When pregnant with Cubling, I resurrected an old hobby of mine. Knitting. It came back quite naturally when I went into Mandor's fabric store (for fabric mind you, specifically wedding dress fabric) and saw a knitted duck. It spellt the name of my then pregnant future sister in law on it. So I got the book with the duck pattern, the wool and the needles and got knitting.

Some months later, I was pregnant too, looked at the book and fancied knitting a blanket for Cubling. It took me all pregnancy, and I had to be desciplined towards the end to finish it in time. Of course, Cubling helped a bit by being 15 days late.

Once Cubling got better at sleeping, and after seeing some of the amazing pieces Jules has knitted, I got more and more into it and started a project for a baby-to-be. I didn't know if it was to be a girl or a boy, so left the knitting of the rim for button holes and buttons until after the birth, and had it ready for the first visit three weeks after R's birthday. It's the first time I gave as a present a piece which had taken me a lot of time and effort knitting, the duck was peanuts in comparison. As with Cubling's blanket, it is just very special to knit something for a not yet born baby. The piece grows as the baby grows and with luck, they meet just in time.
I decided to take a photo as a keepsake. Here it is.

It's a relatively simple pattern, the special bit is the hood which took ages but is just very cute. I made a mistake finishing the hood off, but actually like the way it turned out. Somehow it turned out to be much bigger than the 6-12 months size but nevermind, babies grow.

I think now I've reasonably warmed up and am ready for more complicated patterns.
My progress is slow because I only manage to knit occasionally, but the beauty of it is that there's no rush. I tried to get some knitting pattern books through bookmooch but no success, so the libraries were invaded. I'm particularly taken with a book by the name of Alterknits. It has such projects as using old T-shirts - cutting them into stripes and knitting a rug out of it. It stretches the idea of what yarn is, and the imagination with it.

is waking up to Cubling lying next to me wriggling along to Huey Lewis' "I'm so happy to be stuck with you" playing on the radio.

And yes, I am happy to be stuck with you too.

A few days after Cubling turned 16 months, I've been seen with my nose in books on toddler development. I just love to read what to expect at this stage, and to see what Cubling can or can't do at the moment. Honestly, not to brag about her or worry, just because it's exciting. I'm not joking, I really find it exciting.

She has obsessions with a few things and will spot them even far away and out of known contexts. It's quite awe inspiring how well she can spot these things. They are:

Fish. It started in the Aquarium, and it's been a constant since. She doesn't say fish, just opens/closes her mouth like a fish and is a great fish spotter. Even the abstract birds in her cot mobile are fish to her. She can also tell fish at the supermarket and knows she likes to eat fish - if I tell her the food in front of her is fish, she does the fish mouthing, and then opens her mouth very wide, leaning forward.

Keys. It's one of her first bilingual words, that says it all, not an easy one to pick in German at that! Sissel it is in her pronunciation in German, seys in English. A clear case of overgeneralisation, she also calls bolts a key, any other metal item on doors, the key whole, the metal bit on the parasol pole etc. She spots incredible numbers of keys and locks, and you suddenly realise how obsessed we have become about locking us in. She will throw a tantrum if you try to take a key off her, so better not give it to her in the first place. She'll also throw one if she sees a key and doesn't get it, so better not have it in sight. She also knows daddy has a key in his pocket. You can't win, she knows where the keys are...

Babies. Is she trying to tell me something? Hm. Anyway, she'll spot a baby before my poor eyesight catches up, and proudly announces "baby". I could claim she can say it in both languages as well, just that it is actually the same word in German. She'll walk over to babies in buggies and prams and try to stroke and kiss them. Ahhh.

Dogs - well that's been a long standing obsession. Bracken, our neighbour's dog, is her favourite and I don't blame her. A cute and friendly Scottie dog, perfect height for stroking for Cubling, and an audible bark which generally interferes with dinner time.

Shoes. They mean going out and she just can't wait to get out. She even sometimes brings me my shoes to make me hurry up...

