What mess??

Darling Baby Kay, you are getting better every day, which is such a relief and blessing. You are not impressed at all that you need your nose wiped - so that is a fairly good indicator that you are almost back to normal!! And you also want ALL your toys out on the floor when you are playing, regardless of whether you already have something to play with or not.

One unexpected thing about your recent illness is that you are suddenly quite happy to sit on my knee for long periods without needing to get down onto the floor to play, or take my glasses off, or wrestle the TV remote or mobile phone, or any of your other diversion tactics designed to make us give up trying to cuddle you and pop you down with your toys again. I am making the most of this, because the more you improve the more I can see these afternoon cuddles getting fewer and further between again. Especially when the toddling and cruising turns into full blown walking about!

Sweet dreams my darling baby girl. Only one more sleep til Daddy is home x x

On the mend...

Darling Baby Kay, you are on the mend thankfully. Eating a little more, drinking plenty of fluid and no temperature to speak of, so I think that you're feeling much more like your old sweet self again. Still looking a little pale and peaky, but trying hard to get into all your toys and chatting away.

Today you are working on Bo Peep from our Each Peach Pear Plum book - and getting very excited and clapping your hands when you shout 'Bo-Pay.' It makes my heart glad to see you feeling better and interested in your toys and books again. We didn't chance going out to Jo Jingles - no harm in going gently for a day or two more, and I am sure the other Mummies will be glad that I decided not to bring you in case you smit their little ones.

Tomorrow if the weather is nice we will venture out in the pram - the car seat is finally clean and back in the car, but a bit of fresh air for the both of us would be just the ticket to lift the spirits while Daddy is away.

Sweet dreams precious darling x

Half-full...

Darling Baby Kay - you are not well at all at the minute little darling. We had a busy Friday and Saturday, where we took you into town while we looked for new shoes for Daddy, and had lunch at Pizza Express. You had Pasta Pommodoro - and had a great time sitting up at the table with the little cup of colouring pencils and book the wonderful waiter brought.

Unfortunately that was the best of the weekend. The worst was still ahead. Daddy was playing in a golf competition on Sunday, and though you were a little pale I took you out in the car for a ride to pick up a few things for home. You had eaten all your lunch and seemed in pretty good spirits, but the minute I parked the car up at the shops you threw up your lunch, all over yourself, and the car seat, and the car. The worst part was you were so upset about it. I had to strip you down in the car park and clean you up as best as I could with baby wipes. I had no change of clothes for you, because I stopped carrying spares - so I had to wrap you in a blanket and my jacket and put you back in the yucky seat for the 3o minute drive home.

I was able to get you cleaned down and into bed when we got back. Then I got the car cleaned and took the car seat apart to clean. Parts of it are drying all over the laundry room, because it is one of those clever things that are made for children which are hand-wash only, and don't tumble dry. And in Nothern Ireland you get about 25 minutes of outside drying a month, and we already had April's. Everything is pretty much sorted now, except for you little darling. You are pale and tired, and a little warm, but you are taking milk and water and keeping it all down, and a little bit of food, though you aren't so fussed on that.

I could still cry about this if I stopped to think about it. God is having a big old laugh at me this week.

The Good, the Pink and the Cheeky!

Baby Kay - proving once and for all that Daddy is wrong!

Clint Eastwood is NOT the only person who can look cool in a poncho!!

Numbers 9 and 10....

Darling Baby Kay - today we have had a return to wet weather!! Didn't stop us heading out together at lunchtime to meet J in town - you were very well behaved the whole time we were eating, and had great fun squishing your watermelon pieces between your gums and dropping things over the side of the high-chair. That was more fun for you than it was for J and I it has to be said. You now have 9 teeth - the one I thought was coming through will have to be number 10, because you have a bright white one on the top at the right back, directly above where the bottom back one came through last week. I think you are working on one side at a time!! The one I thought was coming through is still there in the gum looking red and ready to go, so we are watching and waiting.....

I had the yummiest Brie and guacamole sandwich at the YD (tasted much, much better than it sounds!!) and you even had some share of the bread dipped in the guacamole. It was hard to tell if you approved or not, but you did keep opening your mouth when more was offered, so I'm assuming it was a hit! It must have been nice and chewy on your gums!

