A 10 month update!! I can't even believe I'm typing that!

10 months! Double digits! Let me just bury my head in the sand and pretend this isn’t really happening...because 1st birthday party planning has already begun and that is just such craziness to me! 

The photoshoot was almost over before it began, with Addison ripping her monthly photo sticker off her vest before I'd even taken the first photo! 

and there was lots of crawling off set! but with a little help from big sis and Daddy, we got there in the end! 

She has been learning to do so much this month and I feel like her little personality is really starting to shine! 

There are now high fives, giving kisses, saying hooray, putting her hands together when we say it’s prayer time and crawling begun just the eve before she turned 10 months!

But I think my favourite of all is the pointing! She has begun, quite frequently, to point out things of interest to us! Most often these seems to be lights, lampshades and things happening outside the window! but I just love to see what she gets excited about and wants to show us! It is beyond cute! I think here she's saying 'Look Mom, there's another baby!' or maybe she's noticed we're matching!

There are also a whole lot of new teeth that have come through. Her two main ones up top finally came in, and a third and fourth are appearing too at the top - along with her two bottom ones so she’s building up quite the set! She was basically off food the whole of last month in between all her teething/cold and cough dramas and lived off blueberries so it’s been really nice to see her interested in food again!

I just love watching her eat - she grabs each little bit of food off her high chair tray with such enthusiasm with those teeny little fingers - often dropping them along the way and not even realising! It is quite funny to watch. Up until recently she hadn’t really been a fan of meat but we gave her some sausage and mash and peas and she ate every last scrap and then the next night some pork and veg and she devoured her first roast dinner last Sunday too!



She also tried her first pancake on pancake day! and the picture above shows you just how she felt about it!



I had to sneak this pic in because I still can't get enough of her hair! It just keeps growing, and getting wilder - but I love it! It is always a conversation starter, and she literally has hair for days!

Rummaging has been a prominent feature this month! I used to spread out all her toys on a blanket for her to play with - thinking it would give her easy access to everything. Then when Ella’s party happened I found a big storage tub and whipped all her toys into there and didn’t think anything of it (just to keep them out the way). When it was time to bring them out again I just put the tub on the blanket and Addi started tucking in pulling everything out and oh boy, did she have fun! So that is what I do now. When I need to get some housework done, or baking done, I just leave her beside a whole pile of stuff for rummaging...

whether it’s a full laundry basket...

or a tub of toys...

or a pile of Ella’s things that she’s usually not allowed to play with!

Yes, she’s never happier then when playing with things she’s usually not allowed access to! Cables, the remote control, our phones, the plug! 

At the start of the week she was just doing a couple of crawls and then sitting back on her bottom again when she ventures too far and gets a bit too daring! but she has been crawling more the past few days and I just know once she picks up speed we are going to be in serious trouble with everything she’s going to get into! 

I laughed that out of all the motivating things for her to crawl toward, it was a dog that made it happen! She really does love dogs, when she sees them in a book or hears the woofing in a song she gets so excited.  I have also heard her make a 'woof woof' noise a few times! I just think she loves animals!



She is pretty taken with the fish at our local garden centre even! We're hoping to take the girls to a farm park over the Easter weekend, and I'm so excited to see what Addison makes of all the animals because I know she's going to love them!

One of the biggest milestones this month was starting nursery! It was hard for my Mama heart to let her go so little - she seems so little to be braving a whole new environment on her own! I never had to put Ella into nursery as a baby so this was whole new territory. I didn’t know how she was going to be and if she would cry and it would break my heart the way it did when I used to leave Ella as a 2 year old at playgroup...

but I think the age worked in her favour. So far there haven’t been any tears when leaving her! 



The first day we left her Ella and I snuck out so she didn’t know we had left, but these days I wave her off and she climbs quite willingly into the open arms of her teachers.  On her first day it was an unseasonably warm February day so we were able to take a nice stroll in the sling to nursery - in our short sleeves! what!! Now as I write this today we've had snow, so who knows what the weather is upto these days!!

 The first day I left her was just for an hour while she was doing settling in sessions - when I returned she had been playing with a whole basket of musical instruments, the nursery keys (that are specifically designated for play) and she had been reading the ‘that’s not my’ books which are basically her top 3 things to do! So she had been living her best life and I didn’t need to worry about her being left!

She has been doing lots of fun sensory activities - jelly play, and tubs of flour - and one day when I picked her up they were all sat around the table on the most adorable mini chairs you’ve ever seen eating snack with her little pals - it was the cutest!

She only goes for two afternoons a week, so she’s not in much - but it’s enough that I can get a good head start on my baking for the week now that I’m back to baking full time and maternity leave is over - boo hoo!

I don’t think a month has gone by that I haven’t talked about her love for her big sister, 



but it is all encompassing and just so sweet to see that it always deserves a mention! They are really starting to play with one another now, this was one day when Ella introduced her to bubbles! Love the giggles!

and playing ball, by rolling the ball to one another is another game they like to play.



Laundry basket rides are always fun! although I think Addi was getting a bit squished in this one! She's like 'Mom, what is going on here?!'



They are so sweet together!



Ella was teaching her what to do with the balls at her first time at soft play!



It was a new soft play we'd never been to before, and I thought Ella would be tearing round like a crazy person checking everything out, but no - she just wanted to stay right by her little sister in the boring baby section! How cute!



