No Posts this week

The brown stuff is hitting the fan in work this week so no time! :-(
Also, I have reached my upload limit for pictures this month and so can't add any illustrations!
I will tell you all about the Easter celebrations etc. when I can add pictures again. This will be next week.

Nocturne

Last night.....00.03 hrs. I was resting comfortably in Morpheus' arms when himself darts out of bed. As always, it takes a few seconds for the cobwebs to clear from my cranium. Little Miss is wide awake and sobbing intensely. Fair Play to Darren; he tried to sooth her back to sleep in her own bedroom for an extremely long time. In the end though, she came in with us. Normally this works just fine. She will mooch for a little bit and then doze off.

NOT LAST NIGHT HOWEVER!!

I have no idea what came over the child but she must not have received the memo that says that the hours between 21.00 and 8.00 are for slumber!
She was full of energy. Her Daddy and I tried to get some more shut-eye (he, my alarm goes off at 05.45 hours, mercilessly) but she was having none of it!
She sat up straight in between us, grabbed my hand, grabbed Darren's and then tried to make us clap hands. She does this in the mornings sometimes and could not grasp the concept of appropriate times for such undertakings.
She also has a sadistic streak...
I was facing away from her, when I felt someone pulling at my hair. Sometimes she plays with my hair to sooth herself. My hopes soared: Sleep Must Be Immanent!
No such luck, she proceeded to pull my hair out, one strand at a time...... her little midnight project.
At this stage it's around 02.00 hrs and I decide enough is enough and put her back in her own cot. I am ready for a few tears but think (read: Pray) that she will settle down once there are no more distractions around. And, for the briefest of times, it's looking good. Then..... tears... lots of 'em. I attempted tough love (not going in to her straight away) but neither Darren nor I are very good at that. When Darren went in to her she started wailing! I could have joined in with her right there and then. When she came back to our bed, she burrowed in to my chest and cried some more........ Poor Little Honey.
last time I checked the clock it was about 04.00 hrs ( I think). Somewhere along the night we all must have fallen asleep 'cause I was woken up by my alarm wayyyy to early again. She was sleeping like a eeerrmm ..... well.... A Baby really, next to me. Face like a little Angel.

I feel an early night coming on tonight! :-)

Have a great one People!

Sunshine

Little Miss has had a rough few days. She was out of sorts, not a happy bunny. It breaks your heart to see her like this because you know she is such a happy child normally.
She will rub her nose as if it's annoyingly itchy, slouch her shoulders and walk around with a big frown and pout. Last week she walked around the living room then stopped in her tracks, changed direction, took a few more steps and changed direction again and then just started to cry.... Like she didn't know what to be doing with herself and it was just getting to her.
I know the feeling so well, but at least I can B*tch and Moan about it, vocalize my feelings. She can't and that must be adding to her frustration! She will not be comforted when she is feeling that way and that makes you feel so helpless. That's what the Mammy does! She makes the nasty feelings go away...... But as I don't believe in forcing points like that, I just let her be and give her lots and lots of luvin' when she eventually does come up for some cuddles.

So when I arrived at Nanny's house yesterda, I half expected to find my daughter with a little thundercloud over her head. But I found a little ray of sunshine! When I went down on my hunkers and spread my arms, she ran in to me and gave me a monster squeeze! You can't beat it with a stick people! The "Mamma, you're home!" smile is priceless!
After a lovely dinner (Thank you Nanny!) Caíthlyn came to get me. She held her hand up to me for me to take it and proceeded to take me on a "tour" of the kitchen/sitting room. "Here's the dishwasher" (pointing at Nanny putting dishes away in the machine) and here is the kiddies table with the book I am reading. (Pointing at the book of Teddy Bear Nursery Rhymes) I swear, it was like she was talking to me.

She also has a new "Party-Trick". When you tell her:" Show me your tongue Caíthlyn" She will stick out her tongue fast as a flash! (The things she picks up at Nanny's house! ;-) ) I know it doesn't sound funny but when you see it, believe me, it is!

That concludes today's musings.... Show me your tongue everybody!

The Dad's Morning

The below was sent to me by Darren this morning, have a read of the below account of the start of their day:

You wont believe it, but I’m only in about 10 minutes. We slept it out this morning. My phone went dead during the night and she didn’t wake up till 10am on the button!!! Hahaha!! I heard her starting to mooch so I picked up my phone to see what time it was. Clue number one, battery dead. I started to get a little suspicious that I might be running late, but was still quietly confident that she normally wakes up between 7:30 and 8am so wasn’t going to be too bad. I take a trot down stairs to iron my jeans and jumper and look at the clock………oh my God its 10 O’Clock!!!! Well you wanna see me leg it around the house. My jeans were creased and still wet, feck it, on ya go!! Up to herself whos in like great form at this stage!!! Full of barks and tweeting!! Got some clothes on her and away down stairs with us!! Now to call work. Do you think I could remember the number for here…nah, not a hope. After a couple of wrong numbers, I called dir. enq. And got through. They were sound about the whole thing and found it actually funny!! So there ya go, that’s our lot for the morning!! Talk to you later during the day!!

