Who needs Kerry Katona.... Auntie Linda's gone to Iceland!!!

Darling Baby Kay - you got mail this week!! Mail from the most wonderful lady who I hope you get to meet before you get too much bigger. The mail was a gorgeous pastel, fleecy hat, with 'Iceland' and a little row of snowflakes embroidered in beautiful silver writing on the front. It was bought for you by an amazing lady - who has been in my life for a very, very long time, and now she is a part of your life too.

My 'Auntie Linda' was actually the girlfriend of one of your Nanna's brothers - at least 30 years ago! I was only about 7 or 8, but she made me and your Uncle Ricky feel so special. She used to babysit for us, and do treasure hunts around the house; she sent us a set of the Royal Stamps issued for the marriage of Lady Diana and Prince Charles; she even brought me a Spanish Barbie doll back from her holidays. And Baby Kay, I still have the stamps and the Barbie which will be coming to you when you are bigger.

Auntie Linda moved away, married a gorgeous man and had the most wonderful babies. One of her babies is just about to go to university after getting fantastic A level grades! We managed to find each other a few years ago via the Internet and it was like nothing had ever changed! She is the most lovely lady, so beautiful and kind, with the most amazing heart and soul - and I can't wait for her to see you, so she can be your Auntie Linda too. When they were away on their holiday to Iceland a few weeks ago these fabulous people were thinking of you all those miles away - and then the little hat arrived for you.

Auntie Linda - thank you for everything - we are blessed to have you in our lives x

Lunch with K!

Darling Baby Kay, we had a wonderful time this morning at Jo Jingles - you are really starting to get so much more out of it now that you can shuffle about and get yourself some instruments and toys when you want. O was very impressed at you doing the actions to Fancy Dance too - you had great fun!

We then headed over to pick up K from her mum's house in the Moy. She is over from England for the week and it is lovely to have her just up the road. I don't miss very many people from my years living overseas, but K is one of those people I miss very much. She was at our wedding, comes over regularly to see her family, and never misses a chance to call and see us or meet somewhere. She loves to see you, and you were not at all strange with her. You were even happy to sit with her and let her give you some of your lunch when we were eating out! Hopefully if the weather is nice we will be able to meet up again on Thursday and make the most of having her here for a while.

This evening you are fast asleep, and Daddy has headed up to the farm to give Granda B some bread for the hens, but I suspect it is more because he wants to see Uncle J's new electric golf trolley!!! Sweet dreams my love x x

Who knew!!!

I saw this today Baby Kay and did a double take!! The spelling is not quite right, but it made me stop and stare long enough to block up the aisle while I was taking a photo on my camera!

Who knew that PG was also an entrepreneur making and selling her own salad creams!!! I thought only Paul Newman did that!!

Special delivery....

Darling Baby Kay - you are getting better and better with each passing day. It is such a relief that you are sleeping more soundly and not coughing so much - a collection of time passing, going gently, some medicine and some great advice from lots of lovely ladies in Blogland who have passed along their wonderful pearls of wisdom.

We went today to pick up the pictures from the photographer that were taken on your 1st birthday in March, and we are so delighted with them. The framed one is up in the sitting room, and we have some extra copies for Nanny and Granda, Granda Billy and B&F. I am so glad we decided to have the pictures done, even if there was a little bit of shouting before you decided to settle down and play along!

The sun has been shining all day, and looks set to continue for the weekend so I hope it lasts and we can get out and enjoy it. I especially hope that it is being shared on the other side of the world, for tomorrow in particular. One of the singlemost incredible, funny, beautiful and gracious women I have ever had the good fortune to meet is celebrating her birthday this weekend - I think she is 21 all over again! :) And I hope the sun shines on her all day long!!

What do you mean you can't post me to Washington for the party???

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

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

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!!

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!

Play date!

Darling Baby Kay, today we had another busy day in store. As well as Jo Jingles this morning we had an afternoon playdate over in Loughall with R&E - R goes back to work tomorrow now that her maternity leave is up, and it was the last chance of catching up for a while.

After Jo Jingles we came home for lunch, and I had hoped you would doze in the car on the way over to R's - but you stayed wide awake, singing away to yourself until we pulled into their driveway, at which point you promptly went to sleep!

What to do?? Well, usually you REFUSE to sleep anywhere other than your own cot - you won't even cuddle up in bed beside me (and believe me I have tried to convince you it would be a lovely way to spend a few hours!) But you were so tired that you did sleep when we tucked you into E's cot - for the entire playdate! E played away quite happily and didn't seem to miss the fact that her date had arrived but hadn't shown up! And it gave R and I a great chance to catch up with only 1 little girl twisting around the floor!

It was very sweet when I went to get you to bring you home - you have started to take your tights off when you are wearing a dress - why?? Because you have suddenly realised that you can I think! When I put you down for nap you wriggle and wrestle them off quite merrily and then go to sleep with them in one hand and Moo in the other. The problem with this afternoon was that I didn't take your little slippers off when I put you down to sleep, so there you were, fast asleep with Moo and your tights firmly round your ankles where you couldn't get them off any further! I wish I'd had my camera, but when you are old enough to read this for yourself my darling I am very sure you'll be glad I didn't! Sweet dreams little love x

Post from the Prairie!!

Darling Baby Kay - tonight we have a very big thank you to send across the Atlantic to 2 very, very special people. Lovely Lisa and Prairiegirl have sent you the most wonderful box for your birthday, full of lovely things!

We had to go and pick the parcel up from the post office this afternoon, as we were out this morning when the postie tried to deliver it. As with all post to the house, you had to have a good inspection of it before anyone was allowed near it to start opening it. When it's being opened you do this strange arm flapping - up and down like you are trying to lift off. I think it's excitement, but it could also be your way of telling me to stop taking photos and hurry up and open the parcel!!

Inside was a gorgeous birthday card with Winnie the Pooh on the front. It has twinkle and glitter on it too, and you have had great fun scrunching your nails on the twinkle to hear the noise. When I was bathing you tonight you still had little bits of twinkle in your hair! It seems so strange to think that only a few days ago Prairegirl was writing your card and now it has made it's way halfway round the world!

And also the most beautiful top - your first Disney shirt!!! All the way from their holiday in Florida. Unfortunately I couldn't get you to hold the top up, or even let me set it on your knee - because once you saw that there was a big Disney label on it, you were just past yourself with excitement and kept grabbing the label and waving it about triumphantly, or trying to put it in your mouth!

There was a brilliant book on signing for babies - with colourful pictures and flash cards, so that when Prairegirl comes to visit us you and she will be able to chat away! You really loved the flashcards, and the book was a fantastic diversion while I was making your dinner and you were waiting in your high chair!!

Your favourite sign is teddy bear - I am having to learn them fast, because you keep pointing to the pictures in the book and then looking at me, as much as to say 'What's that one then!'

And there was also a more grown-up book on signing, for when you are a little bigger. This didn't stop you insisting on being allowed to look at it for yourself now - and make sure that I wasn't going to sneak it away for myself!

And there was even something in there for Mummy. You know when you have met someone who is very special, with a kind and thoughtful heart, when they send you a gift you never realised you needed (indeed never knew existed) because they DID know that you needed it, having remembered something you said a long time ago. Lisa, you are a complete sweetheart.

Lisa even snuck some great magazines into the box that you can't get here in Northern Ireland - so I will be enjoying a flick through those this evening in bed while Daddy is away.

What a wonderful parcel - and thank you again so very much to the very special people who sent it to us - your kindness is so much appreciated, and will not be forgotten.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

To the dear people who read Baby Kay's blog, and leave such wonderful, thoughtful comments - a very Happy St Patrick's Day to you all.

May God give you:-

For every storm, a rainbow

For every tear, a smile,

For every care, a promise,

And a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

A faithful friend to share,

For every sigh, a sweet song,

And an answer for each prayer.

Ready for the weekend!

