17 month baby update

I wonder how long I should carry on doing these baby updates. Technically speaking, is Daphne still a baby? She doesn't toddle yet, so maybe she is. In any case, at this rate, I can envision myself continuing to blog about her when she turns 21, which I'm fairly sure she wouldn't be that impressed with...

Anyway, I'll keep going I think, at least until next month (18 months feels like a big milestone - something to do with it being the next clothes size up maybe!), and then maybe I'll have a break until she turns two. Which I am sure will come around in record time. It's crazy how much growing and changing a baby can do in two years (and how much ageing their mum can do at the same time - ha!).

So this month has been dominated by the sleep issue I already wrote about. And I think it's probably related to her naps. I really want to transition her onto one nap, but it's so hard when she wakes up at 5am, and is utterly shattered by 9 - it feels cruel not to put her down for a nap when she's yawning and grumpy and rubbing her eyes, but of course, this just perpetuates the problem, as then her afternoon nap is short as she's not tired enough for a long one, and thus her bedtime ends up being early too... and then we go round again. We try to push her nap back a little each day (15 mins or so) but somehow something will always go wrong - she'll fall asleep in the car, or we'll need her to nap a bit earlier one day so we can go somewhere later, and we just seem to be back to square one. I'm not sure how to solve this. Daphne started at the childminder's last week (more on that later) and she usually puts them all down for a long nap at 12.30. There's no way Daph could survive that long without going mad, so we agreed to let her have a little power nap in the buggy when the childminder walks to their playgroup in the morning, which seemed to work OK with regards to her getting overtired. Because the irony is, of course, that an overtired baby just sleeps worse (more badly? my grammar has deserted me today) and wakes up even earlier the next morning - babies make no sense! My preoccupation every waking moment is ensuring that Daph doesn't become overtired during the day, because that just makes everything go to hell. I am a woman obsessed.

We have the Gro clock but the first time I tried to use it I forgot to set it (didn't realise you had to do it manually every night), and then she woke up at 5am and so I set it then, trying to explain it to her, and it went straight to a great big cheery sun and lit the whole bloody room up, so I've obviously done something wrong. Anyway it made me so cross (little things will do that at 5am) that I unplugged the damn thing and now it lies next to her cot looking forlorn and useless. She's probably (definitely) a bit young to make sense of it anyway, but I was hoping for a miracle, as people in desperate situations do.

I guess the only solution is time, and her growing up a bit and being able to handle longer wake times. So it's a case of sitting it out, like all baby phases, trying to go to bed early (I'm getting better at this but do seethe with resentment at having my grown-up time curtailed in favour of a morning that starts before the dawn chorus) and just praying that the eighteen month sleep regression passes us by. Please god, don't we deserve a sleep break?! We've had it all: colic, split nights for MONTHS, middle of the night poos for MONTHS, a dream feed that persisted past 12 months... and now the super early risings. Let us off on this one thing, pretty please?!

Ahem. Yes, I am a woman obsessed. But onto the good things - Daph seems to love the childminder's. And no one told me how much more you love your child after they've been at the childminder's all day. I didn't cry when Oli took her (hardhearted mum that I am) but I did get a bit teary picking her up, and seeing how happy she'd been playing with all the bigger kids. It's so cute to see that side of her, and see how desperate she is to have 'friends' and copy the older kids. Bless! Made me feel we've been depriving her a bit by keeping her at home with us all day. And of course, it's great (although so weird) to have a day to myself to focus on my own stuff (although we've invariably been washing and cleaning and doing the noisy/dangerous DIY you can't do when she's here).

Not much else to report this month. Still no walking, although she's become a master cruiser, making her way across a room using every available surface to help her. Standing is getting better but she'll still only do it for a few seconds. I did notice this month that she's learnt how to crouch down from standing to pick something up, so clearly her legs are getting stronger. We took her to have her feet measured last week, and bought her her first proper pair of shoes, and we're trying to make her wear them in the house more, as we think they'll help her put her feet flat more often (she still mostly stands on tiptoes, it's no wonder her balance is so off). If she's still wobbly standing at eighteen months I might take her back to the GP, just to see if there are some exercises or something we can do with her to help her, but I'm confident that she'll get there in her own time, as she is still making progress. Baby steps. Ha.

