Review of the year - Laura

I only started the blog in april so there is a fair bit of the year I missed....plus, as I started to compose this blog in my head, I realised I hadn't actually used it as much of a record of laura's "milestones" this year. And somewhat surprisingly, as I have always thought of myself as 'memory-woman', I realise I have forgotten so much....for example....was this the year that Laura was potty trained? I think so. 2005 would have been a little early, and indeed she was one of the last in her nursery class to come out of nappies.....let's assume it was, then!

So - 2006 for laura - well, the end of daytime nappies then! As I said, she came to the potty later than many of her contempories, but my memory is that it was a fairly painless transistion, so maybe I am vindicated in my attitude of "she'll do it when she's ready". We went down the road of reward charts and at least one reward present (can't remember what that was either!). At present she still wears a nappy at night, but over the christmas period she quite proudly told me when her nappy was still dry in the morning. So, I think we might start focusing on that a bit more.

As for leaving childish (or rather, babyish) things behind, she still has her bottle of milk morning and evening, and shows no sign of ditching either. Does it matter? can't think why, unless using a bottle might affect her front teeth? No problem there then...the thumb sucking will ensure she has lovely, sticky out teeth, just like her mum, but hey, that's what braces are for!

Laura started 2006 still in toddlers. We had some issues in early summer when her supervisor went on maternity leave and a new member of staff, Sue, joined the team. Sue is lovely (and she is a guider, so she must be alright!). Sadly Laura took a ....what..dislike is too strong a word...but she certainly was traumatised by the change. This manafested itself in crying and clinging when she was dropped off at school, which was very upsetting for all concerned. She then started to tell us that she didn't like Sue. Anyway, I had a meeting with Sue, she came up with some practical suggestions...and basically, Laura got over it! Laura's experience at nursery has been fanatastic - she has been at Playaway since she was eight months old, and I shall be sorry when she leaves. In September she moved to pre-school, which is in a little annexe at the back of the main building. She seems to be thriving there.

Of course, 2007 will bring a mjor change because she will move on to big school. We have visited
St Robert's , which appears to be a wonderful school, and barring disasters Laura will go there from September.

In pre-school she seems to have settled on Hattie as her very best friend, and we have had her over on Fridays a couple of times. Laura's previous best friends were Daniel (a big boy in the year above), then Jack Geen (runner up in the Harrogate Advetiser Cute Tot [or whatever they call it] competition). However, she has now become very concious of the difference between boys and girls - it's all very black and white to her....or rather pink and blue. Is this indoctrination from somewhere, or just another stage?

In 2006 started swimming classes. This started slowly, but about half way through the term she suddenly "got it", and now loves swimming. Her favourite thing is jumping in, and when we go to the pool at the gym this activity can go on for an hour or more. Great (!)

Laura loves cucumber and chocolate. She doesn't like currants or eggs. She is very worried about strawberries, and doesn't even want to eat them when she grows up.