Daisy Suzanne Allen
Born Sunday 6th March 2011
3¼ to 3½ years 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
Right then. June is well under way and, in response to Lynne going to get her haircut, a squadron of Allens arrive as reinforcements. Uncle Matt does a cracking job with sealing the sink and bath before getting down to some serious stickering action with Aunty Katie (not pictured: their niece).
Jonathan was also round, having accompanied Nana Sue. He did not appear to be keen on pickled onion flavoured Monster Munch. All that eating rubbish has left him immune to the delights of fine dining.
Nana Sue was there to offer a comforting arm as Daisy experienced the dilemma of not knowing which crayon to choose for her next colouring mission...
...but such difficulty was soon overcome with the offer of what might be mini Cheddars.
Later, after our guests had left, Lynne was still gallivanting around town (as she is permitted to do once in a while), so I fully engaged with Parenting 101, plonking Gregory on the jungle mat and Daisy in front of the widescreen TV (although given most people have them these days, it's presumably just TV). I would of course ask Daisy to stand further back but I thought this would suitably capture my lack of parenting skills.
I took a day off later that week as Lynne had a routine hospital appointment in the afternoon, but in the morning she took Daisy to dancing, coming back with Daisy's best friend Ellen (and her mother). I'm not sure exactly what they were looking at here.
Althoug here I am pretty sure that they were watching TV whilst munching on enormous post-lunch cookies. They didn't even finish them; that's how big they were.
Imaginative uses for bubble wrap, no. 34: use as emergency blanket whilst lying on the kitchen floor.
Imaginative uses for bubble wrap, no. 49: imaginary curtain overhang on kitchen sink unit.
Mid-June and many of the flowers are in full bloom. Daisy does like to pick the flowers off (in moderation) but here she is satisfying herself with smelling them.
Lynne took Daisy (and Gregory presumably, but he's not pictured - didn't fancy the slide) to a park, and Daisy was keen to go on to this gigantic slide. She made it to the bottom, thankfully.
One of Daisy's latest artistic designs, which I thought looked a bit like the classic screen in the Matrix.
See! Almost identical.
Daisy is getting good at picking peas, i.e. finding the plumpest ones and no longer nearly decapitating the pea plants when plucking them off.
We set up her little tent for pea consumption and she tucked in with gusto.
But sometimes you just want to kick back and enjoy the sunshine. Totally chilled.
The girls were both chilling in the garden as we had yet more lovely sunshine during June.
Later that day we had a roast, naturally given the nice weather. I don't think enough roast dinners are eaten outside. And consumed with a nice can of chilled lager drink.
Poor Hello Kitty - she gets dragged around from pillar to post, keeping Daisy company, appeasing her, improving her mood and all the while unable to speak because she doesn't have a mouth. And then she gets absolutely papered over with stickers leaving just one, sad eye peering out.
We took ourselves over to Hale for Suze's champagne breakfast (although I'm not totally sure there was actually champagne on offer - I stuck to Pepsi Max anyway). Daisy joined in with the older kids at the play table.
And was content to play by herself on the trampoline. Safer that way. Occasionally she would shout to everyone to watch her.
Later in June, Daisy gets rocking on the nursery rocking chair.
And there you have it.
It's towards the end of June and Daisy is very happy with the bumper(ish) harvest of peas, dwarf French beans, potatoes, raspberries and blackcurrants. It had been a warm month, hence the hat and sun cream in the background.
Later that day, Daisy asked us both to sit down on the sofa while she acted out a short play for us (not set up by us).
Sometimes a Sunday of fun can be too much for a young girl (it was only about 4pm here) - and it was I who had been on a 50-mile bike ride. Tsk, eh.
I don't know about you but I love a game of early morning (Peppa Pig-themed) dominoes.
Mid-July, the day before we headed to Mochdre in North Wales, and I introduced Daisy to the wonders of Mario Kart on the Wii. She spent most of the time driving into the wall, but we all have to start somewhere. She's already doing quite well on some of the games on my iPod Touch.
After returning from our Welsh excursion, Daisy had to disappear to a high-brow fashion party.
