A is for ... part 2

As I said earlier, on Thursday we had an Astronaut Day, inspired by the fact that lately Iona has been very keen to go in a rocket. I told her she had to be fit to do that, so at least once a day now she runs around or does other "exercises" and says she's getting fit "so they let me in the rocket!". I didn't do as much preparation as I might have, but she seemed to enjoy the day. I encouraged her to dress in a pair of grey jogging trousers and a blue fleece, to look a little like an astronaut's casual wear. She had a croissant for breakfast, and I reminded her that she wouldn't be able to have that in a rocket, as the crumbs would float around due to the lack of gravity, and might break the rocket. After breakfast I went on the computer and found some NASA and European Space Agency logos, then made Iona some badges (using our printer, a laminator and some safety pins) and an ID badge:

While on the ESA site I let Iona have a look around, and there was a fun animation about a day in the life of an astronaut. We strapped ourselves into our imaginary rocket, ran through the safety checks, then counted down. I asked Iona where she'd like to go, and she chose Mars. When we "landed" I described how it was cold, and that the ground was red, then asked her what she could see. We practised a floaty, low gravity way of walking, and talked a bit more about space. She then said she wanted to go to the planet Crayon, which was what she had called the planet she'd decorated in her Charlie and Lola magazine earlier in the week, so we got back in our "rocket" and took off once more, to go there. Once there, she wanted me to be an alien, so I decided to talk only in alien bleeps and bloops and see if she was able to communicate with me. Surprisingly, with only a bit of sign language, she worked out that I was telling her to eat the imaginary biscuit she had asked me for, and was making significant attempts to understand my alien language. This was such a popular activity that several times yesterday and today I was also asked to be an alien, but I found it surprisingly hard work to keep up the bleeping!

In addition to our play-acting, Iona drew a picture of an astronaut, or "space lady", complete with helmet (and big hair!):

I also found a colouring picture of a female astronaut which I printed out for Iona, but she didn't show any inclination to colour it. I found some information about Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman in space), Christa McAuliffe (the first teacher in space, well nearly), and Helen Sharman (the first Briton in space) told Iona about them, printed out their photos and added them to her timeline. We read through "I'm Going to Be the Best Astronaut Ever", "Extreme Jobs: Astronauts" (well, selected highlights of it, as it's far too old for her), and Letterland's "Annie Apple's Adventure", which coincidentally includes an astronaut and a trip into space. The latter book was very popular, and she has asked for it to be read a couple of times since. It features lots of "a" words and has a good story line, rather than being driven solely by phonics.

By the end of the day we were both glad to come back down to Earth, although Iona still shows no sign of diminished enthusiasm for being an astronaut!

Rhyme time

How old are children when they start to make up rhymes? For the last couple of weeks Iona has started coming out with silly little rhymes, such as "belly, jelly, delly", "sorry Lori" (which we do actually say), and ""Andy, mandy, bandy". They're definitely phrases she's inventing herself, but we've always tended to say silly rhymes to her, such as "smelly nelly", so I guess that's set up the right environment for her to get the idea of rhyming. I'll be interested to see whether it leads to her starting writing poetry earlier than usual, especially as her dad's a keen writer.

Continuous Present

Iona has suddenly got the hang of the present continuous tense. A couple of weeks ago she started saying "What are you doing today?" and answering herself with phrases such as "I am piano". I would correct her "Yes, you're playing the piano". Then, yesterday I think, she started saying, for her teddy, "I am cuddling Iona", and today she kept trying out the sentence with different verbs. She also tried different persons - at lunchtime she said "I am eating peas. We are eating peas." It was fascinating to see her figuring out how language works, and amazing, too, as she's still so young.

May update.

So much has changed since the last entry I wrote. Iona has now turned 2, and had a lovely day, with a cake and presents at Mummy and Daddy's, then more cake, more presents, and her slightly younger cousin at Grandma and Grandad's. We started to prepare her for her birthday about a week before it, and she was soon able to say that her birthday was "Saturday" and that she'd be "2". She'd been singing "Happy birthday" already for a couple of weeks, and even now she keeps singing it to herself, which is OK apart from when it was one of her friend's birthdays this week!

