FULL OF SMILES, ANTICIPATING BISCUITS!

THERE'S A MESS IN THE KITCHEN

I've been so busy for the last 2 days that (as usual) the kitchen's been neglected and it's obvious, very obvious.

Yesterday - work and the general exhaustion that follows it.

Today - I dropped Alice off at the beginning of the drop-off time and went on to Coventry. Bought clothes and some Christmas presents, didn't manage to find ELC to use the birthday discount voucher (so ordered online when I got home!) I got back to Alice's school in plenty of time and sat and listened to the radio (it was nice to stop for a while). Home to usual post-nursery chaos, dirty uniform, lunch bag to sort, proper supper to provide (usually it's a snack after a proper lunch, but that reverses on nursery days), bedtime and then where did the evening go? Bejeweled Blitz's newest version!

MAKING CAKE

(after A's 3rd birthday party last weekend)

REMEMBERING

We sang 'Happy Birthday Grandpa', he would be 65 today, it's the 8th birthday we've remembered without him.

We went to A's birthday party today, it got me planning Alice's party as it will be at the same place. I came home and had a trial run at Alice's cake. I wasn't sure about the capacity of the shaped cake tin. When it was (eventually) cooked and Alice had gone to bed, I had another practice - icing it! Then I couldn't resist putting 3 candles down the middle and remembered Grandpa as I blew them out for him. The result of the cake test was fine, as usual the finer details are the bits that I need more practice at and I probably need to find a different way to do them.

Also remembering 25 years ago - was the day I started boarding school. That day is etched on my memory, most of all the devastation of being left there - I was well prepared for what was going to happen but I hadn't thought through actually being left there! We had a welcome tea with our tutor in the main dining hall, I remember Mum's horror when another parent (a famous rockstar's ex-wife) produced the embroidery silk and asked what it was for, Mum had spent many evening using the silk to embroider my initials on every piece of sports kit (and many more naming everything!) I can remember feeling very lost and following a girl from my form, she was tall and had blondish, curly hair - so she was easy to spot in a busy corridor!!

PRACTISING

. . . for school. Alice will go for 2 full days a week and so she has to have a packed lunch. We've been practising - unzipping the bag, unpacking the lunch, taking lids off, eating, repacking etc. For a first try it didn't go too badly, we'll try again tomorrow. Hopefully she won't get it all over her and everyone else on Friday!!

(Photos from a few days ago - as usual Alice was more intereseted in food than the camera. In the second photo she was playing peek-a-boo with her lunch bag!)

PACKED LUNCHES

Alice starts her new nursery this week. Hopefully this is the first and last change as her new school teaches to 18 years old!!

They have a strange system, the children who do a whole day in nursery obviously have to have lunch, while the rest of the school have to have school provided meals, the nursery children have to have packed lunches! Alice will be attending for 2 full days a week.

I've bough Alice all the necessary bits - an insulated bag, new drinks bottles, new sandwich containers, but I'm still worried about what to put into them. She doesn't like sandwiches and whilst she eats well it's usually with me at her side prompting her to carry on. I know she's fine on cheese, berries and other fruit and yoghurt but I'd like a few other ideas on what to include?

Is anyone else in the same situation? Any ideas?

Also any ideas for encouraging them to repack everything I send - I anticipating losing lots of boxes and spoons!

THE CAKE!

Last night Alice helped me to make a cake for today's adoption anniversary.

This morning she decided that she'd better check it tasted OK - so she took a bite!

I decorated it 'simply' with a Chinese character, I hope I got close to the meaning that I was seeking, but it probably says something like, 'my dog has bad breath'. Anyone brave enough to guess what it says, or clever enough to tell me what I actually iced?

ALICE UPDATE - BEHAVIOUR, FOOD, TEETH, PT AND SLEEP!

Alice's behaviour has been quite challenging at times recently. Until now, as long as I'd prepared her well enough and talked situations through in advance, everything would usually be OK. Now all bets are off. She doesn't want to cooperate as often and as more vocal in her objections.

Eating is becoming more of a challenge too. At about 2 years appetite is supposed to suppress as physical development switches to mental development, this didn't seem to happen for Alice - her capabilities have expanded incredibly (as expected) but her appetite didn't really reduce. However in the past few months catering to her appetite has become a challenge - the number of foods that she'll eat has decreased significantly, as has the amount she eats. I usually serve her main meal at lunchtime and that's not too bad, but at suppertime I usually give her a choice of more snack type meals and increasingly she refuses most offers, only eggs are a guaranteed success (but she can't eat them EVERY night!)

Teeth - there's finally sign of her 2 year molars, the bottom ones have broken through (but still need to grow up) and are causing some distress, especially at night. Still no sign of the top ones. I have a feeling this could drag on for a few more weeks (or even months).

PT is going very well - she goes several hours between visits and is more reliable about whether she needs to go or not, though I'm still being more persistent at crucial times (before journeys etc). In recent weeks the only changes of clothes that she's had at nursery have been due to nappy failures at nap times or adventures playing with water! There've been more changes at home, several a day for a few days and then a week or more of success.

Sleep has been patchy. Alice is back to napping consistently at nursery but won't at home, but a car journey at the right time of day induces sleep in minutes - Alice wasn't great at sleeping in the car until she gave up naps! She's back to sleeping in the cot almost every night, she seems to be calmer through the night when she's in the cot. But she's also taken to waking as I go to bed - last night she wouldn't settle, so she came in with me with some very strict rules (staying over her side, not kicking or hitting mummy, we both sleep or she moves back) and it worked - I'm still talking through what I expect before bedtime when I remember and those nights seem to be calmer.

