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. 

Who's the boss?

Yesterday was Boss's Day. Why bosses need a day is beyond me but, hey, it exists.

Our little boss got the day off from work. She went driving around with her Nan and had a good time showing off in the shops.

People are surprised that Wren-Lee goes to work with us most days of the week. Sure, we have the odd difficult day with her but we cope just fine usually. It's also given me valuable bonding time with her and she's grown quite comfortable in the work environment.

But she really is the little boss here.

Big Boss and Little Boss having a meeting

Let me check my calendar...oops, it's broken! 

Wren-Lee is the CEO - Child Entertainment Officer. While her GD (GrandDad) is the MD (Managing Director) and actually runs the business, she's in charge of providing happiness and smiles and maintaining the inventory of baby stuff in the office.

Our CEO has her own stamp comprised of her hand and her saliva.
Laptop working correctly? Stamp!
Desk making the right sound when tapped? Stamp!
Documents need checking? Stamp!
Phone ringing at the correct volume? Stamp!

She also regularly does roll tests on the board room table to make sure it is indeed level. Other tasks include welcoming visitors for meetings, laughing as often as possible so it doesn't get too quiet and rearranging everyone's desks on an hourly basis so you actually see all the work you might have pushed elsewhere.

The CEO is also the only staff member who does all her snacks and lunch like clockwork and she's allowed regular naps in her "cubicle"; a camper cot in her dad's office.

Honestly, I'm going to miss working with her. I'm starting a new job in less than two weeks and our time together is being drastically reduced. It's been a wonderful blessing to spend so much time with her till now and she's grown independent enough to be ok with not seeing much of me from now on.

And while my new office has crazy staff, two French bulldogs and a magnificent view, it takes quite a lot to replace my CEO.

Waiting and watching

I see I've been taking long gaps between blog posts. Life is a bit hectic right now and it's difficult to find space and time to write. For Wren-Lee though, life is just peachy. 

She's finally mastered rolling. Yippeee! But, like Derek Zoolander, she only turns to the left. Seriously. Model tendancies with this one. 

I like putting her on one end of our bed and watching (and filming) her roll all the way to the other side. Don't worry, I'm a mom who's all about safety so there are a lot of pillows to keep her safe. 

While rolling is fun and really cute, it's what's happening in her mouth that has everyone on tenterhooks. We can see her first tooth waiting just under that surface of her gum. Her eczema is flaring up, her tummy is wonky, she chews everything in sight and she's been sleeping quite a lot during the day. It's obvious her body is prepping for that tooth to erupt. 

We are still very fortunate that she's quite calm and hasn't been really sick. Everyone's hoping that her teething will be without much incident but only time will tell. At this stage, it looks like we may have a tooth within a week or two. 

I'm still trying to understand the whole "pancake" association with baby's first tooth. Although I have faith in Google's wisdom, I haven't found anything or anybody who can explain it to me or where it comes from. So, while we wait for this tooth, I'll see if I can dig up some history on the pancake thing and hopefully I'll have an answer soon. 

Roll, roll it girl, roll it girl.

Watching a small human learn how to become mobile is probably one of the most entertaining bits of parenting. This small creature not only has to discover it's own body, but then has to work out how to coordinate these newly acquired bits and pieces to achieve some sort of motion. It's quite a lot of work. 

Wren-Lee could roll from her tummy to her back at 3 months already. A necessary step for a child who seems to live by the motto "Work smarter, not harder". She refuses to hold her own bottle although she can, rolls off her tummy if she's feeling lazy and pretends to cry to get our attention if she's tossed her dummy somewhere that she can't reach. Yup, she's got this efficiency thing down. 

But when it came to rolling from her back to her tummy, it took a bit of effort from everyone. I spent hours teaching her to tuck her arm in so she could shift her weight. We rolled her back and forth as often as possible so she'd get used to the movement. Eventually, she seemed to understand what to do and began attempting it on her own. (And cue "Eye of the tiger") 

This resulted in a small baby contortionist act. Wren twisted her body into the most bizarre shapes as she tried to master this new skill. I've seen S shapes, Q shapes, a pretzel and a few yoga poses in the mix. She also got herself tangled in her playgym trying to roll over. 

Finally, she worked out her own little system and does manage to roll but it takes some effort. And after the hard work it took just to get this right, the kid has discovered a new challenge: Once she's on her tummy, how does she move forward? Oh well, guess we better prepare ourselves for learning to crawl soon. 

Who's upside down: you or me? 

Chubby cheeks

If you look back at photos of Wren-Lee, you'll notice that she's quite petite and not quite as fat and squishy as other babies. That's because we had no idea that she was a skinny kid. In fact, she was a full kilogram underweight for her height.

We took her to a dietician who specialises in paediatric nutrition. Yes, we also didn't know someone like that exists. Turns out she knows her stuff and gave us a simple solution to the problem: we add a supplement to Wren-Lee's formula which provides extra kilojoules. The canister of soft powder is probably every dieter and model's nightmare.

So, she's been on the supplement for about 6 weeks now and gained weight really well. We discovered that her digestive system didn't like rice cereal so her solids diet consists of yummy fruits and vegetables (which she LOVES!). We'll be introducing protein into the mix soon in the form of chicken and we get to try the cereal again but this time it'll be brown rice cereal which is an unrefined wholegrain and likely to not aggravate her reflux.

And now that the boring nutrition lesson is done, the proof is in the pudding (or so they say). In our case, it's our little pudding face. Here's a before and after pic so you can see that our little bird has chubby cheeks :-)

Before

After