I am quite late writing this – I just don’t understand where the time goes. And Lily has picked up so much the past month, I HAVE to write this!

What Lily Likes:

FOOD!
Rich Tea Biscuits and Pom Bear Crisps
Anything Tyler is holding
Dada – and stretching her arms up to be picked up
Swings at the playground
Playgroups, other children and toys
Toy cars, duplo, rocking horses, slides
Remote controls and mummy’s iPhone
Throwing food on the floor and looking at it
The food cupboard
The dishwasher being opened
The bin cupboard
Chewing colouring pens (agh!)
Climbing up the stairs at Nana’s house
Standing at the coffee table whenver there is food on there
Sleeping next to Mummy
Crawling under the clothes airer and standing in out corner window
Pulling books off shelves
Being outside

What Lily Dislikes

Having her hair washed at bathtime
Mummy cleaning her nose with a cotton bud (worst thing ever!)
Having her nails trimmed
Mummy combing her hair
Mushy food – yogurts are now a struggle
When mummy takes her iPhone away from her (the tantrums!)
When she has to wait for food/milk/water – Miss Impatient, give mummy a chance!

How is Lily

Weight/Size – She weighs 7.5kg and is in the 25th percentile, as expected for an Asian baby (we have diddy babies :D) She is in both 9-12 and 6-9 month clothes, and Size 3 nappies. She is definitely looking longer, although maybe because she is standing a lot more now, she just looks taller.

Food
Literally eating all grown up food, whatever we eat, and this is without any teeth! Finger food is best, though sooooo messy. Pasta, pizza, veggies (green beans, brocolli, baby carrots, peas), rice, chicken, fish fingers, chips, omelette, toast (she loves toast!), biscuits, pom bear crisps, brioche buns.

We went on holiday at the beginning of April and realised she’s happy without a routine. I just feed her throughout the day, whenever we have meals, and there are 3 bottles of milk at roughly these times, one at 7-8am, another at 2.30-4pm and the last one at 7-9pm.

Sleep

A big change happened this month with Lily moving into her big cot and into her own room with Tyler. This was not planned, but after it went so well in our holiday home, I realised this is what she needed. She sleeps so much better in the big cot as she likes to stretch out. I used a baby duvet, as she will not sleep in a sleeping bag. She does wake in the night, and I have to go in and settle her with a dummy or a sip of water, or a cuddle. On a good night, this will only happen twice, and some nights it is bad and I end up sleeping on Tyler’s bed with both of them. But at least my husband and I have our room back!

In the day, sometimes she had a small morning nap, but this is slowly dropping so she has one long lunchtime nap of 2 hours. But some days she has lots of little naps instead. It’s just luck at the mo. Daytime naps are usually in the buggy – which is now the big forward facing one rather than the infant carrier.

Development

She is crawling really fast now, she can stand holding on to furniture and slowly walk sideways holding on (cruising). This week she has been standing on her own for a second.

She is talking – Dada, Tyya, TaTa (water), Mumm, and other communications is her screeching at us if she wants something.

We had a 10 month check at the health visitor clinic and she said she’s a very sociable baby (what a difference from Tyler!)

She can climb up the stairs at her grandparents house.

She can rock herself on her rocking snail without falling off.

Her hand coordination is so good, she can hold a packet of crisps and get the crisps out easy (she has Pom Bear crisps and those Tesco rabbit ones). When she eats bread or brioche buns, she tears a little piece off and feed herself little pieces. She can feed herself water from her water bottle or beaker.

She can wave, she claps her hands and she can point.

She shows affection by cuddling us, putting her head on our shoulders

She shows concern when other children are crying.

She won’t sit still, which is why I moved from Rhymetimes at the library to playgroups instead. At the library, all she does is crawl to the bookshelves and pull books off now!

Still no teeth!

What we have done
First family holiday to Wales with a long train journey, lots of days out, been to the seaside, park, playgrounds, Windsor, London, the boat festival at Greenwich, the London Transport Museum Depot day, lots of days at the grandparents homes, we’ve had birthdays to celebrate (both dada’s and her brother’s) and of course our usual day-to-day playgroups.

How am I

I am feeling happy, I love that she is in her own room and I love this personality that is coming out. I am looking forward to her turning 1 and walking and all the fun adventures that we’ll have when summer is here (not long to go!) I am now a full-time stay-at-home-mum after handing my notice in last week, which was a scary step. But I feel so lucky that I have this time to spend with her and not worry about work. Yes I have to be careful with what I spend, but I have been budgeting and selling things on eBay. It’s actually quite satisfying knowing Lily’s old baby clothes are going to be worn by other babies instead of being in a box. It makes me feel happy. And I like being happy 🙂

Sabrina x