Alice's 1st Birthday

Well it was Alice's 1st birthday yesterday. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling too well. We had to come home early from church as she was feeling rather hot and crying lots, turned out she had a bit of a temperature. She slept lots. With some calpol she was able to enjoy opening her presents. For dinner she had her favourite meal, pasta!!! She did polish off a whole plate (she hadn't eaten anything all day) and then finished off a whole slice of her birthday cake (carrot cake, which she loves).

We had Nana and Grandpa (Stuart's parents) and Donald, Caroline and Louise (the Godparents) for a wee get together. She lasted long enough to open her presents and then it was off to bed again.

Bit of a repeat of Christmas. Stuart made her home-made red grape jelly. She didn't have any, so we ate it on her behalf last night with some ice cream, yummy!!!!

Not the best 1st Birthday, but could've been much worse.

Hedgehog

We always thought hedgehogs were nocturnal. This one decided to come out during the day and was having a wee drink of water from the pond. We weren't sure if it was looking for frogs to eat. Unfortunately Alice was in bed asleep, so she missed it, not sure how much impact it would've made anyway. We have a couple of large leylandii at the bottom of the garden and Stuart thinks that's where it's been hibernating.

Headstand

Alice does this all the time now. We say, "are you going to do a headstand?" and she goes straight into this position. Yesterday she let go of the chair she was cruising along, stood for a few seconds on her own and then slowly went down to crawling position!!!

She also has quite a few sounds now. Can you guess which is the first animal she recognises?!! Yep, the pig. Every time she sees a pig (and let's face it she sees a lot of pigs around our house, for those who don't know, Stuart has a thing for pigs, weird!!) she says "ggggg". Her bear "Fraserbear", she says "zazaza". Pancakes, she says "kkkkk", when Pauline drinks a cup of tea; or anyone has a drink of any sort, "ttttttt". She's just moving on to "pppp" for up and shopping and "bbbbb" for brush etc. Alice has moved from "ssssss" to "hasahasa".

We have also done baby sign language with her. Which is just amazing. She now tells us when she wants a drink and when she wants more food. She can sign mummy and daddy and nappy. We really must learn more signs and do them with her. It is such a great tool in helping her communicate with us. Really glad I saw Anna and Steve put it into practise with their girls.

Finding it difficult to keep up with her development at the moment.

Frogs

This is always a strange phenomenon in our garden every year. The frogs are out, getting frisky and laying their spawn. It seems before everyone else in the country. Certainly Stuart's parents in Essex don't even have any frogs in the pond yet!!! Needless to say because they lay so early, it generally dies. How many frogs can you see? I see six.