12 Months Update

Cuter?

There are so many things that Amelynne has learnt in the last three months that this post is a little beyond me.

At nine months she was immobile and I could confidently sit her somewhere and she would still be there a few minutes later. Now she never sits down. She can pull herself up from any position, do a fast stomping pace around the furniture and she finally decided that she actually did need to crawl at 11 months so that she cross the gaps that she couldn’t reach. So she can now get everywhere that she wants to, and if you walk within grabbing distance you gain a little hitchhiker. My days are now spent in a permanent conga line of two.

Amelynne’s play has become so much more sophisticated as well. Instead of just holding, looking and sucking, she puts things together and takes them apart, and stacks things, puts blocks together and experiments (all while standing up of course). But the best toys of all nowadays are books. She loves being read to but also spends a lot of time just looking through them by herself. Nearly every time I wonder what she is doing because she is still and quiet, she’s browsing through a stack of books.

While she hasn’t said any more actual words, her language has developed so much. It’s very clear that she understands the majority of what we say to her. She looks at things we mention and knows what to expect when we tell her what we are going to do. Her babbling has also developed a huge range of sounds and intonation.

Talking of intonation Amelynne loves music. She can’t resist dancing when she hears any sort of music and quite often actually sways and bobs in time. She will also have a go at singing as well.

Well that is a vague attempt to record what Amelynne is up to but she is just learning and changing day by day and week by week at the moment. It’s such an exciting time as she is so eager to explore and learn.

Six Months!

I know that Amelynne is actually nearly 6 and a half months old but I’ve been meaning to do a post to mark her half birthday and just haven’t been able to get to it.

So…

In honour of reaching six months I thought I would have a go at recording all the things she has learnt since three months (that I can think of).

  • To sit very confidently
  • To push up high off the floor and scootch backwards
  • To roll over (well she did it at 4mths and not since but still)
  • To shake different toys differently to get the best sound out of them
  • To pass things from one hand to the other
  • To pick up things with only a few fingers
  • To blow raspberries
  • To do two things at once
  • To suck on her toes
  • To wee when we prompt her
  • To put different sounds together to make ‘words’
  • To bang things together
  • To keep doing things that make us laugh
  • To kiss
  • To turn pages of books
  • To help get dressed
  • To reach a long way to get toys and then sit back up again
  • To take things out of containers
  • To tip things out
  • Recognises songs she likes and the games that go with them
  • To be confident and splash in water
  • To take her dummy out and put it back in
  • She responds differently to different people

I’m sure that there are so many things that she has learnt that we can’t even see and things that she has put together that we will never know about. She is watching, and learning, and studying everything so much it’s amazing to wonder what her brain is learning and doing.

Happy half birthday little Amelynne Grace 🙂

Learning and learning

The last week or two has been an amazing time of growing and learning, with huge jumps in skills and developments. It is amazing all that Amelynne is learning. First of all…

Drum roll…

Ta dah she sits!!

? All by myself ?

On Monday she sat for ten seconds on her own. By last night she was sitting longer and self correcting more (that’s when this photo was taken). This morning (Friday) she is just sitting and playing and chatting all at once for really long stretches as though she has been doing it for weeks. The progression is amazing! It’s so exciting!

There is also new skills on the floor. Amelynne has been pushing her whole tummy off the floor on straight arms for about a week and this also means that she is shuffling backwards and swinging around as well. So she is covering a lot more area on her mat and sometimes moving right off it.

If I hold still, maybe they won't see me

She’s also practising her camouflage.

Amongst all the physical developments, her vocal skills are also coming along nicely with lots of squealing, raspberries and newly invented words.

Amelynne’s very sweet new skill is very loving, gentle kisses that just melt our hearts.

This is a video of her third attempt on her new jumper. It’s more like delicate dancing and chatting than bouncing so far, but she has fun.

[flickr video=3217921952]

So phew, what a week, I’m exhausted even if Amelynne isn’t and would rather keep going than sleep. 🙂

PS a bonus very cute photo in her new tshirt.

Geek like her Daddy

Three months old today

To celebrate three amazing months old I thought that I might list some of the things that Amelynne has learnt so far:

  • That milk is yummy and so are cuddles.
  • Who the funny faces that she sees regularly are.
  • That being held sitting up and standing up is fun.
  • How to make very loud chatty noises.
  • Conversations are great fun.
  • That people will always smile back if you grin at them.
  • How to do little giggles when things are particularly fun.
  • How to push up on your tummy.
  • What hands are, and that you can bat at things and grab things.
  • That hands are really good for sucking on and also bringing other things to your mouth to suck on.
  • That dancing is very fun.
  • Having your nappy off is awesome.
  • A dummy means that it is time to go to sleep.
  • How to help pull up.
  • Life is always more fun if somebody is right there with you.
  • How to go to sleep in the bassinet.
  • How to sleep for 7-8hrs at night.
  • Books have interesting pictures to look at.
  • That life is pretty good and that there is so much more to learn.

Plus so many more that I can’t think of, and also probably a lot that I don’t know.

Happy three month birthday Amelynne 🙂