The eve before new years eve!

Rather a long title, but I am writing this on New Years Eve and Emma, Lee and Poppy came round for a meal yesterday, the eve before new years eve! I cooked shepherds pie with cheesy mash which everybody said was lovely, not that I could taste much, my taste buds are still no good nearly 7 years after chemotherapy, I wonder if they will ever return? Poppy had a good go at feeding herself, how much of it she actually ate I really don`t know, but she insists on doing it herself, very independant my granddaughter! Her little cheek was very red, indicating the possible new tooth which we think may be on its way! She loves jaffa cakes but only ate half and then pushed it away in favour of a satsuma, or "O" as Poppy calls them, not being able to get her mouth around the word orange!

Once again she was playing the bauble game, grabbing a bauble off the christmas tree, giving me a cheeky grin and then running off across the room so that I will chase her and tickle her. Its funny and she giggles away, but to be honest I shall now be glad when the christmas tree and other decorations are down! After the 5th or 6th chase across the room Gray saw that I was worn out and decided to chase her in my stead, but she still looked to me the next time she pinched a bauble off the tree, I obviously tickle better! Grandad has a tendency to throw her in the air and blow raspberries on her tummy which she thinks is funny, but not quite as funny as lying on her back on the floor being tickled!

I found a Peppa Pig band set at the charity shop just before christmas, it was still in the box and had obviously never been used to I managed to grab hold of it before anybody else could. Emma brought it down yesterday and Poppy stood anxiously by watching while Mummy got out the drum and the cymbals, the trumpet and the tambourine. She obviously was not quick enough getting them out because Poppy started to pull at them, saying "mine, mine"!!! (A word she has recently learnt from her cousin Ruby!) She seems to be learning new words all the time now, if you hand her something she likes to eat she will say "nice".She makes us laugh everyday, thank God for Poppy.

Happy New Year all. xxxx

Meringues for tea.

Emma, Lee and Poppy came for tea yesterday. We also invited Jill and Andy, our good friends and neighbours. Poppy has a cold once more, having caught it from almost everybody else as it has been doing the rounds and the whole family has had it, so they were a bit late arriving for their tea as Poppy had just woken up, had been coughing and had been sick all over the place. She was okay when she was here, though she did not eat a great deal, she did manage a satsuma though, which she loves, or an "o" as she calls it! I had made meringues which I filled with cream and cream puffs filled with jam and cream which all went down very well. I did do savoury too ofcourse! Poppy was playing her game of taking the baubles off the christmas tree while looking and me with a cheeky grin on her face, I then have to chase her and tickle her! Little monkey!! Funnily enough she soon managed to find one of the chocolates I put on the tree and tried to eat it while it was still wrapped in foil! Strangely she did not want it when Grandad unwrapped it for her! Emma, Lee and Poppy went home about 7.30 after she was dressed in her pyjamas and finished a bottle of milk, she was tired and ready for bed, just had her inhaler to take when she got home.

Christmas Day 2011.

Just after 11am the family arrived as they usually do to open presents together. Paper everywhere, but then thats normal on Christmas Day, I expect everybodys house looked the same! Poppy had some lovely things, a beautiful thick cardigan from her Aunty and Uncle, Rach and Ste, from Next ofcourse, Rachels favourite shop! A panda from Jill which does something when you put batteries in, though I am not sure what! She liked the farm set we bought for her and was pressing the buttons and the Soo puppet for a special cuddle and a kiss. Peppa Pig also got a kiss and cuddle, Poppy could only just about get her arms around her, but she got a pat on the back too! Em had not had chance to open all her presents at home with rushing around doing everything so after dinner she continued helping Poppy to open all her gifts and it took her until about tea time! She liked the Aquadoodle mat she had from Mommy and Daddy, she likes to draw and drawing with a pen filled with plain water seems like a good idea when you think of the damage a crayon or felt pen could do to the wallpaper! Dinner was lovely, cooked by Emma, Poppy ate some and spread some across the tray of her high chair and her face, hands and anywhere else she could wipe it! Pudding had to wait until much later as everybody was full! Poppy was worn out after her early morning get up and her busy day, she is one lucky little girl with all the lovely gifts she received, infact she was so tired she fell asleep on Daddy for an hour or so while watching The Gruffalo which she found fascinating. A very nice day was had by all, Em worked very hard to make everything special, thanks Em. xx

Its Christmas!

This was Poppy yesterday when she came to visit her Grandma and Grandad with Mummy, the hat is a little big but I`m sure you will agree she looks so sweet in it!

Pops and snowman video.

Poppy and the snowman!

Visits, visits, visits

Its certainly been a very busy day today, one way or another! First of all I had a phone call this morning saying I had won second prize of a Christmas hamper from a local butchers! What a nice surprise, so thats the bacon, gammon, pork pies etc., sorted for Christmas. It came in the form of a voucher which a kind lady dropped off to my house late this morning so we have to pop along to the butchers to fetch it later in the week, we don`t want to go too early as we have to get it all in the fridge somewhere!

Round about lunch time Jill rang to see if I would like to go for a cuppa, I text Em to say where I would be and she texted back to say she may pop up as Poppy had made a present for Jill. I had just finished my tea when Emma and Poppy arrived with a flat oblong shaped parcel but Emma won`t tell me what it is as she said Poppy has made it herself and she has done a similar one for me! Now I am intrigued!! Poppy enjoyed her visit to Jills house, she spent the whole time we were there smiling and attempting to throw the toy for the dog Millie.

We came back to our house and waited for Grandad to come home and then decided to visit Michelle and the boys to take pressies, followed by Sue and her family. I rang to make sure they were in and off we went, Michelles first, the three boys were so pleased to see us and Poppy was the centre of attention! According to Ryan she adores him! She did spend the time hanging on to his finger and making him walk round the house with her! We then headed off to see Sue and her family and again Poppy enjoyed playing with their four children though we did not stay long as it was tea time and the children were just about to have tea when we arrived, we were all hungry too so we just stopped for a short visit on this occassion. Poppy was worn out and fell asleep in the car so we dropped her off at home as Daddy was back from work, she was still asleep when Em got her out of the car, then Em came back with us to fetch her car and Lily.

So a lovely afternoon was had by all, Poppy certainly is very sociable and just loves visiting!

The strange man in a red suit!

Emma, Lee and Poppy arrived about 4.30, they had been to Emilys grave, there was a carol service held in the babies garden for all the babies who lie there. I wanted to go but was not feeling the best, I had been coughing the past few days and the cold would not have helped. Em said she had got so cold that she could not get warm and so she sat in our house for a couple of hours with my "snuggie" wrapped round her drinking a nice hot cup of tea. The service was mercifully short, apparently they only sang Away in a Manger and then gave candles out to all the parents who had lost babies. The garden was full of people, there were not enough candles to go around, obviously more turned up than expected.

Poppy is having a toy kitchen for Christmas, they have been to the toy shop today and she kept going back to the kitchen so they realised she liked it so that is what Santa is bringing for her. Tomorrow they are taking her to the garden centre to see Father Christmas, we popped over there today for lunch, they do a nice carvery, and saw that he has a grotto in the local garden centre, well actually its a shed, but all dressed up for Christmas, he even has an elf outside, rather a tall one admittedly but wearing an elf costume all the same! Father Christmas rings a little bell when he is ready for the next child, and apparently he gives each child lots of time and talks to them nicely. I wonder what Poppy will make of a strange man in a red suit!

Busy, busy, busy, busy!

Had quite a few visitors today, firstly Anne with Helena, and the bump, she is due in May, and I got to see the 20 weeks scan picture too. They don`t know what sex the baby is as yet, they want a surprise. Jill arrived, followed closely by Sarah, so Poppy has enjoyed all the attention, well from Sarah and Jill anyway, she missed Anne and Helena completely, she slept all through their visit! This afternoon we went out to visit Ste and Rach, Rach is lying on the sofa resting and hoping that all has gone well. Poppy enjoyed visiting, especially as Uncle Ste gave her a satsuma which she absolutely loves, she had one at breakfast, one at lunch, took one with her to Stevens house, then she had some of Stevens and lastly two at tea time! She is certainly getting her vitamin C thats for sure! Its lovely that she likes her fruit, and ofcourse good for her. She points at the fruit basket and says "O", she cannot quite manage orange! She had lots of lovely smiles for her Aunty Rach and sat beside her on the sofa to watch the tv as Rachel changed channels to CBBC for her. When baby Jake came on, which she loves, she was chuckling away!
Em has gone late night Christmas shopping so Gray took Poppy round to her Daddy after tea, along ofcourse with Lily. She is very good now, when you tell her she is going home and hold her coat out for her she slides her arms into the sleeves!
It is meant to snow overnight, whether that happens or not we shall see, but at least we bought Poppy some wellies this week, just incase, rainbow striped wellies no less, so at least if it does snow she can go out and walk in it, without getting her feet wet. I wonder what her face will be like when she sees snow, ofcourse it did snow last year but she was too little to realise it, so it will be as though she is seeing it for the first time!

