The One About Monday . . .

This week I thought it might be fun to blog about our week, and it might give Mark an idea of what we get up to when he's not here!

Today we were woken up at 5:30am, which given that Alissia went to sleep last night at 7pm isn't bad at all.  It just felt a bit early because over the weekend she was sleeping for 12 hours till 7am.  As I'd gone to bed last night with a really bad headache and it was still sore this morning Mark offered to do the feed so I could go back to bed.  So back to sleep I went and we didn't get up till 8am!  Today we were going out to the Trafford centre with my Mum, because both Alissia and I needed new jackets.  Alissia had grown out of hers and mine has got holes in it!

Mum got here at about twenty to ten, and after a quick visit to the petrol station we arrived.  We had lots of time before Alissia was due another feed, and we made it round quite a few shops.  Alissia kept putting her feet up on the bar of the pram, and every time I put her foot back she would just put it on up there again, so in the end I gave up!

We didn't find me a jacket because everything in the shops is just this for the summer and waterproof.  But while I need waterproof, especially at the moment with this weather, I need something warm, everyone who knows me knows that I am always cold.  That's why I love my current jacket, because it's fleece lined inside.  But I did find this lovely pink hoody, which means I won't have to wear Mark's as often which he'll be pleased about!

Luckily we found Alissia a lovely little pink jacket in M&S, and I bought her a little pink top too.  Alissia decided it was time for her feed at 12pm, bang on three hours from the last one - I don't think we're going to have much trouble with teaching her the time when she gets older!!!

Anyway, Mum decided to feed her, then off we went to Pizza Express for our lunch, where I have a taste card for and get buy one get one free on meals!  Alissia was as good as gold and went to sleep all by herself, all I had to do was give her the dummy and drop the pram down a notch and she was out like a light!  I think it was all that shrieking she'd done as we'd gone round all the shops!

Laughing at Nanny Ann! 

Fast asleep!

After lunch we tried a few other shops for jackets but didn't find anything.  But we did go in Mama's and Papa's to look at seats for the bath, but Mum ended up buying a couple of toys for Alissia instead.  We held the Octopus in front of Alissia and squeaked its leg (or should that be tenatacle!) and it made her giggle, so how could we resist!  (I want a bath seat because at the moment Alissia just kind of floats on her back in the bath and I want her to sit up a bit more).

We got home from the Trafford Centre and had a cup of tea, while Alissia chilled in her bouncy chair while watching CBeebies!  After Mum had left I did some singing with Alissia and read her a Postman Pat story until it was bathtime at 5:30.  Alissia is in a routine now where she has a bath, then her bottle, then goes to bed, and it's the same every night.  Tonight she was asleep for 6:45pm, we'll have to see when she wakes up tomorrow!  After bedtime, it was off to the kitchen for me to cook dinner (salmon in a creamy white wine sauce with mash) then a chance to relax on the sofa in front of the TV.  However the TV watching was interrupted because Mark wanted to solve his Maths problem.  Have you been watching Dara O'Briain's School of Sums?  Well at the end of every episode they set you a maths challenge, and the most recent one was driving him mad, until he solved it about 5 minutes ago!!!

I'm going to try to keep up with this every day, but we'll have to see!

Ps The daily posts probably won't be as long or as detailed as this every day - our days aren't that exciting at all!

The One About Some Cards . . .

In my previous post I mentioned that we went out for my Mum's and sister's birthday.  Well rather than buying birthday cards I wanted to make them myself.  So on Saturday afternoon Mark took Alissia out so I could do my crafting without worrying about entertaining Alissia!

 For my sister:

Mainly yellow's because my sister doesn't like pink!

For my Mum:

Purples for Mum as it's her favourite colour!

And a new baby card for my friend that I made back in April:

The One About Pizza Express . . .

As my Mum and Sister have their birthdays at the beginning of June, and my sister and her husband are off on a very belated honeymoon the day after Mum's birthday we celebrated early this year.  We decided to go to Pizza Express for lunch because it's so much easier with Alissia than going out for dinner, especially as she likes to be in bed early, sometimes even 6:30pm!

We had a really lovely meal, and took lots of photos.  The only downside was that for some reason the restaurant did not have any baby changing facilities which I found completely ridiculous considering they had high chairs and obviously expect babies to visit!  I have written a complaint and will keep you posted!

It was nice to be able to get all dressed up for a change, even if it was only lunch!

Learning to read the menu at an early age!

Trying to capture Alissia smiling, and me not being successful!

The One About the Keys . . .

Back when I was in sixth form, oooh over ten years ago now, my Mum and Dad went on holiday with my brother and my sister and I stayed at home.  Well at 17 and 15, we felt we were too old to be going on holiday with our parents, so instead we had two weeks where we just chilled at home, oh and looked after our cat Poppy.  Oh and before you ask, no there weren't any mad parties.

