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Saoirse the Slapper

My mother always accused me of pinching my brother when he was a little baby. I have now discovered that you can divide babies into 3 categories - biters (despite their tiny innocent-looking teeth, they hurt when they bite), pinchers (yes Mam, Dad and Dave, I know, that was me!) and slappers. Saoirse falls under the latter. I am not sure if this is something she has learned from the other children in the creche, or if this happens naturally. I say this as our friend Bev has a baby 3 weeks younger who does not go to any creche and is a natural born biter! When Saoirse is unhappy and not getting her way, she pushes or slaps. Sometimes very hard. She has slapped me a few times on the face and we have had to be very stern with her. Kind of hard to be firm with a young one, but I think she gets the message as she averts her eyes and looks sufficiently guilty. She recently came home from the creche with a black eye. Hit some toys at the end of the slide, we were told - I just hope she did not mess with another “slapper”!

We can hardly believe she is 17 months already. She has been walking since 12 and a half months and has an impressive vocabulary. She can say what’s that, what’s this, gone, hello, bye, dog, miaow (for cat), boy, girl, seal and boat (the last 2 may seem odd but given that we are living on the marina I guess it is normal enough). She also understands a huge amount. In fact as long ago as January, she was able to pick out the correct word from her flash cards. JC would put about 15 cards on the floor and ask her to bring him the cat, or dog, or lion and she did! I can also ask her to bring something to “dada” and she will.

She has a great personality and likes to laugh. She loves books and anticipates the funny parts of the stories we read her each night. She is now playing quite well in the V-berth by herself which will be great when we do set sail and are too busy to supervise her. She sleeps from about 8pm through to about 6.30am and after she drinks her milk, she normally sleeps for another hour or so. Not bad really. She still only has 4 little teeth - 2 up and 2 down at the front but yesterday I spotted 3 new teeth breaking through. Poor little dote is very uncomfortable.

We have been putting her into private swimming classes with Marizette, a friend of ours and she loves it. She has no fear of anything, whether it is dogs (which she routinely chases and harasses on the beach), swimming (she launches herself on 1, rather than waiting for the 3, as in 1,2,3…), or being alone. She is “Miss Independent” and is happy to run around without worrying at all where we are. I have tested her a few times in the shopping centre and hidden behind things to see at what stage will she turn around and look for me. She does not look for me. That scares me. Sometimes I think we have doomed her by calling her Saoirse (meaning freedom in Irish). Maybe we should have called her “quiet”,” shy”,” she who never ventures far away”, ….

PS - we will start looking at weather breaks early next week to see when we can safely set sail…

Soon…

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Posted by: Lola at May 2, 2009 11:37 AM

Hi jackie, jc and saoirse. It's great to see the adventure live. We sat on my present in the garden yesterday for Aidans birthday! Thanks again. Miss you loads.

Posted by: Edel and kevin and aidan at April 20, 2009 10:19 PM

Well saoirse I suppose being called a little slapper by your parents aint too bad but make sure they don't ever call you The SNAPPER. [slang for baby in Dublin]

Posted by: Anne at April 3, 2009 12:37 PM

Hi Jackie,JC and Saoirse,

So sorry haven't been in touch for ages, I did check in in January, Saoirse has gotten so big and looks a very independant little woman! I'm in work and we've all had a look at the pics - boat looks great! Bon voyage!

Love from us all Sam xxx

Posted by: Samantha at March 31, 2009 12:07 PM

Hmmm, a slapper huh? Well... things could change... apparently, one can go from being a pincher to being a slapper by the time you reach your twenties. Hehehehehe.

Posted by: Yasir at March 31, 2009 5:42 AM

Micah is a slapper, too! I'm thankful he is not a biter since we are still nursing (trying to wean)! Thank you for all the updates. We love reading them.

We can't wait to meet up with you on the next leg of your journey.

Lots of love!

Shelby, Dan, and Micah

Posted by: Shelby at March 31, 2009 3:41 AM

Hi darlings

just a quick note - I've been 'quietly' keeping up to to date with all your postings and very excited that you've reached the stage of imminent departure....

Love the photos of Saoirse - I remember reading about baby development stages and being tickled by the description of 'imperious finger pointing'! The first photo on this posting captures that exactly. The slapping/biting/pinching thing...robust self-expression?! :-)

Jackie, I'm very struck by how much you 'own' the boat and its features in the way that you fulsomely describe its benefits - WOW.

A HUGE hug to you all and thinking of you setting sail....
Cxxx

Posted by: claudia at March 27, 2009 9:48 AM

babies are like yuppies,you never know when they "turn"on you-only joking
good luck with the weather and when you get the weather with the sailing-hope all works out
maurice and theresia

Posted by: maurice and theresia leahy at March 27, 2009 9:12 AM

My how she has grown!! She gets a double whammy because her Daddy use to pick on his younger sister!!

The boat really looks good and I know you are anxious to get underway...I know the feeling and will be pulling for you.

love you

Posted by: Pop at March 26, 2009 10:01 PM