NCT - circa 14 weeks

I've been trying to get this photo to load for ages and it finally has. Hurrah! From left to right are George, Daisy, Rafferty, Eleanor and Archie. So cute!

Happy bank holiday Monday!

The sun's come out! Daisy is celebrating by wearing a hat and I'm celebrating by doing a bbq lunch. Better get out there quick before it starts raining. Again.

I'm back! The weather stayed good for the bbq and we've just been to the park where Daisy had a great time on the swings.

Bx

Big day for Thomas

It was Thomas's christening yesterday which was a great day. He did really well and didn't even cry when the water was poured over his head. Well done Thomas! It was a big day for Daisy as it was her first proper party and there were lots of older kids there. She was particulary taken with the bigger girls and got very excited when she was allowed to play on the bouncey castle with them. I thought she might cry being bounced around and dragged from one kid to another but she loved it. They were excited to have a little baby to play with too.

The top photo is taken with Toby. Daisy is clearly pointing to him and saying 'who's this muppet'. The middle photo is with Chris and the star of the day, Thomas. The bottom photo is playing in the ball pool with the girls.

We stayed late but Daisy was a brave soldier and stuck to her routine despite having a bath in an unfamiliar bathroom and being put to sleep for the night in her pram rather than cot. Excellent work.

Bx

Hello Isabella!

Stupid photo upload not working again. Grrrrr.

Daisy, Julia and I had a girl's day out yesterday. We went to Wimbledon to see The Da Vinci Code then went out for lunch and did a bit of shopping. Daisy's eyes were as big as saucers for her first movie going experience. She watched the first 45 minutes then slept in her car seat for an hour and a half. What a good girl! The Wimbledon Odeon does parent and baby screenings every Wednesday morning which is great.

Daisy is keeping up the good work with regards to the thumb sucking. She splays the rest of her fingers over her face which looks a bit like the creature in Alien but it's better than her looking like Hannibal Lector with a dummy I suppose!

I'm very happy today as Anna and Marco called this morning with the news of the safe arrival of their daughter, Isabella, at Nelson Hospital. Congratulations to them! Lucky I'm in such a good mood as Daisy certainly isn't. She's definitely been hit with the grumpy stick. She had her final lot of injections on Tuesday so I'm wondering if it is a delayed reaction to that. She's having her afternoon nap now so I'm hoping she will wake up from that feeling a bit better. Not likely...

Bx

Big thumbs up

Big event for Daisy today. She spends a lot of time sucking her hands and fingers but for the first time today she properly found her thumb and fell asleep sucking it. I'm thrilled as it's a top way of her being able to settle herself. Of course, if it's still firmly jammed in her mouth when she's seven the thrill will probably have worn off.

The posts have been a bit sparse lately not due to me being slack but because the photo upload function has been really hit and miss. As it's working today I've put on three photos to catch up a bit.

The first one is last weekend and shows Daisy snogging the face off her friend Geoffrey. She loves Geoffrey and as a result he has a constantly soggy snout. Yick!

The second photo is yesterday. She's flying just like her Uncle Oliver (minus the plane).

The third shot is this morning. As you can see, she's sitting up like a big girl and holding up her fingers to show how many months old she will be this Saturday.

The rest of the weekend was quiet. Carlene and Dave visited yesterday. The weather is curtailing doing much as it's still rubbish. According the the forecast it's meant to be bad all week. Wail!

Bx

Oh no!

Here's Daisy reacting to Arsenal's Champion League final loss. The shock!

We've just returned from lunch at Mildred's. Yum. After lunch we did some shopping. Oxford Street on a Saturday is never much fun but with a buggy it's a nightmare. Luckily Daisy was oblivious to the carnage and even managed to fall asleep in Baby Gap. Tut tut, sleeping on the job!

The weather has been proper rubbish for days so we spent most of the latter part of the week at home although we did schlep down to Northcote Road on Friday afternoon for coffee with Julia.

Bx

Yay!

Photo upload is go! Here is Daisy laughing with (at?) Grandma Julia.

Bx

Stupid blogger

The stupid photo upload function isn't working again. I've waited a few days for it to be fixed but have now given up so it's a sans photo post. Boo!

I had a fabulous time at Ragani's 30th party on Saturday night. A bit too much of a good time resulting in my first proper hangover for about a year. Urgh. I spent all Sunday morning in bed feeling sorry for myself (and Daisy who probably had a wine laced breakfast) but managed to get up in time for a bbq we were having with all the NCT group. The rain held off and we had a very nice afternoon. All the babies were very well behaved which was a bonus. As us girls meet up every week it's easy to forget that the boys don't see the other babies that regulary and they were all surprised how much they had changed and grown.

We've had a quiet week so far. I decided Monday was a pj's day and we didn't go out all day. Tuesday we had NCT coffee afternoon at Cafe Nero. Daisy had a big lunch time sleep (1 3/4 hours) so was a very happy baby all afternoon. Today Julia is visiting. The weather is rubbish so we are staying in but Daisy had another big lunch time sleep so fingers crossed for a happy afternoon. She's wearing her new dungarees so even if she's grumpy, she'll still look cute!

Bx

But Daisy, what big eyes you have.