A patch of especially nice weather and a free weekend led to us inviting round the twins (and their willing parents) for a spot of barbecue action and, unplanned, some naked paddling pool action. The lawn got a good watering, put it that way.
It's the 5th of August and I have the day off while our brave young soldier goes off with Lynne to Stepping Hill to have her tooth removed under general anaesthetic. Pictured (just about) is the offending tooth, which, having been chipped off almost two years ago, had gotten infected a couple of times recently. So it was time for it to go. She was a good girl, despite having to wait for two or three hours in the waiting room (they were the last to be seen, prompting Daisy to ask if they could go home once everyone else had disappeared, but unfortunately before she had actually had the extraction).
She was a very brave girl and posed sweetly with Gregory on her return - you can see her hospital wrist band in this shot, which has quickly made it on to both our phones' lock screens.
I got my camera to take more shots but they weren't as good because the children weren't playing ball. Daisy appears to be suggesting that Gregory should stay still while the TV is on, which she is watching intently.
In the evening, we popped her tooth in this envelope and put it under Daisy's pillow. At first, Daisy was a bit reticent about the tooth fairy coming in during the night and I could understand why. It does sound a bit unnerving when you are only three years old.
Another week and another crazy bed pose from Daisy, here looking like she is trying to push off. She's left her array of toys (Kitty, Bunny, Panda and Penguin) behind in the conventional place for sleeping: near the pillow.
This is how to watch Peppa Pig in the morning. Totally chilled and relaxed (wish there was some kind of word which combined those two elements).
That's all for now.
Straight back from a week in Aberfeldy, and after a morning swim at Hazel Grove, we headed over to Nana Sue's for lunch on what turned out to be the last day of August. I think a veritable feast was served, replete with semi-defrosted bread, leftover homemade desserts galore and freshly cooked chicken. Meanwhile in picture form, Daisy's local toy box always gets emptied on any visit to Waterdale.
Before long, Daisy had been invited (or invited herself) into Nana Sue's art studio to draw on the easel crafted by Matt. Eerily, a younger Daisy looks on from the window sill with a thoughtful look on her face.
Later on, Katie took a sweet picture of Daisy and Gregory amusing each other, applying an artistic twist with whichever mode she chose on her phone.
As Daisy tired, Aunty Katie read the Frozen story to her. (Frozen has basically taken over children's lives and Daisy is no exception. The CD lives in our car and must be rationed, if only to avoid "let it go, let it go" from going round my head too many times.)
So, Tuesday 2nd September was soon upon us, which meant Daisy's first day at this school, Broadstone Hall Primary School. Being only 3-and-very-nearly-a-half, she was to attend the nursery section. We had a bit of fun getting in here. It was our first choice but we got our third choice allocated to us; however, holding tight meant that we were then given our second choice. There seemed to be every chance of waiting a bit longer and obtaining our first choice, and so it proved. The booklet we were sent is a bit basic - they've clearly not employed a professional graphics team to design the front cover picture.
Anyway, those who are wondering whether Daisy was reticent or excited about school need wonder no longer. She was so excited that it took a while to get her to give me something resembling a smile direct to camera. Here she is, ever the performer.
And here is a warm smile but not straight at me. This is the best I will get.
Also featured: with her school bag looking a little bit grumpy (we often run the gamut of emotions with Daisy over a short space of time). (Two strange-phrases-when-you-think-about-them which just popped into, and out of, my head there - "run the gamut" and "a short space of time".)
Anyway, she had a lovely first day at school by her own account (helped no doubt by the fact that they were phasing in the children, so not many attended on her first day).
After a day and a half at school, she also had her first proper swimming lesson in the first week of September. Whilst she only managed about ten minutes of the full thirty due to heavy traffic (a brutal 9am start in Hazel Grove has memories of the Kids Allowed dash flooding back), she enjoyed that too, despite being in the pool with an unfamiliar swimming instructor and without the armbands she was used to (they stand on a platform holding on to bars while waiting for their turn).
And that's it for this age band. Our little girl is growing up.
Try here for the next phase of her life, or go back to the Secret Portal, or even catch up on her latest . Or, y'know, go to a completely different website if you want. I won't be (that) offended.