Stealth Pooples!

 

Yesterday, Tiger and I were a bit late leaving on our post-work Daddy hunt.

The reason?

Well, there is a new phenomenon occurring in the candy pink house. A phenomenon concerning, principally, Tiger, her nappy and ...

STEALTH POOPLES!

See, up until a few days ago, I have always been reasonably confident about the existence or lack thereof of a poople. For one thing, Tiger goes very tomato-face directly prior to a poople. And she makes her little zombie noises.

And, of course, there is the matter of the stinkyness ...

But in the past days, all these poople markers seem to have mysteriously disappeared. No tomato-face. No zombie noises and, most mysteriously of all, NO STINKY MALINKY! 

So, when Mummy goes to "do a quick nappy check before heading out", she is often astonished to find ... A STEALTH POOPLE HIDING IN THERE!

And Tiger looks at Mummy with an expression of, "What? What are you looking at? What's ... oh! A poople! How did that get there? It's not MY poople, if that's what you think. Someone ELSE must have put it there ..."

And Mummy asks, "Did the elves put it there, Tiger?"

And Tiger smiles her big, crazy smile. She thinks she's pulled one over Mummy again. But Mummy knows: Stealth pooples are Tiger's new favourite game. She thinks they're GREAT fun!

And Mummy? Mummy thinks life with her Tiger is a constantly-evolving challenge. And, even despite sneaky secret nappy occurrences (or maybe because of them), so very, very lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

I do not wish to nap, Mummy!

Yesterday, my Tiger made another Very Big Life Decision, affecting her little existence.

Up until yesterday, Tiger's naps have been pretty clockwork: 7:30, 11:30, 3:00, and then down to sleep at around 7:45. Yesterday ... notsomuch.

She went "down" (by which I mean she closed her little eyes in the baby carrier) as usual at 7:30. She woke up, licking the baby carrier (whole other post there) at 9:30, as usual.

But then 11:30 came and went and T was still very wakey. Slightly grizzlepotty but wakey. So we went for our walk, which usually settles Tiger.

This day?

Not. So. Much.

We arrived home, Tiger still wakey, at 12:30. I fed her, read her Hairy MacLary, I'm Green and I'm Grumpy and Belinda, did some Attempting-To-Roly-Poly, did our ABC cards, more ATRP, all of this interspersed with Attempting To Settle Petal ...

By this time it was 2:00. Tiger was still very wakey and a bit more grizzlepotty than is usual for a Tiger of her temperament. She was also hungies again so we had a bit of cereal and then finally ...

A YAWNIE!!! HUZZAH!!!

Cue elated singing of "Rockabye Tiger", tummy stroking and then ...

In carrier walking around room patting bottom few little grizzles but otherwise ...

SLEEPIES!

At 2:40. When usually Tiger is sleepies many hours before this.

Does this mean middle nap is gone? Does this mean my Tiger is EVEN MORE GROWN UP THAN FIRST THOUGHT?

It's not a bad thing. More time for stories, songs, hokey-pokies but ... 

My little Tiger. Not so little any more. I have to cherish, even more, each day I have with her. Because they are all so fleeting and so very lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Tiger is a big Tiger now!

A couple of nights ago I posted about a certain Tiger's night-time acrobatics, which prompted Husband Bear and I to declare the Death Of The Swaddle.

Last night, the swaddle was indeed relegated to the Pile Of Things We No Longer Use But Don't Have The Heart To Get Rid Of (five zero suits! *sobs*).

And Tiger was put in her Big Tiger Sleeping Bag!

And oh! My mother's heart. Simultaneously breaking at the confirmation that my Tiger is no longer a newborn any more, and bursting with pride that she's doing so well and growing up so determinedly ("adjusted age" - pah! I shake my Tiger paw at "adjusted age"!).

Oh, and I couldn't help a little smile too. Because, in her fairy-floss-pink bag, my sleeping Tiger looked not unlike a glow-worm. And I just wanted to grab her back out her cot and cover her with at least a hundred kisses.

But I didn't.

Because she was. Finally. Sleeping!

Of course, in the morning, Tiger had managed to wriggle so much that her suit was entirely back-to-front, but if she hadn't done that she wouldn't be my Tiger. And my Tiger is just so gosh-darn lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Supermarketeering with Daddy Bear!

When I was a little girl, one of my very favourite things to do was to go to the supermarket with my daddy (Poppy S). 

I know it sounds like a very peculiar thing to get excited about, but my dad made going to the supermarket an adventure. It wasn't simply shopping. It was ... SUPERMARKETEERING!

