Tortillas at Midnight

Recently, our small person turned the big ol’ 18 months (or if you’re sleep deprived and can never work out the months like me, it’s one-and-a-half) and I can’t quite believe it! That’s halfway to three, folks! It’s not really in terms of all the time passing that has my mind blown, because although most people would probably say, “oh, where did the time go?” I know exactly where the time went. I still feel deep in The Time. It’s been a non-stop whirlwind of tears and gummy grins and sleepless nights and making big, beautiful messes. Really it’s been just living out 547 days in their fullest, most humanly imperfect form. Whoever said, “the days are long, but the years are short,” was mighty spot on. What is making me feel so in awe of her being the big 18 (months, that is, I’m scared for when she actually turns 18!) is who she has become in this time, as well as the people my husband and I have become to grow alongside her. She’s fiery and sweet and bold and funny and determined. She l...

 These past few weeks have been pretty full on for everyone in our house. The toilet cistern that’s currently living in our toddler's bedroom is the least of it. But more on that later. It’s safe to say that things definitely look or get worse before they get better with any sort of house renovation. In a few weeks our kitchen will be done, the bathrooms will be done, the interior painting will be done, and all the flooring will be replaced. It’s so close, but right now it feels further away than ever. Our house has literally never looked worse, though maybe aside from when we first moved in and there was all this rubbish left behind and everything smelt of cat pee. But at least there was a kitchen then I guess. Last weekend I came across an unpleasant surprise 1am. There was water, everywhere. The puddles spread over the kitchen floor, into the laundry, into the hallway, and into the ground floor. Yikes. One big, pregnant yikes. For once I was very thankful to have our wakeful tod...

We don't have a happy baby. This isn't the sort of thing that you're meant to say, I'm well aware of that. And it's especially not the answer that people want to hear (particularly strangers) when they ask, "is she a good baby?" That's a question that annoys me more than most other parenting related questions (yes, even more so than the classic, "is she self-soothing yet?" or the ever-so patronizing, "you've got mum wrapped around your little finger, don't you?"). What even is a good baby? One that doesn't have any needs to be met an inconvenient times? One that self-cleans like those fancy blenders? Anyway, I digress.  Our baby, well now toddler, has never been what you'd typically call a happy baby. From day dot until she was 3-4 months old, she screamed inconsolably for hours every day. It took us three doctors until we finally found one that didn't brush us off and then diagnosed her with silent reflux. But t...