With the family

It's a time of change for Stella. This week she leaves her nursery after three happy years and heads off for big school. Stella is really excited about this change in her life, but not without a little sadness to be leaving Jocelyn, Christine and Valerie behind. She says she's particularly going to miss Jocelyn. But at nursery, the children her age have long moved on to big school and so I think Stella will be delighted to have some new peers to play with.

Last week we went to school to meet her teacher Rachel and her nursery assistant Farrer. They both seemed lovely and very committed teachers. I feel happy that she will be in good hands. It's a very big school though with about 650 pupils, so I'm nervous too.

The photo is of the four of us from the birthday party of Stella's cousin Martha who was eighteen at the beginning of December.

Halloween!

A busy few months

It’s been a busy few months since I last wrote. We had summer holidays in Cornwall and Italy. Stella and I went to Berlin together to see our good friends Aino, Hubert, Alvar and Ingmar and we’ve all had a couple of trips to the Lake District.

Stella absolutely loved staying in a caravan in St Ives, even though it rained every day. She especially liked the fact that she could see out of her bedroom window!! She loved playing in the sea and bravely came swimming with me one day in an unheated lido in Penzance, which was really quite chilly.

Italy was much warmer and Stella learnt how to swim in the Cergallina pool. This seemed like a really big milestone and was very exciting for all of us. She also really enjoyed just spending time in the garden in her own little world. Most fun of all was playing with cousins Rafael and Joy for the first few days and then Molly for another few days. She also had some time playing with Fabio and Massimo and their cousin Luca, who she loves!

Stella is now the biggest girl at nursery as the final few of her friends of her age went to school. She still seems happy enough but she is looking forward to school immensely. I’m much more nervous about the big city school Millfields which she’s going to which has 650 pupils! Quite different from my own school experience in Poulton-le-Fylde. I’ve met a couple of the children who will be starting in January and heard of a few more. They all seem nice so hopefully it will be fine. For now I’m enjoying the fact that Stella is home on Wednesdays and Fridays to do lots of fun things together that will be much more difficult once we’re tied to school holidays.

We’ve been visiting a lovely farm in Essex which only takes about 35 minutes to get to. And we’ve been doing a few nice walks. Last weekend we went to Epping Forest, also in Essex. Also taking the opportunity to visit friends outside London. Stella seems keen to play with almost anyone whose house we turn up at, which makes it very easy for me to go and see old friends. Flying to Berlin just the two of us was a real treat though and Stella was just brilliant. It was so easy to travel with her and I look forward to more of that in the future.

Here are a few photos from the last few months as it’s taken me so long to get around to blogging:

Stella is four!

Tomorrow Stella will be a big four! She started the celebrations tonight with a pre birthday tea with the family. Tomorrow all her friends from nursery are coming over in the afternoon and on Saturday she's having a party with her non-nursery friends.

She's such a big girl these days. This weekend was Tim and my fifth wedding anniversary and we went away for the night while Stella and Affy stayed with Aunty Carina and Uncle Mark. Stella had such a lovely time playing with cousin Molly that she really didn't want to leave when it came to Sunday evening.

She's very excited about starting school but has to wait until January for the pleasure. She's got a place waiting for her then at the local primary school Millfields. She's really enjoying her swimming lessons at the moment and last week surprised me by saying, watch this mummy, and swimming a few strokes without her floats. This was a first! She's also enjoying ballet classes on Saturday mornings especially now her friend Mercy has started coming along too.

Her favourite pastime is still without doubt reading books. She also spends hours telling little stories to herself with figurines.

Easter Fun

This is Stella relaxing on the sofa at her friend Abbie's house. Abbie has a brother Joseph who's just the same age as Affy so we like going over there to play. Stella loves playing with Abbie's dolls house and Abbie's dad, Ben, is always good at organising the girls to do art projects when we're there, so that Abbie's mum, Natascha, and I can chat and have a cup of tea!!

Yesterday we had a lovely day after visiting Abbie we went kite flying with Fabio and Massimo on Hackney Marshes. The boys and Stella all went on their bikes. Stella's getting really good at balancing on her Likabike now, and hopefully she'll be able to move onto a proper bicycle soon. Kite flying was a bit crazy because it was so windy. Tim said it was the first time he'd flown a kite too. We must do it more often as it was lots of fun.

