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Learning the alphabet

The great thing about setting up a business is seeing POD every day. When we’re not working we try to get outside, even if its just for a walk, or we play. Occasionally we’ll *attempt to* create something like our recent Easter Egg Men.

I love listening to POD learn new words and join sentences together. It’s also great to see how excited she becomes when she makes a new discovery and wants to tell you about it! These are all magical moments and I hope through this blog, we’ll get to remember quite a lot of them.

Not that long ago I was in the wrong place at the wrong time (you can read about that here). So, it’s an utter joy to be in the right place at the right time on a regular basis.

Take the other day. POD arrived back from nursery singing the entire alphabet. A to Z with all the other letters in-between. Of course she’s learnt it parrot fashion but she can sing the alphabet. Incredible.

I missed recording it in the right order on my mobile but you’ll get the idea from the video below. You’ll see she’s also multi-tasking. Singing the alphabet and sorting her fruit and veg basket. Hugely important to a two year old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYbH97BrgpU

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Godstone Farm

POD’s doing well with words of three syllables. She can say “cat-a-pillar”, “ell-ee-phant” and “butt-er-fly” although the latter often becomes “butt-fly”. At the suggestion of visiting a farm, the word ‘animals’ was proving a challenge. After several attempts we were still off to see the “an-am-an-als”.

Once in the car, POD said hello to trees, cars and “wowwies”. Then fell asleep. I contemplated pulling over to buy a coffee when I realised the farm we were going to was 25 miles away. We’ve visited nearby Bocketts Farm on several occasions and we absolutely love it there. POD’s not been brave enough to feed the animals yet but it’s fantastic you can get so close to them.

By comparison Godstone Farm is much larger. There are barriers and a turn style system in operation which made me wonder how busy it is in the summer months.

Nevertheless we were greeted by three scarecrows, goats and geese. And some giant turkeys. We saw a llama in a field who took great interest in us before galloping away. Other llamas hid in a man-made hut. Very sensible, it was freezing! POD was delighted to see ducks, including an unidentified one sitting on a fence, and budgies.

POD is a fan of watching animals run excitedly around their cages but she’s not seen an albino ferret before. Shrieks of “I don’t like it, go away” rippled across the farm as POD saw its white furry body blood red eyes. All was forgotten however when she spotted an owl. An excitable cry of “Owl. Wit woo” was accompanied with much pointing. She loves owls.

Passing through a courtyard we paid a quick visit to a mice maze before reaching an animal handling barn. POD was out of the buggy at this point so we parked up to have a look around. There were two or three cockerels, in a painted trough, two rabbits and a whole host of recently hatched chicks. Although I did get a photo of POD looking in wonderment at all the animals, it is nothing compared to what we witnessed a few
minutes later.

Once POD got her confidence up and saw other children stroking the rabbits, she decided she might have a go too. And she did. POD stroked a rabbit. This may not seem a big deal but it really is. She’s not touched an animal before. She loves them but she’s always incredibly cautious when she gets close. In a similar vein to people, she likes to check them out first.

The rabbit was huge but clearly very comfortable with being stroked by toddlers. After telling the entire room she stroked a “babbit”, POD went round saying hello to the cockerels, the chickens and the other rabbit.

After leaving animal handling, we headed to the large animal barn where POD spotted some piglets. One of which being brave enough to come over to us. We also saw sheep and some gorgeous lambs including a tiny black one. The barriers prevented us from getting really close but we could could still see everything.

A top shelter provided us with views of goats, including a little kid, and the sheep. We could also watch the lambs jump up and down. Although we’d seen a real cow, POD was quite taken with a fake one used to show how udders work.

She would have loved the giant soft play area but we bypassed it on this occasion. After visiting some more rabbits and guinea pigs, we headed down to the pig pens and chicken coups. POD decided to break free from Mummy at that point, until a large group of school children came bounding towards her. We said a quick hello to a horse, a couple of ponies and another cow before making our way to an adventure playground.

We passed the largest sandpit I have ever seen before having few goes on a slide and doing a spot of tractor riding. Having worked up a good appetite, we headed over to the tea rooms to grab some lunch. It wasn’t to be. Three sandwiches left, all of which were egg – POD’s allergic to egg. Unperturbed, we cut our losses to eat elsewhere.

