September. The leaves are turning shades of orange and brown, the air is (supposed to be) colder and the nights are drawing in. Pumpkin Spice latte season is in full swing at Starbucks and Eden is nine whole months old! At this moment, she has been out in the world longer than I was pregnant with her!
This month has been a super fast one. It seems like the first few months of Eden’s life went past fairly slowly, but now they are flying! She now weighs just over 20lbs and is comfortably wearing 6-9 month and 9-12 month clothing. I’m getting annoyed with the unseasonably warm weather as Eden has an absolutely beautiful autumn/winter wardrobe and it being so warm is not helping me utilise it! Her being a winter baby, I absolutely hate trying to keep her cool in hot weather because it’s almost impossible to do.
Eden is crawling like an absolute pro now and is super speedy too. When we go to soft play 
I usually just park myself in a corner and let her run herself around. She crawls everywhere and then pulls up on stuff, often standing unaided for a few moments at a time. It seems she really is trying her hardest to take steps on her own, so we are eagerly awaiting that. Now that she can move herself around she doesn’t get as frustrated as easily and it’s easier to tire her out, which is always a blessing. We usually either go to softplay or to one of the local parks and she just flings herself around on the grass for a little while. Who knows what we will do once the colder weather comes. Eden absolutely loves to dance – it’s her favourite thing. I put the “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” theme on my phone and she boogies away.
We continue to have the friendliest child in the world. Eden has taken to shouting at other kids, dogs, cats, birds… anything really. She really is a little space invader and will chat to anyone or anything that will listen to her. This month she met her nana’s kittens for the first time and impressed us all with how gentle she was with them and them with her. She really is a lovely, caring child. Words wise, she loves to say “hiya” and “bye” and occasionally “hello”. When she’s feeling especially chatty she will point out “dogs” to anyone who will listen. Most of the time dogs are dogs, but often birds and cats are dogs too. She also says “mama” and “mum”. 
Firsts this month. She cut her top two teeth, so she now has four teeth – glorious! The top teeth have been causing all kinds of snot related drama, which is great… We went to Chessington World of Adventures for the first time – no doubt we will be back over the coming years. We rode a few rides together and she really enjoyed looking at all of the animals in the zoo. She stood unaided for the first time and tried apple, cheese, egg and lots of other things for the first time too. Eden also had her first ride in a shopping trolley – she wasn’t too keen as she wanted to face forward the whole time.
I’ve also finally had my return to work confirmed and will be going back three days a week from January. I did ideally want two days a week, but three days will do the job for now. Who knows what the future holds with regards to work as I am applying for other things too. Ideally I just want to be able to go in, do my job and come home as Eden is my priority. Amy’s sister will be caring for her while I’m at work so at least we know she will be in familiar hands. We’re going to start getting preparations in place with that soon enough, but still have a little bit f time to get that fully sorted.
So, that’s nine months. I can’t believe that we’re in the last quarter of her first year. It’s 
crazy. We’ve started looking into where and when to have her first birthday party, which is exciting. We had gone back and forth about a first birthday party with it being so close to Christmas, but we’ve decided to go for it as she’s only going to have this birthday once. So, that should be fun to plan. We’re hopefully going for a fun, magical theme and might hire a room where we go to soft play. Obviously availability and cost permitting as being on maternity leave isn’t conducive to extravagant parties! I also want to organise a cake smash photoshoot so need to get my arse into gear really.
Papa, Eden & Me 