This is Stella and Abbie


This is Stella and Massimo and Stella and Tim kite flying:

Three and three quarters

This is Stella hugging a tree in the lake district where we visited Grandma and Grandad this weekend. It was so cold while we were there, we didn't really get to go outside much, although Stella is always delighted with Grandad's big TV anyway so she didn't mind that much.

Stella's really looking forward to being four. I'm not sure if it's the birthday presents, the party or the fact that I suggested I might build her bunk beds once she was four. I'm now beginning to regret this promise as Africa is a real climber and her history of accidents makes me very nervous about building such a tall object in their bedroom.

We're still waiting to hear which school Stella is going to go to, but in the meantime, in spite of my worries about her being the oldest at Little Buds she still seems really happy there.

Stella's getting really good on her likeabike and can balance quite well so I'm wondering if we might graduate to a proper bicycle soon.

In Springfield Park

We had a lovely afternoon in Springfield Park last week with friends, Tash and Jovin and their daughter Frieda who is the same age as Africa. It was a really warm afternoon for February and Stella had lots of fun running around and rocking on the wooden animals there.

Stella is getting really interested in writing now. She can write her name and recognises most of the alphabet. I have to admit to not having spent much time pushing this, but they do help her a lot at nursery and I can tell that she will start to get the hang of reading very soon, whether I like it or not!!

Daddy has been busy the past few weeks with his book tour but Stella has really enjoyed watching where he's been on a big map on her wall. She also likes watching video clips when he appears on TV, although the messages are not always age appropriate...

She's being a really lovely big sister these days too. She doesn't like to sleep in her bed but on the floor next to Affy. Affy seems to like this too and they both sleep better as a result. Finally, I've got them to go to bed at the same time too, which is a result!

Why?

"Why?" questions have been Stella's favourite for quite a while now, and they are not always easy to answer. To take a sample from the past couple of days (about as far back as I can remember!) "Why did I grow out of my coat?" "Why is fire hot?" "Why do people have to die?" "Why did the Lion King's Daddy speak from the clouds?" It keeps us all thinking! Unfortunately, I rather misjudged the power of the Lion King over a three year old and Stella got very upset by it. I'd like to put this down to her emotional maturity rather than parental incompetence, but fortunately Tim was able to pick up the pieces before bedtime and hopefully there won't be too many nightmares tonight!

What other news does Stella have? To my delight her nursery, Little Buds, has moved onto our street and so now in the morning it takes us about three minutes to get there. Stella keeps suggesting that she could get there herself, which she probably could, but I suspect I might be getting more than a visit from social services if I were to allow it!! I admire her independence though. I'm still trying to get her into the local school nursery as she is now one of the oldest at Little Buds and I'm worried she's getting bored there. She keeps telling me she is, but I'm hoping it's just a three year old thing and she's experimenting with the words rather than it being a real concern.

We're filling in our school application forms at the moment, and wondering whether or not Stella will get into the school of our choice, Millfields. It's only about 5 minutes walk away, but it's had some great reviews and so everyone is trying to get in there... We can but wait and see. I'm trying not to get too stressed about it as there's nothing we can do really other than move house, and currently we're not likely to move more than two doors down the street.

Stella is still a big fan of being read to, and looking through books. She's started writing her name now and some numbers too and she seems very excited about that.

I'm trying to involve Stella more in the cooking in the hope that she'll start to be a bit more adventurous with what she eats. Default response to a new dish is "I don't like that" and except for a few favourites (avocado, green beans, carrots, sweet corn..), vegetables are a bit of a struggle. She'd eat pasta every day if I let her!

Stella loves her bed time DVD watching session and is currently (at least prior to the Lion King experience) addicted to The Grinch. She has been watching it for days and now knows the song "Where are you Christmas" off by heart and sings it with surprising similarity to the original!

Life is busy and it's almost impossible to capture her and Africa together, but here's an attempt!

Autumn Leaves

Umbria!

