Weekend Joy

Wearing the Rituals dressing gown that Grandad Col and Jeggsy gave her for Christmas 2013. 

It finally fits which is most exciting. Eve likes wearing it in the morning when she's playing in the lounge. (She has yet to grow into her pyjama's though! Always tricky, smaller size are way too tight, but next size up is still a bit too big).

Well, it's been another lovely weekend. Eve is still on her 'I must get up for the day around 4am', so I managed to get lots of house work done and felt most productive. She's been on antibiotics for another ear infection this past week, so I think that has been bothering her a bit in her sleep, but otherwise she's actually been sleeping pretty well.

Not having teething pain is so good, we really see the difference. She eats so well, drinks less milk at her bedtime milk session and less milk during the middle of the night too. It's such a relief, though it only seems to last a few weeks until the next tooth starts trying to come through. She now has 8 teeth - all at the front of her mouth.

Talking of mouths, I had a bit of a scare this weekend. Eve was playing in the lounge and I was on my laptop in the kitchen (it's open plan so that we can see through to the other room). I heard her coughing in a strange way that I'd not heard before, so I rushed in, to find her with a red wooden part of her train-set stuffed inside her mouth. Thankfully it had a hold through the middle, but it was quite wedged behind her teeth and I had to pull it out. She didn't make a fuss at all though and just carried on playing after I reiterated to her not to put things in her mouth. I must admit, I didn't think she would try and put those pieces in her mouth as they are quite big. She knows things that she's not allowed or shouldn't do, we just have to keep reminding her. 

 Arnos Vale Park

On Saturday afternoon dear Cridds n Jess came over to see us, which was such a welcome visit. It's so nice to see friends, who cheer us up after a stressful week of work/home/attemptingbalance. Thankfully the weather was good, so we walked through the woods to the park so that Eve could go on the swings. She had a great time in her new coat, which I bought in a charity shop before she was born.

It's so lovely seeing her wear things that I bought so long ago - now the dreams become reality.

Eve seemed a bit wary, like she was checking out Cridds and Jess for a bit at first, but by the end of the afternoon they were firm friends and were doing high-fives.

Hello, I'm ready for nursery!

Eve walks a few more steps each day, and we can see her confidence growing. Yesterday she walked towards the tv to watch 'Dora the Explorer' on Nick Jr, stood there a moment and then plonked down on her bum.

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!