There's ups and there's downs.

I admit now, I should not be writing this post, I'm tired, annoyed and little miss is due to wake up any minute - not a great combination. We had a really rough night last night, that even our neighbours commented on it this morning. And not the ones with the adjoining wall, no, no, the ones in the unit block NEXT door! How embarrassing! It doesn't help that Jarratt has man flu either and that I feel like I'm holding down the fort whilst not feeling 100% myself. So you see... not the best mix of emotions and enthusiasm for sitting down and writing this months update. But hey, sometimes this parenting gig is like that... a rollercoaster of emotions and levels of enthusiasm. And unfortunately at this moment I'm in a dip... a low point in the track. But hold on ladies and gents, I see the track climbing ahead of me....... ;-)


And it did...the track climbed! Last night, after leaving the hall light on as we assume the last few nights Chloe has been screaming due to night mares, she slept through! Well... sort of, she yelped twice but resettled quickly and without our help. Score! So now that I'm well (sort of) rested I thought I'd attack this update.... here goes:

STATS

Height - 78 or 79cm, lets say 78.5cm, ha! I'm not entirely sure as I just stuck the tape measure in the bath to check and it wasn't awfully accurate.
Weight - 10.5kgs
Clothing size - 1
Shoe size - 4

 EATING AND DRINKING

Lately little miss has decided she no longer needs a bib - it was bound to happen sooner or later since she is so observant and wants to do everything we do. And well, we don't wear bibs, so why should she? We've just gone with it, unless the food she is eating is going to be super messy and she's in a good outfit or we're out. But generally its something we'd planned to phase out anyways, so we're just going to follow her lead.

Her diet continues to be in line with what we eat... we still cant manage to get her to eat any larger/tougher pieces of meat. She generally smashes mince (included the spiced Mexican kind), fish and chicken - even skewers aren't out of the question. We assume its due to the fact that she still doesn't have any molars.... but I suspect (with all the drowl lately) they are not far away.

She is pretty capable at drinking from a cup now, using one with handles makes me feel less nervous, one with straws even less again. But she does love drinking from a cup without handles and the proud smile we get at the end is just priceless! She has also taken a shine to 'cheers-ing' everyone when she drinks. Its really very sweet!

 

COMMUNICATION

As far as her repertoire of words go, and keeping in mind my reluctance to overcommit due to my teacher brain, we can now confidently add bubba, up, down, shoes, yum, go, oh o (thanks Ellie, xx) and the fact that she roars when she sees a lion, as well as saying 'shhh' and putting her finger to her lip. We're pretty sure she can say 'sit', but unfortunately it comes out sounding a lot like a swear word than anything else. And she says it....ALOT!

More impressively she is starting to put her words together.... "More bubble" "S(h)it down" "Oh, o" "Yay ball" and so on. Our little chatter box is sure going to love a good chat. Prepare yourselves.

GETTING AROUND / GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

I decided to make this update section more generic as she is now well and truly walking and there's not much more I can update you on there. So this will now be more of an all encompassing section on all things go. hehehe

"Doing laps" and playing chase-ies continues to be her favourite past times in regards to gross motor skills. Although walking... everywhere, is a close second. Taking the pram is no longer a necessity, in most cases its a hindrance as little miss wants to push it and alas she is too short (and slow) to do so and often ends in tears. Thankfully, the little stroller (Thanks again Auntie Laura) is able to function in most terrains and now escorts us occasionally on walks.

She also is MAD about balls and more recently has become quite capable at throwing balls and chasing them. Catching however will not be a skill mastered for a very long time I think. She also likes to kick balls as well.

In the pool she's started doing what looks like the beginnings of doggy paddle... shes kicking her legs in a breaststroke manner and doing butterfly arms. I asked her teacher about it today and she said that's generally the first 'style' of swimming babies do. Its really quite cute watching her face light up as she thrashes about and moves through the water. I'm always amazed at just how far she has come with swimming. Not too long ago she couldn't get herself out of the water, now, with her belly on the ground, she can manipulate her legs and before long is standing up at the waters edge, arms raised and cheering herself. Such a dork! hehehe

As you all know Chloe likes to dance....including cage dancing (ha!) as you can see below. But all jokes aside, of course she would LOVE to dance - she is after all, our child. So I began looking at avenues for her to explore and entertain her interest. I stumbled across Little Ballerinas. They take girls from 18months. Since Chloe was is SO close to being 18 months, I did an online enrolment form and crossed my fingers and toes. Within a week or so I was contacted and said they had a spot and she starts next Wednesday morning at Oatley with her Vodafone superstar mate Ayla. Both Renee (ayla's mum) and I can NOT wait to watch our gorgeous girls bust a move on the dance floor. Should be GREAT fun! Stay tuned.