She's an expert in nodding yes and no now, and only rarely confuses them. It makes communication so much easier, especially because she doesn't just try to contradict but actually nods "yes" if I guessed her wish right. She can say "nein" and "no" beautifully and seems to differentiate as to who she is talking to. I get the "nein", other people get the "no". Other new words are buggy (bubby), birdie, and eeyai - the latter strangely means cat. Don't ask. Better than her first attempt which sounded like the German for shit. She uses signs more frequently now to show where she wants to go, to ask for the hat, to identify some animals (duck, crocodile, elephant and I count fish in here too), and can do "woof woof" as well as "wau wau", both of these now replace her "doo" which I thought meant "dog" but now seems to refer to things she knows well but doesn't quite know how to say (flower, guinea pigs ...). "Dous" remains the word for "shoes". Her "hiya" was replaced by "hallo" after our holiday in Germany, and today she added "hi" to it. tata is in the process of becoming "byebye" (pronounced baba) and she continues to say all done (aaldaa) and "nana" or banana. For a few days now she refers to granny as "nanny". How many words does that make? I don't know, not sure which of these are considered to be real words. She still says "ssss" for "heiss" and "snake", and imitates other animal noises (refusing to do sheep and pig).

She's getting good at spotting things in books, and is developing real favourite books - where's that monkey and water baby are the current top ones. She loooves monkeys, elephants and snakes, and is not unimpressed by her former favourite, the zebra. Where's that monkey has all her favourite animals, including even fish.

On Monday, she kicked a ball for the first time and almost managed to walk up low steps by herself. Oh, did I say she loves balls and grabs any ball she sees. In the swing park, she now climbs up the stairs to the shoot, and slides down on her own. At the same time she gets bored very quickly with any item, be it the swing, books, toys, rocking horse or any other item. She'll go onto one thing and want off only a few seconds later, and this seems short even for a toddler. And she runs off.

The one thing she doesn't do well yet, particularly in relation to her age, is scribble and draw. She will make some marks on paper, but nothing sustained. Again, her attention span seems the problem. However, there is improvement: Reading books is getting a bit better if she's not tired and hyper, and so does taking building blocks/clothes pegs out of containers and back. And gardening. The new lightweight buggy is a winner too, she likes it so much more than the expensive Quinny. It'll be a sore back for me then.

She looks like a real girl now, full of character and personality. She's heavy at 12.5 kg (that's after not eating 3 weeks in the past 6 due to illness), but doesn't look too chubby, not sure about her height only that her clothes are getting tight, especially as we're still using cloth nappies. Her favourite food is fish, pasta/bread, porridge chicken, yoghurt and ice cream. I need to mix vegetables into her food because when allowed to pick pieces from our plates, she'll eat meat/fish first, followed by the starchy stuff, followed by nought, and the desert (yoghurt). It's not that she doesn't like veg, but if given the choice... She still refuses to eat cheese and fruit pieces.

Finally she delights in being chased, exploring mouths, putting my necklace into my mouth, splashing with water, watching bugs and bigger animals. She doesn't like indoor soft play areas, being strapped in a high chair, horses and walking while I'm holding her hand.

Seems my ideas are all en vogue. Children in Scotland have issued a press release calling for the Scottish Government to include a nurture through nature agenda in the Early Years Framework. In fact, the conference that Children in Scotland ran and which I couldn't attend due to work commitments to me had looked pretty lacking in the early years area of promoting outside education. The press release clearly redresses the balance.

Along the same lines, an anti-bullying network conference looked at the implication of an over protective stance on bullying and our society's aversion to accept any form of risk. While we all want to protect our children, they argue that we are trying to ignore that life is a fatal disease ending in death, and in an attempt to cheat death and injury, we emprison our children in environments which are neither contributing to a healthy development nor a happy childhood.

Tim Gill, author of “No Fear – growing up in a risk-averse society” put it into a nice and short check:
When you were young where did you most like to play?
Was it outdoors?
Was it out of adult supervision?
Form me the answers are yes. That's because I'm over 25. Nowadays the answers is a definite no and that's where the problem lies.
In an attempt to keep children safe, we deny them the important opportunity to play outdoors and without adult supervision. So it's time to maybe reconsider if we do have the right balance.

The answer seems to be that we need safe opportunities for outdoor and unsupervised play, which forest kindergardens, among other things, can offer.

