Busy, busy, busy!!

Dearest darling - it seems like our feet haven't touched the ground over the last 2 days.

We spent most of yesterday trying to organise ourselves for your upcoming birthday - I have been trying to source your present - you are getting a little wooden trolley/truck full of wooden blocks for stacking and playing with, but 'Shhhhh.. It's a secret!' And then we went and booked for us to take you along on the day itself to have a proper portrait photograph taken of you. There is a lovely place in town which does modern, funky ones that are bright and vibrant, and I think will capture your personality better than the more traditional sort.

Today, before Jo Jingles we went and ordered your birthday cake, and I bought all the tulle and ribbon to make your tutu!! I have spent this evening working on it, and Daddy even modelled it for me so that I could make sure all the little layers are evenly spread around, but again, 'Shhhh... That's a secret Daddy would like us to keep!!' I am going to let you play with it a little over the next few days so that you aren't completely freaked out by it on the afternoon of your birthday tea - you sometimes react rather unexpectedly to 'surprises' we spring on you, so it's better you get accustomed to it in your own time!

You finally have all 4 top front teeth at one stage or another - all there, and all clearly visible. You have been chewing on absolutely everything you can lay your hands on lately - from the strap of your car-seat to my watch strap. Despite the new teeth this has not abated, you are just moving things round to the side of your mouth to hum and haw at them - so I am wondering if this is where the next teeth appear. You are even (finally!) using the cooler teething ring I bought for you when you were 4 months old and cut your first 2 teeth. You have never used it - and when I used to try to put it in your mouth for you to give you the general idea of what to do with it you just used to hold it in there, looking at me, and eventually let it drop out! I am glad it proved useful in the end, albeit another 8 months down the line!

Sweet dreams, and love always my darling x

Would I??

Darling Baby Kay - we have had a lovely, quiet weekend together, but poor Daddy ended up looking after for the both of us. I headed up to Belfast to meet J&K for lunch on Saturday, so that I could see K before baby #3 makes an appearance. We were having a yummy lunch in the Bay Tree when suddenly I realised I was getting a migraine - yuk! I was able to get myself home fine thanks to my tablets, but was fit for pretty much nothing but lying up on the settee when I arrived. Daddy had to feed you, bath you, look after you and sort dinner. And to top it all off you did something you have never ever done before, and were sick after you had you bedtime bottle. We had to strip you down again, clean you up, get Daddy cleaned up and clean up your nursery rug the best we could til this morning.

Thankfully everyone is great - no problems at all today, but I am sure Daddy could do with a rest!

This afternoon your cousin J called round to see you - she is 18, and one of many older cousins you have courtesy of Daddy being the baby of his family with much older brothers. She hasn't seen you since before Christmas and can't believe how much you have grown, or how much like Daddy you look! She thought you were great whizzing around in your walker too.

You scoot up to the curtains, or the cupboard doors, or the drawers, or the radiator, and then, because you already know I am going to say 'Ah, no - that's not for babies' you look back over your shoulder at me to see me say it, before you blythely go right on ahead and do whatever it was you planned. You have the cheekiest grin when you are doing it - as if you are saying ' Go on Mum, try me!!' We have actually had to bull-dog clip the blinds together and hang them over the back of a chair when you are in your wheels as you have managed to break most of the clips off the bottom in the short time you have been mobile. Everyone has told me that this in nothing compared to what is coming when you are off and running on 2 feet!

This week we are into full birthday planning mode - so we are going to be busy girl!! Sleep well princess, you'll need all your energy!

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!

Handbags....

I'm sure this is where Mummy keeps her phone and money..... Now if I can only find the sweeties!!!

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.

Who says junk mail is no fun?

Who says that junk mail is no fun? Here I am proving that junk mail is one of the greatest things ever invented - it is practically my favourite thing at the moment!!

Turning it into a great game requires a little bit of forward planning by Mummy. First she needs to wait until I have torn up all the pages of the magazines, leaflets, flyers, and other general toot that comes through the door (being careful to remove all cellophane covers which fascinate me and which I am determined to get my hands on..... Mummy is having to be VERY vigilant on this one!) We have even had a promotional DVD for a holiday firm that Mummy and Daddy are now never going to find out all about!!

Then she waits til I am sleeping, or playing with proper toys that people have bought for me, and she spends a few minutes folding the paper up into little parcels, and triangles, and oblongs; tucking and creasing the paper over and over into little shapes. She pops them all into a little cardboard box we have, and then it's my turn!!

I get the box and take all the paper out, one at a time - unfolding the pages, looking at the pictures, kissing the babies in them, eating the corners when Mummy isn't looking, putting some of it down the back of the sofa, but mainly scattering it all over the place. Putting it back into the box is just as much fun for now!!

I wonder will it be so much fun putting things back when I'm a big girl and Mummy wants me to tidy up my toys??

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