Family fun over Easter

My word of the week this week is Family. For a couple of reasons, one being that with the long Easter weekend, we spent a lot of time with both sides of our family, having a lot of fun. But also because with my birthday being right after the weekend, Daddy took a couple of extra days off work so we have had 6 whole days having fun as a little family of 3.

So, what have we been up to?

On Good Friday we went to a local garden centre with hubby’s family, Monkey had no idea that we were meeting any of his favourite people there and he honestly got so excited when he saw his grandparents, his uncles and his aunt. I wish I could have captured that excitement a bit better than I have but you can hopefully get the idea from these pictures of him dragging his grandparents around the shop!

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Monkey was also in mega cute mode as he was cuddling some of little animal statues, he is so into cuddling everything at the moment bless him!

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Easter Sunday was another family day as we popped round to my parent’s house in the morning to visit them and my auntie who was up from London. Monkey loved dragging Daddy and his grandparents off to play with cars, while Mummy got to have a nice sit down, yay!

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Then Sunday evening we headed to Hubby’s parent’s for dinner – Hubby’s Grandma, or Umuma, was from Singapore so curry is more traditionally their Sunday meal, so we went for a very yummy Easter Sunday Curry! Again Monkey loved all of the attention he got from all his family and actually had some lovely moments bonding with his Great Grandpa, who he can be a bit nervous of sometimes. So that was very lovely too!

Monday was a trip out to one of our favourite local zoos, Hamerton Wildlife Centre, and I took more than enough photos to fill a whole post so will write a separate one about that, though he had so so much fun with his Nanny, Grandpops, Uncle Mark and Auntie Fran, it was just lovely 🙂

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Tuesday I got a day off (hurrah) as Daddy took Monkey to tumbletots and then started his creative challenge of making me a birthday card with Monkey 🙂 I had a lovely peaceful day while Daddy and Monkey got some Daddy Son time going on 🙂

Wednesday was my birthday so we headed to Cambridge to do a bit of shopping and just enjoy the sunshine really! After getting a bit bored of shopping we gave Monkey a lovely run around with Daddy in the park, and he had a whale of a time, and was a good boy for the rest of the shopping trip, and I got a few lovely treats! Yay! 🙂

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Thursday Daddy was back to work so that’s where the family time ended, but we really had such a lovely time, and Monkey has been so happy getting so much attention from Daddy, and the rest of his extended family!

The final exciting thing to note is that today (Friday) we have our scan, so we will get to see the newest member of our family for the first time! Eek! Exciting, and obviously fingers crossed that all is well :).

What’s your word of the week?

The Reading Residence
Family Photo Friday @ Thursday's Child, Friday's Thoughts

First night in a Big Boy Bed! – 23 months

We did it! We have made the move from cot to bed and so far all has gone pretty smoothly!

We talked about making the transition a few months ago, and felt perhaps that neither Monkey, nor Daddy and I were quite ready for it. Then I fell pregnant and the problems with my pelvis started to flare up. With a new baby going to be needing the cot at some point we wanted to make the transition far enough in advance that Monkey wouldn’t feel pushed out of his cot. But then with my pelvis problems meaning that I shouldn’t lift him very often, if at all, we know we really should make the transition even earlier.

A while ago we bought his bed in the sale and he had really liked it in the shop. Keen to involve him in the process we took him shopping to buy some bedding, even though I had an idea of what to get him. A lot of the soft furnishings in his room are already matching, with a lovely cloud pattern which he adores, so I hoped that buying the same range of bedding would attract him to it.

We weren’t sure whether to ease the transition by having both cot and bed in the room for a while, or to go cold turkey and take the cot out straight away. In the hopes that it would make it easier, we did the former. He liked his bed immediately and cuddled up with his bedsheet – though he hated the duvet and pillow and wanted nothing to do with them! We will worry about those at a later stage I think! Too much all at once.

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But even though he liked his bed and lay down on it, as soon as it was nap or night time, he would get off the bed and try and get in the cot. A week of this and we realised that he would never sleep in his bed while his cot was in the room. Which makes sense really, but we were nervous of his reaction to us taking his cot away so we waited until the Easter weekend, when we had a good stretch of hubby being off work, in case we had a few sleepless nights!

Good Friday was the day. After his nap, hubby dismantled the cot and put it away, moving his bed to the position his cot was in, and hanging the little cot pockets that used to be on his cot, onto the end of his bed. I know this seems to be a weird position, but has always slept with his head by the door, and well, why not if it makes him happy?

