Just some pics

Not really much to post about so though I'd just catch up with some photos.

After our pushbikes sitting in the shed for an AGE as the key snapped in the lock, I finally got around to Googling "how to cut off a bike lock" (very dodgy but there was plenty of advice out there) we borrowed an angle grinder and got to work




Success!!! Now we just have to get them back to working order




Photographic evidence to cause Poppy to cringe when she's a teenager of how much of a mess she gets into eating spaghetti




And how fab these baby leggings are when you've got a very wriggly child who HATES having their nappy changed. One less step than taking off tights/leggings/trousers



Ended up buying about 6 pairs in various colours, and a Hippychick hipseat for when she just won't be put down. Impressed so far, will try to get a photo up of me using it somewhere other than my kitchen ;-)

Mortgage company say "uh-uh"

Its a definite no for the Perfect House. Had our current house valued today and its sale wouldn't give us enough of a deposit for the Perfect House. Damn. We have talked it over and agreed that it's fate, karma, what will be will be, etc etc. Shame cos I quite fancied those chickens (mine was to be called Doris).

Had a bit of a nothing day off. Estate agent called at 10am but had been up since 530 with Poppy, back to bed for an hour or so at 700 as she decided that actually it was silly to get up at 530 as it made her very tired, then up again for breakfast. Hubby went into work about 1.15 so us girls went to the supermarket, then I rang two friends trying to fill our afternoon as Poppy had also slept (again) before her lunch. Even though I had caramel shortbreads to offer neither could make it, so we returned home to sit in all day in the rain. Yuck. And me being a lazy bones didn't get out for a run before hubby left for work, and then ate a total of 3 of the shortbreads. Not all in one go I'd like to add, but I did eat them none the less.

One more day at work then 3 days off with the bank holiday. I hope it doesn't drag with hubby working it all.

Perfect house we can't afford..

We went to see the Perfect House. It was fabulous. But needed lots of tlc to bring it up to a decent standard, and with it being at the top of our budget already we;d then have no money to spend on paint and carpet! Oh the possibilities of it though...sob...

After trying every type of potato with Poppy we've now discovered she seems to really enjoy rice and pasta. So lots of spaghetti bolognese and chicken curry to come.

Managed to finally get out for a run monday evening, after 2 weeks of being ill. Went back to week 2 of the training schedule, which it turns out I'd misread the first time I did it, so it was much harder! 2 mins running to 1 minute walking, not the other way around. My legs are still a bit sore today and I'm pretty tired tonight, so hope I get time to go out before hubby goes to work tomorrow afternoon. Also need to actualy register for the race! Then I definitely can't get out of it ;-)

Perfect house

Just saw a PERFECT house. It's close to where we live in and have seen the For Sale sign for a while, so we drove down the lane to see where it was. Turns out it's empty so out we were, looking through all the windows and exclaiming how the (massive) garden would be fantastic for Poppy running around and growing vegetable, maybe even keeping a few chickens. Four bedroom, two bathroom, huge garden, allotment section, trees one with a rope ladder for climbing..oh my god. Heaven. Think hubby is going to ring up to see if it's still available tomorrow. He's already obsessed and very excited. I too have that tingly excited feeling in my stomach at the potential of it. And the thing is it's within our price range. The top end of it yeah, and it would mean being very careful with money and no extravagances, but to us it feels it could be worth it. A house for life...

Was good to see hubby smiling as he's had a pretty shitty weekend. He couldn't have his laser eye surgery done after all on friday as he had the flu, so the surgeon wasn't happy to do it with the infection risk. After building this up for weeks it was gutting for him not to be able to just do it already. Then his parents, who were on their way to our house from somerset for the weekend, got stuck in traffic after an accident on the motorway. They, quite bizarrely, decided the best course of action was to turn back and not come to stay at all. Hmph. Hence hubby being quite upset and let down, after all it probably wouldn't have been much difference in the journey time to fight through the queue and we thought the prospect of seeing us and Poppy would have been motivation enough. Ah well. So I've spent the whole weekend trying to bolster his spirits and put a smile on that handsome face. Turns out a £190,000 house was all that was needed ;-)

Supper in a flash

Tonight was the first time since I started back to work that Hubby was on afternoons and that I had to manage cooking dinner and the evening routine on my own. Apart from putting up with Poppy doing a lot of moaning when I was trying to cook, I managed to put together a decent meal for both of us. She didn't eat a whole lot of it, but it was on a plate roughly on time.

