15 months

Dear Jazz, 'Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, one step, two steps, tickle under there' - its one of your favourite songs. You crawl upto me and hold you chubby little hand out, your blue eyes pleading with me to play. You tense up in anticipation of the tickles and always collapse into laughter before I even get to that part. As soon as Im finished you push your hand back at me, fingers outstretched, your cheeky smile once again pleading for more. Ive even seen you sitting by yourself, gabbling away as you your own fingers goes round and round the palm of your other hand - so cute sweetie! The other song you love is Twinkle, twinkle little star. You 'sing' along with a sweet, gentle (unintelligable) little voice, twinkle your fingers, point to the sky, and even make a little diamond shape with both your hands. Its the song that can calm you when your cranky, distract you when you want to escape as your nappy is being changed or as we dry and dress you after your bath.

You are cruising the furniture and pushing your little pram around, but as yet have not taken any steps on your own. You will get there in your own time, you have only been crawling about 8 weeks. It would be nice if you walked soon though - its wet outside now, and it would be so much easier if you could hold my hand and walk alongside me! You still love the baby carriers,

and thankfully since you are quite petite, its still comfortable and practical to just pop you onto one of them. You much prefer being carried in a sling or the ergo to travelling in the pram.

You have cut two of your eye teeth, and the other two are really close. Lots of dribbling and yucky nappies, you have even needed the occasional dose of panadol and teething gel to help ease you through them cutting comfortably.

This month you had your first haircut. Just a little tidy up really, you were really good. Yet another one of those baby to toddler transitions ticked off the list! Time is going by far to quickly!

You have discovered that you can climb into your little lounge chair all by yourself. You love climbing in and out of it. You often sit perched right on the edge, your feet on the ground bouncing your weight from the chair to your legs, a big cheeky grin lighting up your face. You look so close to just standing up and walking away - it wont be long now!

I am about to wean you off your morning breastfeed. You dont seem all that interested any more, and I would love the occassional sleep in! You drink a sipper cup of milk at lunch time, so we will give you one of these in the morning as well. I would like to continue our night time feed as long as you want it though.

You love your food! This month you got treated to your first ever babychino! We went shopping with Auntie Vic and Georgia, Auntie Jode and Riley and you all got to have a play in the Mccafe playground and got a babychino and a mini muffin while we had coffee. You were very excited!

Somtime in about the next six weeks you will loose your place as the baby of the family. Vic, Mike & Georgia will welcome their little boy to the family - I cant wait to meet him, it will make you seem like such a big girl having a new born around again!

You still have two sleeps a day at the moment and this makes getting out of the house a little tricky. We tend to spend most of our time at home. We visit occassionally, and get to playgroup when we can. Since we are hear so much Ive been trying my hand at some baking and sewing. Ive made PJ pants for all of you, which were suprisingly easy. I want to have a go at making some little summer dresses for you as well. All four of you kids are happy about the baking! Ive been making a huge batch of cookies each week. Choc chip are a hit with every one, then I made dark choc chip with slivered almonds and apricots (YUMMO), plain sultana biscuits and milo cookies. Ive make a muslie slice and want to have a go at some point making my own pasta sauce to bottle.

Crawling has given you the ability to get where ever you want, and to explore at will. You follow Isaac around the house, trying to get right in the middle of what he is doing. You love unpacking bags and boxes. The boys school bags are fair game if they leave them sitting in the floor with the zips undone in the mornings, as is any other bag you find with in reach. You can unzip them too - that skill is well developed from all the practice you get unzipping every jacket I put on you ! You make a bee line for the remote controls, or the phone if it has been left with in your reach. You know just what to do with them too. Your fingers push the little buttons on the remote as soon as you get near it, and the phone goes straight to your ear. If there is something you shouldnt touch, a stern little ahhhh, is usually all it takes for you to move onto something else.

You still do the covering your ears thing! When ever you are uncomfortable with a situation, or upset, your hands cover your ears, and your eyes open up wide pleading with me to pick you up and return you to your comfort zone. Its a crack up. It happens if someone your not really familiar with walks in the room or picks you up, or if you take a tumble as you are climbing up on to your chair. It is just one of your little quirks!

You are not over interested in playing with toys. You think play is all about having a car in your hand and brooming it along. You love Isaacs cars - especially those that make a noise, or whizz away after you give them a shake. You like having little tea parties with Isaac, although the whole pretend concept is a little difficult for you to grasp. You pop one of the toy spoons into your mouth and look at me with a grin - you know that we dont play like that, you know that Mummy will screw up her face and say " out of your mouth, it Yucky". You just dont quite get why we would want to pretend to eat something that isnt even there!

Im still plodding my way through getting your nursery finished. I need to get your quilt quilted, make some little butterflys to flutter around the birdies on their branch, and make a couple more framed pieces to go in the collection above your cot. You love pointing out the birdies around your room, and love when I blow on the butterflys hanging from your light and they magically start fluttering around. Your room is my favourite room in the house right now. The winter sun streams in the window for a lot of the day, it is uncluttered (unless you open the end robe door, or look at the constant pile of clothes and nappies sitting on your change table waiting to be folded!) and the colours are cheerful but restful. I love that so much of it has been especially made for you by me. I drew the pictures, I took the photos, I made the flowers, the birdies, your name banner and the linen for you cot. There is a nursery rhyme - from a book that was mine as a little girl - framed on the wall, as well as framed vintage transfers, just like were in my childhood room. When ever Im in there I feel a sense of contentment - I hope you feel it to ! (photo courtesy of Isaac - as we try to capture lots more of the everyday moments) My darling little girl, you are such a sweet little thing and we all love you more than you could ever imagine.

With all my love

Mummy xxxx