Germany is drowning in rain, Cubling is ill, Cartside is very tired (as is the whole house or at least our immediate neighbours left, up and down if I'm allowed to guess) so the time is right for some recommendations for rainy day internet browsing.
I've added a few new links to my blogroll, and to be honest, there are too many by now. So I thought I'd introduce some of them.

www.bookmooch.com is a great site for bookworms like myself. A bit like www.readitswapit.co.uk in that you can give and receive books. While readitswapit facilitates book exchanges person to person (and in the UK only), bookmooch has a different system: for listing books you are happy to give away and for actually giving away books you get points. With these points you can get any book in the inventory, so you don't have to find a suitable book from the inventory of the person who wants to swap, but you can wait until a book you really want becomes available. It's also great because it works internationally - to make up for higher postage costs, you get more points for international swaps and there's an option of setting some conditions, e.g. for international requests, two books have to be requested before you agree to give anything away. I love it because I can get rid of books I no longer need and someone will get them who actually values them. Better than www.bookcrossing.com (where you don't know if the book will land in the bin). The listing system is hassle free (much easier than ebay) and the guy behind it also facilitates support for charities. The only quibble I would have is that the database could do with some tidying up, as the same book may come up as 10 ever so slightly different listings and it can be a bit tricky to find out which is the correct one. Of course, if like me, you're looking for books that are popular and rarely given away, you may end up accummulating points and not getting any books. Still, I love giving my books to people who actually want them.

www.etsy.com is like a niche-ebay. They host online shops of stuff that people have made themselves. And everyone can set up their own shop. Which I did. Now I only need to make things myself that I could sell. The fee structure is nicer than ebay, as it gives you a few months for each item, more suitable to crafty stuff than the 10 day on ebay. They use paypal, so it's pretty international, although of course there is the issue of postage fees which will be added (and most shops are located in the US from where this site hails). Still, a great idea and resource for special presents.

If you're interested in a green blog, this is for you: Not new year, from a family trying to survive without buying anything for a full year. A fabulous challenge, which I know I couldn't do, as much as I wish I could. It'll make you think but also gives you lots of ideas. As a long standing freecycler, I'm intrigued by the idea of Wyecycle - the town (village/hamlet/city, delete as appropriate, I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to the south of England, really sorry...) of Wye has a sort of fleemarket where everyone brings the stuff they no longer need, and it's all free, so you drop your stuff, and pick up other people's things. I quite fancy something like this in Glasgow.

Finally, Save Pollok Park is an initiative by Weegies (Glaswegians) to stop our big and lovely Pollok Country Park being turned into an ape amusement arcade. The park was donated by the Maxwell Stirling family for the people of Glasgow, not for profit making companies who let people play at monkey for a couple of hours. The family themselves have objected to the park and I applaud the Glasgow aristocracy for that. Incidentally, that's the park that would be just so perfect for a forest/nature kindergarden.

This is a boring sleep no sleep post - don't feel bad for skipping it.

We have a new night time routine.
It's always good to start with the positive, so for three nights running, there have been no feeds between midnight and five a.m., and one night even none between 9.20 p.m. and 7 a.m. (I still do the midnight feed if she wakes when I go to bed in the hope that this will send her off to dreamland until the morning).

The eight o'clock wee willy winky bedtime is out of the the windae though. Our typical night looks like this: 8 p.m. bedtime, followed by 15 minutely cries that necessitate saving Cubling from entanglement in the travel cot or bumping head or other body parts on the wall next to it. She moves a lot you see, and the travel cot is minute compared to her bed at home. It also creeks which keeps me awake when she moves. Usually, at around this time (9.30pm) she's down for good. And I'm ready for bedybyes too, having run after her all day in the hot summer sun, just that it's too sad really. So I plough on, writing job applications rather than reading and knitting.

Last night, Cubling woke at 1 a.m. Determined not to feed her, I took her into my bed to get her back to sleep. It worked well, I hardly remember what happened, just that now and again I woke to find her moving away from me and kicking her feet into my body, which kind of indicates that her head was moving towards the other side of the bed. I tried to put my arm around her to protect her from the drop but she pushed it away. Eventually I turned and embraced sleep instead.

