Noonah and Maia went out on an expo-tition yesterday after school. The park was wet, so they went to Tesco and Homebase (fun fun fun!) While at Homebase, Maia was playing in a little toy house. I called up to see what time they were going to be home, so I could cook food.
Maia got on the phone and started telling me what she was up to. Suddenly, she seemed to realize that it would be much more fun to go and play rather than talk to me. So, she said
'Bye Mummy! I am just going to go and check my email!'
And off she went.
It is the spookiest feeling when they mirror back what you say. I am going to have to make sure we keep up the good work on not swearing. She would pick that up in a second.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Can't Argue With That...
Bathtime
Maia was engaged in cleaning the tiles beside the bath while I washed her. (Aside...does it make me a bad mother if I am secretly hoping she might clean for me when she grows up? Probably does, hey?)
Anyway, while scrubbing the tiles, she found a little yellow mark she couldn't remove. We tried soap, bubbles, baby wipes, shampoo and elbow grease but nothing would shift it.
She asked what it was, and I answered 'A stain.'
'A stain? It is because it stays there even when I clean it.'
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I imagine they call innate logic.
Maia was engaged in cleaning the tiles beside the bath while I washed her. (Aside...does it make me a bad mother if I am secretly hoping she might clean for me when she grows up? Probably does, hey?)
Anyway, while scrubbing the tiles, she found a little yellow mark she couldn't remove. We tried soap, bubbles, baby wipes, shampoo and elbow grease but nothing would shift it.
She asked what it was, and I answered 'A stain.'
'A stain? It is because it stays there even when I clean it.'
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I imagine they call innate logic.
333 - The Mark Of The Clown
So, another weekend, another birthday party. This time, her classmate Adam was three and we went to (guess where?) Gymboree to celebrate.
All well and good, with the same branded games and songs and sales opportunities, until the very end. We were just collecting the goodie bags when they whipped out a stamp and purple inkpad. Before you could say Marketing Tactic, Maia had The Mark Of The Clown on the backs of both hands and the tops of her feet.
Pretty hard to get off too...not even the Mighty Baby Wipes would shift it. I think a session of completely branding free play is the only way to remove it. Homemade playdoh coming up.
All well and good, with the same branded games and songs and sales opportunities, until the very end. We were just collecting the goodie bags when they whipped out a stamp and purple inkpad. Before you could say Marketing Tactic, Maia had The Mark Of The Clown on the backs of both hands and the tops of her feet.
Pretty hard to get off too...not even the Mighty Baby Wipes would shift it. I think a session of completely branding free play is the only way to remove it. Homemade playdoh coming up.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Garners Get-Together
We spent Sunday afternoon with the Garners, who very kindly allowed us to gatecrash their Family Get-Together before our trip back up to Sheffield.
Maia took a couple minutes to suss out the rest of the kids, and where she fit in - age, will and strength-wise.
Tom (5) and Charlotte (almost 3) are Tanya's two. Nishi (5) and Maia (2) are Mandy and Gustavo's oldest. Layla, Mandy and Gustavo's new baby, is only about 6 weeks old, and therefore wasn't included in Maia's sizing up exercise. She knew, if push came to shove, she could take her. The others, she wasn't so sure about.
It took her about 20 minutes to come up with a strategy. She would play with Charlotte and Maia, no problem. She would play with Tom and Nishi, unless Tom got boisterous, and then she would run as fast as she could to the nearest adult and seek protection. It seemed to work pretty well. Incidentally, the Other Maia and Maia got into a verbal tussle over Who Was Maia. We won.
The range of hair and skin colours on show made the group look like refugees from a Benetton advert. Nishi is the darkest skinned, with deep brown eyes and dark hair. Other Maia is lighter skinned but with the same curly, chocolatey hair. Tom is fair with auburn hair, Charlotte is olive toned with dark hair, and Maia is fair and honey blond. All we needed was a Swede and a Nigerian, and we would have sold loads of jumpers.
After a brief break for sausages, someone got out the paddling pool and garden hose. At the mere mention of water, they all stripped off, and within seconds were descended upon by Mothers Bearing Suncream. Benetton be banished - now they looked like a gang of multi-cultural wood nymphs, cavorting in the afternoon sunshine.
David made his play for Favourite Grown-up early on, with an energetic and very well received round of Spin Me Round...He would grab the nearest child by the arm and leg and spin them around in the air, all the while making pretty good airplane noises. As soon as one child was put down, to wobble off the dizziness, the rest would rush at him shouting 'Me next! Me next!'
