Bless, Poppy likes her dollies to be well groomed!

Yesterday I decided not to bother cooking a roast Sunday dinner as I usually do, we had been out for a carvery on Saturday so neither of us really fancied the same meal two days in a row so I decided to make toad in the hole. For once my yorkshire rose beautifully around the sausages, I often get my toad in the hole out of the oven to find the sausages lying in a flat bed of yorkshire pudding. Not sure why, my yorkshires normally rise very well when I make a roast dinner so why it doesn`t always rise with the addition of sausage I don`t know. Emma, Lee and Poppy had just arrived having been to the playground and walked down in the rather unusual spectacle of February sunshine! One of Emmas favourite meals is toad in the hole, so when she heard it was on the menu she was not about to refuse the offer! Poppy had gone to the playground on her little car which has a handle attached which is very useful for a Mummy or Daddy to push if she gets tired, but our house is quite a way for those little legs to manage so she arrived perched on Daddies shoulders, with Mummy bringing up the rear pulling the car! She did well eating her tea, and Daddy who was feeding her did quite well pinching bits of it too! His excuse was that she is not so keen on mashed potatoe! I did feed Lee too, just in case you are wondering, he was obviously still a bit hungry! Grandad was called upon for a lift home when Poppy was getting tired, it would have been a bit mean to expect them all to get home on Poppys little car, and her little legs would certainly  not have been up to the task!

Just like her mother!

It has been a very busy week with Poppy, she is always on the go, wanting to learn new things and have new experiences all the time, wearing her loving Grandma out in the process!!

On Tuesday afternoon we took her to Doolittles the pet shop, quite a large pet shop as it happens, which she really enjoyed. We put her reigns on so that she would not run off and she was so interested in all the animals, she loved the rabbits, mice, hamsters, birdies, parrot, biggest tortoise I have ever seen and was particularly interested in the fish! Again and again she wanted to go back and see the fish which she seemed convinced say quack quack! Odd that, given that she knows ducks say quack, and has been known to shout quack quack when she sees a bird in the garden! She will also tell you that a bird says tweet tweet so is obviously slightly confused! We were in the pet shop for over half an hour and  she did not want to leave but Grandma really badly needed to sit down by that time!

Anne called round on Wednesday morning for a coffee and chat and a play with Poppy. She sees her quite regularly and likes to see how she is changing and learning something new every time she visits. Wednesday also called for a visit to the supermarket as we had almost run out of fruit and Poppy really loves her oranges and bananas, or nanas as she knows them. She really enjoys sitting in the trolley and looking around her at all the things on the shelves and waving at everybody we pass, sometimes smiling and calling out hello to complete strangers!

I could not sleep on Wednesday night, and knowing I have to be up early for Poppy to arrive I hate not being able to sleep. I tried all kinds of things to get off to sleep, played scrabble on my DS, counted sheep, tried to think of girls names beginning with B, you name it. Then I hit on a new thing, I decided to try and think of all the words Poppy can now say, prompted by Emma wondering how many words she can say when she fetched her that day. Dog, Barney, Lily, Polly, hello, bye, book, Daddy, Mummy, Grandad, Grandma, cow, moo, birdie, duck, biscuit, thankyou, nice, no, gone, mine, baby, ball, oh dear, oh no, yuck, mmmm, yum yum, poo ............................................... I got to 60 plus words and I was still awake! For a child of 18 months, boy that little girl can talk. Just like her Mother!!!

Then we come to yesterday. We took her to the playground, luckily we arrived before the schools finished, so she had half an hour with only another couple of toddlers and their Mummies playing on the equipment. She had a go on the swings, a few goes on the slide, whizzed round on the roundabout with Grandad, up and down, up and down on the see saw. Then she did it all again! For a February day the sun was shining and it was really quite warm! She enjoyed just wandering round and round the playground, followed closely by her Grandad while her Grandma had a sit down on the bench. From time to time she would remember me and turn to wave happily before wandering off again.

Then we went home for tea.

The farm visit.

After a visit to Emilys grave yesterday afternoon Emma, Lee and Poppy decided to visit Northicote Farm for a walk and so that Poppy could see the animals. Apparently at every animal enclosure they arrived at she called "hello". Pops really enjoyed walking round the paths with her wellies on!

