My Bobble-Head Baby

Month 26 - January 2012

2012-02-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Dear Lexi-Loo,

You have had quite a month!

The first thing I want to talk about is the most recent - 7 days ago we started potty training you. We started on a day when we had loads of family around for dinner to jointly celebrate Gran and Jackie's birthdays, and so we got 20 pairs of princess pants for you and you made lots of puddles on the floor.

By day 3 you seem to have pretty much nailed the potty, with decreasing puddle incidents. One week later and we have had no accidents for a couple of days! I can't believe how quickly you seem to have 'got it' and I am partially braced for any kind of regression - especially when Charlie comes along. You have blown us away with this superfast potty training. Georgie was pretty good but you are flipping amazing. To be fair to Georgie, your enthusiasm for the potty and your new pants is pretty much inspired by all your recent achievements - to be 'big girl like Georige'. Its often annoying (for you and for us) when you try to be like your big sister because so much of the time you simply can't do the things she can do, even though you try, it's too early.

But the other leaps you have recently made include dressing yourself (you need a bit of help but you're very persistent and generally successful, you rock at putting on your own mittens now, even the tricky thumb part,) swapping your high chair for a normal chair (you kneel on your chiar to get to the right height) and using a knife and fork (sort of, but it's progress!) So well done little Lexi, I haven't had to change a pooey nappy for a whole week now and I'm not missing it. In a way this is probably a bad thing because come May, baby Charlie will be turning out a whole mess of them and I'll be unused to it - but I'll risk it! Of course you still have a nappy at night, but that's fine, I have no problem with that at all.

You recently decided you don't mind dressing up anymore - the yellow 'Belle' dress seemed to capture your imagination almost over night and you went from a staunch 'No!' to all dressing up to begging for the Belle dress and some dangerous ELC princess heels to totter around in almost every day!

You've been getting into the Willow's Farm experience, although you really want to be allowed to range through the 'big kid' part. I would go with you, but I'm big anyway, and now I'm pregnant I can't really bend at the waist and run a serious risk of getting stuck in there, so I spend a lot of time fending you off from that area and attempting to decant you into the 2 - 4 area, which you sometimes take to and sometimes reject. Hopefully this will change soon.

You are so funny, and seem to find everything so funny - you're favourite exclamation is 'Woo-hooooo!' and we heard that a lot in January. As your independence grows it's wonderful to watch you develop even more personality (can it be possible?) and so exciting to see more and more of the person you're turning into!

We love you little girl, with your fabulous princess pants!

Love from your Mama xxx

September, October, November and December 2011

2012-01-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

So, Lexi,

I'm cobbling together four months into one post - sorry about that. I've been feeling morning sick, making you a baby brother or sister (due in May 2012), I'm back at uni and when life speeds up, my ability to keep a monthly blog seems to go right out the window. But you know that :-D

So Georgie started school in September - you covet her uniform openly and put it on when ever you think you can get away with it!

Stolen school uniform

Of course we still get to spend time with Georgie, and on the whole you are very sweet to each other - you annoy her and she annoys you but people often comment on how nicely you can play together. Let's hope it's a trend that sticks!

Bed time milky with Georgie

Playing tea parties

Brushing teeth together

Swinging sisters

Building sand castles

Among other things, Georgie's forray into the world of big school left us with a new routine - Mondays and Fridays you go to Nanny and Grandad while I try to get some work done - you did go for the whole day but since you sleep most of the afternoon away until I have to get Georgie, we modified that to just the mornings and then I keep working while you sleep until pick up.

Nanny and Lexi

Tuesdays we go to playgroup at The Vineyard, which you love. You totally monopolise the toy police car. You get in there, put bunny on a back shelf, pull the police radio out and ride around, saying: "I'm driving! I'm driving!" Actually your live commentary on your action of the moment has been a major feature of the last few months - "I'm running!" while running and particularly "I'm scooting!" while scooting, especially since Father Christmas brought you a scooter - but we'll get to Christmas later.

You don't usually eat much, but I seem to take a lot of pictures of you sitting down to meals! At least you look cheerful enough!

So back to the routine - Wednesday mornings you spend with your Linda while I go to counselling (it's for my course and is actually one of the best parts of my week! Therapy is like a spa for the mind! Mmmmm) - anyway, yes, your Linda - that is what you call her "my Linda!" and as soon as you have had breakfast you prattle on about your Linda and seeing her and her son, your friend, Dante until you do see them.

Butterfly Baby

I pick you up (quite often beautifully and expertly face-painted,) just after 1pm (sometimes having to rip you away from your Linda, you love her so much) and then deposit you at Gran and Gramps' house until five or six pm.

Lexi, Henry and Amy

Sometimes on Wednesdays we see Kerry, Leah and Sarah and their kids before we go to Linda's - it depends on how sick everyone is - autumn brought out so many sickness bugs and colds we could go for weeks either infectious or trying to avoid infection!

Sliding at Clarence Park

Thursdays now involve going to Willow's Farm, since we bought a family membership in December. Prior to that we used to just chill out, at parks when it was warm enough or just around the house when it wasn't.

Swimming in the leaf-fall at Clarence Park

Sometimes you watch Show Me Show Me, Something Special, Ballamory or more recently Sooty and sometimes you just play.

So you can see that we don't spend loads of time together one on one - I hope this doesn't affect you badly, and I do feel guilty that you are sent away so much. Then again, I think you have much more fun with Nanny, Grandad, Gran, Gramps and Linda than you do with me - play doh, painting, drawing, facepainting and crucially, one on one time with other people who love you, and whom you clearly love. I continually ask myself if I should discontinue my studies and wait until you guys are all at full time school rather than pass you around this way during your most formative years.

Fleetville Park

The reason I'm doing it (so far) is because your Daddy is working so hard to keep us all afloat and I think it's getting harder for him to do it. He works six days a week, at a hard job, working long days, often in the freezing cold or the boiling heat. This uni stuff should lead to the kind of job that will allow me to take the financial pressure of him and hopefully mean that I can set my own hours, and so be able to dictate my own work life balance. That's the theory, but it's going to take a while. Now that we are expcecting another baby, I don't know if I'll be able to get through this course in one go, but I'm going to try really hard - I love the work that I'm learning to do and I really want your daddy to be able to take it easier and spend more time with us (and maybe one day, his golf clubs once more!)

Cheeky chops

Your hairstyle moved from bunches to a rather shorter style, with quite a severe fringe - it's softened up a bit now but it was kind of funny for a while there, I won't lie. You don't seem to mind though. The hairdresser told me it would look a bit high and odd but that it should help your hairline to fall in a more convenient way.

Pensive

This has not happened - bits of your hair that apparently should submit to a different parting continually dangle in your eyes and get stuck to your face with the food, drool and snot that also abide there. It's an attractive look :-D We made this hair cut choice mainly because you suddenly rebelled against your pig tails and all manner of clips. Something had to be done. I loved the pig tails and I hope we will get back to those again some day soon.

2nd Birthday!

You turned two in November and we had a small family party and a slightly bigger, Peppa Pig party for below-school-age friends (and their mums!)

Birthday cake with family

You with your Peppa Pig kitchen, which came from Auntie Izzie, or SheeShee, as you call her.

Pam as Shrek - you kept making her dress up as Shrek and then kept getting scared and running awya from her! Nutter xxx

Cupcakes and biscuits! Sweets for my sweet xxx

Lexi and Gran

You and your Peppa Pig cake

The Peppa Pig magnets from 'my Linda' also went down well and (generally) live on the dishwasher

Nanny, Shee-Shee and Grandad at your party

The only shot I manged to get of the cake with candles alight!

Bye Bye Cot - Hello New Bedroom!

I don't have any pictures of it right now, but shortly after your birthday we moved you into the smaller room, Peppa Pig pimped it and put you in the toddler bed with a little pink guard to stop you falling out of bed and a big white gate on the door to stop you escaping from your room. The first two night you stood at the gate and cried for between 10 and 12 minutes. You didn't sound very distressed so we let you alone and you put yourself back to bed without any further fuss, and have been happy there ever since.

Christmas 2011

We had a good Christmas - didn't manage to get all the decorations up but we had two trees with lights and baubles, which isn't bad!

You guys put out mince pies, a carrot and a gin and tonic for Father Christmas and Rudolph

Unwrapping stockings at the respectable time of 8.45! I can't believe we had to wake you up!

Safety First!

You and your sister both love your new scooters and the saftey gear that came with them - in fact you almost love the helmet and your neon hi-viz vest more than the scooter itself!

Enjoying some TV time with Shee-Shee and Georgie

You have definitely found your terrible twos temper, and like to shriek your defiance when you don't get your own way, but so far, you're tantrums are reasonably short-lived, as long as you've had enough sleep (bit like me really!)

Most of the time you are actually very loving - you spend a lot of time kissing people repeatedly. You often come up to me and for no reason you clamber up into my lap, stroke my hair, wind your arms around my neck and shower me with kisses, hugging me tightly - it's sweet beyond the telling of it. You stroke, kiss and wave at the rapidly expanding tummy bump; you also try to kiss and hug the dog but in general she's having none of it. Usually she gets a big chin to forehead lick on you first - her tongue is longer after all. You are quick to say sorry (even when it's not you who had done something wrong!) You even blow kisses to the people on the checkout at Morrisons!

