Butterflies on the window.

We don`t need a time machine, having Poppy in our lives is like having her Mum back as a little girl again! Poppy never stops talking, Emma never stopped talking. Poppy sings all the time, Emma sings all the time! Poppy loves making music (Peppa pig musical set), Emma has a degree in music! I wonder whether she will follow in her mothers musical footsteps, it would be a great help to her to learn to play a woodwind instrument, a physiotherapist once told me that blowing into a woodwind instrument was one of the best ways to exercise the lungs for an asthmatic. I reckon it helped Emmas asthma, she did grow out of it, but it seemed to improve. Hopefully it will help Poppy with her asthma if Emma teaches her to play.

The rain has kept us indoors today but we have been busy, we have been colouring, painting (in a magic painting book with clean water and a paint brush, remember those), built towers, played with her toy animals, played with her babies, sang some songs, did her wooden puzzles and looked at her books! Emma had a governers meeting after school so we delivered her back to Daddy soon after tea clutching a picture she drew for him. Not sure what it was but Poppy seemed to know!

She told me there were butterflies on the window after tea, I asked her where they were as I could not see them and she informed me they were hiding!! Bless her, she makes me laugh every day.

Don`t worry, be happy

Poppy loves to sing. We have all sung to her from an early age so I suppose she has picked it up, she knows lots of nursery rhymes and surprises us when she will suddenly sing one from start to finish that we never realised she could sing. Yesterday it was `rock a bye baby!` She especially loves it when you pick her up and rock her then pretend to drop her to the floor, she really laughs at that one, she knows she gets tickled! Yesterday she had me laughing when she suddenly burst out with "don`t worry, be happy, do do do do de do do de do de do de do do" then she looked at me and said "don`t worry be happy Grandma!!" At just 22 months she seems far beyond her age.

She had a lovely time in the garden, we aquired a slide, second hand, for a very reasonable sum and she got excited as soon as she saw it. Worried me somewhat when she stood up on the top of the slide and I told her to sit down so we are going to have to watch her on that. We have put it on the grass so at least there is a soft landing. Poppy seems fearless and unafraid of anything, not much phases her, I think she gets that from her Daddy.

Talking of her Daddy he arrived to fetch her in the afternoon on his bike, he has managed to get hold of a seat for her to ride with him, which instead of her being behind him this one fits in front of him on the cross bar and she holds on to the handle bars. Its nice because at least Lee can see her and make sure she is okay, I don`t particularly like the ones where the little one is behind you where you cannot see how they are. She is strapped in properly though a helmet is definately needed. Lee was taking her to see the horses in the field nearby before heading off home, they were going to feed them some apples. Poppy really loves horses, she had a donkey ride in the summer while on a visit to Nanny and after an initial nervousness she had a wonderful time and loved it.

Thought you might like to see a pic of Poppy in her christening dress. What a cutie.

Generosity and christening gifts.

Emma popped round yesterday afternoon to cut up the christening cake and distribute it around. Ofcourse it would have been easier to cut it all up at the christening and give it out as everybody was leaving - but she forgot!! Sorry if you did not get a piece, we had to divide it as best we could and there was only so much to go round!

Emma said she had spent nearly the whole morning opening all the gifts that Poppy very kindly received, they were amazed by how many there were and very grateful. She had quite a bit of money, which is going to go into an account for her which was really generous of everybody. Emma has made a list and will be personally sending out thankyous to everyone as soon as she can. Personally we are going to open an account for her as we did for Emma and Steven when they were little so that they had a nice nest egg when they reached 18, and as my parents did for me. We could not resist a small gift though, and got her a silver locket with Granddaughter engraved on it and a message on the reverse, into which I put a photo of the both of us. I also gave Poppy the bible that my grandparents got for me when I was born, on the inside front cover it says to Christine at Christmas 1955 (so now you know!!) love from Gramma and Grandad. I have treasured it all these years and have always said I would give it to my oldest grandchild so I thought it an appropriate day to pass it on. I am sure Poppy will treasure it as I have done, especially as it comes with the love of her grandparents and her great great grandparents.

