It's getting colder out there..Work has been busy - I have completed a lot of really nice projects in
the last few months, but it all takes a bit of fitting everything in! I have managed to surf a grand total of ONCE!
Geoff took me for a surf at Muizenberg..
Stella waited in the car while I got dressed
Stella is becoming more interactive by the day, and she is showing us just how beautifully her little brain is working. Some of her skills to date (in no particular order) are
waving
clapping
crawling
going up onto her knees against furniture
putting her arms up in the air when we say 'yay!'
hugging
kissing (SO cute: she pulls her lips together sideways as tight as possible then lets go!)
wanting to share whatever she is eating
she says 'mamama' and 'dadada' and 'bababaa' (without attributing them to anything yet, but sometimes getting it right)
can put shapes into her shape sorter (we turn it to the right shape for her to put it in herself -- * see the video below)
when she sees or hears a dog, she goes 'ooffff'
she is good at peek-a-boo (she even hides herself behind the curtain & reveals herself when we say 'where's Stella?!'),
rocks on her rocking horse that Geoff fixed for her...
she started pointing at things
We have started investigating swimming lessons (but not found any yet) as we would like to start taking her so that she stays comfortable with water. (She LOVES her baths - especially the deep ones with Geoff!)
Here is the picture update for the last month:
Long Beach, Kommetjie Sunset
Stella's first taste of lemon@Lucky Fish, Kalk Bay
*be sure to ask Stella's mommy / daddy for the story!
An experiment in BLW (Baby Led Weaning)
Stella on her rocking horse
A beautiful Winter's Sunday
My Loves
Snuggly in the cold weather :)
Stella loves the stoep!
Stella & Mom on the couch
Mom's birthday walk - The Island, Kommetjie
Here is Stella with her shape sorter (only the second time we played with it!)
Stella has been a busy little girl! ..she is learning so much
every day -- she can wave back, clap, shake her head & have
'conversations' (a sound from her - copied by me -- it's actually
more a call and response game than a conversation at this point!).
She has also become more interested in toys and gets excited when she
sees certain ones. Shakers still remain her favorite!
On the 10th of April, Stella got a new Cousin: James!
We've been spending lots of time at Fish Hoek
(Dad and Stella at lunch)
..and Stella discovered Dollies!
(Thank you Gracie for lending us your dollie for the visit)
A cold May day... tea at The Bluewater Cafe, Imhoff Farm
Stella watching the world through the window
We went on our first proper holiday with Stella this past week... we drove to Mossel Bay to visit Nanny and Bumpa where Stella crawled properly for the first time!
We had tea with Gogo:
Stella with Great Granny Gogo
From there we went to Plettenberg Bay area & stayed at a lovely place in the 'Crags'...
We went on a beautiful forest walkway walk
We had lunch with JW and Eloise & met little Luka for the first time.
Stella shared her toys with him...
Stella and I matching the decor
Luka meets Stella
Stella did most of her sleeps in the car
A drive down to misty Nature's Valley
Stella and I along the Nature's Valley road
Fun on the edge of the world
Being on holiday can be so tiring!
Lovely lunch near the Mohair shop
We went to MonkeyLand (which was amazing) and then on to Jeffreys Bay...
We stayed at a really great self-catering
place called the Zen Guesthouse
While we were in the area, we took a trip out to Cape St.Francis
..had lunch & Geoff had a surf
Here Stella is showing off a combination new of skills:
We've had some rough moments with sleep deprivation over the last month (us, not Stella). It is constantly amazing to watch how much more interactive she becomes - every day there are new things!
Physical Development:
She is so much more mobile than she was a few weeks ago... I am well aware that she is not nearly as mobile as she will be when she starts crawling!! We have started talking about baby-proofing as we are pretty sure it is going to become a necessity over the next month!
Food:
Stella definitely doesn't like her green veggies!! (and she's not wild about her orange veggies either!). I have had to disguise her veggies in layers of pear and apple / or mix these fruits into her food. I have started adding red lentils to her food & plan on doing a lot more baby led weaning
Mommy & Daddy Time:
Geoff and I went out for the first time without Stella on the 27th of March -- To a Sting concert!! It was fantastic! ...and Stella was a little angel.. We dropped her off at T'Neal where she stayed awake until 9.30pm (!!) and only cried in the last 5 minutes before we picked her up... we were very quickly back in routine.
