watervole | Entries tagged with oswin

It was Oswin's school swimming gala a few days ago.

When she started at her current school, she was a non-swimmer, in a class who had already learnt the basics, and she struggled to catch up.

We enrolled her for lessons at the local swimming pool, and that has helped. She is now happy to put her head underwater, jump into the pool, and can manage a length of breaststroke, all of which would have terrified her a year ago. so, not yet a fast or skilled swimmer, but can at least swim now.

The school gala includes everyone (and some of them are seriously fast swimmers). Oswin was only in the freestyle race. She can manage about three strokes of front crawl, before losing it and shifting to doggy paddle for a moment and then trying crawl again. She was finishing her first length, when the other three children had nearly finished her second.

But she kept going, turned down the offer from a teacher of a swimming aid for the return length.

People can be lovely. She was cheered all the way on that final lap. And had the biggest round of applause of the day when she finally struggled to the end.

I was so proud of her!

I just love this photo taken of my granddaughter at her school. Their attitude is to let children read wherever they feel comfy and will enjoy the book.

May be a black-and-white image of 1 person, child and studying

Let's see if I can do at least one post in a bit more detail...

Oswin, my granddaughter, is 8 now. Still an only grandchild, though I cross my fingers that Henry and his lovely wife may decide to have a child some day.

Oswin's Mama has been exhausted for a couple of years now with long Covid. That combined with Granny's sciatica had left her pretty stressed out, as two of her immediate family were unwell most of the time.

Partly as a result of this, she tends to be a rather nervous and a bit of a 'wuss'. When doing swimming lessons at school, she was using a back float with four sections and a long polystyrene 'noodle' under her arms - and even then she was scared to go out of her depth and the idea of jumping into the pool was terrifying.

Luckily, the sciatica operation means I can now swim again!

Oswin's swimming teacher asked me if I could help her over the summer, as Oswin's class are supposed to be totally without floats next year.

I'm pleased to say that with a summer of regular pool visits, silly games, encouragement and also determination on Oswin's side, she can now:

Jump into the pool (that was really scary for her, and we had to work up to it in gentle stages). She now loves this and does it for fun like any normal child.

Swim a width of doggy paddle with no swim aids.

Swim half a width of breast stroke.

I took her to splashdown as a reward.

When I got to the bottom of the first slide, I knew it was a terrible mistake. The water slide was long and twisty, tossing you from side to side. Part of it was in complete blackness.

I got to the bottom and waited for a screaming, petrified Oswin...

What I got was - "Can I do it again!"

You have rarely seen a more relived grandparent! We did virtually every water slide they had - with the exception of the 'black' rides, which we both deemed to be too scary - and were noticeably less popular with the public at large.

It's May day, darn it.

Can't do what I'd normally do, which is have the maypole at a fete with loads of dancers joining in.

So, here is proof that it's possible to do maypole dancing even in these days of social distancing!

The first time Oswin has ever done maypole, but she took to it like a duck to water!

We carried on long after this video was taken. I even managed to invent a new dance for two that produced a kind of zig zag pattern down the pole, but Grandad had gone indoors with my tablet long before then.

Watch on YouTube

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/674936.html

A major new work of modern art by Oswin Proctor (b. 2014)

Kimmer the Dog (2019)

Ball point and felt tip on 80GSM plain paper.

A six-legged, multicoloured, flying dog with no ears, Kimmer hears through the extra pair of tails on the ends of his wings.

2019-09-21.jpg (1960�1660)

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/669698.html

Oswin - I'm five in April

Granny - What would you like for your birthday?

Owsin - I've got lots of toys already. I don't need any more.

Granny - would you like me to give some money to a charity for you?

Oswin - I want to help owls.

Granny - We'll make a donation to the RSPB (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) and you can sit by the computer on your birthday and help me make it.

Oswin - tell them it's for barn owls.

(Just like her mother and her uncle, her favourite bedtime audio book was 'The owl who was afraid of the dark'. Can't recommend it too highly - just make sure you avoid any abridged versions. It's all about Plop, a baby barn owl, who gradually moves from being scared of the dark to discovering that it's wonderful!)

She's very environmentally aware for a four year old - both her parents and grandparents are very involved on that front. But she isn't missing out on anything - rather the opposite, I think. She doesn't have loads of expensive toys - what she does have is lots of time spent with people who like playing games with her, talk to her about the things she enjoys (still daffodils at number 1), play shops, read books, go for walks, etc.

