little did we know...

So there we were at midnight; himself, myself and the crazypixie, sitting in bed eating bananas and toast and laughing at how we’ve mellowed over the past year.

Pre-crazypixie we would look at other kids and parents and sagely (or so we thought) shake our heads, saying ‘we’ll never do that’. Our kids would only eat in the kitchen, have beautiful wooden toys (no plastic allowed) that would be passed down the generations, and they would never, never be snotty. Yes, I admit, himself and myself are both control freaks and perfectionists (who else would have us?)

Well, little did we know…

We’ve now learnt that a teething baby is a snotty baby and besides attaching a little snot catching trough under their nose there is no way to keep it under control.

We do have the wooden toys but we also have the plastic ones, but do seem to have avoided the worst of them – you know those that sing alphabets at you incessantly in an English or American accent. Guess which ones crazypixie prefers?
And, I admit, we have even, on occasion given her boxes of tissues and tubes of nappy cream (shock, horror) to keep her amused for a while.

As for eating in the kitchen, well that does happen most of the time but we have had a pizza picnic on the sitting room floor (the carpet will never be the same) and last nights midnight feast to lighten the tedium of another bout of teething was a welcome break from the norm - mind you sleeping in toast crumbs and banana mush is a tad uncomfortable so we may have to rethink future menus.

On the other hand I never thought I’d be breastfeeding a 13 month old, with the prospect of tandem feeding growing ever closer, not to mention carrying her in a sling while seven months pregnant. Nor had we imagined the strength of personality of our crazypixie and how we would have to work out ways to live together as opposed to us just imposing our ideas on her.
Yes, the past year has definitely been both a humbling and learning experience.

As a result, we so do not judge other parents anymore (well, a lot less any way). We know that they, mostly, are just some poor eejits like ourselves struggling to do their best for their little ones.