Zoë spent her first night in her own bedroom last night, she was so excited. We thought she might not like going into her own room but she was looking forward to it as we'd built it up for her all week and she slept solidly all night - good little Zo.
A couple of nights ago Zoë showed the first signs that she is developing a sense of her own identity. Nino was tickling Zoë's foot when she shouted "no, my foot!' as she moved her foot away. "Mine, Mine" she said - and has continued to say ever since about everything. Up until now she has always said "Zoë's foot" or whatever it happens to be.
Now we have the problem of anything that is "Mine" means Nino and I are excluded. Putting on her pyjamas last night it was "My pyjamas, my foot, my leg"."Go away Mummy, MINE!!"."MINE DADDY, MINE!
I asked Zoë yesterday what kind of cake she would like for her birthday party. "Worm cake" she said so worm cake it will be.
She's got the idea for worm cake from Max and Ruby on TV. Max, a rabbit for whom things always turn out right, has made worm cake and worm pancake. So, I'm going to make worm cake for Zoë's birthday. I expect it to be a pudding bowl shaped chocolate fudge cake with candy pebbles and wiggly worms and some grainy crunchy stuff in the chocolate fudge.
When we arrived we were greeted by a pair of ducks and a couple of young rabbits on the grass outside our apartment waiting to see what we had to feed them with. This was really exciting for Zoë as she's not had any 'close' contact with rabbits before - except for 'Max and Ruby' on the tv of course, her favourite programme. She was almost as excited by the 'trailer bikes' that many people were using to tow their young children behind them as they cycled around the forest. We, unfortunately for Zo, didn't need one as we were so centrally placed. Our apartment was on the lakeside across from the swimming and restaurant complex so everthing was within very easy walking distance.
Hurray! we went on holiday. OK, it wasn't Ibiza it was Menorca and OK, another £800 but we finally went - and Nino finally got to visit her friend in Wales.
There's a link to read all about the holiday at the bottom, after the pictures.
So, here's some holiday photos to look at. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger picture - or you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll around and the space bar to zoom.
Zoë seems to develop in someway everyday now. She changes so fast it's hard to keep up.
Numbers
No problem! She counts everything, even how many steps she's taking when she's walking on the street.- though of couse she has to start from the beginning again once she reaches 20 since that's as far as she knows.
Letters
A, B, C, D, EFGHIJKLXYZ!!! Yeah. We have some bricks with letters and pictures on that a friend from work - Christine - gave us. The letters appear on the bricks when they go in hot water so, if we have a bath, Zoë tells me the letters and what the picture is. She knows about half her alphabet. She does have a few problem letters but they're all 'Bee'. If they were 'Buh' I'd be happier but Nino doesn't really know the phonetic alphabet yet so I guess she's told Zoë 'Ay, Bee, Cee' instead of 'Ah, Buh, Cuh'. However, she's learning so I guess Zoë will learn faster when Nino's got them all.
Toys - They seem like they're part of Zoë's family now. It's great to see her interacting with them all, having tea, putting them in bed, lining them up in the garden to watch her and Mummy gardening now that the weather is good - or making them swim in her sand and water pit.
Books - Read, identify all the things in the pictures on the page, do it again, and again, get another book, and another. It's a good job Nino's favourite shop is the charity shop in Uppermill as they have lots of books for Zoë.
Everybody needs a break. Nino has been taking care of Zoë almost every day for more than a year and a half, I've been working non-stop for the past few months - and even Zo needs a break from her Mum for a few days! In my wisdom, I decided I'll take Zoë away for a week whilst Nino goes to visit her Angami friend down in South Wales.
So I booked a week away in Es Cana, Ibiza. £700 for a week in a 4 star hotel with every facility a child could want - plus a toddlers playgroup and babysitting facilities so that I could get a holiday too. Nino arranged things with Khrienuo, her friend in Brecon and booked her train tickets. Sounds perfect - but then it all started to go wrong!
Everything seems to have taken on a meaning for Zoë. It's been quite sudden, over the period of just a couple of weeks. Her soft toys now have personality to her - she won't even go to bed without 'Ti', 'Snorey Ti', 'Gee', her music, 'baby' - and 'Toc Toe' - a Pro-Star Paul Scholes the Manchester United player.
Getting all her toys in her bed has become her way of delaying Nino or I leaving the room when she goes to bed - along with scratching her back, switching on her 'Sea Urchin' light and picking up whatever she throws on the floor out of her bed. It doesn't seem to matter at all how tired she is, she just wants to delay being left to sleep as long as she can.
I guess I was the same when I was around her age - in fact I remember telling my Mum one night when I was around two that I couldn't close my eyes and go to sleep because I slept with my eyes open. Why? Because I had to watch out for lions and tigers of course!!!