Oh yes! One thing she has finally mastered this month, is learning to clap. About a year after the baby books said she should. Even longer perhaps. It kind of makes me laugh that she just clearly didn't want to do anything to the conventional timeline. But yes, she now claps, on command and at things that excite her, as if to stick two fingers up at Mummy a year ago who was paranoid that her lack of clapping meant something serious was wrong. Ugh, how I wish I could go back and tell myself not to worry about this stuff.

She's as chatty as ever, and keeps stunning me by answering quite complicated questions - for example, we were walking back from the town the other day and about to turn into our road, and I said 'Who are we going to see at home Daph?' and she said, without a second's hesitation, 'Purdy'. Considering she couldn't see the house, or the cat, I was quite impressed with her brain working that one out. Oh and other developments - she is utterly obsessed with Duplo! We got her some for Christmas and she loved it, so we got her a few more boxes and it keeps her entertained for hours. She particularly likes posting the little people through the windows of the 'houses' mummy builds. I actually quite enjoy it too - certainly more fun than rattles and endless stacking cups!

Midweek Musings: Belated Resolutions

Might as well, right?

I'm a bit of a grumpy cow when it comes to actually celebrating New Year's Eve (as I've said before I'm allergic to organised fun), and this year was no exception. However, there's definitely something to be said for feeling refreshed and coming to the year anew, rethinking all that's gone before and deciding on some changes.

So, a little bit late I know, but here are my new year's resolutions:

Lose some bloody weight

Now, I'm not the sort of person who really obsesses about their weight but that's because up until about two years before I got pregnant I could eat whatever I liked and I really didn't put any weight on. But then my metabolism changed completely, and suddenly I understood all the neuroticism surrounding food. When I was pregnant I decided it didn't bloody matter what I weighed so long as the baby was growing (which she wasn't - cue my excuse to eat even more). Then I gave birth and felt a bit horrified by my new figure, and worked a bit to get some of those maternal fat stores off. But then Daph decided to stop sleeping. And we moved house to somewhere where the car is needed to get to most places, meaning I don't even get to go for long walks anymore. And then it got cold and then it was Christmas and I ATE ALL THE THINGS. And now I am about half a stone heavier than I was in the summer, and I actually feel gross. So yes, new year's resolution no 1 is the most boring and predictable one of all but I must stop EATING ALL THE THINGS. Specifically, sugar. And get off my arse more. I'm back doing the XBX plan which I love (apart from the lateral bends which are bloody HORRID), and once the weather warms up, intend to start jogging again.

Stop spending so much money

I'm not terrible with money - I don't really have any debt apart from my mortgage, but neither do I have a pension and I only save enough dosh each year to pay my tax bill in January. From next month I'll be getting less income each month (long and complicated story, but some of my revenue from selling my business was deferred, and this comes to an end next month). So I need to stop buying things on a whim. I am a terrible whim-buyer - I see things I like and I buy them, without really thinking twice. Stupid stuff like coffees I don't really need, a new umbrella because it's prettier than my old one, another lipstick that's identical to one I already own but a different brand etc etc. If frittering money away was an Olympic sport I'd ace it. So I've started a new budget - actually written down all my outgoings on a spreadsheet and given myself a fixed sum each month to spend on crap clothes, beauty etc. It's not much but it should be enough to get by. Just to prove I'm down with the zeitgeist, I'm calling it Mindful Spending.

Read more books

I make this resolution every year. It's pretty obvious. Stop pissing time away on Facebook at night and instead spend more time with my Kindle. Specifically I'd like to read some more classics, rather than just stuff that's in the bestseller lists. I didn't do English A Level (and I call myself a writer - shock horror!) and there are some serious gaps in my reading that I'd like to fill (Oli was disgusted to hear that I'd never read Wuthering Heights last week when we were watching the Bronte programme on BBC... *hangs head in shame*).

Sort out my career

Ah the biggie! I am trying, honestly. I have been totally lost in sleep-deprived motherhood career-wise and I have so many thoughts on it all that I'd love to clarify in my own mind (do I try to find a full-time job? set up another company? continue freelancing in an industry that inconsiderately decided to die on its arse while I was off having a baby? retrain as a librarian? (seriously, have been considering this!) if not then what what what?) and then share, but I don't have time because, well, I'm a mother. So yes, more soon. Hopefully. Once Daph's settled into the childminder!

To sleep, perchance to dream... if bloody only

My beautiful little sleep thief

It's 2017 folks! I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. Usually for new year I make a whole load of decisions about life and how I'm going to handle things going forward, and I start new projects and generally feel motivated to make changes. But this year I haven't had the energy. Mostly, I have realised, this is because I am obsessed with Daphne's sleep. Or more specifically, her lovely new habit: early rising.

