On her head...

Well, it was bound to happen sometime.... She was sitting in her small plastic chair thing that doubles as a high chair on the table, and I went out of the room for a moment and with all her wriggling and straining, the restraining part of the chair came loose and she fell out - onto the floor - onto her head!!

She has a nice red mark there now, still visible 6 hours later. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to have a concussion or suffered any other damage - just this bruise, but I feel terrible!!!! Needless to say, she cried loudly for about 5 minutes, then put her head on my shoulder and sobbed quietly for a further 5 minutes.

Ever since, she's been clingy and cried when I've either put her into her gym or sat her on the floor on her own, or left her in her cot to sleep. The only time she hasn't cried while not being held was while we were out shopping (I think the heat and the bustle got to her) and then while she was asleep in the car seat on the way home. Even when she was paddling in the pool this afternoon (which she usually LOOOOOOOVES) she was tearful and unhappy. My poor baby!

I've now glued the restrainer on the chair with special plastics superglue, so hopefully that won't come off again. I know that sooner or later she was bound to fall off something... but still, I feel awful. I know it was my fault and I should never have left her on her own... Thank God she's okay. I don't know what I would have done if she'd broken something or got a serious head injury!!

and here's the evidence

And here are some more photos - of her with Ellie-Mae and Bradley, the other 2 kids that go to the same childminder. Ellie-Mae adores Nellie, and calls me 'Baby's mum'. So cute!

On her back, she did!

Victory for the parents!! YAY!! For the first time EVER in her life, she fell asleep on her back tonight!!!!!!!!!!

To truly appreciate the enormity of this seemingly small event, you have to understand that Nellie is still not sleeping through the night because she turns herself onto her back, loses her dummy, jerks in her sleep, startles herself and then proceeds to wake the entire household. She then won't go back to sleep unless she is on her tummy (which she won't turn herself onto) and has her dummy. She's started learning to put her dummy back in on her own if she's wide awake, so that will come in time, but the sleeping on her tummy thing is another matter altogether! So here we are, at nearly 8 months, and we're still getting up 2-4 times a night to turn her over and get her back to sleep.

AND TONIGHT SHE FELL ASLEEP ON HER BACK! Ok, it took longer than usual, but she did it - and best of all, she then TURNED HERSELF ONTO HER TUMMY!!! Hopefully this brings us one step closer to sleeping through the night undisturbed. I do have a photo of her asleep on her back to prove it, but I can't find the camera cable to download it onto the PC, so that will have to wait till another time.

She's definitely developed stranger anxiety, and for the first time last weekend held her arms out to me to take her from a "stranger"... aaaahhhh! I felt all fuzzy and warm, knowing that she really does know and want her Mommy, but obviously felt awful for the friend I'd passed her to!

Last weekend was full of other firsts too - her first (assisted) step!!! I wish we'd caught it on tape.... And while standing, she also turned herself right around. She's sitting unaided now for minutes at a time. She's eating like a horse - and does NOT like lentils, thank you very much, but LOOOOOOOOVES flavoured rice puddings (apple, banana, pear - etc). Her teeth are also nearly through. Both top and bottom have sharp little ridges, so it won't be long till they're out. (Please God may it happen soon, as that's another reason she's not sleeping well at the moment.)

It's all so exciting - my little baby is growing up!

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! I forgot to mention - she's started sitting unaided!! Only for a few seconds at a time, but it's happening. Yay!! Here's a video clip, mostly showing her falling over, but at the start and end you can see that she can sit alone. I had her in the pool this afternoon and she was sitting all by herself for up to 10 seconds! Who's a clever girl then?

Balham Hill Festival

Here's a quick clip of us in the bouncy castle! (I haven't included a version for dial-up folks, only for broadband.) And a later addition - here's a GORGEOUS photo of her taken by a friend of ours. Isn't she so cute when she's laughing?

Eating

Break through!! We've figured out how to get her to eat - let her feed herself! That done, we then moved on to actually doing some eating... Presenting: The Orange Monster! So far, she's happily consumed butternut squash, creamy oats porridge and banana. Next feed we will try Mommy's homemade cherry mush...

Last night I got a bit of a fright. We were out. Janel was sitting on my lap at the table and I had a glass of wine. I had put it far enough away (I thought) that she couldn't reach it. However, when I looked away for just a moment, she reached out, grabbed my glass with both hands, pulled it to her and tried to take a sip! She managed to get the glass to her without spilling anything, but then spilled some as she tried to sip it. Fortunately, the friend sitting with us noticed, so she didn't manage to get any wine into her mouth! I was completely aghast though because till now she's shown no inclination towards drinking from a cup, letting along the strength to pick up a full glass, then suddenly - all in one go - she is. So today at lunch she was introduced to a sippy cup, this time with water in it, and she was very happy pulling it off the table and drinking from it!

Here's a lovely photo a friend took of us at our

community festival yesterday - isn't it lovely?!

And here's another one Ashley (our childminder) took last week. Isn't she a happy baby! I was just commenting to Graeme today that I wonder why God has seen fit to bless us with such a lovely, happy, sociable child - we are indeed so blessed to be her parents!