thisiskylie

Walking and other amazements

Isabella took her first unaccompanied steps today.  She walked from her Baby Walker to her Dad; and repeated it again a couple of minutes later.  She then retired to her cot to sleep off these exertions, or perhaps she was a bit frightened by the yelling and cheering from her parents.

In other news, her vocab has improved immensely - along with muma and dada, she now says coco (more like gogo) and also quack quack (which is more like kek kak).  She can also correctly identify her belly when asked 'Where's your belly'.  She generally looks down, pats the big pot belly with both hands like Homer Simpson would, then looks up at us as if we're stupid for not knowing this in the first place.

When we were still in the rather soft and fuzzy naive days of pre-parenthood, everyone warned us that having a baby would be such hard work.  But nobody told us that we would laugh more and laugh harder than we ever have before.  This girl cracks us up every day.

And she's off

This morning Isabella woke up and decided that she now likes to walk.  Just like that, we gave her our fingers or her baby walker, and off she toddled, all around the house.  Her technique is hilarious - legs wide apart like a crazy cowgirl; stomach out first like chicken little; stomping her feet hard like godzilla; and whoosh... off she speeds.

10 Months Old

10 months old!  It seems positively ancient when I look back on her first few days.  I can now understand how parents can look at their 21 year old child, getting married, graduating from university, starting their first job etc, as still being their baby.  I'm sure when Isabella is 21 I will still think of her as a little round-faced and fat cheeked baby.

Anyway, in honour of the 10 month birthday, I give you a list of 10 - five things she likes; and five things she's not too keen on (for the moment anyway):

- she absolutely adores Coco.  When she gets up in the morning, the first thing she does is look for Coco, so that she can give her a huge cuddle, and bend her head asking for the inevitable lick.

- food-wise: she loves yoghurt, cheese, crumpets (no crumbs!) with vegemite, bread sticks and anything that she can eat with her fingers.

- her favourite toys are her First Steps Baby Walker, and her Classic Chorus Stacker.

- she likes to help me get her bath ready.  Her bath toys are kept in a basket next to the bath, so while the water is running, she will bend down, pick up each toy and inspect it thoroughly, and then drop it in the water ready for her to play with when she gets in.

- when I sit at my desk, she cruises around my chair and grunts and groans and chats and won't let up until I pick her up, put her on my lap and let her bash my keyboard while playing Baby Splat. (she also chills out to the visualisations in Media Player when I play some music)

- she's not too keen on the vacuum/hoover.  She'll usually crawl as far away from it as she can, and sometimes I have to pick her up and hold her while I'm using it

- she hates avocado, and she's not too keen on jelly, ice cream or juice either.

- she does not like having dirty or sticky fingers.  If she does, she will hold her hands out, not touch anything and get kinda prissy about it until I wash them under the sink

- having her face washed, however, is probably the greatest injustice in her world, along with holding her legs up while attempting to change her nappy.

- she's not too sure about strangers at the moment.

- and, of course, she doesn't like not being able to do whatever she pleases (such as climbing the stairs or playing with electrical sockets)

Her First Chick Flick

Now that she has all of her vision, Isabella thought it might be nice to go to the movies.  So we joined about fifty other mums and babies (and one lone father) for the Baby Odeon screening of The Break-Up.  I was a bit worried that her pterodactyl shrieking might impact the viewing experience, but she didn't utter a peep.  Just ate her pureed carrot, sucked back her milk, and then fell asleep on my lap.  Bless.  The movie was good too.  And the popcorn!

Five Things

She's now five months old.

She loves sucking her thumb - it's what she does to get to sleep.  She also loves grabbing her chubby little feet in her hands and waving them in the air.  Sometimes, if she's really tired, she gets these things confused, and goes to sleep sucking her toe.

When she's on her belly, she can now lift her bum and tum up in the air and balance precariously on her hands and knees.  She wobbles, back and forth, left to right, like she's answering the call to prayer, before flip-flopping over to her back.

Sometimes, the little face she pulls when she's smiling is exactly the same as the little face she does when she's throwing a bit of a tantrum.  Eyebrows dancing, nose wrinkled, eyes screwed up, mouth wide open.  We can't help laughing, even if she's angry.

When I'm trying to feed her solids, she's more interested in sucking her little plastic bib.  Cue many silly loud and embarrassing 'food train' and 'food plane' tricks with the spoon to try and get her attention.

Weekly round-up

Saturday - yay for the grandparents.  They came over and gave us a couple of hours off this afternoon.  Which we spent wandering around thinking 'whatever shall we do now'.  Note to self: next time, dash straight to nearest pub on the river and order large jug of Pimms; or catch one of those movies you've been wanting to see for ages.  Oh, and the little missy also got her first sippy cup.  She can hold it in both hands, tip it back and guzzle the water.  But she can also give herself a sippy cup shower.

Sunday we all went for a long, three hour ramble in Richmond Park.  We took too many photos, took Isabella to the Isabella Plantation and ate some icecream.  Then we slept.

On Monday, we had a new aerial installed on our roof.  It's so large, rumour has it that it can be seen from space.  Has enabled us to receive the free digital channels (yay for film four, yay for E4, yay for BBC News).  And given us a reason to indulge in this sexy piece of technical trickery - the digital set-top box with inbuilt 160GB (!!!) hard drive.  We will never miss our favourite shows again.  It's already set up to automagically record Series 2 of Kath & Kim.  Qualidee.

On Tuesday, the bub and I met up with another mum and baby and we all visited the new Baby Cafe that has opened up in these parts.  Yes, we really do live in nappy valley if there is reason to open a cafe devoted to parents and children.  Great idea - babies can make noise, kids can play and parents can eat and drink without worrying about disturbing anyone.  It's only just opened so not quite there yet, but will be great once they get beanbags and lava lamps and soft play areas for the little ones.

On Wednesday, we had a visit from the carpenter to size up and arrange a quote for some cabinets in our lounge room.  He's a young lad, and very ... young... with a little graze on his knuckle that he worried was turning green and gangrous.  It wasn't - was just infected, so administered some tea tree lotion and wondered at this new image I have as a Mum who therefore knows all about such things!  It kinda tickled me.

We also had a visit from the surveyor to kick off the kitchen extension plans again  - but this time bigger and better - to hopefully include an eat-in kitchen, and a play area for the baby.  Don't look out for any news on this any time soon though.  Plans take 12 weeks to approve, and they haven't even been drawn up yet.

Thursday we had a family day out to Blenheim Palace.  Our time as stay-at-home parents is getting shorter, so we are going to make the most of it and have resolved to have a day out together each week.  Was a beautiful British day - gloomy and grey and moody in the morning, with blazing sunshine in the afternoon.  The palace is good - I'd recommend not paying to tour the palace, but just wander the gardens (for free) instead.

Friday was quiet.  Phew.

Saturday we decided to have an impromptu barbecue with the in-laws after seeing this recipe on Saturday Cooks.  And it was gooood.  So good, that we are having it again tonight.  And, the peanut started on real solids today, and not just baby rice, with a tasty meal of bright orange pureed carrot.  Cue much screwing up of face and poking out of tongue, but she still gobbled it all up.