Sophia Molly: 11 Month Update

We are less than two weeks away from my baby's first birthday. I've been through various stages of disbelief, denial and refusal to acknowledge this fact, but finally I've settled on reluctant acceptance. At the moment we're busy putting the finishing touches to her party arrangements and ticking off her present list, and I'm regularly scrolling through pictures and videos of her as a newborn and quietly crying into my cup of tea.

Yes, this first year has gone far too quickly, and just like every mummy as they reach this precious milestone, I couldn't feel luckier or prouder to have been blessed with twelve whole months with this little girl in my life.

This month Sophia has liked...

Heading home to visit all of her relatives in England, seeing her Uncle Joe marry the lovely Hannah, and experiencing her very first freezing temperatures!

Accompanying us to the Emir's Sword Festival for her first horse racing experience.

Going for rides on her smarTrike around The Pearl.

Reading, reading and reading some more - especially while dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz on World Book Day at Twyla Nursery (she particularly enjoyed dressing up as a rock chick too).

Playing with and talking to her toys, especially her furry animals and her plastic farm animals.

Attending her first birthday parties with her little friends, and meeting her brand new friend Ellie when she was just a few days old.

This month Sophia has disliked...

Having a constant cough and cold which seems to have lingered for weeks, and kept her all of us up at ungodly hours of the night.

Is it still OK for me to say that she actually hasn't liked sleeping in general for the 11th month in a row? Or is this just a part of her personality that I really should have come to accept by now and move on?

This month's firsts...

Sophia can now point to her hair when you ask her where it is, and point to your nose (but misses the mark a bit when you ask her to point to her own nose). She can also do the actions to the first part of head, shoulders, knees and toes!

I forgot to mention last month that Sophia had started blowing air kisses, accompanied by a big "MWAH" noise, especially when greeting or saying goodbye to people that she has particular affection for (making my heart melt and my eyes go a little watery pretty much every time). Well, this month she has started doing it to random strangers on the street too. Particularly men. This I'm not quite so sentimental about.

 
Sophia's favourite words this month are 'yum!', 'gak gak!' for a duck, 'baa baa!' (for every other animal - she seems to have forgotten the 'moo' that she learned last month), 'bah bah' for bye bye and 'baba' for baby. You'll notice that most of these words sound pretty much the same, but my trained mummy ear can tell the difference, honest!

This month I realised how affectionate my little girl is becoming to those that are smaller than herself. She's fascinated by younger babies and can't stop saying 'Ahhh, baba!' when she's around them. She loves her toy animals and I can already see her nurturing instinct coming out, something that is incredibly heartening to watch.

She is now standing for long periods of time without holding anything. She can also walk along just holding onto my little finger and I know that she can do it unaided, but right now crawling is much quicker and easier and therefore the preferred option. It's just a matter of time though!

The biggest development of all this month is the devilishly cheeky sense of humour she's developing. At nursery, she's learned to fling herself backwards off their little green armchair to create a reaction, while giggling uncontrollably. She thinks it's hilarious to hold out a toy or piece of food for you and then fling it away at the last minute, much to your dismay. Holding a towel or item of clothing up to her face and then suddenly pulling it away while shouting a sound a little bit like 'boo!' brings on lots of giggles, especially if you pretend to fall over backwards in shock.

She's a little girl with a big, big personality and almost twelve months on, I am certain that she's going to make a huge impact on the world around her.