Long time no post Mama!!

It has been a very long time since I last posted. I confess that this post is driven out of embaressment, having visited the blog of a friend and realised that I have let things on my blog slide shamefully!

So much has happened since my last post that I am not sure where on earth to fill in, so I will make this short and sweet and limit myself to 5 things to get me going again and break me in gently.

1. My little girl has been poorly over the last few days, and is now starting to come around today and be a wee bit more like herself - it has taken a lot of milk, cuddles, and watching cartoons on the sitting room floor in her new 'holiday bed.'2. I have finally started to write properly after all my procrastinating and dithering. Whether what comes out in the wash is any good or not is bye-the-bye, I have at least started.

3. I have had a really wonderful end to 2009 and start to 2010 - life feels good, friends feel close (even those who are so very far away - Sara, Lisa, Lois, Becky, Elena....) and worries have been thankfully absent or manageable. We have had very little sickness this winter, and even the snowy weather we had came and went relatively quickly - just lasting long enough for Toots to get out into the garden in her wellies!

4. We will soon have to change the name of this blog to 'Toddler Kay and her new little Baby Kay.' Due to join us at the end of July is another Special K (DV...)
5. It is nice to be back x

5 things.....

Darling Baby Kay - this evening I am going to just pop down on your blog another 5 things for you to read when you are older. The list this evening is the new little things that you are doing.

1. You hold each one of your little animal skittles up to me in turn when you are unpacking them from the bag, so that I can make their noises for you. Sometimes when they are all scattered around the floor about you, you will suddenly spot one again and hold it up in the air and look at me - as if to say 'What does this one do, Mummy?' You think my 'hee-haw' for your little blue donkey is the funniest thing!
2. When you are reading your Peter Rabbit shapes book you trace the outline of the shapes on the page with your finger like I used to do when I was showing you the picture and saying the word. If I try to do the shape for you now you push my hand away!
3. For some reason you have taken a new shine to my glasses! You used to try to make a grab for them when you were very little, but you stopped when you were about 6 months. Suddenly, recently, you seem to have noticed them again. You lull me into a false sense of security by pretending you are doing something else and then when I get close you strike! They are covered with tiny fingerprints at the end of the day.
4. When you are having your bath at night you now splash like crazy!! You have always been quite active and wriggly in the bath, but recently you have started throwing your little plastic ducks around and holding them up to whoever is bathing you so they can drop them into the bath and splash you. You are still bright as a button and laughing at 6.30 in the evening when you have been up like a June bee since 7.00am!
5. When you are getting your nappy changed if I say to you 'Two feet please' you stop whatever you are doing and lift your two feet up to me so I can kiss the bottom of them for you! You think that is very funny, and it is proving very handy when you are distracted by something and not very keen on being bothered to have to be changed!

Every day is another little something new, my darling. It is wonderful to be a part of your days with you.

Tagged!!

Darling Baby Kay - I have been tagged by lovely Heidi and Lisa for 2 different things - so I am going to copy Lisa's idea and cover both them in one and hope that both ladies are good with that!!

I have to come up with 7 secrets (!!!) and 7 things I love - and let's just say the second 7 are likely to be much easier than the first!!

1. I have a tattoo and had my navel pierced (although I no longer have the ring in.) I was young and foolish once and now have permanent proof of it.

2. The only job I ever had that I really loved was working in a bookstore one Christmas when I was 20. I would do it again at the drop of a hat.

3. I would rather be 2 stone lighter than £20,000 richer - although neither are realistic options to be honest.

4. I always thought that being a SAHM would be just an 'opt out' for women who didn't want to work any longer. Then I tried it and realised I love it, and it is work - we just don't get paid for it.

5. The first time I went to university I dropped out after 6 days - desperately homesick and scared. I re-enrolled at one closer to home the following year.

6. I can wiggle my ears!

7. I always thought I was sure about religion, and my Faith, and my spirituality, but now I have so many questions I regularly feel I am not sure about any of them anymore.

8. I love meeting friends for coffee and scones - and chatting about nothing in particular!

9. I love books - on anything, about anything, and since Baby Kay was born - with or without pictures!

10. I love chocolate. Far too much. Enough said. But if I was only allowed to have one type of food again for the rest of my life it would be pizza. Anything without pineapple or sweetcorn - both of which I like, but not on a pizza!

11. I love needlecraft of any description - but especially quilting and cross-stitching.

12. I love that I can come on here in the evenings and read the thoughts of so many amazing women - who all appear to live in the USA - and who I discover I care about after only having had e-contact with them for a few weeks. How does that work??

