Red Riding Hood And The Very Angry Ladybird

The last few weeks they have been celebrating National Book Week at Sweet-Pea's nursery.  It was only intended that the event last a week but so many kids were ill, they repeated the whole thing the second week!  That was really cool for me because I just loving dressing Sweet-Pea up and I can't wait until Smiler gets to participate!

This year, I bought Sweet-Pea a Red Riding Hood outfit and I gave her a copy of the book.  The real "Little Red Riding Hood."  Not the sanitized version they read at nursery but the proper one.  The Ladybird book.  Remember this?

Now I did have a think prior to giving Sweet-Pea the book because for those of you not familiar with the story - the wolf swallows both the Grandma and Red Riding Hood whole and they are rescued by Red Riding Hood's father who is a woodcutter and he kills the wolf with his axe.  A bit gory for a three year old to say the least.

That said, I'm pretty sure my mother read it to me when I was quite small.  I decided that if I explained to her that it was only a story and answered any questions she asked honestly that she would be fine and she has been.  It is a fine line to walk between protecting her from things that might legitimately upset her and from being able to distinguish between fact and fantasy.

I sent the book to nursery and her room acted it out with her as Red Riding Hood which she loved.  Here she is in her costume - complete with wolf:

The following week, we decided to go with our ladybird costume and they acted out "The Very Angry Ladybird."  Ironically enough - Sweet-Pea was going through much the same thing as the insect from the book.  She seemed to be picking arguments with us all week long and it was very very wearing!  However, you couldn't tell from the photos:

See what I mean - butter wouldn't melt you know?

Also they celebrated Saint Patrick's Day and she made a hat:

She also sang a leprechaun song to the tune of "I'm a little Teapot" that went:

"I'm a little leprechaun, small and green
The tiniest man you've ever seen
If you ever catch me I've been told
I'll give you my pot of gold"

They also had pyjama day and she wore her Peppa Pig pyjamas with matching socks ( please excuse the mess in the background)

I think it is fabulous that they encourage play-acting in children.  I remember when I was five, I was chosen to be the little Red Hen in the kindergarten play.  I suspect this had much to do with the fact that I was rather loud, bossy and precocious and they probably knew that people wouldn't struggle to hear me! 

It was the story where the little Red Hen asks various animals for help in getting the ingredients for making bread who refuse only to turn up when it's ready to eat.  The play was a happy memory although I do recall my teacher gently chastising me in rehearsals for being a little too enthusiastic about denying the other animals the bread at the end!

Then of course, there are the photos I take randomly and I love this one:

What a great expression! Her Dad and I often wonder out loud what she'll be like when she's older.  Then I find myself praying for her future husband! 

All kidding aside - she is such a lovely kid and we are so lucky to have her.

A Man On The Move

Smiler is growing up far too quickly.  I mean - just look at this:

Yes that is indeed his lovely first new tooth which came in February 5.  His second tooth came through on February 28 which was also the day he first crawled properly.  Not the commando crawling but proper lifting up his bum and crawling.  Then about four days later on March 1 - he decided that crawling was so yesterday and he would pull himself up to standing.  The following day, we had a cruiser on our hands!

It is lovely that he is now able to go where he wants...and it is awful that he is now able to go where he wants because it is almost always someplace I don't want him to go.  With his new skill and teeth coming in I feel like I have a small dog on my hands.  He is constantly pulling himself up around my legs.  He thinks our fingers are ideal teethers and I am continually throwing stuff up and out of the way so he won't get at it. 

But he is just so cute

We also finally moved him into his own room.  I had intended to perhaps clean his room (formerly the guest bedroom) and clear out some of the junk beforehand but I didn't manage it.  We were interrupting his sleep as much as he was interrupting ours and one night I just realised that I was tired of creeping around in the dark trying not to disturb him.  I had planned on him being in there for at least six months and as Sweet-Pea had been in our room until she was about eight or so months old, I thought it was a good time for him to go.  Also, I'll be returning to work in June and I wanted him to be well and truly used to his own room well before I headed back. 

All said and done it is working well.   This is him the day we moved the cot out.  We also had to lower the cot as he could now pull himself up.

Tomorrow, we will be completing another milestone.  We'll be buying him his first pair of shoes!  He is desperate to walk outside but I can't let him do it in his socks! 

So I'll sign off with one last photo.  My little ginger boy....sniff....

Butterfly Wings And Other Things...

Sweet-Pea has had an exciting few weeks.  The Friday of half-term she saw her boyfriend Sammy and got her face painted.  I was a bit worried as to how that would go as she had never had her face painted before but she just loved it!  Here is the final result:

Here she is getting it done - first she patiently waits...

Then we start on the wings...

Finished!

Now her boyfriend Sammy got his face painted as well.  He is currently into Superheroes so he got his face painted like Spiderman.  This I might add was taken before Sammy panicked thinking that it was permanent at which point he tried to rub it off his face!

Another big exciting thing that happened was that Sweet-Pea met a CBeebies television presenter.  Over here, the CBeebies channel is for under fives and has no commercials.  Claire likes many of the programs that appear on this channel such as "Charlie and Lola," "Tweenies", "Postman Pat" and "Bob The Builder" to name a few.  Sweet-Pea met Katy from the show "I Can Cook."

My friend Lynn babysits Sweet-Pea and Smiler once a week while Hubby and I go out to eat a meal in peace and as it happens - she knows Katy!  We had watched the last series of the show which is really good.  Sweet-Pea loves to help me cook and loves all the songs that Katy sings and all the actions i.e. kids are encouraged to pretend they are mixing something or to spring up and rise like baking powder.  We have the cookbook that they put out and have made a few recipes from it.  Lynn knew how much Sweet-Pea liked the show so she made arrangements for Katy to come around and meet her.

Well - when Auntie Lynn opened the door and Katy was stood there, Sweet-Pea for once was speechless!  As Lynn said later "Well - if Brad Pitt walked through your door - you probably wouldn't believe it was actually him would you?"  However, Katy is a really lovely girl and put Sweet-Pea at ease right away and we had a really nice visit.  I learned a bit about how a television series was made and she told us a bit about her life which was really interesting.  She and Sweet-Pea had a lovely play and I took a few photos...

Then - to top off the evening, it was my step-daughter's birthday!  She had requested a "Hello Kitty" cake which I had spent much of the previous day making and I thought it turned out pretty good.

Due to the fact it was her birthday and she was about to devour almost an entire cake - she let me take a photo of her with Sweet-Pea!  A rare honour!

I have more Smiler-related news but it's been almost three weeks since I posted so at the moment, I'll end off with this. I wish I could be disciplined to write every day but with two small kiddies in the house and a part-time teenager - there are only so many hours in the day to get things done! 

Enough already - I'm pressing the Post button!