Milestones: Four Months

It's exhausting work being a busy girl about town

Age: 20 months 1 week
Time with us: 4 months (three months in Australia)
Height: 83cm
Weight:9.3kg
Teeth:10 with 2 lower molars almost through

Words
Mum (first word), dada, up, o (for Jo & toast), hot, hat, Nana, banana, ar (for Pa), car, & park, nan (for nappy), more, on, nose, ear/eye, Hum (for Humpty Dumpty), Hay-de-ho, duck, mmm (for anything delicious), train, cat, ta
Animal sounds
For Scarface claw/cats/tigers 'grrrrrrrrrrrr', Dog 'wfff', Mouse 'ee ee', monkey 'ooo ooo'
Comprehension
Follows most simple instructions: Get your towel, let's put on your shoes/slippers, let's go shopping/outside/upstairs, go get mummies/daddies shoes, let's bring the washing in,
let's go to the park, it's time to go to sleep (most unpopular)
Recent Accomplishments:
Learning to draw, wanting/learning to go up stairs upright, beginning to feed herself, insisting on cleaning her teeth by herself,

Sleep

Sleeps from 7:30pm to 5am, sleeps ~1hour during the day (sometimes 2)
Cute Things
Waving to everyone when out and about (now considered to be a Northcote celebrity)
Dancing and grooving along every time she hears music, passes a CD shop
Puts her hands up in the air when we read 'Guess How Much I Love You'
As we go up High Street towards the Italian cake shop starts saying 'mmmmmmmm' in anticipation of a cake and babychino.
Said 'mmmmmmmm' as we passed the Easter egg section of the supermarket
Absolutely loves Scarface claw and says 'grrrrrrrr' every time she sees a picture of him
Loves to sweep, clean with a wettex and put on Mummy's rubber gloves
Jammed her finger in a door and every time she passes the door, comes over pretending to cry and wanting a cuddle and kiss on her finger
When Mum is on the phone climbs on top of the table or pulls the phone plug out

Groans as she goes to pick something up (imitating Mum)

Likes Mum to hit her nude bottom as she dashes up the stairs

The Story about Ping

Before Tim and I decided on a name for Camille, we always referred to our new little girl as Ping. Both of us had fond memories of the story of the duck called Ping, who was left behind one evening when his family returned to their sampan.

Jude Bartosy gave Camille a copy of the book. Not having read the book as a child, she couldn’t believe the coincidence that a book about Ping existed! And believe it or not, Camille just loves to read about Ping.

9 centimetres in 10 weeks! Wow!

Camille with her cousin Vanessa

Tim was the first to notice. He said Camille was starting to bump into the corner of the dining table. Perhaps our little girl was growing? That first pair of runners had become very tight.
A visit to the infant welfare nurse confirmed it. A growth spurt of 9cm in 10 weeks (wow!!!) and a weight gain of 600g (83cm and 9.3 kg), has now put Camille above average in height for her age, but still off the range for weight. Needless to say we’re working on fattening her up. Please pass Camille another piece of cake!

These are a few of my favourite things

Mummy’s keys
Mummy’s mobile
Daddy's mobile
Mummy’s purse
Scarface claw
My Babushka doll
Swings and slides
Cake & Chocolate (mmmm)
Ping the Duck
Carrots and Peas
My little yellow book of pictures
Babychinos
The plastics drawer
The kitchen implements drawer
My ABC sing-along CD

The Easter Bunny's Tea Party

The night before the Easter Bunny visited Camille for the first time, a special tea party took place at our home. Special guests were the Easter Bunny himself, Tup the pink poodle, Hey-De-Ho the elephant, Maddy the baby, and Princess Panda. A fine time was had by all. Copious quantities of Easter eggs and hot cross buns were washed down with lovely cups of tea. The following morning everyone had fun hunting for eggs in the backyard

(Special thanks to Chloe, event organiser)

Val Pyers

Tim’s father Val Pyers passed away on Tuesday 6th of March. Val was an amazingly talented and artistic man. For many years he was the conductor of both the Melbourne and Victorian chorales.

Val followed this blog as we made our journey to China for Camille. On our return, Camille was able to meet Val at the Daylesford hospital. He described her as being like a butterfly, as she flitted around his hospital room. We will all miss his warmth and generosity.