The sweet month of May

I meant to share this photo with you a couple of weeks ago but forgot about it. It doesn’t top April, but it’s still a sweet picture.

In case it’s not clear, this is Maia’s rendering of a beach hut. And, as you can see, she still has issues with the letters b and d occasionally.

For all those who asked about my niece’s surgery, it went great and she’s recovering very well! I have to find the time to write more about it but I’m afraid it will have to wait. Meanwhile, I’m sending you all a big hug of thanks for your prayers and sweet thoughts. The whole family felt your love and, one day, Miki will get to feel it too.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Embrace the camera 17th May 2012

Robin and I yesterday. I’m wearing the latest fashion, as showcased by Lady Gaga.

 

A funny feeling and a funny baby

A funny feeling I’ve had in my throat turned out to be a full-blown pharyngitis. So I’m forced not to talk (to the relief of many, I’m sure), am having antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medicine. I’ve never been so grateful for drugs. Had this darned (extremely) sore throat struck a couple of weeks ago, I’d have been forced to stick it out with the only help of paracetamol, which has proved useless in this case. Now that I’m not breastfeeding any longer (gosh, that was painful to write!), I can drug myself silly if I like.

Speaking of medicines, my mind is in Manchester right now. I’ve been feeling very absent-minded today, all out of sorts. Nothing new, you say. True, but today I am particularly bad. I just realised, after seeing a photo on Facebook posted by my sister, that the reason is Miki. In less than 24 hours, her operation will start. It’s a very delicate procedure, not without potentially catastrophic side-effects. While these are rare, and Miki has already undergone this surgery before, I cannot help but worry. This is why I ask you, again, to spare a few moments to pray for her or send her positive thoughts. I’m sure she’ll be fine, but still…

This photo was taken a couple of years ago, but it’s still one of my favourites.

Meanwhile, Robin is keeping me on my toes. She’s also keeping me smiling. I dare you not to smile at this chubby face:

This weekend

Aaand it’s Monday again.

How was your weekend, friends?

Ours was good. There’s always room for improvement, like having the husband with us all the time, but that’s not very realistic. Even so, our weekend was full of good moments and even though I didn’t get to sleep in or have breakfast made for me yesterday, I got to spend Mother’s Day with the two girls who made me a mum which is more than I could ever wish for. On days like yesterday, I can’t help but think of all the women out there struggling with infertility and all those mums who have been through the worst possible pain, that of losing their child. So being able to hug my daughters, take care of them and kiss them goodnight feels like a luxury I’m grateful for.

Here goes this weekend’s photofest:

We had lunch by the seaside on Friday. Robin LOVES ice cream but I feel guilty when I allow her to have sugary treats, so I’ve been compromising by giving her the biscuit that comes with it. She doesn’t complain.

Maia couldn’t wait to give me her Mother’s Day card so she did so as soon as she was out of school on Friday. This is the poem she wrote at the back of it. Honestly, where did her teacher get the letter O from?!

Saturday morning was spent mostly playing at home. Robin managed to get some climbing practice thrown in. I cannot lose sight of her for fear of finding her perched on a table or cupboard. Here she’s climbing on her poor sister.

We also took Maia to yet another ballet lesson. We waited mostly in the car, where I got sunburnt by the rays coming in through my window! Robin was sweaty but happy guzzling her water.

And eating her take-away lunch.

Saturday night we left the kids at home with our best friends and went to a wedding. The location was stunning, food was excellent and we laughed till we cried. It was good.

Yesterday was the first time Robin wore short sleeves this summer (because summer is most definitely here already). I couldn’t get over her chubby wrists! My heart melts!

We spent the afternoon playing games with cousins, best friends and godfathers who are the BEST entertainers outside Cirque du Soleil.

We caught up with best friends while counting down the days till summer holidays start and we can start living in each other’s pockets.

We spent a lot of time cuddling babies and catching up with cousins.

Especially this pretty cousin who leaves today for her next big adventure. We miss her already and can’t wait to have her back next week.

And, all the while, this little girl was either climbing some more…

…perfecting the headstand with her dad…

…or making the acquaintance of a purple dinosaur.

One of my favourite moments was coming upon this note that Maia wrote about the spinning top my parents gave her. She hasn’t quite mastered the technique of spinning it, but she obviously liked the gift.

Friday love

Can you believe it’s Friday again? What are your plans for the weekend?