Thank you everybody, so much. xxx

THE CHRISTENING DAY.

Today has been the christening day of Poppy Hope and Florence Rose, a joint day for the two cousins. It has been a beautiful day, the sun shone, Poppy looked beautiful in her Princess dress and the christening gown which Florence wore was absolutely gorgeous. Both little girls were really good, neither cried when water was poured on their heads! The lady vicar announced that it would be fine for the children to walk around the church while the service was going on, a fact which Poppy took full advantage of and she had a lovely time dancing to the hymn! Bless. There was a bit of a hairy moment when Poppy wanted to hold her candle but Uncle Ste held it for her, just far enough away so she could not grab it! A lovely service in a lovely the church.

I tried to take a video of the proceedings. Problem was I forgot to switch the camera on for the first half so missed that completely. Gray then took the camera up to the font to record the crucial moment, trouble was he recorded his feet walking up the aisle then there is a just a glimpse of the font, Poppy and the godparents, complete with the back of Emmas head before the battery went on the camera!
Note to self, turn the camera on when you want to take a video.
Note to self, don`t let hubby take a video, he is hopeless! Note to self, charge the batteries up!! What a plonker.

Afterwards the christening party was held in the Redhouse, the children had a wonderful time playing together, the adults enjoyed the food. The bar area was a little chaotic so some of the adults were sneaking off to the pub next door for the drinks, I don`t blame them as Gray took over half an hour to get ours! One enterprising person even managed to buy a bottle of wine at the shop along the road! You know who you are! (Em said she sneaked the bottle into the bin bag before the people who ran the hall noticed!) I wish we had thought of doing that! Nice to catch up with friends and relations, everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. A special vote of thanks has to go to Ryan, Rhys and Owen, sons of my niece, who looked after Poppy beautifully and made sure they followed her everywhere, heading her off if she got anywhere near the door to the outside!

Poppy was very tired towards the end so Gray and I brought her back with us for an hour to chill out while her Mummy and Daddy helped with the clearing up. She enjoyed running round in just her nappy at our house for an hour (I did not want her to ruin her beautiful dress in the garden) until her Mummy and Daddy arrived to fetch her.

Emma suddenly realised when quite a lot of people had gone that she had not cut the cake! It is back here, sitting in our beer fridge (the weather is so warm it would melt otherwise, and the beer fridge is not too cold for it) so tomorrow morning Emma will arrive to cut it into pieces and deliver some around! Would have been easier had she thought of it before!!

CAKE.

Ladybird

I did wonder, at 7.30 this morning, whether the sun would make its way through the cloud. It was even a bit chilly for a while so I started to doubt the prediction of a hot day. Thankfully I was wrong, it has been a beautiful sunny day today and Poppy has been enjoying herself in the garden, playing with the seaside, riding in her car, pushing her pushchair round and round, in one door into the kitchen, through the whole house, and out through the other door by the lounge! Instead of a dolly in her pushchair, or even perhaps a soft toy, she was giving a ride to a plastic green fish! Poppy really likes fish!

By noon she was worn out, I was about to get her a sandwich but she asked for her dummy and fell asleep within about 10 minutes on my lap. She then slept until almost 3pm, just in time for Grandad to play in the garden with her! Jill popped round with Hannah just as Poppy dropped off to sleep so while we chatted I whisked up the christening cake, luckily I have a mixer on a stand so once all the ingredients were weighed out and in the bowl I could just leave it to whisk and hopefully get really light while I sat and had a well earned cool drink. As the cake had to be cooked in a large round pyrex mixing bowl it took quite a while to cook and it will be iced tomorrow. Hopefully it will turn out to look just like one of Poppys favourite things - a ladybird!!

The garden.