It's beyond ironic that you can dream for months of your baby sleeping through the night, believing that once that happens, everything will be fine and dandy and you will be reborn, back to your old self, fizzing with energy all day. HA. Daphne does indeed now sleep through the night, and it's great. To a degree. However, the unwanted side effect of this is that she now thinks the day should start at around 5.20am. And there ain't no getting her back to sleep after that time (we have tried EVERYTHING but unless we get up with her, she screams and screams).

Having my day start with a 5 basically makes me feel like I am permanently jetlagged. It is far more exhausting than being woken in the night. I would actually go back to a 2am wake up, if it meant that the day didn't have to start till 7am, or even 7.30 (what a treat!). It's been suggested that I should adjust my own sleep schedule to accommodate it (going to bed at 9pm or whatever - ugh) but I really do believe that biologically people are wired differently. I am a night owl, and my most alert and awake times are in the evening, after dinner - it's the time I do most of my creative writing. Before I had a baby if I woke before 8, I'd feel pretty knackered for the day. My body clock just does not agree with super early mornings, and when they're pitch dark and freezing, as the heating hasn't even come on yet, then they're even more hideous.

I won't bore you any more with what I've been trying to sort this problem out until I find something that works. When I do, I'm going to patent that shit and market it to all the other sleep-deprived parents of toddlers and make my fortune. This morning she slept til 6am, so there is hope. I think. I pray. I am so jealous of people whose babies sleep from 7pm-7am every night. I am SO jealous. And I don't get jealous.

Good things about 2017: Daphne starts at the childminder's next week. I will have a whole day per week to myself to work. I need to finish my novel, and that really must take priority, but I also desperately want to get another project off the ground that's been bugging me for nearly a year now, and also decide what on earth I am going to do with this blog. But like I said, before my brain can wrap its knackered matter around that little lot, I need to sort out this sleep thing. So please please please - wish me luck (and leave me any suggestions you think might work!)!

Merry Christmas!

When we did our NCT course, the lady running it asked everyone what they were most looking forward to about having a child, and I remember replying 'I only had a child for Christmas' which is a terribly glib and dickheadish thing to say but it was genuinely a major factor for me. I loved Christmas as a kid (yeah, really unusual there I know) and I couldn't imagine growing old and not having a child to share all the joy and magic with (although I don't believe in lying to kids about Father Christmas, but that's a post for another day - Oli and I are already at war about it!). I have therefore been in my element over the past few days and am so excited that this year we are hosting my parents and my sister and having a big family Christmas day in our new house. We actually open all our presents on Christmas Eve, so really Christmas Eve is our Christmas Day, and this year on Christmas Day we're heading off for lunch at Oli's brother's house. So we get two Christmasses!

Last year Daph was too tiny to have any idea what the hell was going on, so we didn't really get her any presents, but this year we've gone a bit batshit and she has her very own personalised Christmas sack and about 30 stocking presents, plus a Mokee Teepee which I can't wait to set up. She's already had a few presents thanks to my aunt and uncle and has definitely got the idea that ripping wrapping paper from things is enormously fun, so I am sure she's going to love opening everything. Whether or not she plays with any of the millions of carefully selected gifts is another matter, but I've realised that pretty much everything about having a baby is trial and error. Will report back...

Before then however, there's a hell of a lot of prep to do and I really need to get off the computer and start cleaning. But just wanted to say merry Christmas to all of you who read this, and send all the mummies in particular lots of alcohol and sausage rolls to get you through the festive season! I'm going to have a little break from blogging until the new year (hands up who can't wait to see the back of 2016?) and so I wish you all a very happy new year too!

And most of all a big THANK YOU for reading and commenting and stopping this working-from-home-sort-of-stay-at-home mum from losing my mind with loneliness. Mwah xxx

16 month baby update

Goodness me the last month has gone quickly! We're edging even closer to the 18 month mark, which is amazing really. During the past month, Daph has been an absolute dream. She's emerged from the recent grumpy screaming phase and is instead incredibly happy most days and incredibly sweet. Which is brilliant. She's even decided she doesn't mind going to the supermarket anymore, and the tantrums have subsided. (For now. I know, as ever, everything is a phase, even the good times).

