Cousins

Tuesday, June 5th

With my sister Cate's due date being yesterday, and me just getting over my usual half-term fluey thing, I had planned to drive down to Devon with Jacob today, so I could spend a few days with her, going to see What to Expect When You're Expecting and doing other such pregnant-sister delights.

All of that was scuppered, when my alarm went off at 6am this morning and I saw a text from my sister at 2am, saying "Off to the hospital, will keep you posted...".  At 6.30am, the landline rang and it showed my sister's mobile number - I answered, expecting her to say it was another false alarm and they were back home.  Instead, her lovely voice said "I had a baby!".

She had arrived at the hospital to find herself already at 9.5cm dilated (really, I thought that kind of thing only happened in sitcoms), jumped in the birthing pool, and squeezed out a baby a few short hours later (I'm sure it was more difficult that I'm explaining; it's just that in comparison with my 32.5 hour labour, episiotomy and 2nd degree tear, I'm just slightly jealous).  

So before 6 hours had passed, I'd driven 200 miles (Jacob stayed dry for the whole journey!), settled in to my parents' house, and dashed off to the hospital for some newborn cuddles.  And ahhh, cuddle we did ;)

Anouk Amelie, my precious niece, born 5th June 2012.

 3 generations of females :D

Wednesday, June 6th

On day 2, Jacob got to meet his cousin (he wasn't allowed into the hospital as he wasn't a sibling) and was very taken with her.  When he woke up that morning, I told him "I've got some very exciting news.  Auntie Catey's baby came out of her tummy!" Jacob was very excited and said "I've got some exciting news too Mummy.  I love you!".  Bless him ;)

Jacob meeting his cousin, a little apprehensively, but unfortunately not allowed more time to get to know her due to my Dad refusing to let him settle and get used to her :/

Thursday, June 7th
On Day 3, I spent a few hours reassuring my sister about breastfeeding, having lots of chats, and getting her out of the house for a walk.  And being SO excited about getting to have a newborn of my own before the year is out!

Anouk, mistaking me for her Mama ;) 

She looked so happy when her frantic flailing resulted in the right two fingers getting in there. 

Catey doing the International sign for babywearing - jazz hands.  I helped her get set up using her Close sling, and here Anouk is latched on and feeding, where she stayed during our shopping trip/walk.

Friday, June 8th
We stayed for 4 days then sadly had to make our way home.  Jacob coped admirably with all the change, and carried on using the potty/toilet perfectly, with only one accident when my Dad took him away without seeing if he needed the potty first (and then not telling me that he'd had an accident until all opportunity for changing him had passed), enough said.  We slept in the same bedroom (Jamie couldn't get time off work so wasn't with us), with Jacob on a mattress on the floor and me in the big bed.  He kept waking in the night and saying "Mummy, are you there?" which was the loveliest thing in the world.  He doesn't half make a lot of noise in the night, though!  Lots of sleepless nights resulted for me, especially as I began to feel proper kicks inside, which were properly keeping me awake ;)

I took this photo in the pitch-black middle-of-the-night, you can't quite tell but he was lying completely sideways on his bed, with his head hanging off.

A Happy Christmas

My two loves

Jacob loved his main present from us - a robot which was a last minute cheap purchase from ebay, when I realised I wasn't going to be able to finish the blanket I had been making for him

Skyping with family.  Technical issues meant we had to use the landline for audio ;)

My second head

Watching The Snowman before bed.  My favourite time of the day - Jacob loved it

Christmas dinner (eaten on Boxing Day) - Jacob carefully inspecting the components

Midweek - staving off the cabin fever (the weather here is terrible) at soft play with my sister

Quiet, peaceful, happy - Christmas 2011

Weekend away

Last weekend (*I changed the date on this post to reflect when it actually happened, so that should read this weekend. May 22nd. Thank you.) my parents invited us to join them in celebrating their ruby wedding. 40 years! We're shocked enough to discover that we'll be celebrating our 10th anniversary next year, with the less expensive gift options of tin and aluminium (biscuit tins? tin foil?). As I was the same age when I gave birth to J-cub as my Mum was when she gave birth to me, that means that J-cub will be my age when we get to that milestone, which makes it all the more difficult to imagine.

