Recognising her numbers

I was sitting down with Emily Friday night and she was showing me her new Dora magazines she got off her nanny, all about numbers and basic adding.  As I said in a previous post she can count to 20 but still hasn't got the hang of recognising which number is which yet.

This magazine came with a little gadget that looks like a magnifying glass only the lens is pink and if you look at the magazine through it you get to see answers to the maths questions.  So I was showing her the answers to the Questions and asking her what the number shown was, and to my surprise she recognised all the numbers from 1 to ten without me having to tell her, needless to say I was both surprised and delighted.  Its amazing to me that at 3 she knows so much I don't think when I was her age I knew any numbers or letters.

Read more...

Emily digging in the garden

This photo of Emily digging in the garden was taken at the weekend,  she was out visiting and when she got home she was playing in the front garden with her shovel so I decided to take a photo of her (she posed well for it too, wasn't expecting that), but it brings me onto what I wanted to talk about.  One of the things I love about being a dad is getting to spend time with Emily and doing things together and one of those things is doing the gardening together.

Me my wife and Emily moved into this house when she was 6 months old and I wasn't interested in gardening, but my wife loves flowers and said she would like a nice garden so I decided to give it a try.  So on nice days when she was at work I would go out in the garden with Emily and let her play and I would work on the garden except Emily had no interest in playing she wanted to garden too, so both of us would pull up weeds and dig up flower beds and plant different plants together.   And we both had a brilliant time.

Now with the weather getting better its time to start gardening again, and I'm really looking forward to us weeding and planting and having lots of fun outside again.

Read more...

The different faces of Emily

Thought I would put a montage to-gether of how Emily has changed over the last few years since she was born, its only when you look back you realise how quickly they change and grow up.  On a day to day you don't see it happening.

I have been so lucky with Emily, being a stay a home Dad I have gotten to see all the new things she has done at different stages in her life.

• Like when she managed to put a sock on her foot herself.
• When she managed to put a pair of tights on herself ......... that was a struggle and had me laughing.
• The first time she got her shoes on.
• Lately though was when she wrote her first letter which was "E"     now she can manage her name.

There is so much she has done but you forget until something reminds you so hopefully by doing this blog I will remember more and write it down.  

Something I did the other night I wont forget for a while, Emily woke up around 3 in the morning so I went into her room to see what was upsetting her, she said she wanted a drink of water so off I went and got her a cup of water, came back and lifted her up slightly and helped her drink it, unfortunately I didn't realise I hadn't screwed the top on properly (being half asleep ) and proceeded to pour cold water all over Emily  so she let out a scream and then I realised what I had done.......... so had to take all her clothes off and dry her and redress her and put her into our bed because her bed and pillow were soaking wet too.  I was able to laugh at it the next day, Emily forgave me and just called me silly Daddy.

Read more...

Where children sleep

It always makes me laugh where children pick to fall asleep.  If they are tired anywhere will do, and even if they fall out of the bed like Emily did here either she didn't wake up or was to tired to get back into bed.  

We found her like this when we were going to bed and of course I had to get my camera and take a picture.

In the top picture she lay along the top of the sofa and fell asleep there.  I only wish I could sleep the same.

Things I thought I would never do

1. Change a nappy ....... uggh
2. Change a dirty nappy.... UGGH
3. Make up a lullaby for my daughter and sing her to sleep with it
4. Enjoy being a dad ( but its the best thing ever)

Read more...

Emily cracking an egg and cooking

Changed how I'm going to do this blog so its going to be a bit all over the place.

Anyway this is Emily she is now 3 and loves helping her mum with the cooking, I had to take this photo as its this kind of picture I want to be able to show her when she is older, so she gets a idea what she was like.  My wife likes to cook usually on a Sunday morning when she gets a chance.  And Emily loves nothing better than helping, I remember though when she first started to help she used to be terrified of the blender and would run out of the room when it was turned on, (she was also afraid of the lawnmower but shes not afraid of that anymore either).  

Things she can do now

1. Recite all the letters of the alphabet
   
2. Count to 20
3. Spell her name
4. Write her name

Me and her mum can take some credit for teaching her these things but I think most of it has to go to Dora the Explorer and Diego she has learned so much from these cartoons .... even a bit of Spanish.  Come to think of it she can count to ten in Spanish too.

Read more...

The day Emily was born

Emily was born at 2:45 in the morning on the 2nd of February 2006, she weighed 7lb 1oz and to me she was the most amazing and beautiful baby I ever saw.  I wasn't prepared for the rush of emotion I felt when I first saw her, I never before or probably never again will experience an emotional burst like it.  And for someone like me who never wanted to be a parent it really was an amazing experience.

It didn't take me long to bond with my little Baby, and straight away I knew I was going to love being a dad and now all I hoped for  was that I would make a good dad.  

Oh my other vivid memory from the birth was getting to cut the umbilici cord that was cool.  And also the nurse delivering the baby banging her head on the over head light ...... thought she was going to knock herself out and I would have to deliver my Baby  myself.

Read more...

Chapter 1

When I was about 5 or 6 I had this fear that when I grew up God would give me about 6 children, but I hoped I would be lucky and maybe he would only give me 1 or even better none.

Needless to say when I got older and discovered how I decide how many children to have it was a big relief.  But even then I wasn't gone on the idea of having kids and being a father.  But that time was probably a long way off so I didn't think about it often.

WhenI met my wife I was in trouble ............ she loved children, was great with them and worked with them.  And there was no chance of me getting married to her if I didn't want children, so I agreed that a some point we could have one child, we later to her delight decided on two (my mum died and it made me think about what if something happened to me and my wife our child would be on their own.  So we changed to two.)
Still this business of having children was somewhere in the future so I wouldn't have to think about it for a while.  But time goes Quickly and we were planning our wedding and it could only be a matter of time before we started planning a family.And I couldn't imagine planning to have a baby ........................ scary thought.
But I got out of that problem shortly before the wedding I hadn't been well for a while so we decided to postpone the wedding for a year, we had to cancel everything which was hard but it had to be done.  And a couple of months later my wife to be felt funny and decided to try a pregnancy test just to rule it out she was nearly a 100%  it was a false alarm.  But it wasn't ...... and I still remember the day clearly one of us having a panic attack and loosing it going "no no it cant be" and the other nice and calm.
Only it was me who was nice and calm and my wife to be having the panic attack, with me not being well postponing the wedding and now a baby on the way it was a lot to handle.But why was I calm ...... simple I didn't have to plan having a baby now it was done ....... I had already accepted the fact that having  a baby was part of our life so I was ready for that but it was great not to have to plan when.
It took my wife only about a hour to calm down and then she was so excited she had to go tell all her family,  so by the end of the day everyone knew (she couldn't wait until the doctor verified it) .  And that was that baby on the way I now had to get ready for this life changing event.

Read more...