The girl with the curl(s)

Every morning, when I tell Meisha to brush her hair, she resists. She tries to tell me she's done it (even though the birds nest at the back says otherwise), or she says she will do it in the car and conveniently forgets. If I try to do it myself, she cries and says it hurts. And she has straight hair that is actually easy to brush!

Olive, on the other hand, has longer, curlier hair that come morning, resembles someone from the caveman era. Yet she always lets me brush it when need be and never moans, no matter how many knots I have to drag the brush through.

Olive has had a few trims but never a full haircut. In fact, we've had to trim a few spots various times as they grow much longer than the rest.  I've spoken before about the hair being a characteristic of CMN and this doesnt appear to discriminate on any of Olive's spots! She was born with 4 sizeable satellites on her scalp and its amazing how different the hair on those spots is compared to the rest of her hair.  It is quite coarse and wire-y. It is darker than the rest of her blonde locks and when her hair is out, it falls wildly because of the different directions of the hair growth. The different tones give her hair that women pay a lot of money for!

As I said, she never moans when brushing time comes, which often surprises me as I would have thought it might be more sensitive due to ger spots. Her back is much more sensitive than her 'normal' skin, and understandably so - she has no subcutaneous fat layer so her skin is much thinner.  We've noticed things affecting her more regularly these days - if your nail scratches a little as you pick her up, or when she hid under her bed the other night and scraped her back getting out again. Thankfully she has only had 2 or 3 small tears, or scrapes that actually bled and even then it wasn't a lot at all.

She's pretty tough, this little girl. At just 3 years old and with such petite stature, she will try anything physically challenging, no matter how high, no matter how hard. She can hold her own against her big brother and sister and in fact it is often them who come crying that she has hurt them!  I know I shouldn't, but it's hard not to giggle to myself that my tiny mite has the strength to make big kids cry!

We've been cutting down on our sugar consumption recently and while I haven't noticed any behavioural improvements, I am glad she no longer wakes up asking for biscuits at 6.30am (and no, I most certainly never gave in but the tantrums that ensued were enough to set up a day pf frustration and short tempers!).

She has just been shifted into a shared room with Jaxon as Meisha was upset that she'd never had a turn at having her own room. Olive thinks this is fantastic because she gets the bottom bunk.  Jaxon loves to take care of his little sister so is happy with the arrangement, despite his room now being overrun by Peppa pig and baby doll accessories. Olive thinks she is quite the big girl being allowed to share with her big brother!

But even Big Girl's need their Mum sometimes. So I still lie with her every night to get her to sleep. We always have a little chat, generally about our day but sometimes she chimes in with something random and often as equally revolting - "Mum, we shouldn't eat poo aye?". But every night, after our chat, is always the same. I pretend to yawn, she catches it and yawns herself.
"I'm tired Mummy", she says, and turns over.
"Me too bub".
"Me too Mum. Hug me". And I do. And every night I smile to myself. My tiny terror with the attitude to give any teenager a run for their money, drives me bonkers most days. But I look at her beautiful peaceful sleeping face, with hair splayed all over the pillow, and hear her soft slowed breathing and I smile because I am the luckiest Mum in the world. I was blessed with the best children, and I am so proud to be their Mum.