Erin at 9 Months Old

I had good intentions of blogging baby updates for Erin but the I only managed one at 5 weeks old - how slack is that! She's 9 months now so things have moved on alot since those early newborn days!

I'm never sure of the best way to do these baby updates but I've taken inspiration from The Mummy Stylist and used some of her headers to make for easier reading!

So here we go...

How is Erin....

Weight/Size - I haven't had her weighed at the clinic in a few weeks but I popped her on our scales the other day and she was just over 20lb. She certainly feels a lot heavier when I'm lugging her around in the carseat!

Clothes wise she's still in her 6-9 month outfits but she has so many lovely things in 9-12 months so I'm looking forward to putting her in those. Lots of cat and bunny prints!

Food: 
Oh my god, she certainly loves her food!! Her bottles have decreased rapidly over the last week and she now only has one at around 3pm and one at bedtime. She's on 3 meals a day, plus snacks and has taken to baby led weaning like a duck to water. She loves having a weetabix for brekkie, plus some fruit. Lunchtime is normally a dairylea sandwich or crumpet with some veggie sticks/cheese/breadsticks/fruit. For dinner she generally has the same as us but sometimes I make pizza pinwheels - I found the recipe on Pinterest and she loves them. I like the fact you can put anything in there! I usually put peppers, ham, mushroom and cheese. (The only problem is my husband loves them too so there's never any leftovers!)

Sleep
She's a great little sleeper and has been sleeping through since around 8 weeks. I cut out the night time bottles pretty quickly so if she does wake up, I can normally just sooth her back to sleep. Although I'm not opposed to having her in our bed if she's unsettled - I love the cuddles! Up until recently she was in a crib next to our bed but she got way too big for it and was bashing her head everytime she rolled over. So last week we finally finished clearing the spare room and we dug Elliot's cot out of the garage for her to have. She looks so small in it! Wake up time is usually around 630-7 but it depends if Elliot's up early - he's got an annoying habit of waking her up. Sometimes he doesn't mean to, but him yelling "I need a wee! I'm going for a wee!" and turning all the lights on generally wakes everyone up ;) I just bring her into our bed and have a cuddle before we get up for brekkie around 715am.

Naptimes are a bit hit or miss - it really depends where we are and what we're doing. She usually has a short one around 930am (especially if shes awake early), then another around lunchtime (maybe 45-60mins) and then sometimes another one just before tea around 430pm. She loves falling asleep in the car but I have been known to get the buggy out of the garage to rock her to sleep if she's fighting the nap!

Development
She's almost crawling - she gets up on her knees and does a funny rocking motion! She also does a kind of commando crawl backwards. She certainly gets around though despite not crawling properly, she's super fast at spinning and rolling! Just yesterday she has started to pull herself onto her knees and has finally figured out how to get down on her belly from a sitting position.

She babbles alot and sometimes it sounds alot like dadadada or mumumumumum but it's hard to tell if this is literally just baby babble or her trying to say words! She's very vocal - especially when she's in the trolley in the supermarket, that's her favourite time to shout!!

She has 4 teeth (top and bottom front ones) but I think she has another on the way because there's alot of dribble. She won't let us see though, and I dare anyone to put their fingers near those chompers!

Her hair is growing and seems to be getting darker. Sometimes it sticks up in a little quiff and a few people have called her TinTin!

What We Have Done
I have to admit, I've not been quite as enthusiastic about getting out to baby classes this time around. Sorry Erin, second child syndrome and all that! We do swimming lessons each week though and she really enjoys that. I have also booked us onto a baby music class for the next few weeks. We went to a trial one last month and she loved it!

Aside from the structured baby activity classes, we see our friends regularly. We're off to the farm tomorrow and we have a few playdates lined up with just the younger siblings which will be nice.

How Am I?
Busy....always busy! I'd forgotten how much time a baby can take up and I do struggle to fit everything in sometimes. Blogging has taken a backseat, and I'm a bit behind on my actual work - working at the laptop with a baby is harder than I thought!
Happy in general though, I love being a Mum and we are lucky to have a brilliant close knit group of friends that we see alot :)

What about Elliot? 
 I absolutely adore seeing the bond grow between Elliot and Erin! She loves her big brother and it's so sweet when he makes her laugh. He has never shown any jealousy towards her and just loves being in her company. He can't wait for her to wake up in the mornings!

What Erin Likes at 9 months:

Food - especially those Heinz baby biscuits, she can't get enough of those...
Swimming lessons with Turtle Tots
Her big brother making her laugh
Attention from anyone and everyone - she grins and stares at everybody we see until they notice her!
Teletubbies
Clapping her hands and squealing
Elliot's plastic toolbox - especially the spirit level
Taking things out of a bowl/box...and putting them back in again
Bathtime
Being tickled

What Erin Dislikes at 9 Months:

Having her face wiped
Getting changed, especially when I try and put her arms into things!
Not getting any attention!
Being strapped into her carseat
Running out of food
Waiting for food to cool down
Waiting for bottles to be made

Stay tuned for another update....probably when she's about 15 at the rate I'm going!

