Margaret

Just after I met Chris he took me to meet one of his two best mates, we knocked on the door but there was no-one home.
As we were walking back to the car a door opened across the street and a man came out and made a beeline for us, he had long grey hair scraped into a ponytail, missing teeth,he was wearing a scruffy old t-shirt, shorts and sandals and he obviously knew Chris.
It soon became apparent that he had seen us through the window and come to be nosy, he chatted to us for a few minutes and then gave me a hug like he had known me forever.
At the time I found it slightly odd but just went with it, new boyfriend and all that. Not long after, barely a few weeks my dad died, Chris was my rock and as time passed I met more of his family and friends, it turned out the man was his friends step dad, between himself and his wife they had 6 grown children, 4 from his wife's previous marriage and 2 together, the youngest of which has downs so is still at home now at 26 needing a certain level of care. Two years later, Chris and I were already married and Imogen was almost 1 when we lost Chris's dad to cancer. The man and his wife and Chris's friend and wife were there for us throughout. Chris realised our children wouldn't have a Grandad and having had a very close relationship with his grandparents asked the man to be Grandad to Imogen and any other kids we might have and despite their own 6 grown children and the time 5 grandchildren he agreed and became Grandad Mitch and his wife Margaret became Nana. They didn't just agree, they did it. Despite having all those people to care for they have shown my kids the love of grandparents, they have visited every Thursday for the past 4 years now and we have been included in their family. They bought a caravan in wales just so all their grandchildren could have holidays, not just holidays but free holidays because they understand what its like to struggle financially with small children. Grandad Mitch has spent endless hours colouring and building, Nana Margaret has provided hours of cuddles and lots of much appreciated medical advice having a background in nursing. Margaret died last Wednesday after a year long battle with cancer, its her funeral next week. I don't know how Grandad Mitch will cope, his rock of 32 years has gone. I feel so desperately sad for him. I know all the children, grandchildren and of course us will rally round but we can't truly help him with his loss and its this that breaks my heart. That strange little man who hugged me that day has become someone I love dearly and I can't help him because Margaret who was the glue that held that whole family together and his true love is gone.

Gutted

Imogen has just told me the reason she is so naughty is because she doesn't like me very much.

My baby...

Isn't a baby anymore :0(
Libby will be 2 in just over a week and its gone so fast! Time seems to pass even faster with your second, its seems like five minutes since we were introducing Imogen to her tiny baby sister and now they fight and play together.
In another short year Libby will be at nursery and I will have two and a half days a week at home with no children, what will I do with myself....

Throwing, hitting and tantrums...

The title is pretty much what we get from Imogen nowadays, there seem to be a few people I know with kids the same age who are behaving the same way so maybe its an age thing, doesn't make it any easier though.
I'm at home these days, after a load of mither with childcare and child illness we decided I should get an evening job so I'm with the kids all day and then when Chris comes home I go to my job. It seems to work pretty well apart from us being skint all the time.
Imogen has nursery in the afternoons and Libby still has a nap so we are tied to the house but come September when Imogen starts another year at nursery she will do two and a half days instead of every afternoon so we may be able to do more.
She has tried so hard to be good this week, the rule is if she hits she has to go to bed straight after tea, before Libby which is the bit she doesn't like. In the previous two weeks she only managed a normal bedtime three times, this week she has managed not to hit for three days running, we told her if she managed all week she could stay up later than Libby at weekend and we would play my first monopoly with her.
About ten minutes ago she lost it, threw a toy in temper and hit me  several times, she then smacked Libby round the head, I'm afraid she got a smack for that one.
So she's in bed early tonight and trying to earn back the monopoly.
What will the rest of the week bring...

I'm a Great Auntie!

And this is when Imogen met her 2nd cousin Leah Olivia :0)

My girls first day at nursery!

Stuck!

It's my big girls 3rd birthday in a few weeks, the party is booked and the family have suitably harassed us for gift ideas and we like idiots have thoughtfully obliged.
The problem?
Well she's getting everything we wanted for her and now we don't know what to get her ourselves!
I have done the Google search for "great gifts for a 3 year old" only to be presented with a list of stuff she already has.....
HELP!

My girl got dressed all by herself today :0)

How they grow....

Libby was 1 last week, can you believe it. She is already a huge personality and couldn't be any more different to Imogen who is fast approaching 3!
Sometimes (like now) I'm struck by how fast the time is flying by, it feels like if I blink I will miss everything and they will both be married with kids of their own. So this is a snapshot for me too look at much later, not a birthday photo or some other occasion , just exactly how they were when I had this thought.

Mobile Blogger

Who knows you may start getting posts from me again if this works!

Pride

It would take too long to relive the last 6 or 7 months so i wont bother other than to say they have involved colic, a hospital stay for both my girls which got quite dangerous for my baby but was all ok in the end, redundancy for me, a new job for Chris.......so much has happened.
I will be posting again but i just wanted to say *swelling with pride* look at my gorgeous girls!

HELP HELP HELP!!!!!