Anyway, I tried doing some more baking with Iona this morning. I haven't tried for a while, as she always gets upset when she can't eat it rather than stir it! Well, we watched "I Can Cook" this morning, where Katie made honey tea loaf, so I promised Iona she could help me make a banana cake if she wanted. She was quite happy with this, and seemed to be looking forward to it, but lo and behold, by the time I'd got things sorted out to do it she was bored with it! Still, I managed to get her to stir it once, and she was very happy with the result, calling it "honey tea loaf"!

After our abortive attempt at cooking I gave in to Iona's requests to go into the garden. Nowadays when I tell her she needs to put her shoes on before she goes in the garden she goes straight to where her shoes are kept, which was quite a shock the first time she did it. I still haven't really got over how much she understands now. We put our shoes on and went into the garden. While I tidied it up a bit she disappeared back into the house and shortly after reappeared with one of her paints and a receipt she'd found - she was trying to get together the things she needed to do painting! I grabbed a paintbrush and a newspaper (figuring a receipt was a bit small for a toddler's painting!) and took them to her, and we had a really fun session with Iona painting the newspaper (and herself, of course!). I even managed to persuade her back inside without too many complaints by telling her the cake would be nearly ready and she'd be able to eat it. All in all, a very productive morning.

Let it snow some more.

Iona and I have been continuing our unit study on snow. I found some resources on the net yesterday, such as video of polar bears and photos of arctic animals. Some very helpful sites were: http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/snow.htm and http://123child.com/UBB/showthread.php?t=3092. The second of these reminded me of a technique I learned at Sunshine Club last year - mixing shaving foam and PVA glue (with paint, too, if wished) produces home-made puffy paint. I printed a photo of Daddy outside our house, then helped Iona paint on the white puffy paint to make a snowscene. To be honest, it didn't much resemble a snowscene when she'd finished with it, as she preferred rubbing the paint off the picture and around her hands, but she enjoyed it!

Next, I decided to do some combined craft and numeracy work. I gave Iona a roll of cotton wool, and put glue in 1-5 snowman shapes on 5 sheets of paper. I then encouraged her to stick bits of cotton wool on them, all the while reinforcing the words "snowman" and "1" to "5". I drew faces on all of them and labelled them, then at bedtime stuck them up on her wall. Later, this afternoon, we went to story time at the library. In the children's area the wall is painted with a mural of a snowscene with a snowman, and during the session Iona suddenly pointed at it and said "snowman"!

While Iona was asleep this afternoon I made a flip book on "Animals that live in the snow", with photos from the computer and names written by me, which I showed her when she woke up. I also gave her a printed snowflake with the words "If we say "I'm sorry" to God he will make us as clean as snow", for her to colour. Finally, I printed out a photo of a 4-inch snowflake and wrote on it "A snowflake has 6 points". I labelled the points 1-6, reading the numbers out loud as I did so. Iona stunned me by saying each number, right up to 6 before I did each time, proving that she now knows the order of numbers 1-6!

Talking of dogs

I think Iona has finally started stringing words together, albeit with pauses between them for Mummy to acknowledge each. Yesterday, she said "Lori" (our dog's name), then, after a pause, "gone", then, after another pause "kitchen". Another milestone passed!

When did my baby grow up?!

I know I've probably been saying this for months, but when did my little baby become a fully-fledged, walking, talking, on-the-cusp-of-reading toddler?!! I can't believe how she's suddenly copying nearly every word we say, and remembering them later. On top of that, she's understanding far more than I thought any 20-month-old could. Since Christmas I've started a project with her on houses, and am working in an exercise book with her entitled "Where do I live?". I've put in photos of her house, her uncle's house that we visited in December, and her grandparents' house that we visited just after Christmas, and she loves looking through it, talking about it. I also put a small map of the country in, with an arrow pointing to the area where we live, saying "I live in [town]". Today she handed me the book to read to her again, so I started by reading the title "Where do I live?". She immediately answered with a word that sounded very like the name of our town! I thought I must be imagining the similarity, so I checked by reading her the page that said "I live in [town]", and she again repeated the name of the town, exactly like before. So suddenly, she doesn't just understand the question "Where do you live?", but even knows the right answer - amazing!

