Christmas Day

This was G's second Christmas. She's grown up a lot since last year, and was able to investigate her sack of presents for herself. She's also got the hang of the idea of taking the paper off her presents, but still needed a bit of help from me to fully get at all of her new toys.

In fact, because she still doesn't have much idea of what Christmas is and why it's incredibly exciting, G actually let me and Mrs J have a lie-in until 9am. That's something that I can't imagine we'll be able to do on Christmas Day for an awfully long time to come.

G also didn't complain as we soon dragged her away from her presents to go into our local village of Dobcross at lunchtime to check out the brass band's carol concert. As it has been for most of the last month, it was well below freezing even in the middle of the day. But under all her winter clothes, G didn't seem to mind too much.

There were quite a lot of families with young kids at the band club, many of them clutching various gadgets and other things they'd clearly unwrapped that morning. G was in the mood for showing off, and crawled all over the room smiling and gurgling. She even bumped into some of her little friends from one of the parent and baby groups I take her to. There was still no proper walking from her though.

G started to get tired so we took her back home for a nap while Mrs J cooked up Christmas dinner. Once G got up later we all sat down to eat. G had a bit of everything on her plate, and happily munched through just about all of it.

The only exception, predictably enough, were the sprouts. As soon as she put one of the little green things in her mouth she made a disgusted face and spat it out. Seeing as me and Mrs J both quite like sprouts, her dislike of them can't be genetic. Maybe we'll try them out on her again next year.

Nosey

Here's G during a walk along our local canal earlier. As the cover on the pushchair suggests, it was raining, and typically G had managed to poke her feet out of the bottom. Even though G doesn't seem to mind getting her feet a bit damp, I should really work out a better way of making sure the cover actually stays where it's supposed to.

Yesterday I took her to interview the manager of the new local supermarket for one of my other websites, Saddleworth News. I left one of the manager's colleagues looking after G in the next room while I started the interview. During the first question I could see the door move slightly out of the corner of my eye, and then I heard the familiar and unsubtle noise of G of crawling gradually towards where I was sitting. By the end of the first answer, G had managed to stand herself up against my chair, and was listening intently to what the manager was saying.

Although it was sweet that she wanted to see what I was doing, I picked her up and put her back outside with the door shut for the rest of the interview. Sometimes that's all that will keep my nosey little girl in check.

Thinking About Walking

G is one year old later this week. She certainly looks a lot more like a toddler than a baby now. The only thing is, she doesn't actually toddle anywhere, at least not without me holding on to one or both of her hands.

This picture shows a typical scene. She's steady enough on her feet, and is barely holding on to the sofa. But try to edge her away and she'll just plop straight down and start crawling. She's been crawling for so long, and is able to go so quickly, I don't think she really sees the point of toddling yet. No doubt once she starts I'll curse the day she ever learned. But then parenthood is full of these little contradictions.

G's singing group has started up again on Fridays, and last week as I looked around the room I realised G was just about the biggest baby there (toddlers go at a different time). This gave G a significant advantage, and she crawled around stealing toys from the other babies, even making off with one poor boy's sock. In fact, I thought she fitted rather too well into the role of playground bully. Hopefully she'll start walking soon, so she'll be the smallest one in the class again.

My Best Friend's Wedding

The three of us spent the weekend at my best friend's wedding, near Aberdeen. I was the best man, but there's no doubt G attracted much more attention than I did, much to her obvious delight. As this sequence of photos shows, G is never happier than when she realises a camera's pointing at her.

Crawling

I went away for the weekend, and came back to find that G had started crawling. Well, when I say crawling, she's able to shuffle forward on all fours for a bit before flopping down onto her tummy again. It's close enough though. No doubt she'll be scuttling about with alarming speed before much longer.

Mrs J made some suitable changes to the house while I was away. G's playpen is now in the middle of the living room with all her toys in, so I imagine she'll be spending a lot of time in there to prevent her crawling all over the house causing chaos.

Crawling might also help G lose some of the comedy pot belly she's developed over the last few months. She was a big baby to begin with and has had a healthy appetite ever since, always finishing her bottles and rarely turning down food. It's not exactly time for a baby diet, but some exercise will probably do her good.

Nearly Crawling

G has turned seven months old, and is now getting worryingly close to crawling. I say 'worryingly' because I fully expect my life as I've got used to it to change again once she starts moving around on her own. I won't be able to just leave her with a toy on the living room floor while I read an improving volume of history (or play Xbox). Instead I'm going to have to watch her all the time, and move all sorts of things out of her reach.

The picture above shows where G has got to in her attempts to crawl. She's worked out how to put her hands in front of her, but she hasn't quite managed to get onto all fours yet. I'm sure it won't be long though.

About a month ago she spent a lot of her time lying on her back trying to roll over onto her tummy, but once she managed that she seemed to lose interest very quickly. Rolling over is yesterday's skill, and it's now all about trying to crawl. G is clearly very fickle. Typical girl.