some recent photos

and apologies for my spelling errors my spell check will not work again and i am lazy to check myself .... sorry aunty Sandra

Motherhood

I have been pondering motherhood these past few days. I have a few pregnant friends. Caroline and Craig, due in august and Gav and Cath due on 1 June. I think your pregnancy and the first months are really such a learning curve. So do you think motherhood is an instinct or a learned skill?
Inicially PB (pre baby) I thought I would fall pregnant and have a lovely pregnancy and then a little baby would be in my life and it would be wonderful. Now dont get me wrong it is wonderful but bloody hell its hard work. I realise now that I was totally unprepared for motherhood and all it brings. I had no idea how you would feel, how everything feels so foreign and new and how you feel like a fraud having had this baby and now no idea how to look after it.
I know i have told you all before how I did not feed lily that first day. it really did not occur to me. It must have been the shock!

For me I think I have learned how to be a mother. I have had advice and help along the way with a good dose of my own instincy eventually. I know other mothers who have just taken it all in their stride and its all so easy ( or do they say that!!!)
With Kristian and I not having family nearby it has been more difficult I guess but as I said to my mum the other day if it doesnt kill you.............. I am strong hee hee

I was also thinking how diffrent people are. i was reading Pias blog thoughts of a dysfunctional mother ( naughty naughty girl) and she was saying how she would do things diffremtly and not buy so much baby gear, I had a chuckle because I think I dont have enough. i keep saying if I had my time over I would get .......... ( its the shopper in me) There where some things I never needed. If anyone wants a room themometer which doubles as a bath themometer you are welcome ( what was I thinking.. just put your elbow in the water woman!) but mostly I have used my purchases. some are put away now for my next one ;) but all well used. I could not do without my bouncy chair and my muslin clothes and babygrows lots of them.

Well I could waffle about this forever so let me tell you how Lily is getting on.
Lily Grace Humble
age : 7 months 3 weeks old

weight: 7.5 kgs and quite tall

clothing: some 3 -6 month stuff but mostly 6 -9 or 6-12 but they are a wee bit roomy shes quite tiny

sleeping : she sleeps through the night from 7 till between 6 - 7 the next morning bar a few night wakings for cold and illness the day is a nightmare with half hour naps at about 9 and 12 is and then about 3 but it varies. 1 long sleep and 3 naps then

eating: 1 210ml bottle on waking and porridge with fruit puree at about 9
*used to have a bottle of 120 ml at 10:30 but has decided she hates that and bats it away

*She then has lunch at 12 30 - 1 veg puree followed by fruit puree but at times hatesthe veg puree so just has her finger food for lunch toast with chese spread and bits of fruit.

* today she had the aforementioned bottle at 2 :30 so who knows

*then she has dinner at 5 usually its mashed potato with carrot, peas and fish with some cheese as its the only thing she loves. I can change the veggies as long as its fish and potato perhaps she will be brainy and then she has a yoghurt

*before bed she will have a 240 ml bottle ta da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

likes : her mummy to be in view at all times, playing with her puzzle, yoghurt , sitting with mummy and daddy while they make her laugh, tummy tickles , going out a nice glass of red wine ( just checking you were awake)

hates: sitting in her car seat going home , chicken , daytime naps , cutting her nails , tummy time, the hairdryer and hoover ( ironically)

new tricks : bum shuffling along the ground to get her toys ( oh no another crab child) clapping waving hello and goodbye whislt saying ewee ( which i take to mean hello) taking all the puzzle bits out one by one , kissing with an open mouth ( eeewww) peeping around things to look for people

so there you go a comprehensive update on lily .

till next time
xxxxxxxxxxxx
hugs
Wendy

blogging!!!!

