Sunday, October 26, 2008

Our Little Flower Is Almost 2!





























Our beautiful baby girl turns two this Friday! I can't believe it... two! On one hand, I can't believe how quickly the time has gone, and on the other hand I can hardly remember what our lives were like without her.

When the midwife first put Maddie in my arms, I remember feeling completely overwhelmed. Not because I had just been roaming the halls of St Mary's hospital whaling like a wookie for the past 24 hours, but because I suddenly realised that this little person was going to be our responsibility for the rest of my life. Pretty heavy shit! For the first six weeks of her life I obsessed about everything and felt completely and utterly inadequate. Every time I heard her cry, I was beside myself. Everything felt like an incredible effort from breast feeding, to changing nappies, to waking up throughout the night to taking her for a walk to the park! Then suddenly, when she was about 7 weeks old everything changed. All those things that initially felt like a chore, felt wonderful. I could not do enough for this beautiful little soul that had come into our lives. Parenthood was fun and with every month it just seems to get better and better.

I can't pretend for a minute that it has been a bed of roses. The truth is I torture myself constantly because I have to work full time and I don't get to spend anywhere near enough time with Maddie. I am constantly beating myself up and worrying about how my absence will impact on her. But guess what? She is a positively beautiful person. I mean a really fabulous person, a character, a bundle of fun, a sweet soul, an intelligent little girl, and a kind hearted poppet! She has intuition and empathy beyond her years. Her father has done such an amazing job being her primary carer for the past 18 months and she absolutely adores going to nursery and seems to thrive around other kids. The other good thing about our arrangement is that I treasure every single second that I have with her and don't take a moment with her for granted. Every time I look in her eyes and she smiles at me it takes my breath away.

All the grandparents are descending upon us to help celebrate Maddie's birthday next weekend and we are planning a "curryoke" night (curry and karaoke hosted by a tranny) for Simon on Friday night for his birthday and a great big picnic in the park for Maddie on Sunday. I can't wait to get everyone together and celebrate.

It was Martin's birthday last week and the Staffords had a lovely BBQ to celebrate today. Maddie put on her party frock, donned a party hat and gorged herself on chocolate mud cake. She also managed to get a kiss from her favourite boy in the whole world, Linus. Ain't love grand! They both look pretty pleased with themselves post kiss!

I apologise that I have been so rubbish at keeping Maddie's blog up to date. Our camera is on the blink and beautiful photos are always my trigger to update everyone on her news. Luckily Meags and Martin had their camera out to capture the action today.

Huge love and good wishes to everyone xxxx