Ella is 9 months old!

1. How old today:  9 Months exactly

2. Current weight & length:  Just been checked at the baby clinic, she's almost exactly the same as Mia at this age! 9.9kg and 72cm.

3. Recent milestone reached:  She claps hands, she can "ta" things if I ask her to, she's started with a few words, "papa" was first, then "baba", then "mama". Cutest!

4. Next milestone:  Crawling! And hopefully sleeping through the night.

5. How is baby sleeping at night?  Some nights are better than others... it's still hit and miss.  She slept through the night once, a few weeks ago! It was amazing... but of course I lay awake waiting for her to wake up... On average she wakes about 2-4 times, then I just need to give her dummy back and reposition her. Other nights she wakes every hour...

6. Day naps?  She still has three day naps - one shorter nap in the morning, one long midday nap, and then another short late-afternoon nap.  Her awake time is roughly 2-2.5 hours, although sometimes stretch her last awake time til bedtime if needed.

7. How is feeding going? She has 4 milk bottles of 150ml each, and she eats breakfast, lunch and supper, with biscuits or fruit in between for snacks.  She eats really well - she's been pushing away her pureed baby foods in favour of our food, so the last week or so she's been having dinner with us, exactly what we eat, and she loves it!

8. Feeding times?  Not really set times, it's according to her nap and wake-up times...

9. What has been the recent baby highs? I really enjoy this stage. Her excitement, her curiosity, the way she watches her sister.

10. And baby lows? I sure would love some more sleep at night...  Also, separation anxiety seems to be kicking in, the poor body.

11. How is the rest of the family doing?  Good! Hubby's working hard, but he helps so much with the evening bath and bedtime routine, and weekends are great to all be together. Mia's a very good big sister, adjusted well and she's happy.

12. What has been working best recently, baby-related?  Having different "play-stations" set up all over the house.  Ella gets bored quickly. So we play in the lounge, then we move to my room and she plays there, then we go to her room and we read books, play with stacking cups and blocks, then we go sit outside, etc etc.

Here's Mia's update at roughly the same age. Cute to see the differences and similarities in the sisters!

Two big milestones for my two girlies!

This week had this mommy's heart bursting with love and pride. ♥

Mia wrote her name for the first time.  We've been practising for a while, I would write it out and ask her to trace it and try copy it.  She wasn't super interested or keen each time I tried, so I didn't push it, and would just often point out the letters of her name, until recently she started showing me everywhere she saw an "M" for "Mia".  Then on Tuesday she took the blackboard chalk, and proceeded to write her name. Bless! She was so pleased, even more so at her crazy mommy doing a happy dance!

Last weekend Ella said her first official word, "Pappa". She didn't say it specificially to Wyn, but repeated it a couple of times. So cute! Then, on Monday she started with "Mama-mama-mom!" Oh gosh, isn't it just the most beautiful sound ever! My heart. ♥

xx

A quick hello! :-)

Goodness me, two kiddies keep one busy!!  I have a to-do list that I made for December, meaning to complete it before the new year... still haven't ticked off half the things on that list!

The days just speed by in a blur of laughter, hugs, frustration, tears, kisses, fun and tiredness.

I'm sad that I'm not doing as many blog updates of Ella's development - I go back so often to read about Mia at the same age as Ella... but that being said, Instagram is such a wonderful way to share and document photos, so at least Ella features on there a lot! (Feel free to look me up on Instagram, my username is JessV_83!)

We're all well, healthy and settling back into routine.

I'll do my best to do blog posts more often, I love my little blog, do love sharing what we're up to in this space!
xx