The End of the Year

Well this is my last opportunity to add one more post to my pitiful number of posts for 2010! I have to say that New Years has crept up on me rather as I've been under the weather a bit over the festive period - the snot monster has paid a prolonged visit but hopefully I'm on the way out of it's clutches now.

So 2010 has been a fabulous year for us. The safe arrival of Number 1 son in April changed our lives for the better as he's an absolute joy to have around and the family has definitely been enhanced by his presence. He is now nearly 9 months old and today crawled properly for the first time. He's a strong little chap and his favourite pastime is standing up holding onto our fingers. Oh and he also got his two front teeth for Christmas!

Number 1 daughter is also a delight - she's growing like a weed and still doing terrifically well at school. Her social life still dominates with swimming, ballet, Greek school and play dates defining our weekends. She'll be 6 in June and we're going to surprise her with tickets to see the Wizard of Oz in London. I'm not big on kiddies parties and given she was obsessed with the search for Dorothy on TV and asks incessently if she can go to the show I thought it was a much better birthday treat. Plus I'm pretty sure the cost of the tickets is less than the cost of a party!

Next year sees me turning 40 (eek!) so we're having a big family party that also includes a Christening in the morning. The date was chosen and booked back in September so imagine my horror when Royalty decided to crash my party weekend LOL. The Royal Wedding is the day before our celebrations and has done us a favour by giving everyone that day off work so it's not all bad (but it was my weekend first!)

2011 is going to be the year of belt tightening in our house for sure. I go back to work in a week (10th Jan) and 80% of my wages will be going on childcare some months (it's a term time arrangement so some months we won't have to pay the full amount) which means there will be very little spare income for us. This is a good thing though as we've become very wasteful over the last few years and I think looking at ways to use what we have, spend less and generally become better at managing our lives can only be a good thing.

Looking back on 2010 I have been pretty good at reducing the junk in the house and not buying more stash but that was definitely just a practice run for 2011. I haven't had many finishes stitching wise (6) but I also haven't had many new starts (5, 4 of which were also finished) so my WIP list is still long but not increased. I've also read 42 books this year which is pretty good (I usually try for one a week). Hopefully next year those numbers will increase a bit as I won't have that 'new baby' issue that curtailed my productivity for a while.

Anyway, I'm going to post my 2011 goals tomorrow and have to sign off now to go play 'Guess Who' with Lia so I'll just finish up by wishing you all a Happy New Year and I hope that 2011 brings you all that you wish for.

Scream House

I know, I know, it's been a while yet again but I haven't been idle. I finally bit the bullet and got on with finishing Just Nan's Scream House (the stitching was finished a looooong time ago). So here it is (apologies for the crap pics, DH's camera is broken and mine isn't that good!

Ho Hum

Time does fly, doesn't it!

I can't believe it's been a month since I blogged but I guess the days march on. We're all fine and pootling along as normal - life has been exteremely uneventful hence the lack of posting.

I've just confirmed with my Manager that I will be returning to work on 10/01/11 which doesn't seem that far away now so I'm trying to make the most of every day I have at home with Connor. He's a total delight and going from strength to strength. He's just past six months old now (see I said time flies!) and has been on solids for a month and a half - he absolutely loves his food! He's able to stay sitting up if you help him and also commando rolls around the floor so no longer stays where he's put.

Lia is also doing well, is back at school and still enjoying it - I have a few concerns regarding her new teacher but have a parent teacher meeting tomorrow so we'll see what that brings.

I have been doing a lot of stitching so I will attempt to take some pictures and start posting about crafty stuff again - I have grand plans regarding what I can get done in the next three months before work starts again!

We're home

We've actually been home for nine days now but last week was a blur of unpacking, washing, ironing, getting ready for school, shoe shopping and school days! I'm back to feeling pretty much like we never had a holiday LOL.

We had a fabulous time away, the weather was amazing (32 - 40 degrees) and we swam in the sea, in a river, in swimming pools, we saw relatives that I'd never met (and some that I had), travelled the whole length of Greece and back, shopped, ate and relaxed.

Here's some pics from the trip:

Me and Connor (yes a rare pic of me!)

DH and Lia

Kavala - our house is one of those on that big hill!

