Christmas Post, 2nd delivery

Christmas Post, 1st delivery

Video and more photos to come later, but here's some pics of Rosemary opening her stocking. At 5.35am. Honestly, I thought we would have a few years of peace before that started happening.



(The stocking was found in her crib at the end - this is just a shot I took to show it in all its glory before she got into it.)









It is, of course, a wind-up bath turtle.

After the rain

Manners maketh the man - or the small person, anyway

Rosemary said 'Please' today. Very distinctly. She's said 'Yes peas' and 'Pee' and variations on the theme a fair bit, but this was very clear and not in response to anyone say 'Yes, please.' She was getting undressed ready for her bath and picked up the Sudocream (for those not in the know, this is a nappy rash cream), handed to me and said 'Please'. So, I put some Sudocream on her bum, despite the fact that it would be washed off again almost immediately. Well, she said 'Please'.

Recent firsts

First jump with both feet off the floor at the same time (while dancing), first taste of chocolate cake (on her mum's birthday), first slide down a chute without having someone holding hand.

Time for bed?

Rosemary has been reverting lately to an inability to stay asleep when put down in her cot. She ended up spending a lot of time in bed with us the last couple of nights due to waking up upset every time I put her down, even when I tried for an hour. Last night, however, I came up with a new technique to get her down. Once she's fallen asleep, instead of trying to put her down (which is a big height shift), I climbed into the cot and sat there with her sleeping on my lap for a bit. She gradually scooched down herself until she was completely lying on her cot, when I put her blanket over her. Then I climbed out. No trouble whatsoever, and I did it both times she woke up (yes, she still wakes up twice a night).

Great! It's always useful to have some extra methods up my sleeve to get her back to sleep. It would be much, much easier, though, if she was in a normal bed and not a cot. Don't think she's quite ready for that yet, especially as, when she does wake up in the night, she's always standing up holding on to the cot rails when I go in. Goodness knows where she'd end up if she could just climb down!

Sleep, baths and 'Here you go'

Rosemary has now missed her bath three nights running. On Tuesday night, we finished dinner just before 8pm and I had been hoping to watch Stargate Atlantis. Chris suggested that, as it was still early and Rosemary hadn't got particularly messy, she could have her bath after Atlantis. But she fell asleep at 9pm, sans bath. On Wednesday night, I decided that she had gone to bed early on Tuesday night because she hadn't had her bath and it must get her too excited, so decided that she wouldn't have one and would instead have one Thursday lunchtime. She went to bed at her normal time (10pm). And then she slept later for her afternoon nap and was still asleep when Granny got here, and was therefore late going up to Grandad's (and I forgot to ask Granny to give her a bath), so she hadn't had one yet. Then she decided (having had quite a busy day) that she would go to sleep when we got in from seeing Tia Eva, at 7.30pm, without either her dinner or a bath.

Tomorrow morning, we will not be going anywhere at all until she has had a bath. And she'll have one in the evening too, as per normal. Unless she falls asleep extra early.

In general, her sleep patterns are a little erratic at the moment, because she's cutting down to one nap a day. She's also going to bed at 9pm quite a bit more often. The super-early sleep (like tonight) is still only happening every couple of weeks, usually. When the clocks go back (they do go back, don't they, rather than forward?), it's possible her bedtime may end up settling down to 8pm. We shall see.

Anyway, enough of boring talk about sleep! Rosemary now has a whole phrase that she says: 'Here you go.' And she's a lot better at giving (back) things, to some extent it seems, purely so that she can say 'Here you go.' She'll also randomly (it seems, though it probably has a bunch of logic for her) pick things and hand them to you saying 'Here you go.' She's especially fond of bringing us leaves and sticks in the park. She also says 'You're welcome.' after you say 'Thank you' Of course, no-one but us would be able to interpret the sounds she makes as these words, but they are very, very clear to us!

Dogs and kids are not the same thing

After a few years of getting excited when our dog Wesley would respond to cries of 'where's your toy' by actually getting it, which is pretty smart for a dog, it's difficult to not do the same for Rosemary. And it is pretty cool to say 'where's your kangaroo' or 'where's your teddy' or 'where's your nose' and have her fetch them (unless she fetches your nose, which hurts). But it shouldn't be as surprising for her to do this because HE IS A DOG and SHE IS A HUMAN BEING. I have to keep reminding myself that it's not a sign of genius for her (although, y'know, doing it at an early age is good) to be able to process language, recognise me or walk on two feet any more than it's a sign of genius for Wesley to catch a ball, bark loudly at ghosts or catch food dropped from the table before it hits the ground. Praising someone too much for doing easy things isn't a good idea in the end.

Handycrafts

Art



and nature



Not bad for a two-year-old child. So pretty amazing for a 14-month one.

and videos

First, just some recent play.



and eating



Then, running around in the park



at the Stroud Music Festival



and chasing after the dog. Sometimes it looks like he's getting too close to her, especially since he barks when they chase each other, so I put some in slowmo so you can see how he always draws back even when she makes a sudden move.

Pictures

Peeking



Dancing



Close up and serious



Mirrored

Monthly update

Apologies for missing this out the past two months. Not sure what happened there. We've been quite busy, of course, but still usually manage it!

AGE She'll be 14 months on Friday.

WEIGHT/SIZE OF CLOTHES No idea of weight. She's mostly in 12-18 months clothes, with some 9-12 months. A lot trousers need r

NAPPIES/POTTY Pampers Easy Up Size 5. Likes to sit on her potty, but so far only got one poop in there and that only because I saw she was starting to poop and put it under her. What she does like to do, though, is pick the potty up and put down near the door and then squat in front of it and pee or poop. So she's got the association. Just not quite the whole thing yet. And today, with her Granny, she did a pee in the potty - helped by Granny putting some toilet roll into the potty, for some reason. Yay!

FOOD She's still breastfeeding. Still a few times during the night, as well as 2-3 times in the day. Also has cow's milk.

Breakfast: She loves her Cheerios. She also has a banana and crumpet with Philadelphia. (Sometimes this varies to Weetabix/Porridge and toast and sometimes will also have different fruit.

