Going away for the day. Won't be back till late.

Must... still... post...

Teeth.
Aren't they fun... or not.
Bryher cried for half an hour this morning. She's normally so happy in the morning so I knew something was wrong. I tried all the usual remedies but nothing was working. Then she grabbed my hand and put it in her mouth. Rather than suckling like she normally would she started chomping down on my fingers... Ahh teeth!
A dose of calpol and 15 minutes later she's happy again.

So the fun starts. She's been showing signs fo teething for a while, red cheeks, chewing on anything. the last couple of days I've noticed she's constantly had a toy or her fingers in her mouth, but this morning were the first signs of being in pain. Hopefully it'll pass quickly.

Later we went for a walk to buy some bonjela. It's bitter cold out and the fresh air knockd her out so she slept for an hour after we got home. She woke up in a very good mood so to kkeep her happy I put her in the carry pouch. We spent the afternoon dancing round the kitchen and making cookies.

She's getting an early education in baking and music. I have to get her liking my (eclectic) music taste before her Dad gets her all to himself and she learns to like his music choices. He says my music taste is dreadful... he may have a point, but I like it anyway. So far Bryher seems to like Nina Simone and Louis Armstrong, they have lots of songs about "baby" which have to be sung to her, resulting in lots of grins and wiggles. Teenage Fanclub is quite popular too. In fact I've come to the conclusion that many musicians are very broody as so many of them write songs about babies.

If you're reading this, Well Done! Somehow I managed to let the manickitty address expire... I thought I'd updated the payment details but it obviously didn't work.

I found out last night so was going to sort it out today but The Lurg has hit the household again and Porl and I feel rotten. So far Bryher seems okay.

Porl started feeling ill yesterday and felt worse today. I didn't start feeling rough until later this afternoon. Porl normally does all the cooking, but as he was ill I decided to make some comfort food to cheer him up.
Shepherds Pie... or Cottage Pie... I'm never sure what the difference is.
Either way it tastes lovely.
One of the few good things about having a meat eater and a vegetarian in the house is that we end up with HUGE amounts when we make meals like this. It means for the next 2-3 days we don't have to think about what to eat.

I've just nipped out to the shops and I noticed there are 2 (two) houses on our street which have their full Christmas decorations up!

Two!

It's the 14th of November!
5 weeks and 6 days till Christmas! (I only know that because Dads birthday is 6 weeks before Christmas.)
If they keep the lights up until 12th night (which I'm sure they will and far beyond) they'll have had them up for 2 months!
One sixth of a year!

They haven't even turned the Christmas lights on in town yet!

Sorry far too many exclamation marks, but I'm both shocked and horrified.

The worst bit is that neither of these houses is the one which goes berserk with their decorations. No doubt they'll realise they have competition and put them up this weekend.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I love this photo. I must have been less than a month old. I'm judging that on the fact my brother is wearing shorts.

Unfortunately Dad spent this afternoon in hospital having a few last tests ready for next week. Hardly the best birthday ever.

This time last year I'd just got back from spending the weekend at my parents and Porl was excitedly phoning round all our friends letting them know I was pregnant. I'd done the test earlier that day. No waiting till the 2nd trimester for us.

Yesterday I was going to write about how colourful my garden is looking for mid-November. I even took pictures, there were so many things in bloom. Not only my passion flower and nasturtiums, but also poppies, geraniums and several other things I don't know the names of.

But then I decided to make my life a little easier and save that post for today.

At 6:30am this morning Bryher decided she was bored of being asleep. I'm not a morning person so if it's before 7am I try to persuade her with a few cuddles and a little rocking that bed is the best place. But this morning she was having none of it.
We came downstairs to a very cold house and a frosty looking world.

All the flowers in the garden are looking decidedly limp now.


I freely admit that I cheated. I couldn't get a photo of both the pretty sky and the frosty hills so I took 2 and merged them.

The verdict is (almost) in on the type trays. The seller got back to me and he's had them stored away wrapped in plastic for a very long time. So any woodworm is likely to be long gone. I gave them a good bash this afternoon to see if any sawdust fell off them and there was nothing and it's put my mind at rest.

