Tuesday 28 May 2013

Dear Alice - 25 Months

DSC_0397

Dear Alice,

You are now 25 months old. Do I carry on writing these? Soon I'm not sure I'll have time! For now I'll do my best.

Your words and phrases get better on a daily basis. You now understand to say please, thank you and sorry at the right times, although most of the time you're not really sorry! You're sentences get better every day, and you seem to pick up at least a word or 2 a day. I'm trying to be very careful what I say in front of you!

You can name all the colours, and about 15 shapes. You count to 20 easily, and know about 40 animals. You can tell the difference between some really similar animals - like a rhino and a hippo.

DSC_0380

I went away for 2 nights last weekend for a hen weekend and left you with daddy all weekend. I missed you a lot, and you barely noticed I was gone! You're so good about being looked after by different people. You've never been grumpy about it, but you love attention from different people especially now that they all think you're adorable and you can make them laugh. When I leave for work I can barely get a kiss out of you, you're far too excited to be spending the day with mama or nanny.

You have developed a strange jack in a box obsession. You've had this toy for about 2 years, and not really ever been bothered about it. I put some toys in the spare room in preparation for your sister, and you found it in there. You now carry it everywhere with you and ask for it constantly. I'm hoping you will share!

Colours with daddy Contemplating growing a beard...

You are more and more aware of your baby sister. We try and talk about her, and you give my tummy a kiss and cuddle, but you've still not fully understood and I'm not sure you will.

We've had a few colouring disasters over the past few days, and you are now not allowed your crayons without supervision! You have destroyed the wall twice, the floor, the dining table, your little table, and basically anything that will sit still long enough. Every time I think I've hidden all the crayons, I leave the room then come back to beautifully coloured walls. I'm not sure if you're being naughty or artistic?

Living the dream! Like father like daughter

Yesterday you did your first pee in potty, completely unprompted! You followed me upstairs, asked to sit on your potty, and just did a wee! I was amazed, but you've shown absolutely no interest at all since. I'm just going to keep reminding you of the potty and see what happens.

You ask for cuddles all the time; generally when you've done something wrong and want to make it better. I am not sure I can ever turn down a cuddle.

You've been sleeping really well (...famous last words!), and have thankfully gone back to having a little nap in the day. I'm not sure how long it will last, but you are much happier when you have it, and so am I! You sleep 7pm - 7am which is perfect, and have a nap in the afternoon about 1pm.

DSC_0368

I have times where you seem so little and baby like to me; when I do your bedtime bottle and you snuggle up to me, twist my hair and smell like sweets. And other times when you seem so huge; you run off at the park and giggle and jump and climb up the slide. I don't think I ever want you to grow up, but I'm so proud every time you do.

With love and light xo

Tuesday 14 May 2013

24+4 - Pregnancy Update

baby2

Just a brief pregnancy update as I realised I've not written anything for a while!

We have finally picked a name, which turned out to be easy after months of it being a sore subject! We couldn't agree on anything at all - I loved (love!) Matilda, but Mitch didn't like it no matter how much I brought it up. We both liked Beatrice / Beatrix but it never seemed 100% right. I woke up one morning with a name in my head that I hadn't even thought about before, rung Mitch, and we both loved it. Perfect. I think it was partly that he was fed up of picking names, but I'm 100% happy with what we've chosen!

I am very round. However at least I don't look fat anymore, just very pregnant! I am already starting to struggle a bit with rolling over at night and moving a little, and having the 4am wake ups where I get stuck a bit like a whale. I have currently found an elaborate 300 pillow wedging system that seems to be working for the most part, and I am extremely thankful for the super king size bed!

However, (touch wood) I seem to be having a pretty awesome pregnancy so far! No sickness anymore, the bug from last month has vanished, and I feel pretty great. Tired from chasing after a small Tasmanian devil, but I think that's just a tiring occupation!

The movements I'm feeling now are much more than little pops - they are huge kicks and wiggles that can be seen / felt from the outside. Feeling these now just shows me how much less I felt Alice with her anterior placenta (placenta at front). I think this time I'd only just started feeling her kick, whereas now I'm already partly recreating scenes from Alien. Mostly, I love being reminded of her. However not so much at 4am when it's party time all up in my ribs!

We have emptied the spare room in preparation for starting to get all the baby things out the attic over the next few weeks / months. I've kind of planned a few little decoration-y bits, but I know it's not super important as she will probably end up in bed with us permanently attached to me for about the first year. (I'm finding this part the hardest to be enthusiastic about!). Still, it would be nice for her to have a pretty room, and I'll put pictures up as / when we get to making it look nice.

We've left the double bed up in her room as a spare room / Mitch needs to get some sleep room - which will be loads nicer than last time we had a newborn baby in the tiny flat!

Not really bought anything or done anything - feel a bit unprepared, but I know we have everything from Alice still in the attic so there's not really a lot we need! It does make me a bit sad that I haven't been able to get all excited about buying tiny person things, but I don't want to spend money for the sake of it. I'll need to buy a few warmer outfits for her to see us through the winter, but I'll wait till she arrives and see what size she is.

Having a name and feeling her move makes it a little more real, but it still feels like something super far away in the distance. I don't remember how I felt with Alice - did having more time to think about it make it more absolute? At the moment it's just a distant idea in the back of my head most of the time! Is that awful?

I know that I obviously love her, and will love her so much, but right now I'm so terrified as to how I could love anyone as much as I love Alice! How do you split yourself in 2?

With love and light xo