Lunch: Usually toast and Philadelphia and some fruit or vegetables. If there's left-over something she'll have some of that as well.

Dinner: Whatever I/we're having. She now has her lion plat, which is bigger and has separations in it, so she can different things in different compartments. And she doesn't pick it up and try to tip it all over herself, which is good. She tries to use the spoon or fork, but mostly just uses her fingers. She'll take the spoon/fork from us and put it straight in her mouth, but hasn't yet developed the ability to load it up herself. She seems to eat more when we have visitors - possibly because we're concentrating less on her.

Snacks: She has breadsticks and Organix rice cakes for snacks. We've stopped (for the most part - occasionally still do) giving dried fruit as a snack as it's supposed to be really bad for the teeth. If it's market day, I'll usually buy a few plums and let her eat those. Have to watch very carefully to catch the stone before it goes in her mouth, though!

Drinks: Water, cow's milk and breastmilk.

SLEEP

Nighttime: Usually goes to sleep at about 10pm, though will sometimes go earlier, especially if she's been to toddler group. She usually gets up about 7.30 am/8 am, though will sometimes sleep later. She wakes, generally, at 1.30 am and 4 am, and sometimes 6 am as well and needs breastfeeding to get back to sleep. She sometimes wakes at other times but usually gets herself back to sleep or goes back to sleep with a little rocking.

Daytime naps: Usually sleeps 11 am-1 pm, though this can sometimes only last an hour and sometimes last 3 hours and sometimes start later or earlier. Often sleeps 5pm-7pm or something along those lines, but is often cutting this nap out.

MOBILITY Running around all over the place. Still falls over a bit, but mostly manages to catch herself and right herself before doing so now. Can practically run up the stairs, but no idea how to come down them still. Climbs everywhere - up onto our bedside tables, onto the coffee table, foot stool, onto her small chair... Has some reins for walking about outside, though will do without if we're in the park or somewhere not too dangerous. Loves getting out and walking in the park (to the point where she now expects it and gets upset if she's stuck in her buggy).

COMMUNICATION Bye bye. Thank you. Hiya. There you go. Up. Bump. Stay (this when we're letting the dog out in the morning; I say 'Sit. Stay.' and she says 'Stay' at the same time as I do). Nap nap (nappy). More. Bath. Quack quack. Oo oo (monkey sound). Eeeeeowwwie (the sound Scarface Claw makes in Hairy Maclairy). Babbles away while reading her books or playing with her cuddly toys. Gives kisses. Does actions for a lot of rhymes and books. Quite often repeats things back to us now. Apparently she said 'Merry Christmas' a lot today to her Granny, for example. Another example, 'Shall we see to the dog?' and she'll say 'See to dog.' or similar. You get the picture, I'm sure.

LIKES & DISLIKES Likes such a lot - reading and being read to (especially where there are special voices and sounds at the moment), drawing (and eating the crayons), walking through the park, her height chart (which has pictures of lots of different wild animals on it), the ocean picture in her room (and pictures and maps and so on, in general), cuddling and kissing her toys, going to toddler group, having visits from her Granny and Auntie Eva, chasing the dog, singing and dancing... I could probably go on for days! Dislikes not much - the usual problem for her age when being told 'No' - for the most part she can't understand why she can't take the Sky card out of the digibox, take a knife out of the dishwasher, take Eva's glasses away, pick the dog's bowl up, go out in the rain with no shoes on, type on the keyboard when Mummy/Daddy have work on the computer... But... she's getting better at understanding that there are things she can't do and she'll now almost do them, but then say 'Nah ah' and wag her finger. For example, she'll start climbing up onto the box in her room where her night light sits, but won't properly climb on and will turn and look at me, smile, shake her head and say 'Nah ah'. She did a similar thing today in the park with her Granny - Granny asked her not to walk on the grass, because it was wet and so she walked along the path, going very close to the grass and then coming away and shaking her head...

FAV TOYS She's quite into her spinning top at the moment. She really enjoys most of her cuddly toys now. She loves anything that makes music. She's getting a bit more into shape sorters and jigsaw type toys, though they're not her favourite. Probably her favourite toy, actually, is my mobile phone, which is getting somewhat of a beating. Hopefully I'll be due for an upgrade soon!

FAV BOOKS She's quite fond of Hairy Maclairy and quite enjoys Skinny Malinky. She loves most of her Maisy books and still likes the little Baby Einstein books, with Dogs and Babies being her favourite. She's getting to know a lot of the books well, now, and can say things (e.g. No and Yes with the Where's Panda? book and Where's Spot? Eeeeeowieee in Hairy Maclairy, holding hands and so on in I Like it When and doing a lot of the actions in one of the books that lives in her room ('Growl' and 'Shh', moving hand up and down for seesaw, waving bye-bye to a balloon, etc.)

FAV TV PROGRAMMES Still doesn't really watch TV. She has shown some interest in the Muppets and Snow White when they've been put on. She has watched an episode and a bit of In the Night Garden, which she seemed to enjoy quite a lot. She's recently been watching some things on the CBeebies Internet site (she really enjoyed the Something Special song about the weather and the Tweenies rap song, for example).

NEW TRICK LEARNT THIS MONTH Lots more talking. Improved on the walking. Interest in the potty. Don't think there's anything specifically new, just a lot more understanding and more ability to make herself understood, though much more frustration when she can't.

OTHER INFO/NEWS

Teeth: She's got another couple at the top front and possibly some more coming through further back.

Jabs: She has now had all her jabs until she'll get the MMR booster just before school. She had a bit of a cold after these last ones, but it's pretty much gone now.

Beside the seaside

Tasha, Rosemary, myself, Brian and Eva all went to Weston Super Mare last Friday, to give Rosemary her first taste of the sea, and also her first taste of price gouging and general tackiness.

Run VT.

This was taken when we more or less first got there. It was shortly before the time she normally naps in the morning, so it was a pretty quick dip. But she seemed to enjoy it.



