GOSH - Teens First For Health

If you have read my blog before you will know that I did a post a couple of weeks ago all about GOSH, and the charity that supports all the amazing work they do there, (if you didn't see it you can read it here).

I am in complete awe of the work that they do at Great Ormond Street, and when I was asked by them to get some information out there about a new campaign they are fronting, I was only to happy to oblige.

GOSH has put together a fantastic site aimed at getting kids, teens and their parents to get fit and stay healthy

Children First for Health is an award winning health and hospital information website for teenagers, children and parents, run by Great Ormond Street Hospital, they provide thousands of clinically approved pages of age-appropriate content and advice, put together using a mix of the clinical skills and experience of the fantastic world-famous staff with a creative team of writers and designers to provide all ages with a trusted educational health resource.

I have been looking all over the site for a few days now and they really are full of load of information and fun stuff for all the family to do and to take part in , there are games and cool videos to watch in the site and kids can register to make the site personal to them, even better as far as most kids (and parents) are concerned is the chance to win an i-pod just by registering.

If you have kids especially teenager it really is worth giving this site a visit, even if it is only to get the answers to all those embarrassing questions teenagers are going to ask at some point

A Letter To My 16 Year Old Self.

This post is inspired by a theme on the writing workshop over at Sleep is for the Weak, this is my first time so be gentle with me.

Dear Lolly,

let me start this letter by saying I know you will take absolutely no notice of anything I say,cause knowing you as well as I do it is apparent to me now that at 16 you think you know it all...please for once listen and hear this YOU REALLY DON'T.

You are bright and clever, your teachers are always telling your parents that, so try to apply yourself a little bit more, you will see that things that came so easily to you now are not quite so easy to grasp once you are past 30.

You will actually manage to pass all of the exams you take much to your parents delight and your relief, but the camping trip you take to Spain as a well done present, please be careful, you are far to trusting and not everyone is as nice as you, do not walk back to the campsite with the really friendly German guy, take this from me when something looks to good to be true it usually is, what happens will change you, but I promise you will be fine and not all men are like that.

One day you really will thanks your dad for making you go to university, yes I know it will be hard work but you will learn so much more than just the academic stuff, more than anything else you do in your 20's your time at uni will make you into a much better person and will eventually lead you to a career you love...I know it is hard to believe you will find a job you enjoy but it is possible to work an enjoy it

Men are not all bad and although you will meet your fair share of tossers (especially the scousers, yes I know he is gorgeous but he is really bad news STAY AWAY FROM HIM). You will meet the one just as you get to your 28Th birthday, grab him with both hands and hold onto him, don't play hard to get and don't muck him around, it will only cause trauma there is no need for. I know you think now that you do not want children, they smell, they are noisy and they mean you cant spend all your money on going out and buying new clothes and makeup, I do however promise you this, you are going to have them and you are going to think that it is the best thing you have ever done, you will feel love like you can't believe.

Your mum and dad will always be there for you, even when you drive them mad, spend as much time with Nana and grandad Phil as you can, and never be afraid to tell someone you love them, life is to short to hold it all in.

If you listen to nothing else I say in this letter please,please listen to this, laugh everyday, love like there is no tomorrow and never sleep on a cross word.

Love

Lorraine (aged 39 1/4)

P.S. People will eventually stop calling you Lolly, but not until you are 35, live with it.

All Change...Again!!

Its been all change in our little world again recently, I mentioned in an earlier post that I had given up my job as it was having too much of an impact on the time I got to spend with smurf, in reality I didn't really love the job anyway and it was not too much of a wrench to leave it. I loved spending lots of time at home with smurf, we had an absolute ball, but since then he has started nursery and I needed something to do in the hours when he was there, as well as still letting granny get her daily fix.

I know from reading some other blogs and from the other mums I twitter with that finding any part-time work is not an easy task, and finding something along the same lines as your pre-baby career is nigh on impossible. I have however been exceptionally lucky and after agreeing to do a favour for a friend and take a 6 week temp job I have ended up with a new job, in HR (my former career) which lets me work hours that coincide with nursery finishing time, meaning that smurf goes to granny for a couple of hours in the morning, is dropped off at nursery then mummy picks him up from nursery in the afternoon. Seemed like the perfect solution, the company are really child friendly, the managing director has two small children so they understand about things like, nativity plays and school fairs and the like.

I must admit I was excited to be taking on the new challenge, until day one of the new job, when smurf screamed the house down when I said I was going to work, he clung on he cried, he begged me not to leave him...it will come as no surprise to you that I left for work feeling like the worst mother in the world.

Smurf had got so used to me being there over the few months I was at home with him all day that he just did not like the idea of going back to mummy being away a lot, I did try to explain to him that I would only be at work while he was at nursery , but I am sure you will know there is very little reasoning with a hysterical toddler. I had moments all of that day where I was on the verge of telling my new company that I had made a mistake and couldn't take the job. However I did persevere and now a couple of week down the line things have settled down and Smurf is fine when I go out to work now and is always excited to See me when I pick him up from nursery, I am loving my new job and relishing the challenge it is providing, I had actually forgotten how much I loved working in HR, its seems so long since I did it. Everything has a downside though and mine is much less time to spend on twitter or my blog...oh well back to the drawing board for time organisation skills.

GOSH...what a great cause!!!!

