47/52 2017

Week 47
20 - 26 November

We ventured out to a shopping centre at the weekend and got lunch at an Ask Italian restaurant, a chain which is currently pushing "homemade" lemonade by giving everyone a complimentary shot glass of it.

Steve and I didn't think much of it. Jamie couldn't decide. He sipped a bit, pulled a face, then sipped again as if he couldn't quite believe the taste.

But, he loved the shot glass. And as long as he was being reasonably careful, Steve and I were quite happy to let him drink his water from it.



Bonus video footage (with apologies from Steve for filming in portrait):

46/52 2017

Week 46
13 - 19 November



Look at him climb! He still needs a bit of encouragement and reassurance that a trusted adult is there before he'll go over the top of the net and onto the playframe, but he's quite confident getting himself well off the ground. I think he finds it easier in autumn when the playground is more sparsely populated and he can take his time and concentrate.

45/52 2017

Week 45
06 - 12 November

One of our places that we go quite often is the garden centre. They have plants, they have a cafe, they have a soft play, and they also have a lot of tat for sale including this rack of toy vehicles.



Jamie worships this rack. I let him turn it himself (with a gentleness bordering on reverence) and on this occasion, he brought his I Spy Book of Every Vehicle On The Road (yes, it's a real book) so that he could sit there and do cross-referencing. He was so pleased when he found ones that matched!

44/52 2017

Week 44
30 October - 05 November



A few years back, a couple of very large trees at one of our local parks had to be cut down for safety reasons after they were badly weakened by some sort of arboreal illness. In a burst of creativity and sensitivity, the stump and larger chunks of decent wood were turned into sculptures and dotted around the park, including our friend the hedgehog.

43/52 2017

Week 43
23 - 29 October



My mum got Jamie play-doh for his birthday, along with a lovely big tub of all those tools and accessories which my primary school self had never got a chance to play with. Well, I'm getting my chance now! Jamie's number one request is for "blue noodles" which is lovely squishy crushy therapy for a mama.

Interestingly, Jamie doesn't like to touch the play-doh with his hands. He'll ask other people to do things for him and he'll use the various tools, but he actively resists giving it a good squish.

42/52 2017

Week 42
16 - 22 October



Jamie doesn't have a bath every day and he still has mixed feelings about them. If you ask him if he'd like a bath he'll probably say no - but then, two year old children say no to a lot of things that aren't "would you like to continue doing exactly what you're doing right now, indefinitely," so that's not much help. He definitely enjoys playing in the bath. He doesn't like water in his face. He's a bit suspicious of bubbles, which are a fairly recent addition to the bathing experience. He asks to get out of the bath to use the potty, which I'm really impressed about. He likes his yellow duck but doesn't seem to consider it a bath toy.

41/52 2017

Week 41
09 - 15 October




This is the week Jamie turned two. I'm glad, therefore, to have this picture from his last few days of being One.



It's not possible to overstate how excited Jamie gets about builders and associated vehicles. As well as gazing enraptured from the window, we also got to know a group of builders who were doing work on several houses that were so close to ours I never even lost my WiFi signal when we went to investigate. For their part, the builders and the homeowners fell in love with this serious little boy who was content to stand quietly out of the way, gripping his mother's hand, as long as he was allowed to gaze at the "mix mix", the "dig dig", and of course the beloved Van.

The last stage on two of the houses was to lay brick paving at the front, and on both occasions Jamie was delighted to be invited to help with the sand (parental pride moment: that's how confident everyone was by then about Jamie's demonstrated ability to be a very good boy, observe limits, and not make us regret it). He was so thrilled, fetching the toys from his little sand tray in our yard and being allowed to go for it with literal tons of sand alongside his very best adult friends.

40/52 2017

Week 40
02 - 08 October



I try and give Jamie plenty of access to art materials. He's not yet at the stage of drawing actual Things, or colouring in shapes, but he's enjoying being able to make marks and experiment with dots, loops, continuous lines, etc. He doesn't like to have paint on his hands at all (a shame, because last year he "signed" our Christmas cards with paint handprints and it was good), nor does he enjoy stickers (they're too sticky on his fingers), but felt tips, crayons, chalk, pencils, and paintbrushes are all acceptable.

39/52 2017

Week 39
25 September - 01 October



We sometimes go to a garden centre that has a little soft play area next to the cafe. This was the week when they were just starting to set out the Christmas displays, and Jamie was absolutely enchanted by this bench. Just wanted to sit on it amid the pretty lights. No climbing, no fussing, just sitting, until the lure of the soft play dragged him away again.

38/52 2017

Week 38
18 - 24 September



Once again, Jamie is poking the world with a stick.

37/52 2017

Week 37
11 - 17 September



Jamie inherited a significant Duplo collection from his now-teenage cousins, and this has been added to with new sets of his own. He loves building with it, and Steve enjoys helping... which results in creations like this enormous truck.

Bonus video footage:

36/52 2017

Week 36
04 - 10 September



Jamie loves to look out of the window at whatever there is to see. He waves to neighbours, recognises their cars, gets excited about delivery vans, and of course the highlight of most weeks is the bin lorry (although occasionally that's superseded by a volumetric concrete mixer). But he'll also just happily watch the trees in the wind.

35/52 2017

Week 35
28 August - 03 September



This isn't a great picture, but for me it captures what life with Jamie is like at the moment - happy and silly and affectionate, interested to know what you're doing, but a bit of a blur before he scampers off to the next thing he wants to investigate.

34/52 2017

Week 34
21 - 27 August



I bought Jamie this lovely little beach/water play outfit. Lightweight, UV resistant, suitable for wearing in and out of the water. Sadly what with one thing and another, this was the only time he wore it - at a water playground where most of the water appeared to have been switched off. Not that he minded, there were still plenty of things to twiddle, but he was a bit bemused by having his clothes changed first!

33/52 2017

Week 33
14 - 20 August



A slight cheat as this was taken on 13 August, but it's one of only a few photos where he's really looking at the camera. We were out for a drive with Daddy and had stopped for an impromptu picnic. It was a good day.

32/52 2017

Week 32
07 - 13 August



An English summer has to include a certain amount of rain, but to a boy with a bright yellow raincoat and dinosaur wellies, that's not going to stop him poking the world with a stick.

31/52 2017

Week 31
31 July - 06 August



At the beginning of August Jamie had his first haircut. We went to a small local hairdresser who specialises in toddlers and also autistic children - very relaxed, very calm, very much working around the child's needs. It went incredibly well. I'm half tempted to ask the guy to cut my hair!

We got a certificate and the baby curls in a little baggie. I was warned that it might feel sad but really it was just another proud growing-up moment. The only thing I miss is being able to fiddle with the curls during a feed!

30/52 2017

Week 30
24 - 30 July



In common with many toddlers his age, Jamie likes to play with stones. I had to lay down a rule that gravel/pebble driveways are Out Of Bounds but nevertheless we keep accruing these cairns of Interesting Stones.

29/52 2017

Week 29
17 - 23 July

We visited quite a few parks and playgrounds over the summer. This is one of our favourites, in Stratford upon Avon. Jamie is still developing the ability and confidence for climbing, but sandpits and Things That Twiddle are always acceptable!

28/52 2017

Week 28
10 - 17 July

I know I'm very late. I miss one week and then catching up is always such a daunting task. But the year is not over yet, so let's see if I can catch up.



I've chosen this picture partly because Jamie is So! Big! standing on his steps to clean his teeth, partly because I love his bathrobe, but mostly because it's a good picture of his baby curls at the back of his head.