We’ve had a few summer days again, when it’s been sunny, and warm in the shade too – though nights are cold. Have put shoes on Jessica and ‘walked’ her around the garden a few times now. It does take a bit of effort, though, as she’ll stop and tug at things and, as it seems, preferably the dirtiest ones that she definitely shouldn’t put in her mouth… This includes small pebbles, dry leaves, weeds and grass covered in mud. It’s a lot of taking things away from her and going “No, Jessica, not in your mouth”. Feeling a bit like a spoil sport but I guess that’s partly the role of a mum…
She’s become faster and more confident on her feet, and has a few times been standing all by herself for a second or two without any support when she has let go of our hands and she’ll stand steadily for a fair while holding on to only the highchair, the sofa or her control panel toy. Unfortunately, we don’t really have much furniture that are a suitable height or steady enough for her to pull herself up on. And as she’s not crawling, she isn’t able to get herself to those few pieces of furniture that might be helpful. Saying that, she’s getting better at shuffling forward on her bum.
Jessica walks around the house several times a day now, holding my hands for support, and is finding more and more to explore. There’s not too much need for toys at the mo, as all sorts of things are interesting. Shoe laces, buckles on bags, the push chair in the hallway, the shelves in the bathroom, all the little tables in the living room and everything on them… We’re getting even more urgently aware of the virtue of putting things on shelves high up.
Jessica likes peek-a-boo now, a game she didn’t seem to understand the concept of only about a month ago. Especially the version Daddy plays when he hides behind Mummy’s back and then pops his head up over Mummy’s shoulder. As I’m holding Jessica at the time I get a front row seat to the fantastic expression on her face, when she leans over to the one side in expectation (and sometimes get caught out as Daddy chooses to appear over the other shoulder instead) and her lovely laugh when Daddy does appear and goes ‘peek-a-boo!’. But she giggles lots too when I put a muslin in front of her face and then pull it away and say ‘tittut!’.
Everything is great fun, though there’s a bit of a problem looming. We’re looking at the clocks changing soon, of course. And as Jessica is still waking up at 5.30am, sometimes 5am, I’m dreading this turning into 4/4.30am starts… Even those evenings when she stays up a little bit later don’t seem to make her sleep for longer the following morning, so I’m at a bit of a loss regarding what to do. Anyway, I’m sure it’ll sort itself out somehow.
Gabriella