Ramblings of a mum on the run

Happy Birthday Smurf!!!!

2010-07-11T13:10:00.000+01:00

My little man turned 4 today, and I'm not quite sure how it happened. I'm sure someone has done something to that time space continuum thingy that they talk about in "Back to the Future" and speeded up the years.

It seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, brand new and dependant on us for everything, now he is so independent its sometimes scary, he now longer needs mummy or daddy to do so many things for him.

I am so proud of the happy, thoughtful and kind little boy he is becoming and the new things he learns everyday, but I must admit sometimes I long to hold that brand new little life in my arms again.

So happy birthday Smurf, love you millions!!!

The Gallery - Holidays

2010-07-07T18:06:00.000+01:00

This week Tara over at Sticky Fingers has challenged us to post pictures of a favorite holiday. Holidays are great, who doesn't love some time spent relaxing, in the sun with your favorite people?

The picture I have chosen is from the first holiday abroad that we took smurf on, he was 14 months old and we took him to Cancun, and had a fantastic time, smurf loved it, but surprisingly the picture is not of smurf( I know I thought you might be sick of pictures of my child) or even of my or the other half, it is in fact of an absolutely perfect sunset on the lagoon, its just perfect.

Cant wait to see the pictures that everyone else chooses its so nice to be nosey and take a peek at everyone else's holidays. Go on over and be nosey too!!!!!

Wanting & Missing

2010-07-06T20:41:00.000+01:00

Some posts are more difficult to write than others, some just seem to write themselves, others area fight to put into words. This is one of those, I want to write it, but I just cant seem to find the words.

Two weeks ago I woke up feeling really awful, hot sweaty and with horrible pains in my tummy, lucky for me my other half happened to be at home and he suggested we take a quick trip to A & E, he was sure it sounded like my appendix. I was pretty sure the staff at A& E were going to be sick of the sight of me, since smurf had been there twice the week before with a broken wrist, but the pain was really so bad that I was willing to risk it. We dropped smurf off at my mums and drove to our local hospital, which was surprisingly empty at 6.30am, so we were seen pretty quickly.

The nurse asked a few questions had a feel at my tummy and then asked if there was a chance that I may be pregnant, and my answer was honestly no, I had no symptoms of pregnancy, no morning sickness, nothing , but she decided to take a test just to be on the safe side. When it came back positive I am not sure who was more surprised me or my other half but as she said the words I just knew instantly that there was something wrong. It didn't feel like it had when I was pregnant with smurf or when I had been pregnant before, I was worried immediately about the fact that I had been drinking a couple of times over the previous couple of weeks. The nurse was really lovely and tried to reassure us that it was probably nothing and that every pregnancy felt different,but she was going to send us to the early pregnancy unit so they could take some bloods for hormone levels and perhaps an internal scan (that really is as bad as it sounds).

In the unit we were seen by doctor who took some blood and also performed the internal scan, he was very straight forward and quite abrupt, said although my levels were up they were not as high as they should be with a normal pregnancy and he was really not able to see anything conclusive on the scan, he would get someone else to look at it later in the day and possible get me to come back the next morning for more bloods to check the hormone levels again. That was it we were sent home, still in a lot of pain, told to take paracetamols and rest.

Hubby and I went home and I went back to bed, unable to sleep as the pain really was pretty bad, we had probably been home about4 hours when the hospital called asking us to come back, which we did. My bloods were taken again and I was then seen by a sonographer who did another internal scan, she had only just started when she was able to confirm to us that there was an ectopic pregnancy there and that she would get a doctor to come and speak to us. At this point I did start to cry, I had been telling myself that there was something wrong, but when it was actually confirmed I just felt awful. I had not known I was pregnant but the moment I knew that I couldn't have the baby that I didn't even know was there I was devastated.

The doctor explained to us that I needed surgery and they needed to do it as soon as possible, I was actually in surgery within 3 hours, but by the time I got to theater the pregnancy had ruptured and it was a bit touch and go for a little while, I was pretty ill and in hospital for 4 days, which is why I haven't been around for a while.

I had previously resigned myself to not having anymore children because of a few problems I have, but in that little while between being told I was pregnant and being told that it was not a "viable pregnancy", I must admit I had started to hope a little bit to hold a tiny little baby again, I know its not to be but its amazing how much you can miss something you didn't even know you wanted.

I know I am lucky to have one beautiful, healthy child and I am thankful for that.

Its taken me a little while to be feeling up to blogging but I know getting this out will be good. I'm sorry I didn't get to make it to "cybermummy", I just didn't feel up to it, but I hope threes another and I get the chance to meet you all then.

If you suffer or have suffered and ectopic pregnancy The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust offer lots of help and information, you can find them here www.ectopic.org.uk.

Writing Workshop - A Poem

2010-06-10T13:20:00.000+01:00

I am going to post this before I have the chance to change my mind, the last time I wrote any poetry was at junior school, and it was probably as terrible as this one is but hey ho the prompt spoke to me.

