All sorts

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, but I've not had much to say, and I've been a tad busy what with getting back to work full time, Tully starting school, sorting out house stuff and that week I'm trying to forget when Harry was poorly...

So, where to start in my catch up? I'll go with the order that I instinctively picked above. First off work, I do love my job, but after a crazy travel week (2 days in Frankfurt, a day at home then a LONG day trip to Paris) and I'm seriously wondering if how realistic it is to do my job and have 2 small children. I'm incredibly lucky that Mark is so supportive, but it's not really fair on either him or the kids. I'm potentially looking at 3 (but definitely at least 2) week trips to the US before Christmas so we'll see how I feel after that. Q4 is always a busy travel quarter, so maybe things'll quieten down in the New Year.

In addition, I'm getting a whole load of new responsibilities handed over to me next week and I'm not quite sure how that's going to work. I would normally never pay myself a compliment, but I'm very proud of the work I do and I believe I do it really well. I wonder if by taking on more I'll just end up doing a mediocre job as I'll not have time to do either well, and if there's something I can't abide it's mediocrity...

Anyway, that turned out to be more maudlin than was intended, so on to more positive things. I am still loving the house, other than being a bit worried by how easily the cellar seems to flood! Everything else is FAB though and we are definitely very settled now!

Tully is doing so well at school, I am very proud of her. She has settled in, made new friends, copes admirably when I forget important things like giving her money on the day of the cake sale or something for the harvest festival (note to self to do better!), and is very mature about the fact that she is one of the few reception children to do 5 days of after school club.

Harry also makes me proud as he is always cheerful at being handed over to Lisa or Sarah in the morning, and always gives me a cheeky grin or a wave when I leave. He seems to be one of their favourites too as he is both very laid back and has a cheeky sense of humour.

So mostly life is good, let's just see how work travel pans out...

Getting ready for school

I'm quite proud to be sewing name tags onto Tully's school uniform ready for Wednesday, but suspect the novelty will have worn off next time I have to do it. How old are they before they can do it themselves?

Frog

I got a surprise when I went down to the cellar to do some laundry. There was a frog sat in the middle of the corridor...

New House Update

Things I love:
1) Having more space - great the the kids have their own play / living room.
2) The kitchen - lovely that I can sit Harry and Tully in with me whilst I'm faffing doing jobs.
3) The nieghbours - everyone is really friendly and welcoming.
4) The cellar - a fab dumping ground. Slightly worried by how full it is already.
5) A big fridge - no more shuffling things round to get everything to fit after going shopping.

Things that could be better:
1) Rubbish electric shower - it says 'Power Shower' on it but I've more power in my little finger...
2) Brrr - it's freezing. Not looking forward to winter.
3) There's a frog in the cellar.
4) Teeny tiny drive - definitely not easy to get the car in and out.
5) No cupboard under the stairs - where do I put the hoover? I guess the cellar but it seems an right faff to have to drag it up and down.

New House

Today we moved! Yippee! It wasn't as stressful as I imagined it would be, even with poorly kids getting in the way... I highly recommend getting the movers to do a full pack though! It was definitely worth the very small amount of extra money over a standard move.

Moving!

Well, moving day is nearly here. The packers are coming on Monday and we move on Tuesday. I feel like I ought to have done more to prepare but am living in ignorant bliss that all will just work out ok! Other than packing up a very few valuables (less than 1 box) we've done nothing at all!!!!

My biggest worry is that I fear Harry is coming down with / has swine flu, that Tully is showing signs that she might be poorly in the next day or two. What's the betting that despite paying for childcare for 2 kids Mark and I will be looking after both on Tuesday at the same time as sorting out the move...?

Can you bel-elve it?

Yesterday Mark decided to introduce Tully to Lord of the Rings. I started explaining that it was a made up story, hobbits aren't real, wizards aren't real, elves aren't real etc. She stopped me there and said "Mummy, what do you mean? Of course elves are real. What about Father Christmas' elves?!". Hmmm, good point well made. I did some backtracking...

Tully Logic

Harry has turned into somewhat of a mischief. His favourite thing to aim for in his bedroom is the plug socket that is near the door that has an extension lead in to take power to the clock and bedside lamps for the double bed as there is no nearer power. He has even managed to unplug it before now.

When we are up there I spend most of my time saying 'No Harry' or going over to fetch him back away from it.

