A Day in Photos

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Where does the time go?

My goodness, how time does fly! Today is the 10th of the month, which means that it is Little Miss' 'month day'... and today she is 17 months old! Where did that time go? It seems to have gone so quickly and suddenly she is doing new stuff and trying new things. I can't keep up!  She's walking properly now - trying to run even! She's finally cut her third tooth, ages after her peers have but at least it's there now. I'm hoping that the fourth one isn't too far away! Talking is progressing well too; she has a few words that are quite distinct and loads of words where the general sound is present but not properly formed yet. Signing is still popular and she seems to be learning or making up her own signs almost on a daily basis! She has started dancing to music now; well, waggling her bum really but that's as close to dancing as a toddler gets! She loves singing and has learned the tune and rhythm to loads of nursery rhymes. The words aren't quite there yet but in some cases (particularly 'Twinkle Twinkle') she is forming the sounds quite well. All good and positive things... however, there is a downside too. 

The beginnings of the terrible two's have struck as well. It's as if someone flicked a switch last weekend - and suddenly the tantrums, the head-shaking and saying "NO!", the running away from Mum & Dad when called and the fighting over toys - has all started! Except now we have herself joining in too as usually the fighting over toys is because Little Miss has something herself wants to play with. Suddenly herself has turned into a Little Madam as she realises that her sister can not only get around much faster, but as she is standing up too she can now reach the toys that had previously been out of reach! And so, trouble ensues! Somehow though, over the next 18 years I'm hoping that they will learn to put up with each other, but right now it's not happening!

My baby is growing so fast, and I'm having to learn to keep a camera handy at all times just incase I miss that vital moment that marks another step forward. Unfortunately it means that I'm snowed under with lovely photo's and not enough time to scrap them all! 

December Catch Up : Advent Calendar

 From this... 

To this...

Its only taken me two years to complete, but I finally managed to finish this advent calendar which I gave to my Sister-in-Law and her family just before the Advent season. I have another one waiting to be done for our family. Hopefully it won't be another two years before we get to use ours!

Revisiting....

Since having started blogging again just recently, I have been reading back on some of my old posts and marvelling at how much has changed in such a relatively short time. Its amazing to see how my perspective has changed on events, how my hopes and dreams have changed and how even small things have morphed into something completely different. This post  ,for example, was inspired by a blog prompt that was shared on UKScrappers - an event that no longer happens due to people going their seperate ways. The topic? Handbag envy... lol.

What a change three years can make! I'm still a jeans girl, but the trainers have gone out the window. Crocs, Birkenstocks, walking boots and a lovely pair of leather mules are in. My pockets are currently empty, and have been for quite a while now. Mostly because they've been well and truly been replaced by.... a handbag! Oh My gosh! Having two kids now I find I have far too many things to carry, especially as there is usually a baby who also needs carrying at the same time. So, its easier to have a bag hanging off my arm while the baby sits on my hip, the keys are carried in the same hand and the 4 year old is being controlled with the other hand. Yes, I've become SUPER-MUM! Well, not quite... What I am tho', is a mum who now does school runs and toddler group on the same day followed by baby swimming lessons the day after and various other groups throughout the week. Not forgetting the nursery open day, parent-teacher conferences, play dates, birthday parties and school concerts.

The contents of my pockets are still present... the bank cards that used to sit in my pocket now line themselves up neatly in my wallet; the reciepts overflow and the change keeps escaping - but the wallet is being used. However, wallets dont fit conveniently into pockets - so into the handbag it goes. The mobile phone has also migrated to the handbag too, except now I can never find it. Somehow it always escapes from the specially designed mobile phone pocket (which was my whole inspiration for buying this particular handbag!) and makes its way down to the bottom of the bag. And its never in the section I'm looking in when its ringing, so consequently I usually find it a few seconds after it has transferred my caller to voicemail. The keys are usually to be found at the bottom of the bag too, usually making mad attempts at scratching the mobile phone's screen or grabbing at the fabric lining of the bag in a ,usually, successful attempt at ripping it all to shreds. The one thing though that really has changed, and which really sparked the purchase of a handbag... is the PDA. Yup, I've gone all electronic. My poor mushed baby-brain can no longer cope with having to remember all the appointments on its own and I have given up and resorted to using an electronic nagging device to remember it all for me. Its very handy as it keeps all my appointments, contact details, birthday reminders, notes, shopping lists etc. all in one handy place and it beeps at me when I need to remember things. Well, it should do.... unless you let the battery go completely flat as I did last week! In which case, you will find that it loses every last piece of data you had ever entered into it and you are left with a useless lump of plastic that has reverted to default factory settings, thus making you miss one very important appointment, several birthdays and leaves you having to rewrite your whole Christmas list. Unfortunately this wonderful piece of technology is too large for pockets which means that I ended up buying a handbag... and finding that actually, I can make it work for me!  Its just all the stuff inside the handbag that overwhelms me now!!

