Pre-Christmas Carnoustie Pictures

And here's the first batch of pictures from the Christmas 2006 trip up to Carnoustie. As always, there are more photos than posted here and you can just go direct to Flickr, and look at all the photos there.

Rosemary and her great-grandmother

Rosemary visiting with her great-grandmother in Carnoustie, Christmas 2006

Rosemary in her new cardie in her buggy

Rosemary going out for a walk in Carnoustie, wearing her new super-soft cardigan knitted by her Grandma

Mummy & Rosemary, ready to look at the sea

All bundled up ready to look at the sea on an icy day in Carnoustie

On the seafront

Looking out at the sea (and wow, can daddy take photos!)

On the seafront

Sitting on the sea wall, looking at daddy (and wow, can daddy take photos!)

On the seafront

Sitting on the sea wall, looking at daddy (and wow, can daddy take photos!)

In carrier in St Andrews

Ready to walk up to visit great-great aunt Stella

Visiting with great-great aunt Stella

Sitting on her great-great aunt Stella's lap, with Mummy playing with her

And here are a few nice shots that don't actually have Rosemary in!

Sun over the sea at Carnoustie

A beautiful shot of the sea shimmering on the water, taken by Chris

Carnoustie

Quite a nice bit if composition from Chris

The ground in Carnoustie

An accidental, but quite interesting shot of the ground

Some pictures

Here are some pictures taken before the Christmas 2006 trip up to Scotland.

Rosemary in her chair

Rosemary sitting in her high-chair

Rosemary in her chair

Rosemary sitting in her high-chair chewing on her frog

Rosemary on her play mat

Rosemary playing on her play mat

Blurry Rosemary

This is what happens when Mummy tries to take a picture while holding Rosemary!

Pre-Christmas Video

Rosemary playing with Grandma and Grandpa in the dining room in Carnoustie, Christmas 2006 visit.

Rosemary meeting her Great-Great-Aunt Stella in St Andrews, Christmas 2006 visit.

New sound

Click here to listen to the new sound.

2 December 2006

So, Rosemary will be four months old on Tuesday. It's quite strange to think she's already been here for four months, but also strange to think she's only been here four months, if you can understand what I mean!

As it's been quite a while, I don't think I can manage a day-by-day report of the last almost two weeks, but I'll try to sum up the bigger things, at least.

Probably the biggest thing we've done is go down to Wales to visit Rosemary's Great Granny Goddard. Eva came with us and we took the buggy, after much deliberation on my part. I decided to take the buggy, so that Rosemary would have somewhere to sleep comfortably and also because it's easier to keep her warm and dry in the buggy than in the carrier. This was fortunate, as there was a very heavy downpour on our way from the train to Granny's house and Rosemary was snug and dry and warm in her buggy. She stayed awake the whole time we were there, having woken up just as we arrived. Granny was very happy to see her and Alun visited too, with a gift for her (very nice jacket, that will hopefully fit perfectly while we're up in Scotland for Christmas). I posted photos and videos of the visit last week, thanks to Chris taking over the pic and video duties.

We went to Storytime at the library Tuesday before last, which was nice. Rosemary was mostly interested in looking at all the people, rather than listening to the stories, but it was still good, I think. We also picked up some new books while we were there - lots with rhymes in, though none of them seem to be as popular with Rosemary as the old Ladybird books that have come from Mama.

We went up to Bumps and Babies Thursday before last, but I didn't really enjoy it. I think I might leave it until Rosemary's a month or two older and better able to appreciate it and more able to benefit from it, too. And maybe there would be some new faces by then, too!

We've been to Costa a few times with Sasha and bumped into Sarah and Reuben a couple of times, too. Mama was round Friday, Monday and Tuesday doing some filing and squeezing in some playtime with Rosemary, too, and Papa popped in on Tuesday as well, so there was a full house (Emma too, as that's her day to clean here, now).

