where to start?

Today I’m not quite sure what to tell you about first!

The house nearly being blown up by a 19 month old girl?

The toilet breaking and requiring an emergency plumber?

The house completely upside down with the kitchen being decorated?

Or the fact that with all that – this is the day that Rowan decides to get her first ear infection for nearly 2 months. Naturally.

+++++++++++++++

Deep breath…..

So… Rowan is ill. Vomiting. Complaining of a headache with intermittent temperature and fever. We think ear infection but couldn’t get her into the doctor’s today.

I took her to the walk in medical centre in Lincoln last night and got her checked over. There’s pox at nursery and I wanted to know if it could be that.

The very pleasant on-call doctor thought not.

She has a runny nose, a cough, a head ache, sore throat, vomiting and whiffy wind (to put it politely)

She’s very pale and interesting and looks a little green at the gills. Got home last night to find she had a temp of 39.5c and had refused food and was complaining of a sore neck. So natch I took her to doctor.

Since turns out that Rowan thinks her throat is her neck.

Panic over… we’re just keeping an eye on her.

First thing I noticed when I got home last night (apart from the very hot 3 year old) was the distinct smell of gas.

Yes.

My youngest child tried to kill us all.

Well. I say ‘us all’ Only I wans’t here.

So… that would have been fun.

Thankfully the cold weather is behind us (for this week) and therefore the GAS fire in the front room (YES FOLKS! THE GAS FIRE IN THE FRONT ROOM) wasn’t on … otherwise there is a very great chance there could have been an horrific accident here yesterday.

Long story short…. (well shortened)

(Well bullet pointed really)

Kitchen being decorated (crap everywhere) (Kitchen crap everywhere)

Gate off kitchen doorway

Child investigates kitchen (child always kept out of kitchen with said gate as child won’t stop touching everything she can get her hands on)

Child turns on gas hob

BN in lounge with poorly 3 year old turns into BN trapped under slumbering 3 year old.

Child comes into lounge, shuts door

1 hour later, BN picks up poorly 3 year old to take her to bed

Opens door

Craps himself

Runs to kitchen to turn off gas

Greer gets home

Smells gas

Gets full story

Craps herself

Drinks lots of beer

Gate goes back on kitchen door !!

That brings me to today.

Get a text from BN to say the toilet is broken.

Our one toilet.

Of course it is. Because how else could this week end after all than having to pay for an emergency plumber?

<<<<< If I could do a hundred of these smileys … really big …. then that’s what I would be doing!!

Ear infection…. yes. Again.

This is little Rowan this morning. She’s been having a really rough time with ear infections for the last 2 years but it seems to have suddenly intensified since September.

She got one with the really high temperature at the end of September. The highest temperature we’d ever noticed with one. In fact that was the only time we’d ever really noticed a temperature at all come to think of it..

It was 103.4 for 3 days.

She was vomiting and lost 5lbs of weight during that week. It was a bit scary. It took her about 4 weeks to get over it. It was mid October that we ended up with her in hospital for the afternoon with the murmur etc. and well into November until she started showing a real improvement.

*Actually update on that – apparently murmurs in children can sound worse when they are ill and since then her murmur has returned to normal which is great. It’s still there but it’s quieter and no worry.

Then on the 17th December she was sick. We didn’t piece it together ….. even after 18 months of ear infections – all accompanied by vomiting – until the 3rd day of sickness when she vomited through the night… we suddenly were like

‘ear infection maybe?’

we can be quite slow….

Took her to the GP and she was prescribed Azithromycin 40mg/ml .. 15 ml, one dose of 5ml once a day for three days. This is one I’ve mentioned before. They have to keep it down for 2 hours every dose or it won’t work. It has to have time to be absorbed.

Incidentally – it’s really hard to get hold of this antibiotic in this dosage and in this concentration which means we pretty much always have to order it in – another complication to the whole thing..