So here it is my entry for this weeks brilliant writing workshop held by Josie at Sleep is for the weak. I chose prompt number five - Time.

Time

They say it heals

I’m not so sure

It speeds away so fast its blinding

It creeps along so slow its painful

It drags you forward and leaves you breathless

Making memories of what is past

Leaving behind another life

Taking you to a new horizon

Building a history and new beginnings

Life's little clock

Always ticking.

Go on over and see the other much more brilliant entries that have been posted by some brilliant bloggers.

Lazy Morning Cuddles

2010-06-08T20:23:00.000+01:00

I love lazy weekend mornings, because I work and my other half works away during the week, mornings are always a real rush for Smurf and I, we both have to be ready and out the door by 8.00am. I drop Smurf off at his grannies on my way to work and then I spend the next 5 hours dealing with HR issues.

But Saturdays are different, Saturday mornings are all about Smurf climbing into our bed and us all spending half an hour watching cartoons and drinking tea and eating toast in bed, they are all about spending time together as a family.

I love those special moments, when Smurf is still all sleepy and cuddly, when I can pretend that he is not growing like a weed and will soon not want the cuddles and kisses from his mummy and daddy.

Isn't it funny that before we moved into this house that we now live in, which was around January, Smurf would not sleep in his own bed for a whole night, and I despaired about ever having a full nights sleep, now he quite happily sleeps all night in his own bed without complaint and I yearn for those sleepy cuddles...some people are never happy.!!

A Late Gallery Entry - Still Life

2010-06-03T20:36:00.000+01:00

This week Tara gave us the prompt of "Still Life" for the gallery.

I am late this week. smurf and I have both been ill so my apologies for the delay. My entry is photos I took of some flower my other half bought me a few weeks ago, well technically I bought them I just used his money, anyway the colour was just so beautiful I found my camera just leaped into my hand and these are 2 of the results beautiful pink roses and tulips.

Go on over and have a look at what everyone else take on "still life" is.

Plum Baby Give Away

2010-05-23T21:36:00.001+01:00

If you read my blog regularly you will know that I received and reviewed some Plum-Baby biscuits just the other week, the folks over at Plum Baby have given me one months supply of baby food, nibbles and treats to give to one lucky reader, so that someone else can give their organic range a try.

Plum Baby is all about real food for babies and not just baby food and all the products are made with the highest quality organic ingredients. They offer babies a taste of what's to come and are full of nutrients and nothing artificial.

The prize includes: breakfast cereals and muesli's, savoury pots, sweet pouches, yummy spelt biscuits and sauces worth £75.00 and the winner will receive the pack most appropriate for their babies age.

To enter, simply go to the Plum Baby newsletter (http://www.plum-baby.co.uk/plum-mums/plum-mums-sign-up) and sign up using the code "Ramblings of a mum on the run" - a winner will be picked at random in 7 days time.

Check out www.Plum-Baby.co.uk and discover more yummy products from the Plum Kitchen.

The Gallery - A Self Portrait

2010-05-18T23:38:00.000+01:00

Tara Cain over at the Gallery really threw us a curve ball this week, with her prompt, but here I will let her explain because she does it better than I would.

"The theme is actually inspired by Laura at Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy who wrote something that really touched me a few weeks ago and I want to 'celebrate' it through The Gallery.

On tenterhooks yet?

She wrote about photographs of her mum, who died when Laura was just 9.
For someone who has been voted in the Funnest Blog category of The MADS, she sure made me catch my breath with that post!
She wrote: "Luckily I have photos, quite a few in fact. I don’t just look at the photos, I pore over them I wonder what she was thinking, doing, wearing … just any glimpse of anything that makes me feel a bit closer to her.
Now that I am a mother they mean even more to me . . . "

Well, I'm going someway to help redress that balance today.
Imagine in years to come, your children looking back over photographs of their childhood. Are you in it? Are you always behind the camera?
Our photographs are the story of our lives, and even if you aren't a parent you need to be in it.
I know many many people hate pictures of themselves - myself included - so if you don't want to post one to your blog just think about what I've said and start making that change.
And if you do want to put one on your blog, then GREAT.
Get creative, and show us all who you are.

So, this week's theme is: Self portrait."

OK so there you go there is the explanation for our prompt, it really got me thinking, mainly because I never have my picture taken, I just don't, its against the rules, strictly forbidden. And this is because I hate looking at myself, for all different sorts of reasons, mainly I just am not happy with what I see and for this reason I assume that no one else will want to see it either, so I am always, always the one behind the camera.

But the prompt and the post that inspired it had me thinking about what smurf sees when he looks at me, I know he just sees his mummy, I think he either does not see the flaws I do or maybe they are just not relevant to him. So for that reason I took some self portraits today, I am not ready to put them on the photo shelf we have yet, but I fully intend to be in front of the camera a lot more, for no other reason than I want my son to have the memories to look back on of all the fun and love that we shared, when time has stolen the event those photos will mean it can never steal the memory.

So thanks to Tara and Laura for showing me how selfish I was being and for giving me the opportunity to change it.