This month her speech has come on leaps and bounds. She has a whole repertoire of words now, including: tea, Purdy (Percy the cat), Poph (my sister's name*), Daddy, teddy, bath, ball, hi, bunny, poo poo (when she's having her nappy changed), Dee Dee (the model in the Hush catalogue - have I mentioned here that she is OBSESSED with her?!)... I think that's about it. Still no Mummy but I get random variations of things instead, such as Bobby, Uddy, and just Bob, which I think is my favourite. Bless her.

This week she finally started standing without support, but it's still only for a few seconds before it's almost as though her brain figures it out, panics and she drops to her bum. She has an incredibly long back and quite stumpy legs for her height actually, so I am sure that doesn't help. Also, the muscles in her legs don't seem very big (literally, she has quite scrawny legs), but hopefully they'll keep growing and developing! I SO wish she could walk because she weighs an absolute ton, but she's a master crawler and moves at lightning speed, so she clearly doesn't see any great need to start using her feet instead. We measured her the other day and tried to plot her on the red book, and she's on the 87th percentile for her age, which is crazy when she was on the 2nd when she was born! I can't believe how tall she's getting now - the leggings I bought for her in the autumn are all coming up short already, and she's filling out 18-24 month babygrows. Madness.

Every time I do a baby update and I boast how her sleep's been good, the next day it goes to shit. So I am VERY reluctant to tempt fate here but... her sleep has been the best it's been ever in the past week. She's been going down easily at 7pm, and sleeping through until somewhere between 6am and 6.30. We've had a couple of early wake ups (like 5.30 etc) which I still find absolutely killer, but in the past few days it's been amazing really. I'm fairly confident now that I've written this that tonight will be an absolute disaster but anyway, thought I'd mark this time for posterity and to remind myself that it wasn't all totally helpless when I look back...

The one thing we have changed to try to stop her early wake ups (on the advice of my friend and fellow mum Alice) is to wake her up after 40 mins of her morning nap. We never used to wake her - we always let her sleep as long as she wanted and wake up naturally, but this did mean she had her long nap in the morning and then a poxy short one in the afternoon, which is the wrong way round. So now we've been trying to get her to do the long nap in the afternoon instead, and it's a bit hit and miss, but waking her up from her morning nap does seem to have done something weird to her brain and helped her sleep in later in the morning, which is great.

However, I'm fairly sure this rosy patch won't continue as I keep hearing all about the bloody 18 month sleep regression. It's like some awful hurdle looming on the horizon - I can't bear it! I think I'd rather not know. It's also going to coincide with Daph starting at the childminder's, so I'm fairly sure February is going to be an exhausting month for all of us... *tries to think positive - we WILL be one of those lucky families that skips it entirely! we will we will we will!!*

One last slightly weird thing - Daph has started holding her wee in when she has a bath. It's so funny, when we get her out of the bath now, she's desperate to get her nappy on to relieve herself, and genuinely seems so relieved when she can finally wee. My mum thinks this is a sign she's ready to be potty trained but seeing as she can't walk yet I'm not entirely convinced. It's interesting though, and just another reminder of how quickly she's growing up. Sob.

So yes, on the whole, this has been a bloody LOVELY month - Daph is happy, chatty, relaxed and eating and sleeping well. If babies were like this all the time I'd have hundreds of them. Maybe.

*my sister's name is actually Sophie, but when *I* was a littlun I couldn't pronounce it, so I used to call her Pophie, which got shortened to Poph. Pronounced to rhyme with Soph, in case there's any confusion (people always think it's Pop-h or something!)

Midweek Musings: Life updates

Long time no blog. I apologise. If I'm honest, I've been a bit stuck for topics. Now Daphne is older, there isn't so much to write about her on a regular basis (although she's changing all the time, of course, it's all quite subtle now and we've settled into a reasonably happy routine). I'd love to blog about the house but the truth is we've done a big fat NADA to it since we moved in. I don't know how people manage to do up houses with babies/jobs/lives.

