ONE YEAR OLD

My little girl is one.

And to everyone that's said to me "Gosh, hasn't that gone quickly?". No, not really! There are times when I do think some of the months have sped by, but on the whole it does feel like a full year... at least!

Unfortunately Charlotte was really poorly for her birthday. She was up all the night before, and on the actual day, when she wasn't crying with a raging temperature and clearly in pain, she was cuddled into one family member or another just wanting to sleep. It was frankly heartbreaking.

We had a big BBQ with both sets of family (even my brother who came over from Australia and met his niece for the first time) and friends, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. But I could only concentrate on Charlotte and making sure she was comfortable. Thankfully my parents are always the hosts-with-the-most and took over sorting the food and drinks.

Took Charlotte to the doctors and it seems she'd had a virus, and has a chest infection for which she has anti-biotics. She's sowly getting better, but has been up every night for at least an hour crying and crying until her next dose of Nurofen kicks in - or she's too tired to fight her sleep anymore.

Sadly, we didn't get any good pictures from her first birthday, but here are a couple form when she wasn't too poorly:

having just moved into a new house, I think we're going to have to move into an even bigger one to accommodate all Charlotte's birthday presents!

NURSERY

I have so much to catch up on on my blog - not least the fact that Charlotte turned one this weekend - but I've been so busy.

Last Friday was Charlotte's first full day at Nursery. She's only going one day a week for the time being, and seemed to get on fine. In the first settling-in session where I stayed with her, she barely acknowledged I was there - far too many new toys to explore!

She was also fine in her second session - the only time she grizzled was when I went to pick her up and I think she suddenly realised I hadn't been around. She did a half day last Monday in which she had a suprisingly long nap and managed to eat some soup and banana & custard. She was apparently a bit upset when she woke up because she wasn't sure where she was, but that's totally understandable.

And Friday was fine. They give her lunch a bit earlier than I normally would, and so she doesn't get her morning nap until after lunch - so by 11am she was a bit grizzly. But it sounds like she did really well with her food and then had more than an hour's sleep. Again - she got a bit upset when I went to collect her, just as she used to when I've left her at her Grandma's if I don't go and give her a cuddle immediately.

The nursery give us a daily 'report' on how she's got on - what she's eaten, how long she's slept, what she's played with etc. -  which is really nice. 

I still have reservations about her being at nursery, but I've been given a load of freelance shifts that financially I simply can't turn down, and I can't rely on Grandparents all the time. And I know it will do her good socially. But already she's picked up a virus/chest infection (more on that in next post) - something I know will become more frequent as she mixes with more children.

But we'll give it a go for the next couple of months, and if I'm still not 100% happy then we can always take her out, try a different nursery, or I just won't work so much. We'll see how it goes.

SHE'S OFF....

At 11 months, Charlotte has finally started crawling. I was convinced she wasn't ever going to bother, and go straight to walking. But while unpacking some boxes in our new house, she made her way to her Bumbo box which had pictures of babies on the outside.

She's still a bit tentative, but can easily make it across a room... usually aiming for a DVD to pull off a shelf, a plug socket, or a cable.

But she's still much more content to sit with her books - or "bookies" as she calls them. She's a real bookworm -  sat with picture books, books with sounds, flaps or regular storybooks for hours. Tearing and chewing the pages less and less.

11 MONTHS OLD

The last month's all been a bit higgeldy-piggedly as we've been moving house (again!). Not surprisingly, Charlotte's been a little unsettled - more clingy than usual, crying when one of us leaves a room, and wanting her dummy more. But she's been much more like her old self today - and only had her dummy for sleeping (Long naps today of 50 mins and more than an hour!).

Despite having had three homes in her first 11 months, it's the first time - aside from being at her grandparents' - that she's had a garden. She really didn't like the grass at first when we practised her walking, but was fine after a couple of days. Here's Charlotte enjoying the sun:

Her speech and communication continues to astound us. She's such a mimic - trying to copy lots of words we say, and although they don't really sound much like the actual word we can hear she's really trying. She can point to her head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, tongue (she loves that one!), tummy, hands, feet and toes - and can do animal noises (or approximations of!) for a cow, duck, pig, sheep and - her favourite - monkey!

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But the little monkey still seems to have a mental block when it comes to 'Mummy'.... I'm still 'Dad-deeee' - and her Daddy gets the best receptions every time!!

DANCING QUEEN

Charlotte's started to boogie on down! When she hears any kind of music, mobile ringtones, or just when we say "dance" or "are you dancing?" she sways side to side and moves her head to the beat. It's hilarious, and so cute!

Elsewhere, she's keeping us on our toes as ever. Naps can be anything between 20 minutes and 1 hour 20 - there's just no guessing these days. And one mealtime she'll be good as gold eating my food, trying to use the spoon herself and wolfing down her finger food - and the next she'll throw everything  on the floor and spit out all her food. It can be extremely frustrating at times.

I've just got to keep telling myself SHE'S JUST A BABY - although she turns one in just six weeks. Can't believe it.

WORDS OF WISDOM

Savour the good bits of now and remember the bad bits won't last - this is just a snapshot that won't last forever. That's my latest mantra to help me through when Charlotte's being a total munchkin with her food/sleeping etc.

It feels a bit odd for me at the moment because quite a few people who had babies around the same time or after me are now going back to work - and I'm not. If we hadn't re-located, meaning I left my job, I would definitely be going back now too. But it's a different situation when you have to look for new work - plus we've just bought a new house so trying to sort all that out while also looking after a 10 month old is stressful enough.

I have also learnt a very valuable lesson today. It's not much fun at all trying to look after a baby with a monster hangover. It's the first one I've had in probably two years, and I definitely won't be making a habit of it!

BUBBLES, BALLS AND BUMBLE BEES

Sat having dinner the other evening, myself and my OH worked out that Charlotte now recognises and responds to about FIFTY words! How the hell did that happen? Is that normal for 10 months?

She can point out the animals - from Bumble Bee to Octopus in her books, she knows what 'more', 'up' and 'high' mean among many others, and she does hand actions for things like 'star' and 'spider'. She's been saying Daddy (to most people), bubbles and ball for quite a while now, but it's the responding with actions or pointing to items that seems to be advancing at quite a pace. And she can do a rough attempt at about half a dozen animal noises. Brilliant!

Walking with support is also improving every day - and she's usually much happier up on two feet these days than sat down. Crawling still looks like it's going to pass her by. Interestingly - she'll happily sit for ages if she's got a few books to occupy her - in particular the That's Not My... series which are excellent.