Mummy and Daddy Clark

Three quarters of a year

2010-07-11T15:00:00.001Z

Eleanor is 9 months old, today. And, boy, is she doing well. I was looking back over posts from when Rosemary was this age, and they’re remarkably close in when they’re doing things. I think Eleanor’s a bit more mobile than Rosemary was and will probably walk a little earlier. But Rosemary was pretty early to start with, at just over 11 months.

Mobility

Eleanor has certainly mastered the crawl, now. She’s also cruising around with great ease. She’s taken a couple of steps a couple of times, but isn’t walking yet. She can climb stairs, though not ours yet, as they’re too steep. She also tries to climb up various things (Rosemary’s bed on the floor in the hotel room, recently, onto boxes, onto the sofa (she can’t manage the sofa yet, but it probably won’t be a huge amount of time) and into washing baskets).

Speech

There’s an awful lot of ‘Da Da’! We’re fairly certain she has said ‘Thank you’ (obviously not perfectly enunciated!) a number of times. She seems to say ‘Dog’, as Rosemary did. She says ‘That’ (Dat) a fair bit and we think she also says ‘Stand’ (also sounds quite like Dat!). She says ‘Na Na Na’ quite often, which seems to mean milk. And she has a high-pitched, really loud, scream which she loves doing and which Rosemary enjoys encouraging and/or imitating (yes, we’re stock-piling paracetemol).

General learning/intellectual development

She’s fairly close to clapping and often claps our hands together. She waves (though it’s more of a high five, than a wave still). She happily crawls and cruises round the living room, office, bedrooms and even dining room and kitchen, exploring her toys (and frequently other people’s toys and things she’s not supposed to have, of course) for large chunks of time. She’ll come over for a cuddle or a chat now and then and then go back off to play. She knows that hitting the bilingual drum makes it sing (she was just doing this, but it was switched off, which confused her a little, but she was very happy when I switched it on). She’s getting into books again and has a couple of favourites at the moment (That’s Not My Truck and a cloth Baby Dinosaur book that Rosemary and Chris bought her in the National History Museum). She loves being singed to, and especially likes it when Rosemary sings a high-pitched Baa Baa Black Sheep to her at the dinner table.

eating

The baby-led weaning (BLW) is going fantastically, just as it did with Rosemary. She loves loads of food, especially fruit and steak, it seems. She’ll try pretty much anything and has yet to express any true disgust (unlike her sister, who is very fond of the word ‘yeuch’ these days, though has been improving over the last few weeks). She is not going to remain chocolate-free or ice-cream free for anywhere near as long as her sister. She already has a lot more juice to drink than Rosemary did, because she keeps picking up Rosemary’s cups and drinking from them. And she has had a taste of cow’s milk this way, too. Don’t think there will be any difficulties giving her a cup or two of it once she’s turned 1! She salivates when she’s us eating ice-creams and chocolates and other things she can’t have. In fact, she’s fairly desperate to try peanut butter, since she has to watch me eat it most mornings.

Breastfeeding

She’s still having plenty of milk and, like her sister did, has taken to feeding standing up, while I sit on the sofa. This is quite odd, though I think leads to less wind. She has feeds at roughly 3am, 6am, 8.30am, 12 noon, 3.30pm, 6.30pm and 9pm. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. On a Thursday, she misses out the 12 noon one with no problems whatsoever (she spends the day at my mum’s).

Clothing

She’s in a combination of 6-9 months and 9-12 months clothes, though definitely veering more toward the latter, now. At the moment, as the weather is very hot, she’s often just in a short-sleeved vest and light leggings or trousers. Sometimes, when it’s super hot, just a nappy. Despite being smothered in high-factor sunscreen, which is frequently reapplied, she’s developed a tan on her feet. She does have a tendency to suck/chew on her feet, actually, so perhaps she’s licking it all off (ewww!). No shoes yet, as we prefer to wait until she is walking and, even then, only put them on when walking outside, as Rosemary’s physiotherapist told us this was best for preventing later walking problems. Almost all her clothing is permanently stained, now. I had been very impressed at first, with the new washing gel (Ariel Active Gel), but it hasn’t been performing as well as I’d hoped of late and, even with the addition of a scoop of Vanish the clothes are still stained. Of course, a fair few of them were probably already stained from Rosemary, so Eleanor’s just adding to the collection.

Other

Eleanor is very happy, chilled and independent. She’ll quite happily play in the office while we work. She’ll chatter away to new people, though she’s recently clung to me when I’m attempting to hand her over to someone she’s not too familiar with.

Her relationship with Rosemary is pretty good. She loves playing with Rosemary and squeals with delight when Rosemary sings her song. She loves playing crawl chase with her and with some of her toys – e.g. there’s a toy where Rosemary pops the animals up and Eleanor pushes them down.

All in all, Eleanor is doing very well.

This video was sent from my Palm Pre sner sner

2010-03-12T13:15:00.000Z

Eleanor's routine

2010-02-09T14:33:00.001Z

Just posted this on my Babyworld October club, and thought it might be of interest (to maybe a grandmother out there?):

Eleanor usually wakes some time between 6 and 7 am, generally after Rosemary has woken up, which means I often get some one-on-one time with Rosemary and get her breakfast sorted before Eleanor wakes up. When she does wake, she usually goes in her chair for a bit, while I eat some breakfast and/or tidy up a bit. Then she comes upstairs with me (and often Rosemary) to watch me (us) have a shower. We all get dressed and then Eleanor has some milk, while Rosemary watches a bit of TV. (The order of this can change quite frequently, depending on what time Rosemary wakes up and what she's doing - playing, reading, watching TV, etc.)

Eleanor usually comes on the 'school' run, either in the buggy or the sling, though sometimes she'll stay with Chris. She often has a small nap then (30-45 minutes), though now and again will sleep all morning. Two mornings a week, my mum then plays with her and takes her out for a walk, while I do some work. Otherwise, either Chris or I will play with her/take her shopping.

She'll have some more milk between 11 and 12.30, depending on whether we're picking Rosemary up at 12 or not and if we have somewhere to go after. If we go out, she'll often have another little nap (30-45 minutes), otherwise, she'll normally stay awake in her chair/on her gym/sitting on people's knees/etc. until about 2pm, when she'll sometimes have another small nap and sometimes have a big 2-hour nap.

She usually has some milk around 4pm, then the evening routine commences - dinner is cooked and we eat at 5pm, bath pretty much every other night (which she usually has to share with Rosemary), get changed into bed clothes, read stories with Rosemary until she (Eleanor) gets very shouty, then Chris takes over Rosemary's stories and Eleanor and I go through to our bedroom and have milk in darkened room - I tend to read or check twitter and facebook, etc. on my phone - down to sleep (half the time, she's asleep already, and the other half she'll put herself to sleep with her thumb - occasionally I have to use the sling). She'll be properly asleep some time between 7 and 8, occasionally by 6.30.

Often, she wakes around 10 or 11 for a feed, though she is cutting this one out more often now. Then, usually, she'll wake at 3ish for a feed (though sometimes, if she didn't have the night feed, she'll wake at 1am then 5am) and get up some time between 6 and 7...

Evenings/nighttimes we have down pat, thanks mostly to a fairly rigid routine (which helps with Rosemary, too, I think). The daytimes are less predictable, probably because there are different things happening on different days, so she can't really fall into a set routine.

She is a very happy baby, though, which is lovely. When I take her out in the buggy or the sling I spend the vast majority of the time with a huge grin on my face. And when I'm working and my mum or Chris has been playing with her and I come downstairs to get a coffee or something, she gives me the biggest smiles and says hello (squeals). Wonderful.

Can I whisper something in your ear?

2010-02-07T21:46:00.001Z

Rosemary has recently started reporting to us when she has done something wrong, whether on purpose or by accident. She whispers it in our ear. So, the words ‘Can I whisper something in your ear?’ cause to think ‘Oh no! What’s she done?’ Sometimes it’s a little something, like not flushing the toilet, and other times it’s something bigger, like breaking something or pouring juice on the floor.

The trouble is, it’s so darned adorable, that it’s really difficult to be cross, or even just firm. The majority of the time, I end up with a big grin on my face, which is not the way to admonish someone for taking their baby sister’s Taggie away from her.

It is very interesting, however, as it does show that she really is getting to grips with what we do and don’t want her to do. Yes, she’s testing some of the boundaries, but she’s also writing her own rule book, it seems. And it seems to me that, as she does this, the actual intentional wrong-doing is getting less and less. Which has got to be good.

But, mostly it’s just terribly cute!

O My Best Beloveds

2010-02-04T17:35:00.003Z

I have a long list of books I want to read to Rosemary and Eleanor, or have them read themselves. And I get a little impatient. So I was very happy to be able to semi-cross one off the other night, one that I've tried a couple of times already, when we went through The Cat Who Walked By Himself. Slightly cut-down version, but they kept some of the language. All places are alike to him. Not 'He can go wherever he jolly well wants'.

There's a response you get when reading something truly poetic to a child. They go very quiet as it works on them. They're no longer just wanting the story. The pictures disappear to them, because now the pictures in their head are better. Something deep within them is moved.

So it was nice.

So different, yet so the same

2010-02-03T20:59:00.001Z

I was reading some old posts from this blog the other night – from when Rosemary was about the same age as Eleanor is now. You can take a look, here.

And it struck me how a lot of things were actually quite similar at that time. For example, I had a busy work period where I decided it would be much better to be a stay-at-home mum (SAHM), rather than a work-at-home mum (WAHM), just like I did recently. Rosemary was spending large chunks of time under her gym, which is something I recalled her not doing for more than about 10 minutes at a time. Rosemary was getting good at sitting up (with help), shuffling on her back on her play mat/changing mat, being all chattery (though with different noises, interestingly).

And then there are the differences… If you look at the photos, there’s one huge difference, in that Eleanor has tonnes of hair. Their noises were different. Rosemary was apparently sleeping through a lot at that point. Not sure when she stopped doing that, because my memories of her sleeping habits are all about being woken up in the night loads! Eleanor is not sleeping through yet, but she goes to sleep pretty well and much earlier. Rosemary’s bedtime was generally between 9 and 10pm, whereas Eleanor’s is generally between 7 and 8. Rosemary was almost entirely fed to sleep. Eleanor is able more and more to put herself to sleep in her cot, with the help of her thumb and her Taggie. Rosemary needed a lot of attention, whereas Eleanor is quite happy to sit/lie quietly and look around at the world. Not that she doesn’t love a chat or play, of course!

And, of course, it goes without saying that they are both the cutest girls in the whole world and quite obviously absolute geniuses.

Ballet shoes

2010-01-26T14:42:00.001Z

We are now fully paid-up members of the middle classes. Yeah, I know, we were already, but…

Ballet! Rosemary now goes to ballet classes on a Saturday morning.

And here she is, showing off her new ballet clothes.

She loves it and, it seems she can even manage to sit still for long enough to listen to the teacher and follow the instructions.

More Eleanor

2010-01-19T10:00:00.001Z

She's once, twice, 99 a lady

2010-01-18T23:16:00.003Z

Rosemary is gradually getting the idea of quantifying the world around her. She's using '99' as an adjective in place of very, or completely. 'Are you tired?' 'I'm 99 tired'. (No idea where this has come from, maybe someone said '99% certain'.) But more interestingly, she's using a few others which she's picking as the situation warrants - if she's not hungry, she might say 'Ummm, I'm only 3 hungry'. And today she said she enjoyed something '494949 [four nine four nine four nine]'. Which I guess is a lot. But is it more or less than enjoying something 100?

3 months (and a bit)

2010-01-16T14:35:00.004Z

Age ~ 3 months, 8 days

Weight ~ Not sure; about a stone

Length ~ No ídea !

Feeding ~ 100% Mummy Milk, roughly every 3 hours, for about 10-15 minutes, with occassional hour to hour and a half marathons, especially in the early evening

Favourite toys - Turtle, big 'spider' on the baby gym, which she spins round for ages; also likes her parrot; and has recently been really enjoying books (well, how could she not in this family?)

Milestone from past month ~ First laughs, rolled over, though not done so a lot, really trying to move when on tummy, will probably be crawling quite early

What size clothes ~ All 3-6 month, since she was about 2 months, may need to get out the 6-9 months box next month

What size nappies ~ Size 4, whatever's on special offer

Language development: Blowing bubbles, which is apparently an essential step in learning to talk. Squeals, makes gurgling kind of talking sounds. 'Chats' - i.e. listens to someone talking then responds.

