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.

Another full day with Poppy!

We set off at about 8.30am to take Poppy to the hospital for a blood test. It would have been nice if they had told us on Tuesday, when we were at the hopsital for 2 and a half hours, that she needed a blood test, then we could have got it all over in one go! We waited for half a hour then the sister came out and said she was sorry to have kept us waiting, they had to phone Birmingham Childrens hospital to find out what test they wanted and how much blood to take! Apparently it is a test they do not do at our local hospital, she said Birmingham do much more variety of different tests, and they asked the local hospital to take the blood rather than ask us to travel all the way to Birmingham for it. Thank God, can`t say I would have wanted to journey into Birmingham, not the best trip to make! The nurses who took Poppys blood were very good with her, she did not want the one nurse to hold her hand and started to try and pull her hand away, she cried a little bit when she put the very thin needle into her hand, but soon stopped when the other nurse sang a nursery ryhme that I had never heard before! The first nurse reckoned she had made it up!! One chocolate button later and Poppy was fine, off we went and she had a sticker emblazoned with the words "I have been good at the hospital"!

Our next stop was Michelles house, where we caught her eating a sausage sandwich! Poppy was pleased to see Aunty Shell and was immediately catered for with a box of toys, kept especially for visiting babies! She particularly liked a little yellow plastic box, meant to be a tiny music system, which played a Pixie Lott song when you put a small yellow oblong piece of plastic in the slot, courtesy I`m lead to believe, of McDonalds! Poppy was allowed to take it home and she carried it all the way, well nearly all the way, she dropped it when she fell asleep but it was then wedged in the side of the car seat next to her! I`m not sure where it is now, it may still be there!

Poppy had lunch as soon as she got home, chicken and noodles in a tomatoe sauce, yogurt and some strawberries. Unfortunately she decided to put her fingers in her mouth, along with the noodles and tomatoe sauce, hence the orange stain on her leggings! I really need to buy her a cover all plastic bib with long sleeves! I daresay those hands would still find their way onto her clothes though, they do, no matter how hard I try to prevent it!

The afternoon included an exciting visit to Asda to pick up some nappies on special offer in their baby event, this was necessary when I discovered I only had 7 left, and you can`t be too careful! At least she had her afternoon sleep in the car on the way, then she enjoyed a play in the ball pool and crawling through her tunnel when we got back.

Another full day with Poppy!

Chocolate buttons at the ready!

I was going to take Poppy to the library this morning as they have a rhyme time on a Wednesday morning, at least they normally do apparently, we have not been before. Unfortunately it was not on this morning, it is term time only and as some schools only went back today the group was not on, shame as Pops would have enjoyed it, she loves it when you sing nursery rhymes to her and tries to join in and dance!

We took her to the park instead and she had a lovely time on the swings, slide and roundabout, she laughed when she was on the swing, she did not want to get off! She really liked the roundabout too, she was hanging on to the red bar for dear life while sitting on Grandads lap and grinning! She did not want to leave the playground but it was quite chilly.

We decided to go and see my sister, her great Aunt was very pleased to see her and insisted on sitting on the floor to play with her, and then my niece and her two friends turned up, who she was also very pleased to see, and vice versa, she enjoyed all the fuss made of her! When we got home she had a quick lunch and was eager to get out of her high chair to play, we could see she was quite tired but she did not want to give in and go to sleep, when she did eventually fall asleep about 3pm she slept for nearly 3 hours!! Almost unheard of for Poppy to sleep so long during the day!

Emma arrived to pick her up just after 6pm while she was still eating her tea, she had received a phone call from the hospital to say that they need a blood test from Poppy to go along with the urine test they did yesterday and they need to have it done in the next couple of days, it would have been nice if they had realised that yesterday as it means yet another visit to the hospital! As it is difficult for Em to have any more time off at such short notice she asked if Poppys Grandma and Grandad could take her in for the blood test and they said that would be okay, therefore we shall be off straight after breakfast in the morning to get it over and done with, and before the parking gets bad at the hospital as if we leave it much later the clinics will be starting and then the parking gets more difficult. Poor little Poppy, I`m not looking forward to taking her for them to jab needles into her, chocolate buttons at the ready then!

