10 Weeks

It’s week 10 and as Anne Shearer said in her card, each day I see something new from Alexa, a different look, murmur or movement. At the moment she is taking great pleasure in lifting her legs up in the air. Something I am encouraging as it helps with nappy changing. I can see that it will not take much, an over balance, and she would have moved off the play mat/changing table; so I am taking more care with her. I know that at some point she will have a fall, but I’d like to think it was not from the dining table onto the carpeted concrete floor.
She is taking more interest in her toys now. She loves Jo’s picture book – being more interested in the animals than the patterns; she also loves her two giraffes Rufus and Angelina. Rufus is red & purple with blue spots and squeaks when you squeeze him. Angelina is Alexa’s Great Granny’s gift – an effeminate pink and white giraffe. She picture for evidence.

Last weekend we hired a car and headed into the English countryside to stay with the Edwards; Ryan, Sam, Lily (4, almost 5) & Sonny (19 months) at Cranbrook. There we had two lovely lazy days of late mornings, walks thru the village, and visiting friends. The highlight was a walk through the forest at Sissinghurst. See picture. Alexa was a bit unsettled by the change and the travel, but seemed to cope surprisingly well. A good sign for a holiday later this year, not to mention the camping trip in August.

This week we had a glimpse of summer with temps of 24 degrees and two days of hot sun. I chose both days to head into the city via tube (not the smartest of moves) and as a result discovered that like mum & dad, Alexa overheats quickly. Not only that, but that the black mountain buggy becomes a sauna when hit by direct sunlight. Both days we were travelling during the middle of the day, returning with a very disgruntled infant, to quickly unlock back door and head out into the garden to sprawl underneath the shade of our apple tree. The garden is wonderful and will get much use over summer. It is a great place to lay Alexa and I can easily nip back and forth to the house to get items I have forgotten. She loved the new views and giggled contentedly as she lay gazing up at the apple tree (it could have been the passing plane she was giggling at, but I somehow doubt her vision is that good just yet).

Lisa & Tim have been kind enough to lend us their crib as Ben has grown too big for it. It is wider and taller than the pram basinet, but much smaller than the cot, and it fits into an alcove in our room perfectly. So after a Sunday of some furniture shuffling we have a new set up for Alexa. She sleeps in the crib at the end of our bed, underneath the shelf with all her toys. We have bought a picture (actually a sheet of wrapping paper) with lots of colourful elephants for her to look at, as well as hanging up the buzzy bee mobile. After two nights so far she has settled in nicely. Thanks Lisa & Tim!