Jessica’s blog.

As a fantastic surprise, my brother booked tickets to come over from Sweden and stay with us from New Year’s Eve (Monday) for four days! Ian picked him up from the airport while Jessica had her morning nap and although she seemed a little shy at first when she saw Uncle Carl-Fredrik, she was soon dragging him too around the house to explore one thing or another…!

As a first outing we brought our guest to the 24-hour supermarket at Gatwick, so not the most exciting of places exactly, but we needed to stock up on this and that plus get some treats in for New Year’s Eve. Jessica was sitting in the child seat on the trolley, dangling her legs and looking around the place. Towards the end of our shopping visit she got a bit restless, so I fished her out to carry her, and over my shoulder she was giggling in her usual sociable way at a boy out with his parents, though the boy sulkily was ignoring her completely. At the till she started to complain, so my brother carried her through to have a look out of the window, which distracted her nicely. (Jessica isn’t too bad with shopping trips – though I guess we make a concerted effort to limit them in time – but they do tire her out if the store’s busy.)

The afternoon was pretty quiet, with both Jessica and Carl-Fredrik napping in different rooms (my brother’s excuse was getting up for his flight at 4.30am Swedish time that morning…!), but when Jessica woke up she was really upset and wouldn’t stop crying. I got quite concerned. None of the things I usually do to distract her worked… I thought it could have been her tooth coming through, her cold (she’s still congested and has a very runny nose) or her still feeling tired, or a combination.

It wasn’t quite time for her dinner but, as there was nothing else left to try, I sat her down in her highchair anyway. She refused her savoury food but fruit went down well: a handful of blueberries, half a banana and one and a half clementine, and after that she was much more cheerful. So maybe it was just hunger… I have wondered if she’s a little bit like Ian – not coping very well with low blood sugar levels.

We put her to bed for the night a little bit early again, like we have since we first noticed signs of her cold. New Year’s Eve for the rest of us was very much a quiet affair: a nice, home cooked meal with dessert followed by nibbles and drinks in front of the telly. In anticipation of Jessica’s usual early rise I went to bed well before midnight but Ian and my brother stayed up to see 2008 in.

A few little notes about things that Jessica has been doing in the last few days:

– Pressed one of the button on the control panel with her thumb, rather than using her whole hand.

– Throwing toys into the bath tub just for the fun of it, then watching them lying there wanting me to pick them up for her so she can throw them in again.

– Throwing her bath toys OUT OF the bath tub when having a bath (this morning) just for the fun of it. (Though Mummy couldn’t reach most of them to retrieve them for her – something I tend to only do up to 3 times, then they have to stay where they are.)

– Happily bouncing up and down bending her knees when her control panel toy is playing tunes – dancing!

– Had her gums and tooth brushed four times since Boxing Day.

– Been really, really cute (according to Carl-Fredrik)!

Ian’s pointed out that I should mention that for over a month now, Jessica has been a bit extra needy of Mummy – even if she is happily playing with Daddy, if she sees me, she’ll often want to walk over to me, then wrap her arms around my knees, burrow her head between my legs and only reluctantly let go. She laughs more in general when she plays with her Daddy, so I wouldn’t have thought she should necessarily prefer me, but I guess it’s one of those developmental things, and I must admit – as I’m so keen on her, purely selfishly it’s lovely to see her affection towards me…

Gabriella

Yesterday (Sunday 30 Dec) Ian, Jessica and I went over to Ian’s parents for the afternoon. Neither Jessica or I had been there for a while, but as Jessica will be spending Wednesdays at her farmor and farfar’s house after I go back to work on 1 February it’s important that she starts getting used to being there. Ideally, we will build up gradually, until Jessica spends all day there when the time comes.

Jessica didn’t appear to recognise Albert and Diana’s house from her visits when much younger and was happily walking around exploring. A lot of little things on shelves and side tables were swiftly moved out of reach of curious little hands… Albert had made Jessica a little wooden trolley – of similar style to the one she has at home, but with the obvious quality of something handmade with skill – and she immediately took charge of it, walking up and down the hallway, living room and kitchen with a little help to turn it around.

