Postponed cricket, so shopping instead

My cricket match at Lords was postponed because of the weather, and should be rearranged for next summer, so this gave us a family weekend to enjoy. On Saturday we went shopping in Uxbridge, just missing the chance to see Peter Andre selling his new fragrance in The Perfume Shop there by 10 minutes, oh dear never mind. Olga had promised to buy Lara a trumpet to go along with her guitar, drums and keyboard, and we've found that Jackson responds to a couple of the notes with howling and barking, it's quite funny. Bizarrely Mishka doesn't react at all, I guess all dogs are different.
Then yesterday, to give Olga some time to get ready for her trip to Norway, I took Lara to PlayTrain, close to our house. It's an indoor kiddies play centre, and it was nice to be able to sit down and drink a coffee and watch her play without hovering over her, like we had to the last time we were there, when she hadn't been walking for long. She ran around in there for 90 minutes, working up quite a sweat and an appetite; she demolished a roast lamb dinner and a strawberry cornetto for tea.

Single Parent this week

Olga's away working in Oslo this until Thursday, so I'm in charge on my own. The boys will have to cope with shorter walks and playing in the back garden, although they will be spoilt with the pigs trotters I bought from Morrisons yesterday. Tomorrow morning might be rather hectic, what with 4 breakfasts to get ready. The boys might only be dogs, but they still need feeding!

Lara's latest passion is to ask "Why?" in response to anything she's asked to do or told about, it can get quite annoying after the 6th "Why?" in a row; she didn't like it when I did it to her in the car on the way home from nursery today - "No, Papa, be quiet. Don't ask why!"
Toilet training is going well still, she's been able to tell us in advance when she needs to go for some months now, but she can also hold it when she has to, like this morning in the car on the way to nursery, she was quite desperate but held it until I could find a place to pull over - she's not shy about tinkling on the grass verge if necessary!

Another busy week passes

 

It's been another busy week for all of us. Today's big event was Olga taking Lara to Clarks to have her feet measured and buy a new pair of shoes. I thought it better to leave the shoe shopping to the experts, and went to walk the dogs. This photo is of the results of the shopping, Lara picked them out of a choice of three, and by the time we went to pick her up from nursery at the end of the day, all the staff new about her new, flashing, shoes (there are impact-activated lights in the heel). She's a size 7, which took me by surprise, but that's how quickly she's growing. 

Lara's enjoying being back at nursery full-time, she's always happy to go into her room in the morning, but is equally happy to see us at the end of the day too. Her verbal skills are very good, and I've found that I can ask her to do something, and she'll go off and do it, like putting her pajamas on in the evening. She certainly hasn't been a badly behaved two-year-old, but she has her moments when she tries to test her boundaries. We've found that just leaving her to her tantrum is the quickest and least tearful way of dealing with her, although there are times when it's necessary to accept there will be tears, but Lara soon gets over it once the next distraction comes along.

The boys are fine, they probably get bored each morning and afternoon now, stuck in the hall and kitchen at home while we're at work, though one of us comes home at lunchtime to check on them. Lara's getting to the point where she thinks she's big enough to control Jackson, but we're not so sure, so she's only allowed to hold his lead so long as one of us is holding it too - he's stronger than he looks!

This Sunday I'm playing cricket at Lords - but not at the "main" ground, but at the Nursery Ground right next door. We'll wait and see how the weather will be - I've never played cricket in October before...

Happy Birthday Olga

Happy Birthday to Olga! I've cooked dinner, and we've popped the cork on a bottle of bubbly, and before all that, Lara sang Happy Birthday:

Party on the Green

It's indicative of the busy time we're having at the moment that it's a week or more between blog posts... tonight Olga and I are off to Littlewick Green for the Cricket Club's Bicentenary Ball. It's a black tie do, in a marquee with 250 guests. It also marks Luda's last night of babysitting, as she has to return to Russia tomorrow (but not for too long I hope!).