As a fantastic surprise, my brother booked tickets to come over from Sweden and stay with us from New Year’s Eve (Monday) for four days! Ian picked him up from the airport while Jessica had her morning nap and although she seemed a little shy at first when she saw Uncle Carl-Fredrik, she was soon dragging him too around the house to explore one thing or another…!
As a first outing we brought our guest to the 24-hour supermarket at Gatwick, so not the most exciting of places exactly, but we needed to stock up on this and that plus get some treats in for New Year’s Eve. Jessica was sitting in the child seat on the trolley, dangling her legs and looking around the place. Towards the end of our shopping visit she got a bit restless, so I fished her out to carry her, and over my shoulder she was giggling in her usual sociable way at a boy out with his parents, though the boy sulkily was ignoring her completely. At the till she started to complain, so my brother carried her through to have a look out of the window, which distracted her nicely. (Jessica isn’t too bad with shopping trips – though I guess we make a concerted effort to limit them in time – but they do tire her out if the store’s busy.)
The afternoon was pretty quiet, with both Jessica and Carl-Fredrik napping in different rooms (my brother’s excuse was getting up for his flight at 4.30am Swedish time that morning…!), but when Jessica woke up she was really upset and wouldn’t stop crying. I got quite concerned. None of the things I usually do to distract her worked… I thought it could have been her tooth coming through, her cold (she’s still congested and has a very runny nose) or her still feeling tired, or a combination.
It wasn’t quite time for her dinner but, as there was nothing else left to try, I sat her down in her highchair anyway. She refused her savoury food but fruit went down well: a handful of blueberries, half a banana and one and a half clementine, and after that she was much more cheerful. So maybe it was just hunger… I have wondered if she’s a little bit like Ian – not coping very well with low blood sugar levels.
We put her to bed for the night a little bit early again, like we have since we first noticed signs of her cold. New Year’s Eve for the rest of us was very much a quiet affair: a nice, home cooked meal with dessert followed by nibbles and drinks in front of the telly. In anticipation of Jessica’s usual early rise I went to bed well before midnight but Ian and my brother stayed up to see 2008 in.
A few little notes about things that Jessica has been doing in the last few days:
– Pressed one of the button on the control panel with her thumb, rather than using her whole hand.
– Throwing toys into the bath tub just for the fun of it, then watching them lying there wanting me to pick them up for her so she can throw them in again.
– Throwing her bath toys OUT OF the bath tub when having a bath (this morning) just for the fun of it. (Though Mummy couldn’t reach most of them to retrieve them for her – something I tend to only do up to 3 times, then they have to stay where they are.)
– Happily bouncing up and down bending her knees when her control panel toy is playing tunes – dancing!
– Had her gums and tooth brushed four times since Boxing Day.
– Been really, really cute (according to Carl-Fredrik)!
Ian’s pointed out that I should mention that for over a month now, Jessica has been a bit extra needy of Mummy – even if she is happily playing with Daddy, if she sees me, she’ll often want to walk over to me, then wrap her arms around my knees, burrow her head between my legs and only reluctantly let go. She laughs more in general when she plays with her Daddy, so I wouldn’t have thought she should necessarily prefer me, but I guess it’s one of those developmental things, and I must admit – as I’m so keen on her, purely selfishly it’s lovely to see her affection towards me…
Gabriella