And now that my Tiger is a little bit older, she gets to go Supermarketeering too! Mummy pushes the trolley and Tiger is carried by Daddy Bear as we hunt through the shelves for cheese and bread and jam. Daddy Bear and Tiger natter away to each other as Tiger discovers Butter! and Milk! and APPLES!!!

She just looks so excited, her little ear-hatted head darting from side-to-side as she desperately tries to take in ALL OF THE THINGS!!!

It's just so lovely, watching her being utterly thrilled and captivated by the world and it brings back such wonderful memories of my own dad and me.

The circle of life. It's a truly magical thing.

~ Love, Miss Cackle.

Tiger the Acrobat!

 The Husband Bear and I have been deliberating for awhile over when the little Tiger should stop being swaddled like a newborn at bedtime and start sleeping like a big girl in a big girl sleeping bag.

Seems Miss Tiger grew impatient with Mummy and Daddy procrastinating and decided to take things into her own little hands!

It began at four am.

Tiger began making some ... funny noises.

Not cries. Not snores. Not the peculiar little grunty sounds she makes when she's working on something particularly spectacular in her nappy.

No, these were little burbles and gurgles and bleats of pure happy. 

"Should I go to her?" I whispered to HB.

"No," he whispered back. "It's too early. She's happy. Leave her."

And so I did. And eventually the squeaks and squeals abated and things were quiet again in the candy pink house.

Until five thirty, Tiger's typical wakeys time, when she commenced her habitual Noises Of Waking and Wanting All the Food.

And so I stepped over to her cot to find ...

Instead of a cosily swaddled baby, lying down vertically at the bottom of her cot, with a blanky securely stretched across her belly, I found ...

A TIGER LYING DIAGONALLY WITH SWADDLE OFF AND NO BLANKIES AT ALL!!! 

And a very big smile on her little face. Tiger the acrobat had made it very clear that the days of the swaddle are over.

Tonight, we are using the sleeping bag.

Lovely Tiger knows her mind. And we will obey!

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Tiger Teething

Tiger is working on growing teeth.

Some bits of this growing-teeth thing are, of course, not lovely. Tiger is having trouble sleeping, and she grizzles more than is usual for a Tiger of her temperament. It's horrible knowing she is uncomfortable and sore and sorry for her little self.

So what is lovely about Tiger teething?

Just knowing she's on her way to a new stage. A new phase in her little life with ALL OF THE CHEWING!

Biscuits! Rusks! Things that crunch! I can't wait to share these things with Tiger. And I know, I KNOW that it will be a very long time before teeth actually come. I know teeth-growing takes time and there will be more tears and sleepless nights and poor Tiges will be a bit sad and the Tiger-being-sad bit I hate. But during those tears and sleepless nights, I and Daddy Bear will be here to cuddle her better and we'll get through it together.

And, once we do, there will be yummy scrummy, crunchy munchy things to discover. 

And the thing is, even as Tiger grizzles, she's smiling and I'm so proud of my brave, strong little poppet. 

She is wondrously lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Very Special Visitors!

Yesterday, Miss Tiger had two very special visitors.

They were ...

Poppy S and Grandma L-L!

Tiger was so excited about her visitors that she stayed away for FIVE HOURS (teething and OBSESSIVELY ATTEMPTING TO ROLY-POLY may or may not have also had something to do with this) ...

But then fell asleep half an hour before they arrived.

All was not lost, though! It was only a short little Tiger Nap and soon those big blue eyes fluttered open (and the licking of the Baby Bjorn commenced, but that's a whole other post), and Tiger was back in the world!

After our traditional "Welcome back to the world, Tiger" and "Have you worked out who you are again?" and "Okay, stop licking the Baby Bjorn, Poss" conversation, Tiger went to Grandma L-L and Poppy for Very Big Hugs! 

Tiger liked the hugs. Very much. She also liked Change Time with Grandma L-L and Playing In Bouncy with Poppy and Grandma L-L. In fact she liked all of the things with Poppy and Grandma L-L ...

Until it was time to OBSESSIVELY ATTEMPT TO ROLY POLY again!

Thank you to Poppy and Grandma L-L for coming to visit us. Tiger loved every minute of it (you saw her BIG AND CRAZY SMILES and heard her VERY LOUD NOISES OF GLEE). We both hope you come back very soon.

It was lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle (and Tiger)

Looking for Daddy

Husband Bear has a new job. This new job is closer to the candy pink house which means that, instead of driving to work every day, Husband Bear walks.

And it also means that, at five thirty every day, Tiger and I have an adventure.

We go ... on a Daddy Bear Hunt!

