Happy Halloween!

We couldn’t resist dressing our little girl up for her very first Halloween – and so in honour of the day here’s Emily in her ‘scary’ ghost costume, which we picked up from Sainsburys, our local supermarket after weeks of searching for a costume in her size. 

Not only did she look very cute, but she was also quite fascinated by the pumpkin – presumably wondering whether she could eat it later. Since it’s a battery-operated light-up one, it probably doesn’t taste very nice though.

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Laughter Lines

I’ve spoken before about ways to try and entertain your baby, but I find these have been upped a notch ever since Emily learned how to laugh. Our little girl first started showing hints of a giggle a few weeks ago but it wasn’t until last week that this turned into a full-blown laugh – and it was lovely to hear. She has a very infectious little chuckle which generally sends us into hysterics also.

Now, though, we find ourselves going to increasingly outlandish lengths to try and get a laugh out of her – whether it’s making up songs for every activity (even something as mundane as a nappy change), putting on some music or just bouncing her up and down on our lap.

The latter has proven especially popular – I tried it yesterday while singing a medley of tunes from The Sound Of Music (inspired by the fact that Dame Julie Andrews was on TV at the time) and I got a full-blown result. Emily thought this was incredibly funny – not sure if it was the bouncing or the singing that was so amusing to her – and laughed out loud for the duration.

Trouble is, of course, she wants us to play that game all the time now. And as she becomes more advanced, our back catalogue of specially made up ‘songs for Emily’ don’t seem to illicit the same smiles that they once did. We’re clearly going to have to think of something a bit more sophisticated to amuse our daughter. Perhaps some extracts from Shakespeare comedies might do the trick?

Solid Start

After weeks of promising to do so, we finally gave Emily her first taste of solid food yesterday. Unfortunately we couldn’t allow her a taste of the delicious stir-fry that my husband made for our dinner – rather she had to be content with a tiny amount of baby rice in the bottom of a weaning cup. Which didn’t exactly look appetising (or very filling for that matter), but we figure she isn’t quite ready for a four-course meal just yet.

Despite this, she took to it in much the same way as she takes to everything that she comes across in life – that this was just another thing she could put in her mouth, the only difference being that this time it was actually edible.

Consequently, after the first mouthful she quickly grabbed the spoon and tried to put it in her mouth herself, the result being that more rice actually went over her chin and her bib than in her mouth.

She managed another couple of spoonfuls before deciding she had had enough. Which isn’t bad at all for a first effort. Once she is used to the concept of solid food then I’ll start introducing fruit and vegetable purees and the like. And despite her change in diet, she still ended up staring at us while we ate our stir-fry, as if to say ‘Where’s mine?’

Picture Perfect

Since I am now able to upload photos again, I couldn’t not include this one on the blog. Every so often when photographing Emily, we take a picture which catches us completely by surprise. The image to your left is a prime example – look closely and our daughter appears to be giving us a thumbs up……

Spreading The Word

Since Emily is nearly five months old, I’ve reached the stage where I assume the news of our baby daughter has pretty much reached all of our relatives, friends and acquaintances. Yet I still come across people who are unaware of our new (or now not so new arrival) on an almost weekly basis.

In fact, due to the wonders of modern communication, news of Emily’s birth had spread around the world within minutes of the event. Since she was born by elective Caesarean – which I was advised to have after discovering she was breech and not about to turn round in a hurry – all of our friends and family knew when she was going to be born and were waiting by phones, mobiles and email accounts on the big day (June 7) for the big announcement.

I was even sending text messages to my friends within minutes of leaving the operating theatre, while all manner of drips and wires protruded from various body parts and my newborn daughter had her first feed. Quite how I managed it, I have no idea.

Even now, though, there are still people who I’ve neglected to tell about our new-found parenthood. I’m always coming across emails from old friends and other contacts who have yet to be enlightened, and just this evening I spoke to the secretary of a society I belong to, explaining that my non-attendance at recent meetings was due to the appearance of my daughter.

It’s at times like this of course, that you realise just how many people you know, or at least have contact with. At the rate I’m going, I’ll still be telling people that I’ve had a baby daughter when she celebrates her 18th birthday.

Everything Is Edible

For a number of weeks now we have been at the stage where Emily seems rather keen on putting anything within reach into her mouth. I’m told this is the way in which babies familiarise themselves with textures and objects – but it has of course caused a certain amount of confusion in our household.

I’ve lost count of the number of times, for instance, that my husband has said, “Is she hungry then?” because she is chomping on her teddy bear or gnawing her playmat – even if it’s only half an hour since she last ate. Her favourite thing to chew on at the moment is a set of coloured plastic keys which double as a teething toy, and which she loves despite a distinct lack of teeth with which to bite it.

Also popular are my fingers, which she has taken to grabbing in her little fist and literally pulling into her mouth, muslin squares and even the lining of her coat. And the phone, which she reaches for very enthusiastically whenever she is talking to either of her grandmothers, and attempts to lick. Judging by the expression on her face, it doesn’t taste very nice.

