nov, 2nd - guest post: my friend limi....

day 263:

[that's me!]

My Friend Limi 

by Mabel Ruby aged 9 months and 8 days

Mama says I’ve known Limi (or Limster as she likes to call her) since I was in her tummy. Well I don’t remember being in my Mama’s tummy although I do remember a faint whooshing sound over and over and being in a warm dark place but that may just be a dream I once had I’m not really sure.

The first time I met Limi properly was at yoga, there we all were flat out on our yoga mats while our mums all pulled weird and wonderful poses above us. I thought yoga was meant to make you relaxed, but all the mums looked like they were in pain half the time. Weird.

[limi and i with our friend Aedan during our first Summer]

Limi was the coolest girl in the class (ok there was only two girls, me and her but one time another girl joined for a day and Limi was still way cooler than her).

She always had the best ‘grows’ you know, baby grows with the funkiest prints and always had them done up OVER her leggings, which meant she never had a hanging nappy, so grown up!

Around this time my Mama read a book called The Secrets Of The Baby Whisperer, which gave all babies a ‘type’ so you could look up what their personality traits were and deal with them accordingly. This was the hundredth book she had tried to read on how to bring me up. I kept trying to tell her what was going on with me, I’m hungry, cold, need a nappy change etc but all that ever came out was ‘Goo’ and ‘Gaa’ so I don’t blame her for wanting to ask someone else about it. Anyway, Limi was what was known as an ‘Angel Baby’ perfect and sweet natured and what every mother wants to bring home from the hospital. I on the other hand was a borderline ‘Grumpy/ Touchy Baby’ and a bit of a handful.

[me with my mama]

Over the last 9 months I think I’ve mellowed slightly (well I certainly feel better now that my colic has gone, gave me terrible gas in the evenings) and I think a lot of the mellowing has to do with Limi. She’s taught me to smile a lot, clap hands, blow raspberries and even sit up!  She’s trying to teach me to crawl at the moment which is proving rather difficult and I think I may give the whole thing a miss to be honest with you as I’d much rather play with my buttons on my jumper but don’t tell Limi. She’s also a great practical joker, she thinks it’s hilarious to steal my dummy and scoot off on her hands and knees knowing I can’t follower her, ha ha! ‘Give it back!’ I yell at the top of my voice but strangely all that comes out is ‘Da Daaaa!’ (the English Language is so hard, almost as hard as crawling.)

So, Limi thank you for being my buddy and for the last 9 months of fun and games. Mama says ‘hi’ and she’s glaring at me to get off the laptop now as a bit of my dribble has fallen in between the keys and I hope she doesn’t find out about the rice cake I smushed into the hole where the power lead goes, ssshh! 

thank you Bonnie and Mabel for such a delicious post! x

sep, 24th - guest post: speech therapy for babies....

day 224:


This is my gorgeous friend, Angie. She lives down in Oz. Not only is she an amazing mum but also a brilliant speech therapist. I asked her what we should be doing with Limi to encourage her speech and communication and this is what she said......

Dee asked me to jot down a few ideas about helping Limi to communicate and I thought, where do I start?  As a speech pathologist and a mum of two young boys, I could talk all day on this topic!  Early communication development is my job and my passion.  So here’s my thoughts below.  I’ve tried to keep it short, so please don’t hesitate to contact me by leaving a comment, if you have any questions or want more information.

The ability to communicate is the most important skill your child will learn, and parents are the most important teachers of this skill.  Communication begins at birth and is more than just words.  Smiling, reaching, pointing, crying, looking and making sounds are all ways we communicate.  There are lots of things you do to help your little one to develop their communication skills.  Here are a few tips and some places to go for further information or advice.

1)    Talk to your baby.  Ok, this may seem like a stupid thing to say, but talk talk talk LOTS.  Research has shown that children who grow up in ‘talkative’ homes have better communication skills than children who grow up in ‘quieter’ households.  As you go about your daily routine talk to your baby about what you are doing.  Repeat key words and show the item you are talking about.  Make comments more than you ask questions.

2)    Use waiting to encourage communication.  As your baby’s main communication partner, you can offer them more opportunities to communicate by simply waiting for them to communicate.  You make a comment or ask a question, then look expectantly and WAIT.  Count to 10 in your head if that helps you to wait!  Little ones need more time to process information and develop a response than we do, as adults and experienced communicators.  By waiting, we often see children communicate more, eg. vocalise, reach, look, point.  So, when they communicate, you reply and then you’ve got turntaking, which is the basis for a conversation!

3)    Sign with your baby.  Speech is a complex motor task and takes years to develop, but a baby’s hand movements generally develop faster.  Your baby can understand lots of language, and develop ideas, but can’t yet say words.  Teaching them a few signs gives them a way to communicate their ideas to you.  Remember to always talk when you sign.  Some first signs to practice might be- gone, more, sleep, finished, eat, animal names (eg. dog)/names of toys (eg. ball).  Use the signing system of the country you are in.  Australia uses Auslan (see www.auslan.org.au) and the UK uses BSL (see www.britishsignlanguage.com).  There’s no need to buy expensive resources or attend courses (there are many people making a profit from baby signing) though you might find these resources more parent friendly and some of the signs have been modified so they are easier for little hands to do.  As your baby begins to say words, they tend to drop off their use of signs, though the signing was useful in the meantime, while they were developing their speech skills.  Some studies have showed an increase in language skills and intelligence testing scores for children who have had exposure to signing. 

4)    Last, but not least, my favourite tip- read to your baby from birth.  My favourite book on this topic is by children’s author Mem Fox called “Reading Magic”. See Mem’s ‘Ten Read Aloud Commandments’ http://www.memfox.com/ten-read-aloud-commandments.html

If you have any concerns about your child’s communication development please speak to a child health nurse or GP.  You can also contact speech pathologists directly by finding them in the phone book or by contacting the speech pathology association in your country:

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (UK): www.rcslt.org

Speech Pathology Australia: www.speechpathologyaustrala.org.au

South African Speech-Language-Hearing Association: www.saslha.co.za


Photo by: Maureen Haynes