Lots more have happened since the new year, so here are a few more recaps:
Jessica stayed at the nursery for the second time on Friday, between 1 and 4 in the afternoon again. She’d had a better morning nap this time and was better geared up for it – recognising the place since last time probably also helped. I felt a little bit more at ease leaving her there this time and didn’t spend the three hours away from her fretting and missing her quite as much as last time – I’m getting used to the idea too…! There were a few more children there this time, still all a few years older than Jessica as the other babies had not started yet, but Jessica grabbed the hands of one of the staff and marched right into the thick of things with a big smile on her face.
When I came back to fetch her, she looked tired sitting on the floor playing with a bead frame. The staff told me she’d been playing happily most of the time this time, though a couple of the boys had scared her and made her cry by being noisy. That’s one of those things that she’ll have to get used to though, of course: coping with bigger children. When I kneeled down on the floor next to Jessica, she grabbed my hand to pull herself up and then wanted to start walking about exploring, so I fished her up and we went home. I didn’t try putting her in her cot for an afternoon nap this time, maybe I should have as she was probably very tired after a busy afternoon packed full of new experiences, but she seemed to be buzzing playing at home, so I left her to it.
For the last two weeks, Jessica has been holding her water mug herself and drinking from it more and more often. She started wanting to hold it herself a fair while back, but not quite as successfully – missed her mouth, held it upside-down and poured lots of water in her lap or dropped it. Now she confidently grabs it off the table, drinks and then puts it back. (When she wants to put it back, that is – more often she favours bashing it against the table top and then throwing it on the floor, just to peer over the arm of her highchair at it.)
Jessica got a lift out puzzle from her Auntie Wendy for Christmas and she really likes it: she keeps walking up to it (we’ve put it on the seat of a chair so that she can play with it whilst standing), takes the pieces out one by one and throws them behind her, most of the time without looking where they’re going… A lot of her play at the moment seems to be about picking toys up and throwing them: toys come out of the toy box so that the floor in the living room looks like it’s suffered a minor explosion, and Jessica’s bath toys first get thrown into the bath tub, while she’s standing on the side of it watching her bath water rise, then out of it on the floor once she’s in the tub herself (I usually wash her hair and body first thing but since the new year started I often don’t get a chance to before the sponge flies out of the tub and onto the bath mat…).
Jessica’s nap times during the day have shifted slightly to be a little bit later in the day, but not much, and they’re still fairly predictable: from about 10am she sleeps for 1.5 to 2.5 hours and from around 4pm it can be 45 mins to 1 hr 15 mins. She still seems to sleep quite a lot compared to what I hear about other babies. But sleeping is good, of course: it gives her brain and body chance to grow and develop and gives a few more moments to do things without having to worry about keeping an eye out for her at the same time.
I’m pleased to say that Jessica’s eating my home-cooked food again since before Christmas. Some she seems to like more than others, but I’m glad she appreciates the variety. I’ve made her both a curry and a chilli and she had them both – I didn’t make them too strong of course to start with but they weren’t completely wussy either.
Gabriella