Life Lessons

I know, the frequency of logs has lowered. Jut remember folks, it's Quality not Quantity! :-)

Anyhoe, as promised it the previous blog (written when dinosaurs still roamed the world....) I shall tell you about the Trip to the Petting Zoo (FUN!) and the Tumble Out The Back Door (NOT SO FUN....)

About a 15 Minute drive from our house there is a Mansion that has a lovely playground and traditional animal farm on it's grounds. We had taken Little Miss there before when she was only 9 Months old but, as with Easter, this was the first time she really grasped the concept.
The stroller came with but was soon used only as a carrier device for bags and camera's as Little Miss had found freedom and was not giving it up! No way Sir! She was literally running with it!
Amazed at HUGE pigs (Who knew Babe could mutate in to that kind of savage size??? City-Girl Me?) and in awe of equally impressive sized sheep (I swear, the "Baaaa" out of one of 'em made me jump a mile!). Also, insane amounts of cuteness in the form of baby goats (kids?) and chicks. She would sit down on her hunkers and have a good close look at the birds and ducks. It's a cliché but you really DO see the world in a new way when you see your child discover it.
The freedom of running around and being able to see whatever she wanted, twice or even THREE times if she felt like it, was agreeing with her! It was absolutely wonderful to see her having so much fun! It will definitely be repeated!

Having a closer look at the birdies



Howdy Chickens!






On her hunkers, EADIBLE!



Walkies with the best Da in the world!



We have a Back-Garden (as apposed to the parking spot we had in our previous accommodation!) whose grass was in dire need of a good trim! Darren decided to tackle it one weekend. The smell of freshly cut grass was abundant, the sun was shining, Little Miss was pushing her brand new baby-stroller and doll around the garden and all was well with the world.



Until IT happened. Little Miss's First Tumble and Facial Scrape! :-(
There are sliding doors and a bit of a step down to the garden. Caíthlyn is usually SO careful stepping down things. She will hold on to the door frame and then very carefully venture out one foot until she finds a secure hold and then proceed. But this time, she tumbled out the door, face first onto the unforgiving cement..... The Poor Little Mite was trembling with the shock, and truth be told so was I. She was swepped up in her Daddy's arms and sobbed.
I know, compared to all the things that happen in the world, a tumble and scrape is not a big deal but in the Little Universe that is our family unit it was quite the unpleasant experience! The scrape has healed however and the lesson has been learned.

Little Miss has developed a penchant for screaming and hitting. When she wants something, she cranks up the auld decibels and let's rip. Also, she has decided that slapping goes with screaming. Which is disturbing as we do neither to/with her. ( And never WOULD either!) It with shatter your eardrums! My way to (attempt to) handle it, is to ignore it. I feel that getting in to a screaming match with a 17 month old is in no way shape or form productive.
When she slaps, I will grab her hands and put them in her lap and that's it.
One particularly bad attack of the screams and slaps happened when I was trying to change her nappy. I had her on her changing mat and she was giving it socks! Kicking and slapping. She laid in to my elbow. I just looked at her and kept on going (I am convinced that this is a phase and will pass. She doesn't do it to kids and other people and should be over this soon). All of a sudden she must have realized she was taking things WAAAAAY to far because out of the blue, she pulled my arm to her and gave me a kiss on the elbow and "rubbed it better". Bless her.



EVERYTHING we do has some kind of educational twist to it. Singing songs, reading books, at this age: playing is learning. And she loves it. She points at various body parts when prompted to. (You have never heard the words "Toes" or "Shoes" spoken with such extreme cuteness!) and will tell you exactly what this or that animal says. We also incorporate the Alphabet in daily activities. Darren will say "A" and then Caíthlyn will say "A" but the combo of Animal Sounds and the Alphabet lead to the following exchange between father and daughter:

Daddy: "A"
Caíthlyn "A"
Daddy: "B"
Caíthlyn "Bzzzzzzzzzz" Yup, that's what the Bee says......

You gotta love the way that little brain works!

Octopi and the Gods

My apologies for the lack of entries. I have no other excuses than that I was just too beat to drag myself in front of the laptop. Now, with Little Miss fast asleep upstairs (Note to the Gods: I am kidding of course, she is wide awake and causing mayhem in the place, no need to get tempted in to taking action!) and Darren off fishing, I will do my very best to commit a few more lines to, ehm, screen…..

For the bazzilionth time in her young life she has battled with a cold. A constant stream of the yucky stuff came from her nose and her poor eyes were so watery that they kept overflowing. I felt so bad for her. When I think of the millions of kids in the world that are battling far worse things than a common cold however, I just feel blessed that that’s all it is.
I think Kleenex must have had a great profit the last two weeks because you would not believe the amount of tissues we went through in this house! She was getting chased around by me wielding a handkerchief practically all day!
Then one day she was sitting on the sofa behind me when I was sitting on the floor and I hear the crisp “whoosh” of a tissue being ripped out of the box and then my head was pulled back by the pony-tail. She stuck a tissue in my face and proceeded to wipe my nose. Then she spoke approvingly and nodded her head before tucking the tissue away again. It was SO funny! She was dead serious.