Connor and DH in the sea

Lia

So now we're back home and settled down into a routine. We're on the run up to Christmas now which means it's a countdown till I'm back at work in January! Time has flown by and I know it'll be even quicker towards the end of the year.

Lia is now officially in year 1 at school and yesterday lost her first tooth! She's most excited about not being the smallest in the school and is really happy to be back. Connor is now a blonde! His baby hair is pretty much gone other than a quiff and his new hair is very blonde indeed. He's rolling over properly now and can roll back too. As of last week he's been eating solids and loving it - no building up slowly, he's right in there demanding lots of food.

As for me, I'm just organising a big party for next year. I hit 40 (OMG!!!) in April and I always use a 'zero' birthday as an excuse for a party plus we're having Connor christened on the morning of the party so it'll be a joint birthday / christening. A little unorthodox but hey, that's me LOL. I have ambitious plans for the party so will no doubt spend the next seven months going a bit bonkers getting it all organised and being waaaaay too excited for my own good.

Off on our hols!

We're off in the morning for a three week tour of duty in the mother country. Or visiting DH's relatives in Greece if you prefer.

It's been very busy here with holiday entertainment and getting ready for the trip but we've been having a great time. Connor is growing fast and has his first tooth (he's had it for about three weeks now but I don't think I mentioned it before). Lia is extremely excited about seeing all her Greek relatives so is a little hyperactive and DH is in holiday mode which means he's not doing much, including packing...

I've got about 10 small stitching projects packed to take with me so finger's crossed I get some decent stitching time in.

Summer holidays days 11 to 16

No I didn't get bored detailing the minutae of our holiday life, I took the kids back to my hometown for a few days and, as I stayed with my sister, was away from all forms of modern communication (not only do they not have internet I forgot my mobile phone at home!)

So we had a nice few days down there chilling out and enjoying spending time with family. Now we're home we've spent the day chilling out with friends and making stuff with Hama beads (Lia made three things, her friends made one each and I made six. Really.)

DH is at a beer festival today so he'll be good for nothing tomorrow which is why I invited friends around for a BBQ. Ok, it's really because I'm trying to empty the freezer before we go away in nine days but I'm such an evil wife I'm going to enjoy him suffering a hangover whilst cooking burgers...

In other vaguely interesting news I'm no longer breast feeding. I was going to keep it up (I'd been thinking about stopping before suffering in the heat in Greece) but my body had other ideas and my milk started to dry up. I've no idea why as Connor was feeding the same as usual and I had had plenty of milk but we persevered for a week with him valiantly trying to stimulate the milk but to no avail. I gave him his last feed on Monday evening and since then he's been a bottle only boy.

Summer holidays days 9 and 10

A nice weekend here - yesterday DH and Lia had a day together painting, going to the cinema, etc whilst I looked after Connor. Today we visited friends and had a lovely day catching up with them and Lia got to play with their kids.

Summer holidays Day 8

Well a quiet day here as we stayed home and vegged out in front of the TV - we watched Nanny McPhee, lots and lots of Charlie and Lola and even more CBeebies. We did do some crafting this afternoon when Connor had a sleep but generally it was a vegging day :)

Summer holiday day 7

We went to a local farming museum which was fab and we did a 'make a farm in a box' activity which was fun - lots of colouring in and sticking.

In the afternoon we watched Toy Story as Lia's going to see number 3 on Saturday so we're building up to it LOL. Oh and we raided my bead box to make a necklace for Lia and another for Nayno (Lia's toy cat). Connor chilled out most of the day and was generally his usual happy self even though he does appear to have cut his first tooth!

Summer Holiday day 6

We spent the day at an RHS Garden with friends:

Summer Holiday day 5

Well we went out to the local library today as they had a 'play with Hama beads' session for kids. Lia made a heart and really enjoyed it - so much so that I've ordered a bunch of beads and stuff from Amazon. We've also painted her finger and toe nails and baked buns and iced them.

Connor is sleeping so I've just made lasagne for dinner with the idea that I can just stick it in the oven later and not have to worry about it when I'm feeding him.

I've also done a bit more cleaning up in the kitchen and made four pockets for the bags I'm making. Tonight will be ironing I think - hopefully it'll cool down as it's hot and sticky right now.

