Monday, 31 August 2015
Learning to swing
Sunday, 30 August 2015
First Birthday Party
Today we hosted or first birthday party - for Edward's first birthday! (For Leila's first birthday we had a cake at the BCA Baby Group and for her second birthday we celebrated at home - again it falls dangerously close to the half-term break, so we are planning an early party for her this year!)
It was basically an elaborate playdate with Leila's friends, but it was lovely to think that we are a year into our lives here and have such a great group of friends for the kids. A mixture too of BSB friends and playgroup friends.
C came with her boys Christopher and Ethan - we know Chris through the playgroups as he a bit younger than Leila.
N and her husband J came with Alexia and Olivia - we were at their place yesterday to celebrate Alexia's first birthday as she was born the same week as Edward in Regina Maria also, and Olivia is a bit yonger than Leila at playgroup
L and G came with Nathan - it's funny as I realise that we know L not through playgroups (as Nathan started at school last year), but actually from meeting in the park and at Ikea! Haha! G is a teacher too, and is on a similar wavelength to us!
Our neighbours also came with their daughter who will be one like Edward in just five weeks.
The Porters, Palmers and Batsen's all came which gave us a total of a dozen kids running around!
Leila and I had done some baking to keep everyone well fed; marshmallow squares, cornflake/marsbar cakes, flapjacks, gingerbreadmen and of course the birthday cake (banana bread cake - what else!?)
Where did the three hours go?! Well Scott spent a lot of it making coffee and giving out juice boxes (genius idea of using stickers to help kids remember which juice is theirs....not that they care!) and I spent a lot of time catching brief chats with people and making sure that the kids were generally ok - which the of course were. Leila was possibly slightly overwhelmed by it all which was good in a way as it meant that she didn't get upset about everyone using her toys! She was very good though and played with different people. She loves Jack and he played with her a bit and she also had a good time on the swing with Fraser. The vacuum cleaner was the most popular toy I think. Edward was great (especially considering he didn't have a morning nap!) and he spent the whole time toddling around in his Superman suit (courtesy of Auntie Fabia - cape included).
It was basically an elaborate playdate with Leila's friends, but it was lovely to think that we are a year into our lives here and have such a great group of friends for the kids. A mixture too of BSB friends and playgroup friends.
C came with her boys Christopher and Ethan - we know Chris through the playgroups as he a bit younger than Leila.
N and her husband J came with Alexia and Olivia - we were at their place yesterday to celebrate Alexia's first birthday as she was born the same week as Edward in Regina Maria also, and Olivia is a bit yonger than Leila at playgroup
L and G came with Nathan - it's funny as I realise that we know L not through playgroups (as Nathan started at school last year), but actually from meeting in the park and at Ikea! Haha! G is a teacher too, and is on a similar wavelength to us!
Our neighbours also came with their daughter who will be one like Edward in just five weeks.
The Porters, Palmers and Batsen's all came which gave us a total of a dozen kids running around!
Leila and I had done some baking to keep everyone well fed; marshmallow squares, cornflake/marsbar cakes, flapjacks, gingerbreadmen and of course the birthday cake (banana bread cake - what else!?)
Where did the three hours go?! Well Scott spent a lot of it making coffee and giving out juice boxes (genius idea of using stickers to help kids remember which juice is theirs....not that they care!) and I spent a lot of time catching brief chats with people and making sure that the kids were generally ok - which the of course were. Leila was possibly slightly overwhelmed by it all which was good in a way as it meant that she didn't get upset about everyone using her toys! She was very good though and played with different people. She loves Jack and he played with her a bit and she also had a good time on the swing with Fraser. The vacuum cleaner was the most popular toy I think. Edward was great (especially considering he didn't have a morning nap!) and he spent the whole time toddling around in his Superman suit (courtesy of Auntie Fabia - cape included).
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| Our Superman Allstar is 1! |
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| Dairy-free banana cake - what else?! |
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| Cake time |
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| Can't beat a bit of bunting! |
We're so grateful to all the wonderful presents E recieved and hope that everyone had a good time - although were thinking that for Leila's we might do soft play instead of an 'at home'!
Thursday, 27 August 2015
Winnie the Pooh
We decided that we needed to diversify Leila's TV watching when she started calling Edward 'George' and so downloaded some old Winnie the Pooh episodes to watch. We let Leila watch TV when Edward goes for his sleepy time - it's a really needed tool to let me put Edward down and she doesn't usually get too demanding at other times for TV as she knows it is a sleepy time treat (although sometimes she gets demanding about Edward needing a sleepy time!)
So suddenly Leila is obsessed with Winnie the Pooh! This has coincided with us discovering that she has a CD and story book that she can read along to too. She soon found a ted that she nicknamed Pooh and we started playing the 'Pooh game' by recreating parts of the story. Her favourite part is when Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's door and everyone tries to pull him out (her mind was temporarily blown when I pointed out the Chew/Chrisolo Robin depiction of this by Jim Jeroo on her bedroom wall) - so we have now spent a lot of time marching around a box with a whole cut out of it (representing Rabbit's door), with Pooh in the hole and then we all rush to try and pull him out. At first we would swap between roles and all the characters were interchangeable, but after a few days Leila has been Christopher Robin every time.
