Oh dear.

I did not sleep well last night because I was worrying about Poppy. Yesterday we did not go into the garden early as I could not cope with another day of following her around, my back was not up to it. I changed her nappy about 2pm and she followed me when I went to put it into the dustbin and then ofcourse she did not want to go back inside. I had been waiting for Grandad to arrive home before going out, but I thought to myself he would be home in half an hour so hopefully I could manage until then. She had been out for a walk in the morning with Jill to feed the ducks and the pushchair was still on the patio so ofcourse Poppy made a bee line for it, climbed into it and sat down, she sat in it for ten minutes or so then slid down, stood infront of it and started to climb up to sit in the seat again but before I could steady her she somehow slipped and somersaulted over the side of the pushchair coming down face first on the patio. Boy did she cry, and no wonder, I heard the bump, and I was so worried I just picked her up straight away and applied a cold flannel to the side of her face to bring out the bruise. She cried for about half an hour, partly because of the bump to her head and partly I think because she did not want the wet cold flannel on! All I could think of was "don`t let her go to sleep". My mom always used to say if they bump their head don`t let them sleep so you can make sure they are okay. Ofcourse she was trying to go to sleep so I was getting more and more anxious and kept waking her up, which ofcourse made her worse! The trouble was she was due a sleep anyway having only had about an hour in the morning and she woke about 11am so it was not surprising she was trying to go to sleep. Poor little thing must have thought I was so cruel. Eventually, with the help of Mickey Mouse clubhouse on tv she cheered up and started to talk about her favourite programme then she slid off my lap as though nothing had happened! I was awake half the night as I kept thinking of Poppys fall and I had to text Em at 6.45am to ask if she was okay, just to put my mind at rest. Grandmas worry just as much as Moms!

CREAM CRACKERED! Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I am absolutely shattered, worn out, cream crackered! I have literally followed Poppy round the garden all day! I keep sitting down on a garden chair only to have to get up and follow her down the side of the house or into the kitchen. She likes going down the side of the house but you have to watch her as she keeps pulling the wire which is going through the wall to bring us Sky tv! The flowers are sadly depleted as Poppy keeps picking them and handing them to me with a cry of "pretty flower"!! Not that there are many things flowering at present, a couple of daffs and some aubretia. Luckily my tubs are not done, I am still waiting for the seeds to grow in my cold frame, but I fear for their existence when they are done!

Poppy has eaten a lot better than she has been, she had quite a lot of fruit today, almost her 5 a day, which is great. The good thing is she loves most fruits. She ate fish for her tea with chips and peas and was just finishing off her meal when her Mummy arrived. Then she had another game of `put grandad in the other room`. Emma and I were crying laughing at her, "come on" she said to him, while he was standing in the kitchen at the sink washing dishes, she then proceeded to push him from behind into the lounge, said bye and went back out of the room. After several times of doing this he had to have a sit down! She did it to her mommy too when she first arrived but soon turned her attention to Grandad, for some reason she finds it funny! I have only one more day of Poppy and then Em breaks up for Easter on Friday so for 2 weeks I will be able to take it easier! Not that I won`t see them, Em does tend to turn up most days in the holidays and we often head off out somewhere. I can only just about hobble around now with great difficulty so perhaps it is a good thing that I shall be getting a rest! Bless her, I wouldn`t change anything and wouldn`t be without her.

Might be another early night, I was falling asleep from 7pm yesterday and had to go to bed at 9pm as I just could not keep awake!! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hopefully on the mend.

Poppy has not been well, her chest has been rather poorly, and so ofcourse  has her breathing. She has been coughing a lot and sick a few times as a result, also she has not been eating very much, she always goes off her food when she is ill, so it has been my mission today to get her eating, to be honest I did not care what she ate, as long as she ate something!