We were very mindful of this fact this time around (having learned in September) and she kept it all down. 6 days after it started and she still wasn’t really better. Christmas came and went and finally we came home. We’d had 13 days of vomiting by then only interrupted by apparent ‘road to recovery’ on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

It seemed that some days she was very under the weather and even the thought of food turned her stomach and then other days she would seem fine all day and then suddenly be sick in the afternoon, bringing up everything she’d eaten all day. She went down to 1st 13lb and looked horribly unwell. She was skeletal and basically just looked alarming. BN and I said one night she looked like a malnourished, badly treated child. Pale and tired, underweight, lethargic and ill.

When we got home she had got much worse over the previous 12 hours and so we took her straight back to our doctor. By this point we were thinking it can’t possibly be ear infection because the antibiotics never had any effect and she was still vomiting. No complaints of pain whatsoever.
Mad things started to go through my head. Horrible illnesses… wracking my brains and searching the internet for something that could cause 3 weeks of vomiting in a child with no other symptoms of pain etc.

But our GP looked at her and said she had pink ears again. Enough to make her unwell even though some children can have bright red ears and have no symptoms whatsoever apparently – she is just very sensitive to this problem.

So now it’s February 2nd. This is her 3rd ear infection since Christmas. Back on antibiotics. Sleeping through the pain. She is complaining of pain for the first time ever. Woke up screaming with pain yesterday at 6am and again this morning at 4.30.

I am really thinking of homeopathic remedies now for her … I don’t know anything about it yet but I’m going to start looking into it. I investigated preventative medicine with our GP last time and he said that he’s very happy to refer her but that the government standpoint on spending money standard NHS policy is not to interfere with ears unless hearing is threatened or affected. So she should just carry on getting them until she grows out of it.

I know Rowan would appreciate not having to have these with the frequency they are occurring so I’m going to see if we can try another approach.

We have poo!!!!!

Magic Cream! We love you!

We went shopping today for ‘Magic Cream’ … I have seen it before on the shelf in Boots. Avent actually do a cream … a hypoallergenic moisturiser for dry skin and many other claims… and have called it ‘Magic Cream’.

She was totally up for it   

We bought some and talked about it all afternoon.

One of the consistent claims she has made is that her bottom hurts. I’m almost ashamed to say that I have dismissed it out of hand because I just thought that she was saying whatever she thought it would take to get out of having to poo in the toilet.

But – after tonight I think I do believe her.

She did do a poo on the loo – the magic cream was enough to tempt her. She’s flinched at cold cream on her bum before and says it stings (whatever it is) so I left it floating in the bath for 5 minutes before we tried to apply and then put it on before she sat on the loo.

She was v impressed it was warm and that totally brought her round. 1 point to me!

I could tell she was curious. Last night she hopped off the loo after a few minutes and clearly wasn’t up for it but tonight she stayed there and I offered a towel to wrap around her thinking that perhaps if she had some privacy that might help….?

So she dropped the towel after a coupla minutes and said it was coming.

Lucky me – got full view – her eyes did water quite a lot to be fair and she said it was stinging so I think she may indeed have a sore tushy.

More magic cream afterwards.

Suitably proud of herself but a little reticent – she agreed to tell Daddy what had happened. We went to find him and when she backed out of saying, I brought BN up to date. He offered congratulations and gave her a kiss and Rowan replied…

‘But I’m not impressed though!’

Rowan update..

She does seemed to have turned a corner now we think. She’s generally brighter… complaining of pain in her boob and an inchy (Rowan for itchy) nipple though which is a bit disturbing. Had a good look and think that’s in her head!

Bit more like herself today and although she went a bit green when she’d had a bit to eat she told me in bed this morning that she thought she was ‘all the way better’….

She is still very pale and obviously not right just yet but making an effort.

The next thing on my list is to try and help her get over the poo in the loo phobia she has.

She panicks about going to the loo and insists that it’s going to hurt her bottom. We’ve tried loads of ways, but have settled on leaving her in pull ups to make her own way through to the next stage.

This however, has stopped working. She is saving it to the point of stomach ache and then producing mammoth (obscenely huge and uncomfortable looking) return… so to speak.

Thanks very much to the people who emailed me with suggestions on homeopathic remedy, we have also found out info regarding pulsatilla for recurring ear infection. It seems to match her symptoms and I think we’re going to look at giving that a try..

If anyone knows of ways to help kids get over the worry of pooing… that would be fab!

