leaps and bounds

hello all

Well as the title says Lily is coming along in leaps and bounds. Kristian and I have been talking in amazment as she seems to learn a new thing every hour.

She went away on another little mini braek this weekend to her nanny Michele in Verwood and had a lovely time. she has a new highchair there which she loved, not so much for eating the food in but definately good for banging cups on the tray!

She went and had a drink with her great grandad in a hotel which she loved ( see photo) and then went back to her nannys house while her mummy and daddy had a lovely time at the cinema.

She has had very sore gums and we have had a few screaming sessions. I think we are not far off cutting a tooth now. mostly she is in such lovely mood. She just thinks everything is funny. this week i have had a breakthrough getting her to take a sippy cup. it came when she was so thirsty last night and I had water in it and she was so thirsty she had to learn pronto how to suck on it.

today when she had her dinner i put the cup next to her and halfway through she stops and looks for the cup and grabs it to have some. I being such a softy, proud mummy type, well up and want to cry ... so clever

she has also learnt to clap now and shake her head when i say no or when she hears music. the music is accompanied with wiggles as sh trys to dance. Lets hope she has not inheritated my dance moves and pointing fingers...lol..

Food is going well. she went off her veggies a bit. i must say she does not like everything and if its green you can forget it.. sigh.. I see problems in my future. she does love avo though and she is really good with most things. tonight she polished off butternut and sweet potato puree and a whole yoghurt. never seems to matter how full she is, always room for pudding ( so much like me!)

Tonight i have taken her mobile down and had another little weep. I can remember like yesterday going to hamleys with my mum and Kristian to get it. I was so excited to have it. It was all set up on the cot for weeks. I had read about it. its called symphony in motion and the little animals are all brightly coloured. Lily would lie under it for ages. i could shower and make my lunch while she looked at it. when she started cooing and babbling it was to those little animals.. and now it gone cause she wants to hang off of it.

So things continue to change here every day. new toys come out and old ones ae packed away. the bouncy chair is almost obsolete and the highchair is on its way in.

The 6 month mark really is the beginning of something new for baby.. and for me

xxxxxx

Wendy

Happy 6 months Lily

This time 6 months ago I was just starting to push! In some ways it seems as though it has flown and in others it feels like lily has been around always.

she woke up today in a lovely happy mood, so she must have known that it was her 6 month birthday. Her sitting is going very well and she is really steady most of the time. She s leaning forward to get things and then will fall onto her tummy. I am anticipating that one day she will land on all fours and we will have a crawling baby. I must say I am gathering energy for it as she is into everything at the moment. If its in her line of vision she wants it so I will be running.

Her eating has gone down the tubes the last 2 days. dont know why but all her veggies have moved over "to the dark side" (to quote caroline) especially peas, it brought back memories of my brussel sprout days ( no mum you are not yet forgiven)

I am not pushing things though I will just persevere with it all.

I am also trying to introduce a sippy cup. thats another battle. she thinks I am mad, has no idea what to do with it.

so hopefully at next post we will be back on track with eating again.

I had a little photo shoot to celebrate lilys 6 months today and she loves it. Like father like daughter.

On a personal note I am missing everyone there in Cape Town terribly but I am happy to be back with Kristian here. i am feeling really tired actually perhaps due to my diet. I have cut back my food quite a lot ( for me) but I need the energy to keep up with a 6 month old baby. At about 4 in the afternoon I can just lay my head down and sleep. It awful. onwards and upwards...........

hope you are all well

xxxxxxx

a snowy day in London

Hello all

we woke up yesterday morning to a blanket of snow so draggeda very unimpressed Lily out to play. it was so cold and was still snowing for most of the morning. I will include some photos in our road and a few of the heath in blackheath and the park in greenwich which kristian took on his way to work.

So here we go ... Lilys first taste of snow........ what a contrast to last week

xxxxxx

cape town

photos of our holiday

Lily's big Cape Town adventure

Hello all

Finally I get to sit down to tell you all about lilys lovely holiday to Cape Town. We arrived to beautiful weather and a very excited nana , grandpa , uncle Andrew, aunty ronnie and uncle steven. Lily took about a day to settle and then she was away making everyone laugh and love her. it seemed asthough she was having such a nice holiday as we had so much smiling and laughing. Everywhere we went everyone spent most of their time finding different ways to make her laugh. It was like a looney bin at times.

She loved her cot at her grandpa and nanas house and she got a lovely paddling pool as well so she had some relaxing times in the pool. nana had lots of different songs that she sang to her which she loved and every morning she played with her grandpa before he went off to work.

Aunty Ronnie was also a bit of a loon and had all sorts of nicknames and funny noises for her. She spent some time there and one day we went to a baby braai there ( that is all the babies came and we braaied not that we braaied the babies) Lily loved meeting Adam and danielle and an older friend, Jake. Lily had great fun hitting adam on the head whilst he just sat there.

we had a lovely day out in Langebaan where we visited Caroline and Craig. Lily got all kitted out in her cozzie and hat and headed onto the sand where she buried her little toes in the sand and even had a paddle. Craig then carried her down the beach which she found very tiring and was nodding off. I had a lovely swim with Caroline in the beautiful langebaan sea. it was like we were children again. It must have been way over an hour and you just feel so amazing afterwards.

we had a lovely picnic at Boschendal with the grandparents, uncle andrew , Aunty Carol and aunty Ronnie and Steven. It was an amazing day for us as well as lily. in fact she was having so much fun she did not want to sleep the whole day.

we just did so much and lily met so many special people in my life. she was spoilt rotten by everyone and saw so many different things. she started sitting whilst in Cape town and now since arriving home has started saying mama, indiscriminately of course , but she is putting her words together now. I know she loved you all as since we have arrived back in england she has been a bit subdued. Too quiet with just daddy and mummy. she is back in the swing now and loving us both again.

I will leave you with some photos of our lovely holiday and the biggest thank you to everybody in the beautiful city for making this the best holiday ever

xxx

Love Wendy

xxxx