7yummymummies

I'm not posting tonight

2011-02-20T23:21:00.000Z

............. Sorry just got home from a night out with my bestist friend - I know the night is still early but I'm cream crackered - hope all is well with everyone catch up with you all next week xx

A mothers week is never done :)

2011-02-13T21:11:00.000Z

This week was a busy week, as other half was on call, I always dread these weeks as I find myself running around like a blue a***d fly. Here there and everywhere, well like any week really although we find ourselves having to go into stealth mode if Daddy is home and catching up on sleep, however we really do need to find that QUIET BUTTON, it just doesn’t work I try to talk like a mouse, but the mice that we talk too seem to have the loudest of all conversations and I find that my sssshhh’s are even louder. And then poor Daddy emerges from the dark curtained bedroom for a wee and a grunt hello and big hugs and then heads back to the darkness and with those blue eyes I find myself saying, “shall I make you a cup of T?” and he seems to be eternally grateful.

By the time I have made the cup of T I find that I have also made his packed lunch, put it in the Fridge for later on, fed the dog, cats, put washing on the airer, unloaded the dishwasher, just about remembered the foundation to be applied to ones face, collected refresher pack of nappies for the nursery and remembered to sign the permission form for photo taking.

Put the kids in the car, remembered laptop, handbag and my lunch and phew the day can begin!

That’s my week short and sweet and lots of sleep catch up at the weekend!

That's Not My Name!

2011-02-06T20:30:00.000Z

I am wondering if all is well with the rest of the 7yummymummies and whilst I enjoy writing 2 blogs the other being my personal blog thoughts from a village as I am not the administrator to this blog I wonder how many readers out there there are and that I hope you are enjoying reading my weekly update or have given up. But for the time being I will continue, as I seem to have lots to chat about and do not like to repeat my posts onto the different blogs.

This week DS has decided that he is not who is it but on Monday became a slug, Tuesday a snail, Wednesday agogagagagooo??????? Thursday his namesake [phew!], and Friday Ruby!!! Sometimes I just can’t keep up with the names changes and he gets quite upset when I get it wrong. It is good though to see his imagination developing and exploring his identity which as a “looked after child” soon [very very soon] to be adopted child is a very good thing for him to be aware of.

And for those who may be interested to know following last week’s post Son is still at Nursery! He hasn’t been expelled YET! And all seems to be good.

My friend used to tell me how her daughter at a young age would take ages to eat at meal times and whilst some may say that if brought to the limelight may be the onset of food ‘problems’ in our case I am noticing that our DD just likes to sit and watch, watch to see what is going on around her, whilst food just sits in her mouth getting soggy, she watches to see what she is missing, watches to get me frustrated that she isn’t eating. Breakfast time can be particularly painfully slow as like this Friday she suddenly ‘came back’ to reality and realised that she was the only one left at the table as son had wolfed down his bowl of 3 types of cereal [yes we can’t just have one but 3 as variety is the spice of life as well as keeping them regular!] but son has also wolfed down half an orange, wiped his hands and face and gone to play with his toys. DD then starts counting and going through members of the family which includes the cats and the dog as well as Poppydog’s friends. This Friday I decided to leave the kitchen to ‘get something’ to see if this hurries the process as ‘I have left her’ and forced ‘separation’ but it doesn’t work and time is ticking on and we really had a busy day ahead!

Hope you all have a good week

Mummyrella xx

Will he be expelled from Nursery??!!

2011-01-30T20:17:00.000Z

Well that was a busy week – Final assignment completed and sent off, redundancy finally announced looks like 31^st March will be the final day as a Civil Servant. Kids had a pretty much full on week and I finished framing my photos for my first exhibition!

However, I will now back track and focus on KIDS! And Nursery! I went to pick them up from Nursery on Thursday, son was making a bit of a fuss not wanting to put coat on, saying “No” and walking off, squirming and being a very tired little boy. Nursery deputy then enquired “is he like this alot at home?” “Yes” I said you know typical man not wanting to do what I want him do. Then there was a response from her “Yes, he is starting to be like this with us too” OMG what do I say panic stations umm well I’m sure it’s the terrible twos” Nursery Deputy “So what do you do when he is like this” quick think what do I do “I sit him on the step or put him in the corner” I reply. She continues to say that they are also taking him out of the situation getting him to calm down and listen to what is being asked of him.

Thoughts start to race around my head; are they thinking – I’m a bad mummy, she can’t control her son, oh no will I have to take him out, will he be expelled? Can a nearly 3 year old actually be expelled? What’s he going to be like when he gets to school? BUT then I stop and think NOOOOOOOOOOOOO he is 2 years and 9months, he is a boy exploring and he does tend to get over exited about things. So when we get home, Hubby and I both feel bad so we tried to layout it out how it was – “Son and Daughter if you are naughty at Nursery and don’t listen then Nursery might not want you back to play with them again” We kept reiterating it over the weekend when they did little naughty things or didn’t listen and explained if they were very naughty their childminder would not want to see them either. I feel bad doing it but until I can think of other ideas – I know its bribing but should we be bribing with rewards making it sound more positive?

Hope you all have a good week

And then the weekend arrived aaarrrrggghhh

2011-01-16T20:32:00.000Z

What to tell you this week.
Well this is the first week of nearly the rest of my life!! Redundancy is imminent we should hear tomorrow that we can apply for Voluntary if we so wish – of course the incentive to take this is an ok offer and it gets the GOVERNMENT out of saying “so we only made this number redundant the rest well they chose to make themselves jobless”, I am NOT HAPPY as daughter would say when I tell her “no” she often replies “mummy I’m not happy” and stomps her foot to the ground with her bottom lip nearly there as well.

So some of you will have been following me on twitter and seen that I have posed a question – should I look for something adventurous like opening an internet cafe for mummies with soft play area for their darlings or look for another pen-pushing job. Most came back with the latter and as it has it I am due to meet with some Business advisers you never know what could be on the horizon.

Anyway back to family life this week – It went WELL AGAIN, it went really REALLY WELL, it was too good to be true, and then the weekend came upon us and our boundaries were tried to the very edge of parenthood. Crying, arguing, not sleeping through the night, waking up in bad moods, breaking things like Daddies laptop, destroying the roller blinds in the bedroom and the general moans and groans of not wanting to do what we the parents would like them to do. As the weekend progressed and Sunday was a pretty low day, little son it transpired had come out in a cold, with snot and sneezes, runny eyes and general sniffles all day. So bedtime has arrived and gone and paracetamol, karvol rub and warm milk has been administered as well as a nice warm bath, a read in bed and a final cuddle goodnight and all we can hear over the monitor is snotty bubbly breathing, let’s hope it is a good long night’s sleep.

Hope all my fellow 7yummymummies are well.
Mummyrella xx

Reviews, Silences and Normality Resumes

2011-01-09T22:03:00.000Z

Hi Everyone hope you all have had a good week – I had one day in the office and the rest of the week was catch up with house work, shopping and getting the kids back into a routine again. No childminder but nursery for two shorter days, and by Friday they seemed to be cream crackered, so I know next week we will have extreme tiredness by Wednesday night.

More developments with our Adoption, we had a meeting on Thursday with Social Worker and Court Officer – In six more weeks we should be [blinking hope so] officially “parents” after 3 ½ years!!!! Please Court Officer make it sooooooooooooo.

Thursday was also Hubby’s Birthday and unfortunately along with a pair of scissors and a Christmas Cheque Hubby’s Birthday present is missing. I did buy it, I know I bought it into the house and I know I didn’t wrap it, but placed it in a very strategic place where I would go and get it straight after the festivities and prepare for his day. Four days later and all three items are yet to disclose themselves. But I did make a belated birthday cake yesterday which we are all enjoying very muchly. Not counting the calories at all that will start tomorrow – Ha!

Received my first review products this week from Show & Tell – Mefinder if you go to my personal blog you will find the review there.

I do hope all you 7yummymummy bloggers are ok and I imagine you too must be really busy at the moment so let’s hope you will be online soon to give us all an update. And to those of you who read this blog we hope you are all well and have enjoyed the Christmas Holidays.

Getting excited about attending cybermummy11 which is happening later in the year and for which I see lots more are signing up to attend – will be great to catch up with you and meet you in the flesh!

I have always thought that Sunday is a good day to sit down and catch up with whats been happening in the week and what I’ve got to look forward to as well, however I have since found out that Sunday is also treated by many of you as Silent Sunday! Which, for those of you who are unawares, was founded by mocha beanie mummy, who started Silent Sunday by posting a photograph that she had taken to sum up the week, for which required no words. Brill idea and will try and incorporate this into my blog if I can – but Sunday’s for me I seem to have lots to say, some may call it dribble, but I like to call it Therapy!

All back to “Normal” tomorrow going to sign off and catch up with a bit of my coursework last assignment due at the end of the Month!

Have a good week ya oll!

Mummyrella x

May I be the First of 7yummymummies to Wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2011!

2011-01-02T22:01:00.000Z

May I be the First of 7yummymummies to Wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2011!

Sorry Hanzor – I know you are probably very busy ;)

Well it is still the 1^st January; I am starting to catch up with things as life in the Village has been a bit hectic to say the least! And of course the same for all of us.

Now it is the 2^nd Jan Sunday! and the day has swiftly pass me by and its nearly time for bed! – trying to get back in to the swing on things ready for a day at work in the office on Tuesday! So will try and keep it short and sweet.

I enjoyed the sermon at Church today with the readings and hymns following the Three Wise Men as it is very appropriate for me with regards to my journey this year read on to see how.

Poor Daughter got Tonsillitis the week leading up to Christmas so hence my latest personal blog FOG – Will we ever get better? and so all of us didn’t feel 100%. But a great time was had by all and now I start to clear the clutter from my world!

I am trying to be in an “optimistic” place and so the diary I have chosen to follow this year is “The Sacred Journey – Daily Journal For Your Soul 2011” by Cheryl Thiele. Hopefully this will help me guide me, my soul and mind through some tough times ahead and help me keep focused on the way ahead.

I had a surprise for my Crimbo prezzie from my hubby this year a Nintendo DSi XL now I am not one for playing technical chase, war or get the ring games, but I do like to exercise the old grey matter, so a bit of Brain Training has been great – I started with a brain age of 80 but now after a couple of days I am in to the swing of things and have a brain age of 32! Not too bad yet for a 39 year old!

The Children are really liking their present’s, daughter got a new toy pram – she just loves pushing it around unfortunately Poppy Dog does not. And Son well he just hasn’t stopped talking and playing with everything in his little Happy Land.

Hope everyone enjoyed the festivities have a good week

mummyrella x

Tis the season - nearly there now!

2010-12-12T20:26:00.000Z

Busy Busy again and managing to get round the snow and ice – although we still have a little bit left on the field!

Kids started the week with a snotty cold, before I had my kids I used to be Brown Owl to 30 little girls aged 7-10 and one thing I could not stand was snotty nosed children, and now have my own – I still can’t stand the sight! As soon as one of them sneezes I’m like a woman possessed – “who sneezed, who was it? Have you got a runny nose?” and I’m there with the tissues – If I’m driving – well I just don’t know how I manage until I can turn round and wipe it!

They have been brave little soldiers though – as I have tried to carry on – dosed up with a bit of calpol and that seems to have kept them going, although very very tired after their two days at nursery and as husband was on call and not coming home till late – tea time and bath and bed time was a huge struggle, the noise that two very children make when so tired is unbelievable I just didn’t realise, but we got there!

Friday was a day to try and relax but get things done and we delivered 4 bags of clothes that I have been holding onto “just in case I put the weight back on” to age uk, and finding a bulb for the oven light.

Saturday has been the best day by far – we got to go to the zoo, see Father Christmas and watch the Pantomime all within 5 hours!

We went to Colchester Zoo to celebrate my friends little girls 3^rd Birthday and whilst it was still only about six degrees, the kids had fun running around seeing all the different animals. The kids were playing in the play area and this [approximately] 8-9 year old boy decided to belch just as I past him and even though his mother was there I still said very loudly “I beg your pardon” He and I was so shocked when I said it, I think I just went into mummy mode!

We stayed the night at my mum’s as I didn’t fancy the 2 hour drive home in the dark and it was just an hour to hers – the plan was to bring her back for last minute Christmas shopping, but she had a little trip down the stairs and needed to rest so I’m going on my own to the outlet centre Springfields in Spalding so should get a few bargains.

We arrived home Sunday afternoon to husband putting last minute touches to our outside light decorations – we just have the rope lights showing the outline of the house – which looks really pretty as we only have one street light down the road and so it looks all sparkly and festive. Inside decorations will go up next weekend and hopefully there will be a tree left somewhere for us to purchase – I like the smell of a real one!

Kids have their first Nativity Play this week, which I’m sure will be a tear jerker, we have been learning the songs, no lines and no costumes to make!

Have a good week all and happy shopping!

too much to do!!

2010-12-09T13:42:00.002Z

hi mummies,
sorry I've not posted for the last couple of weeks, but well, super super busy as usual!
I have finished my Christmas shopping!!! well, I'm at the point where if it's not been bought it's not going to be!! ;) nah, we've pretty much nailed the kids Xmas lists (much to my dismay) and we've spent a FORTUNE! :( next year, it will be different!!!! I'm allowing it this year as it's our first Xmas altogether :) and for a bar-humbug like me it's amazing, because for the first time, EVER, I'm actually really excited about December 25th..... not sure when my loathing began, but i always disliked the run up to Xmas as a child because of my name.... lol
I've wrapped about 120 presents, and ive still got about 3 more to do, which i keep putting off! lol..... decorations are up, four advent calenders hung on the wall (plus 4 cardboard ones) altho i didn't even think of getting one for Ben or myself.... oh well, always next year!
So, what's been happening?? snowed under with uni work as per usual, although our tutor group report got a 2:1!!!! we were all sooooo happy, and it's kicked me up the bum to carry on--- altho I'm now panicking because I've set myself a standard.... hmmmm

Kids are doing great, Eryn starts her new uni in Jan, and altho she's turning into a right little madam, she's being super-cute at the same time. She's at the point where she knows what she wants but cant communicate it, so throws a wobbly instead :S She had an appointment at the hospital 'cause the health visitor thought she had clicky hips, she was soooo brave (braver than me) when she went for the x-ray. All came back clear (which means that i was right to think she was just weird when she used to scoot around on her bum in a half shuffle half crawl fashion) so that was a great relief!

Ethan was Joseph in the school play, bless him..... he was soooo miserable! lol, but just soooo Ethan! He very much enjoyed the snow (unlike me, i hate that too!) and is having a fab time at swimming and Beavers :D

Josh and Harry are good too, Josh is also Joseph in his school nativity.... and Harry is an alien.... not quite sure how that's Incorporated into the story of Xmas, but I'm hoping to hear all about it after Ben sees it next week :)

They've been hard work recently (all of them I mean) don't know why, but very much hoping things will settle down soon!!

Our beloved 'Hank the Tank' broke down on Sunday, in bloody Bournemouth of all places! so we had to get my cousin's other half to rescue Ben (thankfully me and the kids were at home) and well, he was gone most of the day and all evening :( hoping to have the car back today though, it's too cold to be walking miles everyday! Lucky we got a warranty when we bought it so we don't have to pay for the repair!

We went to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Kings last night. It was the first time Josh and Harry had been to a panto and we all had a fabulous time! We were offered the chance for one of the boys to go on stage at the end but none of them wanted to do it :'( and i was too old apparently :( lol

Oh we babysat my 'nephew' on Saturday night! it was soooo weird having a tiny 6 week old baby to cuddle.... and i did cuddle him, ALL NIGHT because every time i put him down he screamed! (his mum assured me he sleeps through! lol) I loved having him, but it did make me wonder how i coped alone when Eryn was tiny.... just goes to show that no matter what, you just get on with it... and how quickly you forget... And it was amazing to see Ben with him! He was absolutely loving it! Baby was asleep in his pram in the front room with us from 7-10 and Ben was up every 5 mins checking on him! and then he offered to feed him, and hold him- even at 4.30am..... Made me realise what i missed out on from not having him around when Eryn was born.... the wonders of hindsight eh?

But Ben has his very own baby now! Reggie the Rabbit.... Reggie the house rabbit.... during Ben's week off he decided to get a rabbit, i agreed as long as he takes full responsibility for it (i know, i sound like a mum! lol) I have to admit, he is very cute, and he's got an indoor cage and we only let him out in the evenings.... so kind of a house rabbit, but if Ben's happy I'm happy.... lol

Right, that's about it from me, im supposed to be finishing my report on Pedestrian Behaviour.... oh the joys....
Hope every one's ok! xx

Haven't thought of a title - no time Nowadays!

2010-12-05T23:11:00.000Z

Haven’t thought of a title!

Quite a productive week this week despite the weather! – Last year during the bad weather we decided to invest in an old Land Rover Discovery, not too old but of sound structure and body work, this year we invested in some Mud n Snow tyres and way hay away I go! I was off in the snow for operation Christmas Present Hunt. I didn’t realise until I got home how much I had actually managed to buy, just that I had very sore hands from carrying it all – as usually I would of had the buggy. I was also very late going to bed that night as I started to wrap as well – a first for me I can tell you.

I am very lucky in my job for the time that I have left [soon to be made redundant thanks to our No 1 – the PM] in that I am able to carry on working from home, so that part of my week was the usual meeting deadlines and keeping on top of things.

I brushed off that Daughter didn’t want to go to Nursery on Thursday as – “oh never mind then, but let’s get dressed and see where we end up”, and there she was waving energetically to me with the biggest smile I’ve seen for a long way from the Nursery window happy to go and play with all her friends. And when I arrived to pick them both up I was introduced to the amazing world of Glitter and how does that actually get in your nappy again Son I ask when it comes to bathtime.

Its now Sunday night – [just about] and the kids social diary is filling up fast – 2 parties today the first a Village Christmas Party for the kids unfortunately we missed Father Christmas so pressies should be in the Village Interest Shop tomorrow. This party was followed by a Birthday Party in Kings Lynn at the local soft play area – fun was had by all and I was particularly proud of daughter as she came and told me that someone had “weeed” in the upstairs part, I checked her clothes before telling staff that it was definitely not my child who had done it. Fun was then had by watching the teenage staff trying to climb up the slide with five children following to see what was occurring! 2 more Birthday Parties to go before Christmas, plus Panto and Village Coffee Morning, shopping, working, coursework and eating, sleeping!!!! I am never bored nowadays!!!!!!

So the first reason why this post is so late is I have just completed my first assignment for my course 1250 words yeyhay!! Just a few words over, but I’m quite surprised how I feel considering I was up until 1am this morning in mid flow to be told by husband – “you know you will start to make mistakes” I had been sitting at the kitchen table since 7:30pm. I have read it and re-read and submitted it – no going back now!

The second reason this is so late is due to my secretarial skills, husband has interview in the morning and is not aux faux with Powerpoint and producing slides, so after submitting essay, designing flow charts and inserting photos into said slides my wrists are not feeling part of my hands of arms anymore – they are somewhere floating in mid air typing this piece, so can just about sign off and say goodnight, I have to say I’m guilty of not reading Hanzors today from yesterday – Big Sorry Hanzor! Will try and catch up with it tomorrow on my coffee break at work! And lastly to say I have added more technology to my world – I can now twitter from my mobile! @mummyrella – think that is the correct way to write it! Have a good week all. Mummyrella x

The one in which I apologise

2010-12-03T13:26:00.001Z

I am so sorry (although I bet you didn’t miss me) – but I completely forgot to blog these past two Fridays.

It’s a rather busy time of year, isn’t it? And that’s my excuse.

I have been combining work/motherly duties with Christmas shopping and must admit that this year – more than ever – the interweb has been my friend. I have not actually been to one shop, but I have 90 per cent of the gift-buying done.

I have also booked my grocery shopping to be delivered.

So how smug am I?

Well, not much, to be honest. There’s still plenty to do, of course.

This week all children’s activities have been put on hold while we get over the snow (which I’ve just about had enough of now, thank you), although daughter starts a new gymnastics club tonight so we have to get there – even if it means a two-hour journey home!

I was so proud of her this week as she did her Grade 1 piano exam and got a merit – just two points off a distinction, too! – so all the hard work paid off. Son has the same exam in March, so he’ll be competitive enough to try to beat her *sigh*.

Tonight we have the dreaded primary school Christmas fair. Having chaired the PTFA for a year, I can tell you it’s far more enjoyable being behind a stall than in front of one – I predict chaos. As son has made a biscuit, which will be sold there, we have to go so we can buy it. I won’t be there for long: I try to approach it as a SWAT team would, with a quick recce and out again before I spend too much (I always do on the raffle).

Tomorrow the village I live in is holding its Victorian fair, which should be lovely with snow on the ground – v Dickensian. It also means it will be biting cold, so I hope the shops will be giving away their samples of tea and coffee to us!

Hope all is well with everyone in 7Yummymummies land!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 [this is patience!]

2010-11-28T20:59:00.000Z

What another busy week we have had a ‘normal’ week Monday to Thursday was work for me and for kids a mixture of child minder and nursery school, so by Friday kids a big grumpy But we had to be in a fairly good mood as we had a Social Worker visit. So I decided it would be good to meet at a soft ball play area. Energy levels were certainly on a high!

The visit was just to catch up to see how the kids were doing and sorting out our post adoption plan, happy to say that this went well and brilliant news is that the kids have settled so well that nothing specific with regards to health, emotional behaviour or development needs to be followed up, now just waiting for a date in Court to finalise everything [yes it has been delayed AGAIN but fingers crossed everything should be finalised in January now.

Whenever I want to sit down and tell you what’s going on with the kids like when they are in the middle of a tantrum, being little tykes with the terrible twos or being really good and angelic [cough] – I am just not in the right place to do it, so when I do get round to sitting down and writing usually in the evenings, the days frustrations seem to have filtered away as the little darlings are fast asleep in their beds [almost!] son has already got up to tell us he’s not tired so now in our bed until he drifts off. I do find that if there is a problem with sleep I tend to let them come into our bed – we are trying not to make a habit of it and so when they are in deep sleep they get moved back to their beds unless we all manage to cope in one bed! [ie we are in deep sleep too!].

My great ambition at the moment is to learn to find constant patience, so any great tips on relaxing and counting techniques would be greatly received. I think for any new Mum or Dad patience is the biggest thing. I would say that we have led fairly selfish lives up until we became a family and then when you become, three, four or five, and patience comes to the forefront or finding it certainly does.

Our prep classes have become quite valuable to us, we have found that being able to reflect on them and surmise the reasons why son and daughter maybe in the particular strop, sleepless or happy moment may be due to regression, anxiety, frustration or just sheer happiness does help us cope with most things, but when on a Sunday afternoon after the sixth bought of crying that day and wanting whatever the other one has or hasn’t got – then patience gets harder to find and time out periods seem a little quieter way to deal with the situations for all. And then the conclusion is easier to come too, quiet time = reflection time which = sleep time and they both manage an energy boost of 40 winks ready for the next half of the day!

I do hope everyone from 7yummymummies is ok as there have been no other blogs on here this week.

A bit of a week

2010-11-21T16:42:00.000Z

I know I shouldn’t complain – but I’m so tired, my energy levels are low and I’m just starting to get a little twitchy over the forthcoming festivities. This could be due to a number of things including the combination of getting over last week’s medical episode, a stinky cold and having to look after kids and work from home at the same time due to childminder being ill. Bless her she is an absolute godsend but when my family support network is far far away life can be a bit of a struggle if mummyrella’s life balance is upset!

Also darling son for the past week has decided he wants to come and cuddle with us around 2 am every night and so last night I took matters into my own hands and put him back in his sleeping grow bag – result! He didn’t come shuffling in to us until around 6:30am so a fairly good lie in if I do say so myself.

That was written about 2 hours ago and now back from a brisk autumnal walk I have found new energy! Kids on the other hand are fast asleep on sofa’s I have worn them out, we did at least one miles walk through the countryside walking through muddy puddles peppa would be proud of and across fields and through the trees playing hide and seek along the way. It got tough on the last stage as son being only 2 ½ had to have a piggy back, but really pleased with the result.

Got a chicken in the oven cooking lovely and will go and do potatoes once finished this. Also trying to tackle the Christmas present crisis – don’t know if facebook helps me in this arena as getting a bit prickly hearing how many of my friends have “finished the big shop” eeeeeeeeeggggggggggggghhhhhhh I will get it done but am having to book a couple of days off to go and blitz it.

I hope all my fellow yummymummies are well as bit concerned about their silence – lets hope they are all ok and look forward to hearing from them soon.

The other big news this week is the up and coming Royal Wedding – oh I do like a good wedding and yes I think I am a bit of a Royalist – I found my paper clippings from 1981 I was 10 years old!!!!!

So this time I was thinking it would be a lovely time to celebrate with my children and I’ve decided I’m going to try and hold a street party! Haven’t asked the neighbours or friends yet but once William and Kate and set the date I will start my planning. I do have one other big concern in that I hope it is not on the 25^th June as I am attending Cybermummy11! – awaiting for the badge to link you all to it but you can also get there from http://www.bmbblog.co.uk/

My darling son’s latest comment at the dinner table last night – Mummy you’re not fat, Daddy you are fat and I will be fat just like you!!!! – where did that one come from? Answers on a postcard! Have a fun week x

One for the Romantics

2010-11-20T10:45:00.000Z

This week has been one for the romantics.

On Monday, it was our 3 year anniversary of getting together, so we went out for a lovely meal at 8 Kings Road (The Brasserie) in Southsea. It was a lovely meal - couldn't fault a thing, and I left feeling thoroughly stuffed. It was so nice in the restaurant - we were the only ones there, as it was a Monday, so we had exclusive service. The décor was lovely too, with chandeliers and huge flower arrangements and awesome mood lighting. It was really really nice.

We went over to Keydells on Tuesday. How have I never been here before? I've been to Garsons in Fareham, which is awesome, but never ventured into Horndean. Freyja loved it in this garden centre. There was so much to see, and she loved the displays. She was slightly terrified of the Santa mannequin though - I wanted to get a picture of her with him, but she just clung onto me for dear life. I bought a few baubles to put on our tree (when I put it up) and Freyja's first stocking (even though not that many of her presents will fit in it...) I'm going back again on Thursday with my other friend so she can buy some Xmas decorations. I love shopping for Xmas decorations!

We went to see a pre-school on Thursday. We have decided that Freyja needs something like that. She enjoys seeing her little baby friends and playing at home, but I don't think it's constant or constructive enough. We went to see St James' preschool along Milton Road, as they accept toddlers from the age of 2. Freyja's 2 in April, so we went to see it to put her name down. It seems really nice in there - loads of keyworkers and loads of happy children. As soon as we got there, Freyja got stuck in and played with the building blocks, building loads of towers and then followed some of the other children to join in with a sing song. She was really sociable and not intimidated at all. I think we're on to a winner! We are going to put her name down for 2 afternoon sessions a week - it's reasonably priced, and will definitely help her (and me).

On Friday, we went to a wedding in Salisbury. It was my boss' wedding, and he chose an absolutely beautiful venue. It was at Old Wardour Castle in Tisbury, followed by a meal at the Premier Inn in Salisbury. The castle was stunning. It reminded me a little of our chosen venue (when we can eventually afford it) - it was so romantic and picturesque and Nichola (the bride) looked wonderful. It was a really nice day and Freyja was a dream, considering she was awake for about 14 hours.

It's been an eventful but relaxing week, and we've had lots of fun. My personal blog has been coming along leaps and bounds too, so who knows what'll be happening next with that! I have a few product reviews to be completed, and I'm featuring as a guest blogger at some point over the next few weeks on another popular mummy blog. I'm enjoying it!

Have a good week xx

2010-11-18T13:37:00.002Z

oh Mummyrella that must have been so frightening for u!! hope she's well and truly on the mend now! xx
Well girls, hope you're all having a good week. I am, surprise surprise, really busy :(
so, what's been happening in Nolly-wood this week...
Well, when i collected Eryn from nursery last Thursday I was informed that she'd basically been a little Moo! she'd been very naughty and cheeky and was pushing all the other little ones over! :O i didn't really know what to say to be honest, and i had warned them she was in an odd mood... ooopppsss.... and Friday was the same! In fact they took her on a trip with the older kids (to the laundrette) just to give the others some peace.... hmmm....
Anyway, Friday night Et went off to his dad's and the boys came down.... they had obviously eaten a bowl full of Skittles for their tea 'cause they were absolutely full of beans.... wish the same could have been said for me-I'd had a banging headache all day and i was exhausted. I had a bath as soon as Eryn went to bed, and then i went to bed.... it was just gone 8pm!!! but i obviously needed it.

On Saturday we went to pic up a single bed, kindly given to us by an old school friend of mine. Now Josh and Harry don't have to sleep on a blow up bed! Top and tailing it is tho until we can get bunk beds after Xmas....

Ah Xmas, while we're on that subject, can i have some opinions please.... Ben says we should get everything on the kids lists. FULL STOP. We've set a limit on how much we're spending on each child (well, each boy 'cause Eryn, altho she's got loads, will be more excited about the boxes things come in) The way I've always done Xmas with Et is: he writes a list, I get the majority of it and divvy up the rest of the items between my aunt and my mum- end of.... and if there's still anything he really wants which wasn't bought, he always gets money from my nan and my dad for Xmas so he can buy it himself (usually at half the price i would have paid BEFORE Xmas)
Now, my darling Ben spends an astronomical amount of money on each of his boys at Xmas, well, pretty much double what I'd usually spend on Et.Which is fine, but obviously this year Ethan has to have the same!!! but I've already divvied up his list between my family and well, he doesn't want/need anything else.... and he's got PLENTY! but Ben is still hell-bent on buying J and H everything they want.... We had a little chat last night and basically Ben told me he doesn't agree with me that once we've reached their individual limit then we're to stop buying. I'm just worried we're spending money that could be used for other things (IE bunk beds!) on stuff they don't bloody need!!! ..... Rant over.....
Anyway back to the weekend... Ben went out with his mates in Southampton on Saturday afternoon/evening so i descended on my mums and made her look after Eryn for a bit while i got some work done. Then on Sunday we went round to my nan's for tea with the rest of the family.
Eryn has been better at nursery this week, altho I'm changing her nursery as of January. She's been offered a place at the uni nursery and it's much more convenient for us so I've accepted it. Will be sad to leave where she is though :S
Ethan started his new swimming lessons yesterday, it was much less stressful being closer to home and he really enjoyed it. I went in the pool with Eryn while he was in his lesson and she, well, didn't cry.... still wouldn't go as far to say she had fun, but she was ok! lol
And this evening I'm taking Ethan to the cinema, just the two of us :) so we're both looking forward to that :)

I think that's about it from me this week.... take care girls xxx

Lest we Forget

2010-11-14T20:08:00.000Z

Lest We Forget 14 -11-10

Firstly I would like to start today’s post by remembering all those who have fallen in battle, for giving me a life for which I can enjoy with my friends and family. I will never forget.