At 5 a.m. I was awoken by a big crashlike sound.
Cubling had fallen out of bed. Oh my. She cried. I cried. We huddled and cuddled. My heart thumped, I looked for broken bones, blood and bruises (there were none). She looked for sleep which had been rudely interrupted and promptly fell asleep on my arm. Amazed but still shaken, and very ruefully, I put her back in the travel cot. As usual, the best method for wakening her. She watched me but didn't cry, tried really hard to get herself back to sleep, in any possible position. It was hilarious - she tried so many sleeping positions, stood up, kneeled, sat, lay on her back, front, left, right. She couldn't get herself to sleep. 45 minutes later I took mercy and decided this feed would be a morning one and anyway she deserved it for falling out of bed like that. She fed beautifully and her face was full of blissful sleep.
I placed her back in the travel cot.
She slept until 9 a.m. For once I got up a full hour before her.

So, I can see the end of night feeds, but I'm still in very strong doubt about the end of night wakings. And with night feeds, at least those were generally short and sweet and kept her in her bed. Still, it's worth a shot.

We were getting ready for the big trip to the zoo when mummy checked up on some building work on trams and undergrounds to avoid unnecessary delays when in the city of Cologne. An eye fixed for a couple of second on the screen was a enough to cause another unnecessary delay in the form of Cubling breaking the drawer next to the computer.

Well we made the zoo eventually, or rather the aquarium due to the heavy rain. Cubling was enthralled. Fish everywhere. Mouth opening and closing, for an hour and a half without break. Running from one fish tank to another showing us all the fishes in the world. Tiny and huge, colourful and dull, stripey and dotted, flat and round, spikey and smooth. I don't think I've ever seen her so excited and happy. Maybe she was a fish in her previous life. She then complied to conk out for a decent length of time, allowing mummy and former hall of residence mate to have a decent chat and lunch. That's the way.

The monkey house was quite a success as well, we even managed not to get peed upon. The zebras, giraffes and bears found Cubling's approval too.

Oh, and she's definitely found the "no" headshake. Sometimes I think she's trying to say both yes and no at the same time. That's funny particularly if it causes loss of balance.

There are more building works going on. The local swing park has disappeared. Instead there's a massive hole. I believe it's an archaeological site. Why oh why is my home town built on a Roman fort? And why does it take them over 2000 years to dig it up? You'd think they'd be done with it by now.

So far at her grandad's house, Cubling has destroyed a porcelain harlekin by wiping it off the sofa onto the tiled floor and a piece of pottery by pulling the table cloth it was sat on. And I was sure the high chair was far enough away for her not to reach the table cloth when I took the liberty of a quick visit to the bathroom without her for once.
The harlekin belonged to my mum, so big oh dear. The second incident was lucky, I caught her before the crystal candle holder followed the pottery thingy.

That's two in two days.
She also said "nein" for the first time today, and has become a vicious head shaker (in additon to the nodding). Does that tell you what she gets to hear all day? I mean, her two German words are heiss and nein, while all the fun words are English. Hm.

There's nothing worse than a non-toddler-proof flat. In fact, I'm spending most of the day outdoors for both our sanitieses.

Oh and she won't go to sleep. The weaning off night feeds (my big plan for this holiday) is going well because she goes to bed so late and exhausted that there are no night feeds. It took an hour tonight sending her off to the land of nod, pretty much back to the land of colicky newborn times. Went through the range of singing, stroking, walking, rocking, bottle, controlled crying (I still can't do more than 5 minutes at a time), calpol and finally gave in to the old favourite yummy mummy dummy because I was exhausted.

I spent some of my time in May and June working on this with the P7 pupils at Carnwadric Primary School.
It's a short clip about the 8 week activity we ran with puppeteer Shane Connolly of the Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre. This is the second time we used the medium of puppets and a puppet show, and I'm an utter convert. It's fun and gets amazing stuff out of kids, they never cease to impress me. You can also view the actual puppet show.

