Now Ilona is one

It has been a busy year of relocation and growing up for Ilona (and Bluet) so obviously we celebrated on Thursday. Ilona had had a little fever on Wednesday, but fortunately had more or less recovered for the big day. We waited until dinner time for presents and cake. Bluet was very enthusiastic about helping unwrap the presents, play with the presents and eat the cake. But with a little careful child management Ilona was fully able to enjoy her day. And now Ilona has many toys of her own (thank you for all the gifts). A couple of days on, she is still almost, but not quite, walking. I think this is because she is so good and fast at crawling that walking seems an unnecessary extravagance.

Whilst not exactly a birthday cake, Ilona enjoyed her carrot muffin (with a candle and icing) very much. And it was home made.

Whilst the candles were aflame, you can see Bluet's hand pointing at the muffin she would like to eat

Presents (in reverse chronological order - in fact, as I look at it now, we actually ate cake after opening the presents (and lit the candles before eating the cake)

Happy Birthday Ilona

here is the birthday girl enjoying a swing an hour or so to go. More photos of the big day to follow......

Birthday Preparations!

1. Drink milk

2. Get really, really clean

3. Wish Mama a good day at work

4. Locate presents

Ball Ball Ball, Footie Footie Football

Very very near our house there is a school with a playground which is open for playing in when school is out. It is a nice big area for Bluet to practise scootering, and there are goals for learning valuable football skills. I am very proud of how good Bluet has got at dribbling and kicking the ball, and it doesn't look like Ilona will be far behind.

Hey! That's cheating

Gooooaaaaaaalllll!!!!

Pointing at things

Ilona has made a lot of progress recently. Namely she has started to call Emily "Mamamama" and me "Dadn" - the latter is either what all babies say at first, or something she has picked up from Bluet - hopefully the latter. And now if we say "where's Mama?" or "Where's Dadn", Ilona will look, point, smile and approximate the right name. And yesterday, when I asked "where's Bluet" Ilona looked, pointed and said "Da" which may well have been in German.

Similarly when we are out and about Ilona likes to point at things, particularly hedges, buses and the sky. Basically her little pointing finger is sticking out of the buggy and waving around wherever we go.

Unfortunately this is all rather difficult to photograph or film as the camera immediately puts Ilona off. So here are some other recent pictures.

Bluet climbs the 'dinosaur'; imagine Ilona pointing at Bluet

Bluet feeds the ducks; imagine Ilona pointing at the ducks

Bluet digs a hole. Imagine Ilona pointing at Bluet

Bluet at the indoor playground, getting ready to point at something

Emily was away in France last night. Here is Ilona chatting to her over the internet. It's the future

Garden Games

Some activities that use up Bluet and Ilona's energy

1. Standing up and walking

2. Crawling away. It's like running away but a little slower. Not much slower though.

3. Umbrella time (allows playing in the rain)

4. Watching "the little mermaid" (in German!)

5. Playing at 'the flowers' in the shopping centre

6. Playing in the autumn leaves & scooting

Forgotten Lizards

I just found these photos from 2-3 weeks ago (just after we returned from the UK) of an afternoon trip we took walking down the river - back then, it was still sunny in the afternoon, sunny enough for all the lizards to be out basking on the rocks. The trip down the river we did several times because there are many playgrounds along the way.

This particular day we ended up at the Wipkingen GZ, where they have a 'farm' for kids with rabbits, pigs, goats, and of particular fascination to Bluet and Ilona on this day, chickens. I remember Bluet saying "that chicken is looking at me because she loves me". No idea where that one came from.

Another day we went to the river playground, where Bluet found chalk and wrote her name on the paddling pool that has been drained for winter

Of course, now it is cold so when we go out we wrap up warm, and the lizards are nowhere to be seen