Today has been a great day - even the weather was bright and sunny, which you can never take for granted in Northern Ireland. The joke is that the weather is bad 9 months of the year and for the other 3 months it just rains! That didn't stop us heading out today to the post office together and to get some goodies in for J and the girls popping in for afternoon coffee. I have unfortunately discovered a new brand of biscuits (cookies to my American friends!) called Banana Snickerdoodles. I so wish I had never seen them or heard of them - they are too delicious for words. Suffice to say that J agreed and there is one lonely biscuit left in the packet this evening. But not for much longer. The kettle is boiling!

Darling Baby Kay, tonight all I want to say to you is that I hope through your life you are blessed with the kind of friends that I have had, and continue to meet as I get older. I have a friend who I have known since I was 10 years old who I still see every few weeks, and others who I have only just started getting to know. And it is these new friendships that are making my life feel so very blessed recently, for a number of reasons. Some of these people show remarkable kindness and generosity of spirit - ('Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise'.) Others are completely unique, honest, interested, supportive and funny in the face of everyday life. Others offer a safe place to land - a very safe place. I hope my darling that you grow up to be friends with R&N next door, and baby I, with S&E and the others who you come to grow up with. And above all I hope that they bless your life as much as you are blessing ours.

Looking forward so much to a '3-of-us' weekend, my little sweetheart!

Me and my Girl

Darling Baby Kay - it has been a very busy and manic weekend here at home, but lovely at the same time. We have had CC over staying from England, and spent the last couple of days entertaining - although she really is the most wonderful easy company, and is so happy to muck in, eat what we eat, go where we go, and just relax together and catch up. By rights we should be tired this evening, and though I will be glad to get to bed tonight I am feeling upbeat and happy having had such a great time with her. The last time she saw you was at your Baptism last June, when you were 12 weeks old, and she couldn't believe how you had changed.

We went over to the Outlet on Saturday so CC could look at the shops, and we all had lunch over there too. It was your first real lunch out where I didn't bring a little home-made meal, and took the chance that we would be able to order something off the menu that would suit you too. We ended up with a side order of mashed potato - which we added some of Daddy's fish and mushy peas to - and you had a wonderful time. You sat very happily in the restaurant for the whole 75 minutes we were there - which after a morning trailing round the shops in your pram was no mean feat for one so small. You are such a joy to take out with us; you are so happy to go anywhere, sit and look around and wave at people and you rarely make a scene or get cross. I even managed to get you some 'big girl' spoons now that you are taking an active interest in inspecting what you are being fed, and are determined to grab the spoon!

And today I am posting a photograph that CC took today of the 2 of us before she left. Lovely Jaime mentioned in one of her comments that she was waiting on a picture of Mummy and me - and it made me realise that in all the pictures I have posted on here I have not posted a single one of the 2 of us together - usually because it is me behind the camera and when anyone offers to take one of us my hair is doing the wild-thing or I look like I have had even less sleep than usual! Ignoring the circles under the eyes, I think this is a good one of the 2 of us - and you look just as beautiful as ever my darling little lady. Sweet dreams my angel x x

Thursday again!

Darling Baby Kay, today has been a busy day on so many fronts. We were all up early this morning so Daddy could look after you while I was at my osteopath appointment. We take you over with us and you play happily on the floor with the toys while the osteopath works his magic. Daddy was there last week and this week it was my turn. I have had some stiffness in between my shoulders (a combination of bad posture, lifting a wriggly baby and not sitting in a good position when sewing, reading or typing!) but that is now all sorted. My back is achy this evening, but it is just the muscles adjusting and tomorrow I will be better than I have been for ages. It is like a 6 monthly MOT!!

When we got back we had L&I over for lunch. We haven't seen them since Baby N's birthday party, and in those 2 weeks Baby I has grown 3 new teeth! It is so strange to see her wee smile with the teeth showing through. They stayed for a few hours and only headed when it was time for you both to have your afternoon naps. It is so funny to see the 2 of you playing together - it is clear you recognise each other, but once the initial pulling of jumpers and squealing stops then you both get on with playing by yourselves and trying to take toys off one another when you realise the other has something you had forgotten was on the floor.

