A Portrait a Week: 21/52

Isabella turned 7 months this past week! 

A few of her firsts over the past month has been getting her first tooth, rolling from her back to her tummy (although we missed it the first time she did it, twice!) and her first visit to the beach (which didn't go so well!). She's also said 'pappa' for the first time, Afrikaans for daddy. She whispered it over and over in our bed one morning but haven't clearly said it again since. She's also not said 'mamma' much since she first said it 2 months ago. She still says 'dada' a lot. We're so blessed to have such a happy, healthy baby girl.

Beach Day in Bournemouth

It was so lovely and warm last weekend. Really summery. The last few days it's been back to the usual grey and wet weather over here. But so last weekend we decided to take a drive down to the beach. We went to Bournemouth which is just over an hour's drive or so. We were very excited to take Isabella on her first outing to the beach.

She was very good on the drive there, sleeping most of the way. We had a quick nappy change in the back of the car once we parked and then we were ready for the beach. We walked down the beach until we found a quieter spot. We were there just after 9am and it was quite busy already. On the way to finding our quieter spot on the beach we grabbed a parasol for hire. Glad we did or we wouldn't have been able to stay long at all as it was quite hot. 

Still smiling after we had just arrived.

We set up our blanket and put Isabella down with her feet in the sand. She was not impressed at all. She started crying but stopped when we let her sit on the blanket. (Later she took an accidental dive forward into the sand which really got her upset!)

We really wanted her to feel the water. Andre carried her down to the water's edge but she just kept complaining, clearly not happy with all these new experiences. In the end she never did get to feel the sea water. I tried distracting her with shells, but nothing helped. Back in the shade she had her bottle and a while later her lunch and then she was ready for her lunch time nap so she started to scream. And scream and scream. We decided we'll take turns to walk her along the beach in her pram so she could sleep as she usually sleeps well that way. Well she screamed for at least 20min before falling asleep. We didn't stay on the beach much longer after her short nap. I think it was all just too much for her and she's not used to the hot weather yet.

We'll have to try again another time but in the mean time we're getting her used to different textures outside like grass and trying to get her to stand barefoot in the soil in our garden. I'm sure pretty soon she'll be getting very muddy in the garden, but at the moment she's not interested.

At least I had a very peaceful half hour lying on the beach while it was Andre's turn to walk with her.

A Portrait a Week: 20/52

This weeks' portrait

The weather has been amazing this weekend. It's finally starting to feel like real summer over here. We even went to the beach yesterday and I'll try and post pictures of that this week. Isabella doesn't allow me much time on the computer. I guess I could put her in front of the tv and get more done, but she doesn't learn anything by doing that, so instead I tend to spend most of my time entertaining her. Maybe I'm spoiling her that way, but oh well, I feel she needs my attention at the moment. I've even cut back spending time on facebook as it was wasting so so much of my time and she's much more important.

Today was spent at home mostly in the garden and we went for a walk in the forest here by our house this afternoon. Isabella really enjoyed the walk. Well, the first half of the walk until she fell asleep. She was in the carrier on Andre's back. Andre's been trying to get her used to being in the garden. She's not used to being barefoot and feeling different textures under her feet I guess. She will only just tolerate the feel of the grass if we distract her, but she can't stand having her feet touch sand/ soil. Andre has been carrying her around the garden and letting her touch leaves, bark of trees etc. And later today I carried her over to where Andre was weeding and she tried to get down from me so I put her down on the grass and she grabbed some of the weeds he was pulling out. That was a big step for her!!

We love those little toes!

Oh and she met our part-time cat* for the first time this weekend. No photos of that this time, but I can tell you she was not sure about this creature at all. Usually she grabs everything and anything these days to explore. I sat Isabella on my lap and as the cat is very friendly she came over to us eagerly for attention. Isabella stuck her hand out, then pulled it back, stuck it out again and pulled back again a few times before she took the plunge and grabbed a handful of fur from between the cat's ears and started crying. I managed to calm Isabella and the cat didn't seem bothered by its slight hair loss and swished her tail near Isabella which really set Isabella off so we ended that visit. Another try this afternoon and Isabella recognised the furry creature right away and started crying!

So lots of new things for our baby girl to get used to this summer!

Now put that camera away!

*If you've not met our part-time cat on the blog yet, you can read about her here, here and here.

A Portrait a Week: 19/52

Isabella is already a girl in love with her own reflection in the mirror!

Here's also a little video clip of her kissing herself in the mirror.

Moor Copse Walk

I found some walks listed in a magazine for our area, to especially see bluebells flowering this time of year. We picked the one closest to us- about a 15 minute drive from our house. We got a bit lost at first losing the original train, but managed to get back on it again after a detour to the village and church. It's a 1.5 mile circular walk along the Pang river, through forest area and some very muddy fields. Next time I'll try and remember to wear my wellies, even if it has been a sunny weekend!

A Portrait a Week: 18/52

This was how I found Isabella after an afternoon nap this week. She managed to shuffle backwards in her cot and get hold of her big fluffy dog, Madiba, for a cuddle. 

A Portrait a Week: 17/52 -Second sewing project

Oops and again I'm late with Isabella's portrait of the week. I did start this blog post yesterday evening but then never got to finish it. Here it is now with a 'double' portrait of her in one photo below!

Saturday night I completed a little dress for Isabella. It started out like this:

an old top of mine, which I converted into a dress for her.

I kept the original neck of the top, just making it smaller to fit her and also used the original hems of the sleeves so didn't have to re-do those either. I used one of her  long sleeve tops which fit her comfortably to cut around for the size of the neck, body and sleeves and the only sewing I then had to do was attaching the sleeves to the body and sewing up the sleeves and down the body sides and then hemming the bottom of the dress. 

I then used this:

to make a flower and cut off some of the lace to add to the bottom of the dress. So again didn't cost me anything to make and another fun challenge making something for Isabella using something I no longer wear. 

This one was a practice run. I've got more old t-shirts I'll be cutting up in more interesting patterns to make into dresses for her but next I really want to read up about making curtains. The curtains in her room are really too small for her window and it frustrates me when I can't close them properly to keep the light out when she goes to sleep. So that will be my next project hopefully as well as making her a play mat to use in the garden.