Cardinal Tales: Best intentions...well, bugger those ;-)

Now that we're nine weeks into spica, with only three weeks and two days (and five hours...but who's counting?) to go, I had been feeling all reflective and had decided to pen a post on what we've learned and how we've (all) grown over the past couple of months.

As I said, the best of intentions....

I was all set to wax lyrical on what we couldn't have lived without - our spica chair/table in the early days, our tiled floor (as opposed to scratch-prone timber), our First Years Portable Booster Chair and the trundle bed on loan from Grant's Mum and Dad that allowed us to reclaim our bed and to all get a better night's sleep. I was poised to ponder the things which haven't been as hard as we expected - nappy changing, sponge-bathing / hair-washing and how it became easier to entertain a near-two-year-old the more mobile she became. And the things which have proved harder than expected - carrying and lifting, keeping the cast clean at mealtimes (a draped tea-towel does the trick for us) and grocery shopping, which is physically impossible on my own with all the kids in tow.

But then, one night after all the kids had gone to bed, Grant and I were sitting together in the lounge-room enjoying our half-hour of together-time and quiet reading before we collapsed, exhausted, into bed.

"I'm going to write a blog post about what we've learned over the past few months," I said to Grant, resting my book (haha, no, it wasn't '50 Shades'!) on my lap.

"Maybe I can include things which we have learned along the way and perhaps it can help another family who's going through the same thing. What would you say has been the biggest thing for you?" I asked.

I waited for him to have a sip of tea as he thought.

"It's her smile," he said, eyes shining.

"Her smile is different. When she smiles now, it spreads over her face and she smiles with her eyes, too. I don't think she's hurting anymore."

Yep. He's so right. Katelyn is the happiest she has ever been.

Like I said, the best of intentions. I'll cover off on all that other stuff next time.