Yearling!

We did it! Our first trip around the sun! How amazing is that?! And how amazing is it how much a human can develop in 1 single year!

Here’s a list of things she can do: She is very smart. More smart than I anticipated that she would be at such a young age. She has fantastic fine motor skills. She loves to draw, paint, she loves to feel textures. She loves to explore sounds. She can say ‘dog’, which is her favourite word, as well as her favourite animal! She will say all of the double words (mama, dada, nana, gaga, etc). She can say ‘iya’ and she’s learning ‘hola’. She can independently chose to play hide and seek. I can ask her to make an owl noise and she will. I can ask her where the balloons are and she will find them and point at them. She loves to point and wave. She loves to do a big smile when I tell her to ‘cheese’. She says ‘dada’ whenever she hears the door open. She will laugh whenever she hears other people laughing, and it’s SO funny. She’s learning to pull herself up on things and she will walk independently with her ‘shopping cart’.

She has a ton of hair now, and it gets thicker and longer by the day! Her beautiful eyes are a deep, dark blue. She has 8 teeth (and counting). She is around 19 pounds and around 30 inches long. She is more gorgeous than me and her daddy can comprehend, we spend a lot of time staring at her wondering how we made such a beauty!

She has made our hearts SO huge with love. When she was born, I couldn’t believe how much I could love such a tiny little human, but that love grew more and more each day and now I could never have a dull day with being reminded all of the time how much I love her and how lucky we are to spend every day with her! She is so perfect in every way and even though this year has gone so quickly, I can’t believe that there was a point in time that I did not know her face.

11 months (and 8 days, oops!)

I’ve said it so many times, but I will say it again. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT SHE IS THIS CLOSE TO BEING A YEAR OLD! Saying that, I already feel like I have a toddler on my hands. She is so very funny. She gets so frustrated at everything! She screams if she can’t turn a book page straight away. She screams if she can’t read something. She screams if I have to take something off her. It’s absolutely hilarious because her personality is getting huge now! And I’m SO proud that she is expressing herself like this! It shows me that she is learning how to handle her emotions. And I will be there for her while she figures it all out.
She is obsessed with dogs. She LOVES animals, but dogs hold a special place in her heart. She gets really excited whenever she sees them, or whenever she sees her teddy dog. So of course, her first word is ‘dog’! She learnt it maybe a month ago. She says ‘dog’, ‘gog’, ‘doggog’, or ‘googog’ for them so she’s still getting the hand of it but I’m really excited about this new word!
She points at everything. Every time she points at something, I tell her what the word is and it’s one of her favourite games. She’s really enjoying all the different words for everything. She understands lots of different words now and will correctly respond to what I say! Her favourite is, “Clap your hands” at the moment. She also loves, “Where’s dog?” because she gets to go and find him. Her least favourite word is, “No” of course.
She has just started pulling herself up on furniture. She was only able to pull herself up on me for a while but now she has learnt to use the bath and the coffee table. She isn’t standing on her own, and she’s not showing signs of wanting to learn how to walk, but I am trying to encourage her.
She loves to dance! She rocks back and forth, shakes her head really fast and wiggles her toes and feet. Sometimes she will bounce up and down too if she really likes the music (‘bounce’ is another one of her favourite words).
She loves brushing her teeth, she loves drawing, she loves watching ‘Sarah & Duck’, she loves going for walks and adventuring to new places, she loves the library and watching other babies; she loves to do so much! She’s very lively and eager to see and learn new things.

We are so proud of her and who she is becoming. I sincerely love everything about her, all of her quirks and her drawings on the cupboards, the way that she makes a mess all of the time and when she gets a little attitude about something. She makes me laugh pretty constantly and I just cannot believe that I get to be her mother. I am truly the luckiest person in the world to have her.

Here’s some photos of her dressed as an elf for your enjoyment. 😉

 

10 Months (and 4 days)

As you can see from the photos, most things take 3 attempts nowadays, with my busy little babe.

I’m trying to think of all of the things she learnt in the past month but I’m also trying to make sure that she’s not sticking her fingers in any plug sockets or trying to eat Ashr’s poop. It’s safe to say that I’m on edge most of the time now! She’s SO much fun though, and so hilarious. She has these strange little temper tantrums if she doesn’t get to hold something that she really wants to, or if I don’t let her destroy my laptop. And if I tell her ‘no’, she does the funniest little pout which makes me laugh every time and takes away any meaning of the ‘no’ in the first place!

She’s got 6 teeth now, all equally adorable. They were HELL when they were coming through. I’m glad to have a little break from teething. I’m anticipating the arrival of the next 2 ones to complete the front-teeth set, though.

She’s very eager to be standing up on her own, now. She can get up if she pulls herself up on me, but so far, trying to pull herself up on furniture just results in face-plants for the most part, it seems. She’s very clumsy!

She’s constantly making noise. She loves to scream, blow raspberries, click her tongue, grind her teeth (shudders), yell ‘mama’ and ‘dada’, babble and babble, and I love listening to everything she has to say so much.

