Thursday 10 September 2009

Little Miss Chatterbox

I have just finished reading the most excellent book, "Toxic Childhood" by Sue Palmer - a superb read which I recommend wholeheartedly to all parents to be, parents, grandparents etc. It talks about the importance of outdoor play, imaginative indoor play, restriction of TV and screen time etc etc.

One of her throwaway remarks (or it may, in fact, have been in her subsequent book, "Detoxing Childhood" which is basically a precis of "Toxic Childhood") was by 18 months a child should have up to 50 words and, by 2, up to 200 (one of her points was that children are increasingly coming to school with less and less language than they used to which is part of the reason for the difficulty teachers are having in getting them to read and write). Now, I promise you, I try my utmost not to be a competitive parent. I know that that is not good for me or Immy (there is no way I want to be like either of the mothers in the "Goodness Gracious Me!" sketch!).

However, it set me wondering - how many words does Immy know now, at 19 months and a week? So, I started making a list. It is now quite a long list. About 150 words, in fact. And those are just the ones I've remembered. (I'll spare you the actual list. Partly not to bore you and partly because I don't want to sit here copying it out!!) If ever I wanted proof that there was any of me in her (she's the spit of Marc and I struggle to spot my contribution), then I think this is it. Hopefully this is a small sign that I'm doing at least SOMETHING right.

Friday 29 May 2009

It's about time

I got back into the habit of blogging.  Over a year since the last post - disgraceful!  Marc is away on some boring training course in Watford and has been since Wednesday.  He won't be back until late tonight.  Weirdly, during the time he's been away, Immy has actually managed to go to bed at a sensible time.  I don't know what to make of this, but perhaps she's just going to have to have her tea at a sensible time as that appears to be the only thing that's being done differently.

I have made a start on Sarah's Urchin hat (Ysolda Teague).  It's my first time using a provisional cast on and, frankly, I'm terrified.  Oh well, worse things happen at sea and all that.  Hopefully I'll get it finished by the end of the weekend (Tilly's party on Sunday notwithstanding) and then I can get on with Anna's beret and 101 other things.  Plus, there is the small matter of tidying the flat and trying to get it vaguely reasonable.  Although we don't actually have anything other than a vague timeframe for the move to Huddersfield (some point next year, provided Marc can get the transfer), I would still like things to be vaguely reasonable before then so that it's not all a mad panic.