To My Peanut

The start of a Blog, the start of a new life

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Quick Learner


I love to sit for ages just watching Kayla play, she makes me laugh sometimes and sometimes I can't believe the things she does!

I wanted to get her off the (baby-)bottle, but she's so used to having her milk from her (baby-)bottle she doesn't like it when we give it in a cup. We've tried to give her juice, milk and water in various different sippy-cups, but she prefers milk in a (baby-)bottle and will drink anything else out her sippy-cup by herself, she can also hold her bottle up to drink by herself. She also drinks juice and water from the bottles they come in, but with help from someone, she does it so nicely, making a puckered position with her lips to drink. She also knows how to drink from a straw, she learned that when there's enough liquid in her mouth then she has to pull away. The other day we went to the swimming pool and put some water in her bucket and gave her a cup to play with, I was so amazed when I saw her drinking the water from the cup without messing all by herself! Another milestone accomplished! She's such a quick learner!

She had a doctor's appointment the other day, he was very happy with her development, he said she was doing very well. He asked me if she was walking yet and I said she was already running! He was surprised and asked if I was being serious and I said I was. He also asked if I was already brushing her teeth, I said yes and he replied that I don't wait for him to say anything... I started giving her a toothbrush to chew on a long time ago, I've always been worried about her teeth, every now and then I try to brush them myself a little, there's another word Kayla has already learned - brush. She's got mommy's big teeth!

Living life one step at a time, appreciating its little gifts.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Nice Baby Poems

I wish I knew how to write poems, but I don't, so here are a few I found that I liked:



Babies bring joy,
They make you happy,
They kick about in the air,
Wearing a Nappy

Their ever smiling face,
Spreads the feeling of love,
Their shiny wonderful eyes,
Twinkle like stars above.

Babies truly are wonderful,
Brighten up your life they do,
They just do their 'baby-thing',
And entertain you.
http://www.indianchild.com/cute_baby_pictures.htm

If a child lives with criticism,
he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance,
he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
he learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love in the world.
http://www.indianchild.com/baby_poems.htm

This little tiny baby
Was sent from God above
To fill our hearts with happiness
And touch our lives with love
He must have known
We'd give our all
And always do our best
To give our precious baby love
And be grateful and so blessed
http://www.indianchild.com/baby_poems.htm

A baby is cuddles and tickles on toes,
the sweet scent of powder, a kiss on the nose!
A baby is teddy bears, rattles, and pins,
meals at midnight...giggles and grins.
http://www.indianchild.com/baby_poems.htm


Itsy – Bitsy fingers,
Wiggly little toes,
Teeny – tiny tummy,
Baby button nose -
Lullabies & Laughter,
Lots of “baby things,”
And then to fill your heart,
The Love a baby brings.
http://www.babysite.org/babysite/sidene/poems7.htm

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Trying to Pass the Time

I'm at work at the moment and have nothing to do, so after being sick of surfing the internet, I decided to write a new post... I really don't know what to write...

Things with Kayla have been going well, she has her moments like everyone else...

We've decided to buy a house and a friend who is in the building business showed us one the other day, he'll help us all he can for us to get the house, it is a bit out of town, but it's a nice home for our little family. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 and a half bathrooms, a big sitting-room and big kitchen, a garage that fits 3 cars or 2 cars and an office (Orlando wants to make an office) and there's a piece of land, not very big, for us to make a little garden which is good for Kayla to play in, it also has 2 verandas and one is big enough to put a table and a few chairs so we can just chill outside, the neighbours seem ok, we didn't meet any, but our friend told us a bit about them. Now all we need is a loan from the bank and then the nightmare will start, so much paper-work! Welcome to Portugal! I'm so nervous and anxious, I hope everything goes well, I really like this place and it will be something we can call ours, although we will be paying it off for nearly the rest of our lives, unless we decide to sell, but it's too soon to think about selling, lol, we haven't even bought it yet! I was so happy when my boyfriend told me he spoke to our friend and that he'd show us a house and I was thinking of taking photos when we went to see it, but I forgot!!! BAH! So if all goes well, we might be living there maybe in two months, but I don't know how all this bank business and paper-work works, so I can't say for sure... If we get the place and after we've moved in, we will have to rearrange our lives, not only financially, but seeing as it's a bit far we have to sort out waking up times and leaving the house times, dropping off Kayla, picking up Kayla, supper, etc, etc, etc... Uffa, I see we've got a lot of work ahead, but it's all worth it!

I don't know what else to say, I'm bored, MSN was blocked, no one at the office can use it anymore (again), it's a safety measure, we can't afford to get a virus in the system!

Be back another day to update!

Monday, August 08, 2005

First Time Experience

Although everything that's happened has been my first experience to having my own child, everything Kayla goes through is her first time too.

