I keep meaning to write but it always gets pushed down until it falls off the list, so forget that…even mindless blathering is something, and I know I have forgotten so much in the past 7 months since Victoria was born. I don’t want this journal to just become about the baby, but it’s what I know right now, so let’s roll with it.

I am sitting on the couch at the moment, drinking chai, and bathed in the glow of our sadly un-decorated Christmas tree. It’s pre-lit so I can’t even claim that I put the lights on. I found a burst of energy after Chris’s birthday and hauled the tree out of the basement and wrestled it together on the 8th, but it’s just been looking inscrutable in the corner since then. I suppose there is no real point in decorating it now, but maybe that can be a Christmas Eve thing we can do. We don’t have to worry about the tree being up too long and dying, at least. I remember one Christmas in Almonte when we got a tree and left it to settle over night, and when we came downstairs in the morning to decorate it, all the needles had fallen off!

Chris has his friend Joe and Joe’s brother-in-law over tonight, and they are jamming in the basement. Sounds like they are having a good time. I had baby-wrangling duties (I normally get a break in the evening as Chris feeds, bathes, and tucks in the baby until I assume the mantle again for a later-evening feed and in-the-night settling duty) but I think Victoria took pity on me and seems to have gone to sleep quite nicely.

We think she is teething some more. Her two central lower incisors came in last week, but we think the lower laterals might be making a surprise appearance. Her cheeks are bright red, and she is drooling again, and she even has a weird rash on the back of her right hand and down her index finger. I think it might just be chapped from biting and sucking on it all day, but I will keep an eye on it. She also has been waking up screaming in the night, and starving. This after we had gotten her to a nice stretch of time where she would only wake once and not require food in the night.

What else is the little darling up to? Well, she can wave back if you wave at her. I think she might be making contextual associations too…she tends to wave if she sees you getting your coat on, or if she is bundled in the car seat. The other day we were in Chapters and she would go “UH!” to get our attention, and then when we looked at her, she would wave. She has a really funny habit of going “RRUH!” and pushing down both arms straight. It’s hard to describe but it is so funny to watch.

She’s rolling over from back to front, front to back, and she sits up well unsupported. In the past couple of days she’s started leaning way forward and then pushing with her legs in a kind of frog jump, ending up with a rather forceful bellyflop. She’s also tried to pull herself up by grabbing and pulling on a couple of her larger stationary toys.

If I put her on the ground, with a combo of rolling, pivoting, and pushing with her arms, she can end up a couple feet from her starting location in not too long an interval. She’s gotten up on her hands and knees a few times, but other than that, no crawling yet. Oh, I almost forgot. She does something we call “reverse crawling” where she lifts her arms and legs off the ground and thrashes them, with her stomach the only point of contact on the ground. She looks so intent when she does it, and often will vocalise as if she really thought she was going somewhere!

If she hears music, she does a high, long, droning “eeee” noise of variable pitch that sounds like she is singing. She can say “dadadadaaaaaa” (but has no idea what it means). She can also do “t”, “f”, the greek style “d/th”, “blah”, “mwah”, “pbbbbbbbth”, “ga” and “ba”. She’s started making ingressive noises too! She also knows her name now, which is cool!

She loves going to the pool and “swimming” (thrashing her arms and legs, and being dunked under). She also loves her bath, and splashes like crazy.

She’s discovered the cats and loves watching them, and grabbing at them if they get too close. They were giving her a wide berth, but sometimes now they will get within grabbing distance!

We’ve started giving her solids – her absolute favourite at the moment is a slice of boiled beetroot. She also likes toast fingers with hummus, carrot, sweet potato, broccoli, yogourt, stewed prunes, roasted apples, barley cereal, chicken, and beef.

Overall, she is such a happy baby!