Daisy Suzanne Allen
Born Sunday 6th March 2011
15 to 18 months old
Her life: Birth ♥ Week 1 ♥ Weeks 2-3 ♥ Weeks 4-7 ♥ Weeks 8-13 ♥ Weeks 14-22 ♥ 5-7 months ♥ 7-8 months ♥ 8-10 months ♥ 1st Christmas ♥ 10-12 months ♥ 1st birthday party ♥ 12-15 months ♥ 15-18 months ♥ 18-21 months ♥ 21-24 months ♥ 2nd birthday ♥ 2-2½ years ♥ 2½-3 years ♥ 3rd birthday ♥ 3-3¼ years ♥ 3¼-3½ years ♥ 3½-3¾ years ♥ 3¾-4 years ♥ 4th birthday
In summary: Index ♥ From birth to four years old ♥ Four years old onwards
Special features: Daisy translator ♥ Daisy cookery ♥ Daisy phrases ♥ Golden Bear
Ok, what better way to start the page covering the next period of Daisy's life than a picture of her in a hat...
...and also on a bike. Both these photos are from our trip to Center Parcs, which you can see on a separate page.
We swing into July in time to catch some of Daisy's crazy hair. No idea how it got like this, but it's normally a sign that it's nearly bedtime.
The latest craze, which she picked up in Center Parcs when she was given a sheet of them, is stickers. As you can see, she likes to put them everywhere like tattoos.
Occasionally, I help her out with her sticker placement.
Later on that day, we went to the Heaton Moor festival, which for once had good weather, where Lynne strutted her stuff in the Zumba demonstration. Daisy crawled off at one point, but soon turned around to give her lost sheep look.
A couple of weeks later and we were doing in Congleton after an invite from Debbie and Simon. The garden was still a little damp after seemingly months of rain, despite sunshine on the day, so a couple of blankets were laid out and Aunty Katie and Daisy enjoyed a pleasant picnic of sorts.
A go on the trampoline was inevitable, and Aunty Katie was assigned Daisy-watching duty...
...and thus chaos soon ensued. (Actually, these two photos are in chronologically reverse order, but they work much better that way.)
Later Daisy used the trampoline to spy on conversations with between Jonathan and Aunty Judy.
Then Lily & Daisy (whose parents are cousins, so I don't know what that makes them) had a go on the trampoline. Lily didn't quite get the timing right on the photo pose.
Back home at the end of July and there aren't many pads around which Daisy hasn't scrawled all over (er, drawn artfully on). She can't open the crayon box (she probably can but can't be bothered) so ends up throwing it or moaning for help. She does love a bit of crayoning (and has been doing circles and spirals for a while).
Standing up is now easy peasy and she does it a lot, often standing for a decent length of time, but she has not yet advanced that into walking, although if I hold her hands she will walk several steps (doing 4 or 5 before sitting down, although in early August she did about 20 steps, covering about 8 feet before giving in). And today she stood up unassisted (i.e. not holding on to the sofa) for a couple of seconds. It's only a matter of time (we keep telling ourselves).
A quick one of the cheeky young scamp in her standard-issue plain white vest.
She's getting a lot more adventurous now, starting to climb all over the place. We had to put the lower stair gate on as she demonstrated (with me behind her offering mild encouragement) that she could climb three or four stairs, although she recently took the encouragement a bit too reliantly as she leaned back knowing I was there.
She can also climb up to the top of the small slide that Nana Sue got her, although she is less convincing about coming down the actual slide (and doesn't usually want to). She pulls herself onto the sofas too, and then clambers all over them.
She is getting good at Row, Row, Row Your Boat, although she just says "row, row, row" a lot whilst rocking back and forth, occasionally adding some random gibberish lyrics (admittedly loosely to the tune of the song).
It's also worth mentioning that she is now completely obsessed Peppa Pig, which has seemingly come from nowhere (certainly replacing Mickey Mouse and Handy Manny as her favourite cartoons). Its 5-minute length makes it quite addictive and she never fails to request an additional episode upon one's completion. When upstairs, she whiles away her time putting some of the Peppa Pig jigsaw pieces together and pointing at George (Peppa's younger brother, non-Peppa Pig fans) whilst making a reasonable effort at saying his name.
