Daisy Suzanne Allen

Born Sunday 6th March 2011

8 to 10 months old

Her life:  Birth ♥ Week 1 ♥ Weeks 2-3 ♥ Weeks 4-7 ♥ Weeks 8-13 ♥ Weeks 14-22 ♥ 5-7 months ♥ 7-8 months ♥ 8-10 months ♥ 1st Christmas ♥ 10-12 months ♥ 1st birthday party ♥ 12-15 months ♥ 15-18 months ♥ 18-21 months ♥ 21-24 months ♥ 2nd birthday ♥ 2-2½  years ♥ 2½-3 years ♥ 3rd birthday ♥ 3-3¼ years ♥ 3¼-3½ years ♥ 3½-3¾ years ♥ 3¾-4 years ♥ 4th birthday

In summary:  Index ♥ From birth to four years old ♥ Four years old onwards

Special features:  Daisy translator ♥ Daisy cookery ♥ Daisy phrases ♥ Golden Bear

This is a fairly typical morning scene, as Daisy sits with us in the front room while we have breakfast (she does too).  And also fairly typically, she is trying to do numerous things at once.  Here, reading the cat book whilst holding the little crab (that belongs in the bath, really, but it's made its way downstairs in an apparent bid for freedom - it's going nowhere right now).

Another week, another set of new toys.  What's it going to be like at Christmas?  Will we be able to move?  This is quite a cool toy, though, as the little cups are numbers, and they fit inside each other one way and stack the other.  With this she often tentatively reaches forward to touch it, more strongly each time, closing her eyes as she gets close and anticipates it collapsing as a result of her interference.  It's sweet.  Wilful but measured destruction, like a controlled bomb detonation.

As the winter months get ever closer, we, as good parents, have to increasingly wrap up Daisy nice and warm.  Here you can see her two front teeth at the bottom, sticking proudly up from her ridge of gums.  Nothing is poking out from the top yet, but it's only a matter of time.  Nature works like that.

This is later this day, as we ravenously headed for the local Toby Carvery for a big roast (I had been cycling and Lynne had skipped lunch, and it was around 4pm).  Daisy, however, was getting tired as we waiting for our table, and increasingly grumpy.  Part of this was due to her getting hot - she does not at all like getting hot - which necessitated undoing all the wrapping up we had done before we set off.  She was stripped down to her vest in the warm pub.  Then I picked her up and jigged gently back and forth.  It did the trick and she soon fell asleep on me, and she slept like this while we bulldozed through a plated mound of meat and infinite veg.  Lynne yelped with delight as it all came together (we feared we might have to leave before eating, and we were given a spacious table to boot).

Lynne and Daisy have fun at mealtime.  Daisy's certainly having a good giggle at something.  Lynne sent me this while I was at work - that kind of thing can help you through the day.

Lynne got mischievous with Daisy's hair when rubbing in shampoo, so much so that it all went a bit Jack Nicholson.  Heeeere's Daisy!

Towards the end of November, Kate and Nana Sue kindly agreed to babysit while we went to see the Vaccines at the Manchester Academy on a Friday night.  This one was taken by Kate's phone.

As was this presumably.  Daisy is getting more trusting with certain people now, even when a bit tired, which she must have been at this stage of the day.

The next day, despite being a tad hungover (and with nothing but leftover pasta bake as edible company), I bravely looked after young Daisy ('twas Daddy 'n' Daisy day anyway).  I even dressed her in something nice.  Another reasonably recent toy in shot here - her musical drum (which can talk in either English or French for an added twist).

"Mummy.... can I get all the toys out of the Hello Kitty toy box and spread them all around the living room floor, please?"

I don't like weekdays so much.  They involve spending no more than half an hour with Miss Daisy while I eat my breakfast and get ready for work.  When busy at work, it can be 7pm or later before I get home, which is alas too late to see Daisy awake again, so I have to make do with: peering into her cot in the dark when I can be sure she is fast asleep; or taking photos like this before I go so I can peek at them during the day (on this morning, I was off to London to present some training slides so I would need all the moral support I could get).

That's all for now.

Daisy's come a long way since her first supermarket visits - she's all grown up now.  "Mummy... can you buy more milk please, mummy."

