Very Busy Weekend

This weekend we headed back down to Telford for the first time since we moved.  It was the NCT Christmas Party on Sunday, after 2 offers of a bed for the night, we decided to make a weekend of it and go down on Saturday so we could see as many people as possible.

First stop was to see Rose, Martin and Abi in Stafford.  Usually when we go to see Abi, both she and Tom have an attack of shyness, taking quite a while to get over it.  Not today, Tom was at home almost immediately - he and Abi were running all over the place and having fun.  Fantastic, because that gave me a chance to cuddle baby Oliver, who was on good form and happy to be with me and jiggled etc.  He was full of smiles and get this - started rolling that day (he's only 4 months old!)  We passed a lovely 2 hours and were sad to go - but we had a schedule and so we said our goodbyes.

Iron Man

Next stop was Telford, where I dropped Matt off at Denzil's (down a seriously bumpy track - Matt wasn't impressed as we had just washed the car and it got really dirty again)  Then I headed to Lawley and popped in to see Jake and baby Thomas.  Tom and Jake played together very nicely which was fab, but baby Thomas wasn't at all happy and would not be cuddled by me, it was Mum or screaming so Mum took over.  Oh well, we managed a good chat and as I said the boys played nicely together.

Last stop of the day was with Sammie, Sophie and Jen.  They were waiting for us and had lasagne and garlic bread waiting which was good.  After a 'talking to' Tom managed an OK portion, but there was loads of distraction.  Sammie has a dog, which has always been a problem in the past, but today, he went up and stroked her - a real break through (although 15 minutes later he was crying because Misty looked at him!)  Sarah, Ruby and Jacob came round to say hi as well, so it was quite high energy.  It was late by the time the children went to bed.  Jen and Sophie went to sleep really quickly, but Tom didn't.  I think he had too much excitement.  I went up at 8.30 and he was still wide awake.  It didn't matter too much as he was lying in bed not making any noise, I think he was too hyped up by the events of the day to relax.  When I checked on him at 9.30 he was asleep - phew!

Sammie and I had a relaxed evening chatting and sprawled out on the sofa, putting the world to rights.  Me on Port and Sammie on Baileys, didn't get to bed until after 11pm.  Does that make us lightweights or hard core (not sure anymore - what's the benchmark for 39 year olds?)

Didn't have a very good sleep - not Tom's fault, not the Port's fault, just me.  I always find it hard to sleep in a strange place with Tom in the room - I wake up every time he moves, although he is just moving in his sleep - really need to get over it.  Oh well, we got up, had breakfast.  Tom then played on the Wii whilst I packed the car.  He has never played on the Wii before, he picked it up really quickly and was a complete demon on it.  He was a swordfighter and didn't take any prisoners.  Sammie and I were both impressed and a little shocked at his concentration and accuracy at winning against his competitors.

Before we knew it we were off.  We collected Matt and then headed to see Suzanna and Nate and Brandon.  Helen, Jake and Thomas turned up too (Thomas was in a better mood and allowed me to cuddle him which was nice).  Tom didn't play very well here, he wouldn't play with Nate at all - saying he wasn't his friend.  It was quite sad, but maybe it was because Jake was there - dynamics between 3 are quite different to dynamics with 2.  He clung for the whole time, whilst Jake and Nate played with each other.  He did try Nate's Iron Man helmet on after a lot of persuading which was the only break through of the visit.  Sorry Suzanna.

A good haul

Next stop was Eastwood Drive to see the Gouges.  We lost Tom immediately.  He was straight into Hannah's bedroom playing with the girls.  We saw him from time to time, but he was more than happy to play with Hannah and Becca.  Meant I got a relaxing sit down with Rose and Paul.  George and Marg also came round which was great, and Rose made us bacon rolls which were very very welcome.  It was really good to see everyone.  Our house looked pretty much the same except the fence has been painted and mended (way overdue).

At 2.30 we got to Oakengates for the Christmas party.  We were slightly worried that Tom may have 'burned out' at the Gouges, but it wasn't to be, Tom partied hard for the whole time he was there.  In fact I have never seen him party so hard ever, he really enjoyed himself, it was a pleasure to see.  One bit of bad news was that Mae couldn't come, she had a sickness bug so was left at home with Phil, such a disappointment, but although Tom's bottom lip came out for a moment, he then saw Olly whizzing past and decided that was a good game and joined in.

Matt and I were put in charge of Musical Statues, I tried my best but was rubbish.  I thought I was being fair and told Jessica she was the first one out, her bottom lip came out, and she cried, and cried and cried and cried.  I felt absolutely awful.  I had taken a prize for the winner, luckily Michelle (being a Primary School teacher and therefore more worldly wise in the world of children) had bought some consolation prizes for me.  I gave one to Jessica - she carried on crying.  I was the wicked witch.  I carried on with the game to its end, everyone else thankfully went out happily.  Jessica was still crying. I collected up the remaining consolation prizes and gave them to her as a prize for the best dress.  She continued to cry.  I went away, I don't think I was helping.  Note to self: never offer to do games at a party - just offer extra food!!!!

We had a good spread of food as always, chilli and jackets for the adults and the usual party food for the kids, then Santa's sack was found and presents distributed and then quiet time watching The Snowman before heading home.  It was a brilliant party.  Tom danced for half of it, he had some very cool dance moves which I've not seen him do before.  He made me dance with him for ages - I was out of breath.

Anyway it was a fabulous weekend - thanks to everyone.  We thought Tom would fall asleep as soon as we were on our way home, but it took him a while to calm down and relax, he did then fall asleep and stayed asleep for the rest of the journey and was happy to go straight to bed on our arrival home.

Sorry about lack of photos - we had such a good time we forgot to take any!