But here are a few little updates, just to reassure you I haven't died:

1. We have found a childminder! From January, Daphne will be going to a lovely lady in the village next to ours for one day per week. Even this feels slightly traumatic/scary, but at the same time, incredibly exciting as it means a whole day to myself to do whatever I like! Well, mostly work, of course, but still. I will have time to reply to emails, to plan stuff, to get ahead, to work on my book... I cannot wait.
2. I have finished the first draft of my novel. It's a bit of a mess (a massive mess in fact) but still, I'm really pleased as now I finally know what the story is about, and how to fix it. I had my critiquing session with my group at the Faber Academy last week (we share our first 5000 words with each other and give feedback) and it went really well, which was reassuring. I am sure it's super boring reading on a blog about someone working on a book, but I have and I'm afraid it has been taking up most of my headspace lately, leaving little room for anything else. But I'm going to have a bit of a break from it over Christmas, and then get stuck in with the redraft in January. If anyone's interested as to what it's about, let's just say it's about new motherhood not turning out exactly how someone had planned...
3. And on that note... I've been having a real think about the blog lately. When I first started blogging after Daph was born, it was as an outlet for all the experiences I was going through that felt so alien and new. But now I feel a bit more sorted (not much, but a bit) and also more like I should stop with the oversharing, as if I'm honest, I don't think it'll help me try to relaunch a career (more on that in a minute). So I'm trying to work out how the blog can fit into this new way of thinking. I don't go to glamorous events anymore. My restaurant review days are well and truly over. My life on a day to day basis is incredibly mundane. I'm not one of those supermums who does crafts round the clock with their offspring, providing plenty of blog fodder. I could blog more about interiors, but somehow that doesn't feel like it fits with the content I already have on here (plus there are a gazillion interiors blogs out there already). So yes. I need to make some decisions. I want to know what people find (and don't find) interesting, so if you fancy sharing what YOU want to read about, that would be awesome and very helpful. I try to be honest about motherhood, and these posts do seem to be the most popular, but then I worry I sound like a right moaner... Generally it seems my real life friends like reading the personal stuff as a way of keeping up to date with my life when everyone's so busy, but for those who don't, I'm sure it's a massive snorefest. Pondering pondering... and open to suggestions!
4. Careers. Hmm, I shouldn't write much about this really, but I am feeling so so saddened by the state of my former industry (magazine journalism). I haven't done proper journalism for ages now, just bits and bobs here and there, but still, it was a bloody awesome job while it lasted. I found out the other day that the interiors website I worked on for four years from launch has been rebranded and basically turned into a shadow of its former self, with loads of staff being made redundant. I nearly wept! It is crazy how journalism has just died a death thanks to the internet. So yes, in 2017 I need to start making some firm decisions about what the hell I am going to focus on for the rest of my working life. SCARY stuff. I have written a list of priorities for my new career, top of which is not having to commute into London every day. More on that soon...

Running on empty

No one told me that once you had a toddler on your hands, you'd be covered in bruises. And that every part of you would ache. But it's true. I am literally covered in bruises as Daph is constantly knocking into me, throwing things at my face (my mobile phone has hit me in the eye at least five times in the past two months alone), and generally requiring me to save her from imminent death and thus injuring myself in the process. It is full on protecting a one year old from their many and varied attempts to harm themselves. Since having her, I've had about 300 colds, another bout of norovirus, shut my finger in my car door and lost a fingernail in the process, dropped my (switched on) hair straighteners through my finger tips losing lots of skin in the process, bashed my arm against our banister trying to stop the pushchair from knocking a huge glass-framed picture over (yes, really) and then last week, I topped it all off by falling down the stairs. While holding her.

She now weighs about two stone (not joking), and somehow I managed not to drop her as I fell (meaning she was absolutely fine), but this achievement left me feeling like I've been in a car accident. I have a bruise the size of my palm on one buttock (it's gone purply-black now and is very impressive - I've been sharing bum-selfies with everyone and anyone I know well enough not to judge me), a huge bruise on my elbow where I knocked it trying to lessen the fall, and polka dot bruises all down my spine from where it bumped its way to the bottom of the stairs. It bloody hurts. Every part of me hurts. My neck (which has never not hurt thanks to a career spent hunched over a computer screen) is now a complete write off - leaning down to haul Daph off the floor 1200 times a day means I am rapidly turning into the hunchback of Notre Dame.

I am exhausted. Not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and any other bloody way you can be. I had booked a spa break next week with my sister, and I was so looking forward to it (and the hot stone massage) but unfortunately we've had to postpone as we're going to a funeral instead. That just about sums up 2016.

The upside to all this moaning is that I am incredibly excited about Christmas and the new year. 2016 has been one of the hardest years of my life for so many varied reasons (not the worst, but the hardest), and has also been pretty shitty for most people I know. So all I can think is that stuff is going to get better. The only way is up! Last night, Daph slept from 7pm to 7.20am when we had to go in and WAKE HER UP. I am taking this miraculous event as a sign. Things are going to improve. Just a few weeks left of this godawful year - hang on in there people, we can do it.

