Farewell Blogger

I have been having major issues with blogger lately, I don't know if its just me, or if its everyone? But yesterday was the last straw when it was set to redirect the whole day and I couldn't get in at all. Since Duncan is on holiday this week I was able to sneak a few hours to myself, open a Typepad account and transfer this blog to a new space. I hope you don't mind moving over there with me, I love having comments left and its a lonely blog life with no comments. The new/old blog is called Mama's Little Beats (our surname is Beattie). I hope you like it. Mama's Little Beats
Love Val & Oscar
Find us HERE

A Saturday Treat

My husband is quite a thoughtful soul, and allows me a lie-in every Saturday. Now I dont know about you, but that doesn't mean sleepy time to me, not when there are blogs to read, emails to check, and this

And this

And this

Have a lovely weekend everyone.
xxx

Belated

I didnt post here last weekend because I was busy getting my sketch blog started HERE. But I wanted to say belatedly that it was my darling husbands birthday on Saturday and he turned 35. We had a relaxed day with tea and birthday cake in the afternoon

 

In the evening I cooked him his favorite carnivorous dinner and we opened a nice bottle of wine. Belated birthday wishes darling, you mean the world to us.

A bit fuzzy but one of my favorite photo's of them

Just Lovely

When you live on a housing estate (hopefully not for much longer!!!) in a working class Scottish town, its easy to despair of books filled with rosy cheeked grubby children wading in puddles and playing with pine cones. I have a security camera on a pillar 50 feet from my house. The pharmacy at the end of my street dispenses methadone to a waiting que at 10am every day so we have to avoid it. There is glass in the park, shopping trolleys occasionally half way down the hill, and comings and goings at all times of the day and night from some of the more dubious residents of our street. You can see why I want to move? But this book didn't depress me, it was quite uplifting on a cloudy afternoon when I had a migraine hanging over me.  For a little while I forgot where I was and saw the wonder all around me through the eyes of a child. I will also be following SouleMama's blog from now on.
Thanks SouleMama, you got through where many others have failed.
SouleMama

Scribbles

Hello, I haven't been around much, but you can see what I am up to HERE

Swimmy Doodles

We went swimming yesterday, the littlie and me. Maybe a bit unremarkable for most Mum's, fun, but not necessarily newsworthy. But it is for me because I have never taken him swimming by myself. I am an awful swimmer, in fact I would say I cant swim, I just manage to keep myself afloat somehow. Normally Daddy takes him, or we go together, but I made up my mind on Sunday evening to give it a go, and packed the swim bag, so I would be less likely to change my mind. After I dressed the little guy in the morning I asked him to look in the bag and guess where we were going. When he realised it was swimming he jumped up and down and yelled, 'its the best in the world' (so cute for a 2 year old, and talk about Mummy guilt!).
We set off early (again, so I wouldn't have time to think about it and change my mind), and arrived at the pool at about 10.30am. As it turns out, there was a swim class going on in the toddler pool, so half of the pool was roped off. Luckily there were only 2 other families there so we all had loads of space (although all the Mummies of the swim class were sitting on the side making me feel a bit paranoid). All in all, it turned out pretty well, with only one escape attempt when he shot up the steps and sped off along the side of the pool (that boy is turning into a 'runner' and will try and make a break for it at every given opportunity). After about an hour we were both surprised to see one of my friends for the Ante-Natal group and her little girl, arrive (this was the group I went to when expecting Oscar). My friend is expecting her second baby and was looking wonderful, and also as happy to see me as I was to see her. The swim class finished just after that and at one point the 4 of us had the whole pool to ourselves. So, a pretty successful outing all in all. I am thinking of going back again next week.
Since photo's are banned at the pool, I have no evidence to show you, but I thought I would take a leaf from 'Doodlemum' (I LOVE HER), and show you some swimmy doodles.
Have A Nice Day Everyone.

Sensational Sunday

I decided yesterday that I couldn't stand another day stuck at home, for me or the little guy. When I realised we hadn't set foot out of the door since last Monday, due to this rotten cold, I made up my mind to head out.
There is a science center where we live, that neither myself or my husband had been to called SENSATION. Although its billing says its for all of the family, no one seemed quite sure if it was suitable for under 3's, but since they were running baby sensory sessions we figured we would give it a go. And a good thing we did too, because the littlie LOVED it. So much so, he was crying when we dragged him out 2 hours later.

