30 Jan 2013

Pippa's new love...

....is a doorway bouncer!

She seems to really like it: at the moment there's lots of pirouetting around her toes and also lifting up her knees so that she drops down a little, then standing up again. She hasn't yet worked out how to actually bounce but squeals with delight nonetheless!




Rufus thinks it is the most marvellous of inventions....now, Pippa is exactly at the ideal licking height. He is so sweet, as soon as I put her in it he lies next to her and appears not to mind getting kicked in the face every other second. Every now and then he'll stand up, wash her face and hands and then sigh and lie back down!

Admittedly, the pack of baby wipes are nearer at hand than they were pre-bouncer, but even still I am not overly paranoid about cleaning her after every 'wash' from Rufus. I figure that she'll have the best immune system out there after all her Rufus baths!




29 Jan 2013

Crisis averted!

This afternoon I did a rather stupid thing......I locked myself out.  With Pippa inside.  Bum.

I had meant to just pull the door to behind me,  but then......click! And I had that sinking feeling.  I could see Pippa through the window, sitting in her cushion, sucking her fingers and looking pretty happy, but obviously was slightly panicked nonetheless.  Well, so ensued a mad rush around the garden searching for an open ground-floor window.  Nope.  I found the spare key but, naturally, I had stupidly left the key in the lock on the inside so it wouldn't turn.  

Enter friendly neighbour with a ladder!  Apparently it was an ancient wooden ladder, previously belonging to his father, which had recently been flood damaged together with the rest of the contents of their garage (oh the delights of Army accommodation!) and so its reliability and safety were at best questionable.  Anyway, it served us very well as my neighbour successfully broke in through an ajar upstairs window! (Needless to say, for any would-be burglars, if we go out ALL our windows are securely locked and our spare key is now in the safe hands of our neighbour).

Well,  Pippy was obviously very distraught about the whole affair as, when I got back in,  this is how I found her.....





Stupid Mummy.  Lesson learnt!

Off for a walk!

Pippa enjoyed a little stroll in her pushchair this morning.....I swapped the pram unit over for the chair unit.  She still fits in the pram and seems happy to stay lying down for a bit yet, but she also seemed to enjoy getting to look around. 




Rufus is off having fun and games shooting with Husband so we were able to pound (slight overstatement) the pavements without battling with Rufus' waining ability to walk at heel.  I need to sort it out as it drives me bonkers....he seems determined to get mown down by the pram wheels. Either that or nearly wipe us all out by darting into a hedge or driveway after an irresistible smell.  Blooming dog!

I know, it's not the most interesting post but I really just wanted an excuse to put this picture up!

A happy moment...now feeling fat, but happy!


JUST what is required on a drizzly day!  

Contrary to the above, my fellow lovely Army-wife neighbours and I have decided to start up a  'fat club' !  Lent is fast approaching and so it is as good a time as any to try and start shifting the rest of this baby weight.  In addition to generally trying to be a bit healthier and more active, I'd also like to give something up for Lent.  I am yet to decide what I shall give up......crisps, chocolate, cake, or what about all forms of sugary and fatty food?....no, you're right, that's just one step too far!  We're going to meet up once a week and do the whole weigh-in together....like our very own episodes of "Biggest Loser".  Yup, we shall shame ourselves into dropping the pounds, but I think we may skip the hideous two-part lycra outfits.

We're yet to work out a reward/penalty scheme for our venture, our one sticking point we discovered last night was that most of the rewards we could think of unsurprisingly involved food......hmmmmm. 

I am determined I SHALL find some massive, previously untapped, well of self control and will power. I'm sure I have some somewhere?

Let the games begin!  It's gonna get competitive!  

Regardless, I shall enjoy this moment for now and slowly mentally process my impending fat-fighting mission.

26 Jan 2013

The boob room!

It is most definitely a sign of the times and my stage of life when I can say that my favourite place in town is The Boob Room.




Whilst I'm sure it has a more politically correct proper name, there's no sign so I have named it thus. It's a room just off the baby changing area in a department store. You can shut yourself away with the nursing chairs and feed your baby in peace and quiet without the worry of battling with nursing scarves and disapproving glances from old men.

I'm currently sitting in Pret nursing a tub of pea and ham soup. I am very determinedly staring at my phone and avoiding the eagle-eyed glares from the queues of Saturday lunchtime customers, who're seemingly trying to will me to leave my table with their eyes. When you have a pram to contend with, a space in a coffee shop that is big enough to park the baby-mobile without completely blocking the whole thoroughfare is like gold dust. It is mine, I shall not relinquish it until I am good and ready!!

Right, another couple of hours to kill with some wandering and perusing then we'll begin the 2.5m walk home. At least the sun is shining this time!



25 Jan 2013

All fingers and thumbs...



I posted a while ago about how Pippa sucks her fingers (exactly the same ones I used to, as a baby, apparently!) here,  well now she has truly mastered the art.  

Her fingers are straight in within a second of her starting to feel upset or grizzly.  And now if her fingers on her right hand are inaccessible then the thumb on her left hand goes in.  It never varies from that pattern....right hand, fingers.....left hand, thumb.  So sweet!





Doggy Day Care!

Just a quick photo....couldn't resist! 





A life saver...a must buy baby item!

My Snooze Shade.....





Pippa is getting more and more alert and so is finding it harder to sleep in the day when we are out and about.  Enter the SnoozeShade....it's brilliant! Within 10 seconds you can fix it onto the pram and voila...daytime.....nighttime!  It works like a dream, most of the time anyway.  I love it so much that I've bought a car seat version too, it certainly means we can stay portable....as much as I love how good she is at napping in her pram I am keen for her to be able to sleep elsewhere too.  This definitely helps in that mission.  Buy one!! (if you have a baby,  otherwise it would be a bit odd)

Baby social diary

Pippa's social diary is filling up!

