Friends – The Gallery

This is one of my best friends. (Not the girl in the foreground, that’s me!). She’s actually my cousin and a year and a half younger than me.

Growing up we fought like cat and dog and, as we both are the only girls in our families, we are the closest thing we each have to a sister.

She is brilliant and has always been there for me. Besides my small group of actual best friends and my hubby she is probably the one that knows most about me and the one who has been there at my lowest, my hungriest and my happiest. We come from the same crazy family and have been through a lot together over the years.

We are chalk and cheese but there is a strong bond there. The kind of bond that always meets with a massive hug, continues with non stop chatter at a 100 miles an hour and parts with a massive hug.

You can’t see from this picture but I was at an extremely low point in my at the time and she made sure I kept busy. We went out every weekend and ate and laughed a LOT!

(Don’t tell her I told you!)

P.S This is the only photo she’d allow. I don’t like being centre of attention of anything like that.

Check out the other entries in this weeks Gallery!

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The Baby Hater

I think Baby Z has entered the world of baby anxiety. Or Baby hating. I can’t seem to work it out yet.

Over the weekend we ha a visit from some good friends and their baby girl who is 4 months younger than baby Z and has just entered the “pokey” inquisitive stage. She teeters about in utter cute mode and explores everything by giving it a good poke. In the midst of her exploration she happened to wander over to Baby Z and gave him a good prod and a “IYYYAA!”. He responded by freezing in surprise, quickly locking eyes with me and trying hard to stop his bottom lip quivering. This was followed by a “waaaaaaaah!”, cue lots of crying and arms held out for a cuddle. He spent the entire afternoon eyeing her suspiciously and bursting into tears every time she tried to play with him.

Roll on Sunday, and after getting his first pair of Clarkes (hurrah!!!), we decided to just “pop” in to Asda for a few bits and bobs. Our “popping in for a few bits and bobs” quickly turned into “a big shop filled to the brim and wandering up and down every aisle”.

Baby Z loves being pushed around in the trolley and as we approached the chocolate aisle we could hear the screaming cries of what looked like a 2 year old little girl, also in a trolley, getting louder and louder. In her arm and leg flailing she caught sight of Baby Z and immediately shut up and pointed, wide eyed and suddenly riveted.

“Oooooh Baybeeeee!”

Her frazzled mum, in an attempt to keep her toddler quiet, immediately pushed her trolley direct next to ours so the two babies were next to each other.

The little girl reached out and tried to hold Baby Z’s hand. Baby Z wasn’t having any of it and looked to us with a “get me awaaaay!”. We tried to assure him with lots of smiles and “say hello!”. He responded with a “waaaaaaah!!” and that was our cue to quickly pull him away and saying our goodbyes.

As we pushed him away the cheeky monkey raised his hand and started waving as the poor frazzled mum of the toddler attempted to deal with part 2 of the epic tantrum her toddler was having.
He quickly put his hand down as her screams got louder.

Silent Sunday

Project 52 – Week 8

Dummy Dares

After about week of Baby Z having fever, a throat infection and what looks like major teething, I think we *may* have finally turned a fever-less corner today. What normally resembles a small but fierce hurricane working its way through our front room looks more like a strong gust of wind at the moment, with a lot of little naps in between the havoc, but he looks like he is getting there, slowly but surely. My fringe, meanwhile has been graced by a few more white hairs of worry over the last few days. Its quite nicely helping me to look more and more like a cross between Pepe le Pews girlfriend and a younger (and of course, prettier) version of Cruella.

All this teething has done no favours to getting rid of Baby Z’s dummy though. He has been refusing all teething rings and, instead, has been clutching his precious dummy to chomp on furiously whenever the need takes him. I was all set to start getting rid of it. It would ONLY be nap times and ONLY when he was in floods of tears. It lasted about a day before fever took over I melted in instant defeat to give him a guaranteed soother. I know he’s feeling better today because he doesn’t look like he’s going to tear it to shreds with just his hardened gums. He is currently sat on the sofa playing the game of the week; holding the dummy strap in his hand and swinging it around rapidly, kind of like a baby version of David from David and Goliath. You can see the fear in his eyes as well as the dare he gives himself to have another go. Then you see a massive self-congratulatory smile emerge once he’s stopped and realised he hasn’t whacked himself in the face.

Trying to take it off him just proves futile as I’m met with a full on dramatic swoon and a “How very dare yoooooou!!” style tantrum. So I opted for the advice given by a few which is “once he hurts himself he won’t do it again”. So far, we’re on the 5th time he’s hurt himself…

We will start again tomorrow.