Happy Halloween

Some Days Are Better Than Others

Sometimes not everything is plain sailing.


I am tired, Daddy is tired, Lily is exhausting. Sleep seems a far off fairytale. The house is a shit-tip. I am fed up of walking a million times round the block begging her to sleep, of constantly washing bibs and nappies and babygros, of making up bottles and pureeing feeds, of changing her and wiping up vomit, of rocking and cooing and singing lullabies, of trying to be so goddamn cheery all of the time, of inventing new ways to make a cross child laugh, of lying awake listening for sounds in the nighttime, of trying to be the perfect parent, of never really feeling like me anymore and never even having the time to worry about it.



Just sometimes.

What's Occurring?

The art of sitting has been perfected quite considerably over this weekend and today and yesterday saw a 10 min sit, unaided, on the settee and play mat respectively. Needless to say she is pretty darn chuffed with herself and rightly so, I should imagine it takes some effort to keep those new wobbly limbs under control and spine upright. I have trouble myself sometimes and I've been doing it for ages.
Suddenly everything takes on a new light with these differing perspectives and old forgotten dangley toys are resurrected again.
Almost simultaneously a vigorous shaking of rattles is occurring, previously everything has just been sucked and not really 'played' with in the true sense of the word.
My baby is growing up fast.

Teething Trouble

Lily attempting to remove her new tooth with some handy soft toy pliers.

Baby Shop

The range of impossibly cute baby stuff to indulge in is vast and quite scary. I can see how one could get sucked into spending one's life savings on accessories. This, for instance, is just lovely and reasonable to boot, was to go into Lily's stocking but as we have started weaning already...

D is for Dangerous

The countdown to crawling has begun. Lily is scooting round the bathroom floor as fast as bottom-shuffling on lino can take her. She is practically doing that old break dancing move The Caterpillar and not content with the one roll she has perfected a series of Starsky and Hutch type rolls to catapult her towards which ever object looks the most inviting/dangerous.
I have been dreading this moment, not because I don't want her to crawl (although it's nice to know you can find a baby where you left one, just like the old legless tortoise) but because it means the time has come to baby proof my terribly hazardous/accidentwaitingtohappen house.
I have already noticed her eyeing up the inviting looking pile of electrical cables under Andy's desk, it will be no time at all before she is drinking bleach and shoving tiny pinkies into plug sockets.

Book Club

LLLT is currently reading This Little Chick by John Lawrence, it comes highly recommended, a new twist on a favourite nursery rhyme with some enchanting woodcut illustrations. Lily finds it uncommonly funny, seems that quacking like a duck sends my daughter in paroxysms of mirth.

Autumn

The weather here has been just beautiful, crisp and clear and bright as a proper autumn should be.
Many times I have walked along the river in the early morning light just me, Lily and the ducks, feeling truly blissful.
I think this is my favourite time of year and for the moment, my favourite place to be.

Tricky Lily

Tricks that my daughter knows at 5 months old...
Rolling over, both there and back again
Holding her bottle
Sitting up with her hands thrust out in front for support
Grabbing smaller objects such as labels on toys
Finding and holding onto her toes
Aeroplaning on her belly, head back, legs up and arms out
Standing for very short periods while holding onto a static object such as the coffee table
Drinking out of a sippy cup
Shouting
Coughing
Vomiting (this isn't strictly a trick unless you have learnt to projectile vomit onto specific targets, I have no real proof of this but it seems pretty plausible.)
Being really cute and eating books.

Reasons to Have a Baby #2

The Fear

Actually Song Box (the music/movement thing I was complaining about previously) was really rather good. The kids were cute and well behaved, Lily enjoyed it and I didn't have to talk to anyone. Much.
Must get over the whole socialising with other Mothers thang, some of them must be nice and not all of them will want to enlist us into the Happy Clappy Army of Ezekiel and steal my body parts.

Noisy

LLLT's has certainly discovered her voice, her range of howls and ear-piercing shrieks have taken on a new volume and intensity since she realised A) Shouting is fun and B) That the louder she gets the more likely someone will pay attention to her.
I'm not saying that I have a little diva on my hands because I just know that will open me up for an unsolicited range of comments about the content of her specific gene pool but I am pretty sure she is going to be trouble.
I have, on several occasions, had to exit the bus before my stop as Lily regales the OAPs with her special form of baby tourettes.

Reasons to Have a Baby #1

You get to do this.

Mission: Weaning

First solids administered today at 11.15 am, commencement of operation Baby Rice has begun! Initial findings so far would suggest Phase I is a success (in that not all of it was gobbed out on Daddy's shoe).

Now you no longer need to eat mirrors for your sustenance.

Vandalising Phone Boxes

The time has come to bite the bullet and leap into the void that is children's organised activity mornings. Lily is old enough now to be a part of stuff, unfortunately.
She is no longer just content with me singing baa-baa black sheep rather tunelessly and blowing intermittent raspberries on her chubby cheeks; she needs fun and activity and socialising and all that STUFF I REALLY RATHER HATE. Stuff that involves me having to communicate with other mothers and drink insipid instant coffee and flail about miserably trying to find something in common when there quite clearly isn't anything and masking it all with innocuous discussions about growth spurts. So I have duly signed up for some weird hippy-dippy-shit-scarf-dancing-music and movement group for 0-4 year olds.

Hell.

In any normal circumstance I wouldn't be caught dead in a community centre teeming with middle-class toddlers let loose on a bucket full of tambourines...
I am doing this for you Lily, it is not the first of many horrendous sacrifices your mother has had to make on your behalf and I'll wager it certainly won't be the last.
I hope you duly recompense me later on in life by refraining from slashing car tyres and vandalising phone boxes.

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Why is it when I try and think of songs to sing my daughter all that comes to mind are hideous Sunday school hymns from my childhood?
And much worse than this Lily just adores them.

Reality

It's funny, but I still wake up every morning having to pinch myself that my baby girl is lying asleep in the next room.

Consumption

Lily has learnt to stage cough like an absolute pro, she coughs so well it sounds like she has contracted consumption, a drop or two of theatrical blood on her T-Shirt would complete the scene nicely. Initially the stage coughing was really cute.... This, for many reasons (not least that people cross the street to avoid us) is no longer the case.

5 Months and Just a Few Days

Facebook has taken over my life.
This is my pitiful excuse for not blogging for several weeks and I feel rotten about it because probably I have missed all sorts of exciting stuff.
Or not, as the case may be.

But no!

Hold the front page!

That daughter of mine has grown a nubbin of a tooth, I am not entirely sure nubbin is an actual word but it sure seems to explain what I want to get across so I shall use it anyway.
On Sunday as she was biting down on my fingers in her usual manner and 'gggrrrrring' like a tiger (as is her want), I felt the tip of a tooth on her bottom gum.
I was so excited! And then I realised that this is about as good as it gets these days, overjoyed about a nubbin....*sigh*