Gareth's game of Hide and Seek was more popular with the adults then the kids. Not surprising, given that it was geared more towards getting the little 'uns to go somewhere and hide quietly while we could drink wine, but he was soon rumbled.
Maia was hugely reluctant to put her clothes back on when it was time to go. I only managed to get her dressed after she realised that she couldn't slide down the slide with a bare bottom, which meant our departure was delayed by 20 minutes while she fully exploited her new slidiness.
The trip back was pretty hot and sticky and she was a bit fractious (or perhaps I was. It had been a very Maia-intensive weekend.) As soon as we got home, we zoomed through bath in record breaking time and she zonked out as soon as her head touched the pillow. Lot of material for happy dreams this weekend.
Maia took a couple minutes to suss out the rest of the kids, and where she fit in - age, will and strength-wise.
Tom (5) and Charlotte (almost 3) are Tanya's two. Nishi (5) and Maia (2) are Mandy and Gustavo's oldest. Layla, Mandy and Gustavo's new baby, is only about 6 weeks old, and therefore wasn't included in Maia's sizing up exercise. She knew, if push came to shove, she could take her. The others, she wasn't so sure about.
It took her about 20 minutes to come up with a strategy. She would play with Charlotte and Maia, no problem. She would play with Tom and Nishi, unless Tom got boisterous, and then she would run as fast as she could to the nearest adult and seek protection. It seemed to work pretty well. Incidentally, the Other Maia and Maia got into a verbal tussle over Who Was Maia. We won.
The range of hair and skin colours on show made the group look like refugees from a Benetton advert. Nishi is the darkest skinned, with deep brown eyes and dark hair. Other Maia is lighter skinned but with the same curly, chocolatey hair. Tom is fair with auburn hair, Charlotte is olive toned with dark hair, and Maia is fair and honey blond. All we needed was a Swede and a Nigerian, and we would have sold loads of jumpers.
After a brief break for sausages, someone got out the paddling pool and garden hose. At the mere mention of water, they all stripped off, and within seconds were descended upon by Mothers Bearing Suncream. Benetton be banished - now they looked like a gang of multi-cultural wood nymphs, cavorting in the afternoon sunshine.
David made his play for Favourite Grown-up early on, with an energetic and very well received round of Spin Me Round...He would grab the nearest child by the arm and leg and spin them around in the air, all the while making pretty good airplane noises. As soon as one child was put down, to wobble off the dizziness, the rest would rush at him shouting 'Me next! Me next!'
Gareth's game of Hide and Seek was more popular with the adults then the kids. Not surprising, given that it was geared more towards getting the little 'uns to go somewhere and hide quietly while we could drink wine, but he was soon rumbled.
Maia was hugely reluctant to put her clothes back on when it was time to go. I only managed to get her dressed after she realised that she couldn't slide down the slide with a bare bottom, which meant our departure was delayed by 20 minutes while she fully exploited her new slidiness.
The trip back was pretty hot and sticky and she was a bit fractious (or perhaps I was. It had been a very Maia-intensive weekend.) As soon as we got home, we zoomed through bath in record breaking time and she zonked out as soon as her head touched the pillow. Lot of material for happy dreams this weekend.
Charlie's Party
As an experiment in Staying at Someone Else's House, it was not an unqualified success. As a Birthday Party, it was pretty good.
Charlie is 4 weeks older than Maia, and this Saturday we went down to Weedon to celebrate with him, his parents, grandparents, 27 of his closest buddies and their siblings, dogs and assorted hangers-on. It was quite a gathering.
We are planning Maia's party at the moment, and Saturday (while fun) definitely confirmed to me the virtue of Keeping the Numbers Down. Policing a tug-of-war over a draught-excluder snake between two dogs, an 8 year old I don't even know and three toddlers is not the way I wish to see in Miss Maia's 3rd year.
Maia and Charlie haven't seen each other since The Havell Boys were christened a couple of months ago. They were a bit standoffish with each other at first (probably swamped by the numbers) but after everyone had gone, they spent the best part of two hours running back and forth, excitedly bossing each other about.
Bath time was hilarious. Charlie has an extensive collection of little squirty toys. They are tricky to work, but he is a pro. The shark, in particular, was Maia's favourite. She tried to make it work, failed, got bored and put it down. At which point Charlie picked it up and squirted her. Interest piqued again, Maia picked it up, tried to make it work....failed, put it down again. At which point...