Hello all
We have a new friend on our links. Veronica Cobbles has joined the blogging fraternity. Those who know her will know that the blog will be hilarious and a graet read. I for one am delighted as I seem to have developed a computor addiction. I dont know how it happened or when but its there now.
I definately have an addictive personality this we know. I think it all began with the advent of ADSL or broadband as it is called here. It costs the same whether I am on for 1 hour or 24 so 24 it is..............
Back to the blogs. I love reading them and writing in mine . I think we should all have them

Just to update you Kristian is feeling much better but now he has developed a proper man cold. He is feeling a little better but it occurs to him that having me fuss over him was quite nice so perhaps he should drag t out. earlier he was taking his temperature with lilys themometer!!!!!
Its apparently still a little high.

have a wonderful weekend everyone. I will be enjoying the sunshine. YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!
Love Wendy

the house of sick

Hello all

What a week it been. On Sunday night I woke up with a shivering and shaking Kristian next to me. In my irrational state I thought he was trying to wake me. ( I have had a baby recently sleep is very important to me) Turns out he has developed a high fever. so my week has consisted of running around being nursemaid and trying to look after a 7 month old. This is no easy feat I must tell. i have got so used to Kristian helping out in the morning and the evening with lily that I am now exhausted after doing everything. I must take my hat off to single parents. Of course its of no help that I have no family and friends to help out... sigh...

Anyhoo, he is on the mend now so I am hoping the weekend will be good.

Lily and I went to see another South African friend this week. i have not seen her for years and know her through our neighbors the Sinclairs. It was lovely to chat to someone south African and Capetonian at that. She has a lovely 18 month old little boy called Connor who i so sweet. lily of course cried her eyes out when arriving with all the trimmings. ie. cue loads of mucus and battling to get breath. but I just sat her on my lap and gave her my pack of tissues which she loves and she settled down. When Connor brought her a piece of his puzzle (awwwwww) she smiled and started chatting to him and was then transfixed. poor little lily has not been out much this week so i will take her on an outing today as she has serious cabin fever.

she is loving playing with her little puzzle at the moment and peeking around the corner at things. she leans as far forward as possible and swivels her head. the yogis would be proud.

we have no teeth yet but the teething has stopped for a while( touches wood)

mostly she has become so social. she interacts with us so well and is truly a joy. she looks for attention all the time and loves a cuddle.

i will leave you with some photos of her puzzling

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

wendy

I have learned to type

Hello everyone. I have snuck away from my mummy and daddy to come and tell you all about my week.

I have had a little bit of a cold and that keeps me up a bit and I feel a bit tearful and need lots of hugs so on Monday I just sat and lay with my daddy the whole day. They told me it was horrible weather outside so we would stay in and I could get better. By Wednesday I was feeling a lot better and mummy took me to the baby clinic. I had to lie on that scale thing with no clothes on and I really hate that. I thought no this week i really do not want to do it so I cried and cried until Joe our health visitor said I could sit up and be weighed. My mummy got me dressed quickly after that and I felt better. Then Joe gave me a bag with some lovely books inside for me to read.

I weighed 7 1/2 kg and was on the right point on my growth chart. but I heard mummy asking Joe what on earth she should do as I do not want to eat any veggies or savories. I really like the yogurts. Joe was wise to my plan and told mummy I would hold out till mummy gave me the yogurt and that mummy should persevere. damn..... foiled again.

I do like this one thing mummy makes so much its mash potato and carrot with fish and a tomato and cheese sauce. I don't like any other meat only fish. mummy and daddy cant believe it!

Then on Friday we went with our friends Ami and Leigh to Ashford in Kent. I was so cold when we got there I was shivering so my mummy had to run into gap baby to buy me a jumper. That's another trick I must remember. We looked around the shops there and then mummy and Leigh had coffee with Vic reeves wife. he is a famous comedian and she had some twin babies. I bet mummy could not cope with 2 of me.

this week mummy cut the back off my hair. she cried afterwards cause she thought it looked silly but I quite like it what do you think. I have asked my mummy to put some photos of me in London on as I don't know how to do that. theres also one of my hair and one when I was so tired at the end of the day I just fell asleep. hee hee

Today we went into London and it was really Nice I had a lovely time. I am very tired now though and think I should go to bed. I have a long week ahead of me of fun. perhaps tomorrow morning I will have a go in my door bouncer. I am supposed to bounce up and down I think but I just hang there lifting up my legs while daddy jumps up and down. i think its so funny when he does that. hes a nutter

goodnight everybody

huggles

lily

mothers day and other shenanigans

Hello!