Oh and here's a pic of the pair of them...

Summer Holiday day 4

A quiet day at home given we were away for the weekend as chores needed to be done. Washing done, some ironing done, fridge cleaned, hob cleaned. Oh and a supermarket trip. And the guinea pigs cleaned.

Lia was a bit stir crazy by the evening but we did do some aqua beads and some maths plus I helped her finish up something she was making from one of her birthday presents. She gets dedicated Mum time when Connor sleeps so I hope we can do something she wants every day.

Connor, as usual, was a good boy and ate and slept as well as he always does.

Summer holidays Days 2 and 3

Well that was a quick weekend! We went to my hometown yesterday morning and stayed over at my sisters house coming back home this evening.

It was a lovely weekend - lots of friends for Lia to play with and lots of cuddles for Connor. Oh and a lovely BBQ today.

I am now wrestling with some homesickness - I haven't lived at home for 18 years but it is still home and all my family are there. Now my bro and my niece have littluns too it's hard to leave - Lia and her cousin Luisa adore each other and there were lots of tears when they had to say goodbye. We are going back in 10 days though so we can spend a little more time together but it's just not the same as being able to pop over whenever we want (it's a two hr drive).

Oh well, DH isn't averse to moving there so you never know, if the job situation works out we might end up there/

Summer Holidays Day 1

Lia woke at 6.45am, Connor at 8.00am

Lia has dressed as a Princess, drawn a million pictures, made a robot, done ten pages of a maths text book, played with her brother, watched Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang and the Wizard of Oz.

Connor has eaten loads, sucked his thumb a lot, rolled onto his front a million times each time eventually crying till I turn him back, pulled my hair a lot and had a nice long (4 hr) nap.

I've tidied all the DVDs and done some ironing. All in all a nice chilled day!

Blimey time flies!

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post - I guess life just has been moving on.

Connor is now 14 weeks old and sleeping through the night. Well, he has for the last three nights at least so there's time for that to change. He goes down at 7pm, has his 10pm feed and then he's been sleeping through till at least 7am - this morning it was 8.30am! He's also having a good long 2 -3 hr nap around lunchtime so I'm getting some me time back!

He's growing well - following the 50th centile pretty much which is good. He can roll over onto his left side and back as of five days ago and is almost exclusively sucking his left thumb. Going by my Mum's theory that means he'll be left handed as I am (my bro is right handed and the pair of us were opposites with thumb sucking and side favouring from this early too). Still, it's a long while yet so we'll see. I have to admit I'd like it if he is left handed - I've always been the only one in the family so it'd be nice to share that with him. And if he's not then hey, I'm still unique LOL.

As for Lia well her first year at school finishes this coming Thursday. Talk about time zooming along, that's her reception year done and come September she'll be in year 1 and officially a school girl. It's been a busy year somewhat dictated by my pregnancy and Connor's arrival but she's been fantastic and has had a great end of year report.

Today she has her first ballet exam. She's doing a little dance to the song Thumbelina and is very excited about it. She's unlikely to be a professional ballet dancer (she's over the 90th centile for height and weight!) but she absolutely loves dancing so I don't see her stopping any time soon. We're also pushing her to learn to swim - she's pretty confident in the water but just not swimming yet - there was just never enough time for proper lessons when I was working full time but I'm going to book her on some for September.

Talking of September I'm sure it's going to come around really quickly. There's three weeks of school holidays to get through and then we're off to Greece for three weeks, getting back two days before school starts again. I'm pretty much sorted with uniform and the like but we will be going shoe shopping the day before school unless I can find something while we're in Greece.

11 Weeks

So here we are at 11 weeks!

Connor is doing really well - smiling lots and lots and we had our first laugh on Sunday (just for Daddy on Father's Day). He sleeps around 8pm now which is good and is still having a 10pm feed then waking at 4am and then again around 7.30am. A pretty good routine I'd say.

The good news is that he doesn't seem to be affected by the heat at all - he must have more Greek blood than English as I'm wilting rather. We've booked to go to Greece for three weeks in August so this is cold compared to how it will be there - the only good news with that is that they have a lot more aircon that we do here.