It was Jessica’s first time meeting the family cat, too, and she was so delighted! There was a big, happy smile on her face and lots of little giggles as Jessica spotted Sheba, then walked towards her trying to grab her fur and tail. Sheba must have seemed like a lovely, stuffed toy, only she moved, wow…! Sheba wasn’t put off by the experience and I guess we all from start tried to show Jessica how to treat the cat gently – in spite of my allergy I even stroked Sheba’s fur for educational purposes. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it will be nice that Jessica will get used to at least one pet, to learn how to treat and appreciate animals close up.

The trickiest bit of getting Jessica used to being away from home all day, Ian and I anticipated would be getting her to have proper naps somewhere else but her own cot at home. Albert and Diana are getting a travel cot for this very purpose but did not have it yet, so after having fed Jessica her afternoon bottle I tucked her in in her pushchair, which Ian had set up in the dining room for the purpose, and we kept our fingers crossed in the room next door that she’d settle and go to sleep. After about 10-15 minutes of moaning (though not the very upset kind), she relaxed enough to go to sleep. Unfortunately the nap only lasted about 45 minutes, which we knew wouldn’t be quite enough, but although we could tell she was still tired Jessica wasn’t cranky about it, and as a summary we had a really nice, relaxed time, with Jessica (as usual!) getting lots of attention.

Gabriella

Ian’s been off since Friday before Christmas, so all three of us have had a nice relaxing time together, Ian and I taking turns having a lie-in and the other one getting up to take care of Jessica in the mornings. We haven’t been up to much at all, really, and it’s been good not to have many plans to worry about.

On Boxing Day, we decided to drive over to Reigate to have a look at the Priory Park, which is in the process of having a major make-over. Big parts of the Park still looked like a building site when we got there, but the playground seemed pretty much ready, with lots of different swings, a climbing wall and a huge wooden ship to climb on. We put Jessica on one of the swings for a while and then Ian walked around the playground so that she could watch all the other kids running around and playing, and she was really enjoying herself, giggling away.

We strolled on to the big pond, where there were lots of ducks, seagulls and a few swans, and this time we were prepared and had brought some bread to tempt the birds to come closer. The seagulls were especially entertaining, darting up and down in white, shimmering flocks, almost every time beating the ducks to it to the food offered – Jessica laughed out loud several times (the most wonderful sound in the world…!).

Jessica’s still not taken more than a few steps now and then on her own and prefers to walk holding on to one hand of either one of us – I guess it takes her much quicker from A to B… A popular circuit for the last couple of weeks has been from the hallway through to the kitchen, bathroom and toilet – where she checks the washing machine to see if it’s doing anything at the moment – and back again, very often with a potato or clementine held high in her right hand and Mummy dragged behind by her left… (For some reason every turn tends to be anti-clockwise.)

In the last few days, the potato or clementine has been replaced by a few of the toys she got for Christmas – a Pippi Longstocking doll, Lilla Gubben stuffed horse or a little yellow tray with honey bees on – and she has also started to place them inside the washing machine. So far she’s not really been letting ago (apart from the Pippi doll once, when she let go very briefly and then quickly grabbed hold again), but I suspect we might have to check inside the drum carefully before we start a washing cycle in future, just in case we might be washing all sorts of things we didn’t intend to…!

In the last 2-3 weeks, Jessica’s got much more interested in her books (as you might have gathered from my Christmas Day entry) and she’ll quite happily pick them up herself to look at. Initially, she’d turn the whole book over a few times and occasionally get a few pages open seemingly by chance, but she’s got increasingly skilful at flicking through the pages. She’s now also discovered that a couple of the books have tabs at the side to make it easier to grab each page to turn it – thing is, though, she tends to go for the tab nearest to her which is the one at the back, which means that when she uses that method she turns almost all pages in the book in one go… As one of her first books had patches of different textures on its pages, which she likes to scratch with her fingertips, she tends to run her hand over the pages in other books too, to find the textures there.

