Top Baby Names 2012

The top 10 girls names for 2012 were:
1. Amelia
2. Lily
3. Emily
4. Sophia
5. Isabelle
6. Sophie
7. Olivia
8. Jessica
9. Chloe
10. Mia

For boys, the top 10 are:
1. Harry
2. Jack
3. Oliver
4. Charlie
5. James
6. George
7. Thomas
8. Ethan
9. Jacob
10. William

Jamie was at number 47, Noah was at 14 and Elliot was at number 50

www.netmums.com/pregnancy/baby-names-buys-and-rights/the-most-popular-baby-names-in-2012?

Christmas Party 2012

Booked the large church hall (and use of the kitchen) this year from 5pm – 8pm with half an hour either way for setting up and clearing away.  Myself and Kerry contacted all those who attended last year – plus a few others - via text and an ‘invite only’ event on Facebook a few days after our Halloween party.  Although we obviously could not invite all our (joint) friends, we did try to invite children of similar ages who would have at least a few friends there on the night.

Because of the expense of the hall hire and the bouncy castle (total of £96.50), in the original text and Facebook invitation we asked for a donation of £5 from each family. To break even we worked out we needed 19 families to contribute.

Of the initial invites, we had only one family that was unable to attend.  Nearer to the date, Jamie invited two of his friends from Nursery, and Kerry invited three other families; whose children were close in age to her daughters. 

FOOD AND DRINK
Everyone was asked to bring some food and their own drink . After we had a list, we then allocated foodstuffs to attendee’s i.e. Jo – Tea, Coffee, Sugar, milk, Becci – Pringles, Crisps.  As per last years party, I think the food that was brought was just about right. We opened it all up as soon as we got there and just had a ‘running’ buffet’.  I had asked for contributions of paper plates, napkins etc and, although they weren't necessarily matching, it saved on the washing up!

















BOUNCY CASTLE
Once again we asked www.bendysbouncers.com/ to bring their ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ castle.

COLOURING TABLE
I got some super Christmas pictures from www.netmums.com  which I was then able to photocopy, and took along Jamie's box of felt tips.

DECORATIONS
Although the church hall was decorated, we took along some more tinsel, some fibre optic Christmas trees to put on tables, and a couple of strings of Christmas lights. We also took a lighting box to put disco lights on the wall.  And don't forget the balloons.  Unfortunately, Noah didn't like them and go very upset everytime one burst!!

MUSIC AND LIGHTS
Prior to the party I put together a dedicated ‘Christmas mix’ with lots of party tunes and a few Christmas songs onto my phone.  I plugged my phone into one of daddy’s amps and so there was music for us to dance to.   It didn't matter that not everyone danced - me and Auntie Chrissie had a good boogie!!

GOODIE BAGS
A big Thank You to Vicki who did some fantastic goodie bags for all the children.  They were wonderful.  She included Christmas crackers, pencils, rubbers, balloons, a bouncy ball, Reindeer food, Christmas tattoos, lots of chocolate, and even a hand written Christmas card from Santa.

COST
We did not have the 'break even' total of 19 families, but I feel that may have been too many. In total we had 19 children and 27 adults who turned up on the night.  We had four families who cancelled on the night due to illness, but it was nice that these still sent along their £5 contribution. Kerry and Becci contributed £10 and I didn't mind putting up the short fall which was about £30.

WILL WE DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR?

Not sure.  Jamie (and a lot of his pals) will have started school by then and may have a fuller social life and a completely different set of pals.  Watch this space....

We Love Christmas!!

Christmas this year has been truly magical. We have done so many things with Jamie and he has loved (almost) every minute of it. The look in his eyes and his excitement at everything has made it wonderful and brought back the feelings from Christmas past when we were children.

This photo was taken at Jamie's visit to Santa at Nursery as part of the Pre-School party.  It was a lot more successful than his Nativity, so mummy and daddy were glad they made the effort to pick him up together. The smile on his face was wonderful!  It is somehow sad to think that this time next year he will be at school.  My little boy will have grown up.....

Joining In

Just lately a couple of the staff at pre-school have said how Jamie is coming out of his shell (except for the nativity of course but I think that was probably due to his cough more than anything else!) and we have certainly found that at home.

He continues to exist at 100 miles an hour when fully awake and can be a bit mardy when sleepy; either before bed or just after waking up.  But it is his interaction with the television that has recently started.  The character Tree Fu Tom does a number of moves to turn the magic on and Jamie will now get off the sofa to join in.  He also joins in with the Groovy Moves on Show Me, Show Me and the other night got out of bed (where we were watching it) to pretend to be a slug!!

He has also started singing along to the songs; especially on I Can Cook; although he still doesn't like mummy singing along.  He has however, loved mummy singing Christmas tunes at bed time, and keeps asking for me to play Santa Claus is Coming to Town on the stereo, so we can sing and dance along!!

