The busy-ness of life

As you can see from the date, I haven't posted in a while.  Life has just been rather busy with a toddler who sometimes decides that an afternoon sleep is no longer required, hence my time at the PC is seriously limited.  I have tried to use the computer with Lily present, only to have her climbing onto the desk, banging the keyboard keys and trying to touch the screen.  If I then try to put her onto the floor, she cleverly finds the power button and with one magic push of a button, all my work disappears!  So I have given up the idea of blogging while my little monkey is awake and I will try to update whenever possible.

While I type this, Lily is peacefully in dreamland.  She has been going down for a morning nap quite early of late due to her incredibly early mornings.  It is winter which means it is cold and dark in the early mornings - the only place you really want to be is in your bed and fast asleep, but no, Lily is having none of it and is starting her mornings at the shocking time of 4am!  This morning was thankfully a little better with a wake up time of 5:15am.  Who knew that I would EVER think that 5:15am was a "better wake up time"!  I have tried everything from making a quick bottle in my bathroom (with boiled water in a flask from the night before)to whipping her out of her cot in lightening speed and rushing to the spare room...  None of it has worked and Lily is quite frankly, wide awake.

Other than the early mornings, Lily is developing like a dream.  Although she isn't yet walking (nor does she show any inclination to want to walk), she is talking and communicating so well.  She understands when I say "A sheep says?" so she answers confidently with "Baaaaaaaa"!  She is proficient with her "ta's" when giving and receiving things and she refers to the dogs as "Whoo whoos".  If she sees a bird, she will point and make grunting gestures and she makes "aaah" sounds when she wants to cuddle or kiss.  She also knows how to count to three.  When I say "1", she often just looks at me, then I say "2" and she repeats with "doo" and then on "3" she puts her head back and says "eeeeeeeeee'.  It is just too adorable and puts a huge smile on mommy's and daddy's faces.  Lily also understands the word "dance" and will happily shake her head and her bum (her dance moves) and she also understands "tap" when she will pat her little tummy with her cute little fingers.  She also loves remote controls and will happily point the TV remote at the TV and the airconditioner remote directly at the units on the walls. It's so rewarding to see and hear how well she is picking up on things and how she is beginning to understand the world around her.

With all these developments obviously comes the "not too great" things such as the opening of drawers and cupboards, the pushing of any visible buttons (the DVD player, the dishwasher) and the latest, climbing on top of things.  She has now discovered she can master the coffee table and from there, climb up onto the rather high TV stand!  My heart cannot take it - I'm constantly watching her like a hawk!

I'm absolutely loving the age she is at now, it's so incredibly cute and precious.  I just adore watching my little creation exploring her little world.  Such a proud mommy I am.

The start of tantrums?

As of the last couple of days, Lily has been doing the "dying swan", a movement where she sits and just literally drops her head to the floor in utter displeasure.  She is starting to, in no uncertain terms, communicate what she does or doesn't want to happen.  If she wants to be up on my lap and not on the floor, she screeches and protests until I lift her up.  If she is up on my lap and wants to be on the floor, she does the same thing.  It is made very clear when she is unhappy with any situation.

So now begins the joyous repetition of the word "no".  No to her wanting to touch buttons she shouldn't be touching, to her opening cupboards containing dangerous toxic materials, to her trying to climb up the stairs, to her trying to drink water out of the dogs' bowls, to wriggling about when I'm trying to change her nappy or get her dressed... The list is endless and I sometimes worry that Lily is going to think that her actual name is "No"!

Yesterday while trying to get Lily's nappy changed, she was wriggling about so much that I shouted out "no!", only for her to look right at me, point her finger and shout "Doh" (sounds like "no" with a "d").  I was horrified!  Is my 12 month old talking back already?  She really is a little independent thing with a mind of her own - something I really have to get used to.

Although we are dealing with a few difficult moments, as all mommies do, Lily is still the cutest, sweetest little girl.  She has just learned how to blow kisses and I could just melt when she does it.  She also randomly decides that she wants kisses from mommy or daddy and will lean forward, purse her little lips and make a "mwah" sound and come in for a nice slobbery kiss.  It's honestly the most heart melting gesture and I could just burst with pride.  So bring on the "doh's" with pointed finger as the cute moments far outweigh the difficult ones.

Professional birthday photo's

I was in 2 minds whether to get a professional photographer to capture Lily's birthday or not.  Was I going "OTT" or was it a lovely way to capture Lily's first birthday celebration?  After chatting to my confidants,  I decided that this was to be a very special day spent with very special family and friends and I wanted to capture all the moments I possibly could.

So on recommendation from a friend, I decided to book Tiffany Lumley from Shots of Tots and I am more than thrilled with how the photographs turned out.  See a few below:

Before I was a mom...