I cant wait to see the face behind the blog, go on over and have a look for yourself.

And I will post mine before I have a chance to change my mind.

Moody Mummy

2010-05-16T21:00:00.000+01:00

Do you ever have days when you feel like a negative, moody mummy? I have been having a whole weekend of that, I feel like I have spent the whole of the weekend telling smurf 'No" or "don't do that' or 'come here'. I can hear myself but cant stop the words coming out of my mouth, and then end up feeling really bad that I am being so negative about everything he wants to do.

I know that some of the things I seemed to be telling him off for were for his own good, either because he was going to hurt himself or be in danger, but I dislike being that way and I don't want him to think I am always on his case.

One of the things that I have found myself telling him off for this weekend is for not holding my hand when we are out somewhere and wanting to wander off, this drives me to distraction, I know he is trying to excerpt his Independence, but it terrifies me that he may get lost or wander away too far from me, and he is so sincere when he promises that he is going to hold my hand, and gullible fool that I am I always give him the benefit of the doubt and believe him, and every time he ends up saying "mummy I can walk by myself". Is it just a thing that toddlers go through or something that needs to be nipped in the bud, I really don't know.

Smurf is not a naughty child , he is generally really good, so it must just be that mummy had much less patience this weekend, hopefully the rest of the week will be better and we will have a much more moan free week.

Plum Baby Review

2010-05-15T21:52:00.002+01:00

The lovely people over at Plum-Baby asked me if Smurf and I would like to try out some of the snack foods they had developed recently.

I had used some Plum products when Smurf was really little, as they were organic which we liked and they were handy if we were on the move.

Like many of you I thought that Plum only made foods for babies, so I was really surprised when they told me that they also made snacks and biscuits that would be suitable for Smurf.

We received a lovely box filled with a range of the biscuits that Plum make and Smurf wanted to try them right away.
The first snack we tried were the "Milky Moons" which are flavoured with Chamomile and Vanilla, I felt that these were a little hard and to be honest Smurf was not really taken with them, however it did not put him off trying the other snacks.

We tried also the "Spelt Fingers" with Apple and also with Pomegranate, these come in handy little packs of two, which make them great for popping in your bag when on the go. These went down much better with Smurf, especially the apple ones which were a firm favorite.

The final cookies we tried were "Oat Rounds" with orange oil and ginger, these were a firm favorite, and I will have to go out and buy some of these as smurf really took a shine to them.

All of the smacks are of course made with organic ingredients, contain no preservatives and are 100% natural, they are all sweetened with spelt syrup and are certified by Organic Farmers & Growers.

All in all I think these make a great slip in your bag smack for babies and toddlers, and if you would like to find out more about the range of products that Plum-Baby produce then there web site www.plum-baby.co.uk , has lots of information about their range and the heritage grains that they use in these super snacks.

The Gallery - Men!!

2010-05-11T22:09:00.000+01:00

OK The Gallery this week is all about the men in your life, quite an easy task for me since I am going to go down the obvious route and just go with pictures of my hubby, my smurf and my dad..and I might just throw in a little curve ball for good measure.

This is my gorgeous hubby( I may be slightly biased) taken on holiday in possibly the most boring place on earth. Lanzarote, its all just a little too dull for me.

Smurf and his daddy enjoying an afternoons painting,

I was left to tidy up the mess...typical.

My dad and smurf, they are the best of friends, and have a liking for matching hats. My dads as great a grandad as he was a dad, Smurf is a lucky boy, he has a fab daddy too.

Smurf, my little treasure, having fun on the beach.

And finally just a little bit of indulgence on my part, the men I spend most of my Saturday afternoons with. Liverpool FC.
This was taken one day last season.

Can't wait to see everyone elses' men, hop on over to Tara at Sticky Fingers and check it out

Is It The Same Child?

2010-05-04T22:14:00.000+01:00

Today Mr. and myself went to a parent teacher conference at smurfs nursery, which he attends for 5 afternoon sessions a week, each one 2.5 hours long.

The teacher who is apparently smurfs "core" worker (whatever that means) proceeded to tell Mr and I about a child, and after 10 minutes I honestly thought she had got us mixed up with some other parents, the child she was describing bore absolutely no resemblance to the happy, confident little boy that I know, she actually went as far as describe my child as "verging on timid". It was very difficult to get a ward in edge ways with 'core worker' as she was talking twenty to the dozen about this alien child, when we did finally manage to contribute to the conversation by telling her that it was very strange for us to hear this as the child that we know, is full of fun, imagination and a very individual independent personality, who does have a gentle temperament. 'Core workers' explanation for this was not the fact that she has only been at the nursery in question for 3 months or the fact that my child is only 3 years old, her explanation is that smurf is an only child, and apparently according to her beliefs only children always have issues.

I could see the steam practically start pouring from Mr's ears by this time and thought it best to draw the conversation to an end after telling her that we had no concerns about smurf or his development and that maybe we could review it again in a couple of months.