When Jessica saw the Christmas decorations we’d put up in the living room, she reached her hand out towards them, and I guess I assumed she was trying to reach them. But she has made the same gesture loads of times since, and it turns out to be her way of pointing at things, to indicate what she is looking at. It’s mainly overhead lights (at which point I’ve now started to repeat the word “lampa”, in the hope that she’ll start making the connection and mimic the sound), the Christmas baubles and twinkling lights, and a few times the clock on the wall in the kitchen (when I repeat “klocka”). But she has also looked directly at Ian, hand stretched out and gone “Da-da” several times in the last 3-4 days. “Da-da-da…” is the sound she’s using the most at the moment, but we don’t think it was a coincidence when she pointed out Ian so clearly.

Another new thing is that Jessica occasionally shakes her head. It doesn’t seem to be in any particular context and not in connection with a protest or anything, so probably more because it’s something she’s discovered she can do. When I’ve nodded my head at her she’s found it amusing and giggled – I was hoping she might try to copy me soon, although she doesn’t seem to be at that stage in her development yet.

Gabriella

So yesterday the big day came: Jessica’s first Christmas. We celebrated it at our place – to make it as easy as possible for Jessica to have her naps and go to bed in the evening when she needed to – and Ian’s parents and sister came over for the day. Ian and I had tried to be organised in preparing a lot of the food over a few days beforehand and putting in the freezer but last-minute preparations and heating things up till took a little time, so farmor, farfar and Auntie Wendy entertained Jessica in the living room while Ian and I sorted lunch out.

The day went really well. Jessica enjoyed all the attention she got, of course, and seemed to like her Christmas lunch, which was boiled Quorn-mince with sweetcorn, baked potato, cream and cheese followed by half a banana and some mandarin pieces. (By the way, only a few days earlier she started eating banana the same way most grown-ups do, although one of us holds it for her and she sometimes tries to take bites that are a little bit too big for her. It’s nice to see her practising her biting and chewing, although she’s only got a little bit of a tooth yet.) The Quorn-mince was a first for her. Jessica was happy and cheerful throughout lunch but when crackers were being pulled, the noise startled her and she started to cry. It didn’t take long for her to be put at ease again, though.

After lunch, while Ian, farmor Diana and Auntie Wendy took care of the washing up, farfar Albert sat with Jessica in the sofa looking through some of her books together.

The day was a bit tiring for Jessica, probably partly down to her showing the signs of the start of a cold, and she went to sleep pretty promptly after farmor had given her her afternoon bottle and I had carried her up to her cot. The rest of us decided to open our presents while Jessica was asleep so that we could concentrate on her and her presents later. When Jessica woke up, it was obvious she hadn’t quite slept enough: she was rubbing her eyes and acting quite subdued for a while (and then started to act ‘delirious’ after not too long – a sure sign of her being tired).

The process of opening Christmas pressies seemed mainly bewildering to Jessica. Daddy and Auntie Wendy helped her tear ribbons and wrapping paper off the first lot of gifts whilst Mummy took some photos, and then Mummy and Auntie Wendy swapped duties. Apart from labels and ribbons, some of the books and toys attracted Jessica’s interest, but the clothes she got – not quite unexpectedly – didn’t seem to generate much interest (they were much more appreciated by Mummy and Daddy on her behalf).

During tea Jessica was rambling away in her high chair, the volume being a bit all over the place as it is when she’s really tired. But we weren’t surprised – it had been a full day with lots of new things happening and lots of people to play with! She ate well (with melon pieces for dessert, which also was a first for her), but Ian soon changed her for bed and I took her upstairs to give her some formula and put her to bed. She fell asleep almost as soon as I put her in her cot.