Ain't Monday's a B*tch?

Big Sap Alert!!

Big Sap Alert!!

During the (seemingly) endless months of pregnancy I spent a great deal of my time fantasizing.... Now stop it right there, you dirty dirties!
Fantasizing about my BABY thank you very much!! How was he/she going to look, what kind of personality was he/she going to have. And about family things we would do together.
I imagined the three of us in our bed on a lazy morning in the weekend. Having great cuddles and lots of fun together. And this is exactly what we do. We will retrieve Little Miss from her cot and snuggle her in with us. Sometimes she snoozes a bit more and sometimes we are declared "Human Climbing Frames" and "Instruments Of Loads Of Other Kinds Of Fun". Making a tent under the duvet and popping our heads under it elicits great giggles. Also "hiding" under the duvet and exclaiming "Peeeeep!!" when she "finds" you is rewarded with shoulder-shaking belly laughs. Obviously we are great parents who are dead-funny!

Another fantasy came true this weekend. I know it's sappy and people will probably go:" Oh, puhrlease!" but I still have to share. This weekend we walked back to the car from the supermarket with our little girl walking in between us. We each held one of her hands and off we went. I went all mushy inside. Holding my little girl's hand as she is stepping around in the big outside world......

We also took Little Miss for a walk and a go on the swings.
We live on the coast and the playground is right at the sea, it's a lovely place for a stroll.



Caíthlyn was strapped in all nice and snuggly, hat, scarf and gloves in place and there we went.
She is amazed by animals: Birds, Cats, Dogs, they all get greeted with high levels of enthusiasm! The girl has hawk-eyes as well. She will point and say:"Kog" (=Dog) before I even realize there is one of them trotting around!
I ADORE seeing her get such a kick out of these things. Don't know if it's a saying in English as well but we have one that goes:" A child's hand is easily filled" and that is SO true. Making animal sounds and looking at the various specimens darting around gives her a great kick. A go on the swings topped it all off for her. She is fearless! She will hold on to the chains and her eyes light up with the joy of it all.
All good things must come to an end though and so we had to walk back to the car. Negotiating the grass was a bit tough, so we opted for the gravel. I held her left hand and as her Daddy came up on her right, she put her hand up for him to hold without even looking up....... Just trusting that Dad would be there.

You can't buy the kind of happiness that gives...... (All together now:" YOU BIG SOFTIEEEEE!!"

Daddy

Hello There,

The lack of posts in the last few days was due to the flu. The flu sucks eggs and is NO FUN! I am back in the saddle now though, so here goes:

First, my lovely boyfriend has written a poem about our daughter and his love for her:


There's a place in my heart where angels could dwell,
But that placed is filled by one.
To look but a moment in those eyes you see,
The beauty and good, those angels have done.

Perfection personified in one small tiny being
Yet, reflected back in waves constantly.
To hold her is to know a prize immeasurable,
Oh my darling, my darling baby.


I know I have talked (gushed) about him before but I can't help it. I have to just indulge myself a little bit more.
Starting a family with someone is always going to be a gamble. Parenthood is such an overwhelming thing that you never really know what kind of impact it is going to have. No matter how well you know the person.
In my case, I couldn't have asked for a better father for my child. From the first moment I saw him hold his daughter I knew I had been Bang on the Money sticking with this wonderful man. The tenderness with which he held his daughter touched me deeply. ( I know it's hormone central just after the birth, you Cynics out there, but believe me, Icebergs would have melted!)

They have their own evening rituals together. They will throw two cushions on the floor and lie down on their bellies. They will have their cheeks on the pillows and their noses almost touching. They can be doing almost anything in that Daddy and Caíthlyn time together.
Darren will put Caíthlyns hand in to a fist and then uncurl the fingers one by one, counting with each finger. And she will make sounds in the same tones as him. She's counting with him! They can be doing shapes, reading books, she can be using him as a climbing frame...... The possibilities are endless! They LOVE that time together. Then they have bath time.
(In the winter my hands crack like mad when I immerse them in water. So, until the summer sets in, Bath-Time is Daddy-Time. I will be edging my way back in that bathroom come this summer though!)
Little Miss adores the water and the squeals of delight are testimony to allot of fun going on in there! However, as I am not there. I will attempt to twist boyfriends arm to write a bit on the subject.

I had been at home sick yesterday and had attempted some folding of the washing. I have left the last bits in a hamper under the table to be disposed of later. But Little Miss toddled on to it and started systematically removing items from the hamper. He, if she get's her giggles from that particular activity then who am I to stop her? Anyhoe, she found the lot of odd socks (one of life's mysteries: the whereabouts of all the left socks in the world) and proceeding to try and put them on my feet! She looked at the socks and looked at my feet on the poof and decided that draping the socks over them would be far easier. After she had draped the sock on my foot just so, she patted it and looked at me with a look of:" There, all done, there's a good Mamma" at 14.5 months old she could be a great Mamma herself already!

Pictures

It was tough, it was a struggle but I prevailed over the German-Manual-From-Hell and managed to get some pictures from the camera to the laptop.
So today, no musings about the total fabulousness of my daughter for the moment (although I cant make any promises to not get inspired again later in the day).
Instead, here's some pics of Little Miss!

Check out them Blue Peepers!



The (In)Famous Barney Book



On the "Phone" (Check out the left hand!)



Mad as a brush!



Whhaaahhaaa!!! She is SO funny!




She LOVES the swings! (Can you tell?)

Quickie

No long Blog today. Have a few things to wrap my head around.
(The) God(dess) works in mysterious ways is all I can say. I got upset about something last night involving Little Miss, there were tears, it wasn't pretty......
When I switched on Dr. Phil this morning before heading off for work however, the topic showed me how things COULD have been and that we are really lucky and I should just learn to deal. Am now diligently trying to untie the knots in my stomach and to come up with a mantra that will make me feel better.
Curious? Tough! 'Cause that's all the sharing I will be doing on this today.

Love and light

Honey See, Honey Do

You don't realize (well, I don't anyway) how observant a child is until you see them copying something you do. Last week, I was sweeping the floor. (We have parket floors, easy to clean but you have to do it ALL THE TIME!) when I turned around and saw Little Miss take the small brush and pan and sweep merrily away behind me. She was even looking around to see if she had missed anything!
The pan and brush are used in day to day crumbs-and-other-questionable-dirt-and-grime-removal so they aren't the cleanest. Knowing Little Miss's love of having things end up in her mouth I felt it would be wise to put them away. WRRRRONG!! The Hysterics! No way in HELL was she giving up her new toys. So, taking the path of least resistance (I know, Puriteins out there, I KNOW! But I am strict in LOTS of other things so I am allowed this one teany tiny little slip of parental consistency!) I decided I would let her play with it and just keep an extra close eye. She obviously LOVED it. Seeing as this was Thursday and the new camera did not get delivered until Friday, here's a pic taken with my phone:



Yesterday it was Mothers' Day over here and I got the loveliest card from my sweety! I will take a picture of it and post it here so you can "ooh" and "aah" to you heart's content! ;-) The manual for the new super duper camera, that is also for Mother's day (and every other special event for the next few months) was delivered in GERMAN however. This means I can't actually do any of the Technical Stuff (transfer to laptop) with it yet so the pics will have to wait for a bit.

Anyhoe, yesterday I took her upstairs to get her dressed. She has a suitcase of clothes that are too big for her and every so often I check if she can fit them yet. So, on the floor we went for a good root 'round. She sat down next to me on her hunkers and starting taking things out of the suitcase one by one and depositing them next to her cot. Making sure they were where she wanted them to be and then returning for the next item. Peering down her nose in to the case, extending her left hand ever so daintily whilst picking things up with her right. Could have cuddled her to pieces!
When I put the suitcase away, she decided to move the pile of washing around from in front of the wardrobe to next to her cot and back again. Then she stood there, looking at the fruits of her labour and having the most content expression on her face!

We have her books in the TV stand to facilitate easy access for the Munchkin but she decided some of her books belonged in the actual book case. So, off she went, putting a few books of her's next to Mamma's books. Bless!

As I may have written before, she is Daddy mad. She LURVES her Daddy and when Daddy leaves the room, it's NOT GOOD. When he left the sitting room yesterday to tackle our kitchen, Little Miss decided that that just wasn't good enough and trotted on after him. But, Evil Being that he is, he had the nerve to close the Kitchen Door! Only one thing for that so........ Opening the door yourself. Yes, ladies and Gentlemen, Caíthlyn has mastered the fine art of door-opening. I see stairgates and lots of locked doors in our immediate future.....

Our Honey

Little Model:


Kamikaze Baby, she did this all by herself! :


Happy Baby:


On the swings in winter:

Early Birds

March 2005, in Fair Lovely Town where we lay our scene. It is 04.40 hrs, the room is dark, the bed is warm: The baby is awake....... Darren is getting up to her and it takes me a few minutes to cop on to the situation. The poor thing seems to be in some kind of pain again. After trying to get her back to sleep in her own cot, and even an ambitious return to our boudoir sans bébé, she ends up in with us anyway.
My alarm is set for 05.45 hrs and I had the (slightly naïve, granted) hope of an hours more kip. She was still out of sorts though. When she is tired, but for some reason can't sleep, she will twist her hair with both hands and make a groaning sound. So too this morning. YOU try sleeping through that....... So when the alarm went off and I staggered in to the bathroom (en-suite) this woke her up completely and Darren (who normally get's another hour's sleep) was left holding the baby, Literally. After I had my shower, Darren decided to get his now too, as long as I was there anyway.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am fully aware that a good night's sleep is what Baby's, Mamma's and Daddy's need. But for this one morning it was SO lovely to have hugsies and cuddles with my Honey before heading off in the cold! I was secretly enjoying it SO much! She was wide awake now and (amazingly) in great form!

Bring on the Day! I am ready for it! :-)