What a week!

Somehow, it appears to be Monday again – which means I’ve spent another week neglecting my poor little blog.
But I have excuses! Lots of them!

Firstly: I had a birthday. yes, I am officially 29. And 12 months. Gulp.
(not to worry though, promise I won’t be going in for any of that ‘proper grown up’ stuff.)
Anyway, those of you who follow my twittery nonsense, will know that my Mr had the week off, and was cooking up a surprise for Saturday night… turned out to be a VERY big surprise, in the shape of a party! Had a fantastic time, still have no idea how he managed to keep it under wraps so long… sneaky little monkey.
AND, he even took care of the LD & let me sleep in till 10am the next day, and I escaped hangover free! Good Times 🙂

(some of my birthday loveliness :D)

Secondly: The rest of the week was spent enjoying some quality Daddy time 🙂 We went on a few mini-day trips, Daddy came to his first baby clinic (LD now weighing in at 16 1/2 lb!!), and we went to the teddy bear’s picnic at the childrens centre (so cute :D), we went out for an awesome lunch on my birthday, and even squeezed in not one, but TWO mummy & daddy jaunts to the pub! So yes, safe to say, it was a good week.

Thirdly: The Daddy went back to work Saturday, but to cheer us up, the LD and I went to lunch with Kelly & Piran, and Mrs OMG – yay! The lovely Kelly had scored us a free feed at Pizza Express, so Three Ladies, Two Babies & A Bump, had a thoroughly pleasant time, and will hopefully be doing it again sometime soon 🙂

And todaaay, my poor little man had his third appointment with the nurse for a dose of evil pointy needles 😦 He was a very brave little monster though, and now it’s all over till he’s one, hooray 🙂

So yes, that lot, is why I’ve been such a rubbish blogger.
Hopefully things will be back to what passes for normal now, and I can start catching up – I have a bunch of lovey awards to say thank you for, and my google reader is bursting at the seams… who do I see about getting an extra hour in the day?

Like Mother Like Son…

The Little Dude may only be just short of four months old, but nonetheless, it seems I am raising a shameless flirt.

He’s starting to pay attention & interact with the other babies at baby club, (rather than just looking at them with the same bemused expression as when he first discovered the dog), and with the boy babies, he’s very sociable – quite happy to lay on the play mat for a chill out and a chat and a stretch… all good.

But as soon as he’s anywhere near a girl baby, he turns on the charm!
Making all his best noises, flipping over to say hello, stretching out & holding hands, and occasionally grabbing onto the hem of a pretty frock for rolling over leverage. (He’s resourceful, gotta give him that!) AND, one little lady in particular was even given the honour of having squeaky giraffe thrown in her general direction – that, my friends, is high praise indeed!

Is it wrong that I’m a tiny bit proud of him? 🙂

In other news, The daddy & I had the gift of babysitting last night, so we headed out for a couple of hours of karaoke & drinkies – very lovely, and I’m getting much better at being able to enjoy myself & be decent company again, rather than compulsively checking my phone & wondering whether The Noodle is okay every 5 minutes.
I’ve got it down to maybe every 20 minutes now… okay, 15 max – but baby steps, right? 😛

And today was day one of daddy’s three day weekend – yay!
We had a stroll into town, litle bit of retail therapy, spot of lunch… thoroughly pleasant day with my two favourite men – can’t ask for much more than that.

And I’ve still got 2 more to go!
I’m a very lucky mummy.

it’a a hard life being a baby.

So hard infact, that mummy’s can learn the art of baby massage to help their little bundle of joy unwind after a stressful day of milky goodness, napping, and generally looking all cute.

which is exactly what i’ve done today – the massage learning that is – not the napping & cuteness 😉
I really like the whole concept, so was quite looking forward to the class, but wasn’t convinced that the noodle was going to take to the idea – he’s a bit of a wriggler at the best of times, not a huge fan of staying still, so I was a tiny bit dubious to say the least.