Little devil!!

Worn out, Poppy has had the devil in her today! She thinks it absolutely hilarious to grab a bauble off the christmas tree, smile at me and then walk away as fast as she can, waiting to be chased! Grandad has been busy chasing her and doing a lot of tickling!

Popped out to the retail park this afternoon as we needed to buy a pressie for Poppys new cousin, Florence Rose born a couple of weeks ago, I have been meaning to buy a card and pressie for her every since! We got a nice little pinafore type dress in pink with a lovely matching top, the dress is made of fleece material so should be nice and warm for the winter.  Poppy enjoyed the ride in the trolley, being able to see all the christmas things around in the shop, she was fascinated! And she got a new jigsaw puzzle into the bargain which she held in front of her all the way round and just about managed to let go for it to be scanned at the till before the kind lady handed it back to her!

Poppy likes the snowman we have standing beside our tree, it is a little bit smaller than she is, so she can stand in front of him and put her arms around him, she has been dancing with him too which is so cute!

Hello Bargey

Poppy arrived with her Mummy and Daddy yesterday for Sunday lunch, roast lamb, roast potatoes, yorkshire pud, carrots and broccoli, and she ate very well which was nice to see as she has been poorly once again recently and when she is poorly she does not eat too much. She has just discovered Jaffa cakes, its amazing how one disappears to quickly when handed to Poppy!

The latest word is hello, she was calling hello to the rabbit on Saturday who was hoping around the garden while Daddy cleaned out the hutch. She said hello when she walked in yesterday, accompanied by a little wave, then when she saw Barney she said "hello Bargey"!!! Cute. I don`t know how many times she said hello while wandering around yesterday, I lost count!

We have put the christmas tree up and next to it are a snowman which stands beside it who is not quite as tall as Poppy, on the other side of the tree is a Father Christmas wearing a woolly hat instead of the usual red hat trimmed with red fur. Poppy liked these very much and carried the Father Christmas around while patting it on the back and saying "aaahhh". When she went up to the snowman and stood in front of him she grabbed his hands and started to dance with him! Well cute! The tree did not get off unscathed, she carefully removed two baubles then walked around gently shaking them and grinning! I think there may be quite a bit of distracting going on!

A few pics of meal time the Poppy way!

Not the easiest week.

Quite a difficult week, Poppy has not been well for a few days and so has been tired and grumpy which is most unlike her. Thankfully the doc gave her antibiotics, steroids and a preventative inhaler and yesterday she was a lot better, still quite tired but then she has been missing her sleep coughing, so she had two long sleeps yesterday, inbetween playing, which seemed to do her good. Hopefully she will be able to sleep through the night again and Mummy and Daddy might get some rest. She arrived yesterday saying "uh oh", where she has got it from we don`t know, maybe Daddy or it could be from a programme on baby tv which has a character called Oh oh! Up until now I have had the travel cot in the lounge for Poppy to sleep in but now she is older, and able to get off the sofa safely, it is time to take the travel cot down, and she can have her naps on the sofa on some nice comfy cushions. I never thought the travel cot was very comfortable for her, the mattress being quite thin, so I think she may sleep more soundly on the sofa cushions. You can tell she was feeling better yesterday as almost every toy from her toy box was spread around the lounge! A piece of one of her jigsaws has disappeared, we looked everywhere for it, so maybe it will be underneath the cot when I take it down, now all I have to do it remember how to fold it up! We had rather a job putting it up in the first place, there is a very strange way to erect the thing, so I just hope that folding it up again will be easier! Today I have had a lie in and I am, as usual on a Friday, worn out! Not the easiest week I must admit, but lovely to see Poppy on the mend, thank God.

The visit to the doctors.

Poppy has been poorly again today, but Em had to go to work and so she brought her to see Grandma this morning, she came back after lunch and was quite concerned about her breathing so managed to get an appointment at the doctors and took her over. Funny how there were no appointments available when she first rang up, but when she rang back ten minutes later, being rather worried, they told her to take her down in half an hour! The doc was concerned as she was still wheezing, even though she had just had her inhaler, Em was concerned that he would send her to hospital again, but he said he would try to manage her condition at home as Em did not fancy another few days in hospital, and who can blame her? He has given her a preventative inhaler, steroids and some antibiotics as it is clear she has a sore throat because she cries when she coughs and her ear is also a little red so he is taking no chances. Hopefully once she has had a couple of doses of all her new medications she will be on the mend.

All she has wanted to do all morning is sleep, and even when she has been awake she has just wanted a cuddle, poor little thing she does go through it, she didn`t have the easiest start in life and seems to be poorly every few weeks.

Get well soon sweetheart. xxxx

Oh dear, poorly Pops.

Poor Poppy has not been well this weekend, when her Mummy fetched her from the childminder on Friday it was to the news that she had been tired and grumpy all day and was obviously coming down with something. As her cousin had chicken pox a couple of weeks ago a close eye has been kept on her tummy to make sure no spots appear, at the moment all is clear. She does have a couple of large teeth trying to break through so it could be a case of teething, with which she is usually not too well, causing cold symptoms and breathing problems, but then just because no spots have appeared since Friday it does not necessarily mean that none will come, I believe the incubation period for chicken pox is quite a long one, we shall just have to wait and see. They came for lunch today, Poppy managed a carrot and a little bit of melon plus a couple of pieces of banana though not much more, but at least she has eaten something. At least what she has eaten is good for her being fruit and veg, which is a good thing. She was rather warm when she left which means she must have a temperature, and whereas normally she will take her calpol to bring down her temperature quite well, she has suddenly decided that she just does not want it and waves it away, causing a very sticky mess in the process! Poor Poppy, she only seems to have a couple of weeks when she is well and then she is back to square one, poorly again. Oh dear, poorly Pops.

Florence Rose.

Poppy stopped over last night, her mummy and daddy were off out for a christmas meal with friends so when Emma fetched her from the childminders she brought her straight round to ours then headed off home for her pyjamas, rather than mess her about getting her in and out of the car seat. She was very tired after a busy day at the childminders, apparently the childminders son had been off school, lying on the sofa, and Poppy loves him so didn`t want to go to sleep all day in case she missed something! Sounds like she spent the day jumping all over Tom, so lets hope she has not caught whatever it is he has, he had a temperature, not sure what else, and you can make a bet Pops will catch it!

I changed her nappy, got her into her sleep suit and gave her her milk, her eyes looked very sleepy and I thought she would be in bed by 6.30 but no, she finished off her milk, sat for a moment or two, then jumped off my lap, headed for the sofa and jumped up, wanting to look through the window! Not much use as it happened, it was dark by then! She had a new lease of life until about 7.30 but I could see how tired she was, she was fighting it and trying not to give in, so Grandad carried her upstairs and I followed to get her to sleep. We sat in my bedroom for ten minutes or so, Poppy sucking her dummy madly, pretending she was not tired, then she fell asleep showing that I was right all along, she was shattered!

Ten past three she woke a couple of times, having lost her dummy, but she did settle down again eventually and then slept until 6.40am so I suppose that wasn`t bad, from 7.30 last night. We could hear her talking to her teddies, though quite what she was saying was anybodies guess! A few minutes later she had had enough and started to cry, Gray was having to get up anyway for work so he went and fetched her into our room where she was immediately fine again, pointing to Barney who was still fast asleep in bed and saying "aaahhhh"!!

Gray went off to work at 8am and Emma arrived about 10 so Poppy and I had a couple of hours to play. She likes pulling the basket out of the unit in the hall and taking out all the dog leads and collars, she used to just leave them all over the floor but now she carries the collar and lead to the dog and tries to put it round their neck! Em, Poppy and I had lunch and now they have gone to visit Florence Rose, Emmas new niece and Poppys new cousin, born to Beverley last Tuesday morning, weighing 8 pounds. Pops will enjoy that, she loves babies!

So I am shattered now as you can imagine, and I hurt as my arthritis is playing me up a lot at the moment, Poppy is a good little soul, but I still need eyes in the back of my head to prevent any accidents happening! 

Unless it is some kind of secret code!

Poppy has been a little tinker today, pushing buttons she shouldn`t and when you say "no Poppy" she turns round and grins! She has climbed all over the furniture and poor old Barney has been sat on top of! Not that he minds, he just lies there and she has him wrapped round her little finger, but thats not the point! The other dogs certainly wouldn`t let her sit on them so I have to say no, we don`t want her to get the idea that she can leap all over the dogs, its not fair on them and she may get a fright if one of them were to give her a warning. She is getting faster walking too and before you can turn round she has disappeared! She can still crawl faster than she can walk but I daresay that will change in time!