There was nowhere to go nearby so we snacked on Biscotti until we reached a service station. There we picked up M&S sandwiches, cheese and dinner. POD amused the lady behind us in the queue by pointing at Percy Pigs and shouting “pigs”. The poor woman must have been mortified when she found herself letting out her loudest pig impression. Nothing like a good snort in public.

Godstone Farm is located at Tilburstow Hill Road, Godstone, Surrey RH9 8LX. This post is for Country Kids which is about enjoying outdoor time with your kids. If you have a post you’d like to share, click on the badge below or visit the Coombe Mill website.

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Decorating eggs with a toddler

IMG_9221Whilst there’s a degree of creativity in our household, you need two steady hands to decorate eggs. I’m already one down from a previous wrist break and I’m attempting craft. With a toddler.

The craft book suggested first off we break each egg in half and join them back together with glue. Clearly asking the impossible we boiled the eggs instead.

Once they’d cooled down, the first job was to glue tissue paper to them. POD ‘helped’ while stabbing the pens we were going to draw on the eggs with into the table. She was then given her own egg to draw on and a stencil. Both were held together in an egg box.

IMG_9232POD’s allergic to eggs so drawing on one caused much excitement. Until the egg shell smashed. Unsurprisingly the stencil was a waste of time, for POD and for me. It was an impossible task trying to hold it onto an egg and colour in the gaps at the same time. We did try. Shortly afterwards however the egg was launched over POD’s shoulder closely followed by a “bellyolly” book and some tissue paper.

After much huffing and puffing POD made a discovery. If you blow on tissue paper it goes everywhere. I’m sure she waited until I had the entire packet loose on the table before she gave it go. Squares of tissue paper littered the table and floated to the kitchen floor reminiscent of a weird butterfly collection. Attempting to catch them mid flight, I realised my hands were covered in glue.

IMG_9231The craft book suggested we stick tissue paper to half of each egg, wait for it to dry and repeat the process. Not an option with a toddler. I decided if I was really careful I could cover each egg sufficiently. Although my fingers did get stuck to the eggs on several occasions, it was achievable. We stopped our craft experiment when POD started drawing blue circles on the table.

Once the tissue paper had dried on the eggs, I was expecting to decorate them. But despite giving them a good covering, they really needed a coat of paint. POD would also paint. Within thirty minutes each egg was looking more respectable and POD had created ten paintings. She’d also added some brown swirls to the table (a “babbit) and made paint gloves for her hands.

I was genuinely looking forward to decorating the eggs but it wasn’t to be. Little flowers looked like splodges of bird poop and we already knew the stencil was a big fail. Arm yanking really didn’t help our creativity levels either. We decided to have some fun with the eggs instead as you’ll see from the photos.

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Red

The colour red symbolises some hugely significant moments over recent years.

The Doves were married in the autumn of 2004. My cascading bouquet comprised of luxurious Grand Prix red roses with velvety petals, white edged ivy and deep red berries. The bridesmaids wore beautifully tailored red dresses. The POD Father and “Ga Gam” wore matching red ties.

The marriage took place in an idyllic Suffolk village church and the reception at a former Edwardian cricket pavilion. We stayed up until 3am, regretting it the following day when our plane was grounded and our mouths dried up. We had an amazing honeymoon in Tahiti. Incredible to think it will be our tenth anniversary next year.

Christmas is a period traditionally associated with red. Our tree is decorated with red baubles in varying sizes, red beads and fir cones tied with red/green taffeta. We all wear red too. Not intentionally, it just happens.

It’s an especially poignant time in The Dove household as POD was born on Christmas Day 2010. She took her time to arrive – 47 hours to be precise. Right on time though – her due date was also December 25th. We called her Poppy. A name we both said independently when we first met her. You can read about that here.

This photograph was taken just before her first birthday. It showcases just one of her many facial expressions. POD is also wearing a gorgeous coat in my favourite colour – red.

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Bottoms

POD’s most recent hobby is undressing and whipping off her nappy. A funny game for a toddler not yet potty trained. Shouting “I done a poo” down the monitor, to get Mummy or Daddy upstairs, is often coupled with “I naked” on arrival at her bedroom door.