What is it with the moaning when I'm trying to cook? She always does it!! Either crawling up my leg and crying, or standing at the gate at the doorway and crying from there :-(

I wish that I had more annual leave days. Cos I had to borrow some from this year to stay off until after she was 1, after what I've got booked I only have 3.5 days left. And who knows what is going to happen before next April where I have to use those days if Poppy is ill or something. With all the sunshine we've been having the past 2 weeks it makes me think that when it's sunny in the summer and actually hot I definitely won't want to be at work!

Poppy's first BBQ

A little late in the year than we usually have one, but hubby has been uummming and ahhing over buying a new grill for it as it's a bit grim. But after almost 2 weeks of sunshine we had to give in and have a little bbq for dinner, with salad and new potatoes.

YUM YUM YUM.

Poppy had never seen this big hunk of metal that sits in the corner of the garden actually doing something, so was fascinated when there was her dinner cooking on it.





I don't know if it was the food cooked in the great outdoors or the super-tasty BBQ'd sausages, but she actually ate some new potatoes too. This is quite an achievement as since she's had solids she's taken a dislike to spuds cooked in any form, and usually licks it to make sure it is what she thinks it is and then throws it on the floor. Tonight she ate not just one piece of potato but two whole potatoes cut up into manageable chunks. Go Poppy.

Ps. Do you see my nice line full of clean cloth nappies? Go Me.

Helping Mummy with her make-up

Or otherwise known as pulling the make-up bag off the sofa and emptying its contents on the floor. And picking out her fave brush to suck on whilst examining each and every lipstick, eyeliner and brush.

Day out with the family

Started with a little look at the sand while waiting for the bike lady to come back from lunch.






After paying for the bike hire and selecting a baby helmet (yes, I know, we should have been wearing them too but hey, I do have some street cred to maintain) we set off amongst much laughter and huffing and puffing.



Daddy was the chief baby carrier but I did have a little go on his bike so he could watch Poppy enjoying the ride.





It was only an hour out of our normal routine, but the sun was shining and it was something we'd never done before with Poppy. Also we hadn't ridden bikes ourselves for YEARS so it was lots of fun to do a different activity and get out in the fresh air.

Slow day

Work was SO slow today. I did my ward round first thing, had a tea break, covered the dispensary for an hour and it was still only midday. I then faffed about on the computer for an hour or so and went out to have lunch break, only to find that I should be back in the dispensary over lunch. Oops. Luckily a colleague (and a friend) was not busy and let me go eat! Then after my lunch I was covering ward discharges and all afternoon we only had one. ONE. And that was piss-easy and only took about 3 minutes. Even the patient commented on how fast we were. Score. At 345 I did consider taking lieu time and leaving as Poppy and daddy were home, but managed to resist - will try to save the time for when I am truly desperate..

Hoping to go and try out Poppy on a child seat for a bike tomorrow. There's a place near us on the beach front that hires bikes, so thought it'd be fun for an hour, will also give us an idea if it's worth us hiring for a week on our holiday later in the summer. Photo updates soon if we manage it!

Sunny days as here to stay (for a few days anyway)

Ah it's so good to feel some sun on my skin! We had a lovely day out on saturday to the local country park, despite Poppy and I having a stinking cold. Think the fresh air made up for feeling pants. I didn't realise that the sun would be strong this early in the year and managed to slightly burn my face and shoulders. Poppy's little face was quite red too by bedtime - keeping the sunhat on her head is a constant battle - will have to go get some sunscreen on thursday.

Seem to be having a run of bad luck with internet orders lately, first the nappylady order that never arrived now an order from ebay for washable baby wipes. Ordered them a week last saturday & still nada. Have emailed them but no reply as yet.

Just need to look at Poppy's smily face to forget everything that's bugging me though...

Working woman again

The first week is over. Actually had some proper work to do again today and finished my checking logs. So I am officially useful again. Pretty tired tonight but yet again a pile of ironing called me to my feet as soon as Poppy was in bed. My gem of a hubby did half too though so I could sit down.

Today was Poppy's first FULL day at nursery, that is 845-500. She was so tired when I picked her up after work! I did ring to check on her twice, which was about half of what I wanted to actually do. Don't think they're fed up of me ringing yet, but give it time! At least she's got us for 2 whole days now over the weekend, and it should be a fun one too - visiting my parents in the Country Park tomorrow where they're staying in their motorhome for the weekend and a swimming lesson, then a birthday party Sunday afternoon. And a night out for hubby and I tomorrow night, my brother is babysitting. A meal and a few drinks for our friend's 30th birthday, should be a fun night except I'm Des (designated driver) as one of us will have to get up with Poppy sunday morning anyway. And apparently there is going to be wine in the childrens party sunday afternoon, for the parents, so it's my turn to have a glass and relax then ;-)

First day off tomorrow yay!