We took her to the library this afternoon to change her books, she was very excited when we went in and wanted to look at everything, quite a few books in the childrens department ended up on the floor when she discarded them so Grandad picked them all up before we left. She was very happy when a little girl arrived in the childrens section and she was waving away at her and jabbering on in her own language, smiling away! When a little lad about her own age arrived Poppy obviously decided he could understand everything she said and was chattering to him too, not that he took a lot of notice! Shame, she was trying her best to make friends. It is nice that they are able to join the library at this age, and that they have plenty of board books for them to look through, its great that they are encouraging the love of books in this way. You are never lonely when you have a love of books and can get yourself lost in the story.

I just had a text from Emmas phone, it was complete gobbledygook, somehow I think Poppy may have got hold of her Mummys phone and accidentally found out how to text! Unless it is some kind of secret code!

Cheeky monkey.

Poppy was full of beans this morning, she was climbing on the sofa and trying to sit on Barney! He is so good and so placid he would let her but it is not fair on him so I had to keep telling her not to jump on him! Little monkey! She was tired by about 10.30am but would not go to sleep in case she missed something, its obvious when Poppy is tired, she moans and you can see it in her face. I gave her a biscuit about 11am, she often has a biscuit, or bikkie as she calls it, to keep her going until lunch, and she fell asleep while eating it! Two hours she slept for, you see Poppy, I told you that you were tired! Cheeky monkey!!

This afternoon she has been to visit her great Aunty Marg and Uncle Rich, I think Marg was worn out by the time we left an hour later as Poppy kept grabbing hold of her finger and walking her into the kitchen, she wanted to look in the cupboards! She also keeps wanting to climb the stairs, and ofcourse as Marg has no stairgate up she keeps heading for them! They are very steep, not that she knows how to come down the stairs as yet, so we kept heading her off at the pass, so to speak!

She was having her yogurt when Mummy arrived, learning to feed herself which was evident by the amount of strawberry yogurt all over her face! Problem is that she does not like having her face washed!

Fruit and veg.

Poppy has enjoyed her food today, toast and jam for breakfast then for lunch quiche, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and ham followed by fromage frais. She managed two biscuits this afternoon and has now gone home with Mummy and Daddy so I hope she eats her tea! Em tells me it is shepherds pie tonight. Poppy certainly likes her fruit and veg which is great, these days kids can eat some rubbish so it is nice that she likes things which are good for her!

The lounge looks like a tip, in the centre is the ball pool, though most of the balls are all over the carpet! Emma did try to put them back into the bag before she took Poppy home but Poppy kept getting them out again! It was easier to leave them for Grandad to clear up! She has her farm out, bargain £2.50 from the charity shop, then her baby walker and her toy ride on car are abandoned in the middle of the room, various other toys are dotted about. At least she enjoyed herself!

Anne came round for a coffee this morning which was nice, good to have some adult company, there is only so much baby talk you can do! Poppy was tired after Annes visit but would not give in and go to sleep, she thought she was missing something! She eventually dropped off to sleep at 11.20 and slept for over 2 hours! Jill came round to help at 11.30 but ofcourse Pops was fast asleep and she had to leave just before she woke up so she missed Poppy altogether today!! Ofcourse that meant that Poppy missed out on her walk out in her pushchair as Jill often takes her out for a breath of fresh air for me as I cannot walk far enough to make the outing worthwhile! Grandad would have taken her out this afternoon but not long after he came home her Mummy turned up as she had a pd day (personal development) and as she had to borrow our car this morning she thought she had best get back early just in case we wanted to go out anywhere. Lee said the wheel was making a funny noise last night when he got home from the gym but it was too dark to look, turned out to be a bolt thrown up from the road, but you never know, better safe than sorry.

She liked it so much she did not want to go home!

Poppy has been to visit Birmingham Childrens hospital this morning for her check up with the neurologist who was very pleased with her progress and said she is doing well. He said that at one point her head did expand quite a bit but then was okay, and he said she has obviously got over it well and has no problems, thank goodness. She was having her head measured every 2 weeks but he now said there is no need for that to happen any more and so she will be measured when she sees her consultant at New Cross and when she goes to Birmingham. He said she could have another MRI when she is 3, just to see how she is going on, and the fluid may, or may not, have dispersed. Emma and Lee said they think he would leave it up to them whether that would be an option or not, but maybe it is better to know if the fluid has dispersed so you know what you are dealing with, but they can cross that bridge when they get to it. He said that unless there is a big problem with build up they would not drain the fluid as this could cause more problems, and could actually cause a bleed, so as long as Poppy is doing well, making progress as she should and carries on doing so, he sees no need to do anything as the fluid on her brain is obviously not giving her a problem. Apparently some people live with some fluid on their brain and it does not pose a problem or threat to them in anyway, so he was pleased with how she is developing and cannot see any need to do anything at all.

Poppy was waving and smiling at the doctor, and at one point, while they were waiting in the corridor to see him, she shot back into the waiting room where she proceeded to wave and smile at all and sundry! When she saw a babe in arms she got very excited, shouting babba babba! Bless.

They arrived here after the hospital visit and had some lunch. Poppy was very interested in the toy farm I found yesterday in the charity shop, opening the doors and putting the animals in place, and pushing the little tractor trailer about, what a bargain at £2.50! She liked it so much she did not want to go home!

She makes me laugh.

Em said Pops would be tired early today as she was awake at 5.30am, sure enough just before 9.30am she was showing signs of sleepiness and soon dropped off with a nice cuddle from Grandma.

She has some of her bigger back teeth coming through and in some parts of her gums they look bruised, I suppose the larger teeth can do that, poor little soul. She has been dribbling for England this afternoon and we kept having to wipe her chin or the skin would become sore. She ate the fruit I prepared for breakfast but waved the toast away, then at lunch time she did not eat much of her sandwich but managed the Peppa Pig yogurt. Thank goodness she ate all her tea, shepherds pie, and enjoyed it. She likes to feed herself so I have one spoon and Poppy has a spoon, consequently I do tend to get covered with food, so does the carpet, sofa, dog - you get the picture! She is getting better, and there was not so much mess today, she is learning how to use the spoon and get the food into her mouth much better now, we do have to grab hold of the bowl though, otherwise it could end up on the floor or on her head!

Poppy loves playing with her dolly now, who is known as Ba Ba. She will give her a drink, cuddle her and pat her back and take her for a walk in her buggy! Sweet. I put one of the nappies on the doll which Poppy used to wear when she was first born, they are really tiny and used to literally bury Poppy, they came right up to her chest and down past her knees, the size is micro! The doll she has is very small so it was a shock when I put the nappy on to the doll and it fit it okay, showing that Poppy was actually a lot smaller than the doll when she came into this world! It is amazing to see how she has come on since she was born at 3 pounds 4 ounces almost 16 months ago now, she is a toddler, though still petite and her legs and arms are really skinny, she is walking, can say quite a few words, and she understands a lot of what you say to her, even if she cannot answer you back as yet. She smiles and laughs all the time, with the odd exception if she does not want her face washed or her nappy changed, and she makes us laugh every day, she is a real little giggler!

The abacus.

We don`t normally have Poppy on a Friday, she usually goes to the childminder, but as I had an appointment with my oncologist yesterday for my annual check up I swapped days with Sallianne. Lesley came round for a coffee this morning and Poppy was on top form, climbing all over her and giving her her best smiles! Poppy had just woken up from a 2 hour sleep so she was full of energy!

Grandad finishes work at 2pm on a Friday and we had to pop to the bank and on the way home we nipped into the charity shop to see if there were any toys for sale, they are a great help as Poppy can have lots of toys to help her development for very little cost and all they need is a good clean with hot water and milton fluid! Today we found three nice books at 50p each and an abacus which she chose herself. I had already spotted the abacus, a lovely wooden one, you don`t see them often these days so we grabbed that on Poppys orders, she had already seen it and was reaching out to touch it, they are a good teaching aid to teach not only numbers but colour too so I was pleased with that.

Poppy has enjoyed her meals today which is good to see, when she is poorly she goes off her food big time and it is very difficult to get her to eat anything so when she eats it is lovely. We bought her an egg custard tart, she polished off the lot!

Sweet

Anne came round for a cuppa this morning, it was the first time she had seen Poppy walking. Poppy kept staring at her and smiling at first, its been a while since she saw her and I think Poppy was trying to work out who it was! It didn`t take Poppy long, a few minutes only, to walk over to Anne and try to grab her phone and keys! After Anne left Poppy fell asleep at 11.30 and she slept until just before 1.30! She didn`t want her sandwhich for lunch but managed a whole banana, a slice of melon cut into chunks and a fromage frais, a Peppa pig one ofcourse!

