A creation a week #1

Inspired by Faery Sarah over on Bobbyrobin, I've decided to copy her new year's resolution and try to create something each week. Thanks Sarah! Anything from a sewing project to baking a cake. And I figure if I haven't gotten round to doing something else I can always just say I made some milk this week!

So I missed the first week of the year but I'm sure you'll forgive me. But here is my creation for the second week of the year:

Its fabric over cardboard with a bit of felt in the middle to make it softer. I'm quite chuffed really. Painted wooden letters are really popular at the mo and I had originally thought I'd do that but decided to go for something a little different. The 'd' is my favourite. Love the fabric. Ohh and the green gingham on the 'l' is gorgeous too :)

One day soon I'll post some photos of the whole room for you to see.

Things I'm loving on Friday

I've seen this on a few other blogs. "Things I'm loving on Friday". So here goes.

Adele's new oatmeal coloured Go Go Bag by Merino Kids. We bought it a week or so ago on Trade Me. She already has a winter one with red and blue stripes but I'm head-over-heels in love with the oatmeal.

My mummy embroidered this for Adele and gave it to her for Christmas. Adele doesn't really appreciate it yet but I do! It looks great hanging over her chest of drawers.

My new cookbook: Bake by Allyson Gofton. Apart from being pink and very pretty to look at, its yummy too. I baked the Yoghurt and Coconut Loaf the other day and Mike said "thats the yummiest thing you've ever baked". I thought well, I'll take that as a compliment! The loaf was meant to have a passionfruit icing but as I only had oranges I used them instead - yum!

Learning to sleep

So over Christmas, our wee lassie grew some teeth, slept in all sorts of different places, learnt to roll over and consequently got all mixed up in her sleeping.

So after a couple of nights of getting up to her every 1.5 - 2 hours, we said 'right, time to do something about this'. Now, A has never been a 'good' sleeper, we've especially struggled with nap time, but we've muddled our way through.

One thing that is really important to me is that I be a 'gentle mother'. People keep telling me that I just have to 'get tough' with her. Well, sorry, thats just not me.

So, we went for a wee shop at Fishpond and ordered The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley which I had heard good things about.

Oh my, loving it. Pantley doesn't agree with leaving the baby to Cry It Out (CIO) and suggests a whole pile of ways to encourage bubs to sleep better.

And only 7 days in to it, we're really seeing results.

• The last 2 or 3 days she has had 2 2-hour naps. Unheard of! Even when she was a wee bub.
• She has started going to bed earlier - she's now settling for the night by 8pm. Over Christmas this time was creeping up till 10 or even later sometimes.
• And her night-time sleeps are steadily getting longer each night. From 4 to 5 to 6 hours at a stretch. And last night... drum roll please... 9 hours without waking! Woop woop. Unfortunately though she was as bright as a button at 5 this morning and wouldn't go back to sleep. Oh well. Can't win em all :)

So yeah. Real progress and we've only just begun. And no crying! It's probably too early to say "I told you so" so I'll save it up.

The last 5 months

What have we been up to for the past 5 months?

• Sitting up all by herself (4.5 months)
• Waving (5.5 months)
• First teeth - two at the same time (5.5 months) first one cut through on Christmas Day :)
• First tastes of food - avocado, pumpkin, broccolli (5.5 months)
• Rolling over (6 months) - only a few times so far but she's really keen on it now.
• Kissing (5 months) - mostly mummy but Marshy her little pukeko gets a bit of nooky now and then. Or perhaps she just wanted roast pukeko for christmas dinner???

lots of other things too I'm sure.

Better chuck some photos up too I guess....

At the Tamahere market. Now that Adele is a big girl we're able to carry her in the wrap sling in a hip carry. So much better for seeing the world!

Big bed, little lady.

First foods - a bit of avocado from our guacamole. As you can see by the tight little fists - she was keen!

Its fun to sit outside on the picnic mat and watch Daddy in the garden.


First foods: she put this steamed broccolli in her mouth but didn't swallow anything!

Firstly a disclaimer

I (Christine) would like to point out that it was my ever-optimistic husband who thought that reviving our blog and posting about what our family is up to now that it has expanded. I said "good idea, as long as you keep it updated". As a few of you have pointed out to me, according to this here blog, Adele is still only about 5 weeks old. She is in fact 6 months old tomorrow. Time to give up waiting for hub to get on to it.

So my disclaimer is: I will try to update this a bit more often, but if I don't its cause I'm a busy mummy and couldn't be naffed :)

Smiles!

Our little lady started smiling for real today!



And they're even cuter in person....

Adele is 4 Weeks Old Today

Adele is 4 weeks today. So much happens in four weeks for a little person. She has put on 1 kg, and she is filling out – no longer quite as wee as she was, but still as lovely. Earlier we noticed her straightening her legs, now she is all limbs a-go go. After feeding she is alert for longer, just staring happily, and she quite enjoys the bold black, white and yellow book picture book she was given for her birth-day. She likes to put her hands up when she sleeps, and she likes to go for walks, this also puts her to sleep. She likes to go in her car seat especially when the car is moving, again this also puts her to sleep. Overall she is a great wee kid, very calm, very patient with us (especially her dad when he is trying to put a nappy on at 2 in the morning. What a saintly dad!).

Thinking of sleep, she fights her damnedest to stay awake (often screaming) and then falls asleep like a lead balloon. It’s like they say: babies don’t fall asleep; they plummet. Perhaps falling asleep is a little scary if you don’t quite know why its happening?

She has been for a number of walks in her sling with her mum and her dad has also tried it out. She has been to ‘Pak’N Save’. She has been to church twice with her mum and dad, and to a home group, and she has been to her dad’s work drinks. Mostly she has been enjoying life at home with mum while dad goes off to school, and he comes home around 4.30 to his girls.

In a few weeks we might take her to the beach.