And so it is timely that life has been put into perspective again.

After a very eventful night / early hours of Tuesday morning can I please bring your attention to CROUP, as a new mummy I had heard about it but that was as far as it went, until my daughter woke us with her rasps for breathe over the baby monitor. I would like to praise the quick response of NHS Direct, as well as the paramedic and ambulance crew that came to our aid and took myself and my daughter to A&E. It was a frightful experience, but she recovered quite quickly, and reading the leaflet on CROUP which I was sent home with. I would like to remind mums that as winter is upon us to make sure you have read up about the symptoms of Croup and not to scare you but that it can be fatal. For more information go to http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/

CROUP [Laryngotracheitis] is a viral illness that affects the larynx [voice box] as well as the airways to the trachea [lungs] and it is more likely to occur in the winter months. Croup usually affects children aged between six months to five years.

My daughter’s symptoms included a temperature of 40^o C, a very loud rasping noise as well as a runny nose, other symptoms can include a ‘seal-like’ barking cough. The terrible rasping noise is known as an inspiratory stridor and was very distressing to hear, particularly as she was sleeping, we have been told that it usually tends to be worse at night.

[picture from http://www.mychildhealth.net/what-is-child-croup.html]

The ambulance crew and paramedic were fantastic and administered drugs in the form of a nebulizer which at the time didn’t seem to make much difference and because of her high temperature they decided it was best to take her to hospital. The paediatrician diagnosed Croup and what with the combination of more nebulizer drugs and good ole’ well known paracetamol liquid her temperature was back to normal within 3 hours and instead I had a hyperactive child running around A&E in her underwear which was a wonderful sight to see.

The week then continued with a mixture of slow, quick, quick slow events - dropping son off at Nursery, bless him he looked so beautiful waving to me and blowing me kisses through the window and having cuddles and rest time with daughter whilst she recovered.

And whilst I was putting the final bits together for this post I looked up and thought this is what family life is all about on a lazy Sunday, husband was DIYing in the shed and making things – what an achievement – kids playing nicely together after a brisk walk over the fields with Poppy Dog and all her friends [8 dogs turned up today] and mummyrella sitting at her kitchen table surrounded by DIY, toys, washing up, whilst busily concentrating on her blogging!

And now after a wonderful Roast Dinner kids in bed, husband chilling with a cup of tea I can put the final sentence together and wish everyone a happy week x

Edging Closer to Xmas

2010-11-13T15:03:00.000Z

There's 42 days til Christmas (or so eBay tells me...) - and I'm quite impressed with how organised I am. I have done most of the shopping - there's only a few little bits left, and I've just lugged a load of wrapping paper all around town, so I'm going to spend this afternoon wrapping up stuff. Freyja and James have buggered off to Somerset for the day/night so I'm all on my lonesome - an ideal time to wrap their stuff up without them noseying at what they are!

This week has been quite a nice one (minus the crappy weather). I worked at the weekend - James went airsofting on Sunday dressed in a suit, and got shot in the head. Good times. I worked that evening, and monday evening too. On Tuesday, my friend and her 2 girls popped over for a brew which was nice. James and Freyja went to his boss' birthday thing in the evening - Freyja can be such a dirty stop out! I stayed in, as I was shattered from working all weekend and just fancied slobbing out watching crap telly. On Wednesday, I drove us over to Bognor Regis to see one of my old schoolfriends - I'd never driven to Bognor before, so had no idea where I was going, but managed to find my way there to be welcomed with a brew - That's always nice! In the evening, James went to a gig at the Wedgewood Rooms and I went to the cinema with one of my friends to see Saw 3D whilst his girlfriend stayed at mine to babysit Freyja. It was a good film, but not as good as the others (I have a bit of an obsession with the Saw franchise), and my eyes were hurting by the end of it, because where we sat wasn't the easiest to appreciate 3D films, and I struggled to focus. Good film though. On Thursday, my friend and her daughter popped over in the morning for a cuppa, and we chatted and caught up. In the evening, my best friend and her boyfriend popped over and we watched the first episode of the new FX series "The Walking Dead" - it's awesome! Can't wait to watch the next one, which was shown last night, but I haven't had chance to watch it. Yesterday, a friend and I were supposed to be going to the Devil's Punchbowl, but we stayed in instead. She came over in the morning and we had a lovely afternoon of chatting, watching CBeebies (couldn't find the remote) and a bit of Jeremy Kyle. Fun Fun. I worked yesterday evening - I was given full responsibility for the back bar, glasses, cashing up, float, and delegating of tasks - basically being a manager. It was cool! And I handled it easily. Simple pimple.

James and Freyja are on their way to Somerset now for his aunt's birthday. I couldn't go because I'm working tonight, so I've just got in from town, and I'm going to watch some TV whilst doing some wrapping up. Working tomorrow night too, but I'm looking forward to Monday because it's our anniversary and we're going to 8 Kings Road for a fancy meal. Ooo err.

Have a lovely week x

The one without a title ...

2010-11-12T14:08:00.000Z

Have you noticed how everyone is amazed by the fact that it is November and it is cold?

I’ve fallen into that trap myself – complaining on the playground about the wind, the rain … I wouldn’t complain (honestly) except that after the howling gales last night I awoke this morning to find half the contents of the recycling bin around the back garden. Picking up damp and dirty newspaper, envelopes and assorted plastic is not a way to start the day.

On a good note, my son was NINE this week. I cannot believe that my baby boy (born weighing just 5lbs 3oz) is now a nine-year-old boy.

I don’t know about you, but I usually spend the actual day of my children’s birthdays going through what I was doing on the day of their birth. Both were born first thing in the morning – and I had to have caesareans, so there is no memory of agonising labour pains – so I have the whole day to remember, hour by hour, of welcoming them into the world.

I love doing it, but I do wonder how much I forget each year!

This year’s toy a la mode is Lego Wars Halo Wars. The lounge is awash with bits of Lego and I daren’t get the vacuum cleaner out until all pieces have been removed. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

His party was a lot of fun last Saturday. He went to a laser tag place and we watched a small TV screen as he and his friend skulked SAS-like in the dark, zapping each other. Unfortunately, two of the dads went in and won each game! Their scores were officially declared null and void …. Bloomin’ competitive dads.

What really made me hoot was watching my daughter run through the chamber. She was wearing a bat-wing t-shirt and for some reason, as she ran around with laser gun in hand, she reminded me of Princess Leia.

Now his birthday is over (and my brother’s, which is the day after), I just have my dad’s and nephew’s to deal with. Then I can start to think about Christmas …

2010-11-11T14:01:00.005Z

hi ladies.....

Hope you're all doing well..... bit concerned about the lack of posts? can someone please let me know what's going on???

Anyways, busy week as always.... Friday night Ben had bought some fireworks, but as our garden is more like a yard we decided to descend on his mum and dads to borrow their garden... well, he'd spent a fortune (£52 to be exact) on what was literally going up in a puff of smoke. I was not amused!! £52!!!!! and they were proper crap!!! well, what i saw of them! Eryn was absolutely terrified so i only got to see about 5 before i spent the rest of the evening consoling her. :(
Saturday i was, if I'm honest, absolutely dreading, Ben was on call all weekend and i was expecting to be left with the kids (and a mountain of uni work to do) but thankfully he didn't get called out. so we went round my mums for a quick cuppa (I'd phoned her to ask what my step dad wants for his birthday and then suggested we popped round) I'd warned her it was all of us.... anyway, we turned up and she said 'Oh, i didn't think u meant all of u all of u!!!' Shes really not a child person, in fact she recently told me if she had her life again she probably wouldn't bother having children..... errrr, yeah THANKS for that Mother....
After the very quick cup of tea (she couldn't wait to get us out the door!) we went to Staunton Country Park. £50 for a years membership for Ben, me and up to 5 kids- bargain! Obviously Ethan has been there loads (we had memberships before) but Josh and Harry hadn't been and they all had a great time :) Eryn appears to have developed a fear of animals though, crying when we got too close to them :(
After that we went on a massive shop and were completely knackered by the time we got home.
Sunday morning Ben got called out and i took the kids shopping for his xmas pressie from them.... cor u can tell they're his kids- talk about wanting him to have the very best :S but we pretty much nailed it so that's one thing out the way. Sunday afternoon we took a trip to Garson garden Centre on the way to drop the boys home. It was CHRISTMAS in there!! :D picked up a couple of pressies and the kids loved all the decorations (and so did I ;) )
Monday was, well wet! i got absolutely soaked taking Ethan to school, and Eryn, the only dry one kept shouting 'WET, WET' from her pushchair.
Tuesday was the long day at uni, very boring and depressing. My cousin and i were late and well one bit of rain and the whole of Portsmouth comes to a complete standstill!! Grrrr
Ethan's swimming lessons have come to an end so he's now gonig to the local pool on a Wednesday so it much more convenient :)
yesterday Eryn and i went to Tesco's to double up our clud card points.... i was expecting to spend about £50 in there and £50 on diesel (however much i love hank the tank, we go through a lot of diesel!) but instead i ended up with £2 change from £175.... hmmmm, not so good. But I did pick up yet more xmas stuff..... we then had a quiet afternoon at home which was lovely, quality time with my princess :D Last night when we were sorting through the xmas presesnts which i've stratigically placed on top of our wardrobes, the wardrobe collapsed, hitting Ben on the head! highly amusing (he was ok) so he's off to buy one today.... oh the excitement! lol
And today i popped round to my cosins to see her and the baby, he's got soooo big already! and we're having him overnight in a few weeks which i'm very excited about! :D
oh, Ethan is (hopefully, as long as he likes it!) joining the Beavers!! i think he'll love it and thrive there. He's starting next Friday and is soooo looking forward to it.

Right, i think that's me pretty much done... hope everyone is well

xx

I must, I must I must improve my patience!

2010-11-07T20:18:00.000Z

Second rewrite of first sentence – I was going to say my age is catching up with me but NO on a positive note – it has just been a very very busy week again in the mummyrella household! Mr M has been on call all week so this has left me to do everything and I can say how hard it has been and I give great praise to all those single parents out there that have to do this week after week after week. It didn’t help that I had to travel into the office everyday Mon-Thursday which was an 86 mile round trip. I think the kids found it a bit hard too not seeing daddy for about 72 hours straight, but they were kept busy and son was having difficulty adjusting to the clocks going back anyway and was asleep on the sofa everynight by 7pm.

This year the kids enjoyed the fireworks from afar as last year they found it a bit daunting and getting used to their new routine as we only had became a family 3 months earlier – I take this point to raise National Adoption Week – I caught up with a few of the programmes on the tv and one on Radio 4, they bought memories flooding back to me of all the anguish, frustration and impatience of waiting to be assessed, interrogated, approved and matched that we had to go through and then all the joy, love, completeness and happiness of having our two wonderful children coming to join us. I cannot compare this to a pregnancy or childbirth, but I take that part of our family journey as being that.

The other reason for staying in for fireworks also was to be at home for the dog – poor Poppy Dog she is only 4 ½ but she seems to fear them more and more each year and the DAP plug in doesn’t seem to do much either, not sure what to try next year.

Had a fab time on Saturday at my Nephews birthday party, yes I know we enjoyed spending the day with him on his actual birthday but we also enjoyed bouncing on the bouncy castle and meeting all his friends a big HIGH FIVE to “L” who was 5 – may the force by with you My Nephew!

Then today I spent an hour and half!!!! In kwik fit whilst they replaced my tyre as I had a screw in it and it had gone flat – but don’t men dawdle when they work!! It was like watching a kettle boil – it was like it was never going to be finished - I must be more patient – but when you have a mountain of ironing to do, the shopping, the cooking, the Course Work and reading to finish I need more hours in my weekend!!!!!

Just a final note to say thanks to a few friends that I have caught up with this week, the welsh, the one at 26 FRoad, the sister-in-law’s sister and the colleague. Hope you enjoy the read!

Where's this Week Gone?

2010-11-06T10:40:00.000Z

I'm confused... only 4 of us seem to be doing a weekly post?

Anyway, what have we been up to... Not much really, the weather has been a bit psychotic, so we've not ventured far.

I worked on Saturday night, and we went out all dress up on Sunday (check out the pictures on my personal blog: http://www.metalmummy.co.uk/2010/11/halloween-zombily-grotesque/) We had an awesome night, it wasn't as busy as it had been the previous 2 nights, but it was still good. My contact lenses looked awesome, although trying to see in them was quite difficult!

Mum stayed here over the weekend, and left on Monday. James was off on Monday too, which was nice. I worked that evening, complete with semi-brushed out back-combed hair. It was a really quiet night, so after doing a load of cleaning, I left at about 10:30.

On Tuesday, we popped over to see my friend and her 2 girls. It's lovely going over there for a brew, and Freyja can play. When I say play, I really mean squabble, but her and my friends daughter do get on a lot of the time. The problem is that they are both so strong willed and stubborn. They kind of need eachother to knock eachother down a peg or two. It's amusing to watch.

Wednesday didn't involve much at all. On Thursday I had to wait in for 3 deliveries - the Tesco shop, our new tumble dryer (present from mum for Xmas) and Freyja's main Xmas present (a toy kitchen). My hallway was full of boxes, it was such a mess! Well, it still is, but I'll get round to it. At least that's most of the Xmas shopping done - I like being organised, but the problem with doing it early for me, is that there's loads more weeks left before Xmas - i.e. more time to see things I like and want to buy, therefore spending more than I would normally. Damn.

We went to the library to enrol ourselves yesterday. It's a nice little library near us, and has a nice kid's section, and as Freyja is loving books, I thought it would be a good time to enrol her. She was good to start off with. We had a bit of a sing-a-long with the lady who works there, and Freyja loved copying the actions. Then it came to singing Old Macdonald, and we had loads of cuddly toy props, which Freyja did NOT want to let go of. So there she was, running riot around the library (which is meant to be quiet) with an arm full of pigs and cows and the other arm grasping onto Farmer Macdonald for dear life. When I took them off her, the demon erupted. She threw a massive wobbler, in the middle of the library, ran under the library counter and started pressing buttons, ran through the exit (when I was trying to check books out) and tried to escape onto the road, threw herself onto the floor in a paddy and then wouldn't get into the pram without a fight. Christ almighty, it was horrendous. Looking back, I was kind of brave (or stupid) taking her in there in the first place.

I worked last night, and was put in charge of cashing up. It's nice having a bit of extra responsibility, but a pain in the arse counting loads of change. It did get me out of cleaning the bar down though!

This weekend we don't have much planned for. James has just taken Freyja to the shops to do some Xmas shopping, so I'm just getting some housework done. He's off to Airsoft tomorrow too, so I'l find something to occupy ourselves!

Have a good week x

How do you organise yourselves?

2010-11-05T13:09:00.002Z

I wish someone would invent a planner that you could insert into your brain. I’m forgetting so much at the moment!

I’ve always been a list freak, but this week takes the biscuit. Unfortunately, I have so many lists that I don’t know which one to look at.

I do envy people who seem to be able to take everything in their stride and just remember *everything*. I feel like a whirling dervish this week.

I’m starting to remember days of the week by the activities that are happening. After-school dance club? It must be Thursday. Karate? It must be Monday (this is new, however, so has yet to find a place in my befuddled brain). Piano lessons and gymnastics? Ah, yes, it’s a Friday.

I’ve tried putting key days/dates etc in my phone, but as it isn’t a smartphone (and its owner isn’t that smart either) it never alerts me to what I have carefully inputted. And, yes, I have looked at the instructions.

The children just think it’s hilarious that I flap about so much and my other half just rolls his eyes in amusement.

But they don’t know what it’s like, do they?

We work, look after the children and all the rest of it. I won’t say I have to do all the cooking and cleaning, though, as that is shared. Nevertheless, it’s no wonder we sometimes feel mentally exhausted.

How do you organised women do it? I want to know your secrets. Come on, now. Don’t be shy: tell me how you stay organised.

where is everyone???

2010-11-04T13:18:00.002Z

hmmmmm, i am obviously missing something! where is everyone??
I'm currently sitting in my car outside uni feeling like the worst mum in the world!!! I've signed up to take part in a third yr's experiment (which unfortunatly i have to do in order to pass this year) and 5 mins before i left to take Eryn to nursery, she shut her finger in the door of the washing machine :'( bless her, well, it was actually in the opening mechanism, but u get the point.... i then HAD to just take her to nursery because i've got to do this experiment. I filled out the incident report for the 3rd time in the space of a month :( notgood :( her finger was red and a bit swollen but she could moe it ok.... BUT I FEEL AWFUL!!!! kinda ruins the lovely morning we had at krazy kaves today :(
Anyway, this week... where has it gone?? its friday tomo! its flown by! Ben and I had a great evening out together on Saturday, it was lovely it being just the two of us :) Ben's parents had Eryn and even had her sleep in their room, so it was kinda like having a whole night off! When we got back to their's on saturday they sat me down and told me that now, as far as they are concerned, Ethan is one of their grandchildren, and he will be treated no different to Chloe (Ben's brother's daughter) Josh, Harry or Eryn.... it was soooo nice to hear, they truly are wonderful people xx
Sunday we went out to lunch with Ben's Nan and parents. I couldnt believe Eryn, she was running round the resturant being her cheeky self and was babbling away to everyone, and even let one of the waitresses pick her up!!!! my daughter really has grown up! She's like a sponge at the mo too, repeating loads of words and learning things every day....
Ethan has been a right cheeky sausage all week, answering back etc, but he's soooo funny when he does it that i find it really hard to tell him off! he really is old man Albert! lol ;)
He had another inset day on monday and Eryn was at nursery so we went bowling. It was lovely to spend some quality time with him on his own, and he keeps telling me how much he enjoyed it--- MUST do it more often!!
Tuesday was uni day but a lecture was cancelled so i had 4 hours to get some work done. I'm nearly up to date on one subject and i do feel like a great weight has been lifted... one down 3 more to go :S
Yesterday my cousin with the gorgeous baby came round. Bless her she's doing so well, she looks fab and is radiating the new mum happy glow :D .... and it was lovely to get some cuddles from baba..... although Eryn was not too impressed! lol.....
So thats about it from me this week, must crack on and be experimented on!! lol, hope all are well xx

Trick or Treat and Tick n Tock!

2010-10-31T20:06:00.000Z

I’m writing this after an exhausting day, not only did the clocks go back – How many of you forgot!!! But It’s Halloween as well and for a mummy who now has two smallish children – [3 and 2] it has been a bit daunting. We managed not to arise until 6:45 – 5:45 in old time and have kept the kids amused most the day playing and hiding but by 1pm my little son didn’t know what to do with himself so husband took a trip around the village to get him to have a nap for half an hour before heading out to a Birthday Party, this seemed a bit too much for my daughter to cope with trying to put dressing up clothes on but once she saw the sparkly spooky spider tights I had bought her the mood changed, however by the time I had put on her hat and her gruesome hand gloves we had hysterics again as she couldn’t get her fingers in the gloves properly and she seemed to be having a fit of paranoia / perfectionism. I had to change son into his costume when we arrived as he managed to get a good sleep in –thankfully – that changes later on! Anyway Party was good fun – as I think I enjoyed it more trying to spin plates! A good lady entertainer with circus skills – I managed to spin one plate for 10 seconds with daughter hanging off leg saying “mummy please do it for me, please, please” well it was never to be repeated again could I get the dammed plate to twirl.

I am writing this as I am eating the last of the sweets from my trick or treat bag – bit of a fuddy-duddy I decided I was not taking mine out to trick or treat – we were quite happy to stay in the warm! Had lots of knocks on the door – poor poppy dog a bit stressed and the effects of the long day had taken its toll on son as he was over tired on the sofa and needed to be comforted, both fell asleep on the sofa and have gone to bed zonked out – lets hope it’s not too early a rise tomorrow!

The week for us was pretty normal as we had last week off and so it was work, child minder, nursery and normal weekend. We went to see my nephew on Friday as it was his 5^th Birthday and the kids played well together, Saturday I returned to Venture Photography – stuck to my guns and came away with ONLY the “free” photo which was all included in my £15 experience voucher from gurgle.com – thank you gurgle! – There were some lovely photos and luckily it was dark as it became a bit of a tear jerker with the music n’ all but I was really pleased think I choose the best one with all of us in it.

My Open University course – I need to study more! Trying to find the time, so will have to cut this short and get on with some! Hope you all have a good week xx mummyrella xx

Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!

2010-10-30T09:36:00.000+01:00

Wow, this week has just flown by!

Last weekend, James' auntie and uncle came down from Swindon to stay with us for the day, so we took them to the Water Margin in Gunwharf. It's so lovely there, and such good value. They loved it - as did Freyja, who seems to eat everything in sight. She was particularly favouring the prawn crackers and hoi sin sauce, along with 3 bowls of ice cream! Must be her teething that made her do that.

On the Sunday, they left in the morning, and we went to the Tenth Hole with some friends - it was very busy, which James didn't like much. He's not a big fan of crowded busy places. On Monday, James had a day off work, so we drove up to Somerset to see his grandparents. Well, we did eventually. The car broke down (more like didn't start) so we had to try and find a neighbour to jump start it, which didn't work, so the same neighbour offered to drive James down to the garage to get a new battery. Finally, we got on our way and it was lovely to see them. We stayed there for dinner, and drove back early evening.

On Tuesday, I had a walk round to my friends house and had a cup of tea while Freyja was being a demonic bully. I don't want to be that person who has a kid nobody wants to play with! She's in the process of learning that being a bully isn't a good thing.

We didn't do much else for the rest of the week. I worked on Thursday night which involved putting all the Halloween decorations up. What a mission! Trying to make cobwebby things out of a bag of fluff took me for ages. But it's looking good! Who knows if the decorations will stay the whole weekend though. I know that last night, whilst working again, a few of the masks went walkies, so who knows what else will be "lost" over the weekend. Work last night was horrendously busy - I didn't finish til 2am and here I am, up at the crack of dawn again. I'm taking one of my best friends for tea and cake this morning for her birthday, which should be nice. We have to pop into town this morning to get some bits for my Halloween outfit. I'm working tonight, but my mum is coming down this afternoon to babysit Freyja tomorrow night so James and I can go out. I'm dressing up too - I can't wait! I have white mesh contact lenses and everything! I'll be posting some pictures I'm sure. I just love Halloween!!

I'm not sure if we have any sort of theme or topic this week? So I'll leave it at that. We're just in the middle of teaching Freyja some new words. It's so lovely hearing her talk! My baby girl growing up so quickly :(

Have a lovely week x

Is it time to go back to school?

2010-10-29T20:12:00.000+01:00

OK. Is half term over? My head is spinning!

I know it’s not just my children, but their bickering and jab-jab-jabbing at each other with barbed tongues and pointy fingers has completely done my head in this week.

If it’s not the “tell him to leave me alone” or “she keeps bugging me” or the “accidental” tripping over it’s arguing and slapping.

Gawd love ‘em.

Is it time to go back to school yet?

But when they are affectionate towards each other, it couldn’t be nicer. In fact, I’d go so far to say that it makes my tummy tickle to see them being lovely to each other and helpful and all “do you want a drink?”

It makes up for all those times that they spend at each other’s throats or are constantly talking, yabbering and shouting.

This morning was another lazy day (for them) – and failed attempts to get Take That tickets (£90 each? I don’t think so) – before I decided we were all suffering from cabin fever.

Today, though, we went to see CBBC’s Kirsten O’Brien do an art show and it was lovely! She was incredibly lovely to all the children who went on stage (including my daughter!) and the art tips she gave were fab.

Tomorrow will also be a family day, too, and I’m looking forward to it so much. The camera will be in full force, with me taking terrible photos, but I’m hoping this is the sort of stuff they will remember. Not me having a full blown, throat-aching shout at them because they are goading each other and taking things that little bit too far.

keeping up???? :S

2010-10-29T12:09:00.002+01:00

hi ladies, hope you're all well..... sorry for the late post- but well, what a week! (AGAIN)
Half term when I'm at uni- not fun!!! In fact its been a total wash out- i feel sooooo guilty. Ethan has been to my cousin's, his Granny's, my Nan's, with my Dad and my step-dad. We had one whole day together, but Eryn was a bit poorly and had been up all the previous night, so we didn't actually do anything :( But he has been swimming 3 times this week so he's had fun, just not with me :(
Last night i actually went out!!! with my fellow students.... OMG I'm way too old for all the drinking malarkey now!! i had a fab night- dressed in a toga ;) but as soon as i got home i puked, repeatedly, and this morning i feel like death! i had to get my step dad to drive me to uni 'cause i was way too hungover to even think about driving- and i still feel awful now- trying to keep up with the 'young-uns' i really shouldn't do it!!
I did have loads to say, but well, my hungover achey head has gone blank, so I'll leave it very short and not-very sweet :S
xx

And I will Drive 500 miles ....................

2010-10-24T20:05:00.000+01:00

It’s Sunday night around 7:30 and kids are all tucked up in bed – phew – what a busy day! And week! We decided to take this week off before half term as the kids aren’t in school – Monday and Tuesday were chill out days then Wednesday I headed over the hills [sorry Mountains!] to South Wales to see my best friend, in her new house. I was getting a bit stressed about the journey with the kids on my own – over 230 miles each way – So I had a plan J I thought it would be a good idea to find a soft play centre for the kiddiewinks to run and get rid of all their pent up energy from sitting in their confined spaces for 2 hours and did I find a cracker! Jam Jam Boomerang near Coventry Airport What made it even nicer was I met up with my cousin and her 9 week old baby girl and we were able to have a natter and some food before starting our journey again – it was so good – I didn’t realise we had been there for 2 hours and needed to get back on our roadtrip if we were to make South Wales for teatime. Had to do a quick pitstop an hour later but we made it and had a lovely time. The first night ended up with the 3 of us sleeping in the bed altogether with me getting a finger in the eye and head butted, and it was a pretty stressful time for the kids when first getting them settled as apart from staying at Nanny’s they have not been anywhere else. By night two they had gone down quite quickly and I ended up sleeping the other end of the bed so I had to keep moving my feet out of their way but it was a lot better and the 3^rd night was good too.

We set off back home Saturday and I decided to have a lunch stop at Jam Jam’s again which still worked well and managed to only stay for about 45mins though this seemed long enough for them to play and eat. We arrived safely home within 6 hours which was pretty good.

Then gluten for punishment today [Sunday] I had booked as in at Venture Photography as I had received a voucher from gurgle for £15, I have been told we need to be strong when it comes to the “presentation” next week and only go for the free photo – 7” x 5” . This was I think more stressful than my drive to and from Wales! I decided that to make the family complete that the dog needed to come too and I’m glad I did but it was eventful – luckily no accidents but the kids were literally bouncing off the walls – Son was particularly cheeky and kept running around – but the photographs [2 of them – they called in reinforcements] said that it was so nice that they had so much energy – I just hope my perspiration can be airbrushed out!!!!

GUILTLY [oops] my OU course started yesterday and I promise after posting this I will log on and see what I should be doing.

So it’s back to normal tomorrow awaking at 6am to the alarm clock and off to work we go and see what the two Mr C’s have in stall for me – redundancy before March 2011 or after L

Topic this week – umm other peoples kids – before becoming a mummy I ran a Brownie Pack – 24 girls aged 7-10 – need I say anymore?

Spoons, Calpol, Work & Snot.

2010-10-23T10:26:00.000+01:00

This week has been a pretty uneventful one, so I've not got much to report really. Freyja's been full of cold and teething like a trooper, so she's been miserable all week on and off. She gets frustrated when she's teething, and lashes out a lot, to the point where she hit me square on with a spoon! I wasn't too pleased with that, but Calpol seems to fix things. I should have shares in that.

On Monday, we didn't really get up to much. A friend came over in the evening though and we pigged out on Dominos while watching Harry Brown. Oh my God, what an amazing film. If you haven't seen it, watch it.

On Tuesday, we went with a friend and her little boy to the Natural History museum on the seafront. We had a feeling the butterflies were out of season, but there were still a couple of them left. We had a mosey around the rest of the museum and Freyja was terrified of the big dinosaur, until she knew it didn't move. Bless her. We popped down to the Tenth Hole for a bit of brekkie and a brew and then made our way back. It was a lovely morning. I went to work that evening - it was really quiet so went quite slowly.

On Wednesday, one of my good friends came over and we just chilled out and kept Freyja entertained. I worked again that evening, and we had a 100 man pub crawl comprising of drunk cheerleaders and american footballers - that was eventful.

On Thursday, another good friend and her little girl popped over, and we were joined by a fellow Netmum and her 2 girls - it was lovely having a house full of kids, but Freyja isn't that keen on sharing at the minute, so there were a few wobblers going on. My bezzie mate came over in the evening and we watched Kick Ass, which was again, an awesome film.

Yesterday a friend from Netmums came over with her little boy and we just chatted and caught up. I haven't seenher for a few months so her little boy has grown loads! I worked last night, and it was really busy, so that kept me entertained.

I'm getting a new phone this week - I can't wait to have a new one. I'm just waiting to hear back from them about whether I qualify, it's so exciting. I love gadgets! James' aunt and uncle are coming down from Swindon to stay with us this afternoon. They are going back tomorrow morning. It'll be lovely to have them, and they haven't seen our house yet. I think we are going out for dinner this evening, after we have a visit from James' sister & family this afternoon. Should be lovely. I'm not working this weekend! Woop! That's a first...

