eleven months

dear s,

holy cow! you’re almost a year old! this time next month we’ll be celebrating your first birthday, and your official graduation from baby to toddler. well, really, you’re a toddler already. you’re my little walker now! you get better and better every day, and now you can stand up from a sitting position, cruise/run around the room while holding onto your wheelybug or the sofa, and walk half a dozen to a dozen steps confidently before falling down on your adorable little bottom. you’re a handful now, but we love (almost) every minute of it.

although you spend most of your energy on moving (and moving and moving!), you’re starting to talk a lot more, too. somehow in the last month you lost the ability to say mama, but call both of us dada instead. you still love to make animal noises, your favorite being meowing like a cat. you can also parrot our own speech, and repeat gone, bye, and yeah most of the time. you call gram gaga and like to chat to your kitty when you’re falling asleep. i can’t wait for you to start talking even more!

your social skills are developing quickly and you love to play with (read: climb on) other babies and older kids. every week we go to kindermusik class with a mixed age range of kids. we also meet up with some friends who have babies at restaurants, the library, and cafes. this weekend you went to your first birthday party! i can’t believe the other babies in our nct class are starting to turn one. it’s your turn soon!!!

we’re starting the process of moving you to your own room by napping you in your nursery, and so far you’re doing remarkably well. you generally sleep from 7pm to 5 or 6am, but lately you’ve been getting up at 4 thinking it’s playtime. please, s, give us a little more sleep! you still take two naps most days, but i think before too long you’ll drop one or the other. take your time! really, it’s ok to sleep lots!

you’re a champion eater, having three full meals and one or two snacks a day. you’re almost competent with your sippy cup, but don’t really understand that a cup without a lid will spill if you bash it and throw it around. you’ve decided you don’t like cucumber very much any more, but love cheese, bread, hummus (the piri piri kind!), and anything starchy. you also like peas, blueberries, fromage frais, and weetabix. you’re happy to explore new flavors but let us know when you don’t like something, either by making a face and spitting it out or sweeping everything off the table and flipping over your plate and mat.

you only take milk from me in the morning and at night time, and sometimes once during the day, but you’re more interested in grown up food and need me less and less. but that’s a good thing, because instead you’re becoming a cuddly bunny who likes to lie on top of us while we scratch or rub your back. like father, like daughter! you also love to give and blow kisses and laugh all the time.

thankfully you still love to read. you sit so nicely with daddy while he reads to you and even read yourself stories in your crib while we get ready in the morning. your favorite books are the touchy feely ones because you really like to be involved in the reading.

thanks for being such a fabulous baby for the last eleven months. and happy almost birthday!!!

love you! ❤

happy eleven months!

how (not) to travel with an eight month old and other musings

hello, old friends! it’s been far too long. i’ve had a million and one things i’ve wanted to write about in the last few weeks, and approximately zero time to write about them. okay, that’s a lie. i’ve spent my fair share of time vegging on the sofa, but i decided i deserved it. it’s been a long month.

my grandfather passed away last month. he was pretty much the coolest man ever. it was so sad to say goodbye to him but so wonderful to celebrate his life. i was lucky enough to be his first (and possibly most spoiled) grandchild and to have countless memories with him over the past 27 years. in the end he was in pain so his death was a blessing for him. i know he’s looking down now and smiling, telling all his friends that he’s better than the weather.

ok, enough of that. my grandpa wouldn’t want any of us to mope around. so instead i’m going to whine. a lot.

if you get nothing else from this post, please remember the following:

DO NOT TRAVEL WITH AN EIGHT MONTH OLD BABY. EVER.

seriously. the four (yes, all four) flights we took on the way to and from the states last month were probably the worst combined experiences of my life. p couldn’t travel with us, so it was just me, s, and my poor, defenseless little sister (who has since vowed never to have children). why was it so horrible, do you ask? well, i’ll tell you. that baby screamed for a total of EIGHT(hundred?) hours while i held her against her will in my lap. virtually every passenger on all four airplanes gave me the stinkeye. a very well intentioned and well endowed flight attendant nearly smothered my baby while attempting to stifle her cries. half a dozen other flight attendants and random staffers stole her out of my arms to cuddle/play with/comfort/annoy the shit out of her. how i managed to get home without leaving my poor darling baby in a bathroom somewhere and/or punching someone and being arrested by air marshalls is beyond me.

