Christmas Cheer

Scarlett and Huxley playing together on Christmas Eve

Us Fergusson's have had a lovely Christmas. We drove up to Oxfordshire on Christmas Eve and shared a wonderful ham, with jacket potatoes and a parsley/caper sauce with Granny Lops and the family for lunch.

In the afternoon we walked through the village to the Red Lion pub, where we met some old friends. It was good to see Ali and Vicky with their little boy Arthur, who is 4 years old. Eve's face lit up when Mikey walked into the room, she had a great time sitting on Daddy's lap eating mini cheddars and laughed a lot.

The Red Lion, Blewbury

Eve enjoyed playing Play Doh with Granny and Daddy before bed. She slept really well at Granny's house, it took us a bit of extra time to get her to go to sleep on the first night, but the second night she fell asleep with barely a peep.

Play Doh time

Father Christmas stopped by Granny's house during the night, so that when Eve woke up at 6am on Christmas Day, she was excited to see a stocking full of presents at the end of her cot.

Daddy and I helped her to open the presents in the lounge. She was delighted by a Peppa Pig set of figures. I loved watching her opening her presents; the magical moments of childhood.

Peppa Pig BBQ Set - Father Christmas was supposed to give this to Eve the evening before as he went around the village, but we decided that we didn't want it to interfere with her bed time routine so this was included with her stocking instead.

Mummy helping Eve to open her gifts

Christmas Day was fantastic, my mother-in-law, Granny Lops cooked up an absolute storm. The Christmas roast was just divine. The best thing about the day was seeing the cousins playing together. We could see the admiration that Eve held for her big cousin, Scarlett. They loved playing with Huxley in a huge cardboard box for most of the afternoon. Children really do bring the magic at Christmastime.

Scarlett and Eve

It took some doing to get Eve into this dress on Christmas morning, but I'm so glad that she wore it. She looked super cute. A big thank you to my Greek cousin Pipina for sending her this sweet dress.

Daddy wearing funny beard rings on Christmas morning

Playing on Granny's bed

Sam's sister Katie-Jane and her family now live just down the road from Granny Lops, which was brilliant as it meant that we could spend some time with KJ and her husband Dave. Having some drinks together was fun, as it isn't something we are usually able to do - children logistics always dictate these situations. It was a real treat to spend time with the family, though we missed Sam's brother, Ben and his husband, Tom who spent Christmas in Germany.

Use the force, Eve.

Once Eve was in bed, we played a much needed game of Poker. I hadn't played for a good 3 or 4 years and am a massive fan, so I really enjoyed it. It was good fun playing against Sam's step-brother, Billy too. Daddy was runner up winning the Blewbury Plate, but his mum was the winner of the championship, winning the Blewbury Tureen.

Granny Lops - Championship winner!

Since arriving home, I've been doing lots of cleaning and re-arranging of our house, whilst supervising Eve with some art work. I've even managed to get outside to do some gardening, which was good for body, mind and soul. 

The day after Boxing Day, my mum, Granny T, came over with my sister, Aunty Claire, Jody and cousin Jago. We shared a big mezze lunch, had a few drinks and a chat. Good ol' Granny T baby sat for us that evening so that we could go to the cinema to watch the new Star Wars film - Star Wars: The Force Awakens. All I can say about that is; go watch it - it's amazing!

Eve and Jago playing with Eve's new tea set from Granny

Playing with the new medical kit from Jon, Liz and Lottie - doctors do run in the family of course.

The following afternoon Sam took the sides off Eve's cot and I made her bed with a new duvet set that she received from my Grandpa's wife, Dora, from America. It was exciting setting up Eve's 'big girl bed,' but it took much longer than we thought. I bought the Lindam Extending Metal Safety Gate from Amazon in the sale before Christmas as it has good reviews and it was cheap. It was to go across Eve's bedroom door. We have two flights of stairs so I figured it made more sense to have the gate across the entrance to her room initially.

The gate had won awards so it didn't cross my mind that it might be a bit of a nightmare to install. Poor Sam was upstairs trying to fit it for a good hour or so. If you have a brand new house then it would probably be easier to install this gate, but our house is 1890 (built for railway workers) and is very wonky and higgledy-piggledy. The door frame sides were a bit on the dodgy side so it took Daddy a while re-adjusting to get it to fit. Thankfully, we managed to have her room ready just in time for her to go to bed.

Eve said, 'lovely bed, elephants,' but she was so excited by the change that it took us an extra hour or so to get her to go to sleep. Daddy went out that night with his friends, so I was woken by Eve's whimpers at 11.30pm as she had fallen out of bed. We did already worry about that happening but didn't want to spend more money on a bed safety rail. I went into her room and she was asleep on the floor with her little bum in the air. I gave her a cuddle and she went back to bed immediately. She then proceeded to sleep through to 6.30am, massive hurrah.