I have been a really bad blogger of late, lots going on in my life and just have not found the time to write, I kept meaning too, but time just seemed to be running so far ahead of me I couldn't catch up.

But then I saw the X-Factor finalists performing their charity single last weekend on they show and was determined that I would make the effort and find the time to do a post about Great Ormond Street Hospital and the completely amazing job I think they do there.

Great Ormond Street has been a children's' hospital since 14Th February 1852, it only had ten beds and was a welcome addition to a city where one third of children born died before adulthood, of diseases we think little of today.

Over the years the hospital has changed and developed and grown massively in size, from those 10 beds in 1852 to well over 350 beds today, in that time as well as growing in size the amazing place has become a beacon of hope for parents with sick children all over the UK ,GOSH has the widest range of children's specialists of any UK hospital, and is the largest centre for children's heart and brain surgery as well as providing amazing care and treatment for children with cancer.

The hospital works with the Institute for Child Health and is the largest centre for research into childhood illness outside the United States, recent high profile breakthroughs include successful gene therapy for immune diseases which were made after nearly a decade of research.

I have been lucky and my child has never needed the help that GOSH can provide, but its nice to know it is there should you ever need it, they do however need all the help they can get and things like the X-Factor single benefit the charity that the hospital set up, GOSH has relied on charitable support since it first opened. The copyright of one of my all time favorite books was given to the Hospital by the author J.M.Barrie, it is of course "Peter Pan", this was his way of continuing to give his support to Great Ormond Street even long after he had gone, another of the main sources for this support is Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity (GOSHCC). The NHS meets the day to day running costs of the hospital but the fundraising income allows Great Ormond Street Hospital to be at the forefront of child health care and research into childhood illness and disease. The charity also help families whose children are in the hospital with accommodation to allow them to be with their sick children.

I think GOSH is a very worthy cause and if you are interested you can find out all about the amazing work the hospital and the charity do by going here.

Newborn Tetanus Vaccine Generator

I'll Sleep Anywhere!!!!

Baa Baa What!!!!!!!!

I have been a terrible blogger over the last few weeks, life has been pretty hectic, we are moving house and have been packing frantically.

Today though smurf did something that made me laugh out loud and I thought I would put together a very quick little post to share it with you.

Over the last couple of weeks Smurf has been learning lots of songs at nursery in preparation for his first concert (which I am sure I will cry my eyes out at), we have been practicing them at home and this morning he was singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" to us, I had never heard him sing it before and for your enjoyment her is his version:-

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Have You Any Wool?

Yes Sir Yes Sir

3 Bags Full

One for The Master

One for The Dame

And One For The Little Boy

Who Lives Down The Drain.

No matter what I said he will just not have that the little boy lived down the lane, so I have visions in my head of a poor little boy living in the sewers with his bag of wool, not sure that's quite the vision the nursery were looking for!!!!

Wordless Wednesday!

A Pregnancy Journey!

This post was inspired by Peggy over at A Mothers Secret, who has bee requesting posts on pregnancy lows.

To say I was shocked when I discovered I was pregnant would be an understatement, I have endometriosis and PCOS, so the chances of a pregnancy were affected by this anyway, and as I have posted before I was not one of those women who had every really wanted a baby, I liked my life the way it was.

But after feeling kind of off for a couple of weeks I jut somehow knew I was pregnant and decided to take the test, I can remember that little blue line appearing on the stick and I just burst into tears, my hubby was laughing and I just told him, "its not funny, I don't want to be pregnant", to which his reply of "it's a bit late for that" did not really go down to well.

I was only about 6 weeks gone when I found out and it took me a few weeks to get used to it, but for me although I was shocked to be pregnant there was never any question about whether we would have the baby.

In actual fact most of my pregnancy progressed pretty straight forwardly, there were the usual tiredness and aching associated with pregnancy, the emotions all over the place but things did not really start to go wrong until I was 30 weeks pregnant. It was at this stage that we had some very bad news in our family, the man I had called grandad for nearly all of my life was diagnosed with lung cancer and was given only a couple of months to live, I was devastated by this and started to feel very stressed as we were living in the midlands at the time, which was around 400 miles from my family, I was trying to travel back and forward a few times to spend some time with Grandad Phil, but the travelling and stress where really starting to take a bit of a toll on my health .

Unfortunately when I was 35 weeks I got the dreaded telephone call to say that grandad had passed away and I was just beside myself with grief, I knew this was not good for the baby but I could just do nothing to stop the gut wrenching hurt I felt.

We travelled to Scotland for the funeral which was on the Wednesday of my 36Th week and planned to stay for a few days with family. I felt quite unwell during and after the service but put it down to the sadness of the occasion, but when on the Friday this unwellness had still not gotten any better my hubby decided to call our old doctor at the local practice and ask if he would take a look at me. Our old doctor was lovely and when we went in he did all the usual checks and was a little concerned about my elevated blood pressure, so told us to go down to the maternity unit at the local hospital and get checked over by them.

Thankfully we didn't have very long to wait to be seen once we arrived at the maternity hospital, we were put in a little cubicle, attached to a monitor and had to give a urine sample. About 20 minutes later the nurse came back and told us a doctor would be with us shortly, that was all the information we were given, I was starting to get worried by this time, I had been convinced it was a lot of fuss about nothing but now I was starting to really think something was wrong.