Ins and outs of HE

Today Iona seemed to suddenly grasp the concept and the word "in". She'd been playing with her Noah's ark and small animals, and I thought I'd heard her say "in" when putting an animal in it. Later, she got her teddy and tried to cram it into a (smaller) tin, while saying "in". We then spent some time together testing out which toy animals would fit into which containers, with Mummy saying "in" when we put them in, and "out" when we took them out. It's amazing how quickly she's growing!

I''ve also been astounded over the last week or so that when Iona points to her tummy (while saying "tu") she often then signs "food" and says "f". Likewise, just after breakfast today she said and signed food, then pointed to her tummy and said "tu". The really strange part of it is, I don't remember either David or myself ever telling her that food goes into her tummy! I guess we must have done at some point, and that for some reason it's stuck in her brain.

Happy Talking, Talking

Iona seems to be making huge leaps in her verbal ability at the moment. She's mad about colouring at the moment, and is forever asking for "colour" when she sees a pen. However, this afternoon I had to ask my husband if he'd been using the word "pen" to her, as she suddenly started pointing to his writing pen and saying, clear as a bell, "pen". I think we've both probably been using the word to her, actually, but she suddenly realised what it meant.

Then, just before she went to bed, she started saying "see" very pointedly. I couldn't relate that to any of the words she's been trying to say, so I asked her several times to repeat it and eventually said I didn't understand. She then pointed upwards towards the ceiling, and it dawned on me that several times lately she'd been asking, amongst a score of other things, what the ceiling was called. She obviously had finally remembered our answer. It's amazing to think how even the smallest words, that almost seem throwaway to us, are becoming really important to Iona's quest to understand every aspect of her world!

Potty talk

Yesterday I decided that Iona was old enough to begin seriously teaching her what a potty was for. I had previously bought her a potty training book second hand from the library, and we've looked at it several times. I'd also bought her a potty many months ago, but she'd screamed whenever I put her on it, so I'd given up at that time. Anyway, I brought the potty back downstairs, got the book out to read with Iona, and began teaching her "poo" and "wee". Teddy was also sat on his potty a couple of times. Iona wasn't too bothered to begin with, although by the end of the day she wasn't keen to sit on the potty.

I tried the same procedure again today, and then in the early evening Iona suddenly said "poo". To begin with I wondered what she was referring to, then, thankfully, I realised and whipped her nappy off. She barely sat on the potty, struggling and crying, but when she got away from it I found a "small deposit" left on the side. OK, she did the rest in her nappy shortly afterwards, but I praised her to high heaven anyway for telling me before she did it. It'll probably take a good few months yet, but at least the journey has begun!

Postscript - later in the evening Iona sat sideways on her potty, still wearing both her nappy and a great big cheeky smile directed at me, as much as to say "See, I can do it when I want to!".

The Older Man!

Well, it's been over a month since I last had time to write anything, and in that time Iona seems to have magically transformed from a baby into a full toddler! I can't believe how much she's changed and learned. She's picking up new words (or her version of them) all the time, and some of the Makaton signs for them, too. I've been trying to do a series of activities with her based on the theme of apples, and she used the sign for apple for the first time yesterday, which was exciting. She's also finally beginning to get the hang of walking, and loves to try to toddle all the way across the living room - at the moment it's 50:50 whether she makes it all the way across in one go!

