Christmas time again

Hello! I haven't blogged in almost a year. The longer I left it the more I felt like it was too late, that it was over, but I find myself constantly wishing I'd written things down so that I could remember exactly when/what Rose did at different times. And it's no where near too late; Rose is changing and learning new things every day. So I'm back to keep note of all her latest tricks.

Rose is 17 months old. Wow. She learnt to walk around the time of her birthday, which seems so long ago now. So that big milestone is ticked off. She went for the "launch yourself into a run before you can even walk" method, which involved a lot of toppling over, but luckily it was summer so we spent hours at the park every day and she soon became a pro-walker. She was Mrs Independent and took a long time to get into holding mummy or daddy's hand, unlike lots of children who seem to learn to walk by holding both hands, but now she goes through days where she loves holding hands and days where she wont even hold on to cross the road so you have to carry her across kicking and screaming. She knows her own mind! (I'm raising my eyebrow at this funny/polite way of saying what a little madame she can be!)

Oh, and we moved house! We've been living in Otley for around 8 months now, and our lives have completely changed from doing so. Otley is only about half an hour from the suburb of Leeds we lived in before we moved, but it's very different. Our neighbours are mostly elderly people, and a large chunk of the people I see day to day walking around the town would fall into the "retired" age group. It'd be fair to call it a sleepy town. It was hard moving somewhere that we don't know anyone, although because of moving in spring and having a really good summer weather-wise I felt so busy and happy that it didn't really start to worry me until autumn. I did finally start going to some playgroups, so have met lots of mums which is good. Baby groups are very strange social situations, as nice as everyone is there's an odd atmosphere of people comparing/judging each other's parenting skills/children. Which is understandable; it shouldn't be competetive but we each think our child is the best in the world so there's bound to be a bit of competition involved. Plus because it's a small town a lot of the mums have known each other for years. I find it increasingly less awkward, but still have to make myself go. I have met some really nice people, and it's nice to have people to ask parenting questions to and just have some nice small talk, plus the groups are bringing Rose out of her shell and it's incredibly cute seeing her interact with other little people.

There's so many new things she can do I don't know where to start! Rose is starting to talk, which is really exciting. It seems like every day at the moment she is trying to say something new. I can't remember a first word as such, it's hard to pinpoint because I don't know when you call an attempt at making the sound of a word talking. She's been saying "bup" for her cup for weeks, if not months, and of course has mama and dada down. Sometimes she just copies the sound of a word, but sometimes she really "says" things. It's very exciting. Especially at this point where we're the only people who can decifer what on earth she's asking for. I'm sad that one day this special relationship where we are her world wont exist anymore.

Her cutest current new things are saying night night to all of her toys and giving them all a kiss, sometimes even extending the night night kiss to inanimate objects. She's also just started giving me a kiss when I put her in her cot, and smiling about it - which is so cute. Sometimes as I go downstairs and when I turn on the baby monitor it picks her up still saying "night night". She's also just got into talking in the phone, mostly nonsensical babble but she's very good at saying "buh bye mama/dada". Oh and my favourite thing because I taught it to her - when you say "would you like some cheese Rose" she does a smile pose, puts her hand on her cheeks, and says "cheeeeeeeese" like you're going to take her photo. You'd have to see it to believe the cuteness. I couldn't be prouder of how quickly she's learning new skills. I love that for the past few weeks for her bedtime stories she brings the books over to me sitting on her bedroom floor and climbs up on my knee and listens to the whole stories, sometimes doing actions or saying words. It's such a lovely time. Dan does her bedtime stories when he's at home so it's really nice that on days when he's been at work but is in home in time, he gets to have a lovely close time with her before bed.

That seems a long enough update for now. Hopefully I'll blog often and keep up to date with her ever changing character. Photos next time.