Bish Bash Bosh!

Since starting to pull herself up and toddle around Leila has had a few biffs. We rushed out the bruise cream on her first biff, but since then we've relaxed a bit and a "shoosh" and a rub has been all she's got in return!

Today though was the biggest bash yet as she toddled across the bedroom and misjudged the distance to the bed. She made a lunge for the bed as she go close but managed to miss grabbing it and fell infront of it - whacking her head on the woiden frame. It was a proper whack and followed by proper, full face wailing :-(

Cuddles, kisses, cold compress and bruise cream followed, but they couldn't stop her eyebrow looking like she is permanently inquisitive.  Poor thing.

Date Night(s)

What with staying with grandparents all summer, we have been offered a very reasonable baby sitting service! Things haven't always gone that smoothly though, as Leila's sleeping has been a bit off since we got to the UK.  Here though, are our top 5 Date Night experiences.

5. The Perfect Timing. This was third time lucky for Granny babysitting and meant we could have a night at the cinema - our first in over two years!  The perfect timing meant that although the film started at 7pm, its 25 mins of trailers meant we could put Leila down at 7pm and get a lift to the cinema just in time! No wriggling from Leila until after we got home allowing us enough time to laugh again at many of the brilliant jokes in Alpha Papa.

4. The Dutiful Grandpa. This was our first night out of the summer and Grandpa Crunch was in charge as we went to the pub for open mic night. Poor Grandpa was so dutiful that he was still up listening to the monitor when we got back around midnight! Thank you, Kevin! And thank you Leila for behaving!

3. The Lock Out. A double date night at the pub for us with Fabs and Sam in Bristol and Granny babysitting.  All was quiet on the Leila front and so a nice evening was had by all. The one mishap was that granny didn't have a key to get back into the airbnb and gramps was asleep and not answering the door or phone! Locked out, granny then tried us again to get in to crash in the spare room but we were in bed already and by the time we had got to the door she was off trying plan C! Eventually gramps woke up and let her in and we were all able to join Leila in slumber land.

2. The Lullaby.  Poor Granny had it tough this night. We knew Leila wasn't sleeping well so planned to be home by 11 to be ready for an early waking from her. We pushed our evening out right to the limit, as we were having such a brilliant night with Team 65, and ended up splashing out on a black cab home to save time. When we got home though we found that Leila had woken an hour ago and was only just falling asleep (now that granny was running out of lullabies to sing her!). Don't know who was more tired out by the experience! Luckily it didn't put granny off the idea of babysitting, but

1. The Favour.  This evening out very nearly didn't happen. A favour had to be called in about an hour before we were heading out! It was the last night of Scott's fringe show and both Grandpa and I wanted to go, so a favour needed to be called in. There had been many offers so we didn't think it would be too hard to arrange. That afternoon though we find that babysitter candidates #1 and #2 are both busy (one only having arranged to go out just 30 min before we ask her!). Time is getting tight and, as grandpa gives Scott a lift to Underground Venues, it looks like one of us will need to stay home later with leila. A brainwave though means we call Betty and find that not only is she free, but she is willing to scoff her tea down and be round before bathtime! So, we find a babysitter an hour before curtain up, and are both able to enjoy the last night of Scott's fringe debut!

Leila's tenth month

Wow, time is going by so quickly now!  This month has been one of adap ptation, walking and "talking" As we contine our travels around the UK.

Leila has proved that she is very adaptable to travelling (being shipped from pillar to post) - something she has done a lot of this summer. Staying in new beds, napping in different places and at different times, different seats for eating, meeting new people the list goes on. This has definitely had its toll on her sleeping - she struggles to nap for longer than 35 minutes and with only two naps a day. She has also shown that she is really sociable once she is comfortable with new people.

We travel back to Cairo in a few days now, and will be returning with a very different baby to the one we left with! She has grown up so much these last two months and we're so glad we got to spend this exciting and lovely time of her development all together. After spending all this time together it's going to be hard to go back to work and to reestablish routines and 'home' life. 