Since August your speech has come on very rapidly and your prattle away to everyone in a stream of consciousness that varies between crystal clear and rather Dadaist but always entertaining.

We love you very, very much and can't wait to see what the new year holds for you.

Love from your Mama xxx

Month 21 - August 2011

2011-07-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Lovely-Scrummy-Yoghurt-Face,

So August, huh? Well the first thing I'd like to say is that you have been MUCH less cross. Well done!

(Of course there have still been patches of crossness, but nothing like July!)

As you will be able to see from the pictures of this month, we have done a LOT of things that begin with the letter p - pig tails, parks, playdates, parties, Peppa Pig, puzzles, painting, paddling pools, pHolland...well, they can't all begin with p but you get the idea...

Swinging

Playdate at Sarah and Joe's new house: Sam, Georgie, Maya, Amy and Georgie

You guys are great at finding shade at high noon in otherwise shade-less parks

Puzzles

Potty-training (your idea, not mine)

We've had quite a few poos in the potty and toilet and you often try to take off your nappy but to be honest, quite selfishly, I'm not ready for you to be ready to potty train, so I haven't gone the whole hog with knickers and continual trips to the loo to see if you need to go. I'm happy to let you have a go now and then but I do not have the necessary patience to potty train you fully at this point. I've watched some of my friends do it, and I'm not saying its wrong, but I just know that I couldn't hack it. You'd be fine :-D

Aaaaaaaargh! The pig! The pig! I slept through most of Georgie Peppa pig obsession because I was very nauseous and tired because I was pregnant with you while it was going on. But I'm fully aware now. Ouch. That pig. Smug mummy. Dappy daddy. George. Mr Dinosaur.Ugh!You would watch it from breakfast until bedtime if I let you. Sometimes I'm tempted to let you. For most of the month you wouldn't watch anything else. I could have made you but then all our heads would have exploded. Georgie watched Scooby Doo in the front room and we watched the pig in the playroom.

Baby Jake

Then Baby Jake reunited us, albeit five minutes at a time. Even I quite like Baby Jake and Georgie likes it almost as much as you. That was the turning point and so now I'm pretty optimistic that September will see the gradual reintroduction of other series though - in fact I know it because a) I can't take much more of the pig and b) yesterday you said "No pig. Baddamory!" which could have been the most surprising and most exciting words said to me all month. (Yes I do know how sad that is !) Baddamory is Ballamory. Lately you have begun to tolerate Mr Tumble and the occasionally Show Me Show Me, so

Paddling pool hijinks in Holland with Holly

We went to visit Cherry, Andy, Holly and Sophie, who were spending the summer in Holland in order to escape the heat of summer in Dubai. There was a lot of soft play, swimming and general amusement, which you loved. You didn't settle at night until we were about to leave, which was a major bummer for me, but you had a whale of a time, and that's the main thing.

Ah, chocolate cake!

Charlotte's 4th Birthday Party

I bought this dress for Georgie to wear to Amy's christening but as it happened, she never got to wear it - I thought at the time that she had been exposed to chickenpox and so I kept her home. It's first outing was on Lexi to Charlotte's party in Muswell Hill, which was more Ps - Pirates and Princesses!

Face Painting

I was blown away by the patience you displayed on this day - you sat in the car and tolerated to long car journey, even slept, which was very convenient. You joined in the party pretty well and then you just sat and sat while a complete stranger (talent, lovely but still a stranger to you) painted your face. I just kept clicking away with my camera because I couldn't believe what I was seeing!

Sisters

Oh Lexi, you are so lucky to have Georgie for your big sister, she looks after you so well. Don't get me wrong, she's not a saint or anything, she's only four years old and so sometimes she gets cross with you, takes things away from you and occasionally hurts you (but almost always by accident, to her credit.) But she loves you, and her exasperation with your babyness never lasts for long. (As if it could, how could she resist you??)

Lately she has been playing with you beautifully and you have repaid her in turn by being a delightful playmate. Most of the time. This is made easier by your burgeoning command of the English language. Actually everything is made easier by that. Once again, well done!

If Georgie is crying, even if she's crying because she's been told off for doing something to you, you immediately find her Spencer bear and bring it to her, and then cuddle her and make soothing noises. You are a sweetheart.

More and more often these days I look over and I see you two, thick as thieves, cuddled up together, casual but close and it makes me smile. I hope it lasts, a sister can be a life-long ally, a major asset, I have one, so I know. You love her too, and have named her Shisshie - everyone in my little family calls her something different, Elizabeth, Liz, Izzie and now Shisshie.

Mutual toothbrushing sessions

I picked this poem because I like Pablo Neruda and because like him, you like things; in your case mainly naming them, licking them and hiding them. Enjoy...

ODE TO THINGS (oda a las cosa) From the collection - ODES TO COMMON THING By Pablo Neruda

I HAVE A CRAZY
Crazy love of things.
I like pliars,
and scisssors.
I love
cups
rings
and bowls -
not to speak, of course,
of hats.
I love
all things,
not just
the grandest,
also
the infinite
ly
small-
thimbles,
spurs,
plates,
and flower vases.

Oh yes.

Love to you my darling, and have a lovely September,

From your Mama xxx

Month 20 - July 2011

2011-07-04T15:02:00.001-07:00

See-Sawing with Mummy in Chiswell Green Park

Dear Lexi Loo,

This month you have mostly been super cross. Don't get me wrong, you have had your fair share of giggles, but you have been markedly annoyed of late. Some of that can be put down to teething, some to your sister tormenting you, as sisters do - but a good proportion I lay at your door. It's a nice door. A slightly cross patch door at the moment. But I'm always happy to stop by.

Swinging in the rain in Fleetville

Things that can bring down your wrath upon unsuspecting onlookers include:

* Singing "Have you any wool?" when you sing the line "Baa baa back shp" and then stop.
* Being Daddy when you want Mummy
* Being Mummy when you want Daddy
* Being Mummy or Daddy when you want Nanny
* Being Mummy, Daddy OR Nanny when you want Gwandad...you get the idea...
* Brushing gently past you.
* Offering you the milk you asked for.
* Existing.

It's been a LONG month....!

Snacking in the shade at Clarence Park

Hair Today.....

You've had enough hair to put up for some time now, but only recently have you shown any interest in having it done and allowing it to endure for any length of time. Now when I brandish a brush and announce "Time to brush our hair!" you run towards me, rather than away, shouting "Me! MEEE! My preeettty!" like a much cuter but perhaps no less obsessive Gollum.

You tolerate hair bands better than clips, so I've developed a partial bunches stylee that allows the shorter back parts of your hair to stay down (rather than fight their seemingly undefeatable ability to wiggle free of hair clips). Georgie insists on 'matching' you, and sports a similar look, although on her it looks a bit odd - still pretty (because it's still Georige - yes, I know I'm biased) but distinctly odd. Still, who cares? Anyway...

When it's (finally) Georgie's turn, you like to scramble onto the sofa and stand behind me, holding on to my shoulders and pee-bo-mummy-ing over each of my shoulders as quickly as you can until you fall off - I do catch you though xxx Too too cute xxx

Swinging Sisters, Fleetville Rec

The Verbal Runs

You still talk a lot of nonsense but there is a lot more sense in there these days than non...if you see what I mean. You delight in your ability to communicate verbally and virtually glow when you realise that you are making words that other people can understand.

It's particularly sweet to hear you and Georgie chatting - I don't know if you actually understand most of what she says to you, but you respond as though you do know, and not always in Georgie's favour, so I'm hopeful that you have noticed that although she is lovely, she's not always proposing game plans that have your best interests at heart. There's my smart baby.

What is cute is to hear you calling out in the morning over the baby monitor and, because we are lazy bad parents who try to steal a few more minutes, we can hear Georgie get up and come and see you, and hear the chatter and play pre-breakfast, which is really sweet and totally unfeigned, I think, because neither of you seem to grasp that we can hear what you are saying in the room.

Yet another park, this time Long Acres - thank goodness St Albans has a lot of parks!

We lost your bunny earlier this month - looked everywhere - I knew it was around because I unwisely allowed Georgie to carry it from the car but once she crossed the threshold, bunny fell off my radar and was lost to us. Neighbours came to help, such was the caterwauling. I ordered another bunny, and presented him to you full of trepidation...but you just grabbed him, contemplated the newness and then set to, chewing on his ears to make this new bunny as gross as the original bunny.

The bunnies

We found old bunny last week, under the mattress of an old dolly pram that stays in the garden. You saw him and said "Ugh! Diirrty!" and that was that. Old bunny is in the dirty washing pile now until I do another whites wash. In the mean time new bunny is tucked up with you. Thanks for not being quite as fussy as some people [Georgina].

Sporting an off the shoulder new party dress, courtesy of Auntie Izzie

You're taller and you are losing the remnants of your babyish characteristics hearbreakingly quickly now. Obviously we want you to grow up and pass your developmental milestones, but you might be my very last baby, and even if you're not, you're my one and only Lex, and I only have baby Lexi for a limited time. As annoying as a baby can be, with continual demands and fearless forays into mortal danger, babies are also the proverbial buttons of cuteness, and to me, Lexi Loo, you are an exemplary baby button, and it pains me to see the babyness fall from your features.