Yesterday Tully got all excited. "I know, I know... I've had a BRILLIANT idea! Why don't we play something like that instruction game with him. Instead of saying hotter and colder we can say 'Bad Harry, Naughty Harry' when he crawls towards something he's not allowed, and 'Good Boy Harry' when he crawls away. That way he'll learn..."

Nice idea. I'm so desperate I tried it. It didn't work.

Feeling Redundant

On Sunday morning Tully asked if she could give Harry his morning bottle, so I let her with supervision and other than forgetting occasioally to keep it tipped up she did really well.

Then, yesterday, the phone rang just as I'd brought Harry's dinner through to him in his high chair. Now he's not patient when it comes to food, so when Tully asked if she could feed him I agreed, not really expecting much and mostly to keep him quiet. I had to go through to the kitchen, and the call lasted longer than I thought, so was fearing the worst.

Well, although there was slightly (but only slightly) more mess than when I feed him, she had managed to feed him about 2/3rds of it, and had given him several drinks of water throughout too...

I just need to train her to change nappies, and then I think I can retire! :)

TempleMoor Parents Evening

This evening Mark and I were invited to a parents evening at the school Tully will start in September. It was both interesting and useful, although very hot in the school hall - I dread to think how hot it gets at mid day!!! We heard from the head, the school nurse, and several of the reception staff, each telling us about a different aspect of the school and what life for Tully will be like. We had opportunity to look aroudnt he reception classrooms (they have a double intake) and given lots of information to bring home to peruse.

As we'd ahd to get Alicia in to look after the kids we thought we'd make the most of it, so we went out for a meal afterwards. :)

Getting ready to go out

Tonight for the first time in a while Alicia was coming to babysit and Mark and I were going out with some of the people from work. Mark set off early doors, and I was going to meet them all later after getting the kids to bed.

After Harry was asleep, Tully asked if she could help me get ready. It was actually really sweet and funny all at the same time! First of all we had to decide what I was going to wear. I picked out a few tops and tried them on in turn - she looked at me in the first one, then says "I think this one is a maybe Mummy". A few rejected alternatives later she picks her favourite which wouldn't have been what I'd have chosen but is more than acceptable.

"Now Mummy, we need to do your makeup. We need to put lipstick on your cheeks to make you look pretty"... Hmmmmm... Once my make up was of an acceptable standard for both of us, we move on to jewellery. She picks out some earrings and a necklace, both of which were fine.

Then she says "Wait here Mummy, I'm just going to fetch something from my jewellery box for you to borrow"... This is a little worrying as she only has very rubbish toy jewellery. She comes back with a very big very pink ribbon. "For you hair Mummy"... I try to convince her my hair is fine but she's having none of it! Apparently "you can't just wear a necklace and earrings and expect to be pretty, you have to decorate your hair too".

I can't convince her otherwise so end up walking round the house with a big pink ribbon in looking like a right buffoon! Luckily I remembered to take it out before I set off otherwise I would have got some very funny looks!

Therapist?

Tully sometimes get so frustrated when things don't quite go right. As she was on the point of meltdown because a picture she was drawing didn't come out quite as she'd planned I asked her to draw how she was feeling...


A little alter once she'd calmed down and had done some drawings that she was pleased with I asked her to again draw how she was feeling. I actually find it quite interesting that when she was cross it was just a big messy scrawly scribble, but when she was happy it was a smiley face!

Clean Drive!

Over the weekend a man came round touting for business cleaning drives and sealing them to stop weeds. It was actually quite reasonable and a hideous job to do so we decided to jet him have a go. Here's the drive before:


And here it is after. I'm not entirely convinced that we;ll go 10 years without weeds as he claims, but it looks loads better. My only slight concern is that his industrial jet washer washed out rather more sand than I imagine would be ideal... Ah well, what's the worst that can happen...?

Eurovision 09

Eurovision night is here again! As Russia was hosting this year the evening had a vaguely Russian theme. Instead of the usual giant lasagnes for dinner we had blinis, mushroom stroganoff and vodka! We also had jalapeno poppers and arctic roll but that's neither here nor there!

We had the usual scorecards and drinking game rules, so again many shouts out about winks, key changes, ethnic instruments, wind machines and decorated microphones! Sadly Mandy was being careful as she had to get up VERY early for work the next day, and I'm just a bit of a lightweight so was also being cautious.

My top 2 were Greece and Germany. The groups top ones were those plus Norway so each got a vote. First time we've voted for the winner ever I think. Greece also did OK, but Germany bombed, although most of their points came from the UK who awarded them 7 so it wasn't just us!