Gabriella

I guess the heading says it all about our latest piece of news: Jessica’s now definitely in the process of cutting her first tooth! It’s not visible as yet but you can feel it (and it’s very sharp…!) at the front of Jessica’s lower jaw. So Jessica’s first tooth in time for her first Christmas, eh…? Exciting stuff.

Jessica’s been letting go of things a few more times today, as she’s been investigating things, and taking the odd little step sideways. It’ll be a while yet before she gets confident, but we’re not in a hurry. We’ll have to sort out a gate for the entrance bit to the kitchen before she’s moving about independently – for example, the oven door gets very hot when it’s switched on, so we need to be careful.

Gabriella

(Entry below written on Monday 17 Dec:)

Jessica took a couple of small steps completely unsupported towards me yesterday (Sunday 16 Dec) – it was so exciting…! She didn’t seem to think anything of it, just calmly let go of the arm of the chair by the desk, took two little steps towards me and grabbed my arm (I was sitting on the floor), without hurrying or stumbling in-between. I’m so proud! Ian’s told me she took a couple of little steps last week too, but we’re not sure which day that was. Even if she doesn’t walk all by herself before Christmas, it might not be too much longer…!

Recently Jessica’s started exclaiming little “uh!”, “ah!”, “eh!” and other short sounds, also at a slightly higher volume than in the past – actually just like Isac did when Jessica and I were in Sweden visiting for his birthday. It must be a case of getting to grips with practising short vowels – and possibly also the art of shouting…! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how loud she’ll get…

We put some Christmas decorations up on Sunday: twinkling lights along a few of the bookshelves and green garlands and baubles along the staircase and underneath the archway halfway down the living room. Jessica’s Auntie Wendy popped over in the afternoon and got roped in, which she didn’t appear to mind and which was much appreciated. It was easier to get it all into place while Jessica was having her afternoon nap and when I brought her down again, she got so excited when she saw the lights and the green and red baubles…! I carried her around the room to have a slightly closer look (though not close enough to touch!) and she was all smiles and giggles, reaching her hand out towards all the new decorations and turning her head this way and the other.

Gabriella

On 8 to 9 December, we went up to Wolverhampton to celebrate Ian’s second cousin Alison’s 18th birthday. It entailed Jessica’s longest journey by car ever (about 3 hours) and first night in a hotel…!

The journey up to Wolverhampton went well – we needed to get there by lunch-time, so decided to give Jessica her second breakfast of formula before we took off at 9.30am and then hoped that she’d sleep in the car. She got quite excited as soon as she was put in the car seat, though – as per usual – so it took a while for her to go to sleep and when she did, she didn’t sleep as long as she normally does (her morning naps tend to be around 2 hours, never normally less than 1 ½ and sometimes almost 3 hours).

She was still cheerful and sociable when we got to Ian’s Mum’s cousin and her husband’s place and happily walked about the house to investigate, guided by different hands. The goldfish in the little tank in the kitchen attracted her interest, as well as the washing machine, a birthday bouquet of yellow flowers, a creaking cupboard door, which she opened and closed, opened and closed until eventually she got bored.

In the afternoon Ian set the travel cot we’d borrowed for the journey up in Alison’s room, I fed Jessica her mid-afternoon bottle and tucked her in. It took her a while to go to sleep, probably partly because there were so many exciting things to look at in Alison’s room, but when she did fall asleep she seemed to sleep soundly.

Jessica woke up nicely in time for us to go over to our hotel and check in. The birthday party started at 7.30pm. We’d decided that Ian was going to represent the three of us – Jessica usually goes to bed at 7pm, so she was never going to attend the party anyway, and I was happy enough to stay behind, as I was feeling a bit tired. Jessica went to sleep very happily in the travel cot while I read a book and didn’t stir until morning.

The following day we needed to check out 10am at the latest, so I fed Jessica her mid-morning formula at 9am, while Ian packed our car. Jessica fell asleep in my arms, so I left her snoozing on our bed for 10-15 minutes, hoping that we could carefully transfer her over to her pushchair for a walk in the park to let her continue sleeping. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t work… We walked around the park with a crying baby for an hour until we had to give up – carrying her now and then and singing to her didn’t help to calm her down. She wasn’t hysterical, but we were worried it was heading that way, and we didn’t understand why: she’d never acted this way before…!

