Fish

or wiiisshhhh if you are 1 and 3/4 and can't quite pronounce it properly yet.

We have just watched Something Special and it was the one about sea creatures and all things underwater. Little man loves fish and really enjoyed watching it! We sang the under the sea song. We must have seen this one about 10 times since little man was born. We did the signs for the animals but little man wasn't bothered about them.

He is now tummy crawling round the room shouting "fish fish" and making growling noises - I can only assume he's pretending to be a scary fish. He's got this from "Hooray for fish" by Lucy Cousins, we both love that book.

Its very cute anyway, I though pretend play came much later on but he seems to be getting into it a bit.

Now we are off to tumble tots so I must tell my little shark that it's time to be a tumble tot!

Long time no post again!

Yes it's been a while and for some reason I have been unable to make my brain function in a way which would give you all an update from Mummy land.

Now little man doesn't sleep during the day (most days anyway) unless we go out in the car. This is quite rare at the moment, partially as we are very lucky to live near to a big lovely park and can walk there without crossing a road. We can also walk to the local supermarket although it takes longer to cross the roundabout to get into the entrance than it does to do the complete walk. We rely on nice motorists to let us across. We can walk through the park into the town centre and it keeps me fit with uphill and downhill sections both on the way there and on the way back. Also we are lucky to have an excellent children's centre 500m away at the local primary school.

The children's centre is great. They run several playgroups and baby groups and we currently go twice a week. We have had lots of support and freebies and we have met other mums who live locally. We even got a free trip to an education centre nr Nelson the other day! Thanks to Sure Start we also have been offered a "positive parenting" course and a "mini mend" healthy eating and exercise course. I have turned down both of these because part of the session involves little man being looked after by the centre staff whilst it goes ahead. I don't think either of us are ready for it yet plus he's still very little.

On the home side of things we are slowly getting our house a little more de cluttered which is helping. We have banned toys from the lounge and are making that "our" room whilst the dining room is the new playroom.

Little man is happily stringing two words together quite frequently. He still has his own language and quite often uses a nonsense word for something. e.g. diggy for spade. He doesn't seem to be making any attempt to copy words or phrases. Thankfully his obsession with the word "duck" meaning stuck has passed somewhat.

Right now he is helping Daddy fix a squeaky floorboard and roll up the landing carpet, whilst messing around in Daddy's assorter box full of screws, he wants me to go help too now.... bye bye!

Emotional rollercoaster

Well after an emotional week of trying to convince myself I was pregnant or not, I have reached a few conclusions:

1) Definatly not pregnant
2) Feel awful and having the worst period ever
3) Spent far too much time on farm ville as a distraction
4) spent too much money on pregnancy tests
5) Gone off the idea of trying again ever
6) Either am coming down with flu or am allergic to pregnacare.

Little mans achivements are brilliant, we have had a couple of weeks of complete babble and now we have sentences!

Mummy go, Mummy stop, bye bye daddy, bye bye Mummy, and this classic "I want one" which is now said frequently. On Tuesday he saw fish in a tank and he said "want one", he saw a toy monkey on an advert this morning and made ooh ohh ahhh aahh noises at it! Then he said "want one"! The he saw diggers and said Daddy, daddy, I want more didis!!

He tells me which way to go when I am driving the car and throws a mini strop if we don't go his way.

He shouts go when we are stopped at roundabouts/traffic lights. He also knows when vehicles are slowing down and shouts stop!

He is a very noisy boy and anything with a light on the top is classified as a nar-nar. Anything bigger than a car is a didi, this includes lawnmowers and tractors but excludes the most important thing of all ROAD ROLLERS! They are roll-rolls. Aeroplanes and helicopters get aaaaaaaaaaaaaa whilst pointing at the sky and trains are choo choos which go ch-ch-ch and woo-woo!!

His favourite word is still "duck" but it means stuck - he can't say duck but he can quack. He can't say chicken or monkey but he can make the noises for both.

