Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Jack had a great time last weekend, although I have now sworn off organising children's parties involving more than 3 children. The kids themselves were lovely, but the headache of co-ordinating a group that large combined with a totally clueless staff at the party venue made for one stressed mama. Just to give an example, the bowling alley staff temporarily lost Jack's birthday cake. No, seriously. And here I am, unable to drink. Next year, Jack can pick a couple of friends and we'll go do something fun together. I might still order the same sized cake from Tom's, though. A woman's gotta keep up her strength.
In Mia news, another toothy peg has emerged today on the top. This has led to an interesting tooth-grinding development as my daughter discovers that she can gnash her upper and lower teeth together and make my toes curl with the sound. Nails, chalkboard, you get the idea.
We've finally started swimming classes at First4Swimming at the Huntingdon Marriott, and they are FANTASTIC. The teacher is Birthlight trained (keeping with the same philosophy about infant swimming that we did with Jack) and the classes are lovely and small. And the other mothers talk to me! Gosh. I'm a bit miffed that I started Mia this late (I tried to get her into a class at 4 months, but it kept getting delayed due to pool renovations) but I'm so pleased at how well she's taking to the water. I took her swimming in the same pool when she was 4 months old when my mom and dad were here for a visit, and she screamed unless I held her tight. She's not really been that keen on baths lately either, so I wasn't too sure how she'd react to the swimming classes. As soon as we got into the water, she was kicking her legs and splashing with her hands. She calmly observed the water and teacher, wriggling like a little mermaid. I'm so, so chuffed. And to top it all off, the classes are on Sundays which means I can carry on with them after I return to work. Paul will take Jack to the other Sunday class because I'd really like to get him back in the pool on a more regular basis again.
So, yeah...going back to work. Not looking forward to that one at all. Not a jot. I love my job and I love having non-mummy time, but I'm loving my time with Mia right now even more. I still have three months left, but cripes this year has gone by in a blink of the eye.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to stop my little girl from eating dog hair off the floor. Or is dog hair a food group? I can't keep up with this stuff.
Friday, February 22, 2008
for my beautiful boy
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
oh, here i am
See, told you that I'd blog again soon. Hi. How have you been?
Mia continues to do all sorts of new things as her little baby brain chugs away absorbing the world around her. She can now wave hello (or goodbye - she's not fussy), shake her head "no", and is eating anything and everything. Unlike her brother, who now claims he doesn't like every food on this planet. Every mealtime goes thusly: "What's Mia eating?" "Corn." "I don't like corn." "What are you eating?" "Pizza." "I don't like pizza." etc. Oh but promise the boy Buttons and he's all yours.
We had a bit of a rough patch when Mia went on a one day nursing strike, which was surprisingly stressful for both of us. I'd read about such things, but didn't appreciate how awful it is to experience. It started with Mia biting me every time she fed; not hard, but enough to elicit a sharp intake of breath from me. She must have been frightened by my reaction because when I tried to feed her early the next morning, she pushed my breast away and howled. She refused to feed from me, looking at me with huge frightened eyes. I stumbled downstairs with her as I pumped, then tried to feed her from a bottle. She refused again, but finally calmed down enough to go back to sleep. By the next day, she'd gone 12 hours without eating and she wailed the entire morning. She had to eat something, so I sat her in the highchair and put some food in front of her. With shaking hands, she sobbed while she grabbed handfuls of sweet potatoes and stuffed them in her mouth. My heart was breaking at seeing her so distraught and my stomach hurt at the thought of having to pump for as long as she refused to feed.
I knew that I had to gently coax her back to accepting milk from me, so I started with a spoon. I literally spoon fed drops of milk to Mia until she stopped crying and realised that she was incredibly hungry. Then I tried her on a cup, then eventually a bottle and oh thank the gods, she took it. 24 hours later, she finally accepted my breast as her big blue eyes cautiously searched my face. I smiled, nodded, and murmured words of encouragement and she latched on and fed. Grateful that she was feeding, I was also afraid of being bitten again. But touch wood, she hasn't done it since then.
And right on cue, she's just woken up for her late night feed. Catch y'all later. I will post again soon, I promise. But in the meantime, here's a photo I took this morning. I'm not joking - in a room full of her toys, Mia will always, ALWAYS grab one of Jack's.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
keep me away from the computer and my credit card
Want these. Want ALL of these. Well, not all of them. Just all of the girl ones. Mmmmmm.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
mass production
We've had an incredibly productive weekend.
In the past two days, Mia has:
-sprouted another tooth (and has just started biting me during feeds. Help.)
-started to commando crawl.
-eaten food! Big handfuls of roasted carrots, parsnip, and broccoli! Without throwing up and/or gagging!
I have:
-ordered over £200 worth of cloth nappy paraphernalia. (Tots Bots Bamboozles and Fluffles with Motherease Rikki wraps, if anyone's interested.)
-looked at (a contender for) my new car.
Gosh. Whatever will tomorrow bring? (My prediction: laundry, errands, storytime at the library.)