We gave her baby-paracetamol and teething gel, in case it had something to do with teething, and went back to the hotel, got in the car and drove around Wolverhampton instead. Ian showed me where his Mm and grandmother used to live and where he’d visited as a child and Jessica turned quite cheerful. She fell asleep just as we arrived at our hosts’ house again -the plan was for all of us to go out for lunch at a Chinese restaurant about an hour later. Again we tried to move her whilst hoping she’d continue sleeping and again we failed… She woke up straight away and cried and cried, this time really getting hysterical. Poor thing must have been absolutely exhausted.

We had to make our excuses and head home instead. We said a quick good bye and headed back out in the car with our screaming little baby. She was far too upset to have any solids, but by this point she was due a meal (and if she was hungry too that certainly wouldn’t help), so I hopped in the back with her and gave her a bottle of formula. It took ages for her to feed as she kept breaking away from the bottle to cry and I had to keep re-offering it, but in the end she thankfully finished most of it and after about an hour she went to sleep. Ian and I were getting hungry ourselves but kept driving until she’d slept for at least an hour before we dared risk stopping…! We brought Jessica with us into the restaurant at the motorway services and she was feeling much better, smiling and dangling her legs from the highchair as she was munching on a rice cake while Ian and I had a cooked lunch.

For the rest of the day everything was back to normal and in the evening she went to sleep as per the usual routine. Maybe it was the whole new experience that got too much for her after all and didn’t allow her to relax enough to sleep properly during the morning. Couldn’t help thinking things will be so much easier when Jessica and we can talk to each other.

Gabriella

Apologies – our site has been down for a little while due to an oversight on our part. We’ll try to catch up with events as soon as we can!

(Entry below written on Friday 14 December:)

Seems like things are happening so quickly nowadays, it’s hard to keep up. Coming towards Christmas, with our living room still not finished after the damp proofing works (almost four weeks on and the walls still haven’t dried completely plus our landlord isn’t happy with what’s been done and wants it fixed – we don’t know how much will need redoing yet, but our landlord has agreed that it will now have to wait until after Christmas), it doesn’t seem like there’s enough time to do things. Still, I’m starting to look forward to celebrating Jessica’s first Christmas. She won’t know what’s going on and she probably won’t remember it, but it’ll be nice to make it a bit special.

Jessica is so confident walking about using furniture, walls and cupboards now. She hardly falls over at all, unless she’s getting tired and a bit unsteady in the evening or before her afternoon nap. She more often than not holds on to just the one finger of ours to navigate across open spaces, but if she can get to it she’ll also happily use the little trolley to help her get where she wants to go. For the second time ever I witnessed her pulling herself up to standing all by herself this morning, using the sofa again: she turned her whole body around while sitting on the floor, then got to one of her knees, grab hold of the seat of the sofa and pulled herself up. Ian got to see it too, this time and we were both so chuffed. A lot of new things that Jessica does she seems to do just the once at first, and then it takes a while before she suddenly starts doing it regularly. Perhaps we’ll now see her pull herself up more often.

For over a month now – I keep forgetting to mention things! – Jessica’s responded differently to some of her toys. Especially the doll she got from my Mum’s former work colleague Saul but really any soft toys that have a face, like several of the cuddly stuffed toy animals that she’s got: Molly the monkey, the elephant Elvis (to which Ian lends a superb trumpeting noise!), Saba the giraffe, and lately her little cuddly Miffy rattle, to mention but a few. If one takes the toy and moves it around, as if it was dancing, peering around a corner at Jessica, kissing her on the cheek or brings her a toy, Jessica looks at it very intently with a perfectly delighted look on her face, giggles and talks at it, as if she is interacting with another living being. Maybe these are her first imaginary friends…? It’s great fun trying to think of new things for her toys to do – Ian has lots of different ideas to mine and I think we’re both doing pretty well in the imagination stakes so far… It’s also nice to know that whenever Jessica is a little bit upset, if I grab the doll (Miriam, I’ve decided to call it) and let it bring Jessica a few rattles or a book and attempt to play with her, Jessica soon cheers up.