Work update…. had the back to work meetings… caught up with everyone regarding their plans for 2008 and have moved into my solitary office! Had a talking to from my boss yesterday who insisted I am still too soft.. I have been ejected from the main office into the manager’s den upstairs and I am allowed to come and to monitor and that’s it!

See how I get on with that then!!

First day back at work.

Ugh. So. Today. First day back at work after three weeks off.

I got there and my boss was there unexpectedly. Nice to see her actually. We get on really well and we had both just had really good long holidays over Christmas. We commiserated together. 

It wasn’t too bad today. It’s kind of poo to be back when it’s seemed so natural to be at home. If only I could do my job from home I would be happy!

Although that’s not strictly true. I do love it but perhaps I shouldn’t love it as much as I do If loving something equaled spending time with it… I am totally in love with my job and I hate my children.

Not to mention BN. He’s lucky most days if I remember to kiss him…! Even once!

So.. anyway.. Rowan. She’s been to the doctor today. Our lovely doctor. He really is very sweet. He had a look at her ears and says her left ear drum is slightly pink. It is great having a regular doctor ….. that knows her well….. because whereas a practice doctor that doesn’t see her regularly or a locum or whatever, may decide that’s not enough to make her sick… he knows that a pink ear drum is enough for her to make her react.

He has seen Ella last week who was digging at her ears and very whingy and her ear drums were at red as a pillar box apparently… she was complaining and not her usual self but no vomit whatsoever.

Rowan has slightly pink ear drum on one side and is vomiting a minimum of once a day. He knows her and therefore is prepared to accept that there is a reasonable case for trying antibiotics. When I went to hospital with First Girl and her daughter a couple of months ago, Jaime definitely had a chest infection and was struggling to breathe properly. The walk in medical centre doctor took one look at her and said virus. He didn’t even check her. Didn’t look at her ears, didn’t listen to her chest.

Virus he said. NO antibiotics needed. I challenged him about a proper check up. He finally looked in her ears and agreed they were pink but said that when symptoms presented themselves together e.g. pink ears, crackly chest and listless lethargic baby … it would always be a virus as bacterial infections never produced more than one symptom.

UH? Bollocks alerts!! So if you have a sore throat AND a sore ear you have a virus because… um because you do??

I challenged him again and he stated he was correct. When First Girl took Jaime back to the family doctor 10 days later… a much worse baby was examined and then diagnosed with ear, throat and chest infection, prescribed antibiotics and nearly hospitalised due to breathing problems … it really spelled it out for me how much you benefit from having a doctor that really knows your kids.

SO…. anyway… we come away with yet another script for Azithromycin and a 3 day wait to see if she turns a corner. I have to say it’s really disturbing to watch your child disappearing before your eyes. I was watching her in the bathroom tonight and she is skin and bone. Literally. You can see all her ribs and that bizarre, malnourished look to her body. Like a 3rd world baby body. Bulging out stomach compared with ribs and backbone poking through her skin. It’s upsetting.

I hope this will be an end to this one. She certainly deserves a break.

We talked to him today about preventative measures for her. Grommets etc. He said that this would really only be looked at once she got to school age and hearing ability became an issue.

I think I am really starting to feel that if she has to go through an infection like this every 10 weeks where they can get so bad she can lose a fifth of her body weight and vomit daily for 3 weeks then perhaps we should be looking at other ways of helping her.

So… we are going to investigate some homeopathic remedies for her. If anyone knows of any methods that work for recurring sinus/ ear infections then please let me know…

OK – I’m back.

Hi.

I have been taking a break – as if you hadn’t noticed

I took a break from work and kind of decided to take a break from everything. I wanted to say Happy New Year to Everyone and thank you very much to everyone that sent me Christmas Wishes and New Year Wishes and sorry I wasn’t around to respond.

We had a good Christmas. Rowan had a great time. Loved it and totally went for Santa in a big way this year. We left out a mince pie and milk and an apple for the reindeer. They got stockings and basically too much other stuff!

I loved watching Rowan get so into it and I can’t wait till next year when they are both excited

I will post some pictures. We had  no digital camera this year so BN took loads on our SLR. I’ll get those developed and see if I can get some of them on here. We don’t have a scanner so not sure how I’ll do that..!?