Now before you panic we are all fine :0)



I havent been around as poor Libby Lou as i have found myself calling her has been suffering with colic and with Imogen as well.....you can imagine lol not a lot of sleep going on over here!

I will update soon but in the meantime i need your help!

I really want to buy this:

http://www.fisher-price.com/au/babygear/step_n_play/

for Libby but i cant find it either for sale in the Uk or for sale elswhere that is prepared to ship it!

I have found it on ebay and it would cost me $200.00 including shipping but i have no idea if this is overpriced as i cant find it elsewhere and with it being ebay there are no guarantees it will still be there when i can afford to buy it!

Please help!!!!

Introducing...

Libby Jane Hall, born 26/08/10 weighing 6lbs

All that worry....

for nothing!

So the midwife scared us to death, we went for a scan this morning and everything is perfectly normal, even down to the fact that yesterday she said the baby was bum breech like Imogen was and the scan showed she is actually head down......

Lucky??

So I’m driving home last night from work when this idiot decides to slam into the driver’s door and almost shunted me into another lane.

I cannot believe how lucky I was, not only am I absolutely fine but the car doesn’t have a scratch on it!

This morning I had an appointment with the midwife, the baby is measuring 6 inches short for dates so I have to go for a growth scan tomorrow morning, let’s hope my luck holds out!

Just a lil update...

So what’s been happening….

Well I’ve obviously been getting closer to my due date all the time, only 6 weeks to go now and I must admit I’m starting to feel it now!

I don’t think I have put on as much weight as last time as everyone up until about a week ago kept looking surprised when I said how many weeks I am, this is not down to any attempt from me but just luck ha ha

As usual we have left all the things we need to do before baby comes till the last minute but we have finally started to get organised. This coming weekend there is a carpet being fitted in the cellar which will become our bedroom, we can then move Imogen into our room and into a big girls bed which considering she managed to climb out of her cot a few days ago cant come soon enough, and then of course baby Libby can go straight into the nursery as it is.

I am desperate to finish work now, partly just because I know I am and partly because I’m starting to find it harder just getting there now, I finish 30^th July unless my manager miraculously comes back to me about some holidays I am owed that she seems to be studiously ignoring in which case it may be slightly earlier. Either way no more than11 days to go…..WooHoo!!!

We have been telling Imogen that her sister is in my tummy and all the usual things that pregnant mums tell their toddlers, I don’t think she understands at all and think it will be a shock for her, I’m convinced she isn’t going to react well since she was so awful with her cousin when her auntie was looking after her but who knows, she will be around 8 months older and may surprise us, keep your fingers crossed for me lol

She is a delight most of the time, she is talking a lot now showing greater understanding all the time, its quite strange that we can actually have a conversation with her now!

This isnt always good though as she is now throwing lots of tantrums, saying no a lot and generally doing things she knows she's not allowed to do and winding me up immensley lol

She is impossible to punish, nothing bothers her, if we take toys away because she has thrown them or done something naughty she doesnt really react, i will say to her that she will go to bed if she is naughty and she just gabbles "bedtime" and runs to the stairs.

It is so frustrating!

The only thing that i have managed to do to make her understand she has been naughty is withold yoghurt which while in a way it was a breakthrough to find something i can punish her with was also a pain as i actually want her to eat it grrrr

Anyway i am sure this will only get worse as she gets older, i just felt like a whinge!!!

Imogen's First Holiday Pics :0)

I don't usually do a Thursday Thirteen but here are...

Thirteen questions about having baby No 2

1. Should we have left a bigger age gap? Imogen is at the hitting, pinching and even biting stage, admittedly not all the time and it could be worse but I’m not sure it’s what we need with a newborn around!

2. Should we go for No 3? Now we know No 2 is another girl should we risk 3 girls in an attempt to get the boy?? I would really really like a son but I’m not sure I would really really like 3 kids lol

3. Will having 2 kids put us off having 3 or make us think 1 more wont kill us

4. Will Libby look / be like Imogen?

5. Will we be ready? For some reason we seem to have much less urgency to get things ready for Libby, maybe because we have done it before, the odd thing is that we actually have more to get ready this time as we are moving bedrooms into the cellar, Imogen is moving bedrooms to our room and Libby will get the ready made nursery, we haven’t finished painting the cellar yet and we need to get carpet laid, only 11 weeks to go……

6. How will Imogen react to a sister? How will she react to not being the centre of our universe??? Personally I don’t think it’s gonna be a bed of roses!

7. Will we be able to cope with 2??? Everyone kept telling us how our lives would be turned upside down with one and to be honest we were really lucky, she slept through from 6 weeks and that has never changed and I think being older we were more prepared so it wasn’t as much of a shock as it could have been but 2, that’s a whole different ballgame lol

8. How will we manage financially? This month our new government will hold its emergency budget and could quite literally ruin everything for us.

9. Will the washing pile ever go down again??

10. Will the ironing pile ever go down again?

11. Will Chris and I ever have a life again??

12. Is it possible to find babysitters who are willing to look after more than one child??

13. Will we have the energy to go anywhere if babysitters can be found??

Cute! Cute! Cute!

Even if i do say so myself :0)