A (mostly) lovely Christmas

We had a very pleasant Christmas Day, starting with a light breakfast (we didn't want to spoil our appetites), and then decamped to the lounge to open the mountain of presents waiting for us. As you can see, Tom was (and still is) very pleased with his desk and chair, and immediately set about creating masterpieces from the various drawing-based presents from Grannie and Grandpa. His early works have more than a hint of Jackson Pollock about them, albeit in wax crayon (that the artist tried to eat on a number of occasions). As we expected, Tom was also very impressed by the vast quantities of paper and cardboard floating around the lounge, but did his best to tidy it away. Bless him. In any case, the occasion wore him out, and we had to put him down for his first morning nap for ages: not a bad thing, as he wasn't hanging around the kitchen while Christmas lunch was prepared. We had roast rib of beef (rare), served with roast spuds, various veggies and Yorkshire puddings. The beef was as good as I've had - it just goes to show: you should always get your meat from a good butcher, not your local supermarket. Tom didn't really touch the beef, but wolfed down industrial quantities of veg and a good chunk of Yorkshire pud. Instead of Christmas pud, Mum & Dad had brought a fruit sponge with spiced fruit. We all enjoyed it, including the lad.

We didn't do a great deal after lunch - tried to make Tom a snowman in the back garden, but the low, low temperatures meant that the snow was too powdery, so we tried him again on his sledge - still tears and grumbling, so we brought his walker and his bus out, which seemed to be more acceptable.
Despite not stuffing ourselves at lunchtime, we didn't fancy a big tea, so we just grazed on a cold buffet, which seemed to do the trick. A few hours later, though, everything went badly wrong. Mum & Dad first came down with a stomach bug, then me and finally Nik. We all felt ghastly for pretty much all of Boxing Day, hardly eating anything and staying in bed for extended periods. Fortunately, Tom didn't come down with it and stayed healthy and cheerful all day. I think this helped us all, as it's hard to feel too bad with his smiling face in front of you. We were all in bed pretty early, keen to put a horrible day behind us.

Happily, we all awoke on the 27th feeling much better, albeit rather hungry. Mum & Dad decided to stay an extra day, having written off the day before. We left Nik behind at home and took His Nibs to Attingham Park for some fresh air. We had a third attempt at fun on the sledge, with great success. We towed him round one of the woodland walks, which he loved, giggling and laughing all way (see photo). We would have made it all the way back to the house on the sledge, but a highly excited 5 month old cocker spaniel puppy tried to give him a kiss, which caused total meltdown. I carried him to the café, where we each had a coffee and Tom had an early lunch, which he ate pretty well. We drove home, with Mum trying to keep Tom awake in the back of the car. I'm not sure what was going on, but it produced peals of laughter.

Mum & Dad set off back to London the following morning. I think they had a good time with Tom - he certainly enjoyed having them here and was on cracking form almost all the time - charming and very entertaining. Then, when Nik was doing cakey things in the kitchen, I took Tom for a trip to Asda. He refused point blank to walk there, but walked all the way back (apparently the first time ever). This did take an absurdly long time though - he had to admire himself in every Asda window and then stopped to do his version of Riverdance in every single puddle (at least 100). I reckon the whole trip took a good 30 minutes, but he so enjoyed it.
Following his afternoon nap, we decided to get some "fresh air" and headed out to The Clock Tower for a swift half. We enjoyed our drinks while Tom went up and down a short flight of steps about 50 times - very good practice.

Tom was back in nursery yesterday morning, during which time Nik caked and I translated, then we collected him at 1.00pm and headed straight up the road to Chester for our evening with the Cameron, Lisa & the girls. Tom now knows Maggie and Tamsin quite well, so we didn't get the usual couple of hours of shyness. M & T played so nicely with Tom, especially given that he's a fair bit younger than either of them. He managed to climb two long flights of stairs up to their room, where he had a wonderful time galloping round with them and playing with their (vast number of) toys. All 8 of us sat down for dinner together at about 6.00, whereupon we were delighted to see Tom wolf down a huge dinner of beef & bean chilli, rice, sour cream, nachos and Cameron's home-made bread and butter pudding. We thought he'd burst. In the end, he had quite a late night, and slept right through until morning with only 1 short wake-up. Result.
This morning we all headed out to a very well-stocked farm shop-cum-café, where we all had bacon/sausage sandwiches, and Tom then charged round the shop like a loony and then charged round outside, until he fell over and covered himself in mud.
We set off home around noon, stopping only at Waitrose in Newport for some cordial for Nik. I think I may be been got by a mobile speed camera on the Whitchurch by-pass, so I'll have my eye on the post for the next couple of weeks.
So, Boxing Day apart, we've all had a lovely festive period. And we still have a few celebrations to go, as we're off to Haddenham to exchange pressies and meet our new niece.

Winter Wonderland

So the snow is still here, the coldest spell I can remember, we are definitely going to have a White Christmas as it is forecasted to drop down to -18 tonight! Good icicles don't you think?