I left the nursery feeling like we had well and truly been castigated for dooming smurf to a life as an only child and that it was impacting on his emotional development, that and the fact that 'core worker' kept telling us that as mother of 3 boys she was well aware of how they could behave.

My confidence in the nursery has been knocked a little, which is a real shame because it is attached to a lovely village school and the other 2 teachers are lovely, and it seems to be full of well behaved polite children who always look like that are having fun when we drop smurf off and pick him up.

Both myself and my husband have siblings, and indeed smurf has a stepbrother who admittedly is a lot older and has not lived with us since smurf was born, so it would be interesting to get some other opinions on being an only child

The one where I have a moan and feel sorry for myself sort of

2010-04-28T23:04:00.000+01:00

I have been having a really crap week this week, mostly I must admit caused by work and not home issues, the issues at work are really boring an are mostly about being really busy and having to carry someone who is not pulling their own weight, and I will sort them out I am just picking my moment.

Because of the issues at work I am finding it hard not having Mr W home, I don't have him to whinge at or to take over some of the responsibilities with smurf just to give me a bit of time of.

In all honesty the fact that my other half works away 3 weeks out of 4 has never really been an issue for me before and I know its only getting to me now because of the other issues, but it did get me wondering about people who have to cope on their own all the time,without any help. I am lucky although Mr W is not at home I do have my family close by and they are a great help, but there are some mums and dads out there who have no one else to turn to for a bit of support, this is one of the reasons I think blogging and twitter can offer a bit of help and advise or just somewhere to have a rant and moan if that is what you need.

So hurray for blogging and the power of twitter

The Gallery - Portraits

2010-04-28T12:59:00.000+01:00

My blog has been getting sadly neglected the last couple of week due to being super busy at work (poor excuse I know). However I always try to make time to stop by for The Gallery by the lovely Tara Cain at Sticky Fingers, cause I just love it.

This week Tara gave us the theme of portraits, and being the self indulgent type of mother that I am and thinking, like we all do that my child is too cute for words, I have decided to go with a few shots of smurf at different stages of his 3 years.

Smurf as a very small baby, makes me very broody

He is about 4 months old here I think, aren't the cute when they are asleep?

These are two of my most favorite recent shots of smurf, I could just squeeze those cheeks to pieces.

This one is smurf and his daddy catching 40 winks, its a hard life!!

As usual I cant wait to see the pictures everyone else has chosen this week, happy snapping!!!

A Trio of Sins

2010-04-21T22:06:00.000+01:00

This week Tara over at Sticky Fingers gave us a great prompt for The Gallery, it was The 7 Deadly Sins...dum dum dum(cue dramatic music for effect).

I really wanted to go with the whole gamut of sins and get the whole 7 in there, but alas year end and month end falling in the same week at work put paid to that, so here for your delectation are a little trio of sins thanks mainly to smurf and a camera obsesed mother (thats me)

Sin No. 1

Sloth - This is smurf flat out while his dad and I drink wine in the portugese sunshine...happy days.

Sin No. 2

Wrath - The face of a toddler who has just been told no ice cream for breakfast, even if the american kids at the next table are eating bowlsful of the stuff.

Sin No. 3

Pride - This sin is all mine, this is me with smurf just getting ready to leave grannies on his very first day of proper nursery.

Go on over to The Gallery and take a look at all the other entries for this week, and if you haven't already why dont you join in?

Say Hello - Wave Goodbye

2010-04-14T22:51:00.000+01:00

I was pregnant, everyone in my family was very excited, this was a child they had never expected to see, I was not really one of those women who craved a child so my parent and grandparents had resigned themselves to not having a grandchild or great-granchild supplied by me and my other half, but here I was pregnant and everyone as so looking forward to meeting the bump when he finally made his appearance.

My grandad was probably the most excited, a father of girls and the grandfather to girls he was practically vibrating with excitement at meeting his great grandson, he just could not wait. We were living in the midlands at the time and my grandparents were in Scotland but we would make frequent trips up to see them and they down to see us, they were both fit and healthy or so I thought.

So when I was 29 weeks pregnant we found out that my grandad had lung cancer, and my heart broke. In his usual style grandad took the whole thing in his stride and was determined that he was going to beat this and be fine, I only wished I was as optimistic. Perhaps it was my hormones and being pregnant but I felt a terrible sense of dread that my wonderful grandad was not going to get to meet my son.

We visited and grandad seemed to be okay for about 3 weeks after his diagnosis, he constantly talked about taking smurf fishing when he was old enough and sharing with him his love of carpentry and working with wood, taking him to football games and on seaside walks and we agreed with him that they would have great fun together doing all those things and more, but we knew by this time and I think maybe deep down he did too that it was going to be a miracle if any of that happened.

My grandad only lasted 7 weeks after his diagnosis, we held his funeral when I was 36 weeks pregnant and smurf and Grandad Phil never got to meet one another, they would have been great friends I am sure, and we often talk about how grandad would have reacted to things smurf does and I can actually picture them together if i close my eyes.

