Sophie et famille have been visiting the UK relatives for Christmas and the new year, naturally because it is nice to see them, but helped by the fact that the nursery closed between the 24th and the 2nd. This saw the rather overwhelming spectacle of all the cousins gathered under one roof for Christmas.
There are three cousins, all on the British side of the family, aged nearly-10, 7, and nearly-3. The eldest had a great time helping with the bedtime routine of both toddlers, reading stories and the like. That was kind of fun. The nearly-3-year-old was very excited by the idea of seeing baby Sophie, until it became clear that baby Sophie doesn't yet know how to share and can't be sent to the naughty step yet for things like trying to knock her cousin out of the way of the very! shiny!! iPad!!!, and in general is making a grab for a bunch of the toys and also a bunch of the grand-parental attention. It seems to be a lightweight version of "having to cope with not being the youngest anymore", combined with the general unfairness of having to let babies have their way.
Sophie, meanwhile, is by and large having a blast. There are rooms in which to rampage, tons of things to explore, and nearly-unlimited opportunities for toddling around. She has a great big bruise on her forehead from having face-planted onto a tile floor a few days ago, but the following morning she had the entire floor of the Marble Arch Pret à Manger waving "bye bye!" to her, and engaged in other egregious acts of charming the socks off complete strangers, so clearly the knock to the head didn't do much damage.
On a related note, we now have certified words. It was maybe last Monday or Tuesday that she started waving her hands with an accompanying "bah bah"; in the next couple of days she started to understand that this had to do with walking away from someone, e.g. when Daddy was getting her dressed in the morning and she rolled over, pulled herself up, and marched away mostly naked waving and saying "Bah bah!" Or when I was headed out the door for an hour on Wednesday morning and said "bye bye" to her, and she burst into tears. Hm. :/
Her next word followed the next day. For a few weeks now she has known how to hand me things, and I've taken them and said "Thank you!" and then usually let them go back to her outstretched hand. This time she said "Gah gee!" when I handed the thing back. Then she repeated the trick for her grandpa, who was thoroughly impressed. Now "Gah gee!" is what she says when she wants something to be passed either to or from her hand, and is more an order than a form of etiquette.
Other than that, she is babbling up a storm, and we still have yet to recognize any sound that refers to a particular noun. This either means that Sophie is unusual (most babies' first words refer to things) or that her parents are exceptionally slow on the uptake. Her grandpa, of course, considers this a sign of how advanced she is (and it is undeniably true that she is a very social little girl, so maybe not so strange to have her first words be social forms.)
We went to the Science Museum in London the other day and met![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rmc28 and family; while there, Sophie insisted on walking as much as she could, and had no compunction about blocking the path of complete strangers, grinning up at them, and clapping her hands in glee. The nice thing about a museum like that, fortunately for her parents, is that pretty much everyone there is bound to be kid-friendly. (And how could you not be friendly to such a cute kid, I ask you?!)
We'll return to Zürich on Tuesday, and she'll return to nursery on Wednesday, and they will basically get a whole new baby from the one they last saw on the 22nd. Her parents, meanwhile, will relish the peace and quiet of being back in demanding jobs.
There are three cousins, all on the British side of the family, aged nearly-10, 7, and nearly-3. The eldest had a great time helping with the bedtime routine of both toddlers, reading stories and the like. That was kind of fun. The nearly-3-year-old was very excited by the idea of seeing baby Sophie, until it became clear that baby Sophie doesn't yet know how to share and can't be sent to the naughty step yet for things like trying to knock her cousin out of the way of the very! shiny!! iPad!!!, and in general is making a grab for a bunch of the toys and also a bunch of the grand-parental attention. It seems to be a lightweight version of "having to cope with not being the youngest anymore", combined with the general unfairness of having to let babies have their way.
Sophie, meanwhile, is by and large having a blast. There are rooms in which to rampage, tons of things to explore, and nearly-unlimited opportunities for toddling around. She has a great big bruise on her forehead from having face-planted onto a tile floor a few days ago, but the following morning she had the entire floor of the Marble Arch Pret à Manger waving "bye bye!" to her, and engaged in other egregious acts of charming the socks off complete strangers, so clearly the knock to the head didn't do much damage.
On a related note, we now have certified words. It was maybe last Monday or Tuesday that she started waving her hands with an accompanying "bah bah"; in the next couple of days she started to understand that this had to do with walking away from someone, e.g. when Daddy was getting her dressed in the morning and she rolled over, pulled herself up, and marched away mostly naked waving and saying "Bah bah!" Or when I was headed out the door for an hour on Wednesday morning and said "bye bye" to her, and she burst into tears. Hm. :/
Her next word followed the next day. For a few weeks now she has known how to hand me things, and I've taken them and said "Thank you!" and then usually let them go back to her outstretched hand. This time she said "Gah gee!" when I handed the thing back. Then she repeated the trick for her grandpa, who was thoroughly impressed. Now "Gah gee!" is what she says when she wants something to be passed either to or from her hand, and is more an order than a form of etiquette.
Other than that, she is babbling up a storm, and we still have yet to recognize any sound that refers to a particular noun. This either means that Sophie is unusual (most babies' first words refer to things) or that her parents are exceptionally slow on the uptake. Her grandpa, of course, considers this a sign of how advanced she is (and it is undeniably true that she is a very social little girl, so maybe not so strange to have her first words be social forms.)
We went to the Science Museum in London the other day and met
rmc28 and family; while there, Sophie insisted on walking as much as she could, and had no compunction about blocking the path of complete strangers, grinning up at them, and clapping her hands in glee. The nice thing about a museum like that, fortunately for her parents, is that pretty much everyone there is bound to be kid-friendly. (And how could you not be friendly to such a cute kid, I ask you?!)We'll return to Zürich on Tuesday, and she'll return to nursery on Wednesday, and they will basically get a whole new baby from the one they last saw on the 22nd. Her parents, meanwhile, will relish the peace and quiet of being back in demanding jobs.
Tags:
