Amelia loves what's inside her stocking
Amelia's new toys.
Thursday 30 December 2010
Christmas morning
Twas the night before Christmas.
Amelia loves what's inside her stocking
Amelia's new toys.
Amelia loves what's inside her stocking
Amelia's new toys.
Tuesday 28 December 2010
Games we play
Dear Mia,
You're now 19 months old and are sitting here next to me watching the Simpson's while I ponder how lucky your mum & I are to have you in our lives. As I am trying to gather my thoughts, you are now becoming very active on the couch, now that the Simpson's are on a commercial break and are jumping all over me.
You are one funny little girl. You are active and have a wonderful sense of imagination, you seem to catch on very quickly to any games I make up, even when you were even younger than now.
One of your favourite games was playing 'rocketwoman'. You used to sit on my lap and I would have my knees up tucked into me so you could rest your back on them. I would then proceed to count down (like a space shuttle lift off sequence) and then when I reached zero, I would hold you up in the air like a rocket propelled space woman. You would giggle and 'fly' around until it was time to land safely back into the launch zone. We would play this game until my arms got tired. I loved seeing your smiling face and hearing you giggle.
As you got older, you became more robust and hence loved the more robust sort of games. This included, being swung from your ankles from side to side. You would giggle and laugh while you were being swung and then when you landed, you would say the word 'again' I had to limit it to 3 turns only though as I would get tired! But also because I don't think that much blood rushing up to your brain would be all that good! You also love to hold my hands as we walked around in circles until you or I got dizzy - most usually me - and on the odd occasion I would swing you around by the arms when we got the right momentum. Unfortunately your mum wasn't a fan of the swinging around bit, so we eventually just walked around in circles until the dizziness claimed us. You love playing with your stuffed animals and small figurines making them dance on the couch arm and then throwing them down and saying 'oh no'. I would then proceed to toss them back to you while you lay there enjoying the sensation of having stuffed animals landing on or near you on the couch. More recently you love it when the stuffed animals snuck kisses to you. We would play with the animals where I tried to make them kiss you and you would try to knock them down. Your favourite would be the white tiger trying to kiss you while you used a variety of other stuffed animals to deflect the tiger's kisses..
There's so many other games we played that I could go on for days. Some other memorable ones included playing aeroplane (where I would fly you around the flat carrying you to different rooms) and playing 'hide and seek', where I would hide under my Oxford University sweatshirt's hood while you clambered over me to see whether I was awake or not.
We have so much fun together. I hope that it continues for the rest of our lives together. You are the best, most funniest girl I know and I love every single moment I have with you whether spending time reading your cbeebies magazines, playing games or just hanging out together. I love you very much little Mia, I just want you to know that.
Love you!
Dad
You're now 19 months old and are sitting here next to me watching the Simpson's while I ponder how lucky your mum & I are to have you in our lives. As I am trying to gather my thoughts, you are now becoming very active on the couch, now that the Simpson's are on a commercial break and are jumping all over me.
You are one funny little girl. You are active and have a wonderful sense of imagination, you seem to catch on very quickly to any games I make up, even when you were even younger than now.
One of your favourite games was playing 'rocketwoman'. You used to sit on my lap and I would have my knees up tucked into me so you could rest your back on them. I would then proceed to count down (like a space shuttle lift off sequence) and then when I reached zero, I would hold you up in the air like a rocket propelled space woman. You would giggle and 'fly' around until it was time to land safely back into the launch zone. We would play this game until my arms got tired. I loved seeing your smiling face and hearing you giggle.
As you got older, you became more robust and hence loved the more robust sort of games. This included, being swung from your ankles from side to side. You would giggle and laugh while you were being swung and then when you landed, you would say the word 'again' I had to limit it to 3 turns only though as I would get tired! But also because I don't think that much blood rushing up to your brain would be all that good! You also love to hold my hands as we walked around in circles until you or I got dizzy - most usually me - and on the odd occasion I would swing you around by the arms when we got the right momentum. Unfortunately your mum wasn't a fan of the swinging around bit, so we eventually just walked around in circles until the dizziness claimed us. You love playing with your stuffed animals and small figurines making them dance on the couch arm and then throwing them down and saying 'oh no'. I would then proceed to toss them back to you while you lay there enjoying the sensation of having stuffed animals landing on or near you on the couch. More recently you love it when the stuffed animals snuck kisses to you. We would play with the animals where I tried to make them kiss you and you would try to knock them down. Your favourite would be the white tiger trying to kiss you while you used a variety of other stuffed animals to deflect the tiger's kisses..
There's so many other games we played that I could go on for days. Some other memorable ones included playing aeroplane (where I would fly you around the flat carrying you to different rooms) and playing 'hide and seek', where I would hide under my Oxford University sweatshirt's hood while you clambered over me to see whether I was awake or not.
We have so much fun together. I hope that it continues for the rest of our lives together. You are the best, most funniest girl I know and I love every single moment I have with you whether spending time reading your cbeebies magazines, playing games or just hanging out together. I love you very much little Mia, I just want you to know that.
Love you!
Dad
Friday 17 December 2010
Terrible Twos...
Hi Mia,
So these last few weeks have been a little trying for me, your dad and yourself. I think you're entering into the terrible twos. Even though you're only 19 months old. There are days where I'm positive that if some gypsies came by offering a good price, they'd have a brand new (to them) slightly used toddler. Let's just say that you are running on a very short fuse lately! You're just so smart. And it's finally occurred to your dad and me that you understand a lot more than we give you credit for. You quite often do things to test the boundaries and sometimes you're just plain cheeky!