And she even introduces herself as Christopher Robin, wants us to call her this name at tea time, says that she is a boy etcetc. This has been going on so much that it feels like she has been saying it forever, but I am sure it's less than a week. In a way it is exciting to see her imagination at work, but of course we're now worried that we need to wean her off Winnie the Pooh!
The upside of her obsession is that we think it has helped her learn to swing! Christopher Robin swings away on a swing on the tree branch in the opening credits and Leila can now balance and swing herself (she was nowhere near this a month ago) - really kicking her legs forward and back and using her arms too. It's amazing to watch and think she is not yet 3 years old.
So suddenly Leila is obsessed with Winnie the Pooh! This has coincided with us discovering that she has a CD and story book that she can read along to too. She soon found a ted that she nicknamed Pooh and we started playing the 'Pooh game' by recreating parts of the story. Her favourite part is when Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's door and everyone tries to pull him out (her mind was temporarily blown when I pointed out the Chew/Chrisolo Robin depiction of this by Jim Jeroo on her bedroom wall) - so we have now spent a lot of time marching around a box with a whole cut out of it (representing Rabbit's door), with Pooh in the hole and then we all rush to try and pull him out. At first we would swap between roles and all the characters were interchangeable, but after a few days Leila has been Christopher Robin every time.
And she even introduces herself as Christopher Robin, wants us to call her this name at tea time, says that she is a boy etcetc. This has been going on so much that it feels like she has been saying it forever, but I am sure it's less than a week. In a way it is exciting to see her imagination at work, but of course we're now worried that we need to wean her off Winnie the Pooh!
The upside of her obsession is that we think it has helped her learn to swing! Christopher Robin swings away on a swing on the tree branch in the opening credits and Leila can now balance and swing herself (she was nowhere near this a month ago) - really kicking her legs forward and back and using her arms too. It's amazing to watch and think she is not yet 3 years old.
Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Getting set for school
We're gradually preparing for Leila to start school next week! She will be in Creche with about ten other children aged between 1-3 years old (there will be two teachers and two TAs we hear, so the class with be split by age).
We have been talking a lot about 'school' and she knows that she will be at Daddy's school (but without Daddy) and that Mummy and Edward cannot go to school (too old, too young), but that they will drop her off and pick her up. We got her a packed lunch box in the UK with nice dividers in it and she is excited about having packed lunch/picnic there. But we then realised that we needed a few more things - namely a bag (as the bag we had planned to use wasn't big enough for her lunch box!) and a water bottle. So today I took L&E to Carrefour to buy these for her.
I was shocked at the price of school bags - twenty quid at least!!! But luckily they had some animal ones that were cheap (less than a tenner) which seemed a lot more reasonable. She had the choice of dinosaur, monkey or mouse and she chosen dinosaur :-)
At home I started to label these things up for her so we don't loose them at school. She has recently started taking a teddie to bed with her (Pooh - even though he is just a normal bear) but as we have been enforcing the rule of 'ted stays in the house' I asked her if she would like to take another toy to cuddle at sleepy time when she is at school. She said she would like to take owl and so I have now sewn her name into him (which wasn't as easy to do as our mums make out!)
I was shocked at the price of school bags - twenty quid at least!!! But luckily they had some animal ones that were cheap (less than a tenner) which seemed a lot more reasonable. She had the choice of dinosaur, monkey or mouse and she chosen dinosaur :-)
At home I started to label these things up for her so we don't loose them at school. She has recently started taking a teddie to bed with her (Pooh - even though he is just a normal bear) but as we have been enforcing the rule of 'ted stays in the house' I asked her if she would like to take another toy to cuddle at sleepy time when she is at school. She said she would like to take owl and so I have now sewn her name into him (which wasn't as easy to do as our mums make out!)
Edward is one!
Last summer and Edward's birth seem to long ago, and here we are a whole year later.
Edward is such a happy little chappy and everyone we meet comments on this (and his good looks - dunno where they came from!).
He has been walking confidently for over a week and barely crawls now (after being such a good crawler we wondered if he would stick with it for longer). He has recently turned into a bit of a climber now (inspired by his sister's physical phase maybe) and we have discovered that he can climb on top of Leila's table/bench in the garden, climb into the trampoline and climb up the steps to the sink to play with the tap!
He sorts of has a dadada and mamama sound - but nothing for Leila yet. He likes to babble and just recently has started to explore shrieking with excitement (again inspired by those around him).
He generally eats well and we have started him on butter, but not introduced other dairy or eggs yet. We abandoned putting a bib on him over the summer as he just pulls it off, so he eats most meals without a top on!
The last few weeks he has started not waking for a night feed which has come as rather a shock really! So he will go to bed around 7.45pm when he finishes feeding and then wake up around 6am and feed - I've found I can't really get him back down after this, but nor will I want to want school starts properly. He still naps twice during the day, and takes about 20 mins to go down with a feed. If he naps at home in the morning he can do two-hours, but I've started to wake him up after 45mins sometimes so that we can go out as otherwise you end up loosing the whole day to naps. If we are out and about he will nap for about 40 mins in the sling or the buggy (or the car).
When it comes to play time Edward's choice veers towards cars/wheeled vehicles that he then can roll along the floor as he crawls, but since he has stopped crawling he is going to these slightly less now. He loves the musical instrument box and enjoys his flap books too. He often will pull out the play tool kit and get me to open it up for him - but I think he just likes to chew it! He's not hugely in to soft toys or the kitchen any more, but if Leila is playing there then he will probably follow (and vice versa!) He does enjoy his swing in the garden and the trampoline (although he can only manage a few steps before falling down in giggles!
