Happy Time

Daddy and Eve in Arnos Vale Cemetery this weekend.

Yesterday morning as Daddy strapped Eve into her pram, ready for me to take her to nursery, Eve looked at us and said, 'bye bye slide, bye bye swings, bye bye sponges, happy time.' She was of course referring to the lovely weekend that we have just spent together.

When I collected Eve on Friday, the nursery girls explained to me that Eve had spent most of the day in the Bouncies room, as the beginning of her settling in days. After saying hello to the moon on the way home, she excitedly told me how she had been out in the big garden. 

The garden off the Tweenies room which she is currently in, is really just a narrow balcony which doesn't get any sunshine. It's been fine for this past year whilst they've been younger, but when she moves into the Bouncies room it will be lovely for her to spend time in the big garden. During the summer if a Friday happened to be sunny, as a treat the Tweenies would be out in the big garden with the older children at the end of the day. Sam and I loved picking her up seeing her having fun outside in the wendy house and on the trikes.

I love looking up into the large window as I walk up the hill toward nursery in the evening. Sometimes Eve sees me, but even if she doesn't just seeing the kids running about playing is so sweet. I'm looking forward to seeing Eve's face behind the Bouncies garden gate instead soon. She will move up into their class in the middle of December when she turns two.

I must say that I'm really glad that I double checked with the accounts department of our nursery. I knew that the cost changes when a child turns 2 years, but I wasn't sure of the details. When they checked our account it turned out that we've been wrongly charged for the past few months, so Sam and I were owed £200 each. With nursery fees being so high to get this refund is a big help.

Getting in the festive spirit 

Christmas began at 5.45am on Saturday morning in our house (even though we haven't hit December yet). Sam and I woke up to hear Eve singing 'Jingle Bells' in bed. I took her downstairs and pulled out the Casio Keyboard. I found the pre-set Christmas songs and we blasted them out whilst dancing and clapping. Eve made me laugh a lot.

We headed to Lidl to do the shopping after our early morning shenanigans. Depending on what the item was, I handed it to her to put in the trolley. She's so funny; she would take something from me and say, 'gently' and would then fling it into the trolley. Not so good when it's a bunch of tomatoes! I told her what each product was as we went through the store, and she repeated each word after me. She always charms other shoppers in Lidl, with quite a few of them saying hello to her.

 Navi with Agnes, Jilly and Lamorna, and Elodie

On Sunday afternoon I took Eve in a taxi over to Bishopston in Bristol to celebrate Laura's birthday.

We spent a couple of hours chilling out together, playing with the children and eating birthday cake.

It was lovely to see my dear old friends. Our girls are so cute and played very well with each other.

Eve loved playing with Elodie and Agnes' toys and books

The electrics aren't working on our car so I didn't want to drive it, but getting a taxi was nice because it meant that I could point things out to Eve as we drove past. We looked at cool graffiti on Stokes Croft, and Eve just loved seeing all the twinkling Christmas lights down Gloucester Road.

On the way home in the taxi we got stuck in traffic. I was a bit worried that Eve was going to get upset, but instead she started singing 'The Wheels on the Bus,' which made our taxi driver laugh. When we got out of the taxi at our house, I said 'cheers' to the driver, Eve then waved at him and said, 'bye bye, cheers!' He drove off down the road laughing and waving.

Enjoying the rocking horse at Laura's house

Eve loved squidging this frog. 

I asked her what it was and she said, 'frog, rrribbett, rrribbett!'

Me with Lamorna

Eve had a very happy weekend, and even played her toy saxophone successfully for the first time. Unfortunately she pretty much only ate meat, pasta and yogurts and refused to eat anything else during the weekend. On Sunday the poor girl found it difficult using the potty. I took boxes of raisins to nursery and asked them to try to get her to eat as much fruit and veg and water as they could, but when I collected her last night she was upset and had not had a good day due to a sore tummy.

I gave her a fruit smoothie as soon as we arrived home, then she wandered about wailing. I managed to soothe her to help her use the potty. She was much happier by the time that Daddy arrived home. Daddy says that we have to change tactics and be firm with her. I often give in on the weekends rather than battling her at meal time. Generally she eats very well at nursery, and pretty well at home. When she doesn't have the other children there eating fruit and veg next to her it's more difficult to get her to eat these things. Daddy is going to make his special vegetable pasta sauce tomorrow when they share the morning together. Fingers crossed that will go well.