Randomness on Wednesday

Well, I made it five days in a row blogging, I'm quite proud of myself, but there was no way I could do it on the weekend too, it takes me at least an hour to blog with photos!  Anyway I don't have a whole post to write about, so here are a few of my random thoughts.  Also, I've not downloaded my photos recently so I'll post them tomorrow or Friday.

1.  It turns out Chicken loves the park.  The only thing she's big enough (and not even properly then) to go on is the baby swing, and man does that make her laugh and smile.  She also loves watching the other kids, I think we could just sit in the playground watching the kids for a whole afternoon and she still wouldn't get bored!

2.  I lost one and a half pounds this week, 680g in normal peoples amounts, which is 12.5 lb total or 5.5kg.  And the good new is that I now fit into three pairs of three quarters that I didn't fit a month ago!! Can't wait to do some shopping when I get to Vermont.

3.  I am sooooo excited about going to visit Scott and Panda in two weeks, I can't believe its only in two weeks, I've already starting looking at websites for clothes and shoes for Chicken and I!! We're having a week or so in Vermont and then a couple of nights in New York, I love NYC and already have a long list of things to do that we didn't manage last time.

4.  I have to bake some biscuits tomorrow morning for a party.  My friend is finishing her job as a breastfeeding supporter tomorrow so we are having a farewell lunch and then a little party at our group.  I'm  sad shes leaving but I'm looking forward to having mussels for lunch!

5.  My computer isn't working at the moment so I have to borrow Andrew's which doesn't have a webcam which means no skype or skyping using my iPhone, which is super hard because Chicken wants to grab it all the time, and really who wants to look up a babies nose, not even me!

6.  I've joined a reading club online, and I'm really enjoying it so far, its one of the first books (not counting kids books) that I've read since I've had Chicken.

Happy Hump day everyone!

Friday Five - Random photos from 'my pictures'

I've been having trouble thinking of a category for this weeks Friday Five, and I was browsing through the random photos in the 'my pictures' folder on my laptop.  All our photos are stored on an external hard drive so these photos are a real mix, here are my five favourites:
1.  Our gorgeous God-Daughter Emma.

This photo was taken at our first engagement party.  We spent a glorious day in the garden of our favourite pub.  Emma was fifteen months old at the time and was so well behaved the whole day.  I remember she was quite taken with both of those wooden spoons.

2.  Our Engagement party invite.

I (with the help of two very good friends, and Andrew's cousin Fi) made these invites, about one hundred in total.  I love all those photos because they show us having a really good time.

3.  Us on holiday in Spain.

In May 2008 eleven of us rented a villa in Spain for weeks holiday.  The house was amazing and we had such a good time.

4.  My cousins and I circa 1985.

This photo was taken at my grandparents fortieth wedding anniversary party (I think).  We had a 'Miss Universe' competition, and I won!  I guess that was one of the perks of being the youngest there.  Can you guess which one is me?  And, can you guess which one of the 'girls' is actually a boy?

5.  Andrew's work Christmas party 2009.

Andrew's work throw really fancy Christmas parties, they are always black tie and held some where fabulous.  This one was at Madam Tussauds, it was really cool because they had all the 'celebrities' out on show.  My friend Leilia did my make-up which I really love, she is sooo good at it, love those fake lashes!

Here comes the sun (doo do doo)

The last five days here have been amazing!  Its been getting warmer and warmer with everyday, but sadly its not going to last so the weather people at BBC tell me.  To be fair we have made the most of it, getting out and about.

On Thursday we went to a sing-along session at the local library which Chicken didn't really like, too many other children and too much noise, we'll keep persevering because I am sure once she gets the hang of it, she'll have great fun.  We went home to ice cupcakes to take to my afternoon coffee group when Chicken promptly did a spit up over the both of us, not to bother because she got to wear this super cute (and cool) dress.

On Friday we went scrapbooking at A Maze of Memories and I completed my first layout of Chicken, the theme was spring or days out, so I used the photos from our first walk with her when she was five days old.  Not exactly spring I know but I'm still quite happy with it.

Friday afternoon we headed to Cookham Moor to go for a walk along the Thames with a friend from my ante-natal group and her son.  We got to Bourne End and found a pub called The Bounty, right on the rivers edge.  It even has its own mooring!  We found another one of the girls from our group there too (I know, that's all us yummy mummies do is hang out at pubs all day, hehe)  We had a drink in the beer garden, and the babies had a nice kick around, while a large group of teenagers hogged the tables playing drinking games, ahh the good old days.  Karen and I decided that even though we were much older we'd still show them a thing or two!  That was also the last time I changed a poopy nappy, yep that's right, its been 48 hours since my Chicken has done a poo!  Poor thing, I imagine it really hurts!  (Thanks for the nappy Karen, I'll start to bring my own stuff soon, I promise!)

Chicken also got her feet dirty for the first time, she was sitting on a mat but managed to dig her heels into the grass, Andrew says its more proof I'm her mother, we both like being bare feet!

 On Saturday a parcel arrived from Scott and Panda, Eilidh is a very lucky girl, they sent her some fab summer clothes (Scott and I have a shopping problem, we got it from our Nana, we also inherited her shoe problem too, but that's not the point)

Sorry about the blurry photos, she was having too much fun to sit still!  We decided to go to Windsor (not to see the Queen) for lunch and a walk, so did every man and his dog it seemed because there wasn't an outside table to be found anywhere for love nor money.  In retrospect it probably was a good thing, it was very hot and we could have had a fried Chicken!  When she woke up from her nap Eilidh was rather preoccupied with Andrew's drink, he was very proud!

Today we walked to the Farmers market, and did jobs around the house.  Now Chicken is three months old, she is beginning to entertain herself for longer periods of time.  Her latest trick is 'talking' which she's done all day

Hopefully your weekend was as nice as ours!

Seasonal Changes

I have a winter baby, I am used to wrapping her up warm.  

We wear fleece body suits, hats and use the sleeping bag in the pushchair all the time!

There is always a blanket handy.

I am an expert at putting a very reluctant child into a cardigan, and woolly booties!

 We wear a lot of clothes to bed!

But now, well now spring has sprung and today we had a high of 22c! (71f)  that's practically sweltering in England!  I'm not sure what to do with my Chicken, I certainly don't want to roast her, but I'm finding it challenging finding the right balance!  I've found a few things that help us so far.

This pink hoodie vest was a gift from my Auntie Robyn G, thanks!  Its fleece and keeps Chicken warm but not sweltering, the hood also doubles as a hat if it gets breezy.  The sheepskin she's sitting on was a present from my Mum, thanks G!  Sheepskins keep you warm in winter and cool in summer, and they're just comfy!

I've also taking to stripping her off, I mean there is ample padding on those thighs!  Today for example, she was wearing a long sleeve bodysuit and jeans.  I took off the top layer of the sleeping bag in the pushchair and we headed out.  I was wearing 3/4's, a t-shirt and flip-flops/jandals, so it was a warm day!  We get to the children's centre where I was asked to demonstrate breastfeeding for a group of expectant mothers and answer any questions, and she was quite warm so I took off her jeans.  As we got to leave I realise its still too hot for jeans but too cool to be pushed by a power walking mum (well not so fast any more, I'm having to 'wear in' my winter feet again) I dug about in the baby bag and found a muslin cloth.  Perfect - big enough to wrap around her legs but thin enough to keep her cool, and when the sun is in her eyes it drapes nicely over the front of the canopy! 

I'm really looking forward to summer (who isn't!) and have found some funky outfits for her, dresses with cute frilly knickers that cover up the nappy and a denim play-suit, I only hope that the sun comes out for a decent period of time!