Archive | February 2012

Friends – The Gallery

Feb29

This is one of my best friends. (Not the girl in the foreground, that’s me!). She’s actually my cousin and a year and a half younger than me.

Growing up we fought like cat and dog and, as we both are the only girls in our families, we are the closest thing we each have to a sister.

She is brilliant and has always been there for me. Besides my small group of actual best friends and my hubby she is probably the one that knows most about me and the one who has been there at my lowest, my hungriest and my happiest. We come from the same crazy family and have been through a lot together over the years.

We are chalk and cheese but there is a strong bond there. The kind of bond that always meets with a massive hug, continues with non stop chatter at a 100 miles an hour and parts with a massive hug.

You can’t see from this picture but I was at an extremely low point in my at the time and she made sure I kept busy. We went out every weekend and ate and laughed a LOT!

(Don’t tell her I told you!)

P.S This is the only photo she’d allow. I don’t like being centre of attention of anything like that.

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Check out the other entries in this weeks Gallery!

The Baby Hater

Feb27

I think Baby Z has entered the world of baby anxiety. Or Baby hating. I can’t seem to work it out yet.

Over the weekend we ha a visit from some good friends and their baby girl who is 4 months younger than baby Z and has just entered the “pokey” inquisitive stage. She teeters about in utter cute mode and explores everything by giving it a good poke. In the midst of her exploration she happened to wander over to Baby Z and gave him a good prod and a “IYYYAA!”. He responded by freezing in surprise, quickly locking eyes with me and trying hard to stop his bottom lip quivering. This was followed by a “waaaaaaaah!”, cue lots of crying and arms held out for a cuddle. He spent the entire afternoon eyeing her suspiciously and bursting into tears every time she tried to play with him.

Roll on Sunday, and after getting his first pair of Clarkes (hurrah!!!), we decided to just “pop” in to Asda for a few bits and bobs. Our “popping in for a few bits and bobs” quickly turned into “a big shop filled to the brim and wandering up and down every aisle”.

Baby Z loves being pushed around in the trolley and as we approached the chocolate aisle we could hear the screaming cries of what looked like a 2 year old little girl, also in a trolley, getting louder and louder. In her arm and leg flailing she caught sight of Baby Z and immediately shut up and pointed, wide eyed and suddenly riveted.

“Oooooh Baybeeeee!”

Her frazzled mum, in an attempt to keep her toddler quiet, immediately pushed her trolley direct next to ours so the two babies were next to each other.

The little girl reached out and tried to hold Baby Z’s hand. Baby Z wasn’t having any of it and looked to us with a “get me awaaaay!”. We tried to assure him with lots of smiles and “say hello!”. He responded with a “waaaaaaah!!” and that was our cue to quickly pull him away and saying our goodbyes.

As we pushed him away the cheeky monkey raised his hand and started waving as the poor frazzled mum of the toddler attempted to deal with part 2 of the epic tantrum her toddler was having.
He quickly put his hand down as her screams got louder.

Dummy Dares

Feb22

After about week of Baby Z having fever, a throat infection and what looks like major teething, I think we *may* have finally turned a fever-less corner today. What normally resembles a small but fierce hurricane working its way through our front room looks more like a strong gust of wind at the moment, with a lot of little naps in between the havoc, but he looks like he is getting there, slowly but surely. My fringe, meanwhile has been graced by a few more white hairs of worry over the last few days. Its quite nicely helping me to look more and more like a cross between Pepe le Pews girlfriend and a younger (and of course, prettier) version of Cruella.

All this teething has done no favours to getting rid of Baby Z’s dummy though. He has been refusing all teething rings and, instead, has been clutching his precious dummy to chomp on furiously whenever the need takes him. I was all set to start getting rid of it. It would ONLY be nap times and ONLY when he was in floods of tears. It lasted about a day before fever took over I melted in instant defeat to give him a guaranteed soother. I know he’s feeling better today because he doesn’t look like he’s going to tear it to shreds with just his hardened gums. He is currently sat on the sofa playing the game of the week; holding the dummy strap in his hand and swinging it around rapidly, kind of like a baby version of David from David and Goliath. You can see the fear in his eyes as well as the dare he gives himself to have another go. Then you see a massive self-congratulatory smile emerge once he’s stopped and realised he hasn’t whacked himself in the face.

Trying to take it off him just proves futile as I’m met with a full on dramatic swoon and a “How very dare yoooooou!!” style tantrum. So I opted for the advice given by a few which is “once he hurts himself he won’t do it again”. So far, we’re on the 5th time he’s hurt himself…

We will start again tomorrow.

Landscapes in The Gallery

Feb21

This week the theme in The Gallery is Landscapes

Go and take a photo of one that inspires you, dig one out of your archives or get creative. Trees (ahem), sea shores, beach, skyline, fields, roof tops, pylons, mountains, snow whatever.

This was taken on holiday in Rome a few years ago.  The landscape of the entire city is just breathtaking and if you like a bit of history then its like being in history heaven.  You can’t turn around without seeing a bit of history that shaped Rome and its like being on an adult school trip.  One of my favourite places was something called The Forum.  Its where some of the key councils and leaders would meet and discuss key matters that shaped their world  Every little ruin is still steeped with stories from the past and you can wander around for hours just learning.  You can see the Coloseum in the background just to the right.  Thats a whole story in itself!

 

Go check out the other entries in this weeks Gallery. 

The Guilt – A Rant

Feb21

“A mothers guilt is hard enough without other people adding to it”.

My friend said this to another friend on a Whatsapp group conversation this week. She has gone back to work following the end of her maternity leave and is feeling the pressure of not only leaving her baby in nursery, but having her family/in-laws chime in with what they think of the whole situation. Needless to say she is very on edge.

This last few days have been utter shite (to put it politely). Baby Z has been really poorly with a persistent temperature. The “mothers guilt” kicked in immediately. Was it something I did? Was it all the early starts? Is it because it’s just so cold outside in the morning?

Certain family members then added to that guilt by giving their opinion on what had made Z ill. Some, quite nicely, revolved around me going back to work. The button was pressed successfully and the mothers guilty tears flowed.

The doctor diagnosed him with a throat infection but it’s viral which means no antibiotics and he has to fight it off himself. Great!! Now, I’m not an antibiotics addict by any means and, personally, I always feel like I should be close to my death bed before making an appointment, but when it comes to your baby you somehow just want them to wave a wand a make them better don’t you? Well, she didn’t pull out the wand and after a thorough check we trudged back home to alternate between the calpol and nurofen.

We are currently on Day 6 of an on and off temperature, teething and a throat infection. He is trying so hard to be the bubbly naughty baby he is but every so often he climbs into my lap looking shattered and just wants to be cuddled. As much as I love the hugs, I just want the little hurricane back that can destroy our living room in 30 seconds flat.

And then to throw a bit more guilt into the mix I have to go back to work tomorrow. I left work in a hurry half way through the day on Friday to take Z to the doctors. My boss was supportive as always but that didn’t stop me feeling guilty about dropping everything with the promise of catching up later. That later didn’t come till Saturday morning whilst Z napped. Come tomorrow I will be worrying about Z and wondering if he is ok whilst trying to work and obviously not giving 100%.

Roll on the end of bug season and a happier fully recovered Z.

There endeth the rant.

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