And as for Leila - well she is imaginative (especially with Pooh Bear at the moment), talkative and a confident physical explorer (wheelbarrow on the furniture, clambering on to her swing). She is nearly potty trained during the day (a few wet knickers this week and she likes the reassurance of a nappy on the potty when she poos) but this has brought with it an added element of disruption at bedtime as she constantly wants to get up to wee! Bedtimes can take up to an hour as she gets up and down which is very tiring, and we're trying to keep her nap as she generally still needs it. But she is asserting herself more and more with sleep, food and play....hhmmm
Edward is such a happy little chappy and everyone we meet comments on this (and his good looks - dunno where they came from!).
He has been walking confidently for over a week and barely crawls now (after being such a good crawler we wondered if he would stick with it for longer). He has recently turned into a bit of a climber now (inspired by his sister's physical phase maybe) and we have discovered that he can climb on top of Leila's table/bench in the garden, climb into the trampoline and climb up the steps to the sink to play with the tap!
He sorts of has a dadada and mamama sound - but nothing for Leila yet. He likes to babble and just recently has started to explore shrieking with excitement (again inspired by those around him).
He generally eats well and we have started him on butter, but not introduced other dairy or eggs yet. We abandoned putting a bib on him over the summer as he just pulls it off, so he eats most meals without a top on!
The last few weeks he has started not waking for a night feed which has come as rather a shock really! So he will go to bed around 7.45pm when he finishes feeding and then wake up around 6am and feed - I've found I can't really get him back down after this, but nor will I want to want school starts properly. He still naps twice during the day, and takes about 20 mins to go down with a feed. If he naps at home in the morning he can do two-hours, but I've started to wake him up after 45mins sometimes so that we can go out as otherwise you end up loosing the whole day to naps. If we are out and about he will nap for about 40 mins in the sling or the buggy (or the car).
When it comes to play time Edward's choice veers towards cars/wheeled vehicles that he then can roll along the floor as he crawls, but since he has stopped crawling he is going to these slightly less now. He loves the musical instrument box and enjoys his flap books too. He often will pull out the play tool kit and get me to open it up for him - but I think he just likes to chew it! He's not hugely in to soft toys or the kitchen any more, but if Leila is playing there then he will probably follow (and vice versa!) He does enjoy his swing in the garden and the trampoline (although he can only manage a few steps before falling down in giggles!
And as for Leila - well she is imaginative (especially with Pooh Bear at the moment), talkative and a confident physical explorer (wheelbarrow on the furniture, clambering on to her swing). She is nearly potty trained during the day (a few wet knickers this week and she likes the reassurance of a nappy on the potty when she poos) but this has brought with it an added element of disruption at bedtime as she constantly wants to get up to wee! Bedtimes can take up to an hour as she gets up and down which is very tiring, and we're trying to keep her nap as she generally still needs it. But she is asserting herself more and more with sleep, food and play....hhmmm
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| Edward opening his presents - aka Leila opening Edward's presents which are actually presents we gave to her! |
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| Our Superman Allstar is 1! |
Monday, 24 August 2015
Zoo
We had our summer zoo trip today!
We'd been saving the zoo as a special treat and hadn't got round to it with only a week left to go!
Luckily Catherine said that she wanted to go with her boys C&E, and Jamie said she would come with her two too M&G. I walked there with the double buggy - the plan being that Edward would then get his nap and we would get there in time to meet everyone. We'd then get a taxi home for a longer afternoon nap. Things kind of went to plan - apart from the double buggy wheel falling off _again_ I decided to keep going and then left the buggy at the zoo gate whilst we went around (using their carts). I then chucked it in the back of a cab as planned to get home.
UPDATE - we've now discovered that I lost a key part of the buggy in the process and it is currently being held together using wall plugs :-(
Luckily Catherine said that she wanted to go with her boys C&E, and Jamie said she would come with her two too M&G. I walked there with the double buggy - the plan being that Edward would then get his nap and we would get there in time to meet everyone. We'd then get a taxi home for a longer afternoon nap. Things kind of went to plan - apart from the double buggy wheel falling off _again_ I decided to keep going and then left the buggy at the zoo gate whilst we went around (using their carts). I then chucked it in the back of a cab as planned to get home.
UPDATE - we've now discovered that I lost a key part of the buggy in the process and it is currently being held together using wall plugs :-(
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| Leila and C being pulled along in the zoo cart by M&G |
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| Monkey house! |
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| My two monkeys |
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| Leila with the Edward Bear |
Saturday, 22 August 2015
FLC
So I stumbled across a listing that Fun Lovin' Criminals were playing in Bucharest this weekend. With Edward sleeping better at night now going out seemed a real possibility!
So after putting the kids down I left Scotty working and got a cab down with Jo and Ant. We hung around near the back at first, but soon realised it was far from busy down the front and so made our way to the crash barriers. It was dead cool to see my favourite band after such a long time, and really weird in a way to hear all the same songs again!
Oh and the great thing was cheap beer (7Lei a can) and being in a central park not far from home!
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| at the front! |
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| First glimpse of the festival |
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| FLC |
Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Staycation - second ten days
I can't believe that we are back into the swing of work in a week's time! It seems to have all gone rather quickly now and we're running out of time to do things.