Onto this week's topic - I've not really had to deal with other people's kids yet. Freyja seems to be the bully at the moment, rather than getting picked on. We don't really have to handle older kids, but I remember once, when we were in Krazy Kaves, Freyja was playing in the toddler ball pit and a 6 year old launched himself at her and landed on her face. She wasn't too pleased with that. I couldn't find his mother anywhere, but he had a telling off by me. He shouldn't have even been in there! I suppose I have all of this to look forward to as Freyja grows - I'm not sure how I'll handle people moaning about her/me moaning to others about their kids. We'll see what happens!

Have a good week xx

Holiday blues

2010-10-22T07:56:00.000+01:00

Here we go ... it’s half term – and some urgent work has just come in.

Why does it always come in just as the school holidays start?

Of course, now the children are at different schools, the holidays don’t quite dovetail.

Son is off today, as the teachers have the first of goodness knows how many training days (I know they work hard, blah blah, but, really ...). Both are off next week, then the following week sees daughter off Monday and Tuesday. ARGH!

I’d hoped we could have had a couple of day trips out, but sadly that doesn’t look likely anymore. One of their nans has stepped into the breach and offered to take them out for two days (not that the children are looking forward to the prospect), so that leaves three days ... it is giving me palpitations, just thinking about it.

No doubt it will mean getting up at 4.30am to work for a few hours so that I can give them enough meaningful time during the day. Then I’ll have to knuckle down again early evening to make up lost time.

Reading this back makes me sound incredibly selfish and as if I don’t want them around. Nothing could be further from the truth. I just find it very hard to balance the school holidays and work.

I’m sure we’ll get to enjoy some time together without resorting to bickering (you see? I *am* optimistic) and I’ll report back on what we manage to do as a family next week.

Yesterday was the dreaded toy fair at son’s school. This annual fundraiser sees us donating good quality toys that the children have outgrown and cringing at the tat that they (now just the one child, of course) bought with our hard-earned money.

McDonald’s toys used to feature very heavily on their buying list – simply because I refuse to eat there, so it was their way of exacting revenge on my prejudices.

This year I imposed an absolute moratorium on such toys and, like previous years, emphasised the fact that if he doesn’t spend his £1.50 (which actually buys A LOT), he can keep the money.

I can tell son has grown up that little bit more – for this year he came out of school with a very small – and very cute – little teddy that cost him 10p.

It doesn’t even look that dirty, although it may accidentally find itself having a quick dip in the washing machine!

Awww my 'nephew' is finally here!!

2010-10-21T19:58:00.001+01:00

Hi ladies, hope you've all had a fab week.... sorry the post is a little later than normal, but my child-free 'uni work' afternoon was taken up my my gorgeous new 'nephew'..... my cousin went into labour in the early hours of Wednesday morning and was born at 18.13 yeaterday.... I dont think either her sister or i are in her good books though... the plan was for either myself or her sister to have her two girls while she was in labour. Being a week overdue and showing no signs of 'popping' i didnt take my phone to bed with me on tuesday night, and neither did her sister.... Well at 2am Ben and I were rudely awoken by a mid-contraction-scream of 'For F**k Sake u two, ive been ringing u for hours!!!' my darling cousin was standing in our bedroom clutching the door frame while her other half was getting their girls out the car!.... now usually we leave the key in the front door when we go to bed, but for some reason that night Ben had taken it out-good job really or my cousin's key wouldnt have opened the door.... ooooppss. So of they went to the hospital and i had to sort the girls out for bed- bless them they were so concerned about their mummy's sore tummy, and we couldnt find the stopper for the blow up bed. So the youngest had to hop in with Ethan, and the eldest had to make do with a make-shift cushion bed on the floor. Et was wide awake by that point and the little so and so's sat up talking till 3.15am!!
Yesterday morning it was the eldest's school photo day and i had to do her hair.... hmmm, she tried to convince me to do it in a way that i knew damn well her mum would murder me for, so i just did a basic ponytail instead. While i was putting it up she turned round and said 'Auntie Nolly, you're not very good at doing hair are you??'
Errr, yeah, cheers for that!! Anyway i drove the eldest to school on Hayling, ran round to their's to sort their dogs out, took their youngest and Eryn to feed the ducks and play in the park, came home sorted lunch, my friend popped round, I picked up Et, took him swimmimg and the other two to the soft play bit, then dropped my 'niece' of to my cousins on Hayling. Then went back to my other cousins, sorted out the dogs again, and finally got home- i was bloody knackered! But oooohhhh the baby is gorgeous!! me and his Auntie were literally fighting over him this afternoon. I can safely say that i'm now more broody than EVER!! lol! My cousin is doing great too- and looks fab! So many congratulations to them all xx
what else has happened this week..... Oh oh oh, we bought a new car!!! well, not a new car, in fact its a very old car, but u know what i mean.... it's (as Harry would say) A-Mazing!!! it's a seven seater!! so no more two car-ring it everywhere for us! it's HUGE!!! and it's now called Hank The Tank :D
Oh oh oh oh oh , even more exciting than that- i had parent's evening.... :D my gorgeous 6 and a half yr old son has a reading and comprehension age of a 11 and a half to I'm SOOO PROUD!!! and he's doing really well in everything(except P.E! lol) and i couldnt be happier!! AND he's gone up a group in his swimming classes as well!! :D clever little puppy xx
Eryn has been super clingy this week, which in some ways is lovely, but in other a bit of a pain.... she's also been biting me a lot :( and she's getting so cheeky, she's soooo adorable tho
we had a quiet weekend, Et at his dad's and only having the boys friday night. Ben took the kids out on saturday morning so i could get some uni work done which was helpful- boring but helpful lol.
And that's been about it really :S Ben's on call again this weekend so I dont really know what were doing yet :S

so this week's topic. I find 'other people's kids' very hard to deal with sometimes. Ethan hasn't really had many friends over- in fact only one since he's been at school- but that one spent more time with me than with Ethan. But we've had a few incidents at play areas over the years, oh and on his 3rd day in year R at school Ethan got punched!! and another time that year someone BIT his face!!! Now, i know my son and i know he can be a bit patronising and very short with people, but im damn sure he didnt deserve to be punched.... turns out the kid that punched him is well, the class bully even now- although he and Ethan arre now ok with each other. And the reason a child bit him was because Ethan had sat in his seat.... No justification for it in my eyes, but hey ho eh??? (that was pretty much the teacher's response GRRRR)
And i'm majorly protective over Eryn... even with her brother's, i get very annoyed if they upset her :S im not sure if it's cause she's the youngest, or because she's a girl, but i'm gonna have one spoilt madam who gets her bros into trouble alot on my hands i think.... lol
I have no qualms in telling off other people's kids when we're out and about, although i now do get the full story off mine first. Most kids though do like me (i think) but i am 'a bit scary' sometimes apparently... the first time i shouted at Ethan in front of Josh he went as white as a sheet- bless him- It doesnt happen very often, but when i shout, i shout :S
Right, i'd best go.... surprise suprise i've got loads to do.... have a good week xxx

Im going to come play in your house today...

2010-10-19T18:57:00.000+01:00

Hi all,So sorry i didnt post last week.It was a bit of a ruff week and i wasnt in the right frame of mind to blog.I wont bore you with the details or we will be here all night lol.
I changed skyes days at nursery last week,she used to go every morning but would get upset when she had to leave at lunchtimes.So she is now doing 1 morning,2 full days with 2days off.She loves it but gets very grumpy when she realises the days she cant go.I think she is more then ready to start big school in september nxt year bless her.
Jaydon has been pestering me for weeks to get his ear peirced,im not sure where he got the idea from as he says none of his friends have it done-he just wants it apparantly lol.After the tenth time of being ask,while out shopping on friday i let him have it done.It actually looks really cool,i was worried it would look a bit chavie but it doesnt and he love it.
Mum and stepdad popped over lastnight,they had not long been back from there honeymoon in Egypt and came bearing lots of lovely gifts for the children.Rangeing from tourist tshirts/hats and maps to books and a lovely handmade egyptian painting for me and 2 lovely hand crafted ornaments of egyptian cats..I love them!! Im cat mad and am happy to admit that one day i will become that mad cat women,when im old and gray and living with 20+ cats haha!!!
Other peoples children..hummm Well im good with close friends and families children,but as Jaydon gets older and spends more time playing with the kids in our street and local kids that play in the area,im beginning to take a dislike to some of them more and more..Not just them actually, there parents too.
Im not sure about you guys,but growing up as a kid others peoples parents were thought of as scary grown ups.Now days it appears not..one day i had a little boy knock my door and ask for Jaydon to go out and play,i said no not today, he has family coming to visit soon.His responce..well let him out untill they get here..or another was.. Im going to come and play in your house today!! To me that is just rude.

As i missed last weeks topic i thought i would touch on it quickly..We had hundreds of names for Jaydon when i was pregnant, but during the last week i realised it was either going to be Jaydon Bradley or Bradley Jaydon.Soon as i saw him i thought yep he's a Jaydon,When my dad came to visit he said..Oh nan said to call him Bradley and i think bradley is so much better then Jaydon..After 19 hours of labour i was in no mood to deal with my dad giving me his views on my sons name.So i Just blurted out well his name is Jaydon dad so get used to it.To this day he very rarely calls him by his name..Its normally 'boy or son'.
I always loved the name Skye,after skye from neighbours(when she was the baby lol)and so did Jay,altho he wanted to call her Star after liking the name from the 80's movie LostBoys..But one day i heard a mother shout STAR at her child running off,and i thought no no no no...I loved Ava and wanted to call her Skye ava but it was soon poined out that it sounded like skyva,Jay wouldnt have her Ava Skye so we picked Skye Jessica.Funny as i mentioned Jessica 4 month before and he said no..Then i said it again 3 weeks before she was born and he loved it....Strange man lol.

Sorry for te later post..hope u have a good week xx

Other peoples kids!

2010-10-18T12:45:00.002+01:00

Hey everyone, it's Monday!

We watched Toy Story 3 yesterday - finally - and it really brought a lump to my throat! For an animated movie, some of it was strangely uncomfortable to watch as well! Really enjoyed it though. I've had quite a chilled weekend which has been nice. The older kids stayed at their grandparents Friday night and didn't get back until late-ish Saturday so it was definitely peaceful indoors! I had to pop into town Saturday so it was nice not to have to drag them along! I also popped in to see Stew at the coffee shop and had a yummy bacon and brie pannini.

Noele has came up with a pretty interesting topic this week - other peoples kids! Most kids tend to really like me so that's not too much of a problem. Now as to whether I like them... lol. No, I think for the most part we don't have too many problems with other kids when we are out and about. Occasionally, at Krazy Kaves one of mine will come over saying someone said something or did something or keeps chasing them, stuff like that but I don't think we've had any real 'violence' issues! Thankfully! Also I am very lucky in that my children aren't nasty or spiteful (except occasionally to each other!) so I don't have parents coming to moan at me. If one did though and it was apparent that one of mine was at fault, I would of course have them apologise to the child in question.

In less than two weeks, however I will have a house full of other peoples kids as I am having my (4th annual!!) Halloween party! Can't wait!

Have a great week xxx

A week off or not - you decide!

2010-10-17T16:03:00.000+01:00

I’m on time! Is it Sunday already I hear myself say, the week has gone super fast. This week as the kids are still only at nursery we have decided to take the week off before half term and had lots of nice things planned but Husband has man – cold fair play to him his has called it a cold and not the flu so hopefully he will not be suffering too long, so it might be nice to have some us time together.

Saying that four days maybe enough for all of us to be together and so Wednesday I am looking forward to seeing my bestest friend who has moved to the Rhondda Valley, yes travelling with two kids on my own from the East of England to the Welsh hills! – “exceptional some of my friends say” deep intake of breath for me – so some useful travel games would be great! My plan is to leave around 10am and take the journey as it comes – if they fall asleep no worries just have to take them for a nice walk at the other end! – not sure how mentally capable I will be – but when we get there it will be a relief!!!!

This week has gone quick, quick, slow, as I work in the public sector we should here this week about budgets and whether I have a job post March 2011 or not – positivity is losing the battle at the moment. So trying to keep my socks up and battle forward, some my say gluten for punishment and the day I travel back is the day I start my Open University course – an Introduction to Counselling and Sunday I have booked the four of us and Poppy Dog for a photoshoot, managed to acquire a voucher, but am sure will spending much more for Christmas!

Names – as some of you know – the first names of our children were already picked for us! But once our adoption is final – and that is another story!!!! We have planned to give them a middle name each – I chose my Nan’s middle name Alice for our soon to be daughter whilst Mr Mummyrella has always loved the name Alexander.

Bah!

2010-10-17T09:07:00.002+01:00

I woke up yesterday morning, thinking "I'll do my blog post in a couple of hours when I have a bit more sense" and then forgot. All about it. Until now. Bah.

So, sorry about the late post - It's been a bit of a manic week, because we've had my mum visiting. It's been lovely having her, and Freyja has really enjoyed it. She arrived on Sunday afternoon, but unfortunately I had to go to work early evening, so I didn't really see much of her. On Monday, we did a massive food shop - she helps out enormously when she comes to visit and stocks our freezer with loads of meat and fish - saves us a fortune each week.

We have been shopping a couple of times - Freyja has some lovely warm winter boots (that she's currently struggling to get on the wrong feet) and she has a couple more stocking fillers. I've worked a couple of evenings, and James and I went to the pub once for a bit of us-time. We never get to go for drinks together really because of babysitting etc, so it was really appreciated.

We went to visit James' sister on Sunday morning before Mum arrived, and on the way, Freyja decided to projectile vomit all over herself. Turns out she had a bit of a bug - one of them 24 hour jobbies, so we had to strip her down in the middle of Fareham, and wash the car seat completely. It wasn't very pleasant, poor mite. A couple of days later, James got sent home from work for having the same thing. Also, not very pleasant. I thought I'd managed to avoid it (somehow) but it was my turn on Thursday. Whilst we were at the pub, I started feeling quite sick (not through drinking) so we came home. Later that evening, I started throwing up, and felt awful the next day. I still went to work Friday evening though.

Yesterday, we popped into town for a couple of bits, whilst James stayed at home sorting some computery stuff. Our friend Tom arrived at 6, because we had a table booked at Sakura for half past. It's the Japanese restaurant on Albert Road, and we hadn't tried it before. It was absolutely lovely, although I was bit worried about having sushi on a stomach which hadn't exactly been very good the past couple of days. After that, we went for drinks and got a tad merry for the first time in a while. It was great having both of us out together.

This week's topic that Liz set was baby names. As soon as we had found out that our baby was going to be a girl, we put our thinking caps on to choose a name we both liked. We had a few contenders, but we just wanted something a bit different - a name that meant something to us. James is really interested in Anglo Saxon and Norse mythology, and so Freyja felt like a perfect choice. In mythology, she was the goddess of love and magic, as well as beauty and fertility. It was perfect. As soon as I gave birth to her, I knew she was a Freyja and nothing else would have ever suited her. We decided to spell it the original way, with the 'YJ' rather than just the way - Freya is apparently quite a popular baby name at the moment, so we decided to be a bit different. Her middle name is Eowyn - yes, it's a name out of Lord of the Rings, but we got it from our love for Tolkien, not the films. Although the films are awesome. We just thought it went well with her first name. We're going to continue with the Anglo Saxon names if and when we have another child - Just have to try and find one that sounds half-normal. There's no way I'm going to be calling our little boy Ethelred or Aldrich - much to James' dismay!!

Mum goes home tomorrow. It will be sad to see her go, but it's been a lovely week. Hopefully things will get back to normal a bit - Ii haven't had time to catch up with my crap TV, or keep up with my personal blog! It's a hard life...

Bonkers week

2010-10-16T05:54:00.000+01:00

Argh! I’ve done it again. Woke up with a start at about 5am today and realised I should have filed my diary yesterday.

I am sorry.

It’s been another bonkers week. Work, work, work – then I decide to launch a hyperlocal blog for the village in which I live and I started a course (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector).

You know that feeling when you have bitten off more than you can chew? Yep – that’s me this week.

Daughter arrived back safe and sound from her outward bound course – wearing someone else’s socks and claiming she had to borrow others’ clothes because she hadn’t got enough (read last week’s entry about the ridiculously large case she took that was bursting at the seams).

Of course, I found several clean pairs of socks and a pair of unworn joggers in her bag. Oh – and there was a towel missing. And the cheapest trainers in the world (£5 from Tesco) that I bought for her so she could wreck them and throw them away were untouched. Her half decent pair are ruined and the pair of shoes for the hostel are completely soaked, wrecked and stink.

Makes you want to weep...

This week I enrolled son into a karate class. He’s such a little sweetie, but I do think he can be a little too sensitive at times. This is no bad thing, but I want him to be able to defend himself if anything untoward happens.

He tried tae kwon do a few years back but I took him out of the class when the instructor threw one of those big sparring cushions at him. The episode terrified him and he was reluctant to go to karate, but the instructor was so welcoming and friendly that he decided to give it a go. He loves it. But then he always does the first couple of weeks. It’s usually when I’ve paid the full enrolment fees/licences etc that he decides he doesn’t want to go again.

Fingers crossed this time ...

witches and wizards, and too many E's and I's

2010-10-14T14:47:00.004+01:00

Hi ladies,

Hope everyone is having a fab week.... looks a little quiet on here, unless I'm missing something?? which i possibly am- seem to still be in a world far away fighting the psychology degree madness....lol, anyway i promise not to whittle on about uni this week!!!!......
Right then, oh last Friday the boys came down and were full of beans, and all the kids turned into brats for the evening- i dint know what it is- probably the over-excitement of them all being together for the weekend, but they turn into devil-kids for a couple of hours.... but generally soon settle down :) ooohhh we introduced Josh to 'the flight of the navigator' film, does anyone remember it??? it was one of my faves when i was a kid. a few years ago i insisted on buying all my old favourites (wizard of oz, teenwolf, e.t etc) and subjected my Et to them.... so we made Josh and Et watch it on Friday night.... Harry soon got bored and went to bed but Josh and Ethan loved it :D
Saturday Ben got called out at 8am- i was not impressed!!! so off he went expecting to be back after a couple of hours- but no, he ended up having 4 call outs and didn't finish work till 4 :( which obviously left me with all the kids. I don't mind, and i do enjoy it, but i had sooooooo much uni work to do and none of it got done.... and more importantly i don't feel it's fair on the boys. They've come to spend the weekend with their dad, and they end up spending it with me. It must be horrible for them....i hate it when Ethan goes to his dad's and he spends the weekend with his grandparents instead (his dad is doing up a house for him and his gf to live in and his gf teaches kids gym, so she's not about either) although we did have a good day on Saturday. It was my 'niece's' birthday and my cousin had hired the play centre at Mill Rythe Holiday Camp on Hayling Island for her party. It was a wizards and witch theme and i had great fun dressing the kids up. The party was lovely, and my brother was down from London so after that i took the kids to my dad's where my bro was staying.... my dad's face when i turned up with them all was a picture! lol (the man has four kids himself but is adamant he hates children...) There's a park which backs on the the carpark outside my dad's flat and i reluctantly let Josh and Ethan go there without an adult.... I walked them round and my dad stayed with Harry and Eryn and watched the boys through the fence.... i RAN back round to my dad's and we spent the rest of the time outside because that way i could see them. When they wanted to come back they came to the fence and told us, so Ben (he got back from work then) walked round to get them..... call me paranoid but it's the first time I've let them go anywhere without me!! and i could c them the whole time lol... Ben then took them all back to the park while i had a nice catch up with my bro :D xx
Sunday morning Ben was called out again but me and the kids had a very lazy morning... at about half nine Josh announced that he, Et and Harry hadn't had their breakfast- errrr, well that's cause you haven't come downstairs yet..... oh yeah.... lol bless them. Ben got home about 11 and then the door knocked.... very odd for my house... it was my MUM!!!! she NEVER EVER comes to visit.... I've lived here for a year and i can count on one hand the amount of times she's been round!! My step dad was going shopping and she didn't want to go so she thought she'd come to mine- shocking!! lol.... it was the first time she'd met the boys (my mum, much like my father, is not a kid-person) and i think she was a bit shocked by how loud and hectic the house was.... Ben then took Josh and Harry home, and took Eryn too so i could get on an do an experiment for uni (lucky my mum did come round because she was one of my participants! lol) She left and my aunt and uncle came over (that was planned) and we had a nice relaxing afternoon with them :)
Monday after i picked up Eryn from nursery i took her to Asda.... she saw a disney princess ride on toy and fell in love with it.... I'd been adamant she didn't need one as she has a rocking unicorn that turns into a ride on thing but i bought it anyway- for Xmas..... although she did play with it when we got home.... I've got a major attack of 'mummy-guilt' going on, because she's in nursery etc and i keep giving in to her 'demands' all the time.... i think I've already got a spoilt brat on my hands.... ooppsssss lol xx Monday night i had my cousins girls for a bit while she went to the midwife- baby was due yesterday and he's still not here :(- but the kids had a lovely time running round like mad men and girlie's
Tuesday was uni day so i have bugger all to say about that...
And yesterday, ah, my day off :D Eryn and i had a lovely morning playing indoors and a very old friend of mine popped round too which was lovely. Swimming for Ethan yesterday so i took Eryn into the soft-play area again which she loved, and Ethan is doing soooo well in the pool- it's really amazing :)
Its parent's evening on Monday and i cant wait to see what his teacher has to say... i know he's doing well and i'm soooooo proud of my big clever boy :D xx
This morning i took Eryn to the baby group at the Penhale surestart centre.... it was a toss up between there or Krazy Kaves.... we didn't really enjoy it, and it's suddenly changed so you're supposed to book, which i didn't know (we haven't been for about 4 weeks), and well, we wont be going again!! It's sad really because i used to go to about four things a week there... Anyway, i think we'll be going to Krazy Kaves instead from now on....
Then my very annoyed 'cause she's overdue cousin popped round, and then it was time to take Eryn to nursery.... no uni today but lots of work to do.... and a long blog to write ;)
This weeks theme.... lol, well, I was adamant that Ethan was a girl so i allowed his dad to chose the name for a boy.... i wanted Jack, he said no and chose Ethan. When he was born and the midwife said 'it's a boy' i immediately said 'WHAT D YOU MEAN IT'S A BOY?????' i turned to Roy and begged him to let me call him Jack and he said no.... and that was that.... And I'm sorry but Ethan just doesn't suit him.... i'm not saying Jack would suit him better because I'm not ure it would.... but i really really dislike the name Ethan..... His middle name is Thomas which i chose and i still love it... he'd have made a good Tommy actually..... and his surname.... well, it's diabolical.... lol.... and his initials are E.T.C (which incidentally is why i call him Et all the time).....
Eryn on the other hand, well, that was my choice (i had no one to argue with me... lol) I wanted to call her Iris- it means Rainbow and i have a slight... ok... very big obsession with rainbows, and it was also the name of my lovely, wonderful great aunt.... when i discovered i was pregnant i decided if she was a girl, she would be called Iris (Ben for a boy wanted Preston.... Preston!?!?! wtf!!!) and i was more than happy with the name Iris. Oh and William George for a boy.... Until my lovely auntie Iris died.... i was devastated :( and i started to wonder whether i should call the baby it or not. When i asked other people's opinions i was met with 'errr no, its a terrible name' or, 'errr no' or, 'u cant call a baby that' 'that's an old woman's name'- errrr, well all old people started out as babies u know!!! anyway, i decided I'd just see what she looked like... I had millions of names, Emily, Emilia, Elsie (my mums reaction to that- if u call it that u might as well call it Ethel lol) Evelyn, Evie ohhh slight theme appearing here- i like names that begin with E lol.... oh and Martha.... but Martha McCarthy just sounds odd.... etc.... And i really loved the name Erin.... but next to Iris her name just had too many I's... so i decided to swap the I for a Y , and i love it, really love it. When she was born she definitely looked like an Eryn, well, she looked like Ben, but you know what i mean, so Eryn Iris it is :D ...... it's difficult though, because I've always been really hung up on my name, people never spelling it right, not pronouncing it properly etc.... and unfortunately she'll be in the 'got to spell your name out for everyone group' but I'm sure, one day she'll appreciate it lol.....
Right that's me done..... I'm sure i should have thought of a new theme by now, so how about for next week- other people's children.... after our experience with the kid punching Et at Krazy Kaves, how do you deal with things like that? or when children's friends are over? or troublesome toddlers at groups/nursery? do your kids friends adore u? etc....

Just a quick one today.....

2010-10-11T11:43:00.003+01:00

Hey ladies, it's Monday!

I have just had the laziest weekend imaginable. On Saturday we didnt even get dressed. This was mainly because Lucie had kept me up all night as I was at mine on my own (with the kids of course!)and I could barely function for being so tired!

I didn't get up to anything really during the week - Krazy Kaves on Tuesday, a few trips to town 'shoebox shopping' and the usual school runs. I did book a hall for my Operation Christmas Child Packing Party (thinking of which I need to get myself down to Eastney to pay the deposit). You can find more details here . The event is now going to be livestreamed too which is very exciting!

On the MommyTube channel this week we are talking about baby names so I thought I'd bring it up here as well - why did you choose your names? Do they have special meanings? Do you have any cute or crazy nicknames for your kids? Also I asked "what names are popular where you are?" but as most of us on this blog live in the same place, that one may come out the same! You can still answer it anyway if you like!!

You can check out my vid on the subject here .

Have a great week all :) xxx

going away .............

2010-10-11T06:54:00.000+01:00

10^th October

Apologies this is a late one again, I did start this on Sunday, but a busy week had by all with new experiences, and just had to get some sleep. Then realised it was Monday!!!!

I left the family for one night eek! I had to go to Newcastle for work which meant an overnight stay on Tuesday, the plan was for Nanna and Grandpa to come up and give Husband a hand – however when I got back he was a trooper and had done it all on his own, well Nanna was in the background as a stabiliser but he did really well, the girls at the Nursery said that when the kids were dropped off at 7:30am Husband looked a bit shell shocked but he was there to pick them up after work again and Nanna said he had the patience of a saint whilst grandson decided he was going to sit everywhere but in his car seat!!!! I rang once – I chose my time carefully, just after tea but not after bath as I thought this would be less painful or tearful to all. I haven’t really gone into too much detail, but this was the first time of leaving my children since we have become a family, just over 12 months and it was lovely that they both wanted to speak to me and they seemed so content and kept saying Mummy work, mummy come back soon.

I then found that being away from them I still got up early!!! 5:30am – what was that all about – here I was able to catch up on my sleep, but only just barely got my 7 hours usual sleep.

We all were a bit shattered by Friday, however by Saturday we seemed to have recovered and were ready to see my Niece and Nephews, brother and sister-in-law and celebrate my birthday all over again!

To this week’s subject – gizmos and gadgets – both children had those zebra seats that are like mini carousels that go up and down when they bounce and round and round – my daughter particularly loved this and would spend ages spinning round and going into her own little world, I got a lovely highchair which could recline all the way back and found use for both children for a quick nap after lunch.

Wishing you all a good week. x

All Work and No Play

2010-10-09T10:32:00.000+01:00

This week has been a bit of a slow one. I've had one of them weeks where I look back, and can't remember what I've done. Sounds awful doesn't it?

Last weekend, James and I toddled off to Southampton with Freyja. James was getting his eyes tested to see whether he was eligible for laser eye surgery, which he is, but only the uber expensive kind. So that can't happen for a while. Whilst he was in with the eye-man, Freyja and I had a wander round West Quay. I love that place, but struggle to exercise self-control when it comes to the shops. I bought a few Christmas presents, and we went for a hot chocolate before coming home. That evening, James had some friends round because they were going airsofting the next day, so I went out with me bezzie mate Leila and had a few too many malibu and cokes. No hangover though!

On Sunday, Freyja and I did a food shop, and I worked that evening. The rest of the week was pretty quiet. I went to visit one of my Netmum friends with another one of my Netmum friends, and ate lots of biscuits and drank lots of tea. It's lovely having so many lovely people as mummy friends - couldn't have done it without Netmums. I worked that evening (again). On Wednesday, I had to wait in for a delivery, so we just minced around the house and did a bit of housework. Thursday, a friend came over for a drink and a natter. I had a couple of deliveries from PR companies who want me to do product reviews on my personal blog. I couldn't believe what they sent me, it was like Christmas! Freyja dived in to a massive box of Organix Goodies - I think I know what'll be her treats for the next couple of weeks! On Friday, my friend and her daughter came over in the morning and Freyja and Gracie played for a while. They were both being pretty moody though - when Gracie gets moody, she whinges, and when Freyja gets moody, she hits - not a great combo. I worked again last night, and working again tonight and again tomorrow night! Just thinking of the money...

On to our theme of gadgets and gizmos. When Freyja was first born, I went through a bit of a phase of wanting all the cool electric toys. She had a play gym that she really enjoyed, and a door bouncer that she loved (except it was a bugger to get her out of it). She had a walker that she pushed around the house, but never got that much use out of it really. Apart from that, she had a musical light show thing for in her room which helped her settle when she was much younger, but that's about it. I have a big love for traditional wooden toys, jigsaws, books, and blocks - I much prefer to buy those sort of things rather than the battery ones. There's nothing wrong with them, obviously, it's just personal taste. They tend to last longer when they don't have batteries in them - not to mention it's a lot quieter without so many gadgets on at the same time! I just don't think that that many of them are very educational - the ones Freyja has, have got ridiculous voiceovers and make ridiculous sounds that don't sound like what they are aiming to sound like, so they're pretty pointless really. You just can't beat a bag of Megablox and stacking cups/shape sorters - she has hours of fun with that kind of stuff!

Have a good week - I'm off to sort the house because my mum is coming to visit tomorrow and staying with us for a week, so I suppose I best go and make her bed up! x

Travelling light ..

2010-10-08T12:50:00.003+01:00

I had to laugh as I waved off P, my daughter, this morning as she went off on her first school trip since joining secondary school.

About 150 of them (+ 20 teachers) are going on an Outward-Bound style weekend. It means old trainers, old t-shirts, joggers and waterproofs. Most of the clothing will get wet; some of it will have to be thrown away.