I'm not being hasty and bringing them in yet though. I've got far too much lovely wooden furniture to risk it. I'm going to give them a good clean down... they need it. I might even see what effect Mums steam cleaner has on them. Then I'll wrap them in plastic and put them back in the greenhouse for another couple of weeks (the greenhouse is the only dry, non-wood storage place we have.) If when I unwrap them there's still no sawdust then I'll give them house room.

I really hope they pass the tests.

Porl's had a bread making session again today. He made white breadcakes, some with sesame seeds some without, and a plaited loaf... he did the loaf, I did the plaiting.

I've told him he has to learn how to do plaits himself now he has a little girl. Especially as in a few years time he'll be having to get her ready for school while I'm still at work and she'll want plaits.
He said he'll shave her hair off instead :-/

Last week I ordered some printers type trays from ebay. I've wanted one for a while to use as a display cabinet but I'd never thought to look on ebay for one.

In the end I bought 2, and they arrived today. I opened them straight away before thinking to grab my camera. Then I parcelled them up again almost as quickly and put them out in the greenhouse. There are distinct signs of woodwork. Holes and wood coloured dust. I've emailed the seller asking if they've been treated but I suspect it's live woodworm. I'm hoping tomorrow is fine so I can give them a clean down (they're scruffy but I knew that before I bought them) then work out whether they're worth treating.

If anyone knows anything about treating woodworm I'd be grateful for some advice.

Just a quick catch up photo post because the girl is stirring which means it's time for me to go to bed.

We had a bad night last night and I've been shattered today. But inbetween bouts of napping and cuddling I've managed to do some baking. Chocolate shortbread biscuits and chocolate brownies. I had made a lot more biscuits, but Porl is a big fan of shortbread. I'm a big fan of brownies, but it's a bit too sickly sweet to eat more than a few.

I ended up doing most of the baking with Bryher in her pouch on my front. She's still not well and it's making her miserable. Being in the pouch while I dance around to music is about the only way to keep her quiet. She seems to like Nina Simone and Louis Armstrong.

Also here's the finished ipod sock I mentioned. It's a bit baggy, nothing to do with the pattern, just my knitting skills. I might try making another to my own pattern.

The problem with blogging everyday is it makes me realise how boring my life is. I'm enjoying my life. Being at home all day with Porl and Bryher is great fun. But it doesn't make for the most riveting posts. Especially when they're both ill. No pictures either, it's looked very Wuthering Heights outside today. Certainly not photo taking weather.

Today has been spent mostly cuddling a little girl who's very wheezy and pretty miserable. She's slept a lot, mostly in my arms.

During the few moments when I've had both hands free I've been working on making an advent calendar using Jenny's pattern. I've been hunting round for a decent advent calendar. We don't normally have one as I hate the idea of the standard chocolate ones. The chocolate tastes horrible for a start, plus the pictures are rubbish, and they're just generally tacky. But now that Bryher is here I think I should get one. She won't remember it but it might take me a few years to get Porl into the spirit of Christmas.

Not that he's a Scrooge. He just hates the commercialisation and tackiness of Christmas. So do I, I just haven't convinced him yet that decorations, Christmas Carols and all the rest of the razzmatazz can be tasteful and fun.

Anyway, back to the advent calendar. When I was younger we had a great one with a few lines of a poem behind each door. I loved it so much that Mum saved it and ironed all the doors shut so I got to use it for a few years in a row... or was she just being thrifty?

Jenny's advent calendar is great as it's far prettier than the square fabric advent calendars you get in the shops, and I can put whatever I like in the envelopes.
Maybe the prospect of Ferrero Roches each morning will get Porl in the Christmas spirit.

We decided to try Bryher in the cot tonight instead of her carrycot. We've been meaning to do it for a while, the carrycot is fine in length, but getting a bit too narrow.

She seems to appreciate the extra space.
Sorry for the terrible picture quality but I didn't want to wake her by turning on the lights.

Today has been a day of sitting around lazing. Bryher's cold has developed, we went to the doctors this morning and she has a slight chest infection. She was still smiley and chatting this morning but then spent most of the afternoon either sleeping on me or crying.