After this we strolled along the front, then strolled along the back trying to find someplace that could offer vegetarian food while the weather alternated between sunny and rain, but windy, always windy.

Then, later, after lunch, having purchased swimming nappies and got the suit ready - and the sun returning - we went back. But, alas, the water had run away and hidden behind the horizon. So she mostly got muddy. Again she seemed to enjoy at first but as she got colder she began to hate it, loudly, and it took muchos cuddleos to put her right once dry.



After this we wandered down the pier and back and then went home.

Birthday video

More video

Managed to get some footage with a staged bit of walking (at about 1 minute in). Second clip has no walking in it at all. Except by the dog.

Addendum

Yeah, ok, so she walked for me. Cool. To be fair, it was easier to convince her to walk to me rather than crawl since she had a toy in her hand at the time and didn't want to drop it in dropping to the floor. Also, we were in the dining room in which she has been learning the walking recently. Her favourite routine is to get under the table and then push each chair to the side of the room.

Mobilization! To arms! I mean... Two legs!

Yep. She's walking. Only a few steps at the moment - five at the most - but that's much better than some grown-ups. She's only done this for Tasha so far. She has to be standing first. If she's sitting down she realises she's still much faster crawling across to see/grab/kiss/attack/taste whatever it is.

What else is she doing? Talking more and more - she said grandad the other day, apparently. Able to play with the dog to an extent i.e. if she's picked up one of his toys you can say to him 'Where's your bone/ball/rope/ring' and he will go and very carefully take it away from her as she holds it up. She finds this great fun. He's still chary of letting her grab huge hunks of his fur though. Not surprised. I've heard Tasha's screams.

Two videos below, neither of which naturally shows the aforementioned walking. But should show general changes. That said, already they're out of date as she's e.g. much more talkative as mentioned in post below.

Bog-standard playing in office in preparation for middle-class white-collar lifestyle



Mixture of playing in the office again*, being on her stroller and a tree house sort of thing at the bird sanctuary



*The vast amount of office play videos is partly due to the fact that this is where the video camera lives.

Monthly update

AGE She'll be 11 months next Thursday. Almost a year old already!

WEIGHT/SIZE OF CLOTHES No idea of weight. She's mostly in 9-12 months clothes, with some 12-18 months and some 6-9 months. She got a bit thin when she was under-the-weather recently (a tooth coming through and possibly a bit of a bug, as well) when she wasn't really eating much solid food (was drinking (breast) milk for EnglandEurope, though), but is almost back to her slightly plump self again, now.

NAPPIES Still Huggies Size 4 Little Walkers, though think we may be moving up to Size 5 soon.

FOOD She's still breast-feeding a fair bit, and was doing so a lot when her second tooth was coming through. In the daytime she'll generally have 3 feeds in the morning afternoon and early evening, then she'll have one to get to sleep and a couple in the night. When her tooth was coming through it was akin to the growth spurts of her early months.

Breakfast: She still has fruit and crumpets, but also has some porridge now. Depending on her mood she'll:

• eat lots of it from a spoon held by someone else


• eat a fair bit froma spoon, grabbed by her, but mostly going straight in her mouth


• grab the spoon and play with the porridge.

Lunch: This varies depending on where she is and if there are left-overs from last night's dinner. An ordinary lunch will be some fruit and some toast and Philadelphia. If we're out, she'll have various different things, such as sandwiches, cheese on toast, pasta, tortilla, chunks of salad (e.g. cucumber, tomato, avocado, etc.), etc. etc. Left-overs she might have include roasted vegetables, omelette, tortilla, pasta, rice cakes (that's rice mixed with other things and formed into a patty, rather than the dry things you buy), etc.

Dinner: Generally some of whatever we're having, though occasionally we'll have something 'bad' like takeaway pizza and she'll have something like cheese and tomato on toast or Philadelphia sandwiches with cucumber and tomato, etc. We frequently have roasted vegetables now, as she really likes these and they're easy for her to handle. She'll take more things off a spoon now (with the same results as the porridge for breakfast - i.e. varying levels of actually eating it!) which widens what she can have. Last night, for example, I was having lasagne and Chris was having canneloni, neither of which were going to be ready in time for her to have before she was ready for bed, so she had a sandwich with the tomato and veg sauce and the cheese sauce, along with a few spoonfuls of Chris' beef stuffing and some of the tomato and veg sauce and cheese sauce off a spoon, as well as various bits of fruit (peach and pear fridge fruit, fresh banana, fresh clementine).

Snacks: She has various snacks during the day, especially when out in the buggy. Things she snacks on include: dried apricots and other fruits, roasted vegetables, spelt biscuits (no added sugar - sweetened with various kinds of fruit juice), Organix carrot puffs, croissants, fruit pots (will demolish most of a fruit pot in Costa Coffee), and whatever else is available and OK for her to eat. If we're walking round the market, we might get a small bag of cherries or grapes or something like that for her to eat while we walk round (cherries have to be split and stoned before giving them to her, though, which makes them a bit more awkward than some things).

Drinks: Mostly she only drinks water (apart from breastmilk, of course), though occasionally we add a bit of fresh juice to her water - at very low concentrations. She drinks a fair bit of water, depending on the weather (more when it's hot).

SLEEP

Nighttime: She tends to go to sleep around 9/9.30pm, though sometimes it will be closer to 8 and sometimes closer to 10.30pm. She usually wakes up once anywhere between 11.30pm and 2.30am and then again around 5am (probably because of the light and the birds singing, I think). Both times she usually goes back to sleep after a little bit of milk, though sometimes she won't go back in her cot and will come in with us or, if it's the morning, come upstairs and sleep on the duvet in the office. Occasionally she'll wake up more than that, but usually just requires a little bit of a cuddle/rocking to go back to sleep, rather than milk.

Daytime naps: She usually has a couple of naps during the day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon, though sometimes she'll have more, but shorter ones. Their length can vary from 30 minutes to 3 hours, though it seems they're more usually around 45 minutes-1 hour. If she hasn't managed to get much sleep during the day, she'll often (but not always) go to sleep in the early evening (e.g. 7.30pm) and stay asleep. When that happens, though, she usually has to come into our bed in the middle of the night (possibly because she thinks it's time to get up).

