Life with Alex:
A growing girl
Alex is showing signs of a strong personality and is enjoying her admiring childminder - while Sue wonders whether her bump houses a sister or a brother for Alex.
Alex at 11 months
Has it really only been a month since my last diary entry? I've just re-read it, and already Alex is a completely different child to the one I wrote about just 4-5 weeks ago. As she approaches 11 months of age, she's now crawling like an expert, she has her first pair of proper shoes (45 euros!!!! I still can't believe it!) and she is not just walking but running if you let her keep hold of one finger. Our little girl is no longer a baby!
Toddler tamingWhich is why my bathroom reading has changed from 'baby care for the first year' to 'preparing for toddlerhood'. Gone are Dr Spock and Miriam Stoppard; instead it's back to the wise words of Dr Christopher Green and Vicki Iovine to help me through the next stage. It made alarming initial reading to discover that we don't have the luxury of another year before the onset of the terrible twos, since apparently toddlerhood can mean anything from 1-4 years. Goodness knows, Alex already has the temperament of a toddler - feisty insistence on being independent and a tendency towards tantrum when the thing she needs right at that moment isn't quite ready…grrrrr!
I'm just kidding. Alex is a wilful child and her Leo characteristics, blended with the fact she was born to two feisty and wilful Sagittarians, have guaranteed that we have a strong personality on our hands. We aren't in the least surprised. Mind that child!Luckily, we now have a bit of respite. Our childminder has turned out to be an absolutely godsend, and after just one week we increased Alex's weekly number of visits from two to three afternoons. By the end of July I wouldn't be surprised if she's there full time!
I'm happy to report that she loves it. She was 10 months when she started, which we'd been warned might have been leaving it too late for Alex to adapt well - according to the gurus, she ought to be into her clingy phase by now. Fortunately, Alex chooses her own way through everything, and hasn't got an ounce of clinginess to her (yet). All she needs is a big smile and wide, outstretched arms, and she'll play with anyone. Leaving her with a childminder has been a synch - even on the first day, when Nicholas and I both went together, for mutual support, because we were both very nervous about leaving our darling daughter with a strange French woman.
We can't say that Alex really noticed. After a half hour of coffee and social pleasantries (us, not Alex), allowing her time to orient herself, Alex was barely aware of us leaving. She was too busy casting sidelong glances at Pierre, the other baby of the same age, across the double buggy. One thing we like about Mme Quentin is that she takes the children to the local playground every afternoon. On her first day, Alex went on the seesaw!
It's thanks to Mme Quentin that Alex has almost completed the leap from cruising to lone walking. They practise every afternoon - that's when they're not seesawing or dancing. And it seems that Alex and Pierre are friendly rivals, not only the same age but the same proportions and at the same stage of development. I think Mme Quentin has a secret bet on which will walk first. After the last session, she said Alex had taken three whole steps unaided. We were so proud!
Independent woman
Night-times have taken a further tumble downhill, though - if that were possible! We had her first real nasty illness last month - just a cough and cold, but an unpleasant one, and with an ear infection to boot - which made sleeping impossible for all of us. Nicholas made the mistake of persuading myself and the doctor against suppositories, so we had to try to force-feed her antibiotics which wasn't pleasant - and didn't work. Alex doesn't even like Doliprane (French Calpol). If it's not meat or veg from a jar, she's not interested, and woe betide us if we try to cunningly disguise the medication in a drink - she knows exactly what we're up to and then merely starts refusing fluids too. Great.
It took about a week to get over the illness, and after a couple of easier nights, we're now back into full-on teething again. At this rate, Alex will end up with two extra rows of teeth. She's been teething since three months, though she still only has two bottom teeth to show for it. The rest all seem to be imminent. And she's certainly letting us know about it - at the moment we're getting up to her hourly. You can advocate controlled crying all you like but this little girl is suffering and I for one cannot leave her like that. If she needs three bottles of watered down grape juice per night to soothe her tears, then so be it!
She's putting her existing teeth to good use anyway. She now eats huge chunks of crusty French bread, in addition to baby-friendly biscuits. And soon I know I am going to have to dispense with the 'safe' jars of baby food, and make Alex a real meal. Why does this scare me so much?
She now drinks from her own beaker too, which we let her take to bed, as she's such a guzzler - it's one less reason, in theory, for her to wake us up in the night. And sure enough, by morning the beaker is always drained. It's one of those clever ones with a valve to prevent spills. (Wish I'd thought of that. The British woman responsible is worth millions, according to a recent BBC programme about inventors.)
She's been swimming too now - twice. Plus the day we had at the beach near Caen for our second wedding anniversary a few weeks ago (yes, two years of marriage and two children - not bad going, eh?).
Alex is a real water baby, whose eyes light up when I take her upstairs for her evening 'splish, splash, splosh' bedtime bath after dinner. At first, baths were an infrequent affair - laziness coupled with advice against washing away baby's natural oils, but now it's the perfect way to pass the bedtime hour between dinner and her 7pm bottle.
Roll on Alex's first birthday. I'm hoping she'll be given toys for birthday presents, as her boredom threshold is very low, and no amount of banging on pans with wooden spoons will keep her from the electric sockets and outdoor plants which are obviously far more stimulating… We need more baby gates. And a garden-sized playpen!
A brother or a sister?As for baby number two, he or she is coming along nicely. I'm now coming up to 18 weeks pregnant, and am already the size of a small hotel. I started wearing maternity clothes again after about week two, and have been able to feel the baby moving for some time now. According to the two scans and other check-ups I've had so far, the new baby is very active. With Alex, I felt light butterfly wings at about 20 weeks. With this one I've felt irritated squirming from 15 weeks! My Dad thinks this confirms we're having a boy.
On that note, we've encountered divided opinions. Nicholas and I don't want to know the sex, but our dog groomer, who claims to be psychic, claims we're having another girl, while the Chinese astrologists have me down as carrying a boy. Only time will tell! I don't suppose Alex will mind either way, so long as she gets showered with extra love, attention and a bundle of Christmas presents (if the new pregnancy follows the same pattern as the first and runs late - we could be in for a Christmas baby).
All about SueSue Tabbitt, 33, is a freelance IT journalist, who moved to the outskirts of Normandy more than 12 months ago to start a new chapter in her life with her Canadian husband, Nicholas, a ballroom dancing teacher.
Tune in next month to find out how Sue, Nicholas and baby Alex are getting on in Normandy ...
Thanks to Kodak for the digital camera lent to Sue and Nicholas for the duration of this diary column.
Where to next?
- More from Sue's Life with Alex diary
- Read Sue's pregnancy diary
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