Julie's Boggle

In 15 months, Jess has become such a fun little person.  She’s full of personality and willing to hold forth in baby-babble on virtually any topic.  Passionate and feisty too – she is a lass who knows her own mind and is not shy about sharing her opinion. (Early weather warnings indicate tantrums ahead!)

We’ve been lucky in that Jessica has always enjoyed her sleep, but we’ve curbed her naps during the day to help push her later in the mornings.  For quite a while now she’s been having just one solid lunchtime nap of 1.5 – 2 hours, and then she goes down around 19h30 and will sleep for about 12 hours.  We’re officially encouraging the dummy habit at night (by providing it) but whip it away quickly when she wakes up.  Jess seems to have bought into our arrengement, and part of her waking up routine is handing her dummy and its chain to us. *So cute!*

We’re currently running the teeth gauntlet again – a process designed to test the parents’ as much as the baby’s threshold for pain and irritation!  Jess is cutting the top two of her four front molars, and the last of her front incisors has also just appeared (it’s been just 3 at the bottom for ages now) taking her up to a total of 12.

While Jess is a lot more of a trial to feed than Jon was, I feel we still have very little room for complaint.  She generally is happy with a wide variety of foods, lumps and all, and eats 3 full meals a day alongside 3 milk feeds. It’s only when we keep her waiting or when she’s feeling tired and irritable, that a spoon offered incautiously can be smacked out of the air with a fierce forehand sending it and its contents flying.

We haven’t had a lot of success with getting her to feed herself with a spoon, but give her a plate of pasta or finger food chunks and Jessica is quite happy to feed herself.  Once again, you just need to watch her carefully to gauge the mood… Warning signs of mushing food up in her hands (boredom?) are usually followed by frustrated wiping of food across face/table/hair (or all three) or simply sending the bowl flying.

Jessica enjoys company and is not often happy playing in a room by herself.  She loves to fiddle with all sorts of things but in the typical way of babies, anything that isn’t a toy takes preference!  She has nimble little fingers and very long arms, all the better for reaching things that we try to put out of her way!  (And she’s not above climbing onto/into whatever is available to reach inaccessible surfaces.)

Jess really enjoys the freedom that crawling gives her and loud yells of outrage will be heard if she feels she’s being denied access to somewhere she wants to go.  She’s lightning fast up the stairs, not pausing to lead with the dominant leg like Jon used to, and has perfected a fluid left-right movement that belies her non-athletic heritage.

She’s just recently started walking with the help of Mum/Dad’s hands and even more recently with a baby-walker.  Ever more confident, she’ll now walk hanging on to adult trousers as long as they don’t move too quickly!  But don’t ask her to stand alone just yet.

While Jess is very chatty, and capable of copying noises (usually Jon’s), the only truly recognisable words we’ve had out of her so far are “Bye-bye” and “Boo” (as in “peek-a-boo”, after uncovering random parts of her face).  Both very cute.

My favourite times are seeing her in the morning, in Daddy’s arms, rumpled from sleep but with a beautiful smile when she sees me.  Then there’s when I wake her from her nap – first there’s the outstretched hand seeking contact, then she’s quick to try to pull herself up in her sleeping bag assertively grabbing her dummy to hand over as the ultimate sign that nap time is over.

And best of all, there’s the post-bathtime playtime while we wait for Daddy to finish reading a story to Jonathan – then she’s all warm and cuddly but also full of laughs, hugging me while I try to dress her and later throwing herself down on the bed in her room over and over, and chuckling hugely when she gets tickled.

The end of this term (the last one of the college year) has been a difficult one in terms of goodbyes.  Not only have we had the final-year students and families – our friends and often neighbours – leaving the community, as a family we’re also moving churches again.

Possibly one of the hardest aspects of coming to Durham for Tom’s training was leaving the community we had been a part of in our church in London.  Not just the aspect of people knowing us, but the opportunities to be involved in groups and ministry which isn’t always an option when you’re a transitory member of a congregation.

As part of his college placement requirements, Tom was assigned a church in Chester-le-Street, a town just to the north of Durham.  He had to be there on Sundays for the first two terms so we took the decision to go together.  In many ways it was very different to the church we’d been a part of in London, but folk were friendly and slowly we got to know faces and names.

Although Tom was only obliged to carry on going until Easter, we were feeling settled there – differences and all – so carried on going, uprooting ourselves from a church not being something that we undertake lightly.

However as the end of the year approached, and discussions about next year’s placements progressed, moving on started to feel inevitable.  Tom was hoping for a placement at a local prison and would potentially need the car on a Sunday.  With this in mind, I thought it sensible to use the summer break to integrate ourselves into a more local church so that when we had to go without Tom, it would at least feel familiar enough to make it easier going along by myself with the children.

So tomorrow, we’re all going along to a church just down the road from where we live.  Another fresh start, more people to get to know.  Arguably not a bad thing.  It’s just the thought that in a year’s time, it will be our turn to leave again, which will bring with it a whole lot more goodbyes.