the weekend * yawns*

I have just collapsed here in front of the computer to upload my photos and update my blog. I am officially exhausted. We have had a lovely weekend again. weekends never disappoint with Lily around as she loves to be with both her mummy and daddy. More people to love and admire her you see!



I have been up at 5 every morning with Lily waking up for some unknown reason. I am delaying giving her a bottle as i think 5 is still a night feed but I tell you she is having none of it and cries really loudly until she gets it, however worse than that is the fact she WILL NOT go back to sleep. Its very frustrating and unlike her. Therefore I am very crabby.

That was all made better on Saturday when we met friends Jason and Sandi on the Southbank for lunch. we went to a restaurant called giraffe, which is a chain that my brother Andrew used to work for when he lived in London. great food, lots of rose wine (for me) and good company made for a great afternoon. they treat the kids so well there as its very child friendly and Lily got given a balloon which was treated with much suspicion by the aforementioned. She was a little tired( I wonder why) so we eventually had to put her in her pram for a little nap but she was good as gold the whole day.

Today has been filled with cooking and housework, which my dear friend Veronica tells me is one of the 7 deadly sins on a Sunday. however we have a lovely clean flat and freezer filled with Lily dinners so I feel happy.



We have had a lovely 2 hours now just before bed where we were playing with Lily. eventually we are all crying with laughter. who would have thought a baby could be so funny and have such a little sense of humour. shes a delight to be around and we cannot wait to show her off In Cape Town again.



I think yesterdays boozy lunch is still got me in her grasp as I feel quite woozy so am off to sit in front of Glastonbury and eat my lovely chicken and fresh pasta and herbs. yay I love Sunday nights.

spot the difference

Here is a 1 week old Lily in her bugaboo pram

And here she is yesterday laying in it as I cleaned it all ready to sell. boo hoo

The spoilt little girl

Yes, That's my little girl!

She deserves it though for being the most divine creature on earth. The spoiling began at the beginning of last week when we bid on a new pushchair on ebay. We presently have a bugaboo, the most amazing pushchair/pram, however after 10 months of putting it up and down we really wanted an easy ,small one to fit into the back of the car. The bugaboo has served its purpose and we have loved it but its off to a good home to some other ebayer soon.

Then on Wednesday we had an appointment with mothercare for a new forward facing car seat. It seems like just the other day we got the infant carrier!. she is now over the weight limit and staring at the back of a seat is not very interesting for a little girl who is very interested in the world around her.

After a fraught 2 hours trying every seat in our car the poor woman finally found one that actually fit properly and off we went into the shopping centre for a day out. I was baked by the sun outside. I had no idea car seat fitting was so complicated.

Here she is in her little seat.........

Lily's last bit of spoiling was her first pair of shoes. (complicated once again) they are called cruisers as she is cruising( walking holding onto things) therefore the shoes must still be very soft and flexible and not too small. her size is a 2 1/2 E. they are the cutest things LOOK.........

Otherwise all is well. We have been away to Lily's nana for the weekend which was nice bar the awful weather we are having.It may shock you but its raining again.

Lily is being a little charmer and has us in stitches. her new game is chasing me around the couch. she squeals with delight when she catches me and then head butts me for some reason. I am of course getting all my exercise this way. who knew crawling was such hard work. she is just so mobile now its frightening but she keeps us well and truly entertained.

On my weight loss front I lost 5 .5 pounds the week before last but stayed the same this week. I have lost over a stone now and am very chuffed. I am finally feeling a little more comfy and my baby belly is shrinking a bit. wow only 9 months for that to start happening

hers a few of the monkey chasing me

xxxxxxxxxxx

bedtime battles

Tonight we have had a victory. I have been pondering victory through life, when you are a toddler its walking or tying your shoe laces. Then at school, its school achievements or sport ,and then onto higher education its a whole new ball game. Your work life is peppered with small victories and promotions and then...............you have a baby and victory is getting them to eat a small piece of broccoli!!

We have had a very unhappy little girl at bedtimes. she is just having such a ball during the day that when night time arrives she just does not want it to end ( haven't we all been there?)

Lily has always gone to bed so beautifully, but the only certainty with parenthood, I have discovered, is that it can all change in the blink of an eye.Change it did and we had to take action as she was going off at 8 eventually and we were so stressed.

I had spoken to Verons sister Nicola and she asked me if I was doing the controlled crying correctly. sheepishly I admitted no. I just cant leave her , it breaks my heart. She told me it took 4 nights with Dylan and he was on track. sigh.................. you all know what I had to do :(

We tweaked it somewhat in that when we went in to her we picked her up calmed her down and then put her back down.this is called the pick up /put down method. yes it has a name.