Midweek Musings: Simple pleasures

Blame the fact I'm reading The Handmaid's Tale at the moment, blame the fact that November seems to be dragging on unbearably long, blame the fact that I haven't been out for dinner with friends for nearly ten weeks now as I've been totally housebound six nights a week, meaning adult conversation is somewhat limited - whatever it is, I've been in a very reflective mood lately.

The other night, I made Oli do some silly quiz someone had posted on Facebook - a bit like Mr & Mrs, you had to answer questions about the other person. One of them was 'What do you like the most about me?' and, somewhat incredibly I think, Oli said my 'positivity'. I nearly fell out of bed (we were just about to go to sleep). I try very hard to stay positive, but I do have a tendency to moan on - for me a bit of whinging is cathartic and I do love a good rant. Generally speaking though, I'm quite a content person. When I moan I'm trying to make light of things - it's my way of dealing with stuff, trying to turn it into some silly exaggerated joke.

Having said that, I have been trying really hard to be positive lately, which has been really tough, given the state of the world in general. There's an interesting message in The Handmaid's Tale which basically says 'we didn't know how good we had it until it all changed' and that's kind of how I feel about the state of things world-wise at the moment. It's all very good thinking change will be better, but what if it's not, what if it's worse?

Anyway, in order to counteract this rather deep-seated sense of malaise and fear - especially as I have a little one to think of, imagining the world she's coming into is terrifying quite frankly - I've been trying to appreciate the small things in life. Each day, trying to live in the present (which is one of my top tips for coping with life in general actually). I do think having a baby makes you appreciate the simple things - it's a cliche because it's true. I used to be all about fancy events, expensive clothes and handbags and, well... showing off, and while I do still like most of these things (!), they seem to come at a price. But it's the little things that now bring me those small thrills of excitement, like you used to get as a kid.

So, here are a few of my simple pleasures. Things that make me smile. I'd love to hear yours too.

1. Cold walks wrapped in big coats. Watching my breath mist in the air.
2. Online shopping arriving (especially when it's something cute for the baby).
3. The smell of Christmas candles. Candles in general. Let's be honest, they don't have quite the same effect on long summer evenings.
4. Lebkuchen.
5. My daily gin and tonic once the baby is asleep at 7pm.
6. Writing. It's been hard - I've written about 76,000 words now, done over just nine weeks, and am nearly finished with the first draft. But it's so satisfying to be working on something that I feel passionate about.
7. My blow fan heater. Economical it may not be, but god that thing brings me joy. #toastytoes
8. The baby running around naked before her bath every night and being ridiculously excited about it.
9. Getting a decent night's sleep after a year of not doing so. Just waking up and not feeling exhausted is amazing - I will never take sleep for granted again!
10. The Missing. I don't watch much telly at all, but this is addictively good and I get very excited when I realise it's Wednesday and there's another episode on.
11. Christmas coffees - OK, they are responsible for around half a stone in weight gain each year but still. No one has to see my white flabby thighs, it's winter.
12. And on that note... no one has to see my white flabby thighs, it's winter. I don't have to shave my legs every day and faff about with fake tan. Hurrah for low-maintenance beauty.
13. The colour of the leaves on the trees outside my office window. It's insanely beautiful. I have tried photographing them but my windows need cleaning and the pictures don't do them justice. Instead, please enjoy these recent pics by my professional photographer sister. Suffice to say, nature beats everything.

Oh god, have I just described hygge? Shoot me now.

15 month baby update

Hello hello! I'm a bit late with this one, sorry! Daph turned 15 months last Thursday (which was also my mum's birthday) and I kind of forgot until later on the evening. When people ask me how old she is these days I tend to say one and I actually have to think about it if people want the precise number of months - time is rushing past so quickly!

Development wise, not much has changed in the past month. She's still not walking and is showing no signs of starting, but she is much more confident standing now and can stand unsupported for about two seconds before her little legs decide to give up. She's also started cruising around the furniture. The only time I mind about her being behind with this is when we're out and about and I think how much easier it would be if she could walk. That's been the biggest frustration of the last month actually - she has decided she hates going shopping, or being restrained in any way (eg in a pushchair or a trolley). She just wants to be crawling everywhere and anywhere, and doesn't seem to understand why that isn't allowed in the supermarket.