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. 
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. 
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never been puked on. 
Pooped on. 
Chewed on. 
Peed on. 
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. 
I slept all night.

Before I was a mom,

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. 
Or give shots. 
I never looked into teary eyes and cried. 
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. 
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep. 

Before I was a mom,

I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put her down. 
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. 
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. 
I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. 
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. 
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy. 

Before I was a Mom,

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. 
I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. 
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom...

Sleep changes... again!

The last 2 days have seen Lily refusing to go down for her morning nap.  It appears that she believes that a morning sleep is now no longer required.  So instead of fighting each other this morning - me fighting Lily to go to sleep and Lily fighting me to stay awake - I decided to let her stay awake and off we went to the shops.  She seemed happy enough and not quite ready for a nap...

On our way home from the shops was a different story though.  She started getting a little miserable so I gave her her dummy.  No sooner was the dummy in her mouth and her eyes started to close.  Now the last thing I wanted Lily to do was fall asleep in the car as once her eyes are closed, for no matter what length of time, she believes she has had her nap!  So even a 10 second stint of eye closing equals the belief that she has had ample sleep.  So we quickly headed home with mommy's window wide open and the music volume much higher and luckily we managed to keep Lily awake.

Once we were home, I made her a bottle and prayed for a little bit of a nap... And wow, she went down beautifully at midday and only woke up again at 2:15pm.  I'm rather happy with this arrangement - more time to do things in the morning and a full 2 hour break in the afternoon.  Finally, time for me to enjoy my lunch and have a bit more "me" time as well as more mommy and daughter time in the mornings.  I quite like this arrangement actually...  The next few days will tell whether this is the new routine or whether it's just a passing phase.  Yet another change in the life of mommy and Lily!

Toddler's Rules

I just LOVE this and had to share it.  Something us moms need to remember while going through the toddler stages... It requires much patience I'm sure!

TODDLER’S RULES
1- If I want it, it's mine
2- If it's in my hand, it's mine
3- If I can take it away from you, it's mine
4- If I had it a little while ago, it's mine
5- If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way
6- If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine
7- If it just looks like mine, it's mine
8- If I think it's mine, it's mine
9- If I give it to you and change my mind later, it's mine
10- Once it's mine it will never belong to anyone else, no matter what

Butterfly 1st birthday party

On Saturday, 30th April at 2:30pm, we celebrated Lily's 1st birthday party.  It was a really special day spent with family and friends and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time.  We were also blessed with superb weather, especially for this time of year and thankfully for this OCD mom, most of the babies spent their time walking and crawling outside instead of inside the house!

I braved myself for a chaotic day as we invited 18 of Lily's little friends.  Obviously it isn't only babies who attend 1st birthday parties so we catered for 18 x 3 (for the parents as well).  So our house was very festive indeed!  The only downside to having so many invites was that I felt rather guilty not being able to speak to everyone there, but I'm sure they understand having gone through the same feeling when their little ones celebrated their big day.

So Lily's theme was butterflies - very girly and very pink!  Lily was dressed in pink to match the theme as well as wearing little butterfly wings which she wasn't too fond of so they didn't last too long.  She looked too adorable even if I say so myself.  Here's a picture of her with her daddy before the guests started arriving:

We set up tables and chairs for all the babies along with butterfly themed cups, plates, party packs and blowouts.  The poor little boys just had to deal with all the girlishness!  I am still amazed at how these little people manage to sit so nicely at their little seats and gobble down what's on their plates (as well as throw carefully selected contents onto the floor).

Lily's cake and cupcakes turned out magnificently - I was so pleased.  I ordered 50 cupcakes as well as a large butterfly cake which everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy, but as usual, I over catered so now we have a freezer full of cake!  Oh well, I don't have to worry for the next few tea parties I host - we will all just be eating leftover cupcakes.

Everyone started leaving after 5pm which was a good indicator of how well everyone enjoyed themselves as the party was supposed to end at 4:30pm.  My mom did an excellent job helping with the cleaning up, as did Lulu who had come in for the day to help us along.  After all was tidied up, Lily opened up a few presents, but was so very tired, that we decided to leave the opening of presents to mom and dad a little later.  Lily had a quick bath and then, to my utter astonishment, she fell asleep while I was putting her pyjamas on!  She has never just fallen asleep like that!  She was truly and utterly exhausted from her big day!  Bless, it was really so very special.

Lily was very spoilt and received so many lovely gifts ranging from beautiful clothes, building blocks and puzzles to beauty sets, hair accessories and books.  I have put some of them away for a later stage so she can enjoy each and every one of her presents individually.

So all-in-all Lily had a wonderful, special and amazing birthday celebration.  I am so very proud of our little angel, she is truly the light of our lives and I look forward to throwing her many, many more happy birthdays in future.

