Crayons and Phones

At Nanny's house there are crayons and coloring pencils galore. It's a virtual feast of color and Little Miss loves it! And Nanny also has kiddy chairs, which rival the crayons as sources of joy. Therefore, Darren and I took it upon ourselves to obtain a kiddy chair, crayons and a coloring book for herself ( Caíthlyn, obviously, Nanny already has some!)
So off we went, to the Big Toy store! We emerged with a Little Red Plastic Chair, a packet of Crayons for 1+ yrs and a coloring book. (No. I am not deluded enough to think that Little Miss will actually color in the pictures but it beats the hell out of paper being scattered all over the place!)
We have a coffee table next to the sofa and we set up Little Miss at that. Of course, the Mamma had to whip out the video camera and record this for posterity!

Some would consider me snap-happy and I suppose I do point and shoot at everything that could even remotely be considered an "EVENT" but what you wanna ask yourself is "Does Nynke care?" The answer is a resounding "NO!!" If I wanna record my little Honey doing her thing, I will. When I look back at tapes from the first months I am just SO happy that that video camera was almost fused to my hand. We will now always be able to see Little Miss as a new born. Even her grandchildren! (Woooww, There's a thought!)

A Great Big THANK YOU to my parents for giving us this video camera.. It really was a priceless gift!

Caíthlyn loves talking on the phone. Almost anything can be changed in to a phone in her book. Be it the Baby-Monitor, the remote control, a Lamp Attachment, it all works! She will walk around with the implement of choice kept up to her ear and just yap away. Entire conversations are conducted this way. She will laugh, give out, pause for response.... she really IS having a conversation! Nothing beats an actual telephone though! Saturday Morning she came in to the bed with us and after playing "Tent" (I can still hear the squeals of delight!) she got her hands on my phone.
I own a Motorola V525, it's one of those flip open yokes, and I still haven't sussed out how to lock the keypad. She opened my phone and started pushing buttons and yapping away " ya ya ya!!" When all of a sudden I hear a man's voice! Oh Cr*p! Little Miss had actually called Uncle A. and Aunt G. in Cork! Uncle A. was a little bit confused (understandably so, you don't expect to hear an almost 16 month old gabbing away at ya when you answer the phone now do you?) but was a good sport about it!

She'll be playing with Daddy's phone going forward!

Today is Daddy's and Auntie G.'s (Not the one in Cork!) Birthday! Thirty-One and Seventeen respectively.

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Wonderfull things about Little Miss

Little Miss got new shoes at Easter. Her little footsies had grown a whole size in 6 weeks!
Anyhoe, she got really pretty 'uns with Velcro. Dark Blue with a little flower on them. One excellent added feature is that when she walks, these love-heart shaped lights start flickering in the heels.




Last week she was really out of sorts (The Chest-infection from Hell!) and she would not go to sleep. Not a hope of her going for a nice snooze. So, in the end, I asked Darren to dim the lights in the sitting room and I took Little Miss down to see if I couldn't get her to fall asleep in my arms on the sofa for just this once.
That would be a big fat NO! She wriggled off my lap and started wandering about the darkened sitting room.
Seeing as this is not a regular occurrence by any means, we just let her do her thing. At one stage Darren exclaims:"Well would you look at that!"
There she was: sitting at the kitchen door with her shoes in her hands, banging the heels on the floor to make the red lights start to flicker! She obviously thought it looked so pretty in the dark!

She is getting SO big. I know it's a major cliché, but these 15.5 months have FLOWN by. I couldn't imagine life without her anymore.

I love everything about her. From the way she will take forever to wake up in the morning but will reward you with a dazzling smile when she cops you are standing next to her cot to the way she will grab your hand and guide it to whatever task she requires to be completed.
The way she will sip the medicine from her spoon ever so delicately and goes "Aahhh" after.
The way she will try and wash your face with the wash-cloth when she's in the bath and includes Ducky for good measure.
The way she will grab "Zippy" and give her a big huge squeeze.
The way she will hold up her arms at you and wait to be picked up.
The way she will wrap her little arms around your neck and push her cheek to yours and play with your hair.
The way she will brush your hair and then lean in to you and start talking to you as if to check if it's to your liking.
The way she will lean in to you when she's tired and start twirling her hair.
The way she smells in the morning
The way she smells ALL the time!
The way her eyes light up and she smiles when she sees you walk in the door.
The way she talks to herself when she is lying awake in her cot in the morning.
The way she belly laughs when you make a "YUCK!" face when you pretend to smell her socks
The way she giggles when we make a tent our duvet and the three of us "hide" under it.
The way she will rip up the duvet when I bring her in to us and her Daddy is hiding under the covers.
The way she says "Bye!"and then walks out the door only to re-appear and do the same thing over and over and over again!