I'm looking forward to next year already!

Night Out!

A few of the Mums I've got to know from Tully's friends at nursery decided we deserved an evening out. I had wondered about suggesting one for a while but assumed it was just me with no life and was a bit embarrassed about it!

However, when I finally got round to asking it made me feel much better to discover that none of us have lives, or at least the others put in a good show of pretending not to! We went to Oca for pizza and wine this evening, and I'm hoping it might become something of a regular event.

Northumberland Holiday

I finally managed to get the kids blogs up to date, so have already really more than covered our holiday with those. But, from my point of view, I had a lovely time.

The place we stayed, Village Farm, was really lovely, the accommodation really well set up, and all the facilities were great. Minor observations to the negative, the pool was a little cool, and the climbing frame a bit adventurous. Tully wasn't able to play on it on her own with out help.

One highlights for me was watching Tully go round Warkworth Castle. Mark took her into each area on her own first and told her all about it, and then she insisted on taking me and then her Grandparents and giving us all a lesson! Still, since we've been home she has drawn lots of pictures of castles, including lots of accurate details, so I suppose it can't be a bad thing.

Other highlights were having a treatment in the spa and escaping the family for a while, having a couple of nights out whilst Mum and Dad babysat, seeing how much fun Tully had getting COMPLETELY soaked at Alnwick Garden, going back and reminiscing at Embleton and Low Newton-by-the-Sea and the trip to Whitehouse Farm.

I've already looked to work out when we can go back next year so I think it may become an Evans Tradition...

Back to Work

I went back to work this week. It felt really strange on Tuesday morning, and I felt surprisingly nervous. Dropping Harry off at nursery I felt really awful - I don't remember feeling the same level of anxiety at leaving Tully.

Once I got to work though it was weird how within about 2 hours it was like I'd never been away! I'd planned to leave early so Harry didn't have too long a day, but got caught up in a meeting so Mark went to get him instead.

He survived remarkably well. Tully was cross because she'd gone to visit him 3 times and he was asleep on 2 of the visits! They said he was very good and so placid (which he is), and they barely had a murmur out of him. Apparently he is getting lots of attention because it's been a while since they've had such a little baby, so everyone wants to look after him! I can imagine he's lapping it up!

Raising Children

I've been reflecting recently on how my experience of raising Harry to date differs from my memories of raising Tully in the first 6 months. Everyone always told me it would be easier with a second and whilst I'm not saying I didn't agree I hadn't realised how different the experience would be. There's clearly no one single reason for this, but is down to a combination of changes in my attitude, Harry himself and having learnt from some of the mistakes I made first time around.

One BIG difference this time is that Harry sleeps so well. He's been sleeping right through (mostly) from about 16 weeks, something that Tully didn't do until she was 1! He also sleeps well during the day - with Tully I often only got one 30 minute nap out of her all day, whereas Harry will have two good 90 minute sleeps. I also learnt from Tully that it really is best to just put them down and leave them alone when they are tired rather than holding them, and he puts himself to sleep really well whereas I always had to fight to get Tully to rest.

Another difference is that with Tully I was always eager to be on the next stage, under some misapprehension that things would get easier. This time I know it gets harder before it gets better and am holding Harry back as a result!

The most obvious example of this is weaning - the experts say that babies don't need food until they are 6 months old. With Tully, primarily as she slept so badly, I assumed she was hungry and started weaning her at 4 months and a week. It didn't work at all, but once you start giving food they want it, so from that point had to cater for her on excursions instead of just being able to take a bottle. With Harry I waited until he was 5 1/2 months, and would have waited longer if I hadn't wanted him to have been mostly weaned when he starts nursery next week.

So far I am enjoying Harry much more as a baby than I did Tully. Looking back I'm fairly sure I had some mild post-natal depression but in typical Katie style didn't want to admit to anyone, myself included, that I wasn't coping.

Having said all that, whilst I love him loads and do think it's fun to watch him develop and learn new things, I'm still not really a baby person and am looking forward to when he's 2ish and a useful communicative person rather than a useless lump.

Visitors!

Just in case everyone isn't already bored of reading about Lindsey's visit up north on Tully's and Harry's blogs I thought I'd add a quick post here on it too! This post is mostly to sate Mum's curiosity as there wasn't a good photo of either George or Lindsey on either of their posts! We did have a really nice time and it was lovely to see everyone, and although I know I always say this I am determined that we don't go so long without seeing each other again...

Problem is I haven't got a wonderful one of Lindsey beyond the one of us making biscuits - this is probably next best at the park.


