on easter saturday (march 21) paul and i sat laughing in the living room while waiting for a taxi to take us to the airport. the reason for our hilarity was the number of bags we were taking for a one week visit to percy's oma and opa's home. there was one middle sized suitcase with our stuff in it and a satchel to carry on. then! for percy- a small suitcase, her change bag, her car seat (to fit to opa's car) and the backpack to carry her around in. six pieces! four of them for a baby no bigger than my leg.
we had tried to time it such that percy would be awake on the flight to armidale and sleep in the car for the hour and a half drive from armidale airport to oma and opa's home in wellingrove. it actually worked quite well. she did have about a 25 minute doze on the plane and slept approximately an hour in the car. all up we arrived relaxed and happy. not something i was initially counting on.
this pretty much set the tone for the whole week. percy slept quite well in the porta-cot oma had borrowed. a few occasions when she needed some rocking and shushing but not much and generally not more than 15 minutes a go. she ate quite well (for percy.) we did think she was being a bit traitorous in enjoying oma's roast chicken and gravy, as you might recall she didn't like ours. i think oma's was saltier.
we introduced percy to the sand box that opa built a while back and she loved it. she spent a good few hours in it every day. she learnt when we lifted the plastic bucket off to reveal a sand castle to say "ta da!" also the hammock was great fun either for relaxing or swinging like a banshee with papa. we had quiet walks down the dirt roads that i thought at one time percy was almost bored with- nothing to look at but open space and more trees! opa had purchased an old stroller from the op shop for 10 bucks. it probably wouldn't pass modern standards but we thought it was quite nifty, being able to push in either direction with a reversible handle, going from lieing flat to sitting up and having a nice sun shade. we took it out a few times when it worked admirably, with no complaints from percy.
on easter sunday we had a little easter egg hunt. percy found them all! ain't she bright?
on tuesday we went into glen innes for a look see and lunch. we were going to stay to play after lunch in a park but percy had woken early from her morning nap and wasn't in the mood- ie she was getting the cranks and very sooky. bundled her back in the car for the 20 minute drive back and into her cot.
on thursday we celebrated percy's first birthday! wowwee. she enjoyed licking the cream off her cake and then flinging the rest of it around the room. first time she's had cream or chocolate cake. also she was mesmerised by the candle flame and flummoxed by her and papa wielding a big knife to cut the cake. she was peering sideways around paul's arms trying to see what she was doing- very funny. as is typical i think with little ones she liked her wrapping paper perhaps more than the gifts inside.
on friday we flew home. she wasn't so happy on this flight and even tho it was sleep time she didn't. once we arrived home she slept so we kept her up a bit later in the evening.
all in all a nice, do-nothing trip that got in lots of much needed sleep. i even finished two novels.
(at present it seems we've lost all our photos from the trip. oh well. they might resurface.)
hi, we've been at oma and opa's for the past week. living in country nsw means dial up internet connection, despite the promises of government, which is too slow for me to want to post; particularly pictures. plus we were on holiday! when not looking after and playing with percy i was sleeping or reading; no options entered into!
we had a good time, which i'll fill you in about soon.
plus we celebrated percy's first birthday yesterday with chocolate cake and cream! percy seemed to lick some of the cream off and then happily fling bits of cake around the room! piccies coming soon...
as percy is now an avid walker some shoes were considered to be in order. i took her today to a speciality kids shoe shop in balmain. i'm sure there are other shoe shops closer but this is the only one i know about.
she looked very cute toddling about in mis-matched pairs trying them on more for her mothers sake than her own i think. i wish i'd taken the camera with me.
we settled on a nice orange pair that are "seasonal transitional"; meaning they are not sandals but not entirely enclosed shoes either. la de da. all leather and with correct support. the gentleman helping us said he did notice percy is a little pigeon toed. the trick to cure this is apparently to pop the shoes on the wrong feet occasionally. once she's used to walking in them. we should get 4-6 months use from these shoes before she needs the next size up. which seems such a short time for me to save up for the next pair. $75 for baby shoes is more than i pay for mine! (maybe that just shows what a skint i am.) needed a lie down after that expediture... percy is babbling in her cot but not asleep yet. she had a wonderful two hour nap this morning after sleeping eight hours from 10:30pm to 6:30am, plus she ate a reasonable lunch including the first time she's happily taken avocado.
i'm hopeful that we have turned a corner on the sleeping and eating gig. time will tell...
percy is getting better and better at walking. this doesn't show her best efforts but you can see she is definately not holding on to things... this also coincided nicely with a visit from her oma.
i know parents get in the habit of asking their kids "what's the magic word?", and "what do we say?" to go some way to teaching them polite conversation and manners.
i have a variation on the 'magic' word- it's the magic number.
the number is 8.