Physical development: Can hold self up on arms when on tummy for a bit. Pushing forwards with feet when on tummy and can actually move herself forward a bit. Sitting up with only a littke aid. Very strong legs; can weight-bear on them for a bit and 'stand' when being held lightly.

Social, emotional and intellectual development: Presumably all happening in the background, but no specific milestones, except for laughing.

Here's Eleanor

2010-01-12T19:48:00.002Z

3 months after her birth, we finally get around to introducing Eleanor to ~~the world~~ this blog.

Hope you like this, Grandpa!

Rosemary tells us about her Mummy and Daddy

2009-07-03T18:40:00.001Z

This is cross-posted from ‘the other blog’, as it’s a very Rosemary-centric post. And I thought it was only fair to ask her the same questions about Chris. Here are the results:

Mummy

What is something Mummy always says to you?
Stop!
What makes Mummy happy?
Not shouting.
What makes Mummy sad?
Shouting
How does Mummy make you laugh?
Tickling me [did give her some hints after an initial ‘I don’t know’]
What was Mummy like as a little girl?
I don’t know.
How old is Mummy?
70
How tall is Mummy?
This tall [pointing at me]
What is Mummy’s favourite thing to do?
Work
What does Mummy do when you’re not there?
Work!
If Mummy became famous what would it be for?
Television
What is Mummy really good at?
Painting
What is Mummy not very good at?
Work
What does Mummy do for her job?
Maybe paddling pools
What is Mummy’s favourite food?
Pasta
If Mummy could have one wish, what would it be?
Chocolate, maybe.

DADDY

What is something Daddy always says to you?
Milk [holding up a cup of milk]
What makes Daddy happy?
Spraying [pointing at water spray]
What makes Daddy sad?
Shouting
How does Daddy make you laugh?
Tickling
What was Daddy like as a little boy?
I don’t know.
How old is Daddy?
70
How tall is Daddy?
This tall [drawing a long line all the way up the page]
What is Daddy’s favourite thing to do?
Work
What does Daddy do when you’re not there?
Work!
If Daddy became famous what would it be for?
I don’t know.
What is Daddy really good at?
Looking for snails and slugs
What is Daddy not very good at?
Not eating bananas [not sure if she understands about double negatives or if she actually means he’s no good at eating bananas!]
What does Daddy do for his job?
Music, maybe
What is Daddy’s favourite food?
Pasta
If Daddy could have one wish, what would it be?
A toy

We were amused, anyway.

Rosemary’s post

2009-03-20T07:52:00.001Z

x/<,,,,,,,//s,,,;x;[[ew[weewwe[

[Rosemary said ‘Can I do some work on you computer? Can I post something with you?’ So that’s hat that was.]

Snow, snow and more snow

2009-02-15T09:04:00.001Z

And now for some gratuitous snow pictures:

Putting them to work early

2009-02-15T08:45:00.005Z

So... during the cash-strapped times that are 2009, we thought it was about time Rosemary earnt her keep:

And, of course, as we need to make more money, it's important that Rosemary starts doing her fair share of the chores, so we have more time to work:

More role-play

2009-01-25T16:50:00.002Z

Rosemary: I need to ask Daddy.
Tasha: What do you need to ask Daddy?
Rosemary: I just need to ask Daddy.
Tasha: OK. Shall we call him on the phone?
Rosemary: No. Can I go upstairs to ask him?
Tasha: OK.

[exeunt, stage left]

Chris: Hello, Rosemary.
Tasha: Rosemary had something she wanted to ask you.
Chris: What did you want to ask me, Rosemary?
Rosemary: Daddy Pig?
Chris: Yes, Rosemary.
Rosemary: No, I'm Peppa Pig.
Chris: OK, Peppa. What did you want to ask me?
Rosemary: Daddy Pig. [points to Tasha] Is Fairy Godmother Mummy Pig?
Chris: Um. What? OK, yes.
Tasha: [rolls on the floor laughing for five minutes - much as Mummy Pig might do, in fact]

Dorothy!

2009-01-13T21:51:00.001Z

For some reason, Rosemary has taken to calling me Dorothy. Her pink spotty dog is called Toto and Toto is my dog, though Rosemary looks after him by sleeping with every night. Sometimes, she’ll use it to try to get me to stop lecturing her about something:

“So, Rosemary. Remember that, when you go to sleep, you’re not going to call out. You’re not going to get out of…”

“No, Mummy. You’re Dorothy.”

“OK. So, you mustn’t get out of bed. You mustn’t…”

“No, but you’re Dorothy!”

“OK. Well, Dorothy needs you to stay in bed and look after Toto. And you have to be quiet, so you don’t wake Toto up.”

Sometimes it’s easiest just to play along.

In an interesting development, apparently Chris is Charlie. We shall if this catches on.

“I tried to strangle a little girl”

2009-01-12T16:12:00.001Z

This is what Rosemary announced to us over lunch today.

“You tried to what a little girl?”

“I was strangling her”

“Why did you do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ah. Were you trying to give her a hug?”

“Yes, I was.”

“And you were hugging a bit too tight?”

“Yes, it was too tight and she cried.”

“Did you stop strangling her?”

“Yes, I did stop.”

“Did someone ask you to stop?”

“Yes, one of my ladies.”

A bit later, we decided on a few more leading questions.

“Did you play nicely with the other children?”

“You weren’t nice?”

“No.”

“Were you horrible?”

“Yes, I was horrible.”

“Why were you horrible?”

“Because I tried to strangle the little girl.”

In the end, Chris phoned the nursery school to check. Yes, she was trying to give a girl a hug and the little girl was getting upset and Rosemary didn’t realise. She let go as soon as one of the adults asked her to. And she played very nicely with all the other children. Phew!

Happy Birthday Daddy

2009-01-11T09:21:00.002Z

(Hopefully he won't read this until after he's opened his presents.)

Yesterday, we went shopping for presents for Chris. Of course, we had to get the obligatory cup, which Rosemary wants to buy for everyone's birthday, Christmas and Thursday afternoon. But, when we were in the RSPCA shop I suggested we go through to the book room to see if I could find any books for Chris. I thought she was just looking for books for herself in the children's section but, within about 10 seconds she'd come to me holding a small book. "Maybe Daddy would like this? I think he likes books like this one, doesn't he?" It was a small, thin book with the title Goblins Attack. While it is probably not anything he'd be inclined to read (as far as I know) I was so impressed that she recognised (presumably from the picture) that it was a genre that Chris enjoys, that I had to buy it.

Photos

2009-01-08T15:40:00.003Z

Christmas 2008 in Carnoustie

Christmas No.2 and Boxing Day No.2 (2008) in Stroud

Rosemary's Den in the living room

Never mind, we can buy another one

2008-11-26T08:10:00.004Z

From somewhere, Rosemary has developed the idea that everything is replaceable. If she drops something, breaks something or loses something, she says 'Never mind, we can buy another one.' If we've run out of noodles or oat biscuits, she will say 'Maybe we can buy some more.' If she sees a toy she likes at her nursery school or at Parliament, and she's told she can't take it home with her, she might say 'Oh OK, maybe we can buy one for me.'

Perhaps she thinks she can single-handedly bring the economy back into gear.

(Not really monthly) update

2008-11-21T21:34:00.004Z

Well, it's been an absolute age since I've done an update, so it can't really be called a monthly one anymore!

Age: 27 months

Size/weight: Weighs about 2 stone, not sure of height. Mostly in 2-3 year clothes, actually has a few tops that are 3-4 and her new mac is 3-4 as she complains about coats being 'too tight' a lot. I have now discovered the really easy way to take trousers up (iron on hemming thing, that takes about 2 minutes, instead of the 45 minutes it takes me to sew up one trouser leg), so am happier about buying trousers that are nice and loose, but far too long.

Health: Generally pretty good, though she's had two colds/coughs this month.

Teeth: She still has some gaps at the back, though maybe they're supposed to b there. She loves brushing her teeth, and would do so 5 or 6 times a day, given the chance. She's also usually happy for us to brush them a bit, to ensure they are being properly brushed; sometimes we have to let her brush our teeth, though. I almost always brush my teeth at the same time as she does, unless I've done them already for some reason, as I think it's good for to see it. I actually have no idea if Chris does the same.

Toiletting: Getting much closer to being dry. She's on her second potty and toilet reward chart (she got a toy snake as a prize for filling the first one up). When at home, she's now frequently realising she needs to wee or poo and pulling her trousers (and nappy, if she has one on) down and sitting on the potty. She still has quite a few accidents when she's just got trousers on, but they're gradually going. She's not much good on the toilet anymore - odd, because we thought she might bypass the potty and go straight to the toilet. I think she appreciates the immediacy of the potty; there's no need to walk upstairs and she doesn't have to worry about having to get someone to open the door for her. The potty (or potties; we have three of them; one on each floor) gives her the ability to be more independent (which is something she is clearly craving.

Sleep: Well, she had quite a bad night tonight, deciding to make a game out of bedtime. However, generally speaking she's going to bed very well and without hours of watching TV, which is useful. And, more to the point, she's going to bed at a reasonable time (usually between 7 and 8pm, though tonight she held out until 8.30pm). She comes into our bed in the early hours far too often and hasn't had a star on her staying in her own bed chart for a long time. She rarely has a daytime nap now, though sometimes falls asleep in her buggy if she's had a long day.

Eating: She's generally not too keen on evening meals at the moment, though can surprise us (with no apparent logic, unfortunately) and really wolf something down. She's very keen on noodles at the moment and quite often has some at lunchtime. She usually has a lot of breakfast and a fair amount at lunchtime and also usually has some snacks in between. She's back into bananas again, after having a couple of weeks of not liking them. She really loves pears and quite likes apples. She also prefers food from my plate, even though it's usually exactly the same as the food on her plate. She's fairly reluctant to try new things at the moment, though I'm sure that's just a phase.

Speech/communication: This is the area where she's very forward. She can explain what she needs or wants, what she's been doing, what she's going to do, and so on. She still sometimes forgets that she explain things, or is too quick to get upset, but once she's calmed down, she usually remembers that she can use words to tell us why she's upset. She can say some things in Spanish and quite a lot in Esperanto, which her Granny often speaks to her. The other day when we were running to catch the train, we were saying 'One, two, three, wheeeeeee,' and, after we'd done that a few times, she said 'In Spanish, this time,' then it was 'Uno, dos, tres, wheeeeee,' (if anyone can tell me the translation for 'wheeeeee' that would be really helpful) a few times. The interesting thing here, I think, is that she's recognising it as a different language, rather than just different words. The other thing I've noticed her doing is saying made-up words that sound a bit Spanish (pretty sure they're not actual Spanish or Esperanto words!), which is how babies learn a language and how I learnt Spanish when we lived in Spain. (Sorry, Chris and I are both very interested in language and linguistic development and so on, so we can go on about it a fair bit. Which could also contribute to her being forward in that area, I imagine.)

Intellectual development: Pretty good, I would say. She often listens when we explain why we need to do something or not do something and sometimes asks questions about the explanation. She's drawing faces now and she was making more complicated playdough creatures today, asking me to roll balls to make into eyes, and then sticking them on - on on each side (wiggly worm). She did also think that the worm needed two legs. She listens to longer stories, now, and can talk about the story afterwards. (Can also tell you what happened to Peppa Pig after watching an episode, etc.) Her counting has definitely progressed to actually counting objects and not just saying the numbers, though sometimes she does still continue counting after she's reached the end of a series. She recognises a number of different letters - O for Owl, M for Mummy, E for Eva, T for Tasha, J for Jenny, I for Ice cream... - and has started to realise that words in books say things and pointing at them and asking 'What is it?' or 'What's its name?'. She can move things around to get to places she can't reach - for example, she can pull a chair across so that she can press play on the CD player, pull a box across so that she can wash her hands or climb into the bath, pull a box across so she can look out our bedroom window, etc. There's undoubtedly much more to mention here, but we certainly don't have any concerns about her intellectual development.

