And So I Don't Forget...

Our Day // November 14, 2019

I have shared a Day in the Life post of photos over on my business blog, if you'd like to have a look: Our Day // November 14, 2019.

I'll admit, the words are lacking - waiting to be transcribed from the voice recorder on my phone - but even only 6 months later this feels like such a gift to have captured this day.  

5 Things More, 5 Things Less

When even my sister comments that my blog name, And So I Don't Forget, is becoming ironic, it's probably time to do something about it. To break my unintentional blogging hiatus, five things there are more of and five things there are less of in my life post-Milly. 

 

More Swinging. When my little girl is on the swing in the park and she gestures for me to sit on the one next to her and swing too, I know I'm doing something right. May her wanting to share with me (everything except her half-eaten food) last for a very long time.   

 

Less Blogging. This is undeniable. Unintentional, but I seem to have got out of the habit. 

 

More Laundry. Seriously, how can one little person generate so much washing? Her clothes, bibs, tea towels that get carted around... It seems like a miracle if my clothes are still clean 10 minutes after I put them on. At least I have the most enthusiastic little helper when I do washing nowadays. 

 

Less Sleep. At the moment (because we're only one cold or new tooth away from disaster) Milly is pretty much sleeping through the night, 7pm to 6:30am or thereabouts. Last night she needed a cuddle at 2:30am but I was out of bed for 3 minutes at most. The days of sleeping in though, they seem long gone. 

 

More Animal Noises. Baa, moo, cluck, woof... From reading favourite books, where she'll turn straight to the last page and point to each of the animals for you to name and sound, to Old MacDonald Had a Farm, to encouraging her - 'What noise does a sheep make Milly?' - I have never been more knowledgeable on animal noises in my life. Still can't do a credible elephant though! 

 

Less Scrapbooking. My Simple Scrapper commitments have meant at least a scrapbook layout or two each month, even if I haven't been sharing them, but I've barely managed anything beyond that. My 2016 December Daily is currently languishing at Day 12, and that's Milly's first Christmas.

 

More Videos. For Milly's first year, I tried to take a short video on my phone each day. I didn't have a perfect record but I do have hundreds of snippets of my growing baby girl that I try to add to regularly. I've never been a huge video fan in the past but these make my heart melt. 

 

Less Cooking. Mike, my darling, very much appreciated husband, is still doing most of the cooking in our house. With breastfeeding and bedtime it just worked out that he was more hands free around dinnertime and, now that Milly is finally no longer breastfed (just dropped the final feed in the last fortnight or so) we haven't changed the habit yet. I'm in no hurry, but don't think Mike would agree. ;) 

 

More Getting a Coffee. From taking a walking with Milly there in nice weather to an escape from the house on a gloomy afternoon, my local coffee shop has seen a lot more of me this past year.   

 

Less Scheduled TV. Probably a combination of Netflix subscription, other things to do in those precious evening sans-kid hours and uninspiring offerings on commercial TV that I can watch on their website later anyway, but I watch way less of the free-to-air TV stations than I used to.  

 

Fingers crossed for starting a new blogging habit. 

Amelia: 14 Months

At 14 months and 2 weeks old, Amelia is:

• Saying mama, dada and up frequently.
• Excited by dogs and birds. She has a word (maybe it's a sound) for each and loves to spot 'do' and 'bir' for a chance to say them.
• Very chatty. At home, or when she's not busy watching and absorbing everything, she happily babbles away to herself and us. 
• Pointing at everything, wanting to know it's name.
• Learning more and more words, although her use isn't consistent and we don't always understand what she meant. The other day she was 'wa, wa, wa'-ing at me and it was only when I pointed at her drink bottle and she was enthusiastic did I realise she meant 'water'.  
• Comprehending so much! It was a while ago now that I was seeking some peace for the toilet and asked Milly to go get her baby. I was amazed when she actually did. Now it's becoming commonplace for her to go get what I ask. The other day she'd turned on the TV while I was in the other room. Come time for her nap I couldn't find the remote control. I asked her where it was and she stood there looking around, then walking over to her toy basket and pulled it out for me.
• Really good at making herself understood. So many ways she can manipulate her surroundings, like grabbing my hand and moving it to what she wants me to do or going to her highchair and shaking it when she's hungry. 
• Such a mimic. She picks up and copies what we do so quickly. She loves to take our keys to the little metal doorstop at the bottom of our front door, turning the keys to try and unlock it, and anything with a strap will be put over her arm and carried around the house like a handbag. 

