Hello, Anybody Out There??

Yes, sorry everyone, we are still here. I am hoping this post will get me over the mental hurdle of getting started and I´ll be updating you all with our fascinating life of diapers, food eaten, food refused, and the odd social outing to the grocery store. And to think I used to forecast revenues and attend meetings in a suit.

What to say? Well, Halía is now 15 months old and continues to be a total superstar. She has a total of 6 teeth, 4 up 2 down, and I realized the other day that that still isn´t enough to get her through a chicken finger.

Her latest trick is coming up behind me and I have to call out ¨where is Halía¨. Her smile makes it worth doing over and over. She also likes to hide inside my robe when I´m wearing it, which was tons of fun until yesterday morning when she stumbled coming out of it and cracked her head on a drawer handle in the kitchen. Crack sounds like a strong word but it was the first thing I thought when I heard the sound. Ouch.

The worst part is when she hurts herself she is NOT interested in a cuddle and trying to comfort her usually results in more upset. So yesterday she walked away and stood in the middle of the kitchen with her head bent down, sobbing her little tears onto the floor. Mommy does not like this. Then she walked to the corner cried some more and turned around 2 seconds later with a big smile and started telling me something she´d been thinking of. I get lots of hugs through the day, but I would like them at critical pain-filled moments as well.

She has had a strong bout of sleeping the last few weeks. 12-14 hours at night and 2-3 hours of naps. I declared myself ¨rested¨ the other day.

A recent highlight was our trip to a school fair where we bought up loads of second-hand toys. I know Jan laughed when I said she had nothing to play with, but how long can a kid survive on tupperware and potatoes?

She now has a kitchen, which started strong and seems to have petered out. Maybe a little too early. She still puts potatoes in the drawers.

A bike. Big hit.

And an activity table. Even bigger hit. I bravely put the batteries in the activity table and am so far doing ok with the lovely Fisher Price music.

Still, when I´m cooking, getting out the pots and pans, although frustrating occupies her for a while. I´m trying to get her to make the connection to open the drawer wider...

Her ¨Mom Help¨face.

And her ¨Mom, Help NOW¨ face. Such a shame you can´t hear the accompanying whine. Note, this is the drawer handle of the head cracking sound.