life with nelly: March 2007

Thursday 29 March 2007

week eight...

It is amazing how much a little person can change so much...! I know that all you people with children know this but it still amazes me every day.

This week was the start of kissing - alright all tongues and it only seems to happen immediately before her bath outside the bathroom - but she is getting there!

And what she eats...every day new tastes and she seems to enjoy them she has loved toast and marmite from day one ...how come people like it or not...I think it has a lot to do with if you like Marmite then you feed it to your kids if you don't they don't eat it and may not like it. I seem to remember a liking for Marmite was really developed at boarding school - Marmite lasts a whole lot longer than peanut butter so we had Marmite"!

A 'First' this week included a frolic on the garden as the temperature got warmer. Mum came to stay for a day and night so she was spoilt. This week also saw her having four trips to the park ! well the weather was nice and she loves being outside and walking.

She has become so independent that she now throws a 'Terrible One' paddy whenever you try to put her in the car seat or the buggy. SO much so that I drove from West Norwood to Wandsworth with a screaming Nelly in the back inconsolable by rice cakes or Grandma and only calmed down when I stopped in a road in Balham and took her out of the car and then leant back to stroke her leg while driving!

Another first this week - was going all the way through the tunnel at Gymbabes - it means me being at one end as she sets off on her crawling mission and then whizzing down to the other end to look through the tunnel to get her to continue all along the long tube! She loved it and every time we go to to Gymbabes it is her first port of call!

After a week of lovely warm spring sunshine - Friday descended into miserable rain - all day. We had arrange to look after Bram for the day while Simone when to a meeting in London, I had planned on the park at Battersea and a visit to the mini Zoo they have there! When we left West Norwood for Victoria it was fine by the time we had met Bram had a coffee with Simone and then taken the train back to Battersea PArk it was pouring ...we headed straight for the deserted cafe in the middle of the park and fed Nelly and Bram - she had some chips and then walked around and around the cafe..the rain held of long enough for us to make it to the zoo, and we saw the donkeys, monkeys, pot bellied pigs, Emus sheep rabbits etc before rain stoppped play yet again and Bram and Nelly played throwing straw at each other...we then had a long walk back to the road with Bram saying I WANT MY MUMMY!!!!!!!! before hailing a cab and hotfooting it back to the station to meet Simone where he immediately cheered up !

Bram and Nelly playing nicely together in the kitchen....think Bram enjoyed a one year old's toys more than she did!

Oh No ...did he make you cry!

Bram and Nelly visit a cold and wet Battersea park zoo!

Sheltering from the rain

Saturday afternoon in the park ...again!

Nelly playing at Isabellas ...

Nelly and Isabella - sort of playing together!

First time on the lawn!

week seven

Week seven at home with us....after what seemed like two weeks with an ever sniffy nose Nelly is much more herself and it is so nice to a) sleep through the night uninterrupted and b) not constantly having to walk around with hundreds of tissues for her and me... Although I then developed two enormous cold sores!

Week seven was cold cold cold....and we had arranged to meet three other people who were also in China, we met in yummy mummydom and headed to a convenient child friendly cafe; due to the weather there were plenty of tables - unheard of ! So we managed to take the place over and the girls managed to sit in the middle of the floor and play - well Molly, Millie and Lucille sat nicely and played and Nelly took off around the place exploring every nook and cranny even making it into the kitchen!

Thursday - Rob came to Gymbabes with us and Nelly was given her Walking Award and almost did a lap of honour to celebrate while all the other children sat nicely on their Mum's knees!

More lunching that week with a trip to Pizza Express in Covent Garden to meet my friend Liz and her baby Frankie - Nelly had her first taste of pizza and enjoyed every moment before bang on schedule yawning and falling alseep in the buggy at 2 30!

The weekend saw anothe trip away - to Solihull to see Rob's Dad - he played and played with her until she was exhausted. Saturday night was another bad teething day she woke and then screamed every five minutes for eleven until 4 in the morning....but still seemed to be fairly lively the next day although we were all exhausted! Fitted in some visits to friends while we were there

Pappa Frank - I will try to keep the table clean!

