Sitting out in the garden..... at last!

Now that it's finally stopped raining we have been getting out in the garden a lot. Evie has been sitting out on a rug, feeling grass for the first time, pulling it out, and tasting it along with some mud too! She is back to making lovely raspberry noises and her favourite toy seems to be the ties on my jumper. She also loves putting things in and out of the picnic basket and cups.

Isla's been a bit poorly and avoided pre-school this week, although we have been to the garden centre and to friend's houses for some painting and sticking, as well as out to lunch with daddy on a foggy Friday. Will tell you more about our gardening later as a delicious curry is waiting for me!!!

Evie with dog ears for 'do your ears hang low' song. We were doing it too, honest!

Elvis Evie:

Swinging and jumping

Evie had three meals on Sunday. She picked up some banana herself and chomped some off, then got a real fright when she swallowed it! After that, she had some bread and butter at lunchtime, and chicken, broccoli, carrot and potato for dinner. She is much happier now she is joining in with mealtimes. I'm strangely looking forward to checking her nappy to see what she has eaten!

We visited the park and Isla loved the trampoline and swings. There were lots of dogs out walking. Isla practiced scooting too!

This morning at toddler group, Isla went on the slide and Evie got buried in toys by helpful toddlers passing her things.

Scooting, dancing and baby-led weaning take two

Last weekend we bought Isla a scooter. She helped her dad to build it, with Evie looking on while grabbing her toes. Isla couldn't wait to have a scoot around in the garden and was soon getting the hang of it! This week she scooted a little of the way to toddler group, a lot of the way back from toddler group and around our street when it hasn't been raining. We went to the parks in town a couple of times this week, and Isla has really enjoyed getting out and running about with Evie looking on from the pushchair. Isla (Andrew and I also) had fun feeding the ducks and swans in town, and scaring huge numbers of pigeons. We all enjoyed a visit to Isla and Evie's cousins where the scooter came in handy.

Evie's 'best' at the moment (favourite thing in Isla language) is to stand up while having her arms held. This always makes her smile! We had a lovely moment last week when both girls were grumbling in the back of the car, Evie because she was tired/hungry/couldn't see us and Isla because she didn't want Evie to cry. Evie spotted Isla and they both started laughing at each other and felt much happier. Isla always makes Evie smile and laugh at home if Evie is a bit bored. 

This week Evie has been sitting on the floor a lot more and watching Isla with her toys. The jungle animals are having a drink after playing hide and seek, although maybe the elephant is still waiting to be found. We had a full house of children on Thursday, with two more baby girls and their older siblings to entertain. Isla particularly enjoyed playing hide and seek, and Evie was just loving having other children to watch. Isla has been promised that they'll play policemen by one of the older children next time they come round. Hungry hippos was also a hit, although three red balls have strangely vanished so the hippos will have to stay a bit more hungry.

We had a quick trip to the library this week, and we found some great books. "A cat called Scratch" and "Harry and the dinosaurs have a birthday party" are a couple we have been enjoying together. Scratch is a cat with a flea, who goes through many things to remove the flea including hoovering himself (his tail gets sucked up the hoover). At the park, Evie had her first brief go on a swing, although feeling a bit peckish at the time meant she didn't enjoy it fully! Isla loved the swing and is starting to move herself by pumping her legs; being pushed very high is obviously preferable!

Isla's been doing lots of drawings, and colouring in with her Maisy book. We bought a Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse CD set which has songs on that Isla loves.

Evie has been grumpy at mealtimes despite being sat at the table with us, so we decided to give her some food to play with. This really gave her something to think about and she concentrated really hard on the strange slippery squishy toy (roasted pepper) and the harder beige toy (potato). Nothing heading for the mouth yet, but true to form everything ended up on the floor eventually!

Evie has started to really love going in the bath with Isla in the evening. She kicks her legs like crazy and splashes Isla a lot! I'm looking forward to taking them both to the swimming pool when Andrew is here too. 

We've been doing a spot of baking this week, inspired by the nightly Bake-Off show. After more gingerbread biscuits last week, we baked some fairy cakes this week. Isla chose pink icing and they looked really pretty with shimmery pink sugar and stars on them, didn't last long though! I made chicken empanadas today for lunch, which were tasty. We've also been having apple crumbles as a treat, although Isla only eats the crumble mixture before it is cooked.

Owls eat bagels

Doesn't time fly. Since my last blog, our days have been filled with Evie blowing raspberries constantly and chatting goo goo gah gahs at us, and with Isla bouncing about like a tigger.

Isla has been painting with autumn leaves, and making butterfly paintings:

 and washing up the paint pots:

We've been going for lots of autumnal walks:

and doing gluey craftiness:

Evie sometimes wears proper tops and bottoms during the day instead of just sleepsuits:

Isla chose a princess sticker after having her teeth checked at the dentists, and we had a yummy lunch out to celebrate no fillings:

Evie at tummy time:

Evie has a quick go in the door bouncer for the first time:

We made some 'snow dough' (4 cups flour mixed with 1/2 cup oil) which amused Isla for ages. It is like wet sand and was good for making castles and scooping up

Pirate Isla entertaining Evie with Jess the cat:

Isla and Andrew's den:

Evie's curl:

On Halloween, Isla and I pretended to be owls flying round the garden. Apparently owls eat bagels so we had to pretend we were catching and eating those. She enjoyed watching Spooky Buddies, a film about puppies dressing up for Halloween.

We had a mini firework display in our garden in two instalments. Isla wasn't sure about them. We moved inside to watch from the dining room with Isla on my lap. In the second instalment, Isla's face lit up when we watched the catherine wheel from the living room. We also saw our local firework display from our house, it was quite impressive with big bangs. When we go to Tumble Tots we all sit in a circle to talk about what we've been doing at the weekend at the beginning of the session. Isla explained to everyone how we had watched the fireworks 'with help from mummy to see them from inside' and how they went 'boom'. Everyone thought her description was very funny! I was very proud of her speaking out in front of the whole group. She also was brilliant at climbing a very high 'pirate ladder' and going on the rest of the equipment.

We had a trip to the park this week to go on the swings. We met a friend with lovely dogs which Isla stroked and played ball with. We saw a little boy dressed as a bat. We joined a Rugby Tots session at the pre-school. On the way home, Evie was famished and the only place to stop was the local church for a feed and an apple. Isla liked the 'echo' in the church.

We had a long-awaited trip to the library this week and chose some new books. So far we have read 'The Highway Rat' but have several more to look at. I found a 'Make with Maisy' craft book with ideas in it. Isla helped Andrew make some bread rolls and we also made some krispie marshmallow bars too! We had a visit from Isla's friend D one afternoon. The two girls played with Happyland, play dough, drawings, aqua doodle and started playing 'shopping list' in the two hours together, interspersed with checking us all (mums, toddlers, babies and snugglers) at the doctors with a stethoscope, and racing up and down the hall with the buggy!

Today it has been rainy again and Isla and Andrew went swimming together. This was VERY exciting for Isla and she was zooming around the pool with her arm bands like a little speedy duckling.