Since POD learnt to scale the bars of her cot, and they had to come down, nap time has become play time. Books are hurled off the shelf, toys are strewn across the floor and dollies are mercilessly stripped.

POD’s been saying “I need a wee” for a while now. Despite this the potty is yet to be christened. It remains home to Mickey Mouse, fish and a host of farm animals. It’s also a hat. Similarly, the child toilet seat hangs untested on a door. On occasion it’s used as a springboard to access the bath from a different direction.

Recently POD has felt the need to strip whenever she’s done a wee. Usually this involves removing all clothes except for her vest, the poppers of which are resealed once she’s disposed of the nappy. Attempts to replace her nappy have so far proved fruitless although she will give it a go if she can reach one. Or five.

Bathtime consists of running around naked and diving on Mummy and Daddy’s bed. Since POD said “I need a wee” when she was mid flow the latter is short lived. Much cleaning had followed although her bedroom carpet will never be the same especially after the Sudocrem incident.

POD knows what the potty is for. She sits on it daily albeit just to amuse herself and humour us. I would choose this over the sight that greeted me this week though. You never want to hear your toddler shout “I have poo on my finger” down the monitor.

Thankfully the mess was minimal. I arrived at POD’s bedroom to discover her nappy lying, right side up, on the bed. On the floor was a pile of baby wipes where she’d attempted to clean her own bottom. Nappies were littered across the floor. At first glance I thought it clever POD had sealed some of these. Then I realised she’d also emptied the nappy bin. It seems our little bottom warrior is in training for potty training.

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What colour sheep?

POD started nursery in January 2012 so not long after her first Christmas Day birthday.

We were delighted the day she said “Baa Baa”. Convinced it was the beginnings of Baa Baa Black Sheep, we put our singing voices to the test and joined in. POD looked at us blankly but I put this down to the fact she’d not been talking long. And I can’t sing.

A few weeks later a friend told us Baa Baa Black Sheep wasn’t sung at all anymore. Times had changed and the 1731 nursery rhyme had been replaced with Baa Baa White Sheep. Realising there might be some confusion over sheep colour, the POD Father quizzed nursery staff:

“Just out of interest, what colour sheep do you sing?”.

The response was pink. “Baa Baa Pink Sheep” had been the reply. Utterly baffled by the changes that had occurred since our childhood we looked up the words so we could do a comparison. And learn about pink sheep.

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master
And one for the dame
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane
 
Baa Baa Pink Sheep,
Have you any spots?
Yes sir, yes sir
Lots and lots!
Some on my fingers,
and some on my toes!
Some on the end of my little pink nose!
 

We’ve not really put much thought into Black/White/Pink/Rainbow Sheep since that time. Until yesterday. The results in this short video speak for themselves. Sorry about the snort at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCdzltAUdHM

So this week’s magical moment is POD singing Baa Baa Black Sheep and Baa Baa Pink Sheep, learning the word bosh and sharing some chicken love.

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Wot So Funee? Toddler meltdowns

The day started with POD ramming her toothbrush into my belly button. I think it was my belly button. Difficult to tell these days. She was in good spirits though despite her lack of sleep the night before.

We had a fabulous lunch in which POD ate a scoop of ice-cream so fast I’m sure she caused brain freeze. She was so well behaved too, only attempting one high chair escape. Afterwards, with a satisfied toddler sitting happily in her buggy, I set off for the shops.

POD’s sense of humour started to wain as we hit the cobbles of Guildford High Street. “I get out Mummy, I see pigeens” she shouted whilst lurching sideways out of the buggy, arms flailing. As people turned and stared, the volume of POD’s shrieking increased “Pigeens. I see pigeens. Get me out”.

Boots the chemist provided little sanctuary. POD’s hands splayed like spinning fans sending an array of products off the shelves like frisbies. Customers jumped in the air as packets skidded across the floor. Old people stared. Young folk loitered in our path intensifying the rage.

Giving POD a toothbrush to hold provided me with enough time to reach cosmetics. Then without warning it was airborne, shooting into a colourful display of nail varnish like a dart. People looked on with disgust as I placed each bottle in its rightful home, hoping none were broken. It was time to leave. Aside from the chewing gum and Lipsalve ‘grabathon’ at the counter, we escaped Boots without further incident.

