Leila Rose Petal

Her First Tim Tam by Nicky P

It’s hard to believe that Miss Leila has been out and about for as long as she was in gestation. Or that this time last year I was pregnant and living under the air conditioner … well the latter is still true some of the time. So much changes in such a short time …

As always with the Little Princess nothing much seems to be happening for a while and then, all of a sudden, there’s a lot going on.

For a long time her preferred position has been sitting up and she’s become very good at it. She no longer needs pillows behind her because she rarely falls backwards and she’s become adept at leaning and reaching for things without toppling over. When she does fall over she does it gracefully and - usually - without tears or upset. She’s even managed a bit of bum shuffling here and there to get where she wanted to go.

I actually thought she’d just be a bum shuffler and might never crawl properly, but in the last couple of weeks Leila has chosen to prove me wrong. When she is on her tummy on the floor she’s working hard at learning to crawl. Most of what she manages to achieve is swivelling, sticking her bum in the air (and mashing her face into the floor at the same time) and going backwards. The latter really gets on her nerves: She’ll put a great deal of effort into try to get to something in front of her, only find that she gets further away, rather than closer to it. Outraged yells always ensue.

We don’t think it’ll be long at all before she’s at least commando crawling. Leila is such an curious and interested kid, that we’ll all be in a lot of trouble once she’s mobile. The cats will never be safe again and Finn might have to learn to keep his toys in his bedroom.

As well as getting mobile there are all sorts of developments occurring. She eats like a champion, devouring 3 meals a day, plus bottles and the odd biscuit, piece of bread or banana. She can wave ‘hi’ or ‘bye’ and will even do it on request sometimes. She will play peekaboo when I drop a cloth over her face and ask “Where’s Leila?” and this morning she was putting her hands over her eyes to play. On first seeing Mark today she pointed at him and said “dad-dad-dad!” It might have been a complete accident but it was very, very cute! Both her bottom front teeth have come through and her hair is showing signs of being wavy.

And she’s eaten her first Tim Tam.