Heidi’s busy little social life continues in a whirl, or perhaps just a swirl.

Thursday 19th would have been Fred’s third birthday and so we went up to Chagford to see his little grave and lay some flowers. We saw Revd Gearing, who conducted Fred’s funeral, just as he was going into the church, on a lovely crisp sunny morning. Heidi was pulling faces at him by this time as it was cold for her, and we have now found she dislikes hats for some reason.

Once we had done that we headed to Somerset to meet up with Frances and spent the day there with her and her two children, which was lovely. A walk in the lanes saw Heidi riding high in her (or actually Fred’s) backpack frame. She dropped her hat sneakily as it was sunny, but a motorist stopped and brought it back to us. Hooch the dog gave Heidi her first very wet ear, through a big lick that was sneaked in. Heidi enjoyed it a little I think.

On Saturday we went headed over to Brixham as it was still fine. She liked looking at the trawlers and crabbers moored up in the busy harbour and was fascinated by the Golden Hind tied up against the quay. We popped into the “Vigilant” pub for some lunch and a nappy change but it was so dark and gloomy in there, we headed back out again. We took lunch on The Quay at Shipmates fish and chip restaurant. We had sausage, egg and chips which were first class, and Heidi sat in the highchair most pleased that she could watch the traffic and people going by. Her head was spinning nearly 360 degrees, which made it difficult to eat her lunch with us, but we got the in the end.

The last couple of days have seen Heidi with a temperature and being a bit off-colour. She has been bobbing around the 39 point for a bit and then settles down. She is quite happy with herself though, and seems to be eating and drinking as normal. She had some little sandwiches today, filled with cheese which she enjoyed, although left a huge pile of crumbs and crusts about her feeding station and fell asleep part way through…..

Her crawling and climbing antics are unabated, though she does pause for some kip every now and then. Hopefully her bug will pass sometime soon. She can now open doors and drawers, but hasn’t worked out how not to get fingers trapped. The other day she was (safely?) in her paly pen and we were popping in and out of the room and she was quietly playing. Rachel wandered in and found her sitting happily on the other side of the room, rooting through the building blocks that live in the back of her tipper truck toy. She’d passed the fire and ornaments by, heading to where she knows her Toy Reserve is kept – out of sight. I don’t think she’d have let herself out, but we cannot fathom out how, as we check the gate and it normally will swing open slightly.

One month on from the last ‘blog entry and Heidi is ten months old and getting rounder and heavier. Her two little toothy-pegs are shiny white and are quite capable of giving a nasty, but playful, nip. The thick card books she reads have all the corners missing and you can see little peg like gnawing all over them. Quite substantial pieces of her jigsaw book are gone forever, turned into a pulp I assume and I cannot find them.
Her crawling is rapid and quite slick now, and she can move with far more grace than before, which was like a three legged tortoise in some instances.
On the 25 February she stood for the first time which was nice as we were all there, aided of course by fixed objects. When in her cot and her play pen (which she now loves being in) she spends as long as she can standing. Her ability to hold on with one hand whilst reaching down for a toy is coming on, as are her skills in swapping hands over so as to move along the pen. Occasionally there will be a thud and a short silence when both hands have been removed at the same time. She has a bruise on her forehead from yesterdays tumble on to a hard floor, after performing a tricky manoeuvre.
She is a pleasure to bath now, in that she is happy to sit upright unaided and not slip around. She must have inherited my habit of wallowing for as long as possible in the bath. She likes to drink dirty bath water too, and suck on the bath sponge or wash mit – unlike me though.
She continues to attend Jolly Babies on a Friday morning with Rachel, which she loves. Lots of singing and meeting fellow babies and a good chance to catch the latest bug. Yesterday, Heidi was planning to go swimming with one of her friends from Jolly Babies, although the other tot had a cold, so it was postponed until next week. Heidi’s little pink all in one swimsuit sit ready for action in her room awaiting its maiden voyage.
One of the local stores in Torquay is closing down, so I popped in to see what was on offer as everything was half price. I spied a little three ring paddling pool for less than £2.00 so snaffled that up. Once the warmer weather comes we can get it out and Heidi can have a cold bath for once, sharing it with toads that have slipped in overnight. This one will probably head up to Grans as we intend to station one or two about the grandparents.
Next week, on the 19th, Fred would have been three years old. We are taking the day off to do something different and to try and not mope about. Last year we went to the Zoo and no doubt we’ll pop in shortly, to sit on Fred’s bench. I had an email from Shelagh today, someone whom we met through Fred appearing in a newspaper article, and she was remembering Fred’s birthday coming up as her daughters was a couple of days prior to his. Lovely to get a little message like that and to keep in touch with people who helped us so much.
We all went to a Baby Fair today in Totnes. It is a bit “hippy” as always which is quite nice, and we needed to get some more waterproof breathable outers for Heidi’s reusable nappies. We are still persevering with them, and she rarely gets nappy rash. If she does then we go back to disposables which are useful, usually for a short time. We also bought some liners and watched a demo about reusable cloth nappies and learnt a few things. They even have coconut ones now but they take hours to dry in a tumble drier, so maybe not a good investment in this country. Its great to see all her nappies hung up like bats on the line though, waiting to dry out.

We also had some lunch at Dartington Cider Press which was good, as the sun was shining and we sat in the takeaway courtyard. Rachel’s cheese and red onion baguette, my chicken and ham pie, and Heidi’s beef stew went down well. Except Heidi’s got too cold for and she grumbled constantly as she tried to eat it.
A very tired Heidi fell asleep before her semolina pudding arrived and so went straight to bed without any protest. Probably means she’ll wake at 0400h then?