therefore i solemnly swear not to fly with my lovely and slightly demonic little girl until she is old enough to sit in her own seat and to be spoonfed benadryl. seriously. i can’t handle it. also, p is on night duty for the foreseeable future. which is forever.

enough of the whining. for now. to lift the mood and make everyone feel better, here are the photos we ordered from the fantastic francesca db photography. merry, merry christmas to you.

next time: s’s christmas list! because i know you all love a little bit of baby tat.

naked babies, days (and nights!) out, and milestones.

i’m finding it harder and harder to take time to write posts, but it’s so important that i get it down…partly because it seems like this whole baby brain thing never goes away, and partly because i know you all want to creep on my life more often. don’t lie, i do it too. 😉

so this week we had another normal stay at home mommy and baby week (but this is going to come to an end soon…stay tuned for updates on mommy solo life!). most days we like to get out of the house, and to be honest, s is a much happier baby when we’re going and doing and buying and eating out. which is great for my sanity, and not so great for the wallet. again, i need to become a crafty momma so i can stay at home and still make some money!!! (realistic) suggestions appreciated.

on saturday we took s to her first proper photo shoot! i’ve been kicking myself for not having the adorable newborn baby in a basket photos taken (sorry rachel, they are just so damned cute!) and so we decided christmas was the perfect time for s to make her debut. we went with the fabulous francesca db photography and didn’t regret it. s was a natural hambone and LOVED francesca. if you’re ever in the mood for some babysitting, s would love it! 😉 just kidding, she already has her hands full with two gorgeous twin girls and another baby on the way. the session was lovely and short (30 minutes, which was perfect for s) and consisted of solo shots of s as well as a few family pics (p was like, i don’t want to be in more than one picture that we buy…this is about s! talk about stage daddy.). s enjoyed the attention and ate her way through the plastic wrapping on a candy cane. i see a future as a model, perhaps?! here’s a sneak peek at one of the proofs from the session…we can’t wait to see the rest soon!

last night was guy fawkes night (as you brits will know) and i really really wanted to take s out. i’ve heard that fireworks can be a great sensory experience for babies and was keen for her to see it. cambridge has a fantastic FREE display and bonfire on midsummer common every year, and nearly 25,000 people turn out every year. it’s right over the river from us, so there was really no excuse not to go. i was a bit nervous about how s would react, but i bit the bullet and decided to go. i woke her up after bedtime (which she loved…not), snuggled her up in her teddy bear snowsuit, and popped her in the ergo. she’s at the age now where she doesn’t hate being in it, so it was actually really nice. we stayed across the road, out of the crowd, and watched comfortably from a distance. s LOVED the fireworks and stayed awake for the whole thing. it was freaking cold, though, so we headed home straight afterwards. i highly recommend taking your baby to a fireworks display, if you can get over the noise and the idea that they may or may not freak out. here’s a few shots of the night:

my little ewok…i mean teddy bear.

enjoying the fireworks!

at the moment i’m loving (almost) every moment at home with s. she’s so big now (8 months next week! stay tuned for the 8 month update post) and is finally a ‘proper’ baby. she’s so close to crawling…i’m pretty sure she can go backwards a little bit. we really need to get some gates going and properly babyproof this house. she can also clap, say dada (to both of us), wave, and sit up confidently by herself. i love my little girl! (someone please remind me of this post when i’m complaining about something or other in a few weeks’ time.)

it’s the most wonderful time of the year…for coughs and colds. also, i want to become a crafty(ier) mom.

so apparently colds last FOREVER. at least it feels that way right now. s has been nursing a very light case of the sniffles for the last few weeks and hasn’t really been that bothered about it. until this week. this week the floodgates opened and s’s whole face has been a ball of snot. poor thing. she’s still lovely and happy (most of the time…apparently colds make babies more liable to scream bloody murder when put down for a nap) but sounds like a chainsaw when she sleeps and can’t quite work out how to cough up the rattles in her chest.