Play / Development
Leila is taking more and more steps on her own now and enjoys walking back and forth between people. It's really exciting to see her progress and there haven't been too many biffs along the way fortunatly.
She is getting better at clapping and does this when she is happy, or sometimes just when the fancy takes her!  She has also started waving and can wave 'hello' and 'goodbye' when the mood takes her. Leila is also starting to be chatty at times and has a range of sounds, pitches and volumes for every occaision!

Sleep
Leila is napping twice a day now and is getting a good 12 hours most nights.  Because we don't want to be getting up at 6 or 7am on our holiday I have taken to bringing Leila in to bed to feed when she wakes in the morning.  Most days she will then doze off after a bit and give us a lie in (till 7.30 or even 8am sometimes!).  This is a bit of a bad habit maybe, but hopefully we can change it when we get back to Cairo.
Leila struggles to fall asleep totally on her own sometimes and so I am nearly nursing her to sleep again (something we tried to stop in February because it meant she was waking at night and unable to get back to sleep without being fed).  However because we are moving around so much we can't do any sleep training until we get back home so we'll need to stick with this for the time being.  She is waking a few times in the night now.  We think that the nighttime waking is because we are travelling so much and sometimes it feels that she isn't hungry, but just wants the comfort of feeding.

Feeding
The reintroduction of dairy into my diet has been going well as we haven't seen any signs of problems with her poops. I have had pizza for the first time in months and Scott made our favourite pasta sauce with a blue cheese and (soya) cream sauce - yum!!
Leila has reduced the number of milk feeds she has a day now and seems to be reducing the amount she takes too.  She only has two daytime feeds now (mid-morning and mid-afternoon, just before her two naps) although she has increased her nighttime feeds. Leila doesn't take much from her evening bottle anymore and we sometimes don't bother to offer it as it falls so close in time to when she has finished her dinner now.

Walky Talky

Leila is becoming a real Walky Talky girl now and is walking independently and making chatty sounds.

Over the last month she has become more confident walking while holding just one hand and it sometimes feels like she is hardly holding on! We have been trying to get her to take a few steps between us on carpet with some success - although she does look a little zombie-like  walking with her hands out in front of her!
Two weeks ago though she initiated a game of 'back and forth' which saw her turning by herself almost and really enjoying the increasing number of steps between us in the front room at Granny's. It was this weekend though that she started showing free will with walking, as she started to totter around her Nanny's house. It was great to see her decide that she wanted to follow Daddy's voice into the kitchen, or to play chase along the corridor.

She still falls on her bottom at times, but is able to negotiate obstacles (like feet!) and change direction,  and of course can pull herself up on whatever is available (mum's trouser leg, the couch etc). We thought that she'd finish the summer being able to walk, which is an amazing achievement for a 10 month old, but are slightly nervous about the implications of a walking baby!!

Leila has always had her quiet moments, whilst being able to make sounds she seems to prefer this to chatter. Her sounds have been rather intermittent, and with meeting so many new people this summer she is often quiet until she feels comfortable.

However recently she has started more constant chatter and sound. We noticed that she seems to 'talk' to objects,  gadgets especially, and this started when we got her her first mobile phone (this is a toy! We finally gave in to save our own phones from her drool). It's really fun and sometimes feels like you're having a conversation! Her favourite sound is 'da' which she uses indescriminatly at the moment.  Quite often her 'babble' sounds like the Crazy Frog though!

Teeth and toes

13 July - After two days of super gringy-ness from Leila in the afternoons, we spied the first spec of white in her mouth this morning.  Months after we first thought she might be teething we are finally there!

16 July - Her bottom right tooth is really starting to come through now and you can feel it (if she lets you get your finger in her mouth!) all sharp and jagged!

27 July - Totally out of the blue we noticed Leila's top gum looking translucent this morning and by the afternoon (when we were able to get a better look / finger in!) we are pretty sure that her second tooth is coming through.  It's amazing that she wasn't gringy at all in the days leading up to this - and pretty funny to think her first two teeth will be 'one up, one down'!

