I'm currently in an airy space trying to prepare for yet another job interview and getting my flat ready for a new tenant (thank to the current housing market my grand plan of selling has gone out of the window, likewise did the for sale sign). Cubling keeps me entertained though and from darker thoughts. This is how:

Her favourite songs are twinkle twinkle and Old McDonald had a farm. The former she can vocalise fully (without lyrics of course, she is only 18 months, right). She's been doing this for a while, but for the past few days she's started making up her own lyrics to it. That would be something like "yumyum yumyum yumyum yum, yumyum yumyum yumyum yum". She  woke up this morning and the first word she said was, no, not "mummy" or "daddy", but "yumyum?". She knows what's important in life.

She can now answer questions with a bit more than a yes or a no. If asked her name, she'll say it, which even a week after its first occurrence still brings tears to my eyes. Talking of which, she now can say (not just point to) "eyes", "nose", "knee". As to our bilingual experiment, English is winning big time. She understands both, but she'll translated mummy's German into English. Such as: "wo ist Mamis Nase?" "nose". "Willst du runter?" "down!". Ah well.

We've definitely entered the realm of temper tantrums. Anything at all can set them off. Like having to hand over an item for payment at the cashout. Not being given exactly the set of keys she has in mind. Trying to put on the wrong jacket on her. Not taking her out of the buggy to push the button in a lift. Insisting on her eating her lunch when she wants daddy's ham. Being picked up when she wants "down", being put down when she wants to be picked up (both within about 2 seconds). She kicks, hits and puts on a cute wee angry face, telling us without any doubt what she thinks about all this. Fortunately, I'm more amused than embarrassed by Cubling doing a "I'm not cooperating and will lie on the floor in the middle of Ikea even if 115 people will stamp on top of me". Ikea is her place for playing chase anyhow, she won't sit in her buggy (well, she will if strapped in, if with constant wailing), and when set loose, she runs about non stop. It takes two to shop at Ikea, one to run after her, the other to make decisions and get the stuff.

But she's also great fun: her dance moves are just fab. Samba band, radio, In the Night Garden or shops with elevator music, she jives away laughing, and brings a smile to everybody's face.

On the street, she'll point and announce "man!". Mainly if a man walks past, but sometimes also if a woman walks by. Umh. And all hell breaks loose if mummy dares to pick up another toddler.

And because I love looking at developmental tick boxes, something interesting has come up. Cubling is doing brilliantly in the areas of mobility (running, stopping, kicking balls, throwing, climbing etc) and speech/communication. Not so good though at anything that involves dexterity. It's not surprising, she flies from one thing to the next, never stops, never engages with anything for any length of time. She'll get there of course in her own good time and we encourage her to do things like scribble, puzzles and matching games which involve picking up small items. But in her nature it is not. She's rather be climbing trees and swinging from ropes making loud tarzan noises and summoning all animals of the jungle.

What was jogging for me pre pregnancy has strangely mutated into knitting and other crafty activities. My jogging routine back then was a run after work and before dinner (I can't run after dinner, it hurts). Now, before dinner is spent at home cooking and with Cubling. Weekends? Too many things to catch up on to have time for a run. Knitting though is not as dissimilar to jogging. There is a rhythm to it that unwinds, relaxes, gets rid of all frustrations the day brought. It's slow in progress, but reflective and gives a sense of achievement. What's more, it let's you handle lovely materials and allows you to give a very special present. You can't quite do that with jogging.

My idea for knitting was to do lots of baby stuff for babies to be and babies who grow. Nice plan and it's also not abandoned but the cardigan for R. took me so long that I was keen on something different. Not wanting to splash out on knitting book (too many, I wouldn't know where to start), I invaded various public libraries and second hand bookshops and came across some fantastic books: Alterknits, 25 Bags to knit amongst them. Fabulous projects. At the moment, I'm doing bags. Various bags. I just love them, the patterns are simple yet interesting, and I did quite well at choosing colours (you see, I photocopy patterns, then try to remember the colour scheme and also don't buy the recommended yarn, so the result will be different to the suggested project, and sometimes it actually turns out not too bad at all - do I dare say better?).

Here's my first attempt at a bag and at using beads. Beads rule - reasonably simple with lovley effects.

 

The other bag I knitted is more intricate and bigger. Photo will be posted once it's been gifted. I adore these bags and it's such a shame that I'm not a bag person at all (I'd lose them in a day) so they're definitely presents for people who I think are bag people.

