Hey Bernice!

It would be an understatement to say I indulged in some chocolate over Easter.
After all, I had some catching up to do! The last festive season (Christmas) I had gestational diabetes, so was deprived of anything naughty (from white bread and soft drinks … to biscuits, cake and of course chocolate).
This Easter I found myself indulging in midnight chocolate feasts after Heidi’s night feeds (her sleeping through the night trick was thrown from the previous week that saw my husband rushed to hospital to have his appendix removed, luckily she’s back to sleeping through again – yay!).
My chocolate of choice is the Lindt Bunny (milk or dark –  I will eat anything I’m not fussy!). I would start by “just taking the ears off” the bunny before going to bed (don’t you just LOVE how the ears are solid? And the sound it makes when your teeth break through the thick chocolate?). Only to find the bunny calling my name after the 2am baby feed (so I would eat down past the head). To then convince myself after an early morning feed that I “better just tidy up the edges” on that bunny. That is really my own personal code for – finish it off!
You know you have had a real feeding frenzy (taking it to a level you never should let yourself get to) when you find crumbs of melted chocolate inside your PJ’s the next morning!

Now, getting to the point of this post… one of the side effects of these chocolate snack-a-roos was a midnight sugar rush that rendered me wide awake, with a brain going a million miles an hour.  At a loss of what to do with this  midnight energy burst… I wrote a poem! It was inspired by the interaction I was having with Heidi during my her feed that night So here it is…

The Perfect Gift
We all have one,
However some choose not to use it.
It’s contagious,
But Scientists aren’t looking for a cure.
It can be recycled over and over again,
But will never wear out.
Happiness and love are its companions.
Representing a moment in time,
That cannot be misinterpreted.
It cannot be bought or sold,
For it doesn’t cost a thing.
When your face lights up with one,
It has the power to change a life.
It was a gift everyone received at birth,
To share with others.… your smile.

The joy I felt that night when Heidi was smiling at me is something that is very hard to explain. A smile is the first real interaction and exchange of emotion you have with your child – the one time you actually know for sure how they are feeling. It is such a special moment. It makes you realise how much can be communicated with a simple smile. Thanks to the Lindt Bunny, it created the urge to capture all that in a chocolate induced poem!

Heidi’s very first smile….

She hasn’t stopped since …

And has also perfected a brilliant bottom lip!

Cheers,

Bernice
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