In other news, my Dad has been given a date today for his heart operation. Next Tuesday is his birthday, but he has to go into the hospital for pre-op tests. What a great birthday present! As long as everything is okay he will have the operation on the 19th.

My parents have been coming up to visit us every week but I've told them they shouldn't see us until we're 100% better. It's not worth the risk.

Today seems to have flown by. I did spend a lot of it making stew & dumplings (1 vege, 1 meat version). I'm almost recovered from the flu thing but Porl has caught it now so he was let off cooking duty and I made us comfort food. I suspect Bryher has it too, she's snuffly, coughing a lot and isn't quite as cheery as normal. SH'es still cheery though. Being cheery isn't good though as she makes a strange croaking frog sound when she's excited. This can make her cough at the best of times so it's even worse with a sore throat.

When not tending to the sick... actually I'm not very good at tending to the sick, but I am good at giving out cuddles... and I finished my ipod sock. Unfortunately it's too dark to take photos. That could be an advantage though as the big gaps where the needle joins were might not be so noticeable. I'll take pictures tomorrow when it's light.

I felt a little less ill today so I've been rejigging the bookshelves. My Mum had told me to wait until she was up and she could help me but in hindsight it's better that I've done it alone.

When I was growing up I had the biggest bedroom in the house. With 5 built in cupboards. Every summer holiday Mum would make me spend a day tidying out the cupboards. I'm sure Mum dreaded it. I know I did. But it had to be done. I hate throwing things away. It's like throwing away memories. I think the thing Mum hated most was that I had to read everything. Even as I got older and should have been capable of tidying the cupboards myself Mum still had to supervise. If she didn't I'd get engrossed in something (a maths exercise book from when I was 7 for example) and the task would take me a week rather than a day.

Now I'm a grown up, with a house of my own I'm a little better. I still won't throw anything away (I have a file of notes left by my friends on my door at uni, as well as hundred of pages of song lyrics written my Porl and our drunken friends... certainly not by me.) Not throwing things away does mean I don't have to get distracted by reading them as I know they'll be there for me to look through another time.

However the bookshelves are still not organised. I tried not to read too much, my main distraction this time was a little girl who wanted to be played with. Once she was in bed I should have got finished quickly... but I found Please Mrs Butler and spent a happy hour reading it again. I used to know "The Headmaster's Hymn" (sung to the tune of When a Knight Won His Spurs) off by heart. I suspect it will be going around my head for the next few days until I've learnt it again.

I'd love to be able to post about all the exciting things I've done all day, but I can't as I've spent almost all day in bed trying to fight off this cold. I'd call it flu, except I had flu a few years ago. It floored me for weeks.
This is bad, I ache, my temperature is going haywire, and breathing is causing problems. But I'm still capable of rational thought, I'm able to get out of bed with less that 30 minutes notice and I'm not thinking of calling an ambulance. So it's not flu.

I'm also still posting. If I can post today they may be hope that I will see the month out. I haven't done any crafting yet, but when I've done here I'll do a row of knitting... maybe 2, then go to bed.
I'm knitting a sock for my ipod using this pattern. I've got about another inch to go before I can cast off. I've never knitted a sock of any type before so while the casting off sounds easy on paper it may all go horribly wrong when I get down to the knitty gritty.

I'm ill.
But I'm still posting.

I started with the beginnings of a cold yesterday and during the night it developed. It didn't help that when Bryher woke for a feed at 5am she decided she didn't want to sleep in her carrycot anymore and laid there jabbering to herself loudly. She does this occasionally and I usually just get her in bed with me where she falls asleep without any problem, but I didn't want her getting too close to my germs so I persevered with getting her in the carrycot. She wasn't having any of it though. At one point I got her to sleep in my bed, but she woke up again when I tried to put her back in the carrycot so eventually I gave up and she stayed in bed with me.
I'm hoping I recover from my cold before she starts with hers.
We woke up at 9am, at 10am Porl sent me back to bed for a few more hours sleep. Except for feeds (obviously) Porl has been on full time baby duty today. I've laid around convalescing and trying to keep my germs to myself.

