13 months (and one week!)

To my darling girl,
By far the most exciting thing that has happened this month is that you are finally crawling. Two days before you turned 13 months it all clicked and you were off. I had taken Caleb to the plaza for the day and it was Daddy that got to see it happen for the first time. He was very excited to be able to share the special moment with you. Now the fun begins.

You cut your ninth tooth at 12 1/2 months. The top left molar, once again the amber teething jewellery seemed to provide enough pain relief for most of the time. Although you were a bit unsettled on the night it fianlly cut, and I used a little bit of teething gel on your gum to settle you.

A couple of days after your birthday I decided to take you to the doctor. You were a bit flat, grizzly and not yourself. At first I put it down to the busy weekend with your party etc. then tiredness and/or teething, but my mothers instinct told me it was more, so off we went. You had tonsilitis. After one dose of antibiotics you broke out in a horrible rash, we ended up just treating it with panadol and lots of TLC for a few days. You managed to fight it off eventually. Once you were well again, you had your 12 month immunisations, which thankfully you breezed through with no side effects at all.

Im am loving seeing the relationship between you and Isaac blossom. You spend all day together, and he is relishing in you being able to join in and play with him a lot more now. He is wonderful with you. So gentle and patient - something that we dont often see from him! He is always telling me that "cinta is my best frind" and "Mummy I love cinta". It melts my heart. You really do complete our family Jazz, its hard to imagine what life would have been like if we hadnt been blessed with a fourth child.

You have all these cute little things you do...

You always put both hands over your ears when you hear a loud noise, or your about to cry

You wave goodbye

You love to clap

You dance and jiggle everytime you hear music

You love watching the TV

You crane your neck around things to look for people or things that have moved out of sight

You burst into heart wrenching tears when I arrived to pick you up from Grandmas the other day (you had only been there an hour or so, and were fine the whole time)

You love to sit and pull the toys out of your tub. One by one. Until it is empty.

You stop for a bit of a play if something catches your attention, but the game is the unpacking and spreading out all the toys.

You love listening out for the birdies in the garden, and trying to spot them if you hear them.

You get so excited when the boys get home from school, and then when Daddy gets home from work.

You very rarely will go to sleep in the pram. (If we are out all day I can usually get you off in the ergo carrier, after lots of jiggling and patting)

You love peek-a-boo, round and round the garden, and this little piggy.

Your favourite song is twinkle twinkle little star and you try and do the actions.

You love being carried around by your big brothers.

You have Daddy wrapped around your little finger.

You are will clamp your mouth shut and push the spoon away when you have had enough to eat.

You will scream if the bowl is empty and you havnt had enough to eat.

You love your food, and want something to eat if anyone else has something.

You now have a sipper cup of cold cows milk after your lunch, and only breastfeed morning and night.

You go down to sleep at between 6pm and 7pm and wake anywhere from 6.30am - 8.30am. If its early you often have a feed and go back to sleep for another couple of hours before breakfast.

You are generally an easy going (as long as you can see Mum or Dad) and happy little girl

We had your built in robes put into your room this month. They are wonderful. Its prompted a little redecorating of your nursery. Im making you a new quilt (Im just waitng for some cute birdie fabric to arrive from the US to back it with) and Ive put the wall stickers on your robe that Grandma & Grandpa gave you for your birthday.

You love looking for the birdies in the tree! The blue curtains have gone and been replaced by some double roller blinds.

You weigh ***add weight here*** and are ***add height here*** cm tall. You have changed shape, and your large itti nappies are no longer fitting very well. Ive bought a few other brands to try. This pic is you in one of my favourites atm Its a gorgeous brown and pink floral print bettlebums. Very cute, and a great fit. Ive also got a couple of bubblebubs minkys and CK honeyboys - also both a great fit on you. You have been wearing your babylegs a lot in this weather. They are great for cool mornings, or after your bath, and are helping to protect your little knees a bit while you are crawling around.

My letter is a little late this month as Ive had an aweful cold/flu for the past week. You had a runny nose for a few days but seem to have fought it off. You are still breast feeding , so I guess you would have been recieving lots of antibodies from me. All the boys have had it to some degree as well...only Daddy has managed to escape being infected so far. Yesterday I had both boys home from school, We made a big pot of chicken soup and had a relax and recouperate day. Hopefully we are all on the mend this week.

