Saturday 23 June 2007

Call me Coco!

My daughter is now 10 weeks old and is no longer content to be merely cooed over and gazed at with exhausted adoration. She wants entertainment and she wants it NOW.

I feel like an unrehearsed candidate on our own private talent show - Has Mummy got Talent? - as I wheel out my props each day and try my hardest to distract, cajole and amuse.

LOOK Iris, I'm a bird/monkey/snorty non-descript animal!

LOOK Iris, I'm an addition to your playmat you didn't know was there, up HERE, up HERE, look at my funny face!!

LOOK Iris, who's that pretty, pretty girl over there? (Cue mirror) It's you, yes it is, it IS, no over THERE...no don't cry, oh dear.

LOOK Iris, here's DOTTY the lady bird, crackle crackle, jingle jingle...isn't she colourful, isn't she FUN!! No? oh dear.

Sometimes Iris humours me with a beautiful beaming smile and I think, "yay, I've made it, I'm FUNNY!!". Then other times - in fact probably the majority of the time - she is the Simon Cowell of babies and just looks wearily away.

I've developed a whole new respect for those annoyingly young and bubbly CBBC presenters. I especially admire in retrospect the fairy that turned up to entertain the toddlers at my niece's third birthday party last year - she may have been rather large and manly for the tutu look, but she kept the children amused for ages.

I wonder if there's an NVQ in nursery rhymes, lullabies and toy usage that I could sign up for. That's another thing, the only songs I seem to know the words to are Christmas carols. Tonight for instance was Good King Wenceslas - a little aseasonal, but made a welcome change from humming the theme tune to Dallas, or the countless other made-up tunes we seem to come up with.

The strange thing is, Iris seems just as amused at me struggling with her nappy at 5am, as she does when I'm in full clown mode several hours and a coffee later. But then, maybe she's laughing AT me, not WITH me...

Ah well, a laugh's a laugh, and I'm discovering that, despite my new mum angst, having fun is actually quite fun.

8 comments:

Motheratlarge said...

Wow! I'm so impressed that you're blogging at this atage. I could hardly remember my own name for exhaustion until my daughter reached four or five months - when solids meant her dad and I got a decent night's sleep. Enjoying your site.

New Mum in Town said...

hi motheratlarge, thanks for dropping by. i have to admit to being incredibly dippy at the moment, so am clinging to the blog as a reminder of how to actually string words together!

DevonLife said...

Oh it sounds so lovely. you're capturing those early days so well.

Things which so quickly get forgotten in the round of "where are your shoes" "where are your shoes" "WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES, does no one listen to me in this freakin' house?" "Oh look here are your shoes"

Motheratlarge said...

And the good news is it just gets better and better! They start to enjoy peek-a-boo, waving, clapping, they 'get' jokes - and all while sleeping through the night. Gosh, it's true you forget so quickly. Wasn't so long ago we were doing 5am nappy changes. Lovely to read about these early weeks again. Makes me very nostalgic.

ps - have added you to my blogroll

New Mum in Town said...

ahh, can't wait for more interaction; considering how happy an early giggle makes me now, i'll be bowled over by actual words!

and much obliged re blogroll, will also update mine.

Iota said...

Buy a nursery rhyme cd/cassette. It'll all come flooding back. Buy one for the car while you're at it. What a lovely fun age your little Iris is at.

I am enjoying your blog. I also enjoy the fact that you are SAHD's sister. Do you live close enough to enjoy a physical relationship as well as a cyber one? I should perhaps rewrite that bit about a physical relationship, but I think I'll leave it in and hope it makes you chuckle - you know what I mean.

I think you and SAHD should spend a day together, with your girls, and then each write a blog entry about it - without conferring of course. That would be very entertaining for your readers.

Or is he not your brother at all, and now you are having a huge laugh at my gullibility?

Scruffy Mummy said...

Yes, impressed with the blogging! I was such a wreck - untill about 7 months for me. Sorry to hear the weight loss thing didn't work for you - for me it really did work, I've always been a substatinal size 16 but dropped down to about a 12 while breastfeeding and eating about 6 cakes a day! Unfortunatly, as soon as the breastfeeding slowed down at 6 months, the weight came hurtling back. Probably better not to have the initial weight loss - I got lulled into a false sense of security!

New Mum in Town said...

Hi Iota - thanks for dropping by - no clever blogging wind-up, we really are related! And I'm sure we will swap perspectives at some point, and talk about how wonderfully our respective nieces are being brought up, haha!