Family Dinner

I was working from home today, which gives me the opportunity to make a meal at a time that we can all sit down together. Granted, I just shoved on a casserole so not that much effort was involved, but just having the opportunity to nip into the kitchen for five minutes to pop the casserole into the oven makes all the difference. Orla still goes to her Gran and Papa's when I work from home (or no work would get done!) and her Dad picks her up, but Papa had to bring her up slightly early this afternoon because she was trying to go to sleep! Drawing some Piplings on the white board soon brought her round. Our family meal started off well enough, with Orla eating her green beans and even pronouncing "mmm, carrots"; but she soon got bored and wanted down. Obviously our conversation wasn't scintillating enough for her!

She's getting very good at counting. She can get up to sixteen uninterrupted now and sometimes says eighteen and nineteen. She will tell us "Orla's counting". She knows that these words are numbers, but that's about as far as it goes. She recognises the numerals 1 -9 as numbers but can't correctly tell us which one is which, apart from 2 (because that's her age). But earlier today she was watching In the Night Garden, the episode where all the other characters bring Makka Pakka stones. After Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy, I asked her how many stones Makka Pakka had, and she told me he had two. Then the Tombliboos brought their stones, and I asked how many he had now, and she told me he had five. Might just be a coincidence, but I was impressed anyway!