We continue to be concerned about Rowan really and I’m quite down about it at the moment. She is still vomiting. This latest bout started on the 16th December. Since then, she has pretty much vomited daily. She’s down to 2 stone. She is starting to look skeletal. Her eyes are red rimmed. She’s knackered and back to having long naps most days.

She looks drawn and tired. And pale.

I am worried. I am so worried that I could be missing something that needs to be addressed as much as I am convinced she is just suffering from a virus and responds to being ill with bouts of vomiting.

It’s so hard to say.

I was overwhelmed tonight with how tiny she felt in my arms when I carried her up to bed. She now weighs less than her sister who is under 17 months old.

She is reasonably interested in food. She’s eating mash potato most days and is very keen on tinned bolognaise for the last couple of days. She doesn’t really complain of nausea but has said the last few days that she doesn’t want to be sick but she has to be sick when she’s eaten too much. She said she didn’t like to be full.

I asked her if she was sick at nursery and she said no. I asked why and she said because they would be upset. All those things linked together make it sound psychosomatic. Is she causing her own vomiting? Is that even possible?

She doesn’t do anything to make herself vomit. No fingers down her throat, no stressing, no wretching. She just says it’s coming and puts her hand to her mouth. Sometimes it’s time delayed but she’s rarely wrong.

I asked her if she could stop herself being sick and she said no. She said that she didn’t want to do it but it was difficult to stop it. She’s bizarrely intellectual in these conversations. It’s like talking to a child twice her age. She complained today that her back won’t stop swallowing.

I am stumped.

Utterly. Obviously we are taking her back to the doctor next week. The weight loss can’t continue if nothing else. She’ll have to have some kind of supplement I guess.

But I am scouring the internet looking for symptoms that sound even remotely like what she has to see if I can make sense of it in any way.

I am worrying that something could really be wrong with her and we are missing it. Would stomach growths produce symptoms like this? Is there anything that anyone knows of that could produce chronic vomiting? Immediately afterwards she’s back to eating.

Yesterday we took her for lunch and she was enjoying pasta with no problem whatsoever. At the end of the meal she was sick. Everything came up. Immediately after she’d finished she asked for her ice cream and polished it off no problem. No vomiting.

In the middle of this meal she said she was going to be sick and I took her to the toilet and this is where she told me that she had to be sick because she had eaten too much.

Anybody… any ideas???

Happy Birthday Rowan…

Dear Rowan..

Today was your 3rd birthday. I have so looked forward to today and to see you so excited about being a big girl.

We wake up usual time.. which I have to say I’m relieved about. I had some horrible vision of you waking up at 5am or something .. desperate to see your presents and unable to contain the anticipation any longer. But you were really good.

You and Ella shared a room at Granny and Grampty’s house for the first time and you both woke up about 7am. You both played and chattered for a bit and then started to get rowdy about 7.15…

Both Granny and Grampty had to go out this morning so we opened your presents really early and you were reasonably pleased.. as pleased as a 3 year old can be … to get some socks and hair bobbles, bracelets and rings and a new top. I chose a moses basket for you for your dolls…. That didn’t seem to be the favourite of the day although I’m confident that’ll get played with a lot in the coming months. I think if it doesn’t turn on, flash or make noise when you’re 3, it’s pretty much out of the running for masses of attention at first.

You were thrilled to get your Backyardigan toys, thanks Aunty Merry, and they have instantly been promoted to bedtime companions

We took you shopping for the morning and you got to take two rides on a bus which you love! We sang the wheels on the bus at the tops of our voices to your delight and got some ‘appreciateive’ glances from a few of the passengers. Most were completely in love with your happy mood I think though..

We took you to Woolworths and you played with loads of things in there and eventually chose a fairy dress that has little lights in its bodice. You haven’t worn that yet but I’m sure it’ll get tried on tomorrow.

We bought Ella a little Bumble toy from Fifi and she’s been in love with him for the rest of the day.