We’ve got a wedding to go to (sans kids!), ballet lessons and workshops to rush to and friends to catch up with. I also have a lot of reading to do, children permitting.

For those of you on Instagram, I’ll be posting throughout the weekend. You can find me under islandfairy. I hope to ‘meet’ more of you over there too! I’m pretty addicted to it, much to my husband’s amusement (I used to be the one telling him to get his cameras out of our faces…now I’m the one brandishing a camera or mobile phone every three minutes).

This is us during our first dance at our wedding. It has nothing to do with this post but lately I’ve found myself thinking a lot about that day, especially this moment right here.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a link to the post I wrote for Sunday Circle this week. Speaking of which, how has becoming parents affected your relationship with your partner? I’d love to read about your experiences.

Who is this girl?

Two days ago Robin turned eleven months. I’m finding it hard to digest the fact that she’ll be one in less than a month.

I’m also finding it hard to believe that the little energy bomb zooming around the house is the same sweet, laid-back baby I gave birth to eleven months ago.

The other day, I was at the computer writing a quick email and she was playing next to me on the floor. At a certain point I looked back to check on her and this is what I saw:

She was sitting comfortably and didn’t want to come down.

Confusion ensued. How had she got there? Had the husband sat her on the toy box and left the room? He might encourage the girls to be adventurous, but even he would consider doing something of the sort as irresponsible. So, after much protesting from the little lady perched on the box, I managed to get her down on the floor (obviously, after taking this photo as proof). Then I moved away from her and waited to see what she would do.

And this is what she did:

She has also been getting to things we though she would never reach, like laptops on tables, cables in closed boxes (on tables), newspapers (again on tables).

I managed to save one page.

Yesterday I took the girls to the swings and, for the first time, the baby swings weren’t broken or too dirty or too hot to put Robin in them. So I sat her in one of them, expecting her to want to get off it or be scared. I couldn’t have been further off the mark. She swung herself for five minutes (I didn’t even push her once), all the while looking around her and calling out at the children who were playing football near us.

WHO IS THIS GIRL?!

Meet Rose

Next week will be a very important (and stressful) one for our family.

My beautiful niece will undergo surgery once more, this time on her other ear (you can read more about her story HERE). She will get a cochlear implant in her left ear too, in the hopes that her hearing will improve further. She already hears, but only from the one ear which is already implanted. This obviously means that she cannot always tell the direction sounds are coming from, so hopefully the second implant will help with that problem.

Her language skills are coming along nicely now. She understands almost everything and will try to communicate using her words as much as possible. When she is stuck, she makes sure to get her point across using gestures and won’t give up until she is fully understood. She’s one clever cookie that one.

She recently fell in love with a rag doll from an online seller. The problem is that these dolls are like George Clooney. We know they exist, but it’s near impossible to get one’s hands on them. They are sold by ballot, so you must be very lucky to be able to buy one.

Now, my sister is not one to be deterred easily. She bid for six different dolls, setting her alarm clock for 3am each time so she could attempt to buy a doll for her daughter when the ballot opened on the other side of the globe. All her attempts were futile.

If I had been in her shoes, I’d have looked elsewhere for a similar doll but what does my sister do? She buys some fabric and thread and makes her own doll, of course! She stayed up, hand-stitching, till the wee hours of the morning for two weeks till her little creation was ready. And please note that this was her first ever attempt at sewing anything!

I’ve already waxed lyrical about my sister’s talent as a cake decorator (you can see more of her creations on her Facebook page, Cakes by Xar), but I have to commend her for her determination in making her daughter’s wish come true. Her incredible talent for anything artistic is evident, so I won’t even try to comment on that!

Meet Rose, our newest family member! Isn’t she adorable?

Rose will be given to Miki when she comes out of the operating theatre, so it will be a surprise. I wish I could be there to see her reaction!

Meanwhile, please send your prayers and good thoughts my niece’s way. She will need every bit of positivity in the coming weeks.

This weekend

How was your weekend, dear reader?

Ours was full of sun, fun and games. I wish all weekends could be like this one. Here are far too many  some photos from last Saturday and Sunday, and if you still haven’t had enough of my photographic skills, you can find me on Instagram (username: islandfairy)…

This sweet baby started standing up. She will stand for hours if allowed to. She has also discovered she has a sense of humour and will crack us (and herself) up at every given opportunity.

