Happy Christmas!

Grandad Col, Granny T, Daddy, Eve and Jeggsy

Wow! Christmas has now been and gone but we're most definitely still enjoying the holidays.  It feels like our first real break for a long time and has been much needed.  Unfortunately Sam was ill with a stomach bug on Christmas Eve, and then after the cooking of the Christmas roast on the big day I then came down with it too. Eve suffered with her teeth both days and was constantly waking up each night. I did feel sorry for Granny who was staying with us. But we had a lovely time with her and it was nice that she was here to look after us all.

Whilst Sam was ill in bed on Christmas eve, me, mum and Eve nipped over to Laura's house in Bishopston to spend some time with them for an hour. Our families have been friends since Laura and I were 3 years old so it was good to keep up the tradition as Laura's parent's were over from France. The kids really enjoyed playing with each other, and it was lovely to see our dear friend Jilly just days from her first baby's due date.

Laura with her eldest daughter, Elodie

Jilly with Eve and Agnes

Mum had arrived early on Christmas eve to bring me a large pan to cook our Christmas ham. It was a great success - however as we had gone out for a jolly time at Laura's we left it cooking slightly longer than we should so the fat had gone rather black but it still tasted great - next time I shall aim for perfection! :-)

Although Eve woke up a lot during the night of Christmas eve she had a lovely time crawling around all the presents on Christmas morning. She particularly like the frying pan and fried egg that was in her stocking (good job to the £ pound shop!) - and has started putting the egg in the pan - and other toys inside things - before toys were taken out of containers and not put in, so we've reached a new part in her development which is cool. 

Eve's small stocking next to her in this picture was my stocking when I was a child - I have such fond memories of finding it at the bottom of my bed each year.

Daddy opening Eve's stocking with her. She is a very lucky girl and received so many lovely gifts - it took us until Boxing day to open everything. Thank you to all our family and friends who gave her presents.

It was so nice catching up with my mum - chatting and cooking the ham on Christmas eve together was wonderful.  I did feel sad that I could not watch telly, drink red wine and chat together on the evening of Christmas day as I felt so ill. Of course, she understood having had three children of her own and knowing that these are the kind of things that happen.

Daddy carving the turkey with festive Grandad Col

As Eve had been ill with her teeth for a week and a half on the run up to Christmas and then suffered quite a lot during the main holiday days I was so pleased when it turned out that she loved Granny T's homemade Christmas cake.

Me, Grandad Col and Jeggsy enjoying cake and tea 

After lunch we had a great circular walk through Arnos Vale Cemetery together.

Christmas Gifts

Eve and Daddy looking at the reindeer after a visit to see Father Christmas

With only a few days to go until Christmas, I collected Eve from nursery on Friday night and was given a Christmas bag that Eve had 'helped' to make.

The Christmas card is very cute, but it was the homemade calendar that really brought memories flooding back. I had completely forgotten how we used to make these at various points through childhood. I remember bringing them home from primary school for my mum. What a great blast from the past. I'm so glad that little things like this that are still made in the education system.

A real treat for me this week was when I put Eve into the bath - she signed 'bath' (rub/pat both hands on your chest as if you are washing), which was just brilliant. She's also doing really well with the 'walker'. The nursery staff told me that Eve and some of the other kids who are learning to walk are often pushing their chairs around the room in place of a walker - clever things!

She's still waking up during the night-time, however often it is due to coughing. Her illness is still slightly lingering. But generally she's doing much better with sleep. Still as yet to ween her off milk during the night-time. Thinking of perhaps trying it over the Christmas holidays but we'll see...

Walking past Santa's workshop

Today we went to Whitehall Garden Centre to see Father Christmas in his grotto. As our car isn't working we got the bus, which was quite a mission but we got there eventually, thanks to the help of some nice old people.

To be expected, as soon as Daddy passed Eve to Father Christmas so that she could sit on his lap for a photo she burst into tears and looked fairly terrified. We found it amusing of course.

It was fun walking through 'Lapland'. Eve enjoyed looking at the twinkling lights whilst having tickle time with Dad. She chose musical keys as her present from Santa. We were both happy to get home and were quite exhausted, but it was a lovely thing to do and I'm glad we made the effort. Next stop Christmas Eve, choo choo!!

Nursery Christmas Singalong

Eve in her Christmas outfit

I've been quite excited about this ever since I read about it in the nursery newsletter in October. I booked the afternoon off work, jumped on a bus at midday and set off across Bristol. I usually walk half of the journey as the bus takes so long to get across the town centre, but as I had heavy bags I decided to stay on the bus the whole way.