We pootled around Loughborough for a bit and took you to MacDonalds where you naturally ate practically nothing (your usual) and then got back for a sleep in the afternoon. You have loved seeing your Nana and then started to get excited about your party tea when Granny got home from work. Grampty and I went out to get you some fancy bits for your tea and you very much enjoyed that… although now I cast my mind back I don’t actually think you ate anything savoury at all!!!

You finally got your big presents that you were so patient for a ELC Checkout and hoover. I swear I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so happy!

So. My big girl. Well done for having a lovely day and being absolutely adorable and well behaved for the whole thing. Congratulations on being three. A big girl.

I love you so much and you make me proud every single day with your intelligence and your generosity and your manners and your loving, kind hearted nature. Always ready with a smile and giggle and a cuddle and always so thoughtful of others.

Love you with all my heart

Mummy x

Girly Catch up

It’s been about a week since we talked about the girls. Not much has happened in that week except that it took until Friday night for us to get a full night’s sleep from the night that we moved Ella into Rowan’s bedroom.

First Rowan got her ear and chest infection she spent a week throwing up in the night and coughing until she was sick… took her to the doctors as soon as she was sick the first time. Mainly because she has been prone to ear infections since she was about 10 months old and they are always accompanied with vomiting.

Rowan vomits? We presume ear infection.

And we would be right. So – she was on the azithromycin stuff but vomited up the first two doses within an hour and a half. By Friday she was still bad so we decided that we wouldn’t risk the weekend and having to make a casualty trip and BN took her back. The doctor said that her ear infection had progressed from mild to painful and told us this interesting fact: Azithromycin has to be in your system for 2 hours minimum. This is because it’s absorbed by the small intestine. It takes that amount of time for it to get to the small intestine and therefore being sick before the 2 hours is up means that it won’t get a chance to work.

I think that’s fairly important information.

So, he prescribed a further 3 doses of it (one dose per day) and we changed the time of day we gave it to her and by Saturday afternoon she was markedly better.

SO.

Ella starts showing signs of feeling a little under the weather. By this time we have been up at least once a night for a week. Sorting out vomiting, changing beds, changing pajamas, getting drinks, giving cuddles.. all the while trying desperately not to disturb the baby that you have just moved into the same room.

Ella started to cough and we came to the obvious conclusion that she had caught the chest infection. Not hard to do. They play together all day obviously and cuddle and give each other snot kisses.

Oh yes… let me digress a little… Rowan’s favourite pass time yesterday morning was to ask Ella for a kiss (she has snot trail nose now she’s clearing this infection) and let Ella’s snot get on her face and then theatrically wipe it off with a swish of an arm and a sleeve and pronounce it ‘yukky and disgusting’….

Somehow never so yukky and disgusting that you shouldn’t do it again. Within 5 minutes.

But anyway.

So, she caught the cough and we went through about 4 or 5 nights wishing that she would get over it. She obviously wasn’t well and I did start to get a little concerned when she started being sick because that’s just not her MO as a child.

Ella isn’t sicky. Never has been.. whereas Rowan spewed up at the slightest suggestion of too much food in her mouth, Ella would just open her mouth and gesture for more…

She was kind of coughing but getting stuck at the end of the cough where you would normally breathe in and either cough again or recover.. and she was kind of wheezing and seeming unable to pull a breath in. She was whingy all day and the coughing was resulting in this pukiness.

Eventually after a particularly rough night on Thursday and thinking that really she wasn’t showing any signs of getting better, actually she was appearing to get worse.. we decided that she should go to the doctor.

She got straight in on Friday morning. Again we though it best to get in there and avoid the late night casualty trips… The doc confirmed that she had an ear, throat and chest infection. Apparently her throat was swollen and looked painful. That’ll be why she wouldn’t eat anything for a week then … and that’ll be why she was being sick for three days. Oh yes.. and that’ll be why she was whinging for the whole week unless completely doped up on painkillers.. continuously.

Poor girl. I felt so bad. She’s has three days of antibiotics now and is very much better. We actually got a full nights sleep on Friday night after only 2 doses.. she was sick earlier in the evening but nothing compared to what it has been. Last night was the same… so hopefully tonight we should be getting back to something nearing normal….

Or did I speak too soon…….?

Rowan.