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Anyway, we had talked about how best to go about it should things not go smoothly and he not stay in bed. I always liked watching Supernanny on TV and while I don’t agree 100% with everything she says, I do like her common sense approach to things, so we have Jo Frost’s book on Confident Toddler Care and looked to see what her advice was. We ended up using her stay in bed technique.

Basically you follow your normal routine, and put them in bed. When they get out of bed, you say ‘bedtime darling’ and put them back. The next time it is simply a firm ‘bedtime’ as you put them back. After that you put them back in bed with no contact whatsoever. No talking, no eye contact, no form of communication. And so on until they eventually give up.

We felt this was definitely worth a try, so hubby took him for bath and bed as normal. Monkey was really excited about his bed being in the place of his cot as soon as he got upstairs, and didn’t even want his bath! Very unusual but we wanted to use his excitement if we could. Hubby did at all as planned and followed the technique to the letter, and you know what, it worked amazingly!

Monkey got out of bed 5 times, then resigned himself to it and stayed put, and stayed put all night long! He can be seriously stubborn sometimes so this really did surprise us! He even slept in a little late in the morning, bonus! We were concerned nap times may suffer, but nope the next day he went straight down for his nap and slept really well!! Hooray!!! The same happened that night.

In hindsight, we probably “should”/could have done it cold turkey, but in the end this worked so well I think because of the preparation and I think the technique really helped too. Either way all is well that ends well and our little boy is growing up! Bless him!

So, while this was a very special event, it will now be a very ordinary moment, a real sign he is not our little baby any more!

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Ethans Escapades

Feeling the Support

After an insanely busy week last week, this week has been much calmer, and thank goodness as I really needed it to be. There has been lots more positivity this week too so that was nearly my Word of the Week, but instead I have gone for “Support” and I will tell you why.

Regular readers will know about the ups and downs I have had with my pelvis so far in this pregnancy, and I have basically been in a lot of pain due to a lack of support in that region. But on Monday morning I met my new physio who was wonderful and positive and supportive and she has made the world of difference already. I won’t go into too much detail here, but I have written more about it in my week 10 update, if you would like to read more.

One thing I will mention though is that I now have a rather fetching support brace, which is MUCH better than anything I have had before, in that it actually supports my pelvis. It’s not a miracle cure of course and the pain isn’t miraculously gone, but I have felt able to do more with Monkey this week. I haven’t been shying away from walks to the park for fear of the pain I would be in. I have been able to wear the support and have it take some of the strain for me and allow me to be more of the Mum I want to be. Yay!

The other reason I have chosen the word support is because my friends have been so supportive of me lately too, and I feel very very lucky to have such lovely supportive friends. They are a relatively new group of friends, we all met working in the same office and we have really got close since we all had children fairly close in age. I popped round to see one of them for a play date last Friday and I was feeling particularly low. I was in a lot of pain and was so tired after a busy week, but I needed to get out of the house with Monkey.

One thing I always worry about is being that annoying person who is constantly moaning. Growing up my Dad used to moan about his back allll the time, to everyone, and I would see people’s eyes glaze over as he banged on and on about it without ever asking anyone else how they were. I would never want to be thought of the way that I know he was. But it’s a balance because I don’t want to be a martyr either and not tell people who are close to me when I am suffering.

So I was at my friend’s and she knew bits of what was going on, but not all and she wanted to know how I was. I still held back a little though and at one point apologised to her for being such a moaning minnie. She looked at me and said “Seriously Caroline, You don’t have to be happy all the time. This is rubbish and you’re allowed to be miserable, and I want to know how you really are!” I think I cried a little (I blame pregnancy hormones) and spilled. And you know what, I felt so much better for it. I worry too much sometimes and need to trust people more.

As a group we went out for dinner on Tuesday and had a lovely time (even though our food took nearly and hour and a half and we didn’t get to eat until 9pm! Shocking service!) and again just felt really lucky to have a great group of friends and they were all so happy for me that the physio went well on Monday. There was lots of fun and giggles all evening and it was just lovely.

My husband and our families have been so supportive too and been rallying around to play with Monkey and get some of the housework done that I can no longer do, and overall I am just feeling like the pressure has lifted. The combination of being able to physically do a bit more because of my support belt, and feeling supported by friends and family has made for a much nicer week.

