Notes on the life, times, and development of Miss Zoë Bromage, as recorded by her mother. Also includes minor notes on updates to this website.

Thursday, March 29, 2001

It's been a busy week. Zoë's great-grandmother passed away on the 22nd. We went to the hospital to see her and Zoë had a brief visit with her, which made me happy. I wanted her to see her beloved great-grandchild one more time before she went.

Then, of course, was the funeral, which involved lots of relatives, all of them doting on Zoë. She was relatively quiet during the actual services, until she fell and bonked her head and had to be carried out so as not to completely disrupt things. She did enjoy being carried around by Grandpop, though, and finally met her Uncle David.

She's definitely walking now. Her balance is pretty good and she's been seen to take several steps across a whole room. Her speech is about the same, with no new words as far as we've noticed, but she's figured out how to "dance" by holding on to a sturdy edge (such as the side of the cot or the edge of the bathtub while standing on the bathroom floor) and shifting her weight from foot to food in a swaying motion.

She's decidedly heavier and taller now. I'm not sure when it happened, but she has completely lost her "baby" look (other than being still mostly bald) and gone right on into "toddler".

And yes, I know I need to put up new pictures. I have a set from when she was nine months and more from her first birthday party, but I haven't worked out how to get them (they're on the hard drive of a machine I can't directly access from mine; I am loathe to upload them to a "third party" site and then re-download, but I may have to do that if we can't figure out how else to do it).

:: posted 29.3.01 :: link

New routine for going to sleep. When she was tiny, she mostly fell asleep in our bed (and when she was breastfeeding every couple of hours it was the only way I got any rest). As she got older, she'd fall asleep in our bed and then I'd put her in the cradle next to our bed, so I could easily pull her back into bed with me when she woke for a feeding in the middle of the night. Slowly, it just evolved that she preferred to sleep in her own bed and to go to sleep on her own.

Now her "go to sleep" routine is to be put into the cot and have music turned on. We leave the room (although we stay nearby) and she cries very briefly and then falls asleep in a few minutes. For the moment she goes to sleep with the light on. Next step is to turn the light off and have only the light from the next room. In all, I'd say I'm quite pleased with her natural progression from "high-need baby" to reasonably independent toddler.

And as much as I enjoy seeing her grow from a tiny, ultra-dependent baby who needed to be held almost constantly into a confident, bright, busy toddler, I still sometimes kind of miss my teeny little mewling baby...

:: posted 20.3.01 :: link

Zoë got down off our bed today by herself. The thing that makes this significant is she actually put her feet over the side and slid down and gently landed on her bottom, rather than just sort of falling off and hoping for the best.

:: posted 16.3.01 :: link

She's walking. Not a lot yet, but definitely several steps at a time. Woo hoo! She's also learning to stack things, put things inside other things, and has suddenly discovered a deep and abiding passion for keys (as in: adult's keyrings).

She's definitely off the breast now, and can cuddle me happily without trying to yank my shirt up for a feed, although I admit I haven't let her near my unclothed breasts for a while, to lessen the temptation.

Finally, we just got back from a weekend away and we noticed something about Zoë's personality (well, really, Andrew noticed it). She isn't resistant to changes in routine so long as they also come with a change in scenery. If we change our normal household routine too much, she really doesn't like it, but when we went away on holiday, she adapted to a new routine, place, etc., with great enthusiasm.

This shouldn't surprise me; I'm the same way.

:: posted 13.3.01 :: link

It's been about six days since Zoë had a breastfeed. She doesn't seem to miss it, especially. She did seem to want to have some milk tonight when she saw me lift my shirt (I was just having a scratch, but it reminded her and she got all excited for a moment). She seems to be perfectly content to drink from the cup and eat her customary finger foods and she's still as affectionate and busy as ever. I wouldn't say she's definitely "weaned" but it's a pretty big step in that direction, I think.

:: posted 6.3.01 :: link

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