So after doing one last year, I thought I'd give it another go!
Friday 30 December 2011
Dear Alice - 8 Months
Dear Alice,
This month you are 8 months old - and it seems like everything has clicked in all in one go!
The last post I added was a few weeks ago, and you'd just started crawling. Apparently you decided that's not enough, and you promptly learned standing supported and pulling yourself up to standing! This terrifies me as it's now a long way to fall. It's also lovely waking up to you standing in your cot singing to yourself, or watching you at the stair gates smiling while I cook dinner.
For Christmas you also got a baby walker and managed to pick up walking a few paces assisted, which you keep getting better at. For now, you stick to crawling because it's quicker and you're good at it. We've had to babyproof everywhere and I'm considering wrapping you in cotton wool.
You are talking away to yourself and to us a lot more, getting frustrated if we don't reply ASAP. None of your words mean anything but you're happy to just have a little chat!
You smile and giggle and react to songs and faces. You also now dance to music if the mood takes you!
Eating wise we've moved onto Ready Brek for breakfast, and we've tried some new things - scrambled eggs is a favourite, as was Christmas dinner!
You are currently getting over being sick for first time as you picked up a cold over Christmas. It's not very nice and we've all struggled a little bit, but you have been a trooper really. Hopefully you're coming out the other side of it now.
Today we shifted into mostly 9 - 12 month clothes, and organised your room. How does one small baby have so many clothes?!
Along with crawling and standing we've finally got the hang of sitting unsupported - that seemed to come almost after everything else! I think you were just too eager to be on the move before that.
You love playing with your toys, and your personal favourites at the moment include Sophie the Giraffe, your walker, and a fairground thing you got for Christmas. You have lots and lots of toys - I have no idea how we would have coped in the flat, as we seem to struggle for room in a 3 bed house!!
Sleep wise - we were getting better. However this cold has set us completely back! But I'm confident we can get back on track. Who needs sleep right?
It's amazing watching you learning - you use trial and error and I can literally see the cogs in your brain ticking over. You are amazing!
I'm torn between wanting you to grow, and stay tiny forever. You're certainly not my tiny baby anymore.
Christening
I also completely forgot to mention that we had Alice's Christening on December 11th. We had a lovely day - Alice was incredibly well behaved and smiley. It was just so lovely to have such a wonderful day surrounded by people who love and care for Alice. It made all 3 of us appreciate just how lucky we are really.
A few photos -
With love and light xo
Thursday 29 December 2011
Wednesday 28 December 2011
Instagram - December 2011
My life lately according to my iPhone! Follow me on Instagram @evenstarx :)
With love and light xo
Thursday 8 December 2011
Crawling
So I keep forgetting to write about this, but as of a week and a half ago - we have forward motion!
This was right at the beginning and we're now crawling like a pro. I also realised my house is basically a baby death trap and I need to sort things out ASAP!
Alice is a smart baby and generally only crawls towards:
a. Phones and laptops. The value of the items is proportional to the speed of the crawl
b. Knives and paracetomol. The danger of the item is also proportional to how quickly she can get there
c. The cats. They are most pleased about this.
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Dear Alice - 7 Months
Dear Alice,
You are now half way through your 7th month! When every anyone asks how old you are I really have to stop and think about it - I'm so used to you being a teeny tiny baby and you just seem to have changed all of a sudden!
This month you are now really big on food. You love it, and we get the most smiles at lunch time! We started with purees and ended up moving to baby led weaning - you love to pick up the chunks of food and play with them but generally eat a bit of everything.
Your favourite food is orange, but you also really like chicken, fish, yoghurt and broccoli. Although not all together.
We also had Halloween this month where you had 2 costumes! You were my little penguin, and a beautiful witch. You really didn't think a lot to my costume though and cried whenever you saw my face!
You have been standing with support for a while now, and this past few days you've started standing supporting yourself with the sofa. A very scary thought for me!
You are sitting up in bath and loving to splash and play with your ducks and bath toys.
Your talking has really developed into babbling, and you like to make the "dadada" sound, much to your daddy's pleasure! We never get "mamama"!
You've started reacting more to games and songs, and you definitely seem to recognise certain games and toys. I only have to start to say "Where's Alice?" and you're giggling away already! This means I get nothing done as I just want to play with you all day!
As well as your standing, we're so nearly there with the crawling. You rock on your knees and want to go forwards so much. You're better at backwards, and can do a sort of army crawl forwards.
Daddy says we also have to include the bad points in here, so your sleep at night is still rubbish. It's better, but it's still rubbish! Everyone's baby seems to sleep for like 20 hours a night and it can get a little wearing but you also have a knack for smiling at just the right times to make it all seem ok!
