Amelia’s Adventures

How old is Amelia?

Posted by: Tracy on: 20 January 2009

Lilypie 1st Birthday PicLilypie 1st Birthday Ticker

Ooh, it’s been a month of firsts and seconds and wot not.

I think that Amelia is teething. I mean, finally something might break through t he skin and reveal a pearly. Poor think isn’t very lekker and when she cries in her cot she holds her hands up by her jaw. She’s niggley and whines more than usual too. I’ve felt around inside her mouth – if and when she lets me. She clenches her little lips so shut, I need a crowbar to get in there. I might have felt a swollen bump; but then she started knowing on my finger. Poor little smurf.

She melted my heart last night though. Henk took her from me to go change her nappy, and as they walked away she waved at me :’) No coaxing, no saying ‘ta-ta’, she waved out of her own.  Clever little sprite.

Alas, we’re still struggling with her mobility. Little rug rat slides backwards on her tummy or hops around on her bum to where she wants to be. And she really enjoys standing, although hasn’t managed to pull herself up into a standing position by herself… yet.

Meals are becoming increasingly messy, as she wants to feed herself. Cereal I still spoon feed, but when it comes to her cooked meals I let her have some fun. Amazing how entranced two adults can be just staring at a baby eating. She’s so dexterous with the little fingers and that all-important opposable thumb. She’s been eating broccoli, filet steak and chicken by hand so far. The dogs don’t mind the mess at all – they’re the clean up crew ;-)

I’m still sorting put my new pc at home. Soon as that’s done, I’ll update with some new pictures of our little Amelia.

On Music, eating and not-quite-crawling

Posted by: Tracy on: 20 May 2009

Oh my word, this little girl is getting cuter by the day. She’s almost 9 months old! Can you believe how fast it’s gone?

She’s still a gummy bear. I reckon she’ll probably get a lot of her teeth one-shot.

She also still hasn’t figured out how to crawl yet. She slides around on her tummy, or rolls over and over until she ends up where the excitement is. Of course, all madam wants to do is stand. When I put her down to sit and play, she locks her little chubby knees and refuses to sit. Even if I lean her backwards, her legs stay locked. Eventually gravity wins and she sits. To encourage the crawling, I place a toy ju-u-ust beyond her reach. She’ll stretch and stretch and rock on her bum until she can get to it. But after trying for a bit she looses interest and finds something else to entertain her.

I got her a xylophone this weekend, sommer at crazy store. But they cheated and it’s got 2 on the same notes – I think it’s E (mi) – so it has a whole octave plus 1, lol. Not quite master of the little stick (baton?) yet. She grabs it close to the ball and slams it on the notes, then smiles at anybody within sight to appreciate this music madness. Now any toy within reach gets used to play the xylophone: from her bottle lids, squeaky duck to a rattle.

Amelia also loves nature, plants in particular. Every morning and evening when we go through a gate at our house, she stretches out to pick a bougainvillea flower. Clever thing even avoids the thorns… or maybe she’s just been lucky. At the front door she’ll play with the palm leaves and she’s even eaten lavender.

Little miss has started eating protein. I never thought her dirty nappies could smell worse, but they do. It’s disgusting, lol. She’s not enjoying it (chicken) as much as I thought she would though. She eats it, but doesn’t love it like her fruits. Found this great website with loads of recipes for baby food. It’s so straightforward and easy. The site also encourages you to use herbs and some spices that you would normally use in your own cooking – just easy with the salt (rather omit it). Like if you cook with chillies and make a lot of curry (Thinking of Martine here), then baby can have some too. Which makes sense, ‘cause Amelia is a breast baby, so she got a lot of the flavours in the milk anyway – all that garlic, curry and some more garlic. Also learnt my lesson not to freeze potatoes. *sigh * I made the nicest potato and herb carrots, but thawed it’s a disaster. The doggies didn’t mind though. I’ll have to prepare some more veggies for her this weekend as the freezer stock is almost finished.

End of the month we’re getting Amelia a bigger car seat, one of those stay-in-the-car ones. She’s gotten so big! Will weigh her again when her 9-month immunisation is due.

Sitting, discovering mom’s old toys, and splashes

Posted by: Tracy on: 25 April 2009