Happy Monday

I heard on the radio this morning that today was officially Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a good one.

Mondays are nursery days for Poppy which means I get to have a day with my baby girl.  Its nice to have cuddles and play with her without having Poppy saying "I want to join in the show".  You can't just sit around enjoying cuddles when you have another one to run after, so you have to make the most of them.  I can't believe how big she is getting.  The past seven months have whizzed by! 

We are off to a family Wedding in March and I have just ordered Poppy a gorgeous new outfit. I think she will look beautiful.  I have been eying this outfit up for weeks and finally took the plunge and brought it.  That is the girls sorted, just need to find something for myself now and get back to my healthy eating.  I have not been able to get back into it since Christmas.  

I keep meaning to do some exercise too but I am always so tired once the girls are alseep.  Shane brought me a cross trainer as I live too far from a gym and I have only been on it twice.  I really do need to get my butt in gear so watch this space!  I will be reporting on my progress.  After all, I would like to be a yummy mummy!

Tears and giggles

Well its Sunday again and I am feeling as though my weekend was rudely cut short, as Shane had to go back to work early this morning.  We all had a lovely time but it just went a bit too quickly.  

He won't be home for another two weeks now so feeling a little bit sad.

Rosie's teeth have still not made an appearance but she is suffering badly.  The poor little thing was hungry today but was struggling to eat.  

I hope they come soon. I keep thinking i can see little white lines but not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me.


On a lighter note a few things have happened that have made me giggle this weekend.  In particular there was one incident with Poppy.  She has been toilet trained for over a year now but still needs my help as she is only 2 1/2.  Anyway, today I was feeding Rosie when she said she needed a wee.  I asked if it was urgent and she said yes but she could go by herself.  I think this is because she had a friend to play the other day and she went by herself.  I said she could try, but she had to be very careful and I told her to make sure she pulled her tights right down.  Well, I went in to check on her a few minutes later and had to try very hard to hide the giggles.  It was a picture...she was sat on the toilet , she had her tights right down by her ankles but still had her knickers on and was sat on her skirt...whoops.  Maybe I need to be more specific with my instructions ha ha.  Bless her, she does make me smile!

Anyone who knows me, knows I like my little girls to look like little girls.  They always wear dresses and skirts and most of their wardrobe is pink!!  

Anyway I have been after some pretty hair pieces for them as one of the other mum's always has nice bows and things for her girls. I am very excited to say I have found some online and have ordered them today.  I can't wait for them to arrive.  I have ordered mine from The Bow Company and this is a picture of one of the ones I ordered.  I love it and will let you know what they are like and how quickly they arrive.

Ballet shoes and ball pits

Its Saturday Morning again and Poppy has baby ballet.  Oh dear, had a few glasses of wine last night so this morning had very heavy eyes and a fuzzy head when I got up to take her there.  Who's silly idea was it to take her to lessons at 9.30am on Saturday morning?

She does look very cute in her little outfit trying desperately to copy her teacher Miss Joleen.  The Mums all have to wait outside peeping in through the glass windows.  We decided that the standard of ballet wasn't that high and it was more for us Mums engaging in our pink girlishness.  

Ballet at this age is more like a fashion show, they look adorable in fluffy visions of pink tutus! If you are looking for children's ballet stuff then I brought Poppy's from dancingdaisy.com.The clothes are gorgeous, were delivered quickly and were very reasonable. We will definitely be buying more from there!

 While us Mummy's were all chatting, the conversation came up around our little darlings and the time they get up in the morning.  Some Mums were saying they start their day around 5.30am... as previously mentioned I need my sleep so I could never cope with that and thank goodness I don't have to.  This is one problem we have never had and I will share my secrets with you.  From the start we taught our girls to sleep using the Baby Whisperer techniques but as soon as Poppy progressed to a bed at 16 months we brought her a gro Clock.  If you have never heard of these its worth looking.  They might seem to be priced a little sleep at around thirty pounds but believe me it is worth it!  It took around 3 -4 nights of putting Poppy back to bed and wiping away the tears when she first got it, but she soon got the idea.  We have the alarm set for 7.30am and even if she gets up for a wee and goes back to bed at 7.20am, she will happily stay in her room until the clock is yellow.  Its amazing!! 

As Daddy is home for the weekend (he's been working away for a few weeks), we decided to have a family day out and take the girls to a soft play centre.  Excellent fun.  Poppy ran around with the other children saying "catch me if you can" and "hello boy, i'm Poppy".  Although there was one incident when some older girls wouldn't let her cross the bridge and even tried to push her!  I was desperate to go up to them and tell them off but held back to see how she handled herself.  She was a little unsure and in the end crawled under the girls legs to get across.  This is a tricky area.  Are you allowed to tell other children off?  What do others think?  some of the parents there just let their children go wild and don't even watch them.  One guy, the father of the girls mentioned above, just sat reading a book at the table furthest away from his girls.  He didn't have a clue what they were up to.  Poppy had great fun though and that is what mattered!

Broken sleep - its a killer!!

