Treizieme mois avec Mademoiselle Eloise

Eloise -

13 months old baby. Well 13 months old and 4 days. We’ve been busy busy busy over here. And by busy I mean unorganized.

There have been a couple more signs this month (eat and monkey) and you’re getting more confident with your cruising. You’re still very comfortable with the bum shuffling as your mode of transport but you’ve also started to contemplate the idea of standing on your own. The biggest change of course has been your sleeping. While I think you’ll always be a bit of a sensitive sleeper, we have gone from waking every 3 hours to sleeping 10.5 hours maybe 3 or 4 days a week. Just so the sleep gods don’t think I’m boasting, we’re not totally out of the woods. When you do wake up it now usually takes an hour or two to get you back to sleep and sometimes we’re still struggling to get you down to bed for the night at 9pm. 9pm Eloise - this seriously encroaches on mama’s drinking relaxing time.

I think the most important change this month though is with me. Instead of treating you like a little baby, I’ve finally started treating you like the bum-shuffling toddler that you are. You’ve been to the museum. Ate at your first restaurant. And I mean really ate. Almost an entire omelette with a fork and you drank a whole glass of milk. A glass. No sippy cup.

After your first birthday we finally moved your pushchair around so that you are facing the world. At first I missed you, missed smiling and joking around with you, missed watching you try and fight sleep and then fail miserably. But now I get to see how you affect everyone else who sees you. From little old ladies to hardened men deep in conversation. You break all of them of their daily grind and bring them into your innocent world of wonder and smiles.

We’ve been taking longer excursions; 5 hour long walks through nature reserves and marinas. Just today we spent 7 hours on a canal boat, along with a stop at a pub and a park. I always start these outings with a slight trepidation. Will you get cranky and pout all day? Will you scream the entire car ride? Will you cause a huge mess while eating in public? And at the end of the day I realize I had nothing to worry about yet again because while you have your moments, on the whole you are a charming, portable baby who makes her needs known and thus easily met.

I’m just sorry it took me this long to realize how far we could go together.

Je t’aime

Maman