Having begun this post with a list of things guaranteed to send you into paroxysms of rage, I feel it only fair to sign off with a short run-down of things that always seem to make you happy. Then I'll pop in my poem of the month and we'll be done and dusted for July, my baby x

* Peppa Pig
* Ritz crackers
* Bunny
* Planes
* Upsy Daisy
* Nanny
* Gwandad
* Cars
* New dresses (Preeety)

I picked the Plath poem below for a couple of reasons; firstly it reminds me of what it was like during those first few months with newborn-you, which I find particularly poignant this month as I (once again) note your fading babydome; and secondly because I love love love the first line of the poem, a line that came to me often when I was pregnant with you and with your sister:

"Love set you going like a fat, gold watch."

I am endlessly satisfied by the way that sentence tick-tock-trips off the tongue, how perfectly it captures the expectant clock watching of my pregnancies, which eventually produced baby-shaped bombs that duly exploded on contact, shattering my life before into a million glittering pieces. I'll spare you anymore of my A Level poetry gush and get straight back to Plath...

MORNING SONG, Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness Shadows our safety.
We stand round blankly as walls.

I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses.
I wake to listen: A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Here's to August, and surviving the summer holidays!

Love to you now my baby Lulu,

Your Mama xxx

Month 19 - June 2011

2011-06-28T05:28:00.000-07:00

Tricycling at Evie's birthday party

Dear Lexina,

It's June, it's hot, it's humid, it's raining and you're not snoozing as you should be but counting to seven over and over. I'm trying hard to pretend you are asleep - it won't be long until you drop your afternoon sleep. Not yet, please! :-D

I love the above picture so much, because it reminds me that this was the first time you went to a party in a 'party dress' - in fact Georgie's favourite party dress for some time. She was gutted when she saw you wearing it, even though I bought her two lovely new ones that she adores.
When I put it on you, you stood up, smoothed it down, took a good look and then gentle swished your skirts back and forth. A delighted smile spread slowly across your face and you looked up at me coquettishly and you breathed 'Preeettty!' To say my heart melted would be a total understatement, but melt it did, bless you.

She was happy to sit there...

until it started moving!

You don't seem to like fairground rides much. You were pretty solemn at the funfair at Willows Farm, and once the machines really got going, you let your displeasure be known via great wailing and gnashing of teeth!At the moment you much prefer the playround, where you swing, dig and sail to your hearts content.

Your hair is now finally long enough to put up, although you often pull it straight out the bands and clips that I painstakingly place for you. Hopefully you'll learn to tolerate them, because I think you look especially lovely with pigtails!

Your talking is coming on very well, we're evening getting some three word sentences - for example I asked you where your lolly was and you said "Lolly over there!". Despite this progress you seem unable or unwilling to say Georgie's name, but what you call her is very sweet, you call her either "Ju-Ju" or "Ju-Jee". Georgie was very excited when she realised you were trying to say her name. You have also been trying to say your own name - "Acks-eee" seems to be your best shot at the moment, but give it time! And you seem to call the dog, Seska, Axa. It's odd, the things kids can and can't say at this age, because you can say 'chocolate' pretty well, and yet Georgie called it "Cocklelick" until she was nearly three, but could say her own name pretty easily.

You can definitely say Emily, and you luuurve Emily. You hold you arms out to her whenever you see her, shouting "Duddle!!!" (Cuddle).

You have adopted Georgie's love of drawing, and can often be found dancing around underneath the craft cupboard shrieking "Paaaaaaaaper! PAAAaaaaaaPERRRRRRRRRRRR!! PAAAAAPEEEEERRRR!", a performance that can only be arrested with the immediate production of paper and pencils. Furious scribbling then ensues, with triumphal bursts of "Ta-DAAAAH!" every few squiggles, which all are called upon to admire. Sometimes you even get a few marks on the paper. (Thank goodness the table cloth is vinyl). If you didn't tear up your artwork and eat it almost immediately after it was produced, I would have photographed some and posted it here. I'll try to be faster, and if I manage it, I'll get some of your work up here.

I decided to start posting a poem at the end of every post - assuming I can continue to find poetry that I love - the details behind my inspiration for doing so can be found here.

So let's start with this one, a poem which I have loved for a long time:

Wild Geese
by Mary OLIVER

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

---

You are a delight, an imp, a cheeky chops, a little madam and we love you so very much!

Love from your Mama xxx

Month 18 - May 2011

2011-05-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Lexi,

Check you out, a year and a half. Oooh, get you! Such a little girl now. And so cute!

This month we did a lot of stuff, not least, we went on holiday. We got you and your sister onto a plane, and despite all of being exceedingly sleep-deprived, we managed the four and a bit hour flight (just) without killing each other. And this is just as well for all sorts of reasons, not least the fact that you really seemed to enjoy yourself.

You didn't care much for the pool. This was a bit of a fly in the Tenerife ointment, because Georgie loved the pool, and you just liked dashing about near the pool, threatening to fall in all the time, teetering on the brink, making it a less than relaxing experience for Steve and me.

The fact that you have previous for jumping into swimming pools and sinking like a stone was another worrisome factor that sapped the relaxation right out of my poolside visits. This unfortuante event happened about a week before we went on holiday, which was bad timing, and probably contributed significantly to your pool-o-phobia.

Lex in the Ball Crawl, Tenerife, May 2011

Consequently we spent a lot of time at the playground and outdoor soft play facility, which you crawled in balls, slid on slides (and occasionally fell off slides), swung on a swing and generally dashed about like a crazy thing.

You didn't sleep brilliantly on holiday - we had to walk you in the pram to get you to drop off, and to be fair, you slept most obligingly through the whole evening entertainment, which was very loud indeed. But you tended to wake around 5 or 6, which was less well received.

Lexi, with the remnants of tiger face paint, after a morning creche session, tenerife, May 2011

After a bumpy start at the creche, you suddenly took to it, and so we were afforded a bit of a break from you antics. I think I will like this kind of holiday better when you're old enough for kids club. So that'll be when you're about 3. No hurry or anything... :-P x

Georgie and Lexi Swinging in Tenerife, May 2011

We're getting more and more words, and please and thank you are starting to come, which is always oddly gratifying. You love to give hugs and kisses, and snuggle into our arms, which is beyond sweet. In the morning, when I come to get you, you like to just cuddle for a few minutes. You bury your face in my neck or shoulder and stay perfectly still, as though movement will break the hug-spell, as if by remaining motionless, we could stay that way all day. Sometimes I wish we could. But then we both think 'beverage' - milk for you, coffee for me, and so we're off again, eating, dressing, cleaning teeth, brushing hair and so on.

You're getting pretty tall - a lot of your clothes are sized 2-3 - this is as much about the size of your head as anything. I wouldn't worry, baby, you just have a big brain, and so require a large skull to house your smarts. And bigger clothes to accomodate your giant, beautiful bonce. x

Lexi at Bricket Wood Fun Fair, May 2011

You spend a lot of time playing with Georgie, and you hold your own fairly well, and to be fair, she's pretty good with you, most of the time. You guys seem to play best in the sand pit - you don't do so well together in the trampoline - Georgie can't resist bouncing you beyond your endurance. Running, hiding and raaaaa-ing games are also favourites. And any game with a puppet. You do love hand puppets. Especially Mr Dinosaur. Which reminds me, you are totally loving Peppa Pig, or should I say "Bebba Peeek - Snort!"

At the moment you spend a lot of time shouting "Mummaayeee!" and "Daddayeee!" in an almost Brummy accent. Not sure where that came from but it is quite amusing.

Sticky-out-tongue, Tenerife, May 2011

You enjoy singing and dancing - for some reason you seem to think that dancing must involve rotating slowly round and round. It's very cute.

We love love love you, don't grow up yet!

Love from your Mummaaaayeee xxx

December 2010, January, February, March and April 2011

2011-04-23T15:48:00.000-07:00

Oh Lex,

What can I say?! I'm so sorry. I am failing to record all these exciting times. Well, better late than never, so here goes...

Out with the baby and her bath water (sob!)

You have left your babydom behind. We all starting waving and crying as it set off around Christmas. You are becoming a toddler just as your sister morphs into a little school girl. It's a gradual transition but the progress is steady and sure.

Walking the walk

Just after Christmas you went from cruising and stumbling to actually walking (and stumbling,) and these days you run, at some speed, from place to place, usually looking for the nearest dangerous outdoor play area. You're a good climber, scarily good, and so I spend a lot of time hoiking you off tall things and attempting to thwart your regular, foolhardy ascents.

Talking the talk

Not only are you increasingly ambulatory, but my God, the sounds, and the words! Daddy, Mummy, these we've had for a while. But Yes and No have been pushing their way in since January - first as nodding (for both). So I could say "Lexi, would you like a drink?" and get a vigorous nod - but if I asked you "Lexi, would you like to be boiled in oil?" still, the vigorous nod. You learned the difference within a few weeks, and although words broke through slowly, it was obvious to me that you understood most of what people said to you.

I remember in particular that we were in the garden and you were attempting to negotiate the step down from the patio to the grass. I said to you "Go over to the wall and hold onto it and step down." and you did, which didn't surprise me, but it shocked the hell out of your daddy, who has less opportunity to watch your language and comprehension skills increase. We were both very impressed.