Other games that make Jessica laugh out loud at are: playing peek-a-boo with Mummy or Daddy, being chased by Daddy around the high chair, playing tug of war over a muslin with Daddy and being tickled on the tummy by Daddy or Mummy (though Daddy tends to have a slightly higher success rate in getting it just right…).

One day end of November, I suddenly noticed Jessica twisting her tongue sideways. It’s something Ian’s able to do, but not me. I think it was the first time she had done it, as that day was all about playing with her tongue: twisting it sideways and generally leave it hanging out of her mouth… She usually walks around with her mouth wide open anyway – as if she is perpetually astonished about the world around her – but sticking her tongue out seemed a fun, new activity. This carried on for a couple of weeks, though lately she has calmed down on that front at little bit and we don’t see her tongue quite as often.

For the first time today Jessica protested about not being allowed to do something. We have an old-fashioned nappy bucket, which we got from Ian’s parents and which consists of a plastic bucket and a flat lid that lifts right off. So far the bucket’s been standing on the bathroom floor next to the nappy changing mat for ease of use. Jessica likes walking around in the bathroom as well as anywhere else and so far we’ve managed to keep anything sharp, heavy or otherwise dangerous out of her reach. She’s only really patted the lid of the nappy bucket before and – as with anything else we haven’t wanted her to touch or grab – I’ve steered her away and she’s happily let herself get distracted. But this time, when I held the lid down and said “nej”, she voiced her annoyance and tried again. So I still held the lid down and said no again. She screwed her face up and cried, obviously annoyed with me for not letting her open the bucket, and bent down to try to grab the lid again, more forcefully this time. I had to move the bucket out of her reach (and for the moment it lives in the bath tub, where she – so far… – isn’t able to reach it).

Jessica is walking around the control panel toy all by herself nowadays; we have raised it up on legs so that she can play with it whilst standing up. She’s now mastered the last couple of things on it that she didn’t manage before: a lever and a wheel that you turn around in a circle. It’s been quite interesting watching her – with her increasing strength, dexterity and understanding – being able to do more and more of the activities on the toy.

Almost forgot to mention, we went for Jessica’s 10 month check up today (she’ll be 10 months in a week’s time), which was done by the local health visitor at our surgery. Jessica’s weight is now 10.8 kilos (23.12 lbs), her height 76 cm (2ft 5.9in) and her head circumference 46.5 cm (1ft 6.3in). Apparently this is all nicely in proportion and about the size of a one-year-old. The health visitor also checked Jessica’s hips (which were fine), asked whether she said ‘dada’ and ‘mama’ (which I confirmed) and put a little brightly coloured pellet in her had to see if Jessica was able to pick it up using first one hand and then the other (which she did). The next check-up will be at one year and then at two years but I will bring Jessica to the weighing clinic in January to have her weighed then.

Gabriella

Yes, an account of our trip to Sweden 14-21 November is now well overdue…! It was Jessica’s second trip to Sweden ever and the first one with only me coming along; perhaps needless to say I was slightly apprehensive about how well I would manage looking after her on my own…

Ian drove us to Gatwick, so we didn’t have to go far and were there in plenty of time. I was able to bring the push chair all the way to the gate, which was a relief, as Jessica is getting a little too heavy for me to carry nowadays…! With all the new security regulations in place, I had to fold the push chair up to put on the belt to be scanned before I could take it through to airside, which meant temporarily putting Jessica on the floor whilst I folded the pushchair up. I also had to take my boots off and put them on the belt, take the bottles of formula out of my hand luggage and put it in clear plastic bags, plus sample the contents of all bottles and a jar of baby puree in front of a security officer… Jessica got a little bit grumpy about being put down on the floor, then lifted up only to be put down again, but there weren’t too many other passengers about and the people at security were nice and friendly about the whole thing, so the experience actually wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

