First day at (nursery) school

Well not quite, but it was her taster session at The Shambles Nursery School, today. She was very excited to be going to 'school' and was expecting to see lots of bags and, for some reason, a giraffe. She was so excited that I was able to use it as tool to persuade her to go back to sleep in her own bed at 4am ('Go back to sleep in your own bed, like a big girl who goes to nursery school.'). And when she woke up, at just after 8am, she came running into our room and said 'Mummy, get up, it's morning time. I need to get dressed and brush my teeth and go to nursery school. Come on!'

We arrived at about 10am, knocked on the door and were let in, at which point she immediately ran off to the water play area. I spoke to Patsy, the woman in charge for a bit, then she said 'If you want to try leaving her, you can.' Wow! Wasn't expecting that, but it makes sense to try it at the taster session, to prepare for any potential problems. So I went over to Rosemary and asked if she would be OK if I left for half an hour. 'OK. Bye.' and she ran off to some other activity. I left my mobile number and went and had a coffee. It felt very strange.

When I got back she was happily playing in the home corner. She noticed me and came over to show me a saucepan. Apparently, she was absolutely fine. She explored most of the different activities they had out and she had some milk at snack time. Patsy did have to intervene at one point when she was trying to take something from another girl in the home corner but, apparently, when asked, she was quite happy to have something else to play with instead and there were no tantrums.

The difficult part was persuading her to leave, as she would quite happily have stayed there for the rest of the session. I did manage to talk her into leaving, in the end, though, again with no tears. As we walked down the steps she said 'I like my new nursery school, mummy.'

So.... roll on 10 November, as Rosemary is definitely ready for it!

Conversations with pink doggies

You stay in your buggy! There's a busy road. It's dangerous. No you can't get out and walk. Maybe when we get to the bus, you can. You OK? Awww. I love you. It's OK. Don't cry.

I overheard this while I was loading the dishwasher and Rosemary was walking round the dining table with her pink doggie in her buggie. It's fascinating listening to these kinds of conversation, because it is, at the moment, almost entirely reflecting back what we say to her on a regular basis. Which is a reminder to us all that we need to be extra careful what we say to, but also around, young children.

Cleaning up

Rosemary's latest 'thing' is wiping. She likes to take a baby wipe and go around the house (and elsewhere) wiping everything in sight. The other day, she went to the park with Granny Jenny and didn't go on any of the equipment; she just wiped it all.

Some of the things she says while she's wiping:

• I've just got to wipe this.
  
• Hmm, this is dirty. I have to wipe it.
  
• I'm a good wiper.

In addition to this, a slightly more useful habit she has developed is putting her bowls, plates and cutlery in the sink when she's finished with them (fortunately, she still uses plastic implements, otherwise we might have a lot of broken china on our hands). She hasn't worked out how to load the new dishwasher yet, but I'm hoping that will come within a few months ;) .

I was going to say I have no idea where she gets it from, as I consider myself very much an undomestic goddess. However, wiping the tables and worksurfaces down and doing the dishes are both things that I do make a point of doing quite a lot, so it could actually be something she's picking up from me. So, watch this space, and maybe Facebook and Babyworld, for when she picks up the whole blogging and rambling on inanely on the net thing from me (us!).

I'm getting cross, mummy!

Rosemary is picking up body language as well as verbal language, apparently. The other night, I accidentally squashed her mummy (?! - some bubbles from the bath that she had put on the side of the bath, saying 'This is you, Mummy.'). She looked at me, pouted, then put her hands on her hips and said 'I'm getting cross, Mummy!'