First Birthday

Our little 6lbs 9.5oz baby girl finally hit 12 months...which means we must be doing something right!

As everyone says the first 12 months go in a flash and I'm sure time will continue to go at the same fast pace, so we're trying to capture every moment.

Drew's routine is such that she demands to have a nap in the morning and the afternoon. Sometimes she drops the afternoon nap which means she sleep really well at night but also means we get the afternoon to do something fun together...I mean other than watching Dr Phil on UK Living.

So, Drew decided she wanted a joint birthday party with her antenatal mate, Kaishu, and so we threw THE best 1st Birthday Party at our house for Drew and Kaishu. The fun started at indoor softplay, swiftly followed by loads of party and drink galore. And for the kids...(hee-hee)...

Believe it or not, both Drew's Nanna and Kaishu's Nanna both made a chocolate hedgehog Birthday cake for the babies so there was a little competition of which was the spikiest! Unfortunately, Drew slept through most of the food, drinks and candle-blowing sections of the Birthday Party but did make a special appearance as her guests were leaving...probably to make sure no one nicked any of her presents. Of which she received toooooo many! Including her VERY first Trike from her Great Auntie Ceri & Great Uncle David! Drew loves it...albeit she can't touch the pedals, but she takes after me. I have to strap two paintpots to the bottom of my shoes when I drive a car.

Everyone was SO generous and she ended up with so many great toys and clothes, that we had to buy additional toyboxes...lucky girl! We doing the old toy rotation trick at the moment so she doesn't get bored. I do the same with Jerry's pants.

So, check out her birthday photos and apologies that there aren't many of Drew ...she was asleep!

Back to Work

7.05pm.

I'm peering out of the upstairs landing window. Watching the fireworks. It's November 5th. Drew's in bed, fighting sleep. Barney's not himself. He's not keen on the firework noise. He's trying to find comfort under Drew's cot. Probably licking one of her thrown away Colin's (pet name for comforter).

I wonder how many other people are doing the same thing. Not hiding under their baby's cot. Staying in I mean. On Bonfire Night. I always went out on November 5th. I love fireworks...now I just hope they don't get too loud and wake Drew. Who isn't even asleep yet.

Although I'm up her looking out the window, I'm in the middle of doing the ironing, making the tea, downloading a new version of ITunes (because my PC says I need to!), watching something on Sky +. But I'm upstairs because Drew has just started another teething phase. That, or she may have a cold. It's hard to tell these days.

But, she does have two lovely teeth at the top that have come through. Not the normal front teeth. Oh no. That would be too NORMAL. Drew's gone for one fang and one tooth next to that. No top front teeth to match her lovely bottom teeth. She looked great on Halloween. I've just added some more books under the head of her cot, put Vicks on her chest, Olbas Oil on a muslin attached to cot and plugged in a vapour thingy. Oh and I've given her nasal drops to de-snotify her cute button nose. Poor thing. Mind you...I didn't say 'poor thing' when she was awake every 2 hours last night. That was fun. It didn't help that I went back to work last week and today was the start of my second week. However, us Super-Mums battle through it without batting an eye and STILL keep a home running...Now where's that Chinese Take Away menu...

So, I went back to work on 29th Oct. 3 days a week. Wed, Thurs, Friday. People ask 'do you miss Drew' and my answer is surprisingly 'No...til you mentioned her now'. I suppose I did think about her alot of my first few days. It probably didn't help that I had no PC connectivity so I couldn't get stuck into some work, but I managed to fill my time completing my 'Back to Work - Thingy Cos We Know You've got Baby Brain and We Need To Fill The Time It Will Take To Get You Back Online and Get Off Our IT *sses And Get You a Password For Your Computer - Induction Plan'. As I wasn't that busy, I caught myself looking at the clock a few times and thinking...she'll be having her lunch now...she'll be sleeping now...oh gawd! Will she even sleep without me?...will she behave?'...

Then your mind goes bonkers and you start thinking that you may have missed an emergency call from your childminder/nursery. You temporarily forget where you've put your baby's little red health and development record which you need in an emergency. You check your mobile phone has NHS Direct AND your GP number on it and then after battling against your inner feeling...you finally make that call.

You feel stupid doing it and then you feel even stupider when your told... 'She's fine. She's had a sleep and is now nibbling on a banana'. What was I worried about?

I'm thinking the worst and Drew's eating a banana!!