All in all it's incredible how quickly she's changing and growing, but she's still wonderful and incredible - just in a more challenging way!

ICE CREAM

Alice hated ice cream when she was little, at just over 12 months it made her projectile vomit, last summer she learnt to like it (but took some persuading). At the steam rally a few weeks ago she had her first taste of soft cream, Mummy and Granny's favourite, Alice loved it - but she wanted it in a cone (she wanted to lick it not to eat it from a spoon). After that I bought some cones for home, since then Alice has had ice cream a couple of times, whilst it's a treat the scoop of ice cream is tiny and it takes her many minutes to eat it and it brings so much pleasure!

CAKE WITH GFN

2 facts about GFN - he has a very sweet tooth and he's really soft hearted, Alice loves him for both!

Just to clarify - Alice loves GFN. It wouldn't matter if he didn't have a sweet tooth or share his cake, Alice adores him - and that's before she realises how important he was in helping to bring her home.

YOU COULD SAY . . .

. . . that I'm a sucker . . . but Alice? Alice is a cruncher - of lollies that is!

This evening Alice had her first ice pop. Unsurprisingly she loved it! It was a blackcurrant pop but when I told her this she said, 'No Mummy white!' So then we had a conversation about flavoured water not being coloured and she was satisfied!

MORE BERRIES!

(Please ignore the contrasting T shirt and skirt - that's whats happens when you send a variety of clothes to nursery during potty training!)

On Thursday they did some 'cooking' at nursery - a fruit caterpillar (grapes on a wooden skewer with a strawberry for a head). Alice had her caterpillar and berries for supper at home, she loved it all!

The first time Alice had ice cream she DETESTED it and projectile vomited it back. That was 19 months ago, since then Alice has learnt to love it.

Today she loves it. GMA (at my direction) bought her a cup of soft ice cream with a chocolate stick in, I had a cone. Alice ate well but then decided she wanted my cone! As you can see she loved it! She wanted to lick the ice cream rather than eat it from the spoon, I had to show her how to lick around the cone, she soon caught on and sucked it up, but she didn't realise she could eat the cone too!

I love soft ice cream and I couldn't help thinking about Mum as she loved it too, Nick would have loved her ice cream beard - I think it's one of those quintessential childhood photos!

SLOW FRY!

We had stir-fry for lunch on Wednesday.

I'm trying to include more Chinese elements into our routine. Recently there's been some discussion about small children using chopsticks and so I decided that I'd give Alice the option to use them, she got the grip wrong but she was very proud to use them! She loves stir-fry, especially noodles, but it's a very slow meal for her to eat, luckily she doesn't mind eating it cold!

TONIGHT'S SUPPER

Alice (observing her sandwich), 'Cheeeese I fink, no, dram!'

'No like cheese, don't like cheese, NO LIKE CHEESE!!' Alice wittered whilst eating her JAM sandwich, cheese however is a firm favourite despite what she says!!

(I'm loving her company even more at the moment, she has such a wicked sense of everything and a cheeky grin too.)

And then she shouted, 'Sammich! Talk nicely!!' She makes me giggle even when I shouldn't!

A COMMENT

Thanks for the comments about food, you confirmed my thoughts and sometimes it nice to have that reassurance.

One reader (that's you Snick!) left a comment and ended with TTSP. Any ideas?

PARENTING EXPERIENCE NEEDED

We stayed at soft play for our lunch today, they have a child friendly (but not particularly healthy) menu. Alice had sausages, beans and chips and she ate every scrap.

Usually I cook her lunch and she doesn't get a choice of food, she has a snack style supper and she does get a limited choice. Tonight she wouldn't make a choice, this happens once or twice a week, but then (having made a supper that usually she'd demolish) she refused to eat more than a mouthful or too. I left her to sit at the table for a while, she drank a lot but didn't eat any more. In these situations, when she refuses a meal that I know that she likes, I give her some time to eat and then she gets down from the table - nothing is offered as an alternative and no pudding is provided.

I'm not worried as she'd eaten a good breakfast and lunch but I'd love to know what other readers do in situations like these, please leave a comment!

HOW TO EAT A NECTARINE - ALICE STYLE!

. . . in her hand is the skin of nearly half a nectarine and she's smooching the juicy bits all over her face and spilling it down her front!

In her own words, 'Sticky!!'

FOOD THIEF!

It will come as no surprise when I say that Alice LOVES her food.

Yesterday I had a complete sense of humour failure - Alice had a handful of blueberries from the pot that I'd put out for my supper, then I told her that was enough as they were for Mummy, within 5 minutes she came to me with the empty pot and told me, 'All gone!' whilst smerking. I was not happy, Alice quickly learnt just how cross I was as she went to bed early.

This morning she came to me and it was obvious that she had something in her mouth. She opened her mouth and showed me - the food looked like bolognaise sauce (we'd had some on Saturday but I knew that there was none left), then I realised that she'd stolen one of the dog's biscuits.

I think that FOOD might be her vice, I'm hoping that her tastes improve!

MY BERRY GIRL!

No one guessed correctly! Alice was devouring RASPBERRIES! The raspberries were from the freezer so they'd leaked a lot of juice.

She's loving berries at the moment, demanding raspberries for every meal, but happy to have blackberries or blueberries instead. With the gastric issues we've had recently I've had to be careful to limit her berry intake - otherwise she'd eat them exclusively for every meal. Her tastes have changed recently - the old favourites of sausages are barely tolerated and she won't even try yoghurt at the moment. Meanwhile 'dippy' (boiled) eggs and berries are by far the most requested foods.