Anyway, we went to the home education group at the soft play centre for the first time in several months today. It was nice to see everyone again, and Iona really enjoyed it, even though it was so busy with loads of other kids (apparently there was a party on, too). She was more confident than ever on the slide, and still loves the ball pool, although as it was the afternoon she was starting to get tired. During one of her stints in the ball pool there was a boy of about 8 playing in it with a younger girl (probably about 3), and Iona seemed to really take to him. She kept smiling at him, which he reciprocated, then when she slid down the slide and landed near him she leaned herself against him, smiling up at him with a winsome look on her face. Luckily he seemed amused, as Iona seemed to think it would be nice to rest against him, and she seemed quite happy to settle herself there, until Daddy and I decided it was time to be off. She definitely seems to have a thing for "the older man" - I think we'll have to keep an eye on her as she gets older!!

In's and out's of HE

For ages now I've been reading that Iona should be taking things out of containers and putting them back in - well the taking things out has been going brilliantly, but unfortunately not so the putting them in! Well, today we went to the Stay and Play session at the local children's centre and Iona decided to spend most of the time in the outside play area. They'd set up a sink full of water, with squashy fish and boats floating in it, and Iona was one of the children fascinated by this. Unsurprisingly, she started by taking the fish and boats out, and splashing in the water so much that she might as well have jumped in, her clothes were so wet! Then I watched, open-mouthed, as she put some of them back in the water - I was ecstatic! So much so, that I didn't have the heart to stop her splashing. She repeated it several times, so I began to believe that it might not be a fluke. However, I was a bit cynical about her repeating this behaviour at home.

Later, at home, the living room was a total tip where she'd been practising the "taking out" behaviour, so I started putting her building bricks away in their bag and asked her to help me. Incredibly, she put several bricks into the bag, before she got bored and started throwing them around the room. I even managed to persuade her back onto task again several times, before she started trying to empty the bag again. Okay, it wasn't just the bricks she was trying to put in the bag, but other toys too, but it's definitely a major advance in Iona's ability.

It seems to have been a day of advances, as she was asking during the evening about the ITV4 logo on the TV, and she was so taken with it that she spent the rest of the programme asking about it, then repeating "IT, IT, IT". She also got the idea that mice say "eek", which she also repeated copiously, and was very amused by the piano playing on "Show Me, Show Me".

Park Life

David wanted to go out for a trip today to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary trip, as it was supposed to be nice weather. Although we fancied the beach, it's such a long way from where we are that we thought a fairly local, but large, park might be nice instead. I'd only been once before, and David not at all, but there seemed to be a lot there so we could make a day of it.


As seems to be usual with a little one (well, that's my excuse!), we didn't get away 'til nearly 11, but it was only a 10-minute drive. We got out all our picnic and baby stuff, paid £2.10 to park all day, and walked across to the play area. It was absolutely packed with screaming kids, and David, in particular, wasn't keen to stay there, but there was so much that Iona could play on if we were prepared to wait for our turn. First we had a go on the see-saw, with Mummy on one end and Daddy holding Iona on the other. Then, after a little wait, Daddy pushed Iona on the swing. I've been to the park with her a few times, but this was Daddy's first time to do so, and I think he enjoyed it. We also gave Iona a couple of goes on the smallest slide, as she can just about go down on her own now.




I'd brought a lunch, which we ate in a shelter by the duck pond, then Iona was very keen to have a go on the panda ride. She'd never tried one before, as I wanted David to see her first time, and all of them around here seem to cost a pound. They also say the minimum age is 3, but nearly 2 years seems a very long time to wait for her to have a go, and this one was only 20p, so I persuaded David to let me try her on it, with me holding her tight. Once she got used to it she really enjoyed it, humming "brrmm" as she rode, and even starting to sing.

Afterwards it was back into her pushchair then we walked through a much quieter part of the park, towards the craft village. There was a lovely view as we crossed a bridge over a little brook:

A little beyond it there was a lovely open space with benches where people were sitting and feeding the ducks and geese, so we joined them. Iona enjoyed watching the birds. although I think she misheard me saying "goose" and insisted on calling them "mmm" (i.e. "moo")! The craft village was lovely, with a honey shop, a gift shop, and some other shops that we didn't go in, such as "Paint a Pot". We passed through, then went to the tea room at the Orangery and bought some ice creams. We sat in a shaded spot by a lawn and enjoyed some lovely soft ice cream, David and I in cones and Iona in a bowl.