We've been lucky to have lots of holidays this year - although we've realised that sometimes holidays with two children are not as relaxing as holidays used to be, and that being at home is more restful! Anyway, we had a lovely time in Umbria for Hannah and Ian's wedding. Stella made good friends with Ella and Rosie, two second cousins of Hannah and cousins of each other, who were staying in the same Agrotourismo as we were. She loved the food of course - pasta, pizza and gelato heaven! Unfortunately the pool was freezing cold so Stella took to being my coach and running up and down the poolside as I swam! Both she and Affy were brilliant at coping with all the late night dinners which surrounded the wedding. At around nine, Stella would just go and sit in her buggy and go to sleep - Amazing!

In Wales

We've had a lovely summer of UK holidays including a trip to South Wales for a week. I think the highlight for Stella was sleeping on the top bed of a bunk bed at one of the houses which we rented in St Davids, but we also had a great time visiting the National Welsh Botanic Gardens where I took these pictures. We're already having to start thinking about which school Stella will go to as we have to make our application at the beginning of next year. She won't start until January 2009 though. In the meantime she's still enjoying Little Buds three days a week.

Stella has entered the phase of devotion to all things pink (do all girls go through this??) and having persuaded me to buy her a pink tutu a few weeks ago has now started ballet too (at her own request!). On the first day before we got there she announced that she wanted to go in on her own and for me and Africa to leave her there. So, I did as I was told (eye's misting up!) and she got on just fine. The second time I was a bit surprised that she was less gung ho about heading in, but after a few minutes watching she still went for it. Fortunately for now, ballet seems to mainly involve jumping around being a star and running around pretending to be a car. This seems pretty harmless! I must get a picture of the tutu soon..

A beach holiday in Whitstable

It's a busy life being three and there's not much time for writing blogs. But, today, thanks to Stella's sister waking me up for the day at four thirty, I find myself with time a the computer and an inability to think straight. So, instead I can post some pictures up here and write about what Stella's been up to.

These photos were taken during a little holiday we took in Whitstable in May. We stayed in a beach hut which Stella loved. In fact she wanted to stay there forever and never come home. Fortunately we did come home though and I think, in the end, she would have missed her cousins next door, her friends and her toys. Books are still probably Stella's favourite thing in the world and it's a rare occasion that an offer of being read to is turned down. She also spends lots of time playing with small figures, chatting to them and making up stories. Once a week I try and take her swimming, either in the new lido at London Fields or the local pool and she absolutely loves it. Her confidence is growing in the water, and who knows, maybe by the end of the summer she'll be well on her way to her first doggy paddle!

She's getting interested in letters now too and can recognise quite a few - S is a favourite obviously, but also M (for Mack, her friend at nursery), and F for Fran and P for Pearl another friend and A for Africa. Lots more too, I'm sure.

She still loves going to Little Buds and amazingly for me is one of the big girls now. Tim and I are off to visit a potential primary school tomorrow. It's all coming very fast!

Stella is Three!

Grizedale Forest

We spent a wonderful couple of weeks in the Lake District at Grandma and Grandad's house recently while Tim was in America on a book tour. OK, Stella did wake up a scream the house down at 5 am every morning and one day, when I refused to get up, she proceeded to decorate Grandad's office with highlighter pen... but apart from that we had a lovely time! Here's Stella running on a bench in Grizedale Forest where there's a great walk with wooden musical instruments along the path.



Here's a picture of Stella's art work from Grandad's wall which has thankfully been painted over now.

Scary pair

Stella loves to pull faces these days. Here she is taking lessons from the expert...

Potty Training

This little girl may look like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth but I have to say that potty training her has forced me to discover new levels of tolerance!! Hopefully it will all be over soon and we will be able to go out of the door without a hundred changes of clothes once more...

Wassailing

So, we went to a carol service at the local church on Sunday. As the congregation launched into "Once in Royal David's City", Stella preferred to regale those there gathered with a moving rendition of "When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney". Later, "While Shepherds Watched" was sung in harmony with the topical "Baa Baa Black Sheep".

Christmas Fairy

It was fancy dress time at the nursery Christmas party this week and Stella made a very cool Christmas fairy with jeans under her tutu!

Stella at Little Buds

A few weeks after Africa was born Stella had to unexpectedly move to a new nursery called Little Buds. Fortunately lots of her friends and carers from Apple Tree came with her and she has been having a wonderful time there. Here she is pictured at the Christmas Party enjoying her pizza.

Meeting Father Christmas for the first time

It was a nerve wracking event but Stella was very pleased with her bag of goodies!

