Whilst Mummy's away, Eve and Daddy will play

After much apprehension about leaving my little girl for the first time, I flew out to Italy on Sunday afternoon with my boss. We attend the largest international textile fair in the world each year, in a small town called Cernobbio, on Lake Como.

Although I missed dear Eve and Sam terribly, the four days that I was away went by really quickly. I had a great time seeing people from the industry that I hadn't seen for ages.

We stay in the same little hotel each time with our main Italian supplier. I wore ear plugs (for real hardcore deep sleep) for the first time since Eve was born. I slept through the entire night, getting up at 7.45am. Having a delicious cup of green tea and a danish pastry served to me in a lovely breakfast room was quite frankly, pretty darn cool. Something that I now appreciate much more than I used to.

Cernobbio, Lake Como

I have learnt from experience during this event not to consume too much alcohol, as daytime business there can be full on, with lots to remember. However, I treated myself to a few prosecco's and mojito's and thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

This year I made a new friend, a lovely English agent. It was great to have another girl onboard, as generally I hang out with a bunch of men from various countries. They are all good fun, but it's always nice to have a bit of girly chit chat whilst drinking in the evening sunshine.

My phone is a bit old and dodgy, so family Fergusson couldn't do wondrous modern things such as facetime. I could hear Eve chatting away whilst I was on the phone to Sam a few times and it was really comforting to know that she was having such a good time with her Daddy. She's slept well all week and has even let him brush her teeth. I was very impressed with the outfits that Daddy put together for Eve - I must admit I was slightly concerned before leaving for Italy. But he is of course, Super Dad!

I arrived home last night at midnight. Eve was a good girl and didn't wake up until 5.45am. I was very thankful to get some sleep after a long journey, with delays getting home. 

This morning after breakfast Sam gave Eve her colouring pens to do some drawing. Within a few days of not being at home Eve is now drawing circles really well. She will work on one colour of circles and then proceed to the next set of a different coloured circles and so on. She works quite meticulously - I was very pleasantly surprised.

Sam told me that the other day when he collected her from nursery, she very clearly asked 'What is it?' - she's been saying it for some time but now she's saying it perfectly. What a clever thing.

I'm so glad to be back in good old Bristol. I love travelling, but I love returning home even more. 

I'm very much looking forward to spending a lovely, long bank holiday weekend with my funny little girl and my wonderfully helpful husband.

Eve - last weekend in my sister's garden, Southville, Bristol

Walking in the park

This past week Eve has slept through the night on three consecutive nights which is an absolute wonder of the world. This has been slightly interrupted with drooling and teething pain in the last day or so but even still she has gone back to sleep with a little bit of water and some medicine. No milk required in the night time which was great.

On Saturday whilst we were waiting for some friends to arrive Sam and I took Eve to the little park near our house. Eve is slowly gaining confidence with walking outside and took hold of both our hands to walk around a little bit. As I thought I might never have children, Sam and I both holding her hands as she tottered along was quite an amazing experience. Then, suddenly she was off by herself! 

It was a bit windy in the park - excuse the sound:

The nursery ladies took the kids to the park yesterday to enjoy the sunshine. They told me that Eve got quite upset when they tried to put her down on the ground to walk. They said it took her a while as she watched the other children wandering about, then she quite happily attempted to walk around the sandpit and on the grass.

Little Miss Pepperpot

Eve working on her 'Heads, Knees and Toes' routine

After a year of working on an online photo book of Eve's first year of life, I've just finished and ordered it for printing. Religiously, each month throughout 2014 I uploaded a few of my favourite photos of Eve for the photo book.

I'm so glad that I worked in that way. I have a terrible short term memory (made worse these days due to lack of sleep) so I know that if I had left it until now to organise, I would never remember what happened where and when.

I'm really pleased with it and can't wait to receive it in the post. There are loads of different companies online that do photo books, so just take your pick. Make sure you search for a promo voucher code before buying the album. My book was going to cost over £100 but with a promo code I got 50% off.

It is of course great having all our photos on the computer, Facebook, Google+ etc but there is something wonderful about holding a good old fashioned book in your hands. Whilst I've been finalising it this past month I've enjoyed looking back at photos of Eve as a tiny baby, and all the amazing things we did last year as a family. It brings back lots of memories that I'll treasure forever.

When Granny was here at Easter she gave Eve a trike. Eve's feet don't reach the pedals yet, but she enjoys being pushed around the kitchen racetrack. She hasn't quite got the hang of steering yet though.

On Friday morning, for the first time Eve played a note on her toy harmonica. A proud mummy and daddy moment, as we've been showing her how to blow into it for a while. She loves pointing at things - especially her nose, eyes, head, ears, our noses - all down to the old faithful - 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. Such a classic!

Eve had a lovely time out with Sam, during Daddy daycare last week. They looked at plants in the park together. I was glad to see that she had her sun hat on - good job, Dad.

Baby Barefoot Gladiator Sandals

Well, Eve may no longer be a little baby and couldn't wear these sandals, but they were so cute I just felt that I had to share them with you.

Bethany is a crafty crochet blogger and I think her site is just fab. I tried crochet when I was younger and must say that I was absolutely hopeless, I'm the same with knitting and sewing. I'd love to do an intensive course one day. My mum is a wonderful seamstress, but unfortunately her skills did not seem to rub off on me.

I have real respect for people who can create such fantastic pieces of clothing or arts and crafts, it really is a great skill to have. Bethany is happy for you to use her free patterns and even sell the items you make if you wish as long as you credit her blog please.

I just love the idea of these Gladiator sandals, especially now that Summer is properly on it's way in the UK.