As we struggled to get everything into the very large bag that that I used when we went away for the summer, I realised she had sneaked in a bit of contraband clothing: a pair of shiny flat pumps (just what you need in a youth hostel); a glittery belt; a couple of disco-style tops. I threw them out – only the essentials were allowed if she were to fit in such things as toiletries.

The bag just about zipped up. It was heaved into the back of the car and off we went. I was worried we’d overpacked, but on seeing her friends I realised the bag we’d packed was about average in size and weight.

Off they trundled, all excited (more worries from me: it won’t be long before we will wave goodbye to this gaggle of girls as they make their way to Torremolinos or Benidorm for a holiday in the sun).

Then I noticed a group of boys who are in the same year making their way to school. Surely some mistake? Weren’t they going on the trip? They appeared to be empty-handed. Oh no – on closer inspection, they appeared to be wheeling what appeared to be nothing more than a lunchbag on wheels!

How could they fit in sweatshirts, trainers and walking socks in such tiny bags?

It was the perfect example of how males and females pack differently for the same thing. And I bet the girls wear only two things all weekend …

busy busy busy

2010-10-07T20:50:00.005+01:00

Hi ladies.....

so sorry, been sooooooo ridiculously busy i forgot it was Thursday!! lol.... anyway, just want to say a massive well done to Liz for all the hard work she's put in for the shoeboxes!!! i haven't read the write up in the paper yet but i will..... we did it in the school i worked in and i think it's a fab idea :D xx
Well, what a week! and it really has flown by!!!! Friday I had uni and i got issued my first practical assessment- a real experiment, on real people! i assumed as it was the first one it would be a breeze- how wrong was i!???!! in fact I'm dreaming about the bloody thing and I've not ever started it yet!! arghh....
Friday night Et went to his dads and Josh and Harry came round. We didn't really do a lot but both Ben and i were exhausted (which is quickly becoming a regular thing!) I'd spent the day feeling like poo and randomly throwing up, and in the middle of the night Ben was really sick too :( so we decided to have a quiet day on Saturday. My cousin ho is in 'operation move baby' mode suggested a walk round Farlington Marshes on Saturday morning, but the boys didn't want to go :( I figured Eryn would appreciate being at home more than stuck in her buggy for a couple of hours (she still wont walk outside) so i went on my own leaving the kids with Daddy.... Shame they missed it though, there was me, my two cousins and their 5 kids (between them, excluding the bump) and 3 dogs. they had a whale of a time hunting crabs and clams and spotting birds :) Incidentally, Baby still hasn't made an appearance though (it's my cousin's eldest birthday on sat and i'm edging my bets that bump will arrive as an extra special birthday pressie for his big sis!) Saturday afternoon Ben took the boys home and we pretty much flaked for the rest of the day. We decided against taking Moo moo face swimming on Sunday as we'd both been ill, and instead went out to buy ourselves a new TV (following the tragic death of Ben's beloved one a few weeks ago) well, we came home with a new TV, birthday and baby arrival presents, Christmas pressies and then as a very big surprise!!! Ben bought me a netbook so i've got my own laptop to do my uni work on :D he is officially the WORLD'S BEST BOYFRIEND!!!!!!! :D
Ethan returned home Sunday night and in true Et style, put a hilarious dampener on things..... he moaned about the new tv!!! said it was the same size as our old one (which is now in our bedroom) errrrr no Ethan it's 8inches bigger lol.... and when i showed him my netbook he was like 'oh right' !!! i said 'aren't you impressed?' to which he repied, 'er mummy, i'm a child, i'm not going to be impressed with a laptop' LOL bless him.....
Monday Eryn was in nursery for a few hours while i went to a meeting at uni. She's getting on so well there now and isn't even crying when i go now- just pulling a really sad face (bottom lip quiver etc..... u know the one ;) ) i had a lecture on Monday night that i missed 'cause Ben wasn't home from work in time, so I've got loads to catch up on :( Damn lifts!!!! lol
Tuesday's are killing me!! I don't see the kids all day!!!! :( I drop them off just after 8 and i don't get home till just gone 6 :( i hate it!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday was lovely, although Eryn was very clingy! Et went swimming and i took Eryn to the soft play centre while he was having his lesson. She loved it! It's the first time she's really actually enjoyed herself at one, and she didn't want to leave.
Today i had to do a stupid computer course at uni, and I'm in again tomorrow morning.... all this balancing everything lark is HARD!!!
Oh Ethan randomly announced he wants to become a vegetarian... i have no problem with this- i was one for 6 years.... but when i asked him if he actually knew what it meant he said no!! lol.... once i'd explained he soon went off the idea..... God knows where he got it from though!!!
This weeks topic, hmmm...... i don't think i've actually brought anything to keep them amused apart from the obvious playmats, gyms etc.... but i do let them play with things they probably shouldnt.... the kitchen drawers, glass photo frames, knives and forks, cameras, remotes, mobiles, and yesterday Eryn was playing with my hammer :S lol..... but it's all supervised if that makes any difference! lol.... oh i had a vibrator that was what i thought was well hidden.... Ethan always managed to find it!!!! (he was about 2 at the time lol) Bless 'em....
The pic is one of the ones we had taken.... i love it..... till next week..... xxxx

2010-10-06T14:13:00.003+01:00

hiya!!

apologies for my missed week last week i felt like death and spent most of the day in bed or on the sofa and completely forgot to do my blog!!!

although i havent blogged for 2 week's i don't have an awful lot to talk about!!!

last week we didnt do that much cause i didnt feel that great for most of it!
we've started going to krazy kaves on a tuesday morning - with it being parent and toddler morning its a nice change from big kids bounding around, not that i complain about that cause taylor is normally the one bounding around haha!! its just nice not to have to follow fin's around he has a little bit of freedom!!

on saturday night we went to see jason manford at the guildhall. he really was hilarious!! havent laughed so much in ages, definately worth going to see!! after we went for a few drinks in guildhall, somewhere i havent been for nearly 2 years lol!! i felt so old! everyone looks about 15!! i'm only 24 myself but it made me feel ancient being out!! after we all drunk stupid amounts of alcohol we went for a curry. was a really good night!

you can probably imagine what i was like the day after haha!! i spent the whole day in bed, woke up at half 12, phil made me a fry up and i got back in bed - what a slob lol!! kids didnt come home from my parents until half 5 so i had a whole day to recover thank god!! dont no how people do that every weekend!

we didnt do anything monday, tuesday we went to krazy kaves again and today i havent really done anything!! i've just started doing avon so my mums friend - whos the area manager for portsmouth came and showed me whats what, i've been and given a few books out down my road and a few friends have one but i don't think i'll be one of the avon ladies who make a bomb lol!! none of my friends really seem interested so will just see how it goes!! (if any of you who are around the fratton area want an avon book let me know hahahhaa!!)

my 2 have had loads of dif baby gadgets
play mats - didnt like
play nests - taylor had one and loved it but grew out of it really quickly so didnt bother getting finley one cause he was even bigger lol
swings - neither liked theirs finley looked to screwed up cause it was like a little bucket seat and cause he was huge he didnt fit right!!!!!!!!
bouncy chairs - the both loved their chairs. i put taylors in the loft completely forgetting about it and when we were sorting the loft out we found it when finley was just born so he had that and loved it but i thought it was abit hard, so went and got him another one which he absolutely hated!!! so was a complete waste of money cause he went back to taylors old hard chair haha!!
finley had a bumbo for 3 weeks, cause his legs were so fat we had to push him down into it (this was at 3 months!!!) so he got frustrated with not being able to move his legs at all haha!!
they've had every baby toy going and didnt play with any of them. i've wasted so much money on trying to amuse them but nothing worked!!
now they both love wrestling and play with their wrestlers all day everyday!! least thats one thing in 6 years that they like and stick to!!!
i expect every parents the same and gets things they think looks nice and fun and the kids arent interested!!! wonder how much gets spent every year on unwanted things lol!!

anyway i cant write anymore finley is having a moan cause i'm totally ignoring him!!!!!

see ya :)

Dino,Rain,wedding and a poorly doggy...

2010-10-05T16:10:00.004+01:00

Hi everyone,Firstly i would like to say a big well done to Liz with the launch of her new mummytube channel.Ive been keeping up with it and it lovely to get to know different mummys from all over the world and there view on motherhood and more.You should all go and check it out.
Those of you local to some of us 7mummies (Portsmouth) will know about the sad event that happened towards the end of last week.

Earlier in the summer a 53ft dinosaur was erected on Southsea common.It was built for a touring art project,took 3 yrs to make and cost way into the thousands.It was due to move to colchester then Cardiff and back to remain in portsmouth.But in the early hours of friday morning(suspected students) burnt it down.The whole community are totally devastated that someone could be so selfish and thoughtless.Kids loved it and it could be seen for miles,Its just such a shame.

Friday was a horrid day day, i had so much to do and the whole day was non stop torrential rain.Its day like that when i really hate the fact that i cant drive,we got soaked walking to and from school.Then again after school as i needed to take Jaydon for a haircut,after a swift visit back home for Jaydon to get changed we then had to take him back to school as he had a cinema night before going back to collect him at 8pm.I was literally wet through to my undies.

Saturday was mums wedding,she looked soo beautiful.Skye wouldnt keep quiet through the service so MrB took her outside.The food was lush and over all was a fab day.

This morning my bestfriend phoned me and said her boxer dog Missy needed a trip to the vets,would i mind meeting her there and looking after her 9 month old son while she saw the vet.So i took he little man with me to my trip to asda,he was an angel bless him.When i met up with my friend a bit later she was distraught.Poor missy has cancer and has to go back friday for an op and see how far it has spread.Its so sad,not only has missy been a big part of the family but she has been a part of our friendship for the last 9 yrs.In the last 13yrs this was only the 2nd time ive seen her cry (my friend that is,she was 16 the 1st time) :( Me on the otherhand i cant remember how many times she has seen me sob lol.

So the topic of gizmo's and gadgets..I dont think my 2 had loads really,both had playmats but neither showed much interest.Playpens..Jaydon loved his but Skye would lose interest after 10 mins.Bouncy chairs..Jaydon would only chill out when he was in his chair,but Skye only liked hers if she was being Fed at the same time.Jaydon absolutely loved his walker,and would try and climb into it once he was able to pull himself up.There are so many different things you can buy for kids, most i think arnt really needed and are just a reason to help the toy companies make more money.

Now days Jaydon is happy as long as he has a computer console to play or skateboard if the weather is ok.Skyes is happy with babys and anything she can dress up in.

Have a good week xxx

Gadgets and Gizmos

2010-10-04T10:31:00.005+01:00

Morning everyone! Another looooong week last week, must be the weather! I think where it gets dark so much earlier now it makes it feel alot later than it is so by about 8 o'clock I feel like I should be in bed! Likewise, when I wake up at 6am and it's pitch black I do not want to get out of bed!

So this week I've mostly been buying bits and bobs for my Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. I've picked up some lovely stuff really cheap, so much so that I ended up with too much to fit into two boxes so now I'm doing four! Now just to get them wrapped and packed. I'm arranging a packing party through Portsmouth Netmums so if anyone else is interested in joining our little venture please let me know!

Last week was also the first week of the MommyTube and it was fab to see everyone posting videos. If you like reading this blog you should definitely check it out, the link is in the sidebar. I do Mondays on that too and the other ladies are all great.

I loved Becki's '5 embarassing moments' theme last week but I really couldn't think of a single thing! Surely my kids have embarrassed the hell out of me at some point but my mind is totally blank! As for this weeks topic, it should have been Noeles this week but me being my usual useless self I forgot to ask! So this week I want to know what kinds of gadgets and gizmos you have bought to try to keep your little ones entertained.

I have tried just about everything going so far with Lucie. She has two playmats, a door bouncer, (although for her it's not so much a 'bouncer' as a swing as she is so little her legs don't come close to reaching the floor!) a bumbo, a rocking chair and a bouncy chair and I want to get her a baby walker! She likes to play on all of her things but gets bored easily and doesnt like being stuck in the same position for long. A combination like the one pictured above seems to work! In fact since I started writing this I have already moved her from my lap to her chair to the playmat and now to the bumbo. I think (or hope) that she will be much happier when she can sit alone for longer and maybe move around a little. I got a playnest from the car boot sale but one side was punctured! I think she'd like one of those so will have to keep my eye out!

When Brett and Courtney were little they had bouncy chairs, playmats, nests and then walkers later on, these days as long as they have a DS in their hand they are happy!

Have a great week :)

3rd October - It's all about ME!!!!!!!!

2010-10-03T20:59:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, well I think I’m mainly going to talk about today as it is my BIRTHDAY!!!!! Although I am 39 years old today I look upon this a new day, a new beginning and hopefully how life will continue as it has done! I had a wonderful start to my Birthday morning with breakfast in bed – boiled egg and toast, cup of tea, orange juice, presents, cuddles and cards. Although this will be my 2^nd Birthday with my two gorgeous children it felt like my first – I was more relaxed about the whole day and felt that yes this is what it’s all about, what I have been wanting since xxx years ago.

Before the kids went to bed Saturday night [yesterday] they both sang Happy Birthday to me and my son bless his cotton socks sang “Happy Birthday to my Mummy” I had tears in my eyes it was so so sweet. However by 1pm on the day of my Birthday [today] I had tears of frustration in them – found said son with his face in my just iced Birthday Cake, I know it didn’t look like a pristine shop attempt but it was my attempt and my Birthday Guests were arriving in less than an hour!!! Anyway Husband came to the rescue and patched it together with the colours of the Canaries, even though we aren’t football fans – no one seemed to mind, and I have to say that I think it looked better than my attempt!!! – can that count as one of my embarrassments????

Anyway here are my other thoughts to embarrassing situations that I have had to get out of, not quite the 5 but we are getting there!

1. Courtney - daughter asking to see my poo

2. Son is in trolley in the supermarket and I ask him what he is doing and there looking up at me is his willy doing a sausage impersonation!

3. Going into a toilet when shopping with daughter and daughter saying about the lady who just vacated the toilet – mummy that lady’s done smelly poo!

This is a lot harder I think! I have lots more to say so you can also catch me on my other blog http://thoughtsfromavillage.blogspot.com/ have a good week all xx

Poo Times Two

2010-10-02T12:10:00.000+01:00

This week has been quite a nice week actually, apart from the odd toddler tantrum lasting a day... She has calmed down a bit for the latter half of the week and has been lovely every day, so I'm a happy mummy.

I worked Saturday evening, which was nice and hectic. A new girl has started, so at least we're not understaffed any more. On Sunday, we went up to Guildford for a couple of hours to see some friends - 2 of them hadn't met Freyja yet despite being a year and a half old, so it was lovely to see them, and they really enjoyed spending time with Freyja. We had a yummy dinner, as well as winning a pair of awesome Converse on eBay. Score!

On Monday, we didn't really do anything. I did go out for a couple of hours in the evening though, to have a couple of drinks with one of the guys I work with as it was his birthday. On Tuesday, one of the girls I went to high school with (who now lives in Bognor Regis) came over with her little girl and we had a lovely morning of tea and biscuits. The only bad point to their visit was Freyja & Cerys were playing outside, and Freyja decided to step in fox poo and stand, rigid to the spot in tears, until I managed to prise her shoes (which had a double knot I couldn't undo) off her feet. I just left the shoes there in the middle of the garden until James returned from work and cleaned them. I don't mind baby poo, but fox poo is a different story. And it stank. I worked again that evening, but it was a quiet one, minus the uni students taking over half of the pub for a while!

On Wednesday, we had the car, so I went into town and did some early Christmas shopping! My logic is that if I spread the cost over a longer period of time, we won't be in xmas debt in the new year. I got a few bits for Freyja, and managed to find a couple of bargains. We went to visit my friend Jess after, before picking James up from work - that's the only annoying thing about having the car - getting stuck in the 5pm rush hour traffic to try and get to Fareham, with a restless hungry toddler. Lovely.

We went to Moby's yesterday for a couple of hours - I've never seen it so busy! We had to park on the industrial estate and walk down, in the rain. But it was nice, and it got Freyja out of the house for a while. She was so cute - she saw a lady there, who was holding her newborn baby. Freyja walked past, eyed up the baby, and gave the mum a big cuddle! It was so adorable! She also knows how to hold her own - a 3 year old hit her, and she hit him back! Good on her! I worked last night again, but luckily, I'm off tonight so I can actually have a Saturday off for once. James has some mates over as they are airsofting tomorrow, so I've decided I'm going to go to the pub for a bit. Yoink!

As for this weeks topic of embarrassing moments, because Freyja isn't old enough to talk herself into trouble, I don't really have that many embarrassing episodes. I spoke to James and asked him if he could remember any moments, and naturally, he came up with the one vile one. You know how during labour, some women accidentally poo. It's normal. It's a bit of a taboo subject, but I'm not one to sugarcoat things. Anyway, I was one of those women. But, whereas in most cases, the midwives manage to clear it up before it shows itself, she missed some. As I was changing position (they tried getting me on all fours), I apparently had a bit of poo stuck to my bum and wafted it right in James' face. I don't think he'll ever let me live that one down. Anyway, enough about poo. Apart from that, and taking half an hour to put up a pram in the middle of the Argos car park with a load of builders laughing at me, there's not much else that has embarrassed me. Yet.

Have a lovely week xxx

A tidy mind ...

2010-10-01T07:29:00.001+01:00

I am drowning in a sea of mess.

I’ve had quite a lot of work these past few weeks (for a freelance writer, this is an enviable position to be in so I am not complaining).

But it does mean that housework has been relegated to well below the Top 50 household chores chart.

Providing food and cleaning clothing for the children comes top of the chart, of course, but everything else has pretty much taken a running jump.

After three weeks, I am overwhelmed by what needs to be done. I have managed to vacuum very quickly (the lounge), the kitchen remains just the right side of hygienic and the guinea pigs have been cleaned out every week. I have snatched a few minutes’ bathroom cleaning, too, but unfortunately it means the sink is clean one day; the loo the next and the shower screen the next.

Such haphazard approach means that NOTHING looks clean. Added to the fact that the children’s things seem to overtake each room, I feel despair.

But, the room in which I work is the absolute worse. The “study” is an appalling mishmash of books, technology and pieces of paper. As it is essentially the box room, there is no room to swing a kitten - never mind a cat.

In there, somewhere, is all the paperwork I need to fill in my tax return. But goodness knows where it is. I am in a slight panic now as I want to send off the paper version (rather than doing it online) in the next week.

Perhaps I should ask my son to don a hard hat complete with headlamp, burrow in and find it. Who knows what else he may find? A new species of monkey; Narnia ...

The children seem oblivious to it all, of course. When I ask them to tidy up their mess they look around, slightly confused. Is what I am seeing a mirage? Are those hair clips, bobbles, magazines, combs, discarded clothes really there> In the middle of the lounge? I do believe they are.

And what about the Tamagotchi, Toxic magazine, Go-Gos? Yes, i really do think I can see them.

So why can’t they? It drives me nuts, even though my threshold for mess is much higher than my husband’s!

Anyway, this weekend I will tackle it. I can’t promise a study of Zen-like calm, but I will try to rationalise and store away properly in a way that means I can access the things I need. If that doesn't happen it means I have unexpectedly discovered a hidden entrance to another world. See you next week (maybe!).

Where has the week gone!?!?!?!?!

2010-09-30T11:20:00.004+01:00

Hi ladies, I hope you're all having a good week. I can't believe it's Thurday again already!!! life just seems to be passing by sooooo quicking :S and yes, as others have mentioned, it really is nearly Christmas.....
Well, what a week! The weekend was well, not fantastic! i was really hoping for a bit of peace and quiet. Having been exhausted after going to uni all week (i cant remember how i coped when i was working full time, at college 2 nights a week, pregnant and looking after Et, my house, 2 cats and a dog..... hopefully something will jog my memory soon so i can once again become superwoman) Ben had started his new job and we were both very irritable through being sooo tired, and the kids (all four- so including Eryn) were BRATS!!!!!! no other way to describe them. They were rude, back-chatting, fighting, moaning, climbing the walls and ungrateful so and sos..... We went to the adventure playground and a party on saturday, as well as buying them some new clothes- and they didnt apprieciate any of it. Josh was the best behaved, but it was certainly a case of best out of a bad bunch!!! lol. I'm sure that if Ben and I hadnt have felt so knackered we could have dealt with it really easily, but it was just awful! but hey ho.....
On Sunday we went for dinner at Ben's parents, which was really lovely except his dad announced that he didnt think i'd last the first year at uni!!!! talk about supportive! I can kind of see his point though.... I've not been exactly positive about the whole thing!!! In fact my tutor told me I'm very negative!!!! Which is true..... lol but I'm determined to complete the 3 years!!!!!!!!!!!
On Monday it was Eryn's first proper day at nursery (well 4 hours) and she coped really well :D she had a few grizzley moments but other than that she was fine. Such a weight has been lifted knowing that she's ok there! I didnt haver uni till 6pm. and it was the biggest waste of my time!! the lecturer read off the power point presentation that i'd accessed (courtesy of my cousin being scarily organised!) at home before i went. so basically i could have just stayed at home!!!! grrrr
Tuesday was better though, 3 lectures and a tutorial, although one was on research methods and statistics...... i could even work my calculator let alone do the maths!!!!!! lol.... in my defence noone else could work it either.... but it didnt fill me with much hope! Eryn was in nursery from 8.20 to 5.50 and again she'd had a lovely time :) *massive sigh of relief* Ethan was at his childminder's and really enjoyed himself too..... makes me wonder if my children just dont like being with me!
Yesterday was my day off and i refused point blank to do anything to do with uni (altho i have A LOT to do) so my heavily pregnant cousin (38wks yesterday) came over with her youngest. Oh and Eryn projectile vomitted over herself, me and the floor in ASDA.... god knows what was wrong with her! shes got a bit of a cough and a couple of times shes puked when shes coughed, but she's fine in herself- just a bit snotty.
Today i was supposed to be getting an iphone4 delivered!!! im soooo excited, but im gonna miss the delivery slot because i've got to go to uni... ive rearranged for tomo but again, i've got uni so i dont know whether i will miss the time slot again :(
I'm hoping for a quiet weekend this week, Et is off to his dads and we've only got Josh and Harry on friday night. We've got Ben's parents stayng saturday night. They've not been here before so i'd better clean up A LOT!! (not that my house is dirty, its just messy!) I had to fill out a form for nursery called all about me. It was asking simple questions about family life etc. One of them was 'things i do with my family....' and this sounds absolutely awful but we couldnt think of anything we do as a family for her! Everything we do is for the boys, and she just has to either join in or sit on the sidelines.... i feel incredibly guilty!!! When Ethan was in his swimming lesson yesterday i took Eryn into the pool. She wasn't really that interested, but didnt scream :) but i think we realy need to do something for her. She loved swimming with Daddy when we were camping (again, maybe it's just me lol) so i think we mihgt take her saturday afternoon. What else can we do with a 14month old who can but wont walk.... although she is walking a bit more everyday :) any ideas let me know!
Hmmmm, most embarassing mummy-moments.....
1, my cousin always moans at me for telling Ethan that the 'lady part' is called a vagina. I always figured there was no point in lying to him, that his dad wouldnt discuss it with him and seeing as i wasnt going to have any more kids that i should just say it how it is. Anyway, we were round my cousins for dinner with our dog Talulah (god rest her soul) and they have a british bull dog called mr pickles.... anyway, Et suddenly announced mid mouthful 'mummy, mr pickles is licking Talulah's vagina' ..... nice, let the ground swallow me up!

2, Again, my darling Ethan.... we were discussing death and wills and stuff- like u do.... and i was saying that mummy has life insurance so if i die he and Eryn will have money etc. Not really grasping the concept i explained that, as an example, when my Nan's husband died he left my Nan his house and some money. He got the jist and i thought no more about it. My mum was looking after my two when i was a bridesmaid recently and she took them to my nans for a bit. Whilst there, my delightful Et turned to my nan and said 'My mummy says you're worth lots of money, can i have some?' ....... again, thanks for that child!!! Luckily she thought is was highly amusing and said maybe when she dies lol.

3, I had lots of moments when i was breastfeeding Eryn that my boobs leaked through the pads and on to my clothes.... that was embarassing!!!

4, When Ethan was younger (2/3) he used to call himself Adam..... i have no idea why, we don't even know anyone called Adam, but when someone asked him his name he would say Adam.... lol..... People used to look at us very strangely when i'd be calling him Ethan, and then Adam, then Ethan again...

Hmmmmm, i'm sure there are a million more, but my mind has well and truly gone blank!
Right, suppose i'd best sort myself out for uni, have a good week everyone xx

Me+alcohol+high heels= a cut knee

2010-09-28T17:21:00.003+01:00

Hi all How are we?
Midweek last week was rather boring..Apart from Housework/washing and the odd trip to asda or the local shops/park,we've done nowt.Mr B was working in leeds so we didnt get to see him untill friday.Friday evening was my mums hen do,we went for an Italian then met up with the stag party after who had also been for a meal. It was great we all had a fab time..Well apart from my sister who was taken home at 1am for throwing up several times lol...1 to many sambruca's!!
Come 3am it was just me and my brother left,who made me walk the 10min walk back to mums rather then get a taxi. Me+alcohol+very high heels= a cut knee!! Just what i need when my bridesmaids dress is short. We normally go to Mr B's on a saturday but as the kids were already there i spent the day and night at mums.I felt like i was on a child free holiday,it was lush..I got to have a lie in,then we went for breakfast and a sunbed.Came back and chilled out all day.
Sunday Mr and the kids picked me up and we went to town to continue the hunt for Jaydons suit.Thankfully we found a lovely one in BHS and he looked gorgeous,so tall and grown up bless him.Found a lovely fur cardie for Skye to wear over her bridesmaids dress too.

Liz gave me the option to start the topic again this week,So thought i would change it slightly.A week ago 2 friends and i were chatting about this and it had us all in giggles so i thought i would bring it to you ladies too..What are your 5 most embarrassing mummy moments?? (feel free to add 10 if you want)

My most embarrassing mummy moments are...

1. When Jaydon was 4 we were in a lift with a rather large man,Jaydon started laughing so the man asked him whats funny..His reply..Your fat tummy!!

2. After bagging up my shopping in asda, i pulled out my empty purse to realise my bank card and cash had vanished..later to be found under Skyes pillow.

3.When my then 5 yr old Jaydon asked me why his willy gets bigger when he's in the bath.

4.Climbing up a spiral slide when jaydon had become stuck half way down,screaming so much that the whole play area just watched in silence.

5. looking at bra's in la-senza and Skye turning to the women next to me and saying.. They are for your boogies.

Have a good week, looking forward to reading your moments xx

Shoeboxes! Tiddles! Mommytube!

2010-09-27T19:36:00.005+01:00

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is the only word I cant think of to describe today. I should have known Lucies transformation to dream baby wouldn't last. Is it teething? Is it separation anxiety? Who knows? All I know is she doesn't like being indoors, she doesn't like going out, she doesn't want her bottles and is just basically being a moo. I'm on tenterhooks right now as she has finally gone to sleep (courtesy of Super Dad) and is stirring in her chair at the slightest movement. It wont last long so I shall be brief. (Or try).

Had a pretty good week last week. Actually a really fab week. The weather was gorgeous and I definitely made the most of it. Every day after school I took the kids to either Milton Park or Canoe Lake. My friend Emma and her daughter Phoebe who is in Brett's year at school came on Monday (we ended up staying for over two hours) and Tuesday. The kids brought their swim gear and had a blast running around in the 'tiddles' water jets. On Wednesday the lovely Elly and her little man Jacob joined us at Canoe Lake and the kids had a lovely play as usual. Jacob thought it weather appropriate to just lose the clothes altogether, bless him.

Sunday night we went to see a wrestling show in Gosport. Stew had five tickets so we took Taylor too and poor Lauren looked after my 'gorgeous little screamer'! She said she was better this time though, albeit crying for the first two hours. We all had a good time at the show anyway, although one particular match was VERY bizarre with two seemingly bisexual wrestlers making passes at audience members (male and female - and myself included which Stew wasn't very impressed about!)and talking about showering together and rubbing baby lotion on each other as well as performing some very questionable wrestling manoeuvres. We left before the last match as it was getting late

As most of you know, I do usually post earlier on a Monday but there are three reasons why this is coming to you a bit later this particular day. Firstly I spent the morning in town buying goodies to put in my Operation Christmas Child shoebox (more on this in my personal blog - link in sidebar) and some general shopping bits. Town stresses me out, I was all alone (boo hoo) shops make me panicky and to top it off I had Lucifer screaming in my ear. I actually have to go back in the morning to collect my shoeboxes and a few bits I didn't get today but I'll make it a quick trip. Then, as Lucie was finally asleep when I got back I posted my first MommyTube video!!! It actually took me about four takes as my webcam only connects through Facebook or Youtube, I cant seem to access it otherwise, so therefore can't edit, but I think I did ok! Please check the channel out if you have a moment! And then as I've said Lucie has just been a terror the rest of the day!

Well I'm off to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End with hubby now - we've been re watching the series and I must say it has captured more of my interest than it did the first time I saw it.

Have a great week xxx

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, mmmm Roasts!

2010-09-26T20:18:00.000+01:00

25^th September 2010

I’m cheating I have started writing this on the 25^th September! [yesterday]! 12 weeks and counting to the big Day – Christmas Day the best food day of the year!!!

Food – one of my favourite subjects and my father’s!, however, I may find that I am going off it. This evening [Saturday] for an example my son [bless him] has in his most charming voice told me quite categorically that “I don’t like mushrooms, I don’t like peas, I don’t like onion”, “I like rice” ooh thats good I say ‘cos rice is what comes with Beef stroganoff! Then darling daughter tells me that “I don’t like chicken” I say “it’s not chicken”, daughter says “don’t like pork” I say “it’s not pork” she says “what is it then” I say “beef”, “oh she says “ I don’t like it” I say “ fine and then eat the wonderful bits of fillet steak beef I bought myself, Yes fillet steak! Granted only a small piece but enough none the less cut up very thinly and added to mushrooms, mixed veg, rice with soured cream. Mummyrella dnd Daddy really enjoyed it!