Time after time, I've seen her pass over the doll's house (lovely one from a charity shop), the model railway (passed down the family), piles of bricks, etc in favour of playing with totally improvised toys.

The recent favourite has been a box of stitch markers. Little coloured things for marking positions in crochet and knitting. Combined with the racks for holding Scrabble tiles, they are involved in some complicated game that I don't fully comprehend, but I think they're all representing children in her school, and the different colours represent different classes. They all get marched into lines and generally bossed about!

Coloured glass beads (probably intended for flower arranging originally, but I got them in a charity shop because they were pretty) are also a favourite, along with a box of assorted dice. We're gamers, we have LOTS of dice.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/659995.html

Oswin likes playing I Spy.

The rules are somewhat flexible at her age. We don't ask her to set questions (her spelling probably be way out on some words).

We generally operate on the principle that any answer she gives beginning with the correct letter is the 'right' answer. However, the item does have to be visible. She's not allowed to say 'cat' for 'C' unless there is a cat in sight, etc.

Most of her guesses are relatively simple items, though she's pretty good on her sounds and generally gets the first letter correct. (we try to think of reasonably simple clues and ones where the sound is clear)

Yesterday, though, we had to laugh.

Granny: "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'P'" (I was thinking of 'plant')
Oswin, looking out of the window" "Pulmonaria".

She was right!

Here's what she was looking at:

Apparently, it's also known as lungwort, but 'Pulmonaria' is the Latin name and that's the name Molly taught me, and I in turn taught Oswin...

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/648645.html

Yesterday, I would have told you that the most wonderful and amazing thing in the world was a three-year old child.

Today, with equal truth, I tell you that it is a four year old.

From this, you may deduce that it's my grand-daughter's birthday!

She is happy, joyful, bright, interested in everything, can sing nursery rhymes on her own, loves stories and books and is pure delight (except, of course, as any parent/grandparent will know, on the days when she isn't, but fortunately, those days are few and far between.)

Watching her learn and explore new things is an endless source of pleasure.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/648446.html

Owsin has several boxes of toys in our lounge, but they don't get used much.

The items that get far and away the most use are:

1. A wooden spoon carved for me by Alex Holden

2. A box of cheap plastic beads from a charity shop

3. A couple of bowls from various sources (Tibetan singing bowl, glass bowl I won in a raffle, and a wooden bowl used for dice)

This combination allows beads to be spooned from one container to another, and is the raw ingredient (along with the lounge table) for playing Birdie House.

The plastic beads are birdseed, and are eaten by the bird family in large quantities, though they can also be worms, beetles, etc.

Yesterday, she discovered a dried up seahorse that I'd found in a box somewhere and left on the windowsill for her to find.

Off the back of that, we looked at pictures of seahorses online and a couple of videos.

So, we became a seahorse family for the rest of the day (and the beads became seaweed, which was duly served up and eaten)

I was told we had to get the finger puppet animals from the toy box, as they were going to be baby seahorses. I got nominated as daddy seahorse (mummy seahorse got to give daddy seahorse the eggs to put into the pouch) and had to tuck them into the waistband of my trousers. When her turn came around, she improvised a pouch from some left over Xmas wrapping paper.

Later on she said she wanted mummy seahorse to have the pouch. After a discussion about mummy seahorses not having pouches, a switch to kangaroos was agreed, and Grandad drew the short straw of being a kangaroo while I escaped to wash the dishes!

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/644050.html

Oswin came with me and her mother last week to visit her Great Grandparents. We went by train.
Oswin likes trains... They live close to a railway line and Mummy is working on a model steam engine when she has the tools and the time.

She plays 'Birdie house' with me a lot.

This is a game largely of her own invention in which she and I are birds living in a house under the lounge table. The species vary. I was really fascinated the day we had an owl and a goldfinch sharing the house. Oswin explained that we were on a shift system: the nightbird slept in the bed during the day while the goldfinch was out, and the goldfinch had the bed at night when the owl was out. (Grandad is a bird watcher, can you tell?)
Anyway, this last week, the birds have been going on train journeys, getting tickets, getting on and off trains, looking out the window, having our tickets checked, etc. When I asked her where we were going on the train, she replied: "The place where the worms are." And indeed, when the imaginary train arrived, she got off and dug up imaginary worms with an imaginary trowel (the birds have an allotment too, so she knows what trowels are for). then we ate our worm sandwiches, with a few extra beetles and some birdseed on the way home.

