Grounded Narratives

Elly turns two and a half on Sunday and I thought it would be a good opportunity to give you a bit of a life update on baby girl. I can't help but marvel at how fast she is growing. Elly is quickly becoming so independent, it makes me both proud and sad. Proud because it's so nice to see her doing things for herself and sad because she seems to need me less and less with each passing day. Milestones so far Speech As I shared in this post , Elly's speech just keeps on improving. There are times when she says something and I'm left wondering where and how she learned that word or phrase. Now we hold conversations together, which is very interesting considering some of the things that she says are pure baby talk, which as a mother, you somehow manage to understand. She can name parts of the body, recognize some animals and can use adjectives such as pretty, bad, please or nicely, etc. There are times when you give her something new to eat and her reaction is ...

I dreaded the terrible two stage that everyone kept telling me about. "Wait until she gets to two," I remember being told. But when that moment came, I thought, OK, what do we do now? Elly isn't all that fussy. She mostly goes about her day, playing, destroying things in the house, picking leaves and flowers, watching cartoons, riding her bicycle, running up and down, etc. I can't say she is one of those kids who will cause a scene. Nevertheless, there are those times when she decides, enough is enough, I'm going to make your day difficult! And this post is inspired by those days. How does Elly throw a tantrum? When my two and a half year old gets completely frustrated with me usually when she has given up on my stubbornness, she just lays on the floor either crying or just quiet. She often refuses to get up or be consoled and just insists on laying on the floor. Every once in a while she will lay there, unknowingly to me, until she falls asleep. Other ...

"Mum! Mummy! Mummy! Mum! Mum!" This is Elly's way of getting my attention. I will confess that sometimes it takes me a minute to remember that when she says mum she is referring to me. Motherhood has come with a host of surprises and unexpected turns. Like many first-time mums, I have had to make a whole lot of adjustments in order to make room for this little person who depends on me for so much. 1. Everything doesn't have to happen on a schedule Wake up at 6:30, breakfast at 7, do house chores, begin work by 10, write for three hours, make deliveries from 1-4pm, get back home by 5pm, play with Elly for an hour before making and having dinner, work for another three hours after that and then go to sleep. As much as I have learned to appreciate schedules and how they help you get plenty of work done, sometimes things happen and your day starts earlier or later than you planned, or you don't sleep on time because the baby is sick. You might have to readj...

Elly at two weeks One of the things that I must confess I never thought about while I was expecting Elly was teaching her how to do things like brushing her teeth, using polite language when speaking to others, sitting down to meals or settling down while we are at Church. When we started our journey, my one focus was to be functional enough to be there for her whenever she needed me, owing to the sleep deprivation that comes with having a newborn. And so, as she began to settle down and sleep more at night than during the day, I was overjoyed and for me that was milestone enough. You can imagine my joy when, as she got older, I'd tell her, "Elly, it's time for bed" and she would come and prepare to sleep and cuddle up in my arms and proceed to fall asleep. Now, especially when I'm not around, she lays in bed with her blanket and stuffed SpongeBob and falls asleep! With time however, it became necessary to teach this young lady how to carry herself...

Elly celebrates her 2nd birthday today. I thank God for bringing us this far. I am also very grateful to my family and friends who have been such a support. In the last 6 or so months, Elly has met so many milestones. She speaks better and better with each passing day. Now she repeats everything that she hears something that I am learning to use to help me speak better and of course avoid curse words. She now recognizes people outside her usual circle and when she sees photos on the phone she can tell who is who. She can now decide what she does and doesn't want to do: what to eat, when to sleep, which cartoon to watch (she loves those with lots of songs in them and is fond of saying, "Mum, Frozen," at least 3 times a day! Frozen is her favourite cartoon! When she watches her cartoons, she tries to imitate the characters' actions like dance, gestures, even something as simple as knocking on a door. She also likes to take part when I'm taking photos for the bl...

