Happy 3rd Birthday ThingOne

ThingOne had her birthday today, having already had a 'special' day (as she called it) on Saturday with her party. She seemed to have a really good time, though things were a little fraught occasionally this afternoon, and I think she'll have a bit of a comedown on Monday. Overall though, she's been a star this weekend.

We got her a set of Dr Seuss books (I really like reading these to her, and she enjoys them almost as much) and a bean bag arm chair. She didn't seem that bothered by the chair. Shame - I thought she might really like it. Well, she may come around to it.

We did some craft this morning which somehow involved me doing most of the craft. We ended up sticking a mosaic of a 'magic tree' to the wall which was almost entirely done by me. It was basically me doing some substandard cutting and sticking and putting my own artwork on our wall. It makes me look a bit simple. I'll lie to visitors and tell them ThingOne did it.

This afternoon ThingOne had another birthday cake, since she wanted to blow out more candles. She'd had one yesterday at the party but apparently that didn't count as three children blew those candles out. We went to Nandos for tea. ThingOne thinks this is a proper restaurant, and loves the Frozen Yoghurt the most.

ThingTwo tried to steal the show by making her first proper word-like noises. It was pretty close to Da Da. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. At one point she said something like "Ha Pa Ber Da" so we told ThingOne that ThingTwo was trying to wish her a happy birthday. It did sound eerily close, so we were partly convinced ourselves.

We really tried to do ThingOne's hair to make her look smart today, but she's at the Boris Johnson stage of her hair growth cycle. It will need cutting very soon. I've trained her to go around telling people her hair makes her look like Boris Johnson. She'll thank me for that in years to come.

So happy birthday to you, ThingOne (as I seem to have been made to sing a hundred times today). You're turning into an amazing little girl who's tonnes of fun to bring up, and it's going to be fun to see what you're doing after another year.

 

3rd birthday party

As we have the last two years, we threw a birthday party for ThingOne, shared with two other kids born around the same time, Hannah and Jake. We hired a room in a community centre in Cambridge, and many parents and children came. It was toddlermonium.

There was face painting, pass the parcel, many ride on toys, musical bumps, a sit down lunch for the kids, and much exhaustion for the parents.

Many of the three year olds now have younger siblings, so I'm not sure if this sort of affair will be practical next year, but the kids really seemed to enjoy it. ThingOne has been looking forwards to it since Christmas, and woke at ten to six this morning talking about her plans. Through the bedroom wall we could hear, "...and then I'll put on my tights, and my vest and my dress and ask Daddy to help me put my shoes on and then we'll go to my party and we'll sing Happy Birthday and I'll eat some cake and..." We were worn out before we'd even got up.

All ThingOne's boxes were ticked. She got to wear a nice dress, wear tights, play in bubbles, eat Party Rings ("Biscuits that Lola eats"), cake, cheesy biscuits and chocolate, blow her candles out, and sing Happy Birthday. She even got to open a few presents, despite it not being her birthday until Sunday. The lucky girl.

The cake was particularly impressive, with a monkey, lion and hippo on it, and a sparkler in the shape of a number three.

ThingOne managed to remain calm for the party. Having played up a little recently when we'd had visitors we'd had words about her getting over excited at the party and told her that she may need to come out and sit with me for a bit to calm down if she did, but she was fine and just seemed to enjoy herself (though she decided she shouldn't handle balloons after she'd burst two in quick succession). I didn't see any toddlers having tantrums come to think of it, which is pretty impressive and indicates the aprty was a success.

Unwilling to merely blend into the background, ThingTwo showed her prowess on a ride on toy which we'd not seen her demonstrate before. I think we know what we'll be getting her for for her birthday in six weeks.

Here's a slide show of 69 photos from the party (or Flickr set here if you don't like the slide show). Probably a bit too many if you don't know many of the people there.

Hosting Christmas

We hosted this year and Anne's family visited. We don't have a big house, so were wondering how ten people (including us four) would fit in, but it went well. Four of the adults were staying in local hotels, so it wasn't a squash and a squeeze at night.

ThingOne had a better grip on Christmas this year, and seemed really chuffed when Santa bought her some new fairy wings and glitter pens (which is what she'd asked for when 'writing' to him). She loved opening anyone's presents, especially her own, and wanted to play with most of ThingTwo's gifts as well as her own ("ThingTwo said she wanted to share" - glad ThingOne's got to grips with the benefits of sharing). I think what she enjoyed most though was the puddings. And, weirdly, the parsnips.