Stella is two and a half

Well, she was two and half about a month ago, so it must be time for an update. Stella is a bundle of fun at the moment. She talks from the moment she wakes up to the moment she falls asleep. Whether anyone is listening to her or not! Her favourite words are "Why?" and "No!", and she gets one or other of these in just about every sentence she utters. It's amazing to me and Tim how fervent her negativity can be. Consequently we are becoming experts in reverse psychology. "No, don't eat those vegetables!", "No, don't put your coat on!", "No, don't go to bed!" Our success is mixed, and anyone listening in to our conversations might be bewildered, but at least it gives us a laugh or two!

Stella loves to play make believe. She spends hours with her little dolls talking to them, arguing with them, telling them off and generally having fun! She's still a big fan of books. In fact, she would sit all day listening to you read, if you gave her the chance. She also loves CBeebies, but fortunately they only exist at Grandma and Granddad's house at the moment so we don't have to decide just how much TV is healthy! She will happily sit for an hour in front of the computer watching DVDs like Charlie and Lola and Peppa Pig though, and now she's decided that she won't nap during the day this gives me at least a little rest.

Other favourite activities are painting, drawing and going to the park. She seems to love her nursery, Little Buds, where they do plenty of all the above. They tell me she's a bit nervous of outsiders coming into the nursery like Malcolm the dance teacher and George the music man, but she seems to be getting used to them and the other week she stood at the front of everyone when George came and did a dance.

Stella seems to be adapting well to being a big sister. She likes to hold Affy and talk to her and try and make her smile. Sometimes her affection is a bit too violent for the good of her eleven week old sister, but no animosity seems to be intended!

Moving target!

It's becoming increasingly hard to capture Stella on camera, partly because she's so busy that she doesn't like to stop, and also because I usually have a heavy baby strapped around me these days so it's quite hard to wield a camera at the same time.

Anyway, here are two recent pictures. The first was taken at Halloween. We risked trick or treating after we had such fun in the US last year. We had been told one particular street in Stoke Newington was friendly to the activity and so we went there with some friends. Stella didn't really fancy going up to anyone's door to say trick or treat, but she was very happy when the older children brought her back some booty.


I'm not sure whether I should post the next picture as it makes me look like a bit of a bad mum... taking photos when my daughter is crying! But as the reality of the life of a two year old includes lots of tears I thought I would put up this picture taken after Stella had jumped off a swing in mid flight. Of course daddy is doing a good job of consoling.

Stella is a big sister

Stella's sister Africa was born on September 25th and now Stella seems like a giant! She's quickly getting used to the new addition to the family and is thankfully learning how not to kill her with affection. Stella has been enjoying all the attention from visitors and all the gifts that Africa seems to have brought along with her!

Two years and three months

Getting to be quite a big girl now. Stella is looking forward to being a big sister very soon. She now goes to nursery at Apple Tree three days a week and has lots of fun there learning songs, dancing, painting and playing in the garden. When not at nursery she likes going to Art Club, the park, swimming and story time at the library. She's still a big fan of books. Current favourites are the Little Princess Books and books about Mog the Cat.

Babyccino!!

Stella's drink of choice in London and Italy is the North London invention of Babyccino. It's a mini cappuccino without the coffee, but with the sprinkly chocolate on top. Granddad is also known to make a wicked babyccino at home, making trips to the Lake District a big hit.

Italy and Icepops

Stella is just back from a wonderful 10 day holiday in Italy at an Agrotourismo near Parma called Cergallina. She had a great time thanks to the perfect combination of seven of her cousins to play with and a diet of pasta and ice cream (and some ice pops).... What more could a two year old ask for?

She's chattier than ever these days and is following in her father's footsteps, mastering the art of rational (and often irrational!) argument. Favourite sentences go along the lines of "No I can't go to bed mummy, because I'm a big girl" or "No I can't eat my vegetables, because they're too prickly" and so on. I can see fun ahead!

Enjoying the English summer

The weather has been hot and Stella has been enjoying splashing around in the paddling pool with her cousins Fabio and Massimo. She's very happy at nursery these days, and it's a struggle to get her out of the door at the end of the day. Her other favourite thing to do is watch Bod or Charlie and Lola on my computer. She's watched them so many times that I think she can recite them word for word by now!

And now I am two!

