1st Christmas

Mikey seems rather bemused by the whole concept of Christmas! Thankfully he is now fully recovered from his pre Christmas illness (as he kicked over his medication on Christmas Eve!!) and had been observing the whole thing quite carefully! The present thing has baffled him, but his cousin helped out on the opening side of things... he seems relatively impressed by the small toyshop we now have in our living room especially as most of them make a copious amount of noise! At least they have off switches or I'd be removing batteries very quickly!

At least the snow seems to have stuck on the other side of the pond over Christmas...seeing as Mikey had to get to his adoring fans it was a huge relief as Andy isn't happy driving in ice etc and got a little stressed on Christmas Day as the road my sister lives on was still more like a skating rink than tarmac! We also headed over the Canterbury to see Andy's Dad on Monday.... more new people for Mikey to meet and he handled that with ease! He can be very sociable when he needs to and extremely charming (well he did get to sit on the lap of a glamorous blonde!!)

We have also moved onto cups for juice... a big step forward that he handled with ease! Although Pear juice can have quite an effect on nappies... I think that is enough detail though! He has also worked out that sticking hands in food is fun and you can clean your mouth by just wiping it with your sleeve! I guess mud pies will follow in the warmer weather!!!

Being British...

Right now I think the whole country is concentrating very hard on being very british and worrying about the weather!! After all, how british can we get! At the moment we appear to be having another cold snap along with snow... I am now officially old as I can say with feeling that I hate the stuff. We simply can't cope with it and everything comes to a grinding halt plus I would love to actually see news on a news report rather than just a weather update!

I called this morning to chase up a prescription I requested last Thursday but haven't seen yet... the pharmacy checked their records, it has been passed to my GP (who are in the same building) so they nipped over to check what has happened to it only to be told it has never been requested! They showed their records showing it has so it has now been re-requested and the earliest it can be done is Monday, thankfully I won't run out by then (just) but I had allowed plenty of time when I requested it last week. In fact while I was waiting with Mikey last week they were searching for another one which they had amanaged to lose. They seem to be making a habit of this now! But getting an appointment with a Dr is hard enough when you are ill and no way am I going to try to do that just to get a repeat prescription done... Maybe if they had a decent receptionist again they wouldn't lose as many... The one they have is a real 'old fashioned' one who scares the life out of me when I phone up and doesn't talk to you but at you, they used to have a really nice one but she moved to another surgery just before Mikey was born.

My Uncle and cousin are supposed to be coming down from Yorkshire tomorrow (just for the day I think!) mainly to meet Mikey as they haven't met him in the flesh yet! And the rate he's growing they have got a little worried he's going to be walking and talking soon!  He has spent quite a while talking to his dummy for some reason this morning - I have no idea if it made much sense but he seemed happy! We're still waiting for the first tooth to make it's appearance, if the drool is anything to go by it should be here at any time! He has chewed through one dummy so far and to be honest Mummy is a coward and doesn't really want to keep sticking her fingers in his mouth as he can exert quite a bit of gum pressure!!! The photo is Mikey and the Bear he was given by Santa, to be honest we weren't to sure what to make of Santa and kept a tight hold of Mummy but we've done it now and I'm sure we'll be fine next year!

Next Stage

We've moved Mikey out of our room and into his own room now and he's now in his cot! To be honest he had out grown his moses basket... when he stretched he filled it completely so it really was time to move him! The only thing is he looks so tiny in his cot... I could fill it with soft toys to keep him company but knowing him they'd all end up on his face! So Mum would spend all night checking he was still breathing and not being smothered by a bear...

The first night was a little unsettled but we've soon learnt that he is like Daddy and needs noise (a radio) and a little light and then we get a nice quiet night! (well so far we have at least!) We haven't yet rolled over or anything exciting like that but we are very good at doing leg slams - and now we have the 'It's a Small World' Mobile up and playing that triggers even more! I think that will be a ride to avoid if we ever visit WDW with him!! I'm not sure how the boat would react to a Mikey leg slam!

We're slowly building up to Christmas, thankfully the snow has melted. I now know that I am getting old, it was pretty for the first day then I was totally fed up with the stuff and just wanted it to go. We showed it to Mikey through the window - after all he isn't really big enough to go and play in it yet, and his reaction was one of being completely unimpressed! Maybe next time he will be in more of a mood to find out how to play with the stuff!!!! But the next 'big' thing I think will be the Christmas tree when we get round to putting it up! I have a feeling the lights will be a big hit with him as we have little twinkly white ones which have a changeable 'pattern' so I can play 'confuse the baby' to my hearts content!! Only joking, I'll have to hide the controller incase he works out how to change it himself!

Coughing

Mikey now has a new trick... He has mastered the art of the most pathetic cough you have ever heard and he started this cough just after 6 this morning and kept it going until 7ish when we stuck a bottle in his mouth which did at least stop the coughing for a while!!

