Of Turning One and Mysterious Midnight Outings

We're back after an unscheduled break. Simply put, last week - with visitors from Malta and two parties coming up - I had no time to sit and write. I do hope you'll forgive me!

I have a huge thank you to say though - over 1150 page views for 5 blogposts about a little girl! That's not too shabby if you ask me. Thank you for coming back to read. When I thought to myself tonight that maybe I took on too much when I thought up The Pretty Walrus, it was the fantastic following (alongside the fact that this will be a brilliant place to look back on in a few years) that made me sit down and write again.

So we now have two weeks to write about. But the most important thing is Emily's Birthday! Last Saturday, 28th Jan, she turned one. My baby... is one. *shakes head*



Her parties were a success. In the morning there was the little people party (that we tried out in our first post)...

followed by a family get-together at home in the afternoon where we had Emily's quccija (more about that here).

The downside to everything was that she was sick. The night before her birthday, Emily got up late at night with a fever. We wrote it off as teething issues and tried to get on with things.

But on Sunday evening, no amount of Calpol or Nurofen seemed to make any difference so at midnight we arranged for her to be seen by the out of hours doctor and off we went. (that's the short version anyway, more here).

She really wasn't well, poor pudding.

She had a double ear infection, so was put on antibiotics and was very cranky and clingy and generally unhappy for a few days but seems to be herself again now. Hooray!



The weekend earlier, we went to little James' birthday party.

That is James there charming Emily with his brilliant smile.

You may also notice that Emily is wearing SHOES!

That morning we went to Clarks to buy her first pair. This was after she slipped the week before and I thought it might be wise to help her along a little bit (ok, I just wanted the girl to have pretty shoes!) She had her picture taken at Clarks and everything, and that's safely in her keepsake box which I'm slowly building :)

At the party she spent some quiet time playing with my phone (not much really new there, she loves it), but she has now worked out how to activate certain functions. Like the camera.

Talking about quiet time, when we spend time with our NCT friends - keeping in mind all the other babies are boys - we often notice the difference in playing style between Emily, as a girl, and the rest of them, as boys. The boys are boisterous, love throwing things and chasing each other. Emily will sit and observe and then perhaps quietly pick up a toy (that will no doubt be snatched away by one of the boys within minutes lol) and inspect it.

So it was interesting to see, when we were at a new playgroup we've started going to, that she went over to another little girl and gently interacted.

This is the sociology nerd in me talking now, but it's fascinating to watch. Even at such a young age (and I'm sure we've seen it happen at a younger age but didn't quite register it), they know the difference between boys and girls. They interact entirely differently. Thinking only of babies she's met for the first time, she'll hit a boy but be timid with a girl. I'm sure this changes as time passes, they all - boys & girls - need to learn to stand up for themselves, but for now it just struck me as really interesting.

/nerdy observation

This is her again at the playgroup, practising her cruising...

This week I have decided to try and have her focus on individual toys at a time. I want to try and encourage a focus point. She already has a really great attention span so I want to nurture it. So we play with noise and light toys. Or books. Or toy eggs. Or puppets. Or megabloks.

In the case of the latter I build magnificent structures and she destroys them as I watch.

Here she is strutting her stuff. Little missy is now able to stand alone for up to about 5 seconds. The first few times she did it, she scared herself silly. She was so terrified she'd fall, that she fell every time. After a few days, the confidence grew until 2 days ago, she even clapped for herself while standing. NO HANDS!

Then it really was a case for her supersmile!

Our signing classes - although we haven't yet been to any this term - are really paying off now. It's amazing to know that she is able to make me aware of certain things she wants. She has recently begun signing "eat" and "finished" - which have come in HUGELY handy. She'll need to be very hungry to initiate a "conversation" herself but if I think she's getting hungry, I'll ask her and she'll reply with the sign. And when she wants no more, she'll tell me she's finished :)

I'll try and record her doing them this week.

Older ones that she signs are "milk", her first sign, and more recently "duck"

I'm not sure there have been any new words lately but she's come very far with hello. There's no mistaking it now!



But for now, here's a video of her playing her new drum:



Other new videos:
+ Reading her books
+ Playing catch the ball



We are off to another birthday party this weekend and I'll be back with more news - hopefully none of it involving sickness! - next weekend! Have a good one :) xoxo