Toddling About

 Photo by Octavia Higginson

After shopping, cleaning and all that weekend malarky, on Sunday afternoon Ocky and Arthur stopped by to see us.

Arthur is exactly one week older than Eve. They have grown up with each other, as Ocky and I would see each other most weeks during maternity leave. Thinking of our cherubs as tiny babies lying on the floor together a year ago, and now to see them walking about together for the first time was incredible.

We sang some songs ('If you're happy and you know it' is of course a favourite) and watched them playing in the lounge whilst it drizzled outside. Well, it was more like we watched them take toys off each other, and told them that they must learn to share; and then we went out for a walk through the woods.

Arthur can't be seen as he was in his pram

They were both still awake by the time we arrived at the park so they went on the swings together and had a marvellous time. Big smiles all round.

The two dare devils

Sam showed Eve the blossom on a tree, which was lovely as I've been explaining to Eve for a week or so that the blossom is on it's way.

Photos by Octavia Higginson

Family Fergusson

We stopped at the little cafe in Arnos Vale Cemetery. Arthur and Eve enjoyed eating gingerbread men whilst we had a rest (Eve is now pretty heavy to carry about in the sling) and a chat. It was really good to catch up with Ocky; and talk 'naps', the changing bedtime routine and the ongoing weaning-from-milk situation.

Gingerbread grin

It's so good to be able to get ideas from other mum's who are dealing with the same things at the same time. Since Friday evening I've been giving Eve water in her bottle before bed as I've been getting worried about her teeth. She's very good at drinking water during the daytime, and her sippy cup is in full effect and she loves drinking from it. So far we've done x4 nights where Eve has happily drunk water before bed instead of milk, so we seem to be breaking through this weaning thing.

At bedtime, I've had a watered down bottle of cow's milk next to me on the floor out of her eye level just incase I need it so I don't have to make her more upset by going downstairs to get it.

If and when Eve wakes during the night sometimes I attempt to give her water rather than the watered down milk if she is not upset about anything in particular. Though sometimes I give her the watered down milk if I'm feeling to knackered to handle a possible episode.

For the first time in my life I've had a fringe cut, or as the American's say - bangs. Sam has wanted me to try a fringe for years but I'd always been too scared, stepping into the unknown. Lately I had been feeling quite tired and to be honest, a bit old. I must say that having a change of hairstyle has really helped. Mumma needed a new look, plus it hides the wrinkles! :-)

Weekend Joy

Wearing the Rituals dressing gown that Grandad Col and Jeggsy gave her for Christmas 2013. 

It finally fits which is most exciting. Eve likes wearing it in the morning when she's playing in the lounge. (She has yet to grow into her pyjama's though! Always tricky, smaller size are way too tight, but next size up is still a bit too big).

Well, it's been another lovely weekend. Eve is still on her 'I must get up for the day around 4am', so I managed to get lots of house work done and felt most productive. She's been on antibiotics for another ear infection this past week, so I think that has been bothering her a bit in her sleep, but otherwise she's actually been sleeping pretty well.

Not having teething pain is so good, we really see the difference. She eats so well, drinks less milk at her bedtime milk session and less milk during the middle of the night too. It's such a relief, though it only seems to last a few weeks until the next tooth starts trying to come through. She now has 8 teeth - all at the front of her mouth.

Talking of mouths, I had a bit of a scare this weekend. Eve was playing in the lounge and I was on my laptop in the kitchen (it's open plan so that we can see through to the other room). I heard her coughing in a strange way that I'd not heard before, so I rushed in, to find her with a red wooden part of her train-set stuffed inside her mouth. Thankfully it had a hold through the middle, but it was quite wedged behind her teeth and I had to pull it out. She didn't make a fuss at all though and just carried on playing after I reiterated to her not to put things in her mouth. I must admit, I didn't think she would try and put those pieces in her mouth as they are quite big. She knows things that she's not allowed or shouldn't do, we just have to keep reminding her. 

 Arnos Vale Park

On Saturday afternoon dear Cridds n Jess came over to see us, which was such a welcome visit. It's so nice to see friends, who cheer us up after a stressful week of work/home/attemptingbalance. Thankfully the weather was good, so we walked through the woods to the park so that Eve could go on the swings. She had a great time in her new coat, which I bought in a charity shop before she was born.

It's so lovely seeing her wear things that I bought so long ago - now the dreams become reality.

Eve seemed a bit wary, like she was checking out Cridds and Jess for a bit at first, but by the end of the afternoon they were firm friends and were doing high-fives.

Hello, I'm ready for nursery!

