Valuable lessons learnt

Tilly's neediness continued today. Her desperation to be close to me has hit an all time high, it would be nice if it wasn't every minute of the day.  Within the first half an hour she'd managed to pull herself up onto various pieces of furniture and fall down bumping her head every time.  One bump was particularly bad on the hardwood floor.  After the third bump I put up the travel cot, to contain her and keep her safe.  She wasn't at all happy.  

The afternoon was spent trying to deal with her new mobile ways.  She is desperate to get to the television, each time I say 'no' firmly she looks at me and when I say it again she bursts into tears and comes crawling for a cuddle.   So for the final part of the afternoon I put her in 'prison' as Richard calls it, or a travel cot as it is more commonly known.  She certainly doesn't like it but at least it gives me peace of mind if I'm in the kitchen that she is not going to break a bone, crack her head open, eat something she shouldn't or get her fingers trapped in something.

Matilda is often better when we are out, so I went to the breastfeeding cafe. I haven't been to the Friday one in ages, when I arrived, I quickly remembered why.  Matilda played happily on the play mats and watched the other children arrive.  As always biscuits are provided, I gave Matilda one and she sat contently on the floor eating it and offering me a bit from time to time.  This was a new thing she learnt over Christmas, to give us something and then take it back. She took to her feet and stood up at the table, another little boy (only a month older than her) came over to see her, he was also desperately looking for more biscuits.  It was at this point that she learnt a tough lesson in life . . sometimes other people don't share.  She gave him her biscuit, which he promptly took and started to eat.  She looked on in horror and then burst into tears, he tried to feed it back to her but this made her howl even more.   She came for a cuddle and eventually calmed down.  

This afternoon I took her off to BabyStart, a sensory room run by SureStart.   I haven't been to BabyStart since she was 8 weeks old. It was such a horrible experience as she was screaming that I never dared go back.  Back then all the babies were much older so I thought I'd wait until she could enjoy it more.  Today the tables had turned there were lots of little babies and Matilda was the big one that could move.   It was nice to be out and she seemed to enjoy herself.   She certainly seemed fascinated by the babies and kept wanting to poke them in the face . . .yet more lessons followed . . . .