Heidi seems almost there with the crawling bit, but has in the last few weeks failed to get the last bit right. We are not worried by this as she’ll become even more mobile, but she does get a bit frustrated. Her knees are now up under her and she arches her back and head very high, and looked almost if she was ready to climb out of her cot. In the next day or two, I’ll be lowering the base a bit to stop any escaping incidents.

She seems happy to try and stand in some cases and holding her up allows her to position her legs and take her weight for a while before getting distracted. Maybe she’ll bypass crawling and go crashing around holding on to things.

Either way, she is operating at lightning speed, and it only takes a second before she whips out at something and then holds in her pincer-like grasp.

On the 9 January we took her for eight month check up, with Sue over in Brixham. Normally there is a crowd of people at the clinic but today it was just us. I was off work that day with a grumbling fluey type bug which did not materialise to anything thankfully, due to much rest, fluids and properly times breakfast and lunch.

Heidi weighs 19lb 11 1/2 oz or 8.94kg which is a good weight and just over the 75th centile. She is 71 centimetres long so that’s… 2’ 4” by my reckoning? A little longer than normal as she’s on the 91st centile but she has the weight behind her. The circumference of her bonce is on the 50th centile so that’s normal I think. At least not a pinhead.

She continues to love her food and drink though milk is becoming a bit of a chore during the day. Having water, yog yog, milk and all the other fluids plus solids she is getting all the right stuff so that is good. Hopefully once she gets crawling she’ll lose a bit of the fatty legs to keep her energy levels going.

Rachel sets aside an afternoon every now and then to get her food made in batches that can be frozen and then mixed and matched. One pot chicken, with cheesy broccoli and sweet potato all end up in a plate and then the next is a variation, perhaps with fish. Her initial dislike of tomato was dealt with by a Neapolitan type sauce, with a little garlic and basil, which was added to pasta stars. All cleared away by our little Gutsy.

On Thursday 15 Heidi uttered her first words – “Mama” and carried on saying it incessantly. Exactly a week later she decided to say “Dada” although much more quietly. She looks at the right person now when saying it too, which is nice.

This weekend will see us looking at moving her to another car seat as she will be getting too big for hers now. She is still OK, but we’ll start looking.

Her trips to Jolly Babies continue, and yesterday she met Rebecca with her little Dominic. He gave Heidi hugs and a cuddle and looked after her – he will be about the same as Fred; about three years. She likes meeting little people…..