Cousins!

We've been away for a week visiting G's cousins in Sweden, so I thought I'd post some of the photos I took during the trip.

It was G's first time abroad and indeed her first time on a plane, although she dealt easily with the queueing with the aid of her pull-along Gruffalo suitcase, which drew admiring glances from parents and other toddlers throughout Manchester Airport.

There was a good amount of sunny summer weather for us to enjoy once we got there. After accompanying Mrs J on a lengthy search through various shops for a pair of sunglasses, typically G ended up with a pair of her own.

The shades came in particularly handy on this particular drive, when G almost managed to convince us she was actually still awake (she wasn't).

However, she'd perked up in time for the traditional Swedish crayfish feast we had that evening. She liked her hat better than the fish, although she did munch her way through a significant amount of local baked treats:

And this was the highlight of a visit to a playground near my brother's house. Not only was there a sandpit, there was also a piece of miniature farm machinery for her to get stuck into. I may suggest to our council that they take our village playground up a notch by installing a child-sized combine harvester.

We're back home now, but G is still talking excitedly about her "cousins!" and the "orange aeroplane!" Yeah, so we flew EasyJet. No hiding that when you've got a toddler who obsesses over colours.

Deep Dark Wood

While Mrs J did a 10k run through the Forest of Dean in Saturday's sweltering heat, the two of us did something rather more pleasant and visited the area's newest attraction. It's a trail based on The Gruffalo book, one of G's favourite reads. This was a good idea partly because it was an opportunity to further encourage G's interest in books, and mostly because it was in the woods and therefore completely in the shade.

The trail itself features scenes from the book recreated by huge wood carvings. G toddled along to each one, identified the characters, recited a bit of the relevant dialogue to herself, then toddled on along the trail. She enjoyed it enough to be worth a return visit, not least because she's not really old enough to enjoy the adventure playground at the end.

Although G's language is improving all the time, she still has trouble with the word Gruffalo. "Gwoh-woh!" she says every time, just as she has done ever since I first read it to her ages ago. Back then a few sounds was all she could really manage, but now she could probably say it properly if she really put her mind to it. Or I could always try to persuade Julia Donaldson to change it for the next sequel. I'm so used to "Gwoh-woh" now, I think it's got a certain ring to it.

Snow Gruffalo

G loves The Gruffalo. For the uninitiated, it's an illustrated story by Julia Donaldson, which seems to fill the space in the consciousness of the nation's children previously occupied by The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's G's bedtime story most nights.

Since she got it for Christmas, The Gruffalo has been joined in our household by the sequel, The Gruffalo's Child. The animated version which was shown on Christmas Day has been replayed often since in our household, and both the cartoon and the book are now accompanied by a running commentary from G now that she has learned what's coming next.

At one point in The Gruffalo's Child, you can see a snowman Gruffalo made by the mouse (stick with me on this). G delights in pointing and shouting "Snow Gwowoh!" whenever she spots it. So we took advantage of Saturday's snowfall to make her one of her own in the front yard. I don't think she really knew quite what to make of it, especially as it was taller than her. Proper snow fun might have to wait until next winter.

Blow The House Down

Here's G on the swings at the playground in Uppermill last week. It was the day of the public sector strike, so it was unusually busy, although many of the children were being looked after by a selection of harassed-looking grandparents.

Now that G is at nursery two days a week, we don't go to the playground as often as we used to. Neither of us seem to mind too much, the slides and roundabout would get boring if we went every day, after all. But I'm increasingly becoming aware of things that G is picking up at nursery, which she then surprises me with at home.

The other day G woke up early. Not really that early as it happened, but it was a weekend and me and Mrs J didn't fancy getting up, so G came and sat between us in bed. I could hear her chatting away to herself, before she clearly said: "Big bad wolf... huff... huff... huff... house down!"

I looked at Mrs J: "You haven't taught her that have you?" She hadn't. G had obviously been hearing all about the Three Little Pigs at nursery.

I suppose I could be upset that I'm no longer responsible for everything G learns. But I'm really not. When you've read The Gruffalo as often I have, I'm grateful for anything that's even slightly different. And with G's mind expanding all the time, I'm glad for other things to help stimulate her, whether that's nursery or even CBeebies, the electronic babysitter in the corner. Keeping a curious toddler entertained is a team effort.