We've had a good week, on Monday I took Tom swimming with Rachel and Mae at their club. Didn't go too well, Tom pretty much grizzled through the afternoon - he was wearing his wet suit so was nice and toasty, just not enjoying the water (now we have finished Waterbabies we really should make the effort to take him swimming regularly or all the good work will vanish). The evening saw us at Shifnal Cottage, the new Indian Restaurant set up by Abdul of East End Balti. We turned up at 5.30 with Tom. He was as good as gold, in fact he ate us out of house and home. He loved the Chicken Tikka Masala and gobbled up a whole plate of rice with it. Infact, I had trouble eating my dinner as he was demanding help putting his rice on his spoon! Good to see him with a good appetite.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Tom was in nursery as usual and I prepared for Christmas, did the big shop and tried to get some cooking and cleaning done.

Thursday we met up with Sammie, Jen and Sophie at Jungleland as usual so the kids could run off some energy - Tom was really lovely, quite content to play by himself, and very happy. By the time he woke up Grannie and Grandpa had arrived. Surprisingly he woke up in a good mood, wasn't shy at all and got straight into playing and showing off. In fact he was a joy all day, in such a good mood. Unfortunately he spoilt it in the evening as he refused his dinner which was a shame, so he went to bed hungry. Sammie, surprised us at 5.00, she came round with a sledge for Tom. I had told her that we were unable to find one, somehow she found one, bought it and then delivered it, refusing to take any money for it - how kind.

Friday we took the opportunity to try out the sledge. Ma

tt, Bob and I enjoyed it a lot, but Tom wasn't that keen. We managed to get him on it and he liked sliding down, but very much hated any walking / standing on snow, which meant he had to have lots of hugs and we had to carry him everywhere. Lunchtime found us in 'our club' at The Shropshire. Tom cheered up, had a good lunch and entertained us and others. He seemed more confident outside, so we tried sledging again - he was more receptive, but unfortunately there was a lot of powdered snow, which meant he got sprayed in it, which didn't go down at all well, (not even watching Grandpa fall off the sledge into the snow cheered him up) so we brought him home to bed.

I like the snow (if I have a belly full of food!)

So Tom has had an up and down week. He spent most of it ill, but with nothing obvious. It was really strange, he certainly wasn't himself and refused to eat, unless it was something sweet, when he would eat and eat and eat! What do I do, give him lots of sweet things, or try to starve him into eating something good? He wouldn't even eat anything normal at nursery, so something was definitely up. I ended up calling the Doctor for advice, he said to give him the food he wanted so he had 'fuel' to fight whatever was wrong, and to call back in 2 day's time if he still wasn't eating, so that is what I did.

We had a turning point on Thursday, where suddenly he perked up and wanted to eat me out of house and home. We went to Jungleland as always for Breastfeeding group where he ate some sausages (yes you read right - sausages), a fruit bar, a satsuma, a sandwich and a huge tea cake - definitely on the mend I think, although he was still grizzly and cried at the slightest thing!

Friday we went round to see Sammie, Jen and Sophie and once again Tom ate them out of house and home - this time with chicken nuggets, he ate 7 - yes SEVEN of them along with some toast, but ignored the beans and scrambled eggs. He then demolished a whole bowl of fruit and some chocolate. Sammie now doesn't believe me when I say I have the baby that doesn't eat - she just says that obviously I don't feed him!

We've just come back from lunch at The Malthouse in Ironbridge - Matt Young Translation's Family Christmas Do. Once again Tom ate and ate and ate - demolishing his garlic bread along with some more sausages and eating half my winter berry crumble and custard. He is certainly making up for last week (although I have a feeling that he is now eating meat and not eating vegetables - he has refused every vegetable I've given him this week!) He didn't seem to mind the cold and snow after lunch either, something to do with a nice warm belly full of food. Took us an hour to get home, mainly to do with drivers that shouldn't be attempting to drive in this weather (snow)- why does everyone drive so slowly and then suddenly stop for no reason - no wonder the roads jam, thankfully we have 4 wheel drive so didn't have too much trouble negotiating the roads!

We were going to Haddenham tomorrow to see Amber and exchange Christmas pressies, but don't think we will be going now, likelihood of getting stuck is too high. Not sure what we are going to do with Tom this afternoon either, he doesn't like staying in but in this weather there really is very little that you can do - other than Jungleland or Quackers.

Oh, and the separation anxiety is back - such a pain, Tom is crying quite a bit at the moment. Let's hope it is a short phase, it is hard work - even trying to get the laundry in the washing machine is a bit of a trauma at the moment!

First snog

We've had quite an eventful weekend. Friday saw Grandpa Young arriving for a night on his way back from Crewe. He and Tom became quite good chums once Tom warmed up to him (we have trouble with shyness at the moment). He even managed to play with him in bed on Saturday morning which was good - he wouldn't do that for my parents last time they were here.

Tom took his Grandpa to the park on Saturday morning and even managed to convince him to have a go on the see-saw, very cute!

Bob caught the lunchtime train home (well it was supposed to be lunchtime, but it was very very late), Tom had an early nap so by 1.30 he was up again and we were on our way to The Swan at Forton where we had a private room with the other NCT families and our Christmas do. We arranged it so that we were split into girls and boys and staggered our courses, so boys had starters whilst girls looked after children, then vice versa - worked out quite well, all children had a cry at some stage, but on the whole were well behaved which meant we all had a good time.

