Magic Moments

It has been a magic moments weekend.

Magic moment one - Munchkin has taken to clapping...well sort of clapping. Hitting his hands together whilst looking very pleased with himself. We are working on the making a sound bit. He seems a little bemused at why our clapping makes a loud sound and his clapping doesn't. Still...magic!

Magic moment two - Munchkin was lovely and clean after a bath. He was lying on his changing mat in his sleeping bag ready to be fed and put to bed. Suddenly, he opened his mouth, took a deep breath, looked at his father and said "Dadadada". T and I stared at each other for a moment, laughed and thought nothing of it. We went about putting Munchkin's bath duck collection away. Then it happened again, T was standing over Munchkin doing a silly jig. Munchkin chuckled and said "Dadadada" And he kept on going. Every time he caught T's eye he said Dadadada. Needless to say, there was not a dry eye in the house.

I am sure it was mere coincidence that Munchkin just happened to be looking at his dad whilst making his new found sound. Whether or not he does recognise his dad is immaterial to me. The main thing is that it was one of those truly magic moments that I don't think either T and I will forget in a hurry. It is making feel all warm and fuzzy - but that might just be the sunshine on this lovely spring day.

Tis a gift to be loved and that love to return

This week we have mainly been cheeky. Munchkin has discovered that smiling at Mary Poppins and mummy in a certain way gets a very positive response. He usually pulls something over his face, the slowly peeks out from behind it, breaking into what can only be described as a very, flirty smile. Mummy and Mary Poppins then go down the path of least resistance and melt into a pile of mush. Munchkin then gets kisses and cuddles to the max.

This morning, Munchkin stayed home as mummy is a lady of leisure on Friday's. When I went to wake him (it was nearly 0900!), I discovered him under his soft blankets. I called out "Good morning, Munchkin!" A little hand emerged from underneath the blankets, followed by an eye then the blanket got whipped off to reveal a bright, beaming Munchkin. He then lifted his arms up to me with a little chuckle. I picked him up and he gave me the biggest cuddle then pulled back and gave me another huge Munchkin smile and chuckle. Ah to be loved and to love in return!

Rain, rain go away!

It has been an interesting week which started with a really posh ball in a really huge marquee last Saturday. The only snag was that our part of the world has been gifted with copious amounts of rain recently. As a result, there were flood warnings everywhere including the field in which the marquee was to stand. We were assured that all would be well so proceeded to make the necessary arrangements including sorting out a Munchkin Minder.

So on Saturday evening we got decked out in our finery and put Munchkin to bed. He was a star. His successfully got to dreamland at about 1915 and stayed there till Cinderella came home from the ball at half past too early in the morning. Munchkin's minder (who was asleep when we got in) had had a peaceful night. Apart from a cough, silence reigned.

It was our first night out together since Munchkin was born. It was a fantastic evening. The organisers had surpassed themselves. There were circus acts and tribute bands (Tom Jones no less and Kylie....you can tell a man organised this do...), the wine was on freeflow and the company was brilliant. And most importantly, the marquee stayed up and the rain stayed away!

Another example......

of "special" mummy photography....if you could call it that. How unflattering is that? Mummy needs to manage my expectations better. She needs to go on a course, I think. From now on I think I will only let Daddy take my photo. I find that if I make myself go all red in the face, the camera soon gets put away. This is then followed with a load of talk using words like stinky Munchkin. That again is not my fault. If they would feed me lentils what on earth do they expect? Mummy does have a benchmark in Daddy's reaction to lentils. Goodness only knows why she has yet to make the connection. Has the woman not heard of the phrase "Like father, like son?"

Make sure you get my good side!

Daddy takes nice pictures of me. In fact, sometimes I think that he should be called Daddy Bailey. He always manages to capture me on my good side. I must admit I do tend to smile at him more as I know Daddy has got standards and I do try to maintain these high standards. Managing expecatations of my main stakeholders and all that. I am sure this will pay off in the long run and is worth the effort for now....as long as it suits me and doesn't prove to be too much of a burden.