They did this back and forth about 4 times. After the fourth or fifth time getting squirted with something she had proved to herself didn't work, she took the low tech approach and splashed him full in the face. Then ensued a full scale water war with a soundtrack of excited giggles.
Bed time was less successful. Maia is pretty good about going to sleep in her own bed now, but it still takes a good 1/2 hour before she is asleep. Charlie only has to look at a pillow and he is off. So, in a strange room, hyped from the day, she wasn't going to go down easy. In the end, Pat lay down with her. From the contented snores that emanated from the room the 3 times I went to check, I don't think she was the only one sleeping...
Next morning, we were woken by Lisa and Austin's puppy, Milligan, snuffling around our heads. Maia had been collected, blearily, from the top of the stairs to join us downstairs in bed at about 3am and was annoyingly perky for it being a mere 4 hours later. As the Sunday was Charlie's actual birthday, she spent the morning 'helping' him open his presents. At times she was far more interested in the opening than he was, but when the bicycle came out, she was all about the present. He wasn't that fussed, but she almost pushed him aside to get at it. We had a word about sharing, and how it was Charlie's bike etc etc, but by that time she was off!
So, mantra for Maia's birthday - Keep The Numbers Down, Buy A Bike.
Charlie is 4 weeks older than Maia, and this Saturday we went down to Weedon to celebrate with him, his parents, grandparents, 27 of his closest buddies and their siblings, dogs and assorted hangers-on. It was quite a gathering.
We are planning Maia's party at the moment, and Saturday (while fun) definitely confirmed to me the virtue of Keeping the Numbers Down. Policing a tug-of-war over a draught-excluder snake between two dogs, an 8 year old I don't even know and three toddlers is not the way I wish to see in Miss Maia's 3rd year.
Maia and Charlie haven't seen each other since The Havell Boys were christened a couple of months ago. They were a bit standoffish with each other at first (probably swamped by the numbers) but after everyone had gone, they spent the best part of two hours running back and forth, excitedly bossing each other about.
Bath time was hilarious. Charlie has an extensive collection of little squirty toys. They are tricky to work, but he is a pro. The shark, in particular, was Maia's favourite. She tried to make it work, failed, got bored and put it down. At which point Charlie picked it up and squirted her. Interest piqued again, Maia picked it up, tried to make it work....failed, put it down again. At which point...
They did this back and forth about 4 times. After the fourth or fifth time getting squirted with something she had proved to herself didn't work, she took the low tech approach and splashed him full in the face. Then ensued a full scale water war with a soundtrack of excited giggles.
Bed time was less successful. Maia is pretty good about going to sleep in her own bed now, but it still takes a good 1/2 hour before she is asleep. Charlie only has to look at a pillow and he is off. So, in a strange room, hyped from the day, she wasn't going to go down easy. In the end, Pat lay down with her. From the contented snores that emanated from the room the 3 times I went to check, I don't think she was the only one sleeping...
Next morning, we were woken by Lisa and Austin's puppy, Milligan, snuffling around our heads. Maia had been collected, blearily, from the top of the stairs to join us downstairs in bed at about 3am and was annoyingly perky for it being a mere 4 hours later. As the Sunday was Charlie's actual birthday, she spent the morning 'helping' him open his presents. At times she was far more interested in the opening than he was, but when the bicycle came out, she was all about the present. He wasn't that fussed, but she almost pushed him aside to get at it. We had a word about sharing, and how it was Charlie's bike etc etc, but by that time she was off!
So, mantra for Maia's birthday - Keep The Numbers Down, Buy A Bike.
Monday, July 11, 2005
Party for Alex and Isabel
Maia was invited to celebrate a classmate's 3rd birthday this week. Alex and his sister Isabel have birthdays scarily close together (they are 3 and 2 respectively - gasp!) so it was a joint operation. Held at Gymboree on the Ecclesall Road (the In place to be for Sheffield under 5's) there were probably 30 kids there - most bringing along a parent or two. Quite a gathering.
As an aside...Gymboree is a lesson in Getting Branding In Early and Parting Parents From Their Cash. All the songs somehow shoehorn the brand name in there, and oh look! You can buy the CD! They play bubble games, and oh look! Branded bubbles! They do clothes, shoes, games, toys, parties, activity centres. They are the Tesco of the Toddlers. And of course, we will be returning.
Anyway, Maia started off in her Mellow Yellow dress. Very soon, she realised that the dress, pretty as it was, was not letting her run about and climb and jump in the way she wanted to. After a few unsuccessful trials at tucking it into her knickers, we decided to change into the other party clothes I had brought. (Check me out! Talk about preparation. Think I might be getting the hang of this parenthood thing.)