We have started going to Baby Sensory classes, where there's lots of singing, crazy arm waving actions (commonly known as baby signing, but my attempts are definitely confused at best), baby massage and play.







There are rattles, bells, feathers, scarves, mirrors, glowing balls, finger puppets and cuddly toys......so much to do and see (and try to eat in Pippa's case!).  Oh dear, that sounded a bit like an excerpt from 50 Shades of Grey.......wrong, so wrong.




Anyway!.....at one of her classes during this cold weather I spied a couple of the mothers using star wraps for their babies. They looked so cosy and so much easier to get the baby in and out of than a snow-suit (Pippa violently objects to her arms being yanked in), so when I got home I decided I would be frightfully creative and try to make one.

Ta dahhhh....! The prototype needs a bit of adjusting and is a bit big as I made it to fit up to 6 months.  But it's quite sweet all the same.









Today we had Pippa's second swimming lesson.  It is so fun!  The first one was last Friday and involved a 40 minute journey through deep snow (a journey which is normally only 10 minutes). But I was so determined to get there that I dragged my neighbour and her baby out for moral support and off we set!  As a result of the white-out conditions there were only 5 of us in the class so it was nice and quiet.  Pippa seemed to love it, despite the pool being a good 10 degrees colder than her normal bath water, she also got 'dunked'!  I had to say one, two, three and then do an exaggerated big breath in, then dunk her.  She was brilliant and hardly spluttered at all.  Apparently we work towards them being able to swim for a meter or two underwater, ready for a photo opp...daunting but exciting!

This week there were more like 20 of us.  With all of our 20-ish car seats, nappy bags and snow-suits combined with another 20 sets already in the changing room from the previous class, who were yet to get out of the pool, it was a wee bit MANIC!

Public swimming pools put the fear into me, mainly due to the prospect of a swimming costume and the unavoidably awkward hippo impression whilst climbing up and down the ladder into the pool.  Also, why is it that I feel I am in a mad rush when getting changed before and afterwards....it's like I'm racing someone and everyone.  Your towel is damp from the hasty covering up over your cozzy as you got out of the pool and therefore is not doing a very effective job at drying you; you whack your elbows and knees whilst trying to get changed and dried in the loo cubicle (seriously, just be brave and do it in the changing room like everyone else); yanking on skinny jeans or tights over damp skin, unsuccessfully; bra strap rolled up and stuck over your shoulder blades for the same reason, which you just can't reach to straighten out and wet socks despite your best efforts to hop around one-legged avoiding wet patches on the floor.

WELL......regardless of all the above I still love her swimming classes, it's one of the highlights of my week! (Photos to come)




One thing I do know is that Pippa is soooooo sleepy afterwards.....out for the count!

Military wives' choir

One of my lovely neighbours has set up a military wives' choir for our area.  We have had two meetings so far and I think it's going to be amazing fun! 






It's really nice to get a chance to meet some of the other wives and girlfriends from other patches in the town,  I think there's going to be a really good selection of songs suggested......everything from Oklahoma to Emeli Sande it seems..! 

The only negative point so far is that the hall where we have our gatherings is abso-blooming-lutely freeeeezing!  We shall have to work on that one.  I did try fiddling with the thermostat last time but I am slightly concerned I may have inadvertently turned the hall into a furnace for the cleaners the next morning.  Whoops.   

Our choir master is a really lovely old lady (if you ever read this choir lady, I am sorry about the "old" bit!),  but if I am honest I am a little frightened of her! She somewhat resembles Mrs Doubtfire but with a hint of The Trunchable thrown in.  She certainly knows her mind and is pretty wilful with it.  My suggestion to include a glass or two of wine at our meetings (just to help get the vocal chords warmed up,  you know!) was shot down in flames in nanoseconds,  and despite my persistent efforts to rephrase my rationale behind the proposal she stood firm.  It seems this singing malarky is a serious business.  No frivolity allowed.  Pahhh I'll soften her up!! 

Well, we have all been tasked with learning 'On My Own' from Les Miserables for next week.  A perfect excuse to go and see the film I reckon.......

.........and who can go to the cinema without pick 'n mix or popcorn.....bonus!


So sad to say goodbye to the snow....

So, we have been loving the snow! I can appreciate it must have been pretty inconvenient for a lot of people, but for those of us with nowhere to be (in any rush at least) it is pretty fun.  In fact I am a bit like an overexcited child about snow....waking up and rushing to the curtains to see if it has snowed in the night still proves to be soooo exciting! 

Rufus loves it too......




We had lots of snowball fights during Pippa's lunchtime naps.  He's pretty good at catching them but obviously got a cold mouth as he kept gnashing his teeth after he spat each one out! One downside of the snow....the big patch of grass at the end of our road where we let Rufus run about and do his morning 'business' (as do all the other resident doggies) certainly took on a new, colourful hue......don't eat the yellow (or brown) snow!!!

We decided to use our snowy walks as the first outings for Pippa to go forward-facing in the Baby Bjorn.  Hardly news-worthy stuff, I know, but it still made for some really sweet pictures.  It was odd not being able to see her face but I kept taking photos and using the camera on my phone to see if she was still awake and not frostbitten! 







And the snow also meant I could dress Pippa up in a sheepskin gilet I wore when I was little. Admittedly I think it is meant for a 2 year old but she looked sooooo adorable I couldn't resist.  Together with her oh-so-smart cashmere hat she looked quite the fashionista!




More posts on the way.....




20 Jan 2013

Four months old today!

Happy four month birthday Philippa!! Our darling girl is growing up so very quickly and naughty, naughty mummy has been utterly useless at blogging recently. I'm going to get down to some re-capping of our latest exploits!!