Mum left us with a fully stocked cupboard and fridge of supplies, but we needed to go out one morning to get necessities like milk and bread.  So because it was a nice day we decided to walk into town to the supermarket to get them.  As we were getting ready to go, as the next day was bin day I emptied the kitchen bin and put the rubbish out.  My sister, being sensible put the alarm on the house and pulled the door shut behind her . . . big mistake!  She thought I had the house keys, and I presumed she had them!  Unfortunately we had one of those doors that once it's closed it's locked tight and you can't get back in.  So, we were locked out!

We did the only thing we could think of . . . we walked round the corner to my mum's friends house and explained our predicament.  They got out their yellow pages, and let me use their phone to ring a locksmith.  (This was well before I started carrying a mobile with me wherever I went - in fact that didn't happen until I went to university!)  So we went back to the house, sat on the doorstep and waited for the locksmith.  Did I mention that it was a nice sunny day?  It would have been a lot worse I think if it had been raining, but then if it was raining we probably wouldn't have been going out in the first place and none of this would have happened!  You could think about things forever going 'what if?' couldn't you?

When the locksmith arrived, his best suggestion was to take one of the window panes out of the dining room, the bay window at the front, for me to climb in to turn the alarm off and get the key out of the front door.  As it was the only option, we had to go with it, and because I was the eldest, naturally it fell to me to do the climbing, although my sister was smaller than me at the time (she's taller than me now!) and perhaps she should have gone in! Luckily my Mum had left us with emergency money so we were able to pay the locksmith.  And when our parents next rang to check in on us, they weren't too cross as all about what had happened.  Probably because with two teenage girls on their own for two weeks, we could have got up to a lot worse!

Thanks to my sister for reminding me about this story today, because I had been really struggling to think of anything to write!

This story is brought to you as part of Sian's Storytelling Sunday.  Why don't you hop on over to her blog to read lots of other stories today.

The One About Alissia at 16 weeks . . .

I thought it might be an idea to update on here because I still haven't managed to find the time to do any scrapping of Alissia photos, and I don't want to forget anything before I do get round to it!

So at 16 weeks:

Alissia went in her special baby carrier with her Daddy round the Trafford Centre, and particularly liked looking up at all the light fittings in the different home stores

Alissia is now sleeping in her cot at night in her own room, and generally is sleeping through until 6am

Alissia has grown out of the carry cot and is now going out in her big girl pram, and loves it, particularly resting her feet on the bar across her lap (which is the sort of thing her Daddy would do!)

We tried her in the Jumperoo!  She's still not sure about it, and doesn't tend to stay in longer than 10 minutes, but she's slowly learning to bounce!

Alissia is really good with her head control, and will go on her tummy more, especially if she is high up, like on our bed, just not on her playmat!

She's holding toys that we give her, and anything that she can grab is going into her mouth!  Bib included!

Oh and she's started with the teething, and so she drools all the time!  So now she just lives in her bibs!

And in other news a big thank you to Jane for my award, and I will be back another time to talk about that!

The One About the Surprise Visitor . . .

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine came to visit, and to meet Alissia for the first time.  We had a lovely time catching up, then all too soon it was time for her to go.  I opened the front door, and there was next door's dog who tried to get in!  I have never liked dogs, or when they jump at you on your legs.  But with Alissia in her bouncy chair in the front room I had to do something, I couldn't have the dog getting to her.  Millie kept trying to push her way through the gap of the open door, but I managed to keep her at the door, and eventually got her out onto the pavement outside.  Then I started hammering on for next door to come and fetch the dog because I couldn't look after her all day!  Next door eventually came to the door, and said she didn't even realise the dog was out!  It's quite lucky that I opened our front door when I did because we live on a busy street with some little shops, and there are always cars pulling up outside.  Normally the dog is only allowed out in the back yard which is completely fenced in.  So we still can't work out how she got out in the first place!  I really hope that she doesn't try to visit again!  When she's been in the back yard before, and I've had to put the rubbish out she's got in the house and run round the kitchen, and into the front room!  I wasn't best pleased that day, especially as I was cooking dinner at the time.  I have also caught her peeing on my flower beds before now - so she isn't my favourite animal.

This story is brought to you for Sian's Storytelling Sunday.  Make sure you check out her blog where they'll be lots more stories!

The One About The Baby Card . . .

So my friend had her baby two weeks ago Saturday, and this weekend while I was at my Mum's I managed to make her a new baby card. Hopefully I'll be able to do some scrapping soon too.  I'm itching to some Alissia pages!