♥ Reasons to be Cheerful ♥

1, 2, 3.....

1. ROUTINE: Well it's been a busy few weeks, all is going well so far with me in work and Baby R with the lovely childminder AA. We have settled into a routine of work and getting Baby R to the childminder and he has settled well so we feel very fortunate. We seem to manage our time well in the mornings, which is probably helped by Baby R choosing to rise at 6am haha! We've also had the horrible MMR vaccination done and a few raised temperatures as a result but all-in-all the form is good with my little clan - D is good, Baby R is good (oh who am I kidding he's a total star! Crawling and cruising and chatting and laughing, he's such fun to be with, he also keeps us very, very busy!), Monty & Luca are good too. Smiles all round. 

2. BIRTHDAYS: To top things off I had a birthday myself last week. I still like birthdays despite my age getting into not so nice figures (boo hoo: early thirties, not mid-thirties yet!), but I love the excitement especially after the post-Christmas blues and the prospect of cards, cake and maybe even a wee pressie, what's not to like (well apart from the afore mentioned increase in digits and wrinkles etc!!). And for the first time in many years I had to work on my birthday, so what I hear you cry, well I normally don't believe in working on my birthday, I really don't believe anyone should have to but I am saving my annual leave for incase little R gets sick and I need to take time off work (although I have been informed by one of my colleagues that you get special 'carer days' to allow for this). So anyhoo, I do blether on don't I, the day in work was soooo busy as my friend in work was off sick and I was soooo glad to get home. I picked up Baby R and came home as normal only to find my darling D hiding in the living room (he normally wouldn't be home from work yet) with a beautiful home-made birthday day lit with candles... 

...some bubbles (for later), lovely cards and a pressie. Lucky, lucky me!

D had worked from home and during his lunch break he made the cake (Cinnamon & Blackberry) and he even decorated it, I was very impressed. It tasted as good as it looked and was even a little healthy (made with wholemeal flour). 

I was lucky enough to get some beautiful Greengate from D (that man does listen!). I have admired it from afar as it's pretty expensive, but now I am the proud owner of some lovely, lovely Greengate and I love it.

 My lovely sister-in-law (well to-be, but it's only a technicality!) bought me a lovely jug (she has also listened to me blether on and knows me so well). It's very pretty and it fits in well to my growing collection...

My older brother gave me this... 

Mmm such a treat. Might save it for a special occasion or as a late birthday celebration at the weekend (hehe). My parents and my younger brother gave me some money so with my brothers money I bought this...

I am most excited about receiving this as I am desperate to make the Japanese Flower Scarf as seen many places, Attic24 was where I found it. And with the money my parents gave me I hope to buy some yarn.. just need to decide on the type and colour, any advice is most welcome (my budget is £30-£40). 

3. FLOWERS in WINTER: D came back from the big supermarket shop last week with a little surprise for me, he has listened to me blether on about hyacinths for a wee while now and bought some to silence me! Teehee.

  Then I was out and about by myself on Saturday morning getting the latest dose of Frontline for the doggies (we had a flea infestation a few years ago and it was the worst few weeks of my life that I never want to repeat EVER!!) and stumbled upon these lonely daffodils for £1, a bargain! So I just had to give them a home, they seem so much happier here.

Oh and a little hooky of the jam-jar-cover kind is also making me very happy!

♥♥ So on this very wet and gloomy Sunday I am cheerful ultimately because of my little family and because we have to make the best of this life... it's not a rehearsal people! ♥♥

Thanks you lovely lot for reading my yakkety yak!

Helen xx

PS This post was inspired by Planet Penny

Survival & Celebrations!

SURVIVAL! 

