I am the slackest mama ever when it comes to blogging lately - but I have been working with some amazing brands on Instagram and I can't wait to share them with you!

In the meantime, Clairebear is 11 months old and edging ever close to the elusive first birthday. My baby girl amazes me every day. Seriously.. how did I get so lucky? :)

That moment when you blink and your baby girl is just shy of a year old... yep, we're at 10 months and I have NO idea where that time went. Life is good, there are lots of updates to be made, but for now, here we go:

And just like that, another month goes by.

So much to say and catch up on - but that's a story for another day. :)

Eight months old and full of personality. How did we get so lucky?

And just like that, this little love is seven months old.

She's learning new things every day. She's lost her gummy grin, replaced by a cheeky face-pulling toothy monster. She's watching Georgia constantly, and she's saving the best smiles for her daddy.

Snuggle your babies tight, folks. They grow so darned fast. :)

My wee girl is now six months old - and growing into the sweetest little person.

Claire was Christened last weekend, and we combined that with Georgia's birthday party, which was a crazy and busy day - but full of loved ones and happy faces. I still can't believe we have two little girls to celebrate now... how did we get so lucky?

She's learning to sit up now, which is awesome. We've started solid foods, and while I'm wearing more of them than she's actually eating, we're getting there. She was diagnosed with hypermobility and has been on the waiting list for Occupation Therapy, which our initial assessment in a few weeks will hopefully get the ball rolling.

When she sees her sister, her eyes light up. When she's happy, she smiles all the way down to her curly toes. When she laughs, it bubbles up from deep inside. This girl is a delight! ♥

... I'm only a month late! :)

Life with two is...

If there's one thing that infertility tears apart, it's the ability to have some kind of plan for your life. Most couples make the decision to add to their family, choose when to start, and let things progress naturally from there; each time frame is unique, but it always happens in the end. Then there's the decision about whether to have more children - again, dependent on many things; finances, space, pregnancy complications - but the choice is there. Do we, or don't we? If we do, we try. If we don't, we give the baby things away and move away from the high chairs and prams, and towards a new stage of life.

My hands have been full lately - in a good way!

I'm coming to realise that this little baby is not going to be the mellow, 'go with the flow' second sibling that I'd always heard about; the kind that gets lugged along to all of their sister's events and is content to follow along happily. Not in this household.

My kiddo knows what she wants, and I can see how strong her personality is already - at four months old! She laughs and talks with her whole face, and when she's happy, you can't help but be happy with her. But when she's not... oh man.

I often observe other babies when we're out and about, and the one thing that I've noticed with Claire is that she is loud. All babies cry, and that's perfectly fine - but when my baby cries? It's loud. LOUD LOUD. Loud enough to turn heads, that kind of loud. It echoes through rooms, it's the kind of cry that leaves her sweaty and red faced and sometimes breathless.

When she first did this at a few weeks old, it made me so nervous that I took her to the doctors for a check over, and again at the paediatrician. I was concerned it might have been silent reflux, or that something was causing her to be distressed. The verdict: physically, she was perfect. That's just her cry. Since then, I've come to realise that they were right - this is just her way. It's how she gets in the car, and we all know how much she hates that. It's how she gets when she's hungry, when she's sad, when she's tired. There's no soft little cry that escalates - it's just 0 to 100 in a flash.

She wants to be with you, to see what you're doing, to watch everything that's happening around her. She wants to sit up, even though her little body isn't quite ready for that yet. She lights up around Georgia & can recognise voices with ease.

Claire was a pleasant surprise from the start. That her transfer worked at all, that she made it through a rocky pregnancy; right up to when she graced us with her presence, looking so very different to her big sister. It shouldn't really shock me that her personality is her own as well - this spirited kiddo is going to be the best kind of handful; I can feel it already. :)