For example. In our flat here in Eamont Court, we've got the Christmas tree set up. You love this tree, you love finding the 'Mimi' ornaments and you especially love eating the candy canes with me that are hanging on the tree. We've put up a little gate barrier around the tree so that you don't pull it over on yourself (you've already tried to do this twice). And your new thing is to shake the gate. It's not stable at all, and not safe for you to shake it, so I've had to get tough with you. I've started instigating time out, and when you shake the gate, if you don't stop after I've warned you, I pick you up and take you to the time out spot. I'll sit there with you until a minute or so has passed, and then I give you a hug and tell you that we don't shake the gate. The first day I started this, we had to go to time out at least 5 times. Now, you've got a fun new game where you'll shake the gate (just a little) and look at me. Not quite with a daring expression, but more of a 'I know what you're going to do next" look. Now I say, 'go sit down' you race to the 'time out spot' and sit there. Sometimes for a few minutes, usually just for a few seconds. I think you've completely turned my attempt to discipline you into a game. So now I'm not sure what to do!
But despite your naughtiness, you're still so charming. Lately you're back into snuggling, only for a few minutes and only on your terms, but I'll take it! I love when we cuddle together. You're so smart. You are learning so many new words. There's a show on Cbeebies that this week you've really started to ask for, it's called 'Something Special' and it's about a clown guy called 'Mr. Tumble'. You call him Bumble. It's so cute. You point to the tv and say 'Bumble?' I never taught you that word, you picked it up on your own.
You're also so much your father's daughter. Your dad has a habit of sitting on the carpet and picking lint. I don't know why he doesn't just get the vacuum, but that's what he does, he picks stuff off the carpet. Lately, you've started doing the exact same thing. You're always bringing me little fluffs of carpet, or tiny crumbs and handing it to me and saying 'Thank you'. You're so cute and proud at what a helper you are. Also, if we give you a napkin, you're more than happy to bend down and wipe the floor with it. Hopefully this attitude will continue when you're a teenager!
Tonight we had our friends Thao and Chau over for dinner. You were a pill! You cried every time you looked at Thao and demanded that you sit on my lap for dinner, rather than your high chair. I gave into you tonight, because we wanted to keep the peace, but I can't wait until you grow out of your stranger anxiety.
Still working on leaving you in nursery, you still won't let me out of your site, but I have faith that it will eventually happen. You're growing up so fast, it's not going to be long before you're begging me to leave you alone so you can hang with your friends. So I guess I better enjoy this while it lasts. :)
So these last few weeks have been a little trying for me, your dad and yourself. I think you're entering into the terrible twos. Even though you're only 19 months old. There are days where I'm positive that if some gypsies came by offering a good price, they'd have a brand new (to them) slightly used toddler. Let's just say that you are running on a very short fuse lately! You're just so smart. And it's finally occurred to your dad and me that you understand a lot more than we give you credit for. You quite often do things to test the boundaries and sometimes you're just plain cheeky!
For example. In our flat here in Eamont Court, we've got the Christmas tree set up. You love this tree, you love finding the 'Mimi' ornaments and you especially love eating the candy canes with me that are hanging on the tree. We've put up a little gate barrier around the tree so that you don't pull it over on yourself (you've already tried to do this twice). And your new thing is to shake the gate. It's not stable at all, and not safe for you to shake it, so I've had to get tough with you. I've started instigating time out, and when you shake the gate, if you don't stop after I've warned you, I pick you up and take you to the time out spot. I'll sit there with you until a minute or so has passed, and then I give you a hug and tell you that we don't shake the gate. The first day I started this, we had to go to time out at least 5 times. Now, you've got a fun new game where you'll shake the gate (just a little) and look at me. Not quite with a daring expression, but more of a 'I know what you're going to do next" look. Now I say, 'go sit down' you race to the 'time out spot' and sit there. Sometimes for a few minutes, usually just for a few seconds. I think you've completely turned my attempt to discipline you into a game. So now I'm not sure what to do!
But despite your naughtiness, you're still so charming. Lately you're back into snuggling, only for a few minutes and only on your terms, but I'll take it! I love when we cuddle together. You're so smart. You are learning so many new words. There's a show on Cbeebies that this week you've really started to ask for, it's called 'Something Special' and it's about a clown guy called 'Mr. Tumble'. You call him Bumble. It's so cute. You point to the tv and say 'Bumble?' I never taught you that word, you picked it up on your own.
You're also so much your father's daughter. Your dad has a habit of sitting on the carpet and picking lint. I don't know why he doesn't just get the vacuum, but that's what he does, he picks stuff off the carpet. Lately, you've started doing the exact same thing. You're always bringing me little fluffs of carpet, or tiny crumbs and handing it to me and saying 'Thank you'. You're so cute and proud at what a helper you are. Also, if we give you a napkin, you're more than happy to bend down and wipe the floor with it. Hopefully this attitude will continue when you're a teenager!
Tonight we had our friends Thao and Chau over for dinner. You were a pill! You cried every time you looked at Thao and demanded that you sit on my lap for dinner, rather than your high chair. I gave into you tonight, because we wanted to keep the peace, but I can't wait until you grow out of your stranger anxiety.
Still working on leaving you in nursery, you still won't let me out of your site, but I have faith that it will eventually happen. You're growing up so fast, it's not going to be long before you're begging me to leave you alone so you can hang with your friends. So I guess I better enjoy this while it lasts. :)
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