I often think, when she's being very inquisitive about things, that she's seeing (most) things for the first time and even if she's seen these things before, she's still learning about them and always shows the same marvel than the first time. It's amazing how much a baby's brain has to take in, especially in the first year, when they have to learn so much, how much they observe every detail of something they're holding, things we don't even pay any attention to. When she started observing things, she'd see a tiny little spec on the floor and go touch it with her finger, something I wouldn't have seen even sitting there on the floor with her! They have to learn to grab something, which isn't very easy in the beginning, Kayla used to concentrate so hard her whole face showed it and even her breathing changed. Then they need to roll over, sit up, stand, talk, understand what we're saying, learn to concentrate, walk, although some babies don't do all of this before they're one, it still is something they need to achieve and that we just take for granted. Every little accomplishment is great to watch.

I am so grateful for the bright shining star I have, I know a lot of babies are born with disabilities and most parents love their babies all the same and don't want people feeling sorry for them, because it doesn't make them less happy, our children are always our children no matter what happens, I admire these parents who have all the hardships of going to doctors and doing everything in their power to make their children happy and as healthy as possible.

I saw a documentary about Feral Children, children who were brought up by animals or who's parents locked them in a room with no love or attention, leaving them to grow by themselves (or with a brother or sister). The saddest to me are the children who are locked up, especially if they're locked up without any brother or sister, they can't see what it's like outside, they don't learn how to speak or they have very poor speech, their bodies look like the bodies of children maybe 5 years younger, etc, it's heartbreaking! Although the stories of children brought up by animals are also sad, they have had the love of the animals, who cared for them and defended them. What I learned about this is that there is a window that children learn certain things, so if they're not taught to speak at the right time, their speech will never be very good or they might not be able to learn how to speak at all, because they missed that window, which applies to other things as well like walking and even learning how to socialize. I's very difficult for these children to relate to other human beings and they might never be able to learn this because they missed that window. These stories make me remember that I'm between the most blessed people in the world, I've got so much to be grateful for, especially my little star.

There are people out there that have good lives, great children, great jobs, great friends, but they still feel depressed and empty, these people shouldn't be criticized because of their feelings, they shouldn't be put down for having it all and feeling like they do, they're not bad people for what they feel, what these people need is love and preferably professional help, to help them cope with what they're going through, they need to get help before they end up doing something they can't take back. I'm writing this because I don't know who reads my blog, so I don't want people to think I've got it all and am grateful and happy, why can't they be, everyone is different and reacts differently to life, most times we can't help what we're feeling, but we can try and do something about it.

Some people, like myself, before we have our own children, already "know" how we're going to raise our children, we might say "Oh, I'll never do this" or "This is how I'm going to do things" or even "I would never do what that person does", but when we're faced with these situations everything changes. I used to say I would spank my child if she/he were naughty, now after all I've read I don't think that's the way to go, I also said I wasn't going to put her in dresses all the time and always dress her in pink especially because I don't believe in stereotypes, just because she's a girl doesn't mean we can't play rough and can't dress her in blue or dress her in "boy" clothes, of course I don't only dress her in dresses and pink clothes, but most times I think I do and she looks so adorable! Maybe there are more things I used to say that I do differently now, but at the moment that's all I remember... Also I didn’t think about things so deeply before Kayla came along, I thought of my future and my dreams and what I wanted, but it's not the same now. Now my dreams had to change and I think of her future, and our future as a family, I think of getting a house with place for her to play and that will be something we can pass down to her one day, I think of her welfare, thinking of things in the long-run... I think I think too much!

A funny thing happened the other day... When Kayla saw herself in the mirror for the first time, obviously she didn't know it was herself she was looking at, when she got used to the "other person" she was looking at, she used to love it, saying "baby, baby, baby, baby..." all the time. After a while she realized that was her and she still likes looking at herself, maybe because she's still learning what she looks like. Well, the other day I put her little pink and white flower dress on and her bandana, she wouldn't leave the bandana on, so I thought I'd try showing her how it looked on her head, and it worked! She left it on for most of the day! It's another thing she learned in this one year, style! Hehe! I'd like her to learn how to look after herself, both physically and mentally, she doesn't have to look perfect and dress how people want her to. The most important is I want her to learn that you can't read a book by its cover, looks can be important because they give out the first impression about someone, but that's not how we should see people, you can't make up your mind about someone just by looking at them.

Children are like sponges, they take in and imitate everything they see. I wrote in my last post how she shakes and then tries to open a packet of sugar, another thing she imitates is dunking her biscuit in a cup, she doesn't know we dunk it in what's in the cup, but she sees we dunk it and tries to do it even if the cup is empty, usually she lets her biscuit go and we have to go "rescue" it for her. They also imitate how we react to things, we don't hit her so she's learning not to hit, it is a faze all babies go through, but if we teach them it's not right, they'll learn eventually that it's not right. I can't say how she'll be later on when she's grown a little and has a brother or/and sister, but we're doing our best to give her a good example. She also imitates us when we pull faces, then she'll also pull the same face back to us and making sounds. It's so difficult to teach your child good values, being the sponges they are, like I always say, I try to do my best and take one step at a time, I have to give her space too, so she can become her own person and I must remember, it's her life, she can't live out my dreams, she has to live out her own dreams.

