Musical Fun

My monosyllabic daughter

Elspeth's vocabulary is growing at an astounding rate. She shows understanding of a great many words that she can't say yet, and she says quite a few.
However I can't help but notice that she has not quite got the hang of giving each word more than one consonant.
As such, "da" can mean either dad or dummy.
"Ba" is bus, or bath, or ball.
"Ma" is mum or mouse.
And "go" is gone!
She will stand by the door after Aidan goes to work and say "da go ca", and it's perfectly clear that she knows her daddy has gone in the car. I find that quite impressive.
But I can't wait until she finishes words properly!

Thud!

Elspeth can now climb out of her cot if the side is left lowered. Landing, however, is something she needs to work on.

Note to self: Always put the side up.

All Hail the Holey Baby

Elspeth had her 12 month vaccinations today - yes, even though she's 13 months old. I left it a little late, but finally got around to it. She got three jabs - one in each arm, and one in a leg - and she yelled! But she recovered fairly well, considering she's got a cold as well. I got the doctor to check out her hips too, just to make sure they were developing fine, and there's no problem there. So apart from the snotty sniffles, we've got a nice healthy baby now!

No More Afternoon Nap

At 13 months of age, Elspeth has dropped her afternoon nap. It got harder and harder to get her to sleep, and it wasn't for long, so now I simply don't put her down. That means she spends from about 11.30am until 8pm awake. She seems to handle it well, with only limited irritability towards the end of the day. Me, though... I didn't know how much I valued that short afternoon break until it was gone! Yesterday I lost patience and punched a wall, oops. Hand and wall both ok. I will do my best to improve my patience - perhaps some wine might help?

Over on Kidspot I've joined the CRAP mothers group - Creative Relaxed Approach to Parenting. We CRAP mothers don't watch our children like hawks, we let them eat a little dirt now and then, and we punch walls in front of them.

Broom broom!

I had hoped to delay this moment for about 16 years or so. But Elspeth has discovered the joys of cars already! She saw this little beauty sitting up on a shelf, pointed at it, and said "Car!" So what could I do but get it down for her to play with? We'll call it a kind of birthday present; she turns 13 months old today!

We bought her one of those backpack/leash things yesterday. I didn't really want to, but she's learnt to walk much sooner than I anticipated. I originally thought that by the time she was walking she would also be communicating and able to understand to stay close to me. But this is not the case! Her independence is growing faster than her common sense, so next time I'm down at the Plaza she will be harnessed to me with a cute doggy backpack!

Elspeth's Sudo Adventure

It was a cranky day for the baby today. So while I was practicing piano this afternoon, I was very glad that Elspeth had clearly found something to play with which kept her quiet and happy. She was sitting right at my feet, but immersed as I was in Meat Loaf's Heaven Can Wait, I did not glance down for a while. When I did finally look down, I saw what it was that had kept her busy: she had found a tub of Sudocrem, a thick white ointment used for the treatment and prevention of nappy rash. She had been happily engaged in spreading said cream all over her face, hands, clothing, and the floor! I was going to photograph it, but felt that cleaning up was a bit more important! Instead I took a photo of the tub after she'd finished with it. Needless to say she required much cleaning and a complete change of clothes, about which she was not happy. However she did look lovely for my parents when they arrived very shortly afterwards!

Back Again!

Babies are adorable. They are cute, gorgeous, clever, sweet, and all sorts of other nice adjectives.

They can also be a pain in the bloody neck.

They can be clingy, cranky, sore, tired, hungry, poopy, and any combination of the aforementioned.

Elspeth is currently both clingy and cranky. She also seems to be going through a phase of not wanting to lie on her back. Try to change a poopy nappy when the baby won't stay still and keeps screaming at you! It also causes inconvenience while attempting to dry her after a bath, and put clothes on her. I've always tried to make these chores as fun as possible for both of us, but this seems to be failing right now. I shall persevere - what choice do I have?! - but I begin to get frustrated...

Well BASSically...

Those of you who know me probably know that my husband Aidan plays bass guitar.

Elspeth has a new game.

I was trying to get a photo of her doing it, but every time she sees the camera she comes towards it.

She sits in front of his amp while he plays and pulls the plug out, switches it off, or twists the volume knob!

She'll send herself deaf one of these days!

Studying with a Baby?!

I must be mad! Open Universities Australia is awesome, a very convenient way to study. I successfully completed two units while Elspeth was much smaller and didn't seem to need as much! But now... what on earth possessed me to sign up for another unit now that she's a toddler? When I have time, I'm too tired to concentrate. When I'm not too tired, it's because she's still in the process of exhausting me! I must be mad.