Next a whistle stop visit to WHSmith then home. POD seemed visibly calmer at this stage and excited by a nearby packet of pens. She loves colouring. Unperturbed I gave them to her to hold. Yes I know what you’re thinking. You utter fool. And you’d be right. Within minutes, the plastic cover was split, the packet open and 24 pens were falling to the floor in an endless waterfall of colour. After the clear up, we headed for the till at break neck speed to the sound of POD wailing “Noooooo Mummy, go away. My pens”.

In the queue, shrieks of “I want babbit, I want babbit” were coupled with an outstretched arm. Who puts Easter eggs at buggy height on both sides of a queue? Ideal for toddlers to perfect their grabbing skills. POD’s grip tightened when she realised it was “chocklit”. After what seemed like an eternity, we reached the counter.

“I’m sttttuuuccckkkkk” POD yelled at the top of her lungs. She wasn’t wrong. She’d managed to flip onto her front and slide backwards entangling herself in her straps. Having re-positioned her, I returned to my purchases hoping we could pay and leave. No chance. The chap was waiting to see if I wanted a bag for my nine items.

“Mummy I got bogey” a loud voice pipped up from beneath me. I looked down to see POD’s index finger outstretched with a bogey attached to the end of it. Everyone stared as I hurriedly searched for a tissue. Once we’d paid, the race was on to see how quickly we could get to the carpark. Typically POD fell asleep the minute we reached the car, only waking when a cot transfer was attempted.

Although short lived, the nap was enough to re-ignite POD’s sparkly sense of humour. She gave her ‘babies’ “pancakes, egg and cake. And made three out of four “gigaw” puzzles in quick succession. Much fun was had at bathtime, especially when two cups of water went overboard, and we followed up with The Smartest “dynat” in Town. Then after re-placing the nappy POD had taken off, she settled down to sleep.

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The Secret Pool

In the car we established dogs have tails and hair. As do monkeys. POD extended her counting skills to include eleven although she thinks she has “three or four” legs. Having said “hello” and “goodbye” to almost every car that passed us, all blue allegedly, we witnessed two horses galloping across a nearby field. Weirdly reminiscent of ‘Champion the Wonder Horse’ I thought.

Our destination was a spring-fed lake in the North Downs, located a few miles from Guildford in Surrey. A more adventurous trip had been planned the day prior but I’d failed to check opening times. A sign with the words ‘Come back in May’ had greeted us when we arrived.

The Secret Pool, known as Silent Pool, is managed, together with the nearby Newlands Corner, by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. It’s located within the privately owned Albury Estate and runs into Sherbourne Pond, an adjacent lake created in the mid-seventeenth century.

I’d seen a photograph of the pool and there was something intriguing about it. Not least because it’s considered to be a sacred site and steeped in history. It’s linked to a folklore tale that states King John, on his horse, abducted a woodcutter’s daughter who was forced into the deep water and drowned. According to the legend, the maiden can be seen at midnight.

Not only that, it was initially feared that Agatha Christie drowned in the pool in 1926 after her car was discovered at nearby Newlands Corner. She never revealed the truth about her 11 day disappearance.

The Silent Pool car park was on the A25 so we almost missed it. Expectations were high but with a lack of recent rainfall, I really had no idea what we would see. Or whether it was suitable terrain for a toddler in a buggy and a Mummy with a particularly dodgy arm. It could just be a few trees and a muddy bog.

But it wasn’t. Having walked through a wooded area and passed a vineyard, closed sadly, we spotted a lake. It wasn’t particularly stunning but you could see up ahead there was an open area and a second lake that even from a distance looked mysterious yet inviting. Gut instinct is a funny thing.

The Silent Pool was utterly breathtaking. A little eerie yes but spectacular all the same. Crystal clear water was surrounded by woodland and footpaths entangled with ivy. There was a viewing platform and a walkway encircled the pool. Reminiscent of an unspoiled secret garden, it was silent and beautiful. The only noise coming from a nearby waterfall to our right.

The purpose of visiting the Silent Pool was to tire POD out so she had a nap in advance of a swimming class. We’d enjoyed two hugely successful terms and had a few month’s break (literally – I broke my wrist). Having recently returned, POD finds swimming pools utterly terrifying. I failed in giving her the run around she needed at the Silent Pool in preference for her safety. Too much water for an overly enthusiastic toddler.