I think the fact that the week has been calmer and full of early nights has really helped too though! So there we have it, my word of the week is “Support.” What’s yours?

The Reading Residence
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Operation Garden Renovation #6 – Work begins!

Regular readers will know that we have been renovating our garden. It has been a real labour of love and we spent about 5 weeks on the clearance side. We decided to get landscapers in to do the actual um… rebuilding of the garden as we know our limits! We couldn’t get booked in quite as early as we would have liked and a few rainy days put them a bit behind schedule (boo :() but we have now started and they are making excellent progress!

They started by digging out where the patio is going to be. It’s amazing how much dirt they have removed from just that area – basically an entire huge skip just of soil! Sadly we don’t have any pictures of the skip so you’ll have to take my word for it! One of neighbours did ask if they could have some of the soil for their garden, and of course I said yes! Why not?

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Then they laid stones down for the foundation of the patio, and flattened with a very noisy vibrating machine.

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WP_20140409_19_20_35_ProThey then re-rotivated the old lawn, as the grass had re-seeded itself since we did it! Their machine was much more heavy duty than ours so it is milled a bit finer than when we rotivated it. They also dug an edge, as they are going to be lining the edge of the lawn with blocks too, to keep things neat and tidy. then they brought some big piles of sand in and we were under strict instructions not to let Monkey loose in the garden while we waited for the stones to arrive!

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So then it was a matter of waiting for the stones to arrive so they can get laying! Eek! It’s so great to see some progress finally! With the combination of the arrival of warmer weather, and all the problems with my pelvis, I can’t wait to be able to just go in the garden with Monkey! Thankfully we’ve been spending some time in my neighbour’s garden but I am so looking forward to a summer of fun in the back garden!!

And just quickly, in other garden news, we have buds on the bluebells! Woohoo! Very excited Hello beautiful bluebells outside my kitchen window 🙂

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Mammasaurus and How Does Your Garden Grow?

A very diverse week

There are many words I could use to describe the past week – hectic, varied, hospital, baking, exciting, depressing, progress, hopeful, honestly I could go on, so I have gone for Diverse.

Right… where to start?

We had a lovely weekend, fairly busy but it was my MIL’s birthday on Sunday so that was lovely, and then my parents are having their kitchen renovated at the moment so we invited them round for Sunday tea. Monkey loved a day with all of his lovely grandparents so that was nice!

Monday was a very exciting day! In case you haven’t heard, I was invited to meet Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro by TLC. It really was a LOT of fun. It was also really tiring – a slightly rushed trip down to central London, hours of being on my feet (soooo not good for my Pelvis but I wasn’t about to make a fuss), and you know how it is, all the mingling and small talk can get quite exhausting at the best of times, let alone when being preggo is tiring me out as it is! It was wonderful but I was so tired, some of my London girls wanted to meet for a drink afterwards but honestly there was no way I could do it, far too tired!

I don’t want to go into too much detail about it here, as there is enough for another post about my SPD this week, but there has been some very low lows and a very happy glimmer of hope this week and hopefully we will be making some progress soon on that front. I was at the hospital on Tuesday which felt like a waste of time but have another appointment on Monday that will hopefully be more positive.

My parents looked after Monkey while I was at the hospital on Tues, and they had a whale of a time. But we are all a bit daft, as I had forgotten to get them a key to the house so Monkey couldn’t come inside in time for his nap. D’oh! They kept him going but by the time I got home he wasn’t very interested in napping! It wasn’t a terrible afternoon, just very tiring. Then by bedtime he was so overtired and honestly I am a dummy as I gave him some cake at tea time and with the over tiredness and sugar the poor lamb took ages to get off to sleep. We really take for granted what a good sleeper he is usually and nights like that are so rare and worse because I caused it. Poor Monkey 🙁

Wednesday saw our second trip to the hospital , for Monkey this time. I’ve mentioned before how a health visitor had moaned at me that he walked with his feet out and that we should get it checked. Blah blah. Anyway, to avoid a repeat of this at his 2 year check we duly went to the Drs and got referred to the hospital. We have now seen a pediatric orthopedic doctor who has confirmed what we thought, that Monkey is normal and that it will probably correct itself naturally as he gets older, and that then as he becomes more self conscious he will probably turn his own feet in. So it was a waste of time, but in the best possible sense, and much as we hoped it would be the case, you never really know. So for all my moaning about it, I know it was worth getting it checked just to make sure that it is all normal!

