Lucy & Harriet

It's been a long time without any news here, but one thing has stayed the same: the girls are still waking me up too early!

Em has been taking Harriet and Lucy to swimming lessons, and Lucy has her 5m swimming badge now. (Her teacher thinks that Lucy is mucking about and not moving on to 10 m quickly enough!) Harriet has lessons on a different day while Lucy is at school. Harriet is learning to jump into the swimming pool all by herself, and Em says that she floats on her back with her arm bands and kicks but doesn't go anywhere.

But basically, Harriet is keen to do anything that Lucy does, and mainly that is talking. Harriet does a lot of talking for a two-year old, and like Lucy did, has made up a few words of her own. Here is are a few key phrase book entries:
Doki - a drink in the blue cup
Doku - an umbrella
I'mam - I am
Ife - knife

Talking of made up words, Lucy has a Polish class mate who does not speak much English. Lucy has obviously heard her speaking Polish though, and has come home convinced that she can also speak Polish. Of course Harriet is impressed with this, and Lucy is happy to teach her, so the two of them sit together talking Gibberish to each other.

Labels: swimming, talking

Harriet has mastered a few words now. The first was "No", as in "No, no, NO!", and the second one that we spotted her using properly was "Teddy", originally with a brummy accent like "tedai", but now more like a 1950's starlet or the Queen: "Tedi".

She impressed Grandma and Grandad at the weekend by walking up behind them and saying "Hello", but like most English people in strange places she relies mostly on pointing and shouting. One fun game is to ask her "Where's teddy?" and then follow her pointy finger!

Labels: talking

I told Lucy that she could have a new magazine today (if she recycled one of her old ones), and decided to take her to Southampton to buy it so that we could take a bus ride. Lucy rides for free which makes a bus ride about the cheapest day out there is, including free rides on the escalators when we get to West Quay - I expect she'll get more expensive hobbies soon.

We sat down at the top of the bus with Lucy cross-legged looking out of the window and chatting about whatever caught her attention. She asked "Why is the bus driver a man?" which is a broad enough question for a whole bus ride. When I said that maybe she could be a bus driver when she was older she said "No, I'm going to be nurse. But I've got a dentist kit at home."

The cruise ship QE2 left Southampton for the last time last Tuesday, and there were some events organized to give people a chance to wave flags and shout "Hurrah". Mum came down in the morning and took Lucy to the quayside, and Lucy got to eat ice-cream and have a ride on a carousel.

In the evening Lucy and I were on a bus home and I realized that it would take us right to the docks just in time for the fireworks. I asked Lucy if she wanted to go straight home or go and see the fireworks, and she told me that she'd like to see the fireworks. I texted Em to let her know we'd be late home, and we stayed on the bus.

When we we got there Lucy noticed the people selling flags and some things that glow. I told her that she could have a flag later. In retrospect that was a pretty stupid plan - what use is a flag in the dark on the way home?

The fireworks were set off from the other side of the water to Mayflower park where we were, and as they started the QE2 was tugged in to view. Lucy said that she was a bit scared because the fireworks were coming too close, but I told here they were a long way away, just very big and noisy. The smoke from the fireworks was blowing towards us, and the ship looked a little bit ghostly, but I don't think Lucy was worried about that.

When they finished we bought our flag, started our journey home, and Lucy started to grumble about not getting a "glowie thing". When I told Lucy that we'd come to see the fireworks, not to buy things, she pointed out that she didn't like the fireworks; in fact she was scared of them. She complained all the way home, and when we arrived and Em asked if she had enjoyed herself, Lucy said "No, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."

I printed out a photo for Lucy the next morning and she took it in to nursery and showed it to everyone. Then they all drew pictures of fireworks, so I think the trauma has eased.

We've just come back from Holiday - a week traveling up to Dumfries for Graeme and Zena's wedding. We stayed in Stratford (on Avon) and at a Center Parcs in the Lake District. It felt a bit wrong to be in the Lakes but not leave the holiday camp, but now that Em and I are old and responsible it's nice to have everything laid on right by our expensive holiday lodge.

Even though it's colder than it was last time we were in Stratford, Lucy headed straight for the sandpit in the playground:

Harriet practiced her best royal waves:

She is pretty good at standing up against anything that can be leaned on now:

While we were at Center Parcs we hired some bikes: two grown up bikes, a bike trailer with room for two children, and also a little bike for Lucy to ride.

Lucy's bike was not quite what she was after; it didn't have tinsel streamers on the handle bars, a seat on the back for Barbie, or stabalisers. But after she got over that, she learned to ride it in the half a mile between the shed where we picked it up and the lodge we were staying in. She whizzed round the little loop outside our lodge making sure that we were watching her new skills.

It was Lucy's party yesterday and we recycled the same format as last year (and the party CD from Issie and Maddie's party a couple of months ago). The only innovation was to bury a chocolate between each layer of the pass-the-parcel to cheer up all the runners up.