Latest vocab summary for April 2011 is as follows:

Daddy, Mummy, Ya-ya-ya (yes), NO!, ME!, Star, Nanny, Emily (girl next door), Ry-yi-yi-yi-ya (Riya, another girl next door), Caaaah (Cara, also from a neighbouring house), Baaaa (bath), Bubby (Bunny), Daisy (Upsidaisy) Piggle (Igglepiggle) Ow, wee-wee, poo-poo, Achoo, DOWN! OUT! Garden! Ma' (water) Mak (Milk), Woof (dog) Miow (cat) RAAAA - tiger, lion, cow (??? I think she's screwing with us!)

Singing

You also like to sing - Baaa da bil-tah da da da da Baa da bil-tah A-ya-ya-ya (to the uninitiated, this is Bob the Builder), and you also enjoy singing or trying to single Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ba Ba Black Sheep and Wind the Bobbin up - you're getting quite good at the actions too.

Hair Today

Your hair line has finally filled in, and your hair is more of a bob than a mullet now, although you did not sit patiently or motionless for the hairdresser, nor do you tolerate clips or bands of any kind and therefore you look a little shaggy, but always beautiful.

Toothy Grin

We have a lot of teeth now, molars and everything. I am finally able to start trusting you with raw carrot, pieces of apples and so on, and previously you attempted to mulch them through the medium of wishful thinking, which inevitably led to disturbing (but minor) choking episodes. Of course now we have a lot of teeth, we have a lot of tooth brushing to do, and if I thought Georgie was hard going at this stage well, I hadn't seen anything yet. Now I see it. Every day. Twice. Your dedication to future tooth decay is impressive and annoying. Bless you.

You sleep ok, you eat a lot, as a rule, spend a lot of time bellowing orders at the top of your lungs (like the other women in this house,) and so of course, you fit right in. Luckily you also love to run up to us and bestow multiple, noisey kisses, and you demonstrate your affection for your family by crying when one of us leaves, even if it's for three seconds.

You love your sister, although call her Daddy, rather than Georgie. You follow her and stand up to her as much as you can, and at times, it's you picking on her and jealously trying to dislodge her from my lap. You both pick fights, it's a normal sibling thing but you are also lovely to each other and play funny games, the rules of which often elude me but it keeps you amused, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Month 11 - late but better late than never...

2010-11-30T06:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Lexi,

I can't really remember much about October, your 11th month, except that I went to New York, which was great, and we had Halloween at home, a party at a friend's house and trick or treating.

It was a busy month for me - things were hard at Uni for a while there, and the Road Victims Trust counselling course was also pretty demanding and on at least once and often twice a week to boot - and I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to tough it out or not. As it stands, I did, and I'm glad but I am sorry that I didn't make the time to write you a proper blog post. The more I take on, the harder it is to make the time - every time I miss a month, a photo opportunity or what ever, I do remonstrate with myself. But I also know that although I'm missing stuff, good stuff that we'll likely forget, I'm also getting a lot of good stuff too, and I hope that one day you enjoy looking back on it together.

What I do have from October are pictures, so here are some, in lieu of a thousand words...

Month 12 - November 2010 - Now You Are 1

2010-11-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

Dear Lexi,

This month has seen you turn one, and seen you officially named. We had a naming ceremony for Georgie when she was only four months old, but with everything that's been going on, the moving etc., there never seemed to be a good time. We thought that your first birthday offered a perfect opportunity, and we aren't doing it at a Church or at a registry office, so we can make it exactly the way we want, without anyone telling us what to do, or taking an outrageous fee for what can turn out to be a badly delivered event. Humpf. Anyway...

We had a lovely party at the St Albans Tennis Club House (pics to follow), and your godparents were singled out in public and gifts were bestowed upon them and upon you - much cake was eaten - your grandparents and your auntie Jackie were troopers with the baking and general helping out at the party (thanks so much guys!), and so thing went off very well.

During Georgie's naming ceremony, Fiona kindly read something by a favourite poet of mine, Billy Collins - a peom called Litany. I love that poem, and I'm not sure I can explain why (and I have been trying to do that for about an hour now but the right words are not coming.) I suppose in a way poetry is about as close as someone like me is likely to get to a religious or spiritual ritual...

Regardless of why, it is true to say that the sense of warmth and wonder that comes over me every time I read that Billy Collins poem felt right for Georgie's naming day because for some reason it meshed perfectly with that 'new mother' feeling that she engendered in me then.

With you it is different, for that reason and many others, I immediately knew that there was to be another poem for you, one by Adrienne Rich, called November 1968, although of course to me it should read November 2009.

November 1968

Stripped
you're beginning to float free
up through the smoke of brushfires
and incinerators
the unleafed branches won't hold you
nor the radar aerials

You're what the autumn knew would happen
after the last collapse
of primary color
once the last absolutes were torn to pieces
you could begin

How you broke open, what sheathed you
until this moment
I know nothing about it
my ignorance of you amazes me
now that I watch you
starting to give yourself away
to the wind

by Adrienne Rich

I didn't read this out or anything at your party - it didn't feel like that kind of event. But this poem is right for you, for us, for so many reasons and not just because it is autumnal, although I do like the fact that we are both autumn, Scorpio babies. Autumn is my favourite season and your being born into it gave me even more reason to enjoy it. Corny, I know, but true!

But in addition to that, this poem perfectly phrases my surprise when you appeared. Because, you see, up until you were actually born, there was, for me anyway, a slightly casual air to my pregnancy with you - not because I wasn't excited, or careful, but I felt I knew what I was in for, and what babies were like, and that if I wasn't exactly an 'old hand', I had some experience under my belt... and so as we drove to the hospital to liberate you from my body, although I was by no means cavalier, I wasn't exactly absorbing the moment and experiencing the intense range of anticipatory emotions that I did just before Georgie was born - perhaps because it didn't feel like quite such a threshold moment. I was confident that I knew enough, and it did seem that this confidence was going to take some of the wonder out of the experience.

But all that fell away when you were born. I looked at you and immediately understood that I knew nothing about you, that it would take time to get to know you - you were instantly familiar and by equal turns undeniably distinct - unique and totally different from your sister (well duh!) and so despite all my experience with Georgie, or maybe in part because of it, my ignorance of you really did amaze me, and it brought a new, unexpected wonder to an experience that I had believed I was totally prepared for.

So there you go.

New milestones to date include increased cruising and pulling yourself up; opening all the cupboards and pulling out their contents (and trapping your little baby fingers in the process) & refusing to eat unless you are allowed to have your own spoon and to use it while I try to feed you at the same time (sometimes you get the food in your mouth and sometimes it goes astray but your accuracy is improving - meal times are a LOT messier!)

You're still full of surprises, most as yet unopened.

I'm sorry that I haven't had the chance to update your blog for the last couple of months, the demands on my time between you girls, the house and university course load is pretty immense, but all of it is worth it, and I have been taking pictures and paying attention to both of you. As soon as my first essay is handed in next week I'm going to get right on that.

But I wasn't about to let your first birthday pass without a post. We have another little party planned for you on your actual birthday. So Happy Birthday, beautiful girl.

I love you, Lex, thank you for a lovely year,

With lots of love from your Mummy xxx

If you would like to see what Georgie was like at one, click here.

Month 10 - September 2010 - On The Move at Last!

2010-09-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Lexington,

Hello, little girl, here we are at the end of Month 10 - not long until your birthday now!

The Need for Speed

Over a ten day period towards the end of September you seemed to fast forward somehow - you went from crawling backwards (angrily) to crawling forwards, to pulling yourself up, to cruising around, pointing and waving! That's five milestones in about five minutes (compared to how things have gone thus far!)

Don't get me wrong, Lex, you can go your own speed as far as I'm concerned - whether quickly or slowly or the same speed as everyone else. I don't mind if you don't. But I have to admit there is something really exciting about watching you speed through a few phases, effortlessly owning these skills after weeks of watching you labour, flail and fail at crawling, which most other babies your age mastered weeks agol. It was almost as if you thought -

"Bugger, I'm behind my schedule, better get a move on!"

And a move-on is exactly what you got. There's no keeping up with you now.

For some reason you are particularly quick when you spot the potty, whether unattended in the corner of the room or (even better, it seems), complete with your big sister, astride and mid-toilet, who growls and groans (and occasionally attempts a side-swipe at your head,) at your enthusiastic, gummy approach. I have had to start giving it a thorough clean all over every time Georgie uses it because it has to live either on the cooker or the work surface - not exactly convenient, but needs must at the moment, as the building work continues....

You also love my phone (but it is pretty, so who could blame you x) and every remote control going.

Mama (as opposed to MMaaaaamAAAAAH!)

You have stopped moaning my name and now appear to have set yourself the task of pronouncing it with as many different emphases and intonations as possible. It's always lovely to hear.

Ta!

I am trying to teach you to say thank you, and so have resorted to the word Ta. So far you haven't really said it much but you do like to play a game called Ta - it seems to mean "Let's exchange toys when Mummy says ta". And you're happy to do that. You know that if someone says Ta to you, you're about to gain or lose something, and you accept both outcomes with charming equanimity.

Hide and Seek

Another phrase that you definitely understand (up to a point), is:

"Where's the baby?!"

It started as a peek-a-boo game underneath a towel. That was cute.

Now if I can't see you (which happens a lot more these days, now that you're mobile and all,) all I have to do to find you is enquire of the room:

"Where's the baby?!"

and then wait. I hear you before I see you, as a rule. I hear the quickening breath, the giggling, the drag of your knees on the floor and the slip-slap of pudgy palms on the floor. Occasionally, if you know I still can't see you, you raise yourself up like a meer cat, trying to catch my eye, as if to say:

"Look! I'm crawling! Simples!"

