...and that makes three: April 2010

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

A Letter To My Daughter

Anna, you are my pride and joy. The happiness you have brought to my life cannot be replicated by anything on this earth. You are such a beautiful, spirited baby girl that I am so grateful to have been blessed with. You give me a smile every time I come in to pick you up. You laugh so much. You are so switched on. You surprise me every day.

You are such a gorgeous baby. Everyone says so. Everyone says your daddy and I have good genes – I say ‘I agree’. Your eyes sparkle, and your face glows when you smile. You are like sunshine.

I love that you are part of my story. Everyone has a story. If someone were to talk about me, they’d say “her name was Ashleigh Morris and she had a daughter named Anna”.

Anna, my dear, here are some things that make up your story, so far.
You have green eyes, just like Daddy. You like to sing – you lay on your rug and ‘la la la’ away. You are so determined – if something is out of reach you will wriggle and wriggle until you get there. Your Daddy calls you Anna Poos – I think because he’s never had to deal with so much poos before. You make him laugh. And he makes you laugh. He loves you so much. He’s a good dad.

I call you Angel. I feel like you are a miracle, an angel sent to me.

Pregnancy was not so kind to me, but I miss it so much, because you can’t get any closer to your child than when you’re pregnant. And I could always keep you safe.

You have an incredible set of lungs. You scream a lot. But I think that’s just because you have a lot to say. You don’t go down to sleep without a fight – but it doesn’t last long, you actually like your sleep.

You hate getting dressed. You’d stay naked all the time if I’d let you. You’ll play on the floor for hours if you’re in the nud. And you love bath time. I often bring you in the shower with me. And sometimes I fill the bath right up and you go for a swim. I could cuddle you forever.

You fart so much. It’s so funny. Sometimes you laugh at yourself when you fart. And they really smell. But it’s so funny that someone so small can produce such a putrid smell – it could clear a room. You’ll come to learn that farting is commonplace in this family.

You don’t like most of the foods we give you, but you love chicken and sweet corn puree. But most of all, you are a loyal breast-feeder. It’s something that I love too. Sometimes when you are feeding, you’ll stop and look up at me with a big smile. You’ll get distracted if I feed you in front of the TV, and then get upset that you can’t feed and watch the TV at the same time. When you’re feeding, you gently tickle my neck – you need something to fiddle with.

Sometimes, actually most of the time, you try to suck your thumb at the same time as feeding. I have to hold your hand to stop your thumb from slipping in your mouth. And when you’re really tired, you’ll come off from feeding and swap with your thumb. It makes me laugh. And you posit everywhere. You’re what’s called a ‘happy chucker’. Our house is just covered in chuck. Your hair is always stiff and stuck to your head every morning from the chuck. But you’ll grow out of it.

You get bored of your toys pretty quickly, we have to give you new things to play with all the time. You have a whole box full of toys. You love to touch and explore new things. You like the TV because it has so many colours and sounds.

You love me and Daddy so much. You love our cuddles, kisses and play time. I think we’re good parents. But I think that’s because you’re such a good baby. I believe that having a baby is a gift, not a given. I feel blessed that you are my daughter. Being a parent is the best thing in life. You have changed my life, for the best.

Your father and I are struggling. Times are really tough. I now know why my father cried for a week when I told him I was pregnant with you. Your Pa loves you so much - from the day he saw you on the ultrasound picture saying ‘Hi Pa!’. Pa was worried we would have to struggle like he and my mother did. And I understand that now, because I never want you to have to struggle like we are.

But despite our hardships, you are like the silver lining on our storm cloud. Nothing else matters when you look at me and smile. I’m glad you don’t see this – you don’t really care what clothes you wear or whether the house is painted, or whether we can afford food from week to week. All you need is your parents' love. And that’s something that I can give you.

Your daddy and I are working hard to give you everything. All we care about is giving you the best life.

Anna, you are my whole world. You give me such incredible happiness. You have given me a real purpose in life. And I think you are the sole reason why I am still so positive through all of this. Thank you so much, my beautiful angel.

With love,
Mummy.x

I Love PA!

Over the past few months, every time Anna visited Pa, she would cry and scream unless she was in Mummy's arms. But the past two weeks have been very different. Now she'll laugh and play, and sit on Pa's lap happily.