"percy slept 8 hours, percy slept 8 hours, percy slept 8 hours!!" straight!
actually she slept 8 and half hours straight but the gloating chant doesn't sound the same.
this was last thursday nite. she woke and had a bottle of milk at 10:30pm and didn't waken until 7am!!
sorry about all the exclamation marks but this is quite an exclaimy development. i felt almost cheerful on friday. on friday nite she took only one feed too. saturday nite i honestly don't remember. cripes that's slack, it's only two nites ago and i don't remember how many times i got up.
possibly due to a silly thing i did at work on friday. explanation- i work in one of those hugely lovely, old sandstone buildings in sydney cbd. it's over one hundred years old and just amazing to look at and walk around inside. the walls are massive, the balustrades highly polished wood, the floors black and white marble in checker board pattern, all very impressive. there are also marble fireplaces in many rooms. (just as an aside- it sounds great but it doesn't actually lend itself to modern office useage very well. still, i like it a lot.) anyways, i sat down abruptly on a chair in front of one the marble fireplaces and cracked the back of my head on the bloody mantle shelf piece of marble so hard i could almost see the tweety birds singing around my head. this cracking resulted in a lump that is too painful to lie on, hence i can't sleep on my back. my snotty cold makes sleeping on either side a misery of snot, snoring and waking with a dry mouth, and i've never been a tummy sleeper. with the sum result being even tho percy is sleeping longer periods i'm not!! dammit! when are we going to line this up with the whole family having satisfactory sleep?
percy took only one feed last nite. my cold is improving and my lump is less painful... maybe tonite we'll snooze happily.
it's been really, really hard. percy has been quite ill since friday. those four nites of only waking once thru the nite are a distant memory. sunday day sleeps were shortish, sunday nite was poor, monday was completely screwed up as we were in wollongong for paul's grandfather's funeral. percy napped maybe an hour in total all day. monday nite was bad; i think due to all the stimulus, new people and lack of naps during the day. tuesday naps were okay but last nite she was up from 9:45pm to 12:15am screaming madly most of the time. she had a bit of a rash too so we were taking turns reading up on things like measles on the computer or hugging her, at midnite! she did finally fall asleep after a dose and a half of panadol, then woke again at 3:20am for milk, thankfully going back to sleep with only a minute of protesting, stirred at 6:15 am and was up at 7:15am. hey- we got a 15 minute sleep in!! ha ha.
we went to the doctor this morning who pronounced no measles, just heat rash and raw throat from the cold that is lingering week after week with her. poor little pumpkin.
her morning nap today was about 1hr 15 minutes and she's having her afternoon nap now- hope it lasts a good while.
needless to say she is completely off her food. cool custard worked for a little while but she doesn't seem to want anything now. oh well, i suppose she'll come good eventually.
the house is a mess but i don't care, i'm going to go lie down for a little while.
except i don't mean it in the same context as the song.
as you know, since percy has been at day care she, and paul and i, have been ill in some way or another the whole time. while i understand this is par for the course it's really draining.
on saturday nite percy hit the wall. actually, she didn't so much hit it as barrel full steam, all engines on maximum revs, into it. i'm sure i saw a percy shaped indent on the wall.
at dinner she looked like shit. i say this of the most adorable bub you've ever seen (bias?) she was streaming from eyes, nose and mouth, her eyes were red and half closed, she was very cranky and listless at the same time. poor gorgeous girl. didn't want to eat a thing. we gave up, had a quick bath and put her to bed. we put a bowl of steaming water with vicks in it under her cot in the hope the vapours would help with her snottabox nose (yes, that is a real term- well it is in our house anyways!)
she slept a couple of hours to around 9:30pm. she then woke crying and nearly inconsolable despite more milk; formula and breast, hugs, change of nappy, rocking and shushing until 12:30am. at this time paul picked her up and decided she had a bad temperature and that we can't continue without medical help.
despite percy being nearly a year old we have neglected to buy a baby thermometer. it's been on the to-do list; just never actually made it to the to-done list. at 1am i rang our beautiful friends sarah and chris, parents to cheeky rose, and sobbed an apology for call at such an ungodly hour but could we please borrow their baby thermometer? chris was a gem and was at our door in under 15 minutes to deliver it. our next visit to them will be bearing gifts!
