Boo! Happy New Year

Today started like this . . .

Tilly crawled from the living room to see me in the kitchen!  Oh how my life is going to change now she doesn't stay where I put her.   Was the loveliest funniest sight though as I could hear her humpfing and puffing as she crawled through. 

Later Jane and Peter arrived and we went off for a day out on a train.  It was a lovely journey at an old railway line and on an old train with complimentary mince pies! Now, the pictures below look all quite serious but it wasn't at all like that. I think Richard was just trying some moody mug shots.

     

After that we broke the New Year in in style . . Jane and Peter went back to their van (to camp in the cold) at 9.20pm, Mum went to bed at about 10.15pm.  Rich and I stayed up, or at least I stayed up, Rich fell asleep on the sofa.  We waited until the London fireworks and now we are off to bed.  So now we are in 2009, ooo er - that means I'll be 30 this year. 

Where's the baby?

Tonight was our first night out without Tilly.  We've both been out separately just not together but tonight was the night, as we took the opportunity of not one but three grandparents being around to babysit!   We didn't venture far, we went to the restaurant around the corner but little steps are big enough.  

It actually didn't feel as weird as I thought it would.  Probably a combination of knowing that she is with mum, Jane and Peter, only being around the corner and it has not been the first time we've been away from her.  Anyway, we had a great night out with Claire and Lee.  When we came back we played on the wii until I fell asleep on the sofa and we eventually called it a night.  Of course the next step is to try and find a local babysitter and venture further. . . 

Walkies

Oh my goondess, not only has she just cracked crawling but now she is confidently taking first steps with her baby zimmer!

I bought the baby zimmer back in the summer at a car boot sale and it says from 12 months, so I didn't expect her to be using it so soon to walk with. She has been playing with the musical part for a while now and half-heartedly taken a few nervy and wobbly steps before . .  but today she has walked up and down the rug between Richard and me several times. I can't believe it, it seems that now she has worked out how to move, she wants to run!

I think you can tell by the look on my face that I am so pleased for her . . .

She pants excitedly as she is walking, it is almost as she can't believe she is doing it either. 

     

I'm not going to hold her back, she has learnt these things at the right time for her. I love when Matilda learns something new, she looks so pleased with herself and I am so proud of every little step.  

Creepy crawlies

Matilda has been able to crawl  . . backwards for quite a while.  At her developmental check they said that it wouldn't be long before she worked out she could move forward too.  Over the last few weeks she has got increasingly frustrated as she has done push ups on her toes and hands missing the point that the knees do all the work.   Finally on Boxing day she took her first tentative moves forward, only a few moves at first, with a lot of effort she hunched backwards and forwards and managed to move across the rug.  She has cracked it.  Hooray. 

We went out to Stratford Butterfly farm today.  A strange day to do it as it was bloody freezing outside, only 1 or 2 degrees and we went into a boiling hot house.  It was good fun, Tilly seemed fascinated by them but when they kept trying to land on her she'd had enough and was more than a bit frustrated.  She looked very cute in her new Christmas outfits and got a lot of smiles and attention from strangers. 

  

Has Father Christmas been?

I know that from now on, not many Christmas mornings will be spent lying in bed waiting for Tilly to wake up.   I savoured the fact that she is oblivious to the occasion, she woke and played happily unaware of the presents downstairs.  The underneath of the tree was practically groaning from all the presents for her.  I'd bought her a few things and to our surprise many of our friends had also sent her presents too.  If I'd have known that I'd have bought her one present!   Her big present was a pink ride on car that grows with her, as a rocker, rider thingy with 7, yes 7 stages!  She also got rattles, magic bopping hammers, clothes, books, bath toys, farm animals and maracas.  So many toys.  Quite frankly I think she'd have been happy with all the Christmas cards.  We should have just opened one and opened the others over the next few days - extending the joy of Christmas but we too were impatient to see what all the things were.   Tilly sat in the middle of all the toys looking totally bemused at all of these shiny new things in front of her.  Certainly one of her early favourites was the present from nursery; a big drum, tambourine and maracas - especially shaken in time with the music from her pink car.  She was excited and then confused, often seeming to check just who exactly was making which noise. 