Came home, Tom had some toast (he'd been grazing all afternoon), then bath and bed, then we lounged on the sofas before bed. We had the worst night in ages with Tom, he kept waking up crying, not sure how many times, but think it was about 4 times. We are so out of practise, that it took until the last time he woke up to think that maybe he needed some medicine. So we got the Calprofen out, gave it to him, and that was it! Phew, was only 1.30 by then, so we were still able to get enough sleep.

Rachel M called me first thing on Sunday morning to see if we were still going to the Craft fairat the Greenwood Centre, I had told her about it and then forgot (the owner puts my card in her wedding packs and wanted to meet Rachel to talk about a classical music evening) Seemed a good idea so we went along. Was quite quiet as it isn't well known, but it meant that Rachel could meet Polly and chat. We then looked round the fair which was tiny, but Mae and Tom had

fun, they found a ramp which they ran up and down (well Mae ran up it and then Tom followed), they then decided to have a good snog, well Mae decided to snog Tom and Tom didn't refuse - was sooooooo cute!

We've all had stomach upsets this weekend, manifesting themselves in different ways in each of us. I had stomach cramps yesterday, Tom has had funny nappies and became quite distressed before bed today and Matt has had a bad day today! Tom was inconsolable at bed time, think he was thankful to be put to bed. We will see how tonight goes...

Tom's ok and welcome cousin Amber

So, it wasn't an ear infection, he still wasn't 100% on Monday but about 80%, he had a full day at nursery as Matt and I had decided that the house needed a deep clean and the only way to do that was to put Tom in nursery. We both expected nursery to call us asking us to remove our sick child, but they didn't. Instead we both spent 8 hours cleaning, scrubbing and tidying. The house looks much better as a result, but we still didn't get everything done that we wanted to. I guess we will have to keep on at it in the evenings. The big challenge now is to keep the place tidy, are we able to do it? It's tough, we are both very very messy.

Oh, forgot to mention earlier that Matt and I became Uncle and Aunt again on Friday. Amber Rose (see pic) was born quite quickly on Friday morning. She and Clare are doing well, and were back home on Friday afternoon! Sounds like she is a chilled out baby - sleeping well already!

Spent yesterday modelling cats for an order for the weekend and finishing off our Christmas cake, which is royal iced (see pic). OMG, doing proper royal icing (ie not a snow effect) is not easy, my cake looks like a 5 year old did it. I decided yesterday to paint the top to go with the decoration, it all went wrong, too dark and then the bristles from my paint brush decided to fall out. A mini disaster, don't think this one will make my website, but it was good practice, at least I now know to say NO to royal icing.

Cakes, cakes, cakes

I have made a number of cakes since I last wrote on the blog. Here is a selection. The Dog House cake was for a local Dog Creche celebrating its first birthday - this cake made it into the Shropshire Star, our local daily newspaper.

I'm quite pleased with the christening cake, I was asked to copy a photo which is difficult as you can't style the cake how you want, AND you can't easily cover up any mistakes.

The Christmas cake is from my college course - very fiddly and difficult - I find sugar flowers very very difficult to do, but practise makes perfect, so I will keep on trying. The cupcakes are mini Christmas cakes I made to celebrate 10 years of BEST (The Breast Feeding Support Volunteers I do Jungleland with) They won the competition for best table decoration!

I have made some others, but don't have the time or patience to put them up! Hopefully this gives you a good idea of what I've been up to.

Ill again!!!

It feels like an age since I last wrote a blog post - don't really know where to begin, I had all these ideas of reporting developmental progress etc, but it looks like Tom is ill again, so that is what is uppermost in my mind!

He was ok today, spent the morning playing with megablocks, building towers (photo is mostly his work, with a little stabilising intervention by me). Jude came round at 11, Tom was mostly grumpy, but I think that was our fault, he hadn't left the house and he doesn't like staying in. With hindsight, we should have gone to Quackers this morning and told Jude to meet us there. Oh well, hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it.

Once Jude had gone, we went to the Golf Club for lunch where he was as good as gold, ate all his lunch, played nicely, didn't grump and even held his Daddy's hand walking back to the car (he's point blank refused to walk on the snow this week)

Got home, Tom went down for his nap whilst we continued catching up on ourselves on the computer (I was quite busy this week with cakes - which means lots of photos to process and uploading to do to flickr, facebook and my website). He didn't sleep for long, and when I got him up, he had bright red cheeks. He was happy enough though, and had a good long play session with his train set - the best to date, he was concentrating really hard (???!!!!), was pushing the trains up the bridge, down the bridge, then around the track, making his own little noises, putting carriages on etc, basically amusing himself which was lovely to see.

He went from that to grizzle, then all he wanted to do was cuddle up to me (a sure sign he is ill). We got him dinner ready, but he wouldn't eat it and had to resort to Ella puree, he wouldn't even eat his banana or drink his milk.

At 5.30 we gave up, gave him some medicine and put him to bed. I've checked in on him and he is fast asleep, lets hope the sleep sorts it out and it isn't another ear infection.