Yesterday, they had road works on the way to her nursery school, so her mum took her by train (they live very close to a station and it's only a short hop into Poole).

A very understanding man at the ticket office gave Oswin her own little paper 'ticket' with 'ticket' written on it. When they got on the train, she wanted her ticket inspected, so they went and found the ticket inspector who got into the spirit of things and duly checked her 'ticket' and marked it.

The relief driver heard the conversation and popped out to see what was going on.

"Do you know what kind of train this is?" he asked.

Oswin: "It's a 444"

Gobsmacked driver (because she was correct) "And how many carriages does it have?"

Oswin: "5"

Driver: "What's the other kind of train?"

Oswin: "450"

Driver: "How old are you!"

Oswin: "3"

I suspect he'll be telling that story for a while....

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/643777.html

I only used to eat runner beans when cooked, but many years ago now, I observed my mother-in-law's tortoise eating raw runner beans with great enthusiasm. So I tried one and found that I liked it.

Oswin does too. Really likes them. Can eat several in a day.

Today, she was eating a slice of cake. Grandad came in with fresh supply of runner beans from the allotment and gave her half of a runner bean.

She took it with great delight, ate it at once, and only then went back to the cake.

I love a three year old who appreciates allotment veg!

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/637815.html

There's a word for everything these days. Zuigerphobia is fear of vacuum cleaners.

Oswin has been staying with us while her mum is in hospital. She's fine with that. She's used to staying with us and knows that Mummy and Mamma haven't abandoned her.

What sent her into mega distress was the vacuum cleaner.

I think it's the high-pitched sound. She's always been scared of them. Even in another room it distresses her. She was actually afraid to go shopping (to get away from it) because it might start again as soon as she left.

Richard has instructions to phone me just before he gets back, so that the vacuum cleaner will definitely not be there when she returns.

It's a tough world when you're only three.

PS. She's been 'helping' pick fruit and veg on the allotment - and proving in the process that young children absolutely love raw runner beans and mangetout and redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries, etc. as long as they're introduced to them early enough. She isn't too keen on radishes yet, but we're working on that by serving milder ones in small slices.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/637253.html

The engine (currently partly dismantled and lacking a boiler) is a Maid of Kent locomotive, bought in memory of a beloved Kentish grandmother on one side of the family and a family history of making and running model steam engines on the other side.

The Maid of Dorset should be self-evident. (the great-grandaughter of the people above and my granddaughter)

I'm looking forward to the day when the loco is up and running, but new boiler needs to be arranged first and that takes time.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/636875.html

Favourite Oswin (age 3) moment this week.

Picking up a book of wild flowers and sitting down to read it (she loves flowers of every kind), we heard her 'reading' aloud:
"Once upon a time, there was a bluebell..."

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/634646.html

Children have wonderful imaginations - unfettered by knowledge of what is possible.

Oswin (my granddaughter) will be three in April. As yesterday had real sunshine, we spend quite a bit of time in the garden. She's fallen in love with daffodils, especially the big yellow 'King Alfred' ones in my back lawn. She interacts with her favourite flower as though it's a person. She talks to it, turns its head so it can see what is happening elsewhere and keeps popping back into the garden to see it again.

After the stalk got bent through too much tlc, we snipped it with a pair of scissors and put it in a vase "so it could have a drink". The vase was placed on the kitchen table next to some cress she is growing, so they could keep each other company.

Later in the day, she was pretending to be a daffodil. As far as I could tell, the daffodil did exactly what little girls do, but who am I to argue!

Oswin takes a real delight in life -when we go for walks, we often run and jump on all the water meters, manhole covers, etc, in the pavement. She's very good. I can trust her not to go onto the road without waiting for me to say it's safe. We've drilled her very carefully in that one.

BTW, if anyone wants book recommendation for small children, her current favourite is the delightful 'Owl Babies', which combines realism with a lovely little story and a touch of humour.

By realism, I mean that the illustrations actually look like owls and the owls do things that real owls do.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/627739.html

Oswin has recently been enjoying Richard reading Dr Seuss books like 'One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish' to her. While the illustrations are amusing, it's probably the rhyme and rhythm of the words that are a big part of the appeal.

