A year went by...

...just like that!!

A whole year since my last post, now that is either laziness, mega busy-ness or a mixture of the two. That and the fact that I found it difficult to come up with something new and fresh as often as I used to, to post about. When BB was a baby, everyday seemed to be filled with potential for posting. The last year (from age 2 - 3) of course there have been major developments in BB'ss speech, communication and general learning but most of these have sort of crept on me.

With BB's third birthday coming up (yes, her third, already), I am busy getting ready for her little celebration. We are not too big on inviting every single little person she knows so we tend to do a small BBQ gathering with family and friends, and yet I still feel the pressure to make a glorious cake (other mum's seem to be whipping up master pieces which wouldn't look out of place on The Great British Bake Off - whereas my attempt last year with the buttercream icing was more of a melting swamp look with floating strawberries (some may have been drowning), I blame the heat of last August melting it all and not my poor baking skills!). So, today I did a test run of a new cake recipe and a new buttercream icing recipe, and even attempted some flowers with a pipingbag. Now, the stress of doing this with BB at my side and attempting to either destroy or eat what I was trying to make at every stir aside, I think it was actually a good effort. I will have to give Mr B orders to take BB out of the house for a few hours when I make the actual birthday cake to avoid birthday day dramas, but at least I now feel more confident about what I want to achieve with the cake.



(the icing on the actual cake won't be quite as crumbly - 
that was some of BB's input today)


We recently came back from a couple of weeks away in France (BB's first foreign holiday). I have been using flashcards for BB's first words since she was around 6 months old (when she was able to sit and actually look at them) and I have been using French flashcards for around the same amount of time but not as frequently. However, in the run up to the French holiday I used the French flashcards a lot more and made sure to speak in French with her on our days together. And I have to say it did seem to build her confidence. Whilst on holiday, although by no means fluent or using it all the time, BB was using the odd word here and there and was able to tell us the French word for certain things that we had been coaching her on. When we got back into our back-at-home-routine nursery told me that she had been teaching some of the other children some of the French words. I beamed! Teaching her French has always been a must for me (as I grew up in France and Belgium, growing up with various languages around me, it is really important to me that BB learns at least one other language other than English).

And so, BB is starting at the preschool section of her nursery. She was due to start in September but has had a few settling in sessions for a few weeks and when she was being asked to go back into the 2-3s room for the afternoon session, she apparently started to act up. So much so that they had to take her to see the big boss! Well, a little chat with BB that evening and it was clear that she had simply loved her time in the preschool room and just didn't want to back with the "babies" as she put it. When I explained this to the nursery the following day they suggested that they try her out in the preschool room for the whole day to see how she coped. When I picked her that evening she was very happy and had had a brilliant time (with no acting up). So, BB is officially a preschooler, eek! And only a year away from big school! So, yes, we have already started to discuss the various schools around us! Aarrgghh!

I think there will be quite a few more posts this year!