Andy has also broken his car again! He decided on Wednesday that I was in no way in a fit state to drive myself and Mikey to Nanny and Gandad's so he would drop us of on his way to work, that bit worked fine but the car decided to break down as he tried to park it at the office! He got it towed home and found my spare keys and drove my car back to collect us (my keys were safe in my hand bag rather than leave them in the house for any burglar to find!) So We then had to get the car seat into the back of my car and me folded into the moved forward passenger seat... I so need a larger car but no chance of one of those at any time in the foreseeable future. But when I picked my car last year there was no inkling of a Mikey on the horizon so that possibility wasn't even considered!

Tonight is Andy's infamous Murder Mystery Party... It has already been hit by the weather with 1 charachter pulling out as her babysitter has backed out due to the possibility of snow or something (I admit I wasn't really listening to him that hard!!) I think I'm looking forward to it - so long as I'm not the murderer and I manage to stay warm enough...I may have to add a jumper to my outfit somehow! Shame I don't have one in the right colour though! If anyone has a purple jumper I can borrow please let me know asap!

THe last 12 months...

I've just been reading my entry for Remembrance Day last year.... it was actually the 12th of November and I was moaning that I wanted a baby an there was no sign or chance I was going to get or have one! How little did I know! That was a Thursday and I did a test on the Saturday and found out I was expecting the little bundle we currently have bouncing in a chair right here now! How things change when you don't expect them to!! The last year has not been easy but I wouldn't change it and I would not want to change Mikey at all, I love him to bits and at the moment he and Daddy are playing with a teddy dressed as a devil (I wouldn't ask!!) as he was such a good boy during the 2 minutes silence  - just 1 tiny quizzical noise just before it ended, really not bad for a 21 week old baby!!

Yesterday was my first full day away without Mikey... It was tough. I only phoned twice, which I was quite proud of, Andy sounded fairly calm but kept telling me he was crying and that didn't help! Luckily at the first call I made was from Sutton Valence and couldn't drop everything and rush back! It probably did Mikey good to have a break from me too if I'm honest!

Something must have changed as he didn't wake up until 8.20 this morning so by the time his bottle was ready didn't have breakfast until nearly 9.00!!  But he seems very happy so I'm not going to worry! And he's still bouncing as he watches the march past at the Cenotaph...his timing is pretty good to be honest! But I don't really want to encourage him to join the armed forces if I'm honest... after all I'm afraid he will always be my baby however big he gets....

Headache cure

I've found a wonderful headache cure...unfortunately I have a feeling the NHS won't agree to fund it for me as it is basically me spending 3 hours at the hairdressers being pampered... which is what I've done this afternoon! The only other possible other down side is I would eventually run out of hair - I know mine grows fast but it doesn't grow that fast! Today was a temporary colour (which only lasts a couple of shampoos and a cut & blow dry) But I spent 3 hours there and I did miss Mikey but I also had 3 hours of just being me! Something I haven't done since June really and if I'm honest something I needed to do for my sanity.

The solid food thing had a bit of a break yesterday, I decided I couldn't face another highchair battle and the seat we had been using for feeding was in the back of Daddys car for some reason so Mummy took the easy option and we stuck to bottles... the nice blonde nurse in creche fed Mikey much earlier than I was expecting so we had an extra bottle to fit in but I don't think he was too bothered! The only problem was the odd bang from fireworks, he wasn't upset he just seemed to be a little annoyed every so often. More I think as he didn't know what it was all about, rather than being scared or worried! I think we'll wait until next year before we take him to an organised event  and he really isn't big enough for sparklers yet... But Mummy may have to have 1 or 2 after he has gone to bed!!

5th Month

We've now had Mikey for nearly 5 months...to be exact he's 19 weeks old! But if I'm honest I find it hard to remember life without him now. At the moment he is sat on my lap screaming! It is very difficult to ignore him at times like this!

One bottle demolished and a happy baby is now bouncing in his chair with Freddie the Firefly (Lamaze toys are wonderful) who currently goes everywhere with Mikey and has bells and wonderful crinkle material wings and lots of 'bits' that are perfectly designed for small hands and fingers to grab. I have a feeling a couple more Lamaze toys may be delivered by Father Christmas this year as Mikey would most certainly welcome them! The advantage of Lamaze is although the toys make noise it isn't horrifically loud! Even when Mikey really lets rip it is still bearable!

We have now been having one solid meal per day for a week! I'm learning fast that baby food is not clothing friendly in colour! Especially those that contain carrot... I'm not sure the bib from Lunchtime will EVER the same! I will admit that Mummy has tried a few of the foods he's had... the apple cookie crumble (which Mikey didn't like) was delicious! I'm not so sure about todays but he loved it!