What have we been up to?
With the weather still being so good (well, too hot really, but we can't complain can we?!) we've been to the park twice this week. The first was our day trip to Mogosoia which is about 20 min from ours the other side of the ring road. It was a great trip as the park is large and very open. Scott was hoping to find the old Lenin statue there, but it turns out it was removed five years ago and all our guidebooks are too old! We wandered around the gardens first and then stopped for a picnic lunch. This was the first time we've done a picnic with the kids and it seemed to work! We're hoping that this bodes well for Leila eating a packed lunch at school. Our second park trip was a little more local, to Casa Alba. Leila enjoys playing there still and loves the climbing spider webb as she just loves climbing. We've also made it our 'thing' to explore a bit in the woods. We found a tree with a smiley face painted on it and nicknamed this the Midnight Tree. Our woodland exploring has led us all the way to the side access road! One trip was with Jo and her kids and we also bumped into Erika and Josh - funny that mums are starting to form networks again ready for the stat of the year.
This morning Scott really needed to catch up on work and so I took the kiddies out. Edward wasn't napping at home, and I hoped he would nap on the bus but he didn't. We ended up at Kiseleff park for a play and then wandered onto the Peasant Museum who were hosting a craft/antique market. What made this a landmark trip, in a way, was that Leila was wearing knickers the whole time and we didn't have an accident (we went to McDonald's for lunch so that she could wee in the loo there), and that when we were at the park Leila went off to play by herself rather than waiting for me and making me follow her.
Anca came over on Sunday morning with Anastasia. It turns out that Edward is not alone in struggling to go down to nap in the morning! I struggled for about 40 min today and Anca abandoned her nap! Age, stage, weather - who knows. I am learning that I am more flexible with Edward, than I was with Leila, but at the same time we're trying to be flexible during the day, but end up at the same bedtime. It was lovely to play around the house and in the garden and Anca brought us a bag full of nectarines from their garden!
On Monday I managed to organise a bit of a playdate at the soft play at Jolie Ville. Jo came along with her two kids, and Catherine came with her boys who we haven't seen all summer. It was good to catch up and Leila is getting confident now with playing without me there. Edward is too - he went off on a real wander by himself!
I had my first Romanian driving lesson. I already have my licence - have done for nearly 15 years - but have very little confidence in actually driving and so have never really driven. It was a good lesson though and Gabi said I was 'OK'. I will go out with him another few times to get some practice and confidence before I take our car out (and take our kiddies out in our car).
And in the evenings we have recently started work on a new 'project'. I've been working a while on my Buch Moms database, but now Scott is helping me with some website design and we're both getting stuck into it. Great for me and hopefully will lead to something, and Scott is enjoying it even though it is taking him away from his other work.
It sounds rather dull, but on Monday our morning activity was a trip to Kaufland - a supermarket we hadn't been to before! Because we have the car now we feel that we can do these random things - and because we have the time during the hol we figure we may as well explore now and then know if it's worthwhile once term starts up. It turns out that Kaufland is owned by the same people as Lidl, so it;s basically a massive Lidl. Awesome. We got a bunch of stuff there and will def be going back - even though it is a bit of a drive.
We managed a quick skype with Fabs, Seth and Granny before tea. After tea Edward walked for about ten minutes without stopping it seemed! I think he was fuelled by the homemade watermelon lollies he was carrying! This evening Edward made the shift in his ratio of crawling to walking!
Today we had a play date with Sofia. It was nice to have Sarah and Andy around, although even though the ratio of adults to children should be in our favour it felt like we all spent the time running around after them.. Leila was not in a great mood and this soon rubbed off on Sofia. Anyway - we all just about survived the day and we'll do a return trip soon.
What have we been up to?
With the weather still being so good (well, too hot really, but we can't complain can we?!) we've been to the park twice this week. The first was our day trip to Mogosoia which is about 20 min from ours the other side of the ring road. It was a great trip as the park is large and very open. Scott was hoping to find the old Lenin statue there, but it turns out it was removed five years ago and all our guidebooks are too old! We wandered around the gardens first and then stopped for a picnic lunch. This was the first time we've done a picnic with the kids and it seemed to work! We're hoping that this bodes well for Leila eating a packed lunch at school. Our second park trip was a little more local, to Casa Alba. Leila enjoys playing there still and loves the climbing spider webb as she just loves climbing. We've also made it our 'thing' to explore a bit in the woods. We found a tree with a smiley face painted on it and nicknamed this the Midnight Tree. Our woodland exploring has led us all the way to the side access road! One trip was with Jo and her kids and we also bumped into Erika and Josh - funny that mums are starting to form networks again ready for the stat of the year.
This morning Scott really needed to catch up on work and so I took the kiddies out. Edward wasn't napping at home, and I hoped he would nap on the bus but he didn't. We ended up at Kiseleff park for a play and then wandered onto the Peasant Museum who were hosting a craft/antique market. What made this a landmark trip, in a way, was that Leila was wearing knickers the whole time and we didn't have an accident (we went to McDonald's for lunch so that she could wee in the loo there), and that when we were at the park Leila went off to play by herself rather than waiting for me and making me follow her.