Eve walks a few more steps each day, and we can see her confidence growing. Yesterday she walked towards the tv to watch 'Dora the Explorer' on Nick Jr, stood there a moment and then plonked down on her bum.

12 Month Development Check

Eve playing with her toys on New Years Day before the Christmas tree was taken down

I've been wanting to post this for almost 2 weeks but have been having issues with iphoto. Finally it's almost sorted. Well, I have photos for this post at least...

Just after Christmas our rather lovely health visitor Carla stopped by for Eve's one year check-up. We haven't had any concerns, so as expected she said that Eve was doing fine, and that she is developing well, in line with her age.  She hadn't lost weight but she hadn't gained much either - due to crawling and being active, along with the consequences of bad teething pain over the last few weeks (not eating much and bad nappies). Eve now weighs 19lb 2oz.

Carla is really nice and has a positive and realistic approach. I'm so glad. When I told her that I still haven't managed to get Eve to stop drinking milk during the night-time when she wakes, she told me that if it's working for us at the moment then that's fine, and that we should work on it over the coming months.  I was speaking to a friend the following day about this and she said that her friend had mentioned a very similar thing to her health visitor who had been quite strict about it and had already made an appointment in the near future to check that she has rectified the situation. That seems a bit stressful to me - too much pressure. We've been so tired, and Eve's been ill so much over the last couple of months that we didn't want to push this.

Now that tooth number 7, the pesky blighter, has completely popped out Eve seems much better in herself.  I'm really hoping that as we approach spring Eve will feel better, and consequently won't wake up so much during the night - and therefore, won't be needing to drink so much. Fingers massively crossed anyway. Carla said 'when you get some time, work on the night-time drinking with a recommended method'. This is easy to say but when you only have 3 weeks worth of holidays to take over the coming year it's tricky to work out when it might be possible to do that whilst working etc.

I know that she's in a bad habit with the milk drinking in the night-time and I am worried about curtailing it, I'm hoping that if I try harder for her to use a cup during the day time, rather than her bottle for water that this may help with the evening drinking.

Nuby

Eve just hasn't got on well with a sippy cup at all over the last few months, and I know that we are behind other kids on this part of development.

We've also tried a Nuby cup with a straw, and have also got handles for her MAM baby bottle. Nothing so far has worked but we shall keep persevering. When she was about 4 months old she would hold up her bottle, but over time she has realised that she wants us to do it and gets grumpy when we try to make her use a sippy cup.  Oh the trials and tribulations of this weaning malarky!!

The thing that I haven't yet tried is a soft spout on a bottle, like this MAM Starter cup which is kind of in between the bottle and a sippy cup. However, we've decided that we'd like her to get to grips with the Nuby cup if possible as sippy cups are bad for a child's teeth if used for too long.

I sent Eve off to nursery yesterday with her bottle with handles attached and the nursery staff said she simply would not touch it or let them give her a drink with it, which in turn meant that she barely drank anything all day. They said they were worried about her becoming dehydrated.







When we arrived home she guzzled down a bottle of water with me during story time last night before her bath. I know that people say 'if a child is thirsty they will drink' - but maybe not in some cases. She is quite a determined little thing.

After Carla's visit I gave Eve cow's milk rather than formula for her bedtime drink for the first time. I made up one bottle of normal milk and one bottle of formula in advance - thinking that she may not like it. But thankfully she drank the whole 160ml straight down without a fuss. Phew! I knew that I could give her cow's milk to drink from 12 months but I wanted to check with my health visitor before going ahead with it.  I'm so pleased it has worked without any tears. Perhaps this is going to help towards the night weaning.

Our good friend Fonz came to visit just before New Years. It was a sunny, but freezing day. We had a lovely walk through the park with some friends and their kids, and then had drinks in the cozy 'Star and Dove' pub. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries which was a pain so I couldn't get any shots of the wee bairns together.

Eve's friend Jake gave her a cool inflatable bear for Christmas. You fill the bottom with water which acts as a weight. She's been really enjoying playing with him - he's kind of like a mini punch bag rocking back and forth, ha ha.

Eve and Bo Bo the Bear

Eve is a funny little thing and is constantly waving. She pretty much says 'Hello' and 'I love you' now (well, to mine and Daddy's trained ears this is what we hear) and she also likes to 'high-five'.

During the Christmas hols Eve has been having a lovely time racing round the kitchen with her walker. Once she starts she's off like a shot. It's most amusing and we are ecstatic with delight every time we see her walking. She pauses every so often to take her hands off the walker and just stands for a moment or two before zooming off again. I think she'll be walking unaided in no time.