I could go on forever and ever.

Little Miss Rules!

Dental Hygiene

Little Miss is growing an impressive set of snacks (teeth). Some molars are protruding and the two teeth at the top front have now made an appearance as well..
Do you know what this little feat of oral development facilitates?? Do you? Huh? Huh? No? Let me enlighten you! TEETH-GRINDING! Yup, I kid you not. For some obscure reason she loves the sound of it. And of course: We don't!
Not only is the sound such to rival nails on a blackboard, it's also extremely bad for her pearly whites! Baby teeth have a lot less enamel on them than their adult counterparts. Therefore Grinding = Not Good!

Watching a program on Living TV, I was treated to a picture of a toddler's rotten baby teeth. I was shocked and horrified. The poor child!
The lady proceeded to elaborate on dental hygiene for babies and BOY, I PAID ATTENTION! A bottle of milk last thing before bed? BAD! BAD! BAD!
I knew this already but wasn't aware of the extent of the damage that could be done in such a short period of time by milk pooling in their little cheeks and being left there to do its worst during the night!
So, that was cut out of the routine that very night. Miss Thing now get's a bottle before her bath. Daddy brushes her teeth during bath-time and then she gets a few supsies of warm water before bed just for transition. Then in the morning after breakfast, I go brush my teeth demonstratively and then I do hers. Being the little copy-cat she is gave the Dad this great idea for implementing the tooth brushing. Whatever we do, she does! And so, what I feared was going to be a big ordeal, is actually going smoothly! :-) No flies on the Da!

On the Health Front: Not Good. Little Miss has a chest infection and a severe case of the sniffles. Combine this with teething and a fever and you can imagine how she is feeling! I had to go to the Doc's myself and decided to take Little Miss along to get checked out.
Our doctor's surgery consists of a husband and wife team. And the wife is a Muppet. I can't put it any nicer. She is forgetful, rude and totally useless with Children. I had no choice but to go see her for this and I can only thank (the) God(dess) that it will be another three years before I have to go back for that. Little Miss is never EVER going back to see that wench! It amazes me that this woman has children of her own! Caíthlyn got really upset when she saw the examination table. Do you think this woman showed any patience whatsoever? Try and distract the child? No, all we got were dirty looks and exaggerated sighs.....
When I asked if she was done with her and could I bring her out to her Nanny I got a "Yes Please!" Had to really hold myself back from lashing out at the B*tch.
Anyhoe, Little Miss got anti-biotics and is on the road to recovery.

Now if we could only arrange a personality transplant for the Doctor.....

Water and Remote Controls

Not a day goes by where Darren and I are not amazed at the wonderfulness that is our daughter. There are so many (little) things she does in a day that invoke either full blown belly laughs or exclamations of "Aaaaahhh, look!" that it's almost hard to keep track of them all.

We are trying to faze out the bottle. She get's one first thing in the morning and one last thing at night. (Once this teething nightmare is over and she is back to "normal" we will cut these last two bottles out too. I am thinking 1, maybe 1.5 more months tops)
So, during the day she get's her water/milk in a non-spill cup. She LOVES her water, nice and cold and fresh. No fizzy or neon-colored drinks filled with E-numbers for our Little Miss! She will toddle around the house happy as a pig in muck with her beaker in her hand. She will have 1.5-2 beakers a day.
Last week she was sitting in her highchair, head tilted back to get the good flow of water from the cup going and being a generally happy bunny. Darren was the first one to cop it..... Little Miss was taking big gulps of water and then letting it trickle down her chin. Like a little mini waterfall. She was doing it so subtle that her bib and t-shirt were drenched by the time we copped it!
Once she realized that we had seen her and thought it was dead-funny she squinted her eyes in this laughing face. She also moves her lips in to this shape as if she is biting the inside of her cheeks whilst trying to make a "fishy" face. So FUNNY!! We have to pay double-attention now because before we know it she will be soaked!

