Vic Firth Kidsticks

One evening last week when we arrived home from work a parcel from Amazon was waiting for us; addressed to Eve. I racked by brain and thought it was weird as we hadn't ordered anything. There wasn't a note inside so we didn't know who they were from, but the coolest present was inside.

Vic Firth Kidsticks are specially weighted drumsticks for children. As soon as we opened the box we gave them to her straight away and she started hitting them together and banging them on her high-chair. Sam has had a digital drum kit for many years and is often in his studio playing the drums. I learnt drums when I was at school, though I'm afraid I didn't get much further than paradiddles - it turned out that I wasn't very co-ordinated. However, my slight claim to fame is that I have one of Pantera's very gnarled up drumsticks on a shelf at home, from a gig I went to in the 90's.

Eve, after we first handed the sticks to her

My sister, Claire is an incredible drummer. She plays a variety of percussion instruments. She has played the drums and steel pan professionally over the years. Eve has some good teachers nearby which is great.

Along with the drumsticks came a little cardboard slip that held them together, on it gave details of a free online drum lesson, which I thought was a great idea for older children.

http://www.vicfirth.com/product/buynow/product.php?button=KIDS

Everett "Vic" Firth is an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company that makes percussion sticks and mallets.

Founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company bills itself as the world's largest manufacturer of drum sticks and mallets. In 2010, the company merged with  Avedis Zildjian.

Thanks to Facebook we found out that it was our lovely pal Teeny that sent the drumsticks to Eve - Thanks Teeny, you little legend! We have so many lovely friends and we appreciate them so much.

I know that Eve is going to get a lot of use out of these drum sticks, they are definitely a big hit :-)

The nursery girls kindly emailed me a photo of Eve decorating a pancake for Shrove Tuesday yesterday. Sam and I were most amused by this photo. Looks like she enjoyed herself.

Eve showed me her pancake in the evening, 

moments after this photo was taken I had demolished it. Mmmmmm!

Ups and Downs and Shrove Tuesday

Here's a lovely photo of Eve with her cousin's Scarlett (5 years old)
and Huxley (3 years old) which was taken at the end of October last year

As the way of being a Mumma works, after Saturday being such a lovely, relaxing day, that night poor Eve woke up a few times with sore teeth. The following day she grumbled and grumbled, after a couple of doses of medicine and teething gel I finally put her in her cot at a random time of 11.30am which is usually her lunch time.

She hadn't really eaten anything that morning due to the pain, after drinks of water and declining her favourite little biscuits I knew the only thing left was to put her to bed crying. I had already tried it a couple of times that morning and before I even got to her bedroom door she started howling. 

Thankfully she fell asleep almost instantly. I quickly hoovered downstairs and washed the floor (the best time to do it is when Eve is out of the way) and then quickly threw myself back into bed too - I felt so exhausted after the events of that night and morning.

Daddy left us sleeping so we didn't wake up until after 2pm, which was strange - but great. I felt like a new woman. We ate a late lunch of yummy falafels and decided that as it doesn't get dark now until about 6pm that we'd go for a walk through the woods together. Something we haven't done for quite a few weeks. 

Breathing in the fresh, cool air in the woods works wonders for the soul. It really gave us a well needed boost, so we walked home feeling more rested and happier. We stopped at the park on the way home. Daddy pushed Eve on a swing and I went on a big kids swing at the same time - you're never too old!

On Sunday night after already waking at 2am, Eve woke at 5am coughing. She had a drink and just as I was about to put her back to bed she coughed and threw up all over me. Thankfully it missed the cot, but after getting her changed she was totally awake, so downstairs to baby telly we went. I tried to get a bit of kip on the sofa whilst she played, but it was fairly impossible as she decided that for the first time she would bang the living daylights out of her toy piano. She's such a good girl though and I don't mind these things as I am so grateful to have her in my life. I finally fell asleep on the sofa, and what felt like moments later I felt little hands tapping me as she was trying to tell me that I needed to change her nappy.