The path around the Silent Pool seemed wide enough for our 4×4 buggy so we set off with gusto to have a look. Marveling at a solitary duck, it quickly became apparent our wander would be short lived.

The path decreased in size and before us was an old wooden footbridge bridge that although sturdy and fabulous to look at, really wasn’t buggy terrain. Least of all my one armed buggy ambling. I didn’t fancy losing POD, or the sacred Mulberry I’d unintentionally brought with me.

Back at the main clearing, POD was let loose and able to explore the lake and admire some amazing tree roots. She was absolutely fascinated with a small waterfall and some nearby steps. We then enjoyed a walk together back to the car, meeting a couple of excitable dogs along the way.

There is something truly captivating about the Silent Pool. Perhaps it’s the secrecy that surrounds it. Or it’s tranquilly. The feeling of utter peace was broken by the journey home which consisted of cow spotting and shouting “hip hip hooray” over and over again. The Silent Pool can be found in Shere Road, Albury, Guildford GU5 9BW.

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Boadicea, Bob and Rice

The naming of your toddlers soft toys can be a fun exercise. You may like to resurrect much loved bears and dollies from your own childhood. Try to compete with the Igglepiggles and Ninky Nonks, or be inspired simply by the toys appearance.  I remember being on a flight to the US, when the 4 or 5 year old American boy in the seat in front dropped his teddy bear through the gap. Having retrieved it, I handed it back to him saying “he’s nice, what’s his name?” to which he replied, in a tone and with a look that said, are you simple?! “Blue bear.”  Of course.

POD has dollies of various size and rigidity. These include the classic Tiny Tears type and Raggedy Anne type soft and floppy ones. With no discernible features to draw on and with limited dolly experiences of my own, I was more interested in garages and cars, we decided POD should name them.

The first to undergo our naming process was the largest of the ‘floppies’.  “What’s she called?” we asked POD after she’d been dragging her around for a couple of days, aged about 14 months. “Boadicea!” she replied with gusto.  Now I’m sure you know of Boadicea, warrior Queen of the Britons. And even if you don’t know much about her you’ll have heard the name. However, unsurprisingly she’s not a regular topic of conversation in the Dove household and although the POD Father enjoys a good historical documentary now and then it’s unlikely they’ve been on before bedtime. Equally, as good as POD’s nursery is I doubt the current curriculum covers British History AD 60-61. I should point out that Boadicea is 10 inches tall with light brown hair in bunches and ribbons, a flowery dress, pink cardigan, white socks and pink shoes. She used to have frilly white pants, but these were whipped off some time ago and have now disappeared. She’s not exactly the epitome of a fearsome Celtic Warrior woman. With this unusual and somewhat baffling choice we were intrigued to find out who else would be joining us.

We bought POD one of the Tiny Tears type dolls quite early on, after she showed interest during trips to The Early Learning Centre. Resplendent in a light blue baby grow and attached cap, he has ‘Cupcake’ embroidered on his chest. Not what we were ever going to be calling him. For the first few weeks this baby dolly was simply ‘baby’ but having named Boadicea we felt it only fair to christen him too. What would POD come up with this time….Shakespeare, Nelson, Wellington?

…..“Bob”, or Baby Bob. It trips off the tongue, but was quite frankly a disappointing follow up. So would her next offering be back on form?

Now up for nomenclature, the slightly fey and whimsical looking floppy ballerina dolly. More light brown hair and bunches, a pink dress (there’s a theme here, girl=pink) a sort of crispy tutu under skirt, pink pants (they too have been removed in the past, but this pair has managed to find their way home) and pink ballet shoes with silky white bows.  ‘Ballerina dolly’ had been a feature at bedtime for a while before this whole process began so she was definitely next on the list. Clearly there’s no logic or pattern to POD’s choice of names so we expected the unexpected. However, by this stage she was a firm Peppa Pig fan and was on first name terms with Susie Sheep, Rebecca Rabbit and Candy Cat. We wouldn’t have been surprised therefore if one of these had snuck into the equation.

That was probably the last time we’ll try and second guess our daughter’s imagination. ‘Ballerina dolly’ was duly dubbed ‘Rice’. Post rationalisation draws the inevitable blanks. The only connection we can come up with is that Hipp Organic’s wholesome vegetable & chicken risotto is one of her favourites so we regularly encourage her to “eat up all your rice.”

