Viral infections

My first born girl is going to be 3yrs 10Months in 3 days time, the journey so far has been a mix of excitement and anguish depending on the state of he health. She sometimes has "Viral Infections" that the doctor says "This cannot be treated, we only manage the symptoms". At such times I just wish the doctor would not be very open on this and instead would just say that the medicine given will make my daughter well. Can you imagine being told the sickness you have cannot be treated and it will go on its own with no strict timeline of when this will happen!

The viral infections are now a common factor in our daughters life and once in a while we have a repeat of the "cannot treat this" story. My son who is now 1yr 11Months and so you can imagine what goes through my mind when the doctor then indicates that "Viral infections easily spread from one child to another". I now have to get into a "Policing mindset" with the children to ensure that they do not engage in activities that can spread the virus. This includes not allowing my daughter to try and feed the brother, which is one of the games they like and most times this is done even when hands have not been cleaned.

Anyway, once they get back to their playing mode and they are all over the place, I am not able to keep up with the "Policing" and so we shall just wait for the "Viral infection" to go and hopefully my son will not catch it.

Potty Training

My 1st born girl is now 2 yrs 7 mnths and we are now navigating through the potty training period. I could be sitting having my afternnon cup of tea, when suddenly the girl busts into the room saying "nataka kojoa" (this means I want to urinate in Kiswahili). My tea forgotten on the table, I rush to her and struggle with the removal of her trousers and just manage to have her seated on the potty before she urinates. Sometimes I am too late and have to clean up the mess on the floor and change her clothes.

The girl seems to think this is a new game that she finds quite amusing since everybody leaves what they are doing to attend to her. She loves all the attention she gets at this moment and will sometimes just say "nataka kojoa" just to get our attention only to say "akuna kitu" (this means nothing came out).

I am told boys are different, I am therefore looking forward to my 2nd born boy reaching this stage to see how different it will be.

2 years 7 months - Fussy baby

Just when I thought that we can now comminucate using words with my 2yrs + baby, shock on me. The girl seems to have periods of non-verbal communication that are punctuated with a lot of sniffling sounds meant to be communicating to me. I am yet to understand this vocabulary, but from the look of things this is not proving to be that straight forward. You think that only hungry or wet babys have a reason to be fussy? Ya right!!!

I have had to understand various variations of jealousy reactions through this non-verbal communication spats. You know, I now have another 6 month old baby and my 2yrs + one is not amused at the attention given to her brother, whom she thought was a short time visitor when he arrived. The girl was so happy to have a newly arrived baby on the day of homecoming, but this only lasted about 1 week.

Well, it is not all gloomy with her, we do have lots of good times just playing horse riding (I am the horse you know, talk of hearing from the horses mouth!!!). There are times I think my daughter has two personalities, but from the few books I have read about parenting, this is normal. I have come to understand the advice bandied around that says enjoy the good times with your baby before they become grown ups and tell you they need their space.

1st Year of a child

Phew!!! You have just left the maternity ward and are very exited at having your first child. Diapers, Sleepless nights, colic outbursts are not anywhere in your thoughts right now. All that you know is that you have created another being who is more of an angle to you right now. You are still being showered with praises and lots of cards and gifts and life seems very exciting. All parents have their share of first time experience of bringing up children and it is not a standard script.

The purpose of this blog is for us parents to share the various experiences we go through in life with our children so that those who are following us into this state are able to get insight on what has happened to others and how they managed.