Anca came over on Sunday morning with Anastasia. It turns out that Edward is not alone in struggling to go down to nap in the morning! I struggled for about 40 min today and Anca abandoned her nap! Age, stage, weather - who knows. I am learning that I am more flexible with Edward, than I was with Leila, but at the same time we're trying to be flexible during the day, but end up at the same bedtime. It was lovely to play around the house and in the garden and Anca brought us a bag full of nectarines from their garden!
On Monday I managed to organise a bit of a playdate at the soft play at Jolie Ville. Jo came along with her two kids, and Catherine came with her boys who we haven't seen all summer. It was good to catch up and Leila is getting confident now with playing without me there. Edward is too - he went off on a real wander by himself!
I had my first Romanian driving lesson. I already have my licence - have done for nearly 15 years - but have very little confidence in actually driving and so have never really driven. It was a good lesson though and Gabi said I was 'OK'. I will go out with him another few times to get some practice and confidence before I take our car out (and take our kiddies out in our car).
And in the evenings we have recently started work on a new 'project'. I've been working a while on my Buch Moms database, but now Scott is helping me with some website design and we're both getting stuck into it. Great for me and hopefully will lead to something, and Scott is enjoying it even though it is taking him away from his other work.
It sounds rather dull, but on Monday our morning activity was a trip to Kaufland - a supermarket we hadn't been to before! Because we have the car now we feel that we can do these random things - and because we have the time during the hol we figure we may as well explore now and then know if it's worthwhile once term starts up. It turns out that Kaufland is owned by the same people as Lidl, so it;s basically a massive Lidl. Awesome. We got a bunch of stuff there and will def be going back - even though it is a bit of a drive.
We managed a quick skype with Fabs, Seth and Granny before tea. After tea Edward walked for about ten minutes without stopping it seemed! I think he was fuelled by the homemade watermelon lollies he was carrying! This evening Edward made the shift in his ratio of crawling to walking!
Today we had a play date with Sofia. It was nice to have Sarah and Andy around, although even though the ratio of adults to children should be in our favour it felt like we all spent the time running around after them.. Leila was not in a great mood and this soon rubbed off on Sofia. Anyway - we all just about survived the day and we'll do a return trip soon.
Breaking the routine
Urgh this summer just feels like one long attempt to both change and stick to a routine.
Edward has been very adaptable to changing sleep patterns. Namely, when we go out and he misses a morning nap! This has happened a few times when he's not quite fallen asleep in the car or buggy for example, and we can't spend the whole morning trying to get him to nap, so we just start to get on with it. He's very good at then ploughing through and tends to do a two-hr nap in the afternoon (apart from the day when the power was cut during the afternoon nap and he then woke after only 45 mins).
Fortunately Edward has moved on from waking at 5.30am which is what he was doing at the start of the summer. But we are close to the start of term now and we still don't have a regular morning schedule as he varies between a 6am wake up and a 7am one. He's done a 7am wake up a few times this week as he's woken for a feed around 5am but then managed to resettle (once even after a bit of chatter!). This would be an ideal wake-up during term time if he can manage it, but I bet he won't! He has also cut down to just one wake in the night (any time from 2am to 4am), but again after two nights in a row of this great routine he had a bad night (I blame teeth!).
Leila is right on the cusp of not needing an afternoon nap now. We do put her down for it, but need to make sure she's down by 1.30pm at the latest and down't nap for much more than an hour. Any later, or longer, and she won't go down at night - resulting in one of us spending 30min upstairs waiting to put her back into bed when she invariable gets up.
She's good in the mornings though and it's really sweet to have her get up by herself and wander into our room or wander downstairs (if that's where I am playing with E) in her PJs for a cuddle.
What will happen when terms starts? Well I'm already trying to take over the final bedtime routine part for Leila from Scott so that it frees him up to get some work done. We'd also like to move this a little earlier (at the moment I start E bath at 6.45/7pm, then E asleep 7.30 and L at 8pm), but we'll have to see how that goes as having dinner at 6pm works well.
Edward has been very adaptable to changing sleep patterns. Namely, when we go out and he misses a morning nap! This has happened a few times when he's not quite fallen asleep in the car or buggy for example, and we can't spend the whole morning trying to get him to nap, so we just start to get on with it. He's very good at then ploughing through and tends to do a two-hr nap in the afternoon (apart from the day when the power was cut during the afternoon nap and he then woke after only 45 mins).
Fortunately Edward has moved on from waking at 5.30am which is what he was doing at the start of the summer. But we are close to the start of term now and we still don't have a regular morning schedule as he varies between a 6am wake up and a 7am one. He's done a 7am wake up a few times this week as he's woken for a feed around 5am but then managed to resettle (once even after a bit of chatter!). This would be an ideal wake-up during term time if he can manage it, but I bet he won't! He has also cut down to just one wake in the night (any time from 2am to 4am), but again after two nights in a row of this great routine he had a bad night (I blame teeth!).
Leila is right on the cusp of not needing an afternoon nap now. We do put her down for it, but need to make sure she's down by 1.30pm at the latest and down't nap for much more than an hour. Any later, or longer, and she won't go down at night - resulting in one of us spending 30min upstairs waiting to put her back into bed when she invariable gets up.
She's good in the mornings though and it's really sweet to have her get up by herself and wander into our room or wander downstairs (if that's where I am playing with E) in her PJs for a cuddle.
What will happen when terms starts? Well I'm already trying to take over the final bedtime routine part for Leila from Scott so that it frees him up to get some work done. We'd also like to move this a little earlier (at the moment I start E bath at 6.45/7pm, then E asleep 7.30 and L at 8pm), but we'll have to see how that goes as having dinner at 6pm works well.
