All posts by kate

A somewhat Dark and Watery Adventure!

We were glad to get home yesterday after finding ourselves on an unexpected adventure whilst being stuck in amongst all the flooding chaos that has hit UK – we were attempting to get to Hotel Radcliffe for the weekend as Uncle Ted and Jenny were making a visit to the UK and we had been hoping to see them. What should have been an hour and ¾ in the car ended up being 7 hours of driving for Daddy and not even getting close!

We’d been listening pretty closely to the local radio for traffic updates as we had been going at almost no miles an hour for a very long time and we were pretty confidant that once we were past the point in the road we were on that was flooded, we should be ok! We were partly right – once past the mini lake that was creeping across the road, we picked up speed and sailed through…….until we came to join the motorway and found a rather enormous queue of stationary traffic! Thinking quickly, we reprogrammed “Turn Lest!” (as Isabel calls it, the rest of us think of it as the Sat Nav!) to take us to Pee-poos house avoiding the Motorway – very cunning idea till we found that the roads we wanted to go down were shut and Police vehicles towing boats were coming past us whilst we were in yet more stationary traffic! Had we had a good old fashioned paper map, we might have stood a chance of navigating a route through but we were totally reliant on the Sat Nav and nobody tells them when roads are shut! (or under 6 feet of water!)

By this point it was after midnight and we were, not surprisingly, very tired! We tried a Travellodge on the off chance they had a room available – they probably would have had a million other people not had the same idea! Once we had found a very obliging pub who let Mummy in to wash bottles and top up with water to make formula (and where we were later to discover that Mummy had left her purse and involved us ringing just about every pub in the local area until we figured out which one it was!), we ended up sleeping in the car from 1.30am to 4.30am (Isabel on the back seat and Molly stretched out on Mummy!) then tried to have another go at reaching our destination – at this point it was 5am and when we found ourselves on a roundabout we recognised we decided to call it quits and headed home! It ought to also be pointed out that poor Grandpa Pee-poo was also stuck in all the mayhem – he had been to our house on Friday to pick up 2 of our armchairs as a space making exercise and had left at 5pm………it was 8am the next day before he made it home, and we are very sorry that he had to go through such horribleness!

Upton-upon-Severn (or perhaps that is “under-Severn”?!) is now cut off completely by the river bursting it’s banks and the water board is thinking of disconnecting mains water as it might have been contaminated whilst the army is apparently bringing in food by boat – needless to say, Grandpa Pee-poo is now very glad that he had stocked the fridge and freezer in preparation for a family invasion that never happened……he now has plenty of food for him and Granny Rosie as Granny Pies has stayed on with her friends in Leyland (she had originally been due back on Saturday!) and Aunty Nanna never made it from London!

Here’s hoping the water levels drop soon!

Molly has her half Birthday!

Even though I am finding it hard to believe, Molly is exactly 6 months old today! She marked the occasion by going to bed at 10.30pm and not waking up until 5.30 this morning – by my count, that’s 7 hours in a row and pretty good by anyone’s standards!?

She is now thoroughly bored with this baby lark and would very much like to be able to follow her sister on the great adventure up the stairs, but that isn’t going to happen for some time yet – we have just about sorted out the sitting up unaided (though someone still needs to be in grabbing distance!) and she can get to anything she wants by rolling……..you can almost see her figuring out in her mind which way she needs to go in order to get there!

She has cheered up considerably in recent weeks – she’s a lot more relaxed with people and not so reliant on having Mummy on hand…….having said that, we do occasionally have moments when only Mummy will do and she will scream her head off until she gets what she wants!

Though there is ridiculous amounts of dribbling and chewing going on, we still have no physical evidence of any teeth – given how much she enjoys chewing on my fingers, I am slightly relieved by this fact but it would be nice for some to actually break through so we can past the grumpiness and on with some serious teeth nashing!

We don’t think it will be too much longer before she figures out about crawling – and then we will really be in trouble!

[Note: to celebrate her half birthday Mummy took some photos of Molly and has posted them in a gallery. To access it, click here.]

Bedtime adventures!

Yesterday, as expected, saw the arrival of the Big Bed!! (Although it isn’t actually that big but, compared to Isabel, it’s pretty big!)