Yesterday we went to Harry's 4th party; who we met at Baby Signing.  Jamie was very clingy to start with (having just woke up) but by the end was having a whale of a time.  However, he would not go on their bouncy castle.  I suspect that this was because there were an awful lot of children he did not know on it!   They had The Music Man as entertainment (who is doing the Nursery party) and after a slow start Jamie joined in with the music and games.  He loved throwing the balls off the parachute to Nellie the Elephant!!

"I don't want a......"

....Thomas Train Set now mummy".

Arrrhhhhh!!  What do I do now?

(Luckily, the next day, he wanted one again!)

Pre-School Concert...

Daddy left work early and mummy arranged to go into work late so that they could see Jamie in his pre-school concert this morning.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a wash out, as Jamie really did not want to do it, which meant mummy had to sit at the front with Jamie and the other children, while daddy sat on his own.   After a few songs from the other children and nothing but tears from Jamie, he started to say (very) loudly "I want to go home."   Mummy and Jamie went and sat in the nursery - which was less than pleasant as someone had just been sick - and waited til the concert was over.  Daddy was left clapping at other peoples children.

Mummy didn't really want to leave Jamie at pre-school after that, but she said goodbye and went off to work.  When she picked him up, Jamie was as happy as could be, so she need not have worried. 

Just worried now that he isn't going to want to take part in the X factor when he is older!!

Cough in Pocket

Had to laugh this week, as one morning (as he was getting better) Jamie coughed into his hand and said "Put in my pocket".  Then proceeded to put his hand (and his cough) into his pocket.    Very funny!!

Jamie still loves his teddies

Perhaps he is 'soft' as they would have said in the old days, but Jamie still loves all his teddies and of course loves cuddling them.  His favourite (at the moment) is Lion - who he calls Felix - who we got from Yorkshire Wildlife Park.  Prior to that it was Polar Bear. 

Of course Elephant and Bear-Bear both disappeared and he still talks about them.  They have an elephant (the same) at Nursery who Jamie likes to cuddle when he is there.  

Now that the Christmas box is down, all the Christmas teddies are out and Jamie loves collecting them from around the house and playing with them altogether.  His favourite game is pretending Rudolph and Felix are pulling Santa on his sleigh.   But his favourite game of all, is still to cuddle up in bed with mummy and daddy with a teddy or two, thumb in mout,h with someone reading him a story.   This is mummy's (and probably daddy's) favourite game as well. We are truly lucky to have Jamie.

Poor Little Baby...

After all the excitement of Sundown, Jamie then came down with one of his colds.   He was suffering a bit at Sundown but didn't want to leave.  It was only because mummy had a cold back that we did.  I am sure Jamie and daddy would have stayed there all night if I had let them!!

He was up most of Tuesday night with a cough and Wednesday morning I knew nursery would not take him as his cough sounded awful!  As the day went on, he seemed to get worse.

Wednesday, Jamie never really got out of bed, and mummy spent most of the day reading in the bed next to him as he didn't like it if mummy left him.  At night, mummy struggled to find much to do as Jamie then wanted the light off.

Daddy slept on the sofa due to the noise, but just after midnight mummy woke him up as Jamie was burning up and he seemed to have trouble breathing.  His temperature was 38.5, so not overly serious, but after daddy reassured her that he was ok, mummy sat with a flannel on Jamie's forehead; which seemed to help.   

All this meant that mummy had to apply for Carers Leave for Wednesday afternoon.  Thursday, Nana came and sat with Jamie, rather than taking him back to hers, as it was so cold outside and Jamie was so sleepy.  He just spent the afternoon on the sofa.  On Friday, he was better, but still had the cough, so luckily Nana looked after him again and mummy managed to leave work early!!

On Saturday, Jamie had been invited to a party at "Noah from Nursery's" house.  His cough was still pretty bad, so we decided not to send him for the sake of the other children.  Noah's mum sent a text in the afternoon to say that in the end, Noah had been sick just after everyone arrived, and so that had kinda ended the party anyway!!

There's a lot of it about....

Santa Special 2012

Even with Jamie's cough, we couldn't miss the Santa Special this year; especially as cousin Noah and 'the girls' were there!!     

We all wrapped up very warm, had three rides on the trains and had a nice cup of tea and a mince pie.  And don't forget the visit to see Santa, and get a present!  Wonderful!! 

 

Santa at Sundown

I cannot recommend the Sundown Christmas experience highly enough. 

Other than the wintry weather and the cold that Jamie is suffering with today, it was wonderful. 

The picture tells the story:

www.sundownadventureland.co.uk

First School Trip

Monday, Jamie went on his first school trip.  It was only across Hykeham from his nursery to Ling Moor School, but the nursery had hired a bus to take the 32 children, so it was all a big adventure.  I asked Jamie if he had sat with Archie or Joseph (his two big pals) but he said he had sat next to Zoe on the bus.

Park had been invited by the school to attend their Nativity play.  Jamie said he saw someone dressed as Santa and there were no reports of his screaming at 'someone dressed up'.  In fact, I was told that he behaved very well and stayed seated throughout the play.

I think it helped that Jamie has visited the school a couple of times previously -as this is the school we have put at the top of our school choices for 2013.