We did manage to say our goodbyes and he left me with a love of the countryside and football that I will pass on to smurf for him.

Although I had to say goodbye to a wonderful part of my life I got to say hello to another wonderful part too, I just wish they could have got to say hello to each other.

This post was written as part of the writing workshop over at Sleep is for the Weak, I chose prompt 5 recount the story of a meeting or a parting

JOY - The Gallery

2010-04-13T22:17:00.001+01:00

Only just got back from holiday and was promptly ill as soon as we got back, so I have not had time to blog, although I have some posts just bursting t be written. However I wanted to post for Tara Cain - The Gallery because I absolutely love the concept and love taking part.

This week the prompt that Tara gave us is "Joy", I knew what picture i wanted to use straight away because the look on the faces of my two men just says joy to me...joy at being together and joy at what they are doing...they both love merry go rounds. So I give you "Joy"

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly & The Gallery

2010-04-06T16:54:00.000+01:00

We are on holiday this week so I wont be posting except to submit my entry for the gallery by the lovely Tara Cain.

I have really struggled with my entry this week, I mean ugly is subjective isn't it. The picture I have chosen is a picture like that...I find the subject ugly with a capital UG, but my husband and smurf would have one in the back garden as a pet if they could get away with it.

This is a picture of a what it lovingly refered to by my hubby(who is english) as a highland coo (otherwise known as highland cattle), he loves them, this one was taken at an animal park we took smurf to last summer, it was pretty warm as is evident by all the flies surrounding the ugly beast.

I cant wait to see how everyone else interpretted this prompt, its a belter.

Writing Workshop - Why do I do it?

2010-04-01T09:17:00.000+01:00

This post is for the wonderful writing workshop that Josie over at Sleep is for the Weak runs, this week I have gone with prompt number 4. Share a time when you felt a deep sense of rejection.

Its inspired by a terrible relationship I had in my early 20's.

If you haven't checked out Josie's fab writing workshop yet, you really need to stop by and check out all the great entries that are there every week.

Why do I do it?

Why do I keep letting you make me feel like this, worthless, unloved, stupid, rejected.

All it takes are your words, your actions, weapons you use to chip away everyday at the self esteem I try so hard to guard, behind a wall you tear down for amusement.

I tell myself I will stop it, stop allowing you the power to hurt me, stop caring, stop listening.

I promise myself I will close my ears to your words, turn my head, walk away, run fast, never look back.

But I don't , I stay, I wait for your crumbs, your careless throwaway specks of hope, the tiny fragments of who I thought you were, they are few and infrequent, but they keep me here, knowing I can't change you, but hoping I can change myself, hoping that finally your rejections will light the spark fuel the tiny ember curled up and hiding, the dry shell of the funny, vibrant, friendly girl I was.

I'm in there somewhere under all the rubble,under the wreckage off what I thought we had.

And soon I can feel it, your burning rejections will ignite the fragile shell of me and I 'll light up again.

The Gallery - Outside My Front Door

2010-03-30T20:42:00.001+01:00

This weeks' prompt for The Gallery by Tara Cain was "Outside our front door". Well although the picture I have chosen is not literally outside my front door it is just across the road, so I am going to go with it anyway, since I have to go out the front door (or the back door) to get there The picture is the beach and harbour at Pettycur Bay, it was taken quite early one morning as smurf and I were going for a welly splash on the beach, welly splashing is one of our favorite pastimes and we love this beach to do it because it has loads of tide pools.

Oh i So Would!!!!!

2010-03-28T23:55:00.002+01:00

I have been tagged by the very funny Pippa over at A Mothers Ramblings with a rather erm adult themed meme, which goes by the strange title of "Plastic Joy Award" (keep reading it really is not as bad as it sounds). The premise of the meme is that you have to name 5 fictional characters that you would like to do some mattress dancing with, so without further ado...here goes.

1) Edward Cullen - I know, I know, he is waayyyyyy to young, but I so love the tortured, damaged soul type, aside from the fact that I would be taking my life in my hands, I think it would be a great partnership...me sally sunshine...him black and brooding.( can i just add for the record here that I first discovered Edward before the films....pre Robert Pattinson)But here's a picture of Rob just for the sheer hell of it.

2) Woody from Toy Story, well the reason for this one is really simple...I have a thing about cowboys, think it comes from spending some time on a horse ranch, I just love how they call you Mame and tip there hat to you, and that gangly cowboy walk that Woody has down to a tee.

3) Mr Darcy, its the dark brooding thing again, the tortured soul (can you see a theme going on here?) I have had a thing for Mr Darcy since I was around 13, which was when I first read Pride & Prejudice, I have read it may times since then, and seen the various films, and I have never lost my fascination with Darcy. The fact that I am going to illustrate this with a picture of a wet Colin Firth as Darcy is just sheer coincidence.