I have still managed to do some crafts. I only made 2 cards, but it's something. Here are all the cards I'd made before today.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have some energy, so I can rearrange the living room. We need more space for Bryhers playmat etc, and we'll certainly need more space when she becomes mobile, which at the rate she's going will be sooner rather than later, she's already an ace at wiggling off her playmat. I've pushed the settee up against the wall of books rather than it being in the centre of the room and I want to swap a couple of other things around too. The big job though will be to re-arrange the bookshelves so that one is level with the back of the settee. It'll look neater and can be used as a table, but I also want to put all the childrens' books one there too. There's about 800 books on those shelves so re-arranging them will be a bit of an epic task.

Then next week when I'm feeling up to it I'll take a trip to Ikea and buy a huge rug. We went yesterday with my parents but silly me didn't have the measurements. I should just measure everything in the house so I don't have to do these things twice.

During most of my pregnancy I seemed to lose my crafting mojo. My brain was on other things and creativity took a back seat. As my pregnancy went on I started doing cross-stitch again, it required little thought so I could manage that, then when we finished re-jigging bedroomed round and I got a dedicated craft area I spent a few happy evenings doing some sewing and making Thankyou cards (I was anticipating needing some, it turned out I needed a lot more than I made.)
But then Bryher arrived so now my days revolve around her, and as she's sleeping in our room my crafting area has a carrycot in front of it.

Last week I went to my parents and my Mum asked me to help her design some Christmas cards. She'd saved the cards she received last year and rather than give them to charity she was trying to recycle them herself. Bryher was asleep so I spent an hour cutting and sticking, we got a bit of a production line going and made 10 cards. Mum laughed and commented that I'd come for a visit and she'd got me working, but I realised how much I missed crafting... even though I'm not the biggest fan of card making.

Mum decided my cards were far better than her attempts so she gave me all the old Christmas cards to bring home and carry on with. Yesterday I managed to get organised and grabbed a few essential supplies from my crafty stash before I put Bryher to bed so the past couple of nights I've managed to make some more cards. A couple more nights like this and I'll have made all the cards I need to send out. I only send about 30, Mum sends over 100! I'll make some for her, but she'll still have to buy some.

Making these cards has really got my brain rattling with crafty ideas again now. So instead of spending my evenings playing on the PC I'm determined to do more crafting.

NaNoWriMo started a trend and November now seems to be the month to take up new daily challenges. Porl is doing NaSoAlMo (National Solo Album Month). So I've decided to do Art Every Day (which I've heard mentioned but can't find a link for), and also because I want to get back into the swing of blogging again I'm going to try to do NaBloPoMo. I've probably jinxed posting everyday already simply by mentioning it, and to be honest if I fail I won't be too bothered, but I am determined to do some art... or craft everyday.

Wish me luck :-/

I can't believe how quickly the weeks are going by. Bryher is 15 weeks old tomorrow. She's settled herself into quite a nice routine. We rarely have problems getting her to sleep for 7pm, we wake her at 11pm for a feed then she'll sleep till at least 4:30 am, but more often than not she'll sleep till 6am or even later. She usually wakes again at about 7:30 and chatters away to herself, if I'm awake we'll get up, if I'm still tired I get her in bed with me and can sometimes persuade her to go back to sleep for another hour until I feel vaguely human.

Vaguely human Mummy gets to take little girls on adventures. Sleepy Mummy tends to stay home.

In the past 4 weeks Bryher has got very chatty (especially at 7am) she's learnt to blow raspberries and tells us fantastic stories. She can gurgle whole sentences. She does a fantastic croaking frog impression which we try to copy but it makes us cough. Worryingly in the last couple of days she has also developed a cry that makes her sound like the Crazy Frog :-/

A few weeks ago we got very very lucky. A very generous friend of my parents gave us the use of her time share in Scotland. It was a very plush 5 star lodge on the banks of Loch Lomond. We had a sauna and spa bath in the actual lodge, and access to a gym and pool within the grounds, there was also a golf course, several restaurants and marina but we didn't take advantage of them. Previous guests included Sean Connery, Cher and Michael Jackson!
We had a very relaxing couple of days getting lots of fresh air and exercise, and evenings playing scrabble
We also learnt a valuable lesson. Next time someone offers us a week in luxury 5 star accommodation for nothing, take the week... not just a few days!