It worked out well as a lovely Jamaican chap sat next to me. Chatting made the journey go much faster. We saw Sam walking down Wells Road (whilst he was on the phone to me) which meant that the whole bus peered out at him as I was waving out the window and the Jamaican guy was going 'dere e is!!'

I quickly cleaned the kitchen - much needed after Eve's party on Saturday, and then wandered down to the nursery. Lots of parents were arriving, and there was a really warm, happy feeling.

Paper snow

The children played amongst loads of shredded paper 'snow' which was fun. Eve enjoyed it but seemed to be partly laughing and partly crying. After that we all sat together and sang songs. Eve enjoyed shaking tambourines and bells. 

It was so nice to see what they get up to at nursery. We get a little report when we collect her each evening, but it's really nice to feel involved and see how much the children enjoy being together.

Paper cup bell

Eve was very inquisitive when she found this homemade cup bell on the floor. She loved shaking it whilst we sang songs and then promptly removed the bell from the inside - maybe she's going to be a scientist when she grows up?!

Happy First Birthday Eve!

How much our girl has grown up and changed this year is quite something. She's so tall and lean now, I almost forget just how tiny she was in the early days.

 12.12.2013 - St Michaels Hospital

 New Years Eve 2013, just a few weeks old at our friend's house

Eve wearing the hat I made her for Christmas day. I found it at the
weekend in our Christmas decoration box and wondered how it ever fit her!

We are looking forward to her party tomorrow at our house - a kind of house-warming/birthday/Christmas party. We count our blessings every day and are so glad that Eve is part of our journey through life.

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...

The Christmas holidays are approaching fast - and I for one cannot wait. We had a lovely family weekend, with Daddy at home with us, which was the first time in weeks.  We were out bright and early on Saturday morning to get our Christmas tree from the Scouts sale in Knowle. It was really lovely picking out a tree and chatting to a rather nice lady there. Sam had to go back with the car to pick up the tree as we got a real beauty that was too heavy for us to carry. For the same amount of money this tree is twice the size of the tree we used to buy when we lived in Clifton. We've only been able to afford to have a real Christmas tree for the past few years, so this one is a real joy. We also enjoyed rearranging our lounge a bit to accommodate Eve's little play den - we've tried to make it more secure so there is less risk of her escaping and pulling the tree over or getting to the fire.

We are really lucky to have a wood burner. Unfortunately we never seem to have time to light it during the week nights; getting home late from work and then going to bed pretty early.  So having it burning this weekend felt really festive and cosy.  I adore dressing the Christmas tree - hanging family heirloom decorations gives me wonderful memories of many Christmas's gone by.

For the past 6 weeks of nursery Eve has always been so silent on the walk home, whether it's with me or Sam. I chat away to her asking her about her day and telling her about mine, but she just hugs me in the sling not saying a word. But then, last week she started singing on her way home. This is wonderful because it tells me how much she is enjoying her time there.

Sometimes when I arrive at nursery in the evening, I watch her from afar. Seeing her playing happily is so heart warming after so many weeks of tears.

She loves watching baby tv because it has a lot of songs on it, and she is constantly singing at home.   This morning even though her teeth were hurting, she was singing along to Tulli. From the age of about 5 months she has sung herself to sleep in the cot, which is very sweet to hear.  

Eve playing in her den

She finished the second course of antibiotics at the end of last week with Dad who said she had a great lunch and was on good form. She seems kind of better... I'm not sure if it's the same illness that won't go away or if it is new strains of colds one after the other. I'm guessing that another course of anti-biotics would not be a good idea.

Eve has her top two front teeth coming through well, and the two adjacent ones are popping through too. Now that she's basically one I've bumped up her dosage of ibuprofen medicine to a 5ml spoonful. I've been giving her one most mornings which I think is keeping the teething pain at bay. It's also helped with her ear infection, which I think has now gone.

Now we are only 2 days away from her first birthday. I'm fairly sure that I'm crazy overly excited about it, not sleeping well due to worrying about cake baking and wot not ha ha! I'm sure I'll probably cry all weekend - happy tears!

Christmas is comin', the geese are gettin' fat

Eve the daredevil in her winter boots!

I've been getting most excited about the festive season and have been prepping and planning prior to coming back to work. Which I'm very glad I did as there is no way I would have been able to get everything done otherwise.

I count my blessings every day, but on Thursday I made extra special thoughts for Thanksgiving day. It's so important to put positive vibes out into the Universe. I am thankful for so many things in my life.  I know I'm almost a week late, but a very happy belated Thanksgiving to you all!