This afternoon we went off to Asda to get a new cup, the one we had did have a special valve in the lid which prevented it from leaking everywhere but Em took it to hospital with her when Pops had her last visit and we have not seen it since! (I think Emma and Lee have "accidentally" forgotten to bring it back, they liked the idea that it did not leak!) So we went for a new one, its easier than cleaning up the drips of sticky fruit juice from tables, trays, carpets, babies and grandmas clothes! We have now told Em we have donated the other one to them, she was well pleased!

When Em came to fetch Poppy today she called "hello" as she came in and Poppy was walking across the room at the time, when she heard it was her Mummy she attempted to go faster but was wobbling around everywhere so she gave up, dropped to her knees and crawled to her Mummy as fast as she could! She gave her a lovely cuddle, saying "aaaahhhh", and patted Em on the back! Sweet.

High Five.

Poppy has been so good today, she ate all her breakfast, had a lovely play until 9.30am, climbed onto my knee and fell asleep! (Emma said she was up early!) She slept for 3, yes 3 hours!!! When she woke up she ate all her dinner (roast chicken, potatoes, carrots and gravy), and then proceeded to climb all over me for a good hour. She then decided to play with her dolly and gave dolly a drink from her cup, then she gave teddy a drink from her cup, then I had to have a drink from her cup! I put Sooty on tv for her to watch (yes, 50 odd years after I used to watch Sooty on tv, the glove puppet and friends is back!) she really really likes Sooty, Sweep and Soo (don`t tell her, I have bought her all the puppets for Christmas) Sooty and Sweep were shooting each other with water pistols and Poppy laughed out loud! So sweet.

I had to go to the doctors for the results of the blood tests I had a couple of weeks ago and Gray drove me to the surgery with Poppy in the carseat. She had fallen asleep before we got there so I put a blanket over her to keep her little legs warm and Grandad stayed in the car with her while I was inside. Blood tests were all fine, just a slightly high cholesterol level which can be sorted by diet so after the visit we headed back home for tea. Poppy had woken up a little while before I emerged from the surgery (Dr. N is so thorough I am always in there for ages) and Grandad had taught her to high five in the meantime, so while she was eating her tea she kept high fiving Grandad and I!! Cheeky monkey!

Remembrance service and fireworks, a strange combination!

Have not seen Poppy for a couple of days, I have not been feeling too well, though I feel a little better now. I am gutted because this afternoon there was a church service to remember all the lost babies and I really wanted to go to pay tribute to our lost grandchildren and light a candle in their memory. Emma and Lee took Poppy to the service and Poppy spent most of the time waving at a little girl aged about 8 or 9 in the pew in front of her! When the little girl faced the front she was waving the order of service about trying to catch her attention!! She went up to the front of the church to light a candle in memory of her twin sister, it is a nice service, I went last year with Emma, rather upsetting as all the sermons and speeches are about lost babies but comforting at the same time, you know everybody in that church understands.

Tonight they are off to the fireworks at the Old Wolves club so I hope Poppy likes them and is not frightened by the bangs, as Emma said it is not far from home so if she does not like them they can leave and go home. Hopefully she will like the pretty fireworks.

So there you have it, a remembrance service and fireworks, a strange combination!!

SNOTTY POPPY STRIKES AGAIN!

Whether she is teething or it could be just another cold, it is hard to tell, but snotty Poppy is back! She has been to the hospital this afternoon for her normal routine check up and the doctor checked her chest, the asthma nurse saw her also and recommended she be given a steroid inhaler to prevent her having an attack, and said she should have her flu jab. The consultant was very pleased with her progress and said she is hitting her milestones and then some! She said that premature babies have a lower immune system and that they have very small airways which can be sensitive which is why she keeps on having problems with her breathing, hopefully she could have grown out of these problems by the age of two, there again she could develop asthma, we shall have to wait and see. She is walking loads now, she walked right across the room when her mummy was standing by the door today and Barney has been getting a lot of love as she keeps saying "aaahhh" and throwing her arms round his neck calling Bargy!! She has been very snotty the past couple of days, could be teeth or it could be yet another cold, that is the problem with taking her to playgroup but she needs the social interaction of other kids and enjoys it so much. The doctor said she must go to these kind of places so that she can build up her immune system or she will become a sickly adult! Emma had to park on the main road when she went to the hospital today, she went round the carpark several times looking for a space! Ridiculous, they need to do something about the parking, I would be stumped as I can`t walk as far as the main road so it would be a huge problem for me, needs sorting.

Halloween.

Emma said that Poppy enjoyed the Halloween party on Friday at the pub, Poppy was dressed as a witch complete with pointy hat, striped tights and slippers with black cats on them! She loved the disco and stood jigging up and down, the DJ took a liking to her and gave her a packet of sweets; green candy floss was on offer though Poppy did not have any, just a bit too mucky!! Face painting was going on though Poppy would not stay still long enough for her face to be painted! Her Nanny from Torquay has been to visit this weekend, I bet she did not want to go back, you miss so much when they are little if you don`t see them virtually every day, she seems to do something new every day now. She has another party this afternoon and then another tomorrow at playgroup with the childminder, at least she will get some wear out of her witch costume!

Three boyfriends!

Emma, Poppy and I have been over to see Michelle, Ian and the boys this morning. When we first arrived Poppy stood for ages just looking around and smiling, she seemed a little overwhelmed! She was soon crawling along, biscuit in hand, trying to mount the stairs! Rhys was very good, each time Poppy headed towards the stairs he became a human stair gate by sitting on the bottom step and waving his arms about! All three boys were very good, they all seem very taken with Poppy and were rewarded for their devotion by some beautiful smiles. She enjoyed quite a few of Michelles biscuits, a few too many actually as she did not want her lunch when we got back! Funnily enough she was able to eat a bit of the jam donut her Mummy got from Gregs on our return journey, and she also managed a bit of my egg custard! Funny that!! The boys wanted to see Poppy walking but she did not oblige this morning, you have to fool her by giving her something to hold in each hand and then she finds it more difficult to crawl and so she will walk, this morning however walking obviously was not getting her to where she wanted to go fast enough and she dropped to her knees and shot off as fast as she could!

I think she may already have three boyfriends!!

The kiss.

Emma and Poppy arrived with Lily at 11am, it was raining and quite miserable weather so it brightened the day to see them. I did Swedish meat balls and pasta with sauce for lunch as Gray is working afternoons this week and it is easier to cook for us all at the same time at lunch time. Poppy ate all her pasta and meat balls and enjoyed her food which is nice as when she has some teeth coming through she goes off her food, so it was nice to see her eating today. I had some Peppa Pig yogurts for her which she enjoyed, when she is in the right mood she will let you feed her, when she is not in the mood to be fed nothing you can do will persuade her! She likes to feed herself and will take the spoon from you fully loaded with food and put it into her mouth, if she doesn`t want anymore though watch out, you are liable to get covered in food when she decides to wave it about! Gray went off to work and Emma and I played with Poppy, she can make her spinning top whizz round now, she likes to play with her dolly and will push her around in the toy pushchair, she thinks its very funny if you wrap her dolly up for her. When it was time for Emma and Poppy to go home, Emma was picking up the toys from the floor and lay full length trying to reach some balls from her ball pool which had rolled under the cot. I said to Poppy "ah look, Mummy is tired" and she patted her Mummy on the face while saying "aaah", sweet. Even sweeter she then bent over and gave her Mummy a kiss.

A fruitful day.

Emma and Poppy arrived mid morning, Gray was cutting down a bush in the garden to get the rubbish ready for the bin men tomorrow so we decided to go out this afternoon as Emma wanted to go to Tesco for a Halloween outfit for Poppy, she is going to a Halloween party on Monday at playgroup with the childminder. There is also a childrens Halloween party at our local pubs, one on Friday and one on Saturday and Poppy has been invited to another party on Sunday so at least her costume should get a bit of wear! Jill popped round not long after Emma and Poppy arrived so we all had a cup of tea together and a natter, then after lunch Emma, Poppy and I headed off to Telford to get her costume while Gray went to work, he is on afternoons this week. Emma bought Poppy a lovely witches costume with a little pointed hat, some striped tights and some slippers with little black cats on! She is going to look well cute! Emma also got a laundry basket to use as a toy box, its what I use and the sides are a softish plastic with rounded edges so she cannot hurt herself, ideal for a toy basket.

On our way home I had to call in at the library as I had finished all my books, Emma and Poppy went into the library with me and while I was choosing my books Emma took Poppy over to the childrens section which has a little train and a box full of babies hard page books which she enjoyed looking through. On the way out Emma asked if Poppy could possibly join the library and they said yes, ofcourse, so she got her a ticket and we went back to the childrens section and chose a few books for her, she likes the ones with texture, a fluffy tummy or another texture for an animal coat, and she can have as many books as she likes, for as long as she wants with no fines to pay if they are late back, and if they are damaged the library understand that this often happens, mind you I think they would have something to say if too many got damaged! All in all a fruitful day.

