Iron Maiden

I'm back! Life has been quite hectic in the H household, and finding a spare moment is getting more and more difficult.
Little Gem is now almost six months old and is the ultimate distraction. Her 'talking' is much more animated, her squeals of excitement have hit all new heights, and she has genuine fits of laughter. Pulling a funny face, tickling her tummy, or blowing a raspberry can lead to the most hilarious exchanges. She is at such a great age, and these interactions are eating up a lot of my day, but I'm certainly not complaining!
Life might be more hectic, but it's also a lot more structured. Little Gem's routine is changing as she grows, and she now has a solid two hours of sleep in the middle of the day, leaving me time to catch up with housework, Christmas present wrapping, cooking/pureeing/freezing food (yey, solids!), and the never ending washing/drying/ironing. That's right. Ironing.
Husband has started a new job (same company) that requires him to wear his 'actual' uniform, instead of the previously provided trade 'whites' that he has worn for the last 8 years. This requires an ironed shirt. Gah. I have mentioned before that while I have succumbed to most aspects of my domesticity, I Do Not Iron. Well, make that Did Not Iron. Husband's inability to iron anything safely, combined with his now increased travel times, mean that I have taken on this colossal task.
But a funny thing has happened between me and my Phillips GC 2560. We've become friends. So friendly, in fact, that I now find the time to iron all of our clothes. Every second day, I clear off my dinner table, perch the washing basket on a nearby stool, and manoeuvre the ironing board to the middle of our dining room. I have enough room on the table to neatly pile my warm, ironed clothes, and I have a clear view into the lounge room to watch TV as I go.
And that's exactly what I was doing at 1.27pm on Tuesday, December 6. And that was the moment that I realised.... I have become my mother.
The routine. The table. The piles of neatly pressed clothes. The 'serials' on TV (Days of Our Lives for Mum, reruns of Grey's Anatomy for me). The more that I thought about it, I realised that this has been a gradual progression, eating into every aspect of my life.
I play music while doing the housework. I get going every morning to make sure the majority of the tasks are done before lunch time. My Christmas shopping was started in August, and mostly completed by November. I send Christmas cards. I talk to Little Gem is a ridiculous voice. I tell off the Labrador using the same phrases that I grew up with ("That's enough!" "I mean it!" "Right, that's it. Into your room!")
Unconsciously, I have endeavoured to make Little Gem's childhood experience as close to my childhood experience as possible. And on the face of it, that is not a bad thing. If there is anybody in this world who I would want to be like, it is my Mum.
I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas/New Year period. One of my New Years resolutions is to keep this blog going, and to post more regularly. Stick with me, kids!