Just before Em took Poppy home this evening she was sitting on the floor playing with her when Poppy turned around from the little ride on car she has to face her mummy and then took an unexpected step towards her! I saw her do it, Emma looked very surprised and pleased, though Grandad missed it altogether! Whether she will do it again in a hurry remains to be seen, I think it was an accident she did it this time, so we shall wait and see, she is quite steady on her feet now, she just needs to learn to do it properly and to have the confidence to balance on her own.

An eventful day!

Poppy has had an eventful couple of days. On Monday she went to the childminder for the day for the first time. Emma said she had to stop herself crying as she walked down the drive after dropping her off in the morning, after all its a big thing to leave your precious child with a stranger, however nice they seem to be, and she found it difficult to hand her over. Poppy, on the other hand, waved her Mummy off at the door then went inside to play with the other children! Sally Anne said she was very good, she ate her meals well, went to sleep when she was tired, played with the toys though she did try to take a toy from a 3 year old but Sally told him she is only a baby and has to learn to share, so to distract her by giving her another toy. When Emma picked Poppy up, Sally Anne asked if she ever cries, as she had been such a happy little girl all day, as Emma said she only really cries when she is tired, though if you catch her before she gets to that stage, give her a dummy and snuggly and a cuddle, she will drop off to sleep no problem. The childminder picks up two children aged about 9 from school, and knowing a baby was now being looked after by Sally Anne they were very excited to meet Poppy, and Poppy was very pleased to see them, she loved everyone she met, even waving off the other childrens parents at the door when they went to fetch their kids!

Today Emma, Poppy and I had a long afternoon at the hospital, nothing to worry about just a routine check up for Poppy which she has every few weeks with her being premature they keep a close eye on her. She had to give a urine sample which is rather a simple procedure but one which can go quite wrong. They use a plastic bag contraption, which they tape on to baby in the appropriate position, the problem being that if the tape comes undone you get a wet nappy and have to start all over again! Thats what happened this afternoon, so she had to have the whole procedure repeated which she was not happy about! Eventually, just before the doctor called us through, about 2 hours into our wait she obliged and filled the bag up, causing Emma to rush to the nurse to get it emptied quickly before it got spilt! The check up went well, Poppy is doing great, she is quite a bit taller than average, though that was no surprise with coming from a tall family anyway, and the doctor was very happy with her progress. Next check up in 2 months time, hopefully they will not require another urine sample then!

Climbing.

Emma had to go to work today, teachers training day, basically a chance to get the classroom ready, displays done, books sorted out etc., etc., so I looked after Poppy for her. Ofcourse as it has been the summer holidays its been a while since I looked after her on my own and boy do I know about it! Poppy has discovered climbing, she likes to climb on anything and everything, the sofa, the armchairs, her pushchair if you don`t strap her in, I even found her on the shelf underneath the coffee table! She also enjoys climbing up Grandma, the dogs, anything really! I have had to have eyes in the back of my head all day, I even had to put her in the jumperoo so that I had chance to use the loo and make myself a sandwhich for lunch! She was not happy, she doesn`t mind bouncing around in the jumperoo for 5 minutes but really she is a little old for it but I couldn`t think of another way to keep her contained and safe for the short time it took!! Now, yes we have had a lovely day together, she is so funny, chattering away in her own language, trying to sing, smiling all the time, though I am absolutely worn out! I must be honest, I can hardly walk! When Em was going home I think she realised how tired and physically worn out I am and suggested that Poppy may need to go to the childminder for 3 days so that I just have her for two days and I did have to agree that it may be necessary, not that I want to admit defeat, I enjoy taking care of her and spending time together, but I am finding it harder than I thought I would. Two days for me to look after her could be as much as I can manage, and I was glad really when Emma spoke up as I probably would never have brought it up, not wanting to let them down.