Well I am happy to report that Baby R and I have survived me returning to work and him going to a childminder. I have now completed week 2 and I feel much, much better.  The first week was a bit traumatic for me, to put it mildy. I spent the whole evening after the first day back in floods of tears. I felt like the new girl in work and when I got home Baby R slept for an hour so this really upset me as I felt like I was missing out on his life. Then it got gradually better, by the 3rd day Baby R was awake when I returned home from work and reports from the lovely childminder were that he had been really good, with very few tears, so this helped a great deal. This week there were no tears at the childminder and he seemed to be really happy and content when I went to pick him up. He has taken a real shine to our lovely childminder (Mrs A) and also a shine to a cute little blond girl who also goes to the same lady. I know some people wouldn't like for their child to be really fond of anyone else but I am glad that Baby R is bonding with Mrs A as I know he is happy when I'm not there. Work isn't bad too, I work with a nice bunch of people and it's quite nice to get the brain working in a different way. I work in an eye clinic as an imaging technician and we see lots of elderly patients and I really like working with them, I feel it's a difficult time for them and I like being another friendly face they see. The work itself is repetitive but it is interesting which helps being away from my little R. So I think I just might be able to do it. The first week back I kept saying to my husband D, through tears, red eyes and a runny nose, that I just didn't think I could do it (the last time I said that was during contractions, a little over a year ago!), so I'm pleased to be able to say that I can do it, (needless to say I also did get through the contractions and brought Baby R into the world!). We did it, Baby R and I - we have survived!

Thank you all for your lovely comments and words of encouragement, it helped a great deal. You really are a lovely lot!!

♥♥ CELEBRATIONS ♥♥

In other exciting news Baby R turned One! So to celebrate this momentous milestone we had a little party last weekend and it was such fun. We don't have a lot of space in our house and I was worried about having lots of people in a confined space but in the end we just went for it and it worked out just fine. I make a sponge cake (I wanted baby R to have a little piece so I didn't want to make something too rich or sugary), would you like to see....

And I decorated it with bunting from the lovely Jooles at SewSweetViolet. I went for quite a simple and classic decoration, I wanted the bunting (it's such beautiful bunting, thank you Jooles) and the number 1 to be the star of the show and just added some candles when everyone arrived...

The cake went down well, my sister even had 3 slices, which I am taking as a compliment! Victoria sponge is the way to go with my family it seems.

We decorated inside (forgot to take a pic!) and out with bunting....

I just love bunting, I would love to keep it up all year round but D didn't agree. Maybe I can put it up again for my birthday in a few weeks!!! We had such a lovely party for Baby R, family and friends came and celebrated with us and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Baby R had a good play with 2 of his cousins which was so lovely. He got lots of lovely presents and even got a parcel from one of my bestest friend's all the way from Australia. I nearly cried my eyes out when I opened the parcel, Dr T made my little boy a little sausage dog of his own. I was so touched that she had thought of him and had gone out of her way (she is a very busy doll) to make him something for his birthday (she even stamped the labels herself, swoon!) and I LOVE LOVE LOVE handmade presents, the best type of presents in my humble opinion. Did I mention I also LOVE dachshunds? Well I do, I really do, I LOVE LOVE LOVE dachshunds too. I think baby R might just love them too!

Dr T even made me a lovely handmade birthday present which I have to confess I opened before my birthday (I was tooooo excited). A crochet hook bag, I eeped with delight when I saw this, how could she have known that I needed one and the fabric is soooo beautiful too. I know you definitely will want to see...

I'm such a lucky person to have such a lovely thoughtful friend (why does she have to live on the other side of the world though, boohoo) and to get such a lovely present. She also got me a really cool stamp and the pattern to the sausage dog in case he gets lonely and needs a wee pal some day. Lucky me, thank you Dr T! 

♥♥ 1 year on.... ♥♥

I can't really believe we have reached this milestone, it's hard to believe a year ago he was a teeny tiny baby that I fell in love with the moment I saw him. The first feed he had was the most wonderful thing in the world, I didn't want to put him down. At the same time I was scared of breaking him and worried about if I was good enough to be his mother (did I deserve him), yet here we are a year later and he isn't broken, he is thriving and such a joy. I'm sorry to gush but I just love motherhood and all the joys and challenges it brings. It has been a year of little sleep (even now we are up at 5am, but it's so much better than what it was) and hard work (they really don't tell you how hard breastfeeding is but I managed it until 9 1/2 months and still have my sanity - only just!) but it has been the most amazing year of my life. Happy Birthday Baby R - Mummy & Daddy love you very, very much.