10 things we enjoy least with Cormac aged 12mths (just)

See others here.

Mine.

1. That this stage involves so much falling over and hurting oneself, and that on top of that your father fell over this weekend while carrying you and hurt you both. You ended up with stitches above your eyebrow and he ended up with a broken arm. Was not fun for any of us. Poor you.
2. That you can sleep through the night, you did it once when you were one year and one day old (from 8pm-6.30am), but you don’t. The hours from 2am to 6am when you quite often wake incredibly frequently. And particularly on my work nights where you are either looking for reassurance or supplementing missed feeds from the day but either way it makes me rather tired for work.
3. That we are the kind of parents who give our toddler food to eat and then let him wander around with it and then have to run around everywhere afterwards cleaning it all up.
4. The way you post food you are sick of down my cleavage while I am holding you.
5. When you put my Ray Bans in the dishwasher.
6. Nappy changes. Oh, how I still remember hating nappy changes from the first time around and I have grown no more fondness for this struggle with an unco-operative and pantless baby the second time around.
7. The way you bite your family when you are really tired and no-one has taken you to bed. Other annoying things you do only when you are really bug-eyed tired is claw your family’s faces off and sometimes hit yourself.
8. That you have started tantrums already. The going limp, the throwing yourself backwards, the bowing on the ground with your head down and wailing.
9. Letting you play with the telephone and how now when I go to use the phone you cry angrily at me for not giving you your precious ‘toy’ phone back and how could I then play with that in front of you? Also, you have broken four phones, my computer mouse, my glasses and my sunglasses and I am such an idiot for letting you.
10. That you have started to run-toddle away from me sometimes when I am coming to get you and how I know I shouldn’t let this turn into a game because it will one day be dangerous but it is so goddamn cute when you giggle and run-toddle, checking over your shoulder that I haven’t caught up to you yet.
11. Being away from you at work for three long days each week and knowing that you don’t have me (or my breastmilk) when you are feeling tired and sad. (Although each evening returning home from work feels like Christmas; the sense of anticipation is so exciting for me).
12. When you get grizzly and won’t be held by anyone else but me and my back is aching and I want to get on with things, and how easy you make it for your father to get out of it all.
13. Some of the things that I have become slack about as a mother this second time around: cleaning baby’s ears; insisting that you not be fed biscuits/cake/icecream; playgroups and socialising with other babies; and a bunch of other things I am too ashamed to admit.
14. Endlessly supervising you so you don’t mess up whatever your sister is doing/playing, particularly if she has a friend over to play.

His.

1. You are finally developing a tiny little heart. Though it is still a lot bigger than your sister’s.
2. The whingeing (only happens when you are tired or hungry or bored or lonely, but you add those up and it is quite a bit).
3. The nappy change struggle.
4. The big cut on your head that reminds me how I fell over while carrying you and dropped you on the ground.
5. How obsessed you are with climbing on top of everything combined with no concept of being able to fall.
6. The book PETS, after reading it eight times in a row that one gets a bit boring.