Florence Turns 19 Months Old

I feel like the past 19 months have been both the shortest and longest 19 months of my life.

That’s the parenting paradox isn’t it?

When you stand back and reflect, you forget the granular details (the harder times like being up in the night for the seventh time with no ‘sleeping through’ in sight) and see a toddler staring back at you, wide eyed and bambi-like with a big, bold personality, who was just a tiny babe in arms but yesterday.

So what’s new?

Life is BUSY, yes I’m shouting, I try not to shout but it’s inevitable (mostly to myself in frustration), especially when you’re juggling three kids and a job.

Being busy for me is a love/hate thing.

I love and need to be busy and stimulated (I don’t do boredom well) but there’s a fine line between being busy and being overwhelmed. A line crossed often when you’re outnumbered by humans you ‘invented’ as Xander likes to refer to parenthood.

Inventors of chaos is what parents are, I think!

So, in haste I write this post desperate to note down Florence’s new words, mannerisms and ever-evolving personality for posterity.

To remember the fact I find grass in her curls every evening at bath time, how her delicate hands swirl moisturiser gently (and sometimes not so gently) on my face with, ‘me do it’ repeated if I as much as try and do it myself. Oh, and that scrumptious honey-scented skin of her’s I love to sniff (Xander also still possesses that baby smell but Oliver’s has now been replaced with cologne)!

That face!

Here goes a not so brief recollection of the funny things Florence does and says lately:

Florence has to remove her shoes and socks in order to relax and doze off at nap time.

The same applied with her dolls and teddies. She abhors them wearing clothes or tiny shoes, so her toy baskets are filled with naked plastic and furry friends, and piles of minature pieces of clothing.

She’s learning new words and stringing more and more sentences together by the day including Greek phrases too.

Her favourite word is ‘no’ with her stubborness shining through now, which is as wonderful as it is exhausting in my book. We’re raising a strong little human here who already knows how to exercise boundaries, just like her brothers.

She remembers her Ps and Qs more often, pronouncing please and thank you as, ‘peas’ and ‘tank you’ which would make the coldest heart melt.

Other recent new words (I can remember) include, ‘school’, lion’, ‘money’, ‘ella’ meaning come here in Greek,  ‘lolly’ and ‘park’. There are more but I’m tired.

Her football skills are pretty impressive. Ball control and kicks as hard as you like, regularly dazzle people in the park who can’t help but stare.

Xander is her coach and his dream is seeing her play at Wembley (he wants to go pro too). Dream big and all that.

Her best friends are her big brothers.

She even calls their names out in her sleep.

She not only dreams about those bros of hers, she plays with them (teddy bear picnics, chase, hide and seek), she hugs and kisses them all day long, and waves them off to school each and every morning by the door, squeeling with delight at their reunion later on.

Age-gaps don’t matter between them, the bond between that trio is utterly unbreakable.

Florence loves to cook and bake, something she started doing with my mum around the 14 months mark, stirring cake mixture or eggs to be scrambled.

Today on her 19 month birthday, my Dad proudly informed me that she peeled a large onion on her own. A new meaning to Little Chef and life skills grasped from an early age.

Good job too as eating is life for Florence with seaweed thins, smoked salmon, olives, roast chicken, spaghetti, hummus, pita, lemon and raspberry sorbet being her favourite foods (most given in moderation due to salt content). She’s a feeder like her me and surprised us when she shared as a default, a skill so often taught to children which came naturally to her.

Her dislikes include *please note these only became an issue lately: taking medicine, having her hair washed and conditioned, getting into her Pjs after bathtime, and and kind of vacuum cleaner from robots to Henry now frighten her. As do toy dinosaurs as of today.

Despite running barefoot in the grass without concern, on visiting a sandit in a playground last week, I discovered she now hates sand to add to the list. I’m not sure how that will work out with our Cyprus holiday this summer but hopefully greater exposure to the golden grains will help her become familiar with it. Last summer, she lived on the beach. This is how quickly babies and toddlers grow and change!

Lastly, she also had an aversion to nursery. More on that here.

Florence is as active as ever (she was always kicking her legs and waving her hands around in scans so we anticipated she would be), and shouts for the park every time we pass it so it’s where we spend most of our days together, especially now the weather’s warmed up.

Utterly fearless, Florence is now obsessed with the big slides and prefers to slide down head down, on her tummy for extra thrill factor!

Wild child!

She also laps up weekly classes from Toddler Sense to Singalongs in the library as well as playdates with her toddler pals.

Ms Rachel, In The Night Garden and Peppa Pig are still her most watched shows but in keeping with her ‘main character’ personality she prefers watching herself on my channels more than anything. She could teach us all a thing or two about self-love, hey! Ha!

Happy 19th birthday to our little beauty x

 

P.S. How cute is the IKEA highchair glow up thanks to the super chic Giggle and Graze and we’re loving the pretty waterpoof mat by Made by Paatch (all kind gifts).

Those toes!

Told you, Florence is a foodie!

What a glow up!