29 July - Teething is in full swing now it seems as the bottom left tooth has been sighted ;-)  Here we go!

In terms of 'toes', since coming to the UK for the summer Leila has become more and more confident at 'walking'.  She has taken a few 'first steps' at all three grandparent's homes but it still feels like momentum that is carrying her forward when she is 'hands free'!

Leila started the summer insisting on 'walking' while holding on to us with both hands and leading her around, but after a week or so we found we could get her to walk holding just one hand as long as she had something else in her other hand to hold!

We have been trying to increase her confidence with the help of a 'walker' (thanks to 'Skip Hunters 110' for that find!!) but the problem has been that the flatest, and most even surfaces, are also the hardest! Hopefully carpet and grassy gardens will mean we can try to get her to take more and more steps on her own with a cushioned surface ready for the inevitable tumbles :-) 

Leila's ninth month

This month has been a month of change - change for Leila in her development, and change of scene for us all, as this month we started our summer holiday!

Development / Play
Leila  remains keen to 'walk' as often as possible and it is really hard on our backs! She can do one-handed walking quite well, especially if we give her a toy to hold in her other hand (as a distraction, rather than a balancing aid!)  This month she has taken some steps on her own.  These have maybe been more like stumbles between us, with momentum carrying her forward, but she is getting there.

This month Leila has been seeing adults a lot more and we really noticed this when we took her to a soft play area in a cafe in Buxton where there were other babies playing.  She went straight up to the other babies there and started to stare (!) and then 'talk' to them.

Leila is enjoying lift-the-flap books at the moment and of course daddy's guitar playing and singing.  We have also discovered a talent for musical egg playing!

Feeding / Eating

Leila is gradually reducing the milk she is taking but is still keeping the same number of feeds a day. She feeds in the morning and before each nap and before bed at night.

Leila is also diversifying the food she is eating at meal times and (sometimes) eating more. She still loves broc, but also is enjoying rice cakes, rusks, cucumber and potato wedges. A great new favourite food is corn on the cob - this keeps her busy for hours as she gnaws away at it with her gums and emerging teeth! We have discovered that if her favourite food is in front of her then that's all she wants to eat and she will ignore anything else!

We finally had out appointment with the specialist this month and were really pleased with how it went. He confirmed a dairy intolerance, but not a dairy, lactose or milk allergy (thankfully).  We can't do any tests at this stage, so what we need to do is gradually reintroduce dairy into my diet and see how Leila responds.  I am starting with butter and hard cheese - fingers crossed!

Sleeping

Leila is waking again for a night feed around 3am. We didn't think the 'sleeping through' would last so this might be a slight regression in that sense, but we also think the fact that we are constantly changing location this summer might be unsettling her. Leila has also been struggling to sleep.

Since being in the UK on holiday, Leila hasn't done many 'long' naps, so we are back to 35 minute breaks which is tiring.  This month though she has gradually changed from three short naps (morning, pre-lunch and afternoon) to just two (morning and afternoon).  This kind of makes lunch time a little easier to plan and gives more time for a morning activity after her first nap.

An added problem with napping and sleeping for Leila this month has been how light it stays at night in the UK (getting dark after 9pm instead of at 7pm in Cairo) and trying to fashion some makeshift blackout blinds to the windows to aid daytime napping.

Travel
So far this month we have been in Cairo, London, Buxton and Cambridge.  We have travelled by car, train and plane. We finally had a good flight with Leila as it was a morning flight and so she only needed to go to sleep for one nap.  Scott got her to sleep in the sling and then managed to transfer her to the bassinet - our meal arrived while she was asleep too which was a bonus!  The longest car journey she has done was the 90 minute drive to Cambridge from London and this was a push for her as she was starting to get gringy towards the end.  She is very happy with train journies as she can look out of the window and sit in the space between us.  However, we have been told that investing in a Family and Friends Railcard will make it cheaper overall for the three of us travel, plus give Leila her own seat, so we'll investigate doing this.

Playtime in the Pavilion Gardens (Buxton)