Monthly Archives: July 2014

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Monkey do

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Saturday, 26 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Seventeen Days Old.

Ayla learned to drink out of the hose today, like all proper Aussie kids should!

Playing with the hose is one if Ayla’s favourite things to do and she takes great pleasure in spraying us or The Dog when we least expect it.

Today though, Ayla watched as The Dog took a long drink from the hose, then of course it was a case of monkey see monkey do.

I was surprised at how steadily Ayla held the hose, and how well balanced she was as she bent down for a drink.

From my memory I recall ending up wetter than a mermaid whenever I tried to drink from the hose, even as a bigger kid, but Ayla managed to keep the water on her lips and out of her nose (mostly).

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The Show!

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Friday, 25 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Sixteen Days Old.

We took Ayla to the Royal Show today and all three of us had a ball!!

The livestock, as always, was a highlight and Ayla bravely patted goats, emu chicks and cattle but she seemed to like the two little piglets the best.

We also stopped to watch the Mouse Circus for a while that had Ayla’s head turning like it was on a swivel.

Ayla napped in the pram while Hubby and I checked out the arts, crafts and cookery pavilion and stuffed our faces with corn on the cob and dagwood dogs.

When Ayla woke up it was time to hit sideshow alley where she and Hubby had a ride on a kids carousel that left them both a little dizzy!

Ayla had a go on the “catch a duck” game where she pulled a rubber duck out of the water using a fishing net almost all by herself, and chose a weird brown bug toy as her prize.

Ayla also had a go at the clowns where she put all five ping pong balls expertly down the throat of a scary-looking clown, consequently winning her favourite prize of the day, a tiny little cartoon pig.

Hubby won $30 cash at the bottle smash game, and then killed it on the dogems while Ayla screeched and laughed and waved to him from the sidelines.

We finished off the day with show bags, Ayla choosing the Dora show bag because it had a hat and hats are her new thing.

When I say she chose, I mean it! I took Ayla to the stand and asked her which one she wanted. Ayla looked at them all then said “hat” and patted her head.

The only show bag on display with a hat in it was Dora the Explorer and when I clarified “do you want the one with the hat Ayla?” she pointed straight at it and started bobbing up and down excitedly in my arms.

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Playing favourites

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Thursday, 24 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Fifteen Days Old.

We adults might not play favourites to our kids but Ayla is SUCH a Daddy’s girl!

When Daddy drives down around the corner each evening Ayla screeches and starts running along the fence line, stopping when she reaches the end of the concrete to wave and dance on the spot while he comes in the driveway.

Daddy also has the most luck with feeding Ayla. I might try for ages to get a spoonful or two in, then Daddy takes over and the whole serve is missing in what feels like moments.

Ayla’s started to want her Daddy more often when she’s hurt, tired or hungry too lately. I always thought that a Mummy cuddle fixed everything but for Ayla at the moment it’s a Daddy cuddle through and through.

Then tonight when Daddy left the house and Ayla stayed behind with our babysitter her little lip quivered, then she cried and called out to him at the front door as he drove off.

The babysitter said she distracted Ayla and the tears were gone after a minute or two, but all night whenever Ayla walked past her Daddy’s work bag she pointed at it and said “Dadda?”

Admittedly Ayla did walk up to a photo of me on the TV cabinet and say “Mumma” but that was probably just cos she didn’t want to play favourites 😉

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High heels

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Tuesday, 22 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Thirteen Days Old.

Ayla got around in my high heels for the first time this morning.

We’ve known Ayla has a shoe addiction for a while now, and while I’ve seen her get around wearing various adults thongs today was the first day she donned a set of heels and strut her stuff.

Ayla was surprisingly stable in the 4inch heels, certainly better than me after a long weekend wearing thongs.

And of course Ayla was super proud of herself, smiling and clapping and cracking it when it was time to go and I had to take the high heels off and put her boring old day care sneakers on.

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More than OK

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Sunday, 20 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Eleven Days Old.

As I go to bed tonight I feel so amazingly blessed to have such a beautiful, friendly, smart, gracious little girl for a daughter, and a kind, loving, honest and strong man for a husband.

I’m not quite sure what it is that’s making me feel the love but I had to drag myself away from Ayla’s bedside after I snuck in for her nightly kiss and “sweet dreams” wish, and now I feel heart is going to burst.

It’s intereseting because feeling “blessed” is something that’s attainable by all of us but I feel so very privledged to be aware enough to see it.

The past month or so has been quite tumultous, worry and stress and uncertainty has hung over us like a fading shadow, and even though logically we know everything will turn out just fine and that everyone will be alright, it’s been hard to let myself really feel it.

I think tonight I’ve just had a renewed sense that these really are some of the best days of our lives, and I’m determined to appreciate them while they’re here.

