Weed On in Weedon

It was my own fault - I was excited to see Lisa, my friend from antenatal classes, and so forgot to offer Maia a pee after our journey down to Lisa and Austin's house in Northants.

Charlie and Matthew were getting christened, so Maia was in a lovely green Church-Church Party Dress. It had great big pink flowers all over it, and a really full swishy skirt. So, off we went, Maia to play in a playhouse in the garden, me to find Lisa to catch up. After a while, I joined Maia in the playhouse. Suddenly I heard a splashing noise, and saw the look of surprise on Maia's face as she got caught out. Ah.

Amazingly, due to the fullness of the skirt she managed to miss getting the dress wet at all. We had a quick shower, borrowed a pair of pants and socks from Charlie, put on the wellies that had been lurking in the car and we were good to go.

A more eclectic outfit than originally planned, but that often happens with Maia. I am sure God didn't mind.

Maia Says 'Knickers' to Boredom

Noonah, Maia and I went to Meadowhall on Saturday to buy some essentials for Noonah's holiday, a present for Charlie and Matthew's christening, and to return a skirt bought in haste and repented much.

Shopping with Maia is a bit of a trying experience at the moment. She is at the stage where she wants to do everything By Herself, and therefore resents general safety measures like holding hands in crowds. She is also a magpie, and will have colourful beads and knick-knacks if you don't keep a close eye.

Noonah gamely offered to look after Maia while she returned a skirt to Zara, while I ran off to do some SAS-style targeted shopping in BabyGap.

While talking to the shop assistant in Zara, Noonah bunched a bit of her long black skirt in Maia's hand and instructed her to 'Hold on'. This she did for a while. Then she got bored.

She decided to hold the skirt in her other hand...but that didn't hold any great excitement. She then decided it would be much more fun to dive under Noonah's skirt, and make a tent. Noonah figured it was as good a place as any - at least she knew where she was.

Then, bored of the SkirtTent, Maia looked up, grabbed hold of the knickers so conveniently placed within reach, and yanked.

This produced a much more satisfying result - suddenly she was the centre of attention again! Noonah swooped her out of the SkirtTent, and finished her transaction while trying to subtly rearrange her undergarments.

We are pretty used to Maia trying to get publicly naked at every opportunity, but she has never before tried to enforce it on any of us...

Hannah Bannannah and the Pink Snails

Like royalty, or a sometimes benevolent tin-pot dictator, Maia dishes out the tasks of taking care of her to those around her. This weekend, the household (and therefore, Her People) included Hannah, who came to stay on Thursday night. Now, Maia already knows she likes Hannah. Hannah has a very natural way with kids - always crouches down to talk to them, and is interested in what they are doing without a hint of embarrassment or condescension.

During the day, Hannah and Maia spent some time playing in the garden...spotting spiders that jumped and deciding that snails weren't pink. Later that evening, Hannah was bestowed a rare honour. She was allowed to Read A Bedtime Story.

An honour indeed, probably of higher ranking than being allowed to accompany Maia while she pees. Maia took evident delight in the fact that Hannah really got involved with the story book (a task in itself, given Maia's insistence on a totally non-linear picture book that pretty much lists a series of animals under nigh-on arbitrary headings....'Noisy' 'Wild' 'Spotty' etc etc.) Then again, Hannah is an actress, so probably used to being asked to read odd things by people. Checkov, anyone?

Anyway, Maia enjoyed the experience so much that she tried to prolong storytime to well past the normal 20 minutes. In the end, I went in and swiftly brought proceedings to a close with a run through of Mog and Bunny. She settled down pretty quickly after that, and I hope she dreamt of pink snails.

Mission Impeccable Meets Match: Self Determination

Mission Impeccable is going ok - apart from that one (very public) failing to wear nice stuff, I have been doing pretty well. As has Maia.

Until now.

Self determination has hit, and that means she decides what she wants to wear. She really enjoys the process of selecting her clothes for the day, and if she looks somewhat eclectic, then who cares?

For example, today she went to school in a dark blue teeshirt with a picture of a monkey on the front, aqua shorts with a rather fetching seahorses print, and blue raindrop wellies. All pretty co-ordinated, but still a little odd. We have sent a change of clothes to school with her, but as Mrs Hunt seemed to be quite taken with the 'Summer Rainshower' look, I am not convinced she will come back in anything different.

In Innocentia Veritas

Noonah and Maia went swimming yesterday at Pond's Forge. I took the opportunity to sit up in the viewing platform and read my book. In fact, I spent so much time laughing and clapping and showing proper appreciation for the splashing and jumping and kicking that Maia was doing in the pool below that I didn't really get anywhere with the book. Anyway, she loved it, and we are going to make it a regular weekly event. Next week, we have agreed that she will Put Her Face Underwater.