There’s also lots of progress on the Garden renovation …. more to come on that next week but it is taking shape, eek! We have got the landscapers in and they are doing a fab job!

Also, the work has all been done in my flat, all the mould is gone (it was disgusting) it has been redecorated and new carpets are down. Phew! Hopefully we get new tenants soon, then we can start to think about the more costly job of extending the lease (eek).

Hubby’s parents have been wonderful this week and have helped with some of the housework. I hate it as I am a very proud person and I don’t like admitting I can’t do everything… but I have to accept that with my pelvis the way it is right now, I really can’t do everything. Hubby is doing his best to keep on top of everything but he’s busy and tired too so even a little help from family is making all the difference at the moment. Thank goodness we are lucky enough to have support from all of our family!

Oh I also went for a drink mid-week with a very good friend who was actually my direct manager when I was last pregnant. It was lovely to catch up as it had been a couple of months, and she is getting married to one of hubby’s friends (I set them up, go me!) in August, so there was lots of exciting thing to catch up on! She also very kindly told me that I look much healthier than I did at this point in my last pregnancy. As my manager she was used to a very grey faced zombie staring at her blankly most days last time, and she is right as the sickness and zombie-ness is nowhere near as bad at the moment, so that is a very good positive thought! My pelvis may suck, but at least the sickness isn’t as bad this time. I’ll take that thank you!

I am really hoping that next week is just a little calmer… but Monkey has 2 birthday parties to go to this weekend! Aaaargh No rest in sight yet!

The Reading Residence

A spot of weeding in the sunshine

As the clearance stage of Operation Garden renovation is over, and we are waiting for our contractor to start work on making the garden pretty again, we have been enjoying a bit of a rest from garden stuff. However the front garden has definitely been a bit neglected and is in serious need of some weeding and TLC.

So with the sun out on Saturday we went out for a spot of weeding in the warm weather. Monkey helped a bit too, though mainly he just played in the mud. We didn’t mind him entertaining himself though 🙂

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It was good to see some soil around the plants rather than just weeds!

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It was also lovely to have a good look at some of the plants. There were a few shrubs that we thought hadn’t survived after our long summer last year and the very wet winter, but to our delight even the most dead looking plants have got some beautiful green buds.

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I love the little flowers on this gorgeous shrub too, Spring is well and truly here, hip hip hooray!!

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Unfortunately we have quite a bit more weeding yet to accomplish but we at least made a good start. I’m just looking forward to my bluebells flowering now!!

How does your garden grow?

Mammasaurus and How Does Your Garden Grow?

Family

We are really very lucky as we have all of our immediate family close by. Both of our families are within about a 10 minute drive, in fact most of hubby’s family are within a 10 minute walk! The result is that we see them all very regularly and Monkey has a lovely relationship with both sets of grandparents and all his uncles and aunts.

Hubby's side of the family

Hubby’s side of the family

My Family at my Mum & Step-dad's Wedding in September 2012

My Family at my Mum & Step-dad’s Wedding in September 2012

This is very different from my experience of family growing up. My Mum’s family lived in London, where both my parents grew up. While we all got on well we didn’t see each other anywhere near as often as Monkey sees all of his family! But I do have lots of lovely memories of days out with them, and camping with my aunt and uncle. We spent every Christmas as a family, either in London or at our house, but we were never able to pop in for a cuppa. Every visit was a big event.  

A family picnic for my grandparents Gold Wedding Anniversary

A family picnic for my grandparents Gold Wedding Anniversary in 1991

We always spent Christmas together. This was 1994

Christmas 1994, I was 11 and having a cheeky sip of wine, only lambrusco though! 🙂

My Paternal Grandfather passed away when I was very little and my Granny lived in Australia, I only met her once when she came over for my cousin’s wedding. A cousin who I think I have met twice… My Dad had siblings in the UK and Oz and some other cousins but didn’t have the best relationship with any of them so we really didn’t know them at all. I barely ever even spoke to my “Aussie Gran.” For years I thought she was sending us birthday presents but it turns out it was my lovely mum who bought them the whole time! My Dad has been gone for 7 1/2 years and although my older brother spoke to them shortly after his death, we haven’t heard anything from them for several years.

Aussie Gran with my parents, the one time I met her!

Aussie Gran with my parents, the one time I met her!

