Friday, December 27, 2013

"Music"

We just had a little moment, Beanie, and I was nearly reduced to tears by your obvious overwhelming joy.

We have had a pretty quiet morning, playing with your new Christmas toys, rearranging my tupperware and my cutlery, and going for a little walk to the playground. We were just sitting on the rug playing with your Lego when you started to say something with real indignation. It sounded a little like "Big truck", but I hadn't heard a truck, so I said, "No truck," and kept on playing. Your little brow furrowed, you thought hard and tried again. "Mooo truck." Hmm. Were you remembering a milk truck we had seen that morning perhaps? I said sorry, I'm not sure what you mean...

So you stood up with a huff, came to my laptop, picked it up (which you are not allowed to do), brought it over to me and said "Moo truck! Moo truck! Oo Ah Oo Ah Oo Ah!" And then I got it: Music! The "Oo Ah" is the sound I make as we dance to a specific song (40 Day Dream from Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes. We always do deep squats during the Oo Ah bit and you love it.), and I use Spotify to play music from my laptop. So I said to you, "Oh! Music!" and you should have seen the look on your face! I immediately put on 40 Day Dream and you almost burst with joy! You ran in circles squealing, then raced up to me, grabbed my arm and wiggled me around to dance with you. I lifted you up for the Oo Ahs and you nuzzled in for the biggest cuddle.

It's moments like this... this is the reason why I write to you. It's little things like this that I don't want to forget.
An entirely unrelated photo, but I can't write a letter
without a photo when I have so many good ones! 
My little boy, oh how I love you!
Love Mummy.


Thursday, December 26, 2013

Portrait Series: Your Second Christmas

Merry Christmas, little Bean! 

A portrait of my son, once a week, every week.
Your little face! It makes me SO happy!
It has been a wonderful Christmas this year. It is so much fun to actually watch you get excited about ripping open presents and exploring all the wonder that is Christmas Day. You can now say Santa Claus (interchangeable with Samiclaus), Christmas tree, star, angel and reindeer. 

The moment you woke up, your daddy and I raced downstairs to get you, all bleary eyed and not quite aware of what was to come. But then you discovered your Bobby Car from Nanny and Pop, and it all was just an overwhelming amount of Christmasness from then on in! You stayed in your pyjamas almost all day, I think until about 6pm? And who wouldn't, when you were so cute! 
I'm pretty sure your daddy and I were more excited than you
when we came to get you in the morning!
We had the most wonderful Christmas dinner! I'm pretty proud of myself, to be honest, because since you have been around, I haven't had much time to cook like I did before. For starters, our friend Claudia made a dip that is her special Christmas dip from her Auntie's recipe, which was lovely. I managed to whip up a Beef Wellington with some beautiful Australian beef fillet, which is quite the delicacy here in Switzerland, with baby carrots in maple syrup, broccoli with paprika butter and sage and clementine roast potatoes (roast potatoes have never quite worked out for me, so I was stoked this year when they were perfect!). All with a gravy made from juices, beef stock and a slurp of the glühwein we had on the stove. And then came the crazy chocolate chestnut cake with creme fraiche and cherries, which really turned out to be a huge piece of solid brownie fudge. Insane! Even you didn't go near it, it was too much! And of course there was egg nog, gluhwein, more wine (of which you now demand to sniff and sigh with satisfaction at the smell, ha!) and some yummy coffees from my new coffee machine. Y.U.M. 

We're a pretty happy family, eh? 
All of this was on offer for you, my love, and you know what you wanted? Cervelat. A big fat red (organic!) sausage. That was your idea of the perfect Christmas dinner. With tinned corn, of course. You had a bit of a poke around at the goodies on my plate, but most definitely wanted yours instead. 
Fulfilling the stereotype and loving the box!
We ate, we drank, you played with boxes and the wrapping, your bobby car, your new "Mhomas" train set and a whole stack of other toys you received from Santa and from relatives and friends. You are such a lucky boy! And we are so lucky to have you to brighten up our Christmas! 

Merry Christmas, my beautiful one. Your second Christmas was a success! 
"Not a bad stash," he says.

I love you. 
Love Mummy.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Nineteen Months - Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!

Hello my little monkey,

You are nineteen months old now (that is sounding awfully close to two years, isn't it? Yikes!) and here are your favourite things:
  • Flushing the toilet. Oh what insurmountable joy!
  • Not taking your shoes off when you come inside. So cheeky in your rebellion! 

  • 'Washing your hands', which really means splashing about in the basin, pointing to things that are 'Mummy's' and therefore a no-no, taking a moment to suck some toothpaste off your toothbrush, slapping the soap around the basin a little and wasting a heart-stopping amount of water (I'm Australian!) with all of your on-off-on-off-on-off tap business. 
  • Vacuuming! Your number one fear has become something you LOVE! 
  • Cheese. This word comes out of your mouth at least a hundred times a day. (edited: You have said it at least a hundred times in the past hour. I'm changing it to a thousand.)
  • Rearranging my cutlery drawer and pretending to shove knives into your mouth to watch my reaction. 

  • Nina, your wonderful wonderful wonderful little friend at Krippe. Now, instead of crying the entire way there, you say, 'Nina! Nina! Nina!' I don't know what I'd do without her! You give her little kisses all day long, and I've heard rumours that you hold hands in your sleep :)

  • Making stars, trees, snails and balls from play-dough and sticking them to the window. 

  • Counting 1,2,3 in Swiss German anytime you are standing on top of something, so that somebody can 'jump' you off. I realise this could be bad in the future... 