Poppy arrived at just before 8am with her Mummy, still dressed in her pyjamas, she had only just woken up. She managed to eat 2 quarters of a slice of toast and a bowl of grapes so that was a good start to the day. She also drank almost a bottle of milk which I was pleased about, she needs her nourishment. We went into the garden and she enjoyed herself riding on her little bike, opening and shutting the doors to my new cold frame and looking at my newly growing seeds then shutting the doors and saying bye! She picked some pretty flowers for me and every time she put one into my hand she said "pretty flower", saw a ladybird and generally walked around the lawn with her wellies on. By 11am I could see she was getting tired, she was yawning and rubbing her eyes so I brought her indoors and sat her on my lap, putting baby tv on for her to watch until she dropped off to sleep. She slept for 2 hours, quite soundly which was good, her sleep has been broken by her coughing so it was nice to see that she was sleeping soundly for a change.

When she woke at 1.30 Jill had arrived, I made a sandwich for Poppy but she did not want to eat it so I gave her some Wotsits, a jaffa cake and a small icecream cone, at least she ate them which was a start, she did drop the remainder of her icecream cone on the floor and Barney ate it, which she was none too pleased about it, so she had another one! Grandad arrived at his usual time and after half an hour playing in the garden with her he decided to take her for a walk to feed the ducks, so off she went in her pushchair clutching a bag of bread. While they were out I made some gingerbread men in the hope that she might eat one. Lasagne for tea which I was pleased that she ate the majority of and then I gave her a ginger bread man which she said "hello" to and then bit his head off!

She was playing the `put grandad behind the gate game` when her Mummy arrived, she grabs him by the back of the legs and pushes him through the baby gate into the other room then shuts the gate and will not let him back in until she decides he is allowed!! Barney also has to go through the gate and gets pushed in behind her grandad. She then says "bye" to them both and walks away before returning to play the whole game over again!

Em was pleased to be told that Poppy has eaten a bit better today and was relieved to see that she is hopefully on the mend.

Busy few days, Emma arrived at lunch time on Thursday as Poppy was not well, her chest is bothering her again, she is coughing and generally not herself. Em had Friday off to look after her, it was obvious Poppy was not feeling great and she just wanted her Mummy.

When I got up yesterday morning I felt a bit yuck and concluded that I had caught whatever Poppy had. Tight chested, coughing, aching all over and generally just feeling horrible.

GRUMPY

When Poppy arrived with her mummy yesterday morning she was grumpy, no other word to describe it, she was not her usual smiley self thats for sure. Em said she would ring at lunch time to see how she was, and if she was still poorly she would be back, her teaching was covered for the afternoon as she was due on a course, but Poppy was more important than a course. 

Poppy did not eat much breakfast, about a quarter of her slice of jam on toast and a couple of chunks of melon, she did not want to sit in the highchair so I cleaned her up and lifted her out. All she wanted was to sit on my lap and be cuddled so I put the tv on for her and we sat and watched it. She was clearly very tired, not surprising as she had woken in the early hours and been sick all over her cot, which meant that she had to have a bath! Em said she just sat there, not surprising really, if someone plonked me in a bath of water at that time of the morning I would do the same thing! She was clearly very tired at 8am but would not give in to it, and kept on coughing, her chest is really rattly again. She finally fell asleep just after 9.30am and I lay her carefully on the sofa, her head on a cushion to lift her up a little, rather than lay her flat. She slept for an hour and a half, by which time Jill had arrived to give me a hand. She was a little more cheerful at first when she woke up, though she did not want to eat a lot again, even a jaffa cake did not tempt her. Jill offered to take her for a walk to feed the ducks and she was standing by the door ready to go as soon as she said it! I put her coat on and popped her in the pushchair, and off they went, with Poppy clutching a bag of bread for the ducks. She had just arrived back when Emma got here, I had texted her to report on Poppys condition and she decided to forgo her course and come back to look after Poppy. It was the first smile we saw all morning, when she saw her Mummy through the window.

