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.