They had dropped Lily the dog off with us while they were at the crematorium so stopped for a cup of tea when they arrived to fetch her. Poppy was very pleased to see the dogs and gave Barney a lovely cuddle then kissed the top of his head! She likes to look at a book and walks over to the person she has selected to read it to her, then sort of backs up so that you can lift her on to your lap! She was riding her little car around the house and Lee went to see where she was, just in time, she had opened the back door and was just about to ride it out into the garden! She was not very pleased when told to come back into the house, but it was getting cold late afternoon. After a cup of tea and a couple of jaffa cakes for Poppy it was obvious she was getting tired so they decided to head home, just in time to settle down and watch Dancing on Ice!

HELLO BOYS!

Poppy has quite a following, we went to visit my niece Michelle and her three lovely lads yesterday, they spent the time following Poppy around adoringly, they are all so good with her, aged 8, 7 and 5 you would think they would rather be out playing football or riding their bikes but when Poppy arrives to visit everything stops and they love to play with her, make sure she is safe and try to make her smile. Ryan, the eldest, pulls her on to his lap declaring "ahh look, she wants to give me a cuddle, she wants to sit on my knee"; Rhys holds her hand and tries to make sure she does not climb the stairs; Owen, the youngest, sorted through his collection of books so that he could pass some on to her to take home. They are normal, healthy boisterous boys, yet when Poppy arrives they are gentle and caring. Bless. Poppy was mesmerised, she spent the time wandering around, smiling at all and sundry and sometimes chattering in her own way, the odd word understandable, hello, biscuit, car. Everytime she decided to leave the room and head down the hall to see what she could find they all followed her, heading her off at the stairs if she attempted to climb, making sure she did not grab hold of any of the small pieces of Lego which would not do her any good should she swallow it, the hospital is just down the road but we did not fancy a trip to A and E! She was so tired she fell asleep on the way home and carried on sleeping on the sofa when we arrived, with Emma carrying her very carefully from the car and me rushing in to get the dogs into the garden before they barked and woke her. She had lunch at just after 2pm, having slept for well over an hour. Thanks lads! xxx

Little fingers and hinges.

Emma and Poppy arrived about 1.15, Em had asked if I could have Poppy for the afternoon while she went shopping with her friend for some new clothes. Actually her words were "I need to get some new clothes without holes in"!! Poppy played for a while but just after 2pm I could see she was tired. Em said she probably would be, having had just half an hours sleep this morning. She sat on my lap to watch Mickey Mouse club which she likes, and dropped off to sleep at the end of it. She must have been really tired, she then slept for two hours!She woke just in time for Daddy to arrive after work to fetch her and take her home for tea.

This morning Poppy managed to get her fingers jammed in the hinge of the airing cupboard door. Em was in the bathroom for a few minutes and heard a scream, apparently rushed out on to the landing and was mortified to find Poppy with her fingers trapped. She had to pull them out of the hinge, they were jammed, it was a good thing that she managed to pull them out quickly as they may have swelled up and the situation would have been worse. Needless to say Poppy cried a lot and exhausted herself, she then fell asleep for half an hour. Bless, poor little soul. Hopefully she will have learned her lesson and won`t do that again. I wouldn`t bank on it though, she was trying to close the kitchen door on me when I went to let the dogs in, she had quite a strop because I was preventing her from closing the door, I am always worried about little fingers and hinges.

Yesterday Poppy went to see the animal man, she enjoyed the visit and stroked a few animals including a lizard, skunk, snake and a rather large .............. well, see for yourselves!

Mummys face is a picture! She said she was trying not to give away how scared she was! I know I could not have held it, I could not have even been in the same room!

The animal man.

Em rang just about lunch time yesterday to say she had her coat on ready to come to my house, went into the lounge carrying a coat for Poppy to wear, only to find her fast asleep on the sofa! Bless! She had dropped off to sleep whilst watching Baby Jake.

Emma had tried to put her eye drops in but just could not manage it on her own so she was bringing her here for my help. Well at least she would have done, had she not fallen asleep! They eventually arrived about 1.30 and it took the two of us to get the eye drops done and give Poppy her inhaler. Luckily Emma only has to put in the eye drops for three days so hopefully the conjunctivitus will have gone by then, and as Pops is also on antibiotics that can only help. I hope!!