As the day was quite warm we decided to sit in the garden for some fresh air, hoping Poppy might be a bit happier in new surroundings. She enjoyed playing on her bike, walking round the lawn and being chased up the path at the side of the house but after a couple of hours it was getting cool so we headed indoors. Gray had arrived home from work so we had a cuppa to warm us up and Emma sat on the sofa with Poppy trying to get her to sleep. Although she was obviously shattered she would not give in to sleep and eventually found her way off the sofa to play with her toys! Em decided that she would take her out in her pushchair to the shops in the hope that she might fall asleep so she headed off home. When I spoke to her this morning, Poppy did not sleep, she is too nosy and likes to see what is going on around her!

Emma is at home with her today as she is still poorly and woke in the night with a temperature so had to be dosed with calpol and stripped off to cool down. I`m told she is asleep on the sofa at the moment, hopefully the sleep will do her good.
Get well soon Pops.xxx

Day in the garden.

Poppy was tired this morning, she ate a good breakfast, toast and fruit, played for a while then fell asleep in the middle of eating a biscuit while sitting on my lap! She must have been tired, she slept for 3 hours!!!

After lunch the weather was quite warm, bright and sunny so I decided to go into the garden with Poppy. She enjoyed riding her bike around the patio, taking her dollies for a walk in the pram and looking for lady birds. She carried my buckets across the lawn and said she was going shopping and liked jumping in a puddle with her wellies on, just like Peppa pig! She thought it a very funny game to be chased around the garden by grandad and by 4pm she was getting tired again, must have been all the fresh air! It was getting a bit chilly by then anyway so we went inside and Poppy sat on my lap for a while watching the tv before transfering over to Grandads lap while I made our dinner.  So that was our day in the garden.

Poppy and Mommy.

Its mothers day today, so happy mothers day to all those wonderful mums out there, its a job for a life time, whether your children are 3 or 33 you will always be there for them, to love them, support them, be proud of them, just to be in the company of my children makes me happy. Happy mothers day also to all those who want nothing more than to be a mum, its a longing that never goes away, I hope you achieve your dream.

The photos are ofcourse of Poppy and her proud mummy Emma, you can see the love clearly in the photos, the pride in being a mum at last. My children mean more to me than anything in the world, when they are happy, I am happy, when they are sad, I am sad. To be in their company gives me the greatest pleasure, to be their mum is a priviledge and a wonderful gift. I would literally do anything for them.

Emma brought Lily round yesterday morning after she had been to the dog groomers for her regular haircut and general tidy up. I must say she looked very beautiful. They were on the way to town to have Poppy measured for new shoes and as Lily does not like being on her own she came here, to see her friends Polly and Barney!

Poppy arrived later with her Mummy and Daddy with a pair of beautiful new pink shoes on her feet, she is now a size 6F, as opposed to 5F which she was before. These ones are a lighter pink with a bow on the front and sparkling stitched detail! They are also buckle up shoes, not velcro like the last pair, which could prove a tad difficult to get fastened, especially if Poppy is not in the mood to wear them! She also had her hair in bunches, a style we have not been able to achieve before, and she looked adorable! So grown up all of a sudden, they grow up so fast its frightening! She liked the quad bike we got her from the charity shop on Friday morning and was soon riding it around as you can see from the photo. When the weather is warm she will be able to ride it on the patio in the back garden. Its sunny outside today, but that does not mean it is warm!! As it was lunch time when they arrived they had a bite to eat with us, Poppy enjoyed her lunch sitting on the sofa with her Mummy while she watched her favourite programme on tv, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! As you can see I got some lovely photos of the two of them. They stopped for a couple of hours before heading off to visit Poppys cousins Ruby and Florence.

PEEP PEEP POPPY!!

We had to go to the bank this morning and while we were on the shopping parade we decided to pay a visit to the charity shop. It proved to be a good time to visit, we got a toy plastic quad bike for Poppy which she can play with in the summer months on the patio and something which we are hoping will be very useful, a steering wheel complete with mirrors, horn, and all kinds of buttons and knobs that will fit on to her car seat. It is such a problem getting Poppy into the car seat, she goes stiff and will not sit down, but hopefully with her new all singing, all dancing steering wheel to drive the car with grandad she may sit down easier next time! Peep peep Poppy!!