A very young doctor came to see us about 25 minutes later and explained to me that I was showing all the signs of pre-eclampsia and they were going to keep me in over the weekend for monitoring, to say I was not thrilled was an understatement, but OK it was a couple of days I could live with that, ha little did I know.

Hubby dutifully went off and got enough stuff to last me the weekend, very considerately of him he also brought me a new ipod and a psp to occupy my time as I was in a ward all by myself, lucky for me he did.

On the Sunday I was pretty sure I was going to be going home, I mean I had been taking the tablets and resting, like they wanted me to do, unfortunately for me when the doctor did his rounds, he informed me that nope I was not going anywhere, they were going to keep me in for monitoring and bed rest with a view to inducing me at 38 weeks if things did not get any better or if they did not have to perform the induction before. I was distraught, hubby had to go back to the midlands for work and all our plans for the birth went out the window.

I did know that all of this was in mine and my baby's' best interest, but my emotions were all over the place.

I was in the hospital for two weeks and labour was induced on the Sunday afternoon of the world cup final, I started contracting at 3.oo in the afternoon and hubby stayed with me till they chucked him out at 11pm, told him to go home and be back at 7am was they would break my waters manually if it had not happened by then. I spend a really uncomfortable night on the ward and was taken to the labour unit the next morning at 7am, I was allowed no tea, no breakfast just in case they needed to do a c-section...my ever considerate hubby arrived with a picnic lovingly prepared for him by my mum!!!

Things went OK to begin with, although the midwife was horrible, thankfully she went of shift after around 5 hours. They then came to manually break my waters which I must say was one of the most awful experiences of my life, the doctor a woman was horrible and in fact was arguing with another doctor(male) in front of us as the male doctor wanted to perform a c-section, as according to him it would stop both myself and the baby getting more stressed, the only thing that was stressing me at this point were the doctors arguing and worrying about smurf. The female doctor, was adamant that she would break my waters manually and we would have a vaginal delivery, she did break my waters and it was extremely uncomfortable, they then informed us that they needed to monitor smurf internally and to do this it involved them putting a tiny scratch on his head to monitor his blood gases, guess what this made me even more stressed, in my labour induced state I was very upset that they were cutting my baby before he had even been born(an over reaction I know).

I was advised to try gas and air, this made me throw up, then pethidine, this made me feel very very out of it, and I didn't like it at all, after 36 hours smurf was getting very stressed, I was getting very tired, and they then decided that the best thing to do was to give me an epidural and try to get smurf out with forceps within 30 minutes or to perform the c-section, this all seemed to happen very quickly and smurf was born about 40 minutes later using forceps. I was very badly torn and smurf was quite bruised, but he was safe and well and that was the most important thing. I had to have a blood transfusion as I hemorrhaged quite badly after smurf was born and we were kept in hospital for 3 days to monitor us both.

I can honestly say I was glad to get out of there.

We have since suffered a miscarriage and a very late ectopic pregnancy and have not been lucky enough to have another baby, but even though I thought the labour and delivery were awful, I would go through it all again tomorrow if I could have another smurf at the end of it.

I have never actually written down what happened before so I apologise if this post is a bit rambling, and if you are still reading thanks you.

Above is a picture of Smurf shortly after he was born, mainly because all of the ones from just after he was born are not on my laptop.

Randomness of the Meme!!

It's thanks to the lovely Claire over at Dandelion Lounge that I received this meme, she is getting a little impatient waiting for her now overdue new baby to arrive and thought I might enjoy the random nature of this meme...she was right.

I have a few memes waiting to be done but the fact that this one is dead simple and didn't take to much thought appealed to my mood at the moment.

So here are the rules…

1. Collect the book that you have most handy.

2. Turn to page 161.

3. Find the 5Th complete sentence.

4. Site the sentence on your blog.

5. Pass it on to 5 other bloggers.

Well one of my books of the moment ( I have several on the go...none of them anywhere near finished yet) "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown, I am a big fan of his books, love all the clues and codes and mystery of them.

OK so Page 161, sentence 5 is-:

"She began making room on the desk by shoving the skull and crossed bones to one side with no reverence whatsoever."

There you go I am sure you now cant wait to read it after that spine tingling excerpt, but honestly it gets better I am halfway through, its not easy reading with a toddler hanging off you most of the day.

No here is the one hard part 5 bloggers to pass it on to, the problem is I am so slow usually at doing these that by the time I get round to it everyone has already done there's, so I am just going to pick 5 excellent bloggers and hope for the best!!

1 Sandycalico over at Baby Baby

2 Amy over at 1moremeansfour

3 Carole over at NewMummy

4 Carly over at WADS

5 Leslieanne over at Lifewithalittledude

Ladies if you have already had this meme I apologise, also anyone else who feels like it please feel free to have a go.

Pampers UNICEF Meme

I have been a really terrible blogger recently, it has been a couple of weeks since I updated my blog, but on returning from our short trip I found that the lovely Carole at Newmummy had passed on this meme.

I think its a fantastic idea and since the start of the campaign in 2006, Pampers with the help of mums all round the world have provided the funding for a life saving Tetanus vaccine for mother and her baby every 2 seconds, that over 200 million vaccines donated to UNICEF.

This year, together with the support of UK mums, Pampers is hoping to raise the funding for a further 100 million vaccines to help UNICEF make this deadly disease history.

