Lisa's garden party xx

This is the first 'blip' I've written in a while and our little girl is really developing her personality so wonderfully. We love hearing her chattering away and the new words she's learning all the time, her voice is amazingly cute. Some of the words she says include ... Daddy (whilst tapping her chest, still), Achoo (but now also says Jake), Mommy (when asked to say Mommy, otherwise doesn't bother), thews (shoes), down, cheese, duck (whilst making the quack sign with her fingers), lots of animal noises including 'ssssss' for snake, moo, baaaaa, uff uff, scrunches her nose up and kind of oinks for a pig, 'ssssh' is fish, she also says no whilst shaking her head, teddy, 'bu' is bubbles, she signs when she wants food and if she sees something she wants to eat will say 'mmmmm' whilst signing for food, she says hello or 'eyoooowww' aswell as bye bye and when she wants a cuddle, she'll open her arms, smile at you and say 'awwwwwwwwww' and even pat you on the back as she cuddles you. Eva is also understanding so much now, even if she can't say the words. If you say, "go and get your water, Eva" she'll go and get her cup and drink some water from it. If you say "bring your book to Mommy" or "Help Mommy put the buttons in the box" she will. She has a little knitted handbag that Becky's mom's friend made for her and she'll put things in it, put the bag on her shoulder and crawl away waving and saying "bye bye". Eva will not be impressed reading this bit back when she's older, but she has also been saying "pu" and telling us when she is about to or has started doing a poo. It is very cute.

Eva isn't walking yet. She'll be 17 months old in 6 days time, but that's ok. She'll walk eventually so I don't see it being an issue. She is standing up nearly all the time against things now, she can climb the stairs, climb up and down off the sofa with ease, walk around holding on to furniture, walk holding mine or Mike's hands, she even stands up for a milli second, but then falls onto her bottom. Today though, for the first time, she was walking up and down the lounge with her V Tech walker, so it does seem after that like she'll be walking very soon. She kept up with the speed of it a lot better and looked so much more confident.

We had such a lovely afternoon today. Lisa Woodcock is over from America, so had her annual garden party today on the land by her mom's house. Everyone took some food (we took a pasta salad) and there was a bouncy castle, marquee, a face painter (although we didn't get Eva's face painted) and everyone was sat around on blankets chatting whilst the children had an absolute fantastic time. It was so lovely to see Lisa, Woody and the 2 girls, Daisy and Isabella. Daisy was due a month after Eva was born, but ended up being born 11 hours before her, so they will always share that special time, as Lisa and I chatted on Facebook from across the pond constantly while we waited for our babies to be born and then afterwards as we discussed how we were finding things and were night feed buddies. Today's pic shows the 2 babbas and Eva saying "awwwwww" as she goes in for the hug with Daisy. It was also great to catch up with Janine, Vicky, Emma, Alex and Paul, Michelle, Laura and everyone else. We couldn't keep Eva off the bouncy castle, every time we came off, she'd want to go straight back on again. We also had a lovely time rolling the ball to each other, walking whilst holding my hands round the field, eating yummy cakes and generally just catching up with everybody.

Eva has another molar coming through at the moment, to mirror the one that has come through on her bottom gum, right side. So she has 9 teeth, soon to be 10. She has been amazing with the teeth she has cut so far, touch wood. All she seems to do to comfort herself is chew and suck her fingers. We've stocked up on Ashton and Parsons and she also had some calpol before bed tonight, but bless her, she is coping so well touch wood. Babba girl had such an action packed day, she was bathed by Daddy, had her milk and cuddles with Mommy and was fast asleep, tucked up by just after 8pm. Xxxx