May update

Jessicat now 18 months old. We have had a hellish week. She caught a nasty gastroenteritis bug that culminated in 4am trips to the NHS walk-in centre and a visit to Bristol Children's Hospital to get her rehydrated. She was vomiting for over a week. Definitely one of the worst experiences of her - and our - lives, and a time that I am glad to put behind us.

On a more positive note, Jess's language skills are really developing now. She seems to be able to say quite a few words, though cannot link any together yet. She surprises me sometimes with the words she has a go at. Yesterday, we were looking at a picture book together when she suddenly said - quite appropriately - "car seat". She still loves to identify and point at objects in her books, and I can see all this repetition paying off as she appears to understand and be able to label many things.

Daytime naps. Oh dear. Jessicat appears to have given hers up. For the last 3 days, she has been awake between 6 -6.30am and despite my best efforts, does not want to sleep until bedtime at approximately 7pm (when, admittedly, she is tired). So Dave and I have lost that little hour; an oasis of peace, lunching and wasting time on FB. That precious time will be sorely missed.

General Update

Jessicat is now 17 months old! She is loving her new found mobility. Her favourite activity of the moment is to go outside and pick dandelions or daisies, or put pebbles in a bucket. When the weather is warm, this means I can sit outside with her and flick through a magazine whilst she amuses herself pottering around. Less enjoyable are the tantrums that ensue when we bring her back indoors, but you can't have it all....

I must confess that I have become very slack about letting Jessicat watch TV. I am ashamed to say that she probably watches about an hour of CBeebies a day. Favourite programmes include In the Night Garden, Teletubbies, Razzle Dazzle and Something Special. I hope I am slighty redeemed by the fact that we buy a lot of the magazine tie-ins for these programmes to spend time doing sticking and colouring together.

Jessicat babbles away to us now. It sounds like proper speech. She can say yes or no clearly, and has no problem in letting us know her mind! She attempts to say many words - eg bird, moon, bubble, fruit flakes etc - but often only manages the inital consonant. No sign yet of her beginning to link words together, but hopefully this is not far away now she is so talkative. She also seems much more cheeful and less shy at the moment; I just hope this carries on.

I am in the process of recovering from another nasty cold, which may account for the slightly downbeat tone of this latest update. I just hope Jess does not succumb. Back soon hopefully with more cheerful news.

Back to basics....

...with a few simple but well crafted and enjoyable books aimed at babies and toddlers:

Bedtime - Tony Ross. My little madam enjoys reading about the little princess!

Going to Bed Book - Sandra Boynton. Very enjoyable for both of us.

Who's There Spot? - Eric Hill.

Busy Babies Go to the Gym - Jane Kemp. Jessicat seems to show less interest in animals now (once a favourite topic) and more fascination with the activities of other toddlers, so books like this which focus on the daily activities Jess herself participates in go down well. Bit dull for adults to keep reading though.

Baby Loves Peekaboo - at least this has sturdy cardboard flaps to withstand Jess's handling.

Toddlerdom hits with a vengeance

As well as a highly mobile little girl, we have one who knows how to throw a tantrum! Aaargh!!! A typical flashpoint at the moment would be us telling Jessicat that she can't go out to the back garden for some reason. This leads to up to 30 minutes of sobbing and angry yelling. Gulp. But, Jess often manages to be totally adorable just a short while after. She looks so cute toddling around, beaming at people with pride in her own mobility (though desperately shy if they dare to come too close), and is so loving that she melts my heart.

So it's a time of contrasts at the moment. Reading is not high on Jessicat's agenda - there is too much exploring and emptying to be done. Our main times for sharing books now seems to be mealtimes. We still have a huge pile sat on the dining room table that we make our way through regularly, and when I am bored with these, I intersperse new books that we've picked up from the library. Nursery rhymes continue to be much loved, and Jessicat really enjoys joining in with the actions now.

Books (and a glass of wine or port and lemon) are still my salvation at the end of a fractious day. At the moment, I am devouring the Alice books by Susan Juby; I can only describe them as a sort of Canadian version of Adrian Mole. Shelved on the young adult section, they probably won't be noticed by a lot of people - what a sad waste.

Little Miss Mobile!

Jessicat has - at last - really found her feet and is enjoying walking EVERYWHERE! It's great fun - so far - to watch her tottering round the library or the supermarket, and today we were able to meet up with friends at Bocabar whilst Jess entertained herself toddling around. What a fantastic development!

So all this action on the walking front means that books have taken a backseat in Jessicat's mind at the moment. Reading has to be fitted in in short bursts, and Jess is increasingly fussy about the books she likes. These listed below are proving popular this week:

One Big Building Site - Dubravka Kolanovic. Jess loves to be asked to identify the cranes or the cement mixers! Makes a change from books about animals or toddlers, and this can only be helpful for increasing her receptive vocabulary.

Meg's Car - Helen Nicoll. Meg and Mog fascinate Jessicat at the moment. The illustrations are bright and arresting, and I think this is why this is one of the few books that Jess will sit by herself and pore over at the moment.

Milton the Early Riser - Robert Kraus.

Bathwater's Hot - Shirley Hughes. Lovely book. Jess particularly likes the page with the traffic lights - another of her current preoccupations.

Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings - Matthew Van Fleet.

Spring reading

It's good to be able to blog and report that - touch wood - we are finally all getting over our various viruses. Jessicat is livelier than she has been for a while, and is back to waking up before 7am (grrr....)

Her concentration for books continues to be variable. She is much fussier about what we read together now, and will push a book away very forcefully if she's not in the mood for it. On the other hand, when we get the book just right, her response and her enthusiasm are just infectious.

Last Sunday, we had a family outing to a baby show, held at Ashton Gate. There, we managed to pick up 2 gorgeous books for Jessicat:
Bear At Work - Stella Blackstone. Yippee, a brand new bear book! This series remains quite possibly Jessicat's favourite of all time, and this is fabulous - lots of detail in the pictures to discuss and the usual jaunty rhyming text. Buying this book has coincided nicely with Jess's interest in letter boxes and posting things, which arose after we bought her her own post box from the Early Learning Centre.
Sparkly Fairies (Touchy Feely Board Books) - absolutely beautiful board book from the Usborne stable, full of glitter, sparkle and soft textures. Jess is already girly enough to be interested in the idea of fairies (she has the ELC Fairy Toadstool Cottage), and though the text if a bit naff, this is a beautiful book to flick through.

Hard to believe that it's Easter next week. Jess already has one egg, so there will be some serious rationing going on for my little chocaholic! Dot and Brian are coming to stay over the Easter weekend, and I am hoping that Dave and I may even get the opportunity to go out to celebrate his imminent promotion and transfer to the Planning Inspectorate.

Another week of illnessess...

...this is just getting tedious! Jessicat is picking up slowly, though she continues to have a cough and runny nose. I have been ill myself and in hospital with a (fortunately, mild) case of viral meningitis. So with all this going on, reading has not been at the forefront of our minds this week. But in another way, we have been glad to escape into books as a getaway from all the other crap going on.

Jess and I have particularly been enjoying Snowman by Guido Van Genechten and Get Into Bed by Virginia Miller. Jess has already mastered saying "nah" along with Bartholomew as he refuses to follow yet another instruction.

I look forward to being able to post again soon with the news that we are all in good health.