Thanks to all of you for your ideas and encouragement. It means a lot

Sarah, the water suggestion is great. I hadn’t thought of that as an activity but feel pretty stupid now that I think about it because she sets it up herself by playing with water from her cup all the time! We do have a push walker but she still walks on her toes most of the time and I don’t think she’s stable enough for it yet (maybe I’m just being overprotective although our floors are mostly tiled so there is less bump protection).

Pandora, Black Rose and Tuesday’s Child - thanks for the suggestions re the night routine, especially keeping it consistent and the quiet time idea. We have fallen into letting her play again after her bottle (more so DH could have more time with her and so I could sneak off and get dinner made), but I think we’ve made a rod for our own backs. As for playgroups, I haven’t looked into them yet as DD is always so unsettled when we go to mother’s group. I suspect it’s because all of the other kids are very mobile and she tends to sit there and get aggro when they come and take toys off her and she can’t follow them! It makes for a fairly stressful time for both of us. I’d like to join a playgroup but might leave it for about 6 months.

Yeddi, what awesome ideas! Thank you so much.

Sloane and Miss E, your outing ideas are great and it helps to know what works for you with your evening routines.

Taurean, wow, I’m so grateful for all the info you’ve shared. Re the bottles/ milk feeds... I dropped her down to 2 recently because she’s a bit of a chubby bub (not huge, but 11.8kg with roly-poly thighs!) I wasn’t worried about her weight but so many people have said her weight is probably why she hasn’t walked/crawled yet so I felt as though I should reduce it. Don’t even get me started on MCHNs I stopped going to the clinic when she was 6 months old because they suggested that I put her on a diet. Yes with food restriction and all. I have always felt strongly about offering her as much varied food as she wants to eat and letting her decide how much she has.. except with the bottles as I was beginning to worry I guess and took everyone’s comments to heart. She has about 240ml milk twice a day now.. but sometimes cries when the bottle is finished, especially at night. This sounds ridiculous but I haven’t offered more and am now thinking I should. Same as your DD I’ve found she pushed the bottle away at other times when she’s had enough so there’s no reason for me to think I would overfeed her I guess, and she probably is thirsty with the heat we've been getting lately. I’m in the process of converting over to cows milk from formula now. Is that what you give your DD? I don't know if nutritionally it makes much difference... I just remember reading it somewhere.