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 rNAPPIES/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.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!
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.
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.
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.
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 forNAPPIES 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:
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.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 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 1
This is yummy
Eating 2
This is yummy
Eating 3
This is yummy
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?
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.
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!
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.
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).