I also found these fleece fabrics on ebay, and plan to do some bits and bobs for the nursery. The plan had been to make sleeping bags for Cubling but the fabric isn't really warm enough for the winter on its own, so I may do something else with it. Too many options so for now it's only sitting about and being admired.

10 months on from moving to our new home and having my own wee garden it's official. I'm a rubbish gardener. Whereas before I could blame distance to the allotment for not doing enough to keep it in a decent state (and those letters trying to throw me out at bay), now all I have to do is get out and get digging.

Well sort of. Cubling so far is a bit of an obstacle not showing any interest in gardening at all and wanting mummy's full attention, not to be shared with soil, plants, seeds and spades. Some evenings I did actually do some gardening, and thanks to my father in law, a piece of lawn was transferred into almost a raised bed. I bought a few plants, watched those already there bloom through the year and wondered what they were, and planted vegetable plants given by a fellow former allotment gardener.

This is the harvest of my efforts, vegetablewise:



Number one, a courgette. I was given about four plants, two died, two are still alive, one of them without fruit, and now the first two babycourgettes after I'd given up all hope. In September though?! The gnomes likes the shady place. Courgettes are still a bit wee for making a meal and don't seem to have any further intention of growing, but I have patience. Incidentally, the courgette plant is surrounded by a type of cabbage. Problem is I don't know what type. So far it's only produced leaves (which the slugs clearly like) and I'm not sure if they are for eating or if there's a head/broccoli/cauliflower etc coming still. I'm too embarrassed to ask the giver so if anyone knows what this is and if it's edible, let me know.



Number two, ONE whole raspberry. Isn't it beautiful? Needless to say I can't get myself to actually eat it. Honestly, it's the only raspberry.



Number three, strawberries. They did actually yield some, but they are wild strawberries, so definitely not enough for jam or cakes. They seem to be quite happily procreating and I think the way they steal the soil from between the slabs is rather cheeky.

All the other vegetable died or something not dissimilar.
I also forgot to take photos of the flowery plant types when in bloom to identify and remember what they are - maybe next year. Suffice to say the flowers fared better.
Well, I may not have natural green fingers but fortunately many plants are forgiving and with time, the garden improves and grows. It may not ever be winning any awards, but it is growing and changing, and in spite of it all, I like it.

She had us in stitches last night. Our after dinner ritual (that would be the ritual after we give in on the idea of family dinner together because the whining becomes unbearable every.single.night) goes something like this: daddy: "tea?" cubling: "tea!" mummy:"yes please". 10 minutes later the tea is in the cup, cubling exclaims "heiss!" (that's German for "hot" and she may possibly think that tea mugs, pots, ovens, radiators and any open flame bear the same name). Impatiently she waits for us to finish so she can get the colourful mug and copy us drinking the last few drops of tea. Out of interest I ask her "what is this?". She obliges and answers "cuppatea!" We both heard it, it must be true. A true Brit asking for a cuppatea.

There are so many hilarious situations where Cubling communicates with or without words. Like getting mummy to hide her face behind her palms. Like getting us to play hide and seek (she hides, whinging until we get the idea,  we go on to pretend we don't know where she is, as if the whinging wouldn't be a tad of a giveaway, and only after I find her does she say "hide". No, my darling, that's find, hide is BEFORE I see you).

It's getting autumn. Cubling likes manically waving leaves about. For now, she can still keep up with the few leaves that make it to the ground. Her sense of wonder will be fuelled with many more very soon. Happy 18 months! twice as long out than in (well, almost). You're a real citizen of the earth now, that's for sure.

This is the selection of jackets Cubling can choose from. She calls jackets "tata" and is very clear that she needs one before leaving the house, even if it's warm enough to go without. However, she is also clear as to which one she wants.

So, will she go for the colourful cardigan on the left? Maybe the pink one beside it? The lilac one at the top with cute flowers on it, waterproof for rainy days? Or the sorceror's red jacket with the longest hood ever? Or how about a plain white fleece jacket?
Mummy's favourites are the cardigan and the scorceror's jacket. Not so Cubling's. Without fault, she goes for the white fleece jacket. So at hardly 18 months, we have arguments about which jacket to wear.

Surely this can't be real?!