Stella celebrated her second birthday on May 13th with five of her cousins - Martha, George, Molly, Massimo and Fabio, two aunts, two uncles and mum and dad. Lots of fun was had by all and yes, she did blow out the candles!

Cheeky!

As Stella approaches her second birthday she's becoming increasingly cheeky and strong willed! She likes to enunciate each syllable very clearly just to make sure we've understood: "I_Want_A Bread_Stick_Mum_Mee" and especially first thing in the morning when Tim and I are hardly awake "I_Want_Some_Weet_A_Bix_Down_Stairs_With_A_Silver_Spoon". It reminds me of a British Person trying to be understood in a foreign land, or maybe she just thinks her parents are stupid. I guess given the speed of our response sometimes she might be right to think this.

She still seems to be settling into her nursery, Apple Tree. Every time we go there she tells me "Mummy will drop you off and Mummy will pick you up" as if to reassure herself. When at home her favourite things are listening to nursery rhymes, drawing (read: scribbling) with crayons especially on furniture, getting all the pans and pots out of the cupboard and pretending to cook, changing her bear's nappies and being read to.

We recently had a lovely time on holiday in Ireland where Stella became very attached to life in a "HoTail" and going to restaurants. Mummy was relieved to be home and not have to worry about plates and cutlery flying towards other guests at meal times.

Settling in...

It's a sure sign that we're finally getting on top of things after the move that I have some time to update Stella's blog. Apologies for the silence.

Stella settled back into London life much quicker than either of her parents. She is over the moon to have her two cousins, Fabio and Massimo, next door to play with. She's also been enjoying the chance to catch up with all the other 9 cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents much more frequently.

All being well, in six months or so, Stella is going to have another big life change to cope with when she becomes a big sister. I'm not sure she's quite grasped the concept yet because apart from enthusiastically pointing to my stomach and announcing "There's a baby in there" she also does the same to her own tummy, and even this weekend to her granddad's! I think we need to be careful as the next recipient of this friendly banter may not be quite so good humoured about it...

Despite displays to the contrary when I say goodbye in the morning, Stella seems to be having lots of fun at her new nursery, Apple Tree. She loves the "singing, singing and dancing" in particular but is also a big fan of the painting, drawing and garden. Probably Stella's favourite part of the nursery regime is the white sliced bread which they get at lunch time. She loves it so much that they've nick-named her "Bread Girl". When I ask her what she did during the day "Bread" is the most common answer. Still only the crusty brown variety at home though.

Stella's language continues to explode beyond our belief. We've decided that "floppy ears" is a good name for her these days because even the most subtle of conversations seem to get repeated back at us. We are learning that we need to be careful. One popular four letter word has already been making embarrassing appearances, so we will need to wash our mouths out.

The picture above is at grandma and grandad's local park in the lake district and the one below at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath, a favourite outing for us these days.

Lots more to tell, but I'll try and get back to monthly posts rather than infrequent and lengthy ones!

Something different

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Things have been very busy getting ready for the big move back to the UK next week. In the meantime Stella is busy expanding her vocabulary. She now amazes us by reciting entire books (Peek a Boo and Chicken Soup and Rice are the current favourites) nursery rhymes (Hey Diddle Diddle, Twinkle Twinkle) and by finishing sentences whenever we stop reading the books she knows well. I don't think she really understands what it means when we say we're moving to London, but she's got her responses off pat, it goes something like this. Fran:"Next week we're moving back to London, Stella" Stella: "Fabio, Massimo, Giuliana, Paul, Apple Tree, Children" I think she's got the idea of what it will entail! Apple Tree is the name of the nursery where she will be going two days a week once we get back.

These pictures were from my final project at the Corcoran Art class I did last semester. Thanks to my brother in law for the beautiful backgrounds.

Stella the witch

Well, we got into the Halloween spirit in true American style this year. Stella dressed up as a witch and we went from door to door, trick-or-treating with some friends of ours who live a few blocks away in a neighbourhood called Shaw. Luckily the first house we went to was also equipped with bags for poor children like Stella whose parents hadn't thought that there would be so much to carry that a bag was necessary! She definitely enjoyed marching up to people's houses and having sparkly goodies put in her bag. This year she didn't realise what was inside the shiny wrappers. I'm sure she'll have cottoned onto that next year though.