Potty training.

Bless her, Poppy does not like sitting on the potty, or on the toilet!! Just as soon as Christmas finished Emma and Lee decided that the time for potty training had arrived. Not easy to potty train a child who does not like sitting on the potty though so they are trying a rewards programme everytime she sits on it. So far they have had a wee on the sofa, a wee on Daddy and a poo on the rug! They have also had a wee in the potty and a poo, so hopefully they are starting to get somewhere! Perserverance is the order of the day I think, though you do tend to get fed up of hearing yourself say "do you need a wee wee Poppy?" "do you need the potty Poppy?" !!! They even bought her a padded toilet seat, and her potty is the form of a little chair built like a teddy bear so every avenue is covered!
Nappies are so expensive it would be nice not to have to keep on buying them, not like in my day when I used towelling nappies which had to be washed and drying them on a wet day was a nightmare! Disposable nappies were available, though in their infancy 30 years ago, so they were not the best. They did tend to leak a lot so you ended up with clothes wetter than the nappy and I used them only for holidays when trying to wash and dry nappies would have been difficult. Problem was that because they leaked you had to be sure and change them more frequently so as to avoid that problem. Nowadays the disposable nappies are much better than they were.

FATHER CHRISTMAS CAME!

Well he came! Poppy never even noticed when she got up on Christmas morning that there were some presents waiting for her in her bedroom, her Mommy had to tell her they were there!!
The first thing she opened apparently was a new My Little Pony, she then wanted to play with that and not open anything else! That made me smile when Emma told me, goes back to the old saying that they want to play with the box it came in, not the toy itself! She must have been rather overwhelmed, she was a very lucky little girl on Christmas day, infact she had so many presents that some were left over to open on Boxing Day and they finally finished opening them all after tea!
We all had a lovely day together on Christmas Day, Emma very kindly invited us round for our Christmas dinner and worked extremely hard preparing and cooking it all, I don`t think she even sat down! There were seven of us for dinner as Julie and Dave (Lees Mom and step Dad, also known by Poppy as Nanny Seaside) were up from the South coast for the festivities and staying at Emma and Lees house.
Emma, Lee, Poppy, Rachel and Steven arrived at our house late morning as per tradition, to open our presents together so it was all rather chaotic, especially if you add into the mix 4 dogs!! Lots of people, four dogs, piles of wrapping paper and lots of new goodies spread over the lounge meant lots of mess everywhere, though nice mess! Even the dogs got a present each though they did try to swap each others when they thought nobody was looking!
Poppy was resplendent in a beautiful red party dress with a silky flower on the waist band and that tied at the back in a big bow. A small black sparkly bolero cardigan adorned her outfit along with patterned tights and little shiny black party shoes. She looked a picture. Emma did not want to go to the pub this year as we normally do, it is always so crowded and ofcourse little ones just want to play with their new toys on Christmas day so the others headed off to the pub for a quick drink and to meet family and friends while Emma and I headed off to her house to make a start on dinner, but not before making a quick detour to see Jill who is such a great help to me with Poppy throughout the year, and give her a present of a tin of home made shortbread, made by Emma and Poppy as a Christmas gift.
While I played with Poppy and admired her new dolls house, pony castle and other gifts, Emma got started on the roast potatoes wearing her new apron, which we bought for her as a little extra something, to say thanks for feeding us, which sports a picture of poppies (ofcourse!)
Dinner was beautifully cooked and very tasty, and I think it was possibly one of the only times Emma actually sat down that day. Poppy really liked the Christmas crackers, ate a bit of her dinner and was very excited when her little cousins Ruby and Florence arrived with Uncle Gareth. Aunty Bev was working on Christmas afternoon, one of our angels, a nurse, so rather than being at home on their own they all arrived to join in the festive fun.
Rachel and Steven arrived from having dinner with Rachels Dad in the evening by which time Julie and Dave had headed off to visit family, Gareth and the girls had gone home to await Beverleys arrival home and so it was just the seven of us.  Poppy was very tired but even so she did not want to have her pyjamas on and for the day to finish even though she was dropping on her feet! She finally went off to sleep and we all had a lovely evening together before heading off home to bed ourselves, exhausted.
The amount of toys around the place at Emma and Lees house shows that, yes, Father Christmas came!!

Hope she is well for Christmas.

Poppy has yet another cold, she had to go home early from nursery yesterday as she was not too well, a bit chesty and a runny nose. Leaping up and down on the trampoline did not help I suspect, she gets out of breath it seems a lot quicker than other kids and you have to be careful with her, making sure she calms down and has a rest. She had a sleep and apparently was a bit better for it, and when Emma brought her round to visit us when she picked up Lily the dog she was more her old self. Such a shame she was wearing her new party dress for the nursery party, which incidentally she looked very cute in, but missed half of the party being poorly. Hopefully she will make an improvement for Christmas.
As soon as she walked in to our house last night she lost no time getting her Mommy to fetch the bricks out and doing some building together. She also wanted a story and played for a short time with the dolls house but was clearly tired so Emma soon got her coat back on and took her home to get her into her pyjamas, have tea and off to bed for an early night. Waking at 4am is not the best idea, which is what Poppy did the previous night, and the effects the next day after not a lot of sleep were obvious with Poppy yawning and rubbing her face with her snuggly. At least they don`t have to rise early to go to work for the next couple of weeks so everybody can get a rest and enjoy the festive period.
A very happy Christmas everyone, from Poppy`s doting Grandma! xxx

Me, I sank gratefully into a chair!