Lindam Extending Metal Safety Gate

Review: 

http://www.motherandbaby.co.uk/reviews-and-shop/safety/safety-gates/lindam-push-to-shut-extending-metal-safety-gate

Last night she went to sleep with more ease, and slept through till 6am, without falling out of bed. This holidays I've also worked out the secret to unlock the door to get Eve to eat meals at home; I talk to her about each of her friends at nursery as we eat each mouthful. This has done the trick for the past couple of days. The alternative to this is Eve staring at her plate of food, crying, before even touching it, which had started to become a real pain. She even ate lasagne that I made yesterday for lunch; oh the thrill of being a mum when a plan comes together.

Another nice thing this Christmas was the fact that Eve could spend time with both her Granny's, and I'm sure we'll see Grandad Col in the New Year at some point too.

Eve is a very lucky girl and was given some lovely presents - Thank you to those of you who sent her something, it was very kind of you. We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas One and All!

Merry Christmas Everyone,

Thank you for sharing our experiences with us this year.

Looking forward to a new year ahead, where the people of the world will share peace and happiness with their loved ones.

With Love,
Tamsin, Sam and Eve x

T'was the weekend before Christmas...

Eve, in the little park near our house, looking down upon Bristol

Sam went to Plymouth on Friday with his work mates for their Christmas party. I collected Eve from nursery, and spent a nice time reading books and singing with her in her room before bed. The following morning I took her up to Knowle, hoping that she would fall asleep in the pram whilst I did the shopping. She was completely wide awake, asking to get out of the pram, so I took her to i-Play, the play space underneath the shopping centre.

We had fun, however trying to get her to leave was a bit more of an ordeal. I staggered out with her screaming, dragging the pram and both our shoes and coats! She was so tired by that point that she let me put her coat on, and promptly fell asleep on the way home.

i-Play, Knowle, Bristol

i-Play was fun though. It's been ages since I last took her there. She's so big now and was climbing up the blocks and flying down the slide with ease. I couldn't help but think of my chubby 8 month old baby, who sat in the ball pool the first time that we went there last autumn.

Early on Saturday afternoon my dearest, oldest pals, Laura and Jilly came over with their girls. We had such a nice time - there were seven of us gals altogether, and the kids had fun playing with each other, and argued over baby dolls of course. It was great just to sit there together, drinking tea watching our girls playing.

Eve and Lamorna playing in the lounge

When Sam arrived home on Saturday afternoon Eve was so happy to see him, we spent a few hours just playing and watching tv before she headed off to bed with me.

The sun was shining on Sunday morning for what seems like the first time in weeks, so I quickly got Eve into her wellies and took her to the park. She looked so cute in her outfit - all items were passed down to us. The lovely coat and hat are from her cousin Lottie and the wellies from Agnes - thank you!

Eve enjoyed playing in the sandpit and the swings, but was upset when a little boy tried to share the 'boing boing' (the trampoline) with her. On the whole though she is doing well with 'sharing.' When I collected her on Friday from nursery, Daniel wanted a car that she had but she didn't want to give it him. I then watched her go and find another car, and then walked over to Daniel and his dad. She patiently waited whilst his dad was talking to a carer, and then gave it to him for Daniel. It was good to see her using her initiative.

As we walked past the school car park, Eve pointed out different numbers on the parking bays and was very happy with herself as she pointed them out correctly.

'Oh Dear' is one of her favourite books, that I picked up in a charity shop. When we read it together she sits there and thinks about the different animals that the pig could be instead to try and trick us. She likes laughing about this game.

This morning whilst I was getting ready for work, Eve was drawing with a biro in a farmyard colouring-in book. She told me she was drawing on the car - I had a look and she had clearly scribbled inside the headlights of the car, and inside the eyes and nose of the passenger. Her art / hand eye skills are coming on, which delighted me.

On Monday morning when I dropped Eve off at nursery, we hung her bag on the new peg outside the Bouncies room. She went in with me and didn't cry and I thought, yes we are getting there. But, as it's near to Christmas not many children were at nursery so they had congregated the children in the Tweenie room, her old room. I took her through and poor Eve burst into tears. I think it really confused her. Also, as Daddy had been away for most of the weekend, Eve and I had been together the whole time, so she became quite upset at me leaving her there.

However, when I collected her in the evening, she came running up to me and the first thing she said was, 'Bouncies, nice.' Hurrah!