Emotional development: We have been experiencing the 'fun' of the 'terrible twos' over the last few months. As I'm sure most parents do, we thought we'd escaped this, until it actually arrived. We said things like 'She did the terrible twos early. They lasted about two weeks.' And people told us that we might need to be prepared and that perhaps it was still to come. Well, they were right. For the most part, I can identify some logic behind it (in Rosemary's case, I mean; not every two-year-old!). It seems to be down to two things, the first being the conflict between the desire and need to be independent and the inabilty to do everything. The most common scenes occur when her nappy needs changing, when it's time to get dressed and when it's time to go to sleep - all things that she's wanting to be able to do herself, but not quite there yet. The other thing is the inability, despite advanced language development, to quickly explain what she means. For example, she might ask me to tuck her in, and will scream because I didn't do it the way she wanted. She's less likely to scream these days, but may shout 'No, like this!' and even stomp her feet. But the problem comes when she has to explain what 'like this' is. She's getting better at explaining things, and including a number of steps, now, for example 'Put the cover down here, then wrap it round me' (turned out that tucking her in isn't tucking the covers under the mattress, but tucking them under her; who'd a thunk it?). But she needs to think about it before she can come up with such an explanation, hence the immediate reaction is still often just 'No! Like this!'

We went through a stage (probably a couple of weeks) of 'banging'. Banging is essentially hitting and she does now know the word 'hitting' as well. At first it was just banging a spoon or fork on the table (you know, there's actually a children's book that says 'A spoon's great for banging; a cup fits your paw', or possibly the other way round and it annoys me a bit whenever I read it, because it's really annoying having a small child banging cups and spoons on the table!), but then it progressed to hitting us and Wesley (and various cuddly toys). And there were a couple of occasions where she hit another child while running past them (i.e. running around very fast and randomly sticks her hand out and shouts 'Bang!'). This is another area where I always watched the children doing this and wondered what their parents could be doing wrong, because of course my children would never do such a thing. Apparently it's a phase that most children go through and it's just a question of how long it will last - and how you deal with, of course. We seem to be over it, for the most part. Very occasionally, when she's very excited, she still does it to us, but she also usually realises she's done it and says 'Oh, sorry, I banged you.' How do we deal with it? For the most part we tell her it's not nice and that it hurts and it's not nice to hurt people or animals. We also say things like 'We don't like banging or biting or scratching. What do we like? We like kisses and cuddles and tickles and raspberries.' If it's protracted (doesn't really happen any more, touch wood), then we might (if it's safe to do so), leave the room and say we're not coming back in until she's going to be nice and friendly. Of course (I say, of course, but I realise that it's not obvious to everyone), what we never do is hit back, or bite back or scratch back.

Over the last two weeks she has become a lot more clingy with me, saying 'I need you, Mummy.' and literally clinging on tight to me. This morning, for the first time in my recollection, she said she didn't want to go with Granny, but wanted to stay with me. A brief talk about what she'd be doing and how she would see me in a few hours when she got home, and she was fine. And, of course, she had a lovely time, as she always does. I'm wondering if this might have something to do with starting nursery school. She adores going there and asks to go in there whenever we walk past, even if it's a weekend. She's has no qualms whatsoever about staying there without us and always has a good time. However, I wonder if there's a conflict between her desire to be more independent and not quite being ready to be. (Or perhaps I'm over-thinking it!!)

Social development: She's getting better at sharing, though still does snatch sometimes. She's good at offering her things - the ones she wants to - but she's not quite so happy when someone has something she doesn't want to share. She's getting on well at nursery school and likes the other children. She's particularly enjoyed playing with an older girl, which is often the case, it seems. She's still quite shy with many adults, but seems to be OK with the adults at nursery school (though on her first day she did say that she didn't like them because 'They're too old'). She still has a tendency to go up to other children and give them big hugs, something that many children find a bit upsetting, for some reason! Anyone in a buggy she'll say 'Awww. What a cute baby', even if they're clearly (to us, anyway) older than her. She shows sympathy and concern when she sees another child or baby crying. She's generally quite good at taking turns, in the park, for instance.

Likes: Going on the merry-go-round, running, being pushed in the buggy running 'really, really fast', noodles and bread and butter and peanut butter (not at the same time), being talked to by a hand puppet (Snake is the favourite, but Eeyore, Mouse, Dragon, Knight and Princess also work), climbing over and up just about anything that she can manage (us, chairs, walls, park equipment), The Wizard of Oz, Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Boris and Dudley puppet books, reading in general (mostly being read to, again, but asks lots of questions and will join in with some of the ones she knows very well), probably a gazillion other things I can't think of right now.

Dislikes: Having her hair rinsed, getting dressed when she doesn't want to, having her poopy nappy changed (fortunately, we don't have to do that very often as she does most of them on the potty), sitting at the dining table at dinner time for more than about three minutes, any clothes or straps that are not really, really loose, and probably a bunch of other stuff, too.

Developmental worries: None

New tricks/skills: Pulling her trousers and nappy or pants down so she can use the potty (and realising she needs to!), drawing faces, probably lots of other things that I have not properly noticed!

Either really, really sweet or slightly creepy

2008-11-06T11:36:00.002Z

Jenny has a young boy named Liam living next door to her who plays with Rosemary quite a lot when she's over there. Liam's dad died recently, and when Tasha was explaining this to her, Rosemary asked if Liam wanted to borrow her daddy. I'm not clear if this means she thinks I'm worth lending or that she wants rid of me.

Tasha'a birthday

2008-11-04T16:08:00.001Z

But really, as always, it's about the Rosie. Video especially noteworthy for her acrobatics trick at the end.

Sorry for the poor light. Blame the tilt of the Earth's axis.

First day at (nursery) school

2008-10-21T13:06:00.005Z

Well not quite, but it was her taster session at The Shambles Nursery School, today. She was very excited to be going to 'school' and was expecting to see lots of bags and, for some reason, a giraffe. She was so excited that I was able to use it as tool to persuade her to go back to sleep in her own bed at 4am ('Go back to sleep in your own bed, like a big girl who goes to nursery school.'). And when she woke up, at just after 8am, she came running into our room and said 'Mummy, get up, it's morning time. I need to get dressed and brush my teeth and go to nursery school. Come on!'

We arrived at about 10am, knocked on the door and were let in, at which point she immediately ran off to the water play area. I spoke to Patsy, the woman in charge for a bit, then she said 'If you want to try leaving her, you can.' Wow! Wasn't expecting that, but it makes sense to try it at the taster session, to prepare for any potential problems. So I went over to Rosemary and asked if she would be OK if I left for half an hour. 'OK. Bye.' and she ran off to some other activity. I left my mobile number and went and had a coffee. It felt very strange.

When I got back she was happily playing in the home corner. She noticed me and came over to show me a saucepan. Apparently, she was absolutely fine. She explored most of the different activities they had out and she had some milk at snack time. Patsy did have to intervene at one point when she was trying to take something from another girl in the home corner but, apparently, when asked, she was quite happy to have something else to play with instead and there were no tantrums.

The difficult part was persuading her to leave, as she would quite happily have stayed there for the rest of the session. I did manage to talk her into leaving, in the end, though, again with no tears. As we walked down the steps she said 'I like my new nursery school, mummy.'

So.... roll on 10 November, as Rosemary is definitely ready for it!

Conversations with pink doggies

2008-10-14T07:06:00.002Z

You stay in your buggy! There's a busy road. It's dangerous. No you can't get out and walk. Maybe when we get to the bus, you can. You OK? Awww. I love you. It's OK. Don't cry.

I overheard this while I was loading the dishwasher and Rosemary was walking round the dining table with her pink doggie in her buggie. It's fascinating listening to these kinds of conversation, because it is, at the moment, almost entirely reflecting back what we say to her on a regular basis. Which is a reminder to us all that we need to be extra careful what we say to, but also around, young children.

Cleaning up

2008-10-12T12:01:00.003Z

Rosemary's latest 'thing' is wiping. She likes to take a baby wipe and go around the house (and elsewhere) wiping everything in sight. The other day, she went to the park with Granny Jenny and didn't go on any of the equipment; she just wiped it all.

Some of the things she says while she's wiping:

I've just got to wipe this.
Hmm, this is dirty. I have to wipe it.
I'm a good wiper.

In addition to this, a slightly more useful habit she has developed is putting her bowls, plates and cutlery in the sink when she's finished with them (fortunately, she still uses plastic implements, otherwise we might have a lot of broken china on our hands). She hasn't worked out how to load the new dishwasher yet, but I'm hoping that will come within a few months ;) .

I was going to say I have no idea where she gets it from, as I consider myself very much an undomestic goddess. However, wiping the tables and worksurfaces down and doing the dishes are both things that I do make a point of doing quite a lot, so it could actually be something she's picking up from me. So, watch this space, and maybe Facebook and Babyworld, for when she picks up the whole blogging and rambling on inanely on the net thing from me (us!).

I'm getting cross, mummy!

2008-10-08T20:19:00.003Z

Rosemary is picking up body language as well as verbal language, apparently. The other night, I accidentally squashed her mummy (?! - some bubbles from the bath that she had put on the side of the bath, saying 'This is you, Mummy.'). She looked at me, pouted, then put her hands on her hips and said 'I'm getting cross, Mummy!'

Response to Gail's question

2008-09-30T11:37:00.002Z

Gail asked:

How do her motor skills compare? Or her social skills?

I thought I'd answer here, as other people might be interested...

She's pretty up there with most things, to be honest, though her language skills are the thing she's very ahead in (though, language is one of the things that children develop at such completely different rates, so it's difficult to say anyone's ahead) compared to her peers at toddler group, though there is one girl who's comparable, if not a bit further ahead.

She runs all around the playground, climbing up slides and nets easily and walks along the balance beam. She can jump with two feet, walk up and down stairs, though she's not allowed to walk down our stairs on her own still because they're so steep; she has to bump down on her bum (remember, I broke my ankle on those stairs, so I'm a bit paranoid about them!). She climbs all over the furniture and us.

She can undo her shoe buckles, though not do them up. She can draw straight lines and circles and almost write 'mummy'. She can do simple jigsaw puzzles and play pairs and snap (though she gets bored quite quickly and isn't too keen on 'rules'!). She can use a fork and spoon and just about cut and spread with a knife, though not incredibly well.

Socially, for the most part she's very friendly, though can be shy of some adults. She gets on particularly well with children a year or two older than her, though she is very affectionate with babies and little children (apart from one time a couple of weeks ago when she was running round the library and hit a baby on her way past, which was fairly mortifying!). She's reasonably good at sharing, but does forget sometimes and snatches.

She will throw smallish tantrums still, though for the most part she will calm down with a bit of explanation or a request for her to 'Stop crying for a bit, so that you can tell us what you need.' Sometimes, when she doesn't get what she wants, she will throw herself on the floor and kick and scream, but it doesn't normally last very long, thankfully.

She's not potty trained yet, but is on her way there, doing lots of poos and wees on the toilet and getting better at realising she needs to go and asking. (Though she also uses it as an excuse not to go to sleep - 'I need to do a poo on the toilet, now!' once is fine, 5 or 6 times, is definitely messing about!)

Can't think of anything else off hand.

Today, this blog was brought to you by the letters M and E and by the number 3

2008-09-28T22:17:00.003Z

Rosemary is fond of the number 3 at the moment. When faced with 'Just one more... ' (e.g. '... book', '... rock-a-by-baby', '... episode'), she is now responding with 'No, three more.' And, actually, for the most part, she is satisfied when she has had the three more whatever it is. If she isn't, and you say 'But that was the deal. Remember? Three more...' she generally complies.

And talking of the word 'remember', she's taken to using that herself now. I frequently use it when I'm reminding her of a deal we have made (e.g. 'you can play with the playdough now, but you have to get dressed after'; 'you can watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but when it's finished we are going to tidy the living room', etc.). When we've finished whatever it is, she will usually try to do something else, and I usually have to repeat the deal and say 'Remember?' Now, when she wants to do something, she'll say something like 'I will play with the playdough now. Remember?' or 'I will have Cheerios now. You know? Remember?' She's not quite got its use correct yet, of course!

I'm wondering whether most of Rosemary's surprising/interesting developments are actually in the realms of language, or whether it's just that we notice that more because we're both interested in language and linguistics and language development, etc. Are there lots of other things that we should be noticing and blogging about?

