Christmas countdown

As 2012 races towards its end, we look forward to the holidays and, of course, Wren-Lee's first Christmas.

Now, the song goes "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.." but Wren's already got those at the bottom so maybe the top two will appear as her gift. With all the festive cheer about, don't underestimate a child's ability to realise something's going on. 

Wren discovered Christmas decorations. Every time we take her into a shop, her little head whips to and fro looking for the decorations dangling from the ceiling or standing on a shelf. She gets terribly excited about them and we think we might have a small problem with our Christmas tree's emancipation from storage coinciding with her learning to crawl. Trevor's brilliant solution: leave fake gifts under the tree so she's drawn to them instead of the tree itself. 

It was this magnetic pull towards anything Christmas related that lead to the so-called Christmas outfit. My mom took her along to the store one day and decided to go through the baby clothing section. Wren grabbed a bib from her pram and my mom thought it was a sign that she must buy the matching romper. Together, they are Wren's official Christmas outfit. (See below) 

I had a good chuckle when I got sent the photo of this get up and thought it utterly ridiculous. After seeing it in person, I couldn't help but love it and now I'm embarrassed to say I'm looking for those baby reindeer antler headbands to go with it. 

No judgies; I'm a mom who likes to dress my kid up every now and then. 

And while I don't believe in getting Wren's a gift just yet because she still too young to understand the gesture, her father has already picked out her gift. Guess that means I'm going to have to wrap it and let her go a bit crazy on it come Christmas morning. 

Are my crazy friends and I having our Christmas party again this year? Yup, we are! Let me give you the stats: 24 people, a menu of more than 10 different dishes and 14 bottles of champagne. How many babies at this shindig? 0 :-) It's going to be quite a night! 

I still find it hard to believe that last Christmas I was very pregnant and had no idea how Wren would change my life for the better. I can't wait to see the excitement on her face when she rips the paper off her gift and have her sit with us at the table for Christmas lunch. What's even better is that my family from Pretoria is arriving in Cape Town and they'll meet her for the very first time. 

It may sound cheesy, but Wren-Lee is truly the best Christmas gift ever! 

Hell week

They say that when it rains, it pours...and that was certainly the case during what I shall now refer to as "Hell Week". Ten straight days of back-to-back disasters.

In the second week of my new job, my folks were in Durban and Wren-Lee was with my mom-in-law. On the Wednesday, she hurt her back and Trevor had to rush off to go and pick Wren up and take her back to work with him. That night were were supposed to attend the Linkin Park concert and Wren was meant to sleepover at my in-laws. After loads of phone calls and going back and forth on babysitters, I reluctantly decided to skip the concert. I sat on the couch that night sobbing because Linkin Park is my favourite band and my dream to see them perform live went up in smoke. I still haven't had the courage to look at the tickets again and it's been weeks since this incident.

Aside from the concert being a bust, we had a bigger problem: Who was going to look after Wren-Lee the next day? Trevor was flying to Durban at 6am and I absolutely had to be at work. Everyone we could think of was at work and we weren't prepared to leave her with someone she wasn't entirely familiar with. It was a complete miracle when our friends, Clint and Tanya Morris, called and said they'd rearranged their day to help us and take care of Wren. Nothing comes close to the relief we felt and the extreme gratitude to our friends who went above and beyond for us.

Wren was fine the next day and thoroughly enjoyed her time with Clint, Tanya and Chloe. That night, she accompanied me to a dinner with my new colleagues and charmed everyone. Everything was fine until the next morning. While I was busy getting ready, I put her on my bed with pillows to protect her. One second she was facing away from me and was right up against the pillow and I literally turned my back and then heard the thud. My heart stopped beating and I knew I would find her on the floor. Thankfully, she was perfectly fine, not a bump, bruise or scratch on her but that was the last time she was left on the bed unattended.

At this point I thought things could definitely not get worse...and then it did. I went to a shopping centre to pick up some goodies en route to a friend's house. Wren fell asleep in the store and I put her pram in the car's boot and then put her into the car. The car key was in my way and I through it into a cup holder. When I closed the car door, there was a click and the car locked itself with the key inside. Panic ensued. Thanks to some very helpful guys, it took 40 mins and a broken window but we managed to get the car unlocked. Wren slept through the entire ordeal. Trevor had to rush from the airport and found me in a bit of shock. The reality of what happened only hit me after the fact and I was quite emotional for the rest of the day.  My friends, sweethearts that they are, were on hand to medicate the situation with a healthy dose of vodka and cranberry. It worked well!

The crowning moment of the week came just a few days later. I pulled into my in-laws driveway to pick Wren-Lee up and my clutch broke. It was divine intervention that it happened there instead of on the freeway or, worse yet, when Wren was in the car with me. After quite a mission to get the car towed the next morning and trying to figure out how to get to work, I got the news that my entire clutch system needed to be replaced to the tune of a few thousand rand. By the end of that week, I was emotionally and financially depleted.

Looking back on it now, I can laugh at the comedy of disasters the week was. I'm thankful, however, that Wren was spared any harm or difficulty because she came a little too close there.

Late night runaround

Surprisingly often, we get asked by other parents and people in general if we sleep. Most assume that with a 9 month old who's got teeth coming out, has a will of her own and is likely going through separation anxiety, sleep is something we don't see much of. 

And then, of course, our response to this question is met with a mixture of shock, surprise, disappointment and just a sprinkling of "How'd you get so lucky?" 

Wren-Lee is still very much a creature of habit and politely lets us know around 7pm when she's tired and would like to be put into her cot. If it's early or later, we don't really mind and we take our cue from her. No point trying to force a kid to sleep if she's not ready or tired yet. 

But then that rare day comes along when she's totally disinterested in sleeping...like the other night for example. 

Two hours of playing, rolling, babbling, kicking, touching my face, playing with my hair and staring at her feet ensued before it took a chamomile tablet to get her to nod off. I was half asleep before she was and almost dosed off waiting for her to calm down. It was after 9pm before she was finally moved into her cot and I'm supposed to be in bed at 9:30pm. Fail. 

Now, not too many years ago, I would put on a revealing top, wear high heels and slap on the lipgloss before hitting the clubs. And we all know that 11pm is the best time to head out for a night on the town. 

Last night, I put on a billowy top, wore flip-flops and slapped on my spectacles before hitting a 24 hour pharmacy. I forgot to buy formula and didn't have enough for Wren's bottles. And we all know 11pm is the worst time to remember your kid needs milk for the next day. 

Oh...how times have changed. 

Guess my late nights are long gone.