Chilling like a boss
Those of you who are Game of Thrones fans will appreciate the analogy: Mother of Lions. I am not quite in the realm of Khaleesi and her dragons but we are all mothers right? My husband’s totem is the lion hence his reference to me as the Mother of Lions. I referred to Malaika as our lion cub before she came and she’s proving to be true to the nickname. I appreciate that all babies have nails that grow at the rate of knots that need to be cut quite often, they end up being sharp because they use them as tools scraping at everything but my daughter has taken to scraping and pinching me…. I can see the puzzled look on your face. If I ended up in ER they’d probably call child services for me, not her, its ‘mother abuse’… LOL! So this is what she does, when she’s breastfeeding she likes to clutch, pinch and pull at things, I guess it gets boring and she needs something to do. The objects of her entertainment end up being my arms, lips, nose, neck and anything else fleshy enough for her to claw at. It’s a real problem, I need a trauma unit! I hope it is just a phase and she’ll move on to the next thing much like the grunting she was doing a few weeks ago. Why let her do it you say, why not stop her? I refer you to Einstein on the definition of : “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”, she doesn’t understand why I keep stopping her, she doesn’t understand me when I say ‘Malaika that hurts mhamha don’t do that’, if I pull away it is I who has wronged her, she gets annoyed and tightens her grip, hmmm, so lest I do become insane, I will let her be and hope she moves on soon… like tomorrow.
Nursing Necklace
In the meantime I have come across Nursing Necklaces, the very efficient and helpful Angie is sending me one from her Etsy Store. It is supposed to give her a focal point, something she can reach for, grab and play with saving the ‘feeder’s’ hair, clothes and skin. It also doubles up as chewbeads for teething. Hmmm, I hope it works, don’t need scratched up arms for summer.
On the subject of moving on or more precisely growing up she certainly is. She no longer looks like a baby, she looks like a little girl. She’s sitting up quite well one her own and moving around more easily. Yesterday for about 20 minutes whilst I was making more chapati/roti (her current favorite snack that she chomps with her gums) she got the giggles. She giggled at anything and everything.
She continues to be very engaged and alert to her surroundings, something that people always comment on when we are out and about. Another person cautioned me last week that I ought to be careful, she’d get stolen, you have to wonder if this is a valid concern. Imagine the reaction of the grandparents if such a thing happened, how would you even say, ‘Mwana abiwa’ (the child has been stolen). Good luck getting a ransom payout. Bhabha is the only one paying the bills whilst Mhamha is on EI/benefit and the grandparents only have Zim kwachas (dollars) that you’d return quicker than Western Union could wire it to you!
In the meantime we count down to all our summer visitors Gogo, Mai Nove, Nove, Auntie Ethel, Jakob, Auntie Lucy, Mbuya, Sekuru, Uncle Nelson … Oh my, even the Queen doesn’t get this lucky…
Chapati chomping
kukura 