My little sweetie, I look at you and cant believe how lucky we are to have you as part of your lives. Im trying to hang on tight to those few things that still make you my little baby. Slowly but surely they are disapearing one by one. You will soon be walking, and I guess offically then no longer a baby but a toddler. As eagerly as I await the next stage of your journey, and am trying to cherish every single moment of every day with you my darling.

Love you always

Mummy xxx

Handbag Day

Today I had a handbag day!

Its not often these days that I get to dust off the handbag and take it instead of a nappy bag or Thomas/Bob backpack or a reusable shopping bag stuffed to overflowing with all manner of things to keep a baby and a toddler fed, clean, nappied, watered, with changes of clothes and everything else for just in case!

Today I packed just my purse, my phone, my lip gloss and my list and headed to the plaza. I was desperate for some kid free time, but i decided to take Caleb with me as he needed some new runners. Seriously when did he grow up so much? He is now in men’s sized shoes, and you know what that means - for the privilege of having an extra 1 cm or so of fabric more than the junior equivalent shoe, there is a totally disproportionate increase in the cost !!!! Thanks goodness they didn’t all need new ones! Anyway we finally found a pair that were 'right' (mmmmm he and I definitely don’t have the same tastes in clothes or shoes - Im feeling old!!!!) and that I would (somewhat begrudgingly) fork out the ridiculous amount for. everyone was happy. We actually had a really pleasant day together. We did 'coffee', checked out the shops, gradually ticked things off the list, had a sushi snack at a new sushi bar thats opened up down there, had a go on the massage chairs (man, that was the best 2 bucks Ive ever spent...I will be doing that again!),and then had a really late lunch on the way home.

While we were away the little ones and Nath had a Daddy day. I think its the first time Ive left Jacinta for more than a couple of hours, and guess what she did.....................she crawled for her Daddy. Thats right, finally, a couple of days shy of turning 13 months, she worked it out. Boy is she pleased with herself. Daddy was a bit chuffed that he was the first to see it too :)
Here she is showing her new skill off for me once I got home (hope this works, Ive never put a video here before)



Im so proud of my little princess, but the pride is also a bit tinged with sadness...yet another part of her babyhood has slipped away.

whats making me happy today?

I finally have a built in robe in Jacintas room.

It looks just how I imagined it would.

All along one wall - 3 meters of glorious, inconspicuous storage space. I am so glad I decided against the central door being mirrored.

Now that the room is a blank canvas again, I cant resist a little make over

(LOL yes I know that room has had its fair share of make overs in the past 10 years hasnt it! )

I popped over to The Patchwork Apple on the weekend.

Its been so long since I was in there.

I had forgotten what its like to step through the doors and have your senses overwhelmed by all those gorgeous fabrics and bits and pieces - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh it was so refreshing.

Anyway - these are the fabrics I choose for a cot quilt for Jazz - pink, of course.

The blue curtains are going. Some nice neutral double roller blinds will take their place I think.
The art work needs to be re hung...once I decide which wall.

...and this needs to go on the centre panel of the robe

(a first birthday present from Grandma & Grandpa)

I love the unclutteredness (for now LOL) of the room.

Cant wait till the change table isnt needed any more, Im already hatching plans for something for that space.

Back to being happy. These things just make me happy.

a cute little birdy from an etsy store

a gorgeous little dolly from little Jenny Wren

Just one of my many favourites

another couple of etsy finds while looking for inspiration

for a cushion to make with the scraps from Jazz's quilt.
(sorry I didn't record the shop these things on etsy were from - naughty me)

How cute would my little girl look in this !!!

...makes me want winter to hurry up and arrive, and makes me wish I could knit

the pattern is from here

This bunny from the hip infant makes me smile, just because its so darn cute!

left over birthday cake

What do you do with left over birthday cake?

Cut out a mini cake, redecorate it, and have your own cake smash photo shoot of course!

I really wanted to have my own play around doing one of these on the day of Jacintas first birthday.

So we did! Here are the results...... (sorry there are SO many photos, I could narrow it down any further!)

The cake looks pretty good in the photo - trust me, in real life it looked pretty dodgy!

She loved the cake, but the rest of the day she was a bit miserable. True to form, and just like all her brothers, it turns out she was actually sick on her first birthday. A visit to the doctor yesterday confirmed my niggling suspicions that it was something more than teething or tiredness that was affecting her. The poor little mite has Tonsilitis. We are back off to the doctor this morning, after just one dose of antibiotics last night, she has woken up covered in a rash!

{one}

To my darling little princess,

Happy 1st birthday sweetheart!

