Only one day til big-girl-hood!

yikes... tomorrow is Alexis' first birthday! how scary! Our tiny little blob is becoming a young lady.. she's walking, talking (well trying to, she says "dad-dad" for dad, and "mum-mum" for food.. *sigh* i kid you not), has just learnt to point with her index finger rather than a whole fist, and is generally attempting to assert her authority whenever possible!

We had a belated xmas today, now that kadyn is down with us, which was really nice, the kids got lots of great stuff, including a wooden train track with a couple of bridges & a bunch of great Thomas trains! It has already been reconfigured several times, and some of us have been caught thinking "ooh if i just had another couple of curves, and maybe another switching point..." note the "i".. and alexis got some new books, which she adores! she tries to read them to us, and points out pictures.. kadyn got a huge friction-powered car transporter with 8 f-p sports cars on it! (sorry, i just have to quote the packaging- "Simulating the true styles and making carefully. Handsome Appearance. Vivid and great in style. To have both the quality of tenacity. To be highly praised and appreciable by consuming public." hee hee.. thesaurus anyone?) Plus alexis has already stolen kadyns new magnetic white board & magnetic letters, and has been having fun with her Hug-A-Planet..

Just before xmas we took the kids to Butterfly Creek.
Alexis got attacked by a butterfly.
She didn't notice..

snapped!

I finish doing the dishes, and head into the lounge to find this-

"yeah, ok" you say.. "the baby is eating the xmas tree decorations..?" the thing is, its just us two at home, and i didn't put her on the couch.. she has managed to climb up onto the couch herself, to get at the tree!

First proper shoes!

Since she's walking now, we figured it was time to buy her first proper shoes! They have a really soft sole, so as not to interfere with her balance & foot growth, and are just so cute!!!

Almost a big girl!

Well this month has been another one of big changes!

Alexis has become even more personable, she chats to us constantly now, tellling jokes (so it would seem) and singing us songs (??) She waves hello & goodbye, even if we just put our shoes on, or go near the door.. She's also developing definite likes & dislikes (think tiny dictator..) we get squeaked at if we aren't paying attention at an important moment, and shouted at if we do something that is not approved!

She helped me put the christmas tree up last week, she loved unpacking all the decorations! She would carefully inspect each one (sometimes involving banging them together.. *sigh*) before passing it to me to hang up.. We've had to fence the tree off, of course, because the few ornaments that she can still reach get proudly handed to us on quite a regular basis.. she does seem to be losing interest in it slowly though.. The presents underneath haven't caught her attention yet, but i'm sure that will come next year! Its quite funny to think that the last time the tree was up was when she was just 1.5 days old & i took her photo underneath it before packing it up!

The biggest change this month is that she has started walking! She started off doing little bursts between paul & I, and for a long time would only walk if we sat with our arms out to her, ready to catch her! But a few days ago, she started walking around completely of her own volition! She's really quite stable, she can stop & pick something up, then keep going, and only over-balances occasionally... however at this stage she still prefers to crawl when she does fall over, or if she is sitting down, but if she is standing up she will walk around...

A slightly worrying development is she is showing a real penchent for climbing! We have a chair on its side to keep her out of the kitchen & she is always trying to get over it, she almost climbed out of the bath last night, and earlier today i discovered her trying to climb onto the computer box, so that she could reach the keyboard! This really bodes well for her toddlerhood! eeek....

10 Months Old!

Wow once again I'm amazed at how this year has flown! Our little babe is 10 months old, far too close to 1 year for my liking! She's really come along in leaps & bounds recently, acting more & more like a little kid rather than a baby :-D

She's almost walking now, she loves charging round the room with a little trolley-walker-thingy, and can take a few steps unsupported before (purposely *sigh*) diving into our arms.. She loves reading books, she'll lift one out & turn through the pages & 'read' it out to us... She has also really developed her 'dancing', she now bobs up & down, claps & twists from side to side, its very cute! She likes to talk to us a lot, often telling jokes it would seem (well she thinks they are funny anyway), and so far in context uses "dada" and "Ba" (banana! lol) she's started making "mumum" sounds, so I am hopeful!

On the play front, she likes to strum the guitar, and drum on some little tins we gave her.. She's just started posting pegs into those tins too, and trying to put blocks on top of each other.. She's also just learnt to throw a ball (sort of...) by purposely letting it roll out of her hand & bounce on the floor.. She loves going swimming, and yesterday had her first ride down a big waterslide! (i don't think she was all that impressed!)

On a different note.. we've just recently found out that she is allergic to dairy, egg, peanuts & fish (i have no idea where the peanuts & fish came from as i eat neither!), luckily she hasn't actually eaten any of these yet, because when we found out she had ezcema we made sure we didn't give her any common allergenic foods, because of the link... But that effectively makes her vegan! And since I am still feeding her, and allergens are passed from the mum (in much reduced quantities) makes me a vegan too! So we are doing a major over haul of our diet & trialling new recipes, it hasn't been too bad so far, found some really good meals, some not so good, but nothing horrendous yet! Oh yeah, and she's also learnt to feed herself with a spoon.. Its very cute & not messy at all!