MOBILITY She's still not walking on her own, but she's getting very close. She can walk (run even) holding one hand and belts round the furniture in the living room. She can run with her walker toy now, as well. She did take a few steps at the start of June, from the chair in her room to her cot, but hasn't taken any since. You can see her thinking about it sometimes: she stands still and looks to where she wants to get you, sometimes even picking a foot up, but then she drops down to the floor and crawls instead. She has proper fitted shoes that she wears when she's going to be walking outside in the wet, or where there could be glass or sharp stones. For the most part we try to keep her barefoot, as that's best when learning to walk. She's pretty much got the pincer grasp sorted now (as evidenced by her picking up woodlice and putting them in her mouth far too often - our house does have far too many of the creatures, as well). She can almost stand up without anything to pull herself up on - she has her legs and arms completely straight, but hands touching the floor still. She dances in that position a lot and I think it won't be long before she pushes off a bit harder and ends up standing up.

COMMUNICATION She's added 'tick tock' to her vocabulary and says it whenever she sees a clock. She also says it when she's phones and lights, for some reason. She also says 'woof', though it's more just the middle sound without the w and f (but not oo as in hoot) - basically sounds more like an actual dog barking than 'woof'. She says 'dog, woof woof' a lot and points at dogs and says 'woof woof'. She's communicating when she wants food and milk (see below) and communicates when she wants to go to another room by bangning on the door. She'll also (but not always) put her hands to the top of her nappy to indicate that she wants her nappy changed. And she throws her food, cup, spoon, etc. on the floor when she's done eating (trouble is she'll sometimes throw them on the floor when she's not done, as well). She gives us cuddles and kisses now, too, which we (unsurprisingly) love.

LIKES & DISLIKES She loves going out in her buggy and giggles and squeals when she gets close to the door. However, she frequently gets very annoyed when being put in her buggy - especially when she's been out somewhere (e.g. in the park, visiting someone, etc.) and walking/crawling around. She loves music. She has various different books and toys that play music and loves dancing and clapping along to them. She also has different musical instruments that she enjoys using and, while she ignores most TV, she will turn round and watch when theme tunes or jingles come on. She likes playing Peek-a-boo in various forms - hiding behind furniture, hiding behind curtains, hiding under blankets, having one of us hide, etc. etc. She likes playing chase (e.g. one of us says 'I'm coming to get you' and starts running (quite slowly!) towards her and she crawls (pretty fast) away. She likes playing with the cat flap. She loves toes, and is especially interested in painted toenails (which mine never are).

FAV TOYS The toys she enjoys most are those that play music, or that will make noises (e.g. banging a couple of toys or items together). She also likes playing with non-toys such as remote controls and phones (she managed to phone Chris on the internal phone the other day, but fortunately, so far hasn't managed to phone the emergency services). She likes taking things out of boxes, baskets, off shelves, etc., but has recently started to enjoy putting things into boxes, baskets and on shelves, and so on, as well.

FAV BOOKS She has one particular book that plays music (one of the ones that has four options to press) and 80% of the time will pick the same one (She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain when She Comes). She really enjoys books that have extra things to do, such as flaps turn, tabs to pull, buttons to press, etc., but she also enjoys other books that just have pictures and words or stories. She still loves her dog book and can often be found reading it in the morning, after she's woken up. She has books in all the rooms she frequents (office, our bedroom, her bedroom and the living room - none in the dining room, actually, but that's generally only used for actual eating). She will pull them out and surround herself with books. We don't always (no-one's going to be hugely surprised, here) tidy away her things every day and when it comes to doing so, it's often because there are so many books out and all over the floor that it's not possible for her to crawl across it without crawling over books. (Of course, that may be less an indication of how much she likes books and morean indication of how many she has - over 100 now, we think.)

FAV TV PROGRAMMES She doesn't watch TV, though will look round when there's music on.

NEW TRICK LEARNT THIS MONTH Clapping. Lip smacking when wants food. Doing the milk sign when wants milk (amazing considering I haven't used it consistently since she was a few months old!). Arching her back to indicate she doesn't want to do something (that's not so much fun, especially if you're trying to pick her up!)

OTHER INFO/NEWS

Teeth: She has two teeth now. The top two. The one on the right (looking at her - so on her left) is fully through and the one on the left still has about half way to go, but is completely through the gum. She has a toothbrush (funny thing that goes on my finger, though she also has another one that she just uses as a teether at the moment) and toothpaste and has a brush every night before her bath, which she really enjoys.

Bathtime: She takes the plug out of the bath when she's ready to get out. She doesn't like sitting down in the bath until the water is draining out. She loves splashing the water. Her favourite bath toy is still the thermometer, though she's quite fond of the duck and enjoys the bath book, too.

Clothes: She rarely wears vests now, and tends to wear leggings and a short-sleeved T-shirt as it's warmer and she can move around easily in them. A cardigan and socks and shoes will be added if it's cold/wet and sometimes her raincoat, too. She still won't wear hats, though loves playing with other people's hats. She usually wears leggings and a T-shirt to bed as well (generally knickerbocker-length leggings), though occasionally will still wear a cosy nightsuit if it's very cold weather.

Videos: Chris should be doing a video post soon and there are quite a few, I think.

Birthday: It's her first birthday next month. Obviously you are welcome to buy her whatever you want to (if you want to get her anything at all - there's no obligation!), but it might be an idea to check with us first in case it's something she already has or something we were going to get ourselves.

Photo post

Meeting up with Emily and Madeleine

For the first time since the girls were very little, we met up with Emily and Madeleine. Emily was my August Club 'buddy' and Madddy was born a few days before Rosemary in the same hospital. We had a lovely time playing in the play area at the top of Bisley Old Road (opposite the Parliament Street Family Centre), although it was a shame there was only one baby swing, so Rosemary and Maddy had to take turns.

