Maeve is a Nat King Cole fan and its helping her English because she tries to learn the Lyrics – even to the extent of telling me to “stop – my turn dada”. Her current favourite is the catchy number “Straighten Up And Fly Right” which she bounces up and down in her car seat on the way home from the creche. Her best grasp of the lyrics is the section: “Straighten up and fly right
Cool down, papa, don’t you blow your top.” which she can just about say. At the end of the song she even joins in and claps along with the audience in the “live” recording I have.

This is a good example of learning through listening. A rather good – if worrying example – of learning through watching turned up latter on in the evening when my Daughter, who was sitting in my lap when I noticed she was holding her doody (AKA soother, dummy etc) in a rather odd manner. Instead of holding the plastic handle as she usually does, Maeve was holding the doody between her fore two fingers on the rubber part with the handle and guard on the outside. To my horror Maeve then moved the doody into her mouth (just the rubber teat), sucked then removed the doody to be followed by a tentative blowing out of non-existent smoke. My 2 year daughter was mimicking someone who was smoking!! – and quite accurately too. I am an anti-smoker and have never smoked; I even nagged my parents into not smoking. My wife does not smoke and the only place I can think Maeve can have picked this up is by watching someone at the creche or on TV (although the latter is unlikely). I am shell-shocked.

Also heard today that my niece took her first steps today – way to go.

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