Tag Archives: play

0

Daredevil in the making

|

IMG_0276.JPG

Saturday, 17 August 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Thirty Nine Days Old.

Ayla’s a little daredevil in the making!

We went to a sports club for tea with friends tonight where there was an outdoor playground for the kids.

All the other kids were bigger (of course) and older than Baby Ayla, and because they were hyped up on kids meals and ice cream the playground was chaotic and overwhelming.

It didn’t take long for Ayla to find the slide though, and while she was trying to climb up other kids were sliding down.

After a while Ayla worked out how the other kids were doing it, and decided to copy…

Ayla climbed up eight steps, then up another step to a platform about 1.6m high.

Ayla then toddled to the top of the slide, carefully held on to the sides and sat down, then pushed off and “wheeeee!” down the double-hump slide she went.

Ayla was SO happy with herself, screeching and dancing on the spot when she reached the bottom, then off she ran back to the steps for round two.

Over and over again Ayla went down the slide, unassisted. While there were two year olds who were scared to slide without their parents holding them, but not our Ayla…. !

0

Downhill

|

IMG_0240.JPG

Saturday, 9 August 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Thirty One Days Old.

Ayla started going downhill today… For fun!

What th’?! I hear you say, but don’t worry, I mean that Ayla learned to run downhill this after while our little family were out in the yard pottering around.

I has completely forgotten how fun it was to run downhill as a kid until I saw Ayla do it by accident, pause, laugh, and go straight back to the top to try it again… This time whilst saying “yay” and holding her arms in the air.

Mind you, I shouldn’t really call it a hill, it’s more like a mound of dirt with grass on it, tucked away in a back corner of the yard.

But to Ayla it probably felt like Everest as her little legs got faster with each step closer to the bottom they took her and her little belly poked out front as if gravity was calling her.

0

Amazeballs

|

20140623-214228-78148616.jpg

Monday, 23 June 2014: One Year and Twelve Weeks Old.

Ayla was paying more attention at The Wiggles yesterday than I realised!

On the way to day care this morning I decided to sing “hot potato”… and Ayla knew the actions!!

For only ever having heard the song once before, amidst a stack of other songs, I was shocked and stunningly impressed Ayla remembered!

When I sang the words “hot potato, hot potato” Ayla made little fists and banged them together, albeit in a clapping motion rather than a stacking one.

When I sang “cold spaghetti, cold spaghetti” Ayla waved her hands sideways in the air with little spirit fingers, so very close to the up and down waving action from the song.

And then when I sang “mashed banana, mashed banana” Ayla nailed it, opening her fingers wide, smashing her palms together and twisting them left and right with a cheeky grin on her face.

THEN! Just when I thought Ayla couldn’t get any more amazing, I caught her playing “round and round the garden” with herself!

Ayla was tickling her left palm with the fingers on her right, before touching her forearm, then her upper arm, then sticking her fingers under her arm in an attempt to tickle herself!

I squealed with delight and amazement! Then Ayla did it again… This time with her version of words!!

Gosh Ayla is amazing. So overwhelming, undeniably amazeballs.

0

Little helper

|

20140523-213151-77511659.jpg

Friday, 24 May 2014: One Year and Fifty Three Days Old.

Ayla is such a little helper, it’s adorable.

This morning as we were getting ready for the day Ayla picked up a tissue and started wiping at some spilt water in the kitchen.

A little later Ayla had found a baby wipe and was pretending to blow her nose and wipe her face with it, complete with realistic sniffing sound effects.

While I putting on my make up in the bedroom Ayla was picking out shoes for me to wear, showing me each one she found as if to ask “these ones mum?”.

Then when the time came for me to put Ayla’s shoes on she wanted to do it all herself, but I settled for a compromise and let her try to do the left one while I did the right.

Cutest of all was this evening though when Ayla and I got home to discover a parcel of new little girls clothes sent to us from her Granddad.

Ayla, in true helper style, started trying to put them on… All of them… At once!

Ayla loved her new clothes so much that after realising she couldn’t wear them decided to kiss and hug instead, before trying to put them away in my handbag.

0

Dressing up

|

20140515-212221.jpg

Thursday, 15 May 2014: One Year and Forty Five Days Old.

Ayla’s getting to the age now where she loves dressing up.

It’s not uncommon for me to find her in our bedroom with a pair of my underpants on her head (charming) or in her own room pulling out the duty laundry and trying to re-wear her outfits.

Ayla’s also taken a recent interest in my shoes, particularly now that I’m back at work and my poor old thongs have been relegated to weekends.

This morning however I gave Ayla her first piece of costume jewellery to play with and without a moment thought Ayla began adorning her neck with a long strand of plastic pearls.

What was cutest of all was that Ayla seemed to know they were pretty because she almost blushed when she put them on.