Mummy however....there lies a different tale. She always manages to make me look "special". Can't she tell that one is not quite ready for a photo shoot? Which bit of "talk to the hand" does she not understand? I think it is mummy that is "special". Although I do quite like being called "special". I can get away with all sorts of stuff then. When oh when are these adults going to learn that tis I, Munchkin that calls the shots...in such a clever fashion that I have lulled them into a sense of false comfort that they are "in charge"?

Butter wouldn't melt....

See this face? Don't let it fool you into thinking "Awwwww! Such innocence, such purity!"

Far from it. Munchkin has learnt a new trick. If he doesn't like what you are doing/saying he turns his head away with a dramatic flourish and purses his lips in distaste. If you dare to persevere, the foot stomping starts and gets more and more indignant and if you are brave enough to go where not many have ventured and try to push the limits, Munchkin screws his face up into what can be likened to a shrivelled prune, takes a deep breath and let's his lungs have a thorough work out.

This also happens when one dares to leave the room before being excused by King Munchkin. I think that Munchkin probably has illusions of grandeur. We are looking into re-programming Munchkin though we find that he re-sets himself after a good sleep. No need for full hard disk reformatting just yet!

Feeding time at the zoo

Today I have mainly been eating Blueberry and Banana porridge. Mummy's aim is not very good. As you can see, she has managed to make me look like a right fool. To think that that woman is being allowed to wield cutlery is beyond me. Does she not realise that her mission (should she agree to accept it - though she really has no choice!) is to follow my mouth wherever it chooses to wander? There is so much to look at in the kitchen...particularly at feeding time so she cannot expect me to just sit still with my mouth open like a guppy. Things to see, people to observe and all that.

Still, she manages to get most of it in....most of the time. You can't get the staff these days!

A family Christmas

Our first Christmas avec Munchkin.

Christmas Munchkin Stylie (Playing catch-up)

Munchkin wakes up on Christmas morn to discover that Santa has been. After all, Munchkin had barely hit 6 months at Christmas hence hadn't had the opportunity to be too naughty....yet!

"Are these for lil' me?" he cries. "Really??" he asks unable to believe his luck.










Aware that time was a ticking Munchkin burst into action.
"Let me at 'em!!!!", he cried launching into a frenzy of paper, ribbons and tape.






He soon gets the hang of it and paper and ribbons are flying off in every direction landing more often than not on the poor unsuspecting cats. Some of the paper also managed to make quite a nice meal for Munchkin. He prefers matt paper as shiny, foil paper doesn't tend to mulch down in drool very well.

Another Video Installment in the Life and Times of Munchkin

Munchkin is happy and has found his voice, he probably inherits his chattering from his mother as it goes on and on and on and on.

Henceforth he shall be known as the energiser bunnymunch.

At the end of a long week

We made it. Week one of being back at work as gone really, quite painlessly. Munchkin likes his Mary Poppins and his new friends. He is a happy boy at the end of the day when we go and get him. The only time we had any trouble was when we had to take a little detour on the way home from work. You see, Munchkin likes his food. He LOVES his food. Nothing stands in the way of Munchkin and his food when it is time or so he thought. The detour put us about half an hour off schedule....NOT A GOOD IDEA!

Needless to say we had Munchkin Meltdown. He was so hungry he cried himself to sleep (evil parents!) but soon bounced back to woof down a scary amount of food and lots of water to wash it all down. Happy Munchkin once more.

Hi-ho-hi-ho it's off to work we go.

Today is my last day as lady of leisure. Tomorrow I return to the mad world of work. It is a strange feeling. For 6 months all I have had to concern myself about is Munchkin and his needs. Tomorrow I will have to worry about cost indicators, schedule indicators, savings challenges, plan submissions and all that jazz.

So, today is a funny old day of mixed feelings. I am excited but I am also sad. I am happy but I am also scared. However, I feel that this is the right thing for me and for us as a family. I vow to make the most of the time I do have with Munchkin and savour every moment. Selfishly, work will be me time and any other time will be Munchkin time. Makes sense.....could work....will work!

So tomorrow is another day. A new day marked with a new dawn and a new adventure for us all. Munchkin is oblivious. The only part I am dreading is waking the monster up while it is still dark and breaking his "I will wake up at 0830 every morning" practice. Could be interesting!