Geoff and Gina's Little Addition: 1 YEAR!!!!

Wowee! What a year!!

Stella still has no teeth!!

Her words now include:

Bye-Bye
Boy
Man
Do (Dog - she says this after imitating their barks)
Ba (Bird - when she hears them - particularly Hadidas)
Boo (book)
Boo! (she covers her eyes and then says "Boo!" to scare us)
Da or Dadada for Geoff
Ma or Mamama for myself
Boob - yes, for boobs!
Buboo - Bubbles

Geoff taught Stella to turn around and go down stairs backwards. She is so good at it that I don't worry at all about stairs! (She can even get off our bed safely on her own!)

She is also good at climbing onto chairs & our ottoman. This is always well supervised, but she has really great balance & manages to safely get on and off on her own.

In this last week, Stella has started engaging in a new way - for example, she will fetch her blowing bubbles & bring them to me, say 'Buboo' and look at me expectantly, expecting me to blow some for her.

Stella is on the brink of walking - she can stand for a few seconds on her own & she now walks holding onto us with just one hand for support. She can actually go quite fast like this - particularly when she's headed across the sand towards the sea!

Sleep is erratic -- Stella was moving her afternoon sleep later and later until it was almost at 5pm which meant an 8pm or later bed time, so we've phased into a long midday nap (2+ hours) which is so much nicer as we can do something before 11am and we generally go out and do something in the afternoon: either visit Geoff at the shop.. or go to the beach or for a walk somewhere. We've had really bad nights (waking up every half hour) and really great nights (she set a new record of 9 consecutive hours from 7pm to 4am!!), but one can unfortunately never be sure what the night is going to bring, or what 'formula' to use to make a good night!! -- Beach time - sun and lots of crawling, seems to do the trick, but who knows!

Stella really loves books - she loves turning the pages & staring for ages at the colourful pictures. We've collected quite a few for her - favorites being 'Bob the Fish' and her 'Farm Words' book. She has a lovely collection of books. We take them with us in the car & she entertains herself in her car seat while I drive.

We started giving Stella honey and peanut butter this month.. she won't eat anything for breakfast other than banana and Rice Crispies! (she gets very excited when she sees her Rice Crispies!) For lunch it's usually some peanut butter toast / grated apple / scrambled egg / small blocks of cheese / fruit / (or any combination of them). For dinner I have been cooking lamb sausage / scrambled egg / & she has yoghurt with fresh fruit puree for 'dessert'. I offer fruit and veg at every meal, but she won't eat veg at all... as a result I am constantly scouring the internet for ideas on how to get veggies into her!

There are lots of firsts every week! It is so hard to remember everything.