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Gracie is three, 22nd February 2009
Never, ever, ever again am I holding a children’s birt
hday party in the house without professional help! Why on earth did I think that ten three year olds would happily sit down to play pass the parcel, or follow the rules of musical statues? It took me twenty minutes to gather them all into a circle – every time I went to grab another escapee the others started running off! In the end I just left everyone to fight over the new toys and dance to Abba. I think they had a great time! At the end Gracie handed out the carefully put together party bags (I think that nowadays children judge the success of a party based on the contents of their party bags) and said goodbye to her friends, while I was left to survey the carnage! Most of it proved to be superficial – I still have a sticky patch of chewed up, stamped in fudge on the carpet, which is proving trickier than chewing gum to remove, but other than that we are nearly back to normal.
Gracie was very lucky to receive lots of lovely presents. I think this birthday will always be remembered as the Pepa Pig birthday – she must have the whole range of merchandise now and is completely thrilled. Gracie also loves dolls so Nana and Granddad bought her a babbling, crying Baby Millie doll. We quickly learnt to turn the thing off at bedtime though, as the first night Mark and I were woken at 1am by a crying dolly – Mark got up to settle her which made me laugh as he didn’t once do a night feed with Sonny! We bought Gracie her first proper bike. It is exactly the same as Alicia’s so there could be no fighting!
Now that she’s a little bit older it seems as though someone has flicked a switch in Gracie’s brain, and all of a sudden she is chatting away and singing songs. A few weeks ago we were proud if she strung together three or more words but now there is no stopping her. It really has happened over night and I couldn’t be more relieved. My Mum said that she would eventually catch up but I still had concerns over her speech development. Her pronunciation needs some work, but the difference is staggering. We have an appointment with the speech therapist for our next assessment in March so it will be interesting to hear what she has to say.
Gracie and her new bike:
Gracie getting to know noisy Baby Millie:
Gracie’s birthday cake: 
Mam's back at work again!!
Driving through the gates I felt like I had never been away, and when I walked into the office everyone was brilliant and could not have made me feel better. Despite not dreading the prospect of returning to work, I have to confess to feeling slightly panicked, I thought people might think I looked fat, and I wondered whether I would still be able to do my job.
Once I had settled back in and discussed what my role would involve, I got down to work straight away, and have been getting on brilliantly ever since. I don’t know if it is because it is all new again, but I seem have a new lease of life and I feel great. Here’s hoping it lasts…
Snow fun
We had a foot of snow on the ground for almost the whole of last week. It looked absolutely beautiful and has been such fun. The last time I saw snow like this was when I was small. My Dad took my Sister and me sledging in a nearby field, only taking us home when we were so wet and cold we could no longer feel our fingers or toes. Mum was waiting with hot chocolate and towels. I hope the kids have great memories of their snow fun too…
Gracie didn’t really know what to make of the snow to start with. On the first day of snow we were playing out with my neighbour’s children. Gracie didn’t really like it so my neighbour suggested that she sit in her car whilst we enjoyed the snow. About fifteen minutes later I opened the car door to check Gracie was OK – she was fine but had done an enormous wee! I was, and still am, absolutely mortified. As the days have gone on by Gracie has begun to enjoy the snow.
One street nearby had made a brilliant effort with snow sculptures – one house had a large snow snail, a snow gentleman leaning against a lamppost and a fabulous snow dragon. I was so impressed, but secretly thought we could do better! I embarked upon an ambitious igloo but Gracie thought it hilarious to keep kicking it down. I then started a Mickey Mouse sculpture only to turn around and find that the children had had enough and were waiting by the door for me to let them in!
The wintry weather has also brought with it problems. The paths and roads are so deep in snow that I couldn’t push the buggy on the school run. Thankfully we bumped into some school friends who took Alicia for me. She had great fun sledging to school with her friends.
My online grocery shopping delivery was cancelled as the vans couldn’t get through the snow. By Thursday my cupboards were so bare that I only just managed to scrape together a leftover meal. When Mark came home that evening the snow had subsided enough for me to drive to the supermarket to do a weekly shop. Thank goodness I did because as I was driving home the snow started again and by Friday morning was deeper than ever.
The snow came down so thick that on Friday I decided to keep Alicia off school so that she could enjoy it before it turned to slush. I felt quite guilty but was soon relieved to find out that the school has been shut anyway. We had a lovely day.
Alicia and a friend sledge to school:
Our snow family:
Alicia and her snowman:
The Terrible Twos come Early
We had always been proud of our sociable, well-behaved little girl. People often commented on how good Sophie was when we were out and about, and I guess we had always taken it for granted… Not any more!
We were recently up North visiting some friends and took a trip to the local park to feed the ducks. When all the bread had gone we decided to head for home, but Sophie had other ideas. She straightened her back and refused to be put in to the pushchair, sliding down on to the floor every time we tried to put the straps over her arms. We eventually resorted to carrying her under one arm – like a rugby ball – all the way home. She was kicking and screaming as if her life depended on it. I’m sure we got some funny looks from people but I didn’t really care – I was feeling pretty frazzled by the whole experience and I think it put our friends off having children for life.
She has repeated this behaviour a few times when I’m trying to get her into the buggy and the car seat, and it’s always a battle of wills as to who will be victorious (she’s like me – very stubborn and won’t give up until she gets her own way) I have to persevere though or we would never get out of the house, and staying in watching CBeebies all day would drive me up the wall. I’m hoping it’s just a phase, but as she is still six months off turning two, I have a feeling there could be worse in store for us. I am bracing myself for stormy times ahead!
An unexpected day off
playing in the snow!
It snowed all day Monday, I was relieved that I already had the day off as there was no way that I wanted to drive in those conditions.
Inaaya went to nursery, but was home earlier than usual. We had planned to go out and play in the snow but Inaaya was shattered, not to mention unimpressed by the cold. She’s a bit like her mummy; any sign of coldness and all plans are cancelled, I would rather stay in and watch a movie under the duvet with a bowl of homemade popcorn.
On Tuesday morning it was announced on the radio that all schools in Birmingham were closed due to the heavy snow, I wasn’t sure if Inaaya’s nursery was open, but we decided that she would be taking the day off anyway. We definitely weren’t going to miss out on playing in the snow today…
We all wrapped up in lots of layers of warm clothes and walked down to the local park. Inaaya decided that she wanted to take her bucket and spade to build a snowman, but in the end we were having so much fun we didn’t get around to making it… We kind of forgot about him – oops!
We had such a blast that it was difficult to drag Inaaya home after two hours, but it was getting colder and it was nearly time for lunch so we were all getting hungry.
After lunch we all fell asleep – running around in the fresh air, followed by lots of lovely grub had completely finished us off!
Inaaya and her Dad dressed up for the snow:
Inaaya and I ready for some fun in the snow:
Inaaya enjoying the snow:
Inaaya and daddy playing:
Inaaya isn’t so sure about the snow after falling over:
