Amelynne’s absolutely favourite thing at the moment is being outside and going for walks, explores, and playing at parks. I just thought that I might put up some photos:
Cool stuff
I’m having trouble keeping up to date so I thought that I might just try and do some little posts when Amelynne does something cool that I want to share and record for posterity. She is learning so many things and making great connections. Here are three that she has done recently:
Just Walking
Amelynne learnt to walk on Saturday night. By Sunday she was carrying around a couple of blocks and then by the end of the day she was carrying some quite large books around quite easily. On Monday I heard some grunting and banging and then Amelynne emerged from the kitchen carrying her very large highchair tray and looking very pleased with herself!
Blocks
The Dixon fam lent Amelynne a very fancy cube toy that plays different music when certain blocks are placed in the middle. After playing with it on and off for one morning, she had worked out not only where the blocks need to go to make it flash and play music, but which way up they needed to go.
Emotions and connections
I love watching all the connections that Amelynne is making at the moment while sorting out her world. I made a passing comment to her about something being sad and she frowned and made a sad whimpery noise. I was very impressed so asked her if she knew what happy is and she grinned and laughed! I was impressed enough with that but she then went and got her book called ‘How is Baby?’ about emotions and then sat down to read it.
12 Months Update
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.
First Birthday!!
Happy Birthday Amelynne!!!
Well it’s happened, Amelynne has turned one!!
We had a party the week before her birthday with family. She was initially a little shy and intimidated but she warmed up. She was a little overwhelmed by the presents though.
But enjoyed the singing and had some cupcake.
This is on her actual birthday, having a first ride on her rocking horse.
Here we go 'round the ottoman
Last night Amelynne conquered the ottoman! Over the week she has been slowly increasing in confidence and skill, shuffling and moving along the ottoman and then the other day she managed to turn a corner, hooray! Well last night she completed a full lap around the ottoman with much grunting, frustration, and stopping to dance and bob, and with much encouragement from her cheer squad. Here are some photos of the feat in progress:
Then this morning she wanted to get straight to it again (while in her pyjamas and who can resist a bobbing, stepping bottom in a wondersuit :)) so I whipped out the camera again and got some video. So here she is cruising (well wobbling) all on her own…ta dah!
[flickr video=3561431735]
PS If you sing the song she will without fail stop to dance along :).
Nine months update
It’s time for the regular three monthly update on all the amazing skills that Amelynne has acquired. Wow where do I start?
- Language skills! Our small baby now understands English! So far Amelynne definitely knows the words: Hello, hey, high five, shake, bang, up, water, ready, clap, dance, stand, and Mummy. And…we are about 90% sure that she is also using “Mama” in the right context as her first word!!!
- Physical skills: She can do so much more physically than when she was 6 months. She shuffles all over and around her mat on her bottom and has in the last week been moving more and more from her sitting position to a leaning position but then doesn’t know what to do next. Her hand-eye coordination is getting really good and she can now pick up very small pieces of fluff and peas etc in a pincer grip. Her most noticeable achievement in the last three months is that she can now stand by herself holding on to something (sometimes with only one hand). She just wants to stand all the time. Amazingly we actually managed to take a photo of a first! So this is a photo of Amelynne standing by herself for the first time :).
- Playing: Amelynne is often very busy and engrossed in playing now. It doesn’t seem as random anymore, but you can almost see her brain working as she concentrates and works. She loves putting small things into bigger things which means not only constantly stacking and restacking her cups but also putting anything else into her cups or other containers, if it fits it goes in. Her ring stacker is now a breeze and she does it with a very casual air, often even looking in another direction. She will have a go at trying anything that we show her. And when it comes to toys, if it makes a loud noise when shaken or banged against something else then the toy rocks, and if it doesn’t you can make up for the toys flaw by yelling or squealing while you play with it.
A Photogenic day
I was suddenly inspired to take lots of photos yesterday (and she was wearing one of her cutest dresses) and Amelynne was very cooperative. So I just thought I’d share some.
She loved her cubes of frozen yoghurt.
I love this gorgeous Daddy and daughter photo and in case you’re wondering that is a nappy cover on her head :).
Catch up post
I’m really sorry that I haven’t been able to update for the last month or two. So to make up for it I thought that I would cram everything into one big catch up post. So here are the videos, photos and developments from the last two months.
Solid Foods
Amelynne is getting better and better and more enthusiastic about solid food. She is very good at helping and will most of the time refuse to have it unless she is holding and guiding the spoon as well (hmm I think she may have a bit of me in her). Here is a photo of her very first try of food (I told you it was old).
Gorgeous photos
These are just a couple of gorgeous photos that we managed to take in which Amelynne actually smiled rather than giving her classic stunned I’m-having-a-photo-taken face.
You can always tell by her hairstyle when Nana has just given her a bath :).
Playing and learning
Amelynne has learnt so many new skills when it comes to playing, including putting things in other things. Usually this is blocks etc in containers but sometimes it can be putting things in Daddy’s mouth…
[flickr video=3341217994]
(Once again it’s very dark because I didn’t want to interrupt the game by turning on more lights).
We also tried to capture some video of general playing. It’s very hard though because no matter how much I try to hide the camera it always gets spotted and all playing and chatting dries up. Ah well she’s still cute though.
[flickr video=3340278525]
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!!
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.
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.
