At last…(da-dum)…my love has come along….(da-dum)
Mothering had a shaky and wrinkled beginning. Pre and post natal depression, an awkward first birth, no localised support/friends etcetc. Also didn’t help that my baby didn’t sleep during the day, fed like a leech and then screamed. As she got older, she still found it hard to communicate her needs, still had sleep problems and could never concentrate/sit calmly/walk calmly.
It took a surprise second pregnancy, some clever medical intervention with anti anxiety tabs, the ABA to make some friends and Willow getting glasses at the age of 4 to help take the edge off.
Recently I’ve started enjoying her company. She has a great sense of humour, loves word play and dances like, well, something amazing to watch. She would stick her whole arm up her nose if she could, she sleep talks and likes to drink the bath water, and still doesn’t ever seem to register the words “wait”, “no” and “not yet”.(I think she gets those traits from me…) This year, her last before primary school starts, she is spending 2 days at her child care, one day a week at home with me (and the baby) and then 2 days with me and all 3 kids (as well as the weekends, of course).
This morning was our first lady-day, we went to our library and read books together while Darby climbed things and fell down. We borrowed some books with the nice automated system, and then went for lunch. She sat, walked and behaved like a kid who can be calm. It was amazing. We came home and read some more, did some drawing together and now we are having some calm time, me paying bills and posting, and her watching KiKi to JiJi on DVD.
There is a very silly part of me urging to book up Wednesdays with lessons or gymnastics or singing or something. But I’m not going to. I’m going to do whatever happens on Wednesdays.
I’m keen to see how things change over the year, if behaviour settles, if we argue even less. We are also doing elimination diet to exclude naturally occurring syllicilates and amines from our diet to see if that helps us all.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:21 am
We’re looking into that diet as well but I’m scared we’ll end up losing a lot of food I love …
Lucy’s almost three and I’m finding her good company as he gets o lder. I think she responds to doing ‘big girl’ things. I took her out to dinner at our favourite cafe a few months ago when the sun went down early, so she was out after dark. She was such a delightful dining companion and was just glowing with being treated as a ‘grown up’, which she wants to be, so very much. We’re finding that days with the girls are best when it’s just us with not much to do and lots of time to do it in. I’m glad you’re having a good time with your girls.