One Year Old

Lady F is now 1 year old.

In the space of 365 days, she has gone from this:


To this:

The first year of your child's life is an wonderful thing. They develop from being a competely helpless little scrap, totally dependent on you for everything, to the beginnings of an independent little person. I once read that from the moment we give birth to them, our children are inching further and further away from us, day by day, as they tread the rocky road to independence. When I first read that, I found it unbearably sad, as if every second that passed I was losing a tiny bit more of my little girl. But I view it differently now. Our children rely on us to teach them and nurture them and that growing independence is something to be proud of. I look at her now and see that somehow I have enabled her to develop into the fiesty, bright little girl that she is becoming.

I'm sure I've gone on about it many times, but this last year has been one of the most fulfilling and precious years of my life so far. I have changed and grown almost as much as Freyja herself, as Adrian and I have muddled our way through our first year of parenthood. There have been difficult times - many, in fact, - but these are far outweighed by the special moments when being a parent feels like the most rewarding and important thing you can do. I feel that my life has meaning now in a way that I didn't always feel before. The way I feel about Freyja has amazed me - I don't think you can really explain to anyone else but another mother (parent?) the way that you feel about your child as words don't really convey that overwhelming ache of love that they can arouse in you at the most unexpected moments.

I love being a mother but I know that this time of my life is going to pass in a flash (and that I won't always love every moment of being a mother!) so I will treasure the memories of the last year, will try not to feel too sad that she is growing up so fast and will look forward to those memories waiting to made over the next year.

Although, I must say that now that she has turned one, I've suddenly started feeling that little twinge of broodiness again...

Happy Birthday, Freyja!

Well, I did it. Somehow I have kept her alive for a year. Here we are having a Mother/Daughter moment earlier today:

I'm a bit too tired to write a proper post about her birthday right now so I'll just say that it was great, we all had lots of fun, I failed at the first hurdle and never got round to baking that cake that I told everyone I was going to do (though I did ice a couple from Spinneys) and Freyja got lots of great presents though what she really enjoyed playing with was two empty bottles of water.

Happy Birthday, Freyja. It's been a wonderful year.

Merry Christmas

Ah, Christmas. Despite Freyja's attempts to sabotage our first Christmas together by shitting all night so that I barely had any sleep, (I was up changing nappies at 1.30am and 5am, couldn't get back to sleep and have been scarred by the sight of a nappy consisting almost entirely of undigested raisins) we did have a lovely day. She enjoyed the stocking, went mad for the sherry, stood by herself for 10 seconds thanks to one of our guests not knowing she couldn't stand yet and just letting go of her, devoured as much turkey as the rest of us and then had a melt down at present time as it had all got too much for her. What more can you ask for?


Even better, we woke this morning to a clean nappy.

Night Pooing

Considering that my blog is about my baby, I reckon I have done pretty well to avoid talking about poo too often, especially as much of my conversation these days revolves around the subject. However, it is no longer avoidable. The child is shitting like you wouldn't believe and I'm going to have to blog about it, or this would not be an accurate account of life with Lady F (I've changed my mind about that nickname suiting her...)

When Freyja was around 9 weeks of age, she suddenly stopped pooing in the night. This event improved my post-baby quality of life more than any happening before or since, even more so than dropping the night feeds. There is a lot to be said for not having to change a shitty nappy at 3am, in the dim half light while you are half asleep and the baby is getting more and more wakeful each moment. The change was sudden and she hasn't pooed in the night since.

Until 2 weeks ago, that is. I woke up to find her covered in shit, more shit than is actually possible for such a tiny person to eject from her bowels, and she has consistently pooed at some point in the early hours of the morning since and I am back to wrestling with nappies and sleep suits in the dark, as if I still had a newborn (only with much, much smellier nappies.)

Far, far more is coming out than is going in - I don't know how that is possible but it is happening. In these last 2 weeks she has pooed about 4 times a day and these are poos to rival any grown man.

She has also started pooing in the bath. It's not very nice to clean up.

Jumeriah Jane

Freyja's initiation into the exclusive 'Jumeriah Janes' Ladies Club* continued today when she came with my mum, my sister and me to have a pedicure.** We all sat in a row, Freyja in the middle on my knee, while our feet were scrubbed to perfection and our toenails buffed and painted (in my case, a lovely shade of 'Tiny Wine-y' - that's red to you and me.)


* Jumeriah Jane is the term given to 'ladies who lunch' in Dubai, Jumeriah being the district in which most UK expats (used to) reside.

** Freyja didn't actually have a pedicure.

Ladies Club

Today I took Freyja to the Ladies Club. How posh are we? It is a club exclusively for women where you can exercise, swim, have beauty treatments, play tennis etc. We spent an hour playing on a quiet, secluded beach then went for a dip in the pool, the sea being a tad too cold this time of year. Afterwards I met my mum and some of her friends for coffee and chat (it's just like being at home!)



One thing that has really struck me being here is how amazing everyone is with Freyja. All the shop assistants and waiters/waitresses go out of their way to be kind to her. They take her off and pass her around and bring her strawberries and bananas to eat and generally completely spoil her. Luckily, she laps up the attention.

Only 3 more sleeps.

