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.