Here is an example of you not liking something.
In this case, it was doing anything.
(This is you, tired.)
Here are things you really dislike:
  • Food. Except cheese, yoghurt and sultanas. 
  • Balloons. These are apparently very scary and unpredictable. 
  • Music in the minor key.
  • Eye drops. 
  • Being pushed into something that you are not totally comfortable with yet. Like playing in the snow, being put at the top of a big slide, or rolling a huge fit-ball towards you when you don't really know what it is...

... I've been thinking about this for a long time now, and there aren't many things you don't like! Oh perhaps sleeping for more than two hours at a time? Get on that, eh?

I love you, Bubbaloo!
Love Mummy.







Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Portrait Series: In My Shoes

Dear Beanie,
I'm pretty sure that it is a rite of passage to have a photograph taken of you wearing a pair of ridiculously large shoes. To be honest, it should be Daddy's shoes, as almost every day you try to get into those... And the fancy cycling shoes with the clickety clack wheel on them? Woah. It blows your mind. But it was my big boots on this day. 

So here it is, my beautiful boy. I wish it was taken from a *real* camera and was of a decent quality, but I think your personality shines through anyhow.

I love you!
Love Mummy

Monday, December 16, 2013

Nightmares

My little boy, you had your first nightmare last night. You poor thing, it was so traumatic! You woke up screaming at 12.18 and there was absolutely no way in hell that you were going to get back into that lovely little bed of yours. You were absolutely terrified of being put down and no bottle, no singing, no reading a story, no cuddles, no dummy, no dummy with teething gel was going to fix it.

I still remember a terrifying dream that I had apparently before I was three years old, where there were enormous tigers surrounding the house and I couldn't find my mum. I wonder what your dream was about.

Maybe it was about the sled.


Not having fun in the snow.

We have been away on a mini holiday at a little farm in the mountains, playing in the snow, looking and giggling at the animals, going for little hikes and getting a wee bit lost... it was all quite idyllic, really, and Oh So Swiss, which makes your mama very happy! But I am learning more and more about you, little one.

As you get older, your personality becomes stronger and your daddy and I are learning to respect you for the person that you are. In some ways, you are a very brave and boisterous boy, but we are learning more and more that you are incredibly cautious when it comes to trying new things. We attempted to get you onto a sled, you see. We had grand plans of the fun we would have, you and your daddy sledging down the tiny hill at the back of the farm, you turning the steering wheel like your favourite bobby car... Instead, you screamed your head off even watching your daddy do it! You were absolutely not a happy boy until that sled went away out of sight. And from that moment on, you and the snow were no longer friends. Hmm...
You did like the snow for the first half hour or so!
Next time, we need to give you longer to acclimatise to the idea of trying something new. Yes, of course we put you in front of it so you could assess what it was, poke at the buttons, turn the handle, have the opportunity to turn it over and suss out the mechanics a little if you wanted, but that was not enough. In future, I think you perhaps need a couple of days of watching other kids do it and have fun with it before you will be ready to sit on it yourself.

Perhaps your nightmare involved that sled.

I love you oh so much, little one. I wish that cuddles could always make everything better!

Love Mummy.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Portrait Series: Cold Weather Shut Down

Oh my goodness! It's Sunday, and I haven't written your Portrait Series post yet! Yikes!

Alright, I've found the perfect portrait that shows the kind of week we've had. My little outside boy, you just don't seem so keen on getting rugged up and racing around outside anymore. I am not sure if your shoes are uncomfortable or if you just don't like wearing clothes right now, or if you're like your aunty Jessy and you just kind of shut down when it gets cold... But all I can say is take a look: this is you in winter. Not really living it up and playing in the snow, eh.

I have been super sick AGAIN this week, my darling, and it seems that my immune system is getting more of a battering than yours this winter! But goodness, that's how I'd prefer it. Last winter, your first, was one that I hope we never have to experience again... So stay warm, stay healthy, but remember to smile too,  OK? 

I love you, little bean.

Love Mummy.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Golden Moments

My little boy, sometimes there are those incredible moments in time where you can do nothing but exist in it, breathe it in, know that it will be gone in a minute, and remember it. I'm learning that the worst thing I can do in the middle of these moments is to take out a camera, as immediately you stop what you are doing and want to come and play with the buttons. I wonder if we will ever capture these moments on film anymore, unless we install a 24 hour monitoring system, haha.

You are becoming such an affectionate little bean!
Two days ago, you had the worst night's sleep you have had in months. Your daddy and I were both awake from 1am until 5am, and when you woke up happy at 7am, you had to make do with playing around our supine bodies as we lay on the rug.

And then came the moment.

You ran up to your daddy and kissed him.

Then you ran up to me, touched your forehead to mine and kissed me. Then back to your daddy for another kiss, then back to me. And again and again and again.

The look on your face was as if you knew this was a big deal. You weren't just throwing your body on us for a fun wrestling match, as you do most evenings, but you were being gentle and lovely and... almost apologetic.
And then yesterday I became so incredibly sick. I was lying on the couch in at least eight layers of clothing, underneath a blanket with my thick jacket and hood on, shivering away. You were playing with your daddy but would come up to me occasionally with a furrowed brow and I'd tell you I was sick. You put your hand on my head, kissed my cheek and brought me the 'Time for Bed' book.

This is the little boy that you are. These are the wonderful moments you give me.

Goodness, how I love you. Do you know I wrote a song about how I love you? Remind me to play it to you one day.

Love Mummy.