Stella with Dad at The Kom
With Granny on the Fish Hoek 'Catwalk'
food-schmood!
Stella - Diva - Ross
Out at Tribeca Cafe for an early dinner
A lovely trip to Soetwater
Breakfast at .Kom
Playing 'bicycle' with Dad
Expressions at The Kom at sunset
Stella accompanied me to High Tea
at the Mount Nelson for Kath (Jackson)'s Kitchen Tea
Another month has passed & there seem to be a gazillion new little things that Stella can do! In the last week she's started mimicking me when I say 'bla bla bla' (she immitates by moving her lips and then does her own vocal versions)... She also seems to do other things over again when she is encouraged (like bouncing up and down while sitting -- see the video)
This last month has been a lot about trying to establish a good eating & sleeping routine.
Feeding:
Most days, Stella has 40 - 60ml of milk & her baby rice for breakfast with a cube of puree pear (to sweeten the porridge & to keep her tummy going)
Lunch & Dinner: A cube and a half of veggie mix & sometimes a bit of pear / apple / prune puree for pudding :)
Sleep:
Stella was going to bed between 7 and 8pm and then waking up at 10pm, 12am, somewhere between 2-3am, and 5am. I felt like a zombie. Geoff and I started YouTube-ing possible solutions & found Dana Obleman's posts. We changed Stella's bed-time routine to not include a feed & we started including a story! So now we go (around 7pm): Feed - Bath - Massage - Story (in bed) - Sleep
Wake up between 1 and 2 for a feed... and then wake up again between 5 and 6am.
...it turns out all we had to do was to break her milk-sleep association and allow her to find her own way of falling asleep! (We never let her cry on her own). It's not perfect ever night, but it is such a relief to have cut out most wake-ups on most nights & feel a bit more human during the day.
The good news is that she seems to have settled into a day-time sleeping routine of around an hour in the morning somewhere between 9 and 11.. and another hour or so in the afternoon around 3pm.
From my side: I have a ton of work to get through so there's a constant battle to catch a gap to do work during Stella's nap time. We have lovely Lindsay who comes on Mondays & Thursdays to help me make sense of the house & to play with Stella while I get some work done....
I'm craving creativity... I have been baking quite a bit (mostly rusks for our morning tea)..and I have covered a few little clips with fabric for her to wear in her hair. I'm still working on Stella's baby crochet blanket... 40 or so to go & I can stitch them together...... at this rate I'll miss the baby-phase & make it big enough so she can put it on her bed!!!!
We've taken to calling her 'Chooksie' > this comes from 'Schnoeken-Poeksie' which became 'Schnoeken-Chooksie' and then got simplified to 'Chooksie'
Here is the last month's photo update:
Our morning ritual with Stella includes tummy & mirror time
At Geoff's shop:
Stella becomes a part of Geoff's 'market' table on the pavement :)
Hot Summer's days call for water bucket time!
There have been a lot of absolutely perfect evenings... I just LOVE the 'between' seasons:
PERFECT evening at Noordhoek Beach
Stella has just discovered that she loves to tug on my hair...
..and we've had more than a few Kommetjie walks:
On Sunday the 26th Feb, Geoff, Stella and I had breakfast at Chartfield with Nanny and Bampa, T'Neal, Dave and Gracie for Bampa's birthday....It was here that Stella enjoyed her first apple wedge! (I've given her puree apple before, but it's the first time she's eaten a wedge).... I gave her a bit of banana about a week later & she loved it, but she got sick about 10mins later so I'll wait another few weeks before trying it again.
Our little Chooksie started sucking her fingers a
couple of weeks back... the same two as her auntie
(Chickabee) but Stella sucks fingers on her left hand.
We bought Stella her first books this past week...
Most are only meant for babies over 1 year,
but she really enjoys playing with the pages!
Here she is with 'Bob the Fish'
