She's a bottom shuffler

I seem to have missed a few weeks in posting, during which time I have also missed some other things. Sleep would be the first. Young Alice is spouting her two top front teeth, as well as having had a cold/projectile vomiting lurgy. This has added up to a week of broken nights, among them a couple where sleep of anything more than 1 hour was at a premium. On Sunday/Monday, Alice actually settled around 4am, I managed to drop off some time later and then her Dad's alarm clock for boot camp went off. (If it's not one of those pesky Yardleys, it's another). Alice seems to be on the mend now and we have discovered Baby Nurofen for the gum issues.

Other things I have been missing are a name for her preferred mode of transport. From all to whom I describe her creeping movements, whereby she can cross a room using her hands to pull her forward while half sitting, half kneeling, I hear "Oh, she's a bottom shuffler". This must be an accepted phrase that I have missed out on (neither Gina Ford nor the patronising northern Baby Whisperer must mention it), yet it seems common parlance in our circles. So Alice is a bottom shuffler and may well miss crawling. She can cross a room to pull books out of the bookcase and to attempt to get to the nice and brightly coloured broadband cable already, so sees no reason to get onto all fours. She does attempt it a few times a day, but usually face plants in the process.

The other thing that everyone seems to expect Alice to do (apart from to desist calling out at the top of her voice at all times) is to perform "high fives". Twice today she has had an adult palm proffered at her, by a waitress and her swimming instructor, demanding that she "give them five". Alice just looks at them and dribbles. We need to get practising. Two of the other babies in the swimming class exchanged high fives with each other. Yes, they were older, but we need to get in on that action - it was very cute.

She did gain a gold star today at swimming for being the only baby to blow bubbles under water. Finally is a purpose behind all that dribbling and raspberry blowing.

In other news, Alice has attended her first birthday party (one for a child in a garden rather than her real first one for Uncle Tom in the pub) and helped me to celebrate my own birthday, by spending a lot of time with Daddy. Photos to follow. We seem to be so busy at the moment! Plus, I have been using her sleep times to book exciting trips to New Zealand for Easter to use up expiring airmiles, to indulge my new love of Grazia and to catch up on some zeds myself. Can't miss too many of those.