Sunday, 31 August 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Fifty Three Days Old.

My Mum and I took Ayla to a nearby park today, and then for a little walk around a community garden.

Ayla LOVED the garden; stopping to look with cautious awe at the bright and colourful scarecrows.

We also let her pick a fresh snow pea of a vine and taste it’s crispy freshness, and Ayla bent down with eager curiosity to inspect strawberries and peer at ripening tomatoes.

The highlight of the adventure though was showing Ayla little lady beetles for the first time.

Lady beetles have special meaning for Hubby and I, and it was precious to see how gentle and appreciative Ayla was of the tiny red insects.

Ayla was even brave enough to let the lady beetles run along her open palm, resisting a certain urge to close her fists and squish.

Hours later when we were at home getting ready for bed, I sat down with Ayla to read her touchy-geeky bunny book.

I hadn’t realised before that each page of the book had a hidden lady beetle and now knowing that Ayla knew what a lady beetle was I asked her if she could see one.

After a couple of moments studying the page Ayla pointed, straight at the beetle. I tried again on the next page, and the page after that and got the same result every time.

After going through the book a couple of times Ayla even began saying “beetle” when she pointed to them. I was surprised and amazed and proud at my clever little girl.