We had a really fun moment on Friday in M&S when she just totally lost it and started screaming at the top of her lungs in the trolley - a proper tantrum. Everyone stared at me. EVERYONE. A little old lady walked past and said 'Oh dear, someone's not very happy are they?' and I wanted to say 'Damn right I'm not, I've had enough.' Daph's screaming is really very very impressive and could probably shatter glass. I remember how, before I had Daph, I used to think 'Oh god, why do people with bratty kids take them to supermarkets in the first place?' and I have to say, I had no good answer for my old self on Friday.

It was so bad actually, that I left Oli to it and took her back to the car. I resisted the urge to weep. I envied the days when people could stick their babies in prams and leave them outside shops without fear of them being kidnapped. (Sort of).

What else what else... oooh, one of the best things is she has finally started feeding herself, which has been amazing. She always 'could' feed herself (eg if I give her a biscuit she knows what to do with it) but at mealtimes she stubbornly used to sit there staring at whatever we put in front of her, waiting for us to feed her. This definitely ties in with her lack of interest in walking - she's figured out that life's easier if you get other people to do stuff for you, and don't trouble yourself with doing anything on your own. But in the last week or so (thanks I think in large part to my mum having less patience when she looks after her on Wednesdays) she's started to pick up food and put it in her mouth All By Herself. The other day she ate a whole (slice of) pizza all by herself, and then followed it up with a mandarin (cut into pieces). It was amazing to be able to eat my own piece of pizza before it got cold, and watch her happily helping herself. There was a LOT of mess, obvs, and I had to leave my OCD hat on the peg, but I've bought her one of those brilliant bibs that is basically like a bib jumper and covers everything, so at least she's not ruining her clothes... I've long given up on the carpet under the dining table (who puts carpet in dining rooms anyway, morons).

As for talking, 'tea' is definitely her first word (she says it whenever she sees a mug), and she's added lots of other interesting sounds to her repertoire in the last month. I love listening to her babble away because now it sounds as though she thinks she's actually saying real sentences, with little inflections that go up at the end, as though she's asking a question. She's also started giving us kisses along with the cuddles. It's all very adorable.

Her sleep is back to normal, although we had a few days of nap refusal which weren't fun. Generally though she's still having two naps a day, one at 9.30am and another at 2.30pm, and then going to bed at 6.30 and is (usually) asleep by 7. However, the time she wakes up each day seems to vary enormously which is weird - the past few days have been 5.45am *weeps* but earlier in the week she was doing more like 6.30 - 7. No idea how to make this more consistent, as she always goes to bed at the same time, and her bedtime routine is identical every night. I guess that some days she's just less tired than others?! She's been sleeping through though, 90% of the time, which is great.

Her sense of humour at the moment is just WONDERFUL, with lots of giggles and cheekiness. She deliberately does 'naughty' things (like trying to escape through the cat flap) just to see how we react - it's VERY hard to tell her off with a straight face when she's chuckling away at you, her little eyes shining with delight.

So yes, on the whole, a quiet month, apart from the screaming which hasn't, er, been quiet at all. I hope this is just a phase, as so many things turn out to be, and eventually she'll cotton on to how wonderful shopping is (yesterday I was in Baby Gap trying to get her some cool new leggings and she STILL had a meltdown, I mean, HONESTLY!) and then we'll be able to leave the house again. Having a toddler to entertain is SO much easier in the summer when you can take them to the park and let them roam free, and I do so miss all our outdoor pursuits... I guess it's time to start investigating some soft play areas. Gulp.

Wonder Week 9 and the need for rules

I'm going to be honest here, trying to write a 90,000 word novel in nine weeks is pushing me to the brink (of something, not sure what). I stare at my laptop on a daily basis and know I should be blogging, but I am totally drained by pumping out 2000 words every night. But today I wanted to write a few words about discipline. Not mine, which seems to be holding up OK no matter how many tempting crappy programmes are on TV. But Daph's.

She's currently in the middle of Wonder Week 9 - I think I've mentioned the Wonder Weeks before, but if not then click on the link to find out more. I was quite sold on their theories when Daph was tiny, but as she's grown, a couple of the 'leaps' have been completely off for us - she's been grumpy when she's not meant to be, and vice versa. But this latest leap (thankfully the second to last) has definitely seen a marked change in her behaviour. She's pushing boundaries all the time (and not in some groundbreaking scientist way, but more in a pushing-her-luck-with-mummy way) and it's quite exhausting. She's whining a lot, is incredibly clingy with me in particular, is sleeping at random times during the day and not falling asleep easily at night, and is generally being quite 'challenging'.

