Disturbed night.

Poppy had a disturbed night last night, or so Emma told me when she arrived this morning, so she was quite tired all morning although she would not give in and go to sleep! She kept putting her dummy in and grabbing her snuggly but even though I sat her on my lap and put on her programmes she resisted until the last, and finally fell asleep about 11.20 and even then she only slept for an hour, if that. I noticed this afternoon that her cheek is very red and when she was laughing I noticed a tooth trying to break through so perhaps that explains the disturbed night and the reluctance to sleep. It did not help her to get to sleep as the window cleaner arrived as she was settling down, the dogs barked and ofcourse she had to go to the window to see what was happening. I was just getting her settled for the second time when Jill arrived with Hannah, and ofcourse she then wanted to see them and play with them. We could all see she was shattered and in the end she could resist no longer!

She has not been eating so well today, although what she has actually eaten has been mainly fruit with the odd biscuit and jaffa cake thrown in for good measure, at least she gets her five a day, and more to the point enjoys it. She has also taken a liking to pineapple juice.

Emma was a little late arriving this evening as she had to pop into town for a birthday gift and Poppy was sitting on my lap watching the Disney junior channel when she arrived so she did not realise she had come in. She was so pleased to see her Mummy and gave  her a big cuddle. Ahhh.

We are all going to have to watch her carefully, when she was in the kitchen with Grandad this afternoon she managed to open the back door! I did not even realise she could reach the handle properly so that was a bit of a shock when he said she had opened the back door and wanted to go in the garden. As it was absolutely freezing cold and very dark she did not get her wish so she got upset and had to be consoled with a jaffa cake! I shall have to make certain the doors are locked from now on!

The toy pram we bought for the princely sum of £3.25 from the charity shop the other day is proving to have been well worth the small  outlay, she loves it. She puts two dollies (or babies as she calls them) in the pram and covers them with her blanket. Admittedly they are covered completely, face aswell, and are often face down, but it is very cute to see her looking after her babies! She will pull them out of the pram, often by the feet and held upside down, then will hold her cup up to their face so they can have a drink! I have to make drinking noises and then go aaahhhh when they have finished!

Its only twenty past eight but I am just about ready for bed now, Poppy is lovely and I love to have her here, she wears me out though!

Strange happenings!

Emma left her phone here yesterday so this morning we popped round to return it. Poppy was tired and in need of a sleep so Grandad sat on the sofa with her (while Emma made a cuppa) until she dropped off to sleep, then Em put her upstairs in her cot so she would not be disturbed.

Yesterday, as Lee was working, Emma and Poppy arrived at our house at lunch time, Poppy having had a couple of hours sleep so she was not only rather lively, but also quite hungry as it was past her lunch time! Emma and Poppy stopped for the afternoon and Lee arrived around tea time so we all thought for convenience sake we would treat ourselves to mini fish and chips for tea, courtesy of the local chippy! Poppy loves it when her Daddy arrives, especially as he throws her up in the air and catches her, she loves nothing more than some rough and tumble and thinks it is great to be held upside down!! My hearts in my mouth, but Pops thinks it very funny and laughs her head off!

There have been some strange happenings this weekend. First of all we could not find the newspaper anywhere last night after Emma, Lee and Poppy left. We looked everywhere, even in the most unusual places, but it was nowhere to be seen! We still have not found it, goodness knows where it has gone to! We went out to the supermarket to get our shopping this morning and when Graham went to lift the bags out of the trolley into the boot of the car he said "thats very odd, there are a packet of soft mints in the boot, where have they come from?!!" We certainly have not bought them so how they got there is anybodys guess! The wierdest was what happened just, I noticed a little blue smurf toy in the middle of the lounge carpet, it is the toy which Poppy plays with when we put her in the car seat and it is always on the back seat of our car ....... but today it somehow found its way into the middle of our lounge floor! I definately have not picked it up and brought it in, Graham says he has not picked it up either, so how on earth has it got there?! I know it was on the back seat of our car on Thursday when we took Poppy out to the library, that is for definate. How it got into our house I have no idea whatsoever. I wonder if someone is playing tricks with us.

Is there anybody there???

one, two, three, four, five ..........................

Hyperpoppy has left the building.

She is on the go all the time, and never stops chattering, not that you can always tell what she is saying but she is learning more and more new words every day. We went to the library this afternoon as I needed to change my books and Poppy had some books to change too. We did not bother to put her in her pushchair, she likes to walk around the childrens section and look at the books. The train is a big hit and she sat in the drivers seat calling bye to everybody in the library! I chose my books while Grandad went to the childrens section with Poppy and I could hear this little voice "bye bye" and when I turned round I could see her waving! Ofcourse she wanted the books for the older children but we managed to steer her towards the board books which are the safest for now. She chose four, and when we got back she was looking at them with me, stroking the pages with fur or some other tactile surface on them and laughing when the bee said buzzz and tickled her! She counted the spots on the lady bird, one, two, three, four, five, six and said "moo" when she saw the picture of the cow and snorted when she saw the pig! Meow she said at each page of the book about the kitten.  She counts everything, the flowers on the wallpaper, the buttons on the washing machine even my fingers!

When she went home with her mummy today she stood in the doorway waving and then said "bye bye, see ya later"!!! Bless.

Shattered!!!

I am absolutely worn out!

Poppy has been very lively today, to say the least! She has either a cold, or some more teeth coming through, so she is snotty and quite chesty. She only slept for about 45 minutes this morning as her cough woke her up, she did not eat as much of her lunch as she usually does, again because of her cough, she does tend to loose her appetite when she is under the weather though I think teething is the most likely option as she is dribbling for England and has a bright red cheek! We decided to take her to the library this afternoon, I needed to change my books and Poppy had some books to change also. We got in the car and just around the corner from the library she dropped off to sleep before we arrived! We decided to go for a ride around to let her have a sleep and then go to the library later on as she was clearly very tired so we headed off down the country lanes for a ride. After about 20 minutes she started to cough and before I could react she was sick all over herself, down her coat, over her new dress and on her tights and the car seat! Bless her she did not cry, just sat while I attempted to mop her up, luckily I had a muslin cloth with me, though I could not really make much of a difference to the mess she was in so we turned round and headed back to clean her up. Luckily she had some spare clothes in her bag which I had left on the table, though the jeans proved to be a little short and did not meet her shoes, I think they were for a 9 month old!! Clearly her Mummy had not looked into the bag for a while to make sure that her spare clothes still fit her! They were fine around the waist, she is only a little bit, but she has long legs!! I stripped her off and gave her a good wash down, wrapped her in a nice warm towel and got her dressed then she sat on my knee for ages watching the Disney Channel, I have found out that she likes the Mickey Mouse club. Grandad meanwhile went out to clean the car seat down then put the shepherds pie in the oven, not that she ate much of that either, she managed to stir it up a lot and spread quite a lot of it around her tray so you can imagine the mess she was in. Again!! I left Grandad to clean her up and went to sit down for a well earned rest! Emma has taken her home now, and I bet she will have an early night, she has certainly been very lively here all day and I am shattered even if she isn`t!!!

A nice time was had by all.

Had the family round to Sunday lunch today, roast beef and all the trimmings. Lee had hooked the laptop up with the tv to watch the football and half way through the match the laptop needed to be plugged in as the battery was going. Rather foolishly I stooped down to try and sort out the laptop and got stuck not being able to stand up nor sit down on the floor, my knees locked into position and I could not move. Gray, Lee and Ste all had to haul me up again, and I was mortified that it had taken three men to pull me to my feet. I was shaking when I finally managed to get up and it left me feeling very scared, if I were to fall over, how on earth would I ever get up? Its really shaken me and knocked my confidence big time, and it has also made me realise that I need to loose weight, and fast. For it to take 3 men to help me rise is awful and I feel really disgusted with myself. Poppy was rather worried about me and bless her, had to come and give Grandma a cuddle. She has been such a good girl today, she ate her dinner and her trifle, along with bananas and a jaffa cake! She enjoyed playing ball with Uncle Steven and gave Aunty Rachel some beautiful smiles, we all had to sing ba ba black sheep, quite a few times in fact, a nice time was had by all, except for my little incident! God I felt such an idiot.

Early night me thinks!!

This last few days Poppy has been a bit up and down with her daytime sleeps, she is obviously tired in the morning as she pops her dummy in her mouth and grabs hold of her snuggly then wants to sit on my lap. Getting her to sleep is another matter. This morning she actually dropped off about 10.30am but yesterday and Tuesday she did not get to sleep until after lunch! Usually when she sleeps in the morning she may have half an hour in the afternoon so having an afternoon sleep she is heading for one sleep a day, but is all out of kilter as a result. Hopefully in a few days her sleep patterns will settle down again and we shall know where we are!  She had a couple of hours this morning and woke just in time for lunch, banana, bread and butter, another half of a banana which she kept asking for and pointing at, a yogurt and two jaffa cakes! When she is well she certainly likes her food!!

This afternoon we took her to visit my sister, Marg was very pleased to see us and she had bought some toys for Poppy to play with when she visits from the charity shop! Poppy was very pleased to have some big duplo lego bricks to play with, plus a little house with two figures, two chairs and a bed for them to sleep in. She also had a steering wheel which makes noises when you press the buttons round the edge and in the middle! She had a lovely time playing until she started to get tired and hungry when we decided it was time to head home. She even managed a wave and blew a kiss at Marg and Rich!!

She did fall asleep on the way home but only for a very short time, about 10 minutes, not much longer! We had a chippy tea which Poppy enjoyed, she again ate well and then played with Grandad until Mommy arrived to take her home.

I`m shattered, early night me thinks!

Absolutely loves fruit!

Had quite a few visitors today, firstly my friend Anne who arrived at 9am. Poppy was quite excited and gave her some lovely smiles. When Anne left Poppy seemed quite tired, she put her dummy in and grabbed hold of her snuggly which she was rubbing against her face, a sure sign of a tired little girl, but even though I sat her on my lap and switched over to her programmes on the tv she did not fall asleep. She sat quietly for ages before getting a new lease of life and sliding off my lap to play with her toys. Jill arrived about 11.15 closely followed by Sarah and they stopped for a couple of hours, leaving when Poppy had eaten her lunch and started to show how tired she was again. This time she did drop off to sleep at about 12.45 and slept until about 2.30 on the sofa. When Grandad arrived home we had to pop to the shops and instead of taking the pushchair with us as we usually do we decided to try Poppy on the reigns and let her walk round, we only had one shop to visit and only had a couple of things to buy and she really enjoyed walking round. The children were coming out of school when we left the shop and Poppy was waving and smiling at them all! Grandad was paying the bill so I took Poppy outside and she headed off across the square waving and smiling at all and sundry as she went! He wondered where we had gone when he eventually emerged from the shop, he thought we would be heading for the car and when he looked round saw us heading instead in the opposite direction! Eventually she turned round and we reached the car but she did not want to get into her car seat, she was enjoying her walk so much so when we got back Grandad took her for a walk around the block, she seemed quite tired when she got back, but she had really enjoyed her outing. Pizza for tea, one of Poppys favourite, and she ate all of her meal. We tried her with a bowl of tropical fruit salad for her pud but she was not impressed, she tried each thing in her mouth but soon spit them out again saying yuck! Instead she had a banana which she loves! She enjoys her food, and absolutely loves fruit!

Watching the world go by.

Last night, and the night before, I was falling asleep at 7.30pm absolutely worn out! I simply could not keep awake! I love Poppy, she is on the go all the time. you need eyes in the back of your head, and she is very intelligent and needs to keep occupied the whole time so not only do you get physically worn out, you get mentally tired too trying to think of new and ingenius ways of keeping her happy! She chatters the whole time she is awake (just like her mother!) not that I can always tell what she is on about but quite a lot of the time I can make out what she wants and what she is trying to say. She sings too, and looks at you expecting you to join in, the amount of times a day I sing baa baa black sheep, the wheels on the bus and if youre happy and you know it I can`t count and those are just three of the songs she likes to sing! Its my own fault, I have been talking and singing to her from day one, so no wonder she has picked it up!! Not that she is naughty, don`t get me wrong, she is a good little girl, she is just nosy and inquisitive, likes to know how things work, loves to push buttons and pull levers, turn knobs and slide sliders, nothing is safe!She loves to learn!! The DVD is constantly getting turned on and off, I keep asking Gray to put it on a seperate plug so that we turn on the plug when we need to use it, and he keeps saying yes, but has yet to get round to it! Grrrr. I can`t do it myself as I cannot reach. By the time Pops left yesterday my back was unbearable, I took painkillers but they did not touch me, so Gray had to do the tea, a strange combination of pizza, chips and ravioli! Poppy enjoyed it and ate the lot, followed by a yogurt! If he does the cooking it is whatever he finds in the freezer, thrown together, which can often result in very odd meals and some wierd combinations of tastes and flavours! Sometimes it is necessary, I just could not stand for any length of time and you cannot make a meal in 2 minutes so needs must. I would have liked a lie in today to rest and recuperate, it can often take the whole weekend and Monday before I am physically able for Tuesday, but I woke before 7.30am and could not get back to sleep so I was up and had a shower about 9am after reading my book for a while. The day is sunny, though cold, and I would love to be able to go out for a walk but I am just not capable of doing so, my back and legs will start to scream with pain before I reach the corner and so I must look through the window and watch the world go by. I love Poppy so much, she is worth every ache and pain.

What Poppy can say!

Got Poppy a magnetic drawing board yesterday, so at least she can now scribble without writing on the walls! Not that she has done anything like that, I`m thinking ahead! Whenever Em gets her pens out to do her marking Poppy wants the pen to draw so I knew she was ready to have a go, ofcourse it is scribble at the moment, but I`m sure there is an artist just waiting to break out!

She has quite a list of words which she can now say, I wonder how many words the average 17 month old can say?

bye
hello
lily
polly
barney
mommy
daddy
grandad
grandma
doggy
moo
meow
cat
nana
o (for orange)
bickie
poo
all gone
one two three four five
nine ten
no
jill
me
mine
ta
nice
I daresay I have forgotten some! Not bad eh?

Poppy has got a new dance!

Pops has always liked a bit of a boogie when music is playing, sort of a stand in one spot and bump up and down to the rythmn but today she has got a new dance, she has started to stamp her feet while waving her arms and laughing! When she did it yesterday morning I was quite taken aback, and the look on her face made me laugh so much! Emma said she was telling Lee about her new dance when she got her home and he wanted to see her do it but had to wait until this morning until she started to stomp around to the night garden music on tv!

She is currently fast asleep on the sofa, she was sitting on the armchair watching baby tv and I could see her getting tired so I sat her on my lap. She was dropping off and decided to lie down in my arms, the only problem being that now she is so much bigger my shoulder was starting to give me some problems and so I lay her down on the big cushions on the sofa with her snuggly and dummy and she dropped off to sleep. She did the same thing at about 4pm yesterday, she had had a very active day and I think almost every toy in the place was out so she had been expending energy left, right and centre and by mid afternoon you could see she was flagging. She sat on my lap for a while, then sat on Grandad and finally lay herself down on the cushions and dropped off (to sleep, not off the cushions!)

Sunday lunch.

Emma, Lee and Poppy came for Sunday lunch yesterday. I had asked Rachel and Ste to come too but Steven was sorting out his car rust patches! I did a joint of lamb, and ofcourse a pork chop for Emma who says she cannot eat lamb as it is too young!! Poppy had lamb, carrots, broccolli and roast potatoes and some yorkshire pudding though she was pointing to the fruit bowl asking for an "o" and a nana!

Poppy was very tired, Emma and Lee had both tried the cuddles to get her to sleep but she would not give in so when she arrived she was rather tired and not in the mood to cooperate and eat her dinner. She is very independent and waves away your hand if you try to feed her so you have to put some food on to her little fork and hand it to her so she can put it in her mouth herself - if she is in the mood! If she is not in the mood she will shake the food off the fork on to the tray and pick it up with her fingers! In the end it was easier to put the bowl on the tray for her so she could dig in, messy but at least she eats something that way and she can always be washed!

We popped round to see Ste and Rach about 4 o`clock as Emma, Lee and Poppy had to go to the shops to buy some toy animals. Emma is doing pets at school this week! When we got back they were all still at our house having been to Early Learning and returned so we all had a sandwich for tea before they headed off to put the now very tired Poppy to bed. She managed a little sleep in the car, but only about 20 minutes. Hopefully this pattern will not continue and she will be back to her 2 hours in the day by Tuesday!

