First Bike Ride

It has been an extremely enjoyable family weekend and this afternoon, we took advantage of the bright November day to take our first family bike ride. We bought Evelina’s bike seat off eBay and it was only when we came to use it a few weekends ago that we realised we would also need a bike helmet for her! The only one in Halfords which fits her was a fire chief helmet. She loved the bike ride, at least the smiles and cute noises seemed to suggest she was enjoying it!

 

That face!

Your tenth month

Evelina

Your tenth month has mainly been an exercise in perfecting the art of standing up and sitting down – with some falling over for good measure. You have become so much steadier, though, and adept at carefully sitting yourself back down instead of tipping sideways or backwards. You are able to walk using your baby walker although you need supervision as it rolls a bit too quickly for you to stay upright!  Your feet can’t keep up.  You are also crawling properly now and have completely forsaken the commando-style crawl ‘n’ drag that you had previously favoured.

We are still waiting for more teeth to appear – you still just have the two that came through in July.  I can’t see any sign of any more although it is not that easy to get into your mouth for a good feel since you use the two teeth you do have to good effect!  They are really quite sharp.

A lot of your progress this month was noted in your 9-month health visitor check-up so there is not very much else to report.  The biggest change this month, other than the steady standing, is your babbling which is really coming along now.  We have a feeling that you have said dada or daddy and actually meant it – it is hard to be sure but twice now you have said it with your daddy around and it didn’t seem accidental or coincidental.  I really can’t wait for you to really start talking – even with all your ‘words’, I still can’t imagine what your voice will be like.  And when you say Mama or Mummy, I know I will just melt! A couple of times, you have also said baba when you have looked in the mirror so I don’t know if you are saying baby or if, again, it is just coincidence.

Another change this month has been your temperament.  Whilst you are still your sunny, affable self a lot of the time (tired or hungry? not so much!), we have noticed you being a bit more clingy and wary of people when you first see them – even if you have seen them before. I noticed this even more when you aren’t feeling well and this month you have had a nasty cold and cough that is still hanging on.  This has meant you have hugged both your daddy and I – or you have at least held on to us – so this is probably a major first even though these sorts of things kind of sneak up. I am trying to think of the first time you hugged me – if you even have yet – but I can’t and yet you would think that this is a significant milestone that I would not forget.

We took Evelina to go on the swings by herself for the first time today – she seemed to dig it!—
Mama Kate (@raisingevelina) September 04, 2011

This week is my last week at home with you all the time.  Starting next week, I will be working two days a week in the office with your grandpa while grandma looks after you.  I have not really had much time to think about it because for a while, it looked like my working situation was going to change.  Add to that the fact that we have your Baptism on Sunday, my mind has been busy elsewhere and I am currently trying to ignore the exam-nerves feeling in the pit of my stomach which I think is linked to the fact that I am returning to work.  I know I am lucky to only be working two days and not more (for now) but this will still seem like a wrench at first.  I have been giving you a lot of extra cuddles this week which you always wriggle out of.

The only time you are happy to just sit on my knee with my arms around you is when you are feeling sleepy just before or just after your last bottle and I put In the Night Garden on for you.  You didn’t show much interest in TV at all for a long time but you have started to watch things with interest (albeit for a relatively short amount of time – your attention span is still limited!).

This month we all attended the wedding of our good friends, Liz and Pete.  It was fun to get you all dressed up although we only got the church in the nick of time and fed you all through the service to keep you quiet! You are quite vocal now and even though you were happy and / or excited, your squeals still sound loud in a church!

You have made a massive improvement in eating solids (purées and finger foods) this month.  I was starting to worry a bit about your lack of interest (because this is what mama’s do: worry. Constantly.). But something suddenly clicked and now you just want to eat and eat at every meal.  I think dropping the fourth bottle was the turning point and somehow you have started to notice that food can fill you up.  Breakfast is a lot easier now that you will wolf down your Weetabix or Ready Brek.

Evelina just crawled up the steps in my parents' lounge – her first stairs (albeit just 3 shallow and wide steps)!—
Mama Kate (@raisingevelina) September 16, 2011

You are such a people person – you love being around other people, strangers included.  When I walk around the shops with you, I see you trying to catch every passer-by’s eye (especially the men; we are going to have so much trouble with you when we are older) and you look visibly put-out if someone has the audacity to walk on by without a smile for you! I love how I can glance down to see you beaming at someone behind me and when I look around, sure enough there is someone delighted that you are smiling at them.  You are already able at just 10 months old to make people happy. What a powerful gift. You smiled at a lady the other day and she was so enchanted, she told me that you had made her day.

You make my day every day.

Love, Mama.

How to really love a child

pic source

Your ninth month

Evelina

Wearing her fleece from Uncle Matthew

As your daddy and I celebrated our birthdays at the end of July, we left you for the night with your Grandma and Grandpa – our first night without you! While we went for a curry and a film at the Birmingham IMAX, you were a perfect angel and slept well for your grandparents. In fact, August was a busy month for us with both your daddy and I having weekends away without you. My weekend away in London celebrating our friend Liz’s hen night was your first night being looked after by just Daddy.  Although I had a great time, I still missed you and was very excited to see you.  When I arrived home, I was greeted with your smiling face and a bandage wrapped around your head – Daddy was playing a joke on me!  It was such a cute sight and might have worked a little more had you not been smiling so widely!

Splash!

