The heat is on

Bella has been poorly. At first we thought it was just teething again as she always gets horrible nappies when cutting teeth and is a little cranky pants, but last week she had a high temperature which she never gets, even with colds and flu. Thinking it must be more than just teeth we took her into Urgencias at our local hospital and got to see an on-call pediatrician. She said it was an intestinal virus and to feed a bland diet and give her a suspension medicine for a few days. We did all this and she started to get better but today it looks like we're back to square one as her nappies were pure liquid again today. We have another appointment booked for Wednesday so we'll see what the outcome of that one is, although I'm hoping we'll be back to normal before then. Bella is fine in herself now though and has loads of energy and is sleeping well so it seems like it might still be the tale end of the virus, unless it is more teeth on the way. I felt her gums this morning and she has so many new teeth! I felt 4 premolars and bumps further back, so looks like the molars are on the way through too.

In the meantime I'm busy planning for her 1st birthday party which we're holding on Sunday, 6th December. I think I'm more excited about the party than she will be! I can't wait to get cracking on the cake.

Where has my baby gone?

We most definitely have a toddler now! Since Bella got up and went, she seems to have grown up so much in the last week. She's getting so speedy and confident with her walking now and will multi task, by walking and clapping or munching on a bread stick. She appears to have had a large growth spurt too and has shot up in height. I think I have lost my baby and she's not even 1 yet. Maybe time to contemplate another.....!

Bella goes for a personal best!

She really seems to be getting the hang of this walking and today went for a personal best of walking down the hallway. It almost ended in disaster with banging her head on the wall, but luckily her swim bag was in the way for a cushioned fall! She got a little distracted at the end and headed off for a bite to eat with Lola....

I'm completely ready to do walking!

Bella just keeps getting better and better! After the first couple of wobbly steps here and there, she completely surprised us today by "properly" walking, a day before 11 months. I turned round to see a little wobbly baby in the style of Bambi making her way towards me...and now she can't stop! I've posted a video of some earlier wobbly practice steps.

First Steps!

Yes, our gorgeous little Bella decided to take her first couple of wobbly steps tonight all by herself! We'd been practicing walking with her during the day and she was really starting to gain confidence. We even had the video camera pointed at her thinking she was about to go solo....but no, she waits until we're all relaxing before her bath/bed time and then decides to let go from the sofa and take a couple of steps (so cute!) before turning round and then landing right on top of the cat. Poor Lola. For a baby with horrendous cold/cough at the moment she is certainly coming on in leaps and bounds. She was also displaying her free climbing on to the sofa tonight, along with her "proper" method of descent which thankfully has progressed to wriggling back down to land on her feet rather than free-falling head first! Tonight, like every night, I am a VERY proud mommy :)

End of another month...

...and creeping ever closer to 1 year old! Bella sailed through her 10 month check up and the pediatricians words on first seeing her were "bebe gigante!", yes, she is very tall for her age. We went to soft play last week and she towers above all the babies her age and is on par with the ones walking around at 15 months. A lot of people think she is older than she is because of her height and the fact that she's so forward and are so surprised when I say only 10 months. She's standing all by herself, can stand for over a minute at a time, dance without holding on to anything, stand and clap or eat. She fed herself yesterday with a fork for the first time. We helped her skewer the food on and she had no problem getting it in her mouth and pulling the food off between her teeth. She was so proud of herself with big grins all round. She has developed a real sense of awareness too and will interact with the tv. If something funny happens on one of her favourite programmes she will laugh and turn and look at us as much to say...wasn't that funny!

She is teething yet again. I swear we will have a full set by 1. She is now cutting the premolars which are proving to be a bit of a pain all round. When not teething she is sleeping so well still, doing 12-13 hours a night. We are down to one nap a day now, two if she's had a particularly tiring day. We are due to start baby swim classes again on Tuesday and are hoping she finds a new love of swimming this time round as we had to abandon the ones at 3 months due to constant screaming in the water. We are making an effort to go to soft play and mother and toddler group each week as Bella is at such a sociable age and loves interacting with other children, in particularly toddlers as she aspires to emulate them.

Here are a couple of recent photos of the gorgeous one.

September summary

So I've been completely rubbish at updating the blog this month but will endeavour to be better next month! We've had a lot of sickness in the house this month. I had flu, Bella caught it and was so out of sorts. She could barely breathe bless her as her nose was so plugged up so it made eating and sleeping difficult for her. She's almost back to normal but is now cutting back teeth so this has thrown her out of sorts again. One top back one has broken through and we had a day off from teething, only for the other side to be erupting now, but at least she's back eating and sleeping well so blogging is resuming!

Bella is soon to be a 10 month old and such a character. She flies about the place. Crawling is no problem, cruising the furniture is a breeze, walking with her push along walker is going fantastically well and she often stands unsupported now. Just waiting for those first steps...

My little miss independent has decided that puree food is uncool now and she's a big girl and can feed herself. The only help she'll accept from a spoon now is if a yogurt is involved! I can't say I'm going to miss pureeing and freezing all the meals, but it's sad that it's the end of another era of babyhood. She is becoming more like a toddler every day and sometimes I just want to stop time and catch a breath.

She has the cheekiest toothy smile, the most hilarious laugh and a whole repertoire of sounds and noises. Her favourite at the moment is bubba bubba. She fills every day with enjoyment, entertainment and love and I'm looking forward to what October will bring.