Nectarine crumble
I made nectarine crumble today!
Anca brought round a load of nectarines for us from their garden at the weekend and so I wanted to use them before they went bad. I tried to get Leila to help making it during Edward's nap and she did help a bit with the rubbing, but wasn't all that interested really.
The recipe I followed wasn't great for measurements and I should have tried to be more flexible really as I could tell the 'crumble' wasn't working out (they had a mixture of volume measurements and of weights, which meant when I trebled the amounts it didn't look right). Anyway I kept going as it was an experiment.
The crumble was too floury, but Scott and I went ahead with eating it to set a good example to the kiddies. Leila had a bit - and even said that she liked the crumble! Edward wolfed it down!
What was hilarious though was when Scott said to me "it's just all flour" and Leila replied "don't be silly Daddy. It's not all flour. It's flour, and butter, and sugar and oats and nectarines!"
Anca brought round a load of nectarines for us from their garden at the weekend and so I wanted to use them before they went bad. I tried to get Leila to help making it during Edward's nap and she did help a bit with the rubbing, but wasn't all that interested really.
The recipe I followed wasn't great for measurements and I should have tried to be more flexible really as I could tell the 'crumble' wasn't working out (they had a mixture of volume measurements and of weights, which meant when I trebled the amounts it didn't look right). Anyway I kept going as it was an experiment.
The crumble was too floury, but Scott and I went ahead with eating it to set a good example to the kiddies. Leila had a bit - and even said that she liked the crumble! Edward wolfed it down!
What was hilarious though was when Scott said to me "it's just all flour" and Leila replied "don't be silly Daddy. It's not all flour. It's flour, and butter, and sugar and oats and nectarines!"
Wrong side of bed
To say that 'Leila got up on the wrong side of bed today' would be an understatement. It feels like she has been a gringey mood _all_day. To be fair to the poor kid she had a really bad night's sleep - she woke around midnight and wandered into our room (sleep walking?), but turned straight round with me and I tucked her back in. But then she was calling out in her sleep just before 5am with a nightmare. Scott went into her and tucked her in and she calmed down, but he then couldn't get back to sleep and she then woke about 6.15am which is her normal time.
But all morning she didn't really want to do anything we suggested play-wise, and then when Sofia came round for a play date she spent most of the time gringe-crying that she wanted what she had, wanted to play together / on own etcetc.
We had a late lunch and nap started late - she was exhausted. But then similar gringeyness in the afternoon.
And this evening.
And then when she should finally be tired she then gets out of bed a dozen times for me before finally settling down to sleep.
There were some fun moments interspersed today though. With Scott, she has devised a game of playing 'Pooh' - her latest favourite video and story. One Ted plays the part of Pooh, and has a blown-up balloon on his wrist. He then visits Rabbit and eats honey and get stuck in a hole (normally under my legs). We then all sing the song, march around and then heave-ho him out and into the hole in the honey tree. Leila sometimes pays the role of Pooh. This was all great fun today until the point when we didn't quite have Pooh (played by Leila) land in exactly the right spot in the honey tree (we were out my cm I reckon).
But all morning she didn't really want to do anything we suggested play-wise, and then when Sofia came round for a play date she spent most of the time gringe-crying that she wanted what she had, wanted to play together / on own etcetc.
We had a late lunch and nap started late - she was exhausted. But then similar gringeyness in the afternoon.
And this evening.
And then when she should finally be tired she then gets out of bed a dozen times for me before finally settling down to sleep.
There were some fun moments interspersed today though. With Scott, she has devised a game of playing 'Pooh' - her latest favourite video and story. One Ted plays the part of Pooh, and has a blown-up balloon on his wrist. He then visits Rabbit and eats honey and get stuck in a hole (normally under my legs). We then all sing the song, march around and then heave-ho him out and into the hole in the honey tree. Leila sometimes pays the role of Pooh. This was all great fun today until the point when we didn't quite have Pooh (played by Leila) land in exactly the right spot in the honey tree (we were out my cm I reckon).
Friday, 14 August 2015
To swin or not to swim
The last two days we have had real fun in the afternoon/evenings with the 'sprayer' - garden hose - and Leila has been running through it and we've all taken it at turns to spray eachother. We were really happy as a) it was a lot of fun and b) we thought that maybe she was getting more comfortable about getting her hair/head wet. With this in mind we decided that today we'd go to the Water Park at Otopeni again.
It seems that our excitement was misplaced as she spent the first hour of the visit on the climbing frame there rather than in the water! To be fair, it was a pretty good climbing frame and she did do really well climbing the nets there - getting good upper body strength it seems! But the point of paying a tenner was to swim and splash!!! We finally convinced her to come in the pool and we did a bit of playing in the water, but she was still pretty nervous on the whole. We did the lazy river again and eventually did a bit of splashing at the spray section, but after our initial enthusiasm contemplating a 'summer pass' for the water park I think we're going to forget about it until next summer. Oh well.
After all that, this afternoon we went round to Coop's for a BBQ and a play, and they had a pop-up pool and Leila _insisted_ she wanted to swim in it!!! WE'd brought her stuff just in case but hadn't bought ours, so we ended up leaning over the side to help her swim as the pool was just a tad too deep for her to stand in. We couldn't get her out of it! The boys were playing rather boyishly and so she got splashed a fair bit and was fine about it. Fickle little girl!