Having said that we’re yet to see her nibbling on her dolly.

 

Getting the balance right

I will never forget the day I got the call to say POD had had a fit. I will always be thankful ‘The POD Father’ was working from home that day. He was able to get to nursery before the ambulance arrived and travelled with her to A&E.

I always hoped I wouldn’t hear the words “Poppy has had a fit”. I was diagnosed with epilepsy in 1983 following an eventful seizure in a swimming pool. For years the words “you’ve had a fit” have always haunted me. To hear almost the same said about my baby made me feel sick to my stomach. And I wasn’t there for her. I was in London.

Although it felt like a week had passed, I managed to get back to Guildford in an incredible 50 minutes. At the time I was appalled with myself for not keeping it together during the journey. Looking back I think it was my body’s way of setting free the much stronger character beneath  the tears.

I had no idea what to expect when I arrived at the hospital. Whatever it was, I didn’t anticipate seeing POD lying naked on a bed completely motionless. I thought she was sleeping but she wasn’t. Her eyes were open but there was nothing behind them. She was limp and lifeless. Her breathing was wrong but not in an asthmatic kind of way.

POD had a febrile seizure at nursery. This type of fit typically occurs when a child has a fever and their temperature spikes too quickly. If they do happen they generally occur at around 18 months until the age of 5. This day was exactly 18 months after POD was born. Often a child’s body will become stiff, they lose consciousness and their arms and legs twitch. Although febrile seizures can be frightening, they don’t normally pose a threat to a child’s health.

Unless it might be something else. Like Meningitis. Unbeknownst to us, POD had several symptoms including clusters of minuscule red spots. They were difficult to see and a far cry from a recent skin infection. But these spots didn’t fade when they were supposed to. Factor in fever, sickness and the seizure, the situation was getting more frightening by the minute.

In the hours that followed, POD showed improvement. She sipped some water and had a wee whilst lying in my lap. Fetching a nappy from a room that displayed the Meningitis poster was a stark reminder we weren’t out of the woods.

Blood tests were necessary to rule out Meningitis, Septicemia and some other nasties. POD was going to be admitted to hospital then she wasn’t. Someone was hoping to take blood but found they couldn’t as her veins were so tiny. After three failed attempts at obtaining blood, it was left to a consultant who had just come on the night shift. His solution was to turn out all the lights and shine a torch underneath her wrist so he could see her veins. It was heart wrenching to see POD being held down again amidst her “dada dada” cries. The nurse trying to be helpful insisted on asking if I was alright. I wasn’t but it’s that age old scenario. Don’t ask me if I’m alright and I’ll be fine. Ask me again and I will bawl like you’ve never seen an adult bawl before.

It was 11.30pm when they admitted POD for the night. She was put on a drip that was bandaged round the entirety of her tiny arm. And there she lay. Poorly and exhausted. The consultant said he hoped she’d not have another febrile seizure overnight but it was a possibility. With our car locked in the nursery car park, an amazing friend kindly took me home to collect some belongings. Then, when I was done faffing around, drove me to a 24 hour Tesco to buy some food. We’d obviously not eaten.

In the room at the hospital, The POD Father and I took it in turns to rest on the single bed. We were both shattered but one of us had to stay awake to watch POD. It was a long night but the morning saw a much improved toddler. She was walking around again and her personality began to return.

By the time the consultant arrived to see her, she was attempting to pull various tubes out of the hospital walls. She was deemed far too well to stay in the hospital. Her initial test results revealed nothing sinister so we returned home. Although POD declined a bit that afternoon, she was back to her perky self a couple of days later. Never have I been so relieved to see those sparkly blue eyes and that cheeky little smile.

At that point in time, and until recently, the work/life balance was most definitely wrong. I was catapulted from seeing POD all the time to hardly seeing her during the week. If it wasn’t work, there would be a journey delay of some kind. Now I have my own business and although it brings it’s own new challenges, at least I get to see POD every day. And that’s what matters.

I haven’t got the balance right yet, as I invariably find myself staring at a computer screen into the early hours, but I hope to achieve that sometime soon. What about you?

 

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