Some Stuff

This post isn't about anything in particular. I can't do unifying themes today, or sentences that flow into each other. Just a random collection of blibbering about things that may or may not be noteworthy. Please excuse my incoherence. There are reasons for it.

One such reason is The Littl'un's sleeping patterns. On one hand, she has finally stopped wanting a night feed! Yay! She has finally learnt to "sleep through". If by "sleeping through", you mean.. well.. not. We no longer have to get up at 3am and trudge downstairs to fetch milk. We do, however, have to get up about 7 times every night and put her dummy back in her face. It's a joy. Never mind, we got there with the feeds, I'm sure we'll eventually get there with the dummy too. Whether we get there before one of us throws ourself off a building remains to be seen.

Despite the night wakings, she's still being mostly lovely during the day. But fast. And bold. And fast. She's now pulling herself up on pretty much anything that will take her weight, and a large number of things that won't. She's very proud of herself, and I am proud of her too, if a little dismayed to find that I now have to pay attention to what she's doing at all times, lest I find her sticking her fingers in the Xbox, or becoming entangled in The Toddler's trike.

The Toddler is also a reason for my incoherence. She's being something of a trial at the minute, just for a change. Actually, I'm not sure she's being any more horrendous than usual, just that I am losing patience far quicker. I did a LOT of shouting tonight. Normally I don't really shout that much, because it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference, unless I shout really, really loud, and make her cry, which makes me feel guilty, and I then have to abandon any attempt at discipline to give apologetic cuddles. So if I'm shouting, I'm venting, which is not terribly useful.

Oh well, back to work very soon, which hopefully should mean less shouting. I am a lot better at this parenting business when I don't have to do it all day, every day. It's very easy to get caught up in the monotonous drudgery of being at home when you know that there's always tomorrow to do it better. When I know that I only have four days with my kids, I'm a little bit better at making them count, and not just shoving them in front of Curious George and getting annoyed when they whinge at me.

Curious George, by the way, is The Toddler's latest thing. She quite likes the TV programme, so when I saw the DVD of the film on offer in Asda, I thought I'd pick it up. Best £2 I've ever spent. The child is deeply in love.

I know I whinge about The Toddler a lot, but she is actually pretty cool. I am taking advantage of the fact that she is like a little sponge at the minute (which makes it pretty difficult when you've dropped something on your foot and want to howl obscenities) to teach her some manners. So when she is moaning "Want the telllllly" at me, I remind her to ask nicely and I get "Please can I watch some telly please?" which is rather lovely. And yesterday, we had the following conversation, which made me feel all gooey and so proud that I have to be irritatingly sappy and share:
Toddler: (picking up necklace which was lying inexplicably in to footwell of the car) "Mammy, is this your necklace?"
Me: "Yes, it is"
Toddler: "You put it on"
I put it on
Toddler: "You look beautiful"
Me: (heart bursting) "Aw, thank you, darling"
Toddler: "You're welcome!".

I think I'll keep her.