Friday's Fave Five - 4/12/20

Friday's Fave Five is hosted by Susanne over at Living to Tell the Story.  It's a lovely reminder to sit down and think back on the week and find things to be grateful for.  Pop over to Susanne's site to see who else is taking part.

I last posted here 3 weeks ago.  We've had a busy time and were away from home for 2 weeks and I just didn't have the energy, or time really for blogging.  I haven't even really kept up with what others have been posting so apologies for that.

BUT, I do have lots to be thankful for as follows:

1)  A Granddaughter!  

 More photos here

Ella Susan was born on 17 November.  I keep joking that she's either going to be a Princess, bossing all the 5 grandsons around, or she'll be a complete tomboy and wanting to join in with them all.  Time will tell.

2)  Thanksgiving dinner with our son and our American DIL

Our DIL provided us with a lovely meal.  Rory was really excited to see us and we had a lovely time.  And cuddles with Vinny!

3)  Coping with Nathan.   His Mummies were in the hospital for several nights after his baby sister Ella was born so we moved in to their house and looked after Nathan 24/7.  It was the first time we had looked after him overnight let alone several days and nights but he was actually ok.  Of course there were a few tears when he wanted Mummies but generally he was much better than I'd anticipated but of course regular Facetime/WhatsApp video sessions helped.

He was happy to be bathed but hair washing definitely didn't happen.  Probably just as well - look at his lovely curls!

4)  Lockdown is over, a vaccine has arrived and we can get together with the family at Christmas!

We're still being very cautious and trying to stay safe but, all being well, our eldest son and family will be with us for a few days at Christmas and the others will join us.  Can't wait!

5)  Beautiful flowers from my daughter and DIL

A thank you for having Nathan and then staying to help out when they first came home with baby Ella.  Sadly Vicky's Mum died some years ago and of course at a time like this she is sorely missed.  Ella's middle name of Susan is after her departed Grandmother.

We were there 2 weeks in all so I'm also thankful for sleeping in my own bed now.

Have a good weekend all.

20 in 20 - Weekly Photo #37 - w/c 23/11/20

Look who's here!

Say hello to our granddaughter - Ella Susan, born on 17th November.

Finally we can buy pink!

Now there are 6!

2020 has been a difficult year but for us it's also been full of blessings.

Shh don't wake the baby!

I love looking after this little one but now he's walking he does keep me on my toes, all day!  Except when he's asleep.

He has a cold at the moment so he's not 100% but he was so good today.  He let me get him dressed, clean his teeth and give him his inhaler this morning and although I was wiping his nose all day long he never got ratty about any of it.

But he was tired!  He was struggling to stay awake during his lunch and I was able to lift him out of his highchair and lay him in his buggy and he was off!  No rocking, no singing he was out for the count - for 2 hours.  Time for Nanny to have her lunch and get a rest before he woke up and was on the go again.

Did I mention I love being a grandparent?

I have a Hat Trick! Say hello to Rory.

Well my grandbabies are definitely impatient to be here.

Grandson #3 arrived 2 weeks early at 5 pm on 1st June.

Meet Rory Francis, who weighed in at 7lb 6oz.

He's still in the hospital at the moment as he picked up an infection during birth and has to finish a course of antibiotics.  Poor thing has a cannula in his arm but he's doing really well and we hope he and his Mummy will both be home by the end of this week.

It's been an eventful few years with 3 weddings and now 3 babies but it's lovely to see all our kids settled, with lovely partners and now all with babies of their own.  We are truly blessed.

Here's a pic of all 3 grandsons when tiny.  

Nathan is on the left, Noah top right and Rory bottom right.

I'm sure they'll be creating lots of mischief together as they get older!

Wedding? What Wedding?

Of course living here in the UK it was impossible to avoid being aware of the recent Royal Wedding.  I've lost count of the number of TV programmes dedicated to all things Royal and how they met, where they met, how weddings are planned and so on and so on.

Don't get me wrong, I love following the life stories of our royal family, unlike my husband who thinks it's a great drain on public finances.  Not that he has any idea of how the finances actually work.

However, I did not watch the wedding on Saturday.  What?  I hear you scream.  The biggest event of the year and you didn't watch it.  Well of course I watched it, in full glory, but not until Monday!

