A blog in words and pictures
This week is babywearing week.
A year ago, this was the Squishy’s favourite place to sleep. Now her favourite place to sleep is in her cot or horizontal on our bed. But she still slept like this today, just briefly.
I see porridge.
She said that this morning. I much prefer it to I see dead people.
It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that my baby is one. One amazing year of changing everything. One year of doing everything just a little bit before I was ready for her to. One year of holding onto tiny moments as they flew on by.
One of the benefits of having a blog is that it keeps me taking photos every week. It would be easy to have busy weeks or tired weeks or crazy weeks where I forget. But thanks to this place, there are days when I haven’t taken any photos but every week since she was born I have taken photos of her. So I did what any good blogger would do I created a movie of the blog baby’s photos. I had a slight problem culling. So I have one instagram photo and one proper photo from every week (sometimes a couple more).
I even have a few photos of the squishy schmoozing Woogworld, All Consuming, Easy Peasy Kids, Penny Working Mum and Lori of RRSAHM. Her victims were far more numerous than that, but these are the ones that I have photographic evidence of.
Yesterday was her last day of being a baby.* The last day before she turned one. And yesterday she spoke her first word.
‘Riley’
*I say that because she’s entering toddlerdom but we all know I still think of the four year old as a baby so I’m not sure what I’m getting quite so dramatic about.
All of a sudden we are in the pre-verbal stage. How did that happen?
It’s not that she’s saying words, but she’s making sounds that seem like they could be words if only I knew what they meant! Her babble has gone from baby babble to pre-words. And I’m very curious as to what they will be.
Top contenders are:
1) It’s mine!
2) No, Piper!
3) Get away!
4) No! No! No!
5) Don’t touch!
Thanks to her sister’s influence.
First words are fascinating and oh so random. Riley’s first word was moon. She was always enchanted by it, but it was still a slightly obscure first word in the scheme of things.
For the record, I don’t consider mum or dad as first words because they are half sound/half word and there is no way of knowing which half of the time.
Riley’s first word moon was closely followed by her word for bottle ‘mon mo’ which now in hindsight I’m rather impressed that I even deciphered it as a word.
But no matter what the words will be, I like hearing what her voice sounds like.
Who is that? I barely recognise her. Every once in a while there’s just a giant leap forward and that was this week. It’s not just the vocabulary explosion or how much more she understands, although that’s part of it. Mostly, it’s just seeing her become her own person.
On the weekend I was madly crocheting the baby blanket in the hope that it will actually get done in time. The munchkin was playing with the wool and I asked her for one of the colours so I could keep going with what I was doing. Her response? Predictably was ‘No. I need it’ I’m not exactly sure what her masterplan was for the wool but repeated requests did not yield it to me. Nor did asking her what exactly the nature of her need was. I was set to let it go because I knew in about 10 minutes she would be on to some other thing that she ‘needed’ and I could reclaim the wool.
But, finally by way of explanation she pointed to the blanket and said ‘that’s my blanket?’ and I began to have an inkling. I let her know that no, it wasn’t her blanket it was for the baby but that I had made her a blanket when she was a baby and would she like it. To say that she was effusive when she had the blanket in her hot little hands would be an understatement. {Photo above taken of her wielding her baby blanket in victory}
‘Oh thank you, mummy’
‘You’re welcome, baby’
‘I’m sorry, mummy’
‘What are you sorry for?’
‘I’m sorry I was grumpy, I didn’t mean it’
I don’t know why, but that more than anything else that has happened lately made how much she’s grown up so stark. The baby moves often now and it reminds me of how it wasn’t that long ago that she was wriggling around in there and now she stands there, holding a conversation. We actually grew a human – a bubbly, talkative, giggly, challenging, affectionate, bossy, demanding, independent, charming creature who I get to spend most of my time with. Why do I get the feeling that your children break your heart a little bit at a time the older they get? And something tells me it’s not just the pregnant hormones talking.
‘
Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘
‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>
I’m sharing this photo for the cute-factor alone. But to truly appreciate the cute factor you need just a little bit of a back-story. Josh is a bit of a superman geek and so he was very pleased to find this superman outfit, complete with cape.
Riley’s response upon putting it on, “I love superman-ses! Daddy’s love superman-ses” I don’t know what it is about that incorrect plural but I know that I like it and even though I should probably be correcting her, I have absolutely no interest in doing so. None.
‘
Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘
‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>
While the jellybean has been busy growing, my beautiful baby has been doing some growing of her own. After shooting up recently she’s started to fill out again. And she talks in full sentences, thinking about what she says before it comes out of her mouth. I love the look of deep concentration on her face and the way her mouth works its way around new words or words that she just wants to make sure are understood.