We did it for 2 nights . first night it took 7 gos in and out . then yesterday it was 4 . tonight Kristian put her down and turned her on her side . gave her her muslin and went out. and...........yippee she went to sleep not a peep.

now its for me to continue it and not be a woes!!!

here's some new pictures of princess Lily Luby...........We LOVE her SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much

A lily update

Yes its that time again. the time for you all to be bored with details of my beautiful daughter and all the fabulous things she can do!

here goes

Lily Grace Humble

Age: 9 months 3 weeks old

Eating:

lily is doing fabulously with her eating. all my hard work making and pureeing has paid off and she will eat almost anything ( bar sweet potato and chocolate) her favs are butternut rissoto , fish and mash with tomatoes and cheese and a variety of veg, all fruit, sandwiches with dairylea, and of course her all time fav ,avo. she has also been introduced to scrambled egg now which she loves and makes for an easy lunch of supper. yogurt always goes down well.

She will hold and eat things with not much mess. her actual meals are lumpy and textured now and she loves it. I mash most things.

Sleeping:

still does her 11 - 12 hours. she is on an 11 hour thing at the moment and we are having a few bedtime dramas but she is so good on the whole but goes through these sleeping phases and then the next week she fights the sleep again. I learnt a long time ago to go with the flow and let her have what she needs. I could however do without the 5 30 wake up call. lily , if you are reading! her naps are still only 45 min to an hour. she has 2 a day. sometimes, once a week she will have an hour and a half in the afternoon.

mobility:

her crawling has taken off , literally, she moters around the flat so fast that she "trips" over her arms sometimes. she is really exploring things and is quite obsessed with the kitchen and all its cupboards. we have now babyproofed some of the house like the cleaning cupboards and her drawers as they are on runners and if she got her fingers caught in them it would be nasty. she is standing now as well, supported of course. she can pull up on anything that stands still for long enough and has started to wobble her legs a bit and try to step forward or back :)

so all in all she is very mobile shall we say.

cute stuff she can do:

clap hands , listen to the command "clap your hands "and do it , wave at everyone but especially herself in the mirror, giggle insanely at the wierdest things(yesterday me chasing a fly to kill it- bad karma yes yes I know but they are annoying) , say mama , dada , baba and a variety of other sounds, chat to things like books and birds, crawl really fast after birds. at this juncture you may have sensed a bird theme. I don't know if its just Lily but this child seems obsessed with birds. Looking at the amount of kids throwing large chunks of bread at innocent ducks at the park I am assuming children like birds. she can squeeze her bath toys now and is getting really good with grasping things. she passes things to us and then holds out her hand to get them back.

likes:

the swings, being sung to,exploring , birds , tickles ( she lies really still and closes her eyes while you tickle her ) , eating all her favorite foods, going for walks in her pram

dislikes:

sweet potato , going to bed , napping for longer than an hour , getting into her pjs after her bath , getting out of the bath

So thats it, lily in a nutshell

Here in the humble valk household we have recently got a webcam and mic and are now chatting away to mum and dad and Steven and Veronica. It has been really fun as they have been able to see lily and all her cuteness.

other news is Congratulations to our friends Gavin and Catherine on the birth of their little boy , Max Davis, I have yet to see him but he looks amazing on his photos. Gav came to have a beer with us last night and after we left Kristian and i spent ages discussing and reliving Lily's birth and early days. Something that will be happening for many ,many years to come I am sure

Nana Fi has gone home

Yes she has left on a jet plane this evening. We had a drink this afternoon and then drove to heathrow to drop her off .

We have had the most wonderful time with her. Lily loves her as she sings and plays with her all the time.

since my last post we have been very busy. we were away in wiltshire over the bank holiday weekend. Good food and wine and excellent company led to a wonderful weekend in beautiful rural setting. Lily loved it all and got on very well with everyone especially the little poodle , Lucy. she screeches at birds and small dogs now.

In the week we went into London 3 times. the first day we went to the national gallery and looked about. it was foul weather and we were rained on most of the time. the next day we met a friend of mine from SA, Jenny,in St James park where we had a fabulous picnic sitting on the deck chairs and then walked miles seeing Buckingham palace, and walking the north bank of the Thames. the weather was amazing for us .

Yesterday we went into London from Greenwich Pier on the boat. it drops you at the London eye. we then went up in that which affords you the best views of London. The highlight for me was the boat trip as you see London differently and it was just so relaxing. water does that to me.

So a very weary Wendy is saying goodnight tonight. Its been a wonderful 2 weeks... back to normal tomorrow. I will update on Lily tomorrow.

xxxx