She is also honing her ability to say the word "no" (as before combined with shaking her head) seemingly saying it without discrimination, i.e. to pretty much any question you ask her (apart from things like "do you want some cheese?", obviously).
That is all for now.
Right then, where were we? It's August 2012 and there is a rare bit of sunshine which Daisy is enjoying outside, more comfortable with her shades on than was at first the case.
Later that day the girls take a picture of themselves. Yes ok, I'm working and you're sunning yourselves. Thanks for that. (I probably requested the photo, though.)
A couple of weeks later, and the girls stole a march on me by heading up to Edinburgh early. In this shot it looks a little bracing by the beach with the grandparents.
A third duck bath was in evidence in her home from home (the first duck bath bit the dust - we're currently on her second at home). Daisy manages to collect a number of bubbles on her head. I'm not sure what the glowing light in the bath is, though.
A meal at Pizza Express, Daisy sat in the big girl's chair as is usual now, and a personal request as to the location of her father. (At ruddy work!)
This appears to be at the same place, but much busier and with a purple-lipped, almost punk, pose being offered.
I finally made my way up to bonnie wee Scotland to join in with the fun, much to Daisy's enjoyment. A cheese salad for her tea - Babybel accompanied by chopped tomato and (home-grown) cucumber.
She still can't stop smiling (bless) as Lynne does a very mum thing and sorts out her top.
No matter what toys we get her, they cannot compete with the fascination over grown-up toys, such as the mobile phone and Blackberry in this shot.
After bidding our farewells to the oldies, we headed further north to Aberfeldy, to pop in to see cousin Nicky. Here we braved the constant rain to head to a coffee shop, where Daisy grabbed a horse by its head and ate some chocolate brownie cake whilst Nicky looked on, a little surprised. Fun times.
School finished for the day (a little confusingly, since it was a bank holiday south of the border), and it's time for some thumb-sucking action (and TV watching), no matter what the age.
The next day, and we had to head home, but not before we go to watch Calum round up some sheep with the aid of a quad bike and some apposite dogs (young and yet to be fully trained, y'see). Not pictured: Calum, sheep or dogs (they're in the distance somewhere at this point).
Lynne decided to have a rearrange in order to try to locate some missing toys. This clearly meant "free-for-all" in Daisy's eyes as she ventured to make as much of a mess as possible. Truly this is her room, and her room alone.
And with that, she was a mighty 18 months. Her impressions now include: monkey ("ooh ooh", with hands curled under armpits sometimes), dog ("rrrfff, rrrfff"), elephant (vague trumpet sound plus hand in the air like a trunk), cow (well, a cold cow - more like "brrrroooo" than mooo), sheep (a quickfire "baa, baa, baa"), horse ("clip-clop", butterfly/bird (flapping arms for both), crocodile (a big clap of the hands), boat ("row, row, row"), car ("brrmmm" with some driving action). Lately, we've also taught her a squirrel (nibbling at her hands). She can point to her toes, legs, knees, tummy, shoulders, head, ears, eyes, mouth, chin, cheek, nose, hair upon request. And it often descends into lists of requests, like she's a performing dog, but she's nearly always eager to oblige.
Whilst her command of language has not expanded further, she understands lots and lots. And she does not like being denied what she wants, or else she tends to throw somewhat of a strop, mostly ending in lobbing forcefully whatever she is holding. I barely mention it, but she still sleeps straight through, more or less from 7pm to 7am, with only the odd shock to the system that is waking up in the small hours. A crucial component of bedtime is her little Hello Kitty toy. Lynne has bought her another one for downstairs to reduce the risk of not having one nearby at crucial times. A tired Daisy without her Hello Kitty toy is not someone you want to face.
She's still not walking, though. She can walk with assistance, i.e. holding her hands or using the Winnie the Pooh walker (although only the latter if the movement of the walker is restricted since otherwise she pushes too fast and ends up in a heap), and she does threaten the odd moment of standing in transition before plopping to the floor. Instead she has solved the difficulty of crawling whilst carrying things by walking on her knees, which in many ways is a more difficult task. It does give some nervy moments as she navigates past sharp edged items such as doors and tables.
And we've now ditched the second duck bath as she outgrew it - she's now in the big bath and loving it. The colourful suctioned dots that are meant to be affixed to the bottom of the bath in order to reduce slippage are eagerly ripped up for playing potential.
But what will happen when she passes eighteen months?