Needless to say, he was asleep when we got there.

But some juice and a snack soon sorted him out

Then the fun began

Needless To Say, Many Of The Photos Are Blurry, Because He Never Stopped Moving

But Remarkably, He Made A Friend With The Same Name As Him

Watch This Space For A Little Video I Will Upload Later.

Finally Feeling A little Better

Lets just say I am not a very good patient. Have I ever mentioned I trained as an ENR (Enrolled Nurse) straight from school? Well I did, as a mere 17 1/2 year old, and did you know that Doctors, Nurses and other Medics are normally bad patients? I think my husband can testify to that.
After a few false starts (the littlie refusing to go to sleep and squirming around our bed until late-o'clock at night), I did manage to pick up a couple of good books. The first book was The Everyday Family Wholefood Cookbook,

a strange bedtime read you may think, but I love cookbooks ( feel free to shout out your favorites, I collect them avidly). If you are a skilled veteran in the kitchen its probably a bit basic for you, but I loved it. Its written in association with La Leche League GB and has healthy recipes to suit everyone. For weight-watchers like me, the added bonus is, each recipe has the nutritional information listed too (calories, fat, sodium etc). I paid 1p for it plus postage, you cant argue with that can you.
The 2nd book, I have just started, but its a proper cup of tea, cozy cardi, in bed type of read, called The Help.

Its blurb says its 'the other side of Gone With The Wind' The black maids, trusted with the white children but not the silverware. The book is set in 1960's Mississippi and is funny and shocking at the same time. The only thing I would say is, its written in the characters accents, which I don't mind, but my husband hates, so if you hate it too, be warned.
I may even fit in some reading today because its shaping up to be a grey wet Sunday out there. I hope its better weather elsewhere. Have a nice Sunday, and let me leave you with a picture of my little ray of sunshine.

S'not Good

On Monday I had a scratchy throat, on Tuesday morning I had a light spring cold, but my Tuesday night I had a full on blocked up, pounding head, watery eyed, prickly skin, fevered cold. I spent Wednesday and Thursday with a blanket round my shoulders feeling very sorry for myself. Today doesn't seem to be shaping up much better and last night I developed a cough which is agony. On the plus side I had a reasonable nights sleep possibly due to no naps during the day when I desperately needed one and a good few doses of cough mixture. When you are a stay at home mum with no one to help out, you just dont get sick days, life goes on as usual whether you are ill or not.

Chocolate bunnies need eaten

Cuddles with mum, teddy and cookie monster are needed

Train tracks have to be built

Glitter paintings have to be done

And bread still has to be baked, via the bread-maker ;)

Have a good weekend everyone, and don't worry too much, Daddy will be taking over the reins come evening and I am going to bed with a good book., a bottle of cough mixture and a giant box of kleenex.

Loving

We are currently loving

Home Made Bread

 

The Gruffalo

Laundry

Building Towers

The Sunrise Shade We Painted The Lounge

BBC 3 - Bringing Up Britain Season

Info Here 

To Name But A Few..........................

Bank Holiday Random Photos

 

 

 

Did You Know

That since the start of the 21st century the odds of having twins has increased dramatically, in fact, since the 1980's the chances of a twin pregnancy has increased by 50%. Let me just stop here and say, I am not currently pregnant, this is speculation only. Anyway, 1 in every 34 children is a multiple. How scary. Not only that, but it seems we were quite lucky the littlie was a single and our chances of having twins next time around are also quite high. There are certain factors which increase the chances and I/we fall into many of the categories, such as,

• Maternal Age - if you are over 35 the odds are 21.7%, by the time you are 45 the odds are 56.7% ( I am 41 in case you didnt know)
• Maternal History - if you, your mother or grandmother has had or is a fraternal twin (non identical), this could be a sign of hyper-ovulation, where more than one egg is released per month. This is often hereditary. See my post HERE about the fraternal twins in my family.
• You are overweight or very tall. Well, I am 5ft7 so not very tall, but my BMI is over 30 which is the classification they use in the study as more likely.