Hubby, Ayla and I are a fresh little family of three with so much excitement and potential on the horizion and so much support and strength from our friends and family behind us that no matter what happens we will be ok… More than ok.

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Jumping Castle

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Saturday, 19 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Ten Days Old

Ayla went in her first jumping castle tonight!

It was at her little friend Caleb’s first birthday where a jumping castle had been set up to keep the bigger kids entertained.

After the kids wore themselves out, it was time for us adults to get in and jump about and as Ayla was still up and at ‘em thanks to a big late-afternoon nap, she joined us.

I didn’t know what she’d think at first, or even if she’d be able to stand or crawl or do anything at all inside the inflatable castle, but Ayla’s balance and confidence was unmatched as she squealed and bounced about by my side.

After we’d had enough and become so puffed out we could hardly breathe (I don’t know how on earth kids stay in those things for hours on end) we re-joined the party on the patio.

But the fun bug had already bitten, and Ayla spent the next fifteen minutes trying to squirm out of her Daddy’s arms, saying “more!” and pointing to the jumping castle.

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Much better

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Friday, 18 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Nine Days.

When I walked into day care this afternoon the ladies exclaimed “Ayla is so much better!”

I was surprised at first, mainly because they’d looked at me like I was a neurotic hypochondriac when I explained we were going GFCF… only four days ago.

After the surprise wore off I was curious to understand why the day care ladies thought Ayla was “much better” when they’d obviously already thought she was fine before.

In fact they’d said to me numerous times, like countless other people have too, that Ayla was such a happy, healthy, social little girl they didn’t think I had nothing to worry about.

So after a bit of investigation I discovered that Ayla is now, suddenly eating more, sleeping better, drinking more water, has found endless energy and is developing even more each day than she was before.

And Hubby noticed the same thing too, after only being home a few minutes this afternoon.

The change is Ayla is hard to explain though. On top of the physical differences we can describe, Ayla seems… Brighter. More of herself.

It’s only early days of course and we’re by no means counting our chickens, but if definitely looks like we might be on to something, in terms of the tummy troubles at least.

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GFCF

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Tuesday, 15 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Six Days Old.

Ayla started a gluten free dairy/casein free (GFCF) diet today, under advice by a doctor and dietician.

Ayla’s been having tummy problems lately, along with a few other things I won’t go into here, and in order to rectify the situation we’ve been told to eliminate all gluten and dairy from her diet for at least one month until the exact cause can be identified and treated.

It’s going to be a tough month (what on earth do you feed a GFCF child?!) but Hubby and I feel very supported by Ayla’s day care centre, our friends and family.

Ayla herself seems unfazed. We’re putting a lot more fat into her diet too at this stage so she’s stoked, and Ayla sucked back her almond milk bottle tonight like a marathon runner sucks in air!

All in all, it’s going to be challenging and because it’s going to be a big part of our lives for the next little bit, I wanted to document it on here.

As we know, motherhood is full of ups and downs and diversions, and this blog is about sharing that; the good and the not so good, so stay tuned!

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Unbelievable

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Monday, 14 July 2014: One Year and Fifteen Weeks Old.

Ayla has learned how to take her own nappy off…. It’s chaos.

Hubby and I were rushing to get out the door for a surprise dinner he’d arranged for our wedding anniversary, and Ayla was not interested in cooperating.

After getting out of the shower Ayla decided she’d have some no-nappy time, even though I’d decided she needed clothes on for when the baby sitter arrived.

Ayla’s never been interested in change times, taking great pleasure in kicking and yelling at me, and tonight was no exception.

The only difference was that after the battle when Ayla was back on her feet toddling around, she trumped me by swiftly undoing and taking off her nappy, stuffing it in a bucket, covering it with a toy as hiding it in the corner… Unbelievable!

Without time to argue I grabbed another nappy and put it on Ayla while she was standing, then promptly (and successfully) distracted her with food.

NOTE: this photo is of Ayla SLEEPING on the change table. She didn’t fall asleep there, but she stayed asleep while I changed her!!

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Pull along puppy

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Saturday, 12 July 2014: One Year, One Hundred and Three Days Old.

Hubby and I gave Ayla a new toy today; a pull-along puppy.

It was a present a friend had given Ayla for her birthday, but we’d kept it aside until such a time that we’d knew Ayla would use it and give it the love and attention it deserved.

And that was today.

Ayla has been such a good girl lately and Hubby and I are both so proud of her, we wanted to reward her and decided to give her a new toy.

It was a big deal because we don’t make a habit of spoiling her with gifts, and Ayla seemed to know that she’d done something good to earn her puppy.

Ayla spent most of the evening toddling around with her puppy in tow, stopping to give him and pat or a kids every now and then.

At one point Ayla even took her puppy over to The Dog’s bowl for some water and Hubby and I melted with love at our smart, happy, precious little girl.