Iona then had the chance to crawl around on the lawn, although she preferred to sit, smile at the lady behind us and look cute!

Iona and I have been looking at, and talking about, trees lately, and she's even begun to call them "tr", so this was an ideal opportunity to reinforce it. She pointed at one while we were sat on the lawn, so I reminded her it was a "tree".



By now Iona was beginning to get tired, so we headed back to the play area, where we went past the donkeys and had a look at them. Iona has lately begun to click her tongue in a horse's hooves sort of way when she sees pictures of horses and donkeys, so I thought she'd like them, and she did. When I pointed out what they were she joined in clicking her tongue with me.






















I changed her into a swim nappy and tried to get her into the, by now incredibly full and noisy, paddling pool, but as soon as she felt the cold water she screamed and insisted on getting out. She wouldn't even sit on the side with me, but flung her arms around me and wasn't happy 'til she was up in my arms and going back to Daddy at the bench. We were all feeling the heat now, so decided to give up and go home after a coffee. However, there was the world's longest queue at the kiosk, so I suggested we go and have a look at the farm and cafe we'd seen on the way.


Iona was pretty sleepy, but perked up at the cafe, when I gave her her milk. We then walked 'round the farm, which only cost £1 each. It was quite small, though, and smelled really acrid. The animals were lovely, and Iona loved them all, especially the cows (she's always saying "mmm" for "moo" when she sees a toy or picture of a cow). We also saw some gorgeous piglets, one of whom was very lively and mischevious - it jumped up at the sty wall when I held Iona up to it to look over, and almost got her. I don't think it would have bitten her, as it kept sniffing and nuzzling at me, but it certainly surprised us all! We also saw a wonderful, huge Shire horse and her young foal. She was very friendly and happy for me to fuss both the foal and her, but David was quite nervous of me touching such a large creature who towered about a foot and a half over me!


By half past 3 our parking on the road was up, and we were ready for home. We were exhausted, but Iona enjoyed a great day out (as did we), and hopefully learned a bit more about the natural world in particular, as well as improving her physical abilities.

A Day in the Life

Well, this is the beginning of our blog, and I thought it would be an idea to start by looking at what Iona and I do all day.


9:00 Iona was awake in the night again several times - I think her teeth are bothering her again. Consequently, not only were David and I shattered this morning, but she woke up late, too. While I was in the bath, and David had gone off to his New Deal, I heard Iona chatting away to herself, so at 9 I went in to get her up. Very quick breakfast and get ready, then we hurried out at about 9.45. Unfortunately, for the first time in ages, there wasn't time to do Iona's Bible reading and prayer time before we went.


9:50 Mostly Mums Bible study at our church. Today, as it's half term, one of the other mums had her little boy there, too, so Iona had company. He's a couple of years older than her, though, so they didn't play together as such. While we worked through a study on prayer, Iona played with some of the church's toys, looked at a couple of home-made books I'd brought, and crawled up and down the aisle, as well as charming everyone there (the Bible study group and those preparing for the lunch club).


11.30 Arrived home before Daddy did. Put on a Dora the Explorer DVD for Iona - she adores Dora and Diego, and with some of her birthday money I bought her a set of DVDs, as we now can't get Nick Jr. I gave Iona the soft toy Dora and Diego that I made her for Christmas, and she squealed with joy throughout the programme. As I did Spanish at 'O' level, and I've spoken Spanish on holiday, I'm using Dora the Explorer to begin teaching Iona Spanish, both reinforcing the Spanish used in the show and speaking Spanish to her about it. I also made her the soft toys and am trying to insist that we only speak Spanish to them, to try to make bilingualism less confusing for her. While we watched the DVD I worked on setting up this blog.