Poppy had only been here for about ten minutes and the floor was covered in toys! Its a good job we have a large lounge for her to play in. I don`t mind, she enjoys herself and you can easily pick a few toys up. Children learn through play and need the stimulation of lots of things to explore and play with. She was getting really tired and she sat on my lap for a while, it looked like she would fall asleep but having a rest for 20 minutes seemed to do the trick and she slid off  my lap to go over to the tv to watch the Mickey Mouse club, that hot dog dance gets her every time!

This morning Gray rang to say the animal man was at the community centre so would Poppy like to go and see him. I rang to let Emma know and within half an hour they were at the centre and Emma had handled a tarantula!! Quite amazing when you consider that, like me, Emma is petrified of spiders! Personally I could not have even been in the same room as the big spider! How she did that I have no idea! The animal man had been invited courtesy of the childminders group, and as Poppys childminder was there she was able to join in which was a lovely outing for her. Hopefully they have taken lots of photos to show Grandma!

FIRST HAIR CUT.

The girls all met at Emmas yesterday to have their hair done by the wonderful Rachel. I decided to go for a different style for a change, so my hair is now shorter and layered at the back with blonde and red highlights! I am really pleased with it, and it will be easier for me to manage. Hair straighteners are not the easiest thing for me to use, I am hopeless at doing my own hair, so this style I can run my fingers through while blow drying which is simple.

Poppy has yet another cold, the doctor did warn she would have colds all winter with the problems she has with her chest and her low immune system, but it would be lovely to see her well for more than a fortnight. She was quite miserable, not her usual smiley self at all and by 4pm was very tired though would not give in and go to sleep. I tried, Grandad tried, and eventually she dropped off next to Mummy while watching In the night garden. She was restless though, even in sleep, and kept moving around and coughing so probably was not getting her proper rest.

Poppy had her first trim, it was the quickest hair cut ever! Em sat her on her lap and Rachel just about managed to trim off the whispy bits before she decided she had enough and wanted to get down! Poppy was not too well yesterday, which probably did not help, she has a cold and is chesty so was not her usual cheery self poor little thing. Em rang this morning to say she is taking her to the doctors at 11.30 as she woke up this morning with a really gungy eye and obviously has conjunctivitus, she was unable to open her eye this morning with all the muck poor little sausage. Emma had been trying to phone the doctors since 8.30am and after getting the engaged tone many many times she decided to go into the surgery to get an appointment. She asked if there was a problem as she had been unable to get through on the phone, but was told no, they were just very busy. Combination of the cold weather and the weekend I suppose.



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Bribery?!!

Poppy enjoyed the new tea set we got for her from the charity shop yesterday, as soon as she arrived this morning (later than usual as Emma had an appointment at the hospital) she was taking the cups, saucers and teapot out of the bag and setting them out on the floor. However when I asked if I could have a cup of tea she shook her head and said "no"!!! Mummy was back soon after Poppy had her lunch, having spent about a minute with her consultant. Everything is fine by the way:-)

We were laughing at Poppy doing the hotdog dance, it comes on at the end of the Mickey Mouse club on tv, she stands in front of the tv, squealing with excitement and stamping her feet. Today she tried to incorporate the arm movements which she did not get quite right but with a bit of practice!

Next week is half term so I can have a lie in as I won`t have to get up at ten to seven ready for Poppy to arrive. Not that I won`t see her as I daresay they will be round here most days and Emma has already booked me for one afternoon to look after Poppy while she goes shopping with little Em! We shall hopefully be doing some visiting, if the snow keeps away, and perhaps we may go to the soft play at the garden centre, providing it is not too busy.

Sunday should be interesting, it is the day for Poppy to have her first hair cut. The girls are all having their hair done by Rachel round at Emmas house (that includes me) so we are wondering how to keep Poppy still while Rachel trims her hair! Bribery??!!

Poppy doing the hot dog dance!

Daddys girl.

Poppy has gone home early today. Lee rang just after lunch time to say he was home early from work so we could take Poppy round when Gray got home from work. This cold weather it is good that she is home in the warm now, rather than having to go out into the cold and dark later on when Emma normally fetches her. She was very excited to see her Daddy.

We popped into the charity shop on our way home and found a plastic tea set for her, a tractor with trailer to go with her farm and a wooden puppet which when you pull the string underneath, his arms and legs dance about! All for £4.25, not bad! So the toys are cleared up early, the chicken casserole is in the oven and we can settle down early for the evening. As the weather is in the minus numbers it is nice to be able to settle down in the warm and relax while watching television. The thought of actually venturing out in the evening when it is freezing does nothing for me, I much prefer staying in the warm and having an early night! The days when I would walk around without a coat and pretend I was not cold are long gone!!!

The sparrow that says quack quack!!

Poppy arrived as usual with a bright smile and a cheerful "hello" this morning. I think the dogs are as pleased to see her as she is to see them! When Em asked her where she was going she answered Gangas (Grandmas!) bless. When she said who was she going to see Polly and ........ she replied Barney. I had marmalade on toast ready for her, she has her breakfast when she gets here, while watching Noddy and then Peppa Pig on tv. She followed the toast with a banana, some of which she tried to feed to Barney but the only food that he seems to dislike is banana! Gray had got her farm down for her this morning, yet another bargain from the charity shop a few months ago for £2.50, she loves it. Apparently the cow says "moo" but then so does the horse! One chicken says quack quack and the other says cheep cheep! The pig snorts, so she got that right, but then I had to give it a kiss! It also had a drink of her apple juice and a piece of her satsuma!!! She was tired this morning by just after 9am, I think she must have got up early, and she sat on my lap before falling asleep about ten minutes or so later. I lay her on the sofa and she slept for just short of two hours! Jill came round about ten to one and stayed for about an hour, she normally arrives earlier but had been called upon to help a neighbour this morning so she was later than she usually is. When Gray got home we decided to go out for a drive as Poppy seemed tired again, and trying to get her to go to sleep in the afternoon is not easy, yet if she does not sleep she will not eat her tea because she is tired! The easiest way for her to have a sleep in the afternoon is to take her for a ride in the car, she soon drops off and it gets me out of the house for a while which is welcome, though maybe not quite so welcome this afternoon as it was freezing! Fish for tea which she polished off, I did notice some of her chips being pushed over the edge of her tray on route for the dogs though! Emma arrived as Grandad was singing Old Macdonald at the top of his voice and he did not notice her behind him, she was in hysterics. Just one more early morning get up for me this week tomorrow as Em has to see her lupus consultant for her annual check up on Thursday so Poppy will be a little later arriving and I will look after her while she is at her appointment. Yay a lie in!

Lie in.

Emma and Lee went out to visit friends on Saturday evening who live just around the corner from us, so they asked if we could look after Poppy while they were socialising and could they stop at our house for the night, save them walking home on a minus 10 freezing cold night. Can`t say I blamed them, the thought of being outside when its minus 10 does not fill me with a nice feeling!

Emma got Poppy to bed before they went, she had not had a lot of sleep in the daytime and was rather tired by about 7.30, she was rubbing her eyes, so Emma gave her her bedtime drink of warm milk and took her upstairs to our little bedroom where we have a cot especially for Poppy to stop over with us. Within ten minutes or so Emma was back downstairs, Poppy had soon fallen fast asleep. I heard her a couple of times after I went to bed at about 10.30, she coughed a couple of times and gave a little cry but was still asleep. I went in to make sure she was okay and pulled the covers over her again. She is always out of her covers, you sort of follow her around the cot with them! Just to be sure she would be warm enough we switched the central heating over to continuous so that it would be on low all night,it also had the added advantage that the house would be warm when Emma and Lee arrived here from Jo and Robs house.

Gray got up about 8am and went downstairs to watch something on tv and I fell asleep again. The next thing I knew Gray was placing a mug of tea on my bedside table and woke me up. I looked at the clock, it was 9.30am. Poppy had not only slept all night, she was still asleep!!
"Is she okay?" I asked. Its unheard of for her to sleep so late! Five minutes later she woke up and Emma went in to fetch her, she too was amazed when I told her the time. Poppy was hungry and Emma took her downstairs for some well earned breakfast, how kind of her to let everybody have a lie in! I had a bacon butty in bed, very kindly brought up by my hubby, then got up to a warm house, thank God. The snow was lying rather thick outside the window, Poppy was fascinated when she saw the snow falling, she could not quite believe her eyes!

Sat around and watched tv, read the Sunday papers, drank tea and played with Poppy. She lets you know when she wants to be chased and when you catch her you have to tickle her! While everybody was asleep Gray had walked the dogs and been to the shops for the papers! Lee wanted to make sure the rabbit and guinnea pigs were okay though I think that was an excuse as he really wanted to get home and watch the football! So just after lunch time Emma, Lee and Poppy headed home. Poppy yawning after her busy morning.

Emma says they are going to stop here every weekend if Poppy sleeps that late!!!!

Duties.

I now have to make sure the front and back doors are locked as Poppy can open them. I could hardly believe it the other day when her Grandad said she could reach the handle, she stretches as much as she can on tiptoe and grabs the handle with finger tips so I was surprised when she managed to pull it down! She sounded just like me when she stood at our back door yesterday shouting "Poll, Poll" I had to laugh. Polly the dog, who was standing at the top of the garden having a sniff round the lawn just looked round and ignored Poppy who kept on shouting. No way was Polly going to go into the house for a baby! We have always used the phrase "duties" to get out dogs to go out into the garden to do the necessary (a throw back to Barbara Woodhouse days! For those not born at that time she was a prominent dog trainer on tv in the 1970`s!) When I heard Poppy call out "duties" as she opened the door for the dogs yesterday afternoon after we had been out for a while I was amazed, it was very funny to watch this little tot pushing the three dogs out into the cold! She then carefully closed the door behind them before wiping her hands together, looking up at me and smiling! Bless.

This is the way the ladies ride.

Jill popped round this morning for an hour, she was going to the hospital with an elderly neighbour who she helps out so could only stay for a short time. She managed a game of this is the way the ladies ride with Poppy before she left though!
We had to pop out to buy Poppy a new ball this afternoon. She just loves to play with her ball, she thinks it is funny when you bounce it, she likes to kick it and she likes to throw it. Unfortunately Lily decided she wanted to play with Poppys ball on Sunday, tried to grab it with her teeth and ofcourse it burst (Lily is a dog by the way!) Luckily the ball was not quite as inflated as it used to be so it did not go with quite the bang I was expecting. We bought her a much brighter coloured ball today now all we have to do is keep the dogs away from it! Poppy got very excited when I got the ball out of the bag for her and carried it around with her until it was time for tea!

She is not eating a great deal this last couple of days, her cheek was very red yesterday and she has one of her lower eye teeth coming through. She generally goes off her food while she is teething, and normally she is quite bad with her chest too but this time, touch wood, presumably due to the fact that she now has a preventative inhaler, she is coping much better, and although her chest is still a little rattly, it is not as bad as it usually is. To make sure she is getting her vitamins she is being given a lot of fruit, which she loves, it is no problem getting her to eat fruit as a rule.

Gray said yesterday when he was in the kitchen that Poppy can open the back door. I was amazed as I did not think she was tall enough to reach the handle, and presumed that the door was not quite shut which is how she managed to open it. I found out differently today, she reached up on tiptoe and opened the door. I thought she was going to want to go outside and as it was dark and freezing cold I did not fancy the idea but bless her all she wanted to do was let the dogs in! Barney and Lily walked through the door as soon as it was opened but as usual Polly did not realise and she had to be called. "Poll, Poll" Poppy called! She sounded just like me. As soon as all the dogs were inside she carefully shut the door behind them! Gray thought she wanted to go outside when she opened the door yesterday and he shut the door again, not realising she was trying to let the dogs in. She got quite upset and had to be placated with a jaffa cake! And all the time she was only trying to let the dogs in out of the cold! Bless.

She seems to learn new words every day, the new word today is door! While she was eating her tea she kept pointing to the door and saying "door". They hardly have any doors on the rooms at her house, Lee took them off when he started building work as he did not like them and has not replaced any of the internal doors downstairs! Therefore Poppy has to point at our doors while she can!!