On the way home, Maia was chatting away, narrating our journey. On the turn into our road, the subject turned to Where She Lived.

"Upper Albert Road. Number 42a. Alec lives here. Mummy lives here. I live in Upper Albert Road" and so on... We turned into the drive and Maia said "Is Daddy here?"

"No, darling" I replied, "Daddy is in Barcelona at the moment."

"But he lives there" she said, insistently pointing forward.

Misunderstanding, I said, "No, sweetie, he lives here with us, he just visits Barcelona for work."

"No" she said, pointing at the garage, "He lives there!"

Now, Pat would be the first to admit that his garage-based music room has been seeing a lot of him, especially this weekend when his friend and Whatever's Clever bandmate, Steve, came to stay. However, although hobbies are important, when your kid thinks you live in the garage, it might be time to moderate the time spent on them...

Arts and Crafts

This afternoon looked like rain, so our planned afterschool park expedition was cancelled. To make up for it (and for the fact that as soon as we had decided not to go, the sun came out, in a somewhat mocking manner) Pat and Maia sat down to some quality time with the new craft set. Now this is a craft kit to beat them all...it has feathers, glue, stickers, colourful foam buttons, glue and glitter. But most of all glitter.

I left them happily squidging away with glue and making nice colourful splodges, and I returned to a silver glitter explosion. Apparently, glitter, when poured onto the table when Daddy is looking at something else, creates an amazing picture. There was glitter on the table, all over her chair, on the floor, in her shoes, in her hair, all over Daddy, liberally sprinkled on the fruit bowl and her new monkey.

I got out the vacuum cleaner and began to hoover it up. After trying to wipe the glitter off Miss Maia and failing, I hoovered her too. She then took off all her clothes and ran about - twinkling away like a tiny Tinkerbell Godiva. I have a feeling this one will run and run.

Adventures with Alec and Sarah - Wella Fancy That!

Alec and Sarah had a dinner party while Noonah, Pat and I were away. Their friends Joel and Nikki came round. Apparently, Nikki was a HUGE hit with Maia Miss M.

The first thing Nikki said to Maia was 'Haven't you got lovely hair!'

Maia smoothed down her locks with her palm and said 'It is Goldilocks hair. You can buy it in the shops.'

Nikki now wants to come and babysit...

Spot On

After dinner, Maia sat down to do some colouring. Grabbing a pink crayon, she dotted the paper with spots.

'It is got chicken pox!' she said, eyes wide. Noonah and I laughed.

There was a notice on the door to the Beehive (her class) saying that another case of chicken pox has been reported. So we decided to ask Maia who else had chicken pox in her class.

'I have.' she said. 'Oh no you haven't.' we said 'You are all better now.'

'Umm...IsabelVerginty!'

'No...IsabelVerginty is back in school. It can't be her...who else might have chicken pox?'

'Ummm...Kate.'

'Ah ha.'

Later, after she had dotted the paper with a few more spots (blue, this time) Noonah said 'It is like Kate - she has chicken pox as well'

Maia looked at Noonah, eyes wide as if to say 'REALLY??'

Chinese whispers - toddler style.

A Saturday Spin in the Park

We had a group expedition to Meersbrook Park on Saturday. Maia had four of her peeps in attendance: Alec, Sarah, Mummy and Daddy. Everytime we go to the park, as soon as Maia sees the swings she starts yelling 'Hello Swings! Hello Slides! Hello Roundabouts!' It certainly makes for an entrance. This trip was no exception. There were lots more people in the park than our normal afterschool trips, so her precociousness was cool and mildly embarrassing in equal measure.

Maia loved having so many people to join in with her playground activities. She would holler 'Swings!' and then point to the person that had the honour of pushing her that time. As Alec and Sarah were heavily into the spinny things, it was mainly Pat that got to do the pushing.

She has figured out which of the eight spinny things is the Very Best (the yellow one) and makes a beeline for it as soon as we get through the gates. Some of the other kids also like the yellow one, and I have started a couple of 'Hellowillyoubemyfriend' conversations with their parents over the mild squabbling, grudging sharing and eventual bonding over the Yellow Spinny Thing.

This trip, there was a group of three friends (two women and a man) there, all with toddlers and tiny babies. I started up a conversation with a red-haired lady called Imogen, who had a tiny baby strapped to her front, and a toddler haring about getting his trousers filthy.

I suppose the strangest thing about it all (apart from the feeling that I have been transported back fifteen years, and am again the New Kid In School) is that the only thing that we have in common is that we have bred. We haven't met through work, or a hobby, or because we go to the same pub or bar or restaurant, but because we have managed to procreate. I am sure I will find some friends who have babies, and I hope some of them will come from meeting in the park. I just wish it was as easy as it looks for Maia. I need an adult equivalent of the Yellow Spinny Thing.