Adam and I are so relieved she's changed her behaviour around Pa. Anna has spent a lot of time at Pa's, and will be spending much more time there in the future. So it helps that she's now warmed to him.

We've narrowed it down to the fact that Pa takes Anna to get her injections. She's got more injections in a few weeks, but I think I'm strong enough now to take her.

I wish we got some photos of Anna at Pa's - she laughs so much now cos Pa is so silly!

Pa and Tiff had Anna and her cousins over on Saturday night. It seems Anna and Isla woke up in tandem, so Pa and Tiff had their hands full all night. But we were told Anna was very well behaved. And Adam and I had a lovely night out.

Thanks Pa and Tiffy.

With love,

Mum and Dad.x

Wednesday, 7 April 2010

Grown Up Food...Sort Of.

Last night, we thought we'd give Anna her first proper meal - baby rice cereal.

Over the past few weeks, Anna has been given a variety of foods to taste, and she always seems so interested in our food, we thought she was ready for solids.

And we were right! She ate nearly the whole bowl, and eventually grabbed the spoon herself to put in her mouth.

It was very funny. Such a mess - food all over the face, hands, clothes, the chair. And she squirmed everytime she swallowed. Some of the faces she was pulling was priceless - but none the less she appeared to like the food.

How exciting to be eating food for the first time (though you wouldn't know it but it tastes like cardboard - I promise to give you much yummier food in the future).

With love,

Mum and Dad.x

Isla Anne

Meeting the little gem was so sweet. She's such a gorgeou baby girl I think I took about 300 photos of her.

Adam and I are looking forward to watching you grow up. We'll always have a bed for you whenever you want a 'slumber party' with your cousin Anna - I just know you'll be such good friends.

It was a pleasure to meet you, to have you fall asleep on our laps, and to have you in our lives.

Thank you for blessing your parents with your arrival - they seem so at peace with your existance. And your brother Ramsey has so much to look forward to by having a beautiful sister like yourself.

With love,

Aunty Ash, Uncle Adam and Cousin Anna.x

Sizeable Difference

It's hard to remember that Anna was once as little as Isla. When next to each other, Anna looks like a ginormous baby. What a difference four months makes.

I'm so looking forward to the girls growing up together. I think they're going to have a ball. It's really nice to know that Anna has a girl cousin to play dress ups and princesses with, and they'll have big Ramsey to look after them too!

They're going to be 'bestest cousins'.

Love to both of you.

With love,

Mum and Dad.x

Our Trip to Adelaide

Our little family headed over to Adelaide last Thursday to spend some time with the Morris's over there and to formally welcome their newest addition, Isla Anne.

This was Anna's first plane trip. Remarkably, she slept the entire duration of the flight, but screamed till she went red on take off and landing. The poor little love has been a bit sick over the past few days so her cold was not helped by the decompression of take off. It seemed though, that all the babies on the flight cried in tandem - take off and landing.

She was so well behaved through all the travel - fell asleep in the taxi to the hotel. Our hotel really doesn't deserve a mention, only that Anna had the best bed in the room, the porta cot. Our beds had the spring poking up into our backs. But despite having the best bed, Anna was particularly difficult to get down to sleep. Anna falls asleep sucking her thumb, but because of her blocked nose from the cold, she couldn't breath. It took about 4 hours to get her down.

But none the less, Anna was very well behaved and we had a great time. Anna was especially excited to see her cousins. And Uncle Tom and Aunty Kort were so hospitable - we much prefered staying at thier place. And Anna seemed to like Isla's cot - Thank you Isla for letting us borrow your cot for the weekend.

There was lots of jumping on the trampoline with Ramsey - Lauren, Jason, Adam and I were a tag team, we couldn't keep up with the little man. And Ramsey was so nice to wait for his cousin Anna to arrive before he went on his easter egg hunt. We found fish.

And speaking of jumping - Kortnye got our the Jolly Jumper and Anna fell in love. We're now on a mission to find one on eBay.

We also spent a day on the river. I think this was the highlight of the trip (aside from meeting Isla who's such a precious little bundle). Anna slept for the majority of the day. And all the grown-ups had so much fun.