calm down!

yesterday i went along to a toddler calm workshop and it was fantastic!  now, i cant complain about poppy at all, we don't get tantrums, we don't have fussy eating, she naps well and she sleeps all night.  however, during her waking hours, she is wild.  she talks continually, skips from toy to toy, game to game and she can't sit still for more than five minutes at a time.

so, i cleverly thought i could teach myself some skills to help her wind down a bit in the evenings and help her to fall asleep calmly - instead of the incessant chatter and giggling with her rabbit that goes on in there for at least half an hour to an hour some nights!

i will keep you all posted on that though...

crafty little things

i have been a busy sewing bee again lately... making a new blanket for the little baby in my tummy, out of knitted squares - should be interesting to see how that pans out! its a bit 'different'.  and cross stitching some name plaques for some of poppys little pals -

it is definitely something i love doing and giving, although a lot more practice is needed as my crosses are not as perfect as i would like... but is that not the point of handmade? the fact that you can tell it's hand made? i'll just keep telling myself that, i think! ...i have a few orders waiting too, so they can't be all that bad!?!

so apart from that, i have to get back into poppys 'book' - so far we have photos and keepsakes from birth to about 6 months!! she is now 2 ... so a fair bit of work to do on that! oops!

and a slide-show of images for my mothers 70th ...which was last year ...but better late than never, right?  i make every intention to do these lovely things, but find time just isn't with me on this!

on top of all this we are in the midst of our busiest time at the studio and are pulling late nighters all over the place. i am tired. i fell asleep in front of one of channel 5s afternoon movies yesterday and woke to hear poppy singing away in her cot - who knows how long she'd been awake for! i guess if she'd been up a while i would have known about it... after all she doesn't normally 'beat about the bush' for anything!

travel tears

it has been over two years and we have tried all the tricks in the book to help poppy travel 'better'.  she was a car snoozer when she was really small so we thought - as we tend to travel about a lot - we were set! but it was not to be... as soon as she stopped the long newborn naps and entered into baby-dom, we hit problems.

big problems.

travelling quickly became a real bug bear of hers. she would moan and cry and whinge for the majority of any journey with the odd exception when she would snack or nap. our first family holiday to tiree will always be remembered by one baby einstein cd on repeat and a whole lot of screaming.

now two years on, we have finally and reluctantly, admitted defeat... we bought... wait for it... an in car dvd player. gasp.  now i would always have been a big childless judger in the past. lazy parenting - yup. spoilt child - yup. but it's really not the case, let me tell you. or not so in this case at least - this case is for the sake of pure safety. driving along a quiet road with a screaming, moaning, whining child is hard enough... add in a whining dog and some manoeuvres and you are asking for an accident! so we did it, and although it has not been needed quite as much as we had originally thought - it has changed car travel for us completely!

so that is why we loved 'going places'!! ahhhh, now i remember.

we have baby number two on the way and at almost the half way mark i am starting to think about how our lives are about to change.  ok, so you have one child, what difference will another make? well, A LOT! two little people to get ready in the morning, two little people to coax along on our morning walk with the dog, two little people to convince to go to bed... TWO.

when i got pregnant i think i had clearly forgotten what having a newborn was like... lack of sleep, continual feeds and nappy changes... watching poppy playing and seeing the amazing little person that she has become, always reminds me that it is all worth it... totally and completely.

and was it all that bad? or did i just feel so overwhelmed by this new life that everything seemed so hard? maybe this time around (safe in the knowledge that the two hourly feeds will turn into three hourly and four hourly... and that the night waking does end) i can enjoy it more, make the most of each day and cherish it. maybe this time around i wont be so hung up on 'doing it right'.

or maybe i will, after all, i am a mother now... will we ever feel that what we do for our children is enough?

spots, spots and more spots.

we are on our way out of the spotty itchy hell that is chicken pox... it took just over a week but we are finally able to get out and about and do stuff again! now, as anyone who reads my blog will know - i like to get out and about! so for the last ten days we have been walking the dog, planting in the garden, baking and nipping to tescos in hats and scarves to disguise the pox!

i was getting very close to staring out of the window and rocking... but i survived it! and most important of all - poppy survived it.

she has amazed me this week with her bravery and her patience. don't get me wrong - it wasn't all sweetness and light in quarantine... it got a bit hairy at points - i think we saw more tantrums in two days than i have seen in her little life time!?! but, with only one sleepless night and one nap-less day we made it to scabs-ville.
and we have pretty much nailed the old potty training too - wont speak too soon on that though as i am pretty sure i am about to destroy it all with my out and about day of fun planned for tomorrow...

mummy badges of honor

children have a sixth sense when spotting mummys, a friend recently told me that, one day, when she went to pick up her little boy from nursery, a group of his friends came running over to her saying 'a mummy, a mummy!'

we must give off some sort of stench... perhaps dried milk/weetabix/yogurt that has been smeared, dropped or thrown at us throughout the day. perhaps its our trouser's worn knees or the dark circles around our eyes. it could even be that we still rock gently from foot to foot while waiting in a queue or standing at the bus stop.  whatever it is, we are pretty easy to spot...

one of my worst moments as a new mum was this -
i had finally managed to get out of the house - keys, change bag, nappies, wipes, pram, 2 wk old baby... check.  i arrived at my very first mother and baby group and although i felt like i was back at my first day of school, i ventured over to join in.  i had a lovely afternoon chatting with all the other new mums (who had all felt the same on their first day out) and showing off my brand new baby girl... i felt great walking home, i mean from day one i had been out and about - mainly as i have to walk the dog every morning but this was like a real achievement.  when i got in i glanced in the mirror... one eye had full makeup and the other, not a bit! and i had a delightful chocolate moustache from my decaf mocha.

birthday girl

well, poppy turned two last week and to celebrate we had a few friends over to play... 20 to be exact! yikes!
I made a delicious carrot cake with pink sprinkles and some blueberry muffins, rocky road (for the grown ups!) star shaped sandwiches and other snacks and tasty treats. a stressful day or two to organise but well worth it to see her playing with her buddies... albeit primarily playing side by side with them instead of 'together'.

lots of food was eaten, plenty of toys unwrapped and tea drunk (again... the grown ups!)

needless to say it was a lot of fun and poppy treated us to a two hour nap that afternoon to recover!