Ten Joys of Christmas

1. Opening the box of Christmas decorations. Familiar, tacky, cherished objects. Love our idiosyncratic fairy lights that flash in a complex and unfathomable rhythm.
2. The satisfaction of surveying a pile of freshly wrapped gifts (yet to be savoured this year).
3. Carol singing. An endless supply of songs in the shower and beyond. I catch myself humming We Three Kings in July and have to stop up the festive flow.  Late November, it all comes flooding out.
4. Finding the right gift (also a source of significant anxiety).
5. Observing children’s reactions.
6. ‘Twas the Night before Christmas’ – read by my Dad.
7. Believing in the magic.
8. Feeling around with your toe for the weight of a stocking on the end of the bed. Just the memory of that feeling sustains me now.
9. Chocolate and clementines for breakfast.
10. Feeling like you could be in another century as you stamp along in the frost and hail  passersby with a jolly ‘Merry Christmas’. 

Ten new steps up the learning curve

At 14 months:

1. Undoing the catches to open the sawdust bin by the compost toilet. Fortunately, the excitement of plunging tiny hands into fresh sawdust is enough to elicit telltale shrieks.
2. Super speed rush for the open kitchen door, head down, all limbs go. Mission: get up to your elbows in the dog’s water bowl.  
3. Closing doors. Awkward moments when she’s in, pushing the door closed, and I’m out, trying to enter.
4. Taking the pieces out of a puzzle. No interest whatsoever in putting it together yet, but one step at a time.
5. Dancing. The beginnings of a bob and sway when the music is on and increased vocalisation, singing along? 
6. Intonation. So much feeling and expression into so few syllables, incomprehensible but fascinating.
7. The sounds ka, ga (with a throaty roll) and a snake-style sssssssss across the tongue to express distain and vexation.
8. Getting small foodstuffs from table to hand to mouth, such as chick peas. It is however much more entertaining to mangle food and throw it on the floor, so progress is tardy.
9. A few extra inches have brought the kitchen table within reach. All items found less than 6 inches from the edge will be cast to the floor, the greater the ensuing reaction, the better.
10. Standing unaided. Holding a chair, with an item requiring two hands for thorough inspection. Let go, teeter for a few brief but triumphant moments, and sit. We’ll get there.

Ten things that get easier about parenting

1. Time erodes that initial shock of realisation, when the penny drops that the baby will become a toddler, then a child, then a teenager, then an adult… your whole life has been transformed and no, you can't send them back.
2. The Fear dims.  That clutching panic that something might take them away, tomorrow, at 5 years old, at 21, at 27. You become accustomed to the vulnerability of loving that much.
3. They get more interesting as they grow. Signs of recognition, then interaction, amusement.  You can start to have fun.
4. Sleeping. They’ll do it eventually.  In weaker moments, it will feel like the sleepless hell is eternal, but it isn’t.
5. You start to become one of those confident mums who can make wise suggestions to someone in the same panic you were in 2 months previously.  No longer being the most pathetic and lost is a huge confidence boost.
6. You can hand them over to someone else and even forget about them for brief periods.
7. Not breastfeeding any more – you can pollute your body as much as you like, be it caffeine, booze or more.
8. You understand their needs and know why they are crying.
9. They cry a LOT less. From an average 20 hours a day at 2 months, to less than 5 minutes a day at 14 months. That feels wonderful.  
10. I spent the first 8 months (or so) in a state of horrified exhaustion. That feeling has evaporated now and I wonder what I was making all the fuss about. 

Ten pleasing things about Autumn/Winter

1. A cloud of crunching leaves as you walk, with a breeze to make them dance.
2. Acorns. The cups evoke images of fairy banquets with pointy eared elves drinking shots from their woody goblets.
3. Snow and snowmen. Snowball fights are stressful though.
4. Stodgy food.
5. Being in the warm cocoon of home and looking out on wild wind and sleeting rain.
6. That self-satisfied feeling when you come in from a freezing walk, like you have earned that cup of tea.
7. Wearing soft jumpers and jeans.
8. The smell of clementines.
9. Bed. Curling up in it and dreaming of hibernation. 
10. The long cold Winter makes you appreciate the joy of Spring, the first crocus, an unfurling bud… a long way away on a day like today.