4) Wolverine from the X-Men not sure what it is about Wolverine that draws me to him, think is the difficult character again ( at least that's my story). Although I am sure the razor sharp claws might get in the way a bit, so possibly not a straightforward get together

5) And last but never least Seeley Booth from Bones, I mean whats not to love, he is just about perfect, I really don't have to say to much about him, just look at the picture!!!

So there you go my 5 fictional characters, believe me I could have gone on all night, i mean theres still Carlyle Cullen , Mr Shuester, Indiana Jones...my list is endless.

But the brief was for 5 so 5 I have given you, now I just have to tag other bloggers so here goes.

1. Claire over at cheshire mum

2. Amy over at and 1 more means 4

3. Carole over at New Mummy

The Gallery -Me

2010-03-24T17:50:00.003Z

A bit of a late entry for The Gallery by Tara at Stickyfingers this week.

I like a lot of this weeks entrant's struggled with my entry, being as how I am usually the one taking the pictures, and hate when it is the other way round and I am the subject.

So with all of that in mind i have chosen the picture below.....its me and the beach which I love and my little boy who is one of the things that make me me..I even managed to find one of me with a camera in my hand.

Strangers? - But Everybody Loves Me.

2010-03-22T22:19:00.003Z

We have been having the stranger chat recently, it was prompted by smurf trying to strike up a conversation with some random bloke on the train, the poor bloke was trying his best to ignore the very persistent small child trying to engage him in mindless chatter about Spiderman, he was obviously uncomfortable being singled out for attention, smurf was oblivious to the discomfort and just kept on trying to get some sort of reaction.

After we got off the train I tried to explain to smurf that he shouldn't just talk to people that he didn't know, because not everyone was friendly and nice and some people didn't want to talk to children they didn't know, he looked at me with a completely bemused look on his face and said "but mummy everybody loves me".

I suppose children do find it hard to understand, because they are usually surrounded by love from all the people that do know them, it must be easy for them to assume that everyone will treat them with the same love and kindness. Also what exactly constitutes a stranger, smurf tends to think that after the first hello the person stops being a stranger.

I terrifies me that someone would take advantage of the fact children are so trusting and although I want to make smurf aware of this I don't want to stifle his natural friendliness and curiosity about people or frighten him into not wanting to interact with people.

Would be really interested in anyone else's ideas on broaching the stranger subject?

The Gallery - Week 3 - Choose Your Colour

2010-03-16T20:34:00.005Z

Week Three of The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers, the theme this week is colour and I cant wait to see where everybody goes with that one.

My choice this week is a photo I took a couple of weeks ago, one one of the rare sunny days we have had recently, its at the beach about 15 minutes from our house and one of smurfs favourite places.

So the colour this picture represents to me is "Silver", the sea look like a huge still shiny silver mirror and I like it a lot.

Thanks Mum

2010-03-14T08:05:00.003Z

Since it's Mothers Day today I wanted to post a little thanks you to my mum.

Seeing all the mothers day cards and things advertised at the moment made me start thinking about all the things my mum does for smurf and me and my other half that make our lives easier. I think I have mentioned before that my other half works away from home and because of this I depend on my family for a lot of help with smurf, it was one of the main reasons for our recent house move (5 minutes now from granny, smurf is in heaven).

My mum is one of those people who is only happy when she is doing something for someone, since she retired she has not slowed down at all in fact I think she does more now than she did when she was working.

Smurf is my mum's favourite person, she just absolutely loves to spend time with him and the feeling is clearly mutual. Smurf spends mornings with my mum in the week when I am at work and then goes to a lovely local school nursery 5 minutes walk from mums house in the afternoons. I am finished work in time to pick him up .

I know I can ring my mum up at any time and she will be there for me and smurf, no matter what it is we need, and I know this makes me lucky, lucky that my mum lives close, lucky that she doesn't mind helping us out an lucky that she is still here and active enough to keep up with a very energetic three year old.

I do tell my mum thanks all the time and do when I can do nice things for her too, but you can never show or say how much you appreciate someones help to many times, so I just wanted to say Thanks mum we really appreciate everything you do for us.

The Gallery - 2

2010-03-10T13:48:00.003Z

Another week and another great prompt from Tara over at Sticky Fingers for her great feature The Gallery. This week Tara has gone with the theme of numbers, interpret this as you may.

I am going to go with the number 2 for my picture and coincidentally it is for two reasons this picture fits the bill. The photo is of my little boy when he was 2 and also the fact that there are 2 of them in the picture, the boy and a goat. Since this picture was taken our little boy has lovingly been referred to by his dad as "Goatboy", due to the fact he spent 30 minutes chasing this goat around a muddy french field to give it a huggle, which is what he calls a cuddle, by the time the goat had been huggled smurf was knee deep in mud and had to be forceably stripped to his nappy before being allowed in the car, he did have a great time with the goat though

Splash - The Gallery

2010-03-03T20:42:00.009Z

Tara over at Sticky Fingers has started a wonderful new feature that is a way to check out some great photos taken by all the wonderful mummy (& daddy) bloggers out there. The idea is that each week Tara will give us a prompt and we then either go and take a great photo or we use one we already have.

