September 2005 Archives

I can hardly believe Emily is two. It really is true that children emphasise the passage of time. It only seems like yesterday that she was born. I suppose I will be saying that every day! Well she had a great day.

The theme for Emily's birthday was a Teddy Bears Picnic, with teddy invites, party bags and cakes (as demonstrated above, Emily took great pleasure in helping cut out the teddies!). I was hoping I could get Warren to dress up in a big furry teddy bear suit, but no such luck. All the teddies came down to play and everyone had a good time. We took a few digital photos (plus aps ones which have yet to be developed), they're not the greatest but at least its a record of the days events.

She was totally spoilt and had tons of presents. Thanks so much everyone. We tried to be restrained when getting her gifts, its just as well the amount she received from everyone else. She had a ball opening them all and is totally getting the hang of this party lark. A very social little girl! We had a party later which was fun for both the adults and the kids, although I was completely knackered after everyone had gone.

I think I go a bit crazy when it comes to Emilys birthday, with all the organising and everything. But I enjoy it, I really do. Mind you this is a mad week with only one birthday free day so we will just have to see how much energy I have for it all in the future!

Happy Birthday my gorgeous little girl!

Do you like what we've done with the place?

The burning buses and cars? The recreational rioting?

Belfast over the last few days hasn't been very nice. We are save and far enough away from the trouble to not worry about us, but it means that you get calls in work, saying that trouble is starting, and you'd best leave early to make sure you get home, and you end up not able to go out in the evenings. Which is a bit crap.

But this blog is about parenting and Emily - what's this got to do with it? Well, it makes you think the old "is this where I want to bring up my child?" question. I grew up through it, and it hasn't made me a terrible person, but once you've lived away for a few years, you get used to not having to worry about stuff like that, and you become all the more resentful of becoming almost a prisoner in your own home until it finishes. I don't know if I would want Emily to "get used to it".

We're used to it in July, but that doesn't make it OK. And now it's September and it's happening. It makes you wonder how often you should tolerate it before you change something.

But the trouble is that it's a beautiful country to live in when this rubbish isn't happening....

I hear Canada is a nice place.... ;)

I can't remember the last time I posted about Emily's development. Sometimes I look at her and I can't believe how much she has progressed and how big she seems. Where's my little baby?! She just seems like such a grown up these days.

Her language skills have come on so fast. Over the past couple of months she has gone from trying to say the odd word to practically holding conversations with you. It has even got to the point now where we have realised that she listens to every word you say and even joins in the conversation! We are really going to watch what we say now. She is copying everything and trying to say a lot new things very successfully, we only have to say something once and it sticks. She can even count to ten! We think this is just brilliant!

Yesterday morning was hilarious. I was dressing her and asking her what she wanted for breakfast. She said she wanted Cheerios. She then said 'Mommy Cheerios' and I said to her "Is mommy having Cheerios too?" She confirmed what I would be having for breakfast and then I asked her what Daddy was having for breakfast and she said "Broccoli"!!! This just made my day. I am laughing just thinking about it. I think I should've put Warren a plate of broccoli out and made him eat it!

Look what I bought yesterday! The woman in the shop probably thought I was a complete loon because I nearly jumped up for joy and gave her a big kiss when I saw that they sold these!

I had been looking for them everywhere, but it seemed places had stopped stocking them. Mom even managed to find a supplier of a similar one on the web but with no supply details. So when I walked in the little shop in Bangor yesterday it made my day (who would've thought I could get so excited by a potty).

You see, Emily's friend Cameron (who is now 6) had one and now uses it as a seat in the garden (the potty bit comes out and there is a lid to convert it into a chair) and Em loves playing with it when we are round his house. Also, because she is getting quite tall the little floor potties look so uncomfortable, its no wonder she hates sitting on them.

I am going to let her get used to playing with this for a while as a chair and build up to the actual nappies off time and hopefully by then she will love it. Fingers crossed.

Well if things hadn't become topsy turvy, with me being knackered and Emily being sick I would've got around to posting this entry sooner. We both had a fantastic time in Bilston. It was nice to actually spend a good few days there and hang out with my mom in the day (she's a teacher so off work in the summer). We got the tram into Birmingham one day, which was very exciting for Em and shopped till our legs felt they were gonna fall off! We even came across an old fashioned carousel which Emily and I had a ride on- huge fun for both of us (photos to follow as I had my old fashioned film camera with me). We went to a couple of car boot sales where we picked up lots of toys for Emily, as you can see in the photos (courtesy of moms digital camera) including the tricycle for 50p! Bargain! These are staying in Bilston so that Emily has lots of toys to play with next time she visits. I also picked up a few bits and pieces myself, including fabric which I will be adding to my growing pile waiting to be made into something.

So all in all a great time was had by all. Em really took to Grandad as well on this trip and even managed to pronounce his name properly.

Unfortunately when we got back Em fell poorly, as I am sure you have already read from Warren. It turns out that she has a urinary infection and a dose of antibiotics (which she will only take when bribed with chocolate - not as nice as calpol) has bought her fever down and she is much better now. We just have to keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't reoccur - otherwise I will have to have more success in getting a sample. Needless to say I had no success in getting one this time, Emily really doesn't like her potty at the moment and nothing will get her sitting on it happily.

At least health is back to normal in the Black household. And photos too! Things are looking up.