Music time

Our catalogue of musical instruments for Eve grows by the day. The newest addition, which has been a great hit is the Lights and Sounds Drum by the Early Learning Centre. We picked it up for £1.50 in the baby charity shop. Such a great find. 

It has different settings on the sides which can be tapped to trigger music and sounds. The top of it can be hit to make sounds, it also lights up at the same time in a variety of colours. It can be rolled along the ground on it's side too, which starts the music playing and the lights flashing.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Early-Learning-Centre-Lights-Sounds/dp/B007QAVR0E

Sam and I are both passionate about music and feel that play-time with instruments is very important. Eve is a lucky girl and also has a rainbow xylophone, and a ukelele from the charity shop Sue Ryder. The ukelele was really good value for money, plus the money goes to help care for people in Sue Ryder's hospices and neurological care centres.

http://shop.sueryder.org/musical-instruments/ukuleles/rainbow-stripe-ukulele.html

There are a number of children's xylophones out there, so you can choose the type that you prefer for your child: plastic, wooden or metal. We love our wooden one, it's been perfectly made even though it's for kids. Each note is different and accurate.

One small instrument she is not keen on is the kazoo. After listening to Bill Bailey talk about an experience getting stopped at customs with a kazoo I remembered that we have one on our memory shelves in the hallway. 

I started tooting away on it at Eve, she looked rather worried. Sam told me to stop but I thought she might end up liking the sound - but no, she burst into tears!

Saturday marked the start of Eve's first vocal recording in Daddy's studio. Sam is very inspired at the moment and is working on a brilliant concept album. Eve and I went in this morning to see what he was doing, she liked grabbing hold of the studio mic so Dad quickly recorded her. Needless to say the tiny sounds (shrieks!) that she made with a bit of reverb sound amazing on the track.

I can't post a link to it yet as it's still a big work in progress. But you can see the screenshot below of her vocal in the recording. Eve's sounds are the bits in turquoise at the bottom.

Dancing about the flat with Eve is something that both Sam and I love to do. Whether it's to music on the radio whilst I'm washing up, a music channel on tv (we're so old now that we like to have the Vintage music channel on), or dancing to Daddy's music, Eve always seems to enjoy it as she waves her arms around wildly.

We also find that if Eve is upset with teething pain or similar, taking her into the studio to listen to relaxing music is very soothing for her and definitely calms her down. She shares her bedroom with Dad's studio so it's a good thing she likes it.

Eve playing the pads on Maschine in Daddy's studio

Eve is six months old

Our beautiful little girl is six months old today. I can't believe how fast it's gone. Honestly speaking the first 8 weeks seemed to go very slowly due to the fact that we went through tough times with feeding and sleeping. Thankfully due to the support we received from family and friends we got through it. Eve is now going from strength to strength. She weighed 15lb 1oz this week.

She's such a funny thing. Very cheerful, smiley and playful. She looks proud when she stands up (held up by one of us, she has a very good stance) or sits up (which she can now do by herself).

Eve has been enjoying purees and baby rice for breakfast and lunch for the last few weeks. Today we move onwards and have dinner too. Feeding is going well, though some days she eats lots of breakfast or lunch and other days not much at all. She definitely doesn't like parsnip that's for sure. I've tried a couple of times. On the last occasion she made rather loud sounds that she had not made before - I'm pretty sure it was her way of saying 'No'.  Daddy and I ended up eating the parsnip puree (with added adult seasoning n stuff) with a piri piri roast chicken last night - it was delicious! Now that she's six months we can start giving her finger food to play with and suck on. Sam and I are both very excited about this.

Last week on our way to meet Sam from work we stopped off at Portico soft play (just off Gloucester Road) for the first time. Eve was surrounded by squashiness - her little face was such a picture, she absolutely adored it! I'm looking forward to taking her again soon with Sam in tow.

http://www.porticoplay.co.uk/

Portico has various room sets for different ages of children up to 5 years. I was very impressed, it was clean, colourful and has a nice little cafe. It only cost £1 for Eve - you can also get your hand stamped so that you can return any time the same day free of charge.

Since going to soft play, I've made Eve her own little squashy palace at home. She loves playing with her toys or watching tv there. It means I can leave her side for a moment and if she does topple over she won't bang her head. Blewbury Granny gave us some of her mother's (Katie Thomas' - Eve's Great Grandmother) cushions that she had embroidered many years ago. They now surround our Eve Katie as she plays, something that I think Sam's Gran would have liked.

Last week it was really warm so I stopped off at Laura's house on the way back from gardening on the allotment. I was most excited about putting Eve in the paddling pool for the first time - however, the water was a bit cold and the poor girl was not as keen as I was...

The last six months has been quite a whirl-wind, but also the most incredible time. Sam and I have already learnt so much, I can't believe we have so much more to learn over the coming years - I'm sure that Eve will teach us well!