Finally she’s broken the fever and seems to be on the mend. BN took her back to the doctor yesterday morning and he confirmed that the ear infection was a lot worse than it was on Wednesday morning.

I took her to bed with me half way through the night on Thursday. She just still had the temperature of 103. She wasn’t right. Absolutely boiling up and still being sick. I just didn’t feel right not being with her.

She held my hand as she slept and at one point when she woke she said ‘you’re looking after me mummy aren’t you’… she clasped my face and kissed me lightly.

Our doctor is great … he said that the antibiotics have to stay down for a minimum of two hours to have a chance of working. She’d thrown up both doses so far within 90 minutes of taking them and they just weren’t getting the chance to kick in. She’s not on the amoxycillin but a stronger one. Zithromycin? Or something like that. You have one dose a day for 3 days. So she has another course of that and kept the first dose down yesterday. The difference in her is amazing.

Still not really eating but she’s had plain biscuits and cereal. She’s happy in herself and only complaining slightly of pain near her back teeth.

So… I had a lovely lie in this morning to catch up. I sleep so badly when they’re not well. Every noise I hear, I’m instantly awake. Listening intently to see if I’m needed. I worry so much that I’ll be sleeping deeply and won’t hear them that I think this has the extreme effect of depriving me of any sort of normal sleeping pattern.

Wednesday morning I was up at 5.30 for that meeting anyway and the Thursday night, having Rowan with me in bed just meant that I had the unenviable delight of Rowan’s snoring and coughing first hand !!

But hey. It’s all worth it. Glad to see that she’s better and hopefully tonight will be the start of normal sleeping…

oh… did I mention that Ella has picked up the chest infection and is barking like a dog? 

Oh it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong

Rowan is ill.

Another ear infection. This darn child just procures infection as if from nowhere and then spends a week vomiting.

We are just up and down the stairs dealing with vomit and my wardrobe is steadily congregating in the laundry bin with ‘vomit shoulder’

She is very prone to ear infections and unfortunately she just gets sick to her stomach with everything.

It has been an eventful few days. Made all the more interesting by the fact that I haven’t slept properly or deeply in any way shape or form since Rowan became ill a couple of days ago.

Wednesday I had a minor car accident. Kind of shit me up though. I ordered a cab for work as I had a meeting at 6.45am. I didn’t fancy walking cos it’s cold! The cab arrived at twenty past six and I kept it waiting for ten minutes. I was desperately trying to get ready quietly so as not to wake the girls and I just find that makes you all the more slower.

Also – it could just be me but I think I get ready slower, when it’s colder? It’s like the winter sets in, it’s chillier in the morning – it’s unpleasant to be naked and getting out of the warm shower is enough to make you not want to… and for some reason it seems to take me an extra ten minutes to do the exact same things that have taken me ten minutes less all through the summer!? Why is that? It’s cold! Get ready quicker!

Anyway. I digress.

I kept the cab waiting and finally crept out of the door at 6.30am. Got into the taxi and put my hands under my legs to warm up. (We don’t have central heating. I guess that’s a fairly important point when I’m complaining relentlessly about the cold). The taxi was one of those big minibus type things and as we got to the bottom of our street I decided that I felt quite high up and reached round and buckled in. Literally 10 or 15 seconds later we were in a crash. A car smacked into us at about 30, we were doing about 10mph.

I got thrown forward and bashed my knees against the dashboard. I’ve jarred my hip and I have a stiff neck. But that’s it.

It does certainly make you think though. It just shows you how easily your day could take a turn for the worse.

Anyway. I had a doctors appointment for yesterday evening to have my Mirena removed and basically that didn’t happen. When I got there ‘the correct appointment hadn’t been made’ and he couldn’t do it because there was no nurse available etc etc blah blah blah.

Anyway… Dr was clearly an advocate of the Mirena and basically tried to talk me out of any reason I had for having it removed. It’s impossible for it to be causing the spots/weight issue/cyclical period feelings. He was quite disparaging and generally poo pooed my objections pretty much making out that it’s all in my head.

He also dared to suggest that the reason I wasn’t losing any more weight was because I was convincing myself that I was dieting but that really I wasn’t doing what I thought I was doing.

