M – Being forced into spreading this picture layout over a number of posts has made it easier on the eyes (not such an overload of pictures all at once). Needless to say, other posts may involve her sleeping, but they will not be centred on her slumber. So peacefully she seems to sleep. Even so it was noticed recently with smiles how she was moving her hands the way she does when she is indicating she is ‘all done’ (her very first words). Makes one wonder what goes on in there. Was it because she was sick and didn’t want to feel so yucky any more? Was she full from her last meal? Was she being forced to have something she didn’t like? We’ll never know. I hope you enjoy these pictures of her dreaming wonderous worlds. 

AUGUST 2009  

August 4th

August 7th

SEPTEMBER 2009

September 24th

September 29th

OCTOBER 2009   

October 27th

NOVEMBER 2009   

November 17th

JANUARY  2010 – and so the next year begins. 

January 27th

For January I had to cheat and use the last picture after her first birthday. Even then I had to wait until she was asleep for hours. Makes the following day tiring. 

M – this picture on post placing was getting time-consuming, causing me to rethink a bit and cut these posts with pictures of Mango sleeping into smaller chunks. This means there are more posts mainly on pictures of her. Asleep. 

MARCH 2009 (continued) 

March 30th

APRIL 2009 

April 26th

MAY 2009  

May 17th

JUNE 2009   

June 26th

June 27th

JULY 2009   

July 20th July 27th

Still more pictures yet…

M – This is not really a post about anything aside from pictures of Mango sleeping. I have noticed it has been harder to catch her sleeping (without waking her) as she has become more and more alert. As a side note, Mango was born January 10th, 2009.  

JANUARY

January 11th

January 13th

FEBRUARY  

February 3rd

February 13

 MARCH  

March 21st

Stopping this post here because I found too many pictures for one post (and because it is haunted, messing up my work here). To be continued though.

Hah, your restraints are no match for the Great Mango-dini

M – Granted, the picture is two months old, but her sleeping positions have not changed all that much since then. I remember how worried we were the first time we saw her body all squished in a corner or distorted in a way no-one could find comfortable enough to sleep in. Daycare is well under way and still stressful. Now if we inherited enough money to retire already (hint hint), then one of use could spend all day with her. Of course we are kidding, but it emphasises how important we feel our input into her development to be. Besides, we miss her.

I know we must remind ourselves that she over a year old and it is important for her to improve her social skills blah blah blah.

 Bearing in mind she’ll remember nothing, it still feels better to have her in a place we feel safe leaving her (not happy though, but that’s ‘case we are her parents. She is sick tonight, but after a few minutes of crying, she has fallen to sleep deeply enough that she did not awaken when I inadvertantly coughed a few times a short while ago (we are a bit sick too). Yay Mango. Heal on baby!

Just in case, I’d like to thank the support people are offering us (well, Mango) if  the need arises.

M – Just letting people know that there are some posts ready to go, but our computer is giving us grief about uploading our pictures from our camera memory cards. Sheesh. I prefer at least one picture of Mango with each babbling monologue (it’s nicer to have pix to look at than just pages of text).

M- Let me begin by adding a caveat in that once two or more weeks have passed by since January 1st, resolutions no longer apply.  

I suppose since it’s a new year, we should be making resolutions that will improve ourselves. Not so for us, at least not yet. Too many things to deal with all at once. D has restarted work this week, forcing Mango to adjust to a new routine (sadly involving daycare). Not surprisingly, the change has been harder on D than Mango. Personally, I think she has become addicted to her time with our precious/precocious child and is feeling she is somehow being less of a parent by not being there for her (she is the best mother ever though). Now while I wished the year of maternal leave could be extended, it wasn’t. Changes happen and some are harder to work through than others. Looking for a silver lining has been difficult. For example, if having to go to work reminds you once again of how bad/mean/thoughtless/etc. people can be and that it should make your time at home more precious, it also serves as a reminder of what you are missing out on while at work for those 8+ hours.  

Don't cry Momma. You can borrow my blankie, 'k?

 

We are forced to grow here, and it really hurts.

M – Looking back at an earlier post, while was D reminded of her age, Mango just had her first birthday yesterday (January 10th). For various reasons, her party was on the 7th, but even though she was tired, it was a successful venture. She won’t remember it, but we have pictures, oh yes we do.:)  She was toddling/running around the room holding some blankets (and tripping over them too). It seems she enjoyed that more than her wrapped presents for a while. After someone (D) started tearing some open, she got involved in the unwrapping. Even with her very first ever birthday cake, she started daintily, just picking at the icing with her fingers. She did end up with a food-smeared face though.

Yay! sugar!

Let Childhood begin!

M – There are so many things that I want to add to this blog, but by the time I get to posting, the moment has passed (Mango is not even a year old yet). However, None of are getting younger, and there was a change in decades for someone here recently. While this blog seems to inexorably end up with my monologues about Mango (and who wouldn’t, right?), she is not the only family member here. A decade older (and *cough* wiser), D continues to make the best start possible for Mango, I wrenched her from that to have an evening out and while there was no cake  (other relatives gave her one and it seemed silly to have 2 cakes in a weekend), I did manage to find a few things she said she liked. All I know is that with her wielding the camera like it was attached to her hand and multitudes of Mango pictures being churned out (family history rearing its head), it was decidedly difficult to find a picture of her that was less than a month old. 

Is it a good picture of Mango?

 

 I guess I’ll get around to cropping the picture later… 

Oh! Merry Christmas (Happy Holidays if you prefer) and a wonderful New Year’s Eve (for those it applies to; for others, love your life anyway). 

I both send out and give everyone stopping by here a great big hug.

M – Mango has almost always been cheerful and easygoing, but she is now starting to develop her sense of humour and initiate ‘jokes’. I put that in quotes because while she is cute, her attempts at making jokes are funny – for a while. Her newest ‘thing’ (as of about a month ago now) is to take a piece of food, pretend to put in your hand/mouth. She then pulls her hand back and eats it herself, laughing at how hilarious she is. It makes for a messy meal and fun for all of us.  

Silly Daddy, that's not food.

 We are just giving a damp face-cloth back and forth in this picture, but it made her giggle like silly, making us enjoy it too. She was kind enough to offer her soother once, but she faked out putting it in our mouth and stuck in back in hers, reveling in her comedic brilliance.

M – Is Santa real or not? There are many perspectives to look at it from, but I feel the most important part is to enjoy the season and holiday without succumbing to the pressure to buy gifts for everyone (not that we do, as we are frugal and that doesn’t seem to detract from us enjoying ourselves).  The one thing I didn’t like this year was that all three of us got gut-wrenchingly sick. On the plus side, family was visiting and we had support there. Also, since we got during the holidays, we didn’t miss any paid work.

However, Mango was cheerful throughout it all; even having fun playing moments after throwing up. As she has never really been sick before, she seemed more concerned about what she was doing, rather than how she was feeling. This’ll be the first Christmas for Mango and I’m sure that years from now, she will have questions for us about her reactions to the stranger in red.

She did make it out to see Santa once, it was a ‘Signing Santa’, there to ‘listen’ to all the children who use American Sign Language (ASL) as a way of communicating. She had fun.

That guy really knows how to colour coordinate with my red outfit.

You seem nice. Momma, is he nice?

The picture you don’t see is the one of her crying in Santa’s lap. I’m sure there is one somewhere.