Daisy and I took a ride to Boothstown to visit the ladies Allen.  She was a bit reticent at first, understandably spooked by the in-her-face enthusiasm demonstrated by Nana Sue and Aunty Katie.  Taking along some of her own toys proved successful, though, and she was soon enjoying knocking down the numbered tower of cups, to the delight of Aunty Katie.  Cutely, she proffers a hand to knock it over whilst at the same time closing her eyes in anticipation of the cups falling down.

You can really see her two bottom (and indeed only) teeth in this shot.  She was having a good time now!

But it was all too tiring.  A bit of soothing stroking and talking from Aunty Katie and she was out like a light.  She had to stay in that position for about half an hour while Daisy slept.

A couple of days later, in early December, I was travelling back from a meeting in Cheltenham in the least quick way possible.  Due to a line down between Wolverhampton and Stafford, I had to take four separate trains plus a coach, spending five hours getting home.  Lynne sent me this picture of Daisy, in her snazzy leopard skin top, to help keep me going.

And here's one of her looking like a cheeky monkey.

More photos after Christmas.

In fact, there is a special page set up for Daisy's 1st Christmas.  Early in December, Uncle Matt came round to take some pictures of Daisy in a Christmas costume.  They can be found on the Christmas page, but there are some that fit better here.  They were in fact taken a handful of days before the above photo.  Anyway, Matt's photos are clearly of better quality due to his expensive bit of kit (and his well-honed skills, obviously), as is evident here.

Straight away she started to pose for her uncle, which certainly beats crying at the sight of him.

Calibrating with the lighting, Matt soon had the soft focus shot going.

Always good to have an action photo, as Daisy flips herself from back to front.

Reading books  - definitely her favourite pastime.  She's even at the stage now where she can turn the page without even looking, although I'm not sure what the actually achieves.

Cheeky?  Who, me?  You can really see her two teeth here.

Daisy's latest trick is waving.  She now loves to wave.  You just have to say "bye Daisy" and she'll start waving.  She does it in a very efficient manner, rotating at the wrist, rather like a royal wave.

She gets very excited at the sight of other babies, including herself (either in a mirror or a slideshow of photos on the laptop).  She shouts something "ghee!" quite a lot when she sees them, so I think she might be a curry chef.  In fact, she's increasingly saying words that seem like real words - "hiya", "daddy" and "mummy" are all possibilities so far.  She loves to chatter away, especially when she's just been put to bed - it's like her own little Late Review of the day.

A week before Christmas, I attempted a walk in the icy wastelands of Heaton Chapel with Daisy all wrapped up.  She is a bit pouty, perhaps a bit aggrieved at her enforced headwear.

Looking all grown up on the sofa with her counting cups.

She is yet to crawl, despite most of her peers doing so.  This is no surprise since Lynne and I both took our sweet time when babies.  She spends too much time reading to bother about crawling.  She can manoeuvre herself around the room with a number of methods, though.  She can roll, she can rotate round whilst on her belly, and she can also sort-of crawl backwards in a sort of break dancing-style action (who does she get that from?).  She can get on to all fours but isn't sure what to do next.  In can sometimes end like this - a lurch forward onto her face.

Lynne got the bubble machine out while Daisy was having a bath.  Hilariously, one stuck to her forehead (which prompted the photo).

The next day, she really wanted to get across just how much she loves the musical centre that Uncle Matt gave her (as well as a stunningly good home-crafted walking cart).  Hmmm, let's see what it says on that top.

Flattery will get you everywhere.

That's all for now.  Happy New Year!

Room for a few more photos before she hits the big ten months.  The day after New Year's Day, I popped over to Boothstown with the little one, for a regular wooing session.  Snapped by Aunty Katie, this shows Nana Sue and Daisy enjoying a good game of peek-a-boo.  Where on earth has Daisy gone?

There she is!

"Nana?  Please can you turn the heating down?  It's very warm in here."  She just has her vest on here because she prefers to be cool.

Vicky and Paul kindly bought Daisy a couple of Christmas presents, the ownership of which, due to logistics, wasn't transferred until 2012.  Cannily, Daisy poses with both of them.  She knows how to mine a seam.

And finally, here's a shot where she looks a bit more like me when I was younger.  Such photo comparisons are few and far between.

And with that, she sailed past ten months old.