• Likes: grapes, mango, black beans, mayocoba beans, banana, raisins. Dislikes: everything else.
• Has just started standing all by herself! Today! She looked at me and just stood up without holding onto anything, stayed there for a while, then crouched down again.
• Instead of giving kisses, she’s started ‘blowing’ kisses. She can smack her lips together in a kissing sort of way. Her version of ‘blowing’ a kiss is by putting her finger in her mouth and pulling it out as she does it. Too cute.
• 4 teeth! 2 on top, 2 on the bottom.
• Down to about 3 breastfeeds a day. We’re working on it.
• Can climb up and down the stairs like a boss. Boom.
• Loves her paddling pool like crazy.
• Is in love with ‘tongues’ right now. If I poke mine out at her, she gets into a fit of giggles as she tries to grab it. Quite funny.
• Has started throwing mini ‘tantrums’. It’s hilarious to watch, we’re not quite sure what we’re meant to do about it. But it is so.freaking.cute. This is what her tantrums look like:

And she keeps getting cuter every day. Proof:

2 Comments

Mika,

Last night you were so itchy and you couldn’t sleep so I lay with you next to me and you curled your little body into mine. I stroked your hair and you fell asleep and I thought to myself how lucky we all are.

Becoming a mama has made me realise how many things exist in this world that could harm you. Things that I hardly gave a second thought to before, have suddenly become terrifying. From that angry driver to that kid with the flu, the table with sharp corners or the chunky soup – dangers lurk everywhere and I need to constantly tell my terrified brain to chill out.

In your first year you have been in an airplane 6 times. You have slept in cars, in prams, in arms, in travel cots, in bassinets, in baby carriers, on trains, on planes, on busses, on floors and in beds. We’ve had sleepless nights, restless nights and peaceful nights. And somehow, we’re all still alive.

We’ve called you Pokey, Thumpy, Kicky, Bug, Rascal, but most commonly Baby. You’re our sweet sweet baby girl and not a day has gone by without your papa or I exclaiming to each other how beautiful you are. We’re fascinated with you. You’ve quickly gone from a newborn who needed me to hold her head, to a little baby girl who would much rather hold her own bottle thanks. You went from helplessly kicking your little legs, to racing around our living room on all fours, climbing the stairs and pulling yourself along on our furniture.

Often when we were in transit, flying high over the oceans or speeding along in the dark in an overnight bus, I would hold you in my arms as you slept and I would feel so lucky that I could be here protecting you right now. I know we can’t protect you forever, but I can’t say we won’t be doing our best.

We’re so grateful that we’re your parents. We’re so proud of you and the love we feel for you is terrifying and glorious. We’re not the only ones – So many people love you.

To our little moon child, our sweet winter baby,

Happy first birthday,

Your mama & papa
x

–

Are you ready for the best 8 minutes of your life? If you haven’t had the opportunity to be with this little girl for the entire past year, then here is your chance to see the highlights. OK, it’s probably not gonna be that wonderful for anyone who isn’t family, so to our family around the world – this is for you.

7 Comments

Yeah that’s right, she’s eleven months old now. I’m pretty much sitting on my hands to stop myself from writing cliche statements like ‘what?! how fast was that?’ etc etc (obviously not actually sitting on my hands, otherwise it would be extremely difficult to type this. You know what I mean though) And so I’m just going to avoid talking about all the emotions that come with watching your baby girl grow into a toddler and skip right to the facts.

Here’s 11 facts about this gorgeous 11 month old:

