Things have changed...

Some things really change when you have a baby.  Or at least they have for me...

• I have started enjoying reading supermarket catalogs.  Why?  Who knows?  Tabitha is in cloth nappies and doesn't eat puree baby food or use dummies, formula or bottles, so it's not like I'm suddenly combing for specials.  In fact I do very little of our shopping at a major supermarket - maybe once a month or less at the gigantic nearby Flagship Coles, and every few days an item or two at the excellent IGA on the corner.  So this catalog fetish is a mystery.

• This is the first year I have not felt compelled to buy Christmas gifts for our pets.  Interesting.  Last year Atticus the lizard got a big box of crickets (a fun jumpy change from her normal woodroaches) which cheeped NON STOP through their wrapping paper under the tree for a week, due to the hot nights.  The cats will have to make do will balled-up wrapping paper this year - which in all honesty they will probably enjoy more anyway.

• My belly is significantly more like custard than it was last Christmas.  Last Christmas it was a big round Christmas pudding.  The Christmas before it was an ordinary belly.  I kinda miss that belly, but mine makes me smile now because it grew a Tabitha.

• I am so much more relaxed in general!  In the words of Bob Dylan, 'I used to care but things have changed'.  My family (in particular my little sister) used to call me The Boss of Christmas.  Christmas Day and the leadup were run with military precision, the tree was rearranged for hours until it was perfect, and I once travelled to three different suburbs looking for the perfect shade of mint green ribbon for wrapping.  This year, I have no idea what time we're supposed to be anywhere (I'm sure someone will tell me the day before), my gorgeous friend Alice decorated my tree (brilliantly I might add), and re. the wrapping - well, okay, I still spent an hour in the wrapping store comparing red ribbons.  But still.

• I used to still get excited about my stocking!  Mum used to fill my stocking each year until I got married, after which I knew The Daddy would probably NOT do a stocking for me.  So I did one for myself!  Full of lots of fun little things!  This year, I have passed on my 26-year-old Nativity stocking to Tabitha.  And I will enjoy filling it for her.

Today Tabitha ate a super-ripe apricot.  It was incredibly messy.  She thoroughly enjoyed squishing the pieces through her fingers and fists, smearing the pulp all over the table, and then slapping the juicy table with her hands and giggling when apricot went everywhere!  I think she may have actually ingested a little too.