October

It has been so long since I last put photos on the computer that I hadn't even created an "October" file. It now contains 685 photos and vidoes.

October was the month of:

- MANY teeth. Ivy now has 7. (Mid September she had none)
When she had just one top tooth:



- Changing seasons. It is now officially Autumn. Which means hats, woolly jumpers and bear-suit time. The month started with summer temperatures.



- Today, Ivy's first Halloween, and turning 10 months. We all have skeleton costumes!

- Sleeping! Ivy is now fairly regularly sleeping through the night which is amazing. (Sleeping through the night = 5 hour stretches). Not totally consistent yet, but enough that my default state is no long Zombie.

- Realising that Ivy's hear needs brushing semi often to avoid dreadlocks. Oops! Luckily she doesn't seem to mind (having her hair brushed, not having dreads).



- Teeth means eating loads more. And this month she is loving potato, pasta, peas and yogurt. And actually being able to eat corn on the cob!



- Teeth also meaning tooth brushing. Ivy became so attached to her first toothbrush that she refused to let go of it and so it got lost.



- Ivy learnt to wave, and although she is fairly inconsistent with it she has said "hi" and "buh-bye" at the appropriate time while waving!

- She also learnt to clap, working really hard on it day and night (she would wake and enthusiastically but sleepily clap at all hours, which was both adorable and frustrating because there are plenty of daylight hours to practice!) but once she had mastered it, she lost interest. Clapping now has it's place first thing in the morning, and only very occasionally at other times.

- Clapping sort of generalised to everything when Ivy realised that you can clap your hands against things, as well as clap things against things. This is also known as bashing stuff, or drumming. She does this all the time, especially when she is at the table waiting for food (both hands slapping on table).

- Finally mastering her beaker, and then dropping it multiple times until it cracked. She now has a cheaper, more robust, but more difficult to master, beaker.



- Ivy has really started to love being read to, and it has become a lovely part of her bedtime routine. She turns the pages, and has even learnt how to open the flaps on Dear Zoo. She may be asking for more lift the flap books for Christmas! Also has taken an interest in touchy feely books.



- We have had to baby proof the kitchen cupboards as Ivy discovered the joys of pulling everything out of them. Which was quite sweet until she broke four bowls. Baby sitting surrounded by shards of ceramic is just not great. Also had to move the sofa in front of the book shelf. It was cute that she was pulling her books off the shelf, but not great that all the books were in a crumpled pile on the floor which she was standing on to try to reach anything else that might somehow still be left on the shelf.



- Ivy has been saying lots of "mum-mum" and similar. To begin with it seemed to mean that she wanted comfort, to be picked up. But now it just means "I want (something)", like yogurt, or your phone.

- Independence and confidence. In the park or at other people's houses Ivy used to only crawl over me and very close by, but this month she has started to just crawl off and explore.



- Ivy has started signing for milk! She started off amazingly well and I could hardly believe how quickly she grasped it, but now she is very inconsistent with it.

- Going to the park everyday. Ivy loves watching the dogs run around, and going on the swings and wobbly things. (I don't remember the park sounding this loud when we were there yesterday, but you can hear Ivy's happy little sounds too)