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At one
By hissychick | July 1, 2008
You toddle toward me on increasingly steady feet, arms upraised simultaneously for balance and a cuddle. With an impish grin on your face, your bury your head into my lap for a recharge of love, exclaiming “ahhh” with delight as you refuel your sense of security and self. In the blink of an eye you are off again, lurching along like a little ewok towards your next source of fascination and interaction, be that your sister, your sister’s contraband toys, anything remotely dangerous and doors of any description.
You adore doors. For some reason they thrill you, and many times over the course of the day I will hear your sweet voice exclaim “Door-uh!” as you attempt to open and close the kitchen cupboards, the bedroom door or as you stand banging excitedly on the front and back screen doors, desperate to engage with the trees/birds/grass/sky that are beguilingly just out of reach. Funnier still is the way you take every opportunity to play with the safety gate in the bathroom if you ever spy it left accidentally ajar. You will race towards it, and carefully close it behind you as if its presence is there to prevent the egress of some other baby.
Along with “Door-uh“, words beginning with d seem to be the flavour du jour. As well as the ubiquitous “Dee-dee“, “down” is another favourite, and you repeat it like a mantra as you pull the zip down on my jacket before exhorting me to pull it up again, a game that you will happily play for hours. “Duh-duh” is squealed with delight as you play with a rubber duckie in the bath, and whenever and wherever you see a quacky type critter. Equally as delightful is the way you call A’s name, your own version beginning with D that at first I mistakenly took for being “Dada” (and was humoured that you had decided to call your sister by the same name as your father). No, it is distinct and your big sister absolutely adores the fact that you now greet her by name too.
While the words are slowly forming you have turned gesticulation into a fine art form. Your pointing is very distinct, and is usually accompanied by an attention seeking “Ooooooohh!! Ooooohh!!” that can be heard from three kilometres away. Your other favourite word and action combination is a definite “Nah!” accompanied by a shake of the head, something which is sure to remain firm favourite for a long time to come. We hear and see this one most often at mealtimes, when you have had enough to eat, want to take over the feeding procedure for yourself or you are simply refusing to try whatever new food is being offered. You are certainly a girl of your own mind in this department, and although frustrating and a sure sign of the many food battles to come I am also pleased that you are learning to regulate your own intake. You even try to feed me, exclaiming “Yum!” as you cram your mushy rejects into my mouth. Between that and “Ta” as you hand over whatever you have collected on your forays around the house and I seem to spend a lot of time putting away the remote controls and cleaning mashed banana out of my hair. Not that I would have it any other way.
If it’s not an “ooohhh” it’s a “Dooooodooodoooh!!” accompanied by swaying if you are trying to convey a tune, especially the theme to In the Night Garden or the Teddy Bears’ Picnic song, two of your current favourites…and clips that you try and persuade me to show you on the computer during mealtimes. You clap and excalim “Yay!” whenever I relent, and wriggle your fingers in a manner akin to the gestures for “Twinkle twinkle Little Star” along with the music. You are a very musically oriented child, stopping to bop whenever you hear a tune that takes your fancy. And you absolutely love the xylophone toy we got for your birthday, happy to bash out a tune with your big sister whenever and wherever the mood strikes.
You are a social butterfly, happy to engage your world and other people provided Mummy is still somewhere in sight. Whenever we drop your big sister at daycare you wriggle with all of your might to escape my arms in a desperate attempt to join in with the other children. At mother’s group and in the park you are an absolute daredevil. After chasing you up the ladders of slippery dips and helping you to push the toy cars that belong to the little roller coaster ride at mother’s group I am firmly convinced that you already see yourself as a three year old. You have brought smiles of absolute delight to the faces of strangers as they have watched me bring you safely back down the local park slide, one leg raised awkwardly in the air as we negotiate equipment designed for much smaller bottoms than mine.
And at nap times, the end of all action packed days and when you wake in the night we still wind down with a breastfeed, much to my amazement and pride. With eight teeth and another couple on the way, it’s at times a somewhat interesting experience but it is my absolute pleasure to be able to still nurture in this way. However I think, I think you may be starting on the process to weaning yourself, as you are pretty much saying “nah” to my left breast at all feeds except during the night, shaking your head and blowing raspberries at the poor old slow thing. I am not going to attempt to boost supply at this stage, as this was behind the last bout of mastitis, and have simply accepted that we can soldier on with one side if need be. Given that you’ve always had such a distinct preference for old righty I am pleased that we got as far as we did with loser lefty.
Yes you are STILL in our room, even though your very own is more than ready. It should come as no surprise then that you still wake in the night. I don’t know why we are so reluctant to let you go, you really could do with the uninterrupted sleep, but it has been so lovely to have you nearby, never having to strain to hear your cries through a monitor and knowing that when you do wake that all it usually takes to resettle you is a few steps to bring you to bed for a snuggly feed and few steps to place you back in your cot once you are satiated. Never mind that poor Daddy seems to end up sleeping elsewhere a lot of the time (eek).
My darling, darling E, you have inveigled yourself into my heart and there I will hold you always. Ahhhhhh.
Topics: E is good, I'm a Mum, hi ho E is on the go |
Ahhhh….how sweet. Thank God she closes the doors carefully!!! No finger involved ya!
But I love the first…to walk towards you and to know you are their security!
Ann’s last blog post..Some shots, some comments
Posted by: Ann on July 1st, 2008 at 3:30 amI love this post.
It captures the progress of E, captures the burgeoning essence of her spirit, captures this moment in her life.
And it expresses the love of her mother.
JLow’s last blog post..Baby fell off the bed!
Posted by: JLow on July 2nd, 2008 at 2:39 amOhhhh beautiful, so very very beautiful.
Thank you.
xx Averil
Posted by: Averil on July 2nd, 2008 at 5:20 amI have to echo the rest:
What a lovely post.
I can imagine in years to come, what such a post would mean to your girl: it’ll be for her a confidence that can never be shaken!
Well done, mommy!
Moomykin’s last blog post..Poor Baby
Posted by: Moomykin on July 4th, 2008 at 3:37 pm