I have survived the first 2 days back in the land of the working people. Not that it's been too difficult yet to be honest. Got a feeling that I'll go back on Friday morning to find my name on the ward rota though, despite not having finished my checking logs. oh well it'll make the day go faster as it did drag a bit today, especially the last hour when I knew Dave would have picked Poppy up from nursery!

Am pretty tired tonight now so having a chillout. I was somehow full of energy yesterday evening and even managed to go for a run to keep up with my R4L training, in the POURING rain I'd like to point out. The water was running off the peak of my cap! So I felt justified in eating half an easter egg later on.

Cloth bummed baby

Just a quick photo of Poppy in her new nappies


The nursery will be starting with them tomorrow. And the funny thing is hubby is taking her in the morning and so will be the one answering any questions on them having changed precisely one nappy since we started.

Poppy's Birthday Bonanza/Last day of freedom

The party went amazingly well, all the kiddies had a fun time especially Poppy who laughed for hours. Thank goodness for all the help we had from both sides of the family, we would have killed ourselves trying to do everything! She had so many gifts too, a nice mixture of clothing and toys/books.


Her dress looked gorgeous on her (this is her eating a bit of her birthday cake after her afternoon nap)




To celebrate us making it to her 1st birthday without a) going insane b) her getting hurt or ill due to our bad parenting hubby & I opened the champagne we bought for the occasion. At very nice it was too. I opened it to toast the minute she was born, with a big gulp to ward off the bad-birth memories and regrets. I did, however, regret drinking the majority of it - hubby had a bit of a dicky stomach but any excuse - when Poppy proceeded to wake up 3 times during the night then again before 6am. Thank god she went back to sleep for another hour in on our bed, there was no way I could contemplate getting up then.

On an aside from the post topic I'm a little unsure about starting the whole bringing her into our bed thing, but as I never do it during the night, only for the last hour of her sleep, I'm hoping it'll be ok. It makes such a difference having an extra hour in bed, even if it's not deep sleep as she's wriggling about in her sleep next to my head & I'm at risk of being whacked in the face by a flailing arm. Also it's nice having her there next to me, so that when I open my eyes I can see her little face in front of me.

Today has been my Last Ever Day Of Maternity Leave. Nothing much to say about that except it's been fantastic having the time to spend with Poppy over the past year, I don't regret any of it and have loved seeing her change from baby to toddler. I do feel that perhaps I am ready to get some of my pre-baby self back now. Whether I'll still be holding onto that romantic notion by Friday I'll let you know.

More illness - can you believe it??

But me this time. After diarrhoea all afternoon and feeling queasy my evening then involved a panicked phonecall to hubby to come home from work NOW as i was unable to breathe with the stomach pain, and then a further tearful call to the ambulance service to please HELP ME. And then a trip to hospital after gas and air to enable me to move off all fours, stand, and get to the ambulance, and a shot of morphine to stop me shallow breathing and curling into a ball. Luckily the morphine sorted me out and I could go home after a few hours and some blood tests.

But man I was scared. I honestly thought at the point where I was deciding if I needed an ambulance that perhaps I might die. That Poppy would be left without a mummy. That's what made my mind up about needing help, if it turned out I was being a wimp then so be it, but if I had appendicitis or an ectopic pregnancy then I definitely needed medical attention. Turned out it was probably severe stomach cramps from gastroenteritis but by god did it hurt.

Poppy and I actually managed to make it to a birthday party today hurray!! The little girl who was in special care baby unit with Poppy when she was born turned 1 today. Poppy lasted surprisingly well seeing as she's had only car-sleep today, we lasted an hour or so and had some party food. I think she gets a bit overwhelmed with all the noise and heat too as the room was SO full of people and there was no space to move really. And Poppy does like to move quite a lot. When we got home she was fine and in a great mood again, I even had a headache after it so no wonder she got grouchy.

The Birthday Party in now in 2 days!! Hubby's family are arriving tomorrow lunchtime, we then need to go food shopping for party food in the afternoon and do all the jobs like blowing up balloons and sorting out paper plates and napkins etc. After being a bit squashed in the party room today I am glad I decided to have her party where I did, there's loads of room and lots for the kids to do. Speaking of the party, I need to go and print off my super-organised list of things to remember to take to the supermarket tomorrow. And then get some sleep. yawn.