So three fairly compelling categories. The study also lists taking chlomid and having had twins already, and being Nigerian as the other main factors.
I am not taking chlomid but since I only have one viable ovary (or rather fallopian tube) I am taking Vitax (or chasteberry), you can find more info on it HERE. Vitex seems to regulate things so maybe it lowers the odds of hyper-ovulation? It doesn't say so though. 
Anyway, I am pretty tired as it is so imagine a multiple pregnancy and the first few years after a multiple birth. Yikes!!! It is outwith my control, but let me just say, yams are off the menu. See Point 2

The Royal Wedding

Congratulations to HRH Prince William Duke of Cambridge and his beautiful bride Catherine Duchess of Cambridge. I was glued to the TV yesterday and and since my husband wasn't all that interested in the wedding, he took the littlie into the garden and kept him amused (mostly trampoline bouncing I believe). 
I have to say though I cant chastise him too much for his lack of interest in our future monarch, because not only did he afford me the time to watch the wedding, have a diet blowing lunch of little sandwiches and dainty cakes, but he also bought me a new ring, since I don't have an engagement ring (I did have one, but its a long story). Some of you may recognize the ring it is modeled after.
Have a lovely bank holiday everyone.

The Seaside

Did I mention the nursery we viewed was at the seaside? My husband and myself went to school in this small place and spent many summer holidays on the beach there. It makes it all very seductive. The nursery was quite small, the building and the number of children (18 to be precise), which I think will work better for the littlie. He is not used to large volumes of people around him, so a big nursery would possibly be very overwhelming.
The first place opens up in July so we have put our name down for it. I can foresee the littlie asking to be taken to the beach park instead though because he had a wonderful time there, just the two of us, this afternoon.

Choices

Lately I have had to make some tough choices, some good, some bad and some undecidedly neither as yet. Today, my husband the littlie and I are off to look over a nursery. It is in a lovely area and in the middle price range of the private nursery sector, but of course that doesn't mean it is necessarily any better than any other nursery. It doesn't mean I want to 'leave' my son in the hands of strangers 1 or 2 days a week. It also doesn't mean my son will want to stay there. What I do know right now, is that I will benefit from 2 days a week to work on my creative endeavors and he will benefit from the company of other children. Both of these things are dependent on both of us being willing to let go of each other, just a little bit. What a choice to make.

A Lovely Weekend

Well first of all, the trampoline was a huge success. I don't have any photos just now because they are still on my husbands iphone. He is going to put them on to a 'dropbox' account or something, I have no idea what it is but as soon as I have some photo's I will post them up.
I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. We had a very relaxing time and even though it rained for a while, it coincided with our egg decorating and the littlies afternoon nap so it wasn't too bad. My husband had Monday off work too so I even managed to fit in some painting. Its a 3 day week for him this week because he is off again for the Royal Wedding on Friday (and May Day on the following Monday), so its probably going to be next weekend before we know it.

Here is the littlie in his Easter Crown, the winner of the egg decorating contest won the crown and a little prize. Funny how the crown fitted the 'winner' like a glove ;)

I Love The Sun On Our Backs

Our back garden is a reasonable size, big enough for the wee guy to play in, but unfortunately its fairly shaded for most of the day. This tends to make it quite cold for most of the day, until we hit late July early August, then it is warm enough in general to play in the shade. By comparison, the front garden (we live in a 1950s terraced house), is quite small, and very overlooked, in fact its on a main bus route and every Tom, Dick and Harry peers in to the garden and the lounge window (to my 'great' annoyance). The front garden however, is very very warm, a veritable sun-trap in fact. So, despite being a bit shy and a bit paranoid, I take the littlie out into the front garden to play, because out there, he is able to do this.

We have had such excellent fun the last few days, I only hope the weather stays good, because my husband was in the back garden until 11.20pm last night building a 6ft trampoline. As I am typing this in the lounge, the littlie is running between the lounge and the dining room (terrorizing the cats), and as yet he hasn't looked out of the sliding doors in the dining room. When he does, he will see a hulking great trampoline taking up most of the garden. Its amusing me no end that he hasn't noticed it yet. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow. In the mean time, here is a round up of the last few days.