All Change

Eve posing for the camera this morning in her Christmas outfit

Each morning when we arrive at nursery Eve asks to go into the Tweenies room. I tell her that we'll put her bag and coat on her new peg outside the Bouncies room, but she says, 'don't like it.' So, we've been taking her into her old room, and then a bit later they take her through to the Bouncies room when they feel that she is up to it.

I did ask Eve during bath time the other night if she likes the Bouncies room and she told me she did. They say she's been doing really well in there, but I think she's upset at being away from her close friends, Eli, Essen and Euan, who aren't moving up to that room until the New Year.

This morning, the nursery staff asked me to take Eve into the Bouncies room, regardless if she was upset and they would bring in one of her usual carers from the Tweenie room. Poor Eve just howled when I took her into the Bouncies room, I had a horrible feeling in my stomach, reminding me of leaving her in the Baby room when she first started at nursery at 11 months. 

Lauren came in from the Tweenie room in a fun Christmas jumper to give Eve a cuddle to settle her with the Bouncies. I know that Eve would have stopped crying a few minutes later, but leaving her with tears pouring down her face made me feel a bit sad. I'm glad that it's Friday and we have the whole weekend together.

Eve's has great fun playing with the alphabet puzzle that she was given for her birthday. 

Eve loves playing with calculators - which she calls, her 'phone.' She brought this one home from nursery last night and has been 'on the phone' to Granny, Euan, Daniel and Eli most of this morning before nursery, which was quite amusing. (You can see the calculator in her hand in the photo above.) Daddy and I have been trying to keep our phones out of view from Eve, otherwise she wants to look at 'pictures,' and gets very upset when we have to finally take the phone away. She justs loves looking through photos on our phones, but I made the big mistake of letting use it the other night before bath time. She went rather mad when I took it away, and kept screaming, 'Pictures, Pictures!' Oops...

Eve's 2nd Birthday

Eve's 2nd Birthday cake

We've had a lot on over the past few days. On Thursday afternoon I went to Eve's Christmas party at nursery; one of the nursery girls had done Eve's hair and she looked so grown up. Unfortunately the party wasn't as well organised as the previous year, which was a shame, but I enjoyed spending time with my girl.

Last year Eve was terrified by our trip to see Father Christmas, and this year was no different. Nursery had set him up in a dark cupboard with some twinkling lights. As I took Eve towards the door she said, 'no, I don't like it!' I picked her up and carried her inside and she cried loudly and cowered on my shoulder. Father Christmas passed me her present and we quickly exited.







She cheered up when she opened the present, which was a small, Mr. Men book. It seemed quite apt that she got 'Little Miss Neat,' as she likes to have her hands cleaned during mealtime if she gets too messy and is always helping to put things in the bin. She even tried to clean the bath the other day with a flannel.

Big girl hair do at the nursery Christmas party

Eve just adores balloons so I bought a big numero dos for her birthday. We set up the balloon with her presents in the lounge the night before her birthday. Daddy seemed to be the most excited; as soon as he heard her waking on the morning of her birthday he sat up straight away and said, 'come on, let's go and say Happy Birthday to her!'

Eve is a very lucky girl and was given some lovely gifts. One of the first things she opened was a tea set from Duncan, Anne and Huey. She absolutely loves playing with it. Eve also received a cute book in the post all the way from Granny Annie and George in Australia, and cute Peppa Pig pyjama's from her key worker, Gemma from nursery.

Eve loves her new tea set

Our friends came over in the afternoon for Eve's party at our house. I think there were about 10 kids altogether with their parents over for our little play date party.

Aunty Claire, Jago, Me and Eve

I was a bit disappointed that I could not convince Eve to get changed into a party dress. 

Elodie looked so cute in hers.

Playing with cousin Jago

Sharing birthday cake with her oldest friend, Arthur.

I had decided that this year I would only bake a birthday cake, and told all the guests that we wouldn't be offering food for the children. However, Daddy got peckish and pulled out a Christmas snack box from the cupboard. Eve couldn't help but delve in when she saw all the different little shapes. We had to hide them from her eventually as we were a bit worried about the high level of salt in them.

Snack attack

It was a fully hectic day of celebrations. No sooner than our guests had left, we got ready to head out for Daniel's 2nd birthday party.

On the way there, as we approached the traffic lights we saw a little girl and her mum. The little girl called out Eve's name, and Eve replied, 'Maisie.' I love that as we walk about our area Eve spots people that she knows from nursery.




Daniels parents Sandra and Julio are from Cuba and are super nice people. They have a 5 day old baby, and I can't imagine throwing a party like they did. It was basically a party that every mum would aspire to. They had all the party games, music, dancing, buffet food, beautiful birthday cake, party bags with balloons - the works! 

