What we got up to this month

After experiencing some quite nice weather in May, June has been a bit of a washout really. During the first week it was half term and we went to a ‘beach party’ at the Children’s Centre which ended up being indoors due to the weather. We also had a family visit to the dentist and a trip to the Southbank to have lunch with Sarah, Arnaud and Connie at The Green Room.

The following week I took Tabitha (and Polly) along to her playgroup’s ‘street party’ in honour of the Queen’s 90th birthday. All the children ate party food outside at a long table while wearing crowns and waving flags.

Then it was Polly’s first birthday, which Tom had the day off for and Grandad Roger and Nana Margaret came down for. We had a pizza tea at Valentina’s on the day and then a family do on the Saturday. The do was meant to have been a picnic in the park, but as it was damp and cloudy we had it at ours, which worked well in the end. Polly’s birthday was also the day Tabitha stopped having a dummy overnight.

The day after Polly’s party was Father’s Day. We had brunch at The Bear Kick and then a late lunch at Annie’s with Grandad Roger and Nana Margaret.

The following week it was back to reality for Polly as she had her jabs – four in total – which was horrid for her (and me).

We saw quite a bit of Millie this month: Tabitha and I went over to play one Sunday morning, and then I took both girls round for their tea the following Thursday. Then we had Millie round the week after for tea, to return the favour. We also saw them at the Mortlake Fair (which we managed to get to between rain showers), and we all went for a quick drink at The Tapestry afterwards. Earlier the same day, me, Tom, Tabitha and Polly had ventured to the Thomson House summer fair, however it poured with rain and we spent most of our time there sheltered under a flimsy marquee!

Towards the month’s end, Polly tentatively took a few steps unaided; will July be the month she properly starts walking? We shall see!

 

Another ‘She did it moment’

This time from Polly… Last night for the first time in over 6 months, she didn’t wake in the night for milk. Yes, that’s right, she SLEPT THROUGH! Well done Polly.

In other news, Tabitha’s now had eleven nights without her dummy, which is great. The down side is it takes her AGES to fall asleep in the evening – there’s lots of shuffling and rearranging of toys and cushions – which is quite disruptive for Polly getting to sleep. Still, I’m very proud of my grown up girl. For the past few nights she hasn’t even asked for one either, whereas for about a week she would and it was heartbreaking to have to say no to her.

Polly turns ONE!

I cannot quite believe that I am writing this already, but our baby girl is one today! The past year has flown by in a sleep-deprived haze, and somehow in just twelve months Polly has transformed from a tiny newborn to a robust almost-toddler in the blink of an eye. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a baby changes in the first year of their life.

This past month has been a particularly exceptional one in terms of milestones for Polly. On May 19th she walked across the room using her walker for the very first time, and then on June 2nd she stood unaided for a few seconds for the first time. She’s now often found cruising round the room using the furniture, or anything that can be pushed along! She has also added nananana and mamamama to her babbles.

What she still does not do is sleep through for us, and wakes at least once, without exception, every single night for a feed. There has, however, been a bit of an improvement in the self-settling department, and occassionally if she wakes for a second time we can leave her to cry for a minute or two and she will put herself back to sleep. Some nights it doesn’t work like that and we’re up with her for a while, whereas other nights she doesn’t even stir again until morning. There has also been a slight improvement when she first goes down for the night; Polly no longer needs rocking every evening (although she seems to have regressed again on this over the past week).The recent hot weather and the fact that Polly’s top teeth have FINALLY cut through her gum do not help with the sleeping either. And with her new top teeth comes the teeth grinding which she’s already discovered!

Polly is still predominantly on two naps a day, although more and more it’s just the one, which works so much better in terms of her being tired enough to go down at a decent time for the night.

She LOVES her food and will happily sit for ages picking her way through a plate-full of finger food. She’s mostly doing baby led weaning, because a) she seems happy with that and b) it means I can get on with other things rather than sit and feed her. Even things like yoghurt and porridge she tackles herself; using a spoon which she is very good at or – her prefered method – her hands! We’ve been gradually weaning Polly off Aptamil and onto cows milk over the past couple of weeks, and as soon as the current tub of formula runs out that will be it. We’ve also stopped sterilising too.

