Matilda Mae Welly Walk

Today was the Matilda Mae Welly Walk at Beale Park. Matilda Mae was lost to SIDS on 2nd February and her family have worked tirelessly ever since to raise money for The Lullaby Trust, the charity that works to prevent such loss and support families affected. The Welly Walk was a fundraising event and also a chance to remember Matilda Mae.

The day started with a fun musical warm up with chiffon scarves, maracas and dancing followed by a walk led by Jennie and family through the water gardens, decorated with pink and purple balloons. At the end we were all given little pots of bubbles to blow, and there were marvellous contraptions made from sticks and string for blowing giant bubbles. The air was full of bubbles - thousands of them, big and small! The rest of the day was spent on the mini train, watching meerkats, in the story telling tent... the entertainment was endless. It truly was a fabulous day, and we left with two very tired but happy children.

Although I have never met Jennie until today, and then only briefly, her loss has truly moved me. Matilda was lost on the day Badger Cub was born. I was sat on the bed in the delivery suite, just hours after giving birth, watching her outpouring of emotion on Twitter, having just found her precious baby girl silent and unmoving in the cot.

Since then she has shown such amazing strength, supporting her two elder children and family through their loss, and raising money and awareness for The Lullaby Trust. Take a look at her blog and if you also feel moved please consider donating via her fundraising page.

Jennie - thank you for today, for allowing us to share the day with you, to remember Matilda Mae, in our hearts even though we never met her. I hope the next few days are not too hard and that each day will become easier. You are amazing.

"Staycation" 2013

Father Badger took this week off work. After a lot of deliberating we decided it was daft to spend our money on accommodation a couple of hours away then spend each day travelling to see something, so we stayed at home but planned a different experience for each day. It's been a heck of a week!

Bank Holiday Monday was spent within a few miles of home as Father Badger's band was playing at a local hospital fete. I shunned my Ergo carrier in favour of the pushchair for Badger Cub and headed in with Baby Badger holding my hand to explore the stalls and watch the entertainment. Baby Badger did us proud, being on the most part delightful and happy, especially when presented with an ice cream towards the end of the afternoon!

Tuesday saw us heading south to Longleat Safari & Adventure Park. We started off with the car safari: zebra, giraffe, monkeys (we risked losing bits off our car and survived even though one hitched a ride on the roof), elephants, lions, tigers and wolves. That alone would have made a wonderful day! We then headed off into the Adventure Park for lunch followed by penguins, sting rays, train and boat trips and a marvellous adventure playground. Another highlight was feeding nectar to lorikeets.

I would definitely advise booking in advance (you can do this up to the day before you visit) as there's a substantial discount on the quite hefty ticket price. Having said that, it really was worth every penny.

We had a leisurely start to Wednesday and headed to Blenheim Palace, less than 20 miles from us, in time for a picnic lunch in the pleasure gardens. It was a warm day and it was slightly challenging finding somewhere shady and wasp free, although I think the main grounds would have offered more of a choice of trees to sit under. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Father Badger and Baby Badger enjoying the playground while I strolled around with Badger Cub in the pushchair, pausing for the occasional feed on a park bench.

Blenheim Palace are currently offering a free upgrade to annual pass from a day ticket. We visited last month for their jousting and converted our day tickets, so our trip this week was effectively free!

We headed to London on Thursday to the Sealife Aquarium. The first thing you do is walk along a corridor with glass floor looking down into the shark tank! This huge tank that spans all three floors was amazing: sharks, rays and a vast variety of fish. It's an amazing place, with lots of fish of all colours and sizes, anenomes, crabs, octopus, sharks and penguins, and plenty of small person viewing windows and ledges to climb onto for a better look. There are also published feeding times and talks about different topics, but our littlies were too little to concentrate on these. We finished our day in Covent Garden for a very late lunch before heading for the underground and our train out of Paddington.

Again, we booked the day before for a discount, but also paid extra for Priority Entrance which allowed us to bypass the queue to get in (which was not small given it was the last week of the school holidays).

Friday took us to Birmingham, again after a leisurely start. We arrived late morning and went to Jamie's Italian in the Bullring for lunch. The staff were amazing, making the experience full of fun for Baby Badger, and were joking with me after realising they'd been chatting away to me while I breastfed Badger Cub! Baby Badger had chicken lollipops (chicken on skewers) with a mini kilner jar of chopped vegetable salad (which she demolished). Father Badger and I opted for seafood dishes, both delicious! After lunch we headed to Birmingham Museum for the Julia Donaldson exhibition. The hall was segmented by walls printed with scenes from her various books (Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, etc.) and each area had different props, dressing up outfits and activities themed around the books.

The museum itself is free but there is a charge for this exhibition.

Birmingham is local to my husband's family so we headed over to stay for the night. We had a bonus day trip before leaving them to drive home today: Tropical Birdland! Tucked away in a Leicestershire village is a small zoo full of every imaginable type of parrot, some in aviaries but many of them free flying and happy to take monkey nuts from your hand. It was an unexpected but good end to our holiday week and I'd definitely recommend it.

Surfacing

Badger Cub is almost seven months old now, and pretty much the whole time I've felt as though I've been failing.

Most of the time I can cope with Badger Cub. Most of the time I can cope with Baby Badger. Most of the time I can't cope with both of them.

Baby Badger still does daycare Monday to Friday (three days in nursery, kept going so we don't lose the place for when I return to work) and a day with each set of grandparents (because they all enjoy it). I feel guilt that she's not at home with me, but also I feel as though Badger Cub should have the same amount of attention from me as she did. I also know that she has a much more fulfilling and varied experience not being stuck with me 24/7.

When I'm tired I lack patience, and when Baby Badger is tired she tends to play up. Not a good combination. Father Badger has been trying to encourage me at times, telling me when I've done well with her. He means well and it is nice to hear but it does highlight that it's the exception rather than the rule, which makes me feel a bit useless.

Father Badger was away today, so I had both for the day. Knowing that it would go more smoothly with activities planned, we headed off to Millets Farm Centre. We did bouncy castle, trampoline, space hoppers, the cupboard toilet with the blue water (oh yes, anything can be an adventure...), straw bale tunnel and bouncy castle again, all before lunch. The cafe was packed but, feeling like supermum, I negotiated the pensioners with a tray of drinks and sandwiches whilst pushing the buggy. Lunch was eaten with smiles and we made it out unscathed. After lunch we visited the farm animals, ran around the paddock and played on the swings. All without tears (apart from when she fell off the swing but we'll gloss over that one).

I've been drowning for a while but today, just for