Bye Bye.

My eyes did not want to open this morning when the alarm went off at 6.45am, I had not slept well and just to top it all I had a horrible dream which was very vivid. It seemed so real and I haven`t been able to stop thinking about it all day.

Emma and Poppy arrived an hour later, Emma said she had problems getting up this morning too, she overslept a little having got to bed after midnight last night with all the paperwork she has to do for work. We will both be glad for the weekend!

Luckily Gray is on afternoons this week so he was here to help me out this morning. I prepared some grapes for Poppy, I like to give her as much fruit as I can, and when she arrived Gray put some toast on for her. She has not eaten too well the past couple of days with her cold so I was not expecting her to eat well today and she pleased and surprised me by eating 3 out of 4 of her pieces of jam on toast and all her grapes. The weather was horrible outside, very cold and foggy, so we decided not to venture out too early. Poppy and I built some towers with her mega blocks then played with her farm for a while and Gray took the dogs out for their walk. She is quite good at fixing the mega blocks (a bit like huge lego) together, something which she could not do a few weeks ago. We built two little buildings for her toy cows and pigs to go into.

We did not want to take Poppy to playgroup this morning as her eyes are still a bit bloodshot and weepy, its not fair to the other children incase it is infectious so we decided to give it a miss.

The fog had lifted a little mid morning so we decided to take Poppy to the pet shop as she loved to look at the animals, last time we went and she was fascinated by the fish! Off we went in the car but we had only got about 5 minutes into our journey when she fell fast asleep! It was no use going when she was obviously so tired and we decided to head back and let her have her sleep on the comfort of the sofa. We never did get to the pet shop today, Poppy slept for 2 hours, by which time it was lunch and as Gray was due at work for 2.30pm I wanted to cook a hot meal for us all. She pleased us again by eating most of her dinner and got very messy courtesy of a chocolate marshmallow!

Jill arrived as Gray left for work, Poppy was upset to see Grandad go out then we realised it was because he had just put the pushchair in the hallway and she wanted to go and see the ducks! I found her plastic yellow duck in her bag which calmed her down then she rushed to her toy box to find something to play with. Five minutes later she decided to wave to Grandad through the window, slightly late!! Em arrived to fetch her earlier than normal knowing I would be worn out without her Dad to help me. I saw her car pulling up on the drive and lifted Poppy onto the sofa to see her Mummy through the window, she was so excited and Emma got a lovely welcome.

As Poppy would say, bye bye.

Hope her eyes are better tomorrow!

Tuesday - Poppy arrived clutching two plastic yellow ducks, one larger than the other. They are the ones she plays with in the bath and she refused to leave the house without them! Guinea seems to have been relegated in favour of her ducks so he is in the bag with her spare clothes and things! The ducks had to sit on her tray while she ate her breakfast, not that she ate much breakfast as she is quite snotty again and coughing, whether due to teeth or just another cough/cold virus. I am feeling quite tight chested this week and Emma said she is the same, so maybe we all have the same germs! She did manage her grapes though so at least she had some fruit even if she did not eat more than a couple of mouth fulls of her toast, grapes, one of her five a day.

Jill came round about 10am and very kindly took Poppy for a walk in her pushchair to feed the ducks, she certainly had enough bread with her for the ducks, a whole carrier bag full, there will be a few fat ducks on the lake now! Poppy was fast asleep in her pushchair on their return, sleep she badly needed, her eyes are sore and red again with conjunctivitus so hopefully the sleep helped her eyes get some rest. She slept for an hour and woke in a lovely mood, actually she has been very smiley all day, despite having a runny nose, cough and sore eyes, even when she is poorly she is a pleasant, happy personality.