She is such a happy, energetic, vibrant little girl and I’m the proudest mummy. Her confidence is constantly growing and she is more than comfortable to crawl into a different room or see what the big kids are up to when we visit the library. It’s heartbreaking for me in a way because I know that she doesn’t need me to hold her and cuddle her all the time, but I’m so happy that she’s confident and gaining interest in other people and developing relationships with other people. *cries internally*

 

9 Months (and 3 days)

Below is the face of a teething 9 month old! She has learnt SO much this past month. She can understand what words mean! I can ask her to wave, I can ask her to shake her head, and I can ask her to say mama dada, nana, etc and she will (most of the time) follow the instruction! She will yell at us if she wants something, she laughs pretty much constantly (which is the best thing EVER) and she just learnt to crawl on the 6th October (the day after she turned 9 months)!
She has 2 teeth and 1 about to cut through on the top left front, one next to the bottom front on the left, and I think a molar is going to pop up too but I’m not 100% if it will cut through soon or not.
Her hair is finally long enough for me to put little clips in it! It’s so beautiful and blonde with little curls sticking out in places.
She is really getting a personality! She loves to yell and scream (with joy) at the worst times! When it’s meditation time in our yoga group, she will YELL and laugh at everyone the entire time. She’ll scream whenever we go anywhere public, usually when it’s really quiet. It’s like she’s saying “WHY IS IT SO QUIET IN HERE?!” and wants to break silence. It doesn’t take long for Matthew and I to follow her lead!
She is becoming a little bit more independent but still loves to be with me (which I am absolutely fine with and cannot get enough of her cuddles and love). She is getting better at sitting and playing by herself or with other people, and she will hang out with daddy for longer.
Her favourite food is mango, but she will eat pretty much anything. She is really getting into bananas now though and normally will eat half of one for breakfast (with a little encouragement).
She is so happy and healthy and more beautiful every single day, and we cannot get over how in love we are with her. She is such a good girl and we are so blessed with her in our life. I often question what I did to get this lucky to have her (and her daddy).

Penny’s new, very cute blw plate and spoon by Avanchy

Daddy’s eyes

8 Months (and 3 days)

These pictures are a great representation of how her 7th month went! My bipolar little baby. She’s still the sweetest thing, though! Such a gentle personality.

She isn’t crawling yet. She knows how to do everything but move her legs forward! She gets herself so frustrated with trying that she will end up getting upset and i will sit her up again.

She still has only two teeth but i have a feeling that shes about to have multiple cut through.

She has learnt how to say ‘mama’, ‘dada’, ‘nana’, etc which is SO cute because if we say it to her, she will say it back!     She’s begun mimicking a few things that we do, such as shaking our heads and waving, so we have started teaching her some basic sign language.

There is so much more to say about her but she is very cranky today so I don’t have time to think. 😉

I am so utterly in love with her and she is just the best thing.

Playing!

I bought a 50mm f/1.8 lens and I’m learning how to properly take advantage of what I can do with it. Here are some photos I took this afternoon while playing with it (with the help of the most beautiful model).

Post-bath time fun

Spotted: A penelephant in her natural habitat

7 Months

…And 4 days.

Your 6th month was pretty crazy! You are learning lots of things at a very fast pace now and it is so much fun to watch you understand the world a little bit more.
You are really enjoying eating real food (but it hasn’t put you off nursing at all, as I had presumed!) and mango is your favourite, which I love to eat with you.
You also really love the water now. Swimming pools are so much fun to splash around in!  You’re not shy of letting me know when it’s time to get out. You get so tired from all of the excitement that you fall straight asleep every time we get out which is the cutest thing!
You’re getting pretty confident in yourself and you know when you want something. If we take something off you that you wanted, you will tell us how terrible we are by getting very upset!
You now have 2 teeth! They are your bottom teeth and they are so very, very cute. You are not enjoying teething, and you have started waking up in the middle of the night crying, which isn’t like you at all. But with a little bit of teething gel, a clean nappy and some cuddles, you go right back to sleep again.
You are starting to get better and better at tummy time, and you seem eager to learn how to move forward but you haven’t quite figured it out yet. I know with some help from me and daddy, it shouldn’t take too long for you to get there though! For now, I am enjoying my not-very mobile baby because before I know it, I will be baby proofing everything and have to be constantly on guard!
Your personality is getting very strong. You are a very sweet little girl, you have a hilarious and brilliant sense of humour, and you are pretty dependent on me and daddy, which I adore because I get the BEST ever cuddles from you all the time!!
Your favourite things to laugh at are when I spin around and very dramatically say “HELLO!” and you love when I hide and then pop out again! You find it really funny when you drink water and blow raspberries everywhere so the water gets on everything! You also think it is so funny when something comes towards your face very fast. You will give me the best belly-laughs when that happens!

I can’t wait to see how you change this month my little Fern! ❤