In an effort to get Christmas dinner ready we had overshot the time for Tilly's lunch, so she had a jar of turkey and cranberry food. I felt ashamed that I couldn't even prepare her first Christmas meal!  She sat down for her lunch at 12.15pm, she'd finished hers but continued to sit and play and entertain us throughout dinner and was still there at 2pm.  What a star!  

"But I want lamb for dinner!"

Our first Christmas was lovely.  Mum and Tilly were making each other laugh which was just lovely to watch, I know that Tilly is enjoying mum being here and she'll miss her when she goes home, we all will, thankfully we still have plenty of time before that happens.  And I know mum is loving being with Tilly, watching them today was so funny as they both giggled and played silly games.  Meanwhile, she continued to attempt to crawl and is so frustratingly close.

Christmas eve

Tilly started her Christmas eve once again playing with her Christmas cards. She has learnt to give them to you if you ask nicely.

This video makes me laugh as she is quite clearly telling me something about this card but I'm not sure what!

For a while I had planned, much to Richard's horror, to go to Coventry Cathedral's Christmas eve service with Matilda and mum.   The service was specially for children and they were encouraged to dress up.  Matilda had a long cream dress on and I'd got her some wings and a halo, she looked just gorgeous.  The Cathedral was packed already when we arrived and we were half an hour early.  Lots of people looked at her and made comments on how cute she looked.  We took our seats and the service started. It was lovely, there were loads of children there, some dressed as angels, shepherds, Kings and even sheep.   The service started with a Mary and a Joseph and then all the children who were dressed up were told to follow them on a journey around the Cathedral.  Tilly was too young but after a nudge from mum and a few words of encouragement from some others around us I too got up with Tilly and joined the march.  As I went, I felt quite emotional and tears were forming in my eyes.  The music was rousing and there I was walking down a Cathedral aisle with my daughter in my arms, dressed as an angel.  I was a lovely moment and I felt sad that Richard hadn't joined us.   It was a lovely service, we walked from place to place with stories and songs filling in the gap.  At the end we all lit candles and stood around the edge of the Cathedral making a huge circle of light.  It was a beautiful service and Tilly really was a little angel throughout, even though her halo had slipped a few times! 

When we got home Tilly played with her Christmas cards again in front of the tree, as you can tell from the picture, she is a bit of a card!

Tilly's first Christmas party

Matilda had been invited to her nursery's Christmas party today.  When we arrived the tables were all laid out with bright colourful tableware and the whole room had lots of Christmas decorations in.    

When I arrived to collect her (and to meet Father Christmas) she had obviously had a great time with chocolate smeared all over her face.   I was handed a bag with cards for her and some other goodies.  The kids were wild, all lined up and waiting for Father Christmas to come by singing a song that ended in them all screaming "FATHER CHRISTMAS!" at the top of their voices.   Tilly was high too and was squealing until he arrived, as soon as he walked in through the door, he bent down to shake Tilly's hand and then she started bawling.  Oh dear.  

After a while, we went into the room where he was sitting in a big chair and collected her present.  Tilly cried every time she looked at him and hung on for dear life.  

When we got home I opened the bag to find 18 Christmas cards all for Matilda!   Blimey.  We opened them all and she had the best time looking at each one, then picking up another and then another . . examining them all.  I think in total it was for about an hour.  Certainly the best present and it's not even Christmas yet!

Picking Dee Dee up from the airport

Today we went to pick Dee Dee up from the airport.  Tilly (yes, she did it all by herself!) made a sign and we went to greet her.

So musical . . .

Claire and Lee came around the other night, we intended to play Wii games that we have already. But Richard (the embodiment of the naughty little devil sitting on my shoulder) realised that he'd bought Wii music for his sister and we should kindly 'test' it before giving to her at Christmas.  After some considerable time of playing other games, we reverted to the original (naughty) option and the celephane was taken off.  

Oh my goodness, I played on it all night.  We opened it at 3.30pm and apart from a short break to put Tilly to bed I finished playing at 11.15pm (under duress).  I'd have happily continued all night.  Wii Music is a wonderful game.  