Linking up with...

Mini Milestones - 23 1/2 months

This time two years ago I was sat at home waiting patiently for my due date and wondering whether Elliot would be on time or whether he would inherit his Dad's time keeping skills. Needless to say he kept me waiting and at two weeks late he finally made his appearance!

I really cannot believe how fast those two years have gone, it literally doesn't seem 5 minutes since I was sat watching christmas food programmes on the Food channel with a newborn baby!

My first mini milestone was Elliot at 20 months and reading it back I can see just how much he has learnt in that short space of time. Their little brains are amazing!

Speech
This is the one that has most improved since my last post. Elliot now has lots and lots of words in his vocabulary and his sentences sometimes amaze me! His most impressive is "Can you open it for me please Mummy?" - wow, all those words!! His funniest one is "Grandad Pat take teeth out didn't he!" - this was after my Grandad demonstrated what his false teeth can do!
What has impressed me is Elliot has started to know the difference in past/present tense. The other day we were watching CBeebies and Elliot's favourite Andy Day came on. Elliot said "We met Andy!" which I thought was quite clever.
Elliot has also recently started singing alot more. He loves to watch nursery rhymes on youtube and can belt out a really good version of Baa Baa Black sheep!!

Numbers
The counting skills have come on leaps and bounds since the 20 month milestone post and with a bit of prompting Elliot is able to count to 20. He can also count backwards from 5-1 which is quite handy when he's playing with his Rocket!

Physical Development
Elliot seems to be getting taller and taller each month and I am often surprised at what he can actually reach. Nothing is safe on the dining room table anymore!
He is also still climbing everything like a little monkey and just this morning I walked into the lounge to find his stood on the table doing a crazy dance to the CBeebies Autumn song!! I found it very hard to keep a straight face ;)
The buggy is getting used alot less these days and Elliot is more than happy to walk....or run. He's getting a lot better at not running off but when he does run......OMG is he fast!!!

Social Skills
Elliot really likes spending time with his little friends and it's cute to see them interacting more now. He loves nothing more than chasing and being chased!!
Elliot is not clingy in the slightest and when I drop him at my parents on a Friday, he just gets stuck in with his toys and I don't get a second glance!

Favourite things
Plastic dinosaurs - I quite often see Elliot with two of his dinosaurs going "roar roar roar" at each other!
Books - He just can't get enough of them. A week doesn't go by when I don't buy a new book for his collection we are running out of room slightly...think a new bookcase is needed! Current faves include Stickman, Monkey Puzzle, Aliens loves Underpants and of course, the Gruffalo!
DVDs - I originally bought a few DVDs to take away on holiday with us to stop Elliot getting bored in our apartment but he absolutely loves them! He's got a little collection and he enjoys looking at the cover and telling me which one he'd like to watch. He hasn't got the attention span for films yet (he'll watch a bit, so some playing and then come back to it) but the ones with lots of episodes of his favourite shows are perfect. I also purchased the Gruffalo, Gruffalo's Child and Room on the Broom recently and I've lost count of how many times we've watched these!
Days out with Nanny and Grandad - my parents look after Elliot on a Friday when I go to work and his favourite place to visit with them is Corfe Castle . Apparently he likes running up and down all the hills and playing football with Grandad!

Sticker books - never gets bored of these!
Sausages - ask him what he wants for tea and this is a standard response!

Waterslides - Elliot spent the whole of our holiday whizzing down the waterslides and thoroughly enjoying himself!

iPad - Elliot would go on here all day every day if I let him!! His absolute favourite thing to watch on the iPad is people unwrapping kinder eggs on youtube.....yes this really is a thing!! 

Mini Milestones - big boy bed!

Last night was the end of an era in our house - Elliot spent his first night in a bed!

I've been wondering for a little while now whether it was time for Elliot to move into a big boys bed. He's a great little sleeper and goes to bed without fuss, and usually sleeps straight through the night. His cot was quite low and he never managed to climb out, but he'd often try and climb in if he was tired! Some people said I was crazy for wanting to move him into a bed when he was sleeping so well already but he is almost 2 and there's no time like the present!

A few weeks ago I started looking into toddler beds and someone suggested just buying a single bed and using bumpers so he wouldn't fall out - great tip, I didn't even consider this! Being that you would need to buy a single bed at some point eventually then it doesn't make any sense to spend a fortune on a toddler bed that will only get used for a short period of time. I actually forgot that our cot converts into a cotbed - the spare parts were stored at my parents so we completely forgot that this was an option!

