Catching up - again

It seems that's all I'm doing these days! Metaphor for life in general.

I've been unable to write for a while, first the house move, then Christmas, then a lack of decent internet connection, then just forgetting because I was out of practice! I want to record all the things that Sally has done and then I can move on and keep things neatly uptodate.

First, we survived the house move: just. It snowed the night we were due to move - six inches of the white stuff, which put rather a dampener on the proceedings. It took my parents two hours to get to us. The van company cancelled our self-hire at 10:20pm, mid-snowfall. In the end, we moved our furniture in two cars, and by hand, trudging through the snow with the sofa, the table, the desk - and a floor lamp left haphazardly like a lantern in the frozen wastes!

Still, despite being late out of the house (not a problem thank goodness as our buyers decided not to move until the following day - after all,who moves in the snow?) we eventually made it into our new house, and I am pleased to say we are very happy here! Although it is still chaos, we are getting the new furniture built (oh the joys of flatpack and the wonder that is Ikea - the thinking person's Argos)and starting to order curtains, and I am enjoying the chance to re-design a whole house. Given the state it was left in (in terms of bad paintwork and bad taste) it is sorely needed!

Sally has been learning lots and lots. Over Christmas she learned how to get from sitting to standing, and then finally a couple of days after that from lying to sitting. Although it was immensely frustrating waiting for her to figure out how to do it, in the long-run we were better off! Already old enough to work out how to get back down again, instead of long periods of standing up and yelling in her cot, she did it twice, then sorted herself out and hasn't bothered since. She is now completely and utterly mobile - apart from climbing which to be honest I don't miss - and walks like an 18 month old.

Her language is developing all the time. She understands an enormous amount and is increasing the words she can say by the day. She still learns and forgets things but I suspect that is typical of her age. Over Christmas she said 'glasses' and at the moment she is crazy about saying 'mouth', which comes out as 'ouf'! If you point to your mouth and say 'what is that' she says 'ouf' and often she'll stick her fingers in mine or Sam's mouth and say it, then point to our teeth and say 'teeth'! We've started playing a guessing game in the bath where once she's washed I say 'what's next?' and see if she can say 'teeth'. Usually I have to say 'toothbrush' first but tonight she actually started saying it to tell me to do them. She copies more and more words, including a reasonable stab at 'dinosaur', and she has graduated to saying 'Daddy' perfectly instead of Dadda. I've heard her say 'water' (watta), 'pasta', (patta), 'banana' - all sorts of things.

We've bought her an open bookcase, as it's an easier way to store picture books, with mixed results. I believe the theory behind them is that they can go and collect the books themselves. This is correct - in Sally's case it means that she spends every hour she can removing books, choosing one, giving it to me, getting on my lap, listening, getting down, collecting another book and so on and so on... I'm glad she would rather listen to a book than watch TV but it would be nice if she would play with me a bit more! She is getting better at playing, and has now discovered how to put things into other things. She was given a ball activity table for Christmas and that has all sorts of exciting funnels and ways to explore that particular skill. It is great to see her exploring and experimenting with putting books in boxes and balls in stacking cups and puzzle pieces in cups and shaking them - especially when she tries putting the remote control and the phone down the funnels in the activity table!

Enough for now, I think; Christmas and her birthday can be left until tomorrow.