Then again the parsnips were cooked in extraordinarily-expensive maple syrup, since like every other household in the country our Christmas meal was Nigella-led. Anne did a great job with it, and Anne's sister Kerry's boyfriend, Mark, helped a lot with the cooking.

ThingTwo was pretty clingy and would cry if Anne or I wasn't holding her. This was a pain since for once there were lots of others there to help with the baby wrangling, and they'd have been happy for a cuddle with her. A bad time for separation anxiety to kick in.

ThingOne managed to show me up in front of all the guests on Boxing Day. I think she was colouring in a picture of some food, since the conversation went something like this:

Me: ThingOne, why are you colouring that blue? There aren't any blue foods - can you think if any ThingOne? [I certainly couldn't think of any]
ThingOne: [brief pause] Cheese.
Me: [silence]

I don't think she knows of blue cheese, and suspect she just said the first thing that came into her head, but my lack of comeback betrayed me as the loser of that little exchange. This is only going to get worse for me as she gets brighter. If I was brighter I'd just avoid conversations I guess.

 

A merry Simpson to all

ThingOne got Father Christmas confused with Homer Simpson last year. I hadn't thought any more of it until a month or so ago she saw a picture of Homer and called him Father Simpson, which reminded me of the confusion. She seems to think he's somehow relates to Christmas in some way. (And of course I wouldn't want ThingOne to associate Christmas with a fictional character, believing him to be real.)

A year on, she's much more able to understand things, and so I thought I'd explained to her that Homer is nothing to do with Christmas. We've been reading her the nativity story, and The Night Before Christmas poem, so we're trying to give her an idea of what Christmas is traditionally about. I thought this was case closed.

At the weekend ThingOne saw a picture of the whole Simpson family in The Guardian. She was interested as she'd recently seen a picture of Lisa Simpson on a birthday card and was keen to know who the other Simpsons were. All was fine until we got to the dog. ThingOne asked the dog's name.

D'oh!

"OK, ThingOne, I will tell you, but you need to remember that I told you that Homer Simpson is NOT Santa. He's completely different."
"What the dog called?"
"He's called Santa's Little Helper."

Confused silence. The kind of confused silence you hear when a child feels she's been lied to by her dad.

"But, ThingOne, that's just his name. He's not Santa's dog, he's Homer's dog. Well, Bart's dog I think."

More silence.

"Shall we do something else ThingOne? Would you like a biscuit?"

I may need to show her some Simpsons episodes. Just not one where Homer dresses as Santa.

Mature for her age

I got home from work earlier than usual last night. Usually by the time I get home Anne is bathing the girls upstairs, but last night I was home during the TV phase of the evening routine (for the record it's dinner, two episodes of Charlie and Lola, bath, stories, then bed).

Since I usually don't get home at this time, when I do ThingOne tends to get very excited and runs around shouting or singing at me. It's a very warm welcome and nice to come home to.

As I came into the driveway last night I could see Charlie and Lola on the TV and knew I was in for my usual warm welcome. I got out of the car and peeked in through the window. I could see ThingOne lounging on the sofa, her scowling face transfixed on the TV. I knocked on the window, pulled a big stupid grinning face (involuntarily) and waved at her. What happened next shocked me to my core.

ThingOne barely moved.

Her head turned slightly, she saw a waving fool through the window, and her head turned back (slightly). Her expression didn't change. She just had a slight scowl which I'd initially put down to concentration but I now put down to a Bad Attitude. She'd managed to completely deflate me. Maybe she hadn't actually seen me, I thought. I went in through the front door. This would usually bring her running into the hall shouting "Daddy, daddy, daddy!" Not tonight. There was only the drone of the TV from the living room. I went in there and ThingOne barely acknowledged me.

How sweet, my toddler the disdainful, moody teenager. They grow up so fast nowadays.

(And if she thinks she's wearing THAT to nursery tomorrow she's got another think coming.)

Epilogue

I did, however, get a lovely big, excited smile from ThingTwo when she saw me. My new favourite daughter. Funnily enough, once I was holding ThingTwo ThingOne seemed much keener on me. Ho hum.