Whoever said that girls should be dressed in pink must have had baby girl in mind (more like her mama). I was recently going through Elly's clothes and I was amazed by how much pink this little girl seems to own. Whenever I am out shopping for her, I absentmindedly always end up picking only pink clothes.Yeah, I have admitted, I have a problem. So now I make a mental effort to vary the colours that I buy for her. But this doesn't stop me from colour-blocking. Did you know you can pair pink with so many other colours? Take this lime green half-sweater. I bought it and then realised I could pair it with these tights for a matchy-matchy outfit. Denim shorts, always a favourite and a polka-doted t-shirt brought the whole outfit together. We were in the middle of deciding what to do with baby girl's hair (or 'lele' as she calls it, i.e. nywele, which is Swahili for hair) when we took these photos. Can you tell how obsessed she is with her hair?

Baby girl is now 19 months old! Can you believe it has been 19 whole months since she was born?!! As I watch her grow taller every day, I can hardly believe that this little girl came from inside me and she is mine, haha! Elly has become so independent, spending her days running around, playing and destroying things, and she has now fallen in love with the kitchen and wants to help. In fact she now drags a stool to the cooker when she sees me cooking and wants to help stir or to the counter to help prepare ingredients and even to wash dishes. And her speech is improving every single day. Just yesterday she told her dad that she was "cooking", and she can say the names of all her aunties and uncles. When she wakes up in the morning she says, "Mum!" so that I can come for her. I have to say that when she calls me, I get a jolt in my heart that reminds me of how lucky I am to have her in my life. Other words that she says are daddy, mama and papa for g...

Once Elly became old enough to wear a variety of clothes that did not include rompers, I got so excited to finally be able to style this little girl. In fact, two weeks ago I went shopping for her and I had to stop myself from buying everything I lay my eyes on. She hasn't mastered walking yet although she likes to show off that she can stand without support (she expects you to cheer her on) so I still have to factor in crawling when I am shopping for and dressing her. This dress and tights is a typical Sunday outfit. Elly's grandma is so kind as to send me loads of clothes for baby girl and the packages usually contain tights and dresses and this dress was one such gift. I paired it with some stockings and a long-sleeved top to combat the cold. A sweater did make an appearance but baby girl, being her fussy little self, had it removed. She is photographed here playing with her uncle. She can hardly stand still long enough to be photographed so this was a luc...

As promised, I have decided to revive posts about my daughter, Elly. Baby girl turns eleven months today. My! How time flies! This time next month will be one year since she was born. Life with Elly has been eye-opening, as I shared my experiences when she turned 6 months. As the months have gone by, we have grown together and adapted into each others routines. Elly has now started walking, with the aid of the furniture in the house. She holds onto anything that is stable, chairs, stools, tables, doors, walls and even people's legs. She crawls to get around to places she wants to go and sometimes holds onto walls in order to reach certain parts of the house. The older she gets the more observant I notice she has become. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that when I was bathing her, she would grab at her wash-cloth and start to wash me just as I was washing her. She usually picks up a comb and starts to comb my hair just as I comb hers. She knows to smile ...

  Elly turns 7 months this Saturday and I thought what better way to commemorate the passing months than to share with you what I have learnt from being mother to this amazing little girl. 1. Patience. The truth is, as glamorous and easy as our mothers made motherhood look, it is bound to test you. I have learnt to be patient, and this for me is a big accomplishment because I am not a very patient person. Take last night for instance. Elly refused to have her dinner. She cried and cried and would not let me give her just a few spoonfuls of food. Then all she wanted to do was sleep and I knew that would be impossible with an empty stomach, but she was determined. When I finally gave in and took her to bed, it took her another two hours to actually sleep. She would doze a bit then the moment I put her in bed, she wakes up, smile her pretty smile and decide that we should play. Eventually, she did sleep, after a few stern words from her dad. 2.  Don't take anything too...