My husband converted the cot last night and when Elliot saw his "new" bed he was SO excited! He kept running into his room and giggling to himself! He also loved the fact he could get on and off himself, perfect height for a toddler. When bedtime rolled around last night I was slightly worried that everything might go pear shaped but Elliot was so tired from a busy weekend that he actually got into bed earlier than normal. He put his head straight down on the pillow, gave his Ducky a cuddle and that was it!! We checked on him when we went to bed and he was fast asleep. The next thing I know it's 7am and he's awake! We actually put a stair gate on his bedroom door to stop any night time visits and I don't think he was too impressed with this but overall, he did really well! Same again tonight please Elliot :)

Mini Milestones - Elliot at 20 months

I've read a few blogs which feature mini milestones of their toddlers and I love seeing how Elliot is progressing compared to other children his age. I can't promise a mini milestone post every month but I will definitely be aiming to do regular updates! I think it will be really nice to look back on see how he is growing because at the moment, life seems to be passing by in a blur and before I know it, he'll be a teenager!!

Speech
Elliot's speech is improving all the time and I now understand lots of what he is saying even if it does sound abit gobbleygook! He has lots of words that he now knows such as bath bath, cheeeese, ta, car, poo poo , tractor, Peppa, keys, drink, tea, yes, no (he's very assertive when he says no!), mine, youtube (guess what he likes doing on the iPad!!), splash and bat! He can also say nanna and grandad really well - two words he gets very excited about!
In the past week he has started to put words together which is very exciting. This morning he said "mummy bath bath!" when I was on my way into the bathroom for a shower!
Also this week Elliot has started saying "mummy" and "daddy" rather than mumma and dadda. It's very cute but makes him sound more grown up!
Obviously there are lots he can't say yet but gives it a good go - he can't say Laura (my sister) and calls her Agalag!!
Elliot loves making animal noises and knows which noise belongs to what animal. I'm proud that he's been able to do this since before he was one. My favourite animal noise he does is the pig!! We found a really good video on youtube that he really loves oinking and roaring along to:
The Animal Noise Song

Numbers
We've been trying to introduce counting and Elliot is getting really good at holding up one or two fingers when we ask "how many..." questions. He's got lots of books that have counting themes so I try and make sure we read these regularly.

Physical Development
Elliot has been walking since 11 months and once he'd passed the chimp phase (arms in the air, waddling along!) there was nothing stopping him! He doesn't mind being in the buggy but he'd much rather be walking...or running!! I stupidly didn't put him in a trolley in the supermarket the other day and he ran from one end to the other - I didn't know his little legs could go that fast!! I had to run after him...my little legs certainly don't go that fast!! It's amazing how far they can walk too - on a daytrip a few weeks ago we took the buggy but he was barely in it and must have walked about 5 miles by the end of the day. He slept well that night ;)
He likes to climb and we've recently discovered he can climb onto our dining table chairs. No more leaving things on the table - everything is in his grasp now! Speaking of which, he can now also reach the keys in the doors and I'm sure it won't be long before he realises how to unlock them!!

Social Skills
We started going to our local Under One's baby group when Elliot was around 10 weeks and it really helped with his social skills. He's a very friendly little boy and not clingy in the slightest. He's happy to go off and play and he only comes to find me when he's hungry or thirsty!
Elliot really likes to cuddle his little friends now and it's lovely to see but he hasn't quite mastered knowing when to stop!
We met some lovely friends through our various baby groups we have attended and it means there's always someone around for a playdate :)

Food
We are really lucky that Elliot isn't a fussy eater and will pretty much scoff whatever is put in front of him. I have noticed that the warmer weather has affected his appetite a bit - lunch times can be a bit hit or miss but he'll always have a nice big meal at teatime so I know he's not going to go hungry! His favourites are sausages (of any variety!), any fruit & veg, wafer thin ham, cheese (he helps himself straight from the fridge!), pasta and his current snack of choice - ice pops! He also loves cake but I do try not to encourage his sweet tooth!

Favourite Things
Trains - especially those "borrowed" from Grandad's shed! My dad has a little model railway in his shed and Elliot always makes a beeline for this when we visit. They spend ages in there!
Ducky - Ducky was purchased by my husband on the day Elliot was born, he was meant to be at home having a sleep while we rested at the hospital but instead he found himself in Toys R Us itching to buy him his first pressie! Ducky has seen better days - he's been in the washing machine a few times, plus cuddled to death every night. Not to mention dropped in the litter tray!
Stickers - before we had Elliot, my brother in law hated it when we gave his children stickers and I never understood why.....now I do!!! Elliot loves stickers but they get everywhere, I went out with a sticky Iggle Piggle stuck to my bum last week! Still, it keeps him quiet!
Books - I've always been a bookworm and I love that Elliot has inherited this, he has so many books that I've literally run out of room in his bedroom. Quite often I find him sat in his room on a pile of books!
Football - I've written about this in a previous post but he loves kicking a ball around, and he's so happy at his Little Kickers football classes on a Saturday morning!

Elliot and his Grandad in their favourite place :)