Well as someone who has a Nikon in my hand at e

very opportunity I couldn't wait to join in. If you haven't had a look yet get on over to Tara's blog and join in.

The prompt for this week is "Beauty", and I thought for quite a while about what I could put forward as an entry. My first thought was of course going with a picture of my little Smurf, but there are loads of pictures of him on my blog already so I started to have a look through the pictures I already have.

I choose this one.

I love this picture, it was taken in Portugal, we were having a wonderful day at the water park, watching the dolphins, enjoying the pools and gardens and the rides and attractions. The photo for me just sums up the really splashing fun we had and when I look at it I always instantly remember us laughing at the dolphins. So for me the beauty in this picture is not only the animals, which are most certainly beautiful, but also the memory that the photo holds for me.

Missing You Issues

2010-02-22T21:21:00.004Z

We have been having major issues this week with the smurf missing his daddy. I think I have mentioned before in my posts that my other half works away for sometimes 3 weeks at a time, and although smurf is a real daddies boy and always misses him for some reason this time it has been worse than normal.

From crying when we dropped daddy at the airport it has progressed to crying for him everyday at some point during the day or evening. Whenever I reprimand him for anything he crys and says he misses daddy, makes me feel like a complete horror.

Yesterday we were picking up some clothes that had been left over from staying at my mums and smurf happened to notice his dads rugby shirt was among it, he immediately made a lunge for it and would not give it up come hell or high water, to the point of throwing a hissy fit when I tried to retrieve it from him, he actually cuddled the shirt all afternoon and ended up going to sleep cuddling it.

I know that my other half has to work away sometimes and I know smurf will (hopefully) get used to it and it will become easier for him (I hope), but he crys like his heart will break and it makes me want to join in out of sympathy.

At the moment we will just have to try our best to find ways to make it easier for smurf to cope when his daddy is not there.

Bad Mummy Moment

2010-02-18T21:51:00.002Z

Tonight has been an evening of feeling like a really terrible mummy. I came home from work stressed, due to having had a horrible day of dealing with disciplinary meetings, so was not in the best of moods.

Smurf was being really good, chatty and smiley, but I was really preoccupied , talking on the phone and trying to fix my laptop and really giving him my full attention.

He managed in one sentence to make me feel like a horrible mother "mummy, I want you to come off the phone, cause I love you".....mummy fail!!!!

Try it Tuesday (or) Very Late for Make it Monday

2010-02-15T12:55:00.010Z

I posted this recipe a week or so ago and then Liz over at Living with Kids asked for some post to put together a little dinner party to get the message out there about The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, including Global Patron Sarah Brown , who are asking people around the world to wear white and hold a dinner party in March to celebrate the 100Th year of International Women’s Day, which is on the 8Th March.

This was intended as a "Make it Monday" post, but thanks to the trouble I am having with my Internet connection at the moment its didn't quite make it so I am going to go with a "Try it Tuesday", (see what I did there)

I made this cheesecake at the weekend as it is one of my hubbies favorites and thought I could share the recipe by adding it here and giving everyone a chance to try it out as an alternative to pancakes.

Ingredients for a 9-inch cheesecake:

100g/3½oz unsalted butter
250g/8¾oz biscuits such as Digestives, Hobnobs, Oaties. Crushed.
450g/1lb Cream cheese such as Philadelphia

Couple of slugs of Baileys Irish cream (other cream liqueur's are available) about 100ml

3½oz icing sugar
200ml/10½oz double cream
60g/2oz chocolate (milk or plain, as you prefer)

Method

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the crushed biscuits and mix until the butter has been absorbed.

Remove from the heat and, while still warm, press the mixture (using the back of a spoon) into the bottom of a lined 23cm/9inch spring form tin or loose bottom flan tin.

Leave to set for one hour in the fridge.
While it is chilling, grate the chocolate.

In a bowl, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.
In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese until it is soft. Beat in the icing sugar and a (generous) shot of Baileys.

Fold in the whipped cream and three-quarters of the chocolate.
When the mixture is smooth, spread it evenly onto the biscuit base.

Refrigerate and allow to set for at least two hours. If you can bear to leave it overnight, so much the better.

You can either sprinkle the remaining grated chocolate over the top for a simple finish or do something a bit more elaborate if you prefer and then just remove from the tin and get stuck in

Apologies

2010-02-12T11:13:00.002Z

I have been a terrible blogger for the last couple of months, and now that it looks like things are going to be back on a more even keel I will apologise for my crapness.

We have been moving house which was where most of the problems arose, not sure what made me think that moving with a toddler and while hubby is working away was going to mean no disruption to normal service....how wrong was I???

We are now in our new house, still with only sporadic Internet access(thanks for that SKY), and still missing 3 doors for the new fitted kitchen...( thanks for that Magnet!!!)

However Smurf loves his new house, he has settled in really well and much to our surprise is sleeping all night in his own bed, this is practically unheard of, previously he would always make his way into our bed if he woke in the night, but since the move and the introduction of a train bed, he now seems content to stay in his room, in his bed....bonus.

