Carrying pillow, putting away umbrella, too much kissing

We are trying to get Marian used to sleeping in her own room. This is proving quite difficult. She normally comes back into our room in the middle of the night. The other day, she brought her pillow with her and flopped on top of it to try and get back to sleep.

When we came down together in the morning, she found an umbrella on the bookcase and moved it somewhere. My mother needed it as she was going out and asked where it had gone? I said maybe it is in the kitchen and Marian said it is in the under stairs cupboard. She had put it away where the other umbrellas are.

My wife tried to kiss Marian twice in the morning but she only managed to do it once. On the second try, she said too much. This is better than for me.

Sleeping Difficulty

Marian cannot fall asleep on her own. She normally falls asleep in the baby car seat by rocking it. Yesterday, she actually tried to fall asleep on her own. She began by getting under my blanket but it did not work so she went under her own blanket but also without luck. Since my wife taps her body to try and get her to sleep, she tried tapping herself. This did not work either. Finally she climbed into her car seat and pulled my wife's hand to start rocking her. Full marks for trying.

First trip to the swimming pool

She was excited to go. We got everything ready and set off. We were at the pool edge and she was still pretty keen but as soon as her legs went in, her face changed and decided it was not for her. I think it was because of the water temperature (28 degrees Celsius). A warmer pool would be open much later but we decided the wait would be too long and went back home.

Likes things in order: internally and externally

She does like things in order whether it is something inside her mind or something outside. For instance, when closing the curtains, she will never forget to tell me if I have left a gap. This has been going on for quite some time but more recently, she was drinking some milk and I used to read a book to her whilst she drinks her milk. I have stopped doing this and usually say just watch the television if it happens to be on. She was asking for a children's program called Teletubbies but I said it is not on at this time. Then I realised that she was asking for the book version which we had bought recently. Then she said you made a mistake.

She seems to relish every opportunity to correct the adults. When we make a mistake on purpose, she will quickly correct us.

Marian's corrections

Marian has been correcting my mistakes for quite a while now. For example, when I was washing her hair, I said I am washing the soap off with some water but she corrected me by saying it was shampoo I am washing off.

Her first big scratch

Marian fell on the pavement the other day. Since she was wearing shorts, she managed to scratch her knee. It looked worse than it really was (if she had trousers, I don't think she would have got a scratch) but she would not stop crying for a long time. We were on our way to the playground and although she was crying, she still wanted to go the playground. I got about midway and she wanted to go back home. I reached the entrance of the park and she changed her mind and wanted to go to the playground. We reached the gate of the playground and she refused to go in and requested to go back home. We went back home in the end.

She has a scab now but she prefers it to be covered up with trousers. In the bath, she usually stands up when I am ready to wash her (sometimes without asking). She was reluctant to do so and I had to reassure her that I will not scrub against the injury.

Mater instead of water

Marian has been saying mater instead of water for a very long time. Recently she has started to say water properly. Another problem is to do with not pronouncing the s at the beginning of a word. So sky would be ky and star would be tar. She sometimes pronounces it properly but still not quite perfect. Interestingly, she does not struggle with the Korean or Japanese so conspicuously. Oh, yes in Japanese when she says aoi (blue), she says awaoi.