So, Mummy spent about an hour putting it together and putting the bedding on (which had proved to be quite an event in itself with both sets having to go back to be exchanged because there were bits missing!) and just as the last of the poppers were being done up on the duvet cover, fairy footsteps could be heard stomping up the stairs! As soon as Isabel saw it, she shot over and jumped in – we took this, and her refusal to get out even for chocolate, as being a good sign for later on when we would actually want her to be in it!

Two or three trips up the stairs to see her new bed ensued during the course of the day until eventually it was time for bed! As predicted, because she could get of bed she did but it wasn’t as bad as we had thought – she was in and out whilst Mummy was collapsing down the travel cot (with the occasional shout of “Oh no Mummy, tent broken!” coming from the Girls room!) but once that had happened and we had obliged her by bringing some milk, she settled down for the night. Trips in to deal with Molly during the night found Isabel at all sorts of angles but she still slept through until 7.25 this morning – Mummy was doing her best to stay in bed as long as possible so was listening to what was going on but refusing to get out of bed……..until Molly started to cry! Once in the Girls room it was discovered that Isabel had got out of her bed and had gone and climbed in with Molly – which would probably have been fine had Molly been awake when she did it!

So we are hoping that things continue to go smoothly and that we don’t have too much trouble getting her into, or persuading her to stay, in bed – now if we could just persuade Molly to sleep through the night, we’d be laughing………

Drum Roll Please……..

The Big Bed is on it’s way!!!

It’s only going to be about 10 days later than we’d originally anticipated – John Lewis are blaming the manufacturer and I’m sure the same would be true in reverse, but at least we know it is coming now and the bedding is all here and ready to go so, with a bit of luck and some self assembly, we should have the bed up and sleepable by bedtime next Monday (2nd July).

Continue reading Drum Roll Please……..

Bedtime excitement and the blank canvas of walls…..

We have started the process of “The Big Bed Move” this week – we had been hoping to do this once Isabel’s new bed had arrived but Molly’s growth rate out did us and we had no choice but to de-squash the littlest Winchurst by transferring her into the cot! I had been slightly concerned that Isabel would object to her beloved sister mustering her way onto her turf but she doesn’t seem to have cared a bit – in fact, she gets rather excited at the prospect of bedtime in “the tent”, which is what she is calling the travel cot………..the only slight hiccup is her new found excitement at being able to talk to Molly and therefore delaying sleepy time for either of them! I was particularly displeased yesterday morning when Isabel decided to arouse from her slumber at 6.45am (which is VERY early for her!) and proceeded to say “Hello Molly!!” at the top of her voice until she got a response – I’m pretty sure that Molly had still been asleep up to this point but clearly felt that if Isabel was awake then she should be too.………the only plus side was that by 9am she was exhausted and promptly went back to sleep! Needless to say, she was extremely grumpy all day yesterday – Isabel seems to be the only one who copes well with the early morning starts!

Continue reading Bedtime excitement and the blank canvas of walls…..

Noses, sickness and other such treats!

Life in the Winchurst household has been relatively quiet of late – I am, of course, ignoring all the stomping, screeching and general yelling that both Girls have been busy practising……..If we included those, there would never be a quiet moment to be had!

The Bank Holiday weekend found us stopping at home rather than venturing off on our travels – Mummy had a mountain of washing (so nothing new there!) that was threatening to avalanche down on us all which she wanted to catch up on (and felt it would have been rude to arrive at someone’s house armed with our washing!) and, as it was a Bank Holiday, the weather was of course due to be rubbish! Aunty Catherine came to visit on the Monday and, after some lunch, we ventured to “Kids 2 Day”, an indoor play centre, so that Isabel could let off some steam – once we arrived, we discovered that everyone else in Hampshire had had pretty much the same idea but there was no way we were going to be allowed to leave……we had enough trouble getting her out of there once the hour and a half’s playtime was up!

Continue reading Noses, sickness and other such treats!

Molly hits a Milestone…..

Today, shortly after 1pm, Molly hit one of what I’m sure will be many milestones by FINALLY rolling over, back to front, for the very 1st time!

Mummy was very excited whilst Isabel didn’t notice and Molly was just cross because her arm that she had just rolled onto was stuck! (And poor daddy was at work so we hope she does it again for his benefit later!)

Given that she has been busy perfecting her stomach crunches (and actually pulled herself into a sitting position from being in the crook of my arm yesterday!) I wouldn’t have thought we’ll have to wait too much longer until she can sit on her own!

We’ll keep you posted!

The joys of being Two…..