After the eventful morning, I was preparing to get out of the door for nursery and work. I went back into the lounge to put Eve's coat, hat and shoes on, only to find her fast asleep on the lounge floor.

Shrove Tuesday - Daddy Day!

Eve woke up at 5am again this morning. Thankfully as Dad is on half term he took her downstairs to play so that I could go back to bed for a couple more hours. I came downstairs at 7.30am to find them both fast asleep. Dad was on the sofa and Eve was asleep on the floor again, looking very cosy.

It's a beautiful day here today, walking to work with a bit more sleep than usual under my belt was fantastic. After their morning nap Sam took Eve up to wander about in Knowle. I was so pleased to hear that they stopped off to eat pancakes today. I was fretting that Eve was going to miss out on pancake fun at nursery this morning, so this worked out perfectly.

Eve enjoying a pancake

On the way home they stopped off at the park together. It's so lovely to be updated with what Eve is doing during the daytime as I miss her so much. Sam sends me photos on Whats app which is brilliant.

Last night when I got back from work Eve walked about 5 steps into Daddy's arms. The joy we both felt at seeing this was immense. 

Off to Nursery School

 In the Baby Room.
Happy and covered in gunk - she loves messy play and got stuck right in straight-away

Well, I can't quite believe it but my girl is now ten months old and has started nursery school already. Time really has flown by, all the usual spiel you hear about kids growing up fast is so true.

I've been prepping since last week, after speaking to my friend who said they get through quite a few changes of clothes each day at nursery with all the fun activities that they get up to. So I went to a charity shop and a second hand baby shop and bought some extra vests with sleeves and some more pairs of socks. Apparently it's also a good idea to write your child's name or initials in all of their clothes so that they don't get mixed up with someone else's. So I've bought a permanent sharpie pen to mark inside Eve's clothes.

I remember my name label which was sewn into all my clothes during primary school.  My mum carefully sewed one into the inside of each collar. I'm probably a bit mad but I'm looking forward to doing that in the future...

Eve is standing well holding on to things but often goes 'bonk on the bum!'...

The manager of Mama Bears Nursery told me about a cool website where you can order personalised iron on, stretchable name labels (good for all clothing especially swimwear and sportswear), and vinyl dishwasher and washing machine proof labels (great for any baby bottles, tippy cups, lunch boxes etc).

http://www.identitydirect.co.uk/

There are some cool designs, some basic and others more expensive using brands such as Disney. They range from £9.99 up.

They last for a year if stored between 10-25 degrees. Full instructions for use are included on their website.

I love these ones with unicorns and will get them for Eve's clothes at some point in the near future.

Eve has three settling in days this week. Today I stayed with her there for an hour, tomorrow she's there for an hour by herself and then on Wednesday she stays there for two hours by herself. Then on Thursday we're rolling.

We are really lucky that there is a nursery just down the road from our house, that is on the way to where both Sam and I work. So it's going to be fairly easy for us to drop her off and pick her up each day.

Eve is doing pretty well with food which I'm so glad about. I have quite a few bags full of frozen food cubes, so instead of wasting them (Eve won't eat them anymore) I am adding them into various finger foods. I've been including veg and fruit cubes into mixtures for mini potato cakes (sweet potato, normal potato and grated cheese), mini sweet or savoury pancakes and omelettes.

The potato cakes are so easy to make and she really likes them. When we have mash with a meal I just save some for Eve for the next day. I then add in defrosted cubes, herbs, pepper etc and fry 'em up - bingo!

Banana pancakes

Eve liked mashed up banana when she first started eating, then went off it as it was too slimy. She then liked holding and eating banana but has now decided that she only likes to squish it to death and not eat it. Therefore this morning I cooked up some wheat-free banana pancakes - simple, just 2 eggs whisked up with 1 mashed banana and a tiny pinch of cinnamon if you fancy. A good way to get banana in her!

Eve was weighed last week, just after her 10 month birthday and weighed 18lb 9oz. She had slightly dropped some weight, which is quite normal as she is crawling all over the place using up lots of energy.