I have to say though both have been very good with what has been put infront of them, I found that putting the yoghurts into bowls and varying works well, so that they don’t get stuck with one brand, I as mentioned earlier in the week, Monday, Tuesdays is easy night as husband is home first and starts the cooking – fishfingers, chips and something with tomato sauce on it, and the kids tuck into this really well, also just recently Daddy has started experimenting with sausages, onions, red peppers and gravy, with mash, mmmmm smells delish as I walk through the door and tastes really nice too! So glad the maris piper potatoes are back my kids just would not eat new potatoes – don’t why it was, could get them past the lips, the lady at the butchers said the same thing, anyone else have that problem? Anyway mash is good mixes a wealth of other things together that they cannot see hahaha my likes this J . I cannot give the kids enough fruit – they love it love it and some days I has to say – you’ve had enough or you’ll look like a piece of fruit, bananas, apples, grapes, oranges, lemons!!!, pears, strawberries, the list is endless, although the very first time I gave them kiwi, I had forgotten that they had had this and I thought they had both got some terrible disease, when changing their nappies! And then it clicked!

Sundays are usually my best food day of the week, as I lurv Roast Dinners, as do the family, although chicken is my favourite and husband will grin and bear it – prefers beef , or pork or lamb, even during the heat of the summer I have managed to have a few roasts! Mad you probably say, and yes this did cross my mind as the sweat was brushed from my brow and the 180 degree heat blew from the oven onto my already 90 degree hot face but the roast chicken was worth it, the kids love it too and especially everyone can’t get enough of the homemade Yorkshire puddings, so glad its Sunday today!!!

It’s now Sunday! and I have been up for 2 ½ hours and it’s not 8:30am ...... now it’s 8:10pm where has the day gone let alone the week! I get distracted easily now and find myself doing other things and forget what I was trying to do. Anyway the reason it’s 12 hours later is that I have been to Mums for the day which now takes a good 2 hours down the A1 what with all the paraphernalia that has to be put into the car, kids strapped in, dog strapped and then me strapped in, we’re away! And another good nosh up roast beef and homemade apple pie with the lovely added bonus of my great Aunty Margaret arriving on the doorstep to join us just as we are serving up.

My final thought before signing off – my last week of being 38! This time next week I will be 39 and 11 hours old! Have a good week everyone xx

Was I Being Punished?

2010-09-25T11:00:00.000+01:00

I was really looking forward to James and Freyja coming back home on Tuesday. I had been keeping myself busy all weekend to try and take my mind off them not being here - I worked Saturday (which was insane) and on Sunday, me and a few friends went to the Tenth Hole. For the first time, we treated ourselves to High Tea - OH MY GOD - it's £25, but between us, it was about £8 each, but what you get is phenomenal - 6 slices of cake, a plate of sarnies, scones, tea and coffee - I couldn't finish it. I felt like royalty - everyone kept staring at us as though we were sophisticated, when in actual fact, we are the opposite - a bunch of cake crazed maniacs who wanted a treat. On Monday, I did loads of housework, then went out for some drinks of the evening - I thought I may as well take advantage of the not-having-to-be-up-in-the-morning factor. James & Freyja were due to land at about 2:30 the next afternoon, so my plan was to drive over to Southampton to pick them up, spend the afternoon with them, and then go to work in the evening. In actual fact, the plane was delayed for 3 and a half hours, so they landed at 6ish, and I had to just drop them off and whizz off to work. So I didn't get to see them at all :(

The next morning was hideous. Freyja screamed for half an hour after James went to work. She cried, didn't want to be with me, didn't want hugs, didn't want to play. It was horrible. I took her to Krazy Kaves which she enjoyed loads, brought her home, and she cried some more. She wasn't too bad after a nap, but wasn't the same until James came home. She flung herself at him as he came through the door as though her life had briefly ended when he wasn't there. The way she was being with me, it was almost as though she was punishing me for leaving her for 4 days. Alongside that, she was also going through a bit of separation anxiety with James. What a way to make me feel like shite?! I don't see my baby girl for 4 days and she cries at me. Not the nicest feeling.

As the week went on, she got better, and now she's pretty much back to normal. She still has a wobbler when one of us goes through the door, but she gets over it quick enough. We can't help having to go to work.

Onto this weeks topic of food. We try to give Freyja a home cooked meal everyday - it doesn't always happen though. We do have fish, veg and chicken fingers in the freezer, as well as a supply of meatballs. We also have tins of baked beans and things like that in the cupboard. Most of the time, if we have a home-cooked meal, we will stick some in the fridge - enough for Freyja to have for the next 2 days. She easts everything we make. She's the easiest kid to feed I've ever met - ever since she was 5 months old, she's eaten everything. She loves fish, meat, veg, salad, fruit, pasta, cous cous - she's a dream to feed. When she was younger, I used to puree things and freeze them in ice cube trays, then once frozen, put the cubes in a freezer bag and label it. Then each meal time, I would grab a few cubes of whatever I had, and heat them up. The other thing I couldn't do without were frozen vegetables - I have a stock of broccoli, spinach and peas in the freezer for when we don't have a homecooked meal for her. I'm hoping she doesn't go through a faddy stage (although she probably will) - she's been a dream for the last year!

Have a good week xxx

Trumpeting the end of an era

2010-09-25T08:15:00.001+01:00

Apologies that this didn't show on Friday. I scheduled to appear, but must have not done it correctly ...

What a week!

Disappointment and confusion, followed by illness, sobbing, blankets and hot water bottles for one; unconfined joy and chatteriness for the other.

Firstly, child one. (*Parental advisory: do not allow young children to read this blog post. The reasons why will be clear in just a moment*)

The C-word came up last weekend – no, not that one, I mean Christmas.

This is because the Argos catalogue has arrived at Howarth Towers, so there will be endless thumbing of pages for the next few weeks before the list for Santa is written.

But therein lies the rub: the letter for Santa. Dort is 11 and in senior school (read last week’s posting). On Sunday, she sidled into the kitchen – thankfully away from her younger brother – and asked the question I’ve been dreading: “Mum, does Father Christmas really exist?”

I couldn’t keep up the pretence any longer and the truth spilled out. I couldn’t bear the thought of the ribbing she would get from older pupils if she mentioned Santa.

She looked confused. “But who did we see when we went to Lapland last year? I thought it was Father Christmas.”

We had a whispered chat and she accepted it all in very good faith – although she was told that if she said ANYTHING to her younger brother, all her festive activities and presents would be cancelled. Full stop. She nodded gravely. She understood alright.

I’m sure the two things aren’t related, but she went downhill quite quickly afterwards – it was almost like she was Tinkerbell and someone said they no longer believed in fairies anymore (oh, the tooth fairy thing was also tackled).

There was nausea, stomach cramps and headaches. Two days off school and a very slow recovery. Being Cruella de Ville in disguise, I sent her to school, but was called by the school nurse within two hours to fetch her. Apparently, children are dropping like flies with this bug.

But there was some good news; good news for son (8) anyway. Not so much for the rest of us in the house. He has secured the instrument he wanted for music lessons at school: a trumpet. I painted on a smile as he babbled happily about his good fortune and I couldn’t help but wonder how many eggs we would have to eat in the next three weeks so that we could use the boxes to sound-proof his room.

If all else fails in his life, at least he could become a rag and bone man, trumpet in hand to sound his arrival. “Aaaaaany old iron!”

hmmmmm really don't know what i'm doing!!!

2010-09-23T20:15:00.002+01:00

Hi ladies, I hope you're all having a great week, and just want to say welcome to our newbies :D

Well, what a week!!! i think I've been through every emotion known to man! Scared, excited, nervous, denial to name but a few!! i never imagined becoming a student could be soooooo physically draining!! and I've not really learnt anything yet! Leaving Eryn with the childminder on Monday was awful, she just cried an cried..... and apparently she's just been really grizzly every day :'( i feel like the worst mum in the world, and I'm soooo bloody knackered when i get home i just don't want to do anything :( It's been, errrrr, interesting at uni.... mainly interesting because i have absolutely no idea what they are banging on about!!!!! on Tuesday i panicked and convinced myself that I've chosen the wrong subject!!!!!! but I've since found that I'm not the only one who hasn't done a psychology A level so I'm not the only one who knows bugger all :) but I've definitely got my work cut out. Ethan seems pretty ok though, which is great so its just Eryn I've got to be concerned about. She starts nursery on Monday so more change for her :( I've got a mouth full of ulcers, and one on my tonsil of all places, a sore throat and generally feel like crap..... not a good week really :(

Anyway back to the weeks events.... Friday night Ben, the boys, Eryn and I went to 'the shed' (i know, I'm there again!!) and saw a great band.... but they were so young the couldn't get served at the bar! lol.... but they're music was fab..... but i don't actually remember much - talk about bad parents but both Ben and i were hammered! :S terrible i know, and it was only the next day that Ben announced that he always buys me doubles- hence why i always get soooo drunk..... not amused!
Saturday, after my head stopped pounding i went shopping..... I HATE SHOPPING!!!! but i decided i needed some new clothes for uni, oh and a book lol....but i ended up spending more money on Eryn than i did on myself (and i got bits for Et too) talk about Mummy Guilt.... she has now got some beautiful new clothes ;) Ben took Josh and Harry to watch Southampton play, which they loved, although it was a draw ;) It was Harry's first game and he was sooooo excited bless him.... oh, he got into a fight at school this week (he's only been there a week!!) and managed to split the other lad's lip :( but in his defence the other kid hit him first and he was defending his 'girlfriend' ;)....
Sunday we went to my nan's for 'afternoon tea' where my delightful family basically told me that going to uni is a complete waste of time, that it's a cop out and the only reason i got a place is because i was a single mum and they needed to fill their quota..... great, thanks for that!!!!! i can always rely on my family for support when i need it........
Tuesday night my wonderful die-hard-saints-fan-boyfriend took Ethan to watch POMPEY play at home!!! I'm so grateful :D bless Ben, he is wonderful :D Ethan loved it! he's been before but he was a lot younger and cant remember it, so it was lovely that Ben took him. And last night Ben and i went on 'a date' My friend Laura and her hubby came over to babysit, and they were both petrified, but the kids were asleep and stayed that way. We only went to Gunwharf for a bit, had dinner and went bowling (and i got a student discount!! :) ) but it was soooooooooooooo nice to be out, without the kids, and not at some one's wedding! lol
We've got the boys all this weekend and I'm not quite sure what were up to. My friend's son is having a birthday party on Saturday that we're going to, but that's all we're doing so far.... I'm hoping the weather picks up a bit because, well, we're skint (Ben started his new job on Monday and has gone from weekly to monthly pay- so no wages for a month eeekkk!!)so I'm hoping to be able to go to the park or something.

This weeks topic.... well, when Ethan was little he'd have home-cooked meals every single day, but as he's got older I've relaxed a bit more. He loves his fruit and is pretty good with veg, and i do cook things from scratch at least 5 times a week. But, since Ben, Friday's is 'junk-food-Friday' where the kids have something like pizza, nuggets etc and we have a take away (although not for the next month- it will be soup and bread i think lol) and i do keep things like dippers and fish fingers in the freezer 'just in case'. I don't buy chips or waffles etc. The way i look at it is it's just as quick to bung a potato in the microwave or boil some pasta as it is cook chips in the oven. Ethan doesn't really like chips, and his favourite meal is macaroni cheese (home cooked, not out a tin!) and Eryn will eat pasta till it comes out her ears (and she doesn't really like potato!) Ethan used to eat things like lentils and cous cous and rice when he was little, but wont now, but Eryn loves rice and cous cous lol. Eryn, much to my dismay, was a madame with her food- and even now she wont eat anything (except weetabix) off a spoon!! so she never had purees, and just finger-fed herself. I really didn't want to do the baby-led weaning, but that's what it ended up being! lol.... but she eats pretty much anything, except potato's, and as long as it's not on a spoon.... weird baby! lol....

Right, i've rambled on again, so i'll leave it there, have fun everyone xx

the sun's back woooooooo!!!

2010-09-22T13:46:00.002+01:00

hiya!

how nice has this weather been!!! its like summers back i LOVE it!!
i feel like my mum sometimes though, as soon as the sun is out i do loads of washing haha! think every mum is the same!

we've had a good week so far, the boys party was lots of fun on saturday! kids loved it, would def recommend hiring krazy kaves to everyone, so easy!!
we went to my parents after cause it was my brothers birthday, loads of family and all our friends were there, it was bril!! my mum and dads house is a total party house. everyones always really welcome and people always comment on how 'hip' my parents are pmsl!!

sunday we went for lunch at my sisters house everyone went again and watched the football BOOOOORING, couldnt agree more with Becki, it is just a game hahaha!!

this week so far we've just caught up on house work and played in the garden. i cut the grass today for the first time ever - quite proud of myself HA HA HA!! poor finley had a nasty experience with 2 spiders though, dont think he'll be going in the garden for a while haha!!
first time i think he walked through a cob web, i turned round to his almighty scream and this MASSIVE spider running up his arm! he quickly calmed down from that one but then an hour or so later he got into his car in the garden and again he let out a huge cry and scream then shouted spider at the top of his voice when i got to him it was running up and down his back poor sausage!!! he was so freaked out, he was shaking and everything!! hes fell asleep now, so i have peace for an hour or so!!

on to the topic, my kids are really fussy!! i dont no why they have turned out like that cause when i was weaning all they ate was fresh veg chicken fruit the usual you make for them, cause finley was such a big baby i was really worried about the food he had, he never had crisps or choc - well thats gone out of the window now cause he cries when taylor has it so its not really fair, taylor never had crisps, juice or sweets till after he was 2 i've done things completely different with these 2!!! neither of them eat an awful lot, their fav is spag bol or mince and mash! they do eat veg and fruit, not with every dinner but they always have some during the day, grapes/bananas/water melon/tomatoes!! when i make proper dinners i always have at least one veg with it, taylor will only eat broccoli and carrots recently hes started eating sweet corn and peas again. its a big effort to get them to eat most of the time so we make sure they have something we no they're going to eat!!! the do have pizza and chicken fingers/dippers and waffles like most kids!

gonna crack on with some more washing now! see you all next week :-)

Its only a game...!!!

2010-09-21T12:16:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone,Well this week has been an expensive one.Its just under 2 weeks untill my mums wedding,so i had to find both Skye and myself a pair of silver shoes each.Aswell as a suit for Jaydon which has been a nightmare,he has the waist of a 4yr old and the height of a 9yr old.So trying to find trousers is ARRRGGHHHH!! They are either to short or so big around the waist that even a belt doesnt help,so the hunt continues.
On top of that expense there is the hen night on friday,but im really looking forward to that :) I cant remember the last time i went out.
Sunday Skye had a birthday party,the parents were full of praise,telling Mr B what a wonderfull little girl she is and so helpfull.She had a lovely time.Mr B not so much as he had to miss the football to take and collect her.. It was too far for me to walk.He wasn't to impressed with my "Its only a game" comment lol.He sulked the rest of the day!! ( Guess its my own fault for marrying a die hard Man united fan)Infact a die hard sports fan in general as the wedding falls on the weekend of the Ryder cup( a 3 day golf thing) so you can imagine he isn't impressed,and will no doubt be moody all day.I'm not painting a very good picture of my husband am i?Hehe.

I thought feeding the family and healthy eating would be a good topic for the week as im sure we all struggle at some point to get the kids to eat something healthy.With many working mums out there and hectic lives running around after the kids its not always easy to cook a well balanced meal that the whole family will eat.There has been times ive cooked 2 or 3 different evening meals to fit around all our likes and dislikes.
I mentioned last week about my passion for cooking so i don't mind so much but it can be costly.
My 2 arnt to bad with fruit and veg theres a few they don't like but plenty that they do like so i don't bother them with there dislikes.Jaydon loves cauliflower but skye doesn't so he will have her cauliflower and she will have his broccoli as she loves it but he doesnt.
As im a SAHM im lucky enough to have the time to cook and experiment with different dishes,some good some not so good lol. Last year i made a sausage casserole,Mr and me didnt like it but the kids loved it.When given the option to choose what they want for dinner its normally top of the list,Contains 5 veg too. Onions,mushrooms,carrots,swede and red peppers.
Altho i dont think its always about timing,the best thing i ever brought was a slow cooker.I normally use it to make stews,casseroles, pot roasts etc so 1st thing in the morning or last thing at night i bung in all the ingredients,put it on low and forget about it for 8-10 hours.
A couple of nights a week we like to have a simple dinner,the kids get to pick something from the freezer normally fish fingers or dippers.If Mr B is here then i'll do us something with pasta,or if its just me then i'll make do.(Or sometimes order a sneeky kebab or pizza)hehe!!
I dont think its bad for children to eat the likes of fish fingers,dippers,waffles etc sometimes because these days they are forever being improved..Less salt,less saturated fats,100% chicken breast and added omega 3 to fish fingers etc.
The kids used to eat from the freezer alot and i would just cook homemade meals for Mr and me.But when skye started paying an interest in eatting any left over spag bol or stew for her lunch the next day that i started giving them more of what we were eatting.
Jaydon has hot dinners at school so its good to know he has had 1 good meal a day for when we decide to have a not so healthy KFC on a friday evening followed by a big slice of chocolate cheese cake :)

Thats it from me for the week..Have a good one xx

Yes, yes, yes I'm a terrible mother!

2010-09-20T11:57:00.003+01:00

It feels like it been the longest week EVER! Don't really know why though... Maybe because I've just been so super busy (isn't that supposed to make time go faster?) or maybe because I've been working super hard to get the new Mummytube channel up and running. Thats a working title by the way, I am not going to go ahead and give it a number seeing as it's been such a nightmare getting seven people to write a blog every week, but luckily all my 'vloggers' seem pretty enthusiastic so fingers crossed. I'm trying not to get too excited about the whole thing but I have been having fun in the meantime posting vids to my personal channel and chatting to the other mums I have enlisted. Its shaping up to be a pretty international group with three Aussie mums, a US and New Zealand mum and of course me holding up the Brit fortress all by myself. Oooer.

So as I said it's been all systems go this past week. I had a much more successful week of school runs - on time every day, no broken shoes. Tuesday morning I saw my health visitor for the first time since Lucie was about 7 weeks old :O. Almost everyone I know who has more than one child say they dont attend baby clinic nearly as much as they did with their previous child/children. We discussed weaning (I'm planning on going with the baby-led method and waiting until 6 months to start) and Lucie was weighed, she is nearly 14lbs now so almost double her birth weight and has gone from the 9th to the 25th centile which both myself and Letitia (HV) are very pleased with.

I'm going to go back to my goings-on in a minute as while I'm kind of on the subject I wanted to talk about this weeks topic and its all about food (one of my favourite subjects). Now sorry to dissapoint anyone who just read that and thought 'yay we're going to be talking about doughnuts all week!' but the theme is healthy eating for our families and I'm really glad Becki chose it actually as, as I said I am fast approaching the weaning stage and really need to start thinking about what kinds of foods I'm going to be giving my little lovebug. So the questions she asked are (copied and pasted from her original message!) Do you make home cooked balanced meals every evening? Make sure your little ones have there 5 a day? or give in to
chicken nuggets and chips for dinner?

Well I'm not going to lie, we could and in fact should feed the kids better. They have their fruit daily, apples, bananas, grapes etc but most of their evening meals do consist of things like chicken nuggets, fish fingers, potato waffles, beans etc and it's not because they wont eat healthy foods, Courtney especially in fact is quite the opposite, I've seen her devour handfuls of sprouts when we've been to my mums for a roast dinner before. Brett on the other hand is a little more fussy but he likes carrots (they have to be done a certain way though, and I'm not quite sure how that is...) apples, bananas, grapes and strangely, pineapple. There are a few reasons why we dont have things like roast dinners, shepherds pie, stews or any kind of home cooked meals really except the occaisional spaghetti bolognese (cooked by Stew) and the first is that I cant cook. At all. Don't get me wrong I'd love nothing more than to be able to have a nice steaming pot of beef or chicken stew ready and waiting for Stew and the kids when they get home from work or school and be a proper 1950s housewife but I just havent a damn clue where to start. I do feel really bad about this but one thing that makes it a bit easier and reason number two is that the kids have school dinners so I know they have had a main meal during the day that is healthy or at least been offered it. And number three is simply, that neither myself or Stew have the time to cook. He works six days a week, I have a right madam of a baby keeping my hands tied all day and it really is all to do some evenings just to throw a few fish fingers in the oven.

Obviously I'm facing a dilemma now as I can't (and wouldnt) feed Lucie those kinds of foods so I'm hoping I can start to incorporate the foods she will be eating into the kids meals as well. When Brett and Courtney were babies my mum and older sister used to freeze pureed portions of their home cooked meals for them but as I'm hoping to skip the purees this time with any luck it will be easier to merge meals. Then its just going to be a case of working out how to cook all these vegetables and potatoes. I know I must sound really dense and like a terrible mother but my kids don't have sweets and crisps every day, they dont have fizzy drinks and they have plenty of milk, cheese and yogurt in their diet so its not all bad. Theres just alot of room for improvement.

So briefly back to the past week as I've wittered on a bit there. I had my first Netmums meetup as Southsea chairmum on Saturday - it did not go well, not one person turned up even though I had alot of interest, but on the plus side as I was sitting there on my todd with the baby, older two in the play area I noticed a child I recognised walking past who turned out to be my nephew Ronnie, closely followed by his siblings Leia and Harrison and my big Brother Graeme (their dad) and sister in law Corrina so we ended up joining them for a spot to eat which was lovely as I'd not seen them for ages and its always nice for the kids to see their cousins. Then later that night we went to Taylors birthday party which was good fun. Needless to say the kids slept well that night!

Yesterday we went bowling again. And I came last again. I'm really, really bad!

So until next week, love to all :) xxx

Oh and I almost forgot welcome to our new mummies!

Have a great week! x,

Hello - it's Sunday!

2010-09-19T09:17:00.000+01:00

Its 8:40 in the morning and I am having an argument with my 3 ½ year old which sounds like a teenager rant about how she is not going to put her knickers on, we now have the tears and the flinging around and the weeping this I don’t mind so much it’s just the whining and shrieking at high pitch. I’d like to think I am winning. This hasn’t helped me this morning either as I have woken up from hardly sleeping a wink after watching about 30mins of Zombieland sorry Woody, I think you’re a great actor but I get scared so easily and had to switch off, paid the price and had a very disturbed nights sleep and work up with either stomach bug or suffering from dodgy prawn in my Chinese meal, all this before 9am on a Sunday must sound familiar to many of you too!

Anyway I should like to start my first blog with 7yummymummies by saying a big thanks to the ladies for letting me join in their blog and introduce myself .... my name is Mummyrella and I am soon to be 39, redundant and have a non stop house full of mayhem and madness as can see from above. We have two beautiful children our daughter who is 3 ½ [going on 13!] and our son who is 2 ½ [going on 59!] 2 cats [one who is neurotic and talks to me, the other one rules the house!] and one dog Poppy dog our border terrier who is just about surviving in the madness.

This year has been a major life changing experience for us [my husband and I] as we are currently going through the process of adopting our two and whilst everyday is a new experience for us it has been an eye opening experience for the past 3 years from the moment of making our decision to adopt to getting us to this day and still having to await for legal proceedings. But like all of you reading this our life with two toddlers must be just the same. We have climbed some huge mountains to get where we are today and there will no doubt be many more to climb in the future days, weeks, months and years!

So this week, let me see a fairly average week to start with, however has got slightly more stressful as the week went on, you see I’m not very good with medical things as I have been known to faint at the opticians [I just get very nervous – always have been] but daughter was due for her 2^nd set of immunisations and bless her she was so so good, I decided not to tell her until we got to the surgery and It had helped I think because earlier that morning we had to take our Poppy dog to the vets for her booster and we had all gone in together. When we got to the doctors my daughter had asked was “mummy unwell” and I said no the nurse is going to give her some medicine a bit like Poppy Dog got this morning, “oh” she said “a needle” and went a little quiet and so I whipped out my bribe a Chocolate Hellokitty lollypop and the promise of McDonalds for lunch straight after, this she was very happy about but worried that her brother wouldn’t be coming as I managed to get him in nursery for a couple of hours so had one-2-one with her. She was so brave and by the end lots of hugs and more hugs and two plasters one for each arm we kind of carried ourselves out of the surgery as I had gained a huge stress headache from the guilt of taking her and should I have told her beforehand, but it was over and whilst the pain from the event itself was still there in her little arms, I hope that I hadn’t scarred her from going to the doctors in future.

If anyone has Digital TV did anyone watch Discovery HD – Extreme Bodies on Dwarfism, I am in great awe at how people cope with their disabilities but when it went on to explain about bone extensions and showing the operation, that was enough for me as I explained above - not very good with medical stuff, so had to turn over, but the little girl who was a ¼ size of a normal 13 year old touched my heart and went out to her family.

Saturday night we held a farewell / good luck party for our friend G who is going to University, I let the kids stay up a little later and we had Chinese and a cake with sparkly candles on them. We wish G the very best of luck and I thank her for being a great help to me in the past 12 months, the kids adore you and we look forward to seeing you very very soon x

My son is a little super star and at only 2 ½ his bestest sentences this week have been

“ooooo mummy a big boys cup, am I a big boy now”

5:45am Thursday [through the monitor] “mummy I don’t want to wear a party hat!”

“look mummy, look at my hair bunchies!!!”

Hopelessly trying to potty/toilet train him but not pushing him, I find that as they are so close in age 355 days apart! They are both trying to do the same things at the same time a bit like having twins, I do see differences as my daughter is more aware of right and wrong and my son is just a little charmer with his long long eyelashes [what is it with boys with long lashes].

Signing off for now – hope you have enjoyed my week if you want to follow me further click to http://thoughtsfromavillage.blogspot.com/ hope to see you next Sunday!

Have a good week all x

5am Is Not a Nice to Time to Be Up

2010-09-18T11:01:00.001+01:00

I'm not used to this early morning rising lark. Freyja has been sleeping through the night for so long, that the early morning days have been long gone. Until this morning, when, after a 7 hour shift at work (finishing at 2am) I had to get up again, at 5am, to take my gorgeous fiancé and my precious Freyja to the airport. They are off to France for 4 days today, without me *sob* - in fact they are there by now, so I'm hoping Freyja was the lovely well behaved toddler she can be, rather than the not-so-well-behaved part-demon she chooses to be on several occasions.

Anyway, my week has been fairly uneventful - other than having visits from a couple of bunches of friends during the week, I've been taking advantage of the dry weather and getting my mountain of washing done. I didn't realise we had this much stuff! I worked Friday night/Saturday night/Sunday night last week - which is nice when you see the pay packet roll in, but knackering at the time. I love working there though, so I can't complain, and it seems as though the boss' are happy with me being back working for them. Worked again last night, which was crazy-busy - we had an offer night, where rum was 99p, so you can imagine the amount of people we got through the door. Today, I'm working again - this time it's Southsea Fest, an annual charity music festival that goes on in various venues around Southsea - the Deco being one of them this year. We're hosting some of the alternative/metal bands, so I'm going down a bit earlier than my shift starts to watch some of them before I start having to run around like an idiot. I've got nothing better to do with my day, so I may as well!

It's weird not having James & Freyja here - I'm at a bit of a loose end. Today isn't so bad, because I have stuff to do, but Sunday to Tuesday, I have no plans at all - if I don't make any, this house is going to spring-cleaned to the max - James isn't going to know what's hit him when he comes home!!

Anyway, time to continue drinking my naff cup of tea - we have no milk, so I'm using skimmed milk powder. Ack. Then I think I'm going to pop into town for a bit, then head to work. Have a lovely week ladies xx

The long journey (or a short bus ride) to growing up

2010-09-16T14:08:00.005+01:00

Hi - I'm Jayne. I live in the West Midlands with two children (11 and 8), two guinea pigs and one husband. Life can be hectic and there are plenty of ups and downs, some of which will make it onto this blog ...

September has been a month of change in Howarth Towers. I don’t mind change, usually, but this time I have been a bit wobbly.

The reason is very simple: P (my 11-year-old daughter) has gone to secondary school.

She looks very grown-up in her smart uniform (five bars on the tie – or else, apparently) and is keen to establish herself as an independent young lady.

Except for one thing. She won’t walk the just-over-one-mile trip to school by herself.

This has required very careful manoeuvring. I’ve acknowledged how the move from primary school to secondary is a huge one.

We’ve talked through the 15-minute route: one straight, main road with two small side road crossings and how safe it is. I pointed out the ponies in the field she can talk to ("hello Mr and Mrs Pony and foal!" I wittered, as she looked witheringly at me).

I’ve walked part of the way there with her (five minutes) and watched her disappear down the road, with her huge bag – and seemingly the world – on her shoulders.

But to no avail. She says she doesn’t feel safe.

Bang! She got me with a killer comment. It ripped my heart to shreds because it made me feel that I was forcing her into a dangerous situation.

But I have refused to relent – I will not take her to school in the car. I nearly wobbled, but no. I stood firm. Ish.

The problem is that her friends are being driven. That’s their parents’ choice and I am not criticising them for it. But I will not, unless there are exceptional circumstances, drive her to school.

She assures me that nothing has happened en-route that has frightened her; no one has approached her or bullied her.

So, I’ve compromised. She must take the bus, even though it is a ridiculously short journey.

It means leaving the house earlier than if she were walking and it obviously costs more, but she is happier.

This week, I and her younger brother have accompanied her to the bus stop (how I managed to drag him away from his DS is a miracle) and waited for it to arrive. Next week, she is doing it by herself. I want to see this independent young lady emerge from her infant cocoon.

I hope she comes to realise that my refusal to take her in the car is not an act of cruelty or the actions of an uncaring mother. I want her to fly; I don’t want to clip her wings.