We walk up our street, looking excitedly from side-to-side at trees and birds and flowers and gates and dogs and windows and cats and cars and THINGS! We have chats about China (there is a Chinese church on the corner of our street), and music and dancing (there is a ballet school on our street too). And we have a game called ...

WHO CAN SPOT DADDY FIRST?

I let Tiger win.

As the road that we walk up towards Daddy is very long and straight, we often spot Daddy far away. I point and Tiger looks and the excitement builds.

"There's Daddy!" I cry and Tiger smiles and we walk faster.

Daddy gets bigger and bigger and bigger until ...

He's here!

And Tiger looks up at him with her big blue eyes and there's so much love there it breaks my heart. Tiger adores her Daddy. He's the best and most fun and exciting thing in her little world and going on a Daddy Bear hunt every day is just so wonderfully lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Tiger Noises!!!

 

A couple of days ago, I posted about Tiger's love of noisy things.

Yesterday, Tiger made a huge discovery.

She can MAKE ALL OF THE NOISES HERSELF!!!

Cue squeals, screeches, bellows and yowls. And, of course, being a Tiger baby, there have been many ... ROARS!

All of these noises are accompanied by a look of utter glee. Tiger is figuring out how her lungs and voicebox work and it is FUN!

And I'm not sure the Husband Bear is too impressed by the fact these noises begin at five in the morning, but he doesn't see the look on her face. Making the noises is the BEST THING EVER in Tiger's world.

And it's incredibly lovely watching her do it.

Mumumumumum!

Today's lovely thing actually happened yesterday. But I'm still grinning ear-to-ear!

After months (actually, probably more like weeks but it feels like months), of "Dadadadadad", yesterday Tiger FINALLY SAID "MUM"!

And I know it's just a vocal noise. I know she isn't actually saying "mum", but it made me think of a time, not too far in the future, when she will say "mum", properly. And I don't care if the rest of the sentence is "Mum, where are my shoes?" or "Mum, I don't like carrots!" or "Mum, go away! You're annoying me!"

Because - though it may not feel like it at the time - every one of those sentences will be precious. Because it means Tiger is here, alive and well, and I have the supreme privilege of being her mum.

And yesterday, when she said it for the first time, it was yet another reminder of how lovely a thing that is.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Rattle and hum!

Today's lovely thing is all the things now in our house that rattle, buzz, squeak, crunch, tinkle, clink and (Tiger's favourite of all) ... CRACKLE!

It's an utter gorgeous joy watching the excitement and fascination on Tiger's little face as she MAKES THINGS MAKE NOISE! Often this involves putting said thing in mouth and seeing what happens. The look of surprise when she encounters a NEW NOISE is absolutely priceless.

And the concentration ... Oh holy moley, the concentration as she works out how to make the thing make noise! 

My little girl is working out how the world works, one little moment of discovery at a time.

And the thing she likes best about the world (apart from staring at doorknobs)? It's NOISY!!!

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Tiger in the night

Today's lovely thing is night-time Tiger feeding.

I thought getting up to feed "the baby" in the middle of the night would be a nasty job.

But that was before I found out "the baby" was Tiger.

How can it be a nasty job when the little person I get to hang out with is so very excited to be awake and alive and part of the world? How can it be nasty when she does huuugggeeee sttttrrreetttchhhesss and kicks her little legs and says "hello" to me (actually, it's probably closer to "aaayyyooo", but it sure sounds like "hello")? 

How can it be nasty when those big blue eyes twinkle and that little mouth stretches into an enormous, ecstatic smile?

Tiger is so thrilled to be alive. How can it be anything other than blissful to spend a few extra sneaky hours with her, no matter how exhausted I am?

Tiger, even at 1am, you are astoundingly lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Animalia!

Today is a two-lovely day! Hurrah for days of multiple lovely!

The second lovely on this most lovely of sunny Saturdays (bah to the weather reporter people who said it would rain), is Animalia.

Of course, Animalia is not new in its loveliness, but it's being-only-two-dollars-with-the-local-newspaper-ness only just happened today. 

I spent many, many hours as a young Cackle poring over this most gorgeous of books, as well as my other favourite, The Eleventh Hour. I simply can't wait to share it with Tiger.

Hurrah to the newspaper people for making children's books front-page news. Hurrah to the newspaper people for making them affordable. Hurrah to them for encouraging reading, for making it important. For putting Graeme Base on the cover instead of robberies or car crashes or warring or petrol prices.

Reading is important. Books are important. They take us away from the bad stuff, to someplace more wondrous. They rescue us. They enlighten us. They make the world seem all the more magical. And lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Gardening Grandparents!

Today's lovely thing is a super-dooper Second Family.