I’d booked the outbound flight to coincide with Jessica’s usual bedtime, the plan being that I would give her her last feed for the day and she would hopefully fall asleep on my lap and carry on sleeping for the duration of the flight. As it happened, this didn’t quite work to plan. Jessica drank her formula as we were taking off and then quietly snoozed off, but as soon as we were airborne the lights came on again throughout the cabin and the tannoy started up: “Welcome again on board flight such-and-such…!” at which point Jessica jerked, woke up and then struggled throughout the flight to get back to sleep – every time she was a bout to doze off another announcement came on, somebody coughed right behind us or another baby elsewhere on the plane started to cry. Jessica didn’t cry – but made the usual ‘delirious’ sounds (mainly creaks, gurgles and raspberry-blowing) that she makes when she’s very tired – until towards the very end of the flight, when she was so tired the poor thing didn’t know what to do with herself. But as she was so tired, she didn’t cry for very long. She sat upright on my lap, leaning against my chest and I stroke her over her hair (something I noticed about a month ago works quite well to calm her), and all of sudden she fell asleep just like that.

When it was time to get off the plane she oddly seemed a bit more awake: she beamed at the stewardesses and then the lady in passport control. I had to fetch the pushchair from the same conveyor belt that produced the regular hold luggage,which meant I had to carry Jessica a fair distance through a dark and more or less deserted Arlanda airport. When Jessica’s uncle Nuredin met us outside, Jessica got all excited again, especially as Nuredin put her in a car seat and then in a car – Jessica loves this (maybe it’s the anticipation of where we might be going…?). When we arrived and I put her in the travel cot that was ready for her in the spare room at Malin and Nuredin’s place it didn’t take her too long to go to sleep, but then it was about 10.45pm English time…!

Unfortunately, Jessica saw the start of a cold only the day before we were due to travel. The cold worsened during our week at Malin and Nuredin’s, which meant that Jessica sneezed, coughed, had a runny nose and was extra needy and a bit cranky during most of our stay. This didn’t stop her from getting very excited over her cousin Isac: almost a baby like herself, but able to walk and run around all by himself! This was also the cause of some frustration on Jessica’s part – Isac could run around but she couldn’t follow. On more than one occasion when Jessica had grabbed one of Isac’s toys to play with, Isac decided that this particular toy was exactly what he wanted to play with at this moment in time and proceeded to grab it from her. Not walking unsupported yet, all Jessica could do was to cry and watch him disappear off with the toy…

Jessica was pretty good at grabbing toys that Isac was playing with too, so it went both ways, but she certainly seemed to find it frustrating not being as mobile as Isac. Added to this was her cold, which made her extra tired and sensitive, floors that were more slippery than she was used to from home (Malin and Nuredin have wooden floors whereas our living room floor is covered in carpet) and furniture which wasn’t set up for her to be able to cruise between (as Isac’s such an active little lad, Malin and Nuredin have positioned chairs and armchairs so that he will find it hard to climb on them, which for Jessica’s part meant less for her to grab hold of for support). All things considered, though, I was on the whole pleased with how Jessica behaved. It was her first bad cold and she bore it much better than I’m sure I would have…!

On the Thursday, Malin and I took the train with our little ones to Stockholm, where we went to my aunt Anette’s for lunch. Jessica was much more subdued and passive than usual, and I was a bit disappointed that my aunt and my sister didn’t get to see the happy, sociable and interactive Jessica that I know. After lunch we went for a stroll in Stockholm and Jessica fell asleep, something she doesn’t normally do in her pushchair. It was obvious that she was more tired than usual. When Malin checked Jessica’s temperature for me in the evening it was 38.8…! So she really hadn’t been well.