The Celebrated Walking Oscar!

Rob and Nelly in the sling.........

Learning the piano just like Daddy did when he was young...

Lunch with the girls in Northcote Road - Nelly absent due to walking!

Nelly in the background...

Nelly and me .............

Kate and Millie

Laure and Lucille

Debbie and Molly...

Tuesday 20 March 2007

week six part two and the beach

Weekend by the Sea - we had to have a pair of shades!!!!!!

Nelly's first pair of shades, this weekend saw us taking a trip down the M3 to visit special friends in Bournemouth, who moved out of London about a year and a half ago. Gaby was the other referee during our adoption preparation so another special person ......The weather was bright, sunny and windy on Saturday and bright and absolutely freezing on Mothers Day..

Saturday - other really good friends who Ive in Swanage ( just the other side of the bay from Bournemouth came over with their little boy Jonny to meet Nelly and we had lunch followed by a windy walk on the beach. James ( 7 ) and Jonny ( 8 I think ) both enjoyed playing together but also pushing Nellys buggy very fast !

Nelly was still suffering from awful cold and did some spectacular projectile vomiting later in the afternoon while watching the rugby...! and I then caught the cold so was so bunged up for most of the visit!

' Nelly are you still in there??????????? 'hope you have not been blown away...

Cold Feet ... or was it more a case of Cold Ears!....

Enjoying the atmosphere......

Loving the Sand --... no worries we can come back soon when the sun is shining but there may be a few more people on the beach!"

Lesley, Gabs, Rob and Nelly , Jonny on deserted Bomo beach...

Love this one as you can see she looks great ............

Mothers Day - got my first Mothers Day card - with special Hand print fron Nelly! well it was until she moved and it looked more like a large red blob but hey Rob and Nelly enjoyed doing it! Gabs and I had lunch cooked by the boys - roast chicken etc although we did the desert! most of the day was spent lazing around with the papers

week six - meet lots of friends and some very special ones...

Week Six at home with Nelly - we have been out and about, but Miss N has been down with one of two things A) a really bad cold - cough, runny nose...B) teething...constant dribbling and night pain....during the day she was quite clingy but we managed to get on with things. The weekend started with us staying with friends in Barnes before they too move out of London and Nelly had her first taste of steak and kidney pie and had a bath with a boy! ...

On Tuesday we drove out to Henley to see a really good and special friend Catherine - she was one of our referees and said (I hope) nice things about us to Beatrice our Social Worker so a very special introdcution - although by Tuesday she was really getting clingy, did nbot eat that much, put some orange fingerpritns on Catherines sofa and by the evening when I got home her cough had become so bad that she ate, coughed and then threw up all over me ...quick change ..followed by some more ...OOOPS ...two of us in the bath tonight at seven! ........

A tad subdued in Monkey Music on Wednesday, followed by lunch in the garden ! how hot was it today - garden furniture out, unbrella up and sunglasses on ...lunch with Alison W and her two children...Cough got so bad bought some Tixylix...made for a quieter evening and a sleep through the night!

The boiler was serviced on Wednesday this week and tdays1he heating had become erratic, after the service it broke down and no heating ! ooops at least we are experiencing a March heatwave but next week forecast is snow... engineer came over on Thursday and finally managed to replace the circuit board that had broken by abouut 6 in the evening...

Friday - another lovely day and Nelly and I went over to Debbies in Dulwich for coffee to meet another lady whois also waiting for her referral, she wanted to meet oour little ones and we hope that we could give her a bit of hope and some ways of managing the wait - Fiona and I recommended plenty of pre-baby holidays..! Hope we could help as I remember that awful final waiting feeling and trying to come up with ways of coping... part two of Week six is visiting Gabs in Bournemouth ( the other very special referee ) and some windy time on the beach ! so check out the next post...

I love the Buggy I got from Joc and push Big Bea Bear around in it all day...

