Yesterday, we went for a picnic down by the Yarra River at our local park. Tabitha loves it there because it is a popular place for people to bring their dogs - to run around, or even to swim in the river!
The Daddy had worked very hard all week (as usual!) so decided to come home early, so we took down lots of yummy food and a brilliant bottle of Riesling (from my favourite winery, Freycinet Vineyard).
Because our park is so close, we can take hot food with us - I heated up some vegetable samosas and duck spring rolls (from the best deli around, in my opinion - Nick and Sue's in Camberwell). We also took down some taramasalata and Turkish bread, crab claws, chili tofu, primavera olives, marinated octopus and rare roast beef (yep, all from Nick and Sue's)...
Tabitha loves picnics, because she can pick and choose, and wriggle around while she eats. She likes feeding us too:
Her favourite was the chili tofu. It's funny, the kid loves spice! I have never been into very spicy foods, but I made an effort to eat plenty of spicy things while pregnant and breastfeeding, in the hope she would get used to the flavours (the chili never bothered her in my milk). I don't know if it worked, but I will say that Tabitha adores anything spicy.
She spent much of the time watching the dogs. She waved to each and every dog as they arrived at the park - and most of the lovely owners waved right back at her.
Hoovering the chili tofu:
See these three gorgeous little pugs? Do not be fooled by their sweet faces and adorable curly tails. Two of them ran over to us at great speed, and snuffled up some of our roast beef, just inches away from us! "No! No!" said Tabitha. Never mind, they were terribly funny little things:
Keeping with the chili theme, Tabitha just loves dipping things. Particularly into sweet chili sauce:
She also enjoys covering herself in taramasalata:
And using it as a fun, fish-scented finger paint all over her knees:
After we ate, Tabby and The Daddy went off to play with the ball:
And enjoy some great big 'whizzy dizzies'. You could hear the shrieks of laughter from all the way across the oval. The kid is a total daredevil.
Being a Mummy, I didn't think it was terribly wise to spin her around after a full meal, but she had a brilliant time, and tired herself out nicely. Bed time as soon as we got home!
Have I mentioned how much she sleeps these days? She has decided that 6pm is her bedtime (efforts to keep her up later result in a grouch, and she doesn't sleep any later in the morning. So, every day like clockwork, Tabitha sleeps 6pm - 6am overnight, without a peep, then 12noon - 2:30pm (give or take) during the day. I couldn't be more pleased, and she has worked it out all on her own. Just goes to show - babies who co-sleep, sleep in the room, follow their own leads etc. can still turn into fabulous sleepers.
She has not woken a single time overnight for around 5 months now. The most we ever did to try and get her sleeping better was 'in and outs', that is, going in and patting or cuddling her, walking out once she was calm and sleepy, going back in if she got upset. We did this for a few days when she was around 8 months old, with no distress - she actually seemed much happier once we started leaving her alone when she was tired! From day one, we have followed her lead and it has worked really well for us. Different things work for different babies, I'm sure, but the gentle approach worked for us, even when she was a terribly wakeful baby (until around 7 months or so), and has produced the most perfect sleeper I can imagine. I just put her in her sleeping bag, sing her a song and a cuddle, lie her down, walk out, and she goes straight off to sleep.
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2 comments:
You have such a fantastic eater! My boy is the same though I think Tabby is definitely more adventurous! It certainly helps to expose them to lots of different types of food doesn't it.
That is excellent that Tabby is sleeping so well now. Gives me hope for my little girl. She has only started sleeping a better in the past couple of weeks, since she turned 7 months. Now that she is sleeping in her cot all night rather than with us, she is doing better, plus I've been a been stricter with routine. I still have to get up to her 2-3 times for a feed but I can handle that given she goes straight back to sleep. She's an early riser too, getting up not much later than 6am.
Yep I think that feeding them lots of regular food (just what we eat, instead of endless veggie/meat/fruit combos) seems to help. But I am not silly - I know she will still probably go through a super-fussy toddler phase of only eating bread and watermelon or something!
Ahhh the sleep thing. I have to say, Tabby got worse before she got better - she started waking 1-3 hourly overnight from age 10 months to 13 months, I think, and I nearly died. But then one night, she just slept through, and then the next, and the next...
I thought she would never ever sleep, and I'd be feeding all night forever (I lost weight from lack of sleep) but she worked it out on her own, it just clicked.
It's kind of awful, though, while it's happening - but now I can look back and think, "gee, I'm really glad we followed her lead". It's rough while you're in the middle of it though sometimes...!
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