Weaned!

2008-09-26T22:37:00.002Z

Well, Rosemary is no longer having Mummy Milk.

This happened purely by accident. When she was under the weather, she fell asleep before getting home 3 days running, the first day she had a bit on waking, which she wouldn't normally have been allowed, but she was off her food, so the nutrients (and the antibodies, of course) were useful, so I demured. The second and third days she didn't ask for any on waking, or in the evening. The fourth day, Chris took her home while I went to have my hair cut, and managed to get her to sleep (not without a fight!). She did ask in the evening and I told there wasn't any left and she said 'Oh, OK.' Today she asked in the morning but, again, I said it was all gone, and she said 'OK.' and went off to do something else. She didn't have a proper nap though. She fell asleep in the buggy on the way home, but woke up when I transferred her to her bed and then spent the next two hours trying very hard not to go to sleep. But... she went to sleep at a more reasonable hour in the evening - and nice and easily.

We'll have to see how it goes with the napping - she's getting to the point where she sometimes doesn't have one, anyway, so maybe it won't be an issue. But however it goes, we can't resort to Mummy Milk, as it's all gone.

Hooray! Bring on the anti-histamines. (I'd say bring on the booze, too, but it's been so long since I've been able to drink more than one drink, I'd be hungover for a week, which is not something I'd enjoy.)

Reading

2008-09-25T23:00:00.002Z

This is what happens in the morning if I have to do housework and the TV is off:

It might be tidier and quieter to put the TV on, but it's very nice to be able to walk in and find her sitting in the reading chair reading a book!

Busy timetable

2008-09-19T13:30:00.005Z

This morning I had some fun doing a logic problem. I had to work out when Rosemary could go to the Shambles Nursery when she starts in November, when she starts going to Uplands Playgroup in May and next September, when she will be doing three mornings at Uplands. I also wanted to try to keep a decent amount of time with Granny, so it doesn't seem like she's going to nursery instead of Granny's and I needed to keep some swimming time in there and some Mummy and Daddy time!

So, from 10 November, she will be going to the Shambles Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon, Granny's Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning, Parliament drop-in Wednesday afternoon, swimming Monday and/or Friday afternoon and she will have Mummy/Daddy time Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon.

From May next year she'll add Wednesday morning and Friday morning at Uplands, with all day Thursday with Granny and possibly Friday afternoon with Granny too, which mean swimming Monday only - or at the weekend.

From September next yera she'll be doing Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at Uplands and Tuesday, Thursday mornings at the Shambles, swimming Monday afternoon, Parliament Wednesday afternoon and Granny Friday afternoon. With an option on maybe switching afternoons round a bit and doing a one or two afternoons at the Shambles if she wants to.

Wow! Of course, lots of this can be changed/cancelled if necessary (the Shambles and Uplands one can't be swapped round much, because they both are very heavily subscribed), so if it ends up being far too much for her (or us!) we can change it. I think she's probably going to really enjoy it all, though. And perhaps will enjoy nice quiet time with her mum and dad more for it.

That's where Grandma and Grandpa go

2008-09-08T14:43:00.002Z

Rosemary and I were sat on the sofa yesterday and the book I'm currently reading was sat on the footstool.

Rosemary (pointing at book): What's that?
Me: That's the book I'm reading, now. It's called 44 Scotland Street and it's by...
Rosemary: That's where Grandma and Grandpa go!
Me: Oh. Yes. Scotland. That's where Grandma and Grandpa go. Very good!

She quite often asks 'Where are Grandma and Grandpa?' and a common response is 'They went back to Scotland. That's where they live.'

As always, it amazes me what she remembers. Probably particularly as I am so forgetful myself.

Goodness me!

2008-09-02T11:53:00.003Z

When Rosemary needs her nappy changed or is going to the loo, one of her cuddly toys usually comes with her, too:

R: I've got a poo.
T: OK. Let's go and change your nappy, then.
R: Hippo's got a poo, too.
T: OK. Well, you'd better bring him too.
R: Goodness me! What a big poo. Goodness me! OK, hippo. You lie down. Lie down! Now I'm wiping you. There you go, hippo!
T: OK. Very good. Hippo's all clean. Now it's your turn. Lie on the mat, please.
R: Oh no! Hippo's pooing again. I'll just have to change his nappy.

This can go on for a while, without some kind of intervention from me (sometimes bribery, sometimes distraction and sometimes getting cross).

The bit I love is the 'Gooodness me!'. It's only hearing her say it that I realise I say it a lot, especially when she has really messy nappy.

The seaside

2008-09-01T11:04:00.002Z

Rosemary went to the seaside last week - here are some of the pictures. (Facebook people click 'View original post'!)

I don't know, either

2008-08-27T21:39:00.005Z

Rosemary was sitting in the living room eating her breakfast the other morning and Batman (think it was Batman - could have been some other cartoon) was on the on the TV. The following impressed us:

Chris: Why does the red-headed girl call the other red-headed girl 'Red'? Why doesn't anyone call her 'Red'?
Tasha: I don't know.
Rosemary: I don't know, either.

We were impressed both that she was listening to our conversation and also with the correct use of the word 'either'. I wonder how long we will be marvelling at her linguistic development? Presumably we'll stop at some point.

Ducks, lakes and trikes

2008-08-23T20:16:00.003Z

Rosemary's favourite thing to make with the playdough that came in the big red box Eva made for her birthday (for those who don't know, the big red box is a huge collection of art and craft things - paper, glue, feathers, foam shapes, stickers, paints, crayons, pencils, etc. etc. and playdough) is a lake and a duck to go on it. Below are her attempt and mine.

This is the first time she's really made them both independently. First time Chris suggested that she could make a lake for the duck he had made. A number of times she asked for me to make a duck and then she said she would make a lake for the duck. This time she again asked for a duck to be made, but while I was busy doing that (after being castigated for not putting a head on the duck - I thought it had a head!), she made her own lake and her own duck.

The other two photos are also birthday related in that she's riding her trike (her 'big' present from me and Chris) in the park. This generally involves treating it a bit like a buggy and being pushed all the way to the park and maybe a little bit in the park and then saying 'I want to get out,' and going off to play on the slide as usual.

Driving in my car!

2008-08-22T19:29:00.002Z

Rosemary was showing how imaginative she is getting this evening, so I grabbed my phone and took some photos and a bit of video. She's basically made the suitcase into her car. She straps herself in using the strap and takes her dolls and teddies for drives in it. (If you turn the volume on the video up enough to hear what she's saying, unfortunately it sounds as though I've just run a marathon and when I talk it's really loud.)

Anyway, enjoy.

(If you're looking at this on Facebook, you probably won't be able to see the pictures or the video, in which case you'll need to click 'View original post' to come to the actual blog.)

Recent photos

2008-08-16T22:43:00.000Z

Imaginative play

2008-07-13T21:42:00.002Z

Since Rosemary has had her new HappyLand Cottage I've been really enjoying eavesdropping on her imagination. It's fascinating to listen to her talking to the people and getting them to do things. Here are some examples of things I've heard her saying while playing with it:

You go to sleep, now, Daddy.
You going to walk the doggie, Mummy?
Come one, boy! Get up!
How are you, today, girl?
You come on, girl. Now!

But it's not just playing with this that demonstrates her burgeoning imagination, we also see her changing Eeyore's nappy, sitting Tiger on the toilet to do a poo, feeding baby (usually with ice cream), reading baby books. And one that particularly bowled me over the other day: we were sat in her room after she'd woken from her nap and my book was on her bed; she picked it up and opened it up at a random page, then started reading to me:

Once upon a time, there was a big girl called Mummy Tasha. She lived in a big house with Daddy and Wesley and Rosie. She took the dog for a walk and he barked lots.

This is a very close approximation to me telling her a story about Rosemary, where I always start 'Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Rosemary. She lived in a really big house with her Mummy, her Daddy and her dog Wesley.' I then tend to tell a story about something she has done recently or something she does regularly (e.g. going swimming, going to see Granny, etc.), though more recently I've been getting a bit more imaginative, myself.

Anyway, we're really enjoying being witness to the whole birth of creativity and imagination!

Monthly update for June 2008

2008-07-02T16:06:00.002Z

Age: 23 months (can't believe she's almost 2!)

Size/weight: Still combination between 2 years and 18-months–2 years clothes. Weight I have no idea!

Health: Very good

Teeth: Just the canines to come now, I think.

Toiletting: Well, she did a poo on the toilet today, with her Granny. They were in the churchyard on the way to get the bus and she apparently said 'I need a poo.', so they dashed to the public loos and she sat on the toilet and did a poo. She also did another one in her nappy about 5 minutes later, but that's fairly momentous, none-the-less. Nothing on the potties yet, though has been sitting on them for slightly longer at a time. Maybe she will be a straight to toilet girl. I imagine potties aren't very comfortable!

Sleep: Bedtime still pretty good, though I'm much worse at getting her to sleep than anyone else, it seems. Eva got her to sleep pretty easily the other night. Chris does it most nights. When I do it, she almost always seems to stay awake until 11pm and make a big fuss until she's really too tired not to do anything but sleep.

Nap time is usually 2-3 hours still and mostly painless. Today she didn't go down until 4pm, though, and yesterday not until 3pm. We'll see if this is just a blip or maybe the start of cutting out the nap altogether. (Please, not yet!)

Still waking in the night, but often going back to sleep quite easily (sometimes just needs one of us to say 'It's OK. Go back to bed.' or something like that). The early morning one is the worst for getting her back to sleep, though (usually between 5am and 7am) and sometimes she just ends up getting up. The black out lining helps a lot, but there is still some light coming in, and Wesley's usually moving about expecting to be let out and I think it's possible she can sense that I'm thinking about getting up and then is more likely to do so herself. If she'd just leave waking up until after 7am, it would be fine and we could just make that getting up time, but 5am is a bit too early!

Eating: She's doing pretty well, with food, though still often doesn't want to sit at the table for long at dinner time. She does seem to prefer grazing at the moment. She had ice cream for the first time in ages the other night, because she asked nicely, waited patiently and had eaten plenty of dinner. She was very pleased. And she accepted it without quibble when she wasn't allowed any the next night, which is good.

Speech/communication: Very good, as always. She's been doing a lot of imaginative talking recently, as well, which is such fun to watch/listen to. She uses her dolls and cuddly toys and sits them down to read them stories, puts them to bed, feeds them, etc. One of her favourite things at the moment is saying 'How are you today?' and if asked it herself, she'll answer it with 'I'm fine.' 'I'm very well.' or 'I'm not very well.' She's getting better at stopping fairly soon after the start of a tantrum and trying to put into words what she wants/needs, as she's realising that sometimes it's just that we haven't understood her.

Intellectual development: Very good, as well. Her imagination is growing (see above). You can see her thinking about how to do something/get something before trying (or after trying for a bit and failing - rather than automatically screaming and throwing herself on the floor). She recognises some letters and numbers (M for mummy, A for apple and sometimes others, the number 3 and sometime 2). She knows the whole alphabet song, as well as loads and loads of nursery rhymes. She has some colouring books now and does try to colour in (though she's a fair way off from being to keep within the lines), including picking different colours.

Emotional development: She's growing out of her tantrums, it seems, as her communication abilities and thought processes develop. They still occur, but they are a lot fewer. (And, as a result, my own screaming tantrums are practically non-existant!)

Social development: She's showing more desire to play with other children - especially older ones - though still doesn't understand sharing ('That's mine' is a very common phrase coming out of her mouth.) She's still quite shy of a lot of adults, though getting a bit more inclined to talk to them.

Physical development: She's really good at climbing now. She can walk backwards, jump, kick a ball, stand on one foot while holding something, almost do a headstand, dance, walk up and downstairs (though needs help still with our steep stairs), walk very well along the balancing thing at the park, climb the net on the slide at the park, build a tower.

Likes: Her new rocking horse, walking when out and about, her new HappyLand house and sandwich kit (though they only arrived today, so don't know for sure that they'll continue to be popular), climbing up furniture and people, running, strawberries, raspberries, toast, crackers and Philadelphia, TV, reading books (a lot more independent reading these days with attempts to actuall tell the story or make up a new one), playing with the letters in the bath, and probably lots more.

