Where are you going, my little one, little one?

Where are you going my little one, little one
Where are you going my baby my own
Turn around and you're two, turn around and you're four
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of the door

Turn around (turn around)
Turn around (turn around)
Turn around and you're a young girl goin' out of the door

Where are you going my little one, little one
*Dirndls* and petticoats, where have you gone
Turn around and you're tiny, turn around and you're grown
Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own

Turn around (turn around)
Turn around (turn around)
Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own

Where are you going my little one, little one
Where are you going my baby my own
Turn around and you're two, turn around and you're four
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door

Note: *dirndl*--a full-skirted dress with a tight bodice. Diminutive of Old High
German “Dirne”-girl. Pronounced “DEERN-dull” in English.


This song always made me snivel thinking about when my Dad sang it to me. Not because he couldn't sing, but because it's so nice. I found myself softly humming it to the LGBB the other night as I was getting her ready for bed after a bath. She lay there grinning at the sentimental fool swaying along in her own little world.

I was thinking of all the things the LGBB has started doing in the past three weeks alone. To name a few:

• She learned how to do the peek-a-boo thing on her own - it's her first major cause and effect, over and over, achievement and boy, does she think her shit doesn't stink when she does it (I can attest that it does, in fact, still pong to high heaven) - it's adorable. In fact, if she does nothing else ever again, I've been satisfied by her cuteness. Sheets, teddies, rugs, hell even just her arms go above her head - that little straight-armed movement - and then she brings them down just far enough to poke her eyes over the top to see me. And sometimes it's not even her eyes, it's just her comical eyebrows.
• She's now very vocal. Her vocabulary has increased at the end of March from "thuh-thuh-thuh", "u-juh, u-juh" and "duh duh" to include "bvvvvf bvvvf" and some "k" and "r" sounds as well, with the odd "thhh! Thhhhh!" thrown in, very excitedly. This week, she started some almost discernible sentences of garbled noises and she looks so earnest that I find it difficult not to appear patronising and try to take her seriously so as to appear all respectful-like.
• During a particularly long set of speeches at my brother's recent wedding (they went for over half an hour), she amazed me by clapping. Copied what the crowd was doing and just started clapping for herself. Because I was holding her, I couldn't make the massive deal out of it that I wanted, and perhaps that more than anything gave her the space to do it for herself. She has now, of course, perfected the move and does it all the time. Spontaneously clapping so that it looks as if we've created a show pony, when in fact, as I discovered and was starting to worry, Steve and I aren't "clappers".... we weren't that big on clapping our approval to her, so it's either a natural progression thing or we've done it just often enough for the LGBB to pick up that it's a good thing, this clapping. Whatever the case, she loves it. Of course.
• That same week, the appearance of the 8-month-old boogy (dance) made me and her aunty squeal with delight. She was in her high chair the first time she did it and mimicked Aunty K bobbing in the kitchen. And I have to say, she looked for all the world like one of those chickens being hypnotised by getting their bodies moved in a circular motion, you know how their heads stay still? That's what she looked like. Bloody fantastic and so sweet.
• I checked my baby book and I didn't crawl til 9.5 months, wasn't walking til 16 months. Steve about the same. So will tell my MCHN to stick it in her derriére (or kiss mine) once more with feeling at the 12mth appt, esp. if Laidback Lolly still isn't moving about, regarding her "this child sits too much and will get frog legs" warning.
• She is teething again, could feel another tooth coming through on the bottom a few weeks back and can't feel top ones but she's taken to rubbing her bath toys on her top gums every night. But they are definitely giving her grief on and off and sometimes, I look at her cheeks and they appear so red that they are actually more purple than anything else.
• Her bedtime ritual, each time she goes to bed, now includes having to be hoiked up to my shoulders so she can "pat" the duck and frog on the wall just inside her door. This would be fine if she actually patted them with a flat hand instead of scraping her nails down the wall. I can confirm that it sounds every bit like nails down a blackboard.
• She's been turning pages of books since she was 7 months and she is now very adept at it. The stories I read often to her, she readily turns the pages appearing to know when she's meant to.
• Last week, she finally started saying "mum-mum-mum". God how I wished I wasn't going to grow tired of it, but I know one day in the future I may just get resentful of the title from time to time, despite myself. I'nt it good to know you're "normal"?

And finally, I made a diary note on Easter Sunday that says "You've been learning new mouth sounds rapidly this past week. You wake up every day (almost) with a new one. Today was mastering the tongue-click. Tonight, feeding you before bed, you were very busy drinking away, then chatting to my fingers in whispers and laughing, saying "Dada". You think you're sooo funny. And you are."