Santa Comes to Town

Stella was given some lovely presents yesterday, here she is enjoying her first Chrismas Day ... We had a wonderful day, Stella woke us at around 6.30am so up we got for breakfast and some present opening with Nana who had stayed the night. After a nap, we moved on to Aunties Kath and Claire's house for coffee and more presents. Then it was off to Stella's Great Uncle Bob and Great Aunty Marilyn's house for a delicious Christmas lunch where she was given a beautiful Owl and Pussycat themed music box. Stella surprised me and Mark by settling down quietly in the portacot for over an hour while we ate and relaxed. After a good roll around and a play we headed home with a very tired but hyped up baby. She managed to get through dinner and her bath and settled down well but was up and ready for another party at 10pm, obviously a little confused! She did go back to sleep eventually, we're now looking forward to a quiet few days of relaxation and preparation for our journey to Opito Bay for New Years.

Paper Was The Winner

True to form, the wrapping paper appeared to be a favourite with Stella on Christmas Day...

Happy Birthday Aunty Katherine

Yesterday it was Katherine's birthday, we had a lovely lunch with her, Claire and Nana. Stella had a wee nap in the portacot after lunch (her current fave seems to be a mix of courgette, apple and pear), we've found it is best (and easier) to have her in the same room as us otherwise she doesn't settle.

On Monday night, we had an early Christmas dinner with the other side of the family. Stella wore her 'My First Christmas' outfit that Mark and Nana chose for her in the sales after last Christmas, it is a perfect fit. One of Stella's presents was an old fashioned Mary Lou doll from her Granny and Grandpa. Mary Lou's legs must taste nice as Stella spends a lot of time sucking on them! No luck settling in the portacot that night so she was swaddled up and put in the buggy next to us while we ate dinner. She was much happier and had a great nap.

On the Go

I finally got a good picture of Stella's bottom teeth (hopefully you've figured out that if you click on a picture, you get a bigger version, you'll need to do this with the first pic to see the teeth), we think the top ones are moving too as the teething signs are back - mega drool, pink cheeks and more wakeful than usual! This past weekend we spent a night at Whangamata, Stella had a bath in the laundry sink which she quite enjoyed, contrary to the grimace on her face in the picture. She also got to try out her new 'On the Go' highchair which proved really handy, we even sat her in it for our picnic lunch on the way home. While she was great both days, the night was probably one of our worst. She took a disliking to her portacot and ended up in bed with us, Mark singing camping songs to her at 1am was the only thing that soothed her.

The other shots are from the past couple of days, she is really moving around the floor now, mainly by picking a target and rolling towards it, sometimes she ends up under different bits of furniture and quite often nowhere near the toy or object she was interested in. A constant source of entertainment!

Aqua Babies Reunite

Stella's friend Leo came back from Aussie for a week with his family. We spent a lovely morning with him, his mum and his brother on Monday having coffee in Mt Eden and playing on the swings. Click here to see the babies at their last meeting three months ago. Marcus is now crawling, which sometimes freaks Stella out a bit as he can move pretty fast and pinch her toys while she is beached on her back!

7 Months Old

Stella is seven months old today, it is amazing how much she has changed over this past month. She is rolling back and forth now, Mark turned around to find that she had disappeared and had somehow gotten rolled up in her baby gym this morning! She also seems to know her own mind a lot more now and won't do something she isn't keen on. Once you move her onto a new activity she is all sweetness and light again so I think she is learning about how to control her environment. I can see that the word 'no' may start to work its way into our vocabulary very soon (in the most positive of ways of course!) Her newest trick is sitting in the laundry basket, we are always looking for new things to add to our repertoire of activities, the boredom threshold currently sits at around 10 minutes per activity so those awake times just get busier and busier!

We visited the Aunties on Saturday night and Stella had great fun playing peekaboo with them. She happily hung out in the portacot in the lounge, watching Peanut the dog and Nixon the cat with great interest. We wrapped her up and she chilled out in the cot until about 8.30pm when we decided it might be in everyone's best interests to get her home to her own bed.

First Ever Christmas Present

We had a picnic under the pohutukawas with our antenatal group at Long Bay on Saturday, Secret Santa gave Stella a cool bucket and spade set. She was very interested in tearing into the package, Christmas Day should be great fun!

We lined up the babies with their Mums and Dads, babies from left to right: Jacob, Isobel, Stella, James, Marcus, Greta, Benjamin and Lucas. Samuel turned up later on, while Oliver, Sophie and Millie couldn't make it.

The antihistamine Stella is on has made a world of difference already, for the first time in ages last night she didn't wriggle out of her wrap so I'm hoping its because she is much less itchy.

Boo for the Dust Mites

Yes, Stella's results came back with a strong indication that dust mites are the key cause of her eczema. Our specialist has recommended that we replace the carpet in her room with cork tiles and get a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter. She's also going to be on an antihistamine for a few weeks while we get this sorted. So, we are very relieved that she doesn't have any apparent food allergies and can now vary her diet from the carrot/apple/kumara/pumpkin combos she has been putting up with over the past month. Here she is looking chipper after our outing this morning.

The other exciting thing is that Stella is finally moving! She did her usual back to front roll this morning, I popped into the kitchen and when I got back, she had turned around 180 degrees! Facing away from her toys, probably not her objective but nevermind. Not much back/forth movement yet, just seems to be around in a circle at the moment. She was looking VERY proud of herself. She is also raising her body up with her arms when on her tummy and rocking from side to side so it seems like she is starting to realise that she has some control over where she is and learning how to move. We have the stair gates at the ready.