The most difficult thing with Daphne is her patience. Or lack thereof. She's always been quite feisty, and I do like it - rather that than a wallflower - but if we go out to the shops or whatever now, within 10 minutes she's screaming her head off trying to get out of her pushchair, and generally kicking up a stink. If she doesn't get what she wants immediately, she has a meltdown. Yesterday I had grand visions of us enjoying a nice Sunday lunch together as a family, but this went out the window as soon as we plonked Daph in her high chair in the restaurant. She screamed, and bashed her little fists about, leant over the edge nearly toppling over - she was desperate to get out. People stared. I felt embarrassed and regretted taking her. Eventually I grabbed her and she sat on my lap for most of the meal (of which she ate very little, while screaming for no apparent reason as I tried to eat mine). Everything I've read lately has said that this is the prime time to 'lay the groundwork' to ensure that she doesn't turn into a terrible two year old. But I don't really know where to start.

I've downloaded a few toddler books and they mostly refer to using a 'naughty step' system or similar, but all also (un)helpfully explain that it doesn't work until kids are around 2 and have enough verbal understanding to know what on earth is going on. At present when Daph kicks off, we mostly try to distract her as a means of calming her down, but I do often give in for an easy life (eg picking her up and carrying her when she's moaning in the pushchair, taking her out of the playpen when she screams) and I think I'm probably making a rod for my own back. Anything for an easy life. Ironically, I wish I could lose my temper a bit more with her - I hardly ever do, I just get tired - but perhaps I need to raise my voice a bit to let her know 'I'm serious'. On the handful of occasions I have shouted at her in the past, she's just found it hilariously funny, which wasn't really what I was aiming for.

So yes, really this is a bit of a cry for help. If anyone has any tips on how to deal with temper tantrums in 15 month olds, I'd love to hear them! I am going to try being a bit firmer and ignore her whining. My mum has also suggested offering her choices, so for example, if she doesn't want to eat her dinner, rather than trying to force it into her (I have long since realised this never works) I take it away and offer her a mandarin or a yoghurt instead, and usually she's happy to eat one of those (or both). I do understand that everything that's going on in her little head at the moment is related to wanting to be in control and can imagine that a toddler's life is a very frustrating one, but so is a parent's! ;)

Here are some more of the tips we're going to try:

1. Distraction - we've got this one down but it's beginning to lose its effectiveness and I am slightly worried I'm shortening her attention span (eg if she screams in the supermarket, I give her my keys to play with - this used to fascinate her for ages, now they are boring after five minutes...). I think I need to take more toys with us when we're out and about, and should probably get some more board books, as she loves them. Also, I'm thinking of saving some special toys for when we're out and about, so she's not bored of them
2. Sitting with her on my lap facing outwards - if she's screeching or whining for no apparent reason, I'm going to sit with her facing away from me and give her no attention whatsoever. I'm hoping she'll soon figure out the cause-and-effect here. We ignored her when she went through her biting phase and I'm happy to say she's no longer doing that, so hopefully this will work again (although I know that screeching is a whole different ballgame!)
3. Trying to sound strict - altering my tone of voice/facial expression when I say no (in the past I've probably been a bit too mild). And explaining to her why I am saying no, even if it does seem she's too young to understand me
4. Giving her choices - as explained above with mealtimes and also things like what top to wear, which socks to put on etc
5. If she throws something or drops it deliberately, she doesn't get it back, or get another one (eg a biscuit when we're out and about - she quite often drops them over the side of the pushchair and looks at me for my reaction, because she knows it's wrong)
6. Giving her loads of praise when she does something good - we've started this already and it sits with me better than anything else. I've been going ridiculously OTT if she feeds herself nicely, or tries to use the fork herself etc
7. Limiting snacks - so she's hungrier at meal times and eats better
8. Screaming to get out of her playpen / cot - this is going to the hardest but once I've established she's OK and it's just attention, I'm going to ignore her... *gulp*
9. Full-on tantrums - eventually if she has one (I can tell it's only a matter of time), we'll put her in her room on her own (or maybe her cot) and shut the door for a minute. This seems mean to me but I'm hoping will give her a chance to learn to calm herself down

So yes, that's my very rough plan for surviving this phase. As I said, I would love to know of any obvious tricks or tips that I'm missing - please do share with me here or on Facebook!