Not yet a toddler but no longer a “baby”

We’ve made it! The Little One is now a boddler – no longer a baby (she’ll always be my baby!!) but not yet a toddler. More importantly, the hubby and I have survived the first year of the world’s most gruelling yet most rewarding rollercoaster ride.

Watching the Little One grow over the last 12 months has been an eye opener. I can’t admit to enjoying every single moment and I am still completely and utterly exhausted a lot of the time but the love and happiness that she brings is just insane.

In the last month the Little One has started crawling at the rate of about 60mph. This is the child that I said was far too lazy to crawl…..HA! Her new found freedom has allowed her to become a little bit more independent and she will now disappear out of the room on little escapades of her own. I fight the urge to follow her to make sure she’s not gnawing on some cables or chewing on some stray bits of crusty food….vacuuming hasn’t been as up to scratch this last year – don’t judge!!

She’s learned to climb the stairs and can complete a whole flight without any help. Coming down is another matter…we’ve tried to teach her the backwards method but to her that means sitting down on a step and falling backwards….or else she employs the method that she uses for getting off the sofa – launching herself forward, arms down first and the rest of the body later in what I can only describe as a sort of commando roll. As she hasn’t hurt herself enough times yet, we haven’t quite managed to teach her that that’s not quite the best way of getting down from anywhere.

She can now touch her nose, ears, head on command. The touching her nose has been Mr Little One’s project for months and, like many things, we swore that she knew where it was but was intentionally keeping us on our toes. I’m sure she’s a wind up merchant in the making and smarter than we give her credit for.

“Stretch up high” means she stretches her arms up above her head….well I say above….I never realised how short babies arms were! Or is this just the Little One? Her arms only just reach above her head at this stage. Makes me chuckle every time.

She can now clap on command – very useful….not. It’s a great way to distract her though especially when midway through a nappy change she decides she wants to head off on some mission. “Can you clap your hands Little One?” and she stops being a pain in the backside and lies back down. Mission nappy change accomplished. No doubt this technique will wear off as soon as the novelty of clapping wears off.

All these developments and changes, yet the best of all of these is the fact that my baby has learned the art of cuddles! The Little One has always enjoyed being carried and has demanded that of us a lot of the time but apart from when being fed, cuddles have not been something that she’s been willing to part with. My wait has been rewarded at last!