Sunday roast.

Had a nice Sunday lunch with Rachel, Steven, Emma, Lee, Poppy and Gray, roast chicken and all the trimmings followed by home made meringues (the rest of which Ste took home with him!) Poppy ate all of her lunch and liked the meringues, she was getting very tired so they have all gone off home. Barney (our dog) really likes Poppy as she tends to give him food, you have to watch him like a hawk or you can give Poppy a biscuit and the next thing she is sitting feeding it to Barney! Emma is on half term this week so Poppy is going to have a lovely week with her Mummy, I daresay we shall be off out somewhere, maybe visit the soft play centre one of the days. I like Sundays when the family comes to visit.

Eye tests.

Poppy had an appointment yesterday at the eye infirmary which she attended with her Daddy. Apparently she did not want anybody to touch her face which would have made the examination a tad difficult as she had to have some tests and things done, however they obviously found a way round the difficulties because she has been discharged from the eye department. She is at the childminders today and I hope having a lovely time, apparently they are going out christmas shopping and out for lunch! Only one thing, aren`t childminders meant to be looking after the children they mind, playing with them and so forth, rather than doing their own thing and going christmas shopping? As long as its not too often. Just an observation.

Poppy is off to the hospital with her Daddy today for her appointment with the opthamologist, as far as I know it is just routine so hopefully will be fine. Her eyes certainly do not seem to be a problem now so hopefully that means the problems she had as a tiny baby are being corrected naturally.

It is half term next week so Poppy will be enjoying a whole week with Mummy, if the weather keeps fine I think a visit to Hoo farm is on the cards and visits to see certain little boys are also planned.

Jill very kindly took Poppy for a walk yesterday in her pushchair which made us realise that she really needs a hat and some mittens now that the weather is changing so Emma is planning some shopping for a few winter warmers. We bought her a sleep suit in a warmer material which she had on for one night but unfortunately her nappy leaked so it had to be washed straight away! A couple of new fleecy sleep suits seem to be on the cards and one or two cardigans or jumpers won`t go amiss.

Grandad and I have been looking round the toy shops at things for Christmas, we are thinking farm, zoo, Noahs Ark, something of that kind as she was playing with a farm at the childminders on Monday and liked putting the animals in the correct place. The choice of toys out there is bewildering, there is so much and they can be so expensive! I want to get her something which will be of benefit to help her learn but also for her to have fun and enjoy playing.

Flop

This last week and the weekend before really took it out of me, I can just about manage 3 days looking after Poppy, but when a weekend is added on aswell inbetween my 3 days each week it can all get a bit too much for me and I tend to flop, or get ill. This weekend I have had a bad throat again which was unexpected as I had a bad throat two weeks ago so I was not expecting another one, I can only think my immune system must be very low and I am catching anything that is going. My chest has been very tight too so I have been puffing on the inhaler like it is going out of business! Now I am attempting to relax today and rest my weary bones because tomorrow it all starts again, Poppy will be here first thing. This week I only have her for 2 days as on Thursday she has to go to the eye infirmary with her Daddy so hopefully I shall be able to cope okay and then five days off will let me recharge my batteries.

Yesterday we were invited to dinner at Emma and Lees house which was nice, roast beef and all the trimmings which for once I did not have to cook! Gray and Lee went to the pub to watch the football match where they met Steven, and Emma was to pick me up only Poppy fell asleep straight after she had lunch so I had to wait until she woke up, though as it happened the men got back from the pub before she woke,so Emma came round and fetched me. Emma said Lee had asked that our dogs also joined the outing so they were rather surprised when ushered into the car, Polly in particular was hanging back not expecting to go with us! Poppy was very pleased to see the dogs, as was Lily, she was sitting on Grandads lap having just woken up. She has a toy which she is very fond of which involves a row of little plastic animals which you push down and then when she pushes, pulls or turns various buttons they pop up. She thinks this is very funny and plays with it for ages. Yesterday she insisted the toy sat on my lap while the animals jumped up and down and it kept her occupied for a good while. She has also taken to playing with her dollies and it is so sweet to see her pushing them around in her little toy pushchair. After dinner Uncle Steven arrived with Murphy who immediately made for the rabbits and guinea pig hutch and would not stop staring at them, Polly had been sitting by the hutch too since she arrived though luckily neither the rabbit nor the guinea pigs seemed bothered! Poppy likes to go out into the garden and see them too so we all ended up out on the lawn in the late October sunshine, yes I said sunshine, it has been warm for this month, which is really nice (and most unusual!!) Poppy has taken a real liking to her Uncle Steven and gave him some lovely smiles:-)

So I did see Poppy this weekend though there were plenty of other people around to look after her and I just got to enjoy the time seeing and playing with her without the responsibility. We came home about 6pm as she was getting tired and was almost ready for a bath so it was best to come away and let Emma and Lee get her settled and ready for bed.

Poppy arrived with Mummy yesterday to fetch Lily, her dog, she had been with Sallianne the childminder all day and had a lovely time. Poppy had been playing with Harry a little lad of about 3 or 4 who is also looked after by Sallianne, they were playing with a farmyard and having a lovely time. Poppy was able to put the animals where they should go with the help of Harry, apparently when they are put in the proper place a sound like the animal is made so the child knows they have placed them correctly. Harry used to say he did not like Poppy as she kept taking his ty

I wish everybody would use reigns for their toddler.

As its Friday today Poppy is at the childminders and I hope she is having a lovely time. Grandma is glad of a rest, she has been hyperbaby this week, climbing on everything in sight, she even climbed over the arm of the sofa the other day and when I turned around she was sitting on the table! Little monkey!!

We went out and bought her some reigns yesterday, it won`t be long before she can walk, I think it is partly that she can get to where she wants to go quicker when she crawls and that she needs a little bit more confidence to give walking a try! She has apparently taken a couple of steps with her Daddy before now, and I saw her take a step towards Mommy a few days back, she will do it when she is ready. I thought that at least if I have some reigns ready I will be able to pop to my friends a few doors away or next door for a visit which is not the easiest thing for me to do at the moment, I cannot carry her very far now, she is too heavy for me and my back goes into spasm so to go anywhere at all, whether it be just a few yards away, I have to take her in the pushchair which can be a pain as by the time I have got it unfolded, put Poppy in it, got it out of the front door and walked to where I want to go I am done in so I tend to stay in my own house and ask everybody to visit me rather than go to all that trouble, it is just easier. Maybe it will be just as difficult when she is walking to get her into the reigns, we shall wait and see! I wish everybody would use reigns for their toddler! Ofcourse as I have so many toys here for her and all the things she needs I find it easier if friends come to visit rather than for me to go to them, and I am not being lazy here, it is just less stress to know she is occupied and that you do not have to rescue somebodys ornaments or stop Poppy from climbing on their furniture! I also bought her some little glittery hair slides as her hair is quite long over her eyes and I keep on pushing it back so that she won`t get it in her eyes all the time. I put a little pink one in for her and she looked well cute! She actually kept it in for about 2 hours until she was crawling along with her head on the floor, a strange thing she thinks is rather funny, and it loosened and started to come out. I put it back in but she immediately tried to grab it and pull it out again, she had obviously not realised it was there the first time! I managed to get her to keep it in till Mommy arrived home from work to see how cute she looked!

Poppy is now understanding more and more, yesterday when I asked her to give her sock to me so that I could replace it on her foot so that she did not get cold she actually went and fetched it, gave it to me and then put her foot in the air so I could put it on! Bless. She now likes to play with her dolly, she will feed her with her bottle and give her a cuddle, she likes me to wrap it up and thinks it is funny when I wrap it in her own cardigan! She gave her some of her biscuit the other day, you have to watch her or she will give her food to the dogs! Not that the dogs mind, they sit by her highchair waiting and hoping that something tasty will drop on their heads, so we have to keep them out of the room when Poppy is having a meal or the dogs would get it all and she would have nothing!

Busy busy busy.

Poppy was fast asleep when Emma had to pick her up to bring her here this morning, minus her pyjama trousers! Lee had changed her nappy and for some reason did not get round to putting her pyjama bottoms back on! So she arrived wrapped in a blanket! After breakfast she was playing with her toys before getting quite tired at 10am, she then slept for two hours, almost unheard of during the day! After lunch she turned into hyperbaby, the sleep obviously did her good and gave her lots and lots of energy, she was climbing on everything and anything, she even ended up climbing over the arm of the sofa and when I turned round she was sitting on the coffee table!

