Madeline's 2013 Christmas Address

Good evening everyone, and welcome to my inaugural Christmas Speech.  I am so glad you have all tuned in.  I must say 2013 was a very busy year, both personally and professionally.  We have much to go through…

After spending most of 2012 on the Inside, I have been relishing my new found freedom and making up for lost time.

I was formally Named early this year in a touching ceremony I enjoyed very much.  My thanks to Mummy and Daddy for organising it and everyone else for attending.

I have had to adjust to Solid Food this year.  It has involved a myriad different tastes and textures and while nuzzling on Mummy’s Boob is just the bestest thing, munching on some pasta that the dog just licked comes a pretty close second…

To assist with Solid Food I have developed Teeth.  Painful buggers while they are coming through but my goodness, the fun you can have with Mummy’s Boob and Daddy’s fingers once they arrive!

After a briefly trialling “Crawling” I decided 2 Wheel Drive was the future and quickly adapted to Walking.  I must say I enjoy it very much and practice at every opportunity.

Mummy kindly started me on Swimming Lessons this year.  I took to water like a duck to water!  It is all going rather swimmingly, you could say…  (I seem to have a predilection for silly, silly puns.  Thank-you very much Daddy.  You will pay…).

My social life really took off though, when I began Day Care.  Merry Christmas to all my Besties!  You know who you are (especially you Archie, you curly-mopped little Spunk, you).  I look forward to sharing many more hugs, kisses, toys, flu’s, gastro outbreaks and colds with you next year.

At this point I must mention my brother and sister, Charlie and Ruby.  It is awesome to have such fun siblings, even though I don’t quite understand why you have four legs instead of two and are so hairy. 

Charlie, I am sorry I squeezed your nuts and almost bit your willy.  I had no idea they were so sensitive.  Honest!

Ruby, I realise you like your Alone Time, but you only have yourself to blame.  Your fur is just the most snuggle-worthy, softerest thing!  I could bury my head in it and hold clumps of it in my tight little fists forever!

 So what have I learned this year?

·         Escalators are just the best thing ever!

·         Pears are just the best thing ever!

·         Cuddles from Mummy are just the best thing ever!

·         Cuddles from Daddy are just the… okayest… thing… ever…

·         Santa Clause – weird, weird, scary man…

·         Learning to make fart noises with your mouth is just the best thing ever!

And so to 2014.  Even after such a massive 2013 I still look forward to next year with much optimism.  I am particularly looking forward to:

·         Becoming tall enough to reach all the dangerous stuff on the kitchen bench

·         Filling approximately 1825 nappies

·         Turning 2

·         Making fart noises with my mouth

·         Perfecting my Tantrum Body Slams

·         Finally working out where the Green Sheep is and

·         Delivering my 2014 Christmas Address verbally after learning to speak more proper…

Finally, I want to thank you all for making my first year-and-a-bit in this world such a blast.  It’s been, you know, Thing.  Really.  May you all have a very Merry Christmas and enjoy playing with the wrapping and packaging of a number of expensive presents.

And here’s to a joyful New Year full of giggles, babycino’s with my BFF’s and a new series of Peppa Pig…

Much Love to All,

Madeline RKP…

Releasing your Inner Child...

People are always saying “Release Your Inner Child!!”  Bearded, bespectacled gentlemen in beige cardigans with patches on the elbows, or middle-aged women dressed as gypsies and calling themselves “Madame Virtue” or similar.

You can even hear the multiple exclamation marks and they speak, all glassy eyed and knowing…

I doubt they mean “Lose control of your bowels and return to nappies!!” -  entertaining as that may be (and somewhat inevitable, if you live long enough).

Usually it involves a whole list of exhortations to look at the world with more wonder, explore more, indulge in some play time, be more curious, climb a tree and re-read Dr. Seuss (and perhaps even Asterix…)

That is all wonderful stuff and I do them all without anyone having to encourage me – especially climbing trees and reading Asterix…

…but there is another important aspect to the Inner Child that I think gets missed.  It has been highlighted as I have had the chance to observe, on a daily basis, a small child who has not yet learned about manners, expectations, roles, jealousies, career advancement, politics, etc. etc. etc. (ie: no Life Skills at all… ;-) ).

It is Simplicity.  Of intentions, desires, actions, everything.

If Madeline wants a hug, she runs up and gives you one.  If she doesn’t, she will push you away.  If she wants to eat something she does.  If she doesn’t want to, she refuses it.  If she wants something she goes and gets it – crawling over Mum, Dad, the cat, the dog, the couch, toys, fields of broken glass, anything to obtain it. 

Sleepy?  Go to sleep.  Need a poo?  Just go.  Don’t want to talk?  She doesn’t.  Sad?  Cry.  Happy?  Laugh.  Excited?  Squeal.  Mad?  Squeal like a Banshee and roll on the ground…

Simple.

Sigh…

As you grow older it seems the bright, keen edge of your intentions and actions gets blunted and frayed by competing expectations – ambition, politics (family, friends, workplace), greed, rationalisation, fear, mislaid senses of duty and more.  Life gets complicated and all “Grown up”.

It has struck me recently just how unnecessary so much of that is.  We choose to complicate things – or at least choose a whole raft of behaviours that MAKE things complicated.  It slows us down and ties us up in knots, blurs our focus and leaves us a touch confused and conflicted.

Well, that's what it does to me anyway.  Seems to happen to others I talk to as well.

We can learn from the youngest among us – whose motivations are as yet pure and unadulterated.  There is balance of course – we should not throw ourselves to the ground in a screaming fit if there is no ice cream in the fridge.  Well, we can, but it may well be... Ah stuff it, go ahead.  Do it.

If you get the chance to watch a very young child for any length of time, look for the transparency in their wants, activities and communications.  The direct link between What I Want and What I Do, with little or no fear or concern for what others think.

With discipline we grown-ups can replicate that simple honesty in our own lives and create for ourselves a refreshing simplicity.  It is surprisingly hard work, but any of that work I have done so far has been well worthwhile.

I am certainly no believer but one of the great (and blessedly short) sayings attributed to Jesus was his suggestion to “Make your Yes mean Yes and your No mean No.”.

Not childish but childlike.

Simple…