One of the funny things Polly likes getting up to is emptying the laundry bin and sorting through the dirty washing. She enjoys draping items of clothing over herself, and on more than one occassion I have found her crawling round with a pair of knickers round her neck! She also likes clapping – especially when she hears music – doing row-row-row your boat, and doing walkie-round-the-garden (which she attempts to do the actions for).

It has become apparent how much Tabitha keeps Polly entertained, as on the couple of mornings Tabitha is at pre-school Polly is a lot harder-work and much clingier. I actually manage to get more done when I have both of them here, although I do relish the mornings where I only have one child to look after; it’s a lot quieter!

This past year has been fun at times, not-so-fun at other times, monotonous and  repetitive much of the time, and exhausting and tiring all of the time. However, it is an honour and a blessing to share these formative years with my two girls and I know I will never regret doing so (no matter how stressful it can get!).

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY POLP!

 

 

More of Tabitha’s unconventional pastimes

A while ago I listed some of Tabitha’s more unusual habits. Well, it’s now a few months down the line and she’s added a whole load more to the list!

1. Organising the fridge. She loves nothing more than a good sort out of all the bottles and jars. If she can find some cherry tomatoes to scoff at the same time then she’d be in there all day!

2. Emptying all the pots and pans from the drawer and crashing them down onto the tiled kitchen floor… Then putting them all back in again and repeating.

3. Clattering the hand-held Hoover through the table and chair legs. If the Hoover’s not to hand then her yellow car or activity toy will suffice.

4. Pressing all the buttons on the stereo and pulling the fronts off of the speakers (although we’ve ruined this for her now by securing them in place with rubber bands!). If there are any CDs out then they have to be thrown on the floor.

5. Holding onto my finger while she steps up and down – and walks along – the small ledge of the fire-place (thankfully she mostly leaves the coal be now).

6. Putting my keys into the lower keyhole of the front door (note the upgrade from her finger).

7. Finding the toilet roll and ripping it into tiny little pieces – all over the bathroom floor!

8. Going to our bedroom and stealing pebbles from the plant pots in the window (again we’ve ruined her fun with this one by removing all the stones – we’re such spoil sports!)

9. Opening and closing the kitchen bin… Yes, she still has an obsession with that darn bin.

10. Changing the TV channel with the remote – she seems to favour the more obscure channels – and sometimes turning the volume up really, really loud!

11. Pressing and holding the button on the iPad so that it activates voice control. The amount of times I hear Siri saying “sorry, I didn’t quite get that…”.

12. Going to her room and finding a tied-up nappy sack – then dragging it (or maybe two if she’s lucky) along the corridor and into the living room.

Two becomes one (naps that is)

Today is the 6th day in a row that Tabitha has skipped her early morning nap in favour of one late morning/early afternoon. I think as long as she continues to sleep overnight until around 7am, then this will become the norm from now on. It’s so much easier; by the time it gets to nap-time she’s shattered, so goes down quickly and without fuss; there are no more afternoon naps that run on too late and impact on bedtime; and, again, by the time it gets to around 6pm she is tired-out so goes to sleep really easily and sleeps longer overnight. It’s a win-win situation! Plus today, for the first time since she was about 4 months old, Tabitha is napping in her cot! No crying, no rolling, no standing up in protest – she just laid quietly and fell asleep. Now that is progress. I’m sure there will be days where two naps will be necessary, but as long as we’re predominantly on one nap, then I’m happy.

A later nap time does impact on all of our usual groups and classes though. We missed bumps & babies on Monday, as well as both Tuesday and Wednesday’s sessions of Tempo Tots. Still, there are plenty of other things we can go to. On Monday afternoon I went to a post-natal aerobics session with Magda, which was really good and Tabitha behaved wonderfully, plus there’s a new bumps & babies session on a Thursday afternoon which should now work well in our new routine.

In walking news, Tabitha is so close now, but is still lacking the confidence to just go for it. She wants to hold on to my finger all the time for balance, and if I wriggle it away, she drops to her knees and flaps her arms in protest (something we’re getting a lot of at the moment!). She’s going through a particularly clingy stage currently too.