Sunday, February 22, 2009

Oh, and...

13-months-and-change addendum:

Beth can say "Daddy" (her first word, at 10 months), "Mum" (although usually in the form "mum mum mum mum" and usually when she wants something, eg. boob), "Ta" (when giving something away or asking for it back) and "Bob" (thanks to Nanna!).

I THINK she's also trying to say "Dougie" - Mum's dog's name - as she sort of says "da" repeatedly when she sees him. She also sort-of said "up" the other day, but she hasn't repeated that one so it might have been a fluke.

She can sign "finished" (hands straight up in the air) and "milkies" (one hand opening and closing). She has also used the milkies sign a couple of times when she wants a drink of water, so it might be of more general application! This week she used this sign a few times when we were reading her book about eating, which has a picture of a baby breastfeeding, and we thought she was terribly clever.

Did I mention a tree fell over in our back yard and took most of the clothesline with it? Grand. Landlord is going to cut it up next weekend, or so I am told.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Catalogue of 13 months


Beth is now nearly 14 months old. Amazing!

She weighed in at 11.2kg at our nurse visit last week, putting her at the 90th or 95th percentile depending on which charts you use. However, she's had a lot of pain from her teeth over the last week and has been off her tucker and hitting up the mummy buffet something fierce day and night, which has also seemed to add to the sack of potatoes factor as breastmilk is basically a high-carb protein shake (BEEFCAKE! BEEFCAKE!), and we weighed her at 11.5kg a few days after that. Don't know if the extra grams will stick though. She's 78cm, which is 95th or 97th percentile depending on the charts.

Beth has quite the sense of humour these days. Favourite jokes include hiding, stealing daddy's glasses and putting them on mummy, play-biting my chin and Grant's elbow, and any form of peekaboo, especially around the couch. Grant is excellent at ducking down behind it, around the side, and popping up where she least expects it.

She is an excellent climber. She can climb the climbing wall up to the play equipment in the park across the road most but not all times, and can now go down the slippery dip by herself (on her tummy, feet-first). She reliably turns around and goes down steps backwards, and can also do that off our bed, although she has had two mighty tumbles from failing to turn all the way around!

She finds flights of stairs great fun, so it's a lucky thing we don't have any :)

She adores the great outdoors. She can amuse herself for hours in the backyard, poking at dirt and clambering around, with the odd attempt to eat toxic oleander. We have been to various beaches on the Parramatta River lately and seems to get a real kick out of the mud.


And just like Daddy, she LOVES the rain.


The great thing is that our back verandah is so holey that one can experience the rain indoors!

She can't walk by herself yet. However, she can go quite a distance with us just holding one of her hands. She can squat and stand very well with her Donnelly calves, and Auntie Tara taught her a game of down (squat) - up that has really helped with her standing and that she thinks is hilarious.

Grant has been taking her to swimming lessons once a week, and I am told she has a great time, and is also twice the height of the other babies.

She's been having a lovely time with her grandmothers on Wednesdays. She is always very excited to see them. She has been a little sooky and clingy on the first days I have at home with her each week (Thursdays), and usually wants to nurse a lot on that day. However, I am choosing to think of this as a nice thing - as GrandEm says, there is no harm in having a favourite!

And other than that, the only thing I can think of about our lovely big girl is that she never met a peg she didn't like, but she prefers the red ones (and will rip them off the clothesline if it is in reach).

Monday, February 16, 2009

Raspberry proof

Observe:
(a) the awesome raspberry technique and
(b) the giant white floppy belly, proving that while I am size 12 now and was size 12 before I was pregnant with Beth, those? Are not the same size 12s! On the plus side, I think the floppiness improves the raspberry results.

Friday, February 13, 2009

I know mothers are supposed to say this kind of thing, but...

My daughter can blow the best raspberries (aka zerberts) on PLANET EARTH. Seriously, her technique is immaculate. My tummy is her preferred canvas, which is more flattering than one might think, especially as she generally refuses to raspberry her dad :)

MUMMY FOR THE WIN!

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Where's Spot?

Beth is OBSESSED with her "Where's Spot?" book. As in wanting it to be read to her three times tonight and still trying to get it back into her hot little clutches after the third go-through obsessed. She is generally a huge fan of reading, and several times a day gets a book out and flips through it herself. Kudos to Grant for this, as he diligently reads to her every night, but I think we both supplied the DNA for the bookworm tendency!

Apparently babies are supposed to have trouble choosing between multiple toys, but Beth is all in favour of dragging toy after toy out of her drawers and playing with them, and was multitasking two musical toys and a trolley today. That would be my DNA, I guess :)

I went grocery shopping twice this weekend, and we had a box delivery of organic veg, but we STILL don't have enough ingredients to assemble an actual meal. That kind of lack of coordination requires real effort to achieve.

Stinking hot all weekend, but we have been getting good use out of the clamshell wading pools, and the cool change has hit just in time for me to ride into work tomorrow. Woohoo!

Saturday, February 07, 2009

For the sake of posting

It's kind of warm here, and we have gone from playing in a bucket of water in the backyard to keep cool, to filling the shell wading pool to keep cool, to filling one half shell in the morning and the other in the evening, because the morning one is too hot by then. And also full of yoghurt, but that's another story. The afternoon one got full of tuna/potato/cheese ball (recipe below) detritus and an apple, which is another story again.

We have been invaded by an invisible biting bug, possibly as a result of tree lopping across the road. It/they have bitten the crap out of Grant and I and are very very itchy, but Beth seems immune, thank God. I have done 8 loads of washing in 2 days and as much vacuuming as possible (limited, as Beth is mortally afraid of the Dyson). I THINK we are making headway, but it is fairly hard to fight an enemy you can neither see nor identify. Perhaps there are analogies in the middle east. Never get involved in a land war in Asia, or a pest eradication effort against a mystery pest!

Grant and Beth have been going to swim classes on Tuesdays, and I am told she loves it. Grant thought all the other babies were much younger than her, but it turns out that she's just still hulkingly tall. Grant has been riding her over in the WeeRide, which since we are so close to Olympic Park is faster than driving.

Beth has really been working on the walking problem of late. She still can't do walk, but she can stand unassisted for short periods of time, really kicks her legs around a lot, is cruising beautifully, and can "walk" if you hold onto only one of her hands quite well. She's putting less and less weight on things when she leans on them for support. She's not going to win any early mobility awards but we are very impressed with her anyway.

She also religiously goes off any elevated surface backwards, but sometimes sideways and backwards, which doesn't work out so well.

Her new trick is fake sneezing (HILARIOUS), and putting things on her head, including blueberries.

And did I mention she is so beautiful and smart and funny, and we are the luckiest people around?

Work 3 days a week is going pretty well. We have a bit more work on now. The alternating grandmother arrangement is going BRILLIANTLY. Beth has a lovely time on her nanna/Grandem days and is happy as a clam to see them.

Other news: I am riding to work 1 or 2 days per week, which is a 30km round trip. Aren't you impressed with me? It nearly killed me the first two times but I am gradually getting in better shape. I love the new bike, but it's fairly high geared and will be a while until I am strong enough to push its capabilities, I think.

TUNA, POTATO AND CHEESE BALLS
1 cup leftover mashed spud
1 small tin drained tuna, flaked
1 grated carrot
About 1/3 cup grated cheese
1 egg
Pinch salt

Mix together and fry in balls, sausages or patties. For grownups add about 1-2 teaspoons curry powder. Not bad.