He said ‘ there’s only two ways to lose weight, eat less or exercise more and you may think you’re doing that but if you’re not losing weight then you can’t be doing either’

How very dare you!!

It may have touched a nerve.

It’s quite easy to convince yourself that you’re trying your hardest just because I lost 20lbs 4 months 6 months ago but emabrrassingly he’s totally right.

I have completely gone off the boil with this weight loss and I’ve lost my willpower and my purpose.

I could do with some tips or advice from people. I need my motivation back – not even the wedding dress not fitting has given me the impetus to be motivated …. I need some help…

DOES anyone have any good ideas to get me back on track?

Ahhhh Bless..

Rowan’s first ever ‘concert’ today…

It was Nursery’s ‘Animal Menagerie’ … she was too little for a part but she took part as a lion (she picked the animal she wanted to be) …

A little bit disappointing that we misread the tickets and arrived 5 minutes late and they’d already started… we walked in and Rowan was sat quietly near the side of the stage.. twiddling her thumbs a little and listening to the other children singing..

We stood over at the side and I tried to catch her attention… she was definitely scanning the audience and then she saw us and my heart just melted..

She leapt up and shouted ‘Hello Mummy Hello Daddy!!! Look at me!!! I’m a lion!!’ …. and I just sprung into tears…

… bless my little girl…

I felt just awful that she must have thought we weren’t coming. And I vowed to myself there and then that no matter what happens, one of us will always be there for whatever little performances and special days she is part of.

Rooooaaaarrr!

She was so proud of herself and so pleased to have us there and what a fabulous little lion she was.

Gingerbread madness!

 

Gingerbread madness!, originally uploaded by Little Nut Tree.

We bought a little Gingerbread Man decorating kit from Sainsburys at the weekend and we were just passing the time whilst Rowan finished her tea…

It was a decorating kit for her…

honestly…

Rowan exercises her artistic talent …

Ella waits patiently for her go…

Ella thinks no one is looking …

Ella wonders where her is …

Rowan’s little Gingerbread man Creation…

note: Granny thought it was hilarious when Rowan told the Gingerbread Man what she was gonna bite off first and when she bit off his head she said sorry and told him it was ok *melt*

This week we will mostly be…

Dieting!

I need to lose this last half stone before my weekend out for my birthday .. that’s my goal and I am trying to focus on that!!

Send me all your focusing vibes!!

Nothing to report on the girls this fine day really.. Rowan was funny when I got home and gave me a lovely big cuddle and said that she’d missed me.. bless her..

Ella is being just cuteness itself and always has big smiles and happiness for you when you get home which is heart-melting and scrummy..

I know something Rowan has done actually – she’s developed her own name for Ella.. We never call her anything but Ella or Ella bums but last night and this morning she called Ella, Elli…. she has created her own little pet name for her… how cute!!!

Lastly – I have to ask… what on earth is going on with the storyline in EastEnders?!?! Baby stealing?! I ask you… how ridiculous! Tut

Gastroenteritis :(

Poor little Ellabum has poorly tummy.

Went up to bed last night and opened our bedroom door only to be greeted with the stench of diarrhoea. Enough is enough now I think. She is obviously poorly so BN had instructions to whisk her off to the doctors this morning.

She had a really gurgly tummy apparently and she was sick a little bit last night too so she’s only allowed to eat plain carbs for the next few days.. she’s not totally impressed with that new rule

So… Rowan still behaving herself at tea time so far… we have had three really good nights.. less of the stropping over eating anything in general and BN has been cooking her some fish and he’s tried sausage rolls..

She’s doing well … it’s a relief cos she’s been quite a handful..

We’re thinking we might try a new method of discipline… what do you think of a jar full of her favourite treats that she can see … have one of when she’s very good and if she’s naughty .. she sees one of them dropped in a fake bin? (A fake bin cos clearly I’m not actually going to throw away treats cos that would be stupid…. I’m not stupid…  honestly).

What a whirlwind weekend!

Ok — where to start…?

The weekend started off easy peasey.. I took Friday off work (under strict instructions from my boss which is weird in itself.. she thinks I’m working too hard … what kind of boss is this we ask ourselves?) .. I took Rowan to nursery in the morning and for the first time ever, got to pick her up.