Poppy arrived yesterday adorned in reindeers, she had her hair tied up in two reindeer hair bobbles and was wearing a beautiful thick winter cardigan with reindeers on it, so not only Christmassy but warm!
She asked for her ponies as soon as she finished breakfast but unfortunately she had left Rainbow Dash and Princess Celestia at home so had to make do with the ones we have here.  We found one on sale for a pound in the charity shop on Tuesday, still boxed and obviously never played with and she was very pleased with it, she also has a large purple one from Asda and another couple we also found in the charity shop, though we could only find one of them. Where the green one has gone is anybodys guess! Poppy has got such an imagination so soon the ponies were dancing in the disco (she brought a torch toy with her that has different coloured lights twinkling) and we were singing Rudolph the rednose reindeer for them to dance to! (Not normally a tune you would dance to but its Christmas!) They also kept falling off the mountain (my footstool) and having to be taken to hospital in the bus.
She was tired by 10am so sat on my lap for a while with her dummy and snuggly watching babytv before deciding to go upstairs and have a sleep in the cot. She is in a bed at home but we have no single bed at the moment so she still uses the cot here, she doesn`t seem to mind and lies down to sleep quite happily. She was soon asleep and did not wake until after 1.30!! Emma did say she would be tired after having a disturbed night.
After lunch we went to the library, Poppy went to the childrens section with Grandad to look at the books and have a go on the wooden train while I attempted to choose some books for myself, with Poppy calling out "Grandma I`m playing on the train", "Grandma, I`m colouring", "Grandma what you doing over there?"  I doubt I have chosen my books quicker!!  I went over to help her choose some books for herself but each one I offered to her she said "no"  In the end it was easier to choose a few I knew she would like as she was looking at one from the book shelves suitable for a child much older, rather than look at the books in the train carraiges! I found one book called `Princess Poppy and the baby twins`, when I showed it to her she said "Thats me", and realised it was her name written on the book which she was excited about.
We had a bit of a problem at the self service booth to check books out as it did not want to let Poppy have hers because she still had 3 overdue at home, so we had to ask the library assistant to help. Hopefully Emma and Lee will be able to locate the overdue books now I have given them the titles!!
We had a text from Lee to say he was home about 4.45 so we could take Poppy and Lily back so once she had finished her tea Grandad strapped her into her car seat with difficulty (I think we need to let the straps out a bit now she is wearing a thick winter coat) and he took them home.
Me, I sank gratefully into a chair!!

Poppy - "Wow, its magic."

Poppy may only be 2 years, 4 months and a bit but she is beginning to understand Christmas. She knows Father Christmas, realises he will bring her some presents, and says she likes reindeers and toys! We were watching Santa Claus the movie yesterday and when the reindeers started to fly after eating the sparkly magic food she pronounced wide eyed "Wow, its magic!" Her face on christmas morning, when she sees all the wrapped presents waiting for her will be a picture I`m sure, certainly one to catch on camera for posterity.

Poppy puts the christmas tree up.

Been a busy weekend. Emma asked if we could have Poppy for the afternoon on Saturday and overnight as they had arranged to visit the German market in Birmingham and then planned a night out. Gray went into work for an hour and a quarter (karate in the community centre on a Saturday morning) and when he got home we popped to the shops for a few bits and pieces that we needed. We had only been home about five minutes when Emma arrived to drop Poppy off almost an hour early as everyone had decided to set off earlier for Birmingham. Good job we got home when we did or she would have found an empty house! We had lunch and then Poppy wanted to play, built some towers with her bricks, made some pictures with her new button board, drew some pictures on her blackboard, played with the dolls house, did some puzzles, you name it, we did it!  She was tired but denied that she was and kept going, occasionally reaching for dummy and snuggly for a cuddle on my lap before sliding down and getting something else out! Grandad took the dogs for a walk but it was getting dark outside and really cold so she was not very pleased that he went without her as she really wanted to go along, she seems to be starting with yet another cold, a permanent hazard during the winter, and it was not a good idea to take her out into the cold, much better that she stayed in the house and kept warm. She ate a good tea and then played for a little while longer, though she was shattered and kept telling me she was tired so I got her ready for bed in her new Peppa Pig sleep suit. We kept asking her if she wanted to go to bed but she kept shaking her head and saying no, though it was obvious she was half asleep so around 8pm grandad took her upstairs and within about five minutes she fell asleep. She was a bit restless though as she kept coughing but she settled eventually. She woke a couple of times when she lost her dummy, and was a bit disturbed by what seemed to be a bad dream but she slept through until just before 7am when she suddenly woke us by calling Grandma in a bit of a panicky voice, I think it was a bit too dark and she was a little unsure of where she was. Grandad got up before I could and brought her into our bedroom where she lay between us for a while asking "whats that noise?" (Barney wagging his tail against the wall) and "wheres my Lily", (she was lying on the end of the bed.) After asking what the noise was several times, and asking where Lily was quite a few times too, then a spirited rendition of Jingle bells courtesy of Poppy, we realised there was no way she was going back to sleep so Grandad decided he would get up with her and take her down for breakfast, very kindly letting me have a lie in! I even got a bacon butty and cup of tea in bed which was nice. When I got downstairs Grandad had got Poppy dressed, even changed her nappy (which he managed to get on the right way round this time) and they had half the toys out all over the place! Emma and Lee arrived to fetch her about 10am and they were so pleased to see her, as she was to see her Mummy and Daddy.  They stopped for a cuppa and a chat for a while then headed off to get Pops christmas present, hoping she would have a sleep in the car because by this time she was tired. I have heard they put the christmas tree up this afternoon and Poppy was so excited so we are going to wait until Poppy is here to put ours up with her. :-)