So, today, I tried 'The Jumblies' on her. (the last time I tried, she was still too young and wasn't interested, but now she's nearly 2 1/2)

Big success.

Read it half a dozen times throughout the day and followed that up with a couple of readings of 'The Owl and the Pussycat'.

Only a few pictures for each poem. Definitely the words that she loved. Big smile at the end each time and requests for another reading.

Edward Lear's poems appear to be working for yet another generation of children. Oswin has no idea what all the made-up words mean, but it doesn't seem to bother her any more than it did my generation. Personally, I think a runcible spoon is a spoon with holes in it (the kind you use for draining things). It fits Lear's cheerful illogic.

Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

I think the time may have come to get Kipling off my bookshelf. Oh yes, my best beloved. I'm itching to read her the 'The Elephant's Child' and the other Just So stories. My father read them to me, and I read them to my children. They were written to be read aloud, the words roll along. "What does the crocodile have for dinner?"
"Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out."

Go and read it again, you know you want to! And if you've never read it, find a child and read it to them immediately.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/620644.html

This is Oswin directing a digger near her house. (having parents who regularly do convention tech means that she already has the high vis jacket)

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/620437.html

Here's Oswin sitting in front of her great-grandad behind the engine her great-great-grandad made. (With granny - me in purple trousers, and grandad - Richard sitting on the bench, in the background)

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/619518.html

This makes Granny very happy...

Originally posted by

entorien at My tweets

Thu, 18:24: So. Ummm. Health Visitor. Apparently Oswin is *way* ahead of the curve in pretty much every way! O_O

Thu, 18:25: She's doing things they don't even *look* for at her age, because she should be too young to understand them!

Thu, 18:26: I actually had to prove a couple of the things I said she does, and the look on the Health Visitor's face was one of stunned amazement.

Thu, 18:27: Apparently they only look for the very start of colour recognition, don't look for counting at all, and Oswin does lots of both.

Thu, 18:28: She can count to four fairly reliably, will go higher with a bit of help, knows the whole alphabet, can identify most colours...>

Thu, 18:29: <... uses two and three word sentences, knows her left from her right, and can identify more objects/animals than kids twice her age.

Thu, 18:29: What have we created??

I'd love Oswin anyway, but she loves learning and she's a real joy to have around.

She started counting because she's fascinated by our chiming clock and never fails to tell us when it's chiming. So we started counting the chimes as a game to play with her.

One of her favourite games is when she brings you a pack of playing cards with pictures and she tells you what they all are. She can pick out all 52 in the pack of British Garden Birds, and say a recognisable name for most of them and she only had her second birthday a couple of weeks ago.

Grandad likes birds, so he used to show her the cards and tell her about the birds, what they eat, where they live and so forth. Then the game of picking out the cards developed from that and she absolutely loved the game and demanded to keep on playing it. "Cards!"

She's getting to know some of the birds in real life as well. We watch them in the garden and try to spot them when we're out walking. "Robin gone"

She can reliably spot at least 10 different plants when we're outside. Every single dandelion gets pointed out when we're walking back from playgroup, but bluebell, daisy, daffodil, holly, ivy, bramble are all easy and she knows where the helliores and chives are in my garden.

Most of that started as a way to stop her getting bored when walking home. "Oswin, can you see a daffodil?", was a good way to make her walk on to show you the next one.

Neither us nor her parents have used a pushchair for six months or so. Used to be that we'd have to carry her a little bit if we walked a long way, now she doesn't even need that. On foot, she sees more, gets interested in more and gets to talk a lot more. She 'helps' in shops, finds things on shelves, puts them into the trolly, passes them to the check out lady, etc. All this invovles more conversation.

I wonder how many more children would have Oswin's vocabulary if their families were in less of a hurry and simply talked to them as they walked and let them explore at their own pace.

We're not deliberately setting out to teach her anything, but we involve her in lots of aspects of our daily lives and run with it when she finds something interesting.

Her most recent 'game' is sorting the cutlery into the draining rack while 'helping' wash the dishes.

Even days when you're feeling really down can have high points.

Oswin said "Granny" for the first time!

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/608649.html

It is a distinct possibility that nothing in this world gives better value for money than two slices of brown bread (white bread isn't very good for them) fed to a flock of hungry ducks by a delighted toddler.