Part of the joy of the day was to see just how much in demand Miss Maia was with her peers. She spent most of the time running about with New Bestest Friend Kassy. Three sets of parents came up to me to say how much their child talked about Maia. I wittered something about her being a very sociable girl and really liking the school and her class. Well, I couldn't very well tell them that she only really talked about IsabelVerginty and Kassy, could I?
We ate sandwiches shaped like hearts, managed to avoid too many e-numbers and I made friends with Kassy's mum, Tammy. All in all, a pretty good party. And for one that doesn't involve champagne, that is good going.
As an aside...Gymboree is a lesson in Getting Branding In Early and Parting Parents From Their Cash. All the songs somehow shoehorn the brand name in there, and oh look! You can buy the CD! They play bubble games, and oh look! Branded bubbles! They do clothes, shoes, games, toys, parties, activity centres. They are the Tesco of the Toddlers. And of course, we will be returning.
Anyway, Maia started off in her Mellow Yellow dress. Very soon, she realised that the dress, pretty as it was, was not letting her run about and climb and jump in the way she wanted to. After a few unsuccessful trials at tucking it into her knickers, we decided to change into the other party clothes I had brought. (Check me out! Talk about preparation. Think I might be getting the hang of this parenthood thing.)
Part of the joy of the day was to see just how much in demand Miss Maia was with her peers. She spent most of the time running about with New Bestest Friend Kassy. Three sets of parents came up to me to say how much their child talked about Maia. I wittered something about her being a very sociable girl and really liking the school and her class. Well, I couldn't very well tell them that she only really talked about IsabelVerginty and Kassy, could I?
We ate sandwiches shaped like hearts, managed to avoid too many e-numbers and I made friends with Kassy's mum, Tammy. All in all, a pretty good party. And for one that doesn't involve champagne, that is good going.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Blasted
I was in London when the bombs went off. I was way down in Battersea, staying with Hannah, and miles away from any danger. We got a call from Andrew, who had driven up to Sheffield very early in the morning, telling us to turn on the TV. We watched events unfold with horror. I wasn't able to look away, terrified of what I was seeing but unable to switch off.
Whether it is a trick of genetics, social conditioning or just true love, the first thing I wanted to do was come home, give Maia a kiss and make sure that she was OK. Even though the chances of terrorists attacking Meersbrook are pretty limited, I wanted to be with her and make sure she was safe and well. More than that, I just wanted to hold her.
The police, security services, Transport For London - everyone was advising people in and around London to stay put. So I did. Hannah and I stayed up late into the night talking about stuff, shell-shocked. I drove back today, and I am going to go and pick Maia up now.
I guess they are different issues, but it seems so sad that something like this should happen today. After all the optimism generated by the Make Poverty History campaign, the G8 really felt like an historic opportunity for the most powerful men in the world to at least try to do something about The Big Stuff. The poverty that kills a child every 3 seconds. The curable diseases that make daily raids on Africa and carry off people in their thousands. The man-made climate crisis we seem incapable of halting, even though we know how to.
The juxtaposition of the hope and optimism that motivates those goals (compromised and messy though the result will always be) and the hatred that is expressed through blowing up people is so stark. But then maybe that is not really a discussion for a blog about my baby.
Speaking of, gotta go. I need to hold her for a bit.
Whether it is a trick of genetics, social conditioning or just true love, the first thing I wanted to do was come home, give Maia a kiss and make sure that she was OK. Even though the chances of terrorists attacking Meersbrook are pretty limited, I wanted to be with her and make sure she was safe and well. More than that, I just wanted to hold her.
The police, security services, Transport For London - everyone was advising people in and around London to stay put. So I did. Hannah and I stayed up late into the night talking about stuff, shell-shocked. I drove back today, and I am going to go and pick Maia up now.
I guess they are different issues, but it seems so sad that something like this should happen today. After all the optimism generated by the Make Poverty History campaign, the G8 really felt like an historic opportunity for the most powerful men in the world to at least try to do something about The Big Stuff. The poverty that kills a child every 3 seconds. The curable diseases that make daily raids on Africa and carry off people in their thousands. The man-made climate crisis we seem incapable of halting, even though we know how to.
The juxtaposition of the hope and optimism that motivates those goals (compromised and messy though the result will always be) and the hatred that is expressed through blowing up people is so stark. But then maybe that is not really a discussion for a blog about my baby.
Speaking of, gotta go. I need to hold her for a bit.
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