• Feeding herself. She much prefers to handle the spoon herself, rather than us do it. While it's definitely not a clean exercise, you can see how much better she has got at it over the last couple weeks as more makes her mouth compared to her front. 
• Eating most of two Weetbix with milk and a piece of toast for breakfast. The toast seems to be her favourite, with the peanut butter or jam topping being sucked off every bit. 
• A bit of a picky eater. She does eat a range, and at times quite a lot, but what she likes one day Milly might not the next and she seems to prefer eating all of something off her plate before tasting something else. 
• A major sweet tooth. (Definitely my daughter.) Chocolate just gets devoured and she seems to have a radar that hones in if we're having some and not sharing.
• Possessing 6 teeth. 2 bottom front teeth and 4 on the top. (Actually the 7th arrived this morning without fanfare, but she's struggling tonight so I think a troublesome tooth 8 is due too.)
• Still very petite. Her last official weigh-in was back in early March when she'd finally climbed to 3rd percentile at 7.25kg. 
• Wearing size 0 in onsies but generally size 00 is still big on her, particularly around the waist. The parts she grows out of quickest - necklines become too tight for her head and sleeves become too short.  
• A little mother. She loves her baby doll and her stuffed animals; they get the biggest hugs. She feeds them, tucks them into her doll's bed, even lays out fabric (like tea towels which she constantly pulls down) and wraps them up like Mike does to her after a bath.   

• Eager to do washing. Just say the word and she's heading to the laundry. Milly will pull more clothes out of the washing machine than she'll put in but she loves to 'help', press the buttons and watch it spin. 
• Fascinated with fabric and shoes. We had to move our clothes horses (drying racks) into our bedroom as she'd love to pull things off and carry them around the house. Clothing - clean or dirty, hers or ours - does still travel places here. The shoes are a newer obsession but they also move around the house and she loves to try and put them on. Hers and ours. Mike was picking up a new pair for her the other day, from Best and Less because that's the only place we've found walkers in as small as her size 2, and had her sitting on the ground trying on a pair for size. She got up, walked over to the shelf and choose a pink glittery pair for herself instead.
• Walking everywhere she can. She was just shy of 11 months old when she started walking and by now she's an old pro at it. She loves stairs, although generally needs a helping hand or two. She prefers walking to being carried and can give some impressive lunges and grizzling when she's squirming to get down. We're working on holding hands and heading in the direction we've intended.
• Loving baths. She'll often head to the bathroom when we lift her down from the highchair after dinner and she'll play happily with her toys in the bath for ages.

• Still breastfed first thing in the morning and just before bed. I think that's going to come to an end soon though, as I'm feeling done.
• Such a good sleeper! She goes to bed in her sleepsuit with 2 dummies, one in mouth and one in hand, and her bunny. (We have 2 versions of bunny, just in case.) As long as we've timed it right, we can give her a snuggle, lay her down and leave the room. It's to the point if she doesn't just go to sleep we start trying to figure out what's wrong. 
• Officially sleeping through the night, although there's still room for improvement. Milly is waking up for her morning feed about 5 or 6am, then she'll go back to sleep till 6:30/7.
• Awake for about 2 and a half hours in the morning, till around 9:30am, before her first nap. I'd say her morning nap is normally 90 minutes long, although anything from 1 hour to 2 and a half isn't unusual. She'd be awake around 3 hours before going down for her afternoon nap sometime from 1:30 to 3:30, That nap would be about an hour, and then she's back in bed about 7:15pm. It's a reasonable about of sleep for her age, but I'm not complaining!
• Happily going off with her grandmothers on the days that they look after her. There was an adjustment period for all of us, including a month or two of major tears when we said goodbye that lasted all of a minute, but now it doesn't seem to phase her.  
• Needing time to observe a new situation before she relaxes and is willing to be separated from us. At a recent Storytime at the library she wouldn't budge an inch from my knee till we'd been there 15 minutes, then she gets up, walks over to the person in front of us and tries to sit on their knee! It's like she's decided 'yep, I'm ok, I know what's going on now' and she's off. 