Between us we have no musical ability or indeed play any musical instruments but that didn't stop us making our own music video, The Shivvy Combo with us playing all the parts.  I nearly broke myself when Richard played the castanets and managed to get his Wii Mii to 'Ole' and stamp his foot.   Brimming with pride at our music video (of the very rock'n'roll Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!) I moved on to conduct my own orchestra.   

Now this I liked.  A lot. I was in total control of a whole orchestra.  They tune up until you hold your baton in the air and then they stop, attentive and waiting for you to start.  Then it is a case of waving your arms about in time, to adjust tempo, levels etc.  I loved it so much. I really got into it.  Needless to say, before 9pm Richard had ordered us our own copy or at least his sister a new one!

Richard has kindly captured one of my attempts at Bizet's Carmen on video. 

Although watching it, I am quite clearly taking it far too seriously but it is addictive and I love it. I can thoroughly recommend it to everyone.  

Since playing on the first night we played again and we did lessons and unlocked loads of musical instruments.  A perfect game and I can't wait for Christmas to play it lots more!

Legendary Christmas Sleigh Ride

At our ordinary morning meetings at work, Christmas things that must be featured on air or the website was discussed.  A few people started to discuss the 'legendary Coventry sleigh ride' - what? I'd never heard of it.  Surely I would have heard of that, I've lived here 8 years now. 

After investigation I found out that it regularly attracts huge queues of children and has been running for no less than 51 years! Many people claim never to have missed a year.  Matilda is now a Cov Kid (whether we like it or not) so I took her down for a trip on the Coventry sleigh ride. 

The ride was great, I've attached a video link so you can enjoy the ride for yourself below. Matilda squealed as we bobbed up and down on the sleigh.  I was worried that she may cry at Father Christmas, she didn't.  She was given a bit of cheap plastic tat to take home, a pink wand that was motion activated and made a noise and lit up when it was moved.  It didn't take long for me to put the battery tag back in to stop it from working as she bashed it around while we walked out of the shop.  The noise was so loud.  I felt so mean that I took it out again once we were outside, not long after that she dropped it on the floor and it stopped working altogether.  I was relieved but sad for her, she looked disappointed - but hey it was literally cheap tat after all. 

Already I was starting to really enjoy being a mum, I can use the excuse of taking Tilly to some really great stuff. 

To experience the sleigh ride 'at home' visit: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/articles/2005/11/15/santas_sleigh_ride_feature.shtml

Sleepless nights . . . a thing of the past??

Some people make me sick.  They stand there with their babies of 6 weeks and boast how they sleep through the night already and never make a peep, others moan that they had a disturbed night as their 'little angel' woke up once in the night and they are knackered. In response to these I have strong urges to lash out, we are now totting up a tidy 8 months of sleepless nights and disturbed sleep, in fact add on my sleepless nights from heavy pregnancy achey hips, needing a wee every five minutes I think it adds up to an even more exhausting 10 months.  

But finally, Tilly has spent two nights sleeping through from 7pm - 6am.   I am so impressed, although typically the first night she did it, I woke in a panic at 4am, worried that she hadn't stirred at all I got up to check if she was OK.  The next morning Richard and I looked at each other and checked if it was a good night or if the other one had prevented us from waking.  Finally we'd done it and we'd had a proper good night - like we used to, before all this began.  The next night we nervously went to bed hoping for another night and once again she did it, she also went back to sleep for another hour at 6am after I went in to see her.  7pm -7am.  Glorious.

It didn't last long. She has yet more teeth coming through and we had a 'normal' night last night - she woke at 11pm, 2am, 4,15am, 5.30am.  Eventually I was so exhausted I took her into our bed, thinking it was morning already she excitedly hit me in the face and babbled for about 40minutes until she finally bit the bullet and went back to sleep.

And so, here comes another night . . . I've got my concealer ready to cover up the growing black bags under my eyes.  

Lashings and lashings of ginger beer

Tilly has become very inquisitive and wants everything.  Recently she optimistically opens her mouth whenever I am eating or drinking anything.  Today she seemed convinced that she wanted ginger beer.   

I might like ginger beer, do I like ginger beer?, I don't like ginger beer!