Development wise Connor's mastered two thirds of the male life skills - sleeping, burping, farting and lying around flapping his willy in the wind. All he needs to do now is find his bits for a good scratch and wrestle the remote control from his father and he's done...

He's also got pretending to be a super hero down pat too...

As for his sister, she's doing okay too - her reading is coming on so well as is her basic maths. We've introduced a reward system for her to encourage her to keep her room tidy - every night it's clean before she gets in bed she gets 10p and if she does that all week plus being generally a good girl then she'll earn £1 pocket money a week so she can save up and buy something.

The idea is that 1) we don't have battles re room cleaning any more, 2) she learns how to add up money and 3) she learns she has to earn money to buy things she wants. This all starts properly come Monday as I'm going to blitz her bedroom this weekend so we have a blank canvas starting point.

I think that's about all the news from here - DH and I are pootling along adjusting to less sleep and a new routine. I'm trying to work out how I can fit in some exercise during the week (other than walking lots and pushing the pram). The problem is that DH isn't home at regular times - it can be anything between 6.20pm and 10.00pm - so I can't guarantee getting out on the same night every week which limits options a bit. I'm hoping to get started with swimming though as I can do that two or three times a week whenever it works for us.

Stitching wise I'm working away on my Big Round Zipper - you never know I might even manage a progress picture some time soon

Road Trip!

Connor and I are off on a road trip today. It's my annual weekend away with a group of stitchy friends and this year Connor will be joining us as I obviously cannot leave him home for four days!

We're just waiting for a friend to arrive and then we'll be off - it's a three hour drive so it'll be his longest trip so far in the car - fingers crossed he'll sleep all the way.

He'll be a very spoiled boy by the time he gets back though - all those mad women who are lining up to give him cuddles - several of them have also offered to help out with night feeds (he has bottles at night) so I might even end up with more sleep this weekend than I've been used to recently!

We're all doing okay - Connor is now nine weeks old (how time does fly) and smiling away all the time. His sleeping patterns haven't altered much but occasionally he'll sleep for two - four hours in an afternoon so I do get a bit of a treat sometimes. Lia is in her last half term of her first year at school - that time really has flown - and still enjoying it and doing well.

All in all life is pootling along nicely here.

Happy Birthday Lia!

Unbelievably my little girl is five years old today!!!

In the absence of anything interesting to write

Here's some photos!

Lia dressed up for Pirate day at school:

Connor and Daddy bonding!

Connor practising to be a Rock God

Six weeks

So here we are at six weeks already! I've been signed off officially by my Consultant so that's great news.

Connor is growing well and he now sleeps in his cot all night - he's such a noisy sleeper that we get a much better nights sleep with him just that bit further away! He has his 10pm feed from Daddy and generally wakes me between 3 and 4 am so I'm hoping it won't be too long before he's sleeping through - he just needs to get a bit bigger so he can have a bit more milk in his tummy.

He's also happier spending time in his swinging chair - not long though, five or ten mins at a time, but it makes all the difference to be able to put him down and know he won't squawk straight away. In the last couple of days he's found his fist to suck too.

Lia's still loving him, she's being great and helpful and doing well at school so I really can't ask for anything more.

We've also booked our summer holiday to Greece. Almost three weeks! We fly to Athens and stay in a hotel for three nights then fly to Kavala where we have a house to stay for two weeks then it's back to Athens for three more nights and home in time for Lia to go back to school. Before we've always staying at my inlaws but there's just not enough room for us any more hence the hotel. DH is a feeling a bit weird about the hotel thing - it'll be the first time he's been home and not stayed at home - but a friend of ours works in a hotel chain and has got us a great deal on a fantastic hotel so hopefully that'll make up for it.

While we're there FIL will be 70 and DH will have his name day so there'll be lots of celebrations. Also SIL has just had a baby girl so there'll be plenty of baby showing off. That is absolutely the last baby of our generation in both families barring accidents! We've got a ratio of four girls to three boys so it's pretty even and the age range is 5 days to 5 years so they're all pretty close.

I'm really looking forward to this holiday - we've pushed the boat out a bit spending wise but it's likely to be the last time we manage such a great holiday for a LONG time as once I'm back to work and Connor is in nursery there won't be much spare cash or spare holiday time...