But here's a rather cute one of George.

New fence!

I am very excited and pleased with our new fence. The old fence panels were rotten beyond belief but we never seemed to quite get around to replacing them. Last week however I risked a trip to a local cement company (!) that also sells and delivers good quality panels at a very reasonable rate, and they delivered the panels to me later that day.

We enlisted Matt from next door tohelp slot them all into place and hey presto! Job done! It looks fab and if I'd remembered to take a picture before it got dark I'd post it to show you all. Still, gives me a job for tomorrow...

Interview with Tully

1. What is something mum always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes mum happy?
Me being a good girl

3. What makes mum sad?
Me being a naughty girl

4. How does your mum make you laugh?
Tickling me

5. What was your mum like as a child?
A bit cheeky

6. How old is your mum?
I don't know

7. How tall is your mum?
Really really really really really really (repeat a few more reallys) tall

8. What is her favourite thing to do?
Playing with me

9. What does your mum do when you're not around?
Cut that giant bush she hates

10. What is your mum really good at?
Eating chocolate cake

11. What is your mum not very good at?
Being crazy (I'm too sensible, apparently...)

12. What does your mum do for a job?
Just doing things on her computer

13.What is your mum's favorite food?
Chocolate cake

14. If your mum were a cartoon character, who would she be?
That big gorilla (A giant inflatable gorilla she saw once outside a car dealership!!!???!?!?)

15. What do you and your mum do together?
Play

16. How are you and your mum the same?
We both like being mean to Daddy

17. How are you and your mum different?
I play and she feeds Harry

18. How do you know your mum loves you?
Because she says I love you

19. What does your mum like most about your dad?
He's good at working on his computer

20. Where is your mum's favourite place to go?
To Meema's house

Going back to work

I met up with my boss last week whilst he was over from the US to arrange going back to work. I can't believe I've had almost 6 months off - it has gone by quickly and looking back I feel I should have done more with the time. On the other hand, the point of mternity leave is that you've got a pesky small baby to look after which means doing more is somewhat restricted.

Whilst I plan to make the most of my last few weeks off, but I am also looking forward to going back too. I somehow feel 'lost' when not working, but think it's a bit sad that I need my work to help define me. Shouldn't family be enough?

My Wonderful Tully - Aged 4

As it's Tully's birthday I wanted to take a leaf out of the Braithwaites blog and do a bit of an update on her!

Personality:
Tully is incredibly generous and will happily share anything she has - even if she's had to work hard to earn a couple of biscuits or some sweets she'll still give most of them away. She is very caring and loving, and looks after us all and does her best to cheer me up when I am sad (also read hormonal!)... She is very competitive and suggesting a race to do something is often the only way to get anything done, but she often loses deliberately right at the last minute so Mark and I get our turns at winning too. She is mostly happy and obliging, but has the attention span of a goldfish which can be incredibly frustrating.

Skills:
Tully is very clever in some areas well beyond her age: her vocabulary, common sense, general knowledge, and maths / number skills to name a few, but behind in other areas such as writing and anything involving spatial awareness.

Looks:
Tully is very tall for her age - she's been wearing aged 5-6 tops for a few weeks now although she's still in aged 4-5 trousers. She has long light brown hair that I very rarely allow her to wear down as it turns into a birds nest that's impossible to brush within about 30 seconds of her being let loose! I'm biased but she's very pretty, and has the most gorgeous blue eyes with long dark eyelashes.

Likes:
Spaghetti (or any pasta as long as it's plain with a little butter), The Wonder Pets, Holly, books and stories, anything pink, Harry, singing and dancing, swimming, being creative and making things.

Dislikes:
Vegetables, being in trouble, getting dressed, boys(!), kisses, tickles.

Things we love about her:
Her generosity, her enjoyment of any kind of outing or activity, her sense of humour, her loving nature.

Things that drive us bananas:
Her inability to listen requiring us to repeat ourselves at least 10 times before she responds, her faffing and dawdling, her dislike of most non pasta based food, and getting her ready in the morning.

Are we or aren't we?

We have had plans to travel to Lincolnshire today for some time. The snow meant we had to assess whether the trip was still on. We dont' actually ahve any snow here mind, but there's lots in Lincolnshire so I phoned Mum first thing this morning to see if we ought to still travel. She said not, so Tully very sadly and reluctantly got dispatched to nursery.

