the twinkle in my eye

so many things.

ok, so before christmas i started my new job. we have some adjusting to do with our routine (i don’t get home until during the twinkle’s dinner or bath, and special k has to do all the drop-offs and pick-ups for the baby factory) but i do like the job so far.

just before christmas i noticed the twinkle’s first two freckles. another first. they’re on her legs. i’ve spotted a couple since then, but they seem to have washed off in the bath. the original two are still there.

christmas was quite lovely. we enjoyed playing santa and the twinkle loves her new climbing frame. she plays on it for ages every day. (it was pointed out to us that we should enjoy assembling these things in daylight because when they get older you have to do it in the dark coz they go to bed later. this was from a household where santa brought a trampoline this year!)

the twinkle was really cute with the present-giving, even more so than the present-receiving. and for the first time ever we hosted christmas dinner at our place which just goes to show that we really are parents now.

the twinkle got a lot of stuff, and we were both spoiled too. a cheerio goes to all those etsy vendors who were kept in business by both special k and me this christmas. we have art on our walls now! and i have a belt which fits and keeps my pants up and is pretty. how life can change so much with one small gift! (yeah right, i wish my belt was small)

after christmas we went away for a little holiday. i spent weeks before the holiday stressing about how the plane ride would go for me and the twinkle. i expected she would scream and squirm and generally hate me for the full hour and a half in the air, plus all the associated time spent travelling to and from airports and waiting around. but on the day the flight was really quite reasonable. she learned what planes and clouds are and through sheer luck, not planning, i had a book in her nappy bag which depicted both planes and clouds, and also had flaps to lift, so that kept us entertained for most of the time, and the rest of the time i filled in with the $2.50 fake magnadoodle. we love the chinese junk shops. we also got the twinkle’s snappy orange velcro felix the cat sneakers from one of these shops for under $10. special k did a couple of marathon drives up to the coast and back, motivated by folk music and the prospect of an uninterrupted night’s sleep.

so we had our first holiday together as a family and it was really great. the twinkle did really well sleeping in a portacot and doing lots of skinny dipping and eating all meals outdoors. it was really fun having my cousin’s baby emi there too. the twinkle loved having her little cousin there and there were many cute moments. cute moment countdown/meltdown:

1. the twinkle patting the seat next to her insisting that emi come and share story time with her.
2. babies flocking to cousin a to eat blueberries from her hand. it was like feeding time at one of those cute petting farms.
3. the twinkle’s excitement at getting to know her aunties and uncle and cousins – pointing to them over and over and over, every day, while we told her their names.
4. sailing a boat.
5. splashy, squealy bath time.
6. the twinkle coming into our bed in the morning and playing with our noses.
7. cousin emi being motivated to learn to walk whilst hanging around the twinkle.
8. the twinkle doing a silly stomping walk every time we cheered for emi’s walking, so that we would cheer for her.
9. baby punch-ups when they both wanted the same thing (diabolical when emi tried to take blankie).
10. unbridled toddler joy at splashing in the shallows with her bucket, her hat and her om.

we’ve spent a few days at home now and the twinkle is seriously intense work, needing an activity all the time, and needing a new activity every 20 minutes or so. yesterday i got inspired by teo’s mum and kylie’s mum and got organised with coloured paper and stickers and a box and glue sticks. apparently she sits up at the table all keen and waiting when it’s time to do craft at the baby factory so hopefully we can keep her happily occupied at home too.

the other thing that’s going on with her is that we’ve turned over a new leaf with her diet and are trying much harder to get her to eat properly. k borrowed a library book about getting kids to eat well that mostly sounds like common sense but it has motivated us to get organised (k is responsible for actually getting us organised, but i am certainly along for this ride) and to cut back on processed foods. so far she is still rejecting all vegetables and most meat, but the other night she ate a mouthful of mincemeat which had vegetables disguised in it and we were so excited that i didn’t hear a word my brother said to me on the phone while it was happening.