Fly by Dubai

So I am in Dubai. The flight over was okay, although it seemed that everything was conspiring to make it as difficult as possible. My taxi got stuck in traffic at Hammersmith and we didn't move for half an hour, making me late to meet my sister, and I really do hate to be late. I was very stressed out in the taxi, not helped by the fact that Freyja was yelling (as well as farting very loudly which didn't bode well for the flight...) Finding a trolley was practically impossible but I managed to snatch one off a young lad who didn't need it nearly as much as I did, only to find there was nowhere to actually sit Freyja, so I had to carry her in one arm while pushing a trolley loaded with luggage with the other. Having left the trolley full of luggage to go and pay the taxi driver, I then managed to wack Freyja's head on the door as I was getting her out of the car. By this point I was in way too much of a flap to explain to the poor driver how to get the baby carseat out of his cab (we are leaving it with the taxi firm who will then bring it with them when they come to pick us up again) so, given that it is not actually the most straight forward of things to work out, he may well be driving around with it for the next 3 weeks. Once I'd found my sister and checked in, we trudged up to departures where we then walked to the other side of the terminal trying to locate the end of the queue of people going through security. It was bedlam. And severely ate into my duty-free time...

On the aeroplane we were an hour late taking off. Then, for reasons best known to themselves, Virgin Airways made us wait 2 hours before serving us our dinner, finally turning the lights off so we could get some sleep at 12.15am. The kids on the flight were beside themselves with tiredness. Freyja had managed 15 minutes before the bright lights and general activity woke her up again. The second the lights went out, I put her in the skycot and she closed her eyes and slept soundly for 3 hours. A little word to Virgin Airways - usually when people book a night flight it is with the hope that they will get some sleep. I was not impressed. Espcecially when the lights came back on at 2.30am, giving us exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes sleep out of a 6 and half hour night flight.

But, who cares about all that anyway, when you land at 8am Dubai time, it's already 24 degrees outside and you've got over 3 weeks holiday ahead of you? It's been wonderful so far. The weather hasn't been great (raining today) but it's warm. I don't really come for the weather anyway, more the relaxation, time with my family and the lovely feeling of familiarity you get from somewhere you know and love. It may have changed greatly since I was living here, but it still gives me that same feeling of coming home every time.

I just can't wait for Adrian to join me now. Only 4 more sleeps.

Holiday

Breathe in....breathe out....

My taxi arrives to take me to the airport in 40 minutes. I'm not great at travelling without Adrian - I'll be fine once I get there but I tend to get stressed in the build up to things and rush around trying to pack, hoover, do the laundry and have a cup of tea all at the same time. And even more so now I have a baby. I think she can pick up on it because she has only had 2 half hour naps today, has hardly eaten and keeps crying. All of which adds to my jiggly, jaggly nerves...

...Oh, and I have 'gone live'. Hurrah!

Me Tarzan...

Freyja has a number of funky nappy wraps. A personal favourite is this little leopard print number. I bought it thinking that she would be oh so fashionable, what with leopard print being 'in' this season. Sadly, it seems that most people just don't get it. Adrian's parents said it was very 'Bet Lynch' while a friend of mine said she looked like Tarzan. I think the friend may be right. Particularly when she wrestles with her pet monkey.


I bought the same wrap as a birth present for Esme. Maybe when she is a bit older and has grown into it, we can get them together for some jungle themed fancy dress. At the rate Freyja is falling off the growth charts (18lbs today and down to the 9th centile), she will be in this nappy wrap for quite a while a longer...

Lady F!!

I had an email from Adrian's parents yesterday and the last line was 'big hug to Lady F !!!!!!'

I LOVE that. It suits her. I will start calling her Lady F. Which fits, I think, since I am Mrs L.

Christmas Time

So here we are in December with Christmas and Freyja's first birthday just around the corner. I've spent a lot of time recently reminiscing about 'this time last year'. We're about the celebrate our first Christmas as parents and while I've always been a bit of a fan, for Adrian, who is rather more of the Scrooge train of thought, some of the magic of Christmas has been revived now that he has a daughter. In fact, it was revived for him last year when Freyja's approaching birth date made the whole festive season that bit more meaningful for him. I'll tell Freyja when she's older that it is thanks to her Christmas birthday that her father finally shrug off his 'bah humbug' approach to the festive season.

I've got presents to wrap, cards to write and suitcases to pack as we're off to Dubai on Wednesday. But this year, we have another pair of hands to help things along.

Maclaren Triumph Update 2

I finally made a decision - went for the Tan Flag. I love it, Adrian loves it, Freyja loves it. £50 from Ebay with a half price foot muff. Strangely for a baby who hated being swaddled as a newborn, she seems to love getting tucked right into the foot muff, arms and all, and sneaking a quick bit of shut-eye under her hood while we stroll around.

Good Morning!

It has not been an easy few days. Both Freyja and I have been suffering with horrible colds and coughs. Freyja's is particularly nasty, with a constantly runny nose and a great wheezing, chesty cough. Mine is one of those maddening tickly ones which strikes at moments when you most want to be inconspicuous, such as on a crowded, two carriage train, as happened on Wednesday. We are not getting much sleep which is no doubt delaying recovery further and Freyja is understandably whingy, whiny and generally not very happy.

So you can imagine my delight when I woke up this morning, clear of nose, and went into Freyja's room to be greeted by this: