Cousin Time....

Yesterday we went out to the Wolesley Wildlife Centre.  It's a lovely place to wander around, with winding paths, things to see and do, and lots of birdlife.

Eyeing the Canada Goose!

My sisters and co.....

Isaac and Theo swan watching...

Sitting on their throne!

Joel loved seeing his big boy cousins and played happily with them all afternoon, crawling and getting involved in the train set mum put out for them!  He can't wait to run about and be a big boy like they are!

Culturing the Baby!

I guess whilst he's a little one we can get away with boring him by going to museums and things like that!  The thought of a tiny tot terror running amock around the Emma Bridgewater shop is a bit terrifying, but whilst he's in his buggy we can do these things now.

Yesterday we went to the Potteries museum in Stoke on Trent.  It was a great place, with lots to see, and entertaining too.  My in-laws are up from Devon and like most people from 'the south' felt that Stafford is way up north, and very bleak, industrial and with a funny accent!

When Steve moved here for University they were worried about where he'd be living, and were pleasantly surprised to find there was grass and fields, and woodlands and that sort of thing!!  Staffordshire is one of the longest counties in the UK and we have all manner of lands from the industrial black country at the south, the green and pleasant lands for the middle and the moors and fells of the north part!  We have Cannock Chase in the middle and rolling fields and I think it's  beautiful here!

Anyway, I digress.  The point is they'd never been to Stoke and it was nice to show them somewhere new and a bit of where my family is from.  My Grandma left school at 14 to work in the potteries (she was a lithographer) and there's so much history surrounding Stoke.

The Museum is well worth a visit.  They have various areas, with a spitfire (Reginald Mitchell was a local person who designed them, doesn't specify how local so must google him!) and history through the decades.  Chris was a bit put out that things he remembers from the '60's are now in a museum and not considered modern or useful anymore!!  In the ceramics area we found a piece of Cranston pottery, made in the 1920's by a smaller pottery firm called Pearl pottery.  And it was a lovely big, light and airy room with lots of space for Joel to have a good crawl about as he was getting bored of being pushed in his buggy.

In the afternoon after our oatcake lunch at the museum cafe, we popped over to Emma Bridgewater's shop and bought a few bits and bobs.  I found a pint mug in the seconds with my name on, perfect to match my pink heart 'Kate' plate (also found in the seconds)!  Chris and Wendy got a couple of mugs as well and enjoyed the place, it was really busy with it being half term.

Then we headed home to Stafford with a tired baby, worn out from all the visits we'd made.

Go With The Hunches!

After getting in to see the same doctor as our previous visit, I was glad (although not for Joel being ill of course!) but that there was something there.  The doctor said that he had crackling on the back and front of his chest so his infection had got there and he's now on antibiotics to help sort it out and after a few days so far, he seems to be getting better.  His cough was quite jagged and hard and it was horrible for me to hear him, and I just wished that i could take his illness and have it myself.

He's been a good patient, still happy in himself, and sleeping really well at night, going through most nights this week, and although his eating did wane a little to begin with, he is back on form!  Or maybe it's his favourite tomato pasta meal as he eats a ton of it every time!

Anyway, the upside is he seems to be getting back to normal and the extra bonus is he's sleeping through the night and waking between 6.30 - 8.00am!!  Which i can cope with!

Cough Cough

Joel has had a bit of a cold and a cough for over a week now.  I can't remember when it began exactly, I just know he missed the previous week's mums and toddlers with it, and bounce and rhyme but seemed better this week and went to his groups again.

After his nursery visit yesterday they commented that he had been coughing a lot after his lunch and on getting him home, his cough seemed a lot worse than it had been previously.

He went to bed ok, after milk and calpol, and before I went to bed I lifted him for a bottle and another calpol dose (having not put the cap on properly last time, as I shook the bottle vigorously it emptied half the bottle over me, in my hair, down my pyjamas and dripped onto the floor).

Steve came in to help me and we got his dose down him and put him back to bed whilst I had to go and shower all the nasty red sticky stuff off then when I went up to bed he was coughing again, very violently, and I picked him up, and he was sick on my shoulder (and clean pyjamas too!)

It took lots of cuddles and rocking to get him back to sleep again and he didn't seem to be coughing in his sleep, but this morning it's back and it's raspy and barking.  I don't want to think of the words croup or whooping cough yet but the Dr we saw last time about it (it's just viral pharyngitus and we can't do anything) did say to bring him back if it got worse and in my mind this is worse so we're going back to see him again.

TMi?? - Visitation

I think Aunt Flo has returned for the first time since May 2010.

Pass the nurofen please....

*grimace*

Baby Play

A friend from church lent me some playing cards called '50 things to do with your baby'.

I've been thinking that it would be a nice thing for me and Joel to undertake as many as we can before I go back to work, to try some nice mummy and baby fun activities to just enjoy our last few weeks together.

So here's the first list we'll try next week:

1 - Body games - in front of a mirror ask 'where's  your tummy', and point and say then move onto another body part.  Sing heads, shoulders, knees and toes.
2- Paint hand prints onto some paper using non-toxic paint.
3 - Pointing can be encouraged by finding lots of things for baby to point at.  Read a book and point at the pictures and begin asking where items are.
4 - Ball games - roll a ball back and forth between you.  Lift baby to a standing position and swing him to 'kick' the ball.  Line up bottles and boxes and roll the ball like a game of skittles.
5 - Help babies curiosity by putting some small objects in a pillowcase to find.  Use noisy toys such as jingly toys, rattles, clattering spoons and rustly paper.
6 - Make a postbox from a cardboard box with a slit and let baby post household objects.
7 - Make a photo gallery and go through it with baby to identify family members.
8 - Crawling games - have fun crawling with your baby and race each other to encourage your baby to keep up.
9 - Play tent - peg a blanket over the backs of two chairs and let baby explore the space inside.
10 - Go fishing.  If baby likes to drop things for you to collect and pass back.  Try attaching objects to baby's high chair with elastic and show him how to pull them back up again.

I think he'll cope with all those!

Wish List

I don't feel that I'm someone who wants things all the time.

But when I do want something, it can be a big thing.

Like a new house.

We've now been on the market for a year and had about 5 viewers in that time.  That's all.  We're a first time buyers sort of house and there aren't many first time buyers out there.  The most positive viewer we had hadn't sorted himself out yet and the other viewers were all of an elderly disposition who would have found the stairs a bit of a struggle as they're steep.

I'm learning to hate the stairs as I've fallen down them about three times recently.  Once with Joel which was the worst thing ever.  He was fine and I held him as I sped down on my back but I'm bruised and aching again today.   Why I sometimes do it and not others I don't know.  I feel more clumsy at the moment which could be overtiredness.

Joel is waking at 4am this week (last week it was 1am) for up to 2 hours of awake time.  He doesn't seem hungry, in pain with teeth or anything like that. He's just awake.  To be fair to him, last night he had a bit of bunged nose and needed saline drops and cuddles, but other nights, no idea.

So wish list today is for a new house with an upstairs bathroom, normal stairs, an entrance hall, a drive, and a garden that Izzy won't kill off with girl dog pee!  Not too far from the University so I can walk to work and Joel to nursery and someone to just come and buy this house.  We're desperate!