The Save Pollok Park Campaign has launched a new petition. To remind you, it's all about why having a Go Ape amusement is not a good idea for this particular park, which was bequeathed to the people of Glasgow, rather than commercial ventures. Having a Go Ape thingy there would seriously change the face of the park and make most of it out of bounds for people who don't have the money to pay the £20 entry for Go Ape.

Signatures are needed  to show Glasgow City Council we object to their plan to ignore the objections of the Maxwell family and the National Trust for Scotland.

How do you sign?
by going to the online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/spp2/petition.html
by downloading a paper copy from http://leyton.org/download/savepollokparkpetition.pdf
by calling 07775 832 461 and requesting copies by mail

Ah go on, it's quick and worth it.

I think I'm going to buy a boat. It'll be land under at the Cart soon I'm sure, maybe even the whole area between Clyde and Cart? That would be fun.

It's so damp that the washing refuses to dry. That's serious business in any family household, especially if dirty washing accumulates due to mucky patches thanks to a cycling household (like, cycling from Glasgow to Edinburgh for no apparent reason other than being cruel to yourself).

Cubling is up to some mischief. She likes to help with the washing and apparently was a kind visitor and put a role of black bin bags into the washing machine for some deep cleaning. A few days later my friend M was slightly surprised to be pulling off a magic trick - rather than pulling endless hankies out of a top hat, she pulled endless black bin bags out of her wash. Ladeeda. Shame I wasn't there...

She's also found a delight in slapping and hitting. Our approach to tell her off straight away and not let it pass has resulted in her doing it with a big grin on her face, watching out for mummy's and daddy's reaction. Argh. Luckily she can't exactly do much damage with it, not as much as her recent habit of flinging things randomly into the world. That does hurt if she happens to hit your little toe, one of our 10 Ming vases etc.

Does "Hi mummy" and "Hi daddy" count as a two word phrase? She is oh so advanced you see. She can also do two stage commands, such as "go over to daddy and tickle his feet". I think that's a two stage command anyway. She can now also go up and down the stairs without falling. Being considerate parents we don't trust in her abilities yet though.

Big questions, do toddlers eventually self wean from breast feeding? Just wondering. I told Cubling that magic mummy milk would soon be all done. She didn't like what she heard. I'm torn - it's no hassle now, and really a very cuddly time which we both enjoy. It also ensures she gets some liquid into her tummy. But it also means that I can't leave the house before she's in bed ever. Nevermind thinking of an overnight stay without her.

The nicest recent development though is that she now cuddles a lot and enjoys reading a book without making an escape after a page or two. It's much easier to involve her in things and to do things almost together. Manic central is about to settle a bit. I hope it'll last.

And her latest passion is... In the night garden. She will take out her upsy daisy doll, show it, point to the TV, say baby, and then draw circles on the palm of her own hand. Oh so sweet. If it weren't for the whinge when I say "sorry, not today, do you want to read a book instead?" We've entered the realm of TV addiction.

Cartside won an award! This blog I mean, I'm not yet referring to myself in the 3rd person singular. I'm honestly touched, because I still kind of write this blog for myself without trying to get a massive readership (which this blog doesn't have), so this is really unexpected. Many thank to midwifemuse!



There're a few rules that come with the award:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated.

Nominating 7 blogs, let's see:

Being a Mummy
Keir Royale
Croila
Because I Said So
You'll take an Eye out
Clairwil
Soulemama

Ok, that's 7, got to stop here. There were some others I would have liked to have included.

Incidentally, should you have noticed a certain occasional abence of the letter "s" (like just there) this is because my keyboard is dodgy. Just fill the gaps as required.

Today is pothole day. Did you not know? Well, at least for me and maybe some others in Glasgow it is.

On my way to work this morning (on my pushbike as usual) I got waved at by two people who enlightened me that it would be a really good idea to tell the council about the potholes on my route and back. Apparently, the council is committed to fixing potholes on main roads within 24 hours of notification and 5 days on minor roads. This sounds too good to be true and I shall test the council. The main difficulty was to remember the location of the approximately 15 potholes that I tend to slalom around in order to make my way to work. That's on a 3 mile journey. I do believe I use a main road, but will give the road the benefit of the doubt and only expect repair within 5 days. To be honest, I'd be impressed if they got fixed in 10 days. Mind you, good to know that it was a city councillor who took the initiative of this campaign.