BUT, he actually really enjoyed it! Or he humoured me at least 🙂
The lady doing the teaching was very good (although her ‘baby’ {stuffed version!} wasn’t terribly likely to put up much of a fight 😉 – she warned everyone in advance that not all babies are into massage, and that if that’s the case, then any skin-to-skin contact will do – even if it’s just a snuggly cuddle after a bath 🙂

She reccomended using sunflower oil – yes, as in the stuff you cook with – as it’s au naturel, no fragrances or the like to irritate sensitive baby skin, and indeed, gave all the mums a tiny little bottle to oil up their hands.
And off we went – one eye on her & her stuffed baby, one one the little dude to make sure he wasn’t about to explode in a fit of no-thankyou-very-much-mummy!

He was one of the smallest babies there, so a lot of the ‘moves’ were a little lost on him, (his tummy is about half the size of my hand, so whole-palm-clockwise-stroking was tricky!), but he didn’t cry once, he gurgled away pretty happily for the full 20 minutes, and i even got a smile or two when i was wiggling his toes! (not sure that’s the correct technical term, but evidently it’s good for all the little pressure points! :D)
So on the whole, I’d say it was a success 🙂
Will certainly have a go at making it part of his post-bath routine, and would definitely reccomend going to a class if you get the chance.

the other thing I’m chuffed with today, is I found these:

– how cute? never need to worry about odd socks again – they’re SUPPOSED to be that way 😀
i actually first saw them while putting my pre-baby maternity leave to good use surfing every baby site under the sun, but they were £15, which seemed like a lot – hence i’m so chuffed to have found them for the bargain price of £7.99 over at baby etc. 😀
i’m sure my credit card can handle another tiny little debt for the sake of cuteness in sock form 😀
wonder if there are any plans to introduce a daddy size version? that would be useful!

milestones a go-go!

Wow. That was a busy week. And full of little dude milestones!

We had our 6 week check at the doctors – all fine & dandy (and mummy took advantage of the free prescriptions perk to wage war on the evil forces of hayfever, yay!).

We went to our first weigh-in clinic (for LD to get weighed, not me – perish the thought!!), and he’s now up to an almost chubby 8lb 9oz – woohoo! He’s still really not looking all that chunky though – I think his weight’s all in his length – going to be tall & skinny like his daddy. (and probably able to eat what he wants when he wants without gaining a pound – like his daddy – jammy so’n’so’s!!! :P)

Also went to our first mother & baby group – exciting! I was a tiny bit scared to be honest – had NO idea what to expect – and was dreading a situation where everyone already knew eachother & I’d be left feeling like a lemon!!
Needn’t have worried though – I wasn’t the only newbie, everyone was lovely, and it was nice to chat to grown ups for a couple of hours 😀 Think the noodle was a bit overwhelmed though – he’s never really met another baby, then suddenly he was faced with a dozen of them! They were mostly quite a bit older though, and many were quite mobile, so I was a little wary of putting the noodle down to play for too long – just incase he got squished! I think he enjoyed it though – no screaming anyway!
They’ve got someone coming to teach baby massage next week, so I think we’ll go give that a whirl too.

And the biggest milestone, for me anyway, not sure the little dude even noticed!, was that the daddy & I went out!
Just the two of us!!
No baby!!!
The daddy’s mum came down for a visit & practically threw us out the house when we suggested maybe going to the pub for an hour or two! (yeah, chuffed to pieces to have him to herself for a while :D) so, off we went to our local pub’s karaoke night.

So. Weird.
We used to go once a week like clockwork.
Then it lessened a little as I became more and more of a preggopotamous, then stopped altogether when LD was born.
So yes, it was strange to be out anyway, then throw in the feeling of having lost a limb because my little boy who has been no further than a couple of metres away for the last 6 weeks is suddenly nowhere to be seen, and it just gets ODD!

But after the initial shock, I chilled out and had fun. (I even had a pear cider – woo! – just the one though, not going to risk a drunken baby!! :P) It was nice to catch up with people, and most importantly, to spend some time with the Mr that didn’t involve nappies or baby sick 😛
Still, I was SO happy to see my little man when we got back. Felt like I hadn’t cuddled him for weeks!!!

Wonder if that bit ever gets any easier?