At the moment, life is brilliant for us. The baby is learning to crawl, can sit up and discovers new foods everyday. All the toothless smiles and her determination to inch forward or upward to reach yet another toy never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps because her sister was lazy and never quite as bothered to exert effort, we are not entirely sure what lies ahead for us parenting a wilful toddler.
Miss Three is currently obsessed with trying to climb the taller apparatus in the playgrounds and trees in the park, but she isn’t quite the daredevil only stretching herself a teeny bit more each time. Equally capturing her interest is her new Leapfrog toy that teaches her to write letters and numbers.
I remember different emotions from when I was on Mat Leave the first time around. The sleep deprivation got to me. The lack of friends and confidence left me bereft with a proclivity to self-pity and depression taking it out all the time on the husband and blaming him for my unhappiness.
“I used to say to myself that happiness and misery depend on ourselves. If you feel unhappy, raise your self above unhappiness, and so act that your happiness may be independent of all eventualities.”
Catherine the Great
The recipe these days when the sun’s out:
1)Pack sandwiches/pasta salad, a pack of crisps/ popcorn, fruit, a snack of cheese or biscuits and fruit shoot/smoothie pack.
2)Find a park or garden to eat/run/scoot around in.
There are simple games Miss Three enjoys when there aren’t any playgrounds, such as chasing bubbles, tracking down dandelions and counting the time with each blow, making daisy chains or sometimes just running through tall grass or daffodils. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
Had we chosen a different city to live in, life would be different. We are blessed in London and I try not to take each blue sky day for granted. It’s hard to remember these uneventful, mundane days but I am so fulfilled that just buying a new electric toothbrush is enough to send me to the moon. I want this post to remind me of the laughter, the joy, the lessons learnt and the growing pains. After all it happens just a tad too quick and I will be caught in the rat race again all too soon. Feeling ever guilty and ever so inadequate. For now, I know I am giving them my all and enjoying every moment stolen.