When you get to me, you don't waste any time - if I'm standing, you grab onto me and pull yourself up, grinning madly the whole time and swaying on my trouser-legs. Too cute! If a baby can be too cute, you are x

Swimming

We went swimming at the beginning of the month, and you loved it! So much fun! I would have taken pictures except of course you're not allowed to take pictures of your own children at a swimming pool (grr).

Head Banger

I've had to put your V-pillow into your cot, because you keep banging your head in your sleep, which results in a lot of screaming, bruising and general nocturnal trauma. Ouch!

New Car Seat

You and Georgie managed to become to be for your respective car seats at almost exactly the same time (thanks for that!) And so now you are in the back, in Georgie's old seat and she is in the front, on a booster seat. You both seem pretty happy with this arrangement. I keep forgetting who goes where but I'll get into the swing of it soon enough.

I'm writing this up a little late - it's October (Month 11) and I'm getting ready to go to New York. And I'm getting ready to miss you :( Not to intrude into Month 11 too much but I just wanted to say now, in case I'm blown up by terrorist en route, during the holiday or on the way back, that I love you so much, I'm sorry I'm leaving you when you're teething, when you have a cold and just in general but at the same time, I really really need a holiday, I haven't had one for ages and I have been dying to go to New York for like...ever!

So be good for Daddy, and be good to Georgie (and be quick, or she'll get you!), and I'll try to get there and back in one piece.

Love, love and then more love from your Mummy xxx

And if you're at all curious about what Georgie was like at 10 months, have a click here.

Month 9 - Oh The Discontent and Cuteness!

2010-08-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

Houston We Have a Tooth and a Half!

You have been teething for a long time now, and finally the much anticipated first tooth made it's pointy presence felt on my finger, earlier this month, about a couple of weeks ago. It's exact location is middle bottom (right), with it's middle bottom left companion beginning to poke it's way in over the last few days. Your godmother, Linda, swears you have at least one top middle tooth coming in too, and she may be right but I can't see it yet, chiefly because that tongue is still always poking out like this:

Generally people find out about your teeth when they allow you to suck (and then chew) on the things they leave around...wallets, watches, fingers, etc. So no, no pictures of it, but if a person was to ask your Gran about your tooth, I hear she can confirm that it's there...!

We are Trying to Crawl But We Can't Crawl At All So We Bawl

Yes, I have been reading lots of Dr Seuss to Georgie and yes, it has gotten under the skin of my vocabulary and no, I'm not sorry, we must take our simple pleasures where we can...so....

As soon as I put you down now you immediately look for ways to get moving. You end up, more often than not, either on your stomach or in a full or partial crawl position. Then you rock backwards and forwards. Sometimes your knees slip down and you manage to keep your head up. Sometimes you're quiet for a while and I look up and realise you're eating carpet, which is of course both tasty and nutritious. It also muffles the resulting din. For a time.

Anyway, you seem to understand that motion is what must come next, but sadly your grasp of the method required is limited at best. The result? An angry, confused and very loud backwards crawl. You end up jammed under furniture or squished into walls. And you look at me like I did it but I assure you, my little bobble head, it is not my fault.

So we're not crawling properly yet. But it can't be long....

Round and Round We Go, Will She Stop, Nobody Knows!

You have mastered all 360 degrees, and you're not afraid to demonstrate. You roll over and over and over, and from a tummy-time position you manage to sweep round and round like a roly-poly, fist-gnawing, ground-pawing, spiral-touring clock hand. If you're not dizzy from all that you can be sure that I am dizzy just watching you. And deaf. Very very deaf.

Pardon?

Oh, why? Um, because you are experiencing teething discomfort and limited motion ability, which appears to make you slightly frustrated.

A bit.

(Shudder. Rock. Moan.)

MaMaMaMaMaMAH!

This is not the way you hope to hear those words when you're a first time mummy. You think of a little baby softly patting your face, looking into your eyes and cooing "Mama", and fluttering gossemer eyelashes with and adoring, pudgy smile. Does anyeone get that the first time?

Hmm, well, luckily I am no longer a first-timer, and so I know that chances are the first word is 'Dadda', almost invariably a happy utterance of contentment.

Dadda - Check.

No so with 'Mama'. This was a recent addition to your vocabularly that is used to express frustration and discontent. It was bound to come in around the same time as your first tooth.

You look up with this kind of 'will this hell never end?!' expression in your blue-sky-eyes, you raise you arms up with tragic pathos, and moan...

"MaMaMaMAAAMah!"

If I make so bold as to ignore your plea for attention (yes, I'm that mean/busy/deaf at times), then you raise your arms imploringly and tone it up a notch or six hundred...

"MAAAAMAAAAAMAAAAAH!"

And it goes on and on until I sweep you up, at which point you, the seemingly inconsolable baby, becomes a cooing lamb. Until I put you down again. Repeat until crazy then move to padded cell.

And The Little One Said: Comb Over! Comb Over!

Your hair is growing but it's in no way an even coverage situation, and when the wind blows, you get some very interesting new looks. (Snigger. Snort. I get my kicks where I can...)

The Dummy Fairy Came-eth

Luckily for us you have never been much into your dummy. But it did seem to reduce the noise pollution a little so I had been giving you the dummy during the day instead of just occasionally to help you settle at night.

This resulted in Georgie getting super-jealous and robbing you of it. She back-slid in her use of the dummy to the extent that I couldn't understand a word she said and so the Dummy Fairy was summoned and exchanged the dummies for a Buzz LightYear and chocolate for Georgie. You have one emeregency dummy in your room, which we keep hidden. But you don't seem to care, and are happy to chew toys instead. Well done!

Standing Her Ground

One way to temporarily halt your devestating noise-making is to allow you to stand up, whether that's holding onto hands or resting casually against a handy sofa etc. Unlike your sister, you step one foot at a time in your walker, and occasionally when someone's holding your hands, you take a few steps there too - I'm torn between encouraging you to walk and the hell on earth that will surely follow once you are fully ambulatory, and the appaling caterwaling that we now suffer due to your inability to crawl or walk yourself - your lack of motion commotion, as it were. So yes...You like to stand. You can do it for a long time. But not unsupervised, and so this just gives you something else to moan about. Because you needed soemthing else x :-D

In summary, I can confirm (as if I need to) that you are not longer merely a cute, compliant little blob'o'joy, pukey or otherwise. What you are is loud and cross. But you are still cuter than cute. We never went through this stuff with Georgie when she was at this stage (as far as I remember,) because she was either sitting down or in her walker. She showed no interest in crawling until she could walk. When it was time to walk, she did that, and skipped crawling altogether until she didn't need it. Weird, I know. Still, she does give you crawling lessons, which shows she picked up the method somewhere down the line. You get to go in your walker but you upset Georgie a lot, particularly when you ram her while she's on the potty, which can be a messy and painful experience for us all. You also run around stealing items from the surrounding area, particularly tea towels. Once you have a little pile going, you run off, giggling and spreading the items around, or pause in front of the TV, which results in further crossness from your big sister.

But how ever uncomfortable or frustrated you are with your lot, it is plain to see that you genuinely always try to be as happy as possbile - after all it's the Harris way. And we love you very much, because that's our way too.

And if I can for one moment stop complaining about you (and believe it or not, I can!) I'd just like to thank you for managing to fall asleep and stay asleep while so much drilling, scraping, hammering and really off-key singing along to the radio goes on directly above you during this loft conversion time. Check it out:

I borrowed a travel cot from Jenny in case I need to put you to sleep in the living room, where it's quieter, but so far, to my utter amazement, this has been completely unnecessary.

So thank you for that, and your general existence, you lovely little sleeper, you xxx

Love from your MaaaaaMaaaah!
xxxx

If you would like to be reminded of Georgie at 9 months old, and find out for example that I was totally wrong and that Georgie did actually crawl backwards, despite what I just wrote above, I suggest you click here here!

Month 8 - Which contained the week of hell!

2010-07-26T13:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Lex the Pex,

Things have not gone very smoothly this month but luckily you are adorable and so you continue to enjoy the position of resident, much-loved baby.

Not a fan of the heat (but a fan of the fan...)

It has been pretty hot and humid this month, and this did not sit well with me or with you, as it turns out. It intefered with your sleep (and therefore interfered with mine) and this all started when your daddy had gone away for a week to France, fishing with his mates. If ever I was at the end of my tether, it was that week, due in the main to lack of sleep - if only I could have found the electric fans, (they were in the shed I think), which we have now put to work, things might have gone better for all of us.

Anyway, there were some other new challenging behaviours of yours that saw fit to present themselves that week...

Still teething (Still no teeth!)

Your drooling, hand chewing, gum-grinding and general gurning has hit a new high. I have tried an amber teething necklance on you, which is very pretty but doesn't seem to do you much good. I'm too afraid to leave it on you while you sleep, so the fault could be mine. I take it off while you sleep because I can't shake the horrible fear of being the woman who let you strangle on an anti-teething necklace in order to save on infant Nurofen - how ever dumb that is, I can't get past it, what can I tell you...

