Our little girl is growing up so fast. She’s becoming more and more like a toddler, and less like a baby every day. I’m so proud of her growth and development, but also a little wistful already for the baby we don’t have for much longer. I’m so happy to see such great qualities in Eloise already. She’s fearless, curious and generous.

We’ve been out and about a lot this month! Cousin Sara came to visit, so we’ve been siteseeing all over the city – such as the Empire State Building, Alice’s Tea Cup, Central Park, FAO. We also went to fun things with Alec while he was on paternity leave, like the Bronx Botanical Gardens. We finished up the end of the month with two stroller tours, of the Guggenheim and Whitney.

Developmental

• Standing with confidence now! Lets go of surfaces and balances on her feet. 
• Cruising around the room using furniture to balance on.
• Dismounts easily from standing onto her cushy rear.
• Takes steps on the walker or if we’re holding her hands.
• Pulls herself up on our legs, the appliances, furniture, everything. 
• Dancing! Bops to music.
• Nods her head for yes and shakes it for no.
• New words: “up” and “yeah”.
• Reaches to be picked up on command. 
• Understands “no”.
• Comes when she’s called.
• Hand-eye co-ordination getting really good. Can pick up things like single peas with her thumb and forefinger and put them in her mouth.
• Very chatty. Doesn’t make any sense yet, but is very serious about telling us things and nodding her head vigorously. 
• Managed to get a block shape into the correct hole in the box.
• Teething, but no teeth broken through yet.
• Much more affectionate. Lots of hugs.

Food

• Eating really well. Three solid meals a day, plus snacks in between. Prefers large chunks that she can hold and gnaw on. Typical meal for the day: Breakfast: plain, full-fat yoghurt, half a banana. Snack: Half a banana. Lunch: Usually when we’re out, so a puree pack of baby food, plus bits of whatever I’m eating. Snack: rock melon, watermelon, cheese. Dinner: Leftovers from food I’ve cooked for myself and Alec, like pasta, steamed vegetables, baked vegetables, veggie burger patty. 
• Getting much better at drinking water from a cup and water bottle. 

• We completed sleep training with success. Eloise started sleeping from 7pm – 6:30-7:30am. AMAZING. We had a few nights where she woke at 6am, or at 10:30pm, but for the most part, it seems like our sleep issues have been solved.
• Naps: Down to two naps a day. One at around 8:30-9am for anywhere from 1 – 2 hours, and 12:30pm for about 45mins to an hour a half. 

Empire State Building.

A lot happening this month! Eloise’s first Father’s Day, a few trips to Governor’s Island, lunch at Balthazar, first trip to Prada Soho,  and lots of music classes.

On the less fun side, we had our first trip to the ER this month. We’d been at Governor’s Island during the day and Eloise was playing in the grass. Later on that evening, she wouldn’t feed at 6:30pm, and at 10:30pm. She would latch on, then pull off and cry. We tried to get her to drink water, expressed milk, you name it. At 3am when she still wouldn’t feed I was so worried I called the emergency room at the hospital and they said to bring her in. Two hours later they examined her and found A LEAF stuck in her top palate that was stopping her sucking. Poor baby! I had thought she was doing funny things with her mouth the night before and had had Alec get a torch so we could look in her mouth but I couldn’t see anything. I’m watching her like a hawk now. No more leaves, that’s for sure. 


Developmental

• Started giving us proper hugs!
• Outgrew her baby bath and started taking baths in the big bath.
• Purposefully saying “mum”
• Answers to her name, responds to being told “no”.
• Turning pages of books for us when we read to her.
• Pointing at things she wants. Which is everything – pointing non stop at people on the street, objects, animals, and at her parents.
• Really noticing objects when they’re gone. Will look for toys or items we take away or that she’s dropped. Looks for me at night when she wakes up and I’m not there, calling “mama”.
• Super fast crawling! All over the house. Follows us around from room to room.
• New words this month: “hi, “baby”
• Babbling a lot more, trying to communicate.
• Hand-eye co-ordination really improved a lot – after trying for a week to pick up a small block and getting frustrated when she knocked it over instead, able to use the pincer gasp to pick up small blocks and manipulate them – usually trying to put them in her mouth, but also starting to notice the shaped holes in the box and trying to put the blocks in the holes.
• Two more teeth! The lateral incisors. 
• Standing up! Started pulling herself up on the coffee table, then on the couch, kitchen table, bath. Wants so stand everywhere. Trying out balance by lifting one leg at a time. Cruising by taking a few small steps while holding onto the coffee table. Leaning on the coffee table and using her hands to play with toys or grab things. 
• Giving kisses – big slobbery open mouth kisses.
• Loves the bead maze – can move single beads at a time and likes moving the gear and lever.
• Getting really vocal, particularly when being told she can’t do something, or when being restrained and she wants to crawl.

Food

• Eloise is eating pretty much everything we offer her. Bagels, entire tubs of yoghurt, fruit like rockmelon, goats cheese, hummus, bread, muffins with vegemite, omelette, scrambled eggs …
• She’s enjoying feeding herself, and loves holding onto big chunks of things like a grilled cheese sandwich and uses her teeth to bite off tiny bits. 
• Eloise’s finer motor skills are developing well. She uses one hand to pick up small items like a rice puff, and uses the otehr hadn to grab her wrist and guide it into her mouth.
• Usually Eloise will let us feed her by spoon, but sometimes grabs the spoon or our fingers with her hands and examples whatever it is carefully before allowing us to put it in her mouth. 

Sleep
After several weeks of up and down sleep, with anything from one wake up a night (a five hour stretch!) to three, we are starting to sleep train Eloise. We started with letting her cry for 10 minutes, with the time period going up by 5 mins each time. If she hasn’t been able to put herself to sleep after that period I go in, feed her, but pull her off the breast before she’s put herself to sleep, laying her down awake. Sometimes she is able to then put herself to sleep, sometimes not. No results after night one, but night two was much better, with her able to put herself back to sleep at 10pm and 4am.