It seems that our excitement was misplaced as she spent the first hour of the visit on the climbing frame there rather than in the water! To be fair, it was a pretty good climbing frame and she did do really well climbing the nets there - getting good upper body strength it seems! But the point of paying a tenner was to swim and splash!!! We finally convinced her to come in the pool and we did a bit of playing in the water, but she was still pretty nervous on the whole. We did the lazy river again and eventually did a bit of splashing at the spray section, but after our initial enthusiasm contemplating a 'summer pass' for the water park I think we're going to forget about it until next summer. Oh well.
After all that, this afternoon we went round to Coop's for a BBQ and a play, and they had a pop-up pool and Leila _insisted_ she wanted to swim in it!!! WE'd brought her stuff just in case but hadn't bought ours, so we ended up leaning over the side to help her swim as the pool was just a tad too deep for her to stand in. We couldn't get her out of it! The boys were playing rather boyishly and so she got splashed a fair bit and was fine about it. Fickle little girl!
Thursday, 6 August 2015
Tiddler Toddler
Edward is well on the way to toddling now.
Scott noticed today that he managed to get to standing all by himself i.e. no assistance from furniture, toys or helping hands. Since doing this he has been doing a lot more standing-take a few steps-squat-step again. It's funny now remembering how this was a big phase for Leila - standing, toddling and then squatting to keep balance.
The other physical challenge that Edward sets himself regularly is climbing up to go down the slide! I always rush to go to him when he starts, but he can do it now without any help - climb one foot after the other and use his hands to pull himself up to the top of the (four-step) slide! Amazing! What he hasn't quite perfected yet though is the 'run back round the slide for another go' - Leila often manages to beat him and get two slides in for every one slide that he takes.
Oh and of course he is babbling away. He's getting closer to saying Mama and Dada, but is just enjoying trying out his consonant sounds and mimicking speech. IT was so funny in the car the other day - Edward was saying Da, Da, Da and just trying out the sound and Leila responded in the way that we do to her "Da, Da for Daddy, Edward, very good" Ha ha
And as for Leila - well she too is getting more and more physical. She treats me a little like a climbing frame at times, as she does her swing. It's great to see her getting more confident on it and exploring the world around her and her own strength. When she first starting clambering around her swing I was a little concerned and contemplated stopping her, but then realised she would do it anyway!
Scott noticed today that he managed to get to standing all by himself i.e. no assistance from furniture, toys or helping hands. Since doing this he has been doing a lot more standing-take a few steps-squat-step again. It's funny now remembering how this was a big phase for Leila - standing, toddling and then squatting to keep balance.
The other physical challenge that Edward sets himself regularly is climbing up to go down the slide! I always rush to go to him when he starts, but he can do it now without any help - climb one foot after the other and use his hands to pull himself up to the top of the (four-step) slide! Amazing! What he hasn't quite perfected yet though is the 'run back round the slide for another go' - Leila often manages to beat him and get two slides in for every one slide that he takes.
Oh and of course he is babbling away. He's getting closer to saying Mama and Dada, but is just enjoying trying out his consonant sounds and mimicking speech. IT was so funny in the car the other day - Edward was saying Da, Da, Da and just trying out the sound and Leila responded in the way that we do to her "Da, Da for Daddy, Edward, very good" Ha ha
And as for Leila - well she too is getting more and more physical. She treats me a little like a climbing frame at times, as she does her swing. It's great to see her getting more confident on it and exploring the world around her and her own strength. When she first starting clambering around her swing I was a little concerned and contemplated stopping her, but then realised she would do it anyway!
Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Our 'home holiday' - first ten days
I intended to write a one-week post about our staycation, but things have started to slide already! It's really great to be back home and we're doing loads, but at the same time we are most definitely relaxing and just enjoying ourselves. Our trip to the UK was really good and just what we needed in terms of family time ad 'time out', but it's good to be back in our own beds and be able to enjoy our house, neighbourhood and city.
Getting over the two-hour time difference has been tough once again. I'm sure this has been compounded by the fact that Leila can go without a nap and that she is now in a bed that she can get out of (rather than a cot). The first four or five days were really hit and miss in terms of napping and getting to sleep at night (mainly for Leila, but for Edward a bit too as he seemed totally bambuzled by his room that he hasn't slept in now for a tenth of his life!)
We've had to do a fair bit of shopping this week to get supplies back into the house. Part of this has been raiding the 'reduced' section at Lidl so that we can stock up our new feezer!!! I'm getting ahead with preparing some dried beans to freeze ready to add to meals, and I plan to make some jam too whilst fruit is in season.
In terms of playdates we've been able to see a few people which has been nice. Nice for us to catch up with other parents and friends again, and also nice for Leila to play with people her own age again. On Sunday Sofia, Sarah and Andy came round. They had some push-along toys for Edward and a trike for Leila which has meant they are both very happy! On Thursday we met up with Lucy and her three kids Evie, Grace and Daisy at the Jolie Ville soft play. Leila very much 'threw' herself into things there which was great to see. Then on Saturday afternoon we went around the the Porter's for an afternoon play and bbq. They have a pool and I took Leila in for a bit which was again good for her to be in the water - and she was getting more comfortable seeing the other boys splashing, but we have some way to go still with that. We made a jug of Pimms and homemade pork and apple burgers which both went down a treat! Sunday afternoon was really enjoyable too as we spent it playing at Dragos' and Anca's. It was great to see Anastasia and Edward together again and after the usual shyness, Leila really opened up (i.e. started bossing everyone around!). We picked apricots in their garden - of which Leila and Edward then ate about 6 between them in the space of two hours! We had dinner all together which made for a second late bedtime in a row (we're aiming for bath at 7pm and bed at 8pm atm), but it didn't matter really as we'd had a wonderful week.
