Saturday 13 October 2007

Monkeying around

First up I am going to whinge. I don't know what I have done to myself but I appear to have entrapped a nerve in my shoulder. It hurts when I breathe deeply and it hurts if I try and do really energetic things like roll over. It is really really annoying feeling like you have a knife in your shoulder when you want to do things like pick up your babies, have sex or go to the gym. It hasn't acutally stopped me going to the gym though, I just popped some Nurofen and rubbed some nurofen gel into my shoulder and Bob's your uncle. Still a pain (haha) though.

Now that we've dispatched with the whinging, time to update on the spectacular children. The Elfling has been just GORGEOUS lately. Well behaved, happy, cheerful, cheeky, clever. She is back at kindy and gymnastics and is just adorable. She has always had this habit of saying "I love you Mama" but lately it's so frequent and accompanied by big cuddles and beautiful behaviour that I could just drown in my affection for her. She's still very cheeky and irreverent, but there is something about good behaviour that just makes you feel like you're doing something right. It's a nice change from the certainty of fucking up.

As I am away so much with work now I've been making a lot of effort with her, and I know that the week with Nana and Grandad (with a fair whack of me on the side) was brilliant for her. We've had almost no toilet training accidents lately aside from one day at kindy, but it was remarkable because it was the first day in a long time, and it wasn't repeated. She is playing more and more imaginative games, and is enjoying life in general. Her best friend is still Bridget, but she is happy to play with anyone, and loves bossing other kids around. Not that it's so much bossing as she is happy to lead and they are happy to follow. So active and spritely. She's not much interested in drawing unless it is letters (she can manage most of the letters of her name) and "people" look decidedly bizarre when she decides to draw them, but she's just not interested. Why would you draw when you could be running around outside? We have introduced most of the classic fairytales and she adores them (as did I) but with the benefit of adulthood I have to say that Snow White may have been beautiful but she was stunningly STUPID. She wasn't sweet she was senile.

The Monkey is the cheekiest pixie I've ever met in my life. She is still tiny (though pudging up beautifully at the moment with the squishiest dimples at her elbows) but can often be found standing on her playtable or climbing up the couch to reach forbidden things. She has 8 teeth now and is a proficient eater. Her walking has gone from hesitant tottering to cruisy drunken lurching at high speed with abrupt changes of direction. When she sees me in the afternoon she runs at full tilt before launching herself at my knees. She then looks up and clenches and unclenches her hands which is her way of saying UP. She adores books, especially anything with flaps for her to lift. She will happily sit in her room flicking through her favourite pages and squealing "DUCK" whenever something remotely birdlike is on the page.

She still doesn't have a big vocab, not that we can understand anyway. Mumma, Dada, Elfling, Osca (sort of), Duck, Ta, Dere (there) are all relatively clear, but she obviously understands a lot more than she can say. If I ask her to get her Spot book she will happily abseil down my legs or off the bed and gather one. She loves being outside and would quite happily live in the Great Outdoors if I let her. She loves the Elfling almost as much as the Elfling lov€es her and watching them as sisters truly makes me tear up sometimes. She has been a little unsettled at bedtime lately so I have been singing to the girls again, "Amazing Grace" for the Monkey and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" for the Elfling (their special songs) as well as "Siyahamba" and "All I want is you" and if they're still not asleep a selection of Christmas hymns. Mostly because they are soothing and I remember all the words!

Speaking of Christmas though I have started to get that cinnamon spiced stirring in my belly as I count down. Most of the girls presents are bought and stored and they are both doing pretty well this year from the jolly fat one. I have intentions of making them a Santa sack this year to put their bounty in and am still deciding the pattern for their Christmas dresses. The party season looks like it will be pretty busy this year as well which is exciting. I can't hardly wait!!

4 comments:

@workingwomenaus said...

Oh Jenn,

after reading about your love of "all things christmas" (I'm a soul sister there) I have just the thing for you.

The town I have just moved to have a European style year-round Christmas shop. I've spent hour upon hour there choosing hand crafted decorations and ornaments *happy sigh*.

But the thing I think that would suit you is a fragrant wax (that you put in the top of an oil burner) which smells of christmas spices. It's gorgeous and makes me yearn for the silly season ahead.

I'll send you some if you want - it makes the house smell warm and homely - it makes my senses transport me back to when mum used to bake in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Kim

Jenn said...

A year round Christmas shop? ooh tell me more. The fragrant wax sounds divine but sadly most of those sort of things give my husband hayfever *WAH*

I was looking at the pottery barn store last night and their Christmas selection leaves Myer for dead!

@workingwomenaus said...

I can't even begin to describe how magical it is. Every inch of wall space is covered with hand-crafted ornaments, table decorations, lights, stars and bells. Despite the fact that the store is only reasonably small in size, it takes a couple of hours to get through as there is so much to oogle.

If you've ever been to Germany, it reminds me very much of the German Christmas markets.

Truly magical......

Jenn said...

Oh oh oh it sounds perfect. I've not been to Germany, but they had similar in Switzerland. I've not seen anything really like it here.

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