We ordered dessert to take home, and came back here to relax and enjoy it, so that you could play and wriggle about the floor and then go down for your nap when you were tired. It is always so nice to see J - she loves you to pieces and stops saying that she never thought she'd see the day she'd bounce your Daddy's baby on her knee. Daddy was one of the Seniors when J and I were trainees at work, and he ended up working a lot with J as they were in the same office. J is credited with introducing Daddy and I - but you will already know this by the time you are old enough to read this blog, because I am sure J will tell you at every opportunity!

Daddy is home tonight, which is great. You were so pleased to see him when he arrived in, and so excited that he was able to give you your dinner, and do your bath. I have to say I am pretty pleased he's home too! Only one more day til the weekend lands, precious darling x x

Chat!

Darling Baby Kay, today I realised something that I hadn't before! You are usually very chatty during the day - you have a little range of sounds that we all know and recognise - your Dada, Mama, Eeeeh (with your hands outspread, which means both 'Everyone' and 'All done'), Nana, and a few others. But what I hadn't realised is that when I say things to you, you use those same sounds back to me, but you mimic the cadence of my voice and syllables of the words I have used.

At the end of your bath tonight I said 'Both hands, please' - which is your cue to reach your hands up so I can lift you out of the bath - and you said 'Ma-Ma, Ma' - going up at the end the way we do to get your attention when we say 'please', with a big smile on your face. And when I was zipping up your little Gro-bag, I said 'All tucked in!' and you said 'Na-na-na' with a big smile.

I know people will read this and think I have lost my marbles, but I am sure that you think you are saying back to me what I have said to you! Nothing will convince me otherwise :)

This evening I am just curled up on the settee - once I have finished this post to you I am going to make a cup of tea, and head to bed for an early night with my book. Tomorrow J is coming down to see us both - she is off work for the rest of this week and it will be great to catch up with her in town - so an early night will do no harm at all! Sweet dreams precious darling x x

Hello Daddy!

Darling Baby Kay, today I am posting a lovely photo I took of you and Daddy in the back garden of the house at the weekend. Daddy is in Poland at the minute, so this is for him to log on and get a nice surpise this evening when he reads your blog.

He already knows that you had a great day at Jo Jingles, and have been in wonderfully cheerful and happy form - we have had a really relaxed together and the sun is still shining outside here at 19.45pm in the evening. Daddy, we love and miss you and can't wait to have you home x x

Ha Ha!!

It seems an explanation is in order!!

A 'ha ha' - at least in Northern Irish parlance - is a ditch! The gentry used to look out of their lovely homes and see the rolling countryside all around them, and enjoy the sheep and cattle grazing from afar. What they didn't like was same said sheep and cattle trampling their plants and digging up their lawns - so they dug a 'ha ha' which was a long trench along the boundary of their gardens. From their stately homes you couldn't see the ditch, you just continued to have your lovely uninterupted via over the countryside - but the sheep and cattle on the other side of the ha ha then couldn't get into your garden to wreak havoc with your topiary!!

Hope this helps!! I have linked to Florence Court on Wikipedia - where there is a particularly fine example of a ha ha, which sparked my original comment yesterday!

Ready to catch!

Darling Baby Kay, we have been blessed this weekend and today with such amazing weather, and have been making the most of it. We had a long walk this morning together and while you are fast asleep upstairs Mummy is sitting on the settee wondering how she can have so many sore bits of her body that she didn't even know were there this time yesterday! We saw the sheep out in the fields, and you were tickled pink to hear the lambs bleating - much better than Daddy and Mummy's attempts when you are pointing out the pictures in your wee books!

Nanny and Grandad have gone to Enniskillen for a few days break, and they are getting the most incredible weather for the Lakes. I hope they get a chance to go to Florence Court when they are down in Fermanagh. Daddy and I went there a long time ago to celebrate our birthdays, before you were born, and when you are bigger we will take you there to see the beautiful house, and you can learn for yourself what a Ha-Ha is!!

This photo was taken last week when we were up at Nanny's for lunch. You like the feel of her leather settee (ours is just plain fabric!!) and it is a great height for you to stand up and play against - I kept telling Nanny that she didn't have to stand behind you, and that you were getting so much better at not pretending to be a great redwood tree collapsing in the forest - but she wasn't convinced. I think that is a Nanny's job - to always be there to catch you, even if you don't fall!!