Only time will tell if my decision has been the right one. I have my fingers crossed.

argh last week as sahm!!!! :(

2010-09-16T12:01:00.003+01:00

Hi ladies,
hope you are all well. Im gonna try and keep it short and sweet this week! (first time for everything and all that lol)

Last weekend was lovely, except Et got punched in the face by some kid at krazy kaves.... although my boy hit him straight back :D i was very proud!! Sunday we went to Staunton country park and Eryn LOVED seeing the animals :) cows go mmmmmmmmmmmmm apparently- so cute :D
Monday she had her first settling in session at nursery. it went really well and she had a fab time showing off talking all the time, shes got another one this afternoon, and im actually leaving her there today- which im dreading! she'll be fine, but im not sure i will be! :'( I cant believe im starting uni on monday!! im absolutely s***ting myself- and i really, really, really dont want to leave Eryn..... but i chose to go so i'd best just get on with it i suppose!
Tuesday and this morning we went to baby groups, it was really nice to catch up with people and there little ones, its amazing how much the kids have changed when i've been 'out of the loop' for just the summer hols. I really hoping i'll be able to keep up going to some of the groups while studying tho!
Other than that we've not been up to much else really. We're going up to Ben's mums for the weekend. He's gonna take Josh and Harry (Ethan is at his dads) to the football while Eryn and i go 'uni clothes' shopping.... hmmmmm, i can see this becoming a regular pattern in the years to come! lol..... might even get my nails done ;)
oh oh oh, bit of exciting news..... Ben is moving in! (properly) on sunday! hehehe cant wait :D..... Life's good ;D
right, i've actually managed to keep it short and sweet :) till next week..... xx

... try again!!

2010-09-15T20:32:00.000+01:00

aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh i just wrote a reeeeeeally long post and it disappeared! so annoying!!

well anyway hi!!

we've had a great week so far!

the weekend we had a lazy one, again! didnt do anything apart from Taylors friends party saturday night!!!

monday i went shopping and got the kids some new clothes! i could spend a fortune, there's so much nice stuff out and i want it all lol!! i have turned into a shopaholic.
tuesday was my big boys birthday! cant believe he's 6 already! crazy how time flies!
he had a bril day! he was so excited when i put him to bed i thought his head was going to pop off! he woke up in the middle of the night and then got up stupidly early, him and finley had breakfast in bed, then got ready for school (i'm mean and made him get dressed before pressies lol) we spent the next hour opening presents, which funnily enough finley was really interested in and wripped loads open (last week on his birthday he wasnt interested at all) Taylor was so greatful for everything which was really nice to see my hard work shopping since july had paid off haha!! we dropped him off at school, he wasnt best pleased about that but when we picked him up he was in a really happy mood (very unusual for Taylor!!)
we came home got changed and headed straight to playzone! which annoyingly shut at half 4, so they had half an hour play then off to my mums for dinner, more presents and of course cake!!!
we left there about 8 and i felt so ill i went straight to bed! the kids went to bed with a film and phil had thought they were both asleep but when he came to bed at half 11 Taylor was still awake watching his film - he'd turned his tele back on! cheeky monkey!!
when i got him up this morning he was a mess! sooo tired! i've kept him off karate tonight so he could go to bed early and be refreshed tomorrow, he was in such a foul mood!

tonight i have put him to bed with no pull up!! i need some help here... he is now 6 and still having a very full pull up every single day! i'm so frustrated cause we have litrally tried everything. he sleeps so deaply when we try and wake him when we go to the loo he doesnt wake up! i don't no whether to make a docs app just to have a chat or 'leave him be' like these websites i've just googled say. i told him 6 year olds aren't allowed to wear pull ups which i now feel slightly bad for cause the sites say not to pressure them or make them feel guilty in anyway!! and that they just grow out of it, but to me 6 year old shouldnt be wet every day! i don't no what to do!!! someone HELP!!!!!!!!!

today i havent done an awful lot, i think i have the flu so i'm feeling pretty rotten!! i managed to do my food shop with a very moany Finley whos decided he doesnt like sitting nicely in a trolly anymore and wants everything thats in sight!!!!

the rest of the week is going to be quite manic - apart from tomorrow which i'm going to spend cleaning, fun!!
friday we have a child free night so are going to go for a curry at bombay bay (if you've never been go its lush) then saturday the boys cakes are being delivered ready for their party saturday night! i cant wait, just hope people turn up hahaha!! my borhters home from france and phils family are down so it will be a big party weekend i cannot wait! monday we are having a big family portrait done. theres going to be 10 adults and then the boys so i'm looking forward to that!!

for the 2nd time tonight i'm going to go and try and sleep before my soggy child wakes me up haha! the one thing i'm worried about is they sleep in bunk beds and if taylor has a huge wee it'll go onto Fin's oops lol!!

anyway wish me luck! see u all next week :-) xxxxx

Short and sweet but with a Thanks...x

2010-09-14T17:36:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone..
Sorry i didnt realise it was my topic this week untill i read liz's post yesterday,so i'll have a think ready for next week.
This week has been pretty dull,getting back into early mornings/school runs etc.Skye is in nursery every morning now.Which is great but makes it difficult to do much with my day,as i drop Jaydon to school for 8.50 then Skye to nursery for 9.00 and back to collect her for 12.So i cant really go to far out of the area as i dont drive, then need to collect Jaydon at 3.20.
Im really struggling with his behaviour lately, He's always been hard work but has got worse since the summer hols..Refuses to do as he's told,bullies Skye and geuninly thinks he can do what he wants when he wants.Im just waiting now for the gray hairs to show!!
Im rather pleased we addressed the issue of mental health as our topic last week,(so thank you too liz)i spoke about my problems with anxiety and panic attacks.So on friday i braved it and went to see my GP about it.I had never dreamed off telling anyone about it untill now..He was lovely and really sympatheic..He gave me some relaxent tablets i can take when i feel i have a day that may trigger my anxiety,which are non addictive too as that was my biggest worry about prescription meds..so far so good!!
Saturday we chilled at mr B's like we do most saturdays,its bliss because its like im the visitor so i dont have to worry about running the household(altho i do help out) And do all the cooking,i really love cooking and become the nagging wife if he doesnt cook or prepare something my way.So he is more then happy to leave me to it in my happy place-the kitchen lol.The washing up is another matter,he is welcome to that!!
Sunday my dad had the kids for the afternoon.My dad and i dont speak(long story) but i would never stop the children from seeing him and its worked out well for me as he has them for a sunday afternoon once a month,which he never did before. So Mr B and i went out for a drink and then did my food shop in peace :)

Sorry my post is later in the day then normal,Skye has been full of cold today and not left me alone for a min to focus.
Have a good one guys xx

Just Blog It!

2010-09-13T16:20:00.003+01:00

I'd like to start this week off by saying a massive thank you to the ladies who shared their mental health stories last week, I really wasnt sure how that whole topic would go down so its much appreciated!! I've just realised it was supposed to be Becki's topic this week but I forgot to ask her if she had any ideas as the weekend just flew by so I think I'll just give you all a break this week and we'll just blog and Becki can take over again next week!

I've had a pretty busy week, as I said last Monday the kids are back at school so its been back to early mornings! To be honest, as much as I dislike having to get up so early it actually makes life a bit easier as once I'm up and washed etc. I feel fine anyway and once I've dropped Bart and Lisa off me and little Maggie can get up to whatever as we are ready for the day. (Got to love the Simpsons reference there, I should have really named my kids after them!!) I have had a week of nightmare mornings though, Wednesday, Courtney went to put her brand new shoes on for the second day and they broke, Thursday it poured with rain and I didnt have the rain cover so Stew had to come back from work to take the kids to school as I obviously couldnt take Lucie out (its days like those I really need to be able to drive - must book lessons soon!) and every other day we were either really rushed or late. Today was much more successful though, even though I was still super tired when I got up. We were out of the house at 8.30 on the dot and when I got to the bus stop to go to town the bus was there waiting for me! I met up with Netmummy Jessica and her bootiful baby boy Billy and we grabbed a bit of brekkie in Debenhams. Yum! I also Bought Courtney some new school shoes and even got a pair for myself :).

I've also been feeling really unusual lately. I'm sure some people will disagree with this but I typed my symtoms, which include feeling dizzy and faint, nausea, abdominal cramps (NOT pregnant before anyone says!!) a stiff neck and generally feeling odd, it came up with a multitude of ailments ranging from migraine to heart attack(!!) but I concluded that it must be something called Labyrithitis which is something to do with your middle ear as it matched all of my sypmtoms and it also said that its common after a cold (or flu), which I had had recently. It basically said (that if it is indeed that) it would just clear up on its own but as I still feel really strange I think I'm going to go to the doctors anyway just to be on the safe side. I'm sure its nothing, I am still standing afer all!

When I first started this blog I intended it to be a video blog (vlog) or to incorporate vlogs into it as well and I actually made a video at the weekend so if anyone is interested in seeing me blabbering nonsense and generally making a fool of myself you can check it out on my YouTube channel, the link to which is in the sidebar. (I apologise for the awful camera quality!) My aim now is to make a collab channel similar to this blog to run alongside it so if anyone owns a webcam and wants to take part please let me know. I am a member of the vlogging group on BMB so I'm going to ask there too so watch this space!!

I recently took on the role of Chairmum for Southsea Netmums and I have my first meetup on Saturday so I am very excited to see who (if anyone!) turns up. I have had a few people interested that dont attend the Portsmouth meetups because they have children at school so hopefully it will go well. Again, please let me know if you live in the Portsmouth and Southsea area and wish to attend :) Wish me luck!! We also have Taylor and Finleys birthday party at Krazy Kaves later that day so will be another busy weekend!

I feel inundated with birthdays at the moment, Courtney had two parties at the weekend, Brett has one on Friday and then the boys on Saturday. Luckily I love buying presents and always manage to find a bargain! Only 15 weeks until Christmas apparently (read it on someones Facebook status the other day!). I cant wait to start shopping but I'm just saving the money at the moment as I bought Courtney a couple of Disney dolls and couldnt wait for her to have them so I was naughty and gave them to her straight away! This way I can just go out and hopefully get the bulk of it done but with three children of my own, hubby, 16 nieces and nephews to buy for as well as my Mum and Dad and other miscellaneous family members to buy for its going to be quite a feat!

Well I'm sure Lucie buggle will be waking up soon as she's been asleep over two hours. Bless her she must have needed it!

Have a great week xxx

It's been a while...

2010-09-11T10:08:00.002+01:00

Wow, It's been a while since I last posted, although considering it has been almost 2 weeks, I don't think that much has gone on...

I've taken Freyja to Krazy Kaves/Fuzzy Eds/Mobys once each - I love the soft play places when it's a little quieter, so taking advantage now the kids are at school. Although, my experience of Krazy Kaves wasn't that great because a 6-year-old was in the toddler bit and threw himself into the ball pit straight on to Freyja's face. She wasn't impressed.

On Monday, we went up to Stoke to visit my um for a couple of days. James had to stay here, because of working, so I took my best mate up with us. We met up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while, and bought some new clothes/piercings while I was there. We went for lunch at the Toby Carvery I used to work at, and then came back to Portsmouth on Wednesday. The main aim of the trip was to sort out my nan's garage - it held a lot of my stuff from when mum moved, so needed to sort through bits and see what is car boot-able.

Other than that, I've not done that much really. Last weekend, I worked Friday and Saturday evening, and this weekend, I have Fri, Sat and Sun evenings. Last night was hectic, which is great but I had a killer headache to tackle as well. Got home at 2am. Needless to say, I was zonked and have only just got up!!

On to this weeks topic of depression etc. I@ve never suffered from it really, but I remember when I first had Freyja I had a bit of the baby blues. I remember doing one of them tests and I was only a mark or 2 off depression. I would cry all the time, I would think I was a bad mother - I just didn't know what I was doing. I would be on the phone to mum all the time crying, and all I had was a helpless little baby needing me. Eventually, the baby blues went away, I bonded completely with my daughter, and everything has been perfect.

Right, I'm in need of a brew and some jam on toast. We are going to visit the in-laws today so I should get a move on. Hope you all have a lovely week xxx

life is getting back to normal!!

2010-09-08T13:18:00.002+01:00

hello everyone!!!

well life has started going back to normal! day to day routine is slowly getting back on track and school is back :-( i am so sad Taylor's back at school!!! i cant get used to it! he loved his first day thank god, for the last 2 weeks of summer he moaned about not wanting to go back and worrying his little pants off BUT he has enjoyed it!! Finley keeps getting upset when we drop him off think he's abit lost without his big bro around!!

it was Finley's 2nd birthday Monday, he had a lovely time. wasn't at all interested in presents but loved all the sweets he was allowed!!! Taylor opened pretty much every present he had and got really excited by it but Finley just wasn't bothered! think it was all a little bit overwhelming for him! he kept singing happy birthday to himself which was quite cute!!

we finally got our house sorted and love my new living room! the middle rooms been turned into a dining room/ toy room so the kids are happy and its nice having a room that is toy free!!! never had that so its been nice!!

Liz said about PND and depression on Monday, that's something i have no idea about, i didn't really get the baby blues after either of the boys, i remember being in the bath once and crying cause i was so tired but that's as far as it went! hopefully ill go through life being the same!

have to go now i'm looking after a friends little girl this afternoon and she is bringing Taylor home!!

:-) x

one of those weeks

2010-09-08T12:08:00.011+01:00

Hi ladies,

Hope you're all well and having a good week! Mine has been, well, one of those! :S
Last Friday my cousins and our tribe of kids went up to Queen Elizabeth Country Park for the day. It was a lovely day, although the idea to actually go for a walk was quickly forgotten and we ended up just sitting in the same spot for 5 hours!!! but the kids were off playing together happily and it was a really nice end to the holidays :D. Friday night Et went to his dad's for the weekend, and Ben was on-call (and had loads of call outs) so the boys didn't come and stay so it was eeriely quiet at my house! Saturday morning Ben was called out at 7.20am..... seriously, who uses a bloody lift at that time in the morning!?!?! and that was the last i saw of him all day because damn people kept breaking lifts! grrrr lol.... so me and the baby desended on my mum's house for the day. I wanted my hair dyed in preperation for the wedding reception i was going to on Saturday night, and dying my own hair just leads to me getting very stressed and covered in dye, so i insisted my mum done it for me- which she did.... we also tried curling my hair, but, well, it was a disaster so we soon gave up. My mum, step-dad and brother were looking after Eryn Saturday night at my house while Ben and i went to the wedding reception. We had a fabulous time!! :D My friend Julie who got married looked AMAZING and it was such a great night :D However, Sunday, i was proper, proper ill!!!! I didnt get dress all day and I swore to myself i'm not drinling that much again!!! I did however catch up on loads of crap tv i'd recorded lol.
Ethan came home on Sunday night and started crying when i put him to bed. He was soooo upset because his best friend has changed schools and he was worried that he wouldnt have any one to play with on Monday. I felt sooooooo sorry for him, it makes my heart ache when he is so upset over something i cant do anything about. I was dreading Monday morning, but he was actually full of beans and went off to school without any problems, i'm so proud of him! He came home Monday saying the year 2 is exactly the same as year 1 and he has one level of reading books to complete, then he's up to junior school level and can read any book in the school :D im soooo proud!!!!!!! Also on Monday I finally got my timetable for university! I paniced at first, but i'm now thinking that it could have been worse.... so i've started on a mission to find childcare for my darlings. I'm viewing a nursery for Eryn today and meeting a childminder for Ethan tomorrow, so wish me luck! I also found out that i won't be getting half terms off, with is a right pain because now Ethan will need childcare for them too :( but i'll have to deal with that when it happens i suppose.
Tuesday I went to see my friend who i haven't seen for months (i really am crap at seeing people!) so we had a good catch up. And in the afternoon my cousin popped over with her eldest. He's 12 and he's taller than me now!!!!!! and i'm near-on 5ft 9in!!! i felt very old and very small! lol
2am Wednesday morning Eryn started crying, i didnt think much of it but 10mins later she was still going, so i kicked Ben out of bed to see to her (she cries more when i go in there! lol) She'd been sick and done the most explosive poo ever, it'd leaked through her nappy, sleepsuit, sleeping bag and on to her cot sheets and she was really really upset. We ended up bathing her because i just couldnt get her clean. There was sick in her hair, all over her beloved 'cat' and everywhere else. It was vile..... bless her, all she wanted was a cuddle but she stank to high-heaven! Her crying woke Et up, who scared me to death by appearing on the stairs as i was getting her out the bath (damn downstairs bathrooms!) and then she was pretty much awake all night after that. She spent half the time on me, the other half on Ben, but she was sooooo fidgety neither of us slept properly after that. I got up at 8 and sorted Ethan out for school while Ben dressed her, and she promptly feel straight back to sleep in my bed. Which is pretty much where she stayed all day. She woke up and had some water, went back to sleep, threw up the water, i changed her, she went back to sleep and that was pretty much it :( bless her heart. She only spent about an hour awake during the whole day.
Ethan had his first proper swimming lesson and had a fab time. He was a bit disappointed my dad wasnt there though- funny since 6wks ago he couldnt stand my dad! lol
Thankfully Eryn is back to normal this morning! Grumpy, but she's eaten and kept it down :D
This weeks topic is one very close to my heart. Having spent a lot of my life battling with depression i feel it really is important for people to talk about it, and Liz is right, people do think it's a 'taboo' but it really shouldn't be...... lol, one of the reasons i wanted to study psychology was because i thought it might help me work myself out! lol.
My buliema started when i was 11, because i was fat. plain and simple. My mum was 5 months pregnant when she married my step-dad, and i was fatter than her in the wedding pics. That's what started it all anyway. I went through bouts of it for years, and, i really dont know how, because i wasnt trying to make a secret of it, but no-one noticed. After a couple of years it stopped being about weight, and more to do with things in my life. When i felt things were out of control, i'd eat and be sick- because i could control that.... for instance, i had to leave home at 17 (for reasons beyond my control) and i had 'an episode'(lasting a couple of months) then. When my marriage broke down, and when i was desperately trying to get a divorce that took what seemed like forever, i had 'recurring episodes' ( i'd be ok for a week and then it would start again, repeatedly, for the duration of my divorce lol)
But the bit that got me most was after i had the ectopic, followed closely by the miscarriage. I truly was at rock bottom, and i really didnt know what to do. i wasnt eating so that i wouldnt make myself sick, and when i was eating i was sick, i was suicidal, and just basically couldn't function. My family and friends knew i was depressed, and had always know that i'd suffered bouts of depression, but no-one knew what was really going on. I'd been trying to be so strong, but i just couldnt do it any more. Et used to ask me why i was always crying, and i wasnt coping with anything. It was just awful. And i felt soooooo incredibly guilty because it was affecting Ethan too. So i went to the doc and got some anti-depressants, but unfortunately they made me worse. I was displaying signs of bipolar (and this had previously been mentioned years before) and i was scared stiff. So my anti-depressants were changed and slowly, very slowly, things picked up. I went to see a counsellor about 'my demons', and a psychologist about the buliema, and although i only attended a few sessions with each, they made a real difference. I was still making myself sick occassionally when i fell pregnant with Eryn, but as soon as i found out i was carrying her i stopped. And it's not started again since :D (go me! lol) I was soooo sick when i was carrying her, and i still have random days of sickness now and i have to convince people it's not due to pregnancy or buliema! my mum reckons i've done myself some sort of irrepuble damage lol.
On the subject of baby blues i didnt suffer at all with either of the kids, but i look back now and feel the first 6 months with Eryn passed in a complete blur, and i was probably on the boarderline of depression. Not to do with PND but just the other things in my life (and lack of them) Once she got to about 5 months i realised that i had to do something about it before things got any worse, and started attending baby groups and i've met some really lovely people, and that's helped get me back on track. And if i'm honest, i'm happier now than i can ever remember being before, so something has gotta be right ;) xx I've also learnt that some things just don't matter. I used to get myself worked up about soooo many silly things, but now, i know my kids are happy and i'm happy and that's all that really matters.

Again, i've written loads!!!!! sorry!!!! i'll try and keep it short and sweet next week! lol, hope everyone is well x Nolly xx

Like father like daughter...

2010-09-06T16:14:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone..

Liz said on saturday about you know your a blogger when you find yourself wanting to make notes,or in my case needing to write in my diary what ive done daily and comments i want to make on our topics..Mainly because i had spent an hour a few weeks back trying to remember what i had been upto the previous week.My memory is getting worse with age lol.

Im not sure if anyone remembers but a month ago i adoped a 3rd cat who after 3 days escaped out of a window and there was no sight of him untill wednesday that was.Someone had found him and took him to the local vet.So off i went to collect him,i was unsure what to do with him,if he run off again it wouldnt be fair for the children who had already became attached to him .His previous owner has changed there number so i cant even send him home. Luckly so far he's been going out and coming back so far so good,and he seems to have taken a liking to Jaydon and sleeps with him at night which Jaydon loves.
Thurs we had to wait in for the day as i had someone coming from the warm front team to see if im elegable for loft instalaion-which i am :)
Friday was a lovely day we went to my mums in petersfield,my auntie who lives in London was down with her 3 children for a few days so they came over too.Mum has a hottub in her garden and the weather was so hot so all the kids had great fun having a splash about while we chatted and sunned ourselves.We dont get to see mum and her partner paul that offen so when he came home they offered for us to stay over and get a mac d's for the kids and a curry for us..it was a lovely evening but i did end up rather drunk hehe!!
Saturday we went down town to get a few last min uniform bits but couldnt find anything apart from trousers for Jaydon so gave up and went back to Mr B's.
Sunday we went to asda to try and get the rest but again had nothing in Jaydons size.Mr B is the worst person to go shopping with,he just stands around huffing and puffing it drives me nuts.We went to materlan(that went down well-NOT) Thankfully they had what we needed but then Skye chose to start screaming and crying because she didnt want to wear her wrist strap or hold hands,she layed down in the middle of the car park and just screamed...Between Mr B being moody and Skye kicking off,i got back in the car and just wanted to cry.I managed to stop myself and then the rest of the day didnt turn out to bad after a couple of glasses of wine ;)
Yesterday was Jaydons 1st day at junior school and Skyes 1st morning back at preschool so it was lush to have a couple of hours me time!!

Liz wrote yesterday about mental health issues and her own struggles with them,i was lucky enough that i didnt suffer with PND or baby blues when having either of mine.Altho i did go through a belt of depression for a few months before i fell pregnant with Skye.We were having marriage problems, and i found myself in doors day in day out,hardly getting dressed unless i needed to go to the shop and that was a struggle in its self,and rarely doing the housework.My mum who had battled with depression for years dragged me to the doctors where i was given Anti depressents.I refused to take them... 1,because i saw my mums struggle to stop them after 10 years of being on them, and 2, i really didnt beleive i was depressed..It hasnt been untill this last year that i realise now how depressed i really was.I just couldnt or maybe refused to beleive it at the time. 4 days after that trip to the doctors i found out i was pregnant with Skye,not only was i thankfull i didnt start taking the tablets but focusing on my pregnancy was what pulled me out of the depression.
Altho i do suffer with anxiety.I struggle to be in a situation i cant get out of without looking stupid or letting someone down.Like a school show or a long que in the supermarket.The only thing that stops it is haveing a couple of drinks before...And if i had a couple of drinks everytime i had to face a situation that makes me anxious or have a panic attack i would be an alcoholic lol!!

Well i best crack on,ive a mountain of clean washing to put away.Have a good week guys x

Highlighting an important issue

2010-09-06T12:08:00.003+01:00

Hey ladies its Monday. I put a post on our Facebook page this morning, just a general wonderment of who is following our blog as we now have close to 100 'likes'. The link is in the sidebar so please pop over there and give us your feedback!!

As you can probably tell by my shiny new bagde (also - sidebar!) I have recently become a member of the British Mummy Bloggers (BMB) which is basically what the name says it is and its great to read other blog posts and share ideas etc. Hannah is also a member. So I was browsing through some blog entries the other day and came across one in particular that touched on what I think is a very important subject matter, mental illness. I'll put a link to it in the sidebar and I urge you all to go and have a read as some of the stories are really eye opening. I think most if not all mums at some point have experienced at the very least, the 'baby blues' or at the most, post or pre-natal depression or even pueperal psycosis in the more extreme cases. It also hits very close to home with me as I have suffered with depression on and off for pretty much most of my life and had issues with self-harm and being suicidal as well as mild alcoholism. Its also still a very taboo subject, but one that I feel needs to be addressed especially as alot of mums feel they need to just 'snap out of it' or 'get on with it' or are even told this by narrow-minded people. But 'mental health' as a whole is a very broad spectrum and I would really appreciate my fellow 7yummymummies sharing or discussing any experiences they have had with any aspects of mental illness this week, whewther it be themselves personally or someone they know.

Looking back, I think I probably had post-natal depression (or just very extreme baby blues!)with Brett but didnt really realise at the time. When I had my 8 week check and had to fill in that survey the health visitor gives you to determine whether you're depressed or not I remember saying to the health visitor that my anwers would probably have been different if I had filled it in a couple of weeks prior. I think by that point things were starting to get a bit easier but I'd had times before when Stew would be at work or football and Brett would be crying and I would be crying because feeding him was so painful and I couldnt get him to settle or go to sleep. I hated him sometimes and it was such a releif when Stew got home or we went to my mums and I could hand him over and get some peace. My mum would say "you wouldnt be without him" and although she was right I still felt resentment. Come to think of it, its any wonder I wanted any more after him!! But although having him was hard work, I dread to think what would have happened to me if I didnt have him as before I got pregnant I was nothing less than a complete mess! I'd suffered a miscarriage two months before I fell for Brett and having been depressed as it was before that, it came close to tipping me over the edge. I resorted to self harm which I already had a history of but I didnt dare go on anti-depressants as I was so desperate to get pregnant again.

But despite everything having Brett was actually a great turning point in my life and even my midwife said he was "the making of me". I did (and still do)continue to suffer bouts of depression on and off over the years, sometimes caused by things that were happening in my life at the time but sometimes caused by nothing at all. After all depression is an illness and can strike anyone at any time. During another bout that I had, probably about two years ago now, I went to see my doctor and remember telling her that I was afraid to get better because I wouldnt feel like 'me' anymore, like feeling depressed had actually become part of my identity. Luckily I've been feeling a great deal better of late, although the first couple of months after Lucie was born was a bit touch and go.

Well I have to go and collect Brett from his first day at his new junior school shortly! I cant beleive he is now in year 3!! Hopefully he is settling in and making new friends. Then we are off to Pirate Petes to celebrate little Finleys second birthday :) Happy Birthday Finley!!

Have a great week xxx

PS I've been writing this since about 11am and its now nearly 3pm!! Whats wrong with me?!!!!!

Hi De Hi

2010-09-04T09:28:00.004+01:00

Hello, happy Saturday people, not usually my best day of the week but as we stayed at Stews last night I'm in better sorts - I think if I'd had to go home last night and unpack all my crap I probably wouldnt be feeling so upbeat! Plus my lovely hubby went to get some bread before he went to work so I have some yummy toast :)

So its Liz by the by, I swapped days with Hannah this week as I have been to Butlins for a little holiday before the kids go back to school (would of been more of a holiday if we didnt actually have to bring them!). We had a good time, even if I was, erm, slightly hormonal, shall we say, and uptight for alot of it, but I really enjoyed taking the kids swimming (just the three of us as Stew has a fear or drowning, therefore never derived much pleasure from random water-play and Lucie happened to be asleep both times we went!) frivolously spending money on arcade games like Deal or No Deal and the Derby trying to win 800 tickets for Count Duckula and Nanny toys (we got over 2000 tickets altogether AND I finally won the DOND jackpot on Thursday plus I wont the Derby FOUR TIMES and Brett won one too which he was super chuffed with bless him!!) and taking in the evening entertainment. They did a really good Thomas the Tank Engine Show with a 'real' Thomas, he was very cute!! There was also a Nick Jr show with Dora, Diego and Ling-Ling from the Wonderpets. Is it just me or did nobody else realise she's called Ling-Ling because she's a duckLING???!!!! Just me? Ok then!

So you know you're a blogger when you start making notes of what you want to write about in your next entry just randomly, whatever you happen to be doing (mental ones in my case but there were a few times I wished I'd had a pen handy!) and the thing that strikes me most about Butlins is how much it changed over the years. Not even just since I went as a child, but since we last went about 3 years ago. The huge boating lake that included a giant standing on an island in the middle is long gone and was the last time we went having been replaced the the Fruit Shoot (and later 5ive Alive) Mine outdoor adventure playground, but now the whole of the outdoor play area and sports courts have been revamped, the outdoor splash pool is gone and while its all very modern it kind of takes away from what I associate with Butlins. In my opinion Butlins is all about reliving a bygone era where British seaside resorts were all the rage (ok I'm too young to remember but everyone can appreciate a bit of nostalgia) staying in shabby little chalets (as opposed to the new uber modern hotels they have) as well as revisiting a place where I spent some wonderful days out and holidays as a child. I remember the huge Plaza food court, again long gone since the arrival of the Skyline Pavillion (why they didnt think of that sooner I dont know!)It is great now to see my kids enjoying it as much as my siblings and I did though, Im sure if Butlins is still standing in years to come and they ever get to take their children there they will be thinking exactly the same! Oh and we did stay in a chalet and shabby as it was I loved it! (In fact when I was complaining to Stew about the bygone days of Butlins he said "well walk in the chalet and you'll be back there" ha ha).

So onto this weeks topic of sleep. I want more of it for starters! Brett (as I think I talked about in my last post so sorry if I'm repeating myself, I forgot to re-read!) did sleep quite alot as a baby but only really during the day or if we were out. He didnt like his crib at first so we just put him in his car seat (naughty I know) or in bed with us! He did eventually go into his crib though and started sleeping through the night at around five weeks. I wish I knew how we got him settled as if I'd remembered we would have done the same with Lucie(fer!). It was a nightmare though, we had nights where Stew would take him out for a drive to try and settle him or make 3am Tesco runs for dummies, milking equipment and formula (none of which worked!). He also went through a phase at about 18 months where he wouldnt go to sleep without one of us in the room so we used the method where one of us would sit by his cot then gradually move further away until we were out of the room and that seemed to work pretty well. Courtney, as far as I remember, was a great sleeper and as I have said, just a very chilled, contented baby altogether.