The following day, however, after some fever-reducing medication and a good night’s sleep, the fever had gone, although the rest of her cold symptoms stuck it out for the rest of the week.

But that’s enough about Jessica’s cold. She did have a good time too! At Isac’s birthday party on Saturday 19th November she also got her share of the attention. And towards the end of the week she started to perk up a bit and have more energy. Malin and I and our two little ones went into Uppsala a couple of times to do some general shopping and Jessica was being so well behaved sitting in her pushchair for a few hours at the time – she seldom shows that patience at home! I guess she was happy simply watching the (new) world go by.

On the flight home, Jessica bizarrely slept almost throughout. The timing of the flight coincided with her afternoon nap this time and not her bedtime, but announcements and other peoples coughing, loud voices or other sounds didn’t seem to trouble her this time. We arrived at Arlanda in very good time and I was dreading having to entertain a bored and impatient baby for several hours before even getting on the flight – let alone on the flight itself – but Jessica was being very patient with everything. (And a bit heavy…! I had to check in the pushchair with the regular luggage and therefore carry Jessica through security and all the way to the gate. But it still wasn’t too busy and we had time, so it was okay.)

I put Jessica on one of the seats outside the gate and fed her some of my banana, went and changed her nappy before the flight and then carried her around for a bit. Standing in one of the corners by the window, looking out on some of the planes coming and going, Jessica fell asleep on my shoulder. She was still sleeping until we were on the plane, and once we’d got comfortable (again we had all three seat completely to ourselves) I gave her a bottle of formula. She fell asleep and slept pretty much throughout the flight until it was time to get off.

If Ian was worried that Jessica wouldn’t recognise him after a week apart, he needn’t have! She lit right up when she saw him, beaming her big smile at him and kicking her legs excitedly. Anyone could tell Jessica had missed her Daddy.

Gabriella

Our apologies for not having posted in ages. First Gabriella and Jessica spent a week in Sweden, then we were all ill to varying degrees with a stomach bug – thankfully Jessica got off the lightest, poor Gabriella was laid low for a full 48 hours.
It is Gabriella’s intention to post very soon about their trip to Sweden.

Jessica’s becoming more and more active. She is quite happy working her way round the living room holding onto the furniture. She’ll start at one end of the room where her toys are, stopping occasionally to pick something up only to drop it again in favour of something else, then work her way up to the other end where her high-chair is. She loves walking round and round it, grabbing the straps to put in her mouth or peering under and around it. Jessica thinks it’s great when Gabriella or I play peek-a-boo with her, giggling in a most adorable way. Yesterday evening when I played with she thought it was superb fun when I chased her round the high-chair. Gabriella said that Jessica had been cranky for most of the afternoon until I got home from work, when she brightened up immeasurably – I’m proud to have that effect on our little daughter!
Sometimes if Gabriella has to go into the kitchen to sort something out, Jessica will miss her and wander in from the living room just hanging onto the wall. She’s really getting confident and we’re just waiting for when she gets brave enough to let go of things and walks by herself. Once or twice Jessica has picked a toy up and held it with both hands completely forgetting to hang onto anything, but this has happened again that recently. Something else Jessica did once (just before she and Gabriella went to Sweden I think) was pull herself into a standing position using the settee. Gabriella and I are just waiting for her to start doing it again.

When I change Jessica for the night, I generally only take her arms out of the sleeves of vests or tops as she has worked out how to pull the garment over her head. I think this partly down to her preference NOT to wear clothes – she’s quite happy if either of us undress her, but isn’t so keen to have clothes put back on!

I guess now’s a good a time as any to make an announcement. Next June, Jessica will have a sibling! Yep, that’s right Gabriella is pregnant again. We’d both agreed that it’d be good for Jessica to have a little brother or sister and that it’d be good if they are fairly close in age. Whilst it was planned, it took us a little bit by surprise that it happened quite so quickly. Exciting (and knackering) times ahead!

We hope to get some more photos of Jessica posted again pretty soon.

Ian.