12:00 Daddy arrived home, and one by one we had lunch. When I started weaning Iona I tried to insist that she had all her meals in her high chair in the dining room, but it gets quite lonely in there and is less comfortable than the living room. Consequently, most of her meals these days are taken on the run, which is far from ideal. She ate most of her cheese, avocado and potato salad, then carried on playing with her toys, especially her car. She got this from her Uncle Graham and Auntie Hiroko for her birthday, and loves sitting on it, going "Brmmm" while I push her to and fro.


1:45 By now, Iona was getting really tired, lying herself down on her chair, so Daddy took her up to bed, while I continued work on the blog.


3:00 While Iona was asleep, I took the chance to take the dog out for a walk. I try to take Iona out with Lori a few times a week, other activities allowing, but it's not easy as Lori is not keen on other dogs. The path in the local woods is quite narrow, so if we meet another dog we really have to go off the path into the undergrowth. Lori and I quite like doing that, but it's virtually impossible with a pushchair - roll on Iona being able to walk herself!


4:00 After getting a little shopping on the way, Lori and I arrived home to find Daddy had got Iona up, although she hadn't wanted her milk. She was playing on the floor, making mooing noises about her toy cow. This is one of her definite "words" lately, being used consistently for cows. I sat on the floor with her and we looked at the "Farm Animals" book I made for her, featuring laminated photos of animals we've seen, along with some photos off the web, all with hand-written labels. I sang "Old Macdonald Had a Farm" to her, illustrating it with the book and her toy cow, then we read "Poppy Cat's Farm", which we've borrowed from the local library. She enjoys going to the library, and it's really handy, although it's a bit awkward when she now is beginning to get over-fond of any particular book. After all this hard work, Iona was ready to drink nearly all her milk, then back to the serious business of playing with all her toys, with a little help from Mummy.

6:30 David made himself dinner, while I kept an eye on Iona, then I microwaved a chicken stew David had made earlier, for Iona to have. Once again, she ate in the living room, occasionally being distracted by her toys or the TV, which we have on more often than I am now happy with. Pudding was some strawberries, which she loved, and she had a little very diluted red grape juice for a change. After Iona had eaten, David kept an eye on Iona, and played some tickly games with her, while I made and ate my dinner - the problems of having a veggie and a confirmed carnivore in one family!

8:00 After dinner, Iona continued to play with her toys, climb on Mummy, ask for her bubbles ("Bu"), and look at her library books, then it was time for her bedtime milk drink. Virtually since her birth I have tried to sign to her, using Makaton, which I trained in when I worked with adults with learning difficulties for 18 years. It was originally devised, not merely to enable people with learning and speech difficulties to communicate, but also to help them develop their spoken language, so I always figured it should do the same for babies. Then, lo and behold, along comes Baby Sign, saying the same. Anyway, Iona did initially try to sign "Daddy", and it looked like the signing would come on well, but she seemed to decide to go straight to talking! These days, the only word she deigns to sign is "milk", which she does whenever she drinks it. After milk it was time for teeth cleaning then bed, although Iona was still bouncing with energy. For the last few weeks, since she figured out how to stand up in the cot, no sooner have I put her in her cot than she's up holding on to the bars again, while I read her her bedtime story. At the moment we're reading "The Phantom Tollbooth", which I loved as a kid, and which I started with Iona, a chapter at a time, 3 days ago. Although Iona still seemed to be raring to go when I finished the chapter, I said her prayers for her, laid her back down, tucked her in, and got all her teddies to kiss her goodnight, followed by me. Then, fearing an imminent summons from a lonely toddler, I headed back downstairs.

9:15 Finally able to get some time to myself and with David! Surprisingly, Iona seemed to go to sleep really quickly tonight, so David and I were able to watch "Off by Heart", about children learning poetry, and go on the computers. Can't stay up too late, though, as I'm expecting a couple of summonses from Iona during the night again!