I used to say I want 10 children, then I changed it to 5, in the hospital I said there were NO MORE! But I would like to have more, maybe another 3, maybe another 2, or maybe just another 1, I told my boyfriend I wanted 5 and 2 could be adopted... I liked being pregnant and I like being a mommy, but we haven't decided when we'll have another, I have to wait two years anyway because the cesarean.

I found this nice poem and pasted a piece of it:

Fresh leaves change someone's life
each minute one more is born
to face the beginning of a sun
and lighting the way of this bloom.
Making plans for a white angel
the future is a ray of light in spring.

Our everyday life is a bloom
waiting for the first year of an angel
we can't wait for the next spring,
to celebrate a just born child under the sun.

(http://gamaspoetry.blogspot.com/2005/04/poem-children-of-spring.html)

Friday, August 05, 2005

Documentation of my one year old


I don't say my daughter is bright, smart and very adorable just because she's my daughter, but I really think she is and a lot of people are surprised she's only 1 year old, she's developing great and she's so cute!

She goes through these little fazes where she calls everything the same name, now she calls everything a "bus", seems like she really liked the word, she used to call a bike a bike and a car a car, but now everything is a bus. Anything that looks like a ball or balloon she'll call it "bola" (Portuguese) or balloon, balloon is another one of those words she can't stop saying. She grabs her grandfather’s hand and says "I see tractor", wanting him to go show her the tractor outside and after she's seen it or when she wants to see it she might say "I see, I see" or "tractor". She extends her arms upwards and says "up, up" wanting us to pick her up. She grabs her nappy and says "bin" and takes it to throw away. She grabs my hand and takes me to the kitchen for me to give her something to snack and says "mam-mam" (instead of nam-nam) or she might call something to eat "bombom" (Portuguese). If she feels something cold she'll says it's cold. If her shoe falls off her foot she says "shoe shoe" and when it's time to put on her socks and shoes she says "sock" or "shoe shoe". When we go outside she says "flower" all the time and looks up at a tree and says "tree". Whenever she sees a dog or a cat she'll open her eyes so wide and get so excited, and then she might call them "dog" (in English or Portuguese) or "cat" or say "auf" or "miau". She loves looking at books, she'll sit for a while just paging through. Sometimes I'm watching TV while she's playing and she'll come sit on the couch (which is low enough for her) or she'll come sit on my lap. She recognizes people and calls them by their names or recognizes names and points to the people. She loves eating apples! She hasn't managed to swallow the peel yet, she nearly chokes on it, so when she's done chewing the apple off the peel we ask her to give and she'll spit it out in our hand. She's got this habit now to scream, not because she's angry or anything, I think she likes to hear what her voice can do, especially when there's an echo. She is a bit naughty and stubborn sometimes, but I'm trying my best to show her discipline without spanking or hitting her hand. If a person pretends to cry she'll show sympathy and rub our face or hair and when we say to her "make nice" she'll rub our hair. She knows where her bum is, and she sounds so cute saying "bum". If we ask her what's this or what's that, she'll call it by it's name, if she doesn't call it bus or any other name she enjoys saying. She'll point to a parked car or bike or even a toy car and say "brrrmbrrrrm". If we ask her to smell something, like her feet, our feet or anything else, she'll squish it against her nose and pull a face then say "pooooooo". I watch her playing with her toys and laugh, she plays with her baby doll and smells its feet and says "pooo", gives it a kiss, rubs its head or gives it a hug. She'll pretend to drink something from a closed bottle making a drinking sound and when she drinks something, after a sip she might go "ahhhhh". She tries to speak on the phone or pretends to speak on the phone. If she feels something cold she'll say it's cold. When I fetch her after work she doesn't want to leave and she says "mo" instead of "no". At night she'll look up to the sky and say "moon" or "star". It seems like she says "I love you", but I'm not really sure if it is. She says "olha vê" which is very Madeiran, it's more or less "look see", or she can just say "olha". If she tries to call the dog she'll pat on her leg or the floor for it to come. She's noticed that when people open a little packet of sugar, they shake it first, so she shakes it and tries to open it. She knows the remote control changes channels and so she presses anywhere while she points it to the TV, she's mixed up all the channels a few times and had it in a weird language twice! She loves playing on the computer keyboard, which isn't very good when the computer is on... She points to her or our noses or mouth and says nose or mouth in her cute little way and sometimes mixes the words nose and mouth. If she sees someone sleeping she'll go "ssshhh" and put her finger to her mouth. If we ask her "give me five" she'll put up her hand so we can give her 5. If she hears people clapping hands, even if it's on TV, she'll also clap her hands and if we ask her to clap feeties, she’ll clap her feet. When I make bubbles with my hand for her while she's bathing, she doesn't want to touch it because she knows it will pop. I can't think of anything else to write about Kayla, but I'll back here soon!

I know being too advanced for your age isn't good either, but I believe stimulation is good, I'm going to always try and treat her her age, children's jobs are to play, not to be adults. All I can do is take one step at a time, enjoying every moment, a person never knows what could happen next and time goes by so fast, so I want to be able to look back with a smile on my face and say "Those were good days".