At 9am Mum got in touch to say that in fact all the roads were clear and maybe we could go after all! So I rushed round the house like a nutter going from a state of zero packed to everything packed and in the car, and Harry fed up ready for the journey in about 50 minutes!!!!

Tully was sooo pleased when I went in to pick her up - normally she hates to leave but today came and got ready straight away even though she was in the middle of play dough time!!!

My birthday

This evening Mark and I had our first evening out since Harry arrived! We went into Manchester and had a lovely meal in Chaophraya. Yummm! I should have birthdays more often...

Houses

Some of you may be aware that we've been ruminating with the idea of moving. A couple of weeks ago we got a couple of valuations on our house, and this last weekend we went to view a few houses that ticked all the boxes of things we'd ideally like in a new house.

Based on the valuations we received for both selling and renting we decided that if we were to move we'd not sell this place and become landlords!!! I don't suppose you know anyone that would want to rent a 3 bed semi in Sale do you? :)

All 4 houses we went to see would make a lovely home for us, and all meet our list of 'Must Haves' which makes it rather tricky to choose between them. So, after almost 5 years of talking about moving are we really about to get ourselves in gear and do it? Watch this space to find out!

Tully

It was odd not having Tully here on Friday night when she went to her sleepover at Holly's. It's not that I'm not used to having time away from her - I estimate I've had close to 150 nights away from her in all - but this is the first time I've been at home without her. Still, she had a lovely time, both her and Holly were apparently very well behaved and we are now looking forward to a return visit!

As she missed her swimming lesson yesterday morning (we decided a sleepover was a special enough treat to warrant missing it for once) I took her this afternoon. It was lovely to spend some time with her without being distracted by Harry, as whilst I've had plenty of trips out without him they've almost all been for exciting things like going to the supermarket, or to take Tully to her swimming lesson when we don't actually spend any time together.

Linsey and Beth

Harry and I drove over to Glossop to see Linsey and Bethany. Beth is only 6 weeks old and very very cute. I thougth she'd look tiny next to Harry but whilst Harry was obviously bigger than her she wasn't as diddy next to him as you'd expect. It was lovely to see them both - hopefully they'll manage to come for a return visit soon.

School Dilemma

We have to decide which school to put as first choice for Tully pretty soon, so we've been to have a look around the 2 schools nearest to us. You wouldn't think 2 schools could be so different!

We are in the catchment area for Templemoor Infant School, twinned with Moorlands Junior School. Templemoor is lovely and we'd probably not look at other options except that there are always slightly odd rumours about Moorlands... The other school we've looked at is Springfield Primary School in the centre of Sale. It has a very good reputation but is oversubscribed so although we are right on the border of the catchment area (and in actual fact closer to them that Templemoor) it's by no means certain that we'd get a place.

As I said the 2 schools appear to be complete opposites in terms of approach: Mark labelled Templemoor as a 'Hippy' school - the Head's philosophy is that kids should be kids: they'll be encouraged yet allowed to progress at their own rate, she doesn't believe in giving homework as they've had enough to cope with being at school so just encourages parents and children to read together daily plus some simple suggestions to re-enforce whatever they've been learning during the day. He has labelled Springfield as 'Victorian' - things seemed much more serious and more grown up, and more academically focused.

Having been to look around hasn't really helped as I think Tully would like and do well at both but in different ways. Ho hum - time to flip a coin?

House stuff revisited

During the last few weeks of waiting for Harry to arrive I started a few mini projects around the house. The majority did get completed at that time but the fitting of the internal doors somehow passed me by and only got finished this week... The door frames still need painting though and whilst I'm already very pleased with them they'll look really fab once that's done.

I've also had another clear out in an attempt to get the amount of junk lying around the house down to a minimum and keep the place looking vaguely respectable. Not easy it has to be said but I feel like I'm making progress. I'll probably pop to IKEA soon to pick up a few bits and pieces to assist with storage so I'll post some photos when I'm finally happy with my work!

Dinosaur Sandwiches

After the success ofTully's bear sandwiches at Mum's house I was quite excited to spot this dinosaur sandwich cutter from Lakeland.

It arrived today and I've never seen Tully's food vanish so quickly, and a second round of sandwiches be demanded and equally quickly demolished. Hurrah for dinosaur sandwiches!

New Year Resolution

I don't normally make resolutions... But whilst I've been working on the blogs the last few days it has struck me that I have very few pictures to upload. So I have resolved to remember to take the camera with me when we do 'blogable' activities, and when I do rememeber to take the camera I will also remember to take some photos!