Beddie Bye Byes

Holy God(dess)! I am tired! Little Miss fell asleep in the car on the way home last night and her Daddy lifted her to her bed straight away. She woke herself up during the night however and ended up in bed with us again.
Now, I do realize that the desired night-time routine would be for everyone to stay in the bed in which they originally went to sleep but seeing as Caíthlyn was the only one who shifted I am saying:"Two out of three ain't bad!"
There are many different views on the whole "sharing the bed thing" but I subscribe to the view of: "Whatever gives us all a good night's sleep"
And I sincerely doubt that she will be 13 years old and still crawling in with us so I am not too worried. Plus, the hugsies are great! There's nothing quite like those little arms around your neck, getting all cozy!
One phenomenon of nighttime though is that my child seems to magically expand! In the daytime, she is a normal sized toddler, at night, she manages to take up all the space in a King Sized bed!
Last weekend, Darren was out with his mates for the night, and Little Miss ended up in with me again. It was just her and me. Yet, I still ended up on the very edge of the bed. What's THAT all about? Another one of life's great mysteries!
It makes getting up might y difficult though! This morning she was in between us, one hand on top of the duvet, the other one up next to head. Those beautiful long, dark lashes resting on her cheeks. Could have gobbled her up right there and then!
Poor little thing is coming down with ANOTHER case of the sniffles! Two days before we fly to The Netherlands! Fingers crossed it's a mild one.
I am very excited now about our trip home. (Still refer to The Netherlands as "home" when in reality, Ireland is......) Going to see friends, family and hopefully a bit of snow! Would LOVE to make a snow-man with Little Miss!
So, boys and girls, please send us positive vibes on Thursday and Tuesday (flight days) and lots of snow in between! :-)

Have a great one everybody!

And the times, they are a changing

Little Miss will be two years old on December 27th. This thought just boggles my mind. I mean, it was only yesterday that I was looking at her through her transparent bassinet in the hospital, trying to let it sink in that she really was MY baby-girl!
The changes kids make in these first few years of life, are nothing short of amazing! I mean, she went from this:



To This:



(I promise to sit down and transfer some new pics from the camera soon!)

in the space of two years.

And that's just the physical side, the emotional, linguistic and intellectual developments will knock you for six if you think about then for too long. It also brings home to me how deceiving the mind can be.
The first few months of her life, where she woke up at night, or just wouldn't go to sleep at all until about 03.00 AM, seemed to last for freaking ever. I mean, I felt I was in some kind of Groundhog Day. Yet, when you look at the actual time-frame, it only lasted about 4-5 months.
She would sleep through the night for a few weeks, lulling you in to a false sense of security, only to switch right back to either not going down or midnight waking.
One day nothing else than Mammie will do, the other Daddy is the main attraction and any move from Mammie will send her diving in to Daddy's arms!

If there is one thing you can count on with kids this age is that you can't count on anything. Just when you are congratulating yourself on the fact that at least she is eating well, she will pull up her nose at the same dinner that would normally send her racing in to the kitchen!
We did make a new culinary discovery though, when having a stir fry myself, she started pointing at my plate enthusiastically. I gave her a few bites and it turns out the child likes Coursgette and, wait for it, OLIVES! HA! Something tells me our wok will be working overtime in the next couple of days!

At the moment I can not get her to eat her breakfast. Sure, she will SAY "Njummie!!!" but after stirring the cheerios around the bowl for a bit she will get off the chair and ask for her "Cuppa Tea" (beker of milk). All through the day she will tell you she's "Hungwy" but decline then when you offer her a banana or toast!
She used to LOVE her bath-time, splishing and splashing was a great part of her bed-time routine. Now? Now, she sobs when you try and put her in the bubbles before bedtime.... Heartbreaking!
Thankfully, she will let you give her a bath in the morning so I don't have to go hunting for toddler déodorant!

When she has started challenging some of her routines, other ones are not to be touched!! Some things are so ingrained in her life that she comes to expect nothing else. You won't realize these things until you see/hear them in action.
Last week in the car, she was tired and said:"Nannie's house, cuppa tea, up to bed?" (when she arrives at her Nannie's house in the AM, she get's a cup or warm milk and goes back to bed for an hour) She had her dodi in her mouth, twirling her hair with her hand and just looked too cute!
Also, when we went to the supermarket in the village where Nannie lives. she went straight for the breadrolls. "Wroll!" ( Little Miss still does not get any kind of junkfood or sweets etc. you can really make her day with a buttered roll or a piece of "Laughing Cow" cheese.) In her head, Supermarket = Breadroll!
Not complying with that would be to mess with the balance of the Universe and Mammie needs every little bit of cosmic good will she can get so Caíthlyn munched away happily for the duration of the shopping trip!

9.5 days till our trip home!!