This afternoon we went to see her great Aunty Marg, my big sis, she loves visiting as Marg has a few toys ready for when she arrives so she soon made herself at home with toys all over the floor. As she also got some biscuits she was well happy, then her great Uncle Rich arrived home from work and she was trying his hat on! So a busy afternoon and she fell asleep on the way back, though only for half an hour or so.

Eggy bread for tea, she liked omlette the other day so I thought I would try her with it and she liked it. She is getting more difficult with her eating and absolutely refuses to let anybody feed her with a spoon, preferring to hold the spoon and feed herself - what a mess! The other day I even managed to get yogurt in my hair when she was flinging the spoon around! Actually there is a time when she will let you feed her, when it is chocolate! That seems to go into her mouth easily enough!

So thats another day over, she is here with me tomorrow then on Friday she will go to the childminder and then the weekend off, though I wouldn`t be surprised if she turns up with her Mummy and Daddy, they normally do at some point! Rather shattered at the moment!

Adrenalin.

I think it must be the adrenalin that keeps me going when I am looking after Poppy, keeping me awake and my energy levels up so that I can cope, because once her Mummy had fetched her yesterday, when they returned from the wedding, I was shattered and found it hard to keep awake! I was actually ready for bed about 7pm, no matter how hard I tried to stay awake my eyes kept shutting, several times I washed my face in cold water, drank cold water, dabbed cold water on the back of my neck, nothing helped, my eyes shut whatever I did! Now don`t get me wrong, she is so good, she slept through the night for us from 6.30pm until 7am, you can`t ask for more can you? She is on the go all the time she is awake, she is busy, busy, busy! I never would have believed how hard looking after a one year old can be when you are 56, I thought just because I am older does not mean it is any harder. Wrong! When you are 26 you have more energy, you can keep going for longer, and you may not have arthritis really bad which I have at 56. She is still a pleasure to take care of though, I love her so much.

The weekend.

Well the weekend is over, I was a bit worried about how we would cope with four dogs and a baby, especially as one of the dogs has to wear a huge collar around his neck due to an operation on his ear last week to prevent him scratching and perhaps breaking his stitches. Poppys mummy and daddy were attending Jo and Robs wedding in Powys that Rachel and Ste were also attending, hence why we had four dogs and a baby for the weekend! We thought it prudent to keep dogs and baby seperate, especially since she would quite possibly have been hanging off Murphys collar and may have caught his poorly ear, Ste said he had a go at the vet, most unusual, so if Poppy had caught it he may have had a go at her, which would have been quite out of character to say the least. The dogs were all very good, with Barney and Murphy spending a considerable amount of time sitting by the gate, watching what was happening on the other side, which was mostly Poppy sitting watching them in turn! We went out on Saturday afternoon to have a look at a few bits and pieces, ending up buying some clothes for Poppy, some pyjamas, which I think may be a tad large for her as I got 12 to 18 months size, and even though she is 14 months now she is still mostly in clothes 9 to 12 months size so I have a feeling the trousers may just fall down! While we were out I saw a beautiful dolls house, which I would have loved to buy for Christmas for Poppy, and almost did to be honest, until I thought hard about it and realised she is just a bit too young for a dolls house as yet, maybe next year! We got Poppy a little dolls buggy, on special offer at two toys for £8 which we thought a bargain so she had a little dollies care set too. She has been taking her "baby" for a walk across the lounge and feeding her with her little toy bottle which we thought very cute. It just shows that she could walk if she wanted to, the buggy certainly was not holding her up and she was walking across the room with no problem at all. She just needs the confidence to let go and walk by herself, ah well, when she is ready she will do it.

Poppy slept really well, which was very good as for the past few days she has not been sleeping too well due to her cold, she fell asleep at 6.30pm on Grandads lap, was in her cot by 6.45pm, and slept until 7am the next morning! She stirred at 5.30am so I went and got her, carrying her into our bed, and she dropped off again immediately which was very good, I thought she would be waking earlier due to her very early night! I must admit to be shattered now though, not only because I have been caring for a very lively little girl, who is into everything but also because I was awake early and could not get back to sleep again.

I have the day off tomorrow, Poppy is at the child minder, and to be honest I could do with a rest! Bless her, she has been such a good little girl this weekend, a pleasure to look after.

This weekend is going to be interesting!!

When Poppy arrived in the morning yesterday with her Mummy she was overjoyed to see the dogs, she loves them and thankfully they are very gentle towards her. Barney immediately lay on his back, legs in the air tale wagging and Poppy went "ahhhh, Bunky"!!! I daresay from now on he will forevermore be known as Bunky! I wonder if he will answer to it eventually?!!

Poppy was still rather snotty and I seemed to be forever wiping her nose but I think perhaps by the end of the day it seemed to be a little less so hopefully it is drying up. She does not like having her nose wiped and as soon as she sees you approaching her with a tissue she puts her head down so you cannot catch her or crawls away as fast as she can, trying to hide! As Mommy and Daddy are away this weekend at Jo and Robs wedding I hope Poppy will be okay, the venue is about an hour and a half away by car so they could do without an unexpected trip to the hospital, so hopefully the cold will have subsided and her breathing will be fine. Aswell as Poppy for the weekend we have our two dogs,  also Lily and Murphy which normally is not too much of a problem but Murphy has a poorly ear so he is wearing a rather large lamp shade shaped collar following his little operation on Tuesday so he keeps knocking against things and he is rather unhappy about having to wear it. I expect the dogs will find his strange contraption interesting, Lily especially as she loves to play with Murphy, Poppy also will wonder what on earth he has over his head! This weekend is going to be interesting me thinks!!

Hyper Poppy!

Poppy has been both snotty and hyper today!

Hopefully it is not the start of yet another cold or virus, with any luck it means that the horrible rubbish in her lungs and tubes is making its way out of her body and that she can have some respite from it. Please God it will not mean another visit to hospital. I know she has sneezed all day, with unpleasant results, but at least her body is ridding itself of the horrible effects the colds and virus have had on her!

She has also been hyper all day, she cannot quite walk as yet but boy can she climb! She is constantly climbing on the chairs, sofa, toy basket, Grandma! At least she has now learnt how to get safely back down from the chairs and sofas, rather than launching herself off head first as she used to! She turns herself carefully around and gets down feet first now, much more preferable than the leap into the unknown she used to attempt!

Walking is obviously not as fast as crawling for Poppy so, although we encourage her to give it a go and walk, if she wants to get anywhere fast she just gets down on to her hands and knees and heads off! She was standing just in front of me today so Grandad got down on bended knee and tried to encourage her to walk to him, instead she bent forwards as far as she could until she managed to grab his hands! She will do it when she is ready, you don`t see many adults crawling around do you?!

So I am a worn out Grandma today, having been climbed on, sneezed on, jumped all over and generally lead a merry dance! She never stops, except for when she is asleep, a little miracle. Thats what the doctors called her when she was born ten weeks early, thats what she is!

Another smiley happy afternoon.

Poppy has been for the afternoon, Emma is going to a wedding next weekend and wanted to buy an outfit for the occassion so asked if Poppy could come and visit while she went shopping. She was fast asleep in the car when she arrived so Em put her down straight away and she slept for 2 hours, she obviously had a busy morning. After lunch, which she insisted on feeding herself with yogurt (she is quite good though when she has had enough it goes everywhere when she bangs the spoon on the tray, she thinks thats very funny) she played with her toys for a bit, walking very well with the baby walker, (she walked a couple of steps last week for Daddy, and the childminder said she did a couple of steps on Friday) she then went out for a nice walk in the sunshine with her Grandad, well Poppy didn`t walk, she sat in the pushchair. She is a real outdoors girl and likes to be outside playing in the garden, loves riding in her pushchair looking around her, waving at everybody who passes! Emma arrived back from shopping before Poppy and Grandad came back from their walk, they were only 5 minutes later and Poppy was, by that time, fast asleep, the fresh air having obviously worn her out! They had fish fingers and home made chips, followed by home made rice pudding for tea, Poppy enjoyed her pud and managed to eat the whole bowl, feeding herself with the spoon, its best to put the food on the spoon and then hand it to her, rather than put the bowl on the tray, less messy! They have gone home now, Emma to get ready for the hen night and Poppy is stopping in with Daddy, another smiley happy afternoon with our beautiful granddaughter.

Daddy and Poppy.

The Poppy Chronicles has not been updated this week for the simple reason that her Daddy has had no work and so I have not been looking after her. She has been having a lovely time with her Daddy, playing in the garden, getting muddy and having lots of attention, by the sound of it being thoroughly spoiled! Her Mummy tells me all routine goes out of the window when her Daddy takes care of her so she is waiting for him to go back to work so that Pops can get her routine back! She has only needed the inhaler once today so is a lot better, thank God, and has been eating better than previously, even sausage and chips today I`m told courtesy of Daddy and the pub!! Daddy has said he has enjoyed looking after her and wouldn`t mind being at home with her but Mummy said "no, no" as she wants her to get a routine back! Ofcourse she would also like Daddy to earn some money! Tomorrow, because it is meant to be a nice warm and sunny day, Daddy is taking Poppy to the seaside for the day, and ofcourse Lily has to go too! I daresay a few sandcastles will be built and maybe an icecream or two eaten, possibly the last opportunity this year for some sun! 