she still manages to squeeze in her studies with a cold.

all of this lovely mucus in my life = tired mommy. for all of you lovely mommies out there currently thinking to yourselves, i have this parenting thing licked, easy peasy…you’re WRONG. you’re so massively wrong. i’ve finally decided to listen to all the wizened old mamas in my life who have always told me that as soon as you utter those silly words, your baby will find something else to completely mess up your sleep. i’m resigned to the fact that i will never regularly sleep through the night until my children are teenagers (if i’m not up waiting for them to come home past curfew…there might have been one or two members of my family responsible for doing that to my own mom a few times!) and so four hours in a row should be more than sufficient.

in other news, i’ve decided i need to get a hobby. preferably one that could make me money. now i’m not aspiring to be the next martha stewart, but a few wifey trades would serve me well. so i want to start sewing and doing other crafty things. the good news here is that this trade requires more shopping!!! so i officially want this for christmas (p are you listening?!) so that i can make adorable clothes, accessories, and decorations for s and our home. how freaking adorable are the baby accessories in this article?!?!? (not my baby, obviously.)

Source: blogs.babble.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

but don’t worry, i will still frequent the likes of fantastic shops like iviebaby (beware: once you click that link, you will want to buy everything in the whole entire etsy shop. also: look before you have your baby; there are some awesome ideas for kitting out baby’s room!).

seven months

dear sophia,

this past month has been CRAZY! on friday you turned seven months old. i think it’s about time i stop counting the weeks, but i take a picture every monday just to see how you’re developing.

this month i finally took you swimming for the first time, and you LOVED it! well, apart from when i dunked you under the water, but you got over it and get better every time we do it. you love kicking around the pool in an inner tube and splashing away for almost half an hour. you don’t love changing in and out of your bathing suit, but who does?!

you’re becoming a little pro at eating these days. you’ve progressed from eating sticks of food to eating pretty much whatever we give you. you still drop lots and spit bits out some of the time, but you can eat out of the palm of your hand and you’re definitely digesting most of your food (if you know what i mean, in the diaper department). you use all THREE (yes, three!) of your teeth to gnaw on things for quite a long time. meals usually take at least 30 minutes these days. favorites at the moment include any bread product, yogurt, tomatoes, and fruit. you eat three meals a day most days and sit nicely in any high chair. you love meal times but hate being cleaned up. in fact, your bloody murder scream is even louder this month (i didn’t think it was possible).

my little baby zoolander has finally learned how to turn left! you roll both ways around the room and you’re THIS close to crawling. when you’re playing on your tummy you can rotate your body around to get the toys you want. we think we saw you creep a little bit today, and we hope that next month we can report that you’re moving all around the place. even though that means lots more bumps on the head (something that has just started recently and stresses me out big time!). i think life is about to get a lot more interesting very very soon.

your sleeping is much much better lately, mostly because we (okay, i) finally plucked up the courage to sleep train you a little bit. last week we were at the end of our rope with trying to get you back to sleep in the middle of the night, so we let you cry in your travel cot for five minutes. the first time we tried this you cried for a total of eight minutes, and have never cried longer than that. you really can get yourself back to sleep if you try! you still rely on your dummy and frank 2.0 (yes, we lost frank this month, but mommy still doesn’t talk about it) to get yourself to sleep but whatever works is okay with us! you have two naps a day most days, unless you wake up particularly early and need an extra one to get you through the day. you don’t really need to eat at night anymore, but sometimes you like a feed and a cuddle after six to eight hours of sleep. we WILL be moving you into your own room this week (okay, i said it so it has to happen, right?) and you will officially be a big girl.

this month you’ve asserted your independence in lots of new ways and your lovely personality is starting to shine. you play nicely and happily by yourself and with other people. you know what you like and you’ll be damned if someone isn’t going to give it to you. you have a pair of LUNGS on you, girl! you love kissing and laughing and playing rough. you’re our lovely little baby girl now, growing up too quickly!

