Circles, stretches and hiding

And just to really prove me wrong we had a pretty perfect circle today! It may seem like no big deal but as scribbling develops certain progressions happen and all of the form the basis eventually of written language. The next stage will be having limbs coming straight off the circle and eventually a more recognisable stick person. That's all a long way off though for now though.

Toddler fashion is a world of its own! Yes those are pants on top of his jeans. He's been playing a lot with his coins and putting them through the slot in the top of an old breadsticks tube.

The dog looks on in hope...

Tiggerific!

Hide away...

Stretch up high...

Hide away...

this went on for some time....

We did a little painting and after the disappointment of the colour mixing the other day I decided to try something else. So a little bit of watercolour was squeezed into a tray and water was put in the middle. Isaac had a good play and liked the water a lot. I would dilute the paints a bit next time but it made for better mixing although the purple looks very dark in the photos.

Our children make liars of us

We have regular general and developmental checks in the UK for children and the boy had his 2 year check the other week (which was basically a chat with the Health Visitor while he played with the toys). She asked me if he was drawing circles yet and I said no but lots of scribbling. We've mostly been painting when we've done any art and as it's been summer (after a fashion) we've been outside a lot and so not doing art. Yesterday he got some crayons out and asked for paper though and drew lots of scribbles but also lots of circles - well ok so they're not perfectly round but the right skill is developing. It's amazing how that happens with children, you don't do something for a while and when you go back to it they've made a developmental leap seemingly without any of the steps in between.

Circles or no circles we're still seeing lots of diggers and the like while work goes on it town.

We spent a good couple of hours doing the 5 minute walk into town and a little bit of shopping - a lot of it was spent watching the diggers, bulldozers, road roller, fork lift and the like.

We also had a bit of time with the elephants outside the lovely Thai restaurant.

As we were saying hello one of the members of staff came out and said he could ride them and so he did, both of them. He wanted to do the same on the way home and I suspect will remember the next time we go that way too...

Painting and mixing colours

We've been doing a bit of moving furniture around and so as Isaac was sitting (bouncing) on my lap he could see the paint brushes on top of the fridge and so asked to paint. We've not been doing much drawing and painting recently as we've been spending so much time outside this summer so it was good to see how he's come on.

We started with yellow.

And then he wanted some orange. We only have the primary colours so I mixed some up for him. I'm really disappointed with how the ELC paints mix as they're really muddy. Once I've used these up I'll get some different ones so that Isaac can do his own mixing. I could just buy the ready mixed colours but where's the fun (and the learning) in that?

After a lot of brush work he started to use his hands - something he used to be loath to do.

And so we needed to do some hand washing.

But he wanted more paints and still wanted yellow but then asked for green - if I thought the orange was hard to mix the green was even worse. It was really muddy (and this was the second attempt).

And after the painting came the cleaning up, which was almost as much fun (and made almost as much of a mess!).

Orange

A Birthday

Some of the nature haul from the park.

The cake as it's being made....

It didn't rise evenly and so broke apart a bit but some icing and some jam and it was as good as new.

A bit of present opening...

Blowing out the candles (with some help).

Labrador antics

Isaac's been practicing with scissors. It's so funny watching the concentration on his face - there's lots of open mouths and tongues out. He's been getting quite good though and it occupied him for a long time.

The beauty of having Danna staying is that I get a nice lie-in and she builds sandcastles at 7am.

One of my favourite flowers is now in bloom in the garden.

Isaac's found a few ladybirds in the last couple of days, both dead and alive.

The bear in typical labrador fashion is food obsessed. This lunchtime he forgot himself and tried to take Isaac's ice lolly out of his hand and got a white eyebrow for his troubles.

And he's been spending a lot of time begging from Danna. He's also doing his Elvis impression here...

They were eating little wild plums.

A little trip into town

One of his favourite milkshakes in Caffe Nero while watching the world go by.

Watching the diggers as they pedestrianise one of the streets.

A bit of tree-hugging with Danna.

Finding a toadstool in the park.

Hanging around

We've had some nice weather these last few days and any time the front door gets opened boy and bear make a bid for freedom. We've spent quite a lot of time sitting on the little wall outside our house watching the world go by.

Not only does Isaac love to test his balance by walking up and down the wall but he's also started driving cars and fire engines up and down it.

And of course the wall is never enough...

Isaac's loving his 'wheelbarrow' at the moment and has been transporting his train set all over the place and then finding some steps to go up before his tips everything out.

And then he went off exploring the garden with it.

He found the pens the other day and started drawing all over himself... Luckily they're washable and he's not purple but it was everywhere.

So I gave him the bit of the pizza box to draw on and he loved it.

The dog is always good for amusement value but tonight he's been lying upside down in his bed and snoring very loudly. It's very offputting!