawl is on the needles but nowhere near finished. I am contemplating a hat. Hats always give me headaches, but I keep making them in the hope that I'll eventually find the one true hat that doesn't hurt my head. Daughters' animal hats are all knitted now but I have a lot of fiddly sewing to do so they've been neglected a little. I need to take photos of these things. For the next entry, maybe...
How are the girls doing?
River is now three, and turned into a crazy person that very night. Here she is when she was still our adorable girl:
(click on image for video)
We then had a few weeks of insane behaviour and tears and shouting, culminating in me being really angry wth her and making her cry because I was embarrassed that she wouldn't share her toys with a friend's daughter. There followed a little regression into bed-wetting for a couple of nights. I'm not proud of myself for shouting. It was knee-jerk parenting -- the kind I was afraid I'd do. Since then I've borrowed How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk from a friend. I've read it twice in the last couple of weeks. Matt and I are working through each chapter together, as he also felt that the joy had gone out of our parenting, and that River was reacting to that. We've already put the ideas in the first chapter into practice (about accepting your child's feelings instead of denying them) and it's been a much happier household.
On Tuesday River started writing capital letters on her blackboard. We haven't tried to teach her, beyond pointing them out at the starts of words (she likes to say "M for Mog" etc) in her book titles. But there you go. Learning is happening all on its own. She's done A, H, J, F, D, O, E and W so far.
I held a concert featuring my pupils last Sunday. I took care to prepare River with the idea that you should sit very still and quiet while people were playing their pieces, and that if she didn't want to do that then she could go and play with the toys in the creche down the corridor. I fully expected her to go straight to the creche but she asked to sit on my knee and actually stayed, still and silent, for the whole concert. The next day, for the first time ever, she said she'd like to learn the piano! And since then she's been much more tolerant of me and Matt playing the piano -- before, she would stop us after a couple of notes and shout that it was her turn or that she didn't like it or that it was too noisy etc.
Here she is, playing Jingle Bells with all the wrong notes (but mostly the right rhythm):
(click on image for video)
Willow continues to blossom. She's chuckled a few times now, and is always ready with a smile. She is in every way an easy-going baby. It'll be interesting seeing how she develops. I can't believe she'll be starting on solids in a couple of weeks! She's rolled over from front to back a few times recently but hasn't shown much interest in her toys -- more fascinated by the people around her. She is delighted by the lights on our Christmas tree at the moment. It's hard not to compare her with River at the same age, especially as she's wearing River's cast-off clothes.
Gosh, though -- it's hard looking after two children!