Addison is also going to have to take up big sister's obsession with Harry Potter, whether she likes it or not! This was a little dress up session for world book day! Addi, of course had no idea what was going on, but was ever the willing model - not even squirming that much when I drew her glasses on with eyeliner! She's a good sport! I think she was pretty taken with the all singing, all noise making wand she had been given so she was like the cat who got the cream!

We are finally being able to get outside a little bit more now we've had a few warmer days...

trampolining together! We can't bounce Addi yet, she just feels pleased to be included even if she's just sitting on there! 

and a beaut sunny day spent at the park feeding the ducks...

and getting pushed by big sis! 

It makes me so excited for spring/summer, and all the new things we can introduce her to! if it would just hurry up and get on with it already!!

A 10 Month Old Update!

TEN MONTHS!! Double Digits?! This is far too crazy to me! because double digits means we are only 2 short months away from a one year old, and it's just not possible that my baby is turning into a one year old sooo soon! 

No time for crying in the corner though, Ella thinks this whole getting older thing is just great!

and the love/hate relationship with Monkey has just become all love! She has learnt to 'give kissies' this month, Daddy and Momma get one before bed and then Daddy tells her to give Monkey a kiss too and Monkey gets three! He's definitely the favourite around here these days! 

Of course the biggest new trick learnt this month was crawling!! Hooray!

Only it proved slightly problematic for the photoshoot! She was either crawling away from the camera, or towards that lovely bunting which she was trying to destroy!

What a little monkey!

and for my final trick - ta da, love those jazz hands, and cheeky smile!

At the beginning of the month we had attempts at trying to get things, in attempting to reach out and push herself forwards she actually ended up pushing herself backwards and further away from the object she wanted so much! Cue lots of ending up under sofas...

She then decided rolling was the way to go! Who need to crawl, everything was achievable with a sideways roll...only when it wasn't, because sometimes the things she wanted were in front and not to the side!


Daddy was her biggest encouragment, continually setting out little tasks for her to try and reach her favourite toys/most desired objects like the keys/remote and mobile phones! Only that didn't end so well when she misplaced our house keys and so I couldn't leave the house for a whole day until they turned up in the Christmas gift wrapping bag!

Oh yeah increased mobility has brought a sudden desire for searching everything! handbags, bookshelves, laundry baskets...and even bins! but really she's never happier than when she gets her hand on paper, and when she can rip it apart! She's like the dog we don't have, when I find half chewed bits of post it's Ella! 

So her first official crawl was on Saturday December 6th, when I was in the shower! but she was happy to repeat it for me when I got out! I think she managed two in a row in total and they were pretty shaky but we still thought they were pretty great!



Fast forward a few days, and she was managing to get around a bit speedier...


and these days there's no stopping her! unless you're a big sofa cushion in front of the Christmas tree that she hasn't worked out she can just go round the side of yet!!



We have also had 3 NIGHTS in the past month when she has slept through the night, this is the first time this has ever happened in our household so it's pretty exciting times! We're hoping that number will keep rising too!

I know this picture is so dark, but I had to snap it when I went in to peek on her one night before bed, could she look any more relaxed! The hands behind head was a favourite sleeping position....until she learnt to crawl and now we find her in all kinds of crazy positions in her cot at night time! The first night when we put her down to sleep after she realised she was now able to move around in her cot and was not restricted to lying down (despite being in a baby sleeping bag!) she cried for a whole 45 minutes, and we'd pop in and out to lay her back down again and find her shaking the bars of the cot with tears sobbing down her cheeks like why are you people leaving me here! Eventually we heard silence on the monitor and she'd dropped off to sleep, I said to Byron let's peek in and see what position she eventually fell asleep in - well we went in to find her sitting upright, with monkey on her lap, fast asleep! It was hilarious!

In other news this month, she is still LOVING birds like they are the greatest thing ever!

We bought some bird seed and put it in the planter outside, and she loves to watch the birds all flock in!

We also found a duck pond in the next village which was equally as exciting! There were literally no ducks in sight when we arrived and within 20 seconds of dishing out bread we were mobbed! but Ella was loving it!

She got given a free Chupa Chup at the Indian take away one night! I don't think the guy behind the counter knew babies don't eat lollipops! Anyway she happily licked away, wrapper on, for a good 20 minutes and thought she'd won the prize! 

The rest of the month was spent in the great outdoors! soaking up this amazingly mild weather we've been having!

She is turning into a great little hiking companion, but to be fair she doesn't really have a choice in the matter at this point!

We even got her looking the part with a little Regatta hat and everything!

We are blessed to live in some really beautiful surroundings!

and of course the remainder of the month was all about the Christmas festivities!

We introduced Ella to our tradition of picking out a real tree - she thought it was just as exciting as me! which pleased me greatly!

and she also was just as mesmerised with the lights as I was hoping she would be! I can't wait to take her down south for the real deal later this month!

She joined in our family tree decorating, and by joined in I mean she slobbered over half of all the decorations on there! but whilst listening to rocking around the Christmas tree so all was well!

This past weekend we hiked to some waterfalls!

and got to go check out the Christmas festivities at Betws-y-Coed and ride the mini train!

I wish you could have seen Ella jigging the whole way around the track, she was loving it!!

and let's finish with some giggles with Daddy!


She's still the happiest baby in town! I can't wait to see what she makes of Father Christmas and the rest of the festive fun December brings!!