percy actually didn't read that high a temp- 37.6 degrees celsius. what with being held and cuddled for the past hour she was also much calmer. we put her back in her cot and she fell asleep with nearly no complaint at 2am. i think it was a case of "breaking the fever", or getting over the worst of it kind of hump. you know... "if your son survives the nite, the kingdom will have it's new king!" type of bedside vigil thing.
she was awake at 6:30am and ready for the new day. arrgghhh! i could have sworn she'd want to sleep in and we could all enjoy a little more shut eye. not to be. she was still quite subdued thru sunday tho nothing like saturday evening and nite.
on the mend? more rest coming our way? fingers crossed!
mark this day!! percy took her first independant steps today! saturday 8 march 2008.
we don't believe it's a fluke as she did it on four separate occasions; twice in the house and twice in the park up the road. sorry no photos or video proof but she definately took four steps without holding on to anything each time. wowwweee!
paul was speaking on the telephone with his parents the first time; they promptly made the comments "you'll regret that!" and "now you've got to figure out how to stop her!" very true i suppose. still quite an exciting day.
in other developments percy has slept the last three nites with only one wake up. are we seeing the beginning of a trend? god i hope so! maybe she's on a developmental splurge.
i expect she'll not sleep so well tomorrow and monday as we will be in wollongong and she'll have to sleep in the portacot. which we know from christmas is an absolute impossibility. however she's down in the portacot for her afternoon nap now as a practice run and i'm not hearing howls of protestation. not asleep yet, but not screaming- ahhh for a happy medium.
so, big day! what a delight she is.
walking up to parents group yesterday with sarah we were discussing what it must be like to be a single parent. absolute hell with no respite was an apt description we decided. i just cannot image what single parents do to get from day to day. imagine having no-one to yell down the stairs to "on your way up bring me the blah, blah, blah...", or "here, hold this!", or "can you dress her please?", or "i just need ten minutes to do...." or "quick, grab the ..." or "you cook, i'll clean", or "you answer the phone, pick up the mail and the drycleaning, get dinner cooking, iron these shirts, water the pot plants, take the dog for a walk, vaccuum, empty the dishwasher, change the sheets, pay the bills, pack the toys away, put another load of nappies on to wash... while i play in the bath with the bub; and yes i want all that done in the ten minutes it takes to bathe a baby"anyways... i suppose with grandparents or siblings or paid carers to help out it might be manageable. those without access to other walking chore doers must be insane. or very, very organised! it was just percy and i last nite and today. i think for once my anal-ity (word?) about putting things away, having things within hands reach, having things sorted to be able to be done one-handed and generally having things organised (with spares!) is the only way you could do it. for instance this morning getting both percy and i out the door took 1 1/2 hours! this involved breakfast for both of us, booby feed for percy, shower for me, dressing both of us, two nappy changes for percy due to enormous, dark brown, highly noxious poo, collecting her gear for day care (most of which i done the nite before), locking up the house and feeding the cats. i didn't bother with make-up. how can that take 1 1/2 hours? well, it did. and it could have been a lot worse.also for me this isn't likely to be an ongoing thing. i expect paul back today or tomorrow. the grinding repeativity of looking after baby and house by yourself must be utterly numbing.i take my hat off to single parents.
i was advised by the nurse at the early childhood health centre when i took percy there for a 10 month check-up that a baby's teeth should be brushed as soon as they emerge. (this is a change from past practice when the advice was a rub or a chew on a damp cloth until age two was enough- wonder what the next change will be?)
so we bought percy a little bitsy toothbrush and some baby toothpaste, since she does now have the grand total of two tiny teeth in her jaw. no sign of anymore coming along any time soon... we've added tooth brushing to the bath routine.
after a few goes of us trying to convince her to open her mouth and hold her tongue out the way of her teeth, that the toothpaste was not for eating, and yes, brushing your tongue is all very but we really do want to get at your teeth she now does it herself!
on friday evening percy soaked herself with the water from her new(ish) cup. apparently these are the next step in her development to drinking like a grown up. they have straws rather than sippy spouts, meaning they lack a valve only allowing the water to run one way and then only if sucked out. so she's quite good at it but does sometimes just up end it on herself or hold a mouthful of water to release down her front. which is cute but does mean if we don't change her she runs around in sopping clothes.
since it was only 20 minutes or so 'til bath time i took off her wet tops without putting something new on. to keep warm we wrestled on the lounge with the red rug...