See link here:
http://www.whistleandivy.com/2014/07/baby-barefoot-gladiator-sandals.html

At the weekend whilst we were out buying an el cheapo bbq and bench for our little garden we also picked up a ball for Eve. She just loves playing with it, and seems to have a very natural touch and kicks it around the house with ease.

Eve continues to enjoy art, and is often wandering about, a crayon gripped tight in her hand ready to draw when she's at home. At nursery she loves painting. This week they were painting cherry blossom onto a pre-drawn tree. 

Last Friday evening when I collected her, the girl in the nursery said that she had been waiting for me to arrive because Eve had been in the big garden all afternoon painting away like mad. I walked out to find her absolutely covered head to foot in paint. They use water based paint of course so it came out in the wash fine, but I did have to wash some of the pram cover as it went everywhere. It really fills my heart with joy to see Eve loving painting as much as I do.

Eve has also been having lessons in Hip Hop today from her Dad!

Easter Weekend

Eve and I had a lovely Easter weekend. We started out on Good Friday with our friends Torgo and Jake arriving in the morning. We wandered through the woods to Boca Bar, where we met Dan, Ocky and little Arthur, and my sister Claire, her boyfriend Jody and their 6 month year old, Jago.

I had been thinking that the kiddos would have a great time eating pizza, but something went wrong with the order. By the time the margarita arrived the kids were full up on fruit, snacks and yogurt. I was a bit disappointed but they all had a great time. Jake is walking too, so it was great seeing all three of them wandering about playing together.

On Easter Sunday my mum arrived in the morning and we walked over to Claire and Jody's new house in Southville.

Claire and Jody had prepared a delicious lunch. Claire had made 'Pita' from our Greek-Australian cousin Deese's family recipe. I enjoyed it so much, it was really tasty. It's a version of Spanakopita, but not in parcels. It's a layered pie of feta, ricotta, filo pastry, but without the lemon and pine nuts.

After lunch, I dotted lots of little painted Easter eggs around their garden so that Eve could see them easily and play with them. She had such a great time.

For the first time she walked outside - chasing the eggs around the garden as they blew about in the wind, made her get up and wander about. Previously when I had put her down to walk outside she had sat down and grumbled, not wanting to walk. So this was really nice to see.

We really missed Daddy but we had such a great day with Granny and the family. Sam arrives home from Greece tomorrow, and we cannot wait to see him. Eve has been asking for him a lot every day. I know that she is going to laugh and laugh when she see's him, she can't wait for play time with her Daddy. 

Sparta was the last gig last night and by the sound of it the night was amazing and a real high to the end of the tour. I'm so incredibly proud of my rather wonderful husband.

Flower Fairy Friends

http://www.paulbrowsephotography.com/

Eve's been having a good, full week at nursery whilst Daddy is away in Greece. She's had sore teeth a bit this week, but managed to sleep through until 5am this morning which was great. 

I heard her cry out a couple of times during the night, but she went back to sleep immediately so I didn't have to get out of bed, phew. This morning I put her back to bed after a drink, thinking that she might fall asleep till after 6am, but she just started singing and chattering away, until it got so loud that it was definitely a 'mum, come here and get me' sound.

She's realised that she can now squash the soft spout of her sippy cup onto things so that the water will come out. When we got home from nursery last night, after I had pottered about sorting out her bath I came into the lounge to find her clothes all wet and the tv unit with a film of water on it, doh!

Eve is funny and has been saying 'oh dear' for a week or so; if she drops something or goes down on her bum when she's walking around. Think she's picked it up from me. This is good news as I used to swear a lot before she was born, so Daddy can now see how I've changed my language for the better.

Since the clocks changed at the weekend it's now mega light in the evenings. When I put Eve to bed at 7pm the light comes in around the sides of the blind in her room. She's been very good and has gone down to sleep easily with no bother, but I figured the light is going to increase as we approach the summer, both in the mornings and the evenings.

I therefore thought, after a few days of pondering on it, that I would get a Gro Anywhere Blackout Blind for the window in her room. 

They have suckers which attach to the window. It looks like a simple and easy system. You can watch a short video of it on the amazon link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Gro-Company-New-Version/dp/B00BKZLWBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427964388&sr=8-1&keywords=black+out+gro

We are spending May bank holiday at Granny's house this year, so I think it will be good to use there too possibly.

I was going to wait to buy this for Eve on her second or third birthday, but after thinking about it for a while I decided that I would treat her to it now. Not that she'll really use if for a bit but I thought it would look lovely in her room.

I have some bits of jewellery and some Greek charms that I want to give Eve. The Greek charms were given to my mother by one of my Greek aunts, during a trip to Greece when I was a baby. My mother was told that they were lucky talismans for me. I thought it would be nice to now pass these on to Eve. 

I've bought a couple of these jewellery boxes over the last few years for my nieces, so I knew straight away where to buy it from. It is a bit more expensive than the ones on amazon etc, but I wanted it to be as close to the one that I had when I was a little girl. It is a musical jewellery box, with a key that you wind on the back to make the fairy inside spin around whilst the music plays. 

I absolutely adored the Flower Fairies (and I still do) when I was young. My mum made Flower Fairy costumes for my sister and I for our village carnival one year. Such happy memories...

http://www.aspenandbrown.com/gifts-for-her/1798-flower-fairies-musical-jewellery-box-5060363770380.html

I can never quite decide which Flower Fairy I like the most. Cicely Mary Barker's illustrations are all so beautiful.

I've included a few of my favourites here. Whenever I see a Flower Fairy book or some such thing in a charity shop I usually grab them for Eve's room. We have a nice collection coming on.