I had more important things to be doing, like travelling to Nottingham to meet this little man:

Introducing Noah Henry, born 17th May and weighing in at 7lb 1oz.  Grandson #2.

Happy New Year! Let's hope there's no drama.

Yes it's me!  I'm here.  Really.

I know it's been an age.  Over a month of travelling and then arriving back just before Christmas and then doing Christmas & New Year hasn't left a lot of time for blogging.  Or even the inclination to blog.

And now it's 2018!  So the rot stops here.  And hopefully by joining in with the Just Jot it January (#jusjojan) challenge I might not only get my mojo back but keep it going.

You can check out the challenge here on Linda's blog.  The prompt for today is DRAMA

Well there was plenty of that around the world in 2017 but fortunately not too much in my life.  Of course some of the scenery on our Australia trip was pretty dramatic and I will blog about that.  Promise!  Of course it seems a long time ago now.  But the best bit of that trip was that our Grandson Nathan (and his Mummies) came with us!  (Really we tagged along with them but who cares when it meant hubby and I finally did some serious travelling.)

Nathan's arrival was the main drama in our lives this year, arriving early as he did and giving us lots to worry about initially but this is how he looks now:

He's actually 9 months but his corrected age is 6+ months due to his prematurity and he is solid!  But adorable.  Spending so much time with him was lovely even if he doesn't like to sleep much.

I've been catching up on blogs today.  Hopefully I've left most of my readers a comment or two or at least a like.  Apologies to anyone I've missed.  Some of you have had drama in your lives in 2017.  I hope that 2018 will be a better year for us all.

It's definitely an exciting year for us as we have not one but two more Grandchildren on the way!  Hopefully the only drama associated with that will be if they arrive too close together and I have to work out how to be in two places (London and Nottingham) at the same time.  They are both due in June with only 8 days between their due dates!  I don't want to be making any dramatic dashes up and down the M1 so that I can visit both on the day they arrive.

Ok I'm done for today.  I need to organise my photos from Australia so that I can post about the trip.  I'll be back!

A non-Hodgepodge Wednesday post - 18/10/17

No Hodgepodge today as Joyce (of From this Side of the Pond) is taking a well earned break.  Just reading about her schedule often makes me feel tired!

But it's Wednesday and I usually blog today so a post is called for.

It's been quite a miserable day here today after some dry weather.  I actually managed to get my grass cut on Sunday.  It had grown quite long due to the alternating spells of sunny days followed by rain.  Each time I planned to cut it the rain came.  On Sunday we'd had a few dry days so I finally managed to get it done.  It took me ages but I'm relieved it's looking neat and tidy again.  Especially as the weather changed again on Monday.  We didn't get rain and London was fortunately not within the path of storm Ophelia which had devastating effects on Ireland but we did have an eerie afternoon.  The sky suddenly went really dark with an almost red  glow to it which was later explained as being due to sand from the Sahara being drawn over the country due to the storm!

This storm came 25 years after The Great Storm of 1987.  A BBC weather presenter, Michael Fish, said during a forecast on the day: "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way... well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't!".  The storm went on to claim 19 lives.  It took down the a tree in our garden.  But although it seems that Michael Fish believed the caller was referring to Hurricane Floyd which was approaching Florida at the time, he has never been allowed to forget what was seen as a major gaffe.

Being a wet day today I spent it at home catching up on chores but also finding time for some reading.  My current read is "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep" by Joanna Cannon which I'm enjoying.  It's set in the summer of 1976 which I remember well.  The summer was incredibly hot and we seemed to go ages without any rain and the drought was beginning to be a real problem before the hot spell broke.  I was about to start my final year at school so was at home for most of it.

Hmm looking back over this post it's easy to see why Brits have a reputation for always talking about the weather!

I could talk about Nathan but I haven't seen him since last Wednesday and won't see him until Saturday this week.  Thank goodness for Whatsapp and Lifecake.  Although it's very easy to get caught up looking at all the photos and videos and then realising that dinner plans will need to be changed as there's not enough time left to prepare the meal you'd planned!  Quick cook chicken and bacon with pasta tonight, marinaded pork chops tomorrow.

Unless I get hooked on this little man again

Babysitting fun!

