Firsts...

Here are some highlights from the past couple of weeks. There have been lots of firsts.

First day of the New Year: Yes Anthony and I DID stay up to 12am..not sure why but I'm counting it as an achievement :)

First approach to sand: tasting, touching, seeing...

First paddle in the sea...

First solo swing...

First close encounter with ducks: Niamh gets up close and personal with some ducks. This is seconds before the duck decides Niamh's cracker looks quite nice and plucked it out of her hands.

First tooth breaking the gums...still coming..but more evidence of it there.

First words, saying mum-mum, dad-dad, bub-bub and nan-nan. Not sure if "Grandad" and "Pops" will be next....

Soon it will be first into double digits as Niamh turns 10months soon. Amazing!

First Christmas

Niamh is one lucky girl! She started off Christmas day opening her 3 prezzies from Mum and Dad. After her morning sleep we travelled to Hamilton to Nan and Grandad's for the Parsons' Christmas get together. Niamh got a clacker, beach things, widdles, books, awesome clothes and a teething ring. She let mum and dad have an uninterrupted Christmas lunch by timing her next sleep perfectly.

Niamh got to hang out with her big cousins and watch the kite flying at the park. It was a fun, yummy, happy, BIG day.

With Christmas over for the year we now see the hint of Niamh's first tooth appearing...let's hope it's a happy tooth. :)

All Niamh wants for Xmas is her two front teeth!

4 sleeps till Christmas day but we have already had a run through at Nan and Popsies place. Niamh was the Christmas fairy:

She made light work of unwrapping her presents... :) The boxes and wrapping paper were enjoyed! She was spoilt with a paddling pool, books, toys, bucket and spade and cool new togs and hat.

This month Niamh has started moving....backwards! She has a really stong upper body and can push herself up, she gets her bum up too now and before she knows it, she has crawled backwards. Not the direction she is after since she is trying to reach toys in front of her and ends up further away. Niamh is more like a slow moving caterpillar at the moment :)

We had our 9 month Plunket visit last week (Niamh was 8.5 months). She is now 64.8cm long, weighs 8.4kg and her head circumference is 44.5cm. She is quite short on the 'chart' but I'm sure a growth spurt must be round the corner...hopefully ;-/It would be nice if her height matched her weight, but whos does?? She is such an alert wee thing taking in everything all the time. Niamh has started to say 'words'. She says dada and baba really well and charms people all the time with her smiles. We think we see a cheeky personality emerging. Wonder who she gets that from? :) In the last couple of days Niamh has started to clap independently. She also now leans back to look up and behind her, especially if she is on someone's knee. But have any teeth arrived yet?...NO, not yet.

Anthony was is Aussie again last week for work and so it was just me and Niamh. I was hoping for a very uneventful 2 days on our own, and thankfully that was what happened. No drama, no bed/ sleep issues..simple.

Niamh finished her swimming lessons on Saturday for the term. She has come such a long way and has gained so much confidence in the pool. On Saturday she was doing lots of underwater dipping, got thrown in, was floating on her back (with support) and now nothing seems to phase her too much. She can open her eyes underwater, blinks her eyes when she is about to go under (which tells us she's ready) and spits any water out. Bring on next term which starts in Febrary. Can't wait to get the new paddling pool up and running too.

8 months on...

Where is the time going? It's been a busy month so far and since December has come around, it seems like it's all picked up more speed! We have been up to lots lately. It's all go!

Niamh is not yet crawling. She gets onto her tummy and has a very strong body lifting her head right up. I can tell she really REALLY wants to move by the way she has her legs and arms going for it but the body is stationary. Niamh can get frustrated by this lack of movement but seems that the crawling motion hasn't yet clicked in her brain.

