All Grown Up!

Isn't it amazing how time flies?

I spent this weekend buying my baby girl her first bed! She's 21 months old now and too big for the cot at Grandma's and travel cots so if we want to go anywhere she has to learn to sleep in a proper bed.

We were going to IKEA until I discovered their matress sizes didn't seem to be standard so I ended up getting this one from Mothercare together with a mattress. I did look at bedding from Mothercare too but I find them so uninspiring and bland that I didn't bother.

I love bright colours so I went to this place instead - Vertbaudet - and got some gorgeous bedding. All in all i spent around £220 to get bed, mattress, guard rail, quilt, pillow, four fitted sheets, two duvet covers and two pillow cases. Luckily my Mum was on hand to put some money towards the cost as Lia's birthday present and I kept some christmas money for this too.

I try and get things that are not specifically girlie just in case the next baby turns out to be a boy. I went for the jungle bedding and some plain orange / yellow bedding. Much of what we already have in her room has jungle animals on so it'll fit right in.

So now I'm eagerly awaiting the deliveries and hoping it will all come by the end of this week so we can get her bedroom organised. DH is worried about the added work of keeping her in bed but I figure if she gets up, she gets up, she has to learn how to sleep in a proper bed at some point. Plus, given that I am spending Easter with her at my parents and we're going to Brussels at the end of May we need to get her used to beds as soon as we can. I look upon all this as the next fun stage but I know there'll be nights when we find her asleep on the floor and we'll more than likely get morning visitations now.

I do recommend Verbaudet as they have some gorgeous things, especially furniture. I can't wait till we get in our new house and have more room to give her a proper bedroom instead of the bedroom/storage/spare room she's in now.

Talking of Grandma, my Mum is chuffed because Lia has given her a name. As Lia is her first grandchild she spent most of my pregnancy trying to decide what she wanted to be called and I think she settled on Gran. I started out calling her Grandma because I was confused as to what she wanted and thought that was what she had settled on. Anyway, Lia has now christened her 'Ma Ma' and Mum's over the moon, telling the whole world that as Lia chose that name that's the one she's going to use.

It's very sweet of couse, both the name and my Mum's excitement, but I tend to spoil the moment by telling people that Lia named her toy cat first. LOL. In fact she has three toys that sleep in her cot and they now all have their own names that she's chosen - she carefully introduces them to us all the time. 'Neh-Naw' is her cat. She also uses this word as a generic word for all animals but specifically referenced it is the cat. 'Gung-gah' is the dog and 'Q' is the bear. I don't know why poor old Q missed out on a second syllable but he's definitely just Q.

I also have no idea where these names came from, she knows that Neh-Naw is a cat (she tells me so regularly) but I can't see where the names might have derived from. Let's face it Ma-Ma is clearly her version of Grandma but it takes some twisted logic to get 'Gung-gah' from 'Dog'...

I'm working to a 'Calvin and Hobbes' theory. For those of you who don't know this cartoon strip it's a small boy (Calvin) who has a toy tiger (Hobbes) and whenever they are alone together Hobbes is real. Given the intense conversations Lia has with Neh-Naw, Gung-Gah and Q I'm inclined to believe they're real.