Some more pictures of her special day:

 

1st birthday!

Today Lily is officially no longer a baby, but a toddler.  Although that's the official age group that she has graduated from, she will always be my baby and nothing will ever change that.  She is now a tall 78cm, precisely 30cm longer than she was at birth, and she weighs a petite 9.22kg, 3 times as much as she did a year ago.  Although these statistics are concrete evidence of how she is growing, I still cannot believe that she isn't the tiny little baby that I gave birth to exactly a year ago today.  I'm going to be that stuck record again and say that I really and truly cannot believe how the time has flown... I honestly wish life came with an optional "pause" button.

So today was Lily's birthday and we woke up at 7am to a very happy, wide eyed little angel.  We came downstairs, had our bottle, waited for Granny and Grampa (Hertz) to come downstairs and for daddy to finish his conference call for work.  We then sat on the floor with all the presents and had a great time opening them.  Lily was very spoiled and absolutely loved everything from the trike Granny and Grampa bought her and the swing from mom and dad (her jungle gym is on its way) to the huge teddy bear from Great Granny and the wooden puzzle, blocks and farm toys from Aunty Lou and Uncle Rollie.  So very spoiled!

My lovely new trike!

 After her morning nap, we had some errands to run, followed by a lunch at Mugg & Bean with Granny, Grampa and Aunty Lou so Lily could play at the playground next door.  She loves it there and had fun riding the wooden horses and getting very dirty on the grass, in the mud, on the paving and touching bird droppings (much to my and my mom's delight!).  After lunch, Lily decided that she was having too much of a lovely birthday and she didn't want to waste any time having a silly afternoon nap.  I didn't feel like fighting with her either so the nap was forfeited and more time was spent playing before Lily's annual peadiatrician check-up.

The paediatrician check-up wasn't the greatest as Lily had to have blood drawn for the first time.  It was awful and Aunty Lou and Granny were besides themselves.  They were crying so very hard hearing Lily's screams from the waiting room.  I was a little bit braver but shed a few tears as well.  It's horrible hearing your child in pain and you cannot do anything to help her.  But we needed to have the bloods drawn as Lily had been fighting a fever 5 days ago and ended up with a rash which she still has.  We needed to get down to what caused the fever.  It turns out that she had a viral infection which her little body was fighting and the rash was a result of this.

Other than the horrible part of the doctor's visit, we were very proud to hear that Lily is doing brilliantly developmentally.  She is reaching all the necessary milestones and is a very happy, good and strong baby...erm, I mean toddler.  She is doing the cutest things these days from copying mom's ridiculous facial expressions to pretending to answer the phone when she hears one ringing (even saying her own version of "hello").  She also has a teddy bear that sings and speaks when you push its paws so now she thinks that all teddy bears do this and she goes about pushing their paws, not quite understanding why it doesn't produce the same silly sounds.  My heart can just melt at how precious she is.

The last year has truly been the most amazing of my life.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  Lily has brought so much joy and happiness into our home and is the center of our universe, and always will be.  I love her more than I can ever express and am so looking forward to watching her grow and develop into the truly amazing person I know she will become.

Finally, our 1st tooth!

For the past few months, I have had "tooth envy", watching as all Lily's friends sprout teeth left, right and center, while my baby's gummy smile remains.  I was starting to get a little perturbed at the lack of teeth and was ready to google whether there has ever been a documented case of a toothless child! 

Luckily, I didn't have to resort to that as 8 days before Lily's 1st birthday (20th April 2011), I felt the sharp little edge of her first tooth.  The bottom left tooth to be precise!  I couldn't quite believe what I was feeling so I took a silver teaspoon and gently tapped it against her gums and "tadaa", a resounding "tinging" sound was heard.  So Lily is now officially no longer toothless and I can't wait to see what she is going to look like without her gummy smile.

Now to organise some pancakes to celebrate!

1st birthday parties

April is definitely a busy month!  It is the month when many of Lily's little friends celebrate their 1st birthdays so our diaries are full.  I think we have parties every single weekend, with us having to be at 2 parties on some of those days as well!  I'm going to have to limit Lily's food intake as all they seem to do at these parties is eat! 

Yesterday we celebrated little April's Mini Mouse birthday party and it truly melts my heart seeing all these little people sitting so nicely at their party table together.  Just yesterday they were tiny little helpless babies and now look at them...

Lily's first birthday party is being held at home so hopefully the weather is kind to us.  Having a big group of people along with their 1 year old babies all cooped inside due to bad weather is not going to be ideal.  I have decided on the theme and bought quite a few of the decor items so we are on track.  I have placed the cake order, have bought 90% of the party pack surprises and just have to think about a few minor details.  I'm looking forward to celebrating our little angel's first birthday party - a celebration of, without a doubt, the best year of my life!