I don't like solid solids

When I was about five months old, Mum handed me my first rusk.

Meh.

I tossed it over off the edge of my highchair tray without a second glance.

Then came the purees.

Hmm...now I was a bit more interested.

I was happy to eat whatever mushy food Mum spooned into my mouth. But I didn't want to touch it and I didn't want to use my own utensils.

Just spoon it into my mouth, Mum. And make sure it's mushy.

And now, at a few days short of my first birthday, I still like my food mushy and spooned directly into my mouth.

Mum's attempts at finger food did nothing but mess up the floor.

But today, some progress.

Mum bought me some little baby biscuits at the shops, and I was happy to munch on those.

Maybe there's hope yet for me and my solid solids.

New tooth!

I have a new tooth!

It's a front tooth.

And it's about jolly time, says Mum.

You see, I don't like to do things by halves. And teeth are no exception.

So when it's time for me to get a new tooth, I pull out all the symptoms.

And that's made me a sad baby for the past few days.

But - happy day! - my tooth is through!

Trainspotters - the total count is now 5.

Working girl

I might be fired from Mum's work one day soon.

For the past six months, I've been going in to work with mum for two hours on a Tuesday morning.

In the early days, she'd pop me on a mat in her office.

I'd lie there and look at toys.

And then I'd have a big snooze in the baby carrier while Mum tap, tap, tapped away on her computer.

A few months later...and I was on the move.

Sitting, then crawling around Mum's office.

No problem; Mum just shut the door and kept the bin out of my reach.

Now I'm standing.

And opening drawers.

And dragging the bin down from the bookshelves.

And slamming my little fingers in drawers.

And talking loudly when important meetings are taking place in the conference room.

It looks like my office days are numbered.

Ouch!

How many times can a small girl slam her fingers in a drawer before she learns her lesson?

You might be surprised.

Ouch!

Crawling

I can crawl!

So far, I can only go in reverse gear. But I've got all the moves ready and will probably be crawling properly within days.

Are you excited?

I don't think Mum is quite excited as she could be.

She's thinking about having to pack up all the Lego and keep dangerous things out of my reach.

But I'm on the move, baby!

And now, the news

Baby + newspaper = match made in heaven

Why would you buy expensive toys for a baby who'd much rather play with newspaper?

Because you don't like having to clean black ink off said baby, that's why.

Please don't go

Separation anxiety.

It had to happen.

One minute, I'm an independent little poppet who loves her space.

And the next, I'm shrieking the house down because Mum has dared to go into another room.

Bathtime

Baby loves bathtime.

Big brother loves bathtime.

Even Mum loves bathtime!

That's because I'm finally big enough to have a bath with my big brother every night.

Sure, we started co-ed bathing on our holiday. And I'd moved into the big bath a few days before that. But I was a bit unsteady in those early days, and Mum had to keep a hand on me to stop me slipping over.

But not now.

I've got confidence in spades.

And bathtime agility to match.

A really, really, really big bath

It's the last day of our holidays.

Boo.

But Mum and Dad decided to pack in plenty of fun for our last hurrah.

First, we planned to head to the surfing.

But then we didn't, because the surfing was delayed.

Boo.

So we went shopping instead.

Yay!

Then it was back to the surfing to watch Kelly Slater win the Quiksilver Pro. He did it with us right there in the water, cheering him on.

When the final wave had been surfed, there was still plenty of sunshine left to enjoy a good swim.

Lowtide at the beach created a huge, shallow pool between the shoreline and a sandbar.

Perfect for little people to practice their splashing!

Noah swam about happily and practiced his floating, while Mum popped me in my own little pool where I splashed about merrily.

And these days, I don't even mind a bit of sand between my toes!

Sitting-up baths

According to Mum, tonight's bath was my first real, proper bath.

Oh sure, I've had plenty of baths before.

Although...to be honest...I haven't really had that many.

Apparently, it's all a bit of a hassle to fill up the baby bath, one jug of water at a time, only to have to empty it again, one jug of water at a time.

So I've been a mostly showered baby for the past couple months.