UNICEF and the World Health Organisation believe that the goal of eliminating maternal and newborn tetanus could be possible by 2012. UNICEF’s goal is to support countries in achieving maternal and newborn tetanus elimination.

One vaccine is given for every pack of Pampers sold and if you buy from Tesco there are 3 vaccines per pack donated.

So there you go that is a little bit of the background to the campaign and as for the rules of the meme well they are simple -:

1 Open the virtual Gift For Life by going here
2 Write a small post on the campaign
3 Pass on to 5 other bloggers
4 Add the campaign badge to your sidebar
5 Feel incredibly proud that you are helping to make a difference!!

And I am going to pass it on to anyone who wants to take the banner as lots of people now have the meme, I think anyone and everyone should have a go at helping.

Zombies!!!!

I received another award this week, from the lovely 'Whistlejacket' over at her lovely blog "Babyrambles" I am feeling well chuffed , I never win anything so all these awards are making up for it.

This award is a bit strange, but I like strange, it appeals to my sense of humour. As with every award there are rules :-

“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all.”

So that is quite a challenge and I'm never one to back away from a challenge...I mean lets face it..if you didn't like a challenge would you ever have kids?

So here they are :-

Carole over at New Mummy who put together a great blogger carnival this week.

Yummy Mammy over at her blog where she has reached 100 posts!!!!

Tasha over at Wham-Bam who is just about to have another baby.

Ruth at All About Bertie, poor Bertie has been ill recently.

And last but never least...Andrea over at Accidental Business Mum.

All lovely bloggers,who I love to read, if you don't already go and give their blogs a look.

My First Award....Yippeeeeeee

I got an award..I got an award..I'm very excited, and I need to say thanks to the brilliant Amy over at and 1 more means 4, who nominated me, she is my partner in crime on a Saturday evening, when we talk a lot of balls about The Cube on ITV 1. If you don't already go and have a read of her blog, it's great.

And now I also get to pass the lovely award onto some other fantastic mummy bloggers who deserve it..so here goes they are -:

Leslieanne at life with a little dude.

Single Mamas Rock

Carly at WADS

Kelly at A Place of My Own

If you don't already go and have a look all great mummy bloggers with plenty to say.

Who Gets Hurt!!!

"I want to come and live with you and my dad!" this was announced to me over fish-fingers and chips, by a rather grubby 8 year old, we were at my mother in laws and the grubby child in question was my soon to be step son. My heart was screaming at me to say "yes no problem, lets go now", but I knew it was not going to be as easy as that.

My hubby and I had recently moved to Scotland due to work and were desperately trying to get stepsons mum to allow weekend access for him to come to us at least once a month, we had tried everything, telling her we would fly down and collect him and deliver him back, we would pay for the flights, every obstacle she put in the way we had an answer for, it didn't matter she had made up her mind and that was that, it didn't matter to her that her son and my hubby were suffering because of this,she had the right to stop him coming to us because we had moved so far away. It seemed that the fact they were suffering was just an added bonus.

We had tried solicitors but the answer was always that although legally she couldn't stop us from having access she could cause great difficulty because we were living so far away, (about 400 miles).

As it was we were travelling the 400 miles every other weekend because my hubby was and still is a great dad and would not miss his access, he wanted to see his son, was in fact desperate to see him.

My stepsons mother on the other hand did everything she could to make any access we had to him very difficult,even going as far as to send him with dirty clothes, if she did send any clothes and conveniently forgetting about the times every time we had him. She just seemed to enjoy having a hold over my hubby...even though it had been her that left him!!

After much legal wrangling we actually had stepson come to live with us, mainly through the fact that he was so insistent this was what he wanted to do and the fact that my hubby fought very hard to make sure his son did get what he wanted. I wont pretend it was easy, it was bloody hard and down right disheartening at times, but parents living in two countries can make things work for their child if they chose to do so, it just need them both to be focused on the what in the end is surely the most important thing..your child's welfare. We managed to get all of us working on the same side, working for what was best for stepson. It's not about whether mums or dads are better parents, its about being the best parent you can be for your child, and that may mean you being apart from your child because in some cases they are better off somewhere else.

My stepson is now a strapping nearly 18 year old and we have all stayed amicable throught, we all managed finally to be on the same side and be sensible about things some parents are not so lucky!!

This post is part of the Save one Mammy campaign , mammy want to move with her Englishborn daughter back to their homeland ( a distance of only 135 miles door to door) where she has the support of friends and family that she needs and wants, at the moment this is being made impossible for her due to the ultimately selfish actions of her ex who is doing everything to prevent this, for seemingly egotistical reasons, no matter how badly this affects his child. Parental alienation,unfair hearings and a clear and blatant violation of every EU citizens right to free movement are just a few of the struggles she has had to overcome. Please help us raise awareness, this kind of treatment is a reality for desperate parents every day,you can also read about her struggles here, and please give her some support or some free legal advise if you specialise in Irish family law.

The Beach Is Not Just For Summer!!!!

A Change Is Afoot

There have been big decisions being made in the household this last couple of weeks, changes that will mean I have to redo the about me on this blog, I have decided to give up work to spend more time with the smurf. Therefore as of the end of the month, I will no longer be a working mum, well not in the paid employment sense anyway.

This is actually a very big thing for me as I have worked since smurf was 12 weeks old, but since moving back to Scotland at the beginning of the year I have found it a real struggle adjusting to the amount of time I actually get to spend with him. I blogged about this before, how my mum and dad are super babysitters, but its just not the same.