So, you toothless wonder, the teething beat goes on, and I say unto you again: Slacker. X

There was one in the bed and the little one said, "Roll over! Roll over"

In addition to the disturbances caused by the heat and the incessant teething, you have started rolling onto your stomach just before you fall asleep (and sometimes while you are asleep).
This tends to lead to some initial and quite enchanting giggling on your part, and sleeping bag flapping and general cot banging, which begins as playful baby frolicks and gradually rises to a crescendo of outraged frustration when you are unable to flip back, probably because you often get your legs stuck in the cot bars (while you're still in your sleeping bag - it would be a neat trick if you could get yourself out again.)

All this causes your body temperature to rise to that of liquid magma in the already unbearable heat, the teething makes you super-extra cranky and so in no time at all you become a frantic, sweaty, angry bundle and I end up almost no teeth myself due to excessive grinding (the grinding stops me from throwing the baby out the window - its a sacrifice but its absolutely worth it.)

Consistently Inconsistent

Actually that's not really true, you are quite consistent in general, but during the week of hell, that's how it felt to me. In fact what you were doing was not being inconsistent so much as adjusting your routine. So now instead of having an hour and a half at 9am, 1pm and then half an hour at 5, you now have an hour and a half at 10, and hour and a half at 3 and then that's it. We're still dream feeding you and doing that late because whenever we try to give less a bit earlier you wake up earlier and we don't like that. We would sooner dream feed you til your 10 years old and have you sleep to 7 or later, than endure the horrors of early early waking, which we could still get at any point, but please God no, don't let it happen, Amen.

"When will I see you...again?"

At around six or seven months babies start to realise that they are separate from their mothers and that they are individual entities. You decided to realise this in one of the worst weeks we have had together, just to make it super special and totally impossible. Don't worry, I know you haven't done any of this on purpose, the bitter tone of this post is not directed at you but at fate, because you are lovely and fate is occasionally not.

Anyway, separate entities. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Woo hoo! That's not my bad hair day, that's Mummy's bad hair day! You'd think you'd be relieved to reach this important understanding of your separate physical identity. But no. Apparently it's very upsetting. I put you down. You bawl. I pick you up. You coo. I put you down. More screaming. You get the picture. It's totally fine if you have nothing to do but hold a gorgeous, dumpling baby. If only.... so there has been a LOT of crying. I hope my neighbours don't think I'm neglecting you. I promise, neighbours, I'm not. Honest :D Unless putting the baby down and doing the dishes counts. In which case, I am. :(

Lexina, The Diddy Dalek

You have really gotten into zipping about in the baby walker, and I quickly dubbed you the diddy dalek, for my own alliterative amusement. It's a bit easier for you to get over the carpet now that your daddy has unscrewed some unhelpful attachements from the bottom which seem to have been designed expressly for the purpose of making it very hard for a baby to move the walker over carpet.

You like to roll over to me while I'm having breakfast, make adorable eyes in my direction and wait until I send you shooting across the kitchen (in the walker!) by means of a well-placed foot, burbling with delight as you go, until you get yourself turned around and you come back for more of the same. That's always a lovely part of my morning :D

You have also figured out that you can corner the dog. Luckily for the dog, she has figured out that she can jump over the walker, or sidle out of the back door or creep under the kitchen table. To her credit, she never so much as shoves you, let alone nips or growls at your frankly annoying (to her) obsession with backing her into inanimate objects and then letting forth earsplitting screeches of delight.

If you could stop running into the back of my ankles and over my toes, that would be great. But it is worth it, because you are very funny in that baby walker. You seem to get drunk with the sudden ability at mobility. You are in fact the cheap date of upright motion. Totally tipsy on tip toes. God, I love you, little baby!

Not Much Hair Today, Not Much Prospect of More Hair Tomorrow

The parts of your fragrant little baby scalp that have always pushed out your fine, fluffy hair continue to do so, and so your hair is longer than last month, and a lot of it sticks up - your daddy refers to you as Stan Laurel, because it's so mad and sticky-uppy. Sadly you still have that receding forehead look, and so your current look is part baby, part mad professor and part Phil Collins, which may explain the way that you drum on, oh, EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME, WITH BOTH HANDS!

Piano Playing Poppet

You don't have a piano, but you seem to like to enjoy pretending, whether assisted or not. Perhaps we should get you a toy piano. It's like a double-handed wave gone mad, and can be produced by waving at you, talking to you, or just existing in your presence. Crazy child. x

Crawling

I am pleased to report that we have no crawling. Yet. That is all.

All in all I am pleased to say that we all seem to have made it through the month in one piece, and if you're in any doubt at all (and I sincerely hope you are not) I still love you, love you, love you, my precious little pain in the bum, dribble-fest, smelly bum

Love from your Mummy with the very bad hair every day xxx

To see what Georgie was like at 8 Months old click here

Month 7 - Off the Meds At Last!

2010-06-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Dear Bobble Head Baby,

This has been a good month for you and me - you've been sleeping well, you are generally pretty relaxed and chilled out, as long as I follow your cues well - if you're loud, you're either hungry, in pain, tired and/or sitting in a poo. Other than that, you're all good, and your tolerance of noise, crowds etc. has improved dramatically from what it was.

Off the Drugs!

I attritbute much of that to one of the best things about this month has been that you are finally off your meds - no more Gaviscon, no more Ranitidine, no more Domperidone - hooray! I had been trying on and off to see if you could keep your food down without chemical help, and this was the first time when it all seemed ok. You're still on special milk, but I will be trying you with a new formula - I think you're old enough for follow-on milk now but either way, we will no longer be obliged to make your milk up with boiling water and then try to make sure it's the right temperature when you decide you want to drink it. Honestly, I didn't realise the level of tension that we have been maintaining around your milk feeds and medicines until those issues were all but removed.

I have stopped sterilising your bottles too - my GP told me she stopped at 4 months, on the basis that babies put everything in their mouths anyway. We have waited until now and when you add the no sterilising to everything else, I'm almost dizzy with the sheer comparative ease of day to day Lexi care! I'm sure you'll find ways to change things up and keep us on our toes, but for now, beautiful, smiley, dumpling baby, congratulations on your maturing digestion system and phew!

Sitting Pretty

You're sitting up now - with a v-pillow behind in case of collapse!

And in your high-chair at meal times...

"Come into my beddy on the floor, Lex! it's very comfortable!"

Georgie makes little nests for you both, she makes sure you have enough toys to play with, and tries to pick you up when you fall.

The sitting (and the falling) has led to a bit more tummy-time than before, which has led to a couple of instances of your turning over from front to back or back to front, but not loads. You seem a lot happier to be sitting up on your own though, and as long as no one over-reacts when you fall over, you're still smiling into the carpet, or up at the ceiling, most of the time!

Drooler

If there is such a thing as a dribblometer (and if there isn't, there should be) you would be topping it now, surely. All that dribble. No sign of any teeth. I have one work for you, sweet cheeks. Slacker!

Tongue Out of Cheek

Your little tongue sits like a baby strawberry, jutting out just past your lips whether you're smiling and cooing or solemnly staring. Until my camera comes out, and it shoots back into your mouth as you squawk and reach for for the little machine that clicks - you love the camera!

You are turning from a baby into a little girl, which is exciting but also sad. Babies are perplexing, needy little creatures but they are bewitching and adorable nonetheless. I don't know if I'll ever have another baby and so I'm almost as sad to see each phase of your development pass as I am excited for you, as you learn and discover more about the world.

Happy little Lexi, don't go changing (too much, too fast!)

I love you as ever, from top to toe,

Love from Mummy xxx

And what was Georgie like at this age, I hear you ask - Georgie, Month 7

The Football Fans - It must be Sunday!

Month 5 and 6

2010-05-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

My Little Bobble-Head,

You are growing up so fast!

Milk to Mush

The move from just milk to mush and milk is supposed to be gradual and I did feel a bit of a beginner, because Georgie was pretty ill on and off between about four and seven months, which meant that weaning didn't really begin properly until she was at stage 2 (mushy, textured fruit, veg and protein).

So I decided to just offer you breakfast, lunch and dinner at the usual times, and keep your original milk schedule, and then just see how we went. And I have to say we went just fine! Well done you! You prefer fruit (who wouldn't, if I do say so myself, my fruit purees are delish!) but actually you're also fine with any number of mushed vegetables.

Sleeping Beauty

We still offer you a dream feed between about 10 and midnight and then you sleep right on through, often until 7. Sometimes you wake in the early hours but you are generally easily shushed back to sleep - it's one of the few times you'll take a dummy actually. When you wake up a bit too early, sometimes at 6 or 7, I bring you into the bed and, if I gently prevent you from flailing about and sucking my chin, you nod back off to sleep (until your sister comes bounding into the mix with demands for breakfast....)

Rejection of the Play Mats - Standing Tall

You used to love you playmats, you would lie on them and....well, play.

Then you wanted to sit in a bouncy chair on a play mat.

Or on a bumbo in front of a play table.

Then one day you were having none of it. Luckily your Nanny and Grandad had saved an acitivity centre that we used for Georgie.

It was in their garden and hence was dirty and covered in snails, but once it was cleaned and dried it was an instant hit. Then I was fortuante enough to find another one exactly like it for £1.50. They retail for about £60 new, so I was very very pleased to have one to put at Nanny and Grandad's house and one for here.

No More Silent Laughs

You are a very smiley baby - everyone says so.

