June 2005 Archives

Well, it seems inevitable for a child with Maxie DNA, that when learning to talk, after she's gotten the staples out of the way ("yesh", "NO!", "Mammy!", "Daddieee!"), that her next major word would of course be....... "Boogie".

Yes, other parent's out there in the CBeebies generation may be familiar with a program called "Boogie Beebies" - a cheap and cheerful sort of show aimed at getting kid's to exercise through dance, while slowly driving their parents insane with it's repetitive, kid-oriented music.

Being that Emily watches most of her TV off Tivo, we have editorial control over what we offer her. We tend to avoid Channel 5 and Nick Jr shows, mostly because of the horrible adverts, and stick with CBeebies shows mostly. They tend to be nicer, and generally with at least a slight education slant. Roly Mo is a particular favourite or ours... ahem, I mean her's.

I don't remember that we selected Boogie Beebies as one to record, so I guess she might have seen it on 'ordinary TV'. But now she is hooked.

"Booogee. BOOOOGeee. BOOOOOOGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" she will cry, pointing to the TV and escalating her insistence, until we find an episode and put it on. Then she watches with intense concentration, and occasionally joins in with some movements.

The one fortunate side effect of it so far, is the latest episode, "Football shimmy", features a bunch of kid's kicking balls around at Upton Park! So, while she is watching, in the background on the stands, the words "West Ham United" are being subliminally absorbed into her impressionable mind. Resistance is futile........

Maybe it's those dancing genes of Max. Maybe it was taking her to a Baby Rave. All I know is that if I hear the words "Yo, Ho, Yo HeeHee, a pirate gang is the life for me" one more time, I might be doin' some pirate killin' of me own. Me Hearties. Arrrr.

See a video clip of "Booogeeeee!" (Quicktime Required).

Well, I made it through my second Father's Day on Sunday. I got a bit of a lie-in, followed by a lovely fry-up for breakfast. And pressies!

A book to read to Emily, called, appropriately "My Dad" (although I can't see the likeness - the Dad in the story is quite the chubby fellow....). Two audio CD's of comedy (The Mighty Boosh and Seinfeld), and a lovely silver frame with my girl in (the little one) for my desk in work. All topped off with a homemade card, background by Emily, and some illustration help from Maxie (although, again, slight mistake - 'me' in the card illustration a bit on the chubby side).

I'm enjoying the early year's of Father's Day, where I get mum-selected pressies, as I expect that in year's to come, I will be getting some Emily selected/made stuff, that I will have to say 'Ohh, lovely' and display proudly for an appropriate period of time. You know, the kind of 'executive toy' tat they keep with the boxer shorts in Marks and Spencer's. But, as you realize when you become a parent, it REALLY is the thought that counts.

I can't believe that we totally forget to post about Emily's first visit to an open farm! We took her to a local open farm called 'The Ark' about two weeks ago. She is always interested in animals on the tv, or in books and is quite adapt at doing all the different animal noises (except for pig she just squeezes her nose, which is very cute).

But we were so wrong to think she would run around, point at the animals, moo and baa and stroke the baby lambs. It was like we had taken her somewhere to be tortured. She REALLY hated it and didn't know what to make of the animals at all. She stood in the middle of the yard as far away from them as she could. If we tried to take her closer to see the cute little babies she cried and shouted 'noooooo'. The only times she got close to maybe thinking it was ok was when we picked up the little chicks for her to stroke (which she still wasn't completely happy about but she didn't cry), and when I caught her squeezing her nose when she was looking at the pigs.

So all in all her first visit didn't go down too well. We even thought we had traumatised her because when we asked her to do the animal noises later on, she said 'noooo'. Well maybe next time she will be happier.

We bought a potty a while ago, just so that Emily could get used to it being around. She doesn't mind sitting on it with her clothes on but she is really not keen on how it feels on her bare bum. So we knew the time wasn't quite right for full on potty training.

But now it seems a lot closer. Two things happened today. The first, this morning while at Granny's house, she pointed to her bum and said 'poo-poo!', i asked her if she had done a poo and she said 'yesh' and indeed she had!

Then this afternoon, while upstairs playing with her toys, she put the changing mat on the floor, got a nappy, the wipes and cream and started tugging at her nappy. At first I thought it was a game but sure enough, when I checked, there was another 'poo-poo'!

So maybe the potty training is not too far away after all. For some reason I am quite nervous about this, I am sure it is straight forward enough but I am quite apprehensive of the whole affair, including the hazardous 'no nappy - carpets' scenario.

Although, as I mentioned previously, Emily has entered a contrary stage, she also keeps doing a whole lot of unbelievably cute things. She is becoming clearer by the day and although she is not talking her vocabulary is growing day by day.

She is now saying daddy where she previously just said dad. She has got the 'mom' sorted perfectly and is using it all the time now! Even as I speak Warren is bathing Emily and she is shouting 'Mommmm'. She is trying to copy what we say all the time and today on the way to her friend Ellie's house, she kept saying 'ey-ee' (as in Ellie) all the way in the car. It was too cute! Even funnier is that she keeps taking one of Warren's U2 CD's off the shelf, pointing to the Edge and saying 'Daddy'!

Another new form of communicating is pointing. If she wants to walk down the stairs instead of being carried she points to the stair. If she wants to do something other than is asked she points to the opposite eg. eating on the sofa instead of at the table. Also she likes to point to her hands if she wants something in them, particularly Cheerios or biscuits.

I was telling my mom today, about how Emily can be really good but she has a real naughty streak and has definitely entered the testing phase. She reminded me of this poem which made me laugh:

There was a little girl
with a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good
she was very very good
but when she was bad
she was horrid.

I wouldn't say that Emily was horrid but I thought the poem was quite apt.

Today, while at her grannies she stole grannies choccy biscuit when she wasn't looking! She also proceeded to do everything I asked her not to do.

Yesterday she hit a shop assistant on the legs (very bad and very embarrassing). I have no idea what that was about.