When you know you've had a girl...
A few days ago I was putting the toy cars away in their box at our toddler group, Jack & Jill, and asked Bridget to help me. She watched as a I dropped a handful of cars haphazardly in the box. Then she reached in and carefully turned them all over so that they were the right way up.
This evening, I asked Bridget to put a sweater away in her chest of drawers. With a little help in finding the right drawer, she did that very carefully, and then put away all her trousers, tops, t-shirts and socks in the right drawers. I knew that my daughter was tidy-minded, but this is getting ridiculous.
Overdue for an update
Yes, we know it's been a horrendously long time since we last put anything up on the blog. This is partly because Bridget wasn't doing anything much new for a while, and partly because we've had various other things on our minds (more of which in later entries in weeks to come).
What to say now, then? Bridget's nearly eighteen months old. Where has all that time gone? She's had a nasty tummy bug over the last few days (thankfully not seeming to be passed on to either of us this time) but seems to be pretty much over it now. At least, she's at Stepping Stones today, and no-one has rung to ask us to take her home.
Her favourite word of the week/month is 'welly!' She now gets very upset at the idea that she might have to go out in her shoes rather than her boots, and likes nothing more than stomping off down the lane in her wellingtons. She objects to having her hand held during this activity and tends to generate a random walk path very effectively. Walks therefore proceed at an extremely leisurely pace.
Earlier on this week she made it as far along the lane as the field with the horses in. One of them decided to come and see us, so I lifted her up so that she could stroke its nose. She was amused by being blown at gently by warm horse breath, but seemed to be more interested in getting down. However, as soon as she was on the ground the horse leaned right over the gate and nuzzled her in the face. Bridget found this a bit alarming. I think that she feels that there is a certain amount of space that should be kept from animals - it's all right for her to approach them, but woebetide any animal that is fool enough to come into her space without her permission. She even gets upset by our cat doing this.
Increasing confidence on her feet seems to have come along at the same time as increasing confidence with other children. She's particularly good with ones who are smaller than her, often offering them toys or food if she thinks that they are needed. This means that she gets on very well with Cara, who lives at the other end of the lane, although I don't think that Cara has quite reached the same level of being prepared to share her toys with someone else.
The arrival of a wipe-clean tablecloth has ushered in a new era of feeding. Bridget now has most of her meals in a booster seat at the dining table, rather than being kept at arm's length by her high chair. She has also learned that there is a very important word that comes as part of grace. Whenever we tell her that it's time to say grace she will promptly say very firmly 'AMEN'. She has also discovered that this word is good in church services too, when prayers are finished. We just have to find the volume knob now...
Another development on the language front is the appearance of two-word phrases, particularly in the form of possessives. So, on Sunday, we first heard 'Mummy coat' and 'Daddy book', while the relevant items were pointed at.
That's all I can think of for now. I promise to try and do a bit better with the updates in future.