Heidi has had a very active social schedule over the last two weeks, and has remained ever-cheerful during the festivities.

With the weather turning colder each day, her warm clothes and hats have been wheeled out again and regularly she peers out of her thick coat and bobble hat, quite happy and warm.

Her attempts to crawl have been suspended as she is happy just to swim on the spot for the moment, and moves rapidly around by a combination of crawling and rolling, or “crolling.” This has been kept under control by the new play pen which she is put in, so she can keep out of mischief but still play happily with all her toys.

Christmas Day saw us head up to Rachel’s mum and dad’s to Chagford on Dartmoor. My mum and dad joined us all for Christmas lunch, which included a rather nice goose. Heidi took part in the goose-eating and seemed to enjoy her spoonfuls, with her vegetables which matched ours.

She received many presents from friends and relatives, and all were gratefully hugged and gnawed. The wrapping paper had to be whisked away as she can eat a newspaper sheet in a few seconds now, and she has a habit of finding sellotape tucked away in all sorts of places. Her main present from us was a half sized rocking horse which Rachel has been carving for the last few years off and on. In the last few months Rachel has been busy putting the finishing touches to it and it looks really good. Heidi has sat on it a few times with our support, and seems fairly cool about it.

We later went for a walk up on the moor, looking down on the farm where Rachel and her family used to live.

Boxing Day saw us go up to The Square in Chagford to see off the Hunt. Again it was bitterly cold so we took refuge in the Ring O’ Bells and I tucked into a few pints of cider, whilst Heidi and Rachel sat by the fire, watching the hounds set off at 1100h.

On the 27 December, it was my mum and Dad’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. They did not want any fuss at all, so Rachel, Heidi and I went over to theirs with a lasagne that I had cooked, and had a meal and drink with them. Heidi gave the most innovative present – her first tooth appeared whilst we were sitting down! The next tooth was noticed the following day, so she has a pair of nibblers just peeping through…..
Hopefully the next few days will stay dry whilst we are at home, and the three of us see in the New Year (quietly as usual) this evening.

Heidi Rachel and Tim wishes everyone a peaceful Christmas and New Year......

The last few weeks have seen Heidi develop a little more each day, and more of her personality come through.

Not a great deal has happened for her, other than her crawling is almost there and she really is trying to get to grips with that. Her legs push well, and she lifts herself up at the front nicely, only it does not work yet.

Rolling to her destination is a viable option but is doesn’t always work quite as planned, so a clunk on the head sometimes results as she heads off the carpet to a piece of furniture.

Waving is her new one and this becomes more animated during “In the Night Garden.” In fact if you stand between her and the television she cranes her neck to see the screen. Not the best developmental milestone, but she seems to enjoy that part of the day at 1815h after her bath. It is good to see she is immensely curious in some things that distract and other times she seems to filter it out, engrossed in something else.

Her foods have got more lumpy now and she really likes all sorts of food. Its quite interesting trying out different combinations for her to try, and Rachel is the main chef on this. I’ll do chicken and meat and finely chop it, then carefully freeze it for later. Hopefully soon we’ll get around to pureeing own food for her, minus salt and seasoning which will be good for her and Rachel, but not so for me.

Heidi is heading toward her first Christmas and so presents are arriving, which is nice. The tree is up and she likes to look at the lights. In the next day or two we’ll put the presents under the tree and get a picture of her rooting about.

Paper really is her thing at the moment, with her destroying my newspaper the other day, reducing it to a small ball withing minutes and then chewing as best she could to eat it. Even Lidl’s flyers are not left alone. She’ll regret paper cuts in due course.

So today is Christmas Eve, and Heidi has been spying her presents and packages under the Christmas tree. All different sizes and shapes, she was agog at them coming out of the bags. Two years ago we were in Bristol, at CLIC House with Fred when he came down with norovirus, and subsequently us too – all round a grim time. Hopefully Heidi will enjoy her next few days, being busy and cuddled a lot more than normal.

Happy Christmas from the Wills family……