I often wish I had called this blog I HAVE NO TIME, written in capitals to really highlight the hysteria surrounding this feeling. This blog has gone from being somewhere I can capture memories of my growing daughter, and let off steam, to a place I just moan about HAVING NO TIME. I struggle to find the time to blog, and when I can catch half an hour for a quick post, all I can think to write about is how I HAVE NO TIME, but, of course, that was the title of my last post, and the one before that.
In fact, having no time is generally a good sign because it means I have work to do, and that can only ever be a good thing. Work is going really well at the moment, and I’ve just started working on a few vegan projects. I love writing about pregnancy, birth and parenting, but I’m pleased to be able to add veganism to that list. After years spent working for vegan organisations, it is a bit strange now to be so out of the loop. It took me months to find out Pom Bears were now vegan, imagine all the tiny bear heads I have missed the chance to devour! It doesn’t bear thinking about. So, yes, having a few vegan articles to write has been nice.
I’m also still really enjoying my pregnancy writing, because I find everything about pregnancy, childbirth and parenting so interesting. It’s easy to forget the baby details when you’re running round after a toddler all day, so it’s quite nice to be reminded of how small and undemanding she once was.
Ebony’s naps are as unpredictable as ever, which can sometimes cause problems for my work. Sometimes she naps for two hours, other times it’s more like 40 minutes. I try to head out each morning, and tire her out at a group or in the great outdoors, so that when we get home she will sleep. During the summer months, we were heading out again late in the afternoon for another adventure, but it’s going dark earlier now. By the time Ebony is up and has eaten, it’s usually starting to go dark, so we’ve been spending more time indoors (which actually feels a lot like the great outdoors because I am currently refusing to put the heating on). Drawing, crafts and imagination games seem to take up much of our afternoons now.
Ebony is growing up so fast now (apart from her hair, of course), she seems to change each week. Her language is improving and she repeats new words back to me every day, recent highlights include “shit bags” and “oh crap”. I really do need to try harder to stop swearing, stupid northern dialect.
I wouldn’t say she is having many tantrums, but does throw the occasional one every now and then, mostly because we’ve said no to something without explaining properly why. She hates leaving the park, and cried yesterday because she wanted to stay with her friends and play on the slide, and unfortunately she has no concept of the importance of train times. Usually though, I think we’re pretty good at avoiding meltdowns by making sure she is fed, happy and understands what we are doing and why.
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been leaving the house without nappies which is exciting and terrifying in equal measures. We haven’t been using nappies at home for months (except at night when they are still definitely needed, not least because we cosleep), but have kept using them on trips out for ease. It occurred to me that this was entirely down to my laziness and so I decided to stop doing it. It’s been successful, aside from a wee in the car seat last week and a tramuatising (for me) poo incident that we won’t go into. For us, this has been a natural progression and I’m glad we started loosely using principles of EC when Ebony was five months old, because it has spared us having to potty train her, and the whole thing has just felt natural and stress free (apart from the time she crapped on me knee in the cafe. That was not natural or stress free).