13. I love being at the sea-shore, especially on a cold day. We still have that wonderful pleasure ahead with Baby Kay for the first time and I am looking forward to it so much.

14. I love my darling husband - and my beloved daughter - so much that it takes my breath away when I think about it.

I really don't know that many people to tag for this - or as Lisa so eloquently put it - who wouldn't want to smack me for it - so I am leaving it open to anyone who would like to play along. I'd love to read your answers!

5 things.....

Darling Baby Kay, tonight I am going to do another 5 things for you. This time I am going to do 5 things you absolutely love at the minute, in case I forget about them as you get bigger.

1 - You love labels - of any description. You can find the smallest label on the most complicated toy or piece of clothing, and once you have carefully examined it you give it a good suck and chew to be sure that you have tested it fully. Even the same toy time after time - you turn it over and around just to be sure it hasn't changed since the last time you checked it. This picture is of you with a lovely wee rag doll that J&J sent you for Christmas. Her label is actually underneath her clothes - you have to work her top up and untuck her skirt to find it, but it didn't beat you! Fortunately she is machine washable!

2 - The TV remote control is the best thing ever invented. We have a spare one that you can 'turn off' which you used to be fooled by, and would happily have pushed the buttons on but you know that the 'good one' ie the one you aren't allowed to play with, is the one you really want, and you'll make a grab for it anytime it's in stretching distance and we haven't noticed you heading in that general direction. The same is true of the spare telephone handset that Nanny has for you - you look at it, then at Nanny, and then back to the handset as much as to say 'But sure, there's no batteries in this Nanny!'

3 - Playing with the car keys - this fixes everything! Every tear dries up, every shout stops! You can even recognise the noise of them in my handbag if they are jiggling around.

4 - Mandarin oranges and Clementines - you eat these up like there is no tomorrow! I bite the wee segments in half so they are small enough for you to manage and you love squashing them around and gobbling them up!

5 - The weather forecast! No matter what is happening in the house, no matter what you are doing, no matter what toy you have (even the car keys....) EVERYTHING stops when the weather forecast comes on. And I have no idea why!! There is no jingle music for it, it doesn't matter what channel it's on (you don't seem to have a favourite presenter!) but once the weather map appears you are hooked for 30 seconds. You are definitely British my darling - already obsessed with the weather!!

5 things

Darling Baby Kay - today I am going to give you a little list of 5 things I love to do when you are asleep during the day!! I am not talking about the things that I do which are part of my daily routine - rather those little surprise things I do - when you sleep for 2 hours rather than an hour and a half, and suddenly I have an extra half hour in my afternoon that I didn't expect to get!

1. Read something - at the minute I am reading 'The Olivetti Chronicles' which is a collection of the articles written by the late, great John Peel. When you are older and wondering why your Mummy has such weird taste in music I will give you this book, and that one that went before it (Margrave of the Marshes) and it may go some way to helping you out!


2. Sit on the settee, with my feet up and put on hand cream after hand cream after hand cream. Because I am in and out of water all day, with dishes and laundry, and changing nappies my hands are about 20 years older than the rest of my body right now. Daddy gave me a voucher for a deluxe manicure and hand massage as part of my Christmas present, and I am going for it next Saturday. In the meantime I am hoping that my hands will calm down before the rest of me catches up to the same age!!


3. I straighten my hair! I go upstairs and heat up my straightners and give myself a 'do'! Normally I just blowdry in the morning, or go au naturelle - but lately au naturelle is a little too 'Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle.' I hope you do not grow up to have hair like mine - it is thin, but wavy - so it grows up and out - old lady bouffant stye, rather than long and lustrous. For that reason it stays short in an attempt to keep it tamed, but still develops it's own unique kinks and twists, especially if I am trying to make an effort to look nice and it is in an evil mood!


4. Have a hot cup of tea. You have no idea how wonderful this is. To not have to get halfway down and realise that there is a funny looking top on my tea because it is going cold and grey. A hot cup of tea (and at the minute 2 or 3 Quality Street chocolates while we eat up the last of the Christmas goodies!) is a great way to spend 10 minutes!


5. The crossword! If we still have the Belfast Telegraph paper from a Saturday night I will have yet another go at solving a bit more of the cryptic crossword. I have managed to complete it once - only ever once in my life - and I submitted it for the prize. But the odds aren't great of winning something like that, particularly if you only manage to do it once!

So when you are bigger, and wondering what on earth Mummy was doing while you were sleeping during the day, this is it. One of the above, or blogging!!