Azra is 9 months old. (Actually 9 months and 10days now!) Life has become much more difficult in terms of looking after her, but more fun. She has discovered the joys of independence. A few weeks ago she was happy just sort of crawling about a metre. Now she races from one end of the house to the other crawling and sidles up to anything so that she can stand and drum her hands on the surface of anything that will make a sound. She is slowly discovering that everything is awaiting her. She loves opening the fridge, opening cupboards and getting things to fall on the ground. Now giving her a bath is a bit of a task. She used to just sit in the bath, we would give her her little ducks, read her books and bathe her. Now when we give her her ducks she picks them up out of the water, stands up and drops them out of the bath and then peers over the side to see where they have fallen, the book that she used to be read to from she does the same, picks it up and drops it then leans over to see where it has fallen. She stands up and whatever is in her reach is fair game, cupboard doors to open, the flush of the toilet, banging on the shower cabin.
To wash her has become quite difficult. Now the weather has started warming up so for the past 3 weekends we have been able to take her out to the park overlooking the sea and sit her on the grass. The first time she did it she just sat there in awe. The second time was pretty much the same with a little tasting of the grass, now to keep her from eating the grass is a task and the last time I took her down she started crawling around the grass. Everybody adores her and now, perhaps unfortunately, she is so used to people taking notice of her that she looks at passersby expectantly! It is a nice social thing I think but I am not sure of the effect. We will see! Her nanny and her seem to like each other very much. They seem to have a lot of fun together and when she comes in the morning and says 'morning' Azra always has a big smile ready! She has to started saying 'ga' and beckoning with her hands. 
This seems to be 'come'. Now instead of carrying her to the bathroom to have her bath I stand in the doorway of the bathroom after preparing her bath and say to her 'come, come, come' and she races down the hallway. She also says 'ga' and beckons to the cat. Funnily enough the cat doesn't come to her though!!! A case of very unrequited love!In the last month she has had two more teeth appear. Actually one month ago we were thinking anyday they will appear but they have only broken through the gum in the last week (second right upper) and the first right upper tooth has just broken through so these are causing a problem at night still. Azra will be addicted to homeopathic chamomile soon as we have been giving it to her for so long. She sees me pushing one pill out into the cap, she opens her mouth wide and even pushes my hands to empty the cap into her waiting mouth!
As we see her developing there definitely seems to be a very emotional part of her character but at the same time quite a I know what I want aspect as well and I will do things when I want. This would be the Leo part of her character! She loves spending time outside, but then doesn't everybody. This shows that she isn't just a cancer which is a relief!
Something interesting about being a mother has reared its ugly head reminding me of my feminist side.
A mother can be ill but very little will change. She still has to look after the baby and life goes on pretty much as before. A father gets ill and the world stops, He can't look after the baby and has to go to bed and stay there and get things delivered, or at least hope for some such thing! Oh this life is terribly hard for the male in a patriarchal society! The more I think about I definitely agree with the thesis that the power structure of the patriarchal society is based on the threat they feel from women's reproductive powers and therefore need to do everything they can to oppress women and their power and maintain their own power. It's all about the baby!
