And when you ask her how old she is, this is what she does...
This month is packed with parties of little babies turning one. We've had lots of fun choosing gifts for the birthday boys and outfits for Emily.
This week has mostly been about more words and newfound mobility (don't get too excited), with some new games and a huge amount of understanding thrown in. I will elaborate on all points.
The day after my last post, she worked out how to pull herself up into a standing position using furniture. ON HER OWN. The pride on her face the first time she cracked it was amazingly clear. She still looks around for cheer and applause every time she does it now but that first time was something else (and Lord knows she did get that applause!!). She can also now sit herself up easily. She makes it look like she's done it all her life and not struggled with it at all. (hah!)
There was one morning we woke up to find her waiting patiently stood by the side of her cot. It was a lovely little moment when we walked in and she clocked us and waited for the "good girl!" cheer. (It's not as great when she tries to do it in the middle of the night because 'yay I'm awake so I may as well practice my standing up'.)
Her sense of balance is improving every day. The living room is now a series of challenging obstacles rather than furniture. Which led to the introduction of corner guards...
I am told life will never be the same again.
Another reason life will never be the same is her discovery of a narrow hiding place underneath the sofa. We've already lost a teether to it and I have saved several books, toys and muslin cloths from being forgotten in what is sure to become a dusty resting place for several toys.
Sure, I'll move the sofa one day and recover them all but it might be a while.
Now that she is on the move, I have bought her a pair of slippers in an attempt to
1. keep her feet warm
2. reduce the risk of slipping on the wooden floors
She seems to like wearing her mocc ons and hasn't once so far attempted to pull them off. They do an excellent job in keeping her from slipping too.
She has suddenly become very sensitive to being told "no" - however she has a selection of reactions.
One reaction is the shaking of her head back at you. She will usually do this as she's trying to do whatever you've just told her not to do again. It's not an easy one to keep a straight face through.
Another reaction (usually when she's sitting in the high chair) is to burst out crying. I am talking full blast, need-to-get-her-out-of-the-chair-to-comfort-her, crying. It will generally start again once you try to put her back in the highchair. Not great when it's half way through a meal.
The other one is where she will get really angry at being told she can't do something. She will hit and shout at me so as to say "how dare you tell me I can't do that, I want to do it and who do you think you are to think you can come in here and tell me not to?!" Strangely enough that is the one that seems to be followed by obedience. Or distraction.
If I want to make her smile quickly though, all I need to do is mention a duck. I'm not quite sure she knows what a duck is but she does love the idea of it!
She also thinks she is making the sign for "duck" but she is actually making a "milk" sign (following our Sing & Sign classes). Still, I know she means "duck" because she makes the sign very specifically when I mention a duck or say "quack".
She loves "quack" and I am convinced she is trying to say it but hasn't quite gotten there yet.
She also loves it when I say "moo" (though nowhere near as much as she loves "quack"), although she is terrified of a book she has about a cow that makes a "moo" sound. Every time she presses the "moo" button, she cries and comes quickly towards me. I shall be donating the book to charity shortly.
Her mealtimes finally seem to have settled into some sort of pattern. She mostly snacks through the day and has a big meal around 4.30pm or 5pm.
One of her favourite snacks are these Plum Baby cheesey rings. I put one on her finger and she bites it off. She thinks it's a hilarious game.
In the morning, we bring her into our bed for some chill-out time. She's begun a new game this week. She'll sit between us and turn to me and press my nose and then turn to Daddy and press his nose. What she is doing is making our noses honk, supposedly. Of course our noses don't in fact honk (did I need to tell you that?) so we make our own sounds and she LOVES it. The more imaginative the sound, the better. She will do this to us in turn for a long while!
Then I'll do it back to her and her big smile will become a laugh.
I finally got round to weighing her before her bath the other day. At 49 weeks old, she now weighs 9.4kg and is 77cm long.
When I just think of that 3kg, 52cm long baby I gave birth to almost a year ago, I can barely believe this is the same child.
Speaking of bathtime, great things are happening in that bathtub. I was reading her Baby Vogue to her (no, it's not really Baby Vogue, it's the Boots Baby Bath Time Book - the same one that features the walrus that lends it's name to this blog), and she took great interest in the crab.
"Gra," she told me (proudly).
"Yes, crab!"
"Gra."
She leafed through the book some more, then put it aside. I asked "Emily, where is the crab?"
She looked for the book, turned the pages until she found it, then pointed at the crab. "Gra."
Oh and for the record, the picture of the "gra" was in the "ook" (book).
Leaps and bounds, I tell ya!
Now that she is no longer limited to ground-level, she has access to things that are slightly higher up. Like her bookshelf. Until yesterday, she kept going for the old photo albums and heavy books that are on the lower shelf (because they're big heavy books).
Yesterday she discovered her shelf. She spent a quiet 5 or so minutes on her knees, exploring her bookshelf. Until now, it's always been me who's chosen what books we read. Now she has a say. She didn't make a big mess like I thought she would. She just chose a few books, pulled them down to the ground and got comfy while looking at them. And after a short while, she got up again to get some more.
...That was until she came across the cow/moo book I mentioned earlier and that was the end of quiet reading time. Mummy and her cuddles to the rescue.
xoxo
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