Dislikes: Seagulls, apparently (there were a lot of them in Cardiff when we went down to visit her Nana the other day, and she was very clear 'I don't like seagulls.'), not getting her own way (though is accepting it a bit more often, these days, especially if there's an explanation that she can understand or an alternative offered), Key Lime pie (though the biscuit base was a hit), peppermint tea, and possibly some other things too.

Developmental worries: None

New tricks/skills: Can't think of anything specific - just a gradual improvement in most things.

You're so cute

2008-06-16T12:02:00.002Z

Some new things Rosemary's been saying recently:

You're so cute/Aren't you cute?
How are you today?/How do you feel?/Are you well?
I feel fine.

The first time she used the first one (to my knowledge), we were walking home from somewhere and I was carrying her so that she was facing me. She grabbed hold of my cheeks and put her face very close to mine and said 'You're so cute.' I laughed so much that she kept on saying it all the way home.

She's starting to ask and answer questions and is working out how to answer in the affirmatively or negatively without just using 'Yes' and 'No':

R: Are you cute?
T: No, I don't think so. Are you cute?
R: Hmmm. No. I not cute.
T: No? Are you pretty?
R: I don't think so.
T: OK. Well, are you clever?
R: Yes, of course, Mummy!

She does change her mind about most of them, of course, so sometimes she's very cute, sometimes she's pretty, sometimes she's ticklish, sometimes she's happy, sometimes she's sad.

Ah yes, and talking of being sad, she now has a very funny fake cry, which she uses and then adds 'I'm crying', just in case you hadn't noticed.

Monthly update for May 2008

2008-06-02T12:26:00.004Z

Age: 22 months

Size/weight: Quite a few 2 year clothes, especially dresses, though still plenty of 18-24 month clothes. Still have issues with most trousers, that they tend to be too tight or too long (her mum suffers from the same issues!). I noticed, when she was asleep in her bed fully stretched out, that she seems to be longer (taller) than half the bed length.

Health: Generally very good this month, though she has just developed a bit of a cold and a cough.

Teeth: She has the four top and four bottom, plus a molar at the bottom right and I think another molar coming through at the bottom right and possibly corresponding ones at the top, though they're more difficult to see. She willingly opens her mouth to show us now, but she hasn't quite got the hang of getting her tongue out of the way!

Toiletting: Still in nappies. She knows when she's really, really just about to do a poo. If there's a potty very close by, we'll try to grab it, but usually she's not too keen. She often says 'I need to wee', but isn't usually interested once the potty is there and her nappy's off! She seems quite interested in the toilet - more so than the potties, I'd say - so it may be that she'll just go straight to using the loo (I think her Grandma said that Chris did that?).

Sleep: She has a pretty good bedtime routine going now, thanks to her dad (and it's now usually her dad who puts her to bed, though I can do it too, as can my sister and my mum). The routine is roughly bath (around 8-8.30pm), watch 2-3 episodes of Charlie and Lola (or something else, but they're probably still the most common), dimming the lights (e.g. full light for one episode, bedside light for one episode, no light for final episode), switch of TV and DVD and go through to her room, get into bed, go to sleep. (The last bit can be very quick and can take a while, depending on who knows what, but it's generally pretty quick.) The timings can vary, too, and when she goes through to her room is usually decided by how tired she's acting. [Chris may want to edit this section, as he knows about the sleep a lot more than I do!]

Nap time is usually OK as welll, though if she's over-tired she can get very stroppy and not be sure how to go to sleep (usually, it's still Muilk (her abbreviation for Mummy Milk) when she comes in from being with her Granny or from being out at swimming/toddlers. Weekends are often more difficult because timings go a bit wonky then. Sometimes she falls asleep in her buggy and will be transferred to her bed with no trouble, but she does usually wake for a bit of Muilk if that happens. It's probably time to try and develop another (non-Muilk dependent) nap routine, especially if the stroppiness increases.

She still wakes in the night, though is more often managing only one waking about 3 hours after going to sleep and then sleeping through to 6 or 7 in the morning. But she is frequently getting up at 6 or 7 in the morning, which is a bit early! Naps are, for the most part, 2 hours; sometimes 1.5 hours and 3 hours.

Eating: She's getting a bit fussier it seems, which is supposed to be quite common at this age, so we're trying not to fuss too much about it. She prefers to graze throughout the day and, as long as it's a balanced mix, we're trying not to be too worried if she does this and then doesn't eat loads at dinnertime. One thing we've been doing quite often is putting her unfinished dinner in the fridge and getting it out again at breakfast time and letting her graze on it in the living room. This is generally very successful, unless she really hates the food (not that common). She sometimes sees it in the fridge and says 'Ooh, my dinner's cooled down!', so perhaps she prefers cold food. She still likes most fruit (she's going through a banana phase at the moment) and quite a lot of vegetables, which is great. There's not much meat or fish that she enthuses about, though she had some fish in JRooL the other day which she seemed to really enjoy. But now her molars are developing, Chris thinks she'll probably be more into the meat.

Speech/communication: This is still amazing. She's asking questions now, the main one being 'What's that?' and she's waiting for answers and listening carefully. She knows loads of nursery rhymes and will quite often sing them to herself when going to sleep. There are a few grammatical things that can bug us a bit, particularly her insistance on asking 'Pick you up.' and 'Carry you' instead of 'Pick me up' and 'Carry me'. She's said the right ones a few times, so does know it. And she gets the pronouns the right way round for other things. She says 'Hola', 'Arriba', 'Empujen' and 'Gesundheit' - the Spanish are pretty much entirely down to Dora the Explorer, rather than any particular efforts on our part. The 'Gesundheit' is us, though, and she loves it - it makes her giggle and she'll do fake sneezes and then say 'Gesundheit' to amuse herself!

Intellectual development: Seems to be pretty good. She's very good with all the shape sorters and those puzzles where there's a block of wood that shapes fit into (not explaining that at all well, sorry). She's developing an imagination and creativity now - for example, the other day she made herself a slide out of a broom propped up against the sofa. She can draw zig zags now, as well as circles and lines. She's reading books (not literally, of course) on her own a lot more. She can point out lots of things in the pictures in books and when she doesn't know what something is she asks 'What's that?'.

Emotional development: She's still being very loving with many people (will cuddle little children and say 'I love you', for example) and is frequently telling us 'I love you'. She's also developed both a real and fake shyness. The real one involves cuddling into one of us when someone she doesn't know/know well is talking to her. The pretend one involves tilting her head a bit into her shoulder and saying 'I'm shy of Mummy' or 'I'm shy of Daddy' - and then giggling. She's really getting into the tantrums, though they are still (and hopefully will remain) fairly short-lived. She will scream quite quickly if she's frustrated with something, or one of us has misunderstood her/gone against her wishes.

Social development: See above for the being loving and being shy. She's still not really understanding sharing (though not expected to at this stage, really) and so when at toddler group, we have to be vigilant to head off attempts to 'steal' toys from other children. But she does also quite often play in the home corner alongside other children and give them things (e.g. give them a 'cup of tea', a 'sausage', etc.). Still has never been left in a creche or nursery without one of us, so don't know how she will face that. That's something we need to at least try a couple of times before she starts going to play group, I think.

Likes: Far too much TV - Dora the Explorer, Charlie and Lola, Peppa Pig, Wonder Pets, playing in the garden, going to the park (especially going 'up the stairs and down the slide'), walking when out, money (?!!), swimming (though sometimes likes the idea of it more than the actual act, especially if she's supposed to go on her back), pink milk, ice cream, spaghetti, bananas, pears, toast and peanut butter (especially mummy's toast and peanut butter). Probably lots and lots more that I can't think of right at this moment.

Dislikes: Anything involving not getting her own way, having her hair brushed, rinsing the shampoo/conditioner off her hair, sitting at the dining table for a protacted amount of time.

Developmental worries: None

New tricks/skills: It looks like she may be able to open her bedroom door now, as she did so three times last night, though it may have been that the door wasn't closed properly. Will have to keep an eye/ear out for that!

In which the observant may learn something about beetles

2008-05-30T12:20:00.000Z

In the wars

2008-05-17T19:15:00.003Z

Rosemary is walking and running about more and more. We're quite often taking her out without the buggy now and, to a large extent, whether or not we use the buggy is often more down to how much shopping we need to buy. However, this increased activity, mobility and independence has a downside in the form of lots more bumps and bruises. So far this week, she has suffered:

a splinter (and the far more painful and traumatic attempts by her parents to remove said splinter)
grazed knees
a cut/graze on her heel (from wearing her shoes without socks far too often in the hot weather)
a very nasty graze/bruise on her eye and cheek from falling over when walking up the path to the front door and landing on the step.

I think we need to add a first-aid kit to the nappy materials kept in the rucksack!

That's the way the cookie crumbles

2008-05-17T18:58:00.003Z

Rosemary and I baked together for the first time this week. She's made crumble with her Granny before, we'd never done any baking. I'd wanted to do it a week or so ago, but didn't ever seem to have enough time with her to fit it in. Then, on Tuesday, she'd gone to sleep quite early after swimming and only slept for about an hour and we'd been out to the library and bought new shoes and the kitchen was clean and we still, somehow, had an hour free before dinner needed to be started. She came and asked me for a biscuit and I told her that we didn't have any and was just about to offer (healthier!) alternatives, when I realised we had the time. So, I asked if she wanted us to make some together. 'Oh, yes please, mummy!'

So, she got up on a chair (after washing our hands, of course!) at the dining table and out came a big bowl, some flour, some butter, some sugar and some milk and a tablespoon. This was not recipe baking, but throw a bunch of ingredients in a bowl and hope they turn into something nice (which is actually how a lot of my cooking works). The flour came first and Rosemary put a few spoonfuls into the bowl, as well as a few on the table. I added a couple more spoonfuls and then moved on to the sugar, most of which I had to add to the bowl myself, as Rosemary was much more interested in eating the sugar. I then cut the butter up into small pieces and added it to the flour and sugar. We then both put our hands in the bowl and spent a while rubbing it together to make crumbs. Rosemary particularly enjoyed 'squeezing' the butter. Once that was done, at Chris' suggestion, we added some raisins and then I added some milk and mixed it up into a dough.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find Rosemary's rolling pin, so she had to use one of mine, but she did do a bit of rolling. Once it was rolled out she had a go at cutting a couple of shapes - she particularly liked the little person and the star - but then she became much, much more interested in tearing off bits of dough and eating them, so I had to finish cutting them and stick them in the oven.

They came out remarkably well, but it wouldn't have mattered if they hadn't, as it was just good fun doing it. So... what should be next? Suggestions on a postcard to...

Monthly update

2008-05-05T10:02:00.003Z

Age: 21 months

Size/weight: Mostly 18-24 month clothes; some 2 year clothes (especially tops and dresses). No idea of weight, but she's neither skinny nor chubby, so I assume it's about right! No idea of height, either, but she can't walk under the dining table without ducking.

Health: Generally good this month, with a few minor snuffles.

Teeth: Has another one somewhere towards the middle of the back on the right and has pointed it out to me, but still won't let me feel! There may be more we don't know about, though.

Toiletting: Still in nappies. She'll sit on her potty, but usually only with clothes and a nappy on. She seems to somtimes know she's just about to do a poo, but only a few seconds before, so not enough time to take clothes off and sit on potty. I think the warm weather that should be coming soon (?) will be ideal for letting her run around without a nappy and quickly get her on the potty. (Though still need to convince Chris that this is a good idea!)

Sleep: She is now sleeping in a big girl's bed! Chris changed the cot into a bed about a week ago now and she is definitely sleeping better. She is still waking, but quite often will go 6-7 hours without waking now. She has gone to sleep in her bed a couple of times now (rather than going to sleep in our room and being carried through) - the night before last she even asked Chris to leave the room and shut the door and went to sleep on her own. She's also not come to sleep in our bed in the middle of the night since the change (though this may be more down to the fact that I can sit/lie next to her when she wakes in the middle of the night, so don't feel so tired I need to take her through to our room!). She has fallen out a couple of times, but we have a duvet on the floor next to the bed to soften the fall and she has not really been bothered by it (and certainly not hurt) and has gone very quickly back to sleep afterwards. She has slept in there for all her naps since the change as well, which is wonderful. All in all the change to a cotbed has been a definite success. The next sleep challenges are for her to sleep through the night consistently, and for her to go to sleep at a reasonable time when staying with her granny!

