There's only two weeks left of the year left, so I thought it was time I wrote a little post about Lilah's experience of starting school. I shared a similar post for Indiana and Parker when they started school, so of course I had to do the same for when Lilah started this year too. It really is surreal that my littlest baby is now in reception and now at home with me all day. But she's absolutely thriving and loving school already!

When Lilah started preschool she really struggled to settle, so it was a big worry of mine that the same would happen with school. But I think most of the worry with preschool was down to a mixture of lockdowns, and struggling to separate from me. So with that now mostly behind us, she really has settled in to school life wonderfully.

Every morning she jumps in to my bed for a cuddle, and then tells me all about her day ahead. Who her friends are, what she's learning, and of course how excited she is for me to come pick her up at the end of the day - she's still my baby girl after all! 

It does feel extra bittersweet this time around though. Lilah is my last baby, and so now she's at school every day too, I feel like I've lost a little part of me. She really was my favourite little shopping and coffee date companion. But I'm so excited to see her blossom and grow over her school journey. She's already got a lovely little group of friends, and although this is my third time around, it's still amazing me how quickly they learn to read and write!

At the end of last month we had her first parents evening, and from the sounds of things she's doing really well, and it's clear she's going to absolutely thrive at school. We have her first Nativity to look forward to next week (she's a shepherd with the iconic line "I'm bored"),  and then we're already a whole term completed of her reception year. Time really does fly when you're having fun doesn't it?

An Interview with my Three Year Old | Lilah at 3 1/2!

After asking the big two this set of questions for the last few years, last year was the first time I got Lilah involved too (you can read her answers at 2 here). She's now 3 1/2 and full of funny phrases and witty remarks, so I know these answers are going to get even better over the years. Here's her answers for this year at 3...

What’s the best thing about being 3?

I liked doing stuff on my birthday

What makes you laugh? 

When you tickle me like that

Who do you love, and why?

I love Parker because I love him!

What’s your favourite book?

Peppa Pig books

What's your favourite food?

Spaghetti!

What's your favourite song?

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

What's your favourite outfit?

Dresses and my new tutu (We struggle to get her in much else!)

What's your favourite TV programme? 

YouTube Kids and Teen Titans (she watches the same strange videos as Indie!)

What's your favourite toy? 

Teddy with a dress when we went to Peppa Pig World

What's your favourite thing to do?

Playing with babies

Lilah at 3 Years Old

I haven't written an update on our little Lilah Bear since she was 2 years old, and since we celebrated her third birthday last month, I think it's about time I did! Of course Lilah's 3rd birthday was a much lower-key affair this year due to lockdown, but we still managed to celebrate her special day with a mermaid themed party at home as a family of 5. It was so lovely to see how excited she was for her big day, although she's still not happy she has to wait another whole year for it to be her birthday again!

Lilah has grown and changed so much over the last year. She's super tall now, with beautiful blonde curls and bright blue eyes. I always have comments on her age as people don't believe she's only 3 - it's strange for me too, as both Indie and Parker have always been so short for their ages. She has been wearing 3-4 clothing for a long time now and even some of those bits are on the shorter side. It's been SO lovely to see her in lots of Indie's old bits of clothing though, it brings back all the memories. She's potty trained during the day, and still naps most days too.

In September Lilah started preschool a couple of mornings a week. We originally had a shaky start with lots of tears and trouble separating, but after a few weeks she was running in and absolutely loving her mornings. I love seeing all her little creations and hearing about her day; it sounds like she has lots of little friends already.

Of course a big part of the last year was overshadowed by Covid and all of the restrictions that followed. Thankfully Lilah has only really seen the positives of this though. Having all of us together at home, being able to play with her siblings every day, lots of fun adventures close to home and making those special occasions extra special. Of course she has missed seeing family, but that's why I am so thankful she started preschool and was able to still play with friends and her teachers there.

Development wise Lilah has come on in leaps and bounds. She can count up to 20 and beyond (although just like Indie and Parker did, she struggles with 16), she loves to jump and dance and sing, and she's amazing on her scooter too. You could definitely describe Lilah as a girly girl - obsessed with pink, princesses, dressing up and jewellery... it's a struggle to even get trousers on her most days, it's dresses only!