She went home with only one duck, she did not take it out of the house, I know that, but I have searched everywhere and cannot find it! It is a mystery where it has got to, it is definately in the house somewhere but where is anyones guess!

Wednesday - Gray is working afternoons for a couple of days so he was here when Poppy arrived this morning with her Mummy. It was rather cold first thing, which was a shame as we planned to take her to the playground. We had wanted to take her to soft play but with her eye problem we thought it unfair to take her just incase they are infectious. Emma said she had a disturbed night coughing and she was actually very tired about 9.30am though fighting sleep. We decided the best way to get her to have some rest would be to take her for a ride in the car, knowing she usually falls asleep on the journey. Sure enough it did not take too long for her to drop off and she slept for about an hour. When she woke up we took her to the playground for a short visit, it was a bit too cold to linger though she did have a go on the swings, a couple of goes on the slide and a seesaw! Gray was due at work for 2.30 and Poppy sat on my knee after he left looking tired so I expected her to go to sleep again for a while. Jill arrived 5 minutes later and ofcourse she had to get off my lap to say hello! She had a play for a while though we could see she was feeling sleepy and when Jill left Poppy sat on my lap again and fell asleep. She was still asleep when her Mummy arrived to fetch her! Em had a cup of tea and a chat before gently waking her and taking her home for tea. She will probably be a little later to bed this evening but her Daddy was working until later last night so did not get to see much of her when he got in, so at least they will see one another for a bit longer this evening.

Hope her eyes are better tomorrow!

Pics of Pops.

ANY IDEAS WHAT ANIMAL GUINEA IS?

On Sunday Poppy adopted a new friend, a soft toy, bought for the dog, (the dog has never touched it, she did not like it) which is now called guinea after the guinea pigs. Actually we are not sure what it is, chipmunk has been suggested, squirrel without a tail, gofer (is that how you spell it?) its really not clear what it is, but what is clear is that Poppy really really loves it! Since she picked it up it has been everywhere with her, it arrives with her in the morning, it sits on her tray (if we cannot get it off her) as she eats her meals, it goes out with her in her pushchair, for a walk (please God don`t let her loose it) it goes to bed with her at night. She keeps kissing it, even I have to kiss it when she arrives in the morning, I don`t have a choice, it gets pushed into my face! She has to hold it in one hand while she puts her other arm into her clothes and it lies in her pram with the dolls. She gives it a drink from her tippy cup and apparently it really likes biscuits!! God forbid if she looses it, where it came from Emma cannot remember so we have no idea where to get another! This all takes me back some years ago to a trip to the safari park when Emma lost her special dog toy, we walked round and round looking for it, we even bought her another dog toy (not that it looked anything like the original but desperate measures!) oh she was soooo upset. We never did find another one the same and she asked for it for ages! Like mother like daughter!!

Poppys speech is coming on very very well, she is putting short sentences together sometimes and can say some quite difficult words, she followed me into the toilet the other day and when she passed the washing machine she said quite clearly "washing machine" then proceeded to push all the buttons on it! Loves buttons to press and turn Poppy does!! When she had eaten her dinner the other day I heard Grandad say to her "that was a nice dinner Poppy, go and say thankyou to Grandma" and she walked in to the room where I was, said "thankyou Grandma" and gave me a wave before returning to the game she was playing with her Grandad! Bless. The game she was playing with Grandad made me laugh, she suddenly said "ready, steady, go" and ran across the room! Grandad was worn out by the time that game finished, he kept having to race her!

Any ideas what animal guinea is?

Nigh nigh Pops.