But since I'm now sitting up by myself, Mum decided to try me in the little bath, which sits in the big bath. You can't do that with a lying-down-baby, by the way. Because your arms would fall off from the effort of leaning over the bath to keep the baby upright. But with a sitting-up-baby, all sorts of new possibilities present themselves. You're following this, right?

And so I sat up. By myself.

And I ran my fingers through the water, fascinated.

Until I discovered that I could splash.

And so I splashed and splashed happily until I'd become a wrinkly prune and Mum decided it was time to get out.

Roll on tomorrow night's bath, please!

Ladies who lunch

I lunched today.

Like a lady.

On Thursdays I hang out with Grandma while Mum goes to work and Noah goes to Pre-prep.

And today, we went to the shops to meet Grandma's friend Robyn for lunch.

Grandma's never taken me to the shops before, and she wasn't sure how I'd go.

After all, I haven't been terribly cooperative when she's tried to put me to bed lately.

But it turns out that all she needed to do was whisk me off to where the action is, let me settle in for a bit of people watching, and I'll be a happy camper!

My Grandad

My Grandad looked after me today.

All by himself, since Grandma had to go to work.

We had a lovely time.

When Mum arrived after her meeting to collect me, we were sitting on the couch and Grandad was giving me my bottle.

Before that, we'd been for a walk in the garden.

I like hanging out with my Grandad.

First swim

I went for my first swim today.

When Noah was my age, he'd been having swimming lessons for two months.

I'm flat out getting a bath!

But I took to swimming like, well, a duck to water.

We went to our friend's house for an Australia Day BBQ. The pool was very nice and warm.

Not unlike a bath. Or what I vaguely remember a bath to be like.

I put my super-kicky legs to good use and worked up a good frog kick.

Noah starts swimming lessons on Monday. I think I'd like to do more swimming too.

* Mum and Dad don't let me get stinky. It's just that they shower me instead of bath me. You know, because of all the hassle of filling up the baby bath and then, even more troublesome, emptying it afterwards. Hmmm...I bet Noah got to have a bath everyday.

First day of school

Well, not school really.

And it's not my first day.

But there was still plenty of excitement at our place over Noah starting Pre-prep today.

Mum and Dad were sure his enthusiasm would wane in light of the new classroom, new teachers and new kids. After all, this was a different place to last year's 'kindy work'.

But Noah proved them wrong and had a very happy day.

While he was at school, Mum went to work. That left me at home with Dad.

And what do you think we did?

Nope. We didn't fold washing. Or hang washing. Or wash up.

But we did play Rockband on the PS3!

Are you wondering how I managed to play Rockband on the PS3?

Dad put me on the floor on my sheepskin mat and pretended I was his foot pedal.

Every time he tapped his foot on my tummy, I squealed with delight.

Dad told Mum he's never heard me laugh so much.

We had a fun day hanging out together.

Daddy Daycare

When Mum's away...

Dad and the kids play...

Rockband!

Oh yes.

Lots and lots of Rockband.

Dad has been working a lot lately so he was told he had to take a day off. That coincided nicely with Mum needing to work all day.

So Dad stayed home with us! He did a good job getting me off to sleep and I was in a happy mood when Mum popped in at lunchtime to feed me.

There'll be more Daddy Daycare tomorrow.

A conversation

Mum: Please don't pull on Lucy's arms and legs, Noah. She's only little and you need to be gentle with her.

Noah: Ok Mummy. She'll be bigger soon. And then I can pull on her arms and legs?

New Year

I've celebrated my first New Year's Eve!

And now I'm barrelling towards turning one...this year!

Mum and Dad can't believe how quickly I'm growing.

We spent New Year's Eve with some friends at their house. After my epic afternoon nap yesterday (11 hours, if you'll recall), I wasn't much interested in sleeping in a cot.

I was happy as long as I continued to be supplied with a comfy shoulder on which to lay my head and yes, I did eventually sleep.

The other kids, including my big brother, were much more hardcore. They didn't all crash out, fast asleep, by ten o'clock, as Mum thought they might. Instead, they were wanting lunch at 10 o'clock. Sandwiches, to be precise. And then they wanted another movie.

We left a few minutes after midnight, after the kids insisted on watching the closing credits of Toy Story 2.