At the park!

Darling Baby Kay, today we have had wall to wall sunshine. The clothes line is covered with all your washing, which I have been able to dry outdoors in the wonderful sun and breeze, rather than tumble it indoors! That is such a rare thing here - especially in April. Dear Becky had told me she would pray for some sunshine for us here, and looks like it worked! I love the smell of your little clothes after they have been washed and dried outdoors - there is something so very special about that.

While I sorted out some things around the house Daddy took you for a walk in your pram over to the park. You had your little sun-hat on to keep your eyes and face shaded, because although you were only out a wee while you are so fair skinned I think it would take very little for you to get burnt. Daddy says you had fun on the swings, and he took this wee photo of you, hanging on and looking rather sceptical of the whole thing!! I imagine before long you will be asking to go to the swings yourself!!

And when you got home and we asked you 'Where's your hat?', you pat yourself on the head as if to say 'Well, it was there earlier!!!' Thank you little angel for a wonderful, happy day x x

Friday at last!

Darling Baby Kay, it is lovely to be at Friday again, with the weekend ahead of us!! I have nothing to complain about since we had Daddy at home on Monday and Tuesday, but it still seems like we missed him more than usual during the day at home once he went back to work. The weather for the weekend is set to be nicer than it has been lately too, so we might manage to take that long walk over to Gosford Forest we have been meaning to do for so long! I sometimes think that by the time we get around to doing that you will be riding your little bicycle alongside us instead of being pushed in your pram!

Today we went up to Carrickfergus to drop our 'baby names' book up to K - who is 35 weeks pregnant with baby boy #3! She reckons that they used the names they liked for baby boy #1, and managed to get to a consensus on the names for baby boy #2 - so when they discovered that baby #3 was also going to be a boy they were into tough terrain!! I had tried to throw in a few names that we had picked out provisionally before we knew that you were a pink baby and not a blue baby - but they have a big, tricky surname like us, and it can be hard to get names to sit together with it. We'll have to wait and see what they come up with!!

We even managed to pop into see Nanny and Grandad for lunch which was great for everyone. You haven't slept a huge amount today - but you did stay in very cheerful form right up until you went to sleep - so I think you had a happy wee day - I know that I did! All my love x x

Just checking!

Darling Baby Kay, today it was just you and me tootling about. A little bit of grocery shopping, a little bit of cooking and ironing, and a lot of playing on the floor and reading your books together.

There was even a little bit of you reading my books!! I was given a copy a book called 'Buddism for Mothers' - a self-help book designed to give new mothers a perspective on how to be calmer, happier mother and raise calm, happy babies and children. Suffice to say that since you were born I haven't actually had much of a chance to read anything at all - much less this little book! It has all sorts of useful chapters like 'Finding Calm' and 'Finding Happiness and Losing our self-image' - all of which I imagine would be very enlightening if I had gotten myself together to read it!

I wonder were you reading it to check whether I was sticking to the rules?? Or to get a preview of forthcoming attractions!!

The one very pleasing thing I noticed though is that you seem to 'know' that you don't tear the pages of books. Magazines, junk mail, anything else is fair-game - but 'proper' books you just flick and fan without tearing. Such a clever little girl!!

We also had tooth number 8 appear on the bottom, to the left of your front 2, and number 9 is making it's way through at the back on the other side. Explains all the teeth grinding!!

By popular request....

.....well, requested by Lisa, who is pretty popular - so that's the same thing in my book.

The hedgehog that Baby Kay is non-plussed with! Now, what's so weird about this poking out of the end of your sleeve!!

Rain, rain, rain....

It has rained all day sweet darling - from first light to as I write. So much for spring having arrived!! We didn't let it cramp our style though - Grandad is still off work for Easter week so we headed out this afternoon to Ballydougan Pottery for some lunch together and to have a look at the gorgeous pottery they make there. Nanny even got a birthday present for a friend, and we bought you a little hedgehog puppet! He is the softest fabric and has little sewn-in eyes rather than buttons, so there is no danger of you nibbling them off! You seemed quite taken with him at first but by the time we'd got back to the house you had decided there was something strange about a hedgehog poking off the end of Mummy's arm, and you kept whipping him off and dropping him to the ground! Well see if he gets a second chance tomorrow!!