I am finding it tricky to update this blog as much as I'd like. By the time my thoughts finally make it on to the net a week seems to have flown by. I shall endeavour to update this as regularly as I can because I just love doing it.  The amount of photos we take of Eve has of course dropped now that we're not out and about together each day, and a blog needs photos that's for sure, so as soon as I have some we'll be 'cooking with gas' as they say :-)

This morning when I dropped Eve off at nursery I was given a Christmas bauble that she has made. It's so cute and I cannot wait to hang it on the tree at the weekend.

The nursery staff told me that she just loves arts and crafts, and when all the other children have given up on their creations she is still locked into art mode and they cannot get the paints and glitter away from her. This made me very happy.

Last week Sam took Eve to the doctors again as her chest infection has still not cleared up. She was prescribed a second course of antibiotics. It turned out that she also has an ear infection. She's such a happy little thing though, she always has such a big smile for us.

It's quite tricky administering the antibiotics, and Sam and I are both feeling guilty that she has not got better sooner.

Antibiotics are supposed to be administered every 8 hours. However, the days that she is at nursery she has them every 12 hours, and she refuses to drink it in the middle of the night so I've given up trying.

If we tell the nursery that she is on antibiotics again they won't allow her into nursery which is frustrating as we will be charged for the time that she is away. Sam has been told that he is only allowed one day paid for a sick child, so he got docked a day's pay the last time. My boss has not been very forth coming with flexible working hours so I don't think he'd be helpful either.

I feel awful because it's the first time that Eve has been properly ill and I would love to be at home to be able to nurse her back to health. We're just really hoping that the medicine makes her well in time for her first birthday next weekend. 

Victoria Park

On Saturday morning I took Eve up to the butchers in Knowle to order our Christmas turkey and a ham for Christmas eve, which was quite exciting and a learning curve for me - I find weights and things quite tricky. Then on Sunday I took Eve through Victoria Park - it was such a beautiful winters day. I love walking through this park, there are lots of colourful Bristol houses surrounding it. It is such a vast, wonderful space. After a full on week at work it allows you to smile and breathe!

Victoria Park with the afternoon setting sun behind the trees

Small pleasures

Now that I'm back at full time work, I enjoy some small pleasures at the weekend. I love making banana custard for Eve. I use good old Bird's custard powder (invented by Alfred Bird in 1837), just like my mother did when she was making custard for us as children. 

It's therapeutic to make and you can control how much sugar you put in it (I put in way less than the instructions on the tin says). I had previously bought a couple of Ambrosia pre-made custard pots for Eve and all they tasted of was sugar - needless to say she didn't like them very much.

Of course I could attempt to make my own from scratch I suppose - I guess that will be the next step when I have a bit more time on my hands. I'm looking forward to the Christmas holidays and being able to spend time doing things such as this.

Today my dear friend Torgo and her baby Jake popped down to see us for a few hours. After lunch the sun started shining so we wandered out on a walk across Victoria Park and had a swift half at the pub before they went home on the train.

Dear Jake and Eve were worn out by the days events!

I just must share this photo below of my nephew Jago. He is so gorgeous and has the most lovely eyes. I think the family resemblance can really be seen here. He shares a lot of similarities with his cousin Eve.

Jago, 7 weeks old

Buying a Forward or Rear Facing Car Seat

I love the look of the Koochi Motorhero Group 1 car seat, however looks aren't everything. The review on madeformums.com isn't that great. Shame!

Eve must be around 19 lbs now (haven't had her weighed for a while), so I've started thinking and researching the next step up for her car seat (Group 1).

i-Size is a new European standard for car seats. It came into effect in July 2013 with the aim of making buying a car seat simpler and safer. Changes made by this regulation are going to be gradually phased into the UK by 2018. 

i-Size seats are fitted into a car using the Isofix system, which will reduce the risk of car seats not being fitted properly. All cars made from 2006 onwards are fitted with an Isofix system, so fitting a car seat should be simple and easy for everyone. The new regulation is also striving to make car seats that fit in all cars.

Since the 1970s, Britax has repeatedly come up with successful innovations which have influenced the entire market, setting new standards for the industry. The Britax Isofix anchoring system was developed in 1997 in co-operation with VW.

Always looking for new ways to improve safety, the Isofix system connects the child seats rigidly to the vehicle chassis rather than just using the adult seat belts, reducing installation errors.

The Britax Pivot Link system stops your child being jolted so far forward - not only reducing the amount of force your child is subjected to, but reducing the odds of their head hitting the car interior.