It's Ragani's birthday party tonight and the theme is something beginning with R. As you can see (from the very posed photo), I'm going as not so little Red Riding Hood. Here's me reading Daisy her goodnight story....Little Red Riding Hood! I was quite embarrassingly thrilled about it. I made the hood myself. Good practice for the housewifery skills.

On Friday we spent the afternoon with Julia. It's lovely her being able to pop and see us for a few hours. Daisy was in good form for Grandma. Smiley but just enough of a cheeky monkey to keep her on her toes!

Today we went shopping then Andy and Daisy watched the nail biting FA Cup final whilst I got a few things done. Oooo, cab's here. Bye!

Bx

Summery

This picture is from last week but it's shorts weather again today. I'm really enjoying the heat but poor Daisy has been getting very hot and bothered. Must be her daddy's northern blood. She'd better get used to it or else there goes my plans of spending my maternity leave lounging in the sun. We'd better get her a paddling pool pronto.

We covered up the skylight outside Daisy's room last night and she slept until 7.15am this morning. Top snoozing!

Bx

Curious

Daisy is still waking at 6am (argh) but at least she is happy to hang out in her bed chatting to her mobile for about half an hour before I have to get up and get her. We've had excellent progress on her bedtime routine. The last two nights instead of screaming she has been excited and smiley about her goodnight story then happily gone in to her cot and fallen asleep with no tears. Hoorah!

Bx

Duvet burrower

Daisy loves hanging out in our bed. She hasn't been so good at hanging out in her own bed over the weekend with two 6am wake ups. I'm ferverently hoping it's due to being hungry early from a growth spurt rather than a new routine. Fingers crossed for back to 7.30am tomorrow!

We had a good afternoon. A walk round Wandsworth Common was followed by lunch at Nicksons on Northcote Road with Carlene, Dave, Tom, Bridget, Ness and Bob. Taking Daisy out for lunch is much easier when there are a few of the girls there, cuddles at the ready. Great for giving our arms a rest!

Bx

Busy week

Here is me and Daisy having exercise time. As you can see, she's pretty good at reverse crunches. Her baby push ups are coming along nicely and we've made a good start on rolling for beginners.

Julia stayed from Tuesday until Friday and we had a busy week. On Wednesday we went to my work for lunch. It was really nice to see everyone and Daisy enjoyed meeting them all. I'm still missing work so it was nice to see how everyone is doing. Next time I go in I think Daisy will be getting left at home so I can enjoy a few drinks! Andy and I took advantage of our onsite babysitter on Wednesday night and went out for cocktails then dinner which was very nice.

Thursday was a scorcher (well, 26 degrees which is pretty hot) so we spent the afternoon having a picnic by the pond on Wandsworth Common. We kept Daisy's delicate skin out of the sun but it was lovely to spend an afternoon relaxing outside. On Thursday night we again left Daisy is Grandma's capable hands and had a lovely night at The Classical Brits at The Royal Albert Hall. Placido Domingo was the star of the night but all the performers were very good.

On Friday we went to Northcote Road for a bit of shopping and lunch at GBK. Daisy loves pulling her dress up so spent most of the time we were there flashing her knickers at the table next to us. Tsk! She now has much better control over her hands and feet and loves to pull her blankets and muslins over her face so we have to keep an eye on her. She's now also very fond of clapping her feet in the bath. After GBK we went to Starbucks for coffee and to give Daisy her bottle. Doing a 2pm bottle makes going out much easier which is great.

Toby is staying for the weekend and him and Andy have just headed off to Harrods with Daisy to pick up some accessories for her Bugaboo. A foot muff and parasol to be precise. A girl needs warm tootsies and a shaded face if she's to look her best.

I've been finding things a little tough the past couple of weeks. Now it's been over three months since I had Daisy I feel like I should be back in shape and on form and to not be is frustrating. I also feel like I should be getting more done round the house and garden. Daisy is wonderful and lots of fun but she doesn't sleep much during the day (40 minutes in the morning, about an hour at lunch and 40 minutes in the afternoon) so most of my day is spent entertaining her and trying to come up with fun, educational and new things to do. She's the top priority so I know I shouldn't worry so much about the other stuff but it's depressing being at home with everything I haven't achieved during the day all around me. Things have gotten a lot easier but it's still really hard work and I'm beginning to wonder if this is as easy as it's going to get until she goes to nursery which is a daunting thought. I know that I'm really lucky to have her and also really lucky that she sleeps through the night and that thanks to my mother that we get plenty of nights out so feeling down makes me feel guilty which in turn doesn't help. Woe! I wouldn't change any of it for the world but being a stay at home mother is bloody hard work.

Bx

Another first

Daisy went swimming for the first time today. By swimming I mean she was dunked for 10 minutes in a small round pool made up of 50% baby wee and chocker full of other babies with their parents. However, she seemed to enjoy it, hurrah!

Yesterday we went shopping in Harrods and had a quick bite to eat whilst Daisy showed off her England rugger top, which seems to fit her fine even though it is supposed to be 12-18 months. She is pretty slap bang in the middle of the weight chart for her age, so it can't be designed for budding rugby stars of the future. Daisy's friend Thomas is bulking up to try and break into his nursery's under 9 months rugby team, but there's no way he'll get in it.

Maybe England are going to field a team of midgets in 20 years time to run between the legs of the All Blacks! Hmmm....I think I'd pay to watch that!

Cheers

Andy