 

As a 14 month old parent, I am:

• Mildly in denial she's growing up so fast! My little miss Milly is 15 months old today but I started this post a couple weeks ago and I didn't want to amend the title as somehow 15 months sounds so much older than 14.
• Amazed, surprised, delighted and so proud of her every day. 
• Feeling less stressed and slightly more on top of life right now. I'm working on being really present and engaged with her for periods of time and letting her play on her own while I do something else at other times. It's that distracted in-between that I'm trying my best to avoid.
• Staying up way too late to finish this, after intending to write this post for the last 3 months. As it is, I'll probably come back and add a few more things tomorrow. It's just when I sit down and think about it, there are so many little details about my Milly right now that I just never want to forget. Love that girl!

State of the Household

Milly: Starting to walk! She only reached 11 months old on Monday but she's happily taking a few tottering steps whenever the mood strikes her. We're best to not particularly encourage her because if we hold out our hands and call to her she gives us the biggest smile and drops down to crawl over to us. Gosh, that girl has my heart! She is loving to open and close lids, holds up my phone to her ear as though making a call and suddenly a whole lot more seems within her arms reach.  

Delanie: Starting back at work after 12 months on maternity leave. I'm midway through my first week right now, easing myself back into it with 4 weeks of working only 2 days a week. Ongoing, the plan is for me to work Monday to Wednesday. I think it is the right decision - financially, personally, socially - for me and my family but, combined with the end of the year, it's led to me feeling all the feelings about how I've spent 2016. Lots of reflecting on achievement, intentions, motherhood and time.    

Mike: Recovering from a bout of gastro (sorry babe!) and has been working on our boat after fixing an exhaust issue led to the engine cover needing to be totally rebuilt. Hopefully we'll be on the water again before the end of summer. He's taken a couple of days off work this week and next to help ease Milly into being looked after by others as I return to work. As I type this he has just bought me in a cider and is sitting at the desk opposite, soldering something for his new remote control plane.

Childminding: As Mike works shiftwork, a mix of morning, afternoon and night shifts that cycle through the different days of the week, it's not as simple saying on Mondays Milly goes here and Tuesdays she is there. We are incredibly grateful Milly has two sets of grandmothers/grandparents who are willing, even keen, to help us out with childcare. There is a spreadsheet calendar recording when Milly needs looking after and by who, but the logistics will probably need finessing for quite a while. My little mamma's girl is getting better about spending time with her grandparents but there is definitely going to be some difficult weeks as she adjusts to these new arrangements.       

House: Needing tidying, cleaning, reorganising and decluttering. Exactly when we'll find time for all this remains to be seen. 

Garden: After an early season, the roses are in their second flush and the tomatoes are going wonderfully. Milly tasted her first tomato straight off the vine on the weekend, but the possums continue to nibble on all the strawberries before they're ready to be picked. 

Business: Making me feel very busy. It's always been my intention to write a blog post sharing more about this venture (as well as so many other happenings this past year) but I can never seem to gather both time and energy. In short, people are booking photo sessions and seeming happy with the result, while I have a crisis of confidence as I edit each shoot but find it incredibly rewarding. While my price is still ridiculously cheap for the time and effort it takes, the business is going far better than I expected at this stage. 

Dear 2016

Dear 2016,

You were one hell of a year.

You were the year I met my Milly, and for that you will forever be a favourite.