You weighed 16lb 9oz a few weeks ago.
This month has had many firsts, including first go on a slide, first ball pool (you love that!) and first fireworks, albeit you were inside.
I have tons of videos of you that I'm going to try and edit together this month before it becomes an impossible task.
We love you so much. x
Wednesday 26 October 2011
Dear Alice - 6 Months
Dear Alice,
This month seems to have flown by! And it's your half birthday! Where have the last 6 months gone to? When I look through your pictures I barely recognise my tiny newborn - I seem to have a bouncy little girl now.
If you were rolling last month, now you are a rolling champ. I turn around for 10 seconds and you are completely on the other side of the room. More baby proofing is needed around the house I think! You're not crawling yet, but you seem to get around just fine without it with a combination of wiggling and crawling.
You hold your head up and look around at the world. You also love to be standing with support, and your little legs are super strong.
You will entertain yourself really well now on your mat or in the bumbo, as long as I'm in the room and you can look at me when you need to! I have a little den set up for you in each room to keep you safe.
You have been eating more and more! We're doing a combination of pureed weaning and baby led weaning / finger foods. You now have 3 meals a day, and 50% of the food ends up on you rather than in your mouth but that's fine!
You get super upset if I try and feed you so I normally just let you make your messy food paste and it's amazing to see you feed yourself so well! You love toast, fromage frais, watermelon, pear, apple, cucumber and cheese - all of which you can feed yourself which is an incredible feat with no teeth!
You still have no teeth but you've had a lot of red cheeks and unsettled nights so hoping they'll either come through or stop hurting you soon.
You don't sleep very well but you love a cuddle with mummy so that's fine.
You are talking and yapping away like a champ and you get annoyed if we don't reply! You like to make the mamamamama and dadadada sounds, so I'll just pretend you're talking to us :P
We have giggles and biiiiiig smiles which make everything worth while. Especially if mummy is singing! Which means I now look crazy pushing my trolley round Tesco and singing! You're favourite songs this week are Wiggly Woo and Twinkle Twinkle.
Your eyes have changed, so you won't have your daddies blue eyes, but probably my hazel eyes. You have gorgeous big eyes with lovely long eyelashes.
You have also chunked out a lot! You fit in some 6 - 9 month clothes, but you won't be in the sleepsuits for much longer. I think you must be eating steak when I'm not looking!
And of course, we love you more and more every day little duck!
Yawn!
I haven't posted for ages, and it seems the longer I leave it the harder it becomes - so much changes every day and I struggle to catch up with it all.
I think one of the reasons I keep putting it off is our sleep issues. We've had a really bad few weeks, and I just don't want to sound like a moaner. Last week I was just fed up. I felt lonely, and I felt embarrassed - like it was completely my fault she wasn't sleeping.
I kept thinking it was because we've "spoiled" her. She's never been left to cry for a prolonged amount of time. She gets fed when she wants it. Cuddled when she wants it. But, I wouldn't have it any other way.
I think there's a lot of pressure to get your baby to be a "good" baby. And good seems to be defined by sleep. They can do whatever they want in the day time, as long as they sleep 7pm - 7am. Alice doesn't sleep, but she is an amazing baby. She giggles and laughs and plays and is just amazing to be around.
But, that doesn't mean I don't get tired! And I got myself in a bit of a downward spiral - I'm not prepared to let her cry but that doesn't mean I don't want to moan about it and vent. It doesn't mean I enjoy getting up 5/6 times a night still. But it also doesn't mean I should be guilted into doing something I don't feel comfortable with.
I'm lucky to have a lot of amazing support around me. But last week, I felt lonely. And tired.
I felt like I was failing. We were all tired, and I was completely blaming myself. Plus it was a miserable cold week, and we were stuck in the house a lot. I was just generally feeling a bit grey. And I like to act like everything's fine, so I wasn't talking about it either.
This week, I feel less tired, and happy! Alice still doesn't sleep but that is fine. Besides, who wouldn't want to wake up to a smiley baby face! It's half term so Mitch is able to help more with the mornings, and I'm getting an extra 30 mins sleep in the morning.
I also want to catch up and do some blogging, as Alice is just changing so much. What happened to my tiny baby who just lay there? I also have about ten million pictures and videos to post which I'll hopefully get round to doing soon.
Moral of the story - some babies don't sleep. Bring their mums chocolate.
Wednesday 12 October 2011
Thursday 22 September 2011
Instagram - September 2011
With love and light xo
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