love you lots!

my lovely little girl ❤

date nights! or, i’m blogging and playing on pinterest while my husband watches gory films.

lately our little nighttime devil has become kind of an angel when it comes to going down at night. p gives her a bottle of expressed milk around seven and i pump, and we’re both usually finished before eight. it’s ALMOST as if we have our lives back! so this week we decided to go a little crazy with films…we’re thinking about exploring the world of lovefilm, and had a blockbuster voucher so have had a different movie every night. let’s just say it’s nice to feel back in the loop again after having to wait six months to watch the hunger games because it conveniently came out just after s was born. did i mention that before? sorry, i was a little pissed.

anyway, movie nights have been a really great way for p and i to spend a bit more time together. as you can tell by my current blogging, right? it’s not my fault, really i promise. he’s watching immortals (you know, the greek mythology bloodfest made by the same guys that did 300? me neither. i watched some guy get castrated and turned on the computer instead. ok so i made him watch one day the other night. let’s call it even.) and i’m catching up on the grownup world of facebook, online shopping, and pinterest. it actually feels really nice.

since we have only just come out of the newborn baby fog, we’re still fairly out of touch with civilization, so any suggestions for films/tv series/documentaries/etc. would be welcome! go crazy; we like anything and everything! ok, don’t get dirty, p IS a priest after all. 😉

pin of the day: loaded mashed potato cakes…if MODG approves then they’ve got to be good!

Source: justputzing.com via Kaitlin on Pinterest

 

adorable photo (montage) of the day: crazy baby enjoying lemon. what?!

mmmmm lemon!

ok, now for your suggestions…go!!!

six months

dear sophia,

today you are six whole months old. it’s your half birthday!!! when we met you exactly six months ago, frankly i never thought we’d get here. life was really hard for awhile when you were born, mostly because people aren’t meant to survive without sleep. but we made it through, with lots of tears, poopy nappies, sleepless nights, and unhappy mommy and daddy times. it was the daytime cuddles, lovely kisses, exciting developments, and so many more amazing moments that got us through it. i spent half of my time willing you to do the next thing, because everything you did was so incredible, and half of my time telling myself to soak you up just as you were. it’s already hard to remember the early days, but luckily your daddy is clever and has a much better memory than me. i’m sure he remembers our first trip out of the house (to starbucks, where else?!), the first time you smiled, the first time you threw up all over him (hey, all memories don’t have to be super adorable!), and everything else between then and now.

at six lovely months you have come so far! you chatter away all day long…and sometimes all night long, but you’re getting much better. you can sit up by yourself and like to play like that for what seems like hours, but in actuality is only probably fifteen minutes because you’re a baby and your attention span is still so short. you roll around the room like a pro, but only to the right. when you get angry you tuck up your knees underneath and push yourself along. you’re not far from crawling at all! you have two big fat razor sharp teeth at the bottom of your mouth, which you use to bite toys, food, and hands! you’ve just started eating big girl foods and sitting up at the table with us. right now your favorites are toast with hummus, cucumber, and pizza (but shhh mommy definitely didn’t give you any to try ;)). rough play makes you belly laugh, but you HATE getting dressed after a bath. you scream so loud when i change you that i’m sure someone will someday rush to our door asking if you’ve been murdered. you like watching television, and sesame street is one of your favorites. you still love listening to classical music, but enjoy a bit of pop on occasion too. your favorite books are goodnight moon, wynken, blynken, and nod, and the very hungry caterpillar. night times are not always perfect…you still wake up once in the night for a feed and sometimes it’s hard to get you back to sleep. we haven’t had the heart to sleep train you yet, but this month we’re going to move you to your nursery so we have lots of big steps in store for all three of us.

you are such a happy, smiley, lovely baby that everyone around us comments on your loveliness, and it makes me so proud to be your momma. thank you for giving me a fantastic six months. i can’t wait to see what you will do next.