Well mothering sunday has just been and gone and I had a lovely day. Lily gave me a beautiful portmeiron teapot with sweetpeas on it ( one of my favorite flowers) and a card with first mothers day on it. something to keep forever.

I dressed lily in her first dress we bought her. its cream and very traditional. she looked so lovely. Her nana Michele came for the weekend so she was very well behaved and smiley until after lunch on sunday when it all went pear shaped.

All was to be revealed though as she then proceeded to wake every hour from 11 pm with her teeth and a rotten cold. Eventually she came into bed with us as I was up and down like a jack in the box.

She has been really sick and bunged up today but still full of smiles and laughing, bless her little heart. Food is off the menu today.

I have got to say I am fining this whole weaning lark so difficult as Lily seems to be quite fussy and I seem to be quite a control freak. Its the dirty face and hands I cant stand . when she has her finger food i have to sit on my hands to keep from helping her. who would have thought.

I got over it today though. by the evening I had mucus , sick and all sorts of foodstuffs smeared all over my top. I just gave up eventually and changed when she went to bed.

just a little story to encourage people to have children!! :)

Lilys little sense of humour is growing by the day. she loves hiding her head from us now and if I do something funny like put a cup on my head she laughs. which I find remarkable for a 7 month old. I cant keep up!

lily has a clinic visit on wednesday so we can update you on her then and of course the dreaded singing tomorrow if she is better.

Much love to you all

Wendy

xxxxx

we are 7 months!

Hello all

It felt just like yesterday I was posting that Lily was 6 months but tomorrow she is 7 months old. I just cant believe it. Every day that goes by I seem to love her more.

We have had a nice weekend mainly because the weather has been so lovely. kristian and I are so tired though as lily has started teething in earnest ( just for you stevie). She has been waking up at night about 3 times a night letting out these screams and then crying and crying. I am plying her with her powders and teething gel and calpol. In the day she has been so miserable and she is so pale as well. Most of last week she just would not sleep in the day she was just so unsettled. Last night she just went to bed beautufully as usual and slept right the way through to this morning not a peep so I am so glad she is feeling better. No bloody tooth yet though GRRRRRRR.

Yesterday we had some friends of mine from Reading visit. They had some lunch with us and the grumpy Lily who would not go to them and could barely raise a smile. I will include a photo of us in Blackheath village ( excuse the state of me.. lack of sleep)

will keep you posted about the tooth I am sure we will see it any day, I hope so

xxxxx

huggles

Wendy

singing and day trips

hello all

Lily and I have been to our 2nd mother and baby group this week. I am persevering for her sake because I think its important she sees other babies and that I meet new people. Theres such a mixed bag of people there that I have not really clicked with anybody and lily could not care that there are other babies. Loves the other mummys and the toys though!

Then theres the singing. lily loves it when we all have to sing all the songs , I however feel as though I could do with a large vodka tonic to get me through it.

Kristian , Lily and I had a little day trip yesterday to Rochester in Kent. Its only about a half hour away. Its a historic town with the second oldest cathedral in England . it has norman and late gothic architecture and a romaneque facade. There is also a medieval castle there. many of charles dickens novels have rochester mentioned so the little cobbled high st has loads of references to him.

we had a lovely lunch and a good walk around and it was good to get out and about.

on the lily front she is doing very well sitting nicely and leaning forward to get toys. this leads her to be in the crwling position at times. i am still putting her on her tummy all the time.she has a door bouncer as well now which she likes. mostly she just twists it around and then lifts her feet and spins!

she is eating much better now but i am convinced she wants to be a veggie as she hates chicken. so its fruit , veggies and yogurt. she is having cheese now and i am going to try this lentil dish as well. gotta get the protein in.

shes babbling away much better and every day her little personality is emerging. she is so funny!

i will add some pictures of our day trip and some others

xxx

wends

a little bump

Boo Hoo my little girl fell off the bed. If I had a pound for each time I have heard . " it happens so quickly , dont leave them for a second" I would be living the high life. So what do I do. put Lily in the middle of the bed like normal. turn around for a second to get something. Madam must have seen her green rattle as she was still grasping it when I oicked her up off the floor. so she reaches to get it and tumbles.