This was the view off our balcony. Getting woken at 6:30 by a hungry girl while on holiday does sometimes have advantages. You get to see the sunrise.

Bryher also had her first paddle in a Loch.
Shortly after this we were chased off the beach by a swan who wasn't happy that I'd fed the ducks and not him.

Now it's bedtime, but I couldn't do a post without any Bryher pics, so here's a photo Shelley took when we went down to her studio a couple of weeks ago. She took loads, but this is my favourite.

Anyone in Tameside or Stockport looking for a photographer then get in touch with Shelley at http://www.northernskyphotography.co.uk/

As it was Hallowe'en yesterday we dressed her up in the Cheeky Little Pumpkin outfit which my Dad bought her. I drew the line at the actual pumpkin outfit he wanted to buy her. She'll still be able to wear this in a few weeks time without looking totally daft... I love the trousers so suspect she might get a lot of wear out of them...

This photo is a rare one... maybe even a first... as she's smiling. Cameras seems to be a cause for great concern. She spends most of her day jabbering and grinning, but the minute anyone gets a camera out she goes quiet and serious. Hopefully this marks a breakthrough and there may be more smiley pictures to follow.

Well it's been 6 weeks since my last post (bad me). Bryher was 10 weeks old yesterday and quite a lot has happened.

At 6 weeks old we started going to postnatal classes. We've made some friends and we've been learning about baby massage. It's taken 3 weeks to get her through the full massage session without crying, but after each session she fell asleep so it must have been good.
She also joined the library, I'm getting her started early.

At 7 weeks we had a day with my niece who is a year older than Bryher. We went swimming for the first time. Bryher loved it! We stayed in for ages, splish splash sploshing and she only cried when she had to get out. It has made bath times more interesting as she now splashes much more in the bath and gets me drenched. My neice didn't love it! She hasn't been swimming for a while and she screamed! I'm planning on taking Bryher regularly so she doesn't forget how much fun it is and stays confident.

The rest of the day was fun. My niece gave Bryher a thorough once over. She was totally fascinated, but seemed quite frustrated that she couldn't pick Bryher up. She gave her plenty of hugs though.
Later at night when I was winding Bryher my niece decided her monkey needed winding too and started copying me. It was totally unprompted and unbelievably sweet!

8 weeks marked Bryher's first cold. Thankfully it was no more than snuffles and she got over it quickly. She did manage to pass it onto me though and then get grumpy when my coughs disturbed her during the night.

At 9 weeks I turned into Evil Mommy as it was time for vaccinations. She hasn't screamed so much in all her short life. A few minutes of sucking on my finger calmed her down, but I think they gave her an upset tummy and she was still grizzly the next day. Grizzly though she was she did sleep though the night from 10:30pm (having finally done a huge poo) until 6:30am! Then last night she slept from 11:30pm till 6:30am. I'm hoping we can say goodbye soon to the the 3am feeds.

Her 10 week birthday was marked by finally managing to suck her thumb. It's taken weeks of knuckle sucking, punching herself in the face and poking herself in the eye but she's finally found her thumb.

The "Starfish" sleeping pose may have been replaced by the "thumbsucker" pose. I'm not sure why she needs to grip the back of her head with her other hand, but it's something she's always done.
Her thumb is definitely her new favourite thing. It's kept her entertained for hours today, which means it's also my new favourite thing.

In the odd moments that our life isn't being dominated by this little person Porl and I have been baking.
Porl makes bread. So far he's done plain white and wholemeal loaves, the white makes fantastic toast Also plain breadcakes (white & brown) herb and cheese breadcakes and garlic & rosemary breadcakes. All delicious.
I make biscuits. Cornish Fairings, which are like mild ginger biscuits and Catherine Wheels.
Yum yum yum.

I've also become completely addicted to Facebook... or more particularly Scrabble on Facebook. I'm always looking for more people to play against so feel free to challenge me. If you don't know my real name drop me an email first, my name is too unusual to publish here.

I'm also on Ravelry now and would be very grateful for friends on there. I've only got 2 so far and I feel very lonely.