As daft as it now seems I though that taking a job working late afternoon and evenings would leave me free to spend all day with my smurf, but the reality of the situation was that I was leaving for work (1 hour car journey away) at 2.00pm and not home till almost midnight, which meant smurf was having to spend every week night sleeping at grannies house, definitely not ideal as far as either mummy or smurf were concerned.

Things really started to come to a head when hubby's job changed after a promotion which meant that he is usually away for 3 weeks at a time, this didn't really bother me too much as this was what he did when we first got together and first got married, but smurf has never had to deal with daddy being away for more than a day or so and found it really difficult, even asking if his daddy was ever coming back (broke my heart and brought a tear to hubby's eye), and also asked if we could get Scooby Doo to find his daddy as he was "lost".

With all this in mind I have staggered lots of days off when daddy is home and taken a couple of unpaid days, just to make sure we are spending time together and of course there are the weekends, but it just didn't seem to be enough and smurf was getting a bit clingy, something he has never been before.

The first thing I did when I started to notice this was enquire at work about changing hours to daytime, huh child friendly workplace....I don't think so, big no no as the hours I work are difficult to get trained people to supervise. apparently!! So it was those hours basically or nothing, so after much debate and wringing of hands, nothing is what it is going to have to be for the moment.

I have taken all of my holidays and as of now am a stay at home mum although I will still be classed as employed for another 5 weeks.

Smurf is loving it, I am loving it and I am sure my mum and dad are loving the peace, I will start to look into doing something part time in a few weeks but for the moment I am just going to savour some "Quality" time with my smurf.

Ranty, Rant Rant.

I feel a rant coming on, it has been bubbling away all afternoon, just there festering like a little boil.  This rant is something that has for want of a better phrase "got right on my goat" for as long as I have been a mummy, for some reason today it just pushed me over the edge and the rant sprang forth.

Today I offered to have my friends baby for the afternoon, she is lovely, smurf loves her to pieces and as he was losing his daddy this afternoon (his best friend in the whole world!!!!!), I thought it would be good for him to see his baby friend to take his mind of it, also BFF has been feeling under the weather so thought she might appreciate the afternoon off.

So we pick baby friend up fix her baby carrier in the car, and head off for the airport, smurf chatting away to her, she babbling happily back, all goes well at the airport drop off , daddy gets away OK without to much fuss from smurf as he feels very important looking after baby friend.

On the way home I decide to brave the local Asda and pick up somethings for a cuppa with BFF and some other bits I needed, I mean how hard can it be, I'll park in a parent and child space, put them both in a trolley and off we will go.

And there is where the problem starts, with the coveted parent & child space, now I do not automatically expect to get a parent and child space, if other mums or dads with children were there before me..so be it, but what does totally P*** me off is the people that park there when they have no children with them, just because it is closer to the shop....It was pouring rain when we got there and I did manage to get a parent and child space, but as I sat in the car with the children waiting for the rain to abate a little, I watched no less than 3 other spaces fill up with people with no kids...I mean one of them was a bloody transit van!!!!!!!!!!!!

The spaces have a great big yellow picture of a parent and child in them, there are notices everywhere telling you they are for the use of parents with children ONLY!!!  Our local Asda even has notices and signs stating that you will be fined £60 if you park in it without children, does this make one blind bit of difference, does it heck as like.  

Now I hate conflict, but I wanted to go up and ask where the kids were...I didn't of course, but I really really wanted to....I think its only a matter of time.

Would love to know if anyone else has things like this that make them want to have a good rant, mine was that bad I had to buy chocolate cake, and its all the fault of those people parking in the wrong spaces.

Moving On Up!!

Friday was my smurfs last day at what we call Playschool,  he starts at school nursery on Wednesday.  I cant believe my smurf will be putting on a uniform and walking through the gates of the same school I went to over 30 years ago!!!   God that makes me feel so old.

It seems like only yesterday that he was born, all screwed up little face and waving arms and legs.

My precious boy, a child I never thought I would have and never realised how much I actually wanted until he was there squirming in my arms.

 

He was such a good baby, contented and peaceful, I could pass hours just looking at him. I wanted to hide us away and have him all to myself, selfish I know.

And I have watched him grow with wonder and awe, sometimes unable to believe that this little person is part off me, he is full of cheeky smiles and has an answer for everything...A true mischievous little boy, into everything and afraid of nothing. A child who can melt my heart with a smile and shatter it with word, then make it sing again in second with a little voice saying "mummy you are my best friend in the whole world"  of course this same phrase is used for daddy, granny, grandad and his teddy in carefully given out compliments.

I will watch him go into that school nursery with pride and a lump in my throat, cause as he told me this week when I had the never to call him baby, "I not a baby mummy...I Zak....", my baby is turning into such a proper big boy.

Its All About MEMEME!!!!!

I'm really quite excited, I have my first MeMeMe to complete, passed along courtesy of Sandycalico at Baby Baby it is the "Blame Tara MeMe".

So I shall try to follow the rules such as they are, which seem to consist of thanking the creator, who is Tara at Stickyfingers and I will also thank Sandy for passing it along to me!

Complete the MeMe, which I am just about to do.

And finally pass on to some more brilliant bloggers.

Right lets get to it!