We didn’t have much time indoors to try new foods and recipes, but she did try sweet couscous. This will be kept as a treat since it is made using a spoonful of sugar. She loved it…and was hyper for the whole afternoon.

We went for smoothies at our favourite (and best) smoothie place on this island, Acaii (you can find them on Facebook). It is owned by a friend who is also my namesake, who is also our hairdresser’s sister, who is also one of the nicest persons I know. So nice she allows Maia to sneak behind the counter and touch everything in sight.

While we were there, we spent some time playing with pebbles.

Robin was transfixed by the pebbles. She’s never allowed on a beach since she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. However, those pebbles were pretty chunky and we had a dummy at hand, so with her mouth safely stoppered, I allowed her to explore the beach.

She couldn’t get enough of them, picking one up, putting it back, picking another and examining it… (sidenote: she’s FINALLY perfecting her pincer grip. YAY!)

And I can’t enough of her chubbiness.

Maia has been collecting pieces of bamboo, like we don’t have enough rubbish in this house. One of her current favourite books is Bamboozled by Dr Seuss and it really got her into pandas and bamboo.

Natalie of Nat The Fat Rat (you should read her blog…she’s so funny!) recently mentioned the cartoon Small Potatoes. Out of curiosity, I looked it up on YouTube early on Sunday morning. This was my view for over an hour…

(And I’ve been singing its signature tune for the past three days!)

The Sunday morning ballet workshops have been a huge success with Maia. She’s loving them and now they have moved on to Sleeping Beauty. Here she is casting a spell on baby Aurora.
(And in case you were wondering, yes, she did wear the same dress two days in a row. It’s one of her new dresses and she would also sleep in it if I allowed her to)

Sunday afternoon Maia and I sneaked off for some alone time while Robin napped at my parents’.

This is my childhood ‘pool’ where I learned to swim.

We wrapped up the weekend with the man of the family, again in Xlendi.

Oh, and this little Robin bird has cut another tooth! Six teeth baby!

Robin’s meals

As you may have noticed, our little Robin bird has a healthy appetite. She has recently started refusing pureed food orelse she’ll have a few spoonfuls and then start spitting it out and smearing it on her hair. On the other hand, her excitement at the sight of our lunches and dinners is so great she often cannot express it. One of these days I’ll have to video her and show you because I can’t express in words how hilarious her tensing up and nervous giggling is.

So she’s been tasting most of our food and I’ve also started preparing more solid food specifically for her. My problem is finding the time to experiment with new things. Not only is it difficult to find the time to look up recipes and actually cook them, but most of the time, there isn’t much time for her to be able to eat at her own pace and for me to clean her up afterwards (sometimes it requires a bath or shower). After having our lunch, we usually rush out of the house to pick Maia up from school and her dinner time is usually the busiest time of the day for me (preparing our dinner, helping Maia finish her homework, Maia’s bathtime…the list is endless).

I am, however, looking up various recipes both online and on cookbooks because there’s only so much bread and pasta a baby can have. Meanwhile, these have been some of her firm favourites over the past two weeks:

White bread sandwich with tomatoes.

Same as above, with a side of peas.

Shredded chicken…again with a side of peas.

Pasta with cream cheese (and the ever-present side of peas).

Banana remains her favourite fruit, although she has loved everything I’ve given her so far.

Cheerios…her snack of choice. She is OBSESSED with them.

She has also tried and loved cubed boiled potatoes, chickpeas, shredded pork, pasta with tomato sauce, fish and buttered toast. This weekend we’ll be introducing polenta and couscous too.

Any suggestions for more exciting meals are more than welcome! She will try anything and has never refused any food, so the more varied the better.

Field day

Discussing tactics with her team mates.

Robin was keen to support her sister, even though she was wearing the wrong colour.

There she goes!

Having a well-deserved break.

Posing with her medal.

Yesterday was Field Day at Maia’s school, so her dad, sister and I went to cheer her on. Both the husband and I were surprised at the very low turnout of parents. Sure, most of them would have been at work at that time, but that still didn’t justify the handful of people supporting the children.

Anyway, Maia was on the coral team, which looked very pink to me but she insisted it was NOT pink. I know it sounds soppy, but I’m so proud of this girl. She has her moments, like when she insisted her hair be pulled back neatly at bedtime last night (as in gelled back), but seeing her giving it her all and discussing the races with her friends made my heart swell. I am both anxious and excited to see the person she will grow into.

Oh, and her team won the bronze medal! Go corals!