Today, the 5th March, would have been my lovely moms birthday, so Poppys great grandma, who she never got the chance to meet, would have been 92 years old today. Strangely it would also have been father in laws birthday too, and he would have been 91. So happy birthday to Poppys great grandparents, miss you. x

We were invited to dinner at Emma and Lees yesterday for our anniversary. When we arrived Poppy was playing with Mr Potato head, she was really engrossed in her toy when we walked through the door but soon left off what she was doing when she saw Grandad! Emma was in the kitchen doing the cooking and she appeared saying "I thought I heard her say Grandad!!" She must have seen us through the window as we walked from the car. We were treated to roast chicken with all the trimmings followed by keylime pie supplied by Rachel and Steven. Thankyou for a lovely dinner and for lovely company. Nothing better than spending time with our family. I shall have to survive on memories of nice food now as I am back on my diet, it went a bit haywire the past few days with meals out for our anniversary and breakfast in bed made by my lovely hubby. You can`t beat bacon sandwiches in bed while reading your book:-)

We left just after 7pm as the dogs were on their own and needed to be fed and Poppy would shortly be ready for bed so we thought it would be easier if we were not there as she may not have wanted to go to bed otherwise. Emma tells me she is very good now, once she has her pyjamas on and has drunk her bottle of milk she will say nigh nigh and stand at the bottom of the stairs!! Bless. She even gave us both a kiss and a lovely cuddle when we left and waved us off at the window. Nigh Nigh Pops.

Sleepy baby.

Just pinched this gorgeous photo off my daughters Facebook, took an hour ago, Poppy enjoying her rest.

Also love this one, taken just before Christmas, what a happy little face.

Same day, Poppy decided to empty the contents of her drawers all over the floor while her mummy was in the shower! If only she knew how to put it all back neatly. Oh well, she will learn!!!

We are off round to Emmas in a while, it was our 37th wedding anniversary on Thursday and Emma volunteered to cook us a celebration meal which is very good of her, especially as she doesn`t particularly enjoy cooking! Rachel and Steven are invited too, so it will be nice to be all together, the sort of meal we enjoy the most is to be together as a family. Wonder what is on the menu?! I have had no lunch in preparation for our feast.

Acorns.

As Grandad has had a few days off work, to spend our wedding anniversary together on the first of March we had the opportunity to take Poppy to the Acorns playgroup at the community centre on Thursday. Normally I am unable to get there under my own steam as I cannot walk far enough so it was good to have the chance for Poppy to mix with other children and play with the lovely toys available. At first it did not look as though we would be able to take her as she was starting to look sleepy at about 9am and she will often sleep for an hour or two, as it starts about 9.45am it would have ruled it out. Her sleep patterns are changing at the moment, one day she will be so tired by 9.30am that she cannot stay awake but other days she will keep going until 11am or 11.30 and will sleep through lunchtime, so having a late lunch about 1.30 or even 1.45! She did sit on my lap at about 9.30 and was yawning so I felt sure she would be asleep and unable to go to playgroup but after having a rest for half an hour she was off my lap and wanting to play again so we decided to risk it and see how she got on. We were a little late for the start but nobody seemed to mind and Poppy soon smiled and waved at the little boy nearest to her before grabbing a small plastic car off the table and pushing it along the track which was laid out. Most children in the room were a bit older, maybe 2 to 3 years old, and at 18 months Poppy could only just about reach the table top but there were chairs to sit on an adults lap and other toys placed on the floor so she was able to play with the lovely toys without too much bother. She was particularly drawn to a castle and I was just sitting beside her when a young lady I recognised approached me, I knew the face but at first could not put a name to it, probably because I had not seen her for some considerable time, and because I was not expecting to see her at the playgroup. It was lovely to see Vicky, I was in hospital with her Mum when she had Vicky and I had my son Steven. Her Mum and I keep in touch regularly though it had been quite some time since I last saw Vicky and I had never met her adorable son Zac. I was very flattered that she recognised me after all that time! Poppy had a lovely time at the playgroup, she played with some of the toys and loved running away from Grandad and being chased around the hall! We left just after 11am when the toys were being packed away and Poppy fell asleep about 3 minutes later! We even managed to get her out of the car and laid down on the sofa where she slept for an hour and a half!!

Bless, she is growing up.