Lilah loves PlayDoh, Frozen, dressing up, dancing, colouring, scooting on her Micro Scooter, Youtube Kids (Diana Show), and playing small world / role play games. She's still very much obsessed with her dummy and muzzy too, something we really need to work on removing soon (the dummy that is). Lilah doesn't like being left out - if Indie and Parker are doing it then so can she, sharing and still isn't so keen on certain vegetables.

In a few weeks time Lilah will start going to preschool for longer hours and staying for lunch. She's so excited and I am too, but I'm also really sad about it at the same time. I feel like I've missed out on so much time just the two of us! But I know she's ready for this next step, she's definitely not our baby anymore.

An Interview with my Two Year Old | Lilah at 2 1/2

I have been asking Indiana and Parker this same set of questions for the last few years now, but of course Lilah has always been too young to understand. But now she's getting closer to 3, I thought it was time to get her involved too! I love seeing how their answers change over the years, and I'm sure Lilah will come out with some cracking ones.

What’s the best thing about being 2?

Being a big girl

What makes you laugh? 

My bag

Who do you love, and why?

Edie

What’s your favourite book?

Baby book

What's your favourite food?

Gingerbread man

What's your favourite song?

Elsa songs (Frozen)

What's your favourite outfit?

My boots

What's your favourite TV programme? 

Peppa Pig

What's your favourite toy? 

My baby

What's your favourite thing to do?

Play with my Peppa phone

Lilah's #MealTimeMilestones with doddl Cutlery

Written in collaboration with doddl.

If you're a parent, then you'll know first hand the mess that comes with weaning your baby. We followed the baby led weaning approach with all three children, so of course the mess we experienced was on a whole other level! But as your child grows and develops things do get that little bit easier, especially when you start introducing cutlery in to mix.

Lilah is two so has been using cutlery for a little while now, but she still has a little way to go with mastering her knife and fork skills. So when we were invited by doddl to have a go at their #MealTimeMilestones challenge, I thought it would be perfect for us - especially as we have plenty of time together at home at the moment, to practice and develop her skills.

A few weeks ago we were sent the pink doddl cutlery set (also available in blue and green) and the #MealTimeMilestones checklist and we started the challenge! doddl products have been specially designed to help children eat independently from day one and beyond. The handles of the knife and spoon have been designed to fit perfectly in your child's hand, and the knife has an ergonomic handle to support the hand and wrist (and to make it easy to push down onto food). Lilah instantly recognised the doddl cutlery as hers and now only refers to it as 'Lilah's fork' - so sweet!

There are 10 steps in the #MealTimeMilestones checklist, from the simple task of holding the cutlery successfully, to the much tricker 'final frontier' of using the knife and fork together to eat successfully.  We have successfully ticked up to number 8 on the checklist over the last few weeks, and it's been so fun to watch Lilah learn and explore. It's worth noting that the checkpoints are aimed at an age range of 12months+, but all children develop differently, so don't worry if your child doesn't do them all or in a different order.

Lilah holds her cutlery confidently and loves scooping up her food such as cereal, spaghetti and of course making sure she's got every last drop of milk left in the bottom of her bowl - number 5 is definitely ticked off,although we do still have some spillages.. oops! She loves to stab her fork into her food to see what she's picked up before adding some dip dip and quickly gobbling it down too.

Before we were set the challenge by doddl we hadn't introduced a knife to Lilah, so this was probably the most exciting part for us. She was a little unsure at first - it is a big step after all - but after a few tries she successfully cut through some of her dinner! She was so proud of her achievement and I think it really gave her some confidence to try again and again. Of course we still have a long way to go (my eldest is 6 and still struggles with this step!), but I love that this challenge has given us the push to introduce a knife at this stage.

I'm really excited to keep following the steps with Lilah, to help her progress with her skills. Cutlery skills take time and practice to develop, but with the help of our new tools it really can be a doddle. Pun intended!

Have you tried the #MealTimeMilestones checklist with your little one? Why not give it a go!