Emily & Maddy 1

Emily & Maddy in the park at the top of town

On the swing

Having a swing (there's only one, so they have to take turns)

Maddy on the swing 1

Maddy enjoying a swing for the first time (I think?)

Maddy on the swing 2

Maddy enjoying a swing for the first time (I think?)

Maddy on the swing 3

Maddy enjoying a swing for the first time (I think?)

Saying 'Hi' to Maddy

Hmm, who's this? I think I'll say hello

Emily & Maddy 2

Emily & Maddy (+ Rosemary sneaking in)

Rosemary & Maddy 1

Looking at each other's mums

Rosemary & Maddy 2

Having a think

Rosemary & Maddy 3

Looking at each other

New dress from Grandma

We thought we'd make a point of taking some pictures of Rosemary in the dress that Gradma sent down. She does wear all the clothes, but we don't always remember to take pictures!

New dress 1

Look at my pretty new dress Grandma sent

New dress 2

I can kind of crawl in it, even

Hello there

Hey there, daddy!

Hmm, let me think about that

Hmm, I'm not sure - what do you think?

New dress 3

And I can stand in it, if Mummy helps

Eating something

We hadn't taken any eaiting pictures for a while, so thought we would. Can't remember what it is she's eating there, though!

Eating 1

This is yummy

Eating 2

This is yummy

Eating 3

This is yummy

Some pictures from going out with her Granny

Lead me up the garden path

Or the park path, perhaps?

This is cosy

Why are we waiting outside the door?

I can hide

Oh, we're playing hide-and-seek, are we?

The new comfy/nap area in the office

Rosemary now sometimes has a nap up in the office. Chris slept up there one night when she was teething, so she could sleep in with me, and we found the duvet really useful so have kept it up there. Sometimes, when she won't go back to bed in the early morning, we come upstairs and cuddle up and read stories, then she'll often go to sleep and will stay asleep if she just needs to be moved slightly, rather than the big repositioning of going into the cot. If it's very early, I might even lie down next to her and have a sleep myself! It's also handy for daytime naps, especially when she's under-the-weather, as she sleeps better if she's in a room with us. It's also much more comfortable for us when sitting on the floor reading or playing (and probably for Rosemary, too). And the dog isn't too bothered by it, either!

New cosy nap area

Sleeping on the duvet up in the office

The dog will nap too

And Wesley has a bed there, too.

Rosemary & Wesley napping

I'll just have a little snooze.

Random close-up

And here's a random close-up when Rosemary was too interested in the camera for me to manage to take any pictures.

What's that shiny thing in your hands, mum?

I'll take that, Mum. It's got buttons on it and looks like it might even make beeping noises!

Monthly update

AGE She'll be 10 months on Tuesday

WEIGHT/SIZE OF CLOTHES Don't know about weight. Most of her clothes now are 9-12 months, though she still just fits some of her 6-9 months clothes and her shoes are actually 0-6 months, though will probably need the 6-12 months soon.

NAPPIES Size 4 Huggies Little Walkers

FEED Breastfeeds = 6 per day (rough times = midnight, 5am, 7am, 12noon, 5pm, 9pm); very occasionally more during the night, if she's having a bad night. When she had her cold, which is almost gone now, she was having more, roughly every couple of hours, even during the night. We assumed the cold was the reason, although she has been eating a lot more solids the last couple of days, so perhaps it was a growth spurt instead.

Breakfast = half a banana, some fridge fruit or fresh fruit; crumpet with Philadelphia. If we're having breakfast out, she'll have some fruit and a croissant or something similar.

Lunch = toast and Philadelphia or pate of some kind; fruit; sometimes left-over vegetables or dinner food; sometimes a cheese sandwich or cheese on toast. If we're out, then a bit of what one or both of us is having (e.g. had some nachos the other day - though not the chillis!).

Dinner = Whatever I am having and sometimes some of what Chris is having, if he's having something different (e.g. a fish finger, some bolognese, some sausage, some ham, etc.). She loved having spaghetti recently. She often has either steamed vegetables or roasted vegetables. She enjoyed cucumber and cherry tomatoes recently as well. I accidentally bought some pureed vegetable/fruit mixtures from the health food shop (thought they were juices) and she enjoyed those - even being spoon fed them! She seems to be eating more at the moment, though we don't know if that's building herself up after her cold or that she's had a growth spurt or she's just about to get a tooth or maybe that she's just ready for solid food to be her main nutrition now (she's only a couple of months away from a year old, after all). There's a lot less food going on the floor, that's for sure, which I'm sure Wesley finds upsetting.

SLEEP Tends to sleep from about 9pm through to about midnight (sometime 1am/2am), when she wakes for a feed, then goes back to sleep until 4am/5am, when she wakes for another feed and then sleeps through to 6am/7am, wakes for another feed then goes back to sleep for a bit (sometimes just half an hour, sometimes a couple of hours) when she wakes up properly and plays with her cot toys for a bit. She usually has a nap in the morning and sometimes one in the afternoon and often one in the early evening. These can all vary from 15 minutes to 2 hours and there doesn't seem to be any consistency in when/why they vary (that I can tell, anyway!).

MOBILITY She can run holding on to us. She can just about walk holding on to us by one hand. She's climbing over things and standing on tiptoes. She can stand for a brief moment without holding on to anything, but quickly falls on her bum. She's recently worked out that she can shuffle backwards on her bum, using her toes to manoeuvre herself. She watches her toes with great concentration while she's doing it as well. My prediction that she'd be walking by the end of May was wrong. So I'll up it to the end of June, now. Definitely before her first birthday, I would think.

LIKES & DISLIKES She likes so much. She's such a happy baby. She squeals with delight at lots of things (especially seeing her daddy, granny and her mummy if she hasn't seen me for a while). The gurgles away to herself and sits reading books (looking in them, turning the pages and gurgling) or chatting to her cuddly toys. She wants to be out and walking/running around as much as possible, and doesn't like stopping in the buggy for long or being carried around. She loves going outside. She's quite impatient when waiting for food. She dislikes having her face wiped after eating. She doesn't like being tired in a car seat still, as we discovered at the weekend. She was fine on the way to the bird park, but coming back she screamed and screamed.