One year ago today we welcomed you into our lives. It was a long day. The boys were all very quick labours - I had never experiened pre-labour before. When I had the first tell tale signs of your arrival at 3am, I expected to have you safe in my arms by 7am - not have to wait until 7pm! Having to wait around most of the day with just niggles, and hints that you were on your way was a totally new experience for us. Luckily once you finally decided to get things moving it all happened very quickly.

With a cold shiver I still remember those first few moments after you were born with the cord wrapped tightly around your neck and body. The terrifying feeling of helplessness and fear that settled over us, enveloping us like a heavy fog until we heard your sweet cry for the first time. Then the feeling of total euphoria as we were able to hold you,

and delight in the fact that we really did have a little girl to complete our family. A beautiful little pink bundle we named Jacinta Grace.

You slotted right into family life. Our lives were definatley busier with a fourth child, but it was a wonderful, although at times exhausting, first few months - you completed our family, in a way we never thought possible. The touches of pink here and there, the girly toys, clothes and colours are slowly spreading through our home and lives. Even the Christmas tree got a girly make over of pink, lime and silver to celebrate your first Christmas! The cars, trucks and motorbikes that have surrounded us for so many years, can now be found laying alongside a pink teddy or a dolly. The clothes line is often filled with pretty girly colours, the splashes of pink are evident everywhere. Its funny, I never really liked pink that much. After having three boys I was used to being surrounded by almost every colour except pink - after just one year of having a little girl in the house there is definately a disproportionate amount of lovely shades of pink everything to be found in our house!

At {one} you are ....

...breastfed 3 times a day

...LOVE food, and eat three meals a day, and snacks when ever you see someone else eating.

...refuse to drink any sort of milk/formula/expressed breastmilk from a bottle or cup

...drink lots of water from a non spill sipper cup

...wear cloth nappies during the day, and disposables at night

...wear mostly size 0 clothes, but are starting to move into some of the smaller size 1 tops.

... love playing with the boys toys

...dont crawl yet. You get yourself from sitting to your tummy, can roll over, wriggle around in circles on your tummy, will lay on your back and push along with your feet to move like an upside down caterpillar.

...you looks so cute when you drop your lip and start to grizzle. ...Love holding our fingers and pulling yourself to stand. You think you are very clever when we help you stand up to hold onto something all by yourself....enjoy music and dancing. We went to our first session of music & movement last week and you LOVED it.

...give us the biggest, happiest smiles when we get you out of bed in the morning, or walk into the room

...sleep in a cot, with your dummy and your pink blankie. Sometimes teddy sleeps with you too. You often end up sleeping on your tummy with your legs wedged between the bars. Isaac tells me you need rescuing if he finds you like that!

...have so much fun laughing a giggling with Isaac.

...Enjoy going walking in the pram. You very rarely sleep in the pram though. You like to watch whats going on around you. The other day we went walking and you stuck your arm out to wave at every car that passed us. It was so cute.

...wave goodbye

...say mummum, dad, dadadada, tickletickletickle. Im noticing new sounds all the time

...you love to play games like round & round the garden, this little piggy and peek-a-boo

...you have a morning breastfeed and then usually go back to sleep for a couple of hours. You have a couple of other sleeps during the day as well.

...You tend to be a bit clingly to me at the moment. You cry just about everytime I walk away from you.

...You are a very patient model for Mummy as she tries to learn to use her camera better

...You are a still bit wary of other people, but will go to them as long a Mummy is close by

...You are still more of a baby than a toddler. Im trying to hold on tight to your babyness, one

day I know I will wake up and it will be gone forever

...You are Daddys little princess - he hates to hear you cry. I think you will have him wrapped around your little finger for ever!

...you flap your arms around when your excited, can clap your hands, and you tug at your ears when you are tired.

...you have a bad habbit of grabbing faces and hair

We celebrated your first birthday with a party on Sunday.

It was a lovely afternoon.

Pink decorations, pink food, a pretty butterfly cake, and family and friends to help us celebrate all the wonderful things this last year has bought to our lives. You had a wonderful time, lots of yummy foods, and you were very spoilt with lots of beautiful gifts. I had lots of fun planning your 1st birthday party. Hosting a girly, pink birthday party for my own daughter was one of those things, that until we discovered we were expecting you, I never really thought I would get the chance to experience.

Happy 1st Birthday Jacinta

May your life be filled with happiness. May you always know how it feels to love and to be loved. May you follow your dreams, and achieve your goals. May your life be rich in the things that really matter.

I love you forever my darling little girl

Mummy xxxx