Bryher is 4 weeks old today and it's co-incided with 3 big events.
First, I don't know what I did differently last night but she slept for 7 hours straight!
I put her in her carrycot at 8:30, we have it downstairs during the day, I went to bed at 10:30 and took her up too. She normally wakes between 12 and 2, but she didn't wake till 3:45. I felt like Dolly Parton so tried to get her eat loads, I put her back down about 4:30, she settled almost straight away then woke at 7:30 this morning.
Oh if only every night could be like that.
Most of the time she feeds around 11, 3 and 7, but we have the occasional night where she has wanted feeding at 11, 2, then every hour from 4am till 3pm. Those nights/days have not been fun.
For the past couple of weeks she's also been quite colicky, it's settled down now thanks to the wonders of Infacol, but we still have some fun times where she's hungry, but windy, and can't decide whether to bawl, fidget, headbutt me, or feed. When she tries them all simultaneously it's quite painful!

The second event was going to get her her birth registered. She's all official now. I'm just a little bit sad that she doesn't have my surname anymore, but we've given it her as a middle name so it's not gone completely... she just has a strange middle name to go with her strange first name :)
As Porl pointed out, this does mean that when she's being naughty I'm likely to call her by her first 2 names, and she'll revert to being my child again... hmmm.

Lastly, she's definitely been smiling at us today. Not wind induced smiles. They were real, "I'm happy to see you and you're smiling at me" smiles.
Our baby girl is growing up.

And because we can't have a pictureless post, here's our little glow worm a couple of days ago with her Daddy who's teaching her all about loops and wavs and sound recording. Much better than when he teaches her about the "shooting people with guns" games he plays.
Porl was dead against giving her a dummy, but he's come round to the idea that with some babies it's a necessity... especially if I ever want to leave the sofa again.

Speaking of which, she's gurning so it's time for me to return to the sofa.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I'm 30. For Porl's 30th we had a big party. My 30th has been significantly quieter.

I need longer arms to take pictures of the 3 of us.

Unfortunately Bryher didn't allow me to have a lie-in, but I did spend most of the morning dozing in bed between feeds while she gurgled in her carrycot. When I did eventually surface Porl brought me my birthday present, The Crafter's Companion, I haven't had chance to read any of it yet, but the pictures look great, lots of inspiration. My other big birthday present (other than Bryher) is from my parents and brother. They've treated me to a 60GB Creative Zen Vision M. It was due to arrive tomorrow, but Amazon are now saying it'll be next week. *Grrr!* I can't wait to be able to play with it, at the moment all my music is on my PC, and since I've moved all my craft things upstairs I've not been able to listen to any music while I'm crafting, although Radio 4 is a good alternative. It's also going to be great to be able to catch up on Podcasts, while feeding Bryher, I might even try out some audio books.

After Bryher and I had had a soak in the bath, separately, but Bryher takes almost as long as I do as she loves them and I haven't the heart to get her out, we set out for our first proper day out. It was also our first chance to play with the pram, we are very impressed. we've been itching to try the pram out sooner, but we realised last week that the brakes weren't working properly. We managed to get it back to the shop yesterday, and thankfully they did us a straight swap.
So with Bryher clean and fed, a working pram, and a picnic blanket, we stopped at the shop for some nice butties then headed off to Stamford Park to find the peacocks. We've never been before and we were pleasantly surprised, there's a lot more there than we expected so I think we'll be going back quite often.

This was the less mangy looking peacock

Do peacocks have a penchant for scary dolls heads?

Bryher slept the whole time she was out, we took plenty of pictures though, so when she's older she can see what she did on her first adventure into the real world. We were out for 2.5 hours and spent most of that time slowly walking around the park. By the time we got back I was exhausted, so we're going to have daily walks now to help me build up my stamina.

Within minutes of getting back Bryher woke and started gurning for food. Her evening feeding sessions can be marathons, so I've spent 4 hours sat on the sofa while she intermittently fed and dozed, any attempt to put her in the carrycot immediately woke her up. Thankfully Bugsy Malone was on TV, and it appears my singing voice calms Bryher down. Strange girl!