Child development: theory vs practise

When I was at school, one of my favourite classes was child development.  I enjoyed learning about what it would be like to have a child, how it would grow and develop, but it was all theoretical, just words written in books.  Although I got an A without too much difficulty, nothing prepares you for the reality and the feelings of love and pride you will have in your child, even when they do the smallest thing which to anyone else would be of no significance.  Over the past few weeks I've been watching Aurora play a lot and just enjoying the experience, witnessing her learning and development firsdt hand, as it happens.  She has progressed from picking up toys, shaking them and then dropping them to actually playing with them, doing things with a purpose, developing her imagination through playing her own little games which no one understands but her.  One of her favourite things to do is play in the kitchen.  She opens the cupboard with the plates and bowls and gets out all the plastic ones (not the breakable ones though, she has figured out the difference and knows they are off limits).  At first it was just frustrating, having to pick it all up and put it away again several times a day so we don't trip over anything, but when I actually watched her play with them and what she did with them I realised she was learning.  She was learning about stacking, the difference in size, shape and colour.  When she tried to carry 3 bowl separately, she realised it was difficult, so she stopped and stacked them, making the task far easier.  She has also started stacking the coloured rings on one of her toys, rather than just tipping it up side down and leaving it, thinking that was what it was for.  She doesn't yet get them in the right order, but she is learning.  Same with her little wooden puzzles and her plastic farm and animals.  Another of her favourite things to do is pretend to be on the phone.  She loves playing with the actual phone or our mobiles, but also he toy phone and often hands it to me so I can pretend I'm talking to someone.  She often walks around the house the house holding some random object to her ear and talking.  I so wish I understood what she was saying.  One of the things I love most is when she walks up to me with a big smile and then hands me something she has found with such pride.  Items can vary from a toilet brush, a soggy peice of tissue, an empty packet she has got out the bin, or an item of clothing she has removed from a radiator or washing basket.  It's often inconvenient, but the look on her little face more than makes up for it.  It times like thios when I'm so glad I'm a stay at home mum.  I can't imagine leaving her every day and missing out on these moments, they are truly priceless.

Autumn fun!

 

 

Last week I looked out the window and noticed all the wonderful colours and blanket of leaves that only autumn brings. I decided to take Aurora out the front to play on the grass and test out the new wellies.  She didn't get into it right away, but after I threw the frisbee a few times and she brought it back she started having fun.  Someone walked past as we were playing in the trees with a fluffy little dog.  She had a great time stroking and playing with the dog, but it was short lived, luckily the nieghbours cat came along.  I almost feel sorry for that cat, as she would not leave it alone.  She was only trying to stroke it, but she was chasing it all over for about half an hour.  It kept hiding in the bushes, then coming out when he thought it was safe, but there was Aurora, waiting!

Fun at Grandma's

During her 2 month visit back to England from Dubai, we went to visit Aurora's grandma in Darlington and had lots of fun!

Summer of Fun!

This summer we had our first proper holiday as a family with Aurora.  We didn't go abroad or do anything fancy, we just went to stay with family, Giles and Beth and the kids, but we had great weather, a great olympics and great fun.

The first day we went to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in Watford to see the Harry Potter sets as Tristram's late birthday present.  We had a great time looking at the sets and the props from the films, being in the great hall and Privet Drive, having a go on Hagrid's motorbike, the Weasleys' Ford Anglia and the Knight bus.  It was a lot of fun but it was a long day for poor Aurora who got very tired.  We went into the shop on the way out and brought sugar quills for Jack and the girls and Honeydukes chocolate for ourselves.  On the way back we stopped at Shirley's house.  She was there with Riley, but sadly Dustin couldn't make it because he missed his bus.  Lori was away that weekend too, but it was really good to see Carrie and Rob with their boys, including Tommy who was just a few weeks old and seemed so small and light compared to Aurora, but she had fun playing with her second cousins and the toys.  In the evening, as we did every evening (and many mornings and afternoons) while we were there, we watched the olympics with Giles and Beth.

The second day we went to church in Basingstoke and saw the Toomeys.  It was a shame we only saw Robert, Denise, Lee and Erin as all the others were away, but it was still nice to see them and spend time with them.  We went back to their house afterwards as well which was nice as it meant we got to really talk to them.  We also saw their great niece and nephew who came over as well, which Aurora enjoyed becuase there was a boy to play with and copy.

Monday we went to visit Michaela and the girls and see her new house.  It was very noisy and hectic with so many children, but it was a really nice day and Aurora enjoyed spending time with her cousins. 

Tuesday was Ebony's birthday, so we had a little celebration at breakfast and spent the rest of the morning just at home.  In the afternoon Ebony wanted to go shopping to spend her money, so we had a nice girly shopping trip and ate lots of sweets.

 Wednesday was mostly spent at home, the kids playing outside and on the trampoline.  Aurora loved playing outside with them, especially Jack's tractor, which Jack wasn't very happy about because he was very attatched to it and didn't want to share.  We also went geo-caching.  It was a new experience, we'd never done it before but it was a lot of fun and good exercise. 