Fridays are my Cubling days. They day I'm off to enjoy quality one-to-one time with Cubling.
Fridays are also the days I'm shattered in the evenings. Work is easy in comparison, even on stressful days.
I still really enjoy Fridays, don't get me wrong, but here are some highlights of the day:

Breakfast: Cubling loves breakfast. However, she has a habit of coaxing mummy to do things before opening her mouth. She doesn't quite get that not opening her mouth is her loss, so we play the daDADAAA game. The rules are this: one spoonful of breakfast, Cubling shouts da DA DAAA, pointing at some indiscriminate item on the table. Now mummy has to guess what she wants, and she'll only open her mouth once she has this item. Towards the end of breakfast time, she demands the bowl and a spoon, pretending to feed herself while I shove the food with a second spoon into her mouth. Needless to say that she doesn't manage to actually feed herself, but distributes the porridge on high chair, clothes, hair, table, floor, mummies clothes.

She won't let mummy eat breakie instead screams to be let out of the highchair. I comply. She runs straight to the front door, gets her jacket and points at the door, announcing "sey" (that's Denglish for "key") and "doo" ("shoe"), followed by pointing at the buggy. Yes, my baby can communicate very well that she doesn't like to be indoors. Maybe she wants to go to the childminder? I choose to believe she just wants out. Is mummy allowed to finish breakfast? No way jose.

I had a great outing planned which involved taking the train to the city.
First obstacles are the 537 steps up to the train station. Of course lots of people pass us, none of them offer to help. I can manage so no worries. The train journey takes 10 minutes, but will Cubling sit in her buggy? After 5 minutes I relent for the sake of my fellow passengers. Before I enter the City Halls Venue for the Mini Music Makers session she's signed up for, I let her run on the Ramshorn Theatre's graveyard. Nothing sinister in that, it's a lovely city centre graveyard next to a former church, a green sanctuary in the middle of the hustle. The idea is to give her a chance to get rid of some of her running energy. Half an hour later we enter the City Halls. They have a nice and spacious foyer, Cubling runs without a break, exploring absolutely everything. I observe the other toddlers who are all walking calmly, half the distance covered, or sit happily in buggies. Cubling gets a name tag. She takes it off. I put it on again, she takes it off etc, until I have the fabulous idea and stick it on her back. Point to mummy. She proceeds to take other toddlers' name tags off.
Finally we can go in and sit down on a dodgy chair. Cubling is supposed to sit on my lap for songs and nursery rhymes, later supposed to walk holding my hand in a circle of mummies and toddlers (no daddies there). Followed by quiet time holding a teddy and listening to classical music. This is what Cubling actually does: wriggles incessantly to free herself from mummy's lap, runs to tutor, runs to basket with toys, points to ball on piano shouting "daDADAAA". Runs over to other toddlers. Runs to door. Tries to climb chairs, radiators, piano stools. Tries to switch hifi on and off.
Mini Music Maker Tutor gives us a smile with her goodbye that seems to say "while I feel very sorry for your plight, please please please don't come back".
I'm drenched in sweat.
Cubling repeats train display but conks out just before we get home. Phew, we can have lunch in peace.

Lunch and dinner, repeat breakfast scenario.

Afternoon: we go to the park. I let her run wherever she wants, let her climb up slides, steps and climbing frames and wonder whether she's really only just 15 months. She can climb things I can't even climb. What will she climb when she's three? A tree maybe? She says "hello" to absolutely everyone, including dogs, rabbits, birds, ceramic fairies and garden gnomes. She runs up to cars, points to the keyhole and announces "sey". We come home, daddy boils the kettle, she says "tea", then "sss" for "heiss" (hot). She goes over to the neighbour, splashes with their dog's drinking water and spots bananas in the neighbour's kitchen, announces "nana" and goes for them. She'd eat the skin if only I let her. All the while she vocalises babbles, protowords and real words (with daily favourites, today it was mummy) incessantly. A constant moving of legs and working of vocal chords.

One breakthrough: She does an all body nod for "yes" now. I can actually ask her what she wants and she'll tell me if I'm right or not. Wow. And she's not negative - she'll nod to almost any suggestion (minus nappy change). She can do no, but only does it as a joke, not to contradict. Her behaviour is neither negative nor aggressive, just very intense. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to survive a two hour plane journey on my own with her strapped to my lap if she can't even tolerate five minutes.