1. Who is the hottest movie star?

Well now this is much more of a difficult question than it seems, you see I am very fickle, depends on the day of the week, which mood I am in ect.  I could spend all day just listing the stars I think are hot, but in the name of blogging and because he is Scottish, over 30 and totally divine I have decided to settle on .........

Gerard Butler (  if you have not heard of him watch "300" I promise its worth it!!!)

2. Apart from your house and car what is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?

This has really got me thinking and I really think it was a watch which I bought as a 30Th birthday present for my OH , it was very expensive, very indulgent and bought before we had children to think about, needless to say now days, any watch I buy comes from Argos and costs under £30, luckily the one I bought my OH seems to be standing the test of time!!!

3. What is your most treasured memory?

This was easy it is most definitely the second I held my son in my arms, corny I know but true.

4. What's the best gift you received as a child?

I don't really know about the best gift I received as a child but the one I remember more than any other is  "The Chronicles Of Narnia" all seven of these wonderful books were inside a little wooden wardrobe and it was a gift from my grandfather which also made it special, I loved these books and have read them many times and been transported into  a wonderful fantasy world.

5. What's the biggest mistake you have made? 

No one likes to admit to their mistakes, but oh well here goes, I think the biggest mistake I made was walking away from  a job I loved to go somewhere that was offering more money, I ended up miserable, but it did teach me that being happy is so much more important.

6. 4 Words to describe yourself?

Oh lets see...Loyal,caring, moody & helpful!!  The moody one was thrown in cause my hubby would say I am that!

7. What's the highlight or low light of 2008.

The highlight would defiantly be moving back to Scotland from the Midlands after a few years away from family and friends...I missed them.  And the low light would be that in order to do this it has meant my OH having to be away from home a lot,but we are dealing with that.

8. Favorite Film?

Hmmmm this thing is full of difficult questions, I m a real movie buff,I love movies, so to name only one film is very hard for me so I am going to just jump in with the first thing that comes into my head  "The Godfather".

9. Tell me one thing I don't know about you?

This one is easy since, being pretty new to this no one knows a lot about me, but the one thing I am going to tell you is that I am absolutely scared rigid, petrified of ......spiders!

10. If you were a comic book/strip character, who would you be?

Oh I would be Temperance Brennan from Kathy Reichs books..a forensic anthropologist...forensic science is my dream job.

Whoops I have come back to this question as someone pointed out I had answered it wrong...I chose a book character should have been "Comic Book"..so here goes lets try it again. 

 I would be "The Invisible Girl" from the Fantastic Four, cause I would love to see what people were doing when they thought no-one was there!!

That was really good fun and it got me thinking, now I get to pass it on to more blogs, this is probably the hardest part I think everyone I know already has it, so i am going to play it safe and go with the anyone who follows my blog go ahead and take this 'MeMe"

Review - Annabel Karmel - Complete Family Meal Planner

OK I was sent this lovely book to use and review courtesy of Sian at mummytips and the people at Ebury Publishing.

First impressions when I got the book out of the package, were that it was pretty substantial and had a lovely shiny wipe clean cover, always a bonus when kids want to help with the cooking.

First I just had a quick flick through and because we were both poorly the week the book arrived, decided to just make something that we already had ingredients for so it was the "Chicken Balls in Sweet and Sour Sauce"...I was a bit sceptical, my smurf is a terribly fussy eater,he wont eat lots of things, but hey I'll try anything once... the ingredients were straight forward, the instructions easy to follow and lo and behold in about 30 minutes we had a lovely meal ready, I rather gingerly put it on the table and to my huge surprise ...he scoffed everything that was on his plate.

Feeling inspired by this I have chosen a different recipe everyday and so far so good he has eaten at least some of everything we have tried. We have tried a variety of recipes, both sweet and savoury and some of the baking too.

I love the book, the recipes are easy to follow, there are no weird ingredients and nothing takes very long to put together, the other plus point for me is that they can be frozen, which is a great time saver and means when I am not home I know what daddy is feeding the smurf.

The other thing that makes me love this book is that we can all eat the meals and most of them are suitable for encouraging a bit of help from the children.

Having now had time to have a good old mooch through the book there are a few recipes that have made me  go..Hm mm not sure about that, but maybe that is more about my likes and dislikes and it would not stop me trying to get smurf to eat them.

Another of my favorite things with the Complete Family Meal Planner is just that it really is complete there are recipes from breakfast to dessert and also some lovely cakes and tasty treats, including the truly yummy "Glossy Dark & White Chocolate Brownies....not for kids but mummy loved them!!! You can see a picture above.

I love the advice and shopping lists at the front of the book and all the lovely quirky illustrations that appear thought the book as well as the photographs of some of the food, which really whets your appetite as you flick through.

All in all I would thoroughly recommend this book, its easy to use, gives some great inspiration to try new things and also adds a few new recipes that mums & dads can scoff to...defiantly worth having in your kitchen

Some Get Out Vibes

This is for @dancinfairy..sending  "GET OUT" vibes your way, hope things are going well for you and before long squiggler will be in your arms, safe, warm and welcomed to the world.

Luck and Love .

xx

Wordless Wednesday - Sharing & Making Friends

Dad!!

Its my dad's birthday tomorrow, he will be 64, and although the heart condition that has been with him for years is now starting to show its effects on him ,I am immensely lucky that he is still with us and able to spend time with us and my smurf, who he absolutely loves to bits.