On Thursday we went to visit an old abbey near to where they live.  It was great weather so we had a picnic, then we all climbed a huge tree and played hide and seek in the grounds.  After everyone was tired of the game we went to the river and some of them went for a paddle, not us!  It was very tiring but very fun.  It was so good to be outside in good weather with good company.  We also met some friendly cows along the way which Ellie affectionatley named Daisy and Noisy. 

On Friday we went to the play park.  It was good but very crowded and a little too hot.  There wasn't much Aurora could do because when the sun was out, a lot of the equipment was too hot for her to touch for long and the swings were very busy.  It was nice to sit in the shade tho and have an adventure in the trees.  That evening after a nice BBQ, we came home. 

Aurora is 1!

We recently celebrated Aurora's first birthday (3 times).  Yes she is 1 year old already, how time when you're having fun, and it has been a lot of fun so far, with a lot more to come I'm sure.  The night before, we had a special family home evening with Seth and Hannah, where we sang to Aurora and ate muffins.  The weekend after her birthday we visited grandma in Darlington, who had a special Princess Aurora cake, so we lit a candle and sang to Aurora. 

The acual day was a lot of fun. We watched Aurora open her presents as a family, then after breakfast we went to a baby group where we played with flubber and sang songs, including happy birthday.  On the way home we stopped at McDonalds and Aurora had her 1st happy meal with chicken nuggets which she loved, especially the Fruit Shoot.  We then stopped at Asda and Aurora played on the moving car which she also loved.  After sleeping off all the morning's fun she spent the afternoon playing with her new toys until daddy came home and we had a nice family meal and the special pink, sparkly cake I made her.  It was a really great day!

  

Our Little Princess So Far

8 Months Old!

My baby is 8 months old tomorrow and what a great 8 months it has been. She has progressed a lot. She has 3 teeth, 2 on the bottom in the middle, which she got just before 5 months, and 1 on top on the left, which she got just last week, but she has been very good about teething up 'til now. She hardly ever cries, but recently has had a cold so hasn't been quite as happy as usual, especially when she's tired. But despite the discomfort with the coughing and finding it difficult to breathe at night, she doesn't cry about it and wake us up, she just lies there. Same when she wakes up early in the morning, if it's before 8am we leave her and she just talks to herself and toys or goes back to sleep. I love it, I love going in to get her in the mornings and seeing how happy and excited she is to see me, the way she smiles and waves her arms and legs around.

She's doing so many cute things now; she talks (kind of), she says dada, mama and Aurora. Sometimes she looks right at Tristram and it really sounds like she says 'hi dada', although I don't know if it's intentional, I hope so. Yesterday I said to her, "Do you love mummy?" and it sounded like she said "and dada." She has also started talking to the TV and her toys, sometimes I watch her when she doesn't realise I'm there and it seems like she's playing some sort of game with them and I find it so cute! She squeals a lot, usually with excitement, but has also developed another rather unique sound that can only be described as a growl. She used to only do it to show her disapproval, but because of the reaction she has had she now seems to do it for entertainment. Twice in the last week she has had an entire room full of people laughing with her comedy timing, making the noise as soon as the room goes quiet so she gets everyone's attention. It's not the most pleasant sound, it's quite irritating in fact, but she does make me laugh. She also has a number of interesting facial expressions. Many times she has had me laughing for a good few minutes, just by the way she looks at me. She doesn't properly laugh very often, but when she does I can't help but laugh too, I think she thinks I'm a crazy person. She can't crawl yet, she's very close but just hasn't quite figured it out yet and just gets frustratedwhen she tries. She's very good at standing though, she only needs very little support and can stand for several minutes. She's a little bit too ambitious though, she's determined to climb, which requires my assistance, but doesn't want to be held so doesn't get very far. Poor baby. She's such a good baby and I love her so much!

So it's been a long time since I last updated and I've been pretty busy, but will try and do better this year. So I have a lovely daughter named Aurora who is now five months old and doing great. On last weighing she was 16lb and seems big for her age. We are currently in week 2 of the weaning process and it's a messy business! She is loving eating food though and gets very excited, which is part of the problem. She is very good, she'll eat pretty much anything, she may pull faces but if you persevere she'll finish it. She likes brocoli which is good, but looks like some kind of monter when she does as she gets covered in green goo! I take her swimmung every week which she also loves, she really likes her baths at home and loves to splash around, so the swimming pool is just like a step up from that. She tries to swim, sometimes I wonder what would happen if I just let go, but I couldn't do that. We have been doing a baby massage class together the past few weeks which is enjoyable and relaxing, but she gets upset when the other babis there cry. She is a very happy baby and is very sociable and good with people, even people she doesn't know and will smile at anyone who gives her attention and people always tell me how good she is. She is a very good sleeper and really suits her name, as she sleeps 8-8 every night and more than 2 hours during the day. I love the stage she is at now and part of me just wants her to stay that way forever, but I am looking forward to her getting bigger and being able to do more things. She's my little angel.