Zoë told me she loved me tonight. It was very nice to hear - although I'm not sure if she quite understands what she was saying.
We were putting Zoë to bed - well at least we were all sitting on our bed after I'd just cleaned Zoë's teeth. Nino sometimes says to Zoë " tell daddy - I love you" and Zoë mumbles "love oo". But tonight she said it on her own.
Zoë continues to amaze me as she grows. Last night after we'd had a bath and she'd got ready for bed, Zoë was showing me and her Mum how well she can count. Up until now, although she knew most of the numbers they didn't go in any particular order - apart from starting with 1. Well, tonight she was counting 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - SIX!!! yeah!!!
OK, so it should have been 5 but it seems to me that 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 is pretty good for an 18month old. Still, we'll concentrate on the numbers for a while longer then see what happens when we start with letters.
We were lazing around in the bedroom playing with Zoë enjoying our day off when she heard jingling bells outside and ran to the window asking to be lifted up to see what it was. Looking out of the window, we saw it was the Morris Men striding into the village.
Zoë is really growing up fast. She'll be 18 months old in a week or so and already she amazes me with her talking, her curiosity and her insatiable desire to learn - everything, as fast as she can!
Zoë's attention span is very short, so I guess she has to do a lot of different things at once, otherwise she'd get bored. But I'm surprised how much she manages to absorb - even whilst she's doing something else. She'll watch TV, be 'reading' a book, chase the cat, fart, pee, pooh, chat, point out the window at the birds (or more likely, the rain) all in the space of a minute - and somehow manage to tell me which of the Fimbles is on TV at that moment, what they're doing, etc, etc.
Whilst all this is going on, she's improving her vocabulary by around 7 words per day, learning to count, walking, running, trying new foods and tastes - and generally growing up fast. This, of course, makes it very difficult being a dad as I'm forgetting at least 7 words (or more) a day!
Zoë seems to be experimenting a lot at the moment - with water :-/
She's not bothered about drinking it, she just wants to pour it from one cup into another and back again - and again, and again! Eventually there is none left - it's all over the table or the floor - then it's "more, more, waht, WAHT, MORE!" She seems completely fascinated by it.
I think this is an important part of her development. She's learning about the world around her - solids, liquids, gases, volumes, displacement. In fact a 16 month old girl's first physics lesson with a little cause and effect thrown in too.
This kind of sensory learning is fun for Zoë - although a little messy. Nino took her out when it was snowing recently, when the snow was quite thick, for a new experience. Zoë of course thought it was bubbles, like in the bath, but enjoyed the snow too. You can read Nino's blog entry here.
Theres' a good article about sensory learning at babyzone.com
That seems to be all Zoë says at the moment! A typical conversation goes -
"Would you like dinner Zoë?"
"No"
"Shall I take it away?"
"No, No"
"Here you are, macaroni cheese with ham, your favourite"
"No, No, No, No"
"Do you want some juice then?"
"NO!!!!!" followed by "Juice, Juice, Juice - NO!!!!
Maybe we told her no too often, I don't think so but how often is too often? Or maybe it's just a stage in her development. I seem to remember Andrea and Nigel's son - Joe - going through something similar.
David Cummins is a professional photographer and designer from Manchester, UK. He's separated from his Naga wife, Nino, after a difficult few years. He has a beautiful young daughter Zoë who lives with him
She's got the idea for worm cake from Max and Ruby on TV. Max, a rabbit for whom things always turn out right, has made worm cake and worm pancake. So, I'm going to make worm cake for Zoë's birthday. I expect it to be a pudding bowl shaped chocolate fudge cake with candy pebbles and wiggly worms and some grainy crunchy stuff in the chocolate fudge.
Zoë used her potty for the first time tonight - a matter of some excitement in our house! I guess that's what being a dad is all about.
No problem! She counts everything, even how many steps she's taking when she's walking on the street.- though of couse she has to start from the beginning again once she reaches 20 since that's as far as she knows.
A, B, C, D, EFGHIJKLXYZ!!! Yeah. We have some bricks with letters and pictures on that a friend from work - Christine - gave us. The letters appear on the bricks when they go in hot water so, if we have a bath, Zoë tells me the letters and what the picture is. She knows about half her alphabet. She does have a few problem letters but they're all 'Bee'. If they were 'Buh' I'd be happier but Nino doesn't really know the phonetic alphabet yet so I guess she's told Zoë 'Ay, Bee, Cee' instead of 'Ah, Buh, Cuh'. However, she's learning so I guess Zoë will learn faster when Nino's got them all.