I remember friends at school who had lots of cousins and they were all so close. I had friends who could pop round to grandparents houses after school, and it just felt really different to what I knew of family. I’m not trying to say I had a terrible childhood because of this, of course I didn’t, I didn’t know any different and my Mum, my Brothers and I are incredibly close. My lovely Aunty Maggie is still in South London but we try and catch up every couple of months.

There has been times in the past where I have thought about moving away from home. I travelled the world and talked with various friends about living in London, or even emigrating. But, after my Mum survived Breast Cancer the year after my dad died, my heart was never really sold on the idea of leaving my family behind again.

I’m obviously incredibly glad that I stayed, as I met my lovely Hubby who is definitely a family man and he and his family are all incredibly close. I know different things work for different families and I’m not saying this way is better than any other, but it works for us. Some families have little choice in whether they are able to live close to relatives, and distance (or proximity) isn’t the only factor for the closeness of a family. I know of other families with relatives close by who aren’t close at all. Some families don’t get on and don’t want to live close to each other. Different strokes for different folks as they say!

I’m not at all saying one is any better than another. I’m just so glad that Monkey is lucky enough to have such doting family members around him, they all truly adore him and it is lovely to see him interacting with all of them. Hopefully one day he will have some cousins too, though we will see if/when that happens! In the meantime, I am just hugely grateful for all of our family, on both sides and all of the lovely times we share together.

Having lots of fun and cuddles with his family

Monkey having fun and cuddles with lots of his lovely family

The Reading Residence

Monkey is a Daddy’s Boy.

I  know it’s Mother’s day so it may seem ever so slightly odd to be writing about the lovely relationship Monkey has with his Daddy, but as his Mummy I love seeing how close they are. At various points in Monkey’s little life we have struggled with separation anxiety and with him being with me all day every day there has been times where I know Daddy has felt pushed out. I guess it’s inevitable at times that the primary caregiver who is with them, all of the time, is the one they want to be with. But this can be exhausting for said primary caregiver and disappointing to the other parent who loves them no less but who feels a little sidelined. The good news is that they grow up and the separation anxiety usually goes away. Things could not be more different in our house now, as Monkey is very much a Daddy’s boy! When Daddy comes in, even if we have been having a difficult, mardy toddler day, Monkey is all smiles and sunshine and showing off for his daddy. His current insistence is sitting on daddy’s lap for dinner which makes it ever so slightly difficult for daddy to eat. He thought it was cute at first, 50 or so times later it’s a bit annoying! WP_20140217_18_26_04_Pro If he hurts himself, or is tired, it always used to be mummy cuddles that he ran for, and of course when it’s just us he does, but if Daddy and I are both there, it’s the Daddy cuddles he loves the most.

Daddy cuddles

Daddy cuddles

You may think I’d be jealous, but I’m not. I love it. Partly because at the end of the day and I am shattered (even good days are tiring with a toddler let’s be honest) I love that Daddy gets all the attention and to take the reins. I know Daddy is tired too but he puts in so much effort every day, and has done for a long time to make sure his and Monkey’s relationship has got to this point and I know he loves it. I am dead proud of them both. I am also very glad that I am not the one that gets clambered over, even for a little while. This was Monkey and Daddy’s playtime a few evenings ago. Lots of standing on his daddy’s chest, sitting on his knees and then flying on his legs. WP_20140327_18_36_45_Pro WP_20140327_18_36_58_Pro WP_20140327_18_38_42_Pro Basically just enjoying spending time with each other. So lovely to see. WP_20140327_18_37_02_Pro So yes, I know it’s Mother’s day and I “should” be celebrating me and my relationship with Monkey, but this Mummy is just proud of her hubby and little boy and loves the bond that they share. I know how lucky we are for Monkey to have such a good Daddy who wants this kind of relationship with his little boy. Is your little one a mummy or daddy’s boy/girl? theordinarymomentsbadge


Ethans Escapades

I’ve been invited to meet Buddy Valastro!

If you are wondering “Who is Buddy Valastro?” He is an oh so cool New Jersey Baker who is the star of a very popular show, “Cake Boss” on TLC. He is famous for making some seriously incredible cakes. Cakes that are the size of cars. Cakes that are so intricate and detailed that they look like works of art. He is basically incredible, and very funny. He also has two other shows – “Next Great Baker” a competition show to find the next great baker,which is a lot of fun, and “Bakery Boss” which I have to admit I haven’t seen yet but looks to be a little like Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares…. but in Bakeries, which sounds like it would be very good fun!