My dad has 2 girls, me ( I know that is a bit obvious) and my younger sister, and as he is a real mans man I thought it may have always been a bit of a disappointment to him that there were no boys in our family, until smurf came along.

I think my dad had given up any hope of becoming a grandad, I was one of those women who never really bothered whether she had children or not, and had gotten to 35 without any so pretty much guessed none were going to come along now, my sister is a really driven by her work and although lovely she is not the settling type.

So then smurf comes along and my dad was besotted immediately, he even came to visit him in hospital.. a great achievement for a man who normally throws up at the smell of a hospital (sorry dad, I know that isn't very manly).

From the day smurf was born my dad has just lived to please him, and smurf loves his grandad to pieces, apart from my OH, my dad is smurfs very best friend, and they spend ages together playing with trains and reading books, drawing and watching football...( well my dad watches, smurf runs trains up and down dads leg).

My dad is wonderful he has always been there for me no matter what I have done and for that I am always grateful, I just never knew that the best present I would ever give him would be a little blond bundle of mischief.

Happy Birthday dad, we love you!!!

Wordless Wednesday....Cookery Class

Surplus to requirements?

My hubby came home today for 5 days, he started to work away 3 months ago and is away for 3 weeks at a time them home for 1, not to difficult for me because he used to do this when we were first together and later after we got married; however it is very new to my smurf who for the whole of his life has been used to daddy being there everyday.

I am constantly being asked when his daddy is coming home and we go through endless times of him "talking " to his daddy on the phone.

Anyway when daddy is away I am smurfs best friend in the world...I do everything for him, and we have a little mutual admiration society all of our own....however the trouble starts the minute daddy walks of the plane.....mummy is no longer the be all and end all, in fact mummy is of absolutely no use at all.  daddy has to do everything, dress, him, read to him, play with him, put him to bed.....everything in-fact that I normally consider my job.  We went shopping today and even the hand holding as we wandered round Waitrose had to be done by daddy.

Its lovely to see my smurf and my OH being all snuggly and spending time together, since it is obvious that smurf misses his daddy when he is not here, but it made me wonder today, what did I do with all the time I had before I had him, before I had to jump to his every wish...I remember I used to love making cards, love reading...so I have decided instead of feeling sorry for myself when I become surplus to requirement I am going to discover just what it was I used to do with my free time.

Thomas Land!!

We paid a lovely visit to Thomas Land @ Drayton Manor this week as a birthday treat for my smurf, we have been before but I thought I would give a little review for anyone who is thinking of a trip during the summer holidays.

Thomas Land is just inside the entrance to Drayton Manor and is really almost a separate little park full of all things Thomas...including a shop full of Thomas and friends goodies.

The rides are lovely, with something for most kids who are of the age that like Thomas, and parents are able to go on all of the rides with the kids if they are too small or a little nervous to go on without mummy or daddy.

My Smurfs favorite was Harold the helicopter and his least favorite was "the troublesome Trucks" which is a little roller coaster for kids....he thought it was "too scary", and I would agree it is quite fast and furious for really little ones.

We also loved the trains which take you up the track to the large train themed play area or to the Zoo, Thomas, Percy and Rosie as well as the carriages Annie & Clarabelle, you can ride up and back or as I said get off and walk back through the Zoo and play area.

We spent about 4 hours going round and also taking in some of the more sedate child friendly rides in Drayton Manor itself.

Okay so the important part the cost...Adult and toddler get in for £15 single adult is £25, in effect we would have been cheaper taking an extra toddler....go figure, they do however do family tickets and cheap entry for grandparents also.

The selection of food inside the park is not great and the quality is OK, nothing special but edible, and as always with these sort of places I found it on the expensive side, but in the play area there were plenty of places to have a picnic.

All in all I would say it is well worth a visit if your kids are Thomas mad as mine is and a lovely day can be had by all ages.

Birthday Boy!!

My little man is 3 today,so Happy Birthday to my little Smurf, thanks for letting me be your mummy, I am thankful everyday that you came into my life and made me laugh, smile and share all the new things that you do and discover everyday.

I am so looking forward to sharing lots and lots of new discoveries and adventures with you, showing you all the things that I love to do and see and learning new things with you.

Your daddy and I love you lots...xx

Age!

My smurf is 3 tomorrow.  When we got up this morning, we were talking about birthdays as we were taking a cake to nursery to share with the other children (no party this year....i know, I know, I am a terrible mother).   Anyway I digress...I was asking smurf how old he was going to be and he proudly told me "I am going to be 43"(wtf!!!);  okay I say "well I don't think you can be 43 chicken, you would be older than mummy", then this is where I naively ask....."how old  do you think mummy is ?" and without even cracking a smile or blinking an eye, he looks me right in the face and say "96"....that's what I get for asking stupid questions!

When i regaled this story to my OH on the phone he thought it was hysterical....wait till I ask smurf how old he thinks daddy is!!!!  Mind you knowing my luck he will probably say 21!

Granparents

We are off to spend 2 days with my in-laws on Sunday, cant say I am looking forward to it, we are not close which is a shame, but they hold me responsible for dragging their son to the other end of the country and general stuff like that.

I need to preface this post by saying I had a wonderful relationship with both sets of grandparents when I was a child, they were everything you would expect wonderfully grannies and grandads to be, and I wanted the same for my Smurf.