Well that was my weekend.

We nipped round to see how Poppy was doing on Saturday lunch time, it was a relief to see her and she was all smiles, though she was still very noisy breathing and had to have an inhaler not long after we arrived. We did not stay for long, Em had jobs to do and wanted to get the house sorted and the washing done.

Sunday I made roast chicken and Emma, Lee and Poppy joined us. I asked Rachel and Steven but they wanted a quiet weekend so I hope they relaxed and enjoyed it. Poppy was quite pale when they arrived and she did not want her dinner so she had a biscuit while we ate and then she wanted to play. She looked better than the day before and was enjoying playing with her toys again. She had to have an inhaler after lunch but she had gone 5 and a half hours since the last one which is good, her breathing was a bit rattly by the time she had the inhaler. She is not keen, Lee has to trap her arms by her sides so that Emma can administer the inhaler but it is for her own good, and she seemed better afterwards. She fell asleep on my lap while watching her television programmes and had a half hour in the cot, waking bright and breezy with a big grin when she stood up and appeared over the edge of the cot, her colour looked a bit better and she was not quite as pale. She ate some tea, which was good as she has not been eating too well the last few days, and managed to feed herself with some yogurt. She allowed her Mummy to spoon feed her the first few spoons of yogurt then started to object, so Emma handed the spoon to her and she was very good, she managed to get the yogurt into her mouth, well most of it! Thankfully she managed to get through most of the pot which was good to see her eating. Lee had nipped to the pub to watch Aston Villa play so Emma and Poppy stayed here a little longer, and they went off home about 6pm as Emma had work to do and wanted to get more jobs finished in the house.

Lee told us on Sunday that Poppy had been taken into hospital with the blue lights flashing on the ambulance and sirens blaring. I had not realised that this was the case as when the ambulance left the surgery they did not have them on, I suppose they only needed to use them when they got to a build up of traffic to get through. I am glad I did not know this on Thursday, I was worried enough as things stood, I would have been frantic had I known the urgency of the situation, though ofcourse I knew she had to be quite poorly to be sent into hospital in the first place. Emma said the ambulance men told Lee that Poppys heart was racing, which they were worried about, so they wanted to get her to hospital as soon as they could. Its frightening how quickly the health of a child goes down, and great that they can get better again just as fast.

Well that was my weekend.

Discharged.

Thankfully Poppy was discharged from hospital last night at around 8.30pm. Emma was not expecting to be able to go home much before 10 oclock so we were surprised by a knock on the door just after 9 when they arrived to collect Lily the dog. Lee could not bear to be without his dog any longer! Poppy was asleep in the car so we just popped our heads through the window to catch a glimpse of her. Emma said they had been told to wake Poppy every 4 hours through the night last night to give her an inhaler so it does not sound as though they will get a great deal of sleep. Em looked shattered so hopefully Lee will do the night shift and let her sleep, I don`t think she has slept for a week with ofsted at the start of the week and Poppy being taken ill at the end. Hopefully she will now be on the road to recovery.

HOSPITAL, AGAIN.

Lee was off work yesterday so he was looking after Poppy, giving me a day off. Gray and I went shopping in the afternoon and we had just pulled up on the drive when my mobile phone rang, it was Lee asking if we could go straight to the doctors as he had taken Poppy because her breathing was very noisy and they had called an ambulance for her to go to hospital. The problem was that Lee had taken Lily the dog with him and she was tied up outside the surgery, he obviously did not expect a ride in an ambulance. We rushed round to the surgery and arrived just in time to see the ambulance at the entrance with Lee sitting inside it with Poppy on his lap, poor Lily was looking very worried tied to a post nearby. We just had chance to give Poppy a little wave and blow her a kiss before the ambulance drove away, breaking my heart in the process. Its is horrible seeing your little granddaughter going off to hospital like that, at least they did not have the blue light on, thank God. I then had to get hold of Emma, who had been at work and did not know what was happening. I rang and rang but she was obviously driving home so did not answer but luckily she realised there was a problem when her phone kept ringing and pulled over to phone me back. I told her the tale, trying not to worry her too much, and she said she would nip home and pick up a few things before going off to the hospital. An anxious couple of hours of waiting followed until Emma rang to say they were on the childrens ward. Lee had at first been in A & E with her then been transfered up to childrens assessment, Poppy had been given a nebuliser and they were waiting to see the doctor. The nebuliser had helped as she was playing with some toys though rather tired and grumpy. Another few hours passed and eventually Emma rang to say she had to stop in overnight and they were waiting for a bed for her, she was given a bed after 11pm, after having been at the hospital since around 5pm. She had tried to sleep on the assessment ward but it was impossible for her, all the lights were on and it was very noisy, not a good combination for Poppy to sleep.

This morning Emma rang early to say that neither of them had much sleep, the nurses woke Poppy every 2 hours to give her a nebuliser so ofcourse she was very grumpy and tired and Em said it was easier to sleep with her in the bedchair she was given as she would not settle in her cot. She was also given steroids and some oxygen.

I have just had another call from Emma who said she is a bit better, now on 3 hourly nebulisers and they are hoping that if she can get on to 4 hourly nebulisers she may be allowed home today so we are waiting and hoping.

Poppy is not quite 14 months old but already in her short life she has been through so much. She even managed a little smile before she was taken away in the ambulance, bless her.

SNOTTY POPPY.

Its been snotty Poppy all day, poor little soul. Whether she is teething, has a cold, or both I am not sure. She certainly does not like to have her nose wiped, I have had to chase her around and practically pin her arms to her side to enable me to clean her up! Yuck! Even though she has obviously been feeling a little under the weather, that much was obvious just to look at her, she has still smiled all day like she usually does! Apart from nose wiping time that is!

I had just given Poppy her lunch which she was almost finished with when a car pulled up outside, I thought I recognised it then realised it was Chris, the health visitor, come to do the 2 weekly measurement of Poppy`s head! I don`t know how I do it, I forget she is coming every time! As it turned out it was good that Poppy was still sitting in her high chair as it kept her still to have her head measured! As she is never normally still, that was a useful side effect to have her sitting in her highchair. I will have to remember that next time - if I can remember when the health visitor is going to arrive that is!!

This afternoon we popped out to get a few things from the shops, Poppy enjoys a trip out and likes sitting in her pushchair looking around, smiling and waving at everybody! We hoped that the fresh air might help her cold too.

I was worn out when Emma arrived to pick up Poppy this afternoon as I had been looking after her earlier than usual this past couple of days and she had also been stopping a bit later because Emma had Ofsted in school and was working hard to make the visit a success, going into school early and working later as a result. We took Poppy back home to her Daddy but he does not arrive back from work until about 6.30 so the last two days have been really long ones. Emma just phoned to say that Lee has no work on tomorrow so I have the day off and can have a lie in, yay! Now don`t get me wrong I love having Poppy, I love her to bits and she is a delight to have with me, but she is all over the place and it is difficult to keep up with her! She loves to climb and will climb on anything and everything, the sofa, armchairs, the dogs, Grandma, you name it! She also thinks it is very funny to be help upside down (you can blame her Daddy for that one!) and will suddenly fling herself backwards so that you have no choice in the matter! You have to have extremely quick reflexes to catch her and as she is getting heavier all the time it is not always an easy matter to do so! Its no wonder my back aches and my shoulders are painful, little monkey!

Bless, I shall miss her tomorrow.

Orange baby.

Poppy arrived at ten past seven this morning, Emma wanted to be at school early because Ofsted was expected and she wanted to make sure everything was in order before they arrived. She has worked all weekend to get ready for the visit, she even went in on Saturday, yesterday she did not arrive home until 7pm and again today she did not get back from work until 7pm. Poppy was getting tired, she usually goes to bed between 7 and 8 oclock so we rang Lee to see if he was home from work and took her home to Daddy. I was worn out, she is on the go all the time and I had looked after her for almost 12 hours today! Thankfully Ofsted will have finished their visit tomorrow so Emma should not be late tomorrow night, though she has asked if she can bring Poppy again early tomorrow so it will be another long day for me.

