Acting like a baby

Recently I’ve been comparing Naa Ameley’s actions to human nature especially in reference to the term, “acting like a baby”. 

For example, this morning after she had successfully finished her bottle almost all by herself (lol… she can hold her own bottle to her face and feed — occasionally with a little help), and successfully burped, guess what followed… she threw up right all over me 🤦🏾‍♀️ Right after that, she began smiling and laughing — perhaps after feeling relief from tossing cookies — whilst I, on the other hand, tried to figure out how to most efficiently clean up this mess without making her cry…

Reminds me of some people I’ve met, and sometimes even my own self when I’ve unfortunately been acting like a baby. Be ok and even quite successful one minute and then without any warning, spew a lot of disrespectful words or gestures all over the people I “need” or “work with” and then expect them to smile with me the next minute, or after which, I simply choose not to care about the effects my outpouring caused. 

Like a baby, just that we’re not babies, we’re acting like them. 

Or the other day when I had finally been able to grab myself a meal, and was right, riiight in the middle of it. Guess who began wailing that she wanted food immediately? You guessed right. And she wouldn’t stop or wait her turn. I realised in that moment that that’s a skill we are taught and choose to pick up along the way. 

So when it’s all about us and everyone must stop for us, we aren’t babies but we surely are acting like them! The difference though is unlike babies, we either know better or can find out how to know better (if we want to, we can even ask Google). Or like babies, we truly are oblivious to how our actions affect others, and a kind prompt could do the trick. Or like babies, we’d rather prefer to give rude wake up calls in the middle of the night to prompt others as to what to do right in response to their baby-ish behaviour. Funny thing is babies barely have a choice because they haven’t yet learnt or been quite exposed to the art of communicating like adults, and yet, we have. 

And how about the time yours truly would just cry! And for the life of me, I’m unable to figure out what’s bothering her till it’s satisfied somehow. A case of bad gas? A case of a dirty diaper? A case of hunger? A case of a toy “not working” as expected? A case of the bite of an insect that came out of nowhere? A case of some distress… unable to communicate it without throwing a tantrum. Or should I say only being able to communicate it through tantrums. 

Remember the ones you know who seem to consistently communicate with shouts and screams when some expectation hasn’t been met? Are they truly unable to communicate without the drama or they just can’t be bothered? Remember when you did same that one time? Intentionally or not, that’s baby right there. 

The cool thing about acting like a baby is that it’s not beyond any of us. You could dare say it’s natural human behaviour that we’ve chosen to leave behind… well, mostly. But what’s way cooler is it’s also not beyond us to rise above it… and choose the less selfish, more self-empowered, and the productively experienced approach. 

The next time I feel someone is acting like a baby, I may treat them like one and extend grace, or be reminded of Naa and just smile (if it’s a terrible situation I may just suit them up in diapers in my mind to help me cope) or if I’m not up for all this adulting, I may join them in the crib and respond as a baby would. I honestly don’t know. But I honestly do hope that whatever happens, I would glorify God… baby acts or not… 

Scene three , take two, action! 🎥👶🏾👶🏼👶🏿👶🏻🍼🎞

10:07am

1st Baby Diaries || Saturday, 9th April, 2022 || 4 calendar months, 15 days

End of Maternity Leave Blues

It’s a lovely day to write again… it’s been a while since I shared a fresh entry here.

For perhaps the first time in my life, I’m home and Naa Ameley is not! 

Eish! It feels like a holiday! I wish I could enjoy it more but I am exhausted and have a lingering headache. But it beats having her here at this time so I’m absolutely grateful. 

Grateful to the God Who makes this possible, and grateful to Ariel who’s made this happen. Glad he hooked on to the idea when it was mentioned. Terribly happy. 

So… it’s been ages since I wrote. 

In between building a business and caring for Naa Ameley, I seem to be experiencing Return-To-Work blues.

I love the way Joy put it… I’m smitten by my own child so leaving her behind isn’t making me happy. I never thought of it that way, my own child making me broken-hearted without her doing… lol… but now I realise that’s what a number of women seem to feel subconsciously. 

Also I guess it isn’t easier when I had expectations of building the Enosua’s heArt’s merchandise leg to a certain level. We’re still on it thankfully but it does make returning to work harder when that was a win I would have so wanted to have. We’ve experienced many wins thankfully! So I’m counting my blessings I won’t be sulking about the one win that’s delayed. God has been good, and we’ve put in work that’s already creating the future we want to see. And that’s just a pleasant reality. One I’m happy to celebrate. Check out how far we have come now at https://instagram.com/enosuasheart (Instagram) and (https://fb.me/enosuasheart. And please don’t forget to contact us at https://wa.me/233200092755 to place your order. But I digress 🙈

Now though, I’d honestly love to count many more of my blessings again. I asked God for encouragement and I’d love to play my part. 

Naa Ameley is already 4 months old! Can you imagine! 4 months of this cutie with a billion more to go. 

Now she loves to smile. She actually loves to laugh and I thought her many faces made me laugh but her smiles melt my heart a thousand times over! 

She used to sleep through the night but now she wakes up leaving me exhausted and out of sorts on most days. I really look foreward to her sleeping through the night again. I know how not getting enough sleep affects me. Till then though, I’m enjoying how I manage with the secret hope that I don’t break down. 

Delight asked me to feel it… all the pre-return emotions. Weird advice when you’re actually trying to escape the blues. So I thank God for prayer. I keep asking for encouragement and He brings it my way. 

For instance, Ariel’s afternoon out with Naa Ameley was something I didn’t know I needed. Learning to schedule posts is a dream come true. And ideas for content makes me realise how good God appears to us when we look for His goodness and seek His will.

I understand some women are happy to return to work. In open honesty, I’m not one of them this time round. Maybe I would be some other day. Today, I do have a few more weeks to get my head right, and I’m thankful God is walking these weeks with me every step of the way. 

Maternity leave was what I needed. A refreshing break, a rejuvenated hope and more importantly, a newfound love, Naa Ameley. 

Before you were born, Naa Ameley, I promised to guide you to know God. And how does one do that without knowing God too? So I grasp this opportunity with both hands. This is a new part of my journey, our journey in Him, Naa Ameley. And I hope to live this part, hand on heart, not giving up on my dreams. 

Dreams aren’t killed by others, Naa Ameley. (Yes, yes, yes, I can see you roll your older eyes at me as I type this… lol… I also see my older self laugh under my breath at my current obsession with dreams that come true, but I digress… again). With our own hands we commit dream suicide, and I am not about to show you how I did same to mine this year. Not me. 

Enjoy your time out with Daddy now. I look forward to you enjoying many more. Right now, I’m going to figure out what I am going to do with the rest of my break this evening. It’s terribly lovely having you with us now, Naa. God has been awfully kind. He truly has. 

5:51pm 

1st baby diaries || Sunday, 3rd April, 2022 || 4 calendar months, 9 days