I feel quite sick. the thud and silent scream!!! just 2 bumps on the head and a bruised knee. her lip was out for an hour after she stopped crying. I just cried along with her and now am having a large glass of wine.

since I last updated Lily has a high chair. I really wanted a wooden one but after trying her in all of them they were not comfy for her . they do a padded one that is so big but she likes it and plays in it while I potter about the kitchen. Food is going a little better now and she has had salmon and chicken. I cant say she is really keen on it but will eat it. yoghurt is still a firm fav but her breakfast which is oaty porridge and fruit puree is a close second

Lily and I went to a baby gruop up the road from us on tuesday. Its in a church but its also where we have lily weighed and where the doctor is ( perhaps its an indian take away at night as well) it was really nice . the toys were great and they do a singing session. at first I thought NOOOOOOO but when it started lily was clapping and laughing and jigging around on my lap. she loved it. she loves music. so I went along and now can sing the wheels on the bus with the best of them.

I am on a mission to do more and get lily out and about so I am looking at baby yoga and a book reading thing as well. Today we went with another mum and baby to swimming which was so fun. Lily took a while to get going but eventually did and was splashing along with Ami.

I will return to my wine now. I am loving this blogging thing thank you so much for my comments everybody. I love carolines as well if any of you have not seen it you should have a read. i think we should all have one. I am thinking of having one for me as well. a great outlet.

love to you all

wendy

xxx

leaps and bounds

hello all

Well as the title says Lily is coming along in leaps and bounds. Kristian and I have been talking in amazment as she seems to learn a new thing every hour.

She went away on another little mini braek this weekend to her nanny Michele in Verwood and had a lovely time. she has a new highchair there which she loved, not so much for eating the food in but definately good for banging cups on the tray!

She went and had a drink with her great grandad in a hotel which she loved ( see photo) and then went back to her nannys house while her mummy and daddy had a lovely time at the cinema.

She has had very sore gums and we have had a few screaming sessions. I think we are not far off cutting a tooth now. mostly she is in such lovely mood. She just thinks everything is funny. this week i have had a breakthrough getting her to take a sippy cup. it came when she was so thirsty last night and I had water in it and she was so thirsty she had to learn pronto how to suck on it.

today when she had her dinner i put the cup next to her and halfway through she stops and looks for the cup and grabs it to have some. I being such a softy, proud mummy type, well up and want to cry ... so clever

she has also learnt to clap now and shake her head when i say no or when she hears music. the music is accompanied with wiggles as sh trys to dance. Lets hope she has not inheritated my dance moves and pointing fingers...lol..

Food is going well. she went off her veggies a bit. i must say she does not like everything and if its green you can forget it.. sigh.. I see problems in my future. she does love avo though and she is really good with most things. tonight she polished off butternut and sweet potato puree and a whole yoghurt. never seems to matter how full she is, always room for pudding ( so much like me!)

Tonight i have taken her mobile down and had another little weep. I can remember like yesterday going to hamleys with my mum and Kristian to get it. I was so excited to have it. It was all set up on the cot for weeks. I had read about it. its called symphony in motion and the little animals are all brightly coloured. Lily would lie under it for ages. i could shower and make my lunch while she looked at it. when she started cooing and babbling it was to those little animals.. and now it gone cause she wants to hang off of it.

So things continue to change here every day. new toys come out and old ones ae packed away. the bouncy chair is almost obsolete and the highchair is on its way in.

