Our holiday, in brief

So, our 3-week holiday, aargghh. Where to start? So much to cover. So many memories to capture. The short version is that we all had a great time. Spent a night at Nani's, then to Granma's for a week, then to Granpa's for a couple of days, then bf went back to work for a week (boo hoo) and I stayed at Granma's with the kiddisplinks and Nani came down to visit for a couple of days, then bf came back for a week (hurrah) during which we disappeared to Fowey Hall for 3 nights sans grandparents of any description (double hurrah) then we went back to Granma's for a night, back to Nani's for a night and then, breathe, home. Oh, and in between we also managed to do much catching up with Uncle Angus, Auntie Tina and Cousin Abagael as well as Auntie Leon, Uncle Mary and oooh their gorgeous new baby Kate.

I feel that Jasmine stopped being a toddler this holiday, and has really turned into a little girl. Her speech is coming along at a rate - it's now moving into full sentences, with plurals, personal pronouns, possessives and tenses - and she sounds so grown up when she says things like 'I'm feeling ok;' 'Look Daddy, I'm driving!' or, yesterday's new one, 'I don't like it' (gulp). On holiday she also rode a bike for the first time, did the washing up, went to the circus, danced at a birthday party, practically lived in her Wendy House and graduated to a proper bed. She is embracing this new stage of maturity and independence with a lot of giggly excitement and bossy charm.

Felix, quite simply, hit the handsome button this holiday. He is just getting more and more gorgeous each day. Oh yes, he also hit the loud button. One day he realised he could squeal much louder that all the pigs in Pigdom. And so he did, throwing me totally off track as now there are a whole load of new noises to mean, hungry, bored, tired, need a new nappy etc. etc. He has also started mooncrawling (trying to crawl only going backwards), sitting quite beautifully, grabbing for toys and shoving anything in his mouth with a vigour I had quite forgotten about.

No longer a baby

Sunday 18th February

Jam-beans has been an absolute delight this weekend. Her personality and independence are really coming through - she reaches for specific toys, makes a noise when she wants something, lifts her arms up to be picked up, watches where something drops and when she babbles it just sounds like she's saying something specific.

She sits on her own quite beautifully now. I'm not quite sure when the wobbling stopped, and the balancing started - I feel like I've missed something.

As predicted, her veggie rejection is almost complete so today she's been a good little food guinea-pig for us. Lots of food firsts today - her first pasta, went down a treat, her first meat, gobbled up, her first finger food - half a rice cracker successfully munched rather than being used asa drumstick before being cast off the high chair.


To look at her, she doesn't seem like a baby any more. She's losing the big doe-eyed look. She obviously isn't a toddler yet, so I'm not quite sure what she is. Whatever she is, it's very very very cute.

School tomorrow :-( I just want to stay at home and play with Jazzie.

Bumshuffling

I'm worried Jazzie may turn out to be a bumshuffler, despite us being model parents and putting her on her tummy every day since she came home from hospital.

Over the last few months she's been developing the art of the crab (like this only with her head, neck and arms on the floor) and is using this to locomote herself. Basically she lies on her back, pushes her feet onto the floor and, arching upwards, lifts her bottom and chest up as far as they will go. Then she lowers her bottom a little bit further up than where it started and shuffles upwards. She loves it and does it pretty much every time we lay her down.

I want her to go back to rolling over from front to back, which she hasn't done for about 3 months, and to learn how to roll over from back to front and to play the piano to concert level and to be a mountaineer and know calculus and to beat Tiger Woods at golf and run her own company and competitive mum competitive mum competitive mum.

She's really loves standing up (supported by her hands) and her sitting gets better every day. She only sits unsupported for about a minute or so but it is tres amusing to watch her body and head go all wibbly wobbly as she tries to control her balance.