So hopefully normal service will now resume and I can actually get back to blogging, I have ideas for posts scribbled everywhere, now I just need SKY to get their act together and give me the Internet access I need to post them.

Favourite Photo & Wordless Wednesday all rolled into One

2010-01-20T22:58:00.003Z

Wordless Wednesday - There's no fun like snow fun

2010-01-13T18:48:00.003Z

GOSH - Teens First For Health

2009-12-08T22:38:00.002Z

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.

2009-12-02T19:07:00.002Z

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!!

2009-12-01T16:45:00.002Z

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!!!!

2009-11-21T11:08:00.006Z

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

2009-11-14T22:55:00.001Z

I'll Sleep Anywhere!!!!

2009-11-04T22:19:00.002Z

Baa Baa What!!!!!!!!

2009-10-25T21:31:00.003Z

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!

2009-10-14T13:18:00.002+01:00

A Pregnancy Journey!

2009-10-11T21:58:00.004+01:00

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!!

2009-10-10T23:08:00.002+01:00

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

2009-10-05T22:44:00.003+01:00

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!!!!

2009-09-19T16:06:00.003+01:00

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

2009-09-12T19:11:00.004+01:00

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!!!

2009-09-11T00:08:00.002+01:00

"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!!!!

2009-09-09T15:42:00.001+01:00

A Change Is Afoot

2009-09-02T13:55:00.004+01:00

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.

2009-08-23T20:38:00.003+01:00

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!!

2009-08-16T16:45:00.011+01:00

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!!!!!

2009-08-11T20:53:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-03T21:11:00.007+01:00

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

2009-07-30T08:44:00.002+01:00

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 .

Wordless Wednesday - Sharing & Making Friends

2009-07-29T10:47:00.003+01:00

Dad!!

2009-07-28T21:35:00.003+01:00

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

2009-07-22T23:31:00.002+01:00

Surplus to requirements?

2009-07-20T18:31:00.002+01:00

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!!

2009-07-16T18:55:00.003+01:00

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!!

2009-07-11T11:49:00.002+01:00

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!

2009-07-10T11:37:00.002+01:00

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

2009-07-09T23:19:00.002+01:00

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.

2009-07-04T13:48:00.003+01:00

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?

2009-06-27T21:40:00.003+01:00

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

2009-06-24T13:24:00.007+01:00

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

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

8 Things I wish I could do

Live abroad again
Play the piano
Get more sleep
be a stay at home mum
Sing on stage
Speak other languages fluently
Lose weight
Keep my family healthy Safe and Happy always

8 favourite fruits

Strawberry
Melon
Cherries
Bananas
Raspberries
Strawberries
Strawberries
Raisins(Only covered in Chocolate, not sure they count).

8 Places I'd like to travel

Safari in Africa
Thailand (Again)
Maldives
Russia
New York
Mexico (Again)
New Zealand
Japan

8 Places I've lived

Coventry
Midlands
Stirling
Coventry (Again)
Kirkcaldy
Edinburgh
Merseyside
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

Little Star

2009-06-18T12:29:00.003+01:00

I've been feeling really guilty recently about how much time I get to spend with my little man, the hours I work mean that he sleeps over at grannies house a couple of nights a week and I collect him in the morning and drop him off before I start work again. 0y hubby works away a bit so this also means that when he is away smurf has to stay at grannies.

My mum is fantastic and smurf loves her and my dad and sister to pieces, but its just not the same as putting him to bed every night and waking up with him in the morning.

So the last couple of weeks on one of the night when he would usually have to stay at grannies, my mum has come and stayed over at our house so he was in his own bed and mummy was getting him up in the morning; last night was one of those nights and I was reminded this morning just how wonderful being a mum is and how happy my smurf is by being woken up with him creeping into our bed, snuggling up and singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to me all the way through. There are times when I could just eat him up and this morning was one of those times.

And I just think maybe we shouldn't let the guilt of having to work or choosing to work get in the way of enjoying every minute you get to spend with your child and making the most of them no matter how few they are.

Beginings...Come on Lorraine Get on with it!!!!

2009-06-16T12:30:00.000+01:00

Ok so I'm seeing this blogging thing everywhere and thought I have got to give that a try. I keep talking about it and looking at the sites, but never actually get around to doing anything about it.

But then I get addicted to Twitter and start reading blogs posted by some of the mums on there, and they make me smile and laugh and think how just like my life some of them are and just how different others are, and I think how great it is that we can all connect and give support and offer advise to each other just by writing about all the little bits of our everyday life.

So finally I have gotten around to actually writing something down, and it is a bit of a ramble, but while writing it I have a two year old who thinks it may be a good idea to help mummy on the "puter" by hitting the keys with Handy Mannys hammer and rubbing a strawberry in his hair. He thinks he is helping and keeping us both amused...he is right.

Well it was not as hard as I though it would be and even with the very small and messy distraction, it has given me a few minutes to sit down and think and just enjoy writing about us.