And now you are a giggler, it's official!

You laugh a lot, a tickling, jumping, smiling and it's frickin' adorable!

Afternoons with Nanny, Grandad, Gran and Gramps

It used to be Georgie who was sent out to the loving and indulgent arms of the fabulous grandparents - that was before, when you were a sleepy, compliant baby. These days you are far more alert and a great deal less tolerant! You are no lover of busy environments, and your need for very warm milk, regular medicines and general calm made the switch a simple and obvious choice. It means that I can take Georgie on playdates, give the grandparents a break from the relentless demands of a toddler and let them get to know you. You seem cool with it. And the grandparents look a bit less harried these days....

A Walking Wonder

Not walking under your own power or anything (yet!) but Kerry and Tim kindly leant us Amy's walker (which Amy herself hated with a fiery passion, to the point that she would cry a river when she just glimpsed it), and you seem to love it. First you seemed to think it was jumping aparatus, like a door bouncer. You learned how to move it by jumping, and you still seem to think that leaping around is the key to movement. You go faster in the kitchen than on carpet, and Georgie loves nothing better than to roll you over to one end, stand at the other, call you over, as though you are an excitable puppy, and then send your rolling back and bouncing off the kitchen cabinets. We have very firmly prevented this, as whip lash is not something I want for my baby, now or in the future. So a modified, safer version of this game now persists in the kitchen, and so we are all back to wearing some kind of footwear at all times, lest you roll onto our feet and make us cry. It was the same when Georgie was in her walker too...

From Sleepwear to Daywear

I'm not really a believer in anything but vest and sleepsuits for little babies - it's hard to find clothes that are comfy for lying around, and for the first four to six months that's all babies can do. But now I feel perfectly within my rights, and yours, to pop you into regular clothes often, if not every single day. You soak through four or five outfits a day with all that drool (still no teeth and yet all these teething signs!) but hey....So check you out wearing actual clothes now you're six months old...!

So my dumpling, darling baby, another couple of months has passed us by, and we love you more than ever. Even Georgie still adores you, and despite her clumsy affections, or maybe even because of them, you clearly love her too.

Sleep tight O bobbled one, love from your Mummy xxx

And if you'd like to see what Georgie was like at these ages:

Month 5

Month 6

Months 3, 4 (and a bit of 5) 2010

2010-02-18T07:26:00.001-08:00

Well little bobble-head,

Looking after you is something of a long-distance, endurance-type sport, hence the creation of your latest nickname, 'The Lexathon'. You are a very busy little girl, kicking, grabbing your knees or feet and rolling onto your side, pulling your playmat down over your head and generally throwing your little pudgy body around like nobody's business.

You chew on whatever you can lay your little baby mouth on - toys, carpet, shoes, bags but ideally, if you can get it, human bodyparts, particularly my thumb (it must be very tasty indeed).

Teething

You appear to have been teething since January - you drool, your little cheeks go bright red and you grind your toothless little gums together as if all your teeth are set to spring forth in a scary, shiny, miniature set (God,wouldn't that be creepy? Especially if they were all gleaming and pointy....shudder...)

Discovering your hands

You spent the majority of February engrossed in an exhaustive study of your hands - up close, far away, from the front, from the back, fingers, nails and skin. All were poked, squinted at and generally admired from all angles.

Toys

You are also more and more interested in play mat dangley toys and toys in general. You took rather a shine to Georgie's Spencer Bears (1 - 3) - I'm surprised she lets you anywhere near them but she actually gives one to you on a regular basis, even though you chew his paw.

You have a favourite toy that you sleep with, a rabbit called Kalloo (thanks Emma), and you stroke and/or hold his ears as you fall asleep. Aaah.

There's also a rattle that Claire gave you, which looks like a King and has therefore been named Elvis. Will try to find a pic of him too...

And lets not forget Doggie, whom you kindly share with Georgie from time to time...

Lexi's NCT Babies

We meet up with the other NCT refresher ladies and babies whenever we can, and we even managed to get a shot of all the babies together at Jo's house:

I'm going to try to name them all left to right (sorry if I get any wrong!)

Gabriella, Lexi, Lily, Lucas, Annabelle and Eleanor. Lovely little people they are too x

Gained Weight

Your scary weight loss appears to be of the past, although your acid reflux did keep getting worse for short periods, because as your weight goes up, your doses need to go up too, but that was fairly obvious and caused little or no confusion (to us anyway).

Grandad's 70th Birthday

Grandad's 70th birthday came and went and probably passed you by but just so you know, it did happen :-D

Packing to move

We moved out of our house in March and in with Nanny and Grandad. No one was happy about that but it was necessary in order to allow the central heating of the new house to be entirely replaced. You certainly bonded with Nanny during that period, in fact I think at one point you started to think SHE was your Mummy - your sister did not take to the upheaval and managed to soak up quite a lot of my time...

I'm sure you'll be just as challenging when you reach her age, so don't go thinking you're the 'good' one just because you're currently a generally agreeable baby - although if you fancy staying agreeable, that would be great :-D

Immunisations

You've had all the usual immunisations, which you don't like and you had no problem letting everyone in a fifty mile radius know it. Good for you! Where does being stalwart get you these days anyway!

'Talking'

You are pretty easy going for the most part (except when hungry) but despite this you feel it necessary to shout and squawk as though you are the most discontented soul ever born. One look at your baby face, all screwed up with mirth, leaves me to conclude that you are not cross, just fond of the sound of your own voice (where did she get that from, I hear you all wonder...)

Laughing

Your silent laugh has been cracking me up for some time - most babies do it, but of coures when your own babies do it, it's so much cuter (sorry, other babies.) We have had a few giggles out of you but more recently you have been attempting proper belly laughs when tickled under the arms and on the thighs, although you laugh most when this tickling is administered with high pitched 'tickle tickle' noises and so I am beginning to suspect its the noise that makes you laugh. You also laugh if some jumps out at you and exclaims: "Boo!"

Holding your head up

Your bobble-headedness is pretty much a thing of the past and you hold your head up like a champ. You have been sitting in your bumbo since you were just shy of 4 months and when held up, you take some weight on your legs - it's all good practice I guess.

You rarely lie back on your bouncy chair but rather struggle upright, hold it as long as you can and then flop in which ever direction seems best to you.

Your big sister

You love your Georgie and I frequently despatch her to distract and delight you, which she does with aplomb, but not always as willingly as I would like.

She likes to try to pick you up, which is a bit of a worry, and she likes to try to feed you - yes, as soon as you were four months I decided to ignore contemporary advice (like almost everyone else I know) and start weaning you.

Weaning

You took to food in such a way as to confirm (as if I ever had any doubts) that you are indeed the child of Steve and Ali Harris. Well done.

Now you yell for food like an angry Millwall fan, and once it hits your tongue you smile and flirt like a young coquette, bless you.

Sleep

Yes, you do that - we've gone from a three hour routine to a four hour routine, which wont mean much to anyone who either has no children or who has blocked out the painful routines of babyhood, but you have, so there. So yes, not going through the night yet but Steve and I take it in turns to be on kid duty and so far so good.

You are a small, soft, adorable little person whose irrepressible gaiety and curiosity rarely fail to cheer me up, even when I feel like I'm at the end of my tether! You complete our family, to the point that it's hard to remember that you are a pretty recent addition. I love you, cuddlesome naughty pants.

Sleep well, love from your Mummy xxx

If you'd like to know what your sister was like at this age - 3 months, 4 months

Months 2 and 3

2010-02-02T14:44:00.001-08:00

Smiley Baby Lex

Dear Bobble-Head-Baby,

I haven't written about you lately and I haven't written much about you at all, which is a shame because you are a beautiful little baby, with all sorts of record-worthy, developmental milestones that I hope to get down in this post and many others. I thought that having a second baby would make it twice as hard to meet my blogging obligations but the fact of the matter is that it seems to have made it fifty times harder, but I will do my best to improve, I promise.

The Lex - My Baby Bear xxx

Although I will always do my best to capture every month for you, it is likely that when you are old enough to read you are going to look at your blog and realise that your baby days have not been written about with the regular devotion to your developmental minutiae that was lavished on your sister. Before you feel too aggrieved about that I would like you to consider seomthing: think, if you will, about all the things you are getting that we could not give your sister i.e. the benefits of experience with babies.

Lexi The Blue-Eyed Reindeer
NCT Xmas Party 2009

Retrospectively I can see that poor little baby Georgie had to go through a lot so that you might have an inordinately more comfortable time of it - this is the lot of the elder child - and I am one myself, so I know this to be true.

Lexi & Nanny

She suffered through acid reflux without the benefit of a diagnosis for her crying and feeding problems, and without medicines to manage the problem and there are a host of other trials, some larger than others, that we have learned from and that you do and will benefit from.

Playmat Fun (Thanks Gran & Gramps!)

What I'm saying is that Georgie is your personal ground-breaker and smoothe-ride-maker. People often say that a second baby has an easier temperament because he or she has to just 'fit in' with activities that are based around the older, more active first-born. I think there is something to that but I know that in our case, your good nature also has a lot to do with what we learned while looking after your sister.