Complete with a one-shoulder shrug, half a smile and a tilt of the head Ayla was the epitome of a little girl pretending to be a princess.

0

Third most favourite thing

|

20140426-143835.jpg

Friday, 26 April, 2014: One Year, Three Weeks and Three Days Old.

I’ve decided that floating around in the pool with my little family is my third most favourite thing to do.

It comes after baby cuddles (#1) and going on holidays (#2), but sneaks in just before long car trips (#4) and Sunday afternoon barbecues (#5).

For some reason the pool is a place where the outside world doesn’t reach us; we float, and we talk, and we share stories, we dream and we plan for the future.

And of course we watch Ayla splash and screech and jump and dive and kick and systematically work through every possible way to try and sink to the bottom.

I think I love it so much because there’s no technology at the pool – no phones, no TV, no internet – which means it the one place where we can all get together, enjoy each other’s company and relax, even The Dog and Cat Cat come and hang out as well!

Whatever it is, swimming in the pool was exactly what I needed this afternoon as Hubby and I recovered from our first (and probably last) night out on the town in years!

0

Sun, sand and saltwater

|

20140326-082019.jpg

Tuesday, 25 March 2014: Three Hundred and Fifty Eight Days Old.

Miraculously, I awoke this morning with a full nights rest and hardly any trace of illness… I don’t know how it happened but my goodness, am I grateful!

It meant that we were finally able to have a family outing for the day, our first one in five days and I couldn’t wait to take Ayla on the short boat ride over to Coral Island for some sun, sand and saltwater.

Ayla had a ball crawling around on the beach and Hubby and I found myself keeping track of her by following the strange markings she left in the sand in her wake!

The water at Coral Island was so clear that when we took Ayla in for a swim could see the fish darting in and out amongst the coral.

Ayla also made friends with a couple of young children who were on the tour with us, and at lunch when they started playing hide-and-seek-tickle with her Ayla was so happy she nearly squealed the place down with delight.

On the way back to the mainland the tour stopped for a snorkel in a beautiful bay where we could hand feed thousands of colourful fish within meters of the boat.

Ayla was mesmerised as she looked down at the water from the boat’s flybridge, seeing the bits of bread I was throwing turn into a splashing, shimmering whirlpool of aquatic activity.

All in all it as a great day out, partly because it’s the best we’ve all felt in nearly a week and partly because we are half way around the world, making special precious memories as a family… and there’s not much better than that!

0

Holiday mode

|

20140325-082753.jpg

Saturday, 22 March 2014: Three Hundred and Fifty Five Days Old.

Ayla is much better today, 100% in fact, and the tooth that had been causing her all the grief seems to have retracted into her gums to return and wreak havoc another day.

Hubby is still unwell but definitely better so that meant we were able to leave the resort this morning and check out Phuket Aquarium.

It was fun; Ayla enjoyed it as we knew she would and Hubby was happy to see Barramundi and Mangrove Jack in one of the tanks!

Ayla’s favourite exhibit was the “creatures of the deep” section where there were strange fishlike creatures preserved in liquid in clear Perspex orbs… I think Ayla might have been more interested in the watery orbs than the creatures though.

We escaped the heat of the day in our hotel room where we had lunch and a nap then in the afternoon we took Ayla to the beach to build sandcastles and have a swim.

We had bought a sand play set at the aquarium and a few of the other children at the beach wanted to share it with Ayla which meant we got to meet a couple of other traveling families and it was nice to make new friends.

Ayla played in the sand for ages and systematically destroyed the castles and sculptures as fast as Hubby and I could make them and when the time came to rinse off in the sea Ayla giggled at the waves as the gently lapped her belly.

It was lovely to be on a beach relaxing, and it felt like we were finally getting into the holiday mode we so desperately needed.

0

Blue

|

20140303-151907.jpg

Monday, 3 March 2014: Forty Eight Weeks Old.

Food colouring isn’t bad for kids… is it?

A friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that I should colour some bits of dried macaroni pasta with food dye so that Ayla can play with different colours which is apparently good for her development.

I was feeling crafty a couple of days ago and made up four colours of pasta, but I quickly realised that Ayla would simply eat the pasta and that the food dye ran very quickly after being in her slobbery gob.

So I packaged it up and made a colourful rattle instead, which has worked just fine considering Ayla loves anything even half musical.

But today Ayla somehow discovered a rogue piece of pasta and she made a right mess of it… and herself!

I had been busy on the computer, and when I turned around I could see blue dye all over the tiles, the toys and all over Ayla.

Ayla was stoked! She could see that her hands, feet and tummy had turned blue and thought it was a great game, then when I took her to the bathroom to try and wash it off Ayla caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and started giggling.

Cheeky monster!

I scrubbed for a bit and removed some of the excess dye but Ayla’s porcelain skin still has a delicate tinge of blue, but hopefully not for long!