Nelly and Catherine in Henley...

I love money Mama .......

My first bath with a boy! he likes a dummy too.......

I like eating .............and I like this sunshine!

Steak and Kidney Pie....

Friday 9 March 2007

week five - Walking Week

More Ladies who lunching ...this time in Yautcha with Hilary and Sarah ...

Another office that Mama used to work in ...and some friends!

ALso started eating on my own - I really can use the spoon in the pot but fingers are far more fun!

Going well on the walking front -

Delilah has taken over Truffles the cow...

It is official she really is walking I managed to video the first confident steps...not sure if I can upload it to the blog. will try - pictures do not really capture the event! It is amazing how she just suddenly went, she had been threatening to for weeks but Fiona and Rinus gave her some great shoes that encourage crawling to walking and wow they did the trick...

I also decided that it is time to learn to feed herself!!!!!!!! what a mess, I developed a mantra that I chant at each mealtime that I have the patience and inclination to wait while she does it and the inclination to clean up after the event! 'Handle in the hand, spoon in the pot, spoon in the mouth..'. but not something I want to encourage out of the house just yet! I just made her Cous Cous with chicken, peppers and mushrooms that she attempted to feed herself ! We have never seen so much of it all over the floor, in her hair on her eyelashes!

This week I took her to yet another of the offices that I have worked in - we went to Forward in Regent Street to meet with Hilary and Sarah who have attentively reading the blog and welling up at all moments along with load of other women in offices all over London - you know who you are Genevieve! We took the train up to Victoria and then her first trip on a London Bus; bring back the Routemasters - we got one one of those bendy buses to Piccadilly and we crawled all the way along Piccadilly at least on a Routemaster we could have hopped on and off but you probably cannot do that with a buggy! By the time we got into the office she was ravenous! so we fed her in Sarah's office and then changed her nappy on her floor!! we then headed off into Soho and went for fantastically chic Dim Sum at Yautcha ...

Rest of the week was filled with buggy pushing, gymbabes and meeting people for tea. Friday of this week Nelly had another play date - with Lenny, my friend Jocelyn's little boy and Joc gave her one of those reallyt cute baby strollers.. she loves it and pushes it around the kitchen with her bears in it ! look out fdor pictures on next weeks instalment

Monday 5 March 2007

week four nellys birthday

Week Four ....

the week of Nelly's first birthday and Grandma coming to stay! The week started with a trip to Meteorite to meet the Meteorites - she fell straight into agency life and within about ten minutes she had moved through the agency and met most people! When will she be back for some work experience! it was great to be back there and catching up with people and introducing Nelly

Mum came down for a couple of days for Nelly's first birthday, she loved being here and helping out amazed at how much she eats, how well she can crawl and almost walk .Wednesday was The Big Birthday - took Nelly off to Monkey Music and then went to Debbie and Molly's for lunch and Kate and Millie were there, the girls loved all playing together, it was so nice to see them all together. Molly and Millie were crib mates in their orphanage and it was so nice to see them playing together and how they recognise each other.

In the evening Frank and Kate and lisa and karen came over to celebrate with cake and champagne...and Nelly showed off how she can move quickly on her firetruck...

We then spent the rest of the week getting ready for N's first party - while she was concentrating on getting on with walking and climbing the stairs - we were watching I promise...so by the time arrived for the party she impressed all with her toddling skills and they improve every day.

Having rob at home has been fun and interesting but he is starting to feel bored, this week saw our other great friends Kate and Frank packing up an moving to Cornwall so another big moment ! Time to move???????? well Rob is always looking ....

The party was great, so many people, so many children, it was fun and Nelly struggled on until about four when she finally fell asleep on my shoulder at about 3 30 and slept for an hour! we had to kick some children out of her room.

It was lovely to be able to introduce her to so many people, we were all exhausted by the end of the day and we both felt that we only spent about five minutes with each person at the party so apologies to everyone if we only managed a few words to you....all was tidy adn ship shape again by 11 that evening !