Dear Sophia: 13 Months Old

Dear Sophia,

You are a 1 year old now! You’re personality is shining through and we are loving watching you change. The pudgy little limbs you used to sport have been replaced by toddling, long legs and busy hands. You’re so aware of everything that’s going on now – you don’t miss a trick! Here’s what you get up to at 13 months old…

Eating

We’ve done it – we’ve finally done it! We’ve found a food you don’t like; green beans. Which is a bit of a blow as I have nearly a whole bag of frozen green beans in the freezer so I’ll have to get creative with disguising them in food! You’ve been trying them, making a face and taking them back out of your mouth. It’s the first food you’ve ever not liked so that’s not too bad going.

Other than that, you’ve been continuing to eat all we give to you. You have 3 meals and usually 2 small snacks a day which seems to suit you well. You are completely off bottles now and have a warm drink of milk in the morning and evening. Overall we’re so happy with how you eat. Baby led weaning was by far the best choice we could’ve made for you!

Development

This month has seen a big change as you can now…

• Walk! You now toddle around and you’re so pleased with yourself and we are so proud of you!
• Four teeth. You have two teeth on the top and two on the bottom. You look ever so grown up when you are smiling now. You still love to brush you’re teeth too.
• Understand speech. You understand hello, goodbye and goodnight and respond by waving. You understand when we are talking about mum, dad or smudge and look in the right direction. If I say ‘Where’s Smudge?’ you look around the room until you see him, then you wave.
• Naps. You are slowly dropping from two naps a day to one which means mummy has to work twice as fast to get everything done. Now you usually go down after lunch and sleep for a few hours.

Five Favourites at 13 Months:

Favourite toy: You love your push along truck at the moment. You go up and down the room like Speedy Gonzales! Though you enjoy walking on your own you seem to really enjoy pushing your little truck along too.

Favourite book: You had a sound book form Uncle Pat for your birthday that you’ve really been enjoying’'. You like to press the buttons to hear the sounds play.

Favourite food: You’re favourite meal is spaghetti bolognaise at the moment (I’m going to do a post soon on an average week in your tummy – showing which foods you eat).

Favourite activity: Opening and closing things or getting objects in and out of boxes, cupboards, baskets etc.

Favourite thing to do or say: Giving things to people. You like to present people with your toys and food and look at them with a big smile when they take whatever you’re offering.

You’re such a jolly and happy little girl and you seem to be growing up before our eyes at the moment – time goes too quickly!

And that’s what you’re doing at 13 months, our beautiful toddling little sweetpea.

Lots of love from Mummy and Daddy.xxx

2014…Looking Forward

Happy New Year!

 

My 2014 Motto is…

As I said in my previous post, 2013 has been an amazing year, so much has happened! Last year I didn’t make any resolutions apart from growing and giving birth to our little Sophia. This year I thought really hard about what I would like to achieve this year.

I thought it’d be a good idea to write down my New Year Resolutions in the hope it’d make me stick to them better!

In 2014 I want to…

1. Get Active. I want to do more exercise and get fitter. It’d be nice to go walking and swimming more as a family. I’d love to take up running but as I’m so unfit I think that’s a bit too ambitious…maybe next year!
2. Play more. Now Sophia is much more interactive I want to find fun and different things for us to do and make time in the day to really play and have fun with her.
3. Read more books. In 2013 I think I read about two books to the end – one about natural birth and the other about baby-led weaning so not exactly a relaxing read! I’m lucky enough to have a Kindle so really have no excuse! And obviously the library for free books. I’m going to set aside time to sit back with a book and a cup of tea.
4. Spend more time with family. Both James and Sophia and wider family. I’d like to go on more family days out and visit family more regularly.
5. Sort the house. Since moving to our new house we’ve made the main rooms habitable but haven’t really been able to put our stamp on the place. Partly due to money and partly down to just not finding the time or knowing where to start. We’ve also got the spare room to unpack and Sophia’s room to finish off and move her in. Also the garden will need some serious work! We dream of growing our own fruit and veg and to have a couple of chickens clucking around. We’re in no rush but would like to finish as much as we can within the year.
6. Try something new. This year I’m going to start a new hobby; crocheting. I think crochet is really pretty and is something which I’d love to learn and make beautiful things for our home and for gifts. I also want to get on my sewing machine more often to make a few things.
7. Less screen time. Since getting my iPhone a few years ago I feel like I’ve got it glued to my hand all the time. I want to cut down on staring at a screen and just enjoy the moments. James and I have already decided that we will leave our phones after a certain time in the evening and just relax together. Which leads me onto my next resolution…
8. Make time as a couple. Since having Sophia James and I have only been out together on our own twice. This year it’d be nice to get out a bit more together or at least set aside evenings to really enjoy each others company by watching films together or relaxing outside in the warmer weather.
9. Capture moments. I love taking pictures of everything and want to continue to capture memories and continue to learn how to use my camera in order to get the best pictures I can. I also want to be in more of the pictures rather than just taking them. I don’t want Sophia to look back at photos and wonder why I wasn’t in them.
10. Try new recipes. I cook almost all of our meals from scratch and really enjoy cooking but feel I’ve got into a bit of a rut with our menus. I have about 20 cookbooks and I’m pledging to try one new recipe every week in 2014 to widen our cuisine horizon. It’s something I used to do a lot before I had Sophia and was something I’d always look forward to so it would be lovely restart this.

And I think that is enough to be getting on with this year! Hopefully I manage to stick to these as I don’t think they are too hard and they are quite fun resolutions. Maybe I’ll do an update post in a  few months to see how I’m doing.