Oswin was laughing and smiling and having a wonderful time, and grandad and myself were having almost as much fun watching her.

She can say 'duck' now and also said 'gull' when one flew overhead.

Ducks make wonderful ambassadors for wildlife. They can fly and walk and swim. They interact well with people. They have cute ducklings in places where people can go 'ah' over them. Never underestimate the value of common wild animals.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/606558.html

Most of Oswin's early words seem to fall into what I call a 'social' category.

This might be because those are the ones I'm noticing - because they're very easy to spot in context -or it may be the ones she prefers.

This actually raises a lot of interesting questions about the way we learn language and how we use it.

What do I mean by 'social'?

Phrases like "Thank you", "Bless you", "Here you are" (when giving you something), and "No, no, no, that one," (when trying to spot the correct picture in a puzzle book) are all social interaction, but are not directly asking for anything.

Words like 'milk' are starting to appear, but she already knew to ask for milk by pointing at the fridge. I don't think of these as 'social'. They serve a specific purpose - that of getting a wanted item.

There are all sorts of reasons why she may have social words first, so I'll just toss in a few random thoughts and those who work with kids or have grandchildren/children of their own may toss in any contributions they feel like.

1. Social interaction is what makes us human. The ability to form social connections may be just as important as the ability to gain food.
(She's got an army of slaves who are good at guessing what she wants. Keeping the slaves happy is important.)

2. Her family babble a lot of social nonsense at her and she's just imitating what she hears most of. (We're all social animals and we copy one another)

3. Genetic variation. Some people are better socialisers than others. She's maybe going to grow up as a real people person (She's very good at charming staff in shops, though I suspect most toddlers have this skill.)

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/604558.html

Sometimes the early words that children say can tell you an awful lot about their families.

Confirmed words for Oswin now include 'dice'.

However, my current favourite (and bear in mind that there are only about a dozen really recognisable words so far) is this one. If someone sneezes, she instantly says 'blesh'. ('bless you')

Now try and guess just how many of our family have had this wretched cough/cold since Xmas!

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/604375.html

Oswin will be two in April. She has very few words as yet (I can recognise her word for 'cheese' now - she has her priorities right), but her comprehension is well developed.

Usually Richard puts her to bed when she stays overnight with us, but he's out this evening so I did it instead.

I read her a bedtime story and pop her in the cot. Unhappy, Oswin stands up immediately and looks ready to have a paddy if I leave the room.

"If you lie down, Granny will sing a song to you."

Looks hesitant, but lies down.

I start singing a song I learnt at school. The 'Uist Tramping Song'. Haven't sung that in years, don't even know why it came into my head. ]

Oswin listens for half a verse, then starts to sit up again.

"No, you have to stay lying down."

She lies down again. I finish the song, give her the 'Manchester Rambler' for good luck and she's out. Fast asleep and dead to the world.

I see lots of songs in my future. I regard this as a good thing.

I'm looking forward to the day when she'll be able to sing all these songs with me.

"The Spinners - Manchester Rambler" (Watch on YouTube)

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/604008.html

Oswin has a recognisable word now, and it's not one I would have guessed at as a first word.

It's 'ag da', but it's meaning is very clear.

Whenever you give her something, she says: "ag da"

It means 'thank you."

Which is rather lovely.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/603205.html

You'll have to follow the link to view this one as I couldn't get it to upload to youtube.

Oswin is a happy little soul, and she loves to play games. In this little video, she's playing ball with Granny (me).

She has only one word at present: "Da" means "Tell me what that is called."
She can probably understand a good hundred words by now. If you ask her to bring you something, she'll generally come back with the right item, and she's very good at pointing to the correct picture in books.

Everyone should have a toddler in their lives - they're a great source of enjoyment. But they're even more fun when you can hand them back to their parents at the end of the day! Being a granny definitely beats being a full-time parent. Being a parent is seriously hard work.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/600944.html

One of the fascinating things about toddlers is that the more one is aware of how difficult it is to create artificial intelligence, the more impressive are the learning feats that they achieve.

By the age of 1 and a half, Oswin has got a good awareness of where her body is. She can integrate the feedback from numerous nerves and muscles to know not only where her hand currently is, but what combination of muscles (and just look at a human anatomy diagram to see just how many there are in the hand and arm alone) and in what order is required to move her hand to a particular position.

She can coordinate the hand, while at the same time adjusting her body balance to compensate for that movement and avoid falling over.