Daniel and Eve's friend from nursery, Essen, was also at the party so it was nice for the three of them to get together. Eve definitely enjoyed it, and was kissed by both boys as we left the party.

When I collected Eve from nursery on Friday, news had gone round the building that Daniel and Eve had broken into all the doors of a huge wall advent calendar. They took all the chocolate coins and crammed them into their pockets. It made us all laugh even though it was a bit naughty. 

Eve clinging onto a huge balloon from Daniel's birthday party - shortly after this photo the ribbon snapped in high winds and the balloon zoomed up into the night sky, much to Eve's dismay. 

When we arrived home after Daniel's party I suddenly remembered that I had blown up balloons and had two bin liners full upstairs in the cupboard - I completely forgot to bring them downstairs for her party - oops. The banana cake I made also had a bit of a strange taste as I forgot to buy natural yogurt so instead I replaced it with Eve's strawberry fromage frais. Mummy fails, doh!

That evening during bath time I asked Eve if she had enjoyed her birthday, she looked up at me and said, 'lovely!' She was given a Bath time Pirate Ship for her birthday from Grandad Col and Jeggs and was pretty much wild with delight as she played with it.

Bath time Pirate Ship

These can be bought from John Lewis and Hamley's Toy Shop

Jago and his Daddy, Jody

On Sunday afternoon Claire, Jody and Jago came over. We pulled on our wellies and winter coats and went to walk through the woods together towards Santa's Grotto. We passed the baby rucksack to them to use once Eve became too heavy for it, and Jago used it for the first time. Although he had sore eyes with conjunctivitis he had a nice time riding on Dad's back.

Silly antics in the woods

We arrived for our 'Santa's Grotto slot' a bit early, so we had a drink in the cafe in Arnos Vale Cemetery. The highlight of my weekend happened here - I asked Eve is she needed to use the potty. She said yes. 

I took her downstairs to the Ladies with the 'My Carry Potty' and she used it straight away with complete ease. Super simple; one amazed and happy Mummy. I've taken it with us quite a few times on other outings but she has never needed to use it until now. The My Carry Potty is totally worth it.

Eve wore the zebra wellies in the photo for the first time, and was very happy with them. She pulled them out from under the stairs herself so that she could try them on; and they fit, hurrah. Thank you for passing them on to us Agnes :-)

Walking around the woods was really nice, and the weather was ok too. Unfortunately the Santa's Grotto had far too many people in it, we couldn't hear a word Father Christmas said, or see anything. We waited until everyone had left to try and get a photo, but of course, as soon as Eve spied scary Father Christmas at the end of the room she burst into tears and asked to go outside.

In the coming years we've decided not to visit any more dodgy Father Christmas', and instead keep the idea of mysticism alive.

Eve looking a little glum, but happy to be out of Santa's Grotto

On Sunday evening Eve made a picnic for all her friends in the lounge, this included old toys as well as new birthday gifts. The photo below is the first posed photo that she has really done - we asked her if we could take a photo of her with the picnic and she sat down with Daddy to look at the camera.

Sam and I went to bed on Sunday evening absolutely exhausted but happy. Thank you to everyone that made Eve's birthday so special, and roll on Christmas holidays next week.....

Family Christmas Festivities Begin

Sam enjoying himself at the Eden Project, Cornwall

We've been pondering on this for a while; the matter of going out early, with someone else preparing and putting Eve to bed. An opportunity appeared to us a few weeks ago, which seemed to be the green light that said go. This opportunity seemed to arise at the perfect moment and felt right. I'm so proud of Sam, he is such a hardworking and caring teacher. He excitedly called me one day to tell me that he had been nominated by his students for an award for excellency in teaching. The awards evening was to be hosted by Cornwall College at the Eden Project in Cornwall.

Eve in Granny T's garden

Logistically the only way that I could attend the formal dinner and ceremony with Sam was for my mum to look after Eve. So, we arrived at lunch time on Friday at my mum's house in Dobwalls, which is half an hour from the Eden Project. Granny T has a really cute cottage, we spent a lovely afternoon settling in, getting Eve's cot set up and had a stroll about the garden. 

The pathway to Granny T's garden

Good ol' Granny had bought a few toys from a second hand shop - one was a little china tea set. Eve loved it on first sight. The little teacups and plates were in her hands throughout our stay, and she was often seen offering cups of tea.

Teatime for Daddy and Eve

Sam, Eve and my mum all enjoyed tinkering away on the piano whilst we were there. We attempted a Christmas song or two.

