Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

At home in the twenty-first month part 1, 9 Jan - 9 Feb, 2011

James bought himself an iPad. Sparrow learnt to say the word "I-Pad" within maybe one or two days. She firmly believes it's her toy, not Daddy's. James has found a few good toddler-friendly applications for free or $1 online, and she loves playing with them. While I'm not keen on technology as a learning aid or too large a daily life component at this age - I think that learning to recognise, categorise and manipulate representations of reality should come *after* building up an understanding of reality :-) - the iPad's actually quite good. She can control it herself because it's a touch screen and reasonably intuitively controlled that way. She's imperfect at doing so, of course, but she's learning the relevant dexterity slowly. And as long as we choose the apps well it's quite interactive - she gets clear feedback on what she does, and the feedback changes if she changes what she does. So it's not a passive toy like television. She's also learnt how to turn off any app she's bored with, so you can let her play with one and she'll stop of her own accord.

I was sitting looking at something on the laptop while Sparrow had a bath - one of my few regular times to use the (shared) computer this month while we were waiting to find me a new one. All of a sudden I heard the "Blblblbllalalala" sound that signifies Sparrow getting up a turn of speed, and she ran in and hugged me. Usually I have to come in and get her out of the bath, but today she just came out of her own accord. And hugged me, fully wet.

One little girl is very pleased with herself for startling Mummy and getting herself dry without using a towel. The coverings on the sofa, and my shirt, are a bit wetter than before this began though.

James was working from home one day, as he often does. Sparrow slipped into the desk room while the door wasn't as closed as we thought, and is discussing with him all the cool things that there are in this room to play with. Daddy has a slightly different opinion on this topic, though he does like being able to give his daughter a few hugs throughout the workday. (Come to think of it, she's possibly asking him if she can have the iPad.)

I am helping Mummy clean out the cake batter from the bowl.

Finished! (don't ask how her hair came out afterwards...)

Going for a "ride". Sparrow developed a taste for piggyback and horsey-back rides this month. She will even try and get on herself if you're sitting down on the floor. I am less amenable to the concept than James is, though I can carry her if I'm on my hands and knees. She's wearing her sunglasses again, that current-favourite toy, and has put them on herself (which is why orientation is a little random).

Mummy's glasses are even better than her own. She got my pouch off the table herself (I must remember that she can reach all the way across it now), carefully began opening pockets (I must remember that she can work zippers now), removed my glasses case, opened it, took out the glasses and put them on herself. This all in the space of a minute or so while I was in the other room. So what you see here is what I came back in to find.

Even better than wearing glasses is wearing hats. It used to be so hard to keep them on her head, now she goes and gets them and puts them on herself. She's in the middle of trying to get several on at once here. The shirt is one that Lily sent us for the Newbie, but it's just big enough that Sparrow can still wear it. So I tried it on. She likes the colours and the spaceships and robots, but isn't so keen on the tie-across style. I like it though, it's very easy to get on and off and will suit an older baby quite well. I figure the Newbie will be wearing it happily next summer.

Now that we are suitably attired, it's time for Rodeo. Up-n-attem, cowgirl.

A nice thing to do on a warm day is play with water. I had a cup or two out, she opened the cupboards and got herself some more, I looked at this and then gave her the measuring jug with some water in it. She happily poured it around, scooped it out with the little dishes, and generally made a right wet mess. Perfect on such a warm day (I think it was low 30s).

Towards the end of this month we put a bit of time into the early stages of toilet training. I wasn't aiming to get her using the turtle regularly, let alone expecting her to decide that she needed to use it herself. But I wanted to see if we could set up some cueing or signalling that would let her know that sitting on the turtle meant it was time to do a pee. Really just linking form with function and making that connection that this is an OK thing to do. I didn't think this would be hard. Sparrow had a week away from daycare so she was home with me every day, and it was scheduled to be a warm enough week that she wouldn't have to be in pants or even clothes for most of it. Sounded like plenty of time. I didn't allow for how stubborn she is though, nor for the ideas she already had in her head. She really didn't want to do a pee in the turtle, thought it was highly inappropriate. I tried doing a pee in the turtle myself to show her how it worked and she firmly told me off for "doing it wrong". Which I thought was a pretty poor response to my herculean effort of getting down to that height and back up again while seven months pregnant. At this stage of my pregnancy she has better and longer bladder control than I do. So she outwaited me pretty consistently. She'll happily sit there and read a book to herself or let us read a book, so attention span is not an issue. Her book of choice is the one she's standing on here, a toilet-training one about pirates using the loo. She'll even make "pssshhh" noises at me while she sits there. But no pee emanates. Part of the problem is that it turns out she's in the habit of peeing standing up (which I seem to recall getting told off for at least once too), so getting her to try it sitting down was a huge challenge. The one time this week that she *did* go in the turtle was when she stood next to it and peed up the side like it was a (very short and round) tree. So we left it for a while, will continue to look for the occasional opportune moment to make and encourage the connection, and will also try seeing if she responds better to the seat insert on the Big People's Loo instead.

I don't remember what was significant about this photo. She's eating crackers ("Caca!"), has been looking at one of my magazines (apparently solar panels are quite interesting). I may have just liked it as a photo.