Science has finally give us walking robots, but even the best of them still walk in a very flat-footed manner. Oswin hasn't got full use of her legs yet. She can toddle quite fast now and is getting some bend in her foot, but it will be a fair time before she is able to run.

Running robots are on the way, will she be able to run before we get a convincing running robot? Hard to say, but I'm sure she'll do it with less computing power.

She also has pattern recognition and an impressive ability to recognise objects of very different visual appearance as belonging to the same category. She knows that an armchair and a dining chair are both 'chairs'.

She understands possessive nouns. "Granny's hand" is different from "Oswin's hand".

She can process instructions given verbally. "Give Grandad the marble"

Within a year, she will be able to speak herself, gradually mastering the incredible complexities of English language and grammar over the next decade.

She will learn to sing, dance, play music, tell jokes and eventually programme computers herself.

Human beings are amazing.

Artificial intelligence is catching up, but the average toddler has a truly amazing skill set. And they're self-replicating too.

https://goo.gl/photos/VFFVbSfAwjuoXCh1A

Sadly, I can't embed this link, but here, she's demonstrating how to fit pieces of helter skelter together. Not easy for a robot, given that the pieces do not start in fixed positions. Also, it was the first time she'd encountered the toy, so no prior programming.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/599302.html

Oswin's being very good and a great distraction from the stress of redundancy and unemployment.

She's one and a half now and a happy little soul. Although she can't say any words yet, she has a wide range that she understands.

Phrases like "Give Grandad a bowl" or "Show me the curtains" get the correct response.

New words are being added daily. When we go for a walk, learning new words is part of the game. 'Tree' and 'lamp post' got added to the list today. You know she's got it when you ask her to show you one and she walks forward and touches it.

We also dropped in on a local toddler's 'jingle' session and we'll probably take her again next week. She enjoyed some of the action rhymes and playing with various shakers and bells. It was good to see her start interacting with other children towards the end of the session.

(If one has to be out of work, at least the plus side is that it happened at a time when her parents really needed a regular break - an energetic toddler can be the last straw when you're already under the weather.)

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/599187.html

Oswin is really starting to understand stuff now.

Her babble is mostly babble, but their are definite sounds that mean things like "I want that"

Her understanding was really brought home to me yesterday. She was trying to reach something on the other side of the table, so I tried to distract her by asking if she'd like to play "Round and round the garden like a teddy bear"

She instantly sat up, held out her hand and pointed to the palm.

(For those few among you who don't know the game, it involves me walking my fingers round the palm of her hand and then tickling her under the armpit)

I love this age when they learn so much so fast.

Babies are cute. Toddlers are an absolute menace, but they're also far more interesting.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/593091.html

Oswin continues to be amazing and adorable.

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We took her into Poole last week. Her mums said she likes to go for long walks with her brick trolley and indeed she does. She can't quite walk on her own yet, but with her brick trolley to hold on to, she walked round a fair bit of Poole Park and later on she pushed it half way up Poole High street. She probably managed at least half a mile in total.

Fascinating to watch the reaction of other people to this tiny tot making her way up the street. Lots of people smiled at her and said 'hello'. Oswin likes people who say 'hello'.

I felt sorry for all those kids in pushchairs. Far more dull.

When Oswin goes at her own pace, she can stop whenever she finds something interesting and then carry on at her leisure. If she gets tired, she gets picked up and carried for a while, but she's soon happy to be making her own way again.

Her hair is still pretty short (but lovely to stroke). Maybe she'll need a haircut by her second birthday...

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/589908.html

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Judith Proctor

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Judith Proctor's Journal

Ramblings on morris dancing, 17th century re-enactment, and gardening

Entries tagged with oswin

Swimming lessons

Reading where you're relaxed

Teaching Oswin to swim

Dancing on May Day

Art.

I love my granddaughter

I Spy

Growing up

Playing games

Grandchildren are fun!

Runner beans

Zuigerphobia

Maid of Kent and Maid of Dorset

Children's stories

Oswin and Daffodils

Oswin and Edward Lear

(no subject)

Puffer and family

Oswin is a clever little sprog

Good Stuff

ducks

Thoughts on language

More words

Comprehension

First words

Oswin playing ball

Toddlers and artificial intelligence

Therapeutic granddaughter

Oswin

Oswin is one year old today

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