The first word and word recognition

Whilst Erin has said dada, mama and baba from early it is common and expected that many of people discount those words as the first. I have discounted those. The last few days while I have been singing twinkle twinkle little star I have noticed her joining in at "up above the world so......." Then today I said up and she repeated it. I did it a couple of times and she points to the ceiling when she says it too.

When I ask her where her ear is she points to it. When I ask her where her nose is she points to mine. She is a little treasure and I cannot wait to teach her more.

Erin the food cupboard invader

Today I gave Erin a perfectly healthy snack - chopped pear and an apple rice cake. She half heartedly ate both then rushed off to the food cupboard, hauled out Owens packet of mini smarties, managed to open a box and promptly devoured them one by one. She was not happy about me taking the rest of the bag away from her. I had to implement security measures thereafter!

Party Celebrations

Again I embarked on 1st birthday preparations. Again I put in the same amount of analytical attention. But this time I outsourced the cake to a very competent cake maker, I also outsourced the watermelon hedgehog and the sandwiches. This definately reduced my performance anxiety by at least 50%! The theme was butterflies. The search for the right balloons, the right plates, the right colour bunting and the right selection of eats for a variety of guests was nothing short of mentally draining. Doha is significantly limited in variety and availablity so we had to be creative with what we had. I ended up making the bunting which involved going to the Souq to find the ribbon, going to the stationery shop across town to find the cardboard, borrowing Owens future schools cutter and then putting it all together 4 times. After 4 grocery shop visits I found the dip! Thank goodness I started weeks in advance. We hired the clubhouse and decorated it. Our ususal social circle and their children were invited and so were our neighbours who sit for us on the odd occassion. Brendon coordinated pin the tail on the donkey and Jo did face painting. All the children (except Erin) had a dip in the pool. Erin got a lot of lovely gifts - a singing bear, FP telephone, FP xylephone, floor puzzles and clothes. Happy little people left with party bags in hand filled with stickers, biscuits, tattoo pens, chocolates, pencils etc. to remember their day. We had lots of food left over and enjoyed not having to cook the rest of the day. It was a great day for a special little girl.

Erin is 1 today!

I cannot believe that my baby has turned into a toddler. I put her to bed last night with a great big cuddle and lots of kisses. I still remember the day she decided to enter the world like it was yesterday. We opened presents in the morning before Brendon went to work. Owen loved her presents and thought that it was only right that he played with them first. She got a Winnie-the-Pooh activity table, talking VTech Mirror and a laughing doll. She was very pleased with her gifts. Later in the afternoon we tracked down the Granny on skype to join in the festivities. Erin was given the Dutch traditional cream cake (I substituted it with a cheese cake) and was let loose. She was very proper about the whole event and put her finger into the cake and licked it. I gave her a spoon to help her but there was no real interest in her making a mess. Owen was so impatient he even tried to feed her the cake hoping he would get some when she had had enough. It was a super day with the little munchkin.

Feeding Frenzy

For a while now Erin has insisted that she feeds herself her way. This means tipping out the contents, picking it up in her fingers, tossing it over her shoulder and watching where it lands, applying it to her hair, face, elbows, legs and every other surface possible in one sitting. Oh, and hopefully getting some in her mouth in the process. Then watching with a smirk as mommy cleans it all up.

Look Mom No Hands

Erin is growing in leaps and bounds. She is a really quick crawler on the nice shiny floor tiles and likes to stand holding onto my pants when I am in the kitchen trying to prepare or do something. This last week she has become even more daring and stands unassisted for short periods of time. She is very careful and lowers herself back down to the ground in a squat position. I think she will be good at excercising later in life as her movements are so well controlled.

Let the crawling begin

Erin is 8 months old today. Over the past weeks she has been getting places without crawling. Sort of standing on her feet with her hands on the ground and then sitting on one bum cheek. Today she crawl properly and Brendon was able to watch her doing it on skype. Technology lets him keep track of the milestones she reaches even though he is far away.

Erin continues to do well with her development. She loves Owens toys more than her own, especially the cars and trains, and takes great joy in destroying his built train track. He on the other hand finds this very disturbing and rushes over to get her a toy of her own. He learns quickly.

At the moment Erin has 3 teeth on the bottom gum and 1 emerging on the top gum. Only 16 more to go. Owen got his first tooth at 7.5 months.

Sleep is enjoyed by the whole household at this moment in time. Erin goes to bed between 6 and 7pm. She sleeps until around 2 or 3am then has her milk. She wakes between 5 and 6am and then the day is full on.

Mealtimes are more enjoyable for all concerned. Porridge and fruit for breakfast, vegetables for lunch, a meat dish of some sort for dinner. In between there is cracker bread and bread crusts. She gets most upset if we are all eating at the dinner table and she isn't included, even if she has just had her own dinner.