Anyway, I'm always game for a nice wee campaign and if this helps to make cycling more attractive, I'm all for it. Especially as I got a nice cycle map for Glasgow as a thank you (Thank you!!!). So for my dear readers who live in Glasgow and are cyclists, this is the number to ring: 0800 373635.

Some other campaigning to be undertaken is a letter of complaint to Sarah Kennedy. I really and truly hate waking up to her ignorant statement that "cyclists are dangerous. They always break the lights". Hello???!!! It's not cyclists who are dangerous. When did a cyclist last kill another road user? When did a car last kill another road user? Get my drift? It's CAR DRIVERS who are dangerous. And lorry drivers. And bus drivers. And taxi drivers. They kill, injure and behave like monkeys just because they've got a steering wheel in their hands - well, some of them. I'm a car driver too you see.
As to her second statement, cyclists who break lights are in the minority and her sweeping outburst is just offensive. How about cars that don't indicate, cut off cyclists, park on cycle lanes, open doors into the face of cyclist, don't allow cyclist to get into filter lanes, overtake without a safe distance, and in fact- break lights? Oh, shall I dig up the environmental argument? or how about the health argument? I'm sure you would agree that cycling contributes a little less to global warming and more to general health?

Sarah, you really and truly did not make my morning.

Today was spent at an interesting conference, organised by Children in Scotland. The topic was that of Early Years service, with international perspectives as well a national and local views from those in charge. That would be Education Heads of Glasgow and Edinburgh Councils as well as the Scottish Minister for Early Years.

I was pleased to hear the consensus on the significance of early years for breaking the cycle of disadvantage and tackling the shameful extent of child poverty particularly in Glasgow. The vision, the will and the knowledge is there. However, I have serious doubts about how this vision can be put into practice.

At present, the statutory free pre 5 education comes in the form of 12.5 hours during school weeks for children in their pre school and ante pre school year, which translates to 5 x 2.5hrs sessions, either mornings or afternoons. This is not particularly useful for parents in employment who have to pay out for additional (or exclusive) private care for their children. There is also an understanding that everyone gets this pre 5 education, when in fact uptake amongst the poorest families is low, while there are areas in Glasgow where demand far exceeds provision - specifically in areas of multiple deprivation - so that again the neediest children may not access nursery education.
Above all, the current entitlement kicks in too late. It has been shown that at three years of age, children from lower social backgrounds already display a developmental stage a year behind that of their peers from higher social backgrounds.

Examples form other countries (Norway, Denmark, San Miniato in Italy) demonstrate successful practices for early years work. The common ideas are: parental leave for the first 12 months with little financial loss, availability of inclusive nursery provision from 12 months to school age, real parental involvement in the pre 5 services, and pre 5 services/support that starts pre conception and antenatally.
Apart from this, there are no easy answers.

In relation to the vision of the policy makers and decision takers, it worries me that the focus in Glasgow is on getting parents into work to get them out of poverty. This may work for many, but not for all. Many families trapped in generational worklessness may not be ready to work, or willing to work. The value placed on parenting is diminishing ever more, while good parenting is the cheapest and most available form of early intervention. So being a full time (or part time) parent should be valued and be a real option/available choice for both mother and father. This is simply not the case.

From my own experience as a parent who is neither vulnerable nor reluctant to access support if needed I can say that existing services did very little to prepare me for becoming a parent pre birth. Antenatal classes started at 37 weeks and did not go beyond advice on birth. There was a book, a health visitor who didn't seem to take my worries seriously, patchy help with breast feeding, followed by being referred to a baby massage class. What was most helpful was a volunteer initiative which helped me with breast feeding and an informal drop in (organised by a community antenatal clinic with community midwives and nurses) which developed into a circle of friends. We still meet at least weekly, babysit for one another, organise activities including mums nights out. Above all, we openly discuss our worries and comparison and peer support help with all areas of parenting, and as a result, we are all by now reasonably confident parents.

Being a parent unites because at the end of the day, we're all going through a similar life changing process. Which is why it seems that peer support should be an essential part of early years work. Parental involvement is important, and it can take many forms. For instance, during the last couple of weeks my work involved visiting nurseries. Although I only spend minutes at each nursery, I took home so many ideas and examples of how to communicate with my child that I would recommend a programme where every parent spends a few hours at their child's nursery. Finally, a cultural change where it becomes ok to talk about what one struggles with, rather than an expectation to put on a cheery face even though you feel like crying out for help. Maybe if parents are listened to properly, and not talked down to, if their views are taken seriously, we can achieve integrated services that are actually taken up and support each child appropriately.