(I KNEW the Gods were listening, I am just after putting Little Miss back down after a heartbreaking crying session. She had a big style case of gas and was in some serious pain. Bless her cotton socks, she didn’t know WHAT was happening to her! When I picked her up, she wanted down and when I put her down, she wailed even harder…..)

I have also started taking part in Bath Time again. In the winter time my hands start to crack and bleed (I know, there’s a gross mental picture for you) but as soon as the nicer weather comes around it’s time for Mamma to hit the bathroom again!
We bought her a bath-toy consisting of a Mamma Octopus and 8 Baby Octopi. They have bright funky colors, different faces and numbers on them.
Boy, was this a successful purchase! She will start off by sticking them on the side of the bath and point to them as if she’s counting them. She will wash them with her face-cloth and squirt water from them over the side of the bath if we are not careful!
When the time for bed approaches we ask her to start saying “Night Night” to her bath toys. So she knows: “Say Night Night = Bed Time”
Last week, after a particularly enervating day, she was absolutely knackered by the time bath-time came around. Yawns (she has THE cutest yawn, I have thought so ever since the day she was born!) and eye rubbage galore. We usually let her play to herself for a bit after all the essentials of bath time have been dealt with.
But on this particular evening she decided enough was enough and started kissing her octopi goodnight before even having been prompted do so. After every kiss, she neatly put them back on their base on the side of the bath. She couldn’t have made it clearer that she was ready for bed if she had used the actual words. I just melted at the spot! She is getting SO BIG! The poor little Mite almost fell asleep on the changing mat. As soon as I put her down in her cot she turned over, gave a sigh of contentment and was gone.
I always thought that those scenes in movies where the Mom stands in her child’s bedroom doorway and just stares lovingly at him/her were just sappy bits added for effect. Now I find myself having to force myself to leave the room quickly and quietly so I don’t do the very same thing!

I will tell you all about the trip to the petting zoo and the tumble she took out the back door at some later time.

Have a good one everybody!


"Now, where was that bit of dust?"

Bears and Princesses

(Written on 29/04/05)
As I do not seem to have the time to update the Blog during the days, I will make an attempt to update it in the evenings.
Here goes:

Yesterday, Bear in the Big Blue House was on. Don’t know if any of you are familiar with this particular piece of children’s entertainment but it’s really funny. I have to admit to having watched it, BEFORE I became a Mamma! Something about a Big Bear dancing the Samba tickled the hell out of my funny bone!
Anyhoe, at the beginning of the program Bear will turn to the camera and say something like: “Do you smell Cinnamon buns?” and then he’ll sniff towards the camera and say:” It’s YOU!” some more sniffs right up to the camera and: “You smell GREAT!”
Caithlyn was watching the telly full of interest but when Bear moved right up the camera it was a little to close for comfort for Little Miss! As if she thought that he was going to step right through the screen into the sitting room! She backed away from the television a little bit more with every sniff, ending up in my arms! Bear staid inside the telly and little Miss carefully left the safety of the Mamma’s arms again. There’s nothing quite like having your child look to you to feel safe. To be able to offer that kind of comfort to your daughter…..

Her old shoes are still in the sitting room. This afternoon she had managed to get one of them on Barney’s feet and she was taking him for a walk around. She was holding him by the hand and looking down at him as if to say: There’s a good Boy, a few more steps now, there you go!”

Little Miss and I had a great day today. The sun was splitting the rocks and this day was not going to be wasted indoors. After a frantic search for my runners (still haven’t found them by the way, can’t wait to find out where she hid them on me this time) I decided on my boots and then had to leg it to the bus as we would not have made it on time if we had walked in to the village.
Quick stop in the post office, Little Miss of course charming the pants off of everyone with her smiles and “Hi!” to everyone. Then, off to the playground we went.
The route goes past the harbor and we had a wave and a “ooh” and “aaah” at the sea-gulls and the boats. Then we went on past the pubs and hotel to the playground. Unfortunately we had a little bit of rainfall and the place was soaked. A big huge puddle spoiled the fun on the swings though as she is so tall now that her footsies get wet when she swings. She was not impressed. After a bit of a struggle she was quite happy to be back in her buggy and waving to everyone we passed!

(Updated 03/05/05)

On May 2nd we had a trip to the petting zoo planned but that idea got rained out! We ended up in Auntie S.’s house having a Princess Dress Up Party. Little Miss loved it! She as twirling and smiling with the best of ‘em!

Be prepared for some heartstoppingly beautiful pics!

Amazed Princess



Princess Nieces



Lady in the Hat



What can I get up to next?