Saying new words and doing new things xxx

Rhythm Time day, yayyyy!! I put Eva in her new Rhythm Time tshirt again for it. When we got there, Cheryl croaked that she'd lost her voice, so the founder and director of Rhythm Time, Kathy Doolan, had come to take the class. Cheryl is really good, but it was a real treat to see Kathy take the class. She was so enthusiastic and full of energy and squeezed loads of songs in. She even commented on the good singing coming from the corner me and 2 other moms were sat in, hehe. Eva, as usual had a great time. She really seems to get a lot out of Rhythm Time, it's such fun.

We came home via a quick stop off at the post office, and I made us both some toast. I also cut some pear up for Eva, as she seems to be eating it at nursery. She maybe ate one small chunk and then sat there passing me the other chunks to eat, piece by piece. I thought if she could see me eat it, she'd eat some, but no. Same with the strawberries this afternoon.

We had a good play and Eva did some lovely drawing after her snack, then I took her up for her milk and sleep. She was spark out by 12.10pm and slept until just before 3!!!

I'd cooked a chicken curry last night and put some up for Eva's lunch today. I knew she had curry at nursery, but wasn't sure how she'd be with the one I'd made... I cut the chicken into small pieces, mixed that and the curry in with the rice, and spoon fed it to her. I thought it was quite a big portion, but she ate the lot!! She loved it! She wasn't too keen on the strawberries after lunch however, and again seemed to prefer passing them to me to eat instead. She seems to have gone off grapes too, and wouldn't eat the satsuma the other day, even when I took each segment out of it's 'skin'. It does make me wonder if she is actually eating much of the fruit at nursery and if so, why she has stopped eating it at home. Hmmmmmmm.

At one point today, Eva crawled over to the box that her V Tech baby walker came in that's still slotted behind the sofa, pointed to the picture of the baby on the box and said so clearly "baby!" It's the first time I'd heard her say baby. I tried to film her saying it, which she eventually did after a bit of coaxing. She also said "doggy" quite a few times today at various times - when pointing at pictures of dogs in her book, when seeing a lady walk her dog as I held her up at her bedroom window and later on the TV. She is saying more things unprompted by us now too .... Such as "baby" and "doggy" today, but she also asked for "duck" whilst doing the hand quack motion, which meant the Jemima Puddle Duck soft toy she has sitting on top of her wardrobe, so I passed it down to her to hold. She also says what sounds like "what's thaaaat?" In a high pitched questioning voice, quite a lot. I'm not sure if that's exactly what she is saying, but I always tell her what 'it' is when she says it (whatever she appears to be referring to).

I filmed Eva climbing up onto the sofa unaided too today. She's done it a few times with a slight bit of help, but she did it all by herself today. She climbed up, picked up her bottle, which was actually empty, got her book and sat there reading her book. I asked her to show me the lion in the book , she found the page and said "rarrrrrrrr" (her lion roar).

I also filmed Eva climbing up the stairs again. The cheeky monkey. I never let her just climb the stairs, but Mike had nipped home from work before going off to hockey, so I let her go crawling to him out in the hall and he was right behind her as she started to climb, and stayed right behind her as she made her way up to the very top. She seemed very excited to find poor Etta fast asleep at the top, who wasn't asleep for long, but was very proud of herself for getting all the way up.

My dad came round for an hour this afternoon, so he had some lovely Eva cuddles and read bits of her 'Dear Zoo' and 'Room on the Broom' sound books with her. Ohhhh she did make us both laugh. At one point, she was sat cross legged on the floor and was laughing and bouncing up and down with her legs still crossed. My dad had tears of laughter in his eyes and said she's like a Russian dancer, so yes, we had our very own Cossack dancer with us this afternoon, hehe.

Eva's personality really does seem to just grow and grow and she is doing so much now. I love seeing and hearing all the things she has learned. It's amazing.

Mike was out at hockey straight from work, so Jake ran Eva her bath, then I bathed her and sang her nursery rhymes in the bath, and then she had her milk and huge cuddles with me and was fast asleep in her cot by 8pm. Xxx