Poppy is enjoying playing with her new babywalker, she walks across the room with it until she reaches one sofa, stops and gives herself a clap, looking round at us to make sure we are clapping her too. She then turns around and walks back to the other side of the room, until she reaches the other sofa, stops and claps herself again! God knows how many times she has done this today, its been backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards! She was enjoying herself so much she has barely played with anything else, she has been in the ball pool a couple of times and got a couple of toys out of her box, but for the majority of the time she has been practicing her walking! She is getting to be quite steady on her feet now, when she takes her hands off the walker to clap she stands for quite some time on her own before she realises she is not holding on, then she wobbles about and makes a grab for the handle before she falls over. Once she has the balance thing sorted out she will soon be off walking, she certainly isn`t lacking the confidence!!

For her tea today I made Poppy fish fingers, home made chips and ravioli, she did really well at feeding herself though did have a bit of a fight with the ravioli, at one point dropping a bit on her tray and leaning her elbow in it. One orange baby! She noticed Grandad eating a yogurt and decided she fancied his yogurt much more than her own, so would not eat the petite filous he was trying to feed her! She ended up eating most of Grandads yogurt instead, I have discovered that Poppy wants to eat whatever I am eating, or for that matter whatever anybody else is eating! Or drinking! You cannot enter a room holding a glass of water without Poppy trying to wrestle it off you!

Absolutely worn out, but happy!

We did not see Poppy yesterday, Emma has ofsted going into school on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week so she had to go into work to get things ready for the visit and Lee was looking after his daughter for the day. Em rang last night to say she was in for 10am and they were going to pack up and go home at noon as the head had people going round for a meal but she still had so much to do, as did quite a few of the other teachers, so she asked if they could stay longer and she would lock up. In the end she said they all stopped until 5.30pm and then she was on her laptop working last night once Poppy was in bed so that hopefully she will get a day off today to spend with Poppy and have a rest. She finds the ofsted visits so stressful as I think do all teachers, as I said to her at least it is the first half of the week so will soon be all over with.

Poppy enjoyed her day, Lee had a call from his brother to say he had a ticket for the football match and that his daughter, Poppys cousin Faye, would like to spend the day with Poppy. Apparently Poppy had a wonderful day, Faye had a couple of friends with her, who live in the same street as Poppy, and so Pops got lots and lots of attention! Faye is, I think 9 or 10, she loves babies and loves to spend time with her little cousin. Lee took Poppy and Faye out for lunch, she did not get much sleep in the day time but Emma said she was in bed and fast asleep by ten to seven, absolutely worn out, but happy. Bless.

The baby walker, and the walking baby.

Poppy was at her childminders yesterday but we still got to see her when Emma came to fetch Lily the dog, you see even when we don`t get the baby, we get the dog! She is not used to being on her own, so Emma drops her off every morning on her way to work!

Poppy went to the dentist with the childminder and her family yesterday afternoon! Sallianne had tried to change the appointment but could not manage to, and so she asked Emma if it would be allright to take her with them. Apparently she had a great time, everybody in the waiting room loved her, she was smiling and entertaining everyone! There were toys in the waiting room so Poppy was able to play with them and by all accounts she really enjoyed herself! She was the lucky one I suppose, she did not have to let the dentist look at her teeth - yet!  Talking of teeth she has 8 though we think she has at least another one on the way, there is certainly a bulge in her gum which looks as though one is sprouting and she has been quite snotty the last couple of days, a sure sign. As she often gets quite chesty when teething, and actually spent three days in hospital on oxygen, nebulisers and inhalers because she was so wheezy last time some teeth came through we are just hoping she escapes it this time and hopefully her teeth will come through without the trauma of last time!

We had a fab bargain from our local charity shop yesterday, we pop in from time to time to see what toys they have, we have been able to get quite a few things from there in the past, and after a good scrub in hot soapy water they are sparkling clean and ready for use. I walked in while Gray was at the cash machine getting some money and saw, standing in the corner, a baby walker, and not just any old baby walker but a posh V tech baby walker. Grabbing it before anybody else had the chance I noticed it was on sale for £2.50, bargain. They are normally quite expensive, well over £20, maybe even £30 so it was a good find. Unfortunately there was nothing else to grab yesterday, I went in looking for some easy first wooden jigsaw puzzles but none were on offer, I saw some a few weeks ago and thought Poppy would not be ready for them just yet, only in the last couple of weeks she has started to be able to put the shapes in the shape sorter, put the rings on the toy and so I think she is ready to start doing the little easy jigsaws now, wish I had bought them when I saw them but hindsight is a great thing! Oh well, I shall just have to keep a lookout and grab hold of any I see in the future. Poppy is doing something knew each day it seems, or almost every day, we talk to her all the time and she is always coming out with new words, and quite a few you cannot understand at all! She babbles away, facial expressions adding to her "words" as though she knows just what she is saying, though we haven`t a clue! Looks like she is going to be just like her Mum, she never shuts up either! Sorry Em x

The box in which it came!

Poppy is at her childminders today, I hope she is having a lovely time. It is nice for her to be able to play with other children, it will help with her social development and teach her to share.

When I got Poppy dressed yesterday morning I thought the top she was wearing was a little short in the sleeve, coming half way between the elbow and the wrist. The width of the chest was fine, as was the length of the top, so I wondered if her Mummy had given me a top to dress her in which had three quarter length sleeves, when I checked the label though it said ages 3 - 6 months! Guess its time to look round for new clothes then!
We have had a lovely time the past three days though I must admit that at the end of the day yesterday I was quite worn out looking after Poppy! She loves to climb, on everything and anything, the chairs, the sofa, Grandma! She will even climb on the dog, given half the chance! When we went to the shops on Wednesday we took her into the pet shop to see the rabbits and other little animals, "dog dog" she said, pointing at the rabbits with a big grin on her face! Yesterday, when we popped into the supermarket on our way back to buy a few supplies, Poppy was waving at everybody and smiling at all and sundry!! You would think she was royalty the way she sits in her pushchair, arm raised, ready to wave when the next person comes into view! She certainly brightens up everybodys day, they all smile back and wave to her. She is a very sociable baby!

Poppy has learnt a new word, "ball", she sits in the ballpool, pink ball held aloft, "ball, ball" she says, though I must admit it comes out more like "baw, baw", you know what she means though! She also has a large blue ball which she loves you to bounce, she thinks it is the funniest thing when you pat the ball up and down and sits watching with a grin on her face saying "baw". Its very exciting to her to push this ball along while she crawls behind it, the simplest of toys brings her a great deal of pleasure and keeps her occupied for ages! Aunty Michelle very kindly gave her a little toy which when you put a plastic token in plays a Pixie Lott song, it had belonged to one of her boys but she said Poppy could take it with her, as they had lots of them spread around the house. This little toy has given her endless hours of pleasure, she loves the music to play and will dance with a big grin on her face! As I say, the cheapest of toys, bring the greatest of pleasure. Its true what they say, a child will receive an expensive toy and then play with the box in which it came!

Watch this space.

Poppy was here for the afternoon yesterday and again today, with her Mummy. Lee was out watching the football yesterday so Emma turned up with Poppy just after lunch, then this afternoon Lee was taking a mate to the airport for his trip back to Italy, Steven had been here for a long weekend and had met Poppy for the first time.

Poppy has not wanted to eat much today, she is probably teething, also she likes to feed herself and has started to object if you feed her with a spoon! Too independent that child! We tried her with a spoon last week but she has not got the hang of it as yet and my jeans ended up covered in yogurt! I made an apple cake luckily, and she did manage to eat some of that so at least she had something fresh and home made, even if it was not the Sunday roast I made!

Poppy was making us laugh so much today, she wants to drink from a cup or glass so every time she seems somebody with a drink she is immediately in front of you, waiting for you to allow her a drink from your glass! Problem is quite a lot of it ends up down the front of her tee shirt and some on the floor! She seemed quite suprised today when some dripped on her feet! Emma says she tries to drink quite a bit of her lemonade in the pub before Poppy notices it and wants to drink it instead! She even said "me" today when she saw me with a glass of water, at least thats what it sounded like!

On Friday Poppy spent her second ever day with the childminder, she had her undivided attention for the morning as the other little boy she has on a Friday was at nursery for the morning. Apparently Poppy enjoyed going in the pushchair to pick him up and seeing the other children. Yesterday morning she went to a birthday party for 3 year old Ava at Jungleland, she sat at the table with all the other children, even though she was the youngest at the party, Emma had ordered jam sandwich for her, though she wanted all the chips and fish fingers that the other children were eating! As Emma said she had to put the order in for her food some time ago, and did not think that she would have progressed to fish fingers by then! Emma had to sit behind her on the floor while Poppy sat on a little chair, I bet her knees were aching, and all the other children headed back to the play equipment while Poppy was still ploughing her way through her jam sandwich so she was keen to be off back into the ball pit! The rest of her meal was little bits and pieces, so she took it home with her!

Tomorrow Poppy is back at the childminders, she goes Monday and Friday for the day. It is apparently playgroup tomorrow with Sallianne so hopefully Poppy will enjoy playing with the other children and making new friends. Watch this space.