(I really hate that. There are no situations where she is left to scream for that long and there is no way that she can understand that it's the law (and for her own safety, of course) and so I can't get her out and comfort her. On public transport, she can move about and have a cuddle and/or a feed. In a car/Em's bus, she's stuck. If she went in a car seat more often, then presumably she'd be used to it and it wouldn't bother her. Or she'd understand that it's OK to fall asleep in the seat. But this was the first time she'd been in one since Christmas, when she also screamed and screamed. And people think we should have a car?! I don't think so.)

FAV TOYS What she likes a lot at the moment is pulling things out of boxes or off shelves. She loves her V-Tech walker, though not walking with it yet as it goes too fast on our floorboards. She loves standing at it and pushing all the buttons and she's worked out which bit makes it play music and she stands there dancing to the music. Since we've got a TV downstairs again, she's taken to playing with the buttons on the front of it, so she'll change the volume or channel numerous times and giggle profusely. The simplest things can amuse her still - a camera film holder that rolls along the floor, a Christmas bauble that bounces and spins, a piece of paper that crinkles. The dogs bowls seem to be very interesting to her at the moment and she frequently sets off at a super-speed crawl from the living room to the dining room straight for his bowls. It's possible that if she was actually allowed to play with them, they'd lose interest, of course!

FAV BOOKS She's just taken back her favourite to the library, though she'd started to get bored with it, I think. It was 'Where's Maisy?' and had flaps to open on each page, but the last page had a door (behind which was Maisy - sorry to spoil the surprise for you!) and she would knock knock on the book, because it says 'Knock knock'. She still loves her Dogs book that lives in her cot. There's an alphabet book which has plastic sliding doors behind which hide pictures. She's likes openeing and shutting doors. She loves having her bedtime stories and her granny reading to her (her granny's very good at doing silly voices and sounds), and generally she enjoys having a bit of quiet time reading (either with us or on her own) a few times a day.

FAV TV PROGRAMMES She still doesn't watch TV, though see above about changing the volume and the channel. She does now like walking up to the TV and patting it and sometimes squealing at some of the people on it.

NEW TRICK LEARNT THIS MONTH Waving hello and goodbye. Pointing with one finger. Bum shuffling. Standing still without holding on to anything.

SPEECH She says dog, duck, dada, good, up, hiya, bath and yeah. Duck is the one she says the most and the one that clearly does mean what it says.

OTHER INFO/NEWS She met her brand new cousin Rupert on Monday. She's now no longer the youngest on either side of the family. Although she is still the youngest girl on both sides. She was very taken with Rupert, although she had a cold so couldn't go too near him. Hopefully they'll be able to grow up being good friends, as they're close in age.

Random musings while Rosemary chases Christmas decorations

Rosemary has very kindly allowed me to catch up with some household paperwork. Not that it's all out of the way, but some letters I've been wanting to write for a long time have been written. They just have to be posted now, of course. The computer is busy saving 230 PDF pages to JPG, so I can't do much with it, therefore it's time for a mini-update.

Falling asleep

On Thursday night, Rosemary fell asleep in my arms, but not nursing. To many people this would not be particularly momentous as many babies do this all the time from birth, but it hasn't really ever happened before with Rosemary. She's fallen asleep on Chris once and she falls asleep plenty in her buggy, but never on me without nursing (except maybe when she was only a week or two old). It hasn't happened since, so I don't know if it's meaningful in any way, but it did feel quite strange and actually a little sad. Logically, Rosemary being able to go to sleep at night without nursing could mean that Chris and I could, some time in the reasonably near future, go out for the evening, which theoretically would be nice. But emotionally, it means that it's the start of her not needing me. I let her out my sight (reasonably happily) during the day for an hour or two. That was a pretty big step. Leaving her at night time may take a while longer and so I'm quite happy (mostly) if she wants to continue nursing to sleep for a little while longer, thank you.

Sugar rush

Yesterday, I (finally) made a trifle. We had dinner a bit earlier than usual and then Chris bathed Rosemary, while I cleared up the kitchen. Rosemary didn't go to sleep straight after her bath as she would normally do, so she got to have some trifle. And that's the last time she's having pudding so near bedtime again. She was really hyperactive. Chattering away, crawling at top speed all over the bed and bouncing and wriggling all over the place. She did go to sleep, pretty exhausted it seemed, at 10.30 (about an hour/hour and a half later than usual), thank goodness. Of course, it might just have been having something to eat after her bath that confused her and woke her up. But I think it was the sugar.

Tot groups

We've now been up to Parliament Street Family Centre 0-2 morning twice and I think we'll be going regularly. Rosemary is really quite interested in the other babies/tots now, which is lovely to see. It's important to keep an eye on her, though, as sometimes her desire to hug/stroke other babies can get a bit overzealous and lead to an exploration of eyes and noses that can't be very pleasant for the babies concerned!

Both times we've been, she has fallen asleep just before snack time, though last week she woke up in time for some of the songs. Last week she made a beeline for the book corner almost as soon as we got there, though she just wanted to get all the books out, not actually sit and read any of them. She then played with a shape sorter (which involved putting the pieces in her mouth) and said hello to a little boy who she met when she was very small.

Most of the mums and staff were quite surprised at how mobile she is for her age, though there was one 8-month-old little girl who was as mobile as Rosemary and could even stay standing with no support for a few seconds. There was also a little boy who was quite a bit older than her, but apparently had been that mobile at her age as well. The thing all three of them have in common is that they're small babies (on the bottom centiles), which is interesting. Anyway, we're going to try to go every Thursday morning, if we can, as it's a really nice group.

Shoes

Rosemary has some shoes. Unfortunately, her feet are still too small for proper shoes, so she can't really wear them very often. I bought them so that she has something to wear if she needs to walk outside and can't do so in bare feet. That's really the only time she should wear them, as bare feet is still best for learning to walk. But they are so very cute, that it's difficult not to put them on all the time! Chris had to remind me the other day, when I was taking her out in the buggy, that I could just take them in the rucksack. I didn't have to put them on her 'just in case' she needed to get out and walk at any point.

