This year is Bella’s fourth Christmas, and it just gets better and better each year. Her understanding of the big build-up, her excitement, her eagerness to get involved; it all makes my Christmas-loving-heart so happy. This is my favorite time of year and it seems to fast becoming Bella’s too.
I like cheese. No actually I LOVE cheese. This is no joke; I eat cheese with at least two meals every day. So when I found out that my daughter was allergic to dairy, I had a mild panic.
Bella was constantly sick; a runny or blocked nose, post-nasal drip and coughing at night. It would always start as cold-like symptoms and then would become infected and she would need antibiotics. Eventually I took her to a homeopath to do allergy testing, and she came back positive for both dairy and soya. This blew my mind, as the natural replacement for milk is soya, so I left the doctor with no idea what to feed my child. It has been almost two years now living with a dairy-free baba, and I’m happy to say that there are so many options available, that I no longer notice it anymore. Read More
I was lucky enough to know all of my Grandparents. Two sets of very special people that doted on me as their first grandchild. I have lost three out of four of my grandparents, but they all have the softest place in my heart. I can still vividly remember each one of them.
I can picture my Mom’s Dad, my Grandpa, wearing a sunshine yellow jersey, leaning over me and teasing me, while having his arms outstretched waiting for a hug. I remember him eating my peas when my Gran left the room and I remember eating spoonfuls of peanut butter and honey while sitting on his lap. I can still feel the soft linen of the duvet cover when I crawled into bed with my Grandma, my Dad’s Mom. The smell of roses and lavender still remind me of her. And drinking tea out of a cup and saucer. She was the classiest woman I have ever known, and every time I watch a Maggie Smith movie, I think of her. I can still picture my Pops, my Dad’s dad, standing tall in his racing gear, in the same hat that he would always wear to the stables. I remember trying on his jockey’s colours with my cousin and I can still see him walking around talking to his horses. My Mom’s mom, my Gran, is my only grandparent still with us. And while I was also blessed to have met her mother, my Great Grandmother, or Ouma as she was fondly known, I sadly don’t have many memories of her. Read More
A few months ago, a friend had mentioned the Love Languages course to me. She had given me a brief overview about what it was all about, and I have been dying to attend a course on it ever since. Last week I finally managed to get to one, and as a Mama and a teacher, it was so worth it!
Based on the ideas of Gary Chapman, I discovered that each person experiences love in five different ways: physical touch, acts of service, quality time, gift giving and words of affirmation. Each person has a predominant love language, the one that resonates most with them and makes them feel most loved. Similarly, each person gives out love with one love language being their most dominant. And each person may have different dominant love languages for different people in their lives. Once you have ascertained which love language someone needs the most, you can make sure to cater towards it.
Wow, but I have calmed down since my last post. While that was written in the vortex of toddler-hell, I am now in the midst of a calmer environment. And I must admit; I am really enjoying my little three-year-old human again!
After the initial shock of the terrible-trainwreck-threes, I decided to calm the hell down, to take it easy on both myself and my daughter, and to just go with the flow. And I can’t even begin to tell you what a difference that has made. Bella and I are in-sync again, we are happier, life at home is easier, and we are actually in the middle of one giant loved-up-fest! Read More
I put her ponytail a little too high. I asked her to come and brush her teeth. I said she needs to finish her dinner. I took out the pair of shoes she had been wearing incessantly for two weeks, but she suddenly wanted to wear her flip-flops. I called her ‘baby girl’. I put her in her cot for nap time, as I have done every day for over three years. I wore a pink bracelet that she wanted. I stood too close to her in Woolworths. I added milk to her tea.
These are just a FEW of the latest reasons that my child has lost her mind.
You guys! After months of preparation between me and Bella, her Princess Party has come and gone. But it was fantastic, and I am pretty sure that my little girl had the best day! All she wanted was pink, and dammit, I made sure that there was a lot of pink!
There were pink sweets, pink juice, pink jelly, pink popcorn, pink balloons, a four-layered pink birthday cake, a pink Princess jumping castle and even the adults’ food was pink (ham and tomato sandwiches and meringues covered with cream and strawberries). I had a pink banner made for her saying ‘Princess Bella’ in the Disney font. I hung pink lanterns from the tree and pink bunting from the deck. I printed out pictures of all her favourite Disney princesses, and stuck them onto pink cardboard and little sticks, to be stuck into the ground around the food tables. I did the same with every Princess quote I could find on Pinterest. I flippen love that site!
Sooo how exciting is this?! two syllables has its very own website! I am so excited *read nervous* to announce that www.twosyllables.co.za is the new, official home of all my writing.
This week saw Miss Bella turn three, and take the small but giant step from a baby to a ‘big girl’. Simultaneously, two syllables, a blog that I only created after becoming a Mama, took the giant step of moving to its very own webpage. Both of these events have terrified me – my baby is growing up and my blog is gaining momentum. While my little girl was dealing with giving up her bottles and dummies, her Mama was dealing with how to join Twitter (yes I’m a newbie, follow me at @sclaird). Taking Bella’s lead and watching her embrace the new chapter in her life, I have decided to take a deep breath and do the same. Read More
There is one rule that I have discovered in parenting that seems to trump all other logistics, hopes and ideas – NOTHING goes to plan. Ever.
I had planned every detail of Bella’s birthday, from the time she woke up right through to bed time. It was a big day for her as she was giving away all of her dummies and bottles, so I had researched how to make the transition easier on her and how to distract her from the big step she was taking. Plus I wanted to fit in as much little-girl-spoiling as I possibly could into one day! Read More
My baby-girl will be turning three in a week’s time. THREE! That makes her a little girl, not a baby anymore. I am officially freaked out! Three is marking some serious milestones for us and it seems to almost be the end of an era. The end of my ‘baby’ and the dawning of my ‘big girl’.
Bella still uses a dummy at night and enjoys her routine of two bottles a day, once in the morning as she wakes up and just before bed time. It has become a comfort to her more than a necessity. She has also been potty-trained for nearly a year, but still wears nappies at night. Three marks the end of all of this. I have been prepping her for weeks. She knows that on her birthday we will be packing the dummies and bottles into a box and giving it all to the baby class at school. She understands that she will be turning three and is going to be a big girl, and that the babies need her dummies and bottles more than she does. Read More