You have also spent a lot of today standing up against the settee - you are trying a few wee tentative steps, but they are almost accidental rather than because you realise it will help you move along the seats. Every day I prop you up and let you tiddle about for a bit, until you get tired or decide you want to do something else. I have to stay close by as you are apt to just let go and keel over backwards like a tree - you don't bend your knees, or drop to your bottom - you just push back from your arms and lie back!! I was able to get a picture of you though before you decided you were finished with your standing about for the day!

I have also sorted out the fabric I want to use for your quilt - so this is the first picture of it - before a bonnet is cut or a needle has been threaded! I am going to do SunBonnet Sue designs in pink and blue florals - with a lemon gingham back. I have sorted through lots of little bundles that I have had in my scrap bag for little dresses and hats, and only tiredness this evening is stopping me getting the scissors out. I have done that before, and started something in haste and excitment, and regretted it over the next few days as I realise I was making mistakes because I couldn't be a little more patient!

I am really looking forward to using the last of the bunnies fabric too.

This will be the 3rd quilt it has gone into - and all for wonderful little girls! I will start tomorrow with my template cutting and begin the long process of putting this quilt together for you my darling x

Ladies (and babies) who lunch!

Darling Baby Kay, today we went up to Holywood in County Down to meet a friend for lunch at her house. I met L at a workshop I went to about this time last year, when we were both pregnant. She was 43 weeks and holding fast, and as I was so determined to have a natural birth with you I was fascinated by her calm, and her resolute belief that her baby knew what it was doing. When Baby N finally arrived she was right - no woman stays pregnant forever! - and it gave me a sense of support as we clocked past 40 weeks, then 41, then 42 ourselves!

L is a wonderful person - Baby N is her second little boy and she is a real example of a calm, happy homemaker. We had a great lunch - talking about nursing, weaning, other babies, working, homemaking, crafts - the time just whizzed past. She made the most wonderful lentil curry soup, and then berry crumble for pudding, both of which you tried and loved! And you played happily on the floor with Baby N, just glancing over every now and then to see if I was still there!

L's home is a lovely, warm place too, with lots of pictures and photos around the walls, and things to look at. I have come home this evening with renewed vigour for putting up some more of our pictures and maybe being a little less rigid on the 'no-clutter' approach to homemaking. I think that sometimes I walk along the wrong edge of the minimilist line when it comes to home decorating!! Having nice things out needn't mean the house coming down with clutter! I need to leave the accountant behind and embrace the homemaker in me a little more. And I can start with something simple - finally getting curtains for the dining room and sitting room!

Play-dates and new mates!

Darling Baby Kay - today we had N&J over for tea and cake, with their adorable little boy. They are a couple we met at our antenatal class in February and we have stayed in touch with them, but this is the first time we have had them over to the house. Like us they have had their little one later in life (though both have children from their first marriages), and like me they hope that another little one will bless their lives at some point in the future (DV). It was lovely to see them, in that wonderful way where you are not sure how things are going to work out but it ends up being more relaxed and comfortable that you could have hoped. We are going to try to do the same again in the New Year.

It is so funny to see you with another little baby. Baby A is 7 weeks older than you and racing about on his knees like a tiny steam train. You on the other hand were quite content to sit up on knees or on the floor watching him and sizing him up. You are much more vocal than he is (maybe that's a girl thing!!) and spent most of the afternoon babbling to anyone who would talk to you, or barging A with a growl when he tried to pull himself up on the furniture. You also managed to get a good handful of his hair on more than one occasion, which he took in a very gentlemanly fashion for someone of only 10 months!!

I can see however we might have some issues with 'sharing' in the coming months - I don't want to be THAT mother, who people dread coming to Mother and Baby groups because their teeny weeny can bear wrestle any toy from any child! You are too sweet by half for that I know, but when you do that growl and drop your eyebrows to let me know you are cross then even I am not sure I would mess with you!!!