You saw me from 32 weeks pregnant through to having a 10 month old baby girl. An incredible little person who has preferences and opinions (!), who loves to wave at people and steal my phone.

2016, you were exhaustion and middle of the night feedings. 6am breakfast and mid morning naps. You were cuddles and singing and cheering new achievements. You were clinginess. You were long hot showers to retreat.

You were the year I learnt what it meant to be a Mum. The year I learnt how to be a Mum, although I have a feeling I'll still be learning that one for a while.

You were success as new parents and two trips away, and you were endless laundry, to do lists that we never reached the end of and the frustrations of trying to balance the wants of me and him and her.

You were deciding to start a new business on top of it all.

You were hard and you were wonderful 2016. And as you leave us, so too does my maternity leave end. In less than two weeks I return to work part-time and we'll begin to discover the new normal that 2017 will bring.

Although it's hard not to look back and think I should have cherished this time more...2016, just know that you will be missed.

Amelia: 9 Months Old

At 9 months and 2 weeks old, Amelia is:

• pulling up on everything, with ease. When she wants to pick something up, you can almost see her thought processes as she works out how to reach it and still hold on at the same time, crouching part way, changing her handhold, trying again... 
• getting more controlled in crouching and sitting down. No longer does she crash down with a good chance of rolling backwards and end up laying on the floor.  
• walking with minimal support. Working her way along the couch or holding onto a finger or two, she's only a little wobbly now. Apparently Mike walked at 10 months old and I don't think Milly is going to be too far off that. 
• still crawling on her forearms. I don't think that will ever change as she likes having her hands free to drag things along with her.
• no longer guaranteed to be in the spot or room that you leave her. She's starting to explore and travel; we need to finish baby proofing!    
• my cautious little girl. She likes to take her time and assess a situation, and that's not a bad thing. Watching her reach out to touch a leaf, it's a three stage process of putting her hand out, pulling it back, reaching out part way again before she's finally ready to actually touch.   
• reaching for small things with the sweetest little hand movements. She'll clench and unclench her fist as her hand moves forward, as though unsure how far away the object is and trying to pick it up along the way. 
• doing so much better on the separation anxiety. About late October it got really difficult, where I couldn't even leave her on the floor and step into the kitchen 3 metres away without getting upset and crawling after me. Thankfully a little time has made so much difference, to the point that we can be in another room and she'll be fine playing away on her own. When she's not, Milly will start to come and find us, but more in a 'what am I missing out on?' way rather than 'you've abandoned me!'. 
• becoming so much more relaxed with other people. As her separation anxiety ebbs (for now) Milly is more willing to be held by others. She might look to check Mike or I are still around, and when she's had enough she'll squirm and reach for us, but this is nowhere near the panic and concern she used to have. 
• not happy if she is left with someone and can't find either Mike or I. I don't think it's the stress that it used to be (after I dashed to the toilet yesterday while out shopping, Nicole said Milly looked to be trying to calm herself down when she got really worked up) but she'll grizzle and whinge and try to get away and come find us. 