You are also spending much more time on your feet lately. If anyone tries to get you to sit still for a minute you stiffen your body and wriggle madly towards the floor to get down. You also don't seem to realise that you can't actually walk by yourself yet, because when we are toddling about holding your hands you are squirming them around in our hands as if you want us to let go - the sum result being you over-balance immediately. We are letting you play lots up against the settee, and walking you up and down with your toddle truck to help you - you love to head over to the French doors and look out over the little back garden - as the little hand marks all over the windows attest!!

You have gone to bed tonight once again totally pooped and ready for sleep! Sweet dreams my darling x x

Back again!

Well, darling Baby Kay, we have had a very busy Easter weekend, and this is the first chance I have had to post to your blog since last Thursday. I can't believe it has been nearly a week; the time just whizzes past and all of a sudden we are halfway through another month.

We have had a lovely extended weekend - Daddy was off work on Monday and Tuesday, and having the 3 of us together all day was just perfect. On Good Friday we just had a quiet day together, and dropped in some chocolate Easter bunnies to R&N next door. Saturday was bright and sunny in the morning, so while Daddy played golf you and I went over to Moygashel to meet Nanny and Grandad for lunch. They had great fun pushing you round the lovely Linen Green stores, and feeding you your strawberries and bananas at lunchtime. You even tried the lasagne with some success - I prefer that you have what we are having rather than carrying the little jars with me, because so many places are funny about heating up your own food if you ask them! You're wonderful about trying most food anyway so it isn't a problem!

On Sunday we went to church, and this week you managed the entire service without having to be slipped quietly (or more usually very noisily!) out the back door! You were just starting to get a bit pipped at the last, but a lot of loud singing in the last hymn covered it up! On Monday we had a quiet family day together again, just puttering around the house - we called over to the bowling green for the opening barbeque and to watch the little competition they were having. Daddy isn't planning to bowl this year, but I am hoping to get out for a few games on a Thursday if I can squeeze my way back onto the Mid-Ulster league team - will have to get some practice in though, I haven't thrown a bowl since I was 12 weeks pregnant with you!!

Today we headed up to Newry to the shops, which were busy and loud and packed with people up from the South keen to take advantage of the great exchange rate! We didn't last long, and came home having just got you a few little pairs of summery leggings for the (hopefully!) summery weather that should be coming down the line.

You are fast asleep now, and I am just going to make me and Daddy a cup of tea and enjoy the last of our weekend with Daddy before he goes back to work tomorrow. Sweet dreams my little princess x x

Waiting for lunch!

What do you mean 'upside down'???

Shouting, part II....

Well, darling girl, we still have lots of shouting today, but I think that under the cover of the singing at Jo Jingles this morning you managed to get most of it out of your system. You were pretty well contained until about 4.30pm and then were a little bit wired until bed-time - but you are bathed, fed and fast asleep as I type so all is quiet for the meantime.

I have had some really good advice from Jaime and Sara, and thanks to an inspired birthday present from Prairiegirl teaching you more signs is the way to go. I tried 'please' with you, and while you just looked at me and didn't give it a try yourself it seemed to surprise you enough to stop the shrieking! I suspect you thought I was trying to tickle you out of it!

And strangely, as we are starting to learn signs, and you are finding your voice, you also said your first clear 'non-baby' word! I think you said it by accident, and I am fairly certain you don't realise that it means what you think it means - but you can now say 'Duck' quite clearly, and have said it several times to prove the point. And, true to form my darling, you are also refusing point blank to perform on cue - so I am the only one who heard it, and I think that Daddy thinks I imagined it!! Oh well, there's always plenty of time tomorrow to practice for him getting home from work!! Love always, precious darling x

Smiling and shouting, lots of shouting....

Darling Baby Kay, today has been quite mixed here - you have had lots of smiling and laughing and toddling along behind your little block truck and walker (with Mummy holding you from behind!) There has also been lots of shouting. And I mean LOTS of shouting!

