Happy Birthday ThingTwo!

Here we are again - another one turns two. Two years ago since ThingTwo was born in our front room, followed by an earthquake. And, other than a bit of teething, ThingTwo seems to be enjoying herself at the moment.

ThingOne was ill for a few days following her fourth birthday in January, and with a quieter elder sister for a change ThingTwo took the opportunity to step up. Almost overnight her language came on a lot. Having shown no interest in joining words she suddenly figured it out. A month later and we can barely shut her up. It's a lot of fun.

She can say a lot of words pretty well, but refuses to call ThingOne ThingOne. ThingOne is "Eee" according to ThingTwo. ThingOne has no problem with sharing a name with a Tombliboo. At the moment ThingTwo's main love is Peppa Pig, and ThingOne has no problem with that either. They both sit there watching it whenever they're allowed. ThingOne will laugh at the funny bits, and ThingTwo will mainly just make snorty pig noises.

I can't wait for the next year as she communicates more. She and ThingOne get on really well (long may that last). The occasional disagreement, sure, but that's only to be expected. It's so much fun having ThingTwo at the breakfast table, as she barks instructions at us, makes us each take a drink our drinks in turn, laughs at her own private jokes, and sings to herself.

I've put together a video of bits of her second year, ending in one such sing song from Wednesday morning this week.

Here's a link if the video doesn't display.

A song and dance

We're glad the snow has gone. ThingOne especially didn't like going out on the ice, so we ended up feeling stuck in the house.

Trying to get her out of the house would just turn into a song and dance.

(If the version below isn't HD and you're desperate for that, you can see it larger here.)



Happy birthday big girl!

This video was supposed to be done by last Monday, to go online to celebrate ThingOne's fourth birthday. However, Windows Live Movie Maker turned out to be a dog (or to be more fair seems to have an issue with video created by the make of camera I have). After a few wasted evenings I turned to a trial of Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9, and thing I may now buy it.

Fork 'andles

It's ThingOne's fourth birthday on Monday, and we had her birthday party today in our house. In previous years we've thrown a big bash in a hired hall for ThingOne, jointly with two other kids born in the same week. With many of the kids now having younger siblings, and entertaining four year olds being different to younger kids, we didn't do that this year. Instead we had a much smaller gathering with only five guests ThingOne's age, plus parents and siblings. It was a shame to downsize so much, but it was still plenty for us to handle!

It went well I think. Well, ThingOne enjoyed herself, and no one got hurt. Win! We started with some dancing games, and a few rounds of pass the parcel. I'd wanted to use some inappriopriate music (I'd suggested Creep byt Radiohead) but settled for Brown Eyed Girl, Yellow Submarine and Let's Stick Together.

 

After pass the parcel, I took the kids into the front room for some more games. I'd got some modelling balloons and a pump from Amazon, and was aiming to learn how to do a balloon dog. I leaned first how to do a sword, and learned the dog later. By this morning I could do these two relatively confidently. I planned to give these as prizes for musical bumps, dead lions etc. I made a load before the party, since I figured making them each time would slow proceedings down and the kids would get antsy. As it was the baloons went down better than the games and it decended into me making dogs and sword in the requested colours. And the kids having baloon sword fights. The baloons I'd made beforehand are now making our house resemble a baloon graveyard.

 

Anne made a castle cake (egg free, natch). She was happy with her baking, but not with the icing. Egg free cake tends to be a bit crumbly. It looked like a castle though, ThingOne recognised it as a castle when it was revealed, and the chocolate finger drawbridge was a big hit.

 

Santa's visit

Season's greetings and all that everyone. We're off to my mum's for a few days. I'll leave you with some photos of the girls meeting Santa last weekend. ThingOne was impressed, ThingTwo less so.

 

 

Simon says she's a sly one

On Saturday evening I was getting ThingOne dry and into her pyjamas after her bath. This can sometimes be a fraught time, with the girls tired and their parents tired too. I entertained ThingOne with a new game.

"Do you know how to play Simon Says?" I asked ThingOne?
"No."
She'll enjoy this, I thought. I explained the rules to her once, but knew the best way to teach it to her was to play it.

I began: "Simon says put your hand on your tummy".
She complied.
"Simon says put your hands on your head".
Again, she followed my (or Simon's) orders.
"Simon says put your hands on your shoulders.".
She obeys again. Now I'll catch her out.
"Put your hands on your ears."
She remained with her hands on her cheeks, and her expression slowly changed from one of innocence to one of extreme cheekiness. Could she really have understood the game first time?
"Simon says put your hands on your bum."
Hands on bum.
"Simon says nod your head."
Head nodded.
"Simon says shake your head."
Head shook.
"Stick out your tongue."
Nothing. Nothing but an even more cheeky expression.

I was flabberghasted. Surely I could outwit a three (nearly four) year old at Simon Says. "Are you sure you've never played this before ThingOne?" I asked.

"We play it at nursery Daddy. I was tricking you."

I was shocked. I don't think she's ever shown such concious deception and trickery before. I think we may be in trouble here.

I'll teach her to play Risk next. Surely I can win at that?