Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

I love this You tube video and showed it to my big Iron-Man and Robot fan Maeve aged 2 Years 3 months old.

Her first comment was more… again!!! Her next one one was “its Maeve”.

My Daughter the super smart super hero.

Last Night Maeve had her first nightmare – well the first we recognized as such. Maeve has been a bit “clingy” of late because of a couple of instances where she has wandered off in shops. You all know what happens you bend down to pick something up and by the time you stand up the wee one has gone – talk about panic by the parent but it must be much much worse for the baby concerned. You know you are little, not too sure about the world and then mommy and daddy are not there. Anyway Maeve did a disappearing act in a shop for a few seconds yesterday and it really must have spooked her since afterwards she was sullen, quiet and clingy. Maeve would not allow me out of her sight.

Getting her to bed was a real problem and soon after she went to sleep I heard moans and little cries – I went into her bedroom and saw she was asleep but restless turning over frequently. Maeve soon woke up and stood up for a hug. After a hug I took her into bed, Maeve snuggled up for re-assurance. I think Maeve was remembering the feeling of being abandoned. Poor lass.

I have never really been a fan of the “greeting card invented” days such as “Mothers Day”, “Fathers Day” or “Birthdays” if it comes to that – where is “Grandfathers day” or “Poor Day” I ask; anyway I digress. I had planned to take my wife and daughter to Dublin zoo for some while now and mothers day (provided the weather was good) was an ideal opportunity. It proved to be a treasure. We all enjoyed it – Tigers, Wolves,Elephants and Meerkats being my favourites. The look of sheer joy on Maeves face when she first saw a real monkey was one I will remember for a long time. Maeve ran pretty much all the three hours we spent in the zoo – so for the first time Maeve fell asleep at 19:00 and slept though till 08:00 the next morning.

Here are the latest pictures of my Daughter – she is growing up fast now, and her English is expanding daily:

Potty training at the creche has paid off. Although my daughter has been dragging me to the toilet help her “turn on the light” and “lift her” onto the baby toilet seat cover for a while now; but yesterday was the first time the call for “wee wee” actually resulted in some of the afore mentioned stuff. The funny thing was she was so proud at doing it – as well she should.

I am continuously amazed at how fast she picks things up like words and phrases and has figured out that when I pick up my wallet it usually means I am leaving the house – so she rushes off to put on her shoes and coat (which she can do at 2 years 1 month old) so she can come along.

Its the end of February and my wife is off on her usual monthly business trip to Germany. Naturally this means I do the crèche run – no problem.

Well today on the way home Maeve showed off her new comprehension skills regarding what people say. I know that the crèche have been undertaking word-and-picture flash cards recently because my wife mentioned it and Maeve has been using more and more words like “shower”,”bath”,”fish” and so on recently. Well as I said we were driving on the way home – Maeve in the back – and I said “What is Maeve doing?” to which she replied in clear English “Picking Nose”. True enough when I was looking in the mirror she was well engrossed with that task. A little while later my 2 year old said “Where’s Mommy?” to which I replied “Mommies in Germany for a few days”. A few seconds later Maeve used for the first time the one word that can cause no end of problems – “Why”. “Why” she said … “Because mommy works for a German company” …. “Why” …. “Because she needs to meet people in Germany” … “why” …. and so on. It’s fantastic Maeve understands the meaning of the word “why” and has an inquisitive mind; but I can see that there are going to be some long conversations as she gets older that I need to do some planning for – especially for those uncomfortable questions about why she cannot do something (drink, drive etc) whilst we can.

The clock is ticking and the ticks are getting louder.