We've also been getting through our 'to do' list around the house. The first on that list was 'buy a car' and on Monday we were handed the keys! It's made life so much easier to know that we can quickly pop out to places without it being a mission on the bus or in a taxi. So far we have driven to the mall a few times, so the park, to the shop for water (we cancelled our expensive water delivery subscription) and to Jason's. Then on Saturday we ventured a little further afield and drove into town to go to Herestrau Park. Scott's been getting to know the car and is gradually feeling more comforatble in it. I am sorting out lessons, so that I can be confident behind a wheel before I take the kids out in our car. And the kids - well Leila is very happy in the car (although she prefers 'pretend driving' when we get home), and Edward is good too.
We've had the obligatory trip to Ikea (and dinner there- yum!), holiday haircuts, dentist (Leila's first visit - no cavities and no tears WIN!) and the park. I've been doing some tidying and sorting around the house too and Scott has been cracking on with History Pod. We also had a day trip out to Otopeni water park.
Further holiday plans include a hair cut for me, a trip to Decathlon at Militari Mall, more trips to the park and the water park (60lei for us all for the day), using the car for some adventures around the city and an explore downtown. We don't have plans at the moment to leave the city - even though everyone is urging us to explore the coast or get to the mountains - to be honest we'd like to enjoy ourselves here now and do that next summer maybe. Oh and we plan to potty train Leila in preparation for starting school, I plan to create a new website and Scott is dabbling in a new song too. Oh and then a birthday party for Edward.
Getting over the two-hour time difference has been tough once again. I'm sure this has been compounded by the fact that Leila can go without a nap and that she is now in a bed that she can get out of (rather than a cot). The first four or five days were really hit and miss in terms of napping and getting to sleep at night (mainly for Leila, but for Edward a bit too as he seemed totally bambuzled by his room that he hasn't slept in now for a tenth of his life!)
We've had to do a fair bit of shopping this week to get supplies back into the house. Part of this has been raiding the 'reduced' section at Lidl so that we can stock up our new feezer!!! I'm getting ahead with preparing some dried beans to freeze ready to add to meals, and I plan to make some jam too whilst fruit is in season.
In terms of playdates we've been able to see a few people which has been nice. Nice for us to catch up with other parents and friends again, and also nice for Leila to play with people her own age again. On Sunday Sofia, Sarah and Andy came round. They had some push-along toys for Edward and a trike for Leila which has meant they are both very happy! On Thursday we met up with Lucy and her three kids Evie, Grace and Daisy at the Jolie Ville soft play. Leila very much 'threw' herself into things there which was great to see. Then on Saturday afternoon we went around the the Porter's for an afternoon play and bbq. They have a pool and I took Leila in for a bit which was again good for her to be in the water - and she was getting more comfortable seeing the other boys splashing, but we have some way to go still with that. We made a jug of Pimms and homemade pork and apple burgers which both went down a treat! Sunday afternoon was really enjoyable too as we spent it playing at Dragos' and Anca's. It was great to see Anastasia and Edward together again and after the usual shyness, Leila really opened up (i.e. started bossing everyone around!). We picked apricots in their garden - of which Leila and Edward then ate about 6 between them in the space of two hours! We had dinner all together which made for a second late bedtime in a row (we're aiming for bath at 7pm and bed at 8pm atm), but it didn't matter really as we'd had a wonderful week.
We've also been getting through our 'to do' list around the house. The first on that list was 'buy a car' and on Monday we were handed the keys! It's made life so much easier to know that we can quickly pop out to places without it being a mission on the bus or in a taxi. So far we have driven to the mall a few times, so the park, to the shop for water (we cancelled our expensive water delivery subscription) and to Jason's. Then on Saturday we ventured a little further afield and drove into town to go to Herestrau Park. Scott's been getting to know the car and is gradually feeling more comforatble in it. I am sorting out lessons, so that I can be confident behind a wheel before I take the kids out in our car. And the kids - well Leila is very happy in the car (although she prefers 'pretend driving' when we get home), and Edward is good too.
We've had the obligatory trip to Ikea (and dinner there- yum!), holiday haircuts, dentist (Leila's first visit - no cavities and no tears WIN!) and the park. I've been doing some tidying and sorting around the house too and Scott has been cracking on with History Pod. We also had a day trip out to Otopeni water park.
Further holiday plans include a hair cut for me, a trip to Decathlon at Militari Mall, more trips to the park and the water park (60lei for us all for the day), using the car for some adventures around the city and an explore downtown. We don't have plans at the moment to leave the city - even though everyone is urging us to explore the coast or get to the mountains - to be honest we'd like to enjoy ourselves here now and do that next summer maybe. Oh and we plan to potty train Leila in preparation for starting school, I plan to create a new website and Scott is dabbling in a new song too. Oh and then a birthday party for Edward.
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