Personality

We've been reorganising the way we store Audrey's toys, hopefully with the effect of having a less cluttered living room and being able to fit everything in better, as well as rotating the toys more frequently. I think it's a good idea to have a couple of sets of toys out at once and then rotate those every few days, rather than having everything to choose from at once and it all getting quite overwhelming.

Audrey has been helping to clean things out!

She just loves to help. She's absolutely adorable.

Our friend Ros is staying with us just now, and has a new BFF in the form of Audrey Bea. Audrey follows her around everywhere and last night she woke up at 3am and asked for Ros for nearly two hours. Oh yes, I'm pretty exhausted today - fortunately Dada was a star and let me have a lie in this morning while he watched the little Bea, who was pretending to be an actual bee by running around buzzing with her arms held out periodically yelling "FLYING!"

Today we're going on an adventure to the Hermitage - lots of puddle jumping and fun.

Have a great day!

Everybody loves jumping in muddy puddles

Yesterday we were all in a bit of a funk. Ian's been off sick with a horrid throat infection, and the soggy weather has been keeping us cooped up in the house a lot. To turn things around, Audrey and I decided to take a late afternoon ramble in the Hermitage.

We put on our warm coats and our wellies and went to catch the bus down the road. Audrey insisted on sitting up on the bus stop bench like a grown up.

When we're feeling stuffy or low or stressed, this place never fails to revitalise me. Something about the mud and the water and the trees overhead, combined with the freedom to just let Audrey run and play and splash without worrying that she'll get run over or fall on a broken beer bottle.

When she's old enough to learn how to ride a bike, I imagine her riding it here.

Yesterday was all about the puddle jumping.

We saw lots of logs and tree stumps, some naturally fallen and some cut by the wardens. Some were mossy, some dry and crumbling, some wet and smooth. Audrey told me what each of them were - a dinosaur, a dragon, a horse, a dragon horse ROAR-NEIGH!

I love these little glimpses of her developing imagination.

The walk was just what we needed to recharge. We came home just as the street lights were coming on in our road, and just as it was starting to rain.

Perfect.

Sensory Play

Something we've been neglecting a little lately is sensory activities, so the last few days have been declared sensory days! Basically, this means a LOT of mess. Especially as our vacuum cleaner is having a few issues lately (that should be sorted in a day or two when our new fully functioning hoover bags arrive!). But really, what's mess compared to this much fun?

We've painted on paper, our bodies, the cat (don't ask). We've played with new green play dough. We've tipped and thrown hay all over the place.

We've played music on Dada's keyboard, we've climbed into the kitchen sink and played with water (well, I say we...), we've gone out in the dark with Aunty Katy and Uncle David to look at fireworks.

Ian has a new video recorder, so he's been taking lots of adorable videos of little Bea.

Today we made a new sensory tub with dry rice, plastic cotton reels, jingly balls, big heavy marbles, twigs and rocks from the park. Audrey LOVED it. We added some things to scoop and pour with, and she had a great time making the biggest mess of the living room. Brilliant.

Whatever you're up to today, I hope you're having as much fun as we are!

Hi Gorgeous!

So much to catch you up on! We've been away visiting my grandparents, and when we got back Audrey had a nasty cold which she's only just getting over. She's also going through a bit of a growth spurt, so her sleep has been particularly disrupted. But things have settled down a bit over the past few days.

I will definitely do some catch-up posts to fill you all in on what we've been up to - Halloween parties and all sorts! But for now, here are some pics of my grown up girl that I've just taken today on our walk in the park.

She's so big now. She says every word under the sun and makes little sentences. The other night when she was struggling to sleep, we took her for a walk out in the buggy across the estate in the dark. "Wow big moon" she said. "Oh wow." We saw lots of fireworks going pop, and lots of "hi stars!" She sang twinkle twinkle sleepily to herself and did all the actions.

She's always trying to count things lately - "six, sebben, four, free, six..."

Also colours. At the moment everything is green. What colour is the grass? Green. What colour is the sky? Green. What colour is Shambles the cat? GREEN!

And she's getting so good with her motor skills.

She turned to me earlier today, grinned and said "Hi Gorgeous!" She makes me laugh constantly. She's the best.

Friend

Our dear friend Cori has been visiting this week, and it's been so wonderful. Cori is so good with Audrey, and it makes me so happy to see my good friends loving my little girl. Audrey has had a great time having someone new here to play with, and I've enjoyed having the time to be able to do things like getting my hair cut - not to mention to spend time catching up with one of my dearest friends.

There was a lot of takeaway eating, dvd watching, chatting and adventuring!

We're off to visit my grandparents tomorrow for a long weekend, and my dad and stepmum will be there too. It's starting to really feel like the run up to Christmas - I'm so excited for it this year, I think Audrey will have so much fun.

I've always thought of autumn as one of my least favourite seasons - it's always been a little depressing, the closing down of the year. This year, though, for the first time in ages I've really enjoyed watching the leaves change. Something about having children makes you look at things with newer eyes.

Come back and visit again soon, "Aunty" Cori - we'll miss you!