Of course, affordable and high quality 0-4 establishments would come in handy too so that women who want to work can do so. But please not on the expense of supporting parental capacity. I fear that the current political climate is making parents work who would really rather be parent. The Scottish Early Years Framework (which will be published as a draft very soon) seems to get the balance right by placing parents first and aiming at earliest intervention to avoid later, and more costly intervention. I fear though that Glasgow's focus on getting parents into employment and lack of support for 0-2 services contradicts the Scottish Government's vision. Having said that, Glasgow's vision is ambitious and if they prove to deliver I shall stand corrected.

The New Statesman has a big feature on the scandalous detention of children for immigration purpose. Just to remind everyone - in the UK it is possible to detain children of any age indefinitely without charge or trial, even without them having committed any crime. The "crime" is that their parents applied for asylum in the UK. Nevermind the 42 days detention without charge for people suspected of terrorism, which is bad enough. I blogged before about Rahila, who was detained with her 4 children (the oldest 6 the youngest 9 months) for 42 days before she was deported. One of her younger children was refused milk even. Like - you're over two, you don't need milk or bottle anymore.

Of course, Save the Children ran a big campaign "no place for a child" a few years ago. While children can be detained indefinitely, they should be detained for the shortest time possible. After 21 days, there should be a review. When Rahila and her children were detained, I phoned to ask about the 21 day review to be told that BIA (Borders and Immigration Agency) could not disclose any details - not just details about the outcome of the review, but they wouldn't even disclose if a review had been undertaken. There is also no monitoring happening as to the length of stay of individual children. The only information are snapshot views by Anne Owers who visits detention centres every two years. Effectively, there is no accountability.

There is hope though that the still effective general reservation on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that the UK put in place (it applies to children who do not have secure immigration status in the UK) is to be lifted soon, this may have a positive impact on the practice of detaining children for immigration purposes. Theoretically, if the reservation is lifted, children without immigration status resident in the UK should be protected in the same way that citizen children are. Often though, theory and practice diverge, so I'll only be convinced once I know that children are no longer detained for shocking periods of time.

We made a short film about this with some young people which is still worth watching, giving a Scottish perspective on all of this.

Here's the press release:

Last week was one of those not to be repeated experiences. Thanks to my impending redundancy, I had applied for a few jobs over two months and luck had it that I got two interviews in the space of two days, followed by a trip to Pitlochry to run a training workshop for two local Amnesty groups, and followed by organising, presenting and facilitating a seminar. It's all done to use Cubling's favourite phrase and I'm shattered. The interviews also required a presentation each and submission of a written document and I don't think I've ever spent that much time preparing any previous job interview.

Cubling was rather bewildered at the unusual mummy movements and has taken to protest. I don't blame her, I didn't particularly enjoy being sat in the car for the 4.5 hour return drive to Pitlochry myself. For interview number 2 I had to leave her with J, K & A, and boy did she pull off a scene. I almost cancelled the interview. Clearly, she won't be left without mummy with someone she doesn't see on a weekly basis. The funny part was that A's 3rd birthday party happened the following day. She went there with daddy (to be joined by me after return from Pitlochry) and must have had a deja vu when he left her upstairs to go back down the stairs for buggy/bags. What a party crasher. Well, eventually she did enjoy the party and lasted longer than I did, the idea of putting her to sleep there to allow us to party on, which had sounded like a reasonable plan, was ludicrous on the night. Cubling is not one to sleep when there's a party going on. Some babies/toddlers may play along, but not her. I remember a certain wedding in France when she was 4 months and managed to stay awake for a full and straight 12 hours to finally conk out at 11pm.

Anyway, back to the interviews. They went reasonably well, second better than first, and I didn't dissolve in the rush of adrenalin and my nervous alter ego. It's good to know that I'm pretty good at predicting interview questions, now I only need to improve how I answer them rather than going blank or giving a second class answer. I don't have a job out of them yet but still in the run for one, so we shall see. I'm happy about the delay as there's no rush for the moment. I would still really do a job that deals with refugee/asylum issues because that's what I'm passionate about, but it's not looking good. The irony of it all is that the redundancy occurs in the only permanent job I've ever held. All those years of fixed term flipping contracts and they were more secure than this one.
Oh dear, what a boring post. Sorry. Must catch up on sleep. Good night then.