Dear baby - sixteen months

Dear baby,

You're 16 months old today, and I'm 16 weeks pregnant with your baby brother or sister. What a team we make!

We got you that haircut, and everyone is starting to notice your toddler-ish-ness. It seems that just by even-ing out (or crookedly even-ing out) those wispy strands of hair, everything you do seems older. Your running, your packing and unpacking things, the way you lay and look around while we change your pants.

Your favourite thing is still being outdoors. Daddy and I did some gardening over the weekend and you were happy to just potter around in the shade, helping put leaves in the bag, unhelping by pulling leaves out of the bag, and moving the smooth stones from the side garden bed on the pavers or the outdoor setting or the steps by the back door.

You're a min Makka-Pakka, one of the characters from your favourite show 'In the Night Garden'. I'm hoping Santa is paying attention because he'd be a cruel, cruel man not to gift you something from that show. When we turn the tv on, you say 'Gah gah!' which is how you talk about the show. You have a few ITNG books, that you point at and carry around and say 'Gah gah!' and want us to read to you. You know to say 'mi mi mi mi' in a high voice for the Pontipines, and I swear you said Makka Pakka and Upsy Daisy when we were looking at that book again this morning (I always wondered how people could say they got sick of reading the same books over and Over and OVER again, but now I know).

Your language is building again. You said 'turtle' last night while we were looking at one of your bath books and it was so freaking adorable I think I made a high pitched noise. You are trying to imitate more and more words and I can't wait until you start using them more.

You love to be picked up in the kitchen (something Pa pointed out to me), to have a look around. Your daddy bought me some flowers a few weeks ago so we would sniff them a few times a day. And now, when we go outside, you stop and sniff the flowers with a little snort and a scrunched up face. You do also often pick them and put them in the basked with the clean washing or try to eat them. But you almost always sniff them first.

Your comprehension is up and running. When I say it's time to make the bed in the morning, you know it means we're going to mine and daddies room. When I ask where your shoes are you, you say 'shoes?' and go hunting for them. You know that when I say it's time to hang out or bring in the washing that we'll get your shoes and then you run to the back door so we can go outside. You stand and wait at the steps with your arm in the air so I can hold your hand as you climb up and down (and you're getting so good at it). You know when we're going to the car, ('car?') and going to check the mail. When we get back from a drive you pause for a second and then give a big shy grin - I don't know why, but you do it every time and it's adorable. When we start the day and the dogs come to greet you, you rush towards me and squeal and hide in my legs.

Of course, it's not all just you being freaking adorable. You  like to eat the dogs dry food, so a few times a day I have to pull you out of the laundry. You like to pull the wipes out from under your change table (and show me you pretend to blow your nose on them), you like to unroll the toilet paper in the ensuite, and you like to bang your toys around. When you're frustrated, you swish your arms around to knock food off your highchair or to move the toys away from you. You also reach out to scratch, which hurts my feelings. We're working on how to stop this, but I know it's because you're too little to understand how to manage those feelings.

You've continued having long naps, which is great, because I've needed them more often too.

And on that note, I'm off to lay on the couch.

I can't believe you'll be one and a half in 8 weeks time...

I love you, baby girl!

Spotty baby

This morning started in a bit of a rush. I'd woken up at midnight, 2:00, 3:30, and 5:00. It was about 6:20 and I could hear the husband fiddling around with his alarm clock. Except it kept going and going. And then I realised that it was making a clicking sound instead of playing the radio and the husband was already five minutes late for meeting his friend to ride to work.

He leapt out of bed and dashed out, being fairly quiet considering what was going on, and I heard the baby stir. I waited her out for 10 minutes before I started to get myself ready for work - by the time I'd brushed my hair and got dressed, she was quiet again. I was able to eat my breakfast in piece, and be all ready to go with five minutes to spare before I needed to leave for my sister-in-law's house (so just enough time to get her dressed and in the car).

And when I crept in to her room and took off her nappy, I noticed some spots. And then I noticed them on her legs. And then I took her shirt off and saw them on her arms and front and back.

Greaaaaaaaaaaat.

From what I could pull together online, her rash wasn't dissapearing under a glass (as far as I could tell - everything is so much more complicated when it's in relation to a baby!), so I needed to get her seen to. It probably also wasn't a good idea to take her to see her 8 month old cousin.

The earliest we could get an appointment was 9:45, so I got back out of my work gear and in to my track pants.

The doctor said her rash was like the measles, but wasn't measles. She was to keep away from babies and pregnant women (ha!). As I'd 'already been exposed' it didn't change anything for me, but the big thing was to do lots of hand washing.

Overall, she's otherwise fine. She fell on her butt when I came out of my room and closed the door, and then she sat and got sadder and sadder, but a cuddle sorted her out. After lunch, she walked over and put her head on my leg, and when I carried her to bed she rested her head against me the whole time. What followed was just over an hour of chattering in her cot and running around, and only 20 minutes of potential nap time, but that's pretty standard.

I'm glad she doesn't seem too much different - I hope it passes soon and she feels fine. And I'm so glad it's not anything worse.