Friday 10 January 2014

Happy New Year…1 year with Squiblet

It's almost not worth me apologising for my lack of posts as I seem to do it every time I post.  Naps are few and far between these days and I can never muster up the energy to write in the evenings.

It's a year tomorrow that Squiblet moved in.  That funny old day where we drove to her foster carer's, picked her up and never looked back.  It's made me reflective….I had a weep at rhyme time because she sang the whole of Hickory Dickory Dock and did all the actions.  If I met me, and heard me tell me that, I would think I was the world's biggest nob!  It's not the fact that she can do it, it's the fact that she DID do it!  This time last year this pale little thing was surgically attached to me the whole time, watching the proceedings with wide eyes and insisting I cradle her.  Now she leads the group.  It's staggering.  Likewise at swimming this week (at least my eyes were wet anyway) when she cried "I not need you, Mummy!" and sat on the steps of the swimming pool merrily pouring watering can after watering can of water over her head and giggling hysterically.  From the girl who, just a year ago, didn't even want to get in the bath.

And now she's cheeky and wilful and knows her own mind.  She used to let all the other children go first, now she will push them out of the way…and I know…that clearly must be managed, and she's getting there.  But really, it's something to celebrate.  She now knows how to grab the world with both hands and embrace it, live it, enjoy it, love it and not just let the world turn while she watches on.  She still is a people watcher, like me, that's obviously part of her personality, but now she interacts with the people she watches; "what you doing, Man?" "Where you going, lady?!" Are often shouted across the street - I'm leaving stranger danger until she's a bit older as she just brightens so many people's days!

Christmas was a beautiful day full of surprises and smiles.  Mama did all of the cooking (with Granny) which meant that Squiblet could be as clingy as she wanted to be (which I expected she might be as it was a busy, full on day) and I didn't have to do anything but pander to her.  The most stressful time to have a clingy child is when you are cooking and you have to choose between wailing child and burned food….so there was none of that!  I opened presents, supervised scooting and sat down at 1.30 where my dinner was presented to me!  Perfect.

And so life has settled into a wonderfully normal sort of family life.  And reflecting on the past year, I think most of the time I have managed to be the sort of Mummy I had hoped I would be.  The hardest part is when you are tired and other things are demanding your time, or when anybody is ill…and now I've accepted that at those times I won't be a salt dough making, play dough creating, nature walking super mum, but that that's OK…it's actually more than OK…it's important for Squiblet to understand that I am a human being!

And now that everything has settled down, what are we doing?!  Only moving house!  Luckily Topsy and Tim are moving house so Squiblet is down with moving (they are currently her idols!) We are moving to be closer to Mama's work (currently a 45 minute commute) which should make family life easier, and if we move now then Squiblet will start preschool in the feeder to her primary school, which will be nice.  So that's a bit nuts.  The estate agents have organised an open house rather than having sporadic viewings, and I've arranged with my neighbour to fill her spare room with all our junk, booked a cleaner and arranged it for a weekend we go away!  So that should be good!  Hopefully we will find somewhere we really love too.  We love our house…. :(  but I'm sure we can find somewhere we will love just as much…and there will be a swimming pool we can walk to, which is another upside!

I'm taking part in 100happydays (www.100happydays.com) over on twitter @twomumstwokids which has been really fun.


Hopefully it won't be too long until I blog again!

Happy new year!

xx