For those of you that didn’t know (or hadn’t done the appropriate counting on your fingers!), we have now officially entered the realm of the “terrible twos” – and boy, don’t we know it!!? Isabel turned 2 just under 2 weeks ago and it seems that with that, the Gods of Behaviour decided the turn the stroppiness-knob up to full blast and we have yet to go through a full day without some full blown tantrum being thrown by our darling daughter!
When she isn’t throwing a wobbler she is, of course, absolutely adorable and now talking in full sentences that actually make sense. Phrase of the week last week was “I like a (insert relevant word) Mummy!” and was most regularly food related though my favourite was in response to Molly burping when she looked at her sideways and declared “Molly! Goodness sake! How rude!” which even now makes me chuckle just thinking about it!

Molly is, true to form, growing like a weed and already seems to be almost as big as many babies twice her age – she’s extremely strong and is totally loving standing up (aided of course – she isn’t THAT clever!) and the freedom that being in her jolly jumper brings her…………the most frustrating thing of the moment though is watching her so NEARLY rolling over and not quite making it – any day now she is going to go right over and probably frighten the life out of herself but, for the time being, she is contenting herself with being cross at her inability to just get over that last little hurdle! She thinks that Isabel is hilarious which is so lovely to watch – Isabel is about the only person who is guaranteed to get a giggle out of her and I am enjoying the fact that if Molly is niggly, I can send Isabel to talk to her and she will be entertained for at least the length of time it takes me to use the toilet and, if I’m lucky, make a cup of tea! She has also begun to explore the wonderful world of solid food – so far we have limited it to Banana and Peach baby rice but this seems to have gone down a treat and she has taken to it a lot quicker and easier than Isabel did!

We have just had our 1st holiday as a family of four – rather than venturing to foreign climes, we opted to play it a bit safe and headed for Cornwall………and I think we wouldn’t have had better weather even it we had been abroad! The sun shone everyday bar one (and Mummy got the sunburn to prove it!) and on that day we were at the Eden Project so we inside for most of the time anyway! We had a lovely time though we did find ourselves getting up even earlier than we do normally – the small people didn’t seem to have grasped about holiday lie-ins but I’m sure that they will learn in the years to come! Isabel was thrilled to have a garden to play in and loved the fact that one of the farm cats came to visit on a daily basis (and Mummy was pretty pleased too!) – I’m not sure how pleased he was to be chased round and have his tail played with but it didn’t seem to put him off as he kept coming back even though we had no food to offer him!

Up to our armpits in sick….

As the title suggests, this weekend found us dealing with a delightful bout of gastroenteritis – Isabel had first started throwing up on wednesday (as mentioned in the previous post) but that had stopped by the time Daddy got home and so we thought we had got away with it after all!

How wrong we were – after being perfectly fine on thursday, Isabel let loose (so to speak!) with avengence on friday and began throwing up at about 5am and didn’t stop all day!! Having decided to seek advice from NHS direct in the afternoon, I was told that I ought not to be starving her and that I could give her some milk if she wanted it (up to this point, I’d only given her water) – well, that was a stupid idea wasn’t it!? No sooner had it gone in, then it came hurtling back out again – and, it has to be said, was a damn sight harder to clean up than the watery vomit we’d had previously! Bizarrely, she did continue to drink the bottle of milk which caused a repeat performance of moments earlier and at this point Mummy made a mental note not to give her anymore milk until she was sure she would keep it down! After that, we decided to seek the wisdom of the GP – when we eventually were able to talk to him, he was a little horrified that we’d been told she could have milk and instead gave her a prescription for some rehydration powders……persuading her to drink them took a little bit of creativity on Mummys part but we did manage to get some in her – and even keep it there for at least 10 minutes!
Continue reading Up to our armpits in sick….

Girls that grow!

If you are able to believe it, Isabel will be two in just under 2 weeks – if someone would be so kind as to tell me where the time has gone, I would be most grateful!

Admittedly, she does seem to grow, height wise, on an almost daily basis and we have just come into the “parrot” stage with her vocabulary – this is lovely and often hilariously funny (such as last night when having a snuggle with Daddy she said “Hello, Gorgeous” – he’s been called worse things, I’m sure!) though we are still trying to avoid the swearing……..the fact that she is currently unable to say “f” is a big help and it means that we get “suck” instead of something MUCH ruder and it is relatively acceptable in public – for the time being, we are the only people who know what it was meant to be!

Continue reading Girls that grow!