Eating: She's eating well for the most part, though does have days where she's not hugely interested. Her taste buds and senses are maturing so that she has much more definite reactions to different flavours. She's far, far too fond of ice cream (which we introduced her to when she had a nasty sore throat - oops!) and would probably be happy to only eat that! She's still very fond of spaghetti (plain; with goat's cheese, sundried tomatoes and rocket; with bolognese; with carbonara... ), couscous and risotto, but will try most things still. The last few days she has shown a tendency to refuse things that Chris offers her, but accept things that I offer her (to the extent where Chris offered her slice of cheese, which she refused; he then passed it to me and I offered it to her and she took it, ate it and said 'Mmmm'). But she laughs when doing it, so it's probably some kind of game to her, rather than an early declaration of vegetarianism!

Speech/communication: This is fantastic, though she's coming along so fast now that we can't always work out what she's saying (much easier when it was just one word at a time). The vast majority of the time she can ask for what she wants, tell us what she's been doing, talk about a book, talk about TV show, talk to teddies, animals, etc. Occasionally, she will revert to pointing and saying 'That, that', but not very often. She's coming to terms with pronouns (can mostly differentiate between me/I and you, though still gets the muddled up, e.g. 'Pick you up.'). She's fully conversant with the present participle (I'm pooing, I'm hopping, I'm walking, I'm sitting, I'm yawning, etc.) and understands 'can' and 'can't' now as well (I can walk, I can't reach, I can climb, etc.). She can express her likes and dislikes quite well (I like, I don't like, I love, I really do love, I want, I really want, I need, I really need) (the addition of really may well be influenced by Charlie and Lola!). Her pronunciation is pretty good these days, as well, to the extent that other people understand her a lot of the time, as well as us. She can repeat back most words that are said to her (including in French, Spanish and Esperanto - and quit possibly others) with fairly good accuracy. Her intonation and accent can swap between mine and Chris' (and one her Grandma and Grandpa were visiting there was definite inclinations towards stronger Scottish intonations).

Intellectual development: Seems to be very good as well. I was surprised the other day, when looking at a book with her how many things she could recognise and point at. On every page, she could point to almost everything I asked (e.g. bucket, spade, butterfly, elephant, octopus, book, computer, lamp, torch, Mummy, Daddy, boy, girl, ice cream, etc. etc.), which I read somewhere recently is a 2-3 year milestone. She knows that if she can't reach something, she can, for example, pull a chair over to climb on. She knows the buttons to press on the remote controls and phones to turn them off. She knows that switching a light off will make it dark. She recognises when she's going somewhere familiar and can show people which way to go. She remembers (for the most part) what she can and can't get away with with different people! She remembers people more, even in their absence (talks a lot about Grandma and Grandpa, even though it's almost a month since they were here), talks about going to see Nana (my Granny) a lot, and talks about Granny and Eva a lot too, and Rupert and Emma and Holli.

Emotional development: She's a lot happier to be on her own for a bit and amuse herself, though she does still have clingy moments when she doesn't want to be put down at all. She's made great inways into the terrible twos already and can get frustrated quite easily if she is denied something (whether by us or by her inability to do something). She's definitely started to test boundaries and we're having to try to develop strategies for this. She does throw herself on the floor and even stomps. (She even says 'I'm stomping'!) and has new 'cry' that is so fake it's almost funny. She's (see above) happier to sleep on her own in her own bed now and is not waking up as much. If she's tired, she can be very grumpy and have a very short tether.

Social development: She's starting to interact more with other children, talking to them and sharing things with them. She's very gentle with little babies and animals (though not always with Wesley!) stroking and cuddling them. She will still snatch things from peers sometimes, but usually gives them back with a little prompting. She's also started asking them for things when she wants them before taking them. Unfortunately, they're not all quite at the same stage so, while saying 'Pass me the teapot, please.' would work very well with an adult, it doesn't tend to with another toddler! She has yet to (and hopefully won't ever, but I know it's not unusual) show any inclination to hit, bite or otherwise hurt other children, though she will sometimes pinch us very hard or pull our hair intentionally.

Likes: One of her favourite pastimes when in her bedroom is to 'play with monies'. This involves emptying all the money out of her two piggybanks (the boy and the girl) and putting it back in bit by bit, then doing it all over again, and again, and again. The last few days she has deviated somewhat by also putting money in her pocket, in the potty, in drawers, etc. She also has a new Matroyshka (Russian doll) which lives on her window sill and she likes to open out all the way and then put together all the way, and again, and again... Last week she had 'The Cat and the Hat' cartoon (60s version, not the new film) out from the library and watched it about a billion times. She really, really, really liked it. She danced to it, she laughed lots when one of the Things fell down the stairs. She would say 'Oh no. It's raining.' at the start and talk about other bits of it, too. She hardly watched any CBeebies that whole week. It's gone back to the library now and she doesn't seem to have noticed, thank goodness. We were very sick of it! She's still really into Charlie and Lola, but also likes Dora the Explorer a lot now, too. She's wanting to be read to a lot more again, too, especially in her room (where she is spending more time, now that there is the bed, wardrobe, bookcase and, of course, the 'monies'), having been a bit bored with books (at least in comparison to before) for a few weeks. She's also enjoying pointing things out in books more and talking about them.

Dislikes: Having to be in her buggy instead of walking/running around. Not being allowed to do something that she wants to do.

Developmental worries: None.

New tricks/skills: Sleeping in a big girl's bed!!!

I like, love, want, need...

2008-04-29T15:31:00.002Z

Rosemary has recently developed more of an ability to express her opinions about things, foods, people, etc. Until recently it was just 'Have it.' when she wanted/needed something and 'I no like' when she didn't like/want something. But now she can use:

I like it.
I don't like it.
I love it.
I really do love it.
I want it.
I need it.
I really don't like it.

Probably two of the most common uses of these are:

I want some mummy milk.
I want some ice cream.

Last night, Chris and I found her increasing desires for ice cream quite amusing.

R: I want some ice cream.
T: Eat a bit more dinner, darling.
R: I really want some ice cream.
T: Well, she's eaten quite a bit, and she's not feeling too well. What do you think?
C: Yes, she's had a fair bit. What's the magic word, Rosemary?
R: Ice cream! I want the ice cream!
T: What do you say?
R: Ice cream!
C: When you want something, what's the word you say?
R: I really, really need some ice cream!
T: Puh, puh...
R: Puh, puh, please.
T&C: Well done, Rosemary!

It was the needing ice cream that amused us, of course. And after she'd gone to bed, I discovered that I also really needed some ice cream. :)

Monthly update

2008-04-07T09:31:00.002Z

(This is just copied and pasted from a post on the August club forum, so it may read a bit odd...)

AGE 20 months

SIZE/WEIGHT No idea, really. She's in size 4 shoes, though probably won't be more than a couple of weeks before she's in size 5. Clothes are mostly 1 1/2 years to 2 years clothes and the occassional 2 years item. She has a problem that most of the trousers are too long for her and need rolling up. The ones that are right height are too tight round the waist (and she's not really what you'd call plump!). Her father and I are both on the short side, I suppose, so I imagine she's taking after us there.

MEDICAL HISTORY/CURRENT AILMENTS She's always been very healthy, but has recently had a few nasty colds, which she's tending to pick up at the 0-2 drop-in and swimming classes we go to (it seems) and we end up in this cycle of colds and coughs, with Rosemary having one, then Chris getting one, then me, then Rosemary again. I comfort myself with the knowledge that this is all very important for building up her immune system. Still annoying, though!

TEETH Still just the top and bottom four, though there seem to be some others coming through at the moment. (The bottom molars maybe? Never remember what they're all called, but the ones next to the canines, we think.)

LIKES All sorts of things - spaghetti, Charlie and Lola (far too much!), going 'up the stairs and down the slide', swimming, ducks, peas (she frequently says 'I like peas'), ice cream (recent addition to her diet when she had a sore throat, and something she likes a lot now), yoghurt, climbing up things and people, walking, singing, her Tia Eva, her Granny, her doggy Wesley (usually pronounced Welly), her Mummy and Daddy (of course), Tulo (her Granny's cat), cuckoo clocks (and clocks in general), going on the bus, talking on the phone to Grandma and Grandpa and Nana (and Eva and Granny), painting and drawing, various books, going to the library...

DISLIKES Having to get dressed when she doesn't want to, having her nappy changed, getting in her buggy when she doesn't want to... well, pretty much being told she has to do something she doesn't want to or can't do something she wants to. The full-blown tantrums have started, and the word 'No' has become a staple in her vocabulary. It's worst when she's tired, or not feeling well.

FOOD & DRINK She's still having a few breastfeeds, but no longer needs it to get to sleep (and quite often can't get to sleep with it, in fact, if I decide to be lazy and try!), though more 'fridge milk' and juice. She loves drinking juice (very watered down pure fruit juice, usually, though she's occasionally had some really, really watered down ribena) from a cup with a straw, but still mostly uses her Any Way Up cups. Foodwise, she's generally got a decent appetite, though not as much when she's got a cold. She has her favourite foods - spaghetti (with goat's cheese, rocket and sunblushed tomatoes, or with bolognese sauce), risotto (my mixed vegetable - whatever's handy - risotto, with lots of parmesan), toast (prefers granary, with just butter) or bread and butter, cheese, beans, peas, lots of fruits (pears, bananas, grapes and apples being favourites), carrots, fish fingers and Granny's porridge (which is apparently much better than mine!) - but she'll try most things and eat a decent helping at most meals. She basically eats whatever we're having for dinner, unless we're being naughty and having a Dominos, when she'll have beans on toast and tomatoes and cucumber or something like that.

SLEEP Meh. She's going to sleep without Mummy Milk, finally. Which has made my life a gazillion times better (and the house a fair bit cleaner, too). But she still wakes at least once during the night, and often twice, and has Mummy Milk at least one of those times, and also usually ends up in our bed. She's napping pretty well in the afternoon, usually for about 2 hours, though sometimes only 1 and sometimes up to 4 if she hasn't slept well the night before. But a few times recently she's woke up after her nap and screamed and screamed for ages, with no comforting her whatsoever. We think it's probably that she hasn't had enough sleep, though think it might also be wind, as she's often done a huge fart just when she's starting to calm down! (No pattern in terms of food beforehand, though.)

TOILETING Still in nappies (Pampers Easy-Up Size 5). She's done a couple of wees on the potty, but think they've mostly been flukes. She does sit on them (we have 3, one on each of the main floors of the house) qutie often, though also puts them on her head, uses them as buggies to push dolls around in, etc. She understands about them, and I think will get there in her own time.

DEVELOPMENT WORRIES None really. She's way ahead in a lot of things, particularly language - she uses full, grammatical sentences, understands the difference between lots of pronouns and even uses different tenses. She's ahead in terms of drawing and painting and imaginative play. She's maybe a bit behind in things like shape sorting and jigsaws, but she's shown she can do them when she wants to, so I think it's more that she's just not that interested in them. She can count up to eleven in English and 100 in Esperanto (my mum speaks Esperanto with her quite a lot). She has a few phrases in French (for some reason I tend to do a lot of telling her off in French, which is odd - Touche pas! Pas dans la bouche! Pas pour manger!). She can jump and run and throw a ball, and even occasionally catch one (though usually that's a fluke, or very careful throwing on the adult's part), is affectionate towards other children, especially those younger to her, and mostly quite confidant. She recognise some writing - Rosemary, Mummy and Eva and is loves asking us to write words down. And she also seems to have started the Terrible Twos a bit early, but hopefully that means she'll also finish them early (wishful thinking?).

NEW TRICK LEARNT THIS MONTH Can't think of anything specific. It all seems to be gradual and it's more that we'll suddenly realise that she's doing something really well. Actually, going to sleep without Mummy Milk was probably learnt during the last month and a half, and that is a really good trick (I think so anyway, though I do know that practically every other child her age learnt to do that a long time ago!)

The Great Escape...

2008-03-31T12:34:00.002Z

... or possibly just gradually developing independence.