Yesterday I babysat Nathan for the first time. (The Mummies were off to test drive a car.)

When I arrived just after nine o'clock he was just finishing his breakfast feed so he was full and happy when his Mummies left at around 10 am.  He stayed that way for a while - sitting in his bouncy chair watching Nanny tidy up the kitchen and listening to a child friendly channel on the radio.  Some very interesting modern versions of nursery rhymes!

When he started to get fed up with that I took him upstairs to change his nappy and get him dressed.  He was happy while doing that - I found a few ticklish spots.  I put him in his big cot while I washed my hands.  He doesn't sleep in there yet but it's a safe place to leave him and he was entertained by his musical mobile for a bit.

Once he'd listened to that he began to get a bit grumpy so I decided it was time to put him in his buggy and go for a walk to get him off to sleep.  I put him down in the buggy, slipped a dummy in his mouth and by the time I'd popped to the loo he was asleep!  No moaning or fighting it, just asleep.

It was about 11 by this time so I did another couple of chores not knowing how long he might stay asleep.  Well he stirred at about 11.30 and as I didn't think that was a long enough nap I took him straight out for a walk.  We only went around the block (it's a big block) but was asleep again in no time and was still asleep when his Mummies got back just after 1 pm!

I moaned to them about their pathways. On their street the pavement (sidewalk) is quite narrow so it's hard to push the buggy along and it's bumpy so the baby gets jolted a lot so much so that I almost contemplated walking in the road but I thought if they came back at the wrong time and saw me I'd get told off for doing that.  Their response to the state of the pavement was: "oh we often walk in the road"!  To be fair their road is a dead end and doesn't get much traffic. I'll know what to do next time!

My daughter was not impressed at how easily I had got him to sleep - he doesn't sleep that well for her usually.  Apparently he also slept during the afternoon but, as might have been expected, he didn't have the best of nights!

Routine?  What's that?

A Wednesday Waffle in lieu of Hodgepodge

Well apart from Book Reviews and regular memes like the Hodgepodge and Friday’s Fave Five, my blog still seems a little bit neglected lately.  Today being Wednesday usually means a Hodgepodge post but as Joyce is taking a break this week I was determined the day wouldn’t go by without a post of some sort.

Hopefully Joyce will have some exciting news to share with us soon as she is waiting to become a Grandmother any day now.  

Having become a Grandmother myself back at the end of March I can relate to that.  I’m slightly surprised at how doting I am on Nathan.  Maybe that’s because I was there at his birth, or because of the bumpy ride he’s had or maybe I’ll be this soppy about all my grandchildren.  Time will tell but I’m loving every minute of it down to changing stinky nappies!

The blanket I promised for him is almost finished.  Just the edging to complete.  I’ve already bought wool and have a pattern lined up for the next one.  Nathan’s early arrival ruined my schedule for completing this one but hopefully if I get started on the next one soon it’ll be ready for the next arrival.  None expected at the moment but I’m always open to baby surprises especially now that all the kids are married and (apart from one) settled in their homes.

The couple who live with us are away for 2 weeks at the moment visiting her parents in the US so I’m taking advantage of not having to worry about their meals and re-doing the South Beach Diet.  The first two weeks are pretty strict but after that it should be fairly easy to fit in with meals for all of us.

I prepared in advance for this – working out a 2 week meal plan and shopping for the food we’d need as you can see:

Of course nothing goes to plan!  The first day had to be switched as I’d mistakenly put chicken in the freezer instead of the fridge and on day 2 we visited with Nathan and our daughter and went out for lunch.  I was fairly good though and just had a chicken salad.  (We’ll pretend I didn’t touch the streaky bacon or croutons!)

Alongside that I’m also trying to get my step count up – or at least back to the target I originally set myself.  So far so good this week.  Fortunately, although my knee is not great on stairs and I can’t do anything weight bearing on it at the moment walking is fine.

A friend commented that I didn’t need to diet but when your scales keep telling you your weight is increasing it’s time to call a halt. My problem is that I have such a sweet tooth so I’ll always choose sweet over savoury but not for the time being. 

Anyway plenty going on to keep me busy – I’ve even managed to get more reading done the past couple of weeks.  Trouble is once I get stuck into a book that I find hard to put down everything else gets put on the back burner.  I’m going to try restricting reading until I get to bed but that will mean going to bed earlier otherwise I’ll be reading a few pages and falling asleep!  But that will mean less time for watching TV and catching up on all the programmes I’ve recorded!

I used to say that for every child you had the day seemed to shorten by an hour.  Well none of my kids are children anymore but the days still seem short.  How did I ever manage to work full time?

I'm still here!

Over 3 weeks without a blog!  Lots of reasons.  It's been a busy time but part of me just hasn't had the enthusiasm for it.  The election result was disappointing but not unexpected.  However it makes the negotiations for Brexit even more worrying when the credibility of our Government is even lower.

The disaster at the tower block has also been pretty depressing and the ensuing chaos over which buildings are safe or not is very worrying.  I'm so glad we have been in a position to own our own home and be in control of our circumstances. 

We've been fortunate to be safe from all the recent terrorist attacks but one event was a bit close to home this weekend.  We could hear a helicopter flying round and round on Sunday evening and then saw on the news about a protest outside our police station.  This was about the death of a young man who had been stopped by police and subsequently died.  There were claims that the police had used excessive force when detaining him and that he had suffered a variety of injuries  including a broken neck.  This led to the protest which began peacefully but erupted into violence including the lighting of fires in the street.

This was worrying to us as only the day before we had walked through the streets nearby on a garden trail.  To watch the news and see fires burning and protestors throwing bricks at police was quite disturbing.  Especially when the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) have since released details of the post mortem which show the victim had no spinal injuries and had swallowed a number of packages.  Unfortunately social media played a big part in spreading misinformation.

I'm becoming more wary about social media lately with all the fake news and vitriol that seems to be on it.  It's curbed my enthusiasm for bloggin but not buried it.  And then of course there is just the small little bundle that is dominating our lives now.

Seeing this little face can always cheer me up.

Getting back into gear.

It's Mother's Day in the US today but we celebrated back in March.  However yesterday (13th May) was my daughter's birthday, her first as a Mum.  It was also the 5th anniversary of the death of my Mum so it's a day that made me think about Motherhood.  Strangely, my Mother took her leave at the exact time that my daughter entered the world, 4.13 am give or take a minute or two.  This picture is my Mum and me.

 

 

 

 

Mum with Rebecca

Rebecca with Nathan

My Mum didn't have perhaps the best example of motherhood.  Her Mum didn't make things easy for her.  As the eldest of 4 girls Mum was often looking out for her sisters.  Money was tight and having gained a place at the local grammar school only one set of uniform could be afforded.  Mum did a lot of overnight washing to ensure she was always clean and tidy for school.  The start of her married life was spent living under the same roof as her parents where she had the lion's share of housework to do.  And despite sharing the house until I was born (by which time my brothers were 12 and 7) there was very little babysitting done by my grandmother.

Fortunately for me that led to my Mum being very different.  She was mostly there for all of our childhoods, only taking part time jobs once I was older.  Once I was married and had children of my own she was always willing to babysit.  We lived close by and in addition to the babysitting she was often at our house, doing ironing, cooking and just generally being another pair of hands and of course helping with the kids, reading, playing games and so on.  I don't think I would have done such a good job of bringing up my kids without her help or example.  That might sound like bragging but I think my kids are genuinely the sort any parent would be proud to call their own.  They also had a great example set to them by their other Grandparents.  So it's definitely been a team effort and of course hubby played his part too.

Hopefully some of this has been absorbed by my daughter now that she's embarking on her own Motherhood journey.  Followers here will know it's been a bumpy start.  Baby Nathan was 6 weeks old on Friday but he's still only just over 5lb.  He is doing well but it's been hard watching my daughter having to cope with all the uncertainty.  The constant round of expressing milk.  Trekking backwards and forwards to the hospital.  Leaving him behind everyday.  The constant checks and ups and downs are naturally causing her and her wife to be anxious.  Thankfully it's definitely more ups as he gets bigger and stronger but I am so proud of the way they have coped.

We spent time with them yesterday and managed to get out for a birthday lunch but they were both constantly checking their phones for the time and messages.  Fortunately there was no call back from the hospital and all was fine.  We made it back in time for Nathan's next feed and although it wasn't how she expected to be spending her birthday this year I think Becca enjoyed it.