Onto the waking nightmare that is Lucie! I have never known a baby to be so unsettled and so attenton craving ALL the time! The living hell that was the first three months seems a distant memory now as she is quite alot better and she can even fall asleep by herself if she is tired enough. She still wakes in the night most nights and has a couple of ounces to drift back off again but she sleeps in her own cot and has done for many weeks now. For the first three months-ish she wouldnt go down at all and I had to just hold her all night (and all day for that matter). I did sleep feed her lying down for a bit but I just got a stiff neck. Its so hard having a baby that wont sleep!

Anyway I'll be back on Monday as usual (Brett will be starting middle school!!! Courtney goes back Tuesday) It will be Lilli's topic next week so we will see what she comes up with in her post tomorrow I guess!

Have a great week xxx

final countdown....

2010-09-03T18:05:00.004+01:00

Hiya everyone, how are you all on this lovely September evening???
Im feeling brilliant, better than i have for a long ime and considering im now 39 weeks pregnant that is definately saying something lol!
I have had such a splurge of energy this last week and its still on going! Although admittedly i didnt do anything today in fear of over doing it (if that makes sense?)

This week, being the last week of summer hols, has been full of parks, krazy kaves and the wacky warehouse (fuzzy eds). Tomorrow were off to Southsea Firestations open day...more for me i reckon the firemen there are yummmmy haha. Dont tell Martin i said that :P We went to the last one and Ollie really enjoyed it, the kids were allowed to use a real fire hose, go around the block in a real (if not very old) fire engine and its all raising money for a brilliant cause.
Sunday there is the Linvoy Primus open day (3pm-6pm) at fratton park which were hoping to get to, i dont actually know whats going on there but apparently its going to be good lol!

I cant believe im finally on the countdown of 1 week to go until "Diego" is due to be here...Im betting he goes overdue just like his two older brothers did lol. Ollie was 15 days over and Eli was 11 days over, we tried everything to get them out... hot curries, going for walks, starjumps, drinking rasberry leaf tea, castor oil (YUK) and doing the deed lol... not one thing worked with either! Has anybody ever tried anything to get a lazy baby out with it actually working?
I asked my MW if she'd be able to give me a sweep on wednesday, 2 days before im due, and she said no theyre not allowed to do it before im due...even just two blimmin days! still never mind im not getting fed up just yet so im not too bothered to be honest, im just getting impatient because i want to meet him so badly!
Ollie goes up to reception on wednesday too and so im hoping i will be energetic enough to actually take him to his 1st day of BIG school!

Im sure one of the other yummies will keep you informed if i do have "Diego" before next friday but if not speak to you on judgement day lol xxxx

upside down!!!!

2010-09-01T22:04:00.002+01:00

i nearly forgot my post (again) which is why I'm so late!!! just remembered as i got into bed lol!!

well this week we haven't done alot, nothing unusual!

we started decorating the front room on Sunday, so our house is upside down, we had to put the table dwn so we have been eating off our knees, the house is a mess and what ever i do it doesn't look tidy arrrrrrrrrrrgh! stressed!!
our sofas will be moved tomorrow though so then i can get my house back to normal!
hate decorating but love the end result!!!

we didn't really do much over the weekend, i brought a bike a couple of weeks ago and then got a seat for Finley to sit in so i can exercise but get us both out of the house and do something fun, well i put going out on it off for ages cause i haven't rode a bike for about 10 years lol!! the boys went to my mums on Sunday so me and Phil went out for a little ride! it was soooo much fun!! when the boys came back we went out again but this time with Finley in his chair and Taylor on his bike! wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to bed and Finley absolutely loved it! definitely something we will carry on doing once Taylor's back at school!! is anyone else shocked by how quick these hols have gone?? cant believe my monkey will be back at school in a few days! its making me so sad, i don't want him to go back :-(

i also introduced myself to ebay on Sunday, i used to give all the boys clothes and toys away but then thought i was completely wasting our money and no one ever returned the favor for us so i started putting it on facebook! normally loads of things go, although people do annoy me how they want things for nothing lol!! but the things i put on weren't selling so i used my sisters ebay to list things and they are slowly going i am so chuffed! think i am getting abit addicted to it now though!!!

today we went to pirate petes and then had a picnic on the common with our friends the boys loved it, my friend moved to Scotland a while ago and she was down so had a catch up with her and her gorgeous little girl, always nice when u haven't seen your friends for ages but its still exactly the same as it ever was, shows they're real friends i think !!!

ahhhh this weeks topic is the biggest problem in our household, while Finley is brill going to bed Taylor is a NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!! he is still fighting to stay awake now and its 10.15pm!! its my fault cause i give in so easy so hes been sleeping in with us for a while just to try and let him get some real sleep (cause he still comes in through the night!) but tonight i was determined to get him to fall asleep in his bed after all he is going to be 6 in 2 weeks!! i feel so sorry for him, its such a struggle! i need to make him go to bed and sleep before 9 from now on cause of the early mornings! just cant wait to get back into some kind of routine!! any advice on getting a stubborn child to bed would be great haha!! Finley still goes to bed with a bottle of milk and a bottle of water, one for each hand lol he's abit weird!! and he still has his dummy to! couldn't live with out it and for now it works!! some people wont agree either but they both have films on at night, that's the only way i found keeps them in bed without hours of screaming anyway!!! yes i am very weak when it comes to them crying!!! i give in far to quickly!!

god sorry i do go on!! right night night everyone! sorry to bore u all to death haha!!xxxxxxxxx

last week already!!!

2010-09-01T19:36:00.005+01:00

Hi ladies,

Hope ur all having a good week..... thursday again already.... time is flying by!! Ethan is back to school monday- and im really gonna miss him! :( It was soooooooooooo lovely to get him home on Friday after a week long trip to his Dad's. I'd missed him terribly, and he has been an angel since he's been back too :)

So, on saturday Ben and I went to a wedding reception. Not the one we were supposed to go to, but we had a fab time anyway- WITH NO CHILDREN!!!! ;) needless to say Sunday was a complete wash out because i was SOOOOOOOOO hungover :/ lol

Monday we went up to scum and went to Ben's 'local' - the shed (in fact thats where this wedding reception was- think im becoming a bit of a local too!) as it was a family fun day in aid of, well, i'd like to say charity, but it was actually to raise funds for their new furniture...... are u getting the picture of the sort of plac 'the shed' is????? and that's not it's affectionate name, it's actually called 'the shed' and no, its not an abbreivation either :S lol ....... anyway, so we went up there and the boys came along too...... it was a lovely day, although i ended up feeling a bit awkward as all of Ben's wife (and im hoping at some point ex-wife) family was there too.... hmmmmm enough said about that day i think :/

Tuesday the kids and I went out with my aunt to Finkley Down Farm in Andover..... I used to go there when i was a child and it was lovely to re-visit :D My Nan owned 14 acres of land up there and it's where her father lived and ran a farm so my aunt and i went to see the land. She sold it last year as builders want to turn the area into houses, a school etc but the locals have been up in arms about it all so building permission still hasnt been granted. Although she no longer owns the land, she does have some sort of stake in it so we were being nosy to see what was happening.... the answer was nowt! and there's just animals grazing, but it was a great end to the day, seeing where my aunt, uncle and mum used to play etc :)

Yesterday we went to my cousins for the day, her garden is a little suntrap and the kids haven't seen each other for ages so that was really relaxing.... She's just found out her baby is breech, and at 34 wks pregnant she's not impressed :(

Not sure what to do today though. Ethan is going swimming with my Dad again, i cant wait till he starts his proper lessons next week though :)

We're going to yet another wedding recption on Saturday, i'm very excited!!! So sunday will probably be another wash out again ;) lol.

So, this weeks topic..... Well, Ethan didnt sleep..... at all....... by the time he was 3 months old he wouldnt nap during the day, unless in a car (and at that time i didnt drive!) and he didnt sleep through the night properly until he was 4! He went to bed when i did, (about midnight) slept on my chest in my bed, had two 9oz milk feeds in the night and woke up at 5am, every single day.... when the clocks went back it was awful!!!!!! lol....... I soon lost count of the amount of nights i spent walking up and down Hayling Seafront with him screaming in the pushchair.... it was HELL! I had really long hair, and his 'thing' was playing with my hair, and if he couldnt do it he went mad. I spent my 21st birthday night laying on my bed with him trying to get him to sleep lol. I once spoke to my then Health visitor about it, she told me to wear a hair net..... he just took it off lol.... We moved and he had his own room (he was 14 months) and he'd wake up in the night (after going to bed at the same time as me) and i'd end up sleeping in his toddler bed with him. it was the only was i got any sleep. Then he learned to climb over his stairgate on is door when he was 2, and that again caused havoc. When he was 2 and a half i went back to work (i'd been working one day a week for a bit) and i found it sooooo hard because i was constantly shattered. In my new job i had a lot of reponsibility and had to do something about it. So, i bungee-corded his door handle to the bathroom door handle and let him cry it out..... didnt work though 'cause he stripped himself off knowing damn well that i wouldnt let him go to bed without a nappy on.... he did the same when i tried locking myself in the bathroom...... it was an absolute nightmare..... I moved again just before he was 3 and he calmed down a little, but was still a bugger. Moved again about 6months after that and i just gave in, and let him sleep in my bed with me...... He did this for about 6 months, then i cut it down to a few nights a week until it was just once a week when i was heavily pregnant with Eryn. He has slept in my bed a few times over the last year, and i had Eryn in my bed too, but not recently. He still doesnt need a lot of sleep. He goes to bed about 8 and gets up between 5 and 6..... apparently 7am is a lay in..... but i have to say it was probably a lot of my own doing. Because we only had one bedroom when he was born, and 'cause his dad worked shifts, it was easy to give in to him. If i hadnt have done, he probably wouldnt have been so bad for so long.

As for Eryn, yes, she slept in my bed, but that was for ease more than anything else. I found breastfeeding her mad me tired so, laying down with her i'd fall asleep too. But since she was about 7wks, she's gone to bed about 7. When she was in her crib i'd rock her to sleep, but soon put a stop to that when i realised she couldnt go t osleep on her own. But then i got into the feeding to sleep trap, and it was like Ethan, all over again lol. But my darling Ben soon put a stop to it and got her sleeping in her cot, in her own room, in no time at all :D He would just leave her to cry (or scream) it out, but i wouldnt, so i would check on her every few mins. But it worked :))))
After Ethan, I'd always said that i'd never et a baby sleep in my bed again, but, being on my own it was an easy habit to get in to- no one there to tell me not to etc.... and, in all honestly, i loved cuddling my babies all night :) Eryn still gets into bed first thing in the morning, unless im already up.Sometimes she wakes about 6, but mostly it's just after 7. Which is a much more reasonable time LOL...... my oh my, i've written a shed load..... hope ur all still awake lol..... have a good week ladies xxxx

Bridesmaids dress,mice and frogs...

2010-08-31T12:46:00.003+01:00

Hi all i hope you are all well...

So its tues already and back to me. Wed i met up with my friend Nyssa,we took the kids to mac donalds for lunch.Im not really a fan of it but its ideal so the kids can play in the play area while we have a natter and a catch up.Thurs my mum popped in as she had the day off.She is getting married in october and brought my bridesmaids dress for me to try on..soon as i saw it i thought no no no no no..its going to make me look huge!! But once i tried it on it was actually rather slimming and i love it.I was rather surprised because my sister picked our dress and we have totally different ideas of fashion when it comes to dresses,and the dress would not have been given a 2nd look from me on the hanger,So its all good.She also brought Skye's dress which is soo beautiful and not to over the top so she can wear it again to a party.
Friday we met up with Nyssa again and had a wonder around waterlooville market.Saturday we went and stayed at Mr B's unill monday morning.We didnt do much,just watched lots of films with the kids and played on the wii..Its official i am brillant at bowling and thrashed them all HAHA!!

I got up this morning to find a dead mouse in my shoe....loveleeeyy!! My cat Smithy has a habbit of catching things and giving them to me as gifts..Last month i was sat watching telle one evening , he came in and dropped a frog at my feet lol. It took me 10mins to catch the thing jumping around the living room..Its a good job i dont get frecked out by that sort of thing..If is not mice and frogs its birds and catapillers lol.

So the topic of sleeping..I touched on this in my post last week regarding routines..Skye never grew out of the night feeds and still now wont go to sleep without a bottle of milk.Sometimes she wakes a couple of hours later and wont go back off without a bottle of squash,and come 3/4 in the morning she gets into bed with me.One habbit i promised myself i would never let Jaydon get into(and didnt) only to then let my 2nd child do it..which im really not happy about but she kicks off so much in the night if i stop it.It doesnt seem fair to keep Jaydon and Mr awake for hours while she screams and crys.
When Jaydon was 1 he would still wake in the night and my mother in law recommended surrounding him with his soft toys at night,which was a great help.He used to have a rabbit that when you pulled the cord it played John lennons imagine..If ever he woke putting that on was the only thing that would settle him.We tried the same with Skye but she wasnt having any of it.

Thats it from me for the week..have a good one everyone xx

Me Again :)

2010-08-30T09:55:00.000+01:00

It's me again today, because Liz has swapped days this week - so I've only got a couple of days to talk about.

Saturday, we popped down to Gunwharf to have a nosey around the sales. I love Baby Gap, so when the sales are on, I can't help but go in there to check out the stuff! They always do such bright colours :) We all went for lunch at Pizza Express after, and Freyja had a bambinoccino - a cappuccino without the coffee. She loved it and it gave her a lovely milky moustache. We stayed there for a while, and then we were planning to have a BBQ that evening, but I got called into work. I was supposed to start next weekend, but they needed cover, so in I went. I work at the Deco (bar) in Southsea now - it's a few extra £££s for working 2 or 3 shifts a week. Ideal really, and it gives me pennies to spend on luxuries like clothes! I've worked there before (a couple of years ago) so it was pretty easy to get back into it. The boss said I rocked, and it was weird - it felt like I'd only been away for a week, nothing's changed!

On Sunday, James went airsofting with the manager of the Deco, so Freyja and I stayed in. I was planning to go back to Gunwharf but didn't get round to it. We went for a walk, and came back with some BBQ goodies, and some of our friends came over in the evening for food and chats.

Today, I'm actually going back to Gunwharf (I have the car, so requires less effort). James is helping his mate move house, so Freyja and I are at a loose end really. I never really know what to do with Bank Holidays.

This week is the start of a new topic, and it's me starting it. Eek! We were talking about routines last week, so I thought the topic of "Sleep" would be a good one to follow on to. I know some of you ladies mentioned your babies sleeping through the night quite early on, and some still get up in the night to feed etc. But was it/is it a problem getting them to sleep? Do they settle themselves? Do you use any "methods"?

With Freyja, she was really good when she was young - I thought I was super lucky, because she settled herself easily and slept for hours on end even from an early age. Then she started teething, and it went downhill for a while. She would wake up at least a couple of times, and I would sleepwalk to her room to feed her. It was hard work, because I wasn't used to it. The other problem with Freyja was that she couldn't settle herself. When she was born, we had a moses basket, and then we moved her to one of them Amby Nature Nest hammocks. It was fab, but it got us into bad practice, rocking her to sleep every night. So when it came to her settling herself in her own cot, she couldn't do it. In the end, we had to resort to crying it out. She cried and cried and cried, but it worked (eventually). The first night we left her, she cried for almost an hour. Over the next few nights, it gradually got better. As she took less time to settle herself, she also started sleeping through the night, and now, she's fab. She'll sometimes wake in the night, have a whinge, but settle herself, so I never need to get up to her. And she sometimes takes longer to drift off at bedtime - particularly if there's friends over, because she doesn't like missing the attention! But the most she cries, and that's very rare, is about 5 minutes. It was horrible listening to her cry herself to sleep - I'm sure other mummies who have done it can agree. I know a couple of times, I ended up crying as well. It was horrible, but I knew it would be worth it, and it was.

Have a lovely week ladies :) xxx

Watch out!

2010-08-29T08:23:00.000+01:00

Well this week has been nice-ish, half busy half not. Monday I took the boys out in the car on my own for the first time and we met up with their dad, at the park on his lunch hour, after shopping. Then it started to rain so we carried on with our journey to Lidl and then went home!
Tuesday I kept myself busy all morning cleaning and tidying because a member of my family was coming and when she phoned I went to pick her up. What was hilarious but also really annoying, is she's not used to being in cars and was worried about me driving! Every corner I turned into, she screamed and put her hands to her face because there was a padestrian ON THE PAVEMENT waiting to cross! Her comments were "I'd much rather get a taxi than have you put you and your kids in danger driving around these busy roads" ... my reply was "if you get in a taxi around here, you are pleading for your death, they are the most horrendous drivers around"... lol. It was lovely to see her though! Wednesday I had plans to go to the meetup and then to go to another event that was planned as a meetup, but my car became offroad Tues night so I couldn't drive it, we went to the early meetup and then headed home. Then my wonderful partner, managed to get the part I needed by going all the way to bishops waltham at 9pm, he broke down on the way back, so didn't get home until 11, then was amazing by fixing the car so I could drive it Thursday. We didn't go to bed until 1am!
Thursday I went to the meetup and my good friend Lucy came with her daughter and my good friend Nicola with her little girl. Lucy didn't get there until 11am, bless her, she was exhausted, you would think she had walked the whole way! lol. Anyway so we all went for lunch next door, then Lucy and I crammed us all into my car, it was very funny, we needed a cuppa tea, just getting 3 kids and 2 pushchairs into it! It wouldn't have been so bad if hers was a stroller, lol, but it was as big as my double folded up! We got in and headed to town, first thing we done was pumped her pushchair tyres up and went for a cuppa. We then shopped and came back to mine for a cuppa (we love our cuppas!) Then I dropped her off and we went to pick up some clothes for the boys, a lady was lovely and gave them for free!
Friday was boring day at home. Yesterday we went to a carboot and got 2 big bags of boys clothes for a fiver, bargain :) we came home for lunch and got the boys for a nap, then I headed to town on my own kiddy free for the first time ever! lol. So not an exciting week! lol.

Routines, my eldest I was very strict with from newborn he was fed every 4 hours and he didn't fuss about it and fell straight into routine, by 8 weeks he was sleeping the night, perfect baby really until he gained a mind of his own, lol, I still keep him routine to this day or try to as much as possible depending what we are doing, sleep is definitely important because he becomes the terror tofdler, lol. My youngest was different, when he was born they didn't suck all the mucus from his chest out, like they did with my eldest, so he didn't eat properly for a week, didn't cry, scream, just slept, so we attempted to feed him and he kept bringing it all up with some of the mucus. So we attempted to get him into a routine but it was very difficult when he didn't actually feel hungry. Everything else was routined though, nap times, bed times, food times, wake up times, although he didn't sleep the night until 8 months and even now we have the odd weeks where he unsettles, but we leave him to settle himself, at the moment we're getting horrible horrible screams from him, unfortunately attention screams, so we dealing with that now! lol.

Anyway enough of me rambling, got to get breakfast sorted! :) x x x

Hoping for a Nice Bank Holiday Weekend...

2010-08-28T13:56:00.000+01:00

I've been going a bit mad this week. The weather has been awful, and it's times like this that I really miss having a car.

Last weekend involved 2 1st birthday parties, which were both lovely. One of our friends came round in the evening, and we played Guitar Hero. He and James then continued to get a bit drunk, and the only thing I have to prove how drunk they got, is a photograph of the TV screen whilst they were watching the Mighty Boosh...

Freyja and I have done pretty much nothing all week. We were planning to join the babycentre mummies on Wednesday at the park, but the weather failed. So we haven't done anything of interest really. The highlight of our week was my friend coming over on Friday afternoon with her daughter, so it was nice for Freyja to have a little buddy for a bit.

On friday night, I went to the cinema with my mate, to watch Salt. I wasn't holding out much help for it, but that's probably because I didn't really know much about the film. It ended up being a very enjoyable watch, and we pigged out on ice cream which is always a bonus! We're hoping this weekend is nice - we have a few bits to do in the garden, and it'd be nice to take Freyja somewhere as a family - espeically as it's Bank Holiday weekend :)

The subject this week was routines. I had heard a lot about Gina Ford and her "Contented Baby" and being the clueless mum-to-be I was, I went and bought the book. For me, it just wouldn't work. I read through the book and found it to border on the ridiculous. I know it works for some people, but it'd never work for me. So I got Freyja into my own little routine quite early on, but didn't let the routine rule us. She gets up at roughly 7am. She has breakfast straight away. At some point, depending on what we're doing that day, she'll have a nap. She'll have lunch wherever we are. She'll have her dinner at about 6ish, sometimes later. She'll follow that with a bath and milk. She'll be in bed at the latest of 8. This routine seems to fit us both. I don't stick to it religiously, because we do thinsg most days, and I won't let a routine dictate when we do things. She's only ever woken twice in the night when she was mega-young, had a 20minute feed and was asleep again. she has slept through the night since she was a few months old, eats everything she tries, and is stupidly happy, so I think whatever I'm doing works for her.

I have utmost respect for mums who stick with the Gina Ford philosphy. I really do. But personally, I don't like her methods. The problem I have with GF is although she has muchos experience when it comes to children and working with families, she doesn't have any children of her own. I'd like to see her stick with her strict regimen that she puts in her books, if she'd had children and used the methods on them. I think personally, it's pretty impossible to be that routined, but fair play to mums who have used it and it's worked. But, like others have said this week, everybody's different :)

I'll be doing a post on Monday next week, as Liz has asked to swap. So it'll be me starting off the new subject. Not sure what it is yet as it's not my subject, but I'll find out before Monday I'm sure :)

Hope you have a lovely week ladies xxx

i'm such a divvy chops.....

2010-08-25T20:01:00.005+01:00

Hello ladies, hope you're all well and not looking like drowned rats like i am.... damn weather!!!! grrrr......
Well, it's been a funny week really. My darling Et went off to his dad's on Friday (after spending the whole afternoon in Krazy Kaves with his cousins) and boy have i missed him!!! although, it has been quite nice in some respects, but i cant wait to have him home on friday :) xx
So yes, friday we went to KK, and then friday night it was my friends hen night. I was having a fab time, and then we left Havant to go to Gunwharf and i, being the dozy moo i am, fell between the gap between the train and the platform.... yes- the PLEASE MIND THE GAP bit :( ...... highly amusing but i now have adn VERY bruised foot, and i was in soooooo much pain i had to leave early :(
Saturday Josh and Harry went home and Ben and i were supposed to be going to a wedding reception in Farnborough, but because i could barely walk we gave it a miss :( (its much better now tho)
Sunday we went up to kent; Ben's bro, sis in law and niece live there so we stayed with them till tuesday. We went out for an amazing all you can eat chinese, nad Eryn obviously saw it was a challenge, and ate LOADS lol,. Monday we went to Howlets zoo (where they film 'Roar') and it was great!!! the gorillas were AMAZING!!!!!! But we both felt incredibly guilty for not having the boys with us.
Tuesday we travelled home (with a screaming Eryn in the back)and my bro who lives in London was staying with my dad for a couple of days so we went to visit him, and it was the first time Ben met my dad.... its was, interesting, but a lovely afternoon and evening and my dad treated us to dinner at the Harvester which was very yummy :)
Wednesday i went to see an old friend of mine and Eryn was an angel which was lovely. Sometimes Eryn turns into the devil, or just gets really clingy when were with people she doesnt really know, but she was her happy cheeky self today :)
Ben's got the day off again today so were going to view the rest of the pictures we had taken at the photographers.... we viewed them saturday and i spent, well, a fortune.... but there was only one pic of Eryn on her own, so the photographer took some of her again then, im picking the ones i want tomo.... but this time iv set a budget!! lol. Then my mummy is coming over and we're going to take her to lunch. She's had last week and this week off work and has spent it decorating- so not overly exciting... but unfortunately, my step-dads bank card was cloned and £498 was spent from their joint account!!!! so she's not had the best 'holiday' so i thought i'd treat her....i dont know how people who do that sort of thing can sleep at night! bastards..... but they have got it back through the fraud team at the bank already- it only took at couple of days.
Routines, hmmmm well, Ethan didn't have one when he was a baby, he was fed on demand and hardly slept at all so i resorted to keeping him up with me in the evening and we were up at 5 every morning for the first 3 years.... (i hated it when the clocks went back!! lol) but in terms of breakie/lunch/dinner and snacks he had a strict routine. As he got older i forced a bedtime routine upon him, which didnt go down too well and he only started sleeping through when he was 4, YES 4!!!! As Liz said, i think that with your first baby it's very easy to fit in around them. It's a completely different story now though as Ethan LOVES routine and can get quite narky if something changes :S
Eryn has been completely different though, and put herself into a feeding and sleeping routine very early on (about 6wks old). When she first started going to bed at about 8, i didnt know what to do with myself! lol, Although she's only been sleeping through for a couple of months (which is bliss!!) I've not been strict about her eating times but that was mainly because when i was breastfeeding she could just top up on milk when she wanted. And she tells me when she's hungry now (which is most of the time!)
The reason i chose this subject is because i've heard a few people (pregnant and new mums) say that their babies must have this/that routine and some seem to live by the 'Little contented baby' books or equilvalent..... i read them when i was carrying Et, but i soon learnt not all babies fit in 'that box' lol.....
Anyways, enough from me.... take care girls :) xx

busy busy busy!

2010-08-25T10:09:00.002+01:00

Wednesday again... cant believe how quick the times flying!! And i'm on time this week!!!

we've had a busy few days, very unusual for us as we haven't seemed to do an awful lot these last few weeks!
Thursday and Friday last week we stayed in and caught up with house work and washing which is always so much fun!!!! on Saturday we went to the isle of wight for the day! it was such a nice day! my dad saw a deal on travel zoo for £5 adult returns so it only cost us £12.50 to get over and back for all 4 of us! bargain! they loved going on the boat which only took about 10 minutes!! when we got there the weather was horrible, soooo windy and rainy i thought we were in for a horrible day!! my brolly broke straight away which was quite funny! we went straight into the bowling alley to dry off! was Finley's first bowling experience and overall he wasn't that impressed (didn't understand that he had to wait his turn lol) then when our game had finished the weather was better, we then went to seaview wildlife encounter which was so much fun!! it was the best place I've taken the kids to see animals alot better than staunton and marwell!! they had birds everywhere just flying around and they could go in and stroke the wallaby's! they loved it!! definitely recommend that place for anyone going over there!! we walked back to ryde along the beach and then went into their little fair which was rubbish!!
Sunday i made the mistake of sorting through Finley's old clothes! now i have loads of baby clothes that we need to get rid of but no one we no has baby boys!! not a good idea!!! so Monday i spent the day cleaning cause i did nothing on Sunday, our friend Wendy and my sister Kate came round in the afternoon and then Taylor was back to karate in the evening which he absolutly loves! hes a completely different child when he goes there, hes so into it and listens to everything they say, he'll be my little sports star when hes older! yesterday we went to the farmhouse with Liz 'manicmonday' and our friend Charlene!! was meant to be more of us but that's another story!!!
we had such a lovely day! the kids were brilliant so we just sat ate drunk and had a good gossip! love days like that! my sister looked after Finley for me, was nice having a day with just me and Taylor not that i saw him much as he was following Brett round like his biggest fan hahaha!!
Today we are only going round my mums Liz's husband kindly done Taylor a copy of summerslam so we'll probably have that on the whole day!!

As for the topic this week my kids routine has gone to pot cause of these holidays! no bed until 10 getting up at gone 8 everyday (which isn't like them at all!!) normally they're both in bed around half 6 -7 depending on Taylor's activities, Taylor never had a routine which looking back was stupid cause he still doesn't get on well with routine now, he rarely goes to bed on time without a major fuss and still comes into our bed most nights! he never ever slept through the night!! when Finley was born he was such a good baby slept all night from 6 weeks old but then got a chest infection at 5 months and from then he hasn't slept much through the night either! hes good at going to bed and getting up very early but sleeping through the night isn't what Finley likes to do haha!! I'm used to it now though so it doesn't bother me!! routine definitely works better, you need time in the evening to relax and not have any noise around u!! something I'm slowly starting to forget with these late bed times!! from next week i am going to get them back into it so Taylor's ready for school or all 3 of us will struggle!!!!

right i better stop typing and get dressed or we'll end up doing nothing all day!! :-) cya!! x

If the sun comes back i will give up chocolate...

2010-08-23T15:07:00.006+01:00

Hellloo everyone..How rubbish has this weather been!! I think its safe to say the summer is over :( and i think am actually greiving lol.

Congratulations to Lilly for passing her test :)

Thursday my friend looked after Skye for a few hours so we could take Jaydon to the cinema to see Toystory 3D.I manged to get Mr B to take thrus and fri off work,which was great as its almost impossible to get him to take time off work.The film was good but i wasnt to impressed with the 3D,(I dont think they made it as 3D as they could have).
Friday we popped to waterlooville to get a few bits then took the children for lunch at the farmhouse and so they could play in the play area after.I dont think ive mentioned but im a very clumsy person lol,and just as we were getting settled at our table i lent across the table to take skyes coat off and managed to knock Mr Bs full pint of lager all over him..oops!! He wasnt to impressed and wouldnt move from his seat untill his wet jeans had dried off.10 mins later i almost did the same with my drink..you cant take me anywhere haha!! After that my sister came over to cut and colour my hair,i love that she is a hairdresser it saves me a fortune..
Saturday was brillient,we dropped the kids to my mums in the morning as we were off to london and had a table booked for a meal at Jamie Olivers restaurant.Once we got there we checked in to the hotel which was 5* and lush,we had a stroll around covent garden,had some lunch while we waited for a couple Mr B works with to join us.I had never met them before but they sounded lovely and were.We all had a great time, and the meal was amazing.After several bottles of wine between the 4 of us we ended up in stringfellows..which was entertaining to say the least lol..
We got back to pick the children up about midday sunday.my mum and her partner had taken them up the spinnaker tower,I was abit worried how Skye would be as she hasnt been up there before and i was unsure how she would deal with being up so high,but she loved it and refused to get off the glass floor when it was time to leave lol.Sunday afternoon Jaydon played out with his friends while Skye and i caught up on saturdays xfactor.
Yesterday we didnt get upto much,i had to unpack, wash all our stuff from the weekend and catch up on the lack of housework that hadnt been done over the last 4 days.