Rosemary's latest 'thing' is opening and closing doors. And shutting us out of/herself in rooms. And for the most part she's happy to stay in there on her own for a bit. I think she'll be happier still once she's properly got the hang of turning the door handles in this house (they aren't the easiest for a little person to master). She's managed the bathroom one a couple of times, now, and is quite close to getting the living room one mastered as well. The kitchen door doesn't ever shut properly anyway, so she's in and out of there with no trouble. It helps, I think, that all the downstairs doors have glass in them, so she can see us (given the correct angles, of course).

Oddly, though, this bid for independence has been accompanied by a sudden fascination with the word 'No':

– Right, you need to put your shoes on, so we can go out.
– No!
– We can't go out unless you put your shoes on.
– No!
– Do you want to put them on yourself or shall Mummy do it?
– No, no, no, no!
– Would you prefer your wellies?
– No!
– OK. Well, Mummy's going to pick you up and put your shoes on, anyway.
– No! No! No! No!

And many other similar scenarios. Particularly when she's tired. To be fair, this was only really yesterday and a bit this morning, but we're so used to having a reasonably accommodating daughter who, though often requiring a bit of cajoling, explanation or bribery, tends to get there reasonably quickly and with few tears, that it's come as a bit of a shock. Please, please, please don't let this be the start of the 'Terrible Twos'!

Multimedia extravanganza

2008-03-26T05:11:00.000Z

Painting part 1

Painting part 2

Baptism...

2008-03-18T19:40:00.003Z

... well, not quite.

Rosemary went under the water at swimming today. And, as with so much of the swimming so far, this was a much bigger step for me than for her.

The instructor (honestly can't remember her name, though it might be Sue) said 'Right. We haven't done this for a few weeks, so we're going to do some submersion.' And at that point her voice was coming across in a foreign language. All I could hear was 'Blah, blah, blah'. This was one of things I'd been most concerned about, with taking Rosemary swimming. One of the things that contributed to my not trying it until she was 18 months.

Surely she can't go underwater? She'll drown. How can it be even remotely possible for her to go underwater and not drown?

I stayed by the edge of the pool clinging to Rosemary far too tightly. The instructor came over and I told her that we'd never done it before. She walked me through it very clearly and suggested starting off with just letting her go down to over her mouth, first, to see how she found it. We tried it. She loved it. We tried it again. She still loved it. We tried it with the whole head. She still loved it. Though she was a little bit surprised. Wow!

Other things she enjoyed at swimming today: climbing down the steps (in the deep end); climbing out of the pool; jumping into the pool (with me catching her) about 10 times; doing The Hokey Cokey. Things she wasn't too keen on: pushing a duck through the water (though she did manage it after a while, mostly she wanted to chew the duck); sliding along the top step and under the railings (she walked and then got down and bum-shuffled under when she go to a railing, then got up and walked again).

And in the prior to swimming she enjoyed a trip to the bank and a visit to the shoe shop to, in a departure from the usual, buy Mummy some new shoes. (I thought it was my first new shoes in about 3 years, but Tia Eva pointed out that I got some cheap sandals last summer.) And after her nap in the afternoon, we went to the library and got 10 new books out and she did lots of running around and gave a couple of random children a hug.

Mummy Rosemary Tuesdays are fun! (Hopefully not just for me.)

Children say the funniest things

2008-02-27T20:51:00.002Z

Now that Rosemary's speech has developed so far, we get to note down cute/funny/silly things she says. I wonder how long we will continue doing that?

Yesterday, while pushing one of the dining room chairs around the room:

'Come on, chair. Let's go over there.'

Last night, in her sleep:

Contented sigh... 'My daddy.'

The other night, in her sleep:

'No, no, no... No shoes!'

(As you can see, she has inherited her mother's habit of saying bizarre things while asleep.)

Swimming

2008-02-26T14:21:00.002Z

Rosemary went to Swim Tots for the first time today.

She was very impatient to get in the pool and grumbled quite a bit at having to wait on the side for the previous class to finish.

The things she enjoyed most were going up and down the steps at the entrance to the pool, jumping across the pool like a kangaroo, jumping into the pool when Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall (with my help - not quite ready for her to jump in on her own!) and splashing with her feet and hands.

She did not enjoy having to stop what she was enjoying (e.g. going up and down the steps) to do something else, swimming on her back, having the shampoo and conditioner rinsed out of her hair in the shower afterwards, though she was less complaining about it than she is in the bath.

She wanted to go back in and do more swimming, which is probably a good sign.

She fell asleep not very long after we left, while walking round Tescos, though only slept for a short while. I remember always being very tired after swimming when I was little, too.

I was a little scared when she tried to wriggle out of my arms in the middle of the pool a couple of times, but other than that it was fine. I don't know when I'll feel confident enough to let go of her where she can't stand up, though. Hopefully the classes will help me get to that point, as well as helping her!!

Photos from a Spring day

2008-02-20T10:31:00.003Z

Probably the only Spring day we'll get it seems...

PS - Rosemary is utterly fearless on the slide. And elsewhere too - she's currently driving Tasha loopy with climbing up on the kitchen chairs. That's also part of Rosemary's current experimenting with independence, something that is in the final photo.

Christmas Post, 2nd delivery

2007-12-25T10:51:00.000Z

Christmas Post, 1st delivery

2007-12-25T09:11:00.000Z

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

2007-12-18T14:36:00.000Z

Manners maketh the man - or the small person, anyway

2007-11-07T22:13:00.000Z

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

2007-10-31T13:04:00.000Z

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?

2007-10-26T03:29:00.000Z

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'

2007-10-18T20:32:00.000Z

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

2007-10-16T19:17:00.000Z

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

2007-10-08T16:10:00.000Z

Art

and nature

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

and videos

2007-10-07T15:40:00.001Z

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

2007-10-07T11:40:00.000Z

Peeking

Dancing

Close up and serious

Mirrored

Monthly update

2007-10-02T05:52:00.000Z

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

2007-08-18T19:52:00.000Z

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

2007-08-12T19:31:00.000Z

Addendum

2007-07-11T20:13:00.000Z

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!

2007-07-11T17:32:00.000Z

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

2007-07-01T08:46:00.000Z

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 ~~England~~Europe, 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

2007-07-01T08:42:00.000Z

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

2007-06-01T06:26:00.000Z

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

2007-05-21T09:55:00.000Z

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

2007-05-16T19:59:00.000Z

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

2007-05-15T07:35:00.000Z

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

2007-05-13T18:50:00.001Z

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

2007-05-13T09:48:00.000Z

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

2007-05-12T07:06:00.000Z

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

2007-05-03T09:26:00.000Z

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

2007-05-03T07:10:00.000Z

Just some video, like

2007-04-29T13:55:00.001Z

First, a brief clip showing that Rosemary is capable of standing. When grabbing onto something. For brief periods of time.

Next, some footage from her visit to her great-gran in Wales.

Penultimately, this is Rosemary - with some help - searching for eggs and things in the garden at Easter.

Finally, just maxing and relaxing and playing in the living room.

There are also new photos to come, when Tasha has time to process them. But they, y'know, exist. In potentia.

Monthly update

2007-04-03T02:12:00.000Z

AGE 8 months on Thursday (34 weeks, 3 days)

WEIGHT/SIZE OF CLOTHES weight = somewhere around 16lb, I think, from a very unscientific weighing experiment at her granddad's (i.e. I stand on the scales; I then stand on the scales holding Rosemary and substract the latter figure from the former); clothes = mostly 6-9 months, some 9-12 months (looks like she'll be moving into 9-12 months vests very soon) and a few 3-6 months.

NAPPIES size 4 Pampers, Active Fit; usually 4 or 5 changes a day, but occasional 'pooping days' mean more nappies.

FEED Breastfeeds = 6 per day (rough times = 5am, 8am, 12noon, 3pm 6pm, 9pm); occasionally more during the night, if she's having a bad night.

Breakfast = fruit (if I'm eating breakfast with her, it'll be a variety as I'll have a fruit salad myself so, for example, banana, apple, pear, plum and grape; if I'm not eating breakfast, it'll be some of the 'tub fruit', which is fruit in a plastic tub from Waitrose, kept in fruit juice, with no added anything), crumpet with Philadelphia or just butter, and occasionally last night's dinner, especially if she's missed it by sleeping through it (which has happened maybe twice!).

Lunch = toast and Philadelphia, cashew nut butter, tartex, or other pate; fruit; sometimes left-over vegetables or dinner food (e.g. had some lasagne for lunch the other day); sometimes something different if we're having lunch out (e.g. had some croissant stuffed with feta cheese and caramlised red onion the other day in Star Anise).

Dinner = Pretty much what I am having / we are having. I now think about Rosemary when deciding what to have for my dinner. Chris will still sometimes have things that she can't really have (e.g. meat that she can't really chew) but, for example, we always have vegetables that she'll be able to hold (e.g. steamed carrot, brocolli; roasted Mediterranean vegetables cut in sticks) and some kind of protein that she'll be able to hold (e.g. vegetable fingers, fish fingers, sausages of veggie or non-veggie origin, cheese, omelette, macaroni cheese, etc.). Almost everything she has is 'finger food' and she feeds herself. Sometimes there's something that's not easy for her to pick up (e.g. mashed potato, baked beans) and then we load up the spoon and she feeds herself with it. She tends to dislike us trying to actually 'spoon feed' her. She's ocassionally used the spoon to get something herself, but not with any real control. I have no idea when 'normal-fed' babies are supposed to start using a spoon/fork themselves, but it feels like Rosemary will be doing so quite early.

SLEEP Tends to sleep from about 9pm through to 4am or 5am, when she wakes for a brief breastfeed and then goes back to sleep until around 7am. (The start and end times can move around an hour or two.) She will sometimes have a bad night, when she's waking a lot and last week, she was mostly waking once at around 1 or 2am, as well. Sometimes the waking seems to be tooth-related, though there's still no sign of any of them, and sometimes we think it might be indigestion, or just a mini-growth spurt (e.g. last week's waking an extra time).

MOBILITY She's now crawling, though it's still mostly arm work (i.e. pulling herself forward on her arms, with ocasional boosts from her legs/feet). She'll take loads of steps when being held by her hands or waist, though can't balance on her own yet. She can hold herself upright against a piece of furniture and just about pull herself upright, though not very often. Not started cruising yet, which gives us a bit of breathing space. We've just managed to clear space in the living room for her to crawl (it was full of the contents of our basement, which is flooded and has been since January) and it will be good to have a week or so before we have to worry about making all the furniture stable for potential cruising! She's loving bouncing in her bouncer now, especially with some music on. She particularly seems to enjoy it when one of us dancing along!

LIKES Talking, singing, the slide at the park, chasing things round the room (especially, it seems, the dog's toys, despite all our best efforts!), going out for walks in her buggy, her Granny (and auntie Eva and Granddad, but she's been spending lots of time with her Granny, and is particularly attached to her, which is lovely), toys that play music, making sounds herself with objects (e.g. banging things, shaking things, etc.), bath-time, her mummy and daddy (of course!), books (especially into the 'Roses' book at the moment, and still really likes her 'Peek-a-boo' book that her great-great-aunt Stella gave her), remote controls, phones and many other 'grown-up' things!

DISLIKES Being bored (though she doesn't get much chance of that!), getting stuck on her back (most of the time she remembers that she can roll over and get into crawling position, but sometimes she doesn't and gets frustrated), waiting for food (she's really very impatient when sitting in her high-chair, unless there's food in front of her!), having her nose wiped, being tired but not able to fall asleep.

FAV TV PROGRAMME She hasn't really been watching that much. If we're watching something she's usually more interested in playing with her toys or 'talking' to us. She tends to look up when there's a song (especially in a musical) and also when there are adverts on. She's hardly had the baby channel on at all, as she has far too many other things to amuse her now that she's mobile.

NEW TRICK LEARNT THIS MONTH Crawling, waving bye-bye (but only seems to want to do so to her auntie Eva!), saying 'hello' (maybe?!).

SPEECH She may have said her first word yesterday. She came in from the park with her Granny and Granddad and I said 'Hello' to her and it really seemed like she said 'Hello' back to me, twice. But we couldn't get her to repeat it, so it may have just been coincidence. She really sounds like she's saying Mama quite often - particularly if she's upset at night. Apparently the M sound is an upset sound, though, while P and D sounds are happy sounds, so it might just be that. She's really vocal now, and mixing up the sounds a huge amount. When she's spent a lot of time with her Granny or her Daddy, she spends ages telling me all about it. She'll sometimes talk for half an hour. She also sometimes does the same after a big sleep, and it seems she's telling me all about her dreams. She frequently talks/sings when in the buggy.