More good weather meant you got to have some paddling pool fun.  One of the days, you were joined by your two cousins Millie and Daisy in their cuter-than-cute matching Hello Kitty bikinis!  As the eldest, Millie was careful to look after you and make sure you didn’t fall head-first into the water, despite your attempts to drink it!

Among this month’s firsts are:

• pulling yourself up onto first your knees and then your feet to a full stand
• waving
• proper clapping
• low fiving (the high five is still too advanced)

Oh lordy. Evelina pulled herself up to her feet today unaided.—
Mama Kate (@raisingevelina) August 22, 2011

At your baby clinic visit this month, you weighed in at 21 pounds and 2 ozs which is a good size.  Your nine months check is soon so we will also be able to see how tall you are as well as making sure you are doing all the things that you should be – I know that you are!

Evelina, no!

You are as mobile as ever now – your crawl is very fast and we have had to buy a fireguard to keep you away from playing with (read as: eating) the coal bricks.  Your other obsession is the audio-visual equipment in the lounge. This picture shows you being told “Evelina, no!” and turning back to smile impishly before continuing on!

Looks like we need to lower the cot again...

With your next development of wanting to stand up at the furniture, we have to be extra vigilant and unfortunately, you had taken a few knocks with your unsteady legs failing you on occasion. It is especially difficult to prevent these knocks when you are in your cot – you are now able to stand up at the side and this has meant that your naps sometimes don’t get started as easily as they should.

I am so happy that you love your books.

Something has happened this month and your face is starting to really change – your are less babyish and looking more and more grown up.  You have always had the most expressive face but your are so alert with it that it is hard to remember that you are still so young.  You seem to be taking so much in.  You are also starting to get just a little but more clingy – especially for your father.  Yes, you are definitely a daddy’s girl!  When he comes home, you beam with delight only to express your distress when he decides he needs to leave the room to go and get changed!

I have noticed you getting just a bit warier of people you don’t know well – you hold on to my arm a bit tighter.  We aren’t encouraging this behaviour but it is a nice feeling to think that you want to hold on to me. I will hold on to you for as long as you need it – even when you are big and grown.

Love, Mama.

Nine months today!

Water baby

Evelina with her cousins Millie and Daisy*

The paddling pool in Italy was such a hit that we bought one for the back garden, which went down just as well. In the sea in Italy, the salt-water didn’t faze her – she was still happy to splash about (and sample some – she does love to drink the water she is in – euw!).  And if the monster splashes at bathtime are anything to go by, I can safely say that Evelina is very happy when she is in the water. Unlike her silly mama, she copes very well with being splashed in the face (I still have an aversion to the shower on my face although I am fine if I am swimming – weird).

So it was high time that I took Evelina swimming again and on Tuesday we did just that along with her little friend Arthur (and my friend Gill!).  I am so glad I made the effort – we were at the pool by 8am – because she clearly loves the water.  I had not managed to get there before now mainly because I find it so hard to get out and back in time for her next nap which is only ever a maximum of two hours away.  This time, I thought I would bite the bullet and see how she managed with a delay before her first nap of the day which usually comes no more than an hour after waking up at around 7am.  She coped fine and although she was tuckered out by the time we got home, it was definitely worth it.  Hopefully, we will be back there next Tuesday.

*unrelated: Evelina looks so much like me as a baby in that photo at the top, it’s not even funny…

Ciao Bella!

We are having a fab first holiday as a family. Evelina is particularly taken with her paddling pool!

Your sixth month

Evelina

I thought I was going to catch up with these reflective posts so that I could write about your seventh month on time but I didn’t quite manage it.. maybe by your eighth month, I will be on track!

You are getting about so much now that I can’t leave you playing on the floor for any amount of time and a few times, I have been making a cuppa or getting your bottles ready and I hear you complaining, only to find that you have managed to roll part-way under the sofa leaving up on your front and trapped as you have not really worked out forward motion (you can edge, you can pull but thank heavens, you cannot yet crawl) and the sofa is stopping you from rolling out of trouble.  It’s quite a sorry sight – your little face is quite appalled by the impediment.

We are still waiting for your teeth to make an appearance – in the meantime, you still want everything put your way in your mouth, including unsuspecting fingers.

This month was a busy month – we celebrated your Grandad’s 60th birthday by throwing him a surprise party. Your Grandpa, Nanny and Uncle Matt also had birthdays.

As a treat for Easter, Grandma and Grandpa treated you to having your hand and foot print made into a beautiful addition to your nursery.  You were good as gold as the lady pressed your hand followed by your foot into clay.

You met your Great Auntie Janet in May while she was visiting from the US.  She is your Grandma’s sister and you were very confused by the lady who looked just enough like Grandma without being Grandma, with a very different voice!  When your Great Auntie Chris joined us for a trip to Coughton Court, it just added to the confusion!

There are still a ton of ‘firsts’ – some so small, they pass us by as we marvel at our growing daughter.  I do manage to catch one or two, though:

First mirror smile! We are in the car and I smiled at Evelina in the baby mirror and SHE SMILED BACK! Usually she just looks perturbed.—
Mama Kate (@raisingevelina) May 21, 2011

Love, Mama.

On the move

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postaweek2011

After a week of sneaky, secret rolls in private, Evelina is now rolling all over the place.She can now roll to get to a toy and as you can see, the baby-proofing (AKA put a cushion on every hard surface) begins. In the picture above, I had put her in the middle of the quilt and you can see where she ended up!

Bring me toys!

Evelina wants to play with all her toys at once!

She looks so grown up sitting up (with a little help from the Widgey pillow).