• not a snuggler. If she leans in and puts her head on my shoulder I know she's tired because the rest of the time she is too busy moving and squirming, perching up to look around.
• laying down on her tummy and resting her head on the floor for a few moments if she is tired, before going back to playing.
• almost sleeping through the night!!! She did last night in fact, from 7:30pm to 6:30am with barely a murmur, but we don't quite have consistency yet. After struggling with her nighttime sleep for a month or two(it got worse than it used to be) we went on holiday and, as if by magic, she started pretty much sleeping through the night on her own. When we came home I tried working out what was different and that we could tweak in our routine. Turns out, and it's a kick myself with hindsight thing, I was letting the wake period between final nap and bed be too long and she was becoming overtired.
• still needing 3 naps a day, even if the last one is only 10 minutes that she fights. Milly is awake for 90 minutes in the morning before her first nap of, hopefully, at least 90 minutes but up to 3 hours. Two hours awake then a nap of generally an hour to 90 minutes. Another two hours awake then a final short nap, which should take us to 4pm or later. No more than 2 hours and 45 minutes awake before a bedtime of around 7pm.  
• a good sleeper. We have a simple bedtime routine and, as long as we've timed it correctly, we can put her in her cot, walk away and she'll put herself to sleep. Her Grandma was babysitting the other night and Milly was grizzly, upset and wanting us. Knowing she was tired, Julie put her to bed and Milly just stopped crying and went to sleep! That so reminds me of her big cousin.     
• often too restless to easily settle into a feed, wanting to push up and look around. We battle sometimes, even if she is hungry, because the world is just so interesting or she's seem something great to fiddle with.  
• often horrendous to change. Wriggly, squirmy, over onto her tummy in a moment. And putting on pants seems to be cruel and unusual punishment.
• dropping everything over the edge. The distraction toy I hand her on the change table, her water bottle at the high chair, the dummy out of the cot, down they all go. 
• really likes music and playing music on her toys.
• loves being sung to and her current favourite song seems to be If you're happy and you know it.
• clapping her hands by her right hand hitting the back of her left. It's so adorable. 
• loves waving. She knows the word 'wave' and will happily wave to anyone, although her reaction time is a little slow. 
• knows 'uhuh', 'no' and 'Milly' in the you're-doing-something-you-shouldn't tone of voice. 
• saying 'dada' a lot. She loves her dada so much, literally shaking with excitement when he went in to pick her up from her cot this morning! I've heard 'mama' once - grizzle grizzle mama grizzle grizzle -  and there's something that sounds an awful lot like 'hello'.
• the proud owner of only 2 teeth, although we keep thinking the arrival the next one is imminent. 

As a Mum of 9 months and 2 weeks, I am:

• looking forward introducing Milly to Christmas and starting family traditions together.
• filling up my car with Christmas shopping. The car boot is taken up with the pram and the younger they are the bigger everything fun seems to buy.
• finishing tyipng this with a wriggle girl on my lap or getting into things she shouldn't at my feet. Licking your Dad's boots, really?!

Currently

Congratulating my sister and Darren on their engagement! The ring is absolutely gorgeous (he was incredibly game purchasing it himself), I'm already booked in for wedding dress perusing and everyone is beyond pleased for them.

Appreciating Milly sleeping so much better. 4 nights out of the last 5 she's slept from bedtime through till at least 5am, and slept every evening with barely a peep. It's been left than a week, but I'm optimistic. 

Feeling freer now that Milly is 'babysittable'. Mike and I had a date night on Sunday, seeing 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' at the cinema and it was so nice to spend the time alone together. Apart from going to see the musical 'Matilda' back in October, when we left our screaming baby with my sister, I can't remember the last time we had a date together. 

Anticipating the 7 course degustation dinner Mike and I will be having at Gelato Messina on Thursday. I think it will be epic. 

Enjoying having my computer back and working well after it was off being debugged for a few days. I've been chasing one issue after another since February and attempting to download Photoshop CC, and attemping and attempting over the course of a few days, led me to very melodramatically declaring I was losing the will to live.

Waiting to pick up some finished bowls and pots. It's only taken me about a year from throwing them to their final firing but they are the first batch I've made at home. One side effect of no computer, I got around to glazing them which I'd been meaning to do for weeks. I'm very excited to see how the glazes turned out.

Wanting to share and document so many stories here. A recent holiday to Queensland, Amelia's first camping trip, starting my business...

Making Christmas cards. This feels incredibly organised for me, as previously I've waited till December so I record it in my December Daily album. Last year I finally realised that was bonkers.

Working on a jigsaw puzzle that Mum and Dad gave me last Christmas. Mum had it custom made with a wedding photo of Mike and I, which is lovely, but the combination of puzzle design and soft focus photo makes it ridiculously frustrating. It's been out on our coffee table for weeks but I'm on a deadline now as Milly is pulling herself up on anything possible and wants nothing more than getting her hands on whatever Mum or Dad have.     

Planning to record another Day in the Life tomorrow. 