1. She loves to feed herself. Gone are the days of spoon feeding, this girl will shove anything and everything (except avocado) into her mouth. Her favourites of late have been tofu and blueberries.
2. Her favourite games are peekaboo and ’round and round the garden’. She’ll give me her palm to play ’round and round the garden’ and she’ll sit and watch so intensely as I trace her palm. As soon as I start saying ‘one step…two step…’ she starts to squeal with delight as she knows that I’m about to tickle her. Ok, so really it’s my favourite game
3. She has completely mastered the ‘proper’ crawl! I didn’t think she’d ever do it, I kinda thought she’d skip straight to walking – but no! She zips around the house on all fours faster than I would think possible.
4. Not walking yet. But standing on everything and sidestepping around furniture. I really don’t know if she’ll walk before 1 year…she just looks so little! But maybe she’ll prove me wrong.
5. She weighs 8.2 kilos, she’s 73cm tall and she has a 46cm head circumference. (Perfect)
6. Favourite words: ‘DADA, MAMA’ and what we think is an attempt at ‘ADIOS!’ She loves to yell at people to get their attention, but my favourite is when she sleep talks really quietly or when she wakes up, babbles something incoherently and then goes straight back to sleep.
7. She understands ‘beso?’ (kiss) and ‘adios!’ and she gives full mouth kisses and waves goodbye. It’s quite adorable.
8. Loves: being outside, reading books, playing peekaboo, being in the bath and climbing stairs.
9. Still breastfeeds 4-5 times a day and loves it.
10. We call her our fearless adventurer. I’m sure it’s just a phase that all babies go through, but she is just so determined to do everything and get everywhere. She loves it when strangers smile at her and she’ll return the favour with the sweetest grin you’ve ever seen.
11. We’ve had to cut back the amount of water she drinks during the day. She could easily down 12 oz of water in a day and this meant a) she was eating less and b) we’d go through so many diapers. So now we limit it to 4 oz of water.

Nearly 1 year old little girl. Eeesh time flies. We love you more every second.

Click here to vote for us on Top Baby Blogs!

2 Comments

At ten months this little girl is a bundle of energy. From 4am she is pretty much ready to start the day, much to our displeasure. So we all drift in and out of sleep from 4am until 7am when there is no more snoozing this little alarm clock.

She stands on everything. She has her 2 bottom teeth. She has just mastered the ‘proper’ crawl, but when she is tired she will resort back to the army crawl. She eats whatever we are eating. Still no dairy or nuts though – but pretty much everything else. She loves to feed herself – the ultimate distraction – she can easily spend 20 minutes picking little pieces of food off her tray. She is much less fussy these days too.

She talks non-stop. Full babbling conversations with herself and with others. She has also just started turning her head away and then saying ‘boo!’ and as she turns her head back towards us quickly. She thinks she is hilarious. We agree.

Things she finds very funny:

• When Ivan and I throw a ball between us. I have no idea why, but she gets herself into fits of laughter whenever we chuck a ball around (this is often).
• When Ivan and I throw her between us. Well, we pretend to throw her, really we just pass her. But she finds it hilarious. We count to three and then ‘throw’ her. Laugher. Joy. Fun times.

Four words: sweet, determined, energetic and pensive. 

And so freaking cute.

“Hey love! Come quick! Look how cute she is!” (this is all Ivan and I ever say. Seriously.)

3 Comments

We’ve been in Mexico for a month?! How?

—

My darling Mika,

It feels like years have passed since you were so tiny and asleep in the little bassinet on the airplane to Mexico. You’ve grown so much in the month that we’ve been here.

You have your first tooth! It’s visible now, and really really sharp. We can see the start of another tooth trying to get through too.

You are desperate to start walking. We place the kitchen stools in your play area and you can pull yourself up to standing! You like testing your balance with one hand once you get there, but you haven’t quite mastered walking yet. You can kind of move yourself around, but you’re still quite wobbly. It’s OK my little one, you are getting stronger each day!

You’ve started eating eggs! We feed you egg soldiers (well, you feed yourself) and your papa and I love it. You’ve also tried beans and tofu which you love too, but your favourite meal is still broccoli by far. As long as there’s broccoli, you’ll eat anything.

You have your own bedroom, but at about 2am each morning we bring you to our bed until the morning. It’s the most wonderful thing ever to wake up to your little smile and your chatter (oh you talk constantly). Although sometimes after a late night your papa and I wish you had a snooze button just for a couple more hours. When you’re awake, you make sure we know it – you gently tap my face with your hand and kick your papa in the head until we’re wide awake. Papa is keeping a little notebook of all the times you keep him from sleeping and he’s going to make sure you remember it when you’re about 18. I’m just kidding. Sorta.

You bring delight to everyone who is around you. You have a beautiful family here in Mexico who you are getting to know and who love you dearly.  You continue to be the brightest light in our lives, we love you.

Your mama and papa

x

3 Comments