Actually went to Costa on our own on Thursday, as Rosemary needed eeding and I needed to fill in a paying-in slip. After she had a feed she sat happily in her buggy, playing with her caterpillar, while I filled in the slip.

She's really getting into the exploration stage now - exploring different textures with her hands and mouth. This morning she was exploring my mouth with her hands which, while cute and probably developmentally important, was a little painful! Yesterday, I let her explore my sandwich, while I was eating. She didn't put any of it in her mouth, but squidged the bread about quite a bit, moved rge salad around and came quite close to picking up the tomato. I think being able to touch it satisfied her curiosity enough for the moment and might well let her do so more often from now on because, as the BLW theory goes, when she's able to actually pick up the food and put it in her mouth, she's ready to start weaning.

As well as helping her explore, I think it might stop me from starting weaning too early. I actually bought some bananas the other day, thinking I'd have them just in case, for the mushing up. I know babies have been weaned at four months for years, but the research and advice suggests it's really best to leave it until six months, so I'm going to try to hold out!

I ordered Rosemary's high chair on Thursday, along with a baby monitor, so that I can be in a different room when she's sleeping without running in to check on her every few minutes. It will also be handy for when she moves into her own room. She seems happpier about taking her day-time naps in her crib now, too, so it will really help for that. The chair is just what I was after (and bought half and half by Rosemary's great grandmothers) and is definitely not the cheapest one (though also not the most expensive!), which is a mistake I've made in the past. The features that it has which are important to me are being able to recline (so Rosemary can go in it now, before she's able to sit up unaided, and so that she can be reclined for sleeping at a later date, if necessary), different height settings (so she can go in it at the dining table, by/in front of the sofa, etc. etc.) and a tray which is both removable and also has a removable top bit (so the top can come off when she has finished eating and the bottom can stay on with toys on it while the top is washed up). It hasn't arrived yet, so there's always a chance it will be nowhere near as good as I think, but I read lots of reviews of it and I'm pretty confident.

What's Rosemary doing these days?

She's found a new sound, which is a kind of high-pitched squeal that incorporates more than one vowel sound. It also goes up and down in pitch and tone, somewhat. Chris made a recording of the sound and hopefully will upload it soon, as it's quite difficult to describe! We think we've also heard the occasional consonant (B or maybe P), though not very often. Her talkativeness seems to be lasting longer, as well, these days, rather than being mostly in the morning and evening, though these are still her most talkative periods. She's actually done a little bit of talking to strangers, too, though not very much.

She's sitting up quite easily now, but with help (will probably be a while before she can sit up totally unassisted, of course!). She'll happily sit on our knees or on the table/desk in front of. She's particularly talkative when sat on the desk/table looking at us.

Her legs are getting a lot stronger. She'll happily stand on our laps while we're sitting on a chair, or on our bellies if we're lying down (again, obviously, with us holding her) and is kicking out a lot with her legs.

She's happy to be carried facing towards us again, though with her head peering over our shoulder, so she can have a good look around. This is probably more down to her getting bigger and also being able to hold her head very steady - i.e. she can be in this position and still see what's going on around her, whereas before she needed to be held facing outwards so her head would be supported still.

She's happier having tummy time, now, though still doesn't like it for very long periods. She'll spend some time looking in the mirror on her playmat, if it's propped up right and holds her head up very well. She'll also happily have a bit of tummy time when I massage her (which I've started to do and which she seems to really like).

There's still no real sign of rolling over, though sometimes she does make it onto her side on the changing mat.

She's really using her hands and mouth to explore now (as mentioned above with regard to food and my mouth!). She's finally getting into her caterpillar 'properly' - feeling the different textures with her hands and her mouth. And she'll happily get engrossed in something like that (caterpillar, Nellie the elephant, Nappy Monster, etc. etc.) for a while on her own for 5 or 10 minutes. She's also very into sucking her hands/thumb and is managing to put her thumb in rather than her hands much more consistently. She also gets annoyed a lot less, as she remembers that she can put her thumb back in her mouth if she's lost it.