34 Things about my 34th Year

Photo by Brett Scapin Photography.

In October I celebrated by 34th birthday. (I just had to stop for a minute and double check, but yep, definitely 34th.) So I thought I'd list 34 things about my past year.

1. I met our baby girl for the first time.
2. I became a mother, with all the change in life and perspective that that entails.

3. I gave birth. Because that definitely deserves it's own point. Epidural for the win!

4. I grew closer with Mike, and felt more supported by him, more appreciated by him, more frustrated by him and more disappointed in him than ever before, often all in the same hour.

5. I registered my own domain name.

6. I started my own business.

7. I took over 18,000 photos.

8. I met the 6 brand new babies of good friends.

9. Mike and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary. (And our 2nd anniversary was just the other week.)

10. We celebrated our last Christmas as a family of two.

11. I temporarily harnessed my sweet tooth to deliver a healthy baby not impacted by my gestational diabetes.

12. We hosted both Mike and my families together for Christmas dinner.

13. I bought my first pair of prescription sunglasses in well over a decade.
14. I formed a playgroup with 11 supportive women who I hope to keep in contact with for many years to come.
15. I didn't work full time for 9 months, for the first time in 9 years.
16. I attended only 2 football games.
17. We travelled to Tasmania.
18. I started rocking, randomly, when I stand still.
19. I have been thrown up on and peed on countless times, and am entering the world of having food smeared on me. I've developed a new concept of clean.
20. I've started commentating my life. 'Now we're going into the kitchen and I'm going to'...
21. I've cheered like a crazy person for so many little achievements.
22. I've floated in a relaxation tank.
23. I've booked 3 photoshoots for Milly.
24. I've been camping once.
25. I attended one funeral.
26. I've breastfeed my baby girl.
27. I've cooked a ridiculously few number of meals.
28. I've been climbing only once.
29. I bingewatched the first season of Jane the Virgin.
30. I've recorded a Week in the Life and a Day in the Life 4 times.
31. I attended one 21st birthday party and two 30th birthdays.
32. I finished my December Daily album, but many other projects remain on my to do list.
33. I ordered my first ever business cards.
34. I've been awake in the middle of the night more in this 12 months than the previous 20 years combined.

 

Currently

Loving being a Mum to this little one. And amazed that as of today she is already 7 months old. I mean, how?!!

Feeling a bit lousy. Mike has a cough, Milly has the sniffles and I'm so ready for cold and flu season to be over. 

Anticipating flowers in my garden. I have one iris blooming at the moment and I'm looking forward to more soon. 

Fiddling with the focus on my camera. It's autofocusing a little short of where I'm intending but hopefully some finessing in the setup options can fix that.

Needing to organising my tax return. And tidy the house. And clean my desk. 

Gathering December Daily supplies. I've purchased a 6x8 album from Ali Edwards, and wasn't able to resist the Studio DIY mini kit. Christmas icy poles! I also decided on the Joyful collection from Elle's Studio. I don't think it's a new collection, but it's new to me.       

Shopping for a new cardigan, after Mike managed to shrink a favourite one of mine down to Milly-size in the wash.   

Watching Pride and Prejudice, the movie. It's enjoyable but nowhere near as wonderful as the original BBC series. 

 

Currently

Eating food provided by my aunty Lyn who took Tuesday off work to come visit us. I say us but pretty certain I wasn't the main attraction. ;)

Binging on Nora Roberts books. 

Planning a campervan adventure on the coast for the end of spring.

Enjoying the pops of colour my cyclamen provide. After a tip from Mum I've started watering the saucer underneath, letting them draw the water up, and now they are thriving. 

Sorting through hand-me-down clothes from cutie niece. Everything is so little and sweet!

Starting to look at houses for sale. We're probably a year or so away from being serious about buying somewhere new, just beginning to monitor the market at this stage.   

Wading through 6 months worth of work emails. 

Splurging on Elle's Studio products, particularly the Joyful collection for my December Daily.

Thinking about how to improve my photography and which specific skills I want to work on.