The worst pick up ever as she jumped up to see me and banged her head on the fence….!

It was great to see her playing outside though with all the kids and so weird to see her with friends!!

Um… the Friday we went over to Mum & Dad’s and there ensued a weekend of fun, frivolity, drinking and Spiderman!!

Saturday the girls arrived with Merry and Max and we spent the day doing stuff I can’t even remember now… but I’m sure it was good… great to see all the girls.. I took absolutely no photos as our digital camera is still dead and we can’t afford a new one. How pants is that?!?

But I’m sure PoP has some over there..

Then Saturday night we got to go out!! I felt a bit bad as Dad bought enough food to feed an army and I always feel terrible cos I know he buys it all out of such generosity and wants everyone to have something there that they like and no one will be left out… but it never gets eaten and God forbid you’re the person that eats the thing he bought with himself in mind cos then you’re in all sorts of guilt ridden trouble… that’s a whole other story.

Anyway.. we got to go out. It was great. That’s the only trouble with having children in such quick succession is that it sucks the life out of alone time.

Our alone time is an emaciated being with no mind of its own! It doesn’t stick up for itself anymore and it very often stays in its room for weeks at a time!

This was the first time we’d been out for months and it felt really good. Actually, the last time we went out as a couple was the 3rd of March. It’s got so sad I can actually count the dates.. but then the weird thing is – it feels longer than it actually is..? Weird.

Anyway.. Spiderman 3.. how good?! I loved it. Really funny and well worth the watch I thought. It was funny and good effects and well thought out… good acting.. good sets.. characters developing and all that jazz.. an all round goody.

Better than the second I think.. and I really liked that one too in fact.

Saturday morning I also got a lie in which was excellent and really needed. I caught up a bit and managed to sleep until 10am. I know. Don’t faint.

I vaguely recall the days when I slept in till 11 or 12 every Saturday to sleep off the trials of the busy week at work. Recuperate and recharge ready for a weekend of late nights and evenings out. Loved weekends.

Loved weekends out. Loved weekends in. Just loved weekends.

Now weekends are different. They are about seeing more of the girls and seeing family so that they can see more of the girls as well. Spending time with each other where we can.. and now that both the girls are generally sleeping through the night… they are about babysitters!!

Sunday .. we went to Snibston Park in Leicestershire .. never been there before AND I have to say I absolutely loved it. I really enjoyed more than anything, playing on the adventure playground with Rowan. She absolutely loved it. She ran about like a lunatic, climbed, swung and slid.. BN and I joined in and had a go on this massive climbing frame and went down the big slide with her which she thought was just hysterical.. She was clearly pleased as punch that we’d done it with her and I really felt a boost and a tremendous closeness to her just being silly in the moment… It will be one of my best ever memories with her.

Have a look

She was travel sick as always .. seriously if anyone has any tips on how to stop kids throwing up in the car.. that would be fab

Then Sunday night.. I rather excellently looked after ALL the children while Merry and Max went out for a drink.. We all stayed up watching High School Musical and then I put all four of them to bed which involved making a magic bed for Josie, tucking everybody in twice, counselling one who missed parents and taking one back to a room to sleep on her own.

I was great and rather a proud moment as Josie and I had a little cuddle and discussed magic beds.. and poo!

So today all the girls left and we came home early afternoon to washing, naps and lots more food. I’m ashamed to say I have put on 5lbs in 4 days. Is that even possible…?!?!?

So yet another week will be about shifting the weight that I have put on over a weekend. Rather daft. I have to find my willpower again. I was doing so well but I seem to have lost the will to be good at weekends which is proving to be some what of a problem. I lose weight all week and then put it straight back on Friday to Monday .. then spend another 5 days getting rid of it all.

SO I fear that in this month’s BOTB, it will be yet another week where nothing actually changes although officially there will have been times where I was slimmer!!

Um.. this evening I will mostly be eating chocolate and drinking beer… hmmm and tonight will be the first night that we sleep as two adults alone in our room since 9th August last year.

Yes.. We have claimed back our bedroom!! Ella has moved into Rowan’s room.. so far… she may yet be back… we’ll keep you posted..