What they don't tell you (Part LXIV)

2007-03-30T17:59:00.000Z

Amongst other things, they don't tell you that the milestones are no such thing. It's not a case of not crawling one day, crawling the next. It's a gradual process involving rolling, pulling along, throwing oneself about - there is no one point where you can simply say "Aha! She is crawling where she didn't before!"

That said, this video is probably as close to evidence of beginning to crawl as you're likely to get.

Tomorrow - why it's not a notooth/tooth situation.

The latest from the world of bouncing

2007-03-27T14:02:00.000Z

First, we have a couple of photos only recently uploaded

and a piece of video demonstrating, I hope, how much more mobile she is. Well, mobile when strapped into a bouncing device. You should probably watch this one with the sound off.

Monthly update

2007-03-04T06:27:00.000Z

Copied and pasted the following from a babyworld post, as I thought it would interest some of you:

AGE 7 months tomorrow (weeks = no idea!)

WEIGHT/SIZE OF CLOTHES weight = no idea; clothes = some 3-6 months, but many 6-9 months now

NAPPIES size 4 Pampers

FEED BLW = fair bit of breastfeeding still, usually 1 big bf c. 7am, 1 big bf c. 9.30am, breakfast (fruit, crumpets, toast, sometimes night before's steamed or roasted veg) c. 10.30am, 1 smal bf c. 11am, 1 big bf c. 1pm, lunch (toast, fruit/veg, or whatever I'm having, within reason) c. 2.30 pm, 1 small bf c. 3pm, 1 big bf c. 5pm, 1 small bf c. 7pm, dinner (whatever we're having - usually steamed or roasted sticks of vegetable of some kind and main course, such as cheesy pasta, tortilla, stuffed pancake... whatever) c. 7.30pm, 1 small bf c. 8.30pm, 1 big bf c. 10pm. Teething biscuits as snacks during the day, especially while she waits for me/Chris to prepare some food, while in her high-chair!

SLEEP In her own room and big cot now! Tends to sleep from between 10pm and 11pm through to between 6am and 7am, then usually goes back for a couple of hours after about 15-20min breastfeed. Tends to have a nap around 11am, for anything between 30mins and 2 hours. Tends to have another nap in the afternoon, while in her buggy. Sometimes she'll stay awake when we get home and sometimes she'll wake up for a while and have a small nap an hour or so later. Ocassionally has another small nap before dinner.

MOBILITY Very mobile, even though not yet actually crawling. Rolls about all over the place, pushes herself backwards when lying on her back - especially on the changing mat (thank goodness we don't have a high-up changing station!). Sits up unaided, though will topple over frequently still. Has pulled herself forward on her tummy a few times, though not quite actually crawling. Can hold herself up when standing for a while, though not pulling herself up yet. I think she's going to be running around any minute now.

LIKES Action rhymes (Row Row Row Your Boat, The Grand Old Duke of York, Horsie Horsie, Ride a Cock Horse, Five Little Ducks), books (especially touchy feely ones, at the moment - but generally likes looking at the pictures now, not just eating them!), baths, her new buggy mobile thing, the Winnie the Pooh musical mobile above her cot, me saying 'moo', me singing 'Bee-Bop-A-Lula' (or however you spell it), her shape sorters (both of which play tunes, which is the part she likes the most), her Jemima doll (raggedy-Ann style doll), especially when her dad makes it fly quickly towards her, dancing, people smiling at her, crumpets, mango, Philadelphia.

DISLIKES Pineapple, me coughing (especially I'm holding her), getting her last few clothes put on in the morning, sitting in queues in shops if she's trying to get to sleep.

FAV TV PROGRAMME Likes adverts a lot, as they're of a good time span for her, and they tend to have music and bright colours. Likes the baby channel, though doesn't get to watch it too often. Still likes close-ups of people talking to the screen.

NEW TRICK LEARNT THIS MONTH Sitting up, sleeping in her own room, falling asleep on her daddy (though only done that once; she is still predominantly nursed to sleep, except when she falls asleep in her buggy when out and about), eating solid food.

SPEECH Making lots of different sounds. Especially likes doing a high-pitched squeal, which my friend describes as her 'rape alarm sound'. She also likes growling (perhaps learnt from the dog?). She makes M sounds particularly when tired and has also got into making P sounds and recently D sounds. She's been making B sounds for a while now, and a bunch of different vowel sounds. Occasionally she looks like she's really straining to actually say something (especially when 'talking' to her toys).

Mental development and/or narcolepsy

2007-02-19T13:38:00.001Z

Rosemary fell asleep in my arms on Saturday night. A quietly remarkable event. We had been playing, she went silent, looked up at me and closed her eyes. So unexpected, I wondered why she was closing her eyes until, realising that she hadn't opened them again, I finally grasped that she had in fact dozed off.

This was, in its way, a momentous development even if it's not up there with walking, talking or writing a three-volume SF epic. It's definitely the first time she's done that with me, and additionally when Tasha has gotten her to sleep there's generally been feeding involved in some way, even if she's not feeding at the precise moment she nods off. This development open a whole new vista of possibility - namely, the possibility of me getting up at 2am to try to get her back to sleep while Tasha continues to snore her head off.

It did make me wonder, am I really going to be shocked when she does all the other things that she has a 100% chance of doing. I hope so.

Pictures and physical development

2007-02-11T06:57:00.000Z

Sitting in the living room with daddy

Sitting on the floor with mummy

'Look no hands!'

'And now I'll play with my rattle, I think'

'I'll be crawling soon!'

'Or maybe I'll walk instead.'

See all the photos uploaded this morning and taken yesterday.

Physical development

As you can see, Rosemary is close to sitting up completely unsupported. She's correcting herself when she topples a bit in any direction and can easily pull herself back up from leaning forward. She can also pull herself up using my legs from an almost horizontal position.

She's very strong on her feet, and likes standing up with our help. She'll quite often pull herself straight into a standing position when presented with our hands.

She's much happier to spend some time on her tummy, and will do a fair bit of exploring in that position if there's something of interest. She also knows how to roll onto her back and will do so if she gets bothered. She's moved around while on her tummy to reach different things, though not yet moved forward or backward.

(Sorry for the monotone post - Chris is the witty one in this family; for the moment at least.)

Pictures, lots of them (sorry if you're on dial-up!)

2007-02-10T06:37:00.000Z

Breakfast

Playing in her bouncy chair

Sitting up (except you can't really tell!)

Rosemary with her daddy

Rosemary's first snow day (sorry, she's not actually in most of these!)

She's talking...

2007-02-09T21:21:00.000Z

... it's just, we have no idea what she's saying.

Seriously folks, in the last few days Rosemary's burbling has, on occasion, begun to sound very much like she's making actual words rather than just trying out different sounds. Tasha is convinced that she's trying to say 'mummy'.

What. A. Surprise.

I personally have no idea what she's trying to say and yet I'm convinced that she is saying something. How odd. It's something in the way she says it, the look in her eyes, that tells me that this is communication, not just random grunting and groaning.

In other news, puréeists may be pleased to know that, as Tasha has been eating vegetable stew the last couple of days*, so Rosemary has been getting mushed up vegetables - sweet potato, potato, courgette, parsnip and beetroot. Her response to this, and to solid(ish) food in general recently, has been very enthusiatic. Like Pavarotti and an all-you-can-eat-chicken-wing buffet, her shouts of FEED ME!!!!!** in between getting another mouthful are quite terrifying.

*My own dinners very definitely not suitable for translation to BLW.

**I'm translating, obviously. It's a sort of primeval, atavistic growlyelp. I think she may have learned it from the dog.

As night follows day

2007-02-08T11:24:00.000Z

So dinner follows breakfast. There may have been snacking inbetween but not of the sort that you would want to video, unless you had very specialised tastes.

It snowed here last night (photos later). Quite heavy and not melting. Rosemary was interested in it, to an extent, the same way she is in anything new, and noticed it, reached out and touched it, and tasted it. But obviously she didn't have a real ooohhhhhh reaction like we did (I woke Tasha in the middle of the night to show her, in case it would all be melted by dawn) because as far as she knows, this is what happens on this day. Everything goes white. She may be disappointed next year.

The modern husband

2007-02-07T21:27:00.000Z

So yeah, nowadays in addition to fixing the plumbing, changing nappies, killing spiders and scaring burglars the 21st century man must also be prepared to roll up his sleeves, place a clothespeg on his nose and get on with updating the blog. I know, I know, it seems like women's work, and I admit I feel slightly emasculated whenever I edit HTML, but what's a guy to do?

Seriously, just as the first six months can be a bit, well... boring for dad because sleeping and eating is pretty much it for the baby (although we had enough drama in the first few hours, never mind the first couple of weeks, to last for a long, lonnnnnnng time) so describing this from an external point of view would be even more boring. And logging on as a separate entity just to post pics wouldn't really work for me. I have to make my little comments, as you'll notice in any video that I've shot. But now... six months seems the right time to start contributing more.

And lo, I have actual content. Rosemary eating breakfast...

[Further video to come once I can get it uploaded]

Apparently babies will keep food in their mouths, like hamsters, for up to 30 minutes or so (sometimes apple-cheeked isn't just figurative), and that's what can cause the occasional choking cough. It's not so much that they're having trouble with one piece of food, more that they're in such a rush to taste all before them that they're trying to eat the main course without first swallowing the apertif. Something that my own father is familiar with.

Couple of technical things to get out of the way (things are going to be different around here). The number of posts on the main page has been reduced from 10 to 5 to avoid having to load so many pictures, and captcha has been turned on for the comments. And can I take this opportunity to suggest to anybody - by which I chiefly mean Rosemary's grandparents - that leaving a brief comment is not only acceptable but desirable.

Grandad's birthday and shelves

2007-02-04T19:55:00.001Z

Here are a few photos of Rosemary with her Grandad on his birthday.

And here's a non-Rosemary-related photo of the bookshelves I put up, with lots of books on them. Mmm, books!

Puschairs and food

2007-02-04T11:38:00.000Z

Getting ready to go out in her pushchair!

Getting ready to go out in her pushchair some more

(This one has nothing to do with Rosemary, but doesn't it look yummy?!)

Playing in her high-chair

Having breakfast

Having breakfast some more

And some more

For those who want to know, breakfast consisted of a piece of banana, a piece of kiwi fruit, a piece of pear, four slices of toast, two with Philadelphia on and two with pear and apple spread (pure fruit, no added sugar, but very very sweet!). Most of it went onto the chair seat, but she did seem to have some of the banana and she licked a lot of the Philadelphia and pear and apple spread off the toast, seemingly preferring the pear and apple spread (hmm, what a surprise, she's inherited her mum's sweet tooth!).

Pictures, lots of them

2007-02-02T12:06:00.000Z

Well, I've found a way to easily get the HTML, so pictures will hopefully be added more regularly now. (Firefox extensions are great!) In the meantime, here are the latest photos, which I didn't have time to put in the last post...

Video post and photo link

2007-01-29T16:18:00.000Z

A video of Rosemary playing with some food

There are lots of new photos that have been uploaded as well, however, I don't have time to copy and paste the HTML for all of them, so here's a link to the Rosemary set, which should hopefully be displaying in order of newest first: Rosemary's photo set on Flickr.

I'm hoping to find a way to easily paste the HTML code for a batch of photos, so this will be an easier and quicker process in the future (anyone who knows of one, do let me know!). In the meantime, though, I'm afraid you'll have to make do with a link. Do let me know if the link doesn't work or they're appearing in an odd order, and I'll do it some other way.

Pre-Christmas Carnoustie Pictures

2006-12-23T13:57:00.000Z

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

Rosemary and her great-grandmother

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

Rosemary in her new cardie in her buggy

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

Mummy & Rosemary, ready to look at the sea

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

On the seafront

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

On the seafront

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

On the seafront

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

In carrier in St Andrews

Ready to walk up to visit great-great aunt Stella

Visiting with great-great aunt Stella

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

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

Sun over the sea at Carnoustie

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

Carnoustie

Quite a nice bit if composition from Chris

The ground in Carnoustie

An accidental, but quite interesting shot of the ground