She's showing quite an interest in the TV (oops!) and will sit with one of us while we're watching (e.g. on our lap or on sofa/bed propped between our legs) for 5 minutes or so. I think it would be a good idea to get her some of the Baby Einsteen DVDs, so that she'll be properly learning from watching TV, perhaps. Though I think at this age anything she does, sees, hears, touches, etc. is learning to her, so it's not necessary to push it too much or worry about turning her into a couch potato!

She's still enjoying the rhyming books (specifically, as mentioned above, the Ladybird ones), but I think she's about to want to go back to the brightly coloured board books, because she's noticing things on the page again. She's also wanting to touch the books now (unsurprisingly) and is almost turning the pages (though probably by accident rather than intention!).

She likes going out in the buggy and looks around her quite intently. She does still fall asleep most times we go out in the buggy, though usually wakes up when we get home. She still especially likes going under trees/bushes while in the buggy. She still sometimes gets grouchy when we stop in a queue in a shop, but sometimes, if she's in the right mood (i.e. not tired) she'll happily chat to me or just look around.

At the moment, her favourite places seem to be the bedroom (sitting/lying on our bed reading, playing, chatting, watching TV, playing musical instruments, etc. etc.) and the changing mat in her room - she can get very talkative there and especially likes having her nappy off or getting a massage.

Sleepwise, she's not really decided yet whether she wants 10pm or 7pm to be her bedtime, though I think she's still tending towards 10pm. She will sleep between five and eight hours at a stretch during the night and generally, if it's the middle of the night when she wakes she'll go straight back to sleep in her crib after a feed. A couple of nights ago, though, she did decide that it was daytime and stayed up from 1am to 4am - I was exhausted the next day! During the day she's still fairly erratic - some days she'll have a few brief naps of between 10 minutes and 45 minutes and other days she'll have one or two really big sleeps (from 2 to 5 hours).

Nappywise, she's doing a biggish poop every one to two days, though occasionally she'll do two shortly after each other (e.g. within an hour of each other). She's therefore getting her nappy changed 4 to 5 times a day, which isn't too bad on the buying nappies front. She rarely leaks now though, when she does, it tends to be at night, when she's wriggled about a lot and pushed the nappy down over her bum.

Bath- and washing-wise, I've settled down to giving her two baths a week, one at the weekend and one in the middle of the week (not absolutely Saturday and Wednesday, but roughly). I've added washing her hands and feet to the topping and tailing process, though, as she's really tending to get muck between her fingers and sometimes her toes, too! I'm also brushing her hair at each top and tail, to try and keep down the flakiness. I've been putting the Allergenics on her head and sometimes olive oil to try to keep that and the spottiness down. We're now using Weleda Calendula Baby Bath and Baby Lotion, rather than Johnsons and I think the flakiness has disappeared, but thes spottiness seems to be as bad, if not worse. I guess I should have stuck with the plain water. She's also less grizzly after getting out of the bath and after Wednesday's, I got to stay in the bath and read for a bit and Chris brought me a cup of tea, as Rosemary was happy to be dressed by him and then play with him for quite a while. Which leads on to...

She is a lot happier at spending time with Chris these days (probably because she doesn't need to eat anywhere near as much as she did, so doesn't automatically need me within a few minutes of going to someone else). She is recognising him - both face and voice - and actively looking for him. She's really enjoying dancing with him and chatting to him. It's so lovely to watch - I've shed a few happy/soppy tears, I have to say. She also seems to be much more inclined to giggle with Chris than me - which is lovely, though I am a little jealous (I know, that's not fair of me, as I get so much more of her time and attention!).

She's going to be weighed on Thursday this week and getting her third lot of jabs on Friday. She's feeling a lot heavier to me, so I think she'll probably be fine weight-wise.

We're all looking forward to the big trip up to Scotland. I've been telling Rosemary about all the people she'll be meeting/seeing again, and I'm sure everyone will be completely bowled over by her. (Not that I'm biased or anything.)

OK. That's all folks!