Gran and Granda G are my in-laws but, ever since I "stole" their eldest son away, eight years ago, they've felt more like a second family. I couldn't ask for a kinder, funnier, more giving and caring and downright awesome pair of people to have come into my life. Every day, I'm grateful for Gran G's practical advice and wicked sense of humour, and Granda G's quiet thoughtfulness and compassion.

So why are they especially lovely today?

Well, soon we will be moving on from the candy pink house into ... well, we don't know yet, but that's part of the adventure of it. And, before we go, we need to do something about the garden. You see, in the three months we spent in Hobart prior to Tiger's arrival it became somewhat ... wild. It took on the form it wished to. It went rogue. And while I kinda like that - a garden just doing its own crazy thing - prospective buyers probably won't.

And so we need to shipshape it a bit. 

But, with a little Tiger to look after (and sit beneath while she naps), it's hard for us to do it all by ourselves.

And so the Gorgeous Grandparents are coming today with mower and chainsaw and various other gardeny bits and pieces I don't know the names of, because I have writer thumbs not green ones, and they are going to help us make the garden sane again.

It's only the latest in a long line of reasons why my second family are wondrous but, today, it's for this reason they're especially lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Community

Thanks for making me feel at home!

Today's lovely things are the friends - "real world" and "internetty" - who helped me through a particularly stressful morning. When you live in a city, as I do (even if it's a small one), a feeling of community can be hard to come by. A new baby makes life even more isolating (though, usually, in a quite lovely just-you-and-me-kid-bubble-ish way). Yet this morning I felt surrounded by friends and family, ready to give me advice and support. Some of you I've never met. Some I've known for years. I count all of you as my friends, and my community. Tiges and I salute and thank you!

And we hope you stay being our friends. Because you're all super dooper lovely.

~ Love, Miss Cackle

Sunbeams!

Today's lovely thing is ... Spring!

Oh yes, after the yuckiest of winters (made bearable only by the wiggly little Tiger poppet I had to spend it with), Spring has indeed bounced into being!

Tiges and I had the best and most sunbeamy walk this morning. The air smelled of daffodils and cut grass and Johnno's relish (it always smells a bit like Johnno's relish in Invermay), and there were magpies and cockatoos in the sky, and sunny-faced people in tee shirts and Tiges took it all in with her huge blue eyes and it hit me:

It's her first spring, her first daffodils, her first cockatoos.

And somehow that made it all the more profound. 

And soon we'll take her to see her first spring lambs, and piglets and calves. Soon we'll show her the whole wild and wonderful world.

How lovely will that be?


~ Love, Miss Cackle

Resurrecting Miss Cackle - and Tiger snores!

A few years back, when I was experimenting with blogging, I created this blog. The intention was to blog one lovely thing per day, as a way of reflecting on the sunshiney things in life instead of the gloomy ones. This was back when I was a full-time Miss Cackle to a bunch of fabulous ferrets, who in themselves made life lovely. This was also immediately prior to my life going BATBALLS CRAZY BUSY (Full time work! Authorness! General other life busy stuff! Gah!), and Bear creating my actual proper professional blog, and this blog soon fell by the wayside.

So did Miss Cackle, for a time. She wasn't "professional". She was silly and frivolous. And so she was shelved.

And, soon, I completely forgot about this blog. For a time, I forgot about lovely things.

But, just yesterday, I remembered (which is, in itself, an omigolly moment as, post-Tiger, remembering is not something I do often).

But I was thinking, while cuddling a sleeping Miss T (after a morning full of "heads and shoulders, knees and toes", Diary of a Wombat and "The hokey pokey"), that my life has improved in loveliness exponentially since she was in the world. And - holy moley - I thought of this blog! And wished I'd kept it going.

And I realised I am Miss Cackle again, since Tiger has come. And Miss Cackle needs a blog. A lovely one.

As my goal for the week is: "Non, je ne regrette rien" (the one and only time you will ever "hear" me speak French, I promise), I've decided not to wish I'd kept it going but, instead, GET IT GOING AGAIN!

I want to remember the lovely things. I want to write them down and make them solid, so they don't float away.

I won't blog every day. Tiger is an ace blogging-gremlin. I may even discard the blog again as I realise life is already too goshdarn crazycakes. But if I do, well, C'est la vie (oops - and did I spell that correctly, Francophiles?). I'll try to write not only about Tiger, but she will feature heavily. And today she is the star. I have the best, loveliest of intentions to keep this blog going, for me and for her and so, here is my first lovely:

Baby snores.

I did not know, before Tiger, that babies snored. They do and it is the sweetest funniest sound in the world. In fact, all the noises babies make while sleeping are just magical.

And indescribably lovely.


~ Love, Miss Cackle