I am one of those people who need my sleep.  I could easily go to bed at ten and sleep for 12 hours (obviously if I didn't have children that is).  If I don't get enough sleep or wake up too early I am grumpy and unsociable! 

I have used the baby Whisperer techniques with both girls and fortunatley they work!  My girls sleep for 12 hours most of the time so generally I am a happy Mummy.  That is until things like teething kick in.  Rosie is now 7 months and for the past week has been showing all the signs.  The dribbling, red cheeks, runny nose, foul nappies and a new whiny cry.  This has also resulted in her waking in the night. Its been a week now and its killing me.   I just need one whole night of uninterrupted sleep.  Why don't children came with a built in knowledge that they need to sleep until their parents come in to get them in the morning?  That would be perfect!

Day one and not really sure what I am doing!

Hi, my name is Karen and this is the first time I have ever written a blog.  I am a busy Mum of two gorgeous girls, Poppy and Rosie and have a wonderful Husband called Shane.  The reason I have decided to do this is because my life seems to be a series of dramas.  I meet a friend of mine once a week for coffee and each week I have another installment to share with her and giggle over.  It was her who suggested I should do this so here I am.

Today we had several episodes.  It was one of those days where everything seemed to be going wrong.  It took ages to get the girls ready and out of the door for a music group I take them too.  We live at the top of a very steep hill and my driving skills have a lot to be desired.  For the first time ever, I swing out of my drive and realize a car is waiting to drive up the hill.  Ok you say no problem.  Well as I mentioned before my driving skills aren't great.  So I just reverse back into my drive but trying to dodge the boulder and pillar I end up going in at a funny angle.  In the end I give up and the kind gentleman reverses back and lets me go.  Great.  First problem over!   Next I stall on the ferry over to Dartmouth.,  This is a regular occurrence and Poppy sits there saying "whoopsie mummy stalled again". Next I look for somewhere to park and notice the ticket inspector on the prowl.  Parking is limited in Dartmouth, most of it is 1 hour parking so I decide I am not going to risk anything and will just go to the pay and display.  Excellent, car parked and we all get out and off we go to the group for a bit of singing and stomping, great fun!

We have a lovely time, then stay for a quick hot chocolate with some of the girls before heading off.  On the way back to the car we quickly popped into the shop for some bread where the next incident happened.  I am at the till paying when I notice my daughter (who I must point out has never done this before) had peeled the wrapper off a creme egg she had picked up off the shelf.  What?  I obviously took it off her, told her never to do it again and paid for it....55p for a creme egg, what a rip off!  Anyway I couldn't give it to her after telling her off so there was nothing else for it, I had to eat it myself! 

We then rushed back to the car park.  It was now 11.36 and I had one minute before my ticket ran out but as I approached the car I noticed one of those awful yellow and black tickets stuck to the windscreen.  I looked at my watch and then around for the traffic warden.  Quickly we rushed over to her to see if we could make her take it back.  I wasn't even late, she must have been eager!  I was pushing a pushchair with a baby in it and my toddler was on the buggy board crying because she wanted to get in the car and go home.  I must have looked a bit of a sight.  The traffic warden was one of those stereotypical butch ones who took no nonsense.  She proceeded to tell me my ticket wasn't valid as my tax had run out....what?  My Husband is so good and keeps on top of all of that.  How did that happen?  So off we went, her looking at me in a way that made me feel very small and like a bad person!!

This is just one example of what it is like in a day in the life of me. Some might say I am a bit dizzy.  friends often say I should have been blonde, but its incidents like this that made my friend suggest I write a blog.

I like to think of myself as normal.  I am thirty five years old but feel twenty eight. I have been together with Shane since we were just seventeen years old and have been married for the past eight years.  As I said before, we have two little girls.  Poppy who is two and a half going on twenty two and a half and Rosie who is just seven months.  They are both gorgeous happy little girls and of course very well behaved clever little things. 

I am not currently working and to be honest staying at home is harder than work ever was!  I used to work with offenders on release from prison with drug and alcohol problems who wanted to change their ways.  This was the most rewarding but frustrating job ever and sometimes I can't believe the things I used to do or the positions I found myself in.  Basically I set up services where I worked with charity's and local councils to help provide accommodation and support to help these people change.  I loved my job and had several success stories but stopped working when I moved to Canada for two years. Next came the children and I haven't wanted to rush back. I would love to go back at some point but think I would like to do some more training, maybe as a Counselor.  I just don't know how to fit in though.  

How do other Mum's do it?  I am at home all day and still there are not enough hours in the day?  I would just love to be one of those Mummy's who look gorgeous and in control, never stressed out or tired, whose children are always perfectly behaved and whose house is always immaculate.  I would have time to prepare gorgeous home cooked meals everyday where the family sit around together sharing details of their days.  Is there really such a thing?  I use touche eclat to cover up the dark circles under my eyes and I have an ironing pile which is over flowing.  I don't think I am a bad Mummy, I am fairly organised, clean and tidy.  My children are in a good routine, eat and sleep well, I don't stay in my pj's all day but I don't think people look at me and wish they could be me. I think Its safe to say I am not quite a yummy Mummy yet!