A lovely keepsake.

Emma arrived with Poppy to collect Lily about 5.40pm, she had enjoyed her day at the childminder and Sallianna was amazed that she is now saying so many words that she could not say before Christmas, its only two weeks but just shows how quickly a little one learns. She gave her a shock when she pointed at the fruit bowl and said "nana" and it went on from there with Poppy trying out her new vocabulary at every turn! Sallianne takes a lot of photos when Poppy, and the other children she minds, is with her. For christmas she gave Emma a CD rom with some beautiful photographs of Poppy on doing all kinds of different things, at playgroup, playing with her friends, making biscuits, drawing and as Emma said it was lovely to be able to see what she does when she is away from her and she can see that she enjoys herself and is happy. The CD rom was set to music and was very nicely done, apparently Sallianne had a little help from her daughter, and very well done it was too. Emma watched it on Christmas day and was in tears, then she put it on for us to see on New Years Day which started me off! A lovely keepsake.

Emma has just rung for a chat and said that Poppy was lying on her bed this morning saying nigh nigh and snoring! She is presuming that they obviously snore and so she is copying what her mummy and daddy do when she sleeps in their bed!

Nigh nigh Poppy

We have a play tunnel which Poppy likes to disappear in to, then you have to pretend you don`t know where she has gone until she pops out of the end and you cry "peep o" which she thinks hilarious! She obviously thinks it is a lot darker in the tunnel as she keeps lying in it and calling nigh nigh (obviously night night!)

She has certainly had her five a day today, she loves satsumas which she calls "O", and will keep on eating them if you let her so not only has she had three of them today she has had a banana, a plum and some grapes too! She will choose fruit over chocolate which is brilliant, at least she is getting the vitamins and goodness from them that she needs.

She has gone home now, she is always so pleased to see Mummy when she arrives, she gets really excited bless her. Nigh nigh Poppy.

Saying "no".

Poppy is saying more and more, today as she was pushing the buttons on the hifi, which she knows she should not touch, she was shaking her head and saying "no"!!! She then turns, sees us watching her and about to say no, and grins! Little monkey.

I could hardly believe it this morning when, while watching tv and eating her breakfast toast somebody on the programme said "one, two, three, four" and Poppy carried it on "five, six"!! Being able to count at 17 months of age, that child is surely a genius! I was telling Emma about it and again she said five, six but then spoilt it by following it with nine!

Bought a colouring book and some wax crayons for her today from the pound shop, whether this was a huge mistake is yet to be seen! Quite possibly! She likes to grab the pen her mummy is using while she is doing her marking and apparently she has a proper tripod grip (it means she holds her pen correctly - no I did not know it was called a tripod grip either!) Em says many of the three year olds in her class do not have a tripod grip so yet again, proof of genius? Poppy likes to draw and so I thought I would be brave and buy her the means to do so. Maybe I will make sure she is sitting in her high chair though, to save my walls! I can just imagine her adorning my walls with wax crayon while shaking her head and saying no at the same time!

New years day.

Invited to Emma and Lees house for new years day lunch, very nice it was too. Poppy has been a bit out of sorts for the past couple of days, teething we think, and she was not at her best when we first arrived though she did cheer up when her Daddy put In the night garden on for her, followed by Baby Jake! She made us a cup of tea in her new kitchen and fed us with a plastic cake each, its very sweet she puts the washing up in the toy dish washer and pretends to wash her hands in the sink. Cute. She has several new words under her belt, nanna (banana), mine, no, nice, nigh nigh (night, night, meaning she is tired and wants to go to bed!) Apparently last night Emma, Lee and Poppy went round to see Bev, Gaz, Ruby and Florence supposedly to see in the new year together, but Poppy had other ideas, standing by the front door saying bye bye, nigh nigh whilst rubbing her snuggly on her face! Bless. They were home by 9.30 and Poppy was straight to bed though unfortunately she was awake at 2.30am with a raging temperature and had to be stripped off to cool her down. Hurry up teeth and finish coming through!