Anyway, we went down for a long weekend, stayed with my sister as my Mum's sister and husband were staying with them. We had all kinds of fun days out, and J-cub slept happily on his blow up ready bed (great invention), and us young 'uns catered the whole party.

On Friday, we went to a little train place, which had a whole gnome village in the woods...

...and staying with my sister meant that when J-cub wasn't really tired when it neared bedtime, we could pop out to a park near her house for some playing fun (my parents wouldn't really approve of such sleep-delaying shenanigans)...

When His Lordship was finally tucked up in bed (their thankfully-newly-installed double glazing meant that he went to sleep despite their neighbours doing some impromptu jazz-band rehearsing in their garden) we sat in their back yard for a barbecue, gazing upon the beautiful brickwork of the building behind...

...and my sister and I attempted to do some ANTM-worth smizing (but failed)...

On Saturday, my parents attempted to lead J-cub astray by plying him with chocolate cake...

And we escaped to Exmouth beach where the kites were stunning, and we hired a windbreak so the wind didn't spoil our fun...

...and we bought J-cub a bumble bee wind-spinny thing, which he loved...

...and my sister kindly took a picture of all three of us. J-cub was a bit cold, and demanded "Mummy! Tuddles!" over and over again. It was lovely.

We escaped the wind to play in a super-cool park, where my sister took J-cub down this huuuuuge slide...

...and a zoom in on their faces shows their complete horror as they picked up speed, but that didn't stop J-cub from jumping up and shouting "Again, again!" three times in a row.

After some serious bargaining with J-cub to let us join him on this retro slidy-horse thing, Jamie had to drag Catey and I off it, long after J-cub had had enough...

...and we finished the day chilling in a Little Red Boat.

I don't have any photos from the party itself, since I was wielding my Dad's new DSLR (and was very restrained in not squirreling it away into the car when we left). J-cub slept almost the whole way home, waking up about 10 minutes from home with a deafening shout of "Tuddle!" before lapsing back into a semi-doze, with his eyes shut but singing along to whatever CD we were listening to.

Home safe.

Day 20 - I thoroughly disgrace myself

(Sunday August 8th)

I won't linger on this entry. Suffice to say we checked out of the hotel dead on 12pm, I walked to the car, started to drive, and realised that actually, motion wasn't a very good idea.

An hour later, my fantastic sister had rescued me (on the day after her wedding, oh the guilt) by walking 20 minutes to where we were parked, driving us back to her house, getting me clean clothes to wear and tucking me into her bed. When she returned to check on me, I had a blanket tightly wrapped around my head because "my hair's cold". Oh dear.

About 4 hours later I woke up and felt sufficiently human enough to drive the 5 miles to my parents house. They were surprisingly understanding, had been happy to look after J-cub all day, and reassured me that they'd all been just as ill in their misguided youth (and reminded me of the fact that I've only been out drinking once in the more than 2 years since I found out I was pregnant) and it happens to the best of us. And I went back to bed for another 2 hours.

Silly Beth.

Day 18 - Family fun

(Friday August 6th)

We all spent the day at home today, having lunch and photos and with lots of visitors dropping in and out all afternoon to wish my sister and her fiance love and luck.

J-cub thoroughly charmed all and sundry by being utterly charming:

...and playing some kind of weird envelope-based game with his Uncle (to be) Sebbo.

Later in the afternoon, someone delivered the cupcakes for the wedding cake, which were stored in the garage and we had to keep going out for a quick look at because they were SO beautiful. I wanted a tower of cupcakes for my wedding, but I was argued down by my mum, who thought it was weird. My sister always gets what she (and I) want(s).

Due to these frequent garagey trips, the inner door from the utility room down some steps into the garage was propped open, as was the door from the utility room down some steps into the garden. J-cub decided this was a perfect opportunity to try out his stair skills, by climbing from the garden, across the utility room, and down into the garage (and vice versa), over and over again. The garage was empty and very echoey, and perfect for an impromptu baby disco. We practised singing and shouting and dancing (spinning around) and generally had a whale of a time with nothing for him to Not Touch and lots of room for him to run around. If I lived there, I'd so turn the garage into a playroom, it would be AWESOME.