Once your baby weighs more than 9kg, you can use a Group 1, Group 1/2 or Group 1/2/3 car seat.

Group 1 car seat is suitable for a baby weighing from 9kg to 18kg, which is roughly 9 months to 4 years.

Group 1/2 combination or multi-group car seat is suitable from 9kg to 25kg, roughly 9 months to 6 years, but isn't a very common option.

Group 1/2/3 combination car seat is suitable from 9kg to 36kg, which is roughly 9 months to 12 years, and there's quite a wide range of these on the market.

Here is a review of the 12 best car seats according to madeformums.com:

http://www.madeformums.com/reviews-and-shopping/the-12-best-car-seats---from-9-months/7750.html

Scandinavian countries use rear facing car seats until the child is 4-5 years old (they then move to a belt positioned booster seat).  For the past 25 years in Sweden there has been an aggressive campaign to convince parents that rear-facing seats are safer. Statistically it is five times safer for a child to be in a rear facing car seat if they are in a collision.

Read up on the facts:
http://www.rearfacing.co.uk/facts.php

We don't drive very much really. We tend to walk or get the bus everywhere in Bristol. So our main trips in the car are to do the food shopping, when Eve is always with me, or if we are visiting some of the Grandparents further afield.

Sam and I have been looking forward to Eve being able to face forward so that we can see her and talk to her which would make things much easier, but that said, safety is the most important thing.

The slight problem in the Fergusson household is that our car is older than 2006 so we do not have Isofix anchorage points built into our car to enable us to buy a rear-facing isofix car seat. I emailed a nice lady called Helen at rearfacing.co.uk and she was very helpful. She said that our best bet would be to buy a BeSafe rear facing car seat which utilises the seat belt.  These seats are Plus tested in Sweden, which is the most stringent test in the world. However, they are pricey...

BeSafe izi kid x3 rear-facing car seat

The BeSafe izi kid x3 is around £250:
http://www.besafe.com/en/car-seat-products/toddlers-car-seat-0-18-0-25kg/izi-kid-x3


There is interesting information on the following website.
This is in line with Rospa (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents).
http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/ 

Afternoon tea with the Higginson's

Totterdown art trail was in full effect this weekend, whilst we went on our wanderings

After another fairly stressful start to the week, with both Sam and Eve being ill, it was so lovely to receive a text from our dear friend Ocky asking if her and her husband Dan could pop round with little Arthur at the weekend.

Eve's cold got much worse last weekend and turned into a chest infection, so the doctor prescribed antibiotics (amoxicillin) and nasal drops. Her cough went from being a little baby cough to an adult cough which sounded awful. Thankfully after a few days of the antibiotics she started looking so much better. Unfortunately because of some legal reason nurseries are not allowed to administer antibiotics to children, so we were told that she could not go to nursery for 48 hours - but we still had to pay. Seems like a bit of a mean policy to me, but there we are...

Anyways... so the lovely Higginson's stopped by with homemade banana bread for afternoon tea yesterday. We went for a quick walk and then back home to eat cake, drink beer and warm brews together.

Daddy and Eve

A cool band were playing a selection of drums down in the cemetery as part of the art trail. They were really good. It was cool walking through the woods, hearing the sound of booming beats in the distance.

The cemetery was looking lovely, with winter berries creeping around the tombstones.

I'm so pleased that Eve has her appetite back. I've been getting quite worried as she hasn't been eating much whilst she's been ill. So a good, long dinner with Arthur was just what the doctor ordered!

Eve and Arthur enjoying some broccoli for dinner

This weekend has also seen mine and my husbands 14th anniversary - the date that we got together, and first kissed by the dreaming spires of Oxford.

He's such an old romantic that 10 years after that first kiss, he took me back to Oxford and got down on one knee in the snow, at exactly the same spot and proposed to me. I'm such a lucky girl and I treasure him and my beautiful baby girl.

I have only been out at night two times since I gave birth to Eve last December - and both times she has been with me. So it was with rather great wonder that I went out, minus Eve, with Sam on our anniversary on Friday night to a little pizzeria called 'Acapella' just down the road.

I must say that I fully recommend it. We had a fantastic, candle-lit meal, and the pizza's were outstanding. Lots of people were popping in to collect take-aways, so it had a fun, busy vibe. You can take your own booze too, so it made it quite a cheap meal too, which is always a good thing.

Our waitress was friendly, and the lemon tart was the best I've had for years - reminded me of my mum's lemon meringue pie that she used to make when we were small.

Note to self: do not try to eat a 14" pizza again!!


http://www.acappellas.co.uk/