My dear disorderly daughter!

 Ah, Betsy.

Right from the start we knew she was going to keep us on our toes.
At my 12 week scan, I was wriggled and jiggled about and then eventually sent off for a walk around the hospital in desperate attempts to get her to lie in a suitable position for the sonographer to do his thing.

As my pregnancy progressed, I was certain that she had abandoned my uterus and set up home in my rib cage.

 Labour was a harrowing ordeal, though in her defence this was mostly down to me being incredibly unprepared and naïve about the whole thing.

She refused to cooperate with me and my feeble attempts at getting her to take a bottle of expressed milk here and there so that I could escape her evil clutches for a few hours. This lasted for 7 long months!

Around the 3 months mark she decided that actually, she wasn't all that thrilled about being in her car seat anymore. Meaning she would howl and scream for the whole journey, from start to finish. Cue us rushing out and panic buying an obscenely priced car seat that we convinced ourselves would be the end to our troubles. It wasn't.

 She refused to sleep anywhere other then the aptly named ''magic chair''. Even when she was far to big for it and could no longer be bounced in it as her bum would hit the floor. Still far better and comfier then a nice warm cot.

Then came the dreaded weaning. To start with Betsy was willing to try anything, and had all manner of things fed to her. Around this time, me and Ashley decided it would be a great idea to start letting her try pretty much anything we ate. Now, however, we find ourselves in a pretty dire predicament, whereby Betsy is mostly uninterested in whatever is actually given to her, and thinks she has an automatic right to demand whatever we are eating. Regardless of what it is. Meaning if its something I really don't want her to have, I have to sneak away in the kitchen and hide to consume it. Unluckily for me Betsy can be extremely quiet when she wants to be, and many a time I have been stuffing my face only to turn around and see her staring at me with her furious beady little eyes.  

She spends incredibly large amounts of time being the most stony faced little person you will ever come across. She has baffled and bewildered baby group parents, who cannot believe how serious she is when all the other babies are laughing their little heads off. I've been asked whether anything makes her happy. Every now and then she will shock and surprise you with a smile, sometimes even a laugh. Gasp. However do not be fooled. You will excitedly tell everyone that 'finally!!' you have done it! You have found something that amuses her. You will show them whatever it was that ignited the little flame of happiness from within her, only to be met with a disapproving glare that screams ''what on earth are you doing, you idiot!'. You will look like a fraud, and wonder whether you had imagined the whole thing.

Now at the age of 14 months there are always new challenges with her.  The overwhelming sheer delight that washes over me whenever I emerge victorious from one of our many daily battles makes me want to jump up and down on the spot and laugh in her stubborn little face. I don't however, because I know I need to conserve my energies for whatever she plots to do next, and having had to face the humiliation of being defeated by me, I know she will be cooking up something extraordinary.

 HOWEVER. Despite all of the above, she is the apple of my eye. She fascinates and amazes me every single day. The older she gets the more frequent those rare smiles and laughs have become. She will walk up to me and give me cuddles and kisses for no reason. She will dance when her favourite little theme tune of a programme comes on, and keep checking I'm dancing with her. She is such a funny little thing, and it blows my mind how quickly she learns. I'm so chuffed that I have such a beautiful intelligent little girl, and I would not be without her!