Celebrating Now

I'm slowly tapping back into some form of normality. Pregnancy is still making me tired at the end of the day. This translates to half of the posts I've got in my mind not being written, knitting needles being somewhat neglected and my camera not getting the same use as I'd like to. However, I have been doing a bit of all of this as well as managed to celebrate Cubling's birthday in style. What with not having a proper party last year, she got two this year. Imagine 11 toddlers, 3 or so babies and relevant parents at party number one, to be repeated by a slightly lower toddler count (but greater adult count) the following day. Lesson learned: the second round is much easier, practice helps. Still, I'm not sure if I'd recommend having two rather large children's birthday parties on two consecutive days if you're pregnant. Of course, it was all worth it for her, to show her how special she is, even for the overtired whining at the end of both days.

The doll's house was a great success, and has been played with much more than the train tracks. Cubling loves to put the dolls to bed, to wake them, to rearrange the house, to clear the rubbish out (literally decluttering it, something that we need to do ourselves urgently) and she even does bedtime routines for the babies.

She's always been a very physically active girl, with lots of energy, and while I don't know what exactly she gets up to at either the new nursery (which currently has an exercise theme) or the forest kindergarten, but she sure has made another leap in confidence and ability to climb rather worrying heights. Or throw herself down a slide backwards and head first (I recall that as a child, this was beyond what I felt comfortable with. Not at 3 - but ever). While I admire her energy and physical ability, her climbing reduces me to an overprotective mum, I feel my legs go just watching her. She also manages to run off so fast that I have no idea which direction she went to, but fortunately she is reliable in responding when I ask where she is. So far anyway.

We are still being tortured with endless why questions, plus the rather entertaining first question of the day "what morgen doing?" and the question upon return at home "what you do today?" Her world is that of interacting with other people, she'll go up to any stranger and ask for their names, that of energetic play and activity, that of glueing and painting, role playing, singing and sharing books. She has no time for numbers or letters, no concept of counting years (although she does have a concept of quantities), clearly life is much too busy for any of that. And right she is. I still can't see her as a school girl and I'm glad that she still has a fair bit of time before she'll be made to sit on classroom chairs, because thanks to her March birthday, she'll be starting school at 5 1/2. She is exhuberant and excitable, yet also extremely keen on cuddles and kisses. She will say "I liebe dich" again and again in such a sweet voice that it can only melt your heart away. The longer she can enjoy these pleasures of worryfree life, the better.

Outdoor pictures taken at Finlaystone Park which in spite of the hefty entry cost I can only recommend as a day trip destination for any energetic toddler.