8.30am "outside Grandma", and yes, for a change it was warm enough. She wanted to play with seaside (her sand and water pit) then she had a go in her Little Tykes car, then pushed her pushchair around the patio, through the house from one door to the other, around the patio, through the house ........... you get the idea. Back to seaside!! Would she keep her new Minnie Mouse pink cap on? Not often, I got fed up of putting it back on her head, and then she had to wear it backwards as if she wore it with the peak at the front she could not see where she was going, it being slightly large! Backwards was a good compromise though, at least it protected the back of her neck from the sun! Eventually she got fed up of throwing it on the floor and me putting it back on her head and kept it on!! Jill arrived early, it being a nice day, and took Poppy for a walk to the lake to feed the ducks and baby swans with some bread then when they returned we sat outside for a short while until Pops became very tired and fell asleep, she slept for 2 hours on the sofa, the fresh air obviously wears her out!

This afternoon Gray and I took her to the playground where she enjoyed the swings and slide, especially the slide, we had to gently remind her to let other children play on the slide too as she was saying no to them climbing the steps!

She was delighted when her Daddy arrived just before tea, he was on his bike on the way home from work and called in to take Lily with him so she would have a run on the way home. He stopped for a drink and a play with Poppy in the sandpit first though.

Emma arrived not long after Lee left, she could not have timed it better as Poppy had just filled her nappy! I thought I got out of that one quite well!!

Poppy loves Barney

http://youtu.be/y03hb6Npyb0

Learning to share.

Poppy decided that no way was she going to have a sleep in the morning yesterday, even though it was plainly obvious she was very tired, after all she asked for her dummy and snuggly, kept rubbing her eyes and yawning, and at one point sat on my lap for half an hour, having a cuddle. I made lunch early, which much to my amazement she ate every bit of, she does not normally eat so well when she is tired! The full stomach obviously did the trick and by ten past one she was fast asleep on the sofa!

Our lawn mower had decided not to work on Sunday so we took it to the lawn mower hospital on Monday afternoon. We had the phone call to pick it up so after Poppy woke in the afternoon Grandad and I popped her in the car and off we went. First of all we let Poppy see the fish in the various tanks which she declared beautiful then we went to see if there were any animals in the pet corner. The parrott Henry was in his usual position in his large cage but no guinea pigs or rabbits for sale so Poppy had to make do with seeing some ornamental ones to put in the garden, she was very pleased to see them and wanted to stroke them, not a good idea at that price! A display of garden ornaments of sheep, lambs, ducks and pigs took her attention for a while and then we went through to the lawn mower hospital to fetch our poorly lawn mower. £34 for a break in the cable we thought rather excessive but what can you do?

I had to visit the library to fetch a book I had reserved on the way home, and ofcourse Poppy saw the childrens playground next door so she wanted to go on the swings and slide, especially the slide which she loves (her childminder had to have a word on Wednesday as she did not want any other children to play on her slide at playgroup!!) We will probably buy her a garden slide for her birthday, hopefully she will still love them at the end of July! She will have to learn to share though when her friends visit.

Just like her Mummy!

Poppy has never stopped chattering all day today, apart from the couple of hours she was asleep just before lunch. Her breakfast was "delicious", Barney is a "cheeky doggy", she told me she was sitting in "grandads chair" and the "rabbit guinea pig" was "hiding" in the pet shop when it ran into the plastic house! When she saw a baby in the shop she said the baby was "pretty baby, ah pretty baby" and when it went out of sight with its mother she kept saying "where baby, where baby"!! She sang nursery rhymes the whole journey to the retail park in the car and bounced about to the tunes! Emma learnt to speak early and has never looked back, she can talk for England. Wonder who Poppy takes after?!! 

