Rain!

Isn't it amazing how that first day of rain after...well, in our case, a drought, is enough to put a smile on your face as soon as you wake up?  Listening to the pitter patter on the tin roof this morning almost made the 6.10am wake-up call from Niamh bearable.  Almost.  I am NOT a morning person, no matter how I seem to be living the life of one.

The smell of rain and wet grass is something that touches me on some kind of cellular level.  One of those true, "Ahhhhhhhhh," moments - like when you've left the city behind on a long drive south, or (way back when) the first day of school holidays.

 We made the most of the weather by taking a walk to the park.  Niamh had a wonderful time running up and down the "castles" - which are nothing more than a few concrete paving stones set into a small grass hill.  Everyone had to have a turn climbing up and running down - the bike, the ball, Mama, a leaf...  It was all great fun, and amazing to watch Niamh's imagination take shape.  Seems like only yesterday she was a little pink and squeaking bundle of random noises and jerky movements (*cough* I say, as she runs around the kitchen as I type, squealing at the top of her lungs and flinging her toys around like a small tornado).

Every day now, I am treated to new surprises.  Today, she chugged her way through the alphabet, hampered only by her physical inability make the correct sounds for K, S and Z.  She loves to see the letters written down, and will point them out enthusiastically - even cheekily turning M upsidedown to make a W and back again.  She gets it.  Not even 2 years old, and she gets it.

Yesterday, when I put her lunch on her table, I got a big smile and a, "thank you, Mama."  Proof absolute that children don't need to be shamed into having good manners forced on them, since we have never made her say please or thank you.  They learn what you teach them, plain and simple.  But more on that whole topic another time...

Tomorrow, I will hopefully get time to finish and upload some photos of the new games I have made for Niamh - some tactile numbers for counting, and a colourful counting fish game, inspire by the one I saw HERE on the wonderful Counting Coconuts blog.  We have a version of it at our Montessori playgroup, but I like Mari-Ann's version much better.  I will hopefully also get a chance to work on a little caterpillar/butterfly display I thought up today, after finding a few cocoons at the park.  All up to the boss, of course...

(I also have a few hobby horses to make, a cloth doll pattern to trial for Niamh...and a billion other things to do.  Bah.)

I hope it rains again tomorrow.