five months

dear s,

five whole months! we can’t believe you’re so old. this last month has been a little crazy (as evidenced by my lack of blogging about your life…sorry about that!), but you are so quickly becoming a little girl. this month your talents include:

rolling over – finally! you WERE saving up your talent until you had lots of time, space, and people to show off for. all of a sudden this huge milestone us no big deal for you. we put a blanket on the floor and you can roll for days…in one direction. you can go right, but not left. go figure! when you reach the end of your runway, we just flip you around and let you go back the other way. go left, zoolander!!!

chatting – your language skills are developing really quickly right now. you still can’t razz yet, but you try your damndest and sometimes get it right. it takes you an hour or so in the morning to start chatting, but once you start, you don’t shut up. sound like someone you know? you still speak in consonant-vowel groups, but also squeal, belly laugh, and fake cough a lot. love that your voice is coming through!

chewing – you put EVERYTHING in your mouth these days. frank, sophie, soft toys, hard toys, your hands, everyone else’s hands, it doesn’t matter. straight into the mouth. we’re hoping you’ll cut a tooth soon, because the chewing coupled with drooling and fussiness definitely means teething.

throwing – i thought we’d have longer to wait before this happened, but no. if you don’t want a toy anymore, down it goes. you haven’t quite figured out that this can be a fun game, so i try to ignore it as much as possible for now.

flirting – when we met your aunt kelsey for the first time, you kept giggling and holding your hands back behind your head like you do when you’re going to sleep. we thought you were tired or silly, but it turns out you were flirting. this is adorable and hilarious!

playing with animals – my parents have two dogs and two cats, and you are OBSESSED with them. the dogs are gigantic and the cats aren’t particularly friendly, but you’re not really bothered. you love reaching out to the them and petting them, and you don’t really even mind when you get licked in the face. it’s so cute to watch you being so gentle, and to watch the animals being gentle and even protective back towards you. i don’t love all the animal hair that comes along with it, though. ugh.

stamping your foot – you like to stand almost ALL the time, and recently have started stamping your left foot when you’re standing. lord help us when you start to walk.

cuddling – you went through a phase of hating cuddles in all forms, but are starting to come around to the idea of giving and receiving cuddles. your grandmother would love for you to fall asleep while she rocks you, but so far you’re having none of it. hopefully someday you will be a super cuddly baby, but for now you’re very very independent. like your mother. 😉

sitting…kind of – you love sitting in the bumbo, for a limited time. you can also sit propped up on the couch, but still pitch over to the side after a few minutes. in the next month or so we’re hoping to start solids (maybe via baby led weaning, but we’ll talk about that later) so get to sitting, girl!

we’re so excited that you’ve come along so much in the past month. you’re also challenging in many ways. right now you seem to be going through a phase of difficulty settling down for a nap or nighttime sleep. we haven’t tried any kind of sleep training with you yet (mommy’s just not ready to hear you cry!) and sometimes you can get pretty needy. most of the time i have to nurse you to sleep, or daddy has to do silly dances around the room with you. but once you get to sleep, boy do you sleep! usually you wake up once in the night for a feed, but some lovely nights you sleep all the way through. i get confused when i wake up in the morning and haven’t been woken up at all! when we come home from our trip to the states we’re going to think about moving you to your own nursery. let’s not talk about that now. you are also pretty demanding…if you want something, you want it NOW. it’s cool to see you aware of the world around you, but girl, patience is not a virtue you possess. your shrieks are louder every day, but your smiles are brighter. we are so happy to have you in our lives and are so lucky to watch you grow every day!

happy five months, s. we love you! ❤

gorgeous baby!

retail therapy

remember those few weeks were i was all, yeahhh my baby sleeps through the night and it’s awesome and being a mom is so easy? yeah, they’re over. s has returned to getting up at 10, and 2, and 6 most nights. yay for never sleeping through multiple sleep cycles! anyway, today i got up and was feeling generally pretty crap about things and not looking forward to a day of eat, play, sleep, repeat all by ourselves.

so we went shopping.