Lazing on a sunny afternoon... in the summertime!

(Photo's taken in May 2009)

Nearly 3 weeks ago.....

...we added another member to our family! Let sleepless nights commence!

I went into the hospital with contractions 4 minutes apart only to be told that I wasn't in labour. However, they decided not to send me home immediately as they wanted to monitor the baby. The monitoring revealed that the baby's heartrate wasn't doing what they wanted and that the foetal movements were down too. After several hours of them saying that they were going to send me home once the monitoring was done, they suddenly decided that they wanted to induce as they weren't happy with the monitoring results. Four hours after the drip was started a beautiful 8lb baby girl called Cecily Rowan was delivered. She had the cord wrapped around her neck twice, but other than that there were no other complications at birth. Our only concern was that she seemed a little sleepy and struggled to feed. This concern continued for another 2 days until they discovered that she was jaundiced. An extra two days in hospital gave them time to give her some photo therapy for the jaundice and got feeding a bit better established. Nearly 3 weeks later feeding seems well established and she is gaining weight well. I just wish we could say that she was still sleepy tho' as she has now decided to wake up and make her presence felt. 

Unfortunately most of her waking seems to be done at 5am and her sleeping is done during the day. Somehow we have to figure out how to turn that around so that her waking hours coincide with ours... but I rather think that's going to take some time!

Anyway, here's a few pictures of our newest bundle!

Most recent LO

Just want to show you the Layout I have just completed. I'm dead chuffed with this one since its been such a long time since I last managed to complete one. I have been feeling like my inspiration had completely fled the country, but after a visit to the Falkirk Wheel it came back with a vengeance and this is the result.

The title of the LO takes the form of a conversation saying:

"What did we do today?"
"We went on a wheely big boat wif a yittuw Ewin toiyut"

Erin just loved the small child-sized toilet in the boat that she wanted to go back there for days afterwards just so she could go to the loo!! So I felt I really needed to document the occasion. Although I will do another LO about the Falkirk Wheel itself at a later stage. I'll update more about our 3 week stay in Glasgow later.

Update part deux

Our next major trip away was down to Charmouth in Dorset, where we rented a cottage with the parents-in-law, my sister-in-law and her husband and their two boys.  Nine of us in one cottage for the week was rather fun! Lots of trips to the beach (which was only 5 minutes walk away), plenty of sightseeing and loads of walking kept us busy for the whole week.  Erin and her cousins particularly enjoyed building 'santastles' on Charmouth beach.

Here's few piccies from that trip

There are so many other beautiful piccies taken on that trip I wish I could share them all with you!  Keep a lookout for them as I'm sure they'll be appearing in future scrapping projects!

We are away on another camping trip from tomorrow (Friday 17th) and will be returning on Sunday 26th.  I'll update some more when we get back.  Think of us camping in the pouring rain up in Northumberland and pray that we get some decent weather!!

Sleeping Beauty

This morning herself has been a whirling dervish, a two foot high Taz... creating havoc wherever she goes!  She has not been in my good books either, mostly due to the mess caused.  The final straw was when she got hold of the glass of water on my bedside table and emptied it's entire contents onto the bed! Which means extra work for me as I've had to strip the whole bed to let it dry out and will have to put new sheets on and remake the bed later today.  It's not a job I enjoy doing at the best of times...

I got the young madam to help me tidy up the mess she'd made, by packing up all her toys.  During which she was whinging the whole way. I figured it was just because she had been told off.  After most of the tidying up was done she went to sit on the floor on the upstairs landing while I finished off. When I turned back to look at her ....

Bubbles!

Yesterday morning herself and I went to Tesco's to do the monthly shop, boring yes I know!  Still, it had to be done as we had nothing in the fridge and even the larder cupboard was looking a little bare. So despite the snowy conditions we got in the car and drove to Tesco's. While I was there I found some Mer-Matey bubble bath in the kids section, which I thought herself would enjoy. Boy was I right!! She loved them and had a great time trying to eat them... don't ask me why? Who knows what goes on in her little mind?  Here's a few pics:

Unfortunately she enjoyed her bath so much that she didn't want to get out! Which ended up in tears; at least they didn't last too long as she was deposited into her bed not long after. I'm rather looking forward to scrapping these photo's... should look good!