Christmas Day

Sometimes I can't get over how big Stella is getting. For example, I think she looks particularly grown up in these pictures of her swinging in the Park on Christmas Day. It was a lovely crisp day and we went out before our big lunch after a nice morning of present opening and scrambled eggs and smoked salmon. Stella was most excited about her spotty flamenco dress, pictured here as well. It's great for dancing and swishing around in generally.

I can ride my bike

Actually Stella learnt how to ride her bike in the summer, but I seem to have missed the opportunity to post about it until now. Here Stella is on Christmas Day in Hackney Downs on her bike. Affy also got a new bike for Christmas, and I don't think it'll be too long before she gets the stabilisers off as well.

I've lost my first tooth

It was a very exciting event in the Harford Monks Household. The tooth was wobbly for about a week and then finally, one day in the playground after school, Stella bit into a raw carrot stick and the tooth was left dangling by a thread. She did the rest of the job herself. The tooth fairy heard the news and visited that evening! Now the new tooth is already popping through.

In the dental arena we also had another first...on Christmas eve Stella had her first filling! She was very brave and coped well with having her teeth "put to sleep"! For at least a day she didn't want to eat any chocolate or anything sweet in between meals (oh except for the candy floss and lollypop when Liz took her and Affy to Winterwonderland!) but Christmas seems to have wiped out those intentions. However, she has become a very good tooth brusher.

Nuremburg Nuptuals

We were lucky enough to go to the wedding of some old friends of Tim's in Nuremburg in September. Stella found the whole idea of the wedding very exciting indeed and loved seeing Kat in a white dress. We also really enjoyed the fantastic German playgrounds. Stella did try some of the local food and as you can see from the pictures, the sausages (above) went down somewhat better than the sauerkraut (below)!

The lovely Lakes

Our second holiday of the year :) was in the Lake District in an idyllic cottage by the western shore of Lake Windermere. It was a small place, but it was so lovely to go down to the lake every day and often to swim - in spite of the cold weather!

Stella loved the blackberry picking down the lane, to make blackberry and rhubarb crumble (rhubarb provided from uncle Aidan's garden). It was nice for us to be in the Lake District and to be able to have visitors. Uncle Bren and Auntie Jackie came one day with Ruth and Conor and Grandma and Grandad for a barbeque by the lake. Aidan and Catherine came one evening for dinner and Andrew, Olga, Ananyo and Kat came and visited for a disastrous walk and a nice evening meal.

Another great holiday at Cergallina

This summer we were at Cergallina with Adrian (Tim's Dad) and Liz (Tim's Step mum) and the with Tim and Angela our friends, and their children Tilly and Danny. We had a fantastic holiday and Stella's confidence in the pool came on in leaps and bounds. The food was as usual a big hit - what five year old would complain about pasta and ice cream every day. We did some of the usual day trips, but generally just enjoyed relaxing by the pool, riding Judith's horses and the gardens of Cergallina.

Stella's Fifth Birthday

May 13th was Stella's fifth birthday. She seemed to have a lovely time. We had a party at home a few days before the actual day. She had lots of friend come over and we played party games, with mixed success! Opening the presents was, of course, a highlight. May 13th was actually a school day, but by the time she came home there were so many parcels from her generous extended family that the excitement began all over again. You can see how pleased she was from the pyjama photo above.



Stella is still loving school and really enjoying learning how to write. Whenever she can she loves to draw and write at the moment. It makes entertainment very cheap and easy.

We're also just back from a lovely week in the Lake District with my parents. Stella and Affy loved playing in the garden. We had some beautiful little walks and even some paddling in lake Windermere (swimming for mummy!). It was just the break we needed from Clapton.

Chasing the sheep in Wales

It seems to hard to get around to posting anything on the blog these days! Ever since Stella started school, life has seemed busier than ever. It's amazing how quickly 3.30 comes around and I'm off to pick her up from school. The weekends are over in a flash. Anyway, it's now the Easter holidays and Stella and Affy have gone for a day out with Liz, their nanny. I was just looking at photos from our recent holiday in Wales and thought that it was time for a post.

Stella has settled into school really well. She seems to have made quite a few friends. Lila, Winnie and Anouscha are the ones who she talks about most at the moment. She happily sets off for school in the morning and they seem to do lots of fun activities which keep her interested. Sometimes she has school lunches, depending on what the menu of the day is, but often she likes to have packed lunches. She's coped really well with the whole transition into big school although she did get lost with her friend Anouscha on the second day of school. "It's the first time I've ever been lost mummy" she proudly told me when she came home that day. "We cried a bit for our mummies and then we went up and down stairs a bit and found a teacher!" is how she recounted the adventure.

She's had friends over to play after school a few times - Anouscha, Lila and Alex at different times - but it's quite tough for them as they're tired after a day at school and I often find that I have to be referee!

Stella is very enthusiastic about colouring at the moment. She spends lots of her time colouring in anything she can get her hands on, and drawing too. Which is great. Her reading and writing are starting to come along. She can blend three letters and can write most of them, with an occasional hint. I was surprised to find other friends' children of the same age who can already read and write, but Stella's school isn't pressurising them into it at the moment and focusses a lot of play. I think that's fine for now.

Stella loves her teachers Rachel and Farrer and they seem to be very good and caring.

Swimming is coming along a treat. We go for lessons every week and now Stella can swim on her back very confidently and does a good doggie paddle on her front. She's happy to jump in from the side of the pool and will put her head under water too. At the end of term she also had her first ballet exam! It was much more serious than we expected. She had to wear white tights and have her hair pinned back in a bun. Also, she was supposed to have learnt a dance, but we didn't realise this, so I'll be amazed if she passes. I think we might try something other than ballet next term for a change!

Our big girl starts school!

Stella started school last Monday at Millfields Community School around the corner. It was a snowy and cold day so there wasn't much opportunity to take photos.

It seems to be a very nice school, if a lot bigger than either Tim's or my primary school, with about 650 students. Stella's teachers are Rachel and Farrar and she is in blue class. She seems to have settled in very well and on Friday she said goodbye to me before going into the school (on previous mornings Tim or I had gone into the classroom with her). She already got herself a gold smiley face for doing something good - we're not sure what, and so is suitably proud. She also seems to be making friends already and enjoying playing in the playground. She was delighted to come home and tell us on Wednesday that she had got lost for the first time in her life on the journey from the school dinner hall to the playground at lunchtime! Fortunately she was with another little girl, Anouscha, and she said they both cried for their mummies a little bit and then went and found someone who told them where to go. All quite an adventure I think. Unfortunately, school has been closed for the last two days because they have no water, so Stella has gone back to her nursery! Hopefully she will be happy to go to school again when it reopens.