A Daddy's girl in the making?

How times have changed -
look who had the
SMALLEST suitcase!

Hurray! We (I) survived our first holiday apart from each other! Whilst I had to be practically dragged kicking and screaming to the weekend away that my dear hubby booked for me, it seemed to do us all good... everyone has been advising (lecturing) me to get out and about without Laila, arrange time for adult conversation, treat myself, yaada, yaada, yaada. The truth is, I've not been depriving myself; I've just not wanted to! Perhaps I'm still in the honeymoon period, but I haven't wanted to miss a moment of her. Then I read that there are in fact good reasons to get away from your baby every once in a while, for their sake. Apparently short separations help them to adjust to other people, become more socialised, and possibly help to "inoculate" against full-blown separation anxiety before it hits. Damn. Hence Amsterdam.

 

Vodka
and...
MILK?!

As reluctant as I was to go, I hate to admit it but, I had a blast. Other than retreating to my room every few hours to express milk (an absolute pain in the rear might I add), I felt like I was 'normal' again. Don't get me wrong, I missed Laila like crazy, but it was quite nice to meet people as Anna rather Laila's Mum. In a strange way, I think I'd secretly hoped I'd come back home to cries of "thank God you're back!" and "we couldn't cope without you!" but, quite the contrary! I couldn't believe how well Daddy coped - he even had her sleeping straight through the night, for 12 hours, not even waking up for night feeds... whaaaat?!?!? I walked back through the front door and, much to my despair, Laila carried on playing without batting an eye lid - never mind the dramatic, slow motion, joyous, reunion I'd been imagining throughout my journey home! Although, since I've been back, my poor baby's been teething terribly; her first bottom teeth are now visible so, for the first time, we've had tears upon tears - welcome home Mummy!



Daddy gave Laila her first bath in the "big bath"

 I had some good news before setting sail in Amsterdam - Laila and I were chosen as winners for our first QuinnyCasters assignment! The next assignment is to catch your child in a happy moods whilst in their Zapp Xtra, all happy and smiley entertaining themselves... this is going to be so much fun to do, especially since Laila's developing into such a little chatterbox, trying her best to 'talk' to whoever will listen, babbling away in a lingo that only she can understand...

Ooh!

A new toy!

How do I use this
again Mummy?

I've lost count of how many times I've told her that the telephone isn't a toy or edible, or that rattles aren't for thrashing, or that my hair isn't for pulling. The text books say that, at this age, she'll begin testing my authority by refusing to follow simple directions, but she's not really being disobedient, just curious. Oh, that's ok then! Although, to be fair, they say babies simply can't remember things they're told for more than a couple of seconds at a time; I'm told that the best tactic is to use a simple "no" and then distract her... have these people met my Laila?!