What Can a Newborn Teach Us?

This is me missing Idris's smiles with the camera as he bestows them so rapidly

and I am too taken up with smiling back to react quickly enough!!! He's seven weeks old now and chats with me in little oohs and ahhhs! He's also gaining more control of his arms but only enough to bop himself in the face on a regular basis! We laugh at him and he beams back!!



A lot actually! And there was me thinking that I knew the ropes third time around but my sweet boy has plenty to say! He is so wonderful and making me into a better mummy which I never expected - I thought I would be tired and grouchy and therefore less patient and not such a good mummy but not so. Our pace of life has slowed to accomodate Idris and we are all reaping the benefits as Mummy says 'yes' more rather than 'maybe later' or 'not now, I'm busy' - I'm loving that!

Sometimes when Idris won't be comforted by anything that I have to offer, I put him down by himself somewhere peaceful where he can see out of the window. He becomes still and peaceful..... sometomes staying totally alert and other times going drowsy. It reminds me that we all need our own space at times, we all need time to re-fuel and re-energise by being alone. I try to find this for the girls when they show me that they need it and I protect some time for my husband to have space. I'm working on making sure that I get the alone time I need also!

Idris has also caused me to re-assess how much I may be 'micro-managing' the girls. I always thought that I was very 'hands off' but have realised that I had crept into bad habits and was doing too many things for them beacuse it was quicker or easier in the short term to do that. Having my arms full of a snuggly baby means that I am taking a step back and having the girls be more responsible for their own things again. Generally they are loving it but some things need a little more coaching. It is great for their language skills too as I sometimes have to give quite complex verbal instructions and the girls have to listen carefully to follow them!