I KNOW! (the memories are still very raw)
Two whole years. Wow. In so many ways it feels like Oscar has always been with us, or with me I should say. At my feet, clutching to my calves with his chubby little mits, pleadingly looking up at me, "Mum, food?" "Mum, tuddles?" "Mum" (often its just Mum with no follow through, mostly when I'm doing anything besides giving him my undivided attention).
I vaguely remember our lives before we turned into a family of four, its blurry, but there was certainly more sleep, definitely more family outings, and a heck of a lot more patience on my behalf. Before Oscar came along, I was sure I had this mothering gig down pat. I was confident to the point where I was bordering cocky. Or, I was just flat out cocky. "What do you mean this is hard? Did your baby not sleep through from 3 weeks old? Did they not just adapt easily to your environment and be cool with whatever you're doing or wherever you're going? Flights are sooo easy with babies they just sleep!" That was me- what a fucking dick. Why did nobody slap me? Not to worry though folks, I paid for it tenfold when Oscar arrived.
After an incredibly hard and fast home birth, Oscar flew out grunting, beet red, squirming, and crying. That didn't change for 12, excruciating weeks. Colic, reflux, and sleep deprivation decided to set up camp for 3 loooooooong months and I morphed into an emotionally unstable wreck. In all seriousness, I couldn't love Oscar. I wanted to, I so badly wanted to look down at him whilst he was feeding and feel nothing but heart warming joy, pride, and contentment. Instead I felt angry, bitter, helpless and resentful. I joke about this period of our lives a lot, however all jokes aside, it was the single worst experience of my life. By the end of the 12 weeks, I felt like a shell of a human, literally and figuratively. And then, as babies tend to do (and as everyone tells you whilst you are wading through the shit storm but you don't want to hear it because it doesn't fucking matter when you've had 1.75 hours of sleep, total. TOTAL) Oscar settled in. He started to sleep through, and smile! Smiling was a biggy for Oli and I, because he was Oscar the grouch for what felt like forever so that big gummy smile was a huge reward. Finally! We are doing something right! He loves us! He really loves us! Before we knew it, he was sitting, and then crawling, and then standing up, and then pottering around on his thick little legs, running full pace into Oli as soon as he walked through the door each arvo, smothering us both with smooches and tuddles, and just generally being a total heart throb.
I fell madly in love with this wee boy.
And now - Oscar is an empathetic, hilarious, hungry, boisterous, amazingly vocal, push-the-boundaries-on-a-daily-basis, full of heart human being. At 19 months he started parroting Blake, and he was stringing full, clear sentences together well before he turned 2. Everywhere we go, people are drawn into the Oscar vortex, all it takes is a simple "Hi" and a wave of his hand and they're hook line and sinkered. Throw in the fact that he has his sisters giant blue peepers and nobody stands a chance.
His sleeping has been erratic and exhausting ever since our move home to NZ, but in recent months he is mostly back on the 12 hour bandwagon (we will give it an even 80%) and that is making juggling working/ parenting life a heck of a lot easier for us. Alas, he still has this horrible little blanket that he uses as a snuggly, and that thing is the bane of my life. For example; 3am today "Muuuummm my snuggles, MUUUUUUMMMMMM". So we are booking in a burning ceremony for that any day now.
And seeing as he's reached the big two year milestone, we (reluctantly) are about to bust out the old potty again. TT round 2. Insert a monotone "yay". This time will be slightly different to Blake, not just because of the different 'bits' but because a lot of the training will be done at his kindy. I'll be sure to keep you in the loop with his progress on that one.
On his actual bday this year, we (conveniently) had a wedding to attend, so rather than stressing over some big soiree with 50 tier high cakes, and 100 grubby kids tearing our place apart (thats most definitely a huge exaggeration by the way as Oscar has approx 4 friends max), we decided to invite the fam over and a couple of Oscars little mates and his favourite cousin Sadie for an early morning birthday brunch involving bacon buns, mimosas, hash browns and of course- cake. Which I made, and might I add- was actually edible and dare I say it- good (baking is not my strong point, nor do I find it enjoyable in the slightest- the pressure!!)
Oh look- here we are!
It was a wonderful little affair, and I'm definitely making a mental note for the birthdays to come that bday brunches are where it is at. Anything with bacon is where its at though really.
And that my friends, is a wrap! Another year down, one toddler and one mini Madonna in our care, still ending every day with smiles on our faces and huge chunks of cheesy love in our hearts, so thats a #win.
Enjoy scoffing back those oval eggs and hot cross buns in excess this weekend won't ya?
Gem
Thought of the day "Did I tell you guys we have a 5th mini Tabak in our clan- this is Rudy, and he is absolutely delicious!
No comments:
Post a Comment