Apologies….

Due to technical difficulties, I’m unable to upload any pictures at the moment. As soon as I’ve worked out what the problem is, my posts will once again by accompanied by some lovely pictures of my daughter – in the mean time please bear with me.

The Early Shift

While Emily has recently started sleeping through the night on a semi-regular basis, she has also taken to waking up much earlier as a result – the days when she would wake at 4am for a feed and then sleep through until 8am have lately been looking like a distant memory.

Of course, having a human alarm clock in the next room may well come in handy when I come to return to work, but since I’m currently enjoying my last few weeks of maternity leave – to say nothing of the fact that the approaching winter means it’s dark first thing in the morning – being dragged up at such an early hour can be quite a challenge. Especially when you’re more of a nocturnal person and mornings seem impossible without a hefty infusion of caffeine.

This morning, I was woken at precisely 6.01 by the sounds of ‘singing’ from her cot – which did make me smile, admittedly, since I’ve never heard her do that before. The prospect of such an early start though, wasn’t quite so enticing.

So I figured that since she is generally quite happy to play in her cot for a while, if I got up, fed her and put her back, she might at least lie there and play for a bit longer, thus meaning I could snatch another precious few minutes of shut-eye. So I did just that, and retired back to my own bed – only for it to suddenly go very quiet in her room. When I popped back to check on her, she was fast asleep once again. And she stayed that way until nearly 9.15.

All of which beggars the question: why didn’t I think of that days ago when she first turned into an early riser?

Gender Bender

For the most part, it’s pretty obvious that Emily is a baby girl – the majority of her clothes, for example, are pink (as are most of the baby girls’ clothes in the shops, it seems), she often wears skirts and dresses, and jeans embroidered with flowers and butterflies, and when she’s out in the pushchair is frequently covered with a pink blanket. 

The other day, however, I dressed Emily in an outfit that wasn’t pink but was still very pretty – a turquoise top and trousers, decorated with white polka dots, white lace trim and a dash of pink ribbon. Teamed with her butterfly print coat, matching flowery socks and a pink hat, she looked fantastic – and very much a baby girl.

So I was rather taken aback when, while having lunch in a café, a woman walked up to our table, looked at our daughter snoozing in her car seat, and said, “He looks very cosy, doesn’t he?”

Admittedly, she wasn’t wearing her pink hat at the time and was covered in a beige blanket, but it still surprised me that in that frilly little outfit – which was visible beneath her covers – anyone could possibly think she was a boy.

Although I have no sons myself, several friends and relatives have little boys and I’ve grown used to shopping for them – and I can honestly say that in all the time I’ve been buying them gifts I’ve never bought any of them a frilly turquoise two-piece. And if I did, it certainly wouldn’t have a pink ribbon trim.

I pointed out Emily’s hat and the woman realised her mistake. Interesting though, how we’re so used to seeing little boys in blue and little girls in pink that the slightest glimpse of blue clothing (irrespective of other details) can lead to such confusion. Maybe next time we go out I’ll dress Emily in something bright orange, just to keep everybody else guessing.

Happy with a nappy?

Yesterday I reported that my husband had bought a Laugh N’ Learn Puppy for Emily from Costco – but that’s not all he picked up at the wholesale giant. For Costco, it seems, is also fantastic when it comes to making savings on nappies, wipes and other baby essentials (such as Emily’s pushchair, which we bought for far less than it cost in other high street stores).

Ever since she was born, however, I have been awaiting the moment when we could start buying our nappies from there, since they only sell them from size three and up, as opposed to offering the tiny sizes that she wore as a newborn. She’s been in size threes for a while now, but since we’ve been buying multipacks from the supermarket I haven’t had a chance to sample Costco’s deals.

When we went to the Baby Show at the weekend, though, we visited their stand and were given a voucher book with special offers on all manner of baby things – and so our Huggies were duly purchased. 420 of them, to be precise. They normally come in boxes of 210, but on this occasion they happened to be on a ‘buy two, get £14 off’ basis – and naturally we couldn’t resist, as it brought the price down to a ridiculously low level.

What I hadn’t reckoned on, however, was just how heavy nappies are when bought in bulk. Heaving them up the stairs to our flat was only slightly more difficult than carrying our 15 and a half pound daughter up them – and when I did finally make it up there, red-faced and panting, there remained the question of where exactly to put them.

Both boxes are currently residing on the spare bed in Emily’s room, while I’m forced to ask myself the question – what happens if she grows out of them before we’ve made it through all 420? Given they’re suitable for babies up to 20lb, I’m hopeful we’ll get through them (since it could be a while before she hits the 20lb mark) – but that’s still a lot of nappy-wearing to contend with.

At this point I should also mention the 2000 odd baby wipes that were also on special offer and are currently sitting in the boot of the car. But I’m still psyching myself up for carrying those upstairs.