All posts filed under: Parenting
Family Photos
I haven’t linked into the Gallery for absolute ages. This week’s theme got me really excited, actually, as I tried to recall if I have any family photos I can use. Not of our tiny family unit, for a change, but of our big Romanian and Greek family units. I even woke up early a few mornings ago and found myself counting…cousins. I think I counted them all in when I say I have 14 on my mother’s side and 10 on my dad’s side. Unfortunately, last time I saw my dad’s family together was before the digital camera age so I have nothing on them :-(. Anyway, here goes, my family theme for this week.
The miracle of raising a toddler
….is that they develop so fast that you can hardly keep up with them. In the last three weeks or so we noticed Emms taking giant leaps in her speech and her imaginative play development. She has moved from two-three word sentences like “Mummy, water, peeease” to full-blown speech and coherent thoughts. It started with daddy getting it all in stereo: “Alex, can you hurry up, please?”… “Daaaaaaddyyy, hurry up!!!” If you find that amusing try imagining two women raging and stomping their feet at you in the same time… poor guy. It went on to Emms trying to put words together on her own, sometimes successfully, sometimes less so and sounding like a slurred drunk: “Mummy, me go shopping…take bag…need money..okay???” Today I was washing the dishes after breakfast when I heard her say: “Mummy, there’s a big dinosaur.” I thought she was just imagining it. Daddy has been playing this “Peppa Pig living in a castle” game with her and her imagination sparks like fireworks when you least expect it. Daddy stepped in …
#Blog it for babies: My birth story
Okay, saw this going around and I thought this could serve as free therapy while I’m doing a good deed. So here goes, the story of Emms’ birth. I had a “normal” pregnancy or a what I thought was a normal pregnancy. We had assumed that my extreme mood swings were caused by the hormones taking over my life. In fact, it was hypothyroid and it plagued our lives for at least a year. I felt extremely tired, got crossed with hubby over everything and after I had baby I felt teary, unable to cope and yes, moody! The good part was that I didn’t gain almost any weight(I put on 7.5 kilos only during the entire pregnancy) and I lost the baby weight and loads more in two weeks after I had her. I am writing all these because many times we bitch about women who have lost their pregnancy weight very quickly, unaware of the fact that there might be a medical condition behind all the happy appearances. Anyway, going back to the …
On illness and encouragement
Okay, I was hoping to go and see the Titanic Quarters last weekend but the opportunity never materialised. Instead I was back to nursing sick people in our home. This time it was my hubby. He came down, fast and furious, with the same throat infection Ems had at Easter. And I was not a happy bunny!!
It’s not the nursing that got to me, it’s never the nursing in itself, it was the constant moaning: one toddler on the mend, making demands for my exclusive attention; one sick hubby, feeling sorry for himself and sniffling miserably around the house.That and the ISOLATION. You have to remember I had been in the house ALL Easter week with a feverish child (she was given antibiotic that Friday but she was still weak on Easter Sunday) and I missed hubby’s birthday party on Easter Saturday and the Easter service. Both events had been much anticipated but eluded me at the last moment. I just couldn’t bring myself to drag a wretched toddler out of the house just because I needed to see friends and take part in the Easter celebrations.
So all that kept building up over two weeks. And it did get to me this Sunday past. So as the worthy daughter of a former nurse, I ordered hubby to see the out of hours doctor and stop moping about and then I had an emotional shut down. I just didn’t have anything else to give. I downloaded the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy and I finished it in a day and a half. That sort of focused my mind on something else. Today I came upon this other book, “Mother Letters”, that’s just been released. “Share the mess and the glory”, such an appropriate logo for parenthood. It promises encouragement and support, a silent companion for mothers everywhere. Check it out, I sure will, my only regret is that I haven’t found it on Sunday night. It might have filled my emotional tanks sooner…
Mama's Haven 