Rachael had a very loose brief for the cake design - we said "Only do one if you're really sure you have the time". It turned out to be the best ever - a moving cake!


Regarding pass-the-parcel, next year we'll have some way to guarantee one prize per player - maybe a sort of knockout rule so you leave the circle when you get your chocolate, though I'm not sure how that will work when it gets down to the last two. One option is to have two people competing for the final layer which will give a tense final where one player leaves with nothing. The other option is to have the one player in the circle with the last layer with the only tension being the wait for the music to stop for the prize to be revealed.

Here is a picture of Lucy helping Em to prepare the chocolate Rice Crispy cakes ...

Phew - what a hectic few days.

Em went in to hospital at 3:20 on Thursday morning, and by 3:45 (while I was still at home looking after Lucy), Lucy's new baby sister was born. When Lucy was born Em stayed in hospital for a luxurious 2 nights, but this time she was sending me texts asking for a lift home before midday.

Auntie Leta and Mum came to visit us all at home the next day and mum was shocked to see Em out of bed. Apparently in the olden days (1972) leaving hospital after 8 days was considered a bit of a rush. But anyway, we're all settled in now, and we've chosen a name for the new baby too.

So, here is a picture of Lucy and baby Harriet listening to a bed time story last night:


The final question to answer is should Harriet have her own blog, or will Lucy share hers?!

Until Lucy decides, here's a bigger picture of Harriet:


That's Em's dad David holding her. Special thanks to David and Jo for driving down to Southampton from Surbiton in the night to look after Lucy while I went in to the hospital, and then driving to the hospital and giving us £1.50 so that we could get out of the car park and drive home when I realised that I didn't have my wallet with me!

Here's a picture from last Sunday of two ladies waiting:

Right now, Em has just left for the hospital (in an Ambulance while I stay at home waiting for Em's mum and dad to look after Lucy). We called an ambulance because we couldn't speak to the midwife on the phone straight away. She would probably have told us to wait at home and then drive in with Lucy, but it's too late now. If they grumble about it again, I'll say it was my mum's idea!

We'll keep you posted!

This is Lucy on her Tiger bike. We gave it to her last Christmas, but had to hide it again, because her feet didn't reach the ground. Then we got it out again for her birthday, but it was still no good.



But now it looks like she's just long enough - when she has her shoes on! (Lucy is 89 cm long now.)

She's a bit tenative on the bike at the moment, but I think a little bit faster than walking when she goes down hill. She knows that she has to have her hat on to stop her bumping her head when she falls off (which she does), but she's not so good at looking where she's going. Lucy is thinking ahead though, and asked Emma if we can buy some peddles for the bike when she's older!

As well as learning to ride a bike, Lucy has learned to ask "Why?" which she is doing quite a lot.

This is Lucy with her cousins Izzy and Maddy in Uncle Jonny and Auntie Rachel's (new) back garden:

Labels: Izzy, Maddy

Sorry I've not been keeping up with Lucy's blog recently. There have been busy things to do - one of which is Lucy! She's been waking up in the night recently, so we think that she has some more teeth appearing, at the back on the top this time.

We've just come back from our holiday in Devon. We were there during a Met Office "Extreme Weather Warning", which means that it rained. We had a few sunny days on the beach too, and enjoyed some walking and kite flying.

Here is Lucy in the "piggy back" (as she calls it) exploring Becky Falls - she was happy to try the rain cover for a little while, but then got very unhappy about it, so we had to finish the walk in a hurry. (To be fair, it does look a bit steamy under there!)



We also went to Dartmouth


And Bigbury Sands. This is Burgh Island in the background

Labels: becky falls, devon

Here are some pictures that I meant to put here last month - Oli, Fran and Finn came to visit, and on a rainy Sunday we went out to ride on the Eastleigh Lakeside Steam Railway. Lucky for us, Thomas the Tank Engine was visiting for the day too!

The Fat Controller made sure that we got our tickets and left on time, but mysteriously, there seemed to be two Thomas the Tank Engines - one with lots of smoke and steam coming out of it, and the nice clean diesel one that we rode on:



The first stop was "Sodor", just like in the books, and we got off there to play in the playground until it started to rain again :)



Lucy and Finn were moving too quickly for my camera, so this is about the only picture of them together!

Lucy went to bed very quietly tonight, but she obviously wasn't sleepy. I left her sitting up on her bed playing with a little magic doodle pad toy. Then I went downstairs to have tea with Em.

We could hear her walking around, so Em went upstairs to take a look and see what she was up to, and then called me up.

Lucy was in the bathroom with no clothes on, but had covered her body with a whole tube of Oilatum Junior cream. She was trying to wipe it off with a towel, and had obviously just tried to wash her hands because there was slimey cream all over the soap, the tap and the sink.