SLEEPING

 

As you probably guessed from the opening paragraph... we haven't had the best run of night sleeps the last week or so. For some reason, unbeknown to us Chloe has been screaming in her sleep. Yes, in her sleep... when we go in she is still dead to the world, but she is squealing so loud as if someone is hurting her. We've tried everything! Changing her bedding, given her a pillow, fan, no fan, back in the bag and nothing seems to have worked.... last night (after Renee suggested it) we left the hall light on as a night light... she still squealed, but it was for about 2 seconds and went straight back to sleep without needing resettling by us. Hopefully, we've turned the corner. But who knows?! I've read about night terrors, and it seems to fit with what she's doing. We'll see.

Sleeping in the pram is no longer an issue (as long as the pram is stationary). We've been able to swing MASSIVE sleeps in the pram of 2 plus hours.... amazing! Maybe we should put her in the pram at night - hahaha. We've also been a lot more flexible in the bedtime thing... whilst we were in Sunshine Coast recently she was going to bed as late as 930pm. And she was ok! But I stand by my decision to be vigilant on bedtime in the first year. There is so much growing going on, babies need their sleep! But now, with her being older and less precious when it comes to sleep, I'm happy to let the reigns go a little.

The other HILARIOUS sleep thing that's happened recently also occurred in the Sunshine Coast. Since it was SO hot there and Chloe no longer uses a bag, we were putting her down for her day sleeps in just a nappy. So after returning from the beach one morning, we put her to bed in just a nappy, after 20 minutes or so Jarratt asked me to get his shorts from the room in which Chloe was asleep, I crept in, saw her sleeping beautifully and crept out. After about 20 minutes I heard her.... laughing. I was a little perplexed, I went to the room and there she was in the portacot.... BUCK NAKED, laughing her little head off... so proud of what she'd done. I muffled my laugh, told her that was naughty (yes, I'm a parent that says naughty... crucify me now!), put a new nappy AND a playsuit on (wasn't falling for that again) said "nigh nigh" and walked out.... I shut the down knowing full well that that may in fact be all the sleep I get out of her..... but no, no, like the good girl she was she went back to sleep for another 2 hours.... phew!

LOVES and HATES

GIVING KISSES!!!! Chloe FINALLY loves giving kisses..... most of the time to almost everyone.... hey! Its not perfect, but I'll take it! She also loves HER chair, having tea, cuddling soft toys like 'woof woof', talking on the phone, driving and playing Uncle Nath's harmonica. Also since the weather has been nice we've taken any and all opportunities to head to the beach. She just LOVES that!

In regards to hates.... it really is brushing her teeth unfortunately as well as not being able to do it herself. She really has developed an independent streak of "I can do it", which was quite upsetting at the most recent one of reading herself her own bedtime story *sigh*

 

 

 

OTHER STUFF

Godfather Daniel's Visit
Uncle Daniel came to visit the first week of January, he's just smitten with Chloe and she knows it! It was GREAT to see Dan and to watch him spend time with her. Its not often you see such a beautiful man so unashamedly in tune with his emotions, caring for a child. I swear it made my ovaries swell. hahaha.

Daddy's Birthday
Jarratt turned 33 this year. Wow! I hear you all say, I didn't realise he was THAT old. *wink* We celebrated with a morning play at Darook Park and a flash afternoon tea at Sorelle on Grand in Brighton Le Sands, that we also reviewed for Little Eats. That night we finished the day with a dinner at Mamma Barones in Mortdale. Jarratt, never a fan of celebrating his birthday had a great day - quietly celebrating with our little family. Just the way he likes it.

Christmas in Maitland
With mum so busy through Christmas we postponed the Sciffer-Berrigan-Wyatt (?!) celebration til mid January (post ashes, pre Australian Open). It was a great 5 days spent drinking (far too much), eating and spending time together. We celebrated our Christmas lunch at Ridgeview and boy! was it a fun day! Such delicious food complete with matching wines and conversation that had us in stitches that some of us fell, or we're dragged, over laughing! We also finally managed to check out Maitland Regional Art Gallery and Café, which was lovely and even reviewed by yours truly for Little Eats.

Trip Sunshine Coast
The weekend just gone we flew to the Sunshine Coast to visit Caryn, Adrian and the boys. Even though we had JUST seen them for Christmas, it was nice to spend time with them that wasn't rushed and timetabled. We spent most of the first day (Friday) at home, lapping up cuddles with Lucas, before getting Thomas early from daycare and heading out for dinner. Saturday saw us rise early (thanks to the time difference Chloe got up at 5am - YUCK!) and head to the beach, by 1030 the kids and adults were knackered so we ducked home for the midday sleeps and then toddled out that afternoon/evening for fish and chips by the beach. Sunday morning I did a quick family photo shoot for them before legging it to the airport for an early flight home!

 

 

All and all this month has been CHOCKERS! I thought once the silly season had passed, our lives would be less, well, silly. But looking through the calendar over the next 8 weeks and its going to be a jam packed time before we head off to Japan. Eeeeck! So excited!The accommodation (except Tokyo) is all booked including a stay in a Buddhist temple (Takayama) and geisha tea house (Kanzawa). We've also organised passports which should arrive in the next 2 weeks. Just need to read a little more on what to do, get our rail passes and start booking things as they open up like the free imperial palace tour. Cant wait!!!!!

Til next time, all our love, Team Wyatt xxx