Finger Food

Sienna has been getting increasingly interested in feeding herself...so today I put her need to grow and develop above my preference for a clean baby during meal times and gave her a piece of pear to destroy.

She absolutely loved the opportunity to play with her food, squish it in her hands, pat it on the tray, run it through her hair and every now and then put some in her mouth. As it was getting to be a very sticky exercise, I swapped the pear for grated cheese and the fun continued...and I've been finding pear and cheese in all the secret places of the high chair that only exist to hide stale food.

Play time with cousins

While Aunty Sue was off enjoying a well deserved massage and pedicure, we got to play with Sienna's cousins Dylan (3) and Mia (12 days older than Sienna). Although Mia was upset that her mum had left (took her about 45 mins to realise) we all enjoyed spending time together.

I particularly enjoyed watching Dylan interact with Sienna. He is so gentle and loving towards her. For a 3 year old boy who is often seen dashing around looking for his next adventure, his tenderness for Sienna and his sister took me off guard. I guess there's nothing like blood ties to bring out love for eachother.

I took a few hurried pics while they were playing...excuse the quality...enjoy the sentiment.

Nearly there...

Sienna is getting very close to crawling. She leans forward as far as she can until she falls onto her belly. She's not quite there but it won't be long now. Here she is trying to crawl while enjoying some time with me in the back garden...

She teeths...

I just knew it! After daring to post that Sienna has started to sleep through the night...she woke up 5 times last night with what I think (and hope) is teething pain. And so it is a dazed mum that sits at this computer to post. Sienna is a bubbly little soul today unaware of her impact on mummy and daddy last night. Gotta love her...

As an aside, Sienna is getting increasingly difficult to take pictures of. Most of the ones I took today feature a grizzly face with a hand outstretched for the camera. She wants to play with it, not have it shoved in her face and then taken away. As you will can see in this pic.

She Sleeps!

Since we have enjoyed the 6th night straight of Sienna sleeping through, I now feel able to post about it with some confidence. She sleeps through the night!!!!! Previous to this miracle we endured 6 nights of waking at 4am and crying until 6am...where I was nearly losing my mind. Sienna has now cottoned on that I am not feeding her at night and she must wait until morning...and she sleeps!

I am so happy with this that Sienna is now treated to a whole new mummy during the day. I'm back to reading books and singing and playing on the floor. The sleep deprived mummy is nowhere near as fun or happy. Even Mick who has been doing our bathroom renovations for the past 5 weeks has noticed the difference in me. Now I just need to retrain myself to sleep through the night. After 5 hours I wake up ready to start the day and it's still dark outside. Hopefully I'll be up to 8 hours sleep a night very soon...mmm 8 hours sleep.

Rockin' and a Rollin'

Today was the first day I have seen Sienna rock back and fourth on all fours and then proceed to make movements forward (like a new caterpillar learning to wriggle along). She has been pushing herself backwards around the floor for about 2 weeks, but today was real progress. She can move forward!

Now I'd better see about baby proofing the house...my beautiful stationary baby has given me quite a repreve until now.

Thank God for the Teletubbies

I'm not particularly proud of this but I have recently discovered the bliss of a quiet baby mesmorised by the television. Usually around 6pmish if Sienna is tired and grizzly and it's been a long day for me I'll put on the Teletubbies for her viewing pleasure.

Granted I only have one episode taped so we have seen the same one several times now. I can recite it verbatim but Sienna is still delighted by the footage of the spectacular peacock showing off it's vibrant feathers and LaLa & Po (yes I now know their names!) marching around the place.

I for one am grateful for the 20mins of silence in a day of constant chatter whilst meeting the ever changing needs of a 9 month old baby. Call it a cop out, call it what you will. I call it bliss...and so does Sienna.

Waving

After several weeks of greeting Sienna in the morning and after every sleep with "Hello" and a wave we were rewarded today with a baby version of hello and an arm that waved...and waved...and waved all day.

Its amazing how they can watch you for weeks and then just one day begin copying you. Luckily for us it's Sunday and AJ was there to enjoy her latest trick. Sienna has also taken to saying "heyo dadde" which we think is clearly "Hello Daddy". Our child is a genius!

9 months today!

Our little girl is growing up so fast. Nine months already. By this stage I would have expected Sienna to be crawling and sleeping through the night...but she's just not there yet. I'm totally fine with her not crawling yet (makes my life a little easier!) but I am keenly anticipating the day my beautiful girl sleeps through the night. As much as I enjoy spending time with her, the 3am catch-ups are wearing a bit thin for this sleep deprived mum.

At nine months AJ and I are getting to enjoy lots of smiles, giggles, blowing rasperries, talking away ("mum", "dada", "Goi, goi, goi" is a favourite but we're at a loss to know what she means) and occasionally surprising me with clapping hands (once) and waving hello (once). She also eats everything I put in front of her and the thing that makes my heart the happiest (only a mum could understand this) she poohs daily now!!!

We can't wait to see her develop over the next few months...when we'll be celebrating a 1st birthday.