We all burst out laughing before we told Lucy that she was very naughty, and she said sorry. Em sprayed Lucy down in the shower while I tried to get the ointment out of the rug in Lucy's bedroom. Now I have lovely soft hands.

Lucy's bottom back teeth are both out now. They didn't seem to bother Lucy as much as some of the other teeth she has grown, but she still woke up in the night crying. We assumed that was because her teeth were hurting, and as she also had a runny nose, we gave her two spoons of MediSed and all went back to bed.

MediSed is paracetamol and a decongestant that has the happy side-effect of making Lucy drowsey, so everyone gets off to sleep quickly. After a few days of that Lucy started to wake up screaming "I want my medicine!"

I'm not keen to have a non-prepscription medicine addicted toddler, so I gave her a cuddle and told her there was no more medicine, then left her screaming for 30 minutes until she went back to sleep. She did the same the next night, but then started waking up screaming "I want some bread!". Then "I want a biscuit!", and also "I want my toy!" and "I want my back rubbed!". Em and I have decided that these are not good reasons for us to get out of bed.

Presumably these are all the same reasons that she woke up before she could talk, in which case Em and I probably didn't need to worry quite so much about what the screaming was about.

Briony invited us to visit her at Mattingley last week. Briony and Sidora the horse had entered show jumping and cross country events, and we went along to spectate and support.

Lucy thought the show jumping was fun, and said that she wanted to do it, but when Briony offered the chance to sit up on Monty, Lucy wasn't so sure. As you can see, we persuaded her, and she rather enjoyed it. Monty played along because he thought we might have some more carrots in our pockets!




Thanks to Bella for helping out and showing us round too!

Lucy has decided to gain some height the quick way:



She needed a little help getting down, but had no problem climbing straight back up again by herself.

Lucy in numbers:

height	87 cm
weight	12 kg (2 st) on the bathroom scales

Things that Lucy says:
No, that's not right!
I want one of those too ...
Don't forget your lunch daddy!

Lucy doesn't wear any nappies any more, but last week wasn't good because she got through two changes of clothes most days, which seems to be a step backwards. Nursery don't seem to mind. I think that must only employ saints :-)

Em went away for the weekend, and Lucy and I went to see Lucy's grandma. We saw Monty the horse, Barley the dog, and went to Butser Hill to fly a kite.

Afterwards, grandad took us for lunch at the Seven Stars. Here is a picture of Lucy looking for fish in the pond outside:

Here is Lucy pretending to sleep in her new bed. The bed frame slides out, and we have extra little bits of matress that we can slot in as she gets bigger, but we will probably have moved house before we need to do that. Right now the bed is a lot bigger than the girl.

We tried to persuade Lucy to stay in the bed in the evening by threatening to put her back in to the "baby cot", but she just started asking to go in to the cot, so we gave up on that, and just kept putting her back in to bed when she came out of her room. Em thinks that she did that 20 times in one evening!

Lucy sleeps with a potty by the side of her bed. That is good, because she likes to use it in the morning when she wakes up which gives me and Em an extra few minutes in bed before she wobbles in to see us (holding a potty full of wee) :-)

Labels: bed, lucy

A couple of things have changed since last time I wrote: Lucy doesn't wear nappies during the day any more, and Em has had a 12 week ultrasound scan, and really is pregnant. Wow!

Also, the weather has been nice, so we've all been relaxing in the garden.

Here are a few pictures taken with my new telephone (!)





Lucy showing off the cup that her grandad bought her at the aquarium

Labels: garden, pointout

Grandma came to look after Lucy while Em and I went out to celebrate Em's birthday. Lucy was very excited.

Lucy went to nursery without a nappy on yesterday. When I told the carers they just said "oh", and didn't seem to be as excited about it as me. But when Em went to pick her up at the end of the day, they said she had been dry all day and were very impressed.

Em was less impressed when Lucy arrived home and said "I've done a poo."

Labels: mudeford

One of the star attractions at Lucy's birthday party was Noddy (the birthday cake), by Rachael. Here's how he looked after the candles had been blown out, and before he was given away in lots of small tasty pieces:



Thanks Rachael - it was the best cake ever, although last years was very good too!

Emma has been trying to teach Lucy to say her full name for a few months now. It started like this:

What's your name?

Lucy!

Lucy Mackenzie?

No, Lucy the Girl!

Lucy still thinks that her real name is "Lucy the Girl", but has been humoring Em, and so the exchange moved on to this:

What's your name?

Lucy ZeKenzie!

And then to this:

What's your name?

Lucy m'I Kenzie

She ourtsmarted Em today with this:

What's your name?

Lucy my Kenzie

And I'm Emma Mackenzie

Emma your Kenzie

Fair enough. I said to Lucy, "You're clever". She said "No, I'm a girl!"

Labels: talking