Whatever
I haven't updated anything for a while because I have been feeling generally BLAAAH. Oh, I suppose a few exciting things have happened – I bought a highchair, and in my universe, that's pretty high on the list of excitement – and I've had a fairly social week, but in between times when the door is shut in the face of the world and it's just me and my dependants, I've been grumping at Buddy and watching crap TV (is it just me, or is Super Nanny getting a teensy bit repetitive?) and playing Spider Solitaire.
Here are some other things that happened.
1. Anna started to turn pages of her board books on her own! And I'm pretty sure she is 'following' the story, or at least anticipating the giggly bits, or maybe she's just laughing at the book itself; I don’t know and I don't care – I just am so pleased that she's shaping up to be a little bookish person. When I found out I was pregnant my biggest fear, over and above her not being 1. A girl, 2. 100% healthy, and 3. A One Nation voter, was that she wouldn't be a reader. My God, I thought, what would we talk about? Where in the world would our common ground be? Given that my only interests and skills in the world are reading and writing (judge for yourselves on the latter), there was a fairly narrow scope for any meaningful connection.
2. Anna has her first crush – on a big felt wall hanging of Winnie the Pooh with a bunch of balloons. It's hilarious – she gets a great big smile every time we go into her room, and she giggles JUST LIKE the schoolgirl she will be someday be, and she gets all shy and hides her face but then she can't help herself and she peeks out, just to make sure he's still there, and then she giggles all over again. She's been doing it for days and I am still entranced.
3. Buddy has disgraced himself big time – I have discovered that he has been sneaking into next door's back garden, stirring up the big dogs over the back of their fence, and eating their cat's food. (It's better than eating the cat, I suppose…) Anyway he has now been confined to our own back garden, which is a bit devastating for him and a pain in the arse for me because I have to keep remembering to close the gates. Up until now he's been the sort of dog that hasn't needed fences as he'd just hang about the front garden on those few times when he'd shift himself off the couch to go outside. Terribly illegal of course but I've always joyfully flaunted that particular council regulation, smug in the knowledge that MY dog is well trained and MY dog doesn't go wandering and MY dog is cool enough not to cause disturbances. Damn.
4. A while ago I totally took leave of all my senses and entered Anna in a 'beautiful baby' contest run by Mother and Baby magazine; and in a blatant case of appalling judgement she hasn't made the finalists list. Bummer, because I was hoping we'd get the free trip to Sydney and from there we could fly cheaply to Melbourne to visit friends. I know that sounds like sour grapes but really and truly, it is why I entered … yet I have to admit there was a tiny and incredulous part of me that wanted to see her face beaming out at the world from a magazine cover. Really ridiculous. Probably her not winning is for the best, as I'd no doubt turn into a nightmarish boring competitive bitch of a stage mother and Anna would spend her whole life trying to get away from me.
5. I was right on the growth charts! Those bloody percentile graphs that a certain health nurse whose name I shan't mention for fear of legal repercussions made me feel bad about because Anna was down the bottom of; well, according to the World Health Organisation, the data used to calculate the 'average' and acceptable weight gain is based on a study of American bottle fed babies done 20 years ago. Arrrgghhhh! I have nothing personally against either American babies or bottle fed babies or babies born in the 80's, but I would like to point out that they have NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH MY NEW AUSTRALIAN BREASTFED BABY and so why oh why our bloody health system has been pushing these charts on us is beyond me. This sort of thing really, really pisses me off. Why? Well, for starters, I went through a lot of stress and my confidence as a mother was really knocked about due to Anna being at the bottom of these charts, and to find out it was unnecessary is pretty annoying. One of the mums in my mother's group actually stopped breastfeeding and took up bottle feeding because she felt bad that her baby was at the bottom end of the scale. That's not just annoying, it's a tragedy.
If anyone is interested, click here for WHO's girl weight-for-age growth charts and here for boys.
Here are some other things that happened.
1. Anna started to turn pages of her board books on her own! And I'm pretty sure she is 'following' the story, or at least anticipating the giggly bits, or maybe she's just laughing at the book itself; I don’t know and I don't care – I just am so pleased that she's shaping up to be a little bookish person. When I found out I was pregnant my biggest fear, over and above her not being 1. A girl, 2. 100% healthy, and 3. A One Nation voter, was that she wouldn't be a reader. My God, I thought, what would we talk about? Where in the world would our common ground be? Given that my only interests and skills in the world are reading and writing (judge for yourselves on the latter), there was a fairly narrow scope for any meaningful connection.
2. Anna has her first crush – on a big felt wall hanging of Winnie the Pooh with a bunch of balloons. It's hilarious – she gets a great big smile every time we go into her room, and she giggles JUST LIKE the schoolgirl she will be someday be, and she gets all shy and hides her face but then she can't help herself and she peeks out, just to make sure he's still there, and then she giggles all over again. She's been doing it for days and I am still entranced.
3. Buddy has disgraced himself big time – I have discovered that he has been sneaking into next door's back garden, stirring up the big dogs over the back of their fence, and eating their cat's food. (It's better than eating the cat, I suppose…) Anyway he has now been confined to our own back garden, which is a bit devastating for him and a pain in the arse for me because I have to keep remembering to close the gates. Up until now he's been the sort of dog that hasn't needed fences as he'd just hang about the front garden on those few times when he'd shift himself off the couch to go outside. Terribly illegal of course but I've always joyfully flaunted that particular council regulation, smug in the knowledge that MY dog is well trained and MY dog doesn't go wandering and MY dog is cool enough not to cause disturbances. Damn.
4. A while ago I totally took leave of all my senses and entered Anna in a 'beautiful baby' contest run by Mother and Baby magazine; and in a blatant case of appalling judgement she hasn't made the finalists list. Bummer, because I was hoping we'd get the free trip to Sydney and from there we could fly cheaply to Melbourne to visit friends. I know that sounds like sour grapes but really and truly, it is why I entered … yet I have to admit there was a tiny and incredulous part of me that wanted to see her face beaming out at the world from a magazine cover. Really ridiculous. Probably her not winning is for the best, as I'd no doubt turn into a nightmarish boring competitive bitch of a stage mother and Anna would spend her whole life trying to get away from me.
5. I was right on the growth charts! Those bloody percentile graphs that a certain health nurse whose name I shan't mention for fear of legal repercussions made me feel bad about because Anna was down the bottom of; well, according to the World Health Organisation, the data used to calculate the 'average' and acceptable weight gain is based on a study of American bottle fed babies done 20 years ago. Arrrgghhhh! I have nothing personally against either American babies or bottle fed babies or babies born in the 80's, but I would like to point out that they have NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH MY NEW AUSTRALIAN BREASTFED BABY and so why oh why our bloody health system has been pushing these charts on us is beyond me. This sort of thing really, really pisses me off. Why? Well, for starters, I went through a lot of stress and my confidence as a mother was really knocked about due to Anna being at the bottom of these charts, and to find out it was unnecessary is pretty annoying. One of the mums in my mother's group actually stopped breastfeeding and took up bottle feeding because she felt bad that her baby was at the bottom end of the scale. That's not just annoying, it's a tragedy.
If anyone is interested, click here for WHO's girl weight-for-age growth charts and here for boys.
posted by Helen at 9:26 pm
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