We have only recently moved back to Scotland from the Midlands (10 minutes away from in laws),  and they have now decided this is the reason for not seeing my Smurf as much as they see their other grandchildren. (my 2 nieces,who I love to pieces, and my stepson, who I also love to pieces), bear in mind we have been up here for 6 months and the 2 times they have seen Smurf was my OH and I taking him down to them.

I feel that they treat my son differently than the other kids because of the relationship I have with them(once heard my mother-in-law say she didn't like me and never would), and it really hurts me, it hurts me for my Smurf, because he is such a lovely warm sunny and loving child, and he deserves to be loved unconditionally by his paternal grandparents, it makes me really angry that I find myself unable to voice these feeling to my in-laws for fear of making the void even worse.  My OH knows all this and is of the opinion that we should just leave them to it as they are the ones losing out, but my heart breaks for my Smurf and I fear the feelings between my in-laws and myself will never get any better and my Smurf will forever be the unfavoured  grandchild because they only see me in him not not their own son.

Even after all this I will smile and make small talk when we visit and make Smurf give Nanny and grandad kisses and hugs, even though he barely knows them.  I just sometimes wish things could be different for all our sakes.

Looking Back.

My smurf turns 3 next Saturday, I cant believe how quickly it has gone, it seems like only yesterday he was a little blue line on a stick.

I was one of those women who was not really bothered about having children,hubby and I had  a nice life, we did what we wanted ,went where we wanted and generally had a very good time going out, travelling purchasing frivolous rubbish..lol.

I had absolutely no idea just how much my life would change with the arrival of our smurf (how stupid was I!!!!)

I was pregnant during the world cup, for an avid football supporter a summer of football with no wine was not much fun; and to top it all, smurf decided to make his appearance during the final....hubby was thrilled!!  No need to go into all the details of labour, suffice to say he EVENTUALLY arrived, and from that minute everything in my life completely changed.

And now thinking about the last 3 years with him, I cant count the amount of joy being a mum has brought me, when mothers used to tell me how seeing their kids smile or laugh melted their heart, I used to say  "Hmm yeah really that's nice", but it is the absolute truth, he just completely holds my heart in his hand.

We have not been lucky enough to have any more kids, I have had an ectopic pregnancy and a miscarriage and  that means no more little ones  for us, but I am eternally grateful for getting to be a mum to my little smurf and while he will be thanking everyone for his birthday presents next week I will be saying a little thank you of my own for having  him.

Where have you been all my life?

I only discovered blogging a couple of weeks ago, I mean I had heard of it, everyone was talking about their blogs but I had never really looked for one or read any.   But then I was introduced to Twitter and everyone on there had one,  so I thought maybe I should check this out, something must be passing me by if I am the only one in the country not doing it!   It certainly felt like I was the only one not doing it.

Ok the place to start, well seemed Twitter was as good a place as any, I started with some of the people I follow on there, and found there blogs and that was it I was instantly hooked, I love reading them, there is a blog for every mood that you may be in, people who are funny, witty, smart, kind, clever and full of good ideas and not afraid to share them.

I have found some great websites, some great blogs and am having so much fun reading them....I thinkI have finally discovered what the internet is for, apart from online shopping and i-tunes!

All

Ok so I got this from one of the people who writes one of the great blogs I read,Sandycalico, and its taken me two days to make up my mind what I would write, I have finally managed to work out my answers....had brain freeze halfway through and had to save it and come back;  but finally the definative version is finished.

I am going to however beg forgivness for the fact that I have not passed this on to 8 other bloggers, I don't know eight other people who blog, but I promise to pass it along as I find other like minded souls who find this blogging a great pasttime.

Here are the rules

Mention the person who tagged you.

Complete the lists of 8

Tag 8 other bloggers and let them know.

8 Things I'm looking forward to:

Seeing my Oh who has been working away.

Our trip to Eurodisney in September.

My sons 3rd birthday.

Spending summer days on the beach with my family.

Finally getting a lie in.

Getting a new car that dosen't drink petrol.

A weekend away with OH with no child.

The new football season.

8 Things I did yesterday

1. Vaxed the Carpet.
2. Changed the beds.
3. Scrubbed the decking.
4. Went to  Work.
5. Sat outside in the garden painting with Smurf
6. Took some photos.
7. Talked to hubby on the phone from where he is working away.
8. went shopping fro shoes for Smurf.

8 Things I wish I could do

1. Live abroad again
2. Play the piano 
3. Get more sleep
4. be a stay at home mum
5. Sing on stage
6. Speak other languages fluently
7. Lose weight 
8. Keep my family healthy Safe and Happy always

8 favourite fruits

1. Strawberry 
2. Melon
3. Cherries
4. Bananas
5. Raspberries
6. Strawberries
7. Strawberries
8. Raisins(Only covered in Chocolate, not sure they count).

8 Places I'd like to travel

1. Safari in Africa
2. Thailand (Again)
3. Maldives
4. Russia
5. New York 
6. Mexico (Again)
7. New Zealand 
8. Japan

8 Places I've lived

1. Coventry
2. Midlands
3. Stirling
4. Coventry (Again)
5. Kirkcaldy
6. Edinburgh
7. Merseyside
8. Scotland

8 people tagged

Now I am stuck, cause I have not been blogging for more than a week, and I dont know 8 people who blog....so I am going to answer the questions anyway