and this is what we bought! (i know that sometimes window shopping is *almost* as good as the real thing, so i’ll let you peek at my purchases…also, when did retail therapy become all about my baby and not about me at all? the only thing i bought myself was an iced tea.)

my first taggies book – who do you see?

frill swimsuit – john lewis baby

spot sleeping bag – john lewis baby

tunic and legging set – next

chevron dress – next

yellow fishermans hat – next

i seriously need to find a money tree.

four months

dear s,

today you are four months old. i know i said this two months ago, but i can’t believe the time has gone by this fast. your daddy and i were talking the other day, and neither of us can believe that you’re a little person all of a sudden, with your own personality and mannerisms. you’re inquisitive (nosey, most normal people would call it), sensitive, happy, and loving. you’re also stubborn, emotional, and impatient sometimes. it’s amazing to me how i can describe you as anything other than a crying, pooing baby, but you are so much more than that. so this post will be dedicated to the s that we have come to know and love over the last few months, and your many accomplishments.

this month you learned how to roll over. kind of. you still hate being on your tummy, but now it takes almost five whole minutes to make you scream before i have to flip you back over myself.

what?!

you love your sophie the giraffe. and your bunny rabbit. daddy and i call him frank (after the bunny rabbit in donnie darko…yes, we’re freaks). sophie is for playtime and frank is for sleeptime. you like to cuddle frank to your face when you’re falling asleep. mommy only freaks out a little when you do that.

frank and i are just sleeping, ok?

you have incredible lower body strength. what you lack in rolling over skill (or maybe you’re saving it up, i’m not sure) you make up for in leg strength. you’ll be cruising well before your first birthday, i know it.

look at me!

we’re (pretty) sure you’re teething. you gum your toys, and hands, and clothes, and our hands, and whatever else you can get your paws on, all day long. and you drool. oh, do you drool.

nom nom nom

you’re developing the gift of gab. it’s so cool to watch your language develop…especially as a linguistics nerd myself, i feel like i can really appreciate the massive leaps you’re taking every day with your speech. now you can make occasional consonant-vowel sounds (ga ga ga, etc) and i swear i heard you say ‘hiya’ the other day. it’s the teesside in you. 😉 you can also laugh, but only when you want to. last week after your immunizations, you had a few days of no talking at all. it made us sad not to hear your beautiful voice (and to only hear your cry!) but now i think you were just saving it up, and practicing in your head.

chatting with daddy

you are OBSESSED with the tv. you crane your neck around when i have you sitting in your boppy to watch big bang, how i met your mother, and desperate housewives. not so much daddy’s documentaries. oh well. yesterday we took you to see spiderman at the big scream, and you absolutely loved it. you sat on daddy’s lap and watched the whole thing. we’re also pretty sure you had a bad dream because of the movie last night! can babies have nightmares? that lizard was pretty scary.

i’m just watching my shows. leave me alone.

you hate being manipulated. more specifically, you hate having your clothes changed. i try to do it as quickly as possible, but it usually results in screams and cries of anger and frustration. sorry about that!

when you’re playing, you stick your legs up in the air. it’s super cute, and i know that your discovery of your feet is not far away at all! you’ll play for ages with your sophie and other toys with those feet above your head. it’s adorable and looks like it might not be that comfortable, but hey, i’m not as flexible as you anymore!

feet!

bathtime is one of your favorite times of the day. you love kicking, splashing (sort of), and playing in the bath. we can’t wait to take you swimming. it’s on the summer to do list, so it’s got to happen!

love the bath!

you can sit up! not by yourself, and not entirely reliably (slumping over happens more regularly than actual sitting, but oh well). we’re going to invest in a bumbo like this one to work on it next month! yay!

just sitting up, nbd.

you’re such a happy girl, s! we are so lucky to be a part of your life and love seeing you grow and discover. there are a million more things you’ve learned and experienced this month. i wish i could remember them all and capture them to have all for myself. but i’m looking forward to sharing you and your talents with the world. i can’t wait for what the world has in store! here’s to you and to so many more firsts.

love, mommy ❤

so excited about being four months old!