The 6 month mark really is the beginning of something new for baby.. and for me

xxxxxx

Wendy

Happy 6 months Lily

This time 6 months ago I was just starting to push! In some ways it seems as though it has flown and in others it feels like lily has been around always.

she woke up today in a lovely happy mood, so she must have known that it was her 6 month birthday. Her sitting is going very well and she is really steady most of the time. She s leaning forward to get things and then will fall onto her tummy. I am anticipating that one day she will land on all fours and we will have a crawling baby. I must say I am gathering energy for it as she is into everything at the moment. If its in her line of vision she wants it so I will be running.

Her eating has gone down the tubes the last 2 days. dont know why but all her veggies have moved over "to the dark side" (to quote caroline) especially peas, it brought back memories of my brussel sprout days ( no mum you are not yet forgiven)

I am not pushing things though I will just persevere with it all.

I am also trying to introduce a sippy cup. thats another battle. she thinks I am mad, has no idea what to do with it.

so hopefully at next post we will be back on track with eating again.

I had a little photo shoot to celebrate lilys 6 months today and she loves it. Like father like daughter.

On a personal note I am missing everyone there in Cape Town terribly but I am happy to be back with Kristian here. i am feeling really tired actually perhaps due to my diet. I have cut back my food quite a lot ( for me) but I need the energy to keep up with a 6 month old baby. At about 4 in the afternoon I can just lay my head down and sleep. It awful. onwards and upwards...........

hope you are all well

xxxxxxx

a snowy day in London

Hello all

we woke up yesterday morning to a blanket of snow so draggeda very unimpressed Lily out to play. it was so cold and was still snowing for most of the morning. I will include some photos in our road and a few of the heath in blackheath and the park in greenwich which kristian took on his way to work.

So here we go ... Lilys first taste of snow........ what a contrast to last week

xxxxxx

cape town

photos of our holiday

Lily's big Cape Town adventure

Hello all

Finally I get to sit down to tell you all about lilys lovely holiday to Cape Town. We arrived to beautiful weather and a very excited nana , grandpa , uncle Andrew, aunty ronnie and uncle steven. Lily took about a day to settle and then she was away making everyone laugh and love her. it seemed asthough she was having such a nice holiday as we had so much smiling and laughing. Everywhere we went everyone spent most of their time finding different ways to make her laugh. It was like a looney bin at times.

She loved her cot at her grandpa and nanas house and she got a lovely paddling pool as well so she had some relaxing times in the pool. nana had lots of different songs that she sang to her which she loved and every morning she played with her grandpa before he went off to work.

Aunty Ronnie was also a bit of a loon and had all sorts of nicknames and funny noises for her. She spent some time there and one day we went to a baby braai there ( that is all the babies came and we braaied not that we braaied the babies) Lily loved meeting Adam and danielle and an older friend, Jake. Lily had great fun hitting adam on the head whilst he just sat there.

we had a lovely day out in Langebaan where we visited Caroline and Craig. Lily got all kitted out in her cozzie and hat and headed onto the sand where she buried her little toes in the sand and even had a paddle. Craig then carried her down the beach which she found very tiring and was nodding off. I had a lovely swim with Caroline in the beautiful langebaan sea. it was like we were children again. It must have been way over an hour and you just feel so amazing afterwards.

we had a lovely picnic at Boschendal with the grandparents, uncle andrew , Aunty Carol and aunty Ronnie and Steven. It was an amazing day for us as well as lily. in fact she was having so much fun she did not want to sleep the whole day.

we just did so much and lily met so many special people in my life. she was spoilt rotten by everyone and saw so many different things. she started sitting whilst in Cape town and now since arriving home has started saying mama, indiscriminately of course , but she is putting her words together now. I know she loved you all as since we have arrived back in england she has been a bit subdued. Too quiet with just daddy and mummy. she is back in the swing now and loving us both again.

I will leave you with some photos of our lovely holiday and the biggest thank you to everybody in the beautiful city for making this the best holiday ever

xxx

Love Wendy

xxxx