Goodnight
Lately, we've been trying to push bedtime a little bit later, and we were beginning bathtime around 6.20pm. As a possible result of this, over time, I realised she was getting more and more cranky over bedtime. It eventually got to the point where she'd wail through it, sometimes making me skip her bath. So I decided it was time to go back to basics. Bedtime now begins at 5.45pm, meaning she is asleep around 6.30pm - apparently, the way she wants it!
Most nights, I get a little wave as I slowly leave her room. She snuggles excitedly into her comfy position (face down in the corner, surrounded by not one, but two, muslin cloths), turns around to give me a little wave, then snuggles back in.
It is my very favourite part of bedtime but it's so sweet, it hurts. Part of me is hugely proud of the fact that she is confident enough to be able to go to sleep without me beside her, and another part of me just wants to go back in and snuggle her. But I restrain myself and keep walking out, watching her on the monitor as the snuggling into her muslins continues until she falls asleep.
Mealtimes
After a recent blip, her eating has settled to a more mature pattern which I am thoroughly enjoying. She now has breakfast & milk at around 8am, then lunch around 11:30am, then her nap (yes it seems to have thankfully readjusted), sometimes a snack at around 3pm (only if she asks for one), then dinner at about 5pm.
She is eating lots of different things. She loved my pasta with a spinach, ham and mushroom sauce. She also loved my gingered beef casserole.
(This is what her typical dinner plate looks like, portion-wise.)
And my tuna bake.
It makes me so proud watching her eat. Sometimes with her hands, sometimes off a fork. Depends on what the food is really.
At the start of the week, she began showing signs of wanting to feed herself with a fork. Inevitably it ended in food all over the floor and her in tears of frustration. But, on Thursday, I'd made a mushroom and courgette frittata which was easily cut into little mouthful-sized cubes. So I figured it wouldn't be too much trouble to let her try. Sure enough, she ate her entire meal herself with only the slightest bit of help from me. Impressive doesn't begin to cover it!
She's kind of insisting she eat everything with a fork herself now, which can be a problem, but we're managing it so far!
I did hand her a spoon with some yoghurt on it the other day, which she managed to eat. The spoon went into her mouth upside down (I hadn't put much on it, knowing this would probably be the case) but it did get there!
In other news, little madam has FINALLY worked out how to hold her own drink cup!!
She'll usually work out when she needs to tilt it further to get any water out of it, but if I see that she's forgotten, I'll just say, "hold it up!" and up it goes :)
You may also have noticed that since I last bought her new cup, she's moved on to a new one. This one is an 18 month cup! Big girl!
At a push, she'll even hold her milk bottle now. She only has milk in the morning and at bedtime but they are both very important to her and therefore are met with much enthusiasm. If either one of them is not ready when she decides she wants it, there will be trouble.
So I make her morning bottle while she waits (moans) in the highchair and when it's done, instead of feeding it to her, I now place it on her tray.
After that urgency, you'd think she'd at least try to pick it up, wouldn't you?
No. She looks at it, then looks at me with this very cheeky little grin so as to say, "well? aren't you going to feed it to me?"
So I help her wrap her hands around the bottle and recline the seat and off she goes, guzzling the entire 9oz no problems. She's getting better at that too.
New Words/Signs
She is now saying "up" and I think she signed "home" a few times today!
Other than that, it's been a majorly chatty week. None of it has made much sense, but I'm sure she thinks she's saying something meaningful!
How's that walking going?
See for yourself!
Not 5 minutes earlier, she'd walked all the way from the living room, along the corridor, and into the kitchen. When I ran back to get my phone to capture it, she started crashing into everything and in this above clip, she decided it was time for a water break.
I'll keep trying!
Everything Else
43736 toys and what does she play with.....!
She is, however, loving her new activity table
(especially the cable tie that I chose not to remove so as not to lose the stupidly separate toy!)
See also: Games with Aliens
We went to the swings on Friday. Emily had a quick upside-down read en route.
On our way back, a lady and her son were feeding the seagulls. Emily loves birds. So we stopped to watch.
I think I caught an argument between Gabriella and Emily here!
But all was well in the end :)
Until next weekend! xoxo
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