Dance dance dance

Been a busy weekend. Emma had asked if we could have Poppy overnight on Saturday as she had been invited to the wedding of her friends Jo and Andy. As Lee has been away for the weekend attending a stag party, dressed as a gladiator but thats another story, Emma said she would like to stop at our house, rather than go back to a dark empty house on her own. Poppy arrived with her Mummy at 11.30 on Saturday morning as Emma wanted to go to the church to see Jo and Andy married, and rather than take Poppy as she is usually tired and has a sleep at that time, she thought it best if she came to stop with us. After Emma had gone to the church I was lucky enough to see the wedding car come past so I rushed outside to wave at the bride, resplendant in beautiful white dress come past in her vintage rolls royce. The happy couple live at the top of our street. When Emma arrived back from watching the church service we chatted and played with Poppy for a while until Pops started to get tired. As Emma had to go home and get changed to go to the evening wedding party she decided the best way to get Poppy to sleep would be to drive her around for ten minutes then pop her in her cot while Em had her shower and got her clothes ready for the evening. She was taking Poppy with her for a while as Poppy loves to dance, and then the plan was for Grandad to pick her up when she was getting tired and ready for bed and bring her back to our house. When Emma and Poppy arrived back, Poppy having had a couple of hours sleep, we had our food and then Em dressed Poppy in her party dress, then herself in her party dress, and Graham gave them a lift to the venue, which was a short drive from our house. About 9.15 we had a call to pick Poppy up, she was getting tired, so Graham went to fetch her and when they got back I got her changed into her pyjamas, gave her a bedtime bottle of milk and she had a quiet play until she was ready to go to sleep. She had had a great time, dancing from the time she arrived at the party until Grandad picked her up!

Woken up rather early on Sunday morning as the dogs must have heard Poppy stirring and Polly went in to see what she was doing, so ofcourse the delighted cry of "Polly" when Poppy saw her in her bedroom! Em took Pops in to bed with her and she did manage to get her to sleep for a while longer, though we were all awake, eating bacon sandwiches by 8.30am! We all had roast chicken for lunch and spent some of the afternoon in the garden as Poppy wanted to play with the "seaside" (sandpit!!)

I was in bed by 8.30pm last night exhausted!

Poppy had a great time at the wedding on the dance floor all night!

CHATTER CHATTER CHATTER!

Chatter, chatter, chatter. Thats Poppy, all day today! She looks at you as if you are meant to have understood exactly what she just said, if you have not understood she gets really frustrated and keeps repeating it, getting louder and louder. I can understand a lot of what she says, she is actually very good with her speech, but at times the odd word or two comes up and I have no idea!

Grandad took her out for a walk in her pushchair this afternoon as the swans on the lake have had babies so he thought Poppy would like to see them. Off they went, with Poppy clutching her bag of bread for the ducks, and they were away for ages. Apparently the swan now has 7 babies, not that Poppy got to see them, the mother was sitting on them to keep them safe!

POOPY

Poppy, or perhaps I should call her poopy, was in her usual cheery mood yesterday, though by the number of times she had to have her nappy changed, her tummy was not too good. The third change meant she also had to have her vest, tights etc., changed, though I won`t go into why, I will leave that to your imagination! Not that any of it really bothered her that much, she did not seem to have tummy ache, nor did she seem poorly, though she is becoming aware of when her nappy needs to be changed, and does not like it, so perhaps she is almost ready to try and use a potty.

Jill popped round and kindly took Poppy for a walk to feed the ducks, off she went sitting in her pushchair clutching a bag of stale bread. We are lucky to have the two lakes within walking distance as Poppy really does love ducks. She knows now that Jill will often take her out, if the weather is fine, and almost as soon as she gets through the door Poppy announces "quack quack?" She gets quite disappointed when it is raining and we have to say it is too nasty to go out, "yack" she will say, looking through the window, "raining."