Day 17 - Date night

Jamie and I went out!

We spent the day shopping in Exeter and visiting with my sister, then had an early dinner with my Uncle who'd flown home from Riyadh for my sister's wedding. He's my mum's littlest brother, and he's lovely. I haven't seen him (or any of my relatives, for that matter, they're all scattered very far and wide) since our wedding 8 years ago. I'd been worried that J-cub might find him a bit much, as he's very tall and loud, and it had taken J-cub a long time to warm up to my parents and sister. But no, it was like they'd known each other all their lives. Within minutes of him arriving, they were having a very serious conversation while J-cub transferred magnets from the fridge to the radiator (a job which took him all week).

After dinner, we sneaked off for a hasty wash and brush up and drove back to Exeter to see Inception. In the first half-hour or so, it seemed a bit block-bustery, and I was worried Jamie wasn't enjoying it. As soon as Ellen Page popped up, I was sure he'd be quite happy. I loved it. It's still spinning round in my head now (ha) and I've been having the most bizarre dreams ever since.

Oh and a quick message to the DICK who was sitting next to me (not Jamie, on the other side): It is not acceptable to take one, let alone several phone calls at the cinema, especially when your side of the conversation involves nothing more than the sentences "Alright?"/"I'm in the cinema"/"Inception"/"Nah I can't talk now"/"I'll call you later" repeated ad nauseum. Just turn your fracking phone off.

A Day in Pictures (3)

Life is moving too fast for me to keep up with blogging at the moment, I have so many things I want to write about but I'm so exhausted by the end of the day that I can't summon the energy to write. I'm going to try and make more of an effort, I promise.

In the meantime, we've had another glorious summer's day here (which was not at all marred by the 4.15am wake-up call from the nursery), full of family and loveliness and the crazy adventures of a brand-new toddler. Lots of photos, so here's another day in pictures.

J-cub getting to know his Great-Grandad. He lives in Gravesend so we don't get to see him very often, but he adores J-cub to pieces

80-odd years difference

J-cub with his Great-Auntie Pauline, who objects enough to the term 'Auntie' when used by her niece and nephew, and is mercilessly teased with her new position as a Great-Aunt

Maeby had been curled up fast asleep in the shade under a tree in the garden, when she suddenly leapt up and started stalking something around the (entirely land-locked) garden. Close examination found it was a frog who seemed to be suffering an identity crisis - he squeaked loudly every time the cats came near him. This mouse-like behaviour strangely did not deter them

By the time the afternoon rolled around, J-cub had refused to go to sleep and was suffering in the heat - it was 25 degrees even in the living room which tends to be cooler than anywhere else. He screamed if we tried to encourage him to do anything other than sit on us and watch CBeebies. So that's what we did

A little later on, some Calpol and some chocolate cake started to perk him up a bit

Toddling around on our gaming duvet

Giraffe-mania: J-cub sporting his giraffe ears, and holding Jemaine, Not-Jemaine (who I'll write about soon) and his new friend Olaf who came all the way back from Auntie Rachel's holiday in France

When the afternoon cooled down a bit we went for ever such a long walk to the shop to buy Welsh cakes, then to the pond to see the ducks, then back home. J-cub walked all the way, apart from when a nasty gravel path bit his knees and he had to be carried onto the grass

Looking at the ducklings

Quack!

Walking excitedly towards a bench...

...and getting a bit close to the birdies

Just before bedtime J-cub disappeared into the hall, a shriek of delight and several thumps later he knee-walked back in with a football he'd unearthed. It was very exciting and his Daddy was very proud

After listening to J-cub playing in the cot and refusing to go to sleep for nearly 2 hours, we finally managed to eat dinner and settled down to an evening of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and the associated Nintendonitis

Despite it still being 23 degrees in the living room, Rachel is happily sitting on her cushion wrapped in the gaming duvet as I type. Jamie is 'helping' her, and I'm itching to watch the finale of Doctor Who. We're planning on getting up really early in the morning to go to the beach before it gets too hot, before returning via an NCT Nearly New sale and then coming home to watch some sort of relatively important football match which is apparently on.

Goodnight ;)