How to lose weight

One of the things I've been looking forward to in light of the amicable settlement of the vegetarian issue* is being able to share my cooking on a regular basis with someone other than the dog. Tonight, however, I received a chilling taste of the future as Rosemary held my smoked haddock baked in spicy tomato sauce to ransom. Throwing away her other food, she demanded all of mine in a voice like (squeaky) thunder, so much so that by the end I was licking the plate clean and eyeing the drop area around her chair hungrily. It's nice for one's work to be appreciated, but I wasn't expecting to be making double portions this early.


*Essentially, Rosemary is not vegetarian except for when Tasha's doing all the cooking. And even then I might pass her some beef jerky under the table. And later, if she decides to be vegetarian, I don't complain. This puts me under some pressure to prepare fantastic carnivore meals for the next 11 years so that the thought of dropping meat from the curriculum is anathema.

Communication, sleeping, eating

Words, sounds and communication

Rosemary appears to be discovering the letter D at the moment. She is now regularly saying:

• dog
• duck
• dad/dada/dad-dad

and some D sounds that don't really seem to mean anything:

• do
• daw
• diddoo
• doddy

She also seems to be saying:

• good
• Ned (who on earth is Ned? She seems to really like him, anyway)
• lid (she referred to Eva's hat as her lid, though I think it may have just been a coincidence)

She's hardly using the M sound at all now. It's all daddy this and daddy that. The other morning, when Chris came into the room, she waved and said 'Dad, dad, dad!'.

She's waving hello and goodbye now. She waved at the video of herself yesterday. She also understands when I'm going to be going upstairs to work. Yesterday, I started to say 'I'm just going to go upstairs to do some work, but I'll be back down later.' (she was with her Granny, I wasn't just leaving her on her own in the living room or something!) and she was waving bye-bye before the third word. She's even waving good morning to the dog, now.

Sleeping and rolling

While asleep, she's now rolling all over the cot. She woke up 3 times last night having rolled so much she'd scared herself. But she's also rolling around without waking up, or waking up but being able to go straight back to sleep. When I peered in at her this morning, she'd rolled round so much that her head was facing the bottom far corner of the cot and she was lying diagonaly so her feet were almost poking out of the bars. She's almost always rolling straight onto her side when I put her in the cot, it seems, now.

Eating and feeding the dog

We think she may be wanting attention while she eats now. She eats a bit at the start of the meal and then tends to throw the food on the floor, as well as her cup and so on. This used to be an indication that she was full, but it's happening earlier now. Last night when we'd finished, we started clearing up the food in her chair and she decided to start eating again, and had pretty much a whole meals worth, while I sat chatting and smiling to her and offering her different items. She also seemed to enjoy taking food out of her bowl, which we haven't really used for a while - tend to just put the food straight on the tray of her chair, because otherwise the food would just get tipped on her head. The other possibility is that she's trying to feed the dog, because she quite often says 'Good' when she throws food on the floor, so perhaps she's offering him some treats for being a good dog! I'm going to try giving her food in her bowl a bit more, now, and see if that makes a difference, and will make sure we offer more food when we've finished eating, too, in case that's what it's about. (Incidentally, she's been naturally increasing her milk intake when she's getting a bit less solid food, so she's certainly not starving, in case anyone was getting worried!)

The Standing, Staring and Falling Flat On Your Arse Film

Three videos, all in Tasha-O-Vision. The first two show Rosemary playing in (and making (more of) a mess of) the office. This is very exciting as it theoretically means we can both work at the same time for periods while she amuses herself, although there are always caveats to that.





The final video shows Rosemary standing (!) at the window looking out at the world around, and then falling flumpily. Not out the window though. But that's one of the caveats, that if she's a) standing and b) standing near what is, more or less (give or take some melted sand) a hole three stories up it's hard to concentrate on rasterising PDFs.

Sleeping

Rosemary has recently developed the habit of sleeping on her side. She doesn't always do so, but it's probably 70-80% of the time sleeping in her cot now. The first few times she rolled onto her side when I put her in her cot, I tried to roll her back, because I thought it was an accident and she would wake herself up. Oops. Of course, trying to roll her back woke her up most times!

One thing that does sometimes happen is that she rolls a bit too far and presses one of the buttons on her cot toy - usually the one that plays a nursery rhyme. Sometimes that wakes her up, but sometimes she doesn't even stir. Occasionally, she rolls right over the other way while sleeping and that wakes her up. Other times it causes her to stir and cry out briefly but she goes straight back to sleep, during which time I have crawled out of bed and made my way to her bedroom door, only to find I'm not needed.

It feels like she's growing up very fast. I'm not sure why I associate sleeping on one's side with growing up, but I definitely do. Now when I peer in at her sleeping in her cot (which Chris, incidentally, thinks is a creepy thing to do; I find it completely natural) I see a little girl more often than I see a little baby.

Some random meanderings

So when I went to get Rosemary up this morning, she was lying on her back holding the book about dogs up open (albeit upside down) saying 'Dog, dog.' OK, it sounds more like 'Dud, dud', but she definitely means 'dog' because she uses it to refer to Wesley. She shouts it when he comes in the room. She says it when she seems him curled up on the bed. She says it when she hears him bark. It really does seem to be a proper word, referring one thing.

I'm sure someone (maybe her Granpa?) predicted that her first word woulb be 'Wesley' - well, almost. Of course, se also says 'Dad, dad' and 'Mum,mum,mum', but those words are used in other contexts: 'Dad' = 'I've got what I wanted and am happy'; 'Mum' = 'Give me that. I want that'. They do sometimes actually mean 'Dad' and 'Mum', too, but mostly when we equate to those other meanings!

And, yes, I'm quite chuffed that she was looking at a book. But not just looking, she had opened it up. And that she recognised that the pictures were dogs and it's not just Wesley who's a dog.