Over the weekend we managed to pick up a Little Tykes car for her and as the weather was okay for a change, dry and warmish, we were able to go out into the garden. She immediately went over to the car, opened the door and climbed in which surprised me a little as Grandad reckoned it did not have an opening door. I was a bit surprised when he said that but had not checked for myself! The sand and water tray came out and a few sandcastles were made, the dogs were chased around the garden and my little ladybird garden ornament, bought because Poppy loves ladybirds, is now minus one foot. She dropped him on the patio while giving him a cuddle! Never mind, he was not very expensive and we can always pick up another one if the need arises. At the moment he is propped up against the wall! Perhaps I can glue it back on!

When Gray arrived home from work we decided that, as the day was fine, we would take her to the playground before the bigger kids got out of school. She went straight over to the slide and wanted to climb up the rather difficult steps. They were a bit too far apart and the rungs were rounded, making them hard for a little one to climb without the help of a useful grandad to hold on to her. She did manage though, several times, though when she lost concentration, if she was watching another child, she lost her footing so it was a good job Grandad was behind her to grab hold of her when needed. We tried to get her to have a go on the swings and see saw but she kept wanting to go on the slide all the time, she really loved it. Over the weekend she had been to a party and spent most of the time on the garden slide, so Em had mentioned to me how much she enjoyed it. We have now decided to buy a slide for her for her 2nd birthday!

WOW AMAZING.

When Poppy arrived she wanted to do colours, which means she wanted her crayons to colour in her book. The wax crayons I bought came with a plastic display thing to hold the crayons and when I got it out for her she said "wow, amazing".

She very kindly gave me her cold on Tuesday so I have spent the day coughing and spluttering and wiping my own nose and Poppys. I was blowing my nose this morning and she looked at me and said "Bless you Grandma!!" And bless you too Poppy. Sweet.

Jill came round to give me a hand and Poppy was very pleased to see her, she saw her coming up my drive and dived on to the sofa to wave frantically at her through the window. She showed Jill her petshop and played with that for a bit before showing she was sleepy by asking for her dummy and snuggly, she fell asleep on Jills lap and slept for almost 2 hours on the sofa.

Lunch was a bit late as Poppy did not wake up until 1.45pm so it was not long until Grandad arrived home to be bossed around by Poppy. "Come on Grandad" she ordered as soon as he got through the door and proceeded to push him through the gate into the other room! A lovely afternoon playing with Grandad before tea then Mummy arrived a little earlier than usual, walking in while Poppy was eating an ice cream for pud, and getting very messy in the process! She enjoyed it though, thats what matters.

I`m still coughing and spluttering so shall soon be off to bed for an early night.

Pippin.

I have two little planters outside my front door in the shape of boots with ladybirds on them. I have planted busy lizzies in one and nasturiums in the other. One will be in my garden, the other will sit on the grave of our beloved Emily, twin sister of Poppy because Pops loves ladybirds so I think Emily, as an identical twin, would love them too. Poppy noticed them as soon as she arrived with her Mummy this morning and she had to stand and look at them for a few minutes, despite the rain. I am glad she likes them, she was looking at them out of the window later but knew she couldn`t go outside to see them as the rain was really pouring down. When the plants are established we shall take one to the crematorium and then Poppy can help me to look after the other one by helping me to water it.

Poppy has a cold, again. One of the problems of being premature and having no immune system when born. I suspect it will take quite a long time to build it up. I know 7 years after cancer my immune system is still not what it should be and I catch everything that is going. It is a shame because she seems to have had a cold on average every 2 or 3 weeks since being born. She has even been in hospital a couple of times, so a cold for Poppy is quite a worry at times.

When she was eating her lunch today she was watching CBBC and a programme was on about a dog called Pippin. The lady said the dog had to sleep outside in the kennel as it kept making a mess on the floor. I did not realise that Poppy understood the programme quite so well until she burst into tears when Pippin was banished to the kennel and said "poor Pippin" whilst sobbing. Luckily the lady relented and let the dog sleep in the house in her basket. Poppy was upset for quite some time and kept asking about Pippin, I had to reassure her several times that the doggy was in a nice warm bed and was fine. She certainly loves animals. A vet in the making?!