Remote Controls! Those wonderful Magical things! If Caíthlyn walks in to the sitting room and the telly is off, she will grab the remote and start pushing buttons until the telly switches on! Also, when the channel changes, she will look around to see where the remote is. She knows that that things has to be near for anything to happen. Last week, she had her hands on it and turned the telly off by accident. Whoops! Horrified she looked and the telly whilst walking back to me. Then she whipped her head back to me and gave me back the remote with both hands. Looking at me intently as if to say:"Fix it Mamma!" Bless her cotton socks!

That child does not need to learn to speak, she communicates with her eyes. There is no mistaking her intent when she just focuses those blue peepers on your face. Be it her soother (which she only gets when she goes to sleep or when she is really out of sorts. I HATE the idea of her walking around with that thing in her mouth all day and do not allow it) or more water or something else. I am really impressed with her non-verbal communication skills.
My favorite is the "I love you" hug. Can't top that with anything. Because she is so Daddy-Mad, he get's the lions-share of the hugsies. But sometimes, she will just wiggle off his lap and in to my arms for a great big "I love you" hug. It's the best!

Mamma loves you too Honey!!

Easter and Lionesses

Greetings and Salutations

Finally, I can add new pics so here we go!

So, Easter!
Technically this was Little Miss' 2nd Easter but as this was the first one she could actively partake in, I count this one as the first proper one!

Caíthlyn LOVES interacting with other kids. And as: Easter Egg Hunt = Lots of Kids, she had a fantastic time. When we arrived at Nanny's house, everyone was still in Church. It didn't take long however before the house was a cacophony of people talking and kids singing. (You wanna hear the nieces version of that song by the Killers, "Somebody told me" they cracked me UP! ) Caíthlyn kept squealing with delight. Running after the other kids, being chased by them, hiding with them under the table. The fun just went on and on!
All the Easter Goodies were hidden in the back garden and the kids were set up single file and marched out the back door. After receiving their instructions they were let loose. Darren had the video camera and I had the digital. This was one well documented Easter egg hunt! Darren's sisters' sister-in-law (still with me?) took Caíthlyn by the hand and Little Miss had SO much fun! She understood the concept of the hunt and was really going for it!

Here's a few pics of the event:

First Find, look at that face!



Hands Full, now what do I do?



Look what I found! (her face is red from Strawberries!)



And this close up of the first pic, just 'cause she's so gorgeous!




When I saw the video footage later, I saw one of the kids snatch an egg right from under Caíthlyn's nose. She was reaching down to it and he grabbed it. Thankfully she just continued the hunt. That was the only low point for me. That kind of thing really gets under my skin and I should just learn to let it go but........ hhmmppfff!!
This protection thing is SO fierce! I had heard about the "Lioness" feeling and people had told me to expect it but I was not ready for it to be THIS strong.
For instance: I had to take Little Miss to the Doc's and in the waiting room she was holding court. Toddling around the room. Smiling at everyone and gabbing away at them. People that came in got a big blinding smile and a "Hi!" She even went so far as to take some of their hands and "guide" them through the room. Everyone was really nice to her and were obviously charmed by her.
Then SHE came in...... Pigtails, cute colorful clothes.... about 5 years old.
She came in and sat down on a little car Caíthlyn had been pushing around. "Not to Worry" you can hear Caíthlyn think, "we can BOTH play!" (I know, a 15 month old is not SUPPOSED to know the meaning of "together". My daughter does a lot of things she is not supposed to.....) and bends down in front of the girl to make eye-contact and gab to her and nod her head as if to say:" I am going to push you on the car 'Ke?" and proceeds to go around to the back and push. I know I am biased but the collective "Aaaahhh" from the other people backs me up here:
She was Flipping A-DORA-BLE!
But the girl was blanking her. Ignoring my beautiful, lovely and friendly daughter to the point where Caíthlyn, after a few more attempts at making friends, toddles on to the corner of the room, defeated. And there she stood, chin on her chest, her little lip pouting..... She was SO visibly confused and upset.
Had this big lump in my throat and really had to stop myself from grabbing this 5 year old and asking her what the flip her issue was whilst shaking her vigorously. I know I can't force anything but Come On! She's 15 months old! Give her a break! Then again, Chloe (Little *bleeps* name) is only a little girl herself and little girls can be just mean.

That's life and even fiercely protecive lionesses-eat-your-hearts-out mamma's have to deal with that.