He currently takes delight in calling ladies mummies, men daddies and older ladies mar-mars. He hasn't mastered Grandad yet so old men get away with being called "Duh"! He also decides which ducks are the mummies, daddies and babies and calls the little fish at playgroup "babies".

He's been saying some of these words for ages now but all of sudden they've all come together and he's putting them together. He still uses a lot of his words instead of the actual word so I am trying to teach him train, digger, tractor and aeroplane!

He's wonderful and I don't feel ready to let him go just yet, despite 2 offers of free courses with included creche, I don't think he's ready for it neither am I for that reason!

Feel much better after 2 ibuprofen so off to have a hot bath and an early night.

Do we know too much?!

I'm very tired, I have tender breasts which suddenly hurt a bit when feeding again. I have been very hungry and I can't sleep at night and I'm waking up in the morning boiling hot?!!

All the above could be put down to various normal everyday life style activities/problems.

Although I am hoping they are a sign of something else, those Mummys out there might have twigged by now.

The other opinion is we know too much about things and I am imagining symptoms which are just nothings in reality as I want something to happen.

I have to wait until next Weds really to do a test and find out if I am right or just convincing myself something is there - ARGH! I feel extremely sorry for all those people who have had to struggle for years with having this same dilemma every month.

Wet welsh week!

Well last week we took ourselves to Wales, Dolgellau to be precise about it. We had the very generous offer from the in-laws, they would pay for a cottage and we could come for free. Plus they would help us out with little man. Woo hoo - can't refuse.

The cottage was very spacious and had a big dining kitchen which I thought would be terrible but it was great. Little man ran straight into the room with bunk beds and demanded to be put into the bottom bunk and refused to get out! He slept in the proper sized big bed absolutely beautifully all week. We used a bed guard to stop him falling/trying to get out. After only 1 week in a toddler bed at home we were pleasantly surprised.

The area was lovely, the cottage had views to Cader Idris and was halfway up a hill, very secluded but only 10 mins walk from the centre of Dolgellau. Unfortunately the weather wasn't kind so we spent a lot of time going to the many narrow gauge railways in the area. Little man loves trains, he is now obsessed with trains!

We also went to the Centre for Alternative Technology which was very unusual but very interesting. Fantastic lasagne in the vegetarian restaurant, a great way to get more than your five a day in one huge portion! Very scary water powered funicular railway to get in though!




We spent lots of time outdoors in the fresh air, picked blackberries down the lane from the cottage and had them for tea. Showed little man how to pick them which he loved apart from when he got prickled!

Got a nice day out together and went for a slap up meal in a nice hotel all on our own. We walked back to the cottage together and it was lovely just like a first date.

We got to the beach on the last day and got blown away and sandblasted. Little man made the most out of it by digging and building sandcastles with Daddy but he didn't like the ferocious wind so we didn't stay long.

We also decided maybe it was time to try extending our little family a bit more!

Where it all began....

I was looking back to when DH and I discovered we were pregnant...

It was March 2007 and DH and I were very busy, our wedding was planned for the next month and we still hadn't sorted the evening entertainment, the flowers and the honeymoon. We were also organising dress and suit fittings and meetings with the photographer and hotel to name a few others. We'd booked the wedding in July 2006 but had left a few things until the last minute!

We were also helping with our local scout and guide variety show "Chorley Capers". DH was lighting technician and I was operating a follow spot (spot light) for the first time ever with no prior training. It was a hectic week which involved mad dashes down the M6 & M61 after work, a quick tea and a dash to the theatre for 6pm every night. I loved it - I was absolutely exhausted but enjoying everything so much. It was during this show week that I discovered I was going to have a baby.

The weekend before the show started, was spent setting up, so DH & I were there all day helping put up lights, connect speakers, paint scenery and do any other odd jobs around the place. The place had been shut up for a while and the theater smelt horrible. Behind the stage was damp and there were numerous rat traps around. The smell knocked me back the first time I went back there, I was surprised as after a while I needed to run outside to get fresh air. I couldn't remember ever feeling that bad just from smelling a bad smell! I also felt queasy but put that down to PMS as my period was due on Monday.