She helps me with everything, from hanging out the washing to doing the dishes, to tidying up to putting away clothes. And yes, not all of that help is entirely helpful. But I’m increasingly aware that there’s a little person padding around after me every day – a little person with opinions and preferences and who picks up all too easily in the nuances of my mood.
And the day she loses her lisp I will be very, very sad.
Oh what’s that? Another vote request! Vote for me on Babble!
‘
Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘
‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>
I’m just about half way through my incredibly hectic two month stint of juggling two part-time jobs, a toddler and a house. I don’t do the house bit that well at the moment although i do just enough that it doesn’t become completely out of hand. But it’s never really tidy either.
I’d love to be able to say something incredibly insightful about being a work at home mother. But the truth is that I’m just about all out of insight for now. The only alone time I seem to have is in the shower. It’s also the one time that I can actually hear myself think. I make lists in the shower. To do lists, mostly. It’s a good thing. Because after being afraid at around 18-20 months that Riley would never start talking I find myself in the company of an unbridled chatterbox. And that is lovely. She talks to me. She talks to herself. She talks to her toys. She names things. She role plays with toys and I get to see what I seem like to her. It’s not always flattering. But sometimes it is. She counts. She makes up new numbers. She talks to the cat. And she says hello (mostly) to everyone who comes within shouting distance of her.
And through this frenetic 4 weeks she’s been a real little trooper. I know she needs more. More time. More activity. More stimulation. But I’ve accepted that this is a temporary situation and that’s ok. For now, I’ll distract myself by looking forward to my new floors due to be installed in a little over a week. And I’ll ignore the fact that I’ve got some last minute painting, furniture moving and ripping up of carpet/lino before that can even happen. I’m getting good at this head in the sand business.
‘
Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘
‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>
I’ve been aware for awhile now that Riley can say my name. When I ask her – can you say Zoey? She says it right back to me ‘Soey’. And I like her calling me mum or mummy, I don’t want her to start calling me by my actual name. But I guess I just find it strange that she calls Josh by his name and not me.
Curiousity killed the cat and all of that. So the other day I asked her – is my name Zoey? She looked at me, confused for a minute. ‘No! Mummy!’ she said stabbing her little finger into my chest to prove her point.
‘
Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘
‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>
Every now and again, little ones seem to take giant leaps forward in the space of a week. This has been one of those weeks. And she suddenly seems so grown up.
She’s starting stringing more words together, ‘coming mum!’, ‘one more minute’. Yesterday, she started having a preference for what she wears. And she hasn’t had a nap in three days. I know. I’m mourning the loss in my own way. It’s a shame these leaps forward don’t involve potty training, because I’d be all into that. But I’m still waiting for it to warm up a bit to give it a red hot go.
But instead of being sad about losing baby, I’m excited about all these developments. Watching her creative personality unfold and develop every day and letting her do her own thing, more and more.
I can also see, the older she gets, the more a newborn is going to a real shock to the system. When you have a longer gap (it will be three years) there are certain things that you get used to being out of the baby stage. Like the fact that when I’m dressing her, she does most of the work, or the fact that I only have to change her nappy a few times a day, or that she can tell me why she’s upset or what she wants, or that she can entertain herself for periods of time, or that she can be in the shower on her own, and more to the point that I’ve just gotten to the stage where I can shower alone.
It will be like starting from the beginning again, and I have visions of myself holding out a sleeve of a jumpsuit, expecting the jellybean to be able to push their arm through. I’m sure I’ll have a bossy three year old to set me straight.
‘
Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘
‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>
You’ll notice that the vast majority of my favourite words at the moment are ‘s’ words. There’s something about the lispy nature of them. And how softly spoken she tends to be with those sorts of words.
“Hi Sweets”
I don’t know when we started calling her sweets, it was just one of those nicknames that happened. And although at times it reminded me of having a teeny geeky psychologist wandering around the place (you can’t be surprised that I watch Bones), the name persisted. Now she says it back to us.
“Sushi”
An avid sushi fan. Although not the cleanest of eaters, it must be said.
“Sausage”
Another favourite food – although I think she’s referring to salami sticks more than actual sausage.
“Grandma”
The person she speaks most to on the phone. Now every time the phone rings she tries to grab it, yelling ‘grandma!’ the whole time. It makes holding any phone conversation somewhat challenging.
“Riley”
And of course, her own name. Although the ‘R’ still eludes her.
Also? Vote for Me!!!!!!!!!! Click here to vote for me and I could be heading off for my first ever family holiday to Dunk Island. What are you still doing here? Click! Click! Click!
‘
Pages: ‘, ‘after’ => ‘
‘, ‘next_or_number’ => ‘number’)); ?>