This is a recent development - you were doing it a little bit on and off over the weekend and I wasn't sure what it was all about. You make this high-pitched, shrieking noise and stiffen your arms, with your brows down and waggling your hands about with your fingers pointed - just as if you are having a meltdown about something someone has said or done. If you are pointing at something you want to play with and I don't guess right and bring you something else we get the shriek and the point. If you are on the floor and it is time to be standing up, we get the shriek. If you are finished with your lunch instead of just refusing your spoon which is your usual form, we get the shriek.

I am trying to breathe deeply and ignore the fact that the noise goes straight for the fillings in my back teeth. I am trying to tell myself that you are frustrated, and that once the babbling starts to form words, and once you are on your feet yourself that the shrieks will subside. Having said all that, those little roaring red cheeks today make me suspect that another tooth is on it's way! I am hoping that when you get up tomorrow morning you'll have forgotten how to make that noise!!

Sweet dreams little darling x

Palm Sunday

Darling Baby Kay, today we headed off to church together for Palm Sunday. You were pretty good for the first half hour, but we had to slip out during the prayers because you had decided that you'd rather go to Children's Church instead! You are by far the teeniest person there - all the rest are at least school age - but there are so few families with small babies that it doesn't warrant a creche - so we just joined in with the children who didn't seem to mind to much!

After church we went back to the farm with the rest of the family. You had great fun pulling Jack's tail (Auntie D's cat!) and instead of high-tailing it out of the house he just kept snaking back and forward through your legs for more. You were thrilled!

After your nap we headed out shopping - Debenhams had a 70% sale on some of their children's clothing, so we used it as a chance to pick up some wee things for you for the summer. Once again the highlight was being in the trolley, and posting pieces of paper through the bars at the front to see if we would pick them up for you! You have gone to bed tonight tired and happy and hopefully all set for the coming week!

So many people left comments about your little wooden teether that I decided to post a picture of you with it. You are having plenty of fun with it for sure - her name is Mary-Lou (according to the packaging!) and as well as a bit of chewing the beads at her hands and feet your favourite things are to suck the string that comes out of her head, or make her jump up and down like a marionnette and swing her around you head..... I am hoping that you don't hit yourself with it, but I think it is inevitable. She seems fairly robust and up for the challenge!

Looking forward to this, Holy Week, and all that it brings us, as I remember not only all it stands for, but also labouring away on Good Friday, and Saturday - before you were born on Easter Sunday. This will be a real week of thankfulness and appreciation.

Show and Tell Friday!

It seems like such a long time since I did Show-and-Tell Friday - a really wonderful feature that Kelli presents each week. So I decided that I would use our little shopping trip today to join in.


My show and tell are this little pair of beautiful pink shoes that I bought today for my darling Baby Kay - her very first pair of shoes. She has some wee soft slippers that she tootles about the house in, and a gorgeous little pair of soft leather slip-on ones for keeping her warm when we are out and about, but now that she is whizzing about in her walker, and start to tentatively wobble up and down a few steps along the edge of the sofa, it was time to get her the real deal.

The girl in the shop was very helpful, and even though Baby Kay was far more excited about the tissue paper coming out of the box she was very patient about being measured and having several different ones tried and tested. The shop even take a commemorative Polaroid picture for you and put it in a little card as a keepsake of getting your first shoes!! I have no idea how long Baby Kay will wear these - all my friends tell me that shoes are the most expensive things they seem to have to get for little ones, and to expect to have to replace them with alarming regularity - but these special ones will be going in her keepsake box for her once she outgrows them!

Who knows, I might have started a life-long love of shoe-shopping in my little girl already!

Happy Friday to everyone!!

Number 7 and counting...

Darling Baby Kay, well the dribbling for the last few days was not in vain. We have another tooth - a back one on the bottom that you can't seem to keep your fingers away from. And coincidentally you got another belated birthday present in the post - a wooden teether from our friends in New Zealand!

I have never seen a wooden teether before, and I have to admit I had my reservations about it, but the details on the box explained it was a Kiwi institution and totally safe. Just as well really, because you love it! And given that your preferred teething toy before it arrived was any one of your wooden blocks that you could get your hands on, perhaps it's fate that your new wooden teether was on it's way to us when you need it most!