But don't misunderstand me, little Lex - you are an entirely adorable baby - the last couple of weeks we started getting great big smiles, and those silent baby laughs, where you open up your mouth in a vast, jolly, toothless grin to express your mirth. Two nights ago you rewarded Daddy with your first laugh (Elizabeth got Georgie's first laugh - I was gutted that it wasn't me). This time I was just glad to hear you laugh - until we had your reflux diagnosed and sufficiently medicated you were becoming a sad little soul, losing weight, hardly eating and crying in pain and hunger. Now we have the right formula and medicines in place, we can deal with your digestive ills until you outgrow them (it should be all better by the time you are about six months old, if not sooner). I'm taking you to be weighed in a few days and now that you are drinking more than twice what you were the last time I took you (when you had lost over 2lbs), I am hoping that you will have regained those pounds and maybe a few ounces extra.

Lexi & Spencer

You are sleeping and eating pretty much on a good routine. Steve and I take it in turns to be on baby night duty. We put you down at 7, wake you to feed you for a 'dream feed' at 10 or 11, and then you tend to wake somewhere between 3 and 5 for another feed and then we start the day at 7. Now that you are back on track feeding-wise I could go back to Gina Ford and see if we can get you sleeping through the night but to be honest I can deal with the early morning feed as long as I know it's coming and as long as it's only once. Also we should be moving house soon and the last thing we need is more upheaval, so if you want to wake for a night feed, that's ok by us x

You can be quite hard to put down sometimes - I bought you a little device that clips onto your cot and it plays music and projects moving pitcures onto your ceiling. You seem to love it - you smile and gurgle at it, and tap on it, following the winking lights with your little baby fingers. You still spend most of the night in the moses basket downstairs, where we don't have the music and light show, and you still go off to sleep ok (for the most part) so I don't think it's becoming too much of a sleep crutch. It does mean I don't have to stand in your room for hours, trying to get you to go to sleep, which with Georgie "the Devestation" Harris left all alone downstairs, is probably a good thing!

You like to sleep in the Baby Bjorn sling - this was very popular with you when your reflux hadn't settled down yet, as it meant you could sleep upright. It did lead to 'I eant to sleep on mummy' syndrome, however, and so it was nipped in the bud pretty sharpish. Hence the aforementioned music and light box.

I spend a lot more time holding you than I spent holding Georgie. I think this is because it's not a hot, sticky summer, as it was when Georgie was born. Instead it is a pretty cold winter, and so it's more comfortable to cuddle. I'm also much more adept at holding you with one arm - and so I can carry on doing stuff while I hold you, something I didn't get right away with your sister.

Your are a pretty relaxed, happy little girl. You have no problem being passed around and you are happy to share your smiles and gurgles with whoever happens in your direction. Of course like most babies, you have your preferences and you're not afraid to voice your discontent (I wonder where you get that from!)

You hate hats, snowsuits and carseats, and so at the moment, almost every time we go out, you get very cross, as I wrestle you into a snow suit with either a hood and/or a hat and then into a car seat! You're not overly fond of the pushchair either, but at least now you can see where we're going, as I decided you are big enough to sit in the doubles kit rather than ride in the dark in the cocoon. You still like to sleep in the cocoon (in the moses basket).

You like your playmat and the hoopy loopy monkey, which belonged to Georgie and probably technically still does. Luckily she's pretty generous with her toys (so far, and only with you). Long may it last...

So don't feel sad if your early blog entries are only half as many as Georgie's because it doesn't mean we love you half as much, but rather than we have less than half the time to write about love for children we love a hundred times more than we love ourselves, and a million times more than anyone could ever record.

Love from Mummy xxx

A Bobble-Headed Baby is Born

2009-12-06T04:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Bobble Head,

Or should I begin more formally than that?

Dear Alexandra Olivia Grace Harris, to be known to us as Lexi (until you decide otherwise!)

So here you are at last - its been about two weeks now since you finally decided to get yourself born. Like your sister you decided to put things in motion at the last minute, and so the day before my elective c-section, at about ten pm, contractions started. They never got the chance to get that bad because we decided to go with the section.

Considering that you were born at 10lbs 8 that was probably a smart decision, although I think less about your size and more about the fact that you didn't engage even once labour had started. People have delivered bigger babies naturally - I think once you start talking about pushing something that is the size of even the smallest baby out of your lady-bits, a few pounds probably makes very little difference. But I digress.

So the C section wasn't the best experience ever. We thought it would be nicer than the emergency c section we had with your sister. Oh how wrong. I may write about that later - I don't want to write about it now, I'm enjoying starting your blog and don't want to begin on a downer. Suffice it to say that the whole thing was more traumatic and painful than advertised, and then you were taken away and put in special care for three days. Not nice.

On the up side, we got some breast milk into you and you were given back shortly after that. And so I started getting to know you. And one of the first things I noticed was the strength of your neck and the weight of your head. It came screeching to my attention when I picked you up and in response you threw your head back and I nearly dropped you right there in Special Care. Not a great start. But it taught me to keep two hands on you at all times - forget 'support the head' - I DO support your head, of course, but I think more in terms of 'control the head'. And so your nickname was born and kind of stuck - for better or worse you became my bobble-head baby. Hence the name of your blog.

We had been preparing your sister for your arrival for some time, and although it's obvious she feels somewhat marginalised, she's not taking this out on you (so far) but is rather trying to goad Mummy and Daddy into previously unexplored paroxyms of rage. In general we are resisting the urge to rise to the bait - this is facilitated by your generous acceptance of the Gina Ford regime, which we started to implement by the time you were about five days old. This has led to something marvellous - miraculous - it's called SLEEP, and it is a great enabler of not only contented little babies, but contented little parents too. So yay for Gina Ford! (So not the awful, Nazi baby rearing system I was expecting it to be - why is she so misrepresented?...)

Keeping you awake is pretty difficult at this point but you are managing to stay awake a little longer each day and generally you only wake once between midnight and seven am, which is fabulous. Various methods we use to wake you up include undressing you, tickling you, changing your nappy, putting you on the floor (safely), giving you a little blanket bath, putting some baby cream on your peely bits (you have post-mature skin peeling on your legs and feet, which is totally normal but the creaming wakes you up, even if it doesn't actually stop you from peeling at this point) and if we're really desperate, we give you a bath. When you sleep through the bath we know that you aren't for waking and leave it alone.

It occurs to me that you are benefitting from all that we learned while trying to figure out what to do with the baby that was Georgie.

We didn't know that babies needed to sleep regularly, that they would cry for lack of sleep as well as for food, that sleep and food could be regulated in order to encourage you to sleep more at night, that sometimes soothing a baby to sleep would create sleep problems that led to years of interrupted sleep for every member of the family and that babies often wake up and cry for five minutes before going back to sleep on their own.

No one told me that if a baby falls asleep feeding, it hasn't necessarily had enough food and if the child is hungry half an hour to an hour later, then perhaps you should (shudder! gasp!!) wake that sleeping baby (if you can!) Poor Georgie - poor me! We muddled through her babyhood and of course we got there in the end but how much more sleep could have been mine (and how much more milk she could have taken in one sitting if I had been in the know!)

I have not become cruel over the last two years but I am no longer afraid to let a baby cry. What your routine gives me is confidence - if you are crying at it's time to feed, then I feed you. If you're crying and it's time to sleep, then I put you to bed. If you are crying for no apparent reason and I'm pretty sure you aren't hungry or tired, I feel that it's safe to take a step back and see if you can settle yourself. Thanks to the routine I know when it's best to stay at home and when (and how) to go out.

For me, getting through the day with sanity in tact is about organisation and the routine helps me to be organised - mothers are the original boy scout and we are nothing if not prepared. I have seeded my bags, my car, my pram and my general environment with nappies, wipes, toddler snacks etc. so that if I forget one bag, I have back-ups everywhere - not because I'm so clever and wonderful and perfect but because I know I'm NOT! At regular intervals I will be distracted by a toddler tantrum, I will have had a bad night with a teething baby, and I'll forget something small but vital. When that happens, my backup emergency kits that can be found in my handbag, my car, my pram, my back-up pram etc. will save me. And if all else fails, I can prevail upon a passing mother to help me - after all, we all know what it can be like.

Anyhoo...

People keep asking me if I think you look like Georgie, or telling me how much you look like Georgie, or your Daddy and so on. And of course they are right (why are they so surprised that you look like people you're related to?! That always makes me laugh!) You have the same shaped mouth as Georgie and me - it will be interesting to see if you're as mouthy as we are - chances are you will be, but time will tell...

So who do you look like? You have your Gran's eyebrows, just like Georgie. You have a different hairline though, I think, to hers - I'll have to check the photos...You are dark like Georgie was and may well also lighten as you get older. You have different colour eyes - Georgie's were slate grey that went to cadbury brown, like your Daddy's. Your eyes were dark at first but now seem to be going blue, which may mean that you will have eyes like mine (which are grey/green). Or you could end up with eyes of your own original shade. You don't seem to have Georgie's eyelashes, which are dark and thick and long. You may have inherited Nanny's and my short eyelashes - or perhaps yours are yet to come. You have my colour skin, I think, which means you won't burn easily and you'll tan in good weather in about three seconds (I don't care about having a tan but I love how it annoys all those with complexions of milk! :-D). You manage to look like all of us and simultaneously you are unmistakably yourself, and every day I come to understand that self a little bit better.

I'm going to stop now and go wake you up - it's fifteen minutes past your five o'clock feed. x

If you're curious to see what it was like when your sister was born, have a look here.