Nursery After several weeks, Isabella has now settled very well into the nursery that I use at the gym. No more screaming and crying when Ma Ma leaves, she just says bye bye and love you before rushing off to play. They only take around 10 children at a time so its very small and informal. In fact she now runs in! I have increased the time to 1.5 hours, which gives me longer in the gym and time for a shower! Before we then head off to the library for our toddler singing and story telling session.
I have hopefully also found a full time nursery place for Isabella. It is literally 5 minutes walk up the road, which is great for dropping her off and running to the train station! They are able to take her from June. So I have sent off my application form and deposit. There are 6 settling in session, plus our week away in Paris and Euro Disney, so hopefully if they still have the vacancy! She will start going properly in July for two days per week, and then in September this will increase to 4 days per week when I return to work. I know that this needs to be done slowly, hence I am starting her early rather than the 6 introduction sessions, then wham 4 days per week! The other advantage is that it has a pre school with a qualified teacher which she will go to when she is 2 1/2 . In addition our next door neighbours 3 yr old goes, and they adore each other so much! So hopefully seeing E on one of her days will help her settle in!
Oxford
Last weekend we went away to Oxford, Its an annual event for us where we meet our friends with their 4 children who travel down from Leeds. One of the adults from each couple ( or in previous years both hubby and I) run the Oxford town and gown 10 km run. Whilst the others child mind. Its a lovely run, through the university park and all the beautiful college building and town. Hubby did well this year and finished in 50 minutes. But it was such a nice weekend away, and Isabella loved playing with their children. She last met them in October, but she is so much older now and can interact more! They adored her and the 4 yr old twins wanted to take Isabella back to live with them! They had all the sleeping arrangements made and said that hubby and I could sleep with their Mummy and Daddy! These pictures are taken at Woodstock, at the grounds of Blenheim place.
Swimming!
Isabella has now had 3 lessons and Ba Ba takes her on a Saturday morning whilst Ma Ma runs. Whilst she has always loved the water her confidence has soared! She is now practically swimming, well she can do the doggy paddle! The swimming lessons are only for 30 minutes which is enough for a 23 month old! And she can do all the exercises and keep up. She also loves the learning through play and hopefully will soon be swimming properly.
Dinner guests!
We have had lots of family and friends round who have children, but on Wednesday Isabella had her first dinner guest over! our next door neighbours two children aged 5 and 3. As Isabella is always running into their house to play ( they do knock for her!) and vice versa they run into our house very frequently! So I decided we should formally invite them to come for dinner and to play! Honestly I spent ages wondering what to cook! And played safe with a home made tomato, roasted vegetable and basil sauce with pasta bake! Followed by fresh fruit salad and sugar free jelly! The food went down well, apart from their oldest child saying the cheese was stringy! ( it contained mozzarella and cheddar cheese!), we had clean plates all around!
There was a little arguing! As Isabella didn't want to share her toys! And wanted the neighbours boy to push her and his sister around on the sea saw! ( it spins around as well!). She can be very bossy at times, so we are now working on her sharing more! She did get a lot better, but she has also started snatching toys at nursery again! A habit she did get out of! Once you tell her to share she is fine and will! Its just not that forthcoming at times!
DIY
Its also DIY catch up time. We hope to put our house and the market later this year, and since I have been on adoption leave I have slowly started to work my way through the house. Its now the turn of the kitchen. And I want to do this before our builder eventually arrives to fix the wall units around the new boiler! So I have mended the cracks in the ceiling! Got rid of the water marks left from our loft conversion and plumbers! And stipped the old wall paper of the walls. The only problem was that by stripping the wallpaper off the old plaster started to come away and I then ended up replastering 1/2 a wall! Mmm its not brilliant! So I need to sand this a little and then cover it with lining paper before repainting the ceiling and kitchen walls! But we still have a lot more to do! Such as redecorating the middle spare bedroom and finishing sanding and repainting all the external wooden window frames and sills! The loft conversion was fantastic but you do end up needing to redecorating the entire house!
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