"Isn't she the cutest baby in the world?"

Every day I say this to S about 3 or 4 times.

When Matthew was a baby, I asked my friends (at a party) if they didn't think he was the cutest baby in the world. No, really, objectively, didn't they think so? I'm not saying this as a proud parent but wasn't he evidently the cutest baby on earth?

My friends kind of looked at each other and then said well, there are cute babies and not-so-cute babies, and Matthew was definitely a cute one, but there's no such thing as the cutest baby in the world. I raised my eyebrows at this, but decided not to push the issue since they were all obviously hopeless.

Then Sarah was born and when she got to be about six months old or so, I thought SHE was the cutest baby in the world, even cuter than Matthew.

Today, I think that Sophie is way cuter than Sarah and Matthew ever were, even at the very epitome of their cuteness.

But all of this is not my fault. It's been scientifically proven (we saw this in a TV documentary) that when you're in love, the feel good receptors fire away, plus, the analytical/judgemental regions actually get suppressed! How cool is that?

So this is the only logical conclusion my brain is capable of arriving at, and it's got to be the only conceivable one, because how on EARTH can ANYONE possibly NOT think that she's the cutest baby in the world???

8-minute meal

Sophie usually finishes her bowl of food in eight minutes flat. She loves it! We give her rice porridge or multi-grain cereal, mixed with a variety of ingredients selected from the group comprising chicken, fish, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, sweet potatoes. She always eats strapped down in a seat, either her bouncy chair or stroller. Besides her lunch and dinner she also has milk four times a day. Getting nice and plump.

The little darling is often to be found standing in her cot holding on to the rails, calling out after her nap. We've stopped rocking her to sleep at nap times since she's been able to go to bed on her own for months now, just laid down in her cot after nursing, with the lights out. I decided to end the rocking because last Sunday our helper was out and it was no fun at all doing it while I was reeling with influenza. We now just lay her sideways and hold her down until she falls asleep. Such a tractable little baby - she only protested the first two times and now goes down without a fuss.

She also crawls! We laid down a large rubber mat in the living room, and she crawls around on it to get to her toys and sits there absorbedly mouthing them when she succeeds. She especially likes to make her way over to the sofa to pull up and stand.

Sophie's big brother and sister love her to bits. They pull faces to make her laugh, and are always trying to kiss her and carry her. Matt sets the tone for this - Sarah copies him in everything so we've been spared rivalries and jealousies with the baby. I was very worried about this for Sarah at first, since she's been the baby for the last 3 years, but she has risen way beyond my expectations.

The Right Conclusion

While browsing a grocery store after lunch one day at Port Dickson, Sarah picked up a plasticky doll set and asked her Daddy to buy it for her. He said no. Then she turned to her Grandma, who also said no. Finally she came to me and pleaded, "Mommy, can you buy this for me?"

"No, Sarah, I'm not going to buy that."

The little girl went, "Huh? Nobody is going to buy this for me??"

Her grandma said, "You have come to the right conclusion."

What's your watery favourite?

While we were holidaying by the seaside at Port Dickson, Matthew told us that his favourite sea creatures were sharks.

S said his were killer whales.

I told Matt that I liked dolphins best.

We turned to Sarah and asked her what she liked most in the water.

Sarah replied, "I like Little Mermaid."