Wednesday 28 August 2013

10 months.





At 10 months Olive is starting to feel like a toddler. She's starting to walk on her own, taking about 12 steps before she falls over or grabs something for support. Every day she chooses some object and carries it around with her, shimmying along the walls while she grips it tight. Sometimes it's a toy (her favourite at the moment is a scruffy dog from Cheryl), but usually it's something strange, like last year's Christmas card from Stace and Andrew, a whisk, or an egg carton and texta (because Lucas showed her how to draw on the egg carton and now she's obsessed with trying to draw). She plays little games where she pretends you're trying to chase her and tries to get away as quickly as possible, squealing and laughing...possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. She was pretending I was chasing her with the vacuum cleaner this morning.

Most people say that babies get so much harder when they start getting around, but for us she's become so much easier. She's so happy now that she can do what she wants. She loves to explore the house, following us from room to room, picking up bits and pieces to examine (or try to eat) as she goes. I love when I find her sitting quietly "reading" a book (her favourite at the moment is "Spot Loves His Dad") or playing with whatever she's found.

She's also started throwing toddler tantrums, which involve feet stomping, yelling and throwing herself on the floor. A little early for terrible twos, but she's always liked to do things early.

Saturday 24 August 2013

9 Months




I'm writing this almost a month late, and she grows and changes so quickly that it's already hard to remember what she was like at 9 months old. A few things I do remember:

* She started sleeping better after our little "holiday" at Tresillian. I couldn't let her "cry it out" even with support, so we took the softer option, patting her to sleep in her cot (rather than feeding or rocking her to sleep). At 9 months she still needed me to pat her to sleep, but was down to waking one or two times each night (a vast improvement from her usual, every 2 hours). I even got an 8 hour stretch for the first time since she was born!
* She'd started crawling - though not in the conventional way. Using one leg to scoot along, dragging the other leg underneath her.
* She'd figured out how to get around the whole house using a mixture of crawling and walking along the furniture and walls. The walls were (and still are) covered in tiny, dirty hand prints.
* She was starting to talk and communicate more. Saying Dad, Mum and bub all the time. Waving and pointing at everything.
* Her favourite things to play with were cutlery, tupperware, blocks and the cat food box.
* Her favourite food was grapes.
* She was starting to take a step or two on her own.
* She was super happy and confident and much more friendly, smiling at checkout ladies and strangers on escalators.
* She was constantly trying to chew on any button she found (as can be seen in the photos above).