I had felt a little nervous that neither Sam or I would be putting Eve to bed, but it went smoothly. We were really pleased; it was nice to breathe a sigh of relief in the knowledge that we can leave Eve happy with someone else to put her to bed. The reason that I was a bit wary is because bath time has quite often been a bit of an ordeal, and I didn't want to land that on some unsuspecting person.

During the afternoon we did a test run - Sam and I walked to the shop and left Eve with Granny T. She cried as we left but had a nice time whilst we were gone, and then she saw us return and was happy.

We had been explaining to Eve for the past couple of weeks that Granny T would be looking after her. Eve totally understood, she watched us getting ready to go out early that evening. When the taxi arrived we hugged and kissed her and she said, 'Goodbye, see you soon.' This was a real proud parent moment. There were no tears.








We got into the taxi and set off to have a lovely evening together at the Eden Project. Sam had already said to me, 'your mum brought up three children by herself, she's better at it than you are!' and he was quite right. Eve had a nice bath with Granny T and then went straight to bed. It definitely helps that Eve has started to 'want' to have a bath over the course of the last couple of weeks. We no longer have bath time struggles which is making life that much easier, phew.

Photo Copyright by Tamsyn Williams 

www.edenproject.com

Sam and I had an amazing time at the Eden Project. Cornwall College, who have recently partnered with dBs Music, is an incredible organisation. The Christmas party/Awards evening was inspiring and we both came away with big smiles on our faces, and high hopes for the future. I even bumped in to Sharon at the event, who was a close school friend. It was lovely to see a familiar face.

A cool Christmas Feast set up at the Eden Project

The following day the weather was very blustery, we didn't have much planned which was nice. My brother Jon, who has recently moved from Canterbury to a village outside of Truro, visited us with his little girl Lottie. Lottie is 5 years old. She got on well with Eve, and even let her play with her special pens. It was really nice to see the cousin's playing together, as the last time we saw Lottie Eve was only 8 months old.

Cousin's, Lottie and Eve

Lottie and Jon in the playground

Sam enjoying the roundabout

It was nice to get a bit of fresh air at the playground

Family favourites - Choggy Yoggi Cakes

We returned home to find that Granny T had been busy making us some choggy yoggi cakes. These are a big favourite of mine and my sister's when we were growing up. The name is kind of self explanatory - chocolate with yogurt, and oats. My mum is a 60's hippy and has always been a healthy eater and cares for the environment. Much to our dismay as children, she would always cook healthy options - such as choggi yoggi cakes. We now of course realise how incredibly lucky we were.

Eve enjoyed eating her first choggy yoggi cake.

Lottie

It was lovely getting to know Lottie, I felt a good bond between us and had a great time playing with her and Eve. Now that my brother and his wife are that much closer to us in distance I'm looking forward to seeing them more often. We had a great time staying with my mum, it was really relaxing and we felt very grateful to her for looking after us all.

We drove home from Cornwall on Sunday morning. As we usually only take Eve in the car to the supermarket Eve kept saying, 'trolley yay!' thinking that she was about to go on a trolley ride. She was awake for a fair bit of the journey and after initially getting a bit upset at being bored in the car, she listened to us when we said, 'listen to the music.' She did just that and stared out the window at the countryside passing by. 

Back at home in Bristol after lunch, we pulled out the old baby carrier pram from the store cupboard. We had the idea that we could fit the Christmas tree in it so that we could walk to collect it. We walked down the hill with Eve through Arnos Vale Cemetery to buy a tree. As I was loading it on top of our pram explaining that we were going to push it up the hill, a nice chap who worked at the cemetery said that he would put the pram and the tree in the back of his truck and give us all a lift to the gates at the top. Kindness from strangers is what Christmas is all about! He was a really nice guy and Eve said, 'Goodbye, Man,' to him as we left his truck, which was amusing.

Eve decorating the Christmas tree for the first time

Putting up the Christmas tree was interesting. As quickly as we put decorations on the tree, Eve pulled them off. She was quite funny but soon got bored, which meant that I could get my obsessive compulsive tendencies in order, and decorated the tree myself :-)

Eve is formulating sentences well, and they are getting more complex. She's always asking questions and is curious about everything. She says, 'What's this?' and 'What's he doing?' often. Yesterday I stopped off at the library and ventured for the first time into a different section of the children's book area to pick out a few for older toddlers. I enjoyed looking through the variety of stories that are on offer for children, and came home with a stack mainly about aliens, dinosaurs and safari animals which Eve loves. Christmas has truly begun in our house, next stop, Eve's 2nd birthday at the weekend...