Our little girl is growing up

Puffed up like a prize turkey, I dodged the morning rain as I skipped through the puddles of Sydney on my way to work. Friday 13th February breaks with tradition and marks a lucky day in the Yardley household. It is the second day where Alice has not cried when I have left her at daycare. They said last week that she had Officially Settled In and so I had high hopes for this week. Despite bunking off on Monday to spend the day with the grandparentals, she coped admirably with her return and HAS NOT CRIED when I left for TWO DAYS IN A ROW! Hurrah.

It's a little odd that settling in and thereby paying attention to the daycare routine means that she is now learning to do things without us to show her how. Last week washing her hands; this week, starting to do actions to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and continuing to sing the next line "ba ba ba ba, da da da" when Daddy and I broke off our song to curse another rubbish Sydney driver in the car the other day. Must stop throwing insults and teach her to think happy thoughts - although her quiet singing to herself while we tutted was the very picture of serenity.

While she may not be walking, she is now demonstrating considerable aptitude for feeding herself (which this video sort of shows).

There was a little bit of acting up for the camera, but she has been managing this for a month or so (the feeding, not the acting up - that's been going on much longer) and is getting pretty good at it, despite planting her face in the yoghurt pot at the end of this particular clip. She also enjoys drinking water from a glass, rather than one of the many other types of discarded babycups which litter our kitchen, and shows her more cultured southern roots (ha ha) by sipping nicely and then dipping her little hand in afterwards, using the glass as a finger bowl. Another indication that she has picked up some good habits from her mother rather than bad habits from her father was her point blank refusal to eat a fish finger or Heinz spaghetti last week, shortly followed by greedy demands for more after sampling a prawn. It was a salt and pepper prawn and so an essence of Sydneysider must also be deeply entrenched within her.

We are also pretty much down to one nap. It all happened a little sooner than I would have liked and means that she needs to be entertained through to an early lunch before crashing into her cot at 12ish, but when we started the new routine, it saw her start to sleep a little better at night and to lie in for longer. The last two days have been completely different, however, and she's been up two or three times each night. That's made for really fun days at work this week. Stu has been great as usual, but as usual, I have great plans for "fixing it". These include a new and warmer gro-bag (the last two nights have been pretty chilly) and we have also dusted off the radiator a little early. I can't believe that we were using the fan all night this time last week - crazy weather - but hey ho, whatever makes her sleep (says a desperate, under eye circled mother!)
And finally, this week's new word - "Uh-oh". I guess I should be glad it's not "Twit" following all the time spent in the car with us.