We bought an Ergo baby carrier, which arrived yesterday. It's brilliant, though so far I've only done the front carry, not the hip or back. The back carry looks a bit challenging, though apparently after a few goes it becomes really easy. I took Rosemary out in it this morning, with the dog (one of my main reasons for wanting one) and it was very comfortable. We had to come back before we made it to the park, though, as it started pouring with rain, and I hadn't practised putting the hood up and couldn't seem to work it out.

The new carier is much more comfortable than the old one (which is far too small now, but it was never very comfortable). It's also pretty simple to get on. I do want to get the back carry sorted out, as I think she'll like that a lot. I actually managed (very easily) to feed (nurse) her in it last night, too, which could be quite handy.

Of course, now I want the back pack and pouch, too. And maybe the papoose coat as well, though that might be going a bit far!I'll wait and see how much use it gets before buying any of these accessories, though. Just in case it gets used loads for a week or two and then is left to gather dust.

She's just fallen asleep on my lap. I guess an early morning walk, however brief, is very tiring! The dog is also asleep. It's a shame we don't have the summery weather that was here a week ago, as we could go for a long country walk. Instead it's raining so hard that you feel wet just looking at it.

Monthly update

AGE 9 months tomorrow (38 weeks tomorrow)

WEIGHT/SIZE OF CLOTHES weight = 16lb 1oz; clothes = a mixture of 6-9 months and some 9-12 months. Her new hat is 0-6 months as the next size up was huge on her!

NAPPIES Size 4 Huggies Little Walkers

FEED Breastfeeds = 5-6 per day (rough times = 3am 6am, [8am], 12noon, 5pm, 9pm); very occasionally more during the night, if she's having a bad night; the one in brackets she's often cutting out and just going straight to breakfast, though then has the 12 noon one a bit earlier.

Breakfast = half a banana, some fridge fruit or fresh fruit; crumpet with Philadelphia. If we're having breakfast out, she'll have some fruit and a croissant or something similar.

Lunch = toast and Philadelphia, cashew nut butter, tartex, or other pate; fruit; sometimes left-over vegetables or dinner food; sometimes a cheese sandwich or similar. If we're out, then a bit of what one or both of us is having (e.g. had some tortilla and some risotto the other in the Angel).

Dinner = Whatever I am having and sometimes some of what Chris is having, if he's having something different (e.g. a fish finger, some bolognese, some sausage, some ham, etc.). She has a piece of fruit to start and finish and sometimes a frozen fruit penguin (shaped ice cubes made with fruit juice). I make sure there's a good balance - vegetables, protein and carbohydrate and try to vary it from night to night, though don't manage as much variety as I'd like.

SLEEP Tends to sleep from about 9pm through to 3am, when she wakes for a feed, then goes back to sleep until 5.30 or 6am, when she wakes for another feed and then sleeps through to 7 or 8am. 4am or 5am, when she wakes for a brief breastfeed and then goes back to sleep until around 7am. During the day, she'll have a number of naps, usually one in the morning, one in mid-afternoon and one in the late afternoon/early evening. The exact time varies and she'll sleep either in her buggy, on our bed or in her cot (though the latter not very often).

MOBILITY She's crawling around really fast now. She's pushing up onto all fours. She's able to sit up herself now from a lying down or crawling. She's pulling herself up on furniture. She can walk, and even run, when we're holding her hadns. She's still enjoying her bouncer, especially with music to dance to. She's got a walker, but she's not quite ready for it, as it goes a bit fast on our floorboards. She'll happily crawl around in the office or living room and amuse herself for ages, though obviously one of us needs to be in the room keeping an eye on her. But she doesn't need constant adult attention anymore. (That's not to say she doesn't get plenty, of course!)

LIKES She likes everything, practically. She's a very cheerful baby and smiles and chatters away when we're out and about. Chris has been doing something recently that I can't describe - it's kind of a dance and song, made with nonsense words, but that doesn't really get it across properly - which she finds absolutely hilarious. She's really enjoying her bath in the evening and especially likes playing with the bath thermometer. She loves going out in the buggy and has a big grin/giggle when you open the door.

DISLIKES Not a great deal. She gets a bit impatient in her high-chair when waiting for food. She can get a bit grumpy when she's tired. And that's about it. She doesn't like it when she hurts herself, thogh quite often she'll have a little tumble or bump but not be at all bothered, while we're expecting her to start screaming.

FAV TOYS She really likes her cot toy. She's recently discovered some Christmas baubles and loves chasing them round the office. She got a little car with a dog in it that barks and likes pushing that along the floor.

FAV BOOKS Her favourite book at the moment is 'If you see a cuddly kitten', which is a library book that has been renewed a number of times. If you start saying the words and the book is in the room, she'll often go over to it.

FAV TV PROGRAMMES She doesn't really watch any TV. Occasionally, she'll sit on the bed in the early evening while one of watches something, but usually she'll be playing with her toys or us. She'll occasionally glance up at an advert or the football.

NEW TRICK LEARNT THIS MONTH Cruising, sitting up herself from lying/crawling/etc., pulling herself up on lots of things (I predict walking by the end of May), amusing herself for considerably long periods of time (with one of us in the room).

SPEECH She's very vocal, and we've all almost heard words, or heard almost words. She says Mama and Dada a lot, but we're never entirely sure if she's referring to us. Ma often seems to mean 'Give it to me.' and Ma-Ma often seems to mean 'I'm tired and want some milk'. Da-Da-Da often seems to mean 'Yay! This is fun!'. This morning she sat talking to her little lion mirror (or to the little girl in the mirror!) for about ten minutes. She's also started doing conversations - i.e. pausing for you to say something back. She's still doing the Ah!Ah! shout anywhere where it's going to echo.

OTHER INFO/NEWS She had her 9-month check on Wednesday and the health visitor was very happy with her. before weighing her she said that she clearly looked very healthy and happy. She weighed her and measured her height and head circumference and they're all between 2nd and 9th centile, so she's perfectly proportioned. She made lots of comments about how happy and alert she is (which a lot of people do, actually, so I guess perhaps she's more cheerful/alert than others her age?).

Loads of photos