Monday came and we attended the theatre to watch the show for the first time in rehearsal. We were busy writing down cue's and notes as to the actors positions on the stage when they would need spotlighting. I also practised altering the size of my spot and moving it slowing and gently. Even more difficult was keeping it still. At the end of the night I mentioned the lack of period to DH and he said not to worry it was only 1 day and would probably start the next day.

Tuesday came and by the evening, no period. I was worried, DH again rather "you've got your dates wrong" unconcerned.

Nothing on Wednesday either - by now each day was dragging and I couldn't concentrate at work. It was all I could think about. I went on numerous websites and got nowhere.

Thursday was horrendous, started looking back through my diary and remembered the night my friends had come to stay about 2 weeks ago...hmm....night out in town, a few glasses of wine, a night of passion with DH and oh yes we didn't use any contraception. Period now 4 days late. HHHMMMMM, but I was on my period when we did the deed - you can't get pregnant then surely??

Well after mumbling some feeble excuse about a headache I left work early, rang DH and ordered him to go to Tesco and get a pregnancy test. He went and got 2! I ran in the house and grabbed it off the stairs and went straight to the bathroom.

It was positive, the result came up in seconds. There was a big silent pause as I stood there not really knowing what to think/say/do. I was interrupted by DH coming upstairs. Once I told him I cried and cried. I don't know why really. I asked the stupid question "What are we going to do?" to which DH said have a baby!!

I rang a friend and told her, still a bit emotional. She told me to go to the doctors and everything would go from there.

One month later we were married on a beautiful sunny day in April and it was fantastic. I felt queasy at times but managed to get through the day and actually really enjoyed it. We went on honeymoon to France and stayed in a small cottage and self catered - not very flash but a good job as all I could eat was toast!

I had my 12 week scan and booking in appointment when we got back from honeymoon and we were all set for the due date which was only one day different to my calculations. We told people now and started to get used to the idea of being pregnant. I had queasy ness until 16 weeks and was so tired I constantly late for work and falling asleep after my tea. Then it was great and after the 20 week scan when we found out little bean was a boy, I finally got excited and we started to buy things for him and get a room ready.

The rest of the pregnancy went smoothly, I finished work at 37 weeks and little man was born exactly on month later.

I'll write my brith story on a new post.

Sir Strop-a-lot strikes again!

Today little man has argued with several children at messy play and tried to take toys off most of them and screamed when he's not got his own way or the desired toy. He had a major tantrum/strop over a toy train and got most upset when we had to put it back in the box and say goodbye to it.

He had a strop when mummy told him off for eating all the cake batter. He stropped when Grandma wouldn't let him go home in her car with her. He also had a major strop outside Tesco when he couldn't sit in the ride on Noddy car as he was strapped in the trolley seat.

Had several strops about being "duck" which translates to stuck in his language or in real life strapped into a pram, booster seat, higher chair or car seat. Refused to eat his lunch and his tea and actually pushed his plate away and said a very definite "NO!" (this one hasn't happened before)

But he didn't have a nap today so he was very tired and therefore after a major "i don't want to have a bath" strop bedtime was much easier and he fell asleep whilst breastfeeding! Wow - that hasn't happened since he was 6 months old. But shock horror - we've done it........

The cot bed is now a bed!!! Last night was hell and he woke up at 5.39am this morning (very unusual for my tot) and refused to go back to sleep, so he got breast milk and plonked in mummy and daddy's bed as it was still night time.

We haven't used a bed guard as the cot bed is only about 30cm high so any fall would be very minimal, however it's all very nerve wracking every creak or groan of the house has me panicking he's fallen out of bed and is running around the landing.

He's also developed an interest in a potty after having a wee on one at playgroup, so that's next to purchase.

To sum up - My little man is really growing up, really. Gosh. Happy and sad at the same time.