Happy Halloween

Its been a bit of a stressful week this week for mummy. Jamie however has had a brilliant couple of weeks. After the scandal at Baby Signing he was then invited to Sophie's 2nd birthday party where all the children dressed up in their Halloween costumes. There seemed to be more witches than anything else, and Isla was there, so Jamie at least knew a few faces. On the Sunday we decided to go and watch daddy play football, but we shall not be doing that again as it was cold, dangerous (due to flying footballs) and the language was terrible!! Then this week Jamie attended another Halloween party with the Drama Bugs http://www.dramabugs.co.uk/ which was pretty mad with all the older children running and shouting about, but Jamie found out how much he liked crisps!! And in amongst all of this he went for his first swimming lesson.

As for mummy, she had an interview and was offered the job but then got totally stressed trying to sort out child care for the first few weeks. She had just got it all sorted when the job rang to change her second weeks shift. This turned out to be totally impossible to organise around Jamie and daddy's shifts, and so mummy has had to resign before she even started! We have realised that what mummy needs is a job with set hours so there isn't stress every week trying to juggle Jamie about. Things aren't at a total loss though, as mummy has got another interview in a few weeks.....

Goodbye Steph

Today we said goodbye to a dear friend who always had a smile on his face. Not yet 40, he had had a heart problem all his life and suffered a fatal heart attack. He didn't really do much to help himself. He smoked and drank and hardly ate at all. But he was like a little boy; always up to mischief with that cheeky grin on his face.... God Bless.

They played a couple of songs at his funeral I now won't be able to hear without filling up; Stone Roses - Sally Cinnamon, and The Beautiful South - One Last Love Song, and the following poem was read out:

Remember by Christina Rosetti
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Scandal at Baby Signing....

....Jamie and Isla caught snogging under the parachute!!

Visit to Dr Mark

Up early and off to B&Q for some pre-Christmas DIY and while we were there; mummy was looking at curtains and daddy pushing the trolley, a (rather strange) man started talking to Jamie. As we moved off he commented 'Your son's got a lazy eye. It's ok they can correct it easily nowadays'. Neither of us were quite sure what to say. This is not the first time this comment has been made. We did ask about his eyes at one of his early checks and were told it was normal. All of a sudden we were worried again! So off we went to see Dr Mark who looked at both of Jamie's eyes. He thought his left might be a bit 'lazy' but he also said it could be due to Jamie's nose being in his vision! He has referred us to the hospital. We should have an appointment in 6-8weeks, so feel slightly better.

New Tricks

Had cousin Lucy, Auntie Chrissie and Uncle Dean over for the weekend and Jamie has been a little tinker ever since!! I can honestly say it brought Jamie on no end. Just shows the power of play and interaction with other children, and makes me realise the value of taking Jamie to the groups we try and get to every week. I was worried for a while that he wasn't social enough but I think (hope) that is changing...

We played musical statues - with Jamie at the CD Player: Play. Pause. Play. Pause - Lucy loved it!! And we went for a ride on the miniature railway. We also got to visit Nanna Grace who will be 90 in a few weeks and was up playing football (don't tell Mo!). We are all looking forward to their next visit!

Very first haircut today....

I know, 18months old and only just had a hair cut. He has has lovely long and thick hair for a few months now but I am afraid to say I have just been putting off the trip to the hairdresser. But after having my own hair done on Wednesday, I decided to take the plunge and book him and daddy in. When we got there I found out we should have gone yesterday but that's another story....

And don't tell Nanna that this week an old man actually accused Jamie of being a girl - Nanna has been trying to get us to take him to the hairdresser for months now!

Did he behave? Well, he got his hair cut, but there was a large amount of jiffling about and nearly a whole packet of milky way stars given in bribes!! At least he can see now and we can only blame his new trainers when he walks into something....

Look at the state of my house!!

I spent a few days last week giving the house a damn good clean. Nanna took Jamie out and I managed to clean all the floors (we have wooden floors throughout). Cousin Lucy was supposed to be visiting at the weekend and this was the spark but once I got started.... However, the weekend came and went and Uncle Dean was ill so they did not make it but as for my tidy house - what happened?

One big excuse I have is that Jamie is showing an early aversion to anything domestic (typical male!) in that he cries when either the lawnmover or hoover start, and he simply will not have me washing up as he pulls me away from the sink whenever I start!! Then there is the phrase; 'two steps forward and one step back' which seems to aptly sum up my cleaning when Jamie is about! He loves carrying his toys around from one room to another and throwing anything in a basket (toys, DVDs, mum's paperwork etc.) onto the floor. He loves opening and emptying drawers at the moment (especially my jewellery drawer), but still loves his old favourite; pulling all the CDs off the rack. And as for music to clean by - which I find always helps - Jamie has found the pause button and loves pausing any CD you play. Pause. Play. Pause. Play. Pause - get it? Jamie thinks it is a brilliant game!!

Saying all that, the house does feel fresher and as we suddenly had a free weekend we did manage to sort the garden out ready for the autumn. This meant putting away a lot of Jamie's toys and we wonder will he want them in the spring or will he have grown out of them?

Purchase of the Month: Little Wellington Boots for Jamie to slip on and off as we go outside into the damp garden. No more soggy trainers!!

18 months already!?

Jamie is 18 months old today - where has all the time gone?
Seems like only yesterday.....

A lot of it about....

Do you find when you say 'I'm not feeling too well' etc. someone will always say; 'Well, there's a lot of it about'. Friday there were a few of us missing from playgroup. Zoe had a high temperature, Emily had the start of a cold and Jamie has been teething this week so we decided to stay at home in the warm. Along with the teething, Jamie has been suffering with a very red face, but I am not sure whether it really bothers him that much. It just looks sore. And then, cousin Lucy should be visiting this weekend but Uncle Dean is full of cold.

Since Jamie has been born and, not counting the time spent in hospital and with the tube, Jamie has been quite a healthy baby. Last weekend we had one of our worst. On the Friday afternoon he seemed perfectly healthy and had a good tea of toast and macaroni cheese. But not long after he had his night time milk he threw it back up again and then proceeded to at least try to be sick about every hour. It seemed as if it may have been his stomach but we weren't sure. It really frightened me as I don't like him being ill, and straight away panicked it could be something serious! Saturday morning and we tried him on some milk again and the same thing happened - big chunks of congealed milk everywhere. Not at all nice, but the smell is even worse!! Went on the Internet and spoke to a few people and we did wonder for a time whether Jamie had a milk intolerance. We started him back on semi skimmed milk, but a few days later and he is back to normal.