Cheeky little monkey in the making

Life with The Boo just keeps getting better and better! She is a cheeky little monkey in the making who loves to laugh, cuddle and play. Her character is certainly developing!

We had a wonderful Christmas and The Boo was thoroughly spoiled by friends and family! It was wonderful to watch her seated with us all at the table and enjoying her own Christmas dinner. The mini blender I bought months ago is terrific and ensures she never has to miss out. 

She is eating all sorts of food now, including my homemade curries! I am thrilled that she is willing to try everything. She seems to like most food and has a healthy appetite, but she does not like eggs! I've tried them in all the different ways you can cook them, but she pulls a disgusted face and spits them out! Oh well, at least we tried. Maybe she'll come to like them. She loves fruit! Satsumas, apples, grapes, kiwis, pears, bananas... The Boo can't get enough of them. She is keen to feed herself now and we allow her to experiment and try. She gets very messy but we let her get on with it, only stepping in when she stops trying and starts throwing the food about to amuse herself.

We moved her into her own room at the start of this year. She is sleeping for much longer periods and has even slept through the whole night a few times! Yay! I did have to spend the night on the floor beside the cot one night though, as The Boo yelled the house down every time I took one tiny step away from the cot. It was a blessing in disguise though, as the hard floor did my aching bad back the world of good! 

The Boo is very quick and agile on her feet now, walking strong and even starting to run about a bit. We have to get the stair gates up very soon as she can make it to the top of the stairs quicker than it takes me to put the milk back in the fridge!! She is cheerful, playful and laughs at everything.  

Some of her current favourite things to do are; playing peek-a-boo with mummy from either side of the armchair, winding mummy up by pulling books off the bookcase, winding daddy up by turning the X-Box on and off and laughing at the high beep sound, emptying the contents of mummys purse and make up box and putting it all back agin, blowing raspberries on mummy's tummy, giving daddy high-fives and kisses, getting tickled and squealing with delight, playing drums by hitting pots and pans with wooden spoons, stealing the remote control and changing channels whilst on the run with it, wearing her new shoes from the moment she wakes up, eating piles of satsumas, hiding things under the sofa, going for walks and actually walking herself more than sitting in the pram.

Autumn is just around the corner

I love this time of year. The weather is still warm but signs that Autumn is just around the corner are everywhere. The nights are cooler, the sunsets are striking, the leaves are turning orange, flowers have gone and berries are bulging. Blackberries are ripe for the picking and I have inky fingers to prove it!

Blackberries. They always remind me of the end of the school summer holiday and wishing that I had just one more week off! Just the smell of them makes me feel like a kid again. So it was to my sheer delight that I found lots of juicy specimens on my morning walk with The Boo and just happened to have an empty plastic bag with me! And if you're going to put them in a crumble, you must have apples too right? So off I went and scrumped myself some! Yes indeed. I took The Boo to the park, parked her pram on the side of the path, climbed over a number of shrubs and actually jumped up and down numerous times to try and reach the branches to grab those little beauties. Needless to say that some of them came crashing down on my head! I thank God that nobody else was around to witness that. The Boo had front row seats and sat there looking at me like I was crazy!

She's been a bit of a pickle recently. She's been settling down to sleep ok at night, but then waking up in the wee small hours and refusing to go back to sleep. Tonight The Boo went down at 8pm and then woke up at 11. For the last 3 hours or so I've tried standing over her and laying her back down every time she gets up. I've tried ignoring her completely. I've hated myself whilst listening to her cry so much she was almost sick and I've also watched her playing happily in her cot and laughing!! She finally went to sleep at about 2.30am. I'm hoping this is a phase which will pass! At least when The Boo naps tomorrow (or should I say later today!) I have the luxury of being able to crawl into bed to nap too.

Right now I feel exhausted. I feel like a failure that she doesn't sleep through the night yet and I don't know if I make things worse when I give her cuddles and milk to soothe her and get her back to sleep. I remind myself that she's only 10 months old. She's a baby who wants to feel loved, safe and warm when she drifts off to sleep. I don't blame her. I want that too. 

Why do they do that?

When I'm sick, I complain about it to anyone willing to listen and try to sleep a lot! But The Boo doesn't. Especially not the sleeping part.

Do all babies fight sleep? Why do they do that? Do they think they are going to miss out on something!? And when I say fight, I mean fight! When The Boo is showing all her signs that she needs a nap, I have to cradle her in my arms and lock that position down! Oh, she'll lay there quietly with her eyes shut, all relaxed and calm for a while, but when sleep approaches it's a different story! Arms flail, legs kick, back arches and she screams and cries. Eventually she drops off, but only once she has used every ounce of energy.

Today was no exception. We were busy out shopping most of the day. I've recently started to allow her to sit in those little seats at the front of shopping trollies. The Boo loves it! She can hold on, rock forwards and backwards or side to side and crane her neck to stare at fellow shoppers, but her favourite activity in this position is leant forward biting the hand rail and dribbling profusely, which is not embarrassing for me at all! All of this excitement meant no chance for napping, so by the time we got home, The Boo was tired. Once she was changed and fed, upstairs we went (our loft room is our living room). After five minutes in her Jumperoo she had had enough and wanted milk and cuddles... and then the fight started!!

I do wonder whether I'm being mean when I have her in that vice like grip. I never hold her so tight that she can't move at all and I talk calmly or sing a lullaby to her and kiss her gently. Also, the whole time this goes on, her eyes are shut so I know she is exhausted. Some may say I should put her in her cot and let her settle herself, but she wouldn't. She'd flip over, pull herself up to standing and babble at me with heavy eyelids and a dopey grin. Sleep would be out of the question!

In her Grandad's arms.