So our topic this week is routines, well Jaydon was a very content baby untill bedtime that was,He rarely slept though the night untill we put him into a big bed when he was 2. Sleeping from 7.30pm-7am.Skye was worse at bedtime and still is,even now she still wakes once in the night and the only thing that settles her is a bottle of milk or juice.She never wanted a dummy or blanket as a comfort so i think her bottle has been that comfort.Which i think is partly my fault because as she never grew out of the night feeds(even aged 1&2) i would just give in to the screams and crys for the bottle, just so she wouldnt keep Jaydon awake at night when he had school next day and same for Mr B with work.
I do think its best for children to be in a routine(bit difficult sometimes for little babys) but by the time mine were 6 months they had a routine for times of breakfast/lunch/dinner, naptime,bathtime bed etc.I find having a routine helps me feel more organised too..Altho i must admit our routine tends to go out the window this time of year with summer hols/half terms etc.

Thats it from me for the day.Have it good rest of week all xxxx

Most Boring Summer Break In History!

2010-08-23T11:57:00.002+01:00

Hey girls its Monday! Lucie seems to have particularly grown this last week, shes actually starting to lose her newborness after 4 months!! She's so cute and cuddly and she's been such a good girl too :) On Tuesday the kids and I went to visit fellow 7yummy Lauren - both our boys are mega into wrestling and WWE so we'd been meaning for a while to get them together and they had a blast! It was nice to catch up too as we'd not seen each other properly for ages other than the more-regular-than-is-probably-normal run-in at Asda (Laurens second home I swear lol). Lucie still doesnt like 'strange' places so she wasnt very happy at first but soon settled after her bottle and even had a nice roll around on the floor! We were also joined by Alix, another old Netmums chum and her two kids. Later that day I met up with Elly and we took the kids to Krazy Kaves. It was the busiest day we've had in a while I think, I'm not used to that much activity! We also watched some of WWE Summerslam that night at home :).

The rest of the week we didnt really get up to alot. I finally had my hair cut on Wednesday, only an inch or so off to tidy the ends up a bit but it looks and feels so much better! Wednesday actually seemed like a really long day althought I'm not sure why. I think every day in the summer holidays is a long one though, cant beleive the kids will be back at school in two weeks. They are actually looking forward to it, I cant say I blame them this has probably been the most boring summer break in history!! I still need to buy all new uniform and I need to do that this week really as we are going to Butlins next week for a last little holiday before they go back. I did buy their shoes and plimsolls on Saturday so thats one thing out of the way (the most time consuming thing too!). I also bought Brett some John Cena trainers and Courtney some new boots so I just spent a small fortune on kids shoes this weekend! None for me though - boo hoo :( Hopefully I can get the rest of their uniform and a few holiday bits for us all later in the week.

Noele has came up with this weeks theme and its all about routines (or lack of them!!)- did you force a rountine upon them, or let them find their own.... what worked what didnt etc.... I personally never really had a routine with Brett, I think with your first child its easy to just work around them. I fed him on demand (about every hour at least, he was a very hungry baby!) and he slept when he wanted to. He was sleeping through the night from about five weeks old but he was a generally difficult baby! Courtney was a completely different story altogether. She was very content, slept alot and fell into her own routine pretty much right away. At the time I was sure this was just because I was more relaxed than I had been with Brett and knew what I was doing a bit more but now I realise she was just a great baby because Lucie has been the complete opposite! Even now she has no real routine and she rarely sleeps through the night. I would say, though, that since we've switched to bottle feeding she does seem to have her feeds at more regular times during the day so I'll know when she is due a feed roundabout and they are more spaced whereas I was breastfeeding pretty much around the clock. I think the thing with routines is, although its great to have some rhyme or reason the your day not just for you but for your baby, you also need to keep it flexible as babies are unpredictable and although some fall into routines quickly, some never stick to the same rota from one day to the next and if your baby is unwell or just in a bad mood your routine is very likely to go flying right out of the window! I already have a restrictive baby I dont need a restrictive routine as well!

So thats concludes Monday. Liz D spoke about baby names in her first post so as its her theme next week maybe that could be our topic? I'll let her decide anyway!

Have a great week all xxx Liz P xxx

PS Another massive congrats to Lilli for passing her driving test with flying colours!!!

An overall happy week!

2010-08-22T08:42:00.001+01:00

Well thinking about it I have 2 weeks worth to update, lol, but I really can't remember everything that I've done. I Also can't remember what last weeks topic was and am racking my brain to think about this weeks topic, which I think is Holidays.
I'm not quite at the school holiday stage yet, but I am dreading it already, because I'm stuck with what to do with them both in these soggy school holidays, so I dread when they are older. Also when they are in school I will be finishing my degree to become a primary teacher, so will have time off with them on the holidays, etc, so when people say they look forward to having them at home for 6 weeks, I could understand, but if I'm in school seeing them throughout the day and having them all evening and weekends, then all holidays too, it'll be the same as being a stay at home mum, just harder work because I'm teaching lots of other children all day.

Well anyway, I started rambling there, so now to ramble some more as to what I've been up to. The past 2 weeks has been "intensive" driving practising in rush hours, in the evenings, repeating manoeuvres until I was so fed up of doing the same thing, but it all paid off. I passed my theory on 12th Aug, so I then came home and booked the next available appointment for my driving test. I managed to get one but constantly checked the website for earlier appointments with cancellations and other test centres. To my shock one came up for 20th Aug in Lee on Solent, I booked it up and then stress hit me. We went out every day after Mr got home from work, came home for dinner and got the boys in bed, so started cleaning the car and learning q's and a's they ask. Anyway it got to Friday and I was rather nervous, so I kept myself busy, I didn't stop for a second. Then sat in the test centre my nerves disappeared, my confidence came out and the examiner was really nice, we chatted all through the test even through the manoeuvres!! I think he liked the fact that I could concentrate and drive safely while talking (which they like to test you on) anyway, I came out the test centre with a pass certificate with only 3 minors!! 3 minors....I am still in shock how I managed it, on my first test too! My man deserves a MASSIVE MASSIVE Thank you for putting all the hard work in and teaching me, nagging me,etc. They say partners teaching you to drive will damage the relationship, it made ours stronger because of teamwork!

Anyway enough is enough I have a baby on my lap attempting to play with the touch screen. I think he's hinting I've said enough and trying to hit the submit button, lol... I can't believe he'll be 1 years old next Wednesday!!

What a week.
Look forward to next week x x Bye x x

Mr. Bazinga is Home!

2010-08-21T10:03:00.002+01:00

This weeks topic was about children's holidays, and with my only daughter being 16 months old, I can't really say much about what I do with my time during the hols - it's the same as any other day for me! Although I do find that when it comes to kids hols, I have been avoiding the regular hangouts (i.e. the busy parks and soft plays) - mainly because of the busy-ness (i'm not used to it!) and also because Freyja is insane and runs everywhere and anywhere she can, so when there's bigger kids around, she gets knocked over a lot because she doesn't watch where she's going!

So, because I can't talk about what I do during the school hols, I'll go down the route that some other ladies have, and talk about actual holidays. We are really lucky in a way - James' parents live over in the South of France, and we have at least one trip a year out there to see them. Since Freyja came along, that hasn't changed. She had a passport at 5 days old, and was on a plane over to France at 3 months old. We've been over about 3 times with her now, and she's amazing really, considering her age. It's nice to have the opportunity to get her used to flying at a young age - i'm hoping it bodes well for when she's older! Although she is getting to an age of restlessness, and because she hasn't got her own seat yet, it can be hard. Especially when she doesn't understand how to un-pop her ears. It was easy before she was one, because my boobs did the trick, but since stopping breast-feeding, it's been a bit difficult. Our next holiday is in May next year - that time, we're venturing to Turkey with my mum - here's hoping she'll be able to manage a 4 hour flight - she's only been on an hour and a bit ones so far (Freyja that is, not my mum...)

So, after that rant, what's been happening with my week... Since my last post was actually made on Monday because of my hectic weekend, there's not much to talk about really. Tuesday and Wednesday involved mostly nothing - I caught up on a lot of housework and washing, and TV of course :) We picked our hamster up from the Vet's too - He's back safe and sound, after a bout of wet-tail. "Mr. Bazinga" is a healthy little pickle now, and Freyja loves looking at him and watching him run around :) Thursday, a friend and I took the babies to the aquarium on the seafront - I didn't realise how much of a walk it was - it was a 6 mile round-trip! Needless to say, for someone who doesn't exercise much, my feet are hurting, but I feel better for it. Maybe my baby belly will tone up after all! James went bowling Thursday evening, so I had a night in on my own, watched telly and read a bit. On Friday, my friend came over in the morning - it's her daughter's 1st birthday on Saturday, so she crammed me in for a cuppa before running off to make preparations for it. The rest of the day was fairly slow-going. I "attempted" to make an oven-baked chocolate cheesecake - the one's I've made before, which have all been successful, so this one was a bit of a new venture, and involved a bain-marie. Not a very wise idea, when I don't have a watertight cake tin. Needless to say, the cheesecake came out a bit more gloopy than it was supposed to, because the water got into it. Still tastes good though! On Friday evening, a couple of friends and I went for dinner at the Harvester, followed by a quick drink in the Deco - I have gotten myself a job there, starting from the 3rd September. I worked there a couple of years ago, so it'll be nice to go back for a couple of shifts a week - and the extra pennies will go down nicely!

This weekend is full of birthday parties. First, there's my good friend's little girl's 1st birthday today, at her house, where they are having a teddy bears picnic, and another little girl's 1st birthday on Sunday, at Canoe Lake. Hope the weather gets better for them!

Hope you all have a good week :) xxx

Baby names...were people ever rude about your choices?

2010-08-20T17:59:00.003+01:00

Ive just remember its Friday which means as the new Miss Friday its my turn to post ! I am a blog virgin so tell me if I do anything wrong although writing about my boys and what we've done seems simple enough.

Soooo..... Im Liz, Im a married SAHM to two very lively boys, Ollie whose 4 and Eli who is 16 months, im also due another boy in exactly 3 weeks but were keeping the name under wraps until he's born because of people being rude, well not so much rude but saying things like "don't call him that we had a pet called that" or "i knew a nasty little boy called that" etc. etc....

Thats what this post is about really, has anybody ever been rude when you've told them your child's name? or what you were planning on calling your child?

We were on a bus once and an old lady asked what my youngest sons name was, when i said Elijah she replied "well that's just weird" I was gob-smacked to be honest, and just replied with "and your just rude!" Nobody has ever said anything about Ollie's name (Oliver) but then that's alot more heard of than Eli.

With this baby we told people the options we had, and we got nothing but Rudeness from some people, when he is born if anybody is rude about his name I think I will just tell them where to go he he!

So no, I don't mind if you've had a cat/dog/rabbit/lizard etc. with the same name. I don't mind if you know a terror with the same name I don't know them and that's what counts, just because they are vile doesn't mean my child will be! And finally no I really don't care if you like the name or not! Its my child and i will call him what I like!

Oh dear Ive really gone off on one there lol, Im not normally so moody i promise i just think some people shouldn't be so rude especially about a choice that is hard enough to make without peoples judgements!

Hope your all having a nice day

xxxx

ooops my first post and i'm late!!!

2010-08-19T08:55:00.002+01:00

hello ! I'll introduce myself, I'm Lauren! 24 with 2 very loud boys Taylor soon to be 6 and Finley soon to be 2!! We live in Fratton with my boyfriend/their dad Phil! So I'm the new 'Miss Wednesday' !!!! even though my first post is today (Thursday) !! I am always late and I forget to do things a lot!! Not a good first impression!! So sorry for the delay lol!

I do have a bit of an excuse!! i was planning on staying in yesterday and catching up on washing/housework (boring) but as i was getting ready i noticed Finley had these huge sore lumps on each side of his tongue, so i called the docs and made an appointment so from then on i rushed and completely forgot about my post!!!
His tongue was nothing serious thank god! I am one of the biggest worries anyone will meet!!! i constantly worry about things with the kids which drives me mad but i cant help it, stupidly i googled what these things on his tongue could be, with all sorts of things coming back!
When we got to the docs he ate some skips so they obviously weren't causing him any pain, he got checked over and theres not underlying infection so its more than likely his very sharp teeth causing the ulcers!! poor sod!!

after that we went to my mums as she lives in Cosham where our docs are so was easier than going home and she is off sick with bells palsy (so her face looks very odd as Taylor kept telling her!!) poor thing so we went and kept her company, we had a nice day in the end!

The topic i meant kids holidays, as in summer hols/half terms! first thing that came to my head with it being the summer holidays!!!!
I love having Taylor home!! its so nice doing things with both of them rather than him being in school all day! although everywhere is stupidly busy which gets on my nerves!!!!
A lot of the people from school and some friends dread their children starting the holidays, which i never understand.... just wondered what everyone did with their kids when they have so long off and if you all like them being home or you have a diff opinion!!!

I don't want to babble on to much seen as though its not even my day!!

See you all next Wednesday when i will actually be on time!!!!

Lauren xxx

Is it Friday yet???

2010-08-17T16:32:00.008+01:00

hi ladies, hope u r all having a fab week

Thursday last week we went to intech for Josh's 8th birthday and it was great- altho while we were there Ethan had a 'moment' apparently when i tell him off for not listening (which is admittedly about 10 times a day- because he just doesnt listen!!!!!) he says it makes him feel like im saying he's useless..... where does a 6 yr old get this stuff from????? seriously, my boy is a tad over-sensitive!!!! and before u ask, there is nothing wrong with his hearing, he is just plain ignorant (gets it from his father) ;)
On Friday we went to a play day at cumberland school- it was absolutely rubbish for kids of my two's age, so we didnt stay long, then Joshua and Harry came down for the weekend.
On Saturday i'd arranged for us to have some photos done where i had some taken when i was pregnant, the idea being we could get some really lovely ones of all the kids together, as well as some individually..... well, we managed two of eryn on her own- because she was being a right cling on, and the boys were running round like mad men so she was a bit scared. Apparently there are millions of the boys, both together and seperately, and a few of the 6 of us together. So not quite what i was after, but we're going to view them this Saturday, and the photograher said he'd get a few of Eryn on her own then because the boys wont be with us.... Vision Photos in New Road, i highly recommend them :D
In the afternoon Ben was once again playing cricket (i was not amused) so me and the four kids went to krazy kaves with my cousin and her girls, followed by dinner at maccy d's. Ben got back at 8 and the two youngest were in bed, and Et and Josh were about to go up too. i then got invited out for the night and decided yeah, what the hell, i could do with a night out and went to get ready...... EVERYTHING i own looked hideous (ben is a feeder and has made me put on half a stone- and altho i probably needed to anyway, on saturday i wasnt feeling my best), and i through a complete strop and decided not to go and went to bed in a foul mood.
Sunday i decided Ben could take the kids out to the D-Day museum and that i wasnt going! so i went to my mums for a moan and a cuppa for a couple of hours- it was bliss- and i felt much better after that :D
Monday we just went to the Adventure Playground, shopping and then my friend and her little one (who is 7months younger than Eryn but weighes only a pound less than her!) came over for a chinwag :) and Tuesday Ethan went swimming with my Dad again.... and, my Dad now knows Ethan's name!!!!!!! it's only taken him 6 and half years!!!!! My Dad isn't exactly the regular sort of Grandad, he has 9 grandchildren and only remembers the name of one of them..... and well, he's a bit useless..... He refuses to acknowledge that my daughter is called Eryn, because 'it's not a real name'..... apparently, so he calls her Iris, which is her middle name (but only when he remembers that!) Anyway, Ethan thoroughly enjoyed himself splashing about in the pool.
Wednesday was a bit hit and miss really, we went to the Museum for their 'out to lunch' thing and Ethan made himself a robot..... i very quickly remembered why i no longer do arty crafty things with him, because we both end up stressing out :S

This morning were off to town to find myself a dress to wear to my mates Hen night on Friday- it's the theme of 'a little dress' but it's not allowed to be black..... following my hissy fit on saturday i have to say i'm dreading shopping, but it needs doing..... :'( ...... just weighed myself and i've put on 6lbs in two weeks!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! diet starts today!!!! :'(

Ethan is off to his Dad's for a week starting tomorrow.... a whole WEEK!!!! He's never been away for a whole week before!!!! I have to admit, i cant wait! Does that sound nasty??????????? Well, yeah i suppose it does, but i could really do with a break!! Ethan goes to his dad's once a fortnight for the weekend, but that's it. He won't have him inbetween if i ask him to, and the way i see it is he has four weeks holiday a year, and only spends a week of it with his son, so i shouldn't feel guilty about looking forward to some 'time off'...... hmmmm, i do sound horrible!! :( oh well...... the problem is i know i'll miss him by day two! lol..... last year he went for 6 days and i'd just had the baby, but i missed him like mad and couldnt wait for him to be home lol.

Ben and i are off to Kent for a couple of days on Sunday. His brother and his family live there so were going to stay with them. Looking forward to that, bit of change of scenery etc. But other than that it looks like it will be a quiet week :S

Hmmmmm, holidays with the kids.... well, i've only been on two hols with kids. The first being when i was pregnant with Eryn> I saved up all the tokens from the Sun, and Ethan, my cousin, her girls and i went down to Camber Sands for a long weekend.... it was lovely, but i was 8months pregnant and knackered all the time, and then i got tonsilitus and it kinda ruined it for me!! lol..... and the other was a similar sort of thing, but when Eryn was 10wks old, and i went to Devon.... again, it was nice, but the weather was crap and i was once again knackered from all the night feeds..... lol
I was once told by a friend who has a couple of foreign holidays every year that once you have kids (she has 3) holidays are just the same as being at home, just not as convienent..... :S I'd love to go somewhere, anywhere, but, well, it's just so costly, and Ethan can be, well, Ethan..... he doesnt cope with change particularly well, and i know damn well that he'd create a fuss if, God forbid, we wanted to do something that wasn't 'for him' so I think i'm going to put it off for another couple of years. My mum wants us to go away somewhere (Crete, Malta etc) next year, and however tempted i am to book it, i dont think she could handle being with me and the kids for a week. I'm sure i'm making mountains out of molehills, but it's an expensive way of finding out.... i dont know.... it would be nice i suppose.... AND i'm absolutley petrified of flying. And i get sea sick.... lol

I assume that being Thursday's lady the topic of the week will be down to me.... I'll have a think and let the lovely Liz know by Monday..... have fun everyone xxx

Thank god for my cats :)

2010-08-16T19:37:00.003+01:00

Hi all,i hope you are well? A big hello and welcome to our new miss Wednesday and Friday!!

This week has totally flown by for me,which im a tad surprised about because on wednesday i had to ground Jaydon for drawing in red felt tip pen on my living room wall...Little sod!! At 7 he should know better but claims skye begged him to do it.I had everthing from begging,pleas,bribes and lots of "im so sorry,it will never happen again" All in the hope that i would let him go out and play with his friends..I almost caved but stayed strong and stuck to my word... Thursday was a boring one in doors.
Friday we meet up with my friend Nyssa and her boys in waterlooville,did a bit of shopping and went to Maccie D's.
Friday night was horrid,i fell asleep on the sofa but woke up with Skye wimpering at 11pm sorted her out then came back down to turn tv lights off etc before going to bed myself.Then i noticed 'IT' by IT i mean a massive and i mean (the size of the palm of my hand massive) Black spider on the wall in my hall....Now im not scared of many things but i cant even look at a toy spider without having a panic attack,Stupid i know but spiders being on the planet seriously effect my life.As it was late when i noticed it there wasnt much i could do, there was no way i could get close enough to kill it and no one i felt would aprecate a call from me that late to get rid of it.So my plan was to pack a bag for me and the kids, then leave the spider go to bed and attempt to sleep.If it was still in the same place in the morning it would be a better time to call for help,but if it wasnt then i was going to grab the kids and move out untill that dam thing had been found and removed.I didnt sleep for more then an hour and even had nightmares about the dam thing.So come the morning i sent Jaydon down stairs to see if it was still there,he said it wasnt but that there was a black thing on the floor,i crept down to see and there IT was dead and screwed up on the floor Feww...Thank god for my cats,it must have came down during the night and one of the cats got it.Altho i do still panic that may have been a 2nd spider and the other one is still on the loose..thats how much they freak me out!!
Saturday we didnt do much,just chilled at mr B's.Sunday my dad had the kids for a bit so we went for a beer down southsea,which was nice to chill out just us.

So kids holidays, well we dont get to go away that offen,Mr B;s job is rather demanding, but last october i took Jaydon with me,mum and stepdad to Egypt.He spent most of the 5 hour flight asking..are we there yet.But once we got there he was pretty good,spent most of the time in the pool and was ready to go to bed for the night come 5pm..he was a nightmare to wake up for the evening where he wore his selfout so much during the day.We are hoping to go to spain or somewhere next yr for a week, it cant really be somewhere to far away as Skye wont be able to handle a long fight without being able to run around,She would just scream the whole time.

My sister has always been hardwork,even now at 16 you have to know how to handle her lol, When she was 3 went on a family holiday to tenirife.She pulled that plane apart bit by bit,including the plastic seal and rubber lining of the plane window.Im sure the people in the seats behind us were scared to death of her pulling the window out and them being sucked out lol.All we could hear from them was sighs,huff,puffs and oh no not the window.Needless to say it was my mums worst hoilday bless her!!

Well i think ive rambled on enough for today.Have a good week all xx

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit

2010-08-16T18:07:00.002+01:00

Hey its Monday, yet again!! God these weeks are flying by at lightning speed, the kids will be back at school before I know it! Seeing as I last posted on Friday that leaves me the weekend to talk about and I'm afraid to say it wasnt awfully exciting! I was supposed to be having my nephew Danny who's four stay over at mine Friday night. My sister dropped him off around four and then the disaster that was Friday night began... Oh and it was the 13th!!!!

First, my electric had gone, not so bad seeing as I had emergency credit on the key, but when I went to do the kids some tea I realised it must have been off for a while as everything in my freezer had totally defrosted so I had to throw it all out. Having no other food in the house seeing as I'm not there very often I had nothing to feed the kids but that was probably just as well considering what happened next. Courtney and Brett came running downstairs to inform me that Danny had been sick and as I emerged from the kitchen I was met with Danny throwing up some more on the stairs (he'd started on Bretts bed and left me a nice little trail). I had been warming a bottle for Lucie but I had no choice to put her in her cot while I cleaned up the mess. I stripped Bretts bed, stripped Danny and cleaned him off, sat him on the sofa with a bowl (later this was proved unnecessary as he was just sick on the floor instead) scrubbed and disinfected the carpets, the stairs and the banister, just in time for my mum to arrive to pick Danny up (I'd called Viv as soon as it happened). Tired, stressed and downright peed off (not to mention grossed out!)I text Stewart, told him I was having an awful night and couldnt cope and didnt want to stay in the house and he agreed to come and pick us up to go back to his after he finished work. Phew, what a releif!! We grabbed the kids a McDonalds on the way home, I had a nice bath and although I'm sure he wasnt ever so pleased we invaded his Friday evening, I felt much better!! I was so worried I or one of the kids or even worse, Lucie would get ill too but so far we are all fine so fingers crossed we stay that way! I did feel a bit unusual yesterday but I think that was down to tiredness as Lucie hasnt been sleeping well this last week.

Saturday was a better day. I only had about three hours sleep Friday night as Lucie wouldnt settle but I didnt feel too bad. Brett was going to his best buddy Jacks for a sleepover and I'd arranged to meet Elly at Pirate Petes so once Jacks mum had collected Brett I and the girlies jumped in a taxi and off we went. We had lunch in Wimpy then the kids had a lovely long play. Courtney was hilarious, I dont know if it was because Brett wasnt there but she was just such a motormouth bless her, rabbit rabbit rabbit!! We were sat eating luch and she said to Elly "I love your nail polish"! Then she came out of the play area with her top rolled up "like a bra". Little madam! Lucie slept really well Saturday night although it took a while to get her settled.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a good day too. Stew picked Brett up then came and collected us girls and we went to Walmart to get a few things then we went bowling. The last time we went was about two years ago although we've had plenty of practice on the Wii! We all had a really good time, Brett won by miles and I came last :( Lol. Today we havent done much but I did have a dreamy stawberry tart for lunch, I cant even begin to describe how delicious it was!!!

So the Yummymummies are welcoming a new Miss Wednesday and Friday this week and they take the forms of the lovely Lauren Ward and Liz Darbyshire so I'm sure they will be welcome additions and have many fun tales to share!! Lauren has picked childrens holidays as our topic this week. I'm not sure if that means school breaks or actual getaways though...probably should have asked that! Well I'll assume she means getaways anyway so maybe we could all share our ideal holiday to take the little people on or one that we particularly enjoyed as a child?

Up until this year Stew and I had only taken the kids to Devon and Butlins, both of which were great little holidays. We visited Devon when Brett was just a baby so that one was more for us I suppose but we went to Paignton Zoo, Kents Cavern, The Golden Hind, it really was a lovely holiday. Then every year after that we went to Butlins in Bognor which was lovely, we are going two weeks from today in fact :) It will actually be our second holiday with Lucie as we went to Disneyland Paris when she was just six weeks old! That was just amazing, I didnt want to leave Paris, it was so depressing coming home to crummy old England! It really is a beautiful city, we went to the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, did lots of shopping and of course spent four days in the Disney parks. We are planning to go to Florida when Lucie is older, maybe in about six years or so, that gives us plenty of time to save up! Next year we are thinking of going abroad again, maybe to Spain.

Well thats all from me (thank God, I hear you thinking!) Have a great week xxx

Hectic Weekend = Delayed Post

2010-08-14T20:41:00.001+01:00

I'm officially rubbish this week... My post which was meant for Saturday has only just been written. I've amended the post date so that it appears as if it was on the right day to avoid confusion with other days :) You see, we have been away for a long weekend, having gone to Bloodstock Festival (a heavy metal festival in Derbyshire) and we have just returned to sunny old Portsmouth.

My intention was to write a partial post before the festival began, and post it when I was there using my phone. But in all honesty, that didn't happen. My phone is the epitome of useless when it comes to using the Internet, particularly so when you're stuck in the middle of a wet field with no signal and your Dr.Martens stuck in what seemed to be endless mud.

So, I hope you all forgive me for the delay. Better late than never I hope :)

A few bits and pieces have happened since my last post. Last Sunday, a couple of housemates from 2005 came down from London to see us. It was lovely to catch up after so long - they are both doing loads with their lives - one has been gallivanting round Australia for the past 6 months and the other is engaged and moving to Canada(!) - so needless to say, it was fab to catch up. We went to the Tenth Hole (which was rammed) and ate lots of yummy cake. I can't stop at that place. The chocolate torte is to die for. Freyja helped Paul to finish off his Aero cheesecake - by the time he could get to it, there was very little left, and a very mucky Freyja...

James' cousin came to visit on Monday. She works in Dubai at the moment, so when she has a few weeks off, she tries to cram in everyone - we were lucky enough to see her after a trip to Milan - we went for lunch on Tuesday afternoon, because James was off work, so we popped to the Titchfield Mill before saying goodbye to her. Not quite sure when we'll catch up with her again, but it was a lovely, albeit brief, visit.

Wednesday was the beginning of the weekend for us. As we were going off to Bloodstock, I had roped my mum into having Freyja for the duration. She was nervous as hell, as it's the first time we have left Freyja with anyone for more than one night, so we went up to Stoke on the Wednesday to give it a bit of a practice run, before shooting off to Derbyshire the next day. It all went swimmingly, and we popped down to my old pub hang-out for a bit of acoustic open mic goodness.

Thursday was the day that we had to say goodbye to Freyja. It was awful, but we knew she was in safe hands and she would be living the life of Riley when we were camping in what seemed like a really big bog. I know that she went out for lunch twice at a couple of country pubs, and went to see the monkeys at a local monkey world type place. She had a lovely time, and now mum feels a lot more confident about having her again. We had a fantastic time at the festival, but it was so wonderful to see Freyja again this morning. I wasn't sure how she'd react to me, seeing as she hadn't seen me for 4 days, but I walked into her room this morning, and she was so excited that she threw herself around her cot laughing her head off, then gave me a 20 minute long hug. I cried. Lots. I didn't realise quite how much I would miss her until I saw her again. It's amazing how much she has changed in such a small amount of time - she has noticeably longer hair, and 4 teeth have come through!

So here I am, back in Portsmouth, with a mountain of festival gear to wash and stow away for the next one. I'm hoping for good weather over the next few days to be able to get out and catch up with people. Although my first mission is to upload photos to Facebook and have a nice cup of tea.

Apologies again for the late post - next weeks will be on time! I promise!

Hope all you ladies have a fabulous week xx

Its Liday!!

2010-08-13T12:34:00.002+01:00

Hey ladies, Liz today. So just when I thought I had all my weekdays filled, Naomi goes MIA and Katie quits. If it wasnt for my need to fit everyone that wanted to do this in the first instance it would have just been 5yummymummies but when I suggested it I had so much interest that I made it seven so I wouldnt feel bad for there not being room and now I cant change the name so I have to rerecruit... again! Oh well!!

As I've already shared my body woes this week I shall proceed to ramble on about the rest of my week. Well its been about as exciting as is usual... not very... so it wont be so much a ramble as just a fleeting hello. I have spent the last two days doing absoloutely nothing, not even getting dressed :o. Tuesday I had to take Lucie for her last set of baby jabs, she had to have three this time for some reason, two in one leg, one in the other, poor bug! The kids were with me seeing as they are off school and I think Brett was a bit distressed by it all bless him. Still we did go to Krazy Kaves after, which was heaving! But at least we got to have some lunch and the kids had a runaround.

I was warned by the nurse that Lucie would be grouchy for the rest of the day but I gave her some Calpol and she was fine. She even slept from 10 til 6 that night, but we havent had as much luck the rest of the week, the moo!

My mum said the other day that back in Victorian times they used to give Opium to babies to make them sleep lol, poor things!! Thats my random fact of the day!

Well I dont have alot else to say for myself, so Hannah we look forward to hearing from you tomorrow and I'll be back Monday :)

Have a great weekend xxx