We haven't been giving her any losec for about 2 weeks now and I'm thrilled to say she is having no problem. She still spills a little bit but it doesn't seem to be affecting her at all. Fantastic news there! With the intolerance to cows milk protein, the pediatrician has advised we keep Niamh off all diary until she is over 1 year of age. We are getting the soy formula subsidised which helps since it's a bit more expensive than regular formula. And Niamh has been sleeping through the night for about 3 weeks with NO dream feed. We got her up one night to dream feed her and she was NOT happy! Sooo that ended the dream feed for her and no problems as a result. No teeth yet either.

In the last couple of weeks we've taken Niamh to MOTAT (had free tickets to use) and then last Saturday was Anthony's work do at Rainbow's End. It's not so easy doing a lot of the rides with an 8 month old, but she seemed to enjoy going around the places in her stroller. We went on the merry- go- round at Rainbow's End with her. Santa even came to the Maxitrans picnic and Niamh got her first Xmas present from him- a book! She LOVES books. Apparently she's on the good list!!!

The latest with Niamh is she is now trying to blow raspberries with her lips. Unfortunately she kind of sucks her lips in instead of pushing them out though... She's just started that high pitched squeal again. Fun!! But she's getting really good at saying B..b...bb..bb.bb.bb. she's very vocal and is really good at having 'conversations'.

Not long to Xmas now. 11 sleeps until the Simons' Xmas and 18 sleeps until the Parsons' Xmas. Niamh is ready for her first ever Xmas! :)

Swim, swim, swim

Ready for the lesson

Swimming to the wall- keeping an eye out to see what the other children are up to?

Oh- where did she go? Under the water no problem at all!

Floating on her back

Swim, swim, swim

Morning Mover!

This is how I found Niamh yesterday morning...up the wrong way, diagonal with feet stuck out the cot bars! I have NO idea how she even managed it considering all was tickety boo when Anthony went to work one hour earlier. I love the grin :)

Mover and shaker

It's official! Niamh rolled for the first time all by herself today!! At 7.5 months. Should we be worried... probably :) She's been so close for ages but has always needed a helpful push to get her legs over as they always seemed to get tangled round each other, but today she has got it all working perfectly and can do it no problem now. Tummy time is going well too- no more vocal protesting... well, not immediately anyway...so something must be clicking in that brain of hers.

She's doing soooo well in the pool too. On her second lesson Niamh was going under (with me holding under her arms) and after lesson number 3 on Saturday she is starting to move her legs, stretch out her arms and feel more relaxed in the water. And we're not even half way there. As her motor skills develop more, it will really help what she can do in the pool. The swimming instructor has called Niamh a sponge, taking everything in ALL the time. We try to pop down to the pool during the week to practise the things from Saturday, plus, it tires her out for a lovely long afternoon sleep. Bliss.

Niamh is also sleeping through the night! Another huge accomplishment. I'm confident I can post this without things going backwards as she's been sleeping the whole night for 10 nights now. We dream feed her at 9:30 and she can last from 7pm to 7am. I am a very happy mummy. :)

Niamh loves the music class we go to on a Monday morning with other mums and babies/toddlers. She has been 'doing' the hokey tokey in style- arms and legs flying! A bit of a trick to hold onto at times once she gets going.

We have been out and about visiting most weekends. We went to see Lucy in Taumaranui and Aunty Jen in Tauranga recently. Niamh is a pretty good traveller. 3 hours (with stops) seems her limit at this stage...which is fair enough and she sleeps most of the way thankfully. We also went on her first over night excursion when Anthony was in Aussie for work. I think my parents are still getting over that visit :) (Just kidding!) A few things were apparent after that trip- portocots have a very low bottom to them- not ideal for short people like me; babies who are getting over temperatures can take 2 and 1/2 hours to settle at night and duty free is a wonderful thing.Yay!

Anthony is so busy at work and has been recently promoted. All his hard work is paying off which is great. I, on the other hand, popped into school today to officially hand in my resignation. :-( The right decision but difficult none the less. I have a plan to do some relieving next year but just need to get my CV up to date now. Don't they say a change is as good as a holiday?? :)