Madam is getting choosy about her meals

I should definitely not have bragged about Bat's capacity to eat anything and everything. She has got a lot pickier recently. It's not that she seriously dislikes the food, it's just that she may or may not choose to eat it on any given day. So after being obsessed with raisins for months, she now just throws them all on the floor whenever she's given them. The same with toast - she used to scoff it happily and now she turns up her nose more often than not. She had an unbuttered crumpet the other day and loved it, but when we tried it again last night, I had to coax her to finish it and she still ended up feeding me half. The banana fixation is still holding strong but I don't know what we'll do when that's over.

I mean, it's perfectly reasonable if you think about it from her point of view - I'm not always in the mood for a particular food, either - but since she can't tell me what she wants yet (unless it's a "marmer"), we end up throwing away quite a lot of food that she's rejected before we hit on the right thing. Her diet ends up pretty well balanced overall, though not at every meal or even every day. Today her breakfast was a banana, some cold chicken and a bit of the chocolate orange cake I made last night.

I've got a ten pound note burning a hole in my pocket so I may take her out for lunch, either to the pub or the Sainsbury's cafe. She's often better about eating when we're out, I guess because there's stuff to distract her from exerting her mighty power of NO. And I'm pretty sure I deserve a treat after dealing with her through a really whiny week.

More words

I just love the Bat's increasing vocabulary. She's using more words regularly and unprompted - hello when her dad comes in the door, bye when he leaves, blech when she's done a poo (hilarious!), shoe, ears, baby, banana, woof, watch, teeth, yay - but also mimicking just about everything I say, even if she doesn't go on to repeat the word later. So we've recently had birds, trousers, clever, food, plum, poppers (she goes "pop, pop, pop" as I do up her vest after nappy changes, which is ADORABLE) and lots more. The other day she was cruising round the room singing "Oh no! Oh no!" The latest is bum, which is very popular. And this morning I tried her with a bit of Italian and French - she admitted to being bella, and pointed to her pieds.

Oh, and apparently seagulls say woof, or rather "voof" in a slightly Germanic way. Who knew?

First steps!

Sorry for making two posts one after the other, but I think this deserves a special mention. Bat has taken her first unaided steps! She's been doing more and more independent standing lately, and yesterday she just let go of the coffee table and shuffled the five steps over to the TV. I'm as pleased as punch.

At almost 17 months, she's taken her time with this - she's always been that way with gross motor stuff, though. She was at the very late end of normal for rolling and crawling. To be honest, I think she's just more interested in dissecting a minute piece of carpet fluff or playing peekaboo. I can't wait for her to be walking consistently, just because I think it'll open up more activities for her to do outdoors. Of course, it will also mean getting her measured for some proper shoes... there goes another lump of Child Benefit! :D

No!

Bat has learnt how to say "no". Not just the concept (which she's been expressing very effectively for months already, believe me) but the word. I think we just managed our first proper conversation held all in words:

Me - Aren't you going to eat up your tasty crusts?
Bat - No!
Me - Oh, all right then. What would you like to eat now?
Bat - Marmer.
Me - A banana? [holds up banana]
Bat - Yeah yeah yeah!

It sounds like such a little thing but I'm actually quite excited.

Chatterbox

Wow. Can you say language explosion? Bat probably can.

She's picking up and mimicking absolutely everything at the moment. We realised how good she was getting when she spontaneously produced a realistic "me-e-e-e-eh!" on seeing some sheep at Avebury (photos of that day to come, by the way), and since then she comes up with something new every day. I got quite excited when she said "mama" before realising she was talking about a banana. (She'll say "daddy" on occasion but never "mummy", though she will point at me if someone asks where mummy is.) We've had hello - hawwo! - and bye bye, "dut" for ducks, "teece" for teeth, "doh" for toes and loads more. Her animal noises are coming on a treat, with "mow" for cats, "wuv" for dogs and a great big "NAY" for horses, as well as the original sheep sound. Bees apparently go "bschhhhhh" and land on her nose.

I sang "Row, row, row your boat" to her earlier (along with all the new verses that seem to have sprung up since I was little, when did that happen??) and have just overheard her softly chanting "roh, roh, roh, roh, roh. Meh, meh, merramee, meh. Roh roh roh!"

Summer Solstice

I have to say, I think the solstice should be a bit more bloody summery. *glares at clouds* Not least because I've got to walk up to the library this afternoon and return the books that I've been repeatedly renewing online since, um, February. We tried to do some messy play in the garden yesterday with that wondrous cornflour-and-water mixture, but the rain started bucketing down after five minutes and we fled back inside. This is not the June I ordered!

I've been flipping back through our photos of the Bat with a view to getting some printed up for her great-grandparents, who aren't online and get a bit left out of the loop. It's very, very odd to realise how much she's changed - when I look back at earlier pictures now, I'm amazed that she was ever so bald and chubby, but at the time I thought she had tons of hair! Here's a recent shot;

[Image description: the Bat, a pale-skinned one year old with red hair, is sitting in a baby swing in our back garden. She is dressed for summer in a skirt and T-shirt. She is grinning at the camera.]

Here she is just before six months, having her first ever bite of solid food;

[Image description: the Bat, age as described above, wearing a red babygro. She is sitting in an infant high chair with a mouthful of food and pulling a disgusted face.]

Just a few months old, flat out in her Moses basket (to think she was ever tiny enough to fit into it!);

[Image description: the Bat, age as described above, lying fast asleep in a Moses basket that is lined with white spotted cotton. She wears a colourful babygro and is covered with a white blanket.]

And four days old, not long after she came home from the hospital;

[Image description: the Bat, age as described above, fast asleep on her back in a classic newborn pose with fists curled on either side of her head. She is lying in a Moses basket, covered with a white blanket and wearing a red and white babygro.]

TINY PERSON. I had a sniffle over some of her first babygros the other day. They're so little! I still can't believe I was allowed to be in charge of this fragile wee thing, or that I've successfully seen her through the last 15 months. When are they going to realise that I'm not grown up enough?