And I have been invited to meet him! Moi? Little old me? I have blogged about his amazing Red Velvet Cake recipe before (which is incredible) and somehow, that blog post has led to an invite to a press event! Me and approx. 14 journalists are attending an exclusive cake decorating Masterclass in London. I can’t believe my luck! My initial response to the invite was a LOT of nervous giggling and it took me a few hours to get my head around it! Heck I’m not sure I do have my head around it! But I am definitely excited!!

My version of Buddy's Red Velvet Cake

My version of Buddy’s Red Velvet Cake

Hubby was very excited for me and is happy to look after Monkey while I trot off to London for the evening where I will be attending L’atelier des Chefs for said Masterclass and ‘chat’ with Buddy Valastro!  They are even going to pay for my train ticket to London! I’m dead excited (have I mentioned that?) but also really nervous! I love baking and I love his cakes, but he and his staff are INCREDIBLE and create some serious masterpieces. Have a look here for some of their recent cakes.

After a bit of trial and error I have managed to succeed in baking his Red Velvet Cake but this is a cake decorating masterclass, and, well, look at Monkey’s 1st Birthday Cake! Decorator Extraodinaire I most certainly am not! So the masterclass will be great and hopefully I will pick up some tips, but I also hope I don’t completely embarrass myself either!

Decorator Extraordinaire? Ummm .... No

Decorator Extraordinaire? Ummm …. No

Not to mention the fact that the other attendees are journalists, I am just a mummy blogger who likes baking, I have a feeling I will feel ever so slightly like a fish out of water! I will have to put a lot of effort into faking some confidence I think! I just can’t believe that I have been picked to attend a press event with a celebrity. Little old blogging me! Crazy, but awesome 🙂

I am hopefully going to get a chance to chat with Buddy (eek!) so I need to come up with some questions for him. Are any of you fans of Buddy or Cake Boss? Any burning questions you’d love to ask him? I can’t promise I’ll be able to get answers to any of them but I will give it a good try!

To see Buddy for yourself you catch him on TLC as follows

The current series of Bakery Boss is on every Friday at 9pm 

Cake Boss is on Fridays at 9pm from June

Next Great Baker is on Fridays at 9pm from September

 

Mother.Wife.Me

Tasty Tuesdays on HonestMum.com

SuperBusyMum

Word of the week 28.03.14 Better

Yep thankfully this week has been much

Better

Its not that all of our problems have magically disappeared.We still have a lot going on, but somehow it isn’t weighing me down in the way that it was last week.

We have now seen the condition that the tenants have left my poor flat in, and believe me, it is not good. We are going to have to fight our case with the deposit protection scheme to not return their deposit, as there is so much mould covering the walls, ceilings and carpets. Honestly it is vile and should be very depressing. Yet somehow it isn’t. Yes it’s a pain, but feeling a bit refreshed after some me time last weekend I am able to recognise that it isn’t the end of the world. We will have to pay for new carpets and either clean/redecorate ourselves or pay someone to do it. But it will get done and the deposit should cover some of it and what little extra income we got from the rent has been saved for this kind of thing so hopefully we won’t have to dip into our savings.

Hubby has got another cold, poor thing he just keeps getting poorly lately and I have insisted he take a day off from work today to make sure he rests and recuperates a little. I know he’ll be back on tomorrow (Friday) as “he has too much to do” but hopefully a bit of a rest will have helped him. I guess it is no surprise with working so hard all week and then the amount of effort he has put in for Operation Garden Renovation lately. He definitely needs a bit of downtime!

The plans I had for Monkey and I this week went to pot a bit as the friends we were supposed to meet up with on Wednesday and Thursday both had to cancel, due to poorliness and dentist appointments. While sometimes this would worry me, this week it has been ok. We have actually had some surprisingly lovely times, just us, pottering about the house. My little man is growing up and while he still needs a lot of entertainment from various activities, in many ways he is much easier to please and he can now entertain himself for longer periods of time, pushing his cars about the living room for example.

We had a very lovely, slightly random half hour of giggling together playing with his blankie yesterday. he hid under it, I hid under it, we hid under together, he used it as a cape. So random but lots of lovely lovely fun.

blanky

It has not been a perfect week, but judging by my mood you would think it has. I feel refreshed and like a much better, happier mummy than I did last week. Ah the magic of me time!

The Reading Residence