I realised though this week that I've been wallowing a bit.  It's understandable I know, given I witnessed the birth first hand and have lived through this difficult time along with them.  And of course anniversaries remind us of loved ones we've lost.  My children were lucky enough to have my mum in their lives for at least 20 years but I did miss her yesterday.  She would have been so proud of my daughter and would have made such fuss of the baby (if she'd been in her right mind).  But she would also have been giving me a good talking to along the lines of "Yes it's hard watching your kids struggle with situations and it's hard not being able to cuddle the baby yet but the world's still turning and there are still things to be done.  Get off your backside and back into gear!"

Thanks Mum, for everything.

Thank you - I made it!

Phew the A-Z Challenge is over and I made it to the end!

For those who missed the start my Grandson Nathan arrived the day before the challenge began.  11 weeks early.  It was a big shock and a worrying time.  But about half of my posts were already prepared and scheduled to post.  I also had a fairly simple theme so I decided I would try and complete the challenge if I could but family obviously came first.

I am pleased to say that my Grandson has made great progress.  He was only 2lb 6oz at birth but now, just over 4 weeks later he is 4lb 5oz.  He has also made it out of an incubator into a cot and is now wearing clothes!  (Although they are still a bit on the big side!)

When this was taken he was on a course of antibiotics but the canula has now been removed from his arm so the only invasive thing left is the feeding tube through his nose.  They are still monitoring his vital signs but it does make it easier to handle him and his Mummies love being able to cuddle him.

He's filling out nicely but he is still VERY small.  The next big thing will be to establish breast feeding.

Somehow, in between visiting the hospital, staying for two weeks at my daughter's house, hosting DIL's relatives from the US here plus my other son, DIL and their fur babies, I managed to post all 26 letters of the A-Z challenge, and most of them on the correct day!

I have to say a BIG THANK YOU to my regular followers for following the challenge and leaving me so many encouraging comments.  I know I have neglected you all a bit over the past month but I really do appreciate you still dropping by.  Hopefully I'll get back into visiting everyone now the pressure of the challenge is done.

A - Z Challenge - G is for Grandparents

My theme for this challenge is family and relations.

Grandparent “a parent of one’s father or mother”

In theory most people should have four grandparents.  Two from each parent.  I never knew my Dad’s mum – Dad moved away from the family home in Wales at quite a young age.  His Dad took him to Yorkshire and contact with the Welsh roots was lost.  My grandfather re-married, although not as quickly as we had thought – it seems that he lived with his new partner for many years and only married her when his first wife (my grandmother) died, anyway I acquired a step-grandmother.  I remember very little of either of them as they died when I was quite young and we rarely saw them.

I remember more of my Mum’s parents although her Dad, my grandfather died when I was 10.  I can still remember visiting them though and playing with their dog and being horrified when I came to realise why the rabbits they kept didn’t seem to stay very long.  I’m sure rabbit stew is very tasty but not when you knew the rabbit!

My grandmother was quite a stern lady.  She would spend her mornings doing her housework and would cook her dinner.  She would eat that at lunchtime and then either go out visiting or sit and do crochet or knitting in the afternoons.  My grandfather would have to warm up his dinner when he came home in the evening and I’m talking plate over a saucepan or in the oven here.  No microwaves in those days!

We lived nearby but we would get a bus to their house and I can remember my fare being 2d (that’s 2 old pence for those who are post decimalisation!) 

Our children have been fortunate to know 3 of their grandparents much better.  (My Dad pre-deceased them.)  They had a lot of contact with my Mum when they were growing up as she was often at our house and did lots of babysitting.  We made sure that we visited their other grandparents a lot too and the example set by all of them has definitely had an impact on the way our children have matured.

Only one of their grandparents is still alive, my husband’s mother, but we still see her regularly as my husband and his siblings take it in turn to have her at weekends.  (She was living alone but recently moved in with the eldest daughter so our weekends gives everyone a break.)  When she’s with us our kids will try and visit if they can and we often get together as an extended family – my husband’s family is large so there is often something to celebrate!

Hopefully one day we will be grandparents too.