I HATE PINK!!!!!!

Here's why. Just because she doesn't wear pink doesn't mean I don't want her to be feminine or have girls' things, I think people misunderstand and think I want to turn her into some kind of tom-boy or goth. I don't at all, I just think the colour is insipid and boring and I would rather have her in a wider range of colours than one. The clothes shops are getting better at providing a variety of different colours. But when you want to buy toys for girls, it is pink all the way, equally disgusting and lazy on the manufacturers part is the only blue option for boys. If you go to the Early Learning Centre website, it is blue and green for boys and pink for girls. Most clothes shops selling babies' clothes have pale blue for boys and pink for girls. Most people want more variety than that. At least the parents of little boys I have spoken to, get fed up too with the lack of choice. This doesn't seem to be as much of a problem in the US, as the people I have asked about it tell me there is certainly more choice and not the same level of princess etc. stuff. One girl told me about logos on her daughter's bibs (for a 3 month old) saying "flirt", "hot babe" on them. They were in a pack and bought as a present. I would've sent them back to the manufacturer asking them why they think it's appropriate to sexualise a baby.

If you read this article which was in The Guardian the day before Alice's 1st birthday you will understand more why I feel so strongly about it and hopefully understand my position. This isn't an issue for me, I just don't buy pink. So I'm really hoping that the lazy designers are going to be sacked soon and they'll get people in with a bit more imagination than, to be a girl you must love fairies that are pink. So that by the time Alice wants to buy her own clothes she will love all colours and want to wear a variety and not feel hoodwinked by huge multi-million pound corporations. Also, it will be up to her what she wants to wear, within reason and decency.

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/family/story/0,,2268921,00.html

Bunny, new shoes and walking

As you can see we have a wee visitor in the garden. The bunny rabbit visited for a few days a couple of weeks ago. Alice was quite excited to see it hopping around the garden. Haven't seen it for about a week or so. We had one in the garden a few years ago. There's a bowling green at the top of our street and that's where all the rabbits hang out.


Also with Alice actually choosing to walk around the place now, she has her first pair of proper shoes. She seems quite taken with them and likes the noise they make on the kitchen tiles.

The video of Alice walking was taken yesterday, pre new shoes. Her tongue hangs out of her mouth permanently. She now has 6 teeth and another one on the way any day.

Old Car Seat and Actual Walking!

What a difference a year makes!!! Alice finally made it to the required 20lbs and moved out of her car seat and into a new car seat this week. She is facing forwards in the car now and really enjoys being high enough to look out the window on car journeys.

























Also as you can see Alice is now taking more than a few very wobbly steps. Apparently it's quite text book to walk by 13 months. So next thing will be to buy her some proper wee shoes. Non-pink of course, so that's Clarks out then.

Tadpoles!!

Here are the tadpoles in our pond. Took Alice out today to have a look and she didn't seem all that impressed with the 1000s there are swimming around. Every black dot you can see is a tadpole. Wondering how many will make it to full blown frog. You'll need to double click on the first one to see them.

New Orleans Jazz in New Orleans

Here's a video of Stuart's Dad (playing the banjo) on his recent trip to New Orleans.



His band (the Liberty Hall Stompers) went across to play in the French Quarter Festival .

Spoons and Walking

Here is a wee video of Alice taking a couple of steps. She is very tentative, as you can see. We spend most of our days with her walking backwards and forwards with this walker.

She also wanted a spoon the other day too, when we were giving her some yoghurt. As we've gone down the BLW route she eats everything with her fingers and doesn't have anything where she would need a spoon. Yoghurt is about the only thing we feed to her, not any more. She does not want us to feed her with the spoon at all, she has to do it and also has to put the spoon in the tub as well. Hence this picture.















An update on our frog spawn. We have tadpoles!!!!! Hurrah, they survived. Not sure why this year. The pond is full of them.

Quite a few firsts

Alice took three steps on her own yesterday!!! She seemed really happy and pleased with herself too. She can stand for ages on her own and stands up and down without holding onto anything. She really does just need the confidence to take those steps and walk. We also put her hair in pig-tails for the first time yesterday. She seemed to enjoy having them put in and they didn't bother her at all. She also has another tooth, so that's 5 now. Also she can now say da-dee and hiya and quite a few other sounds, like ka-ka for stinker (when her nappy needs to be changed) etc. Just a couple of cute wee pics of her pig-tails.

Jelly and the Aquarium

Alice finally got to try some of her red grape jelly. She seemed to enjoy trying to put it in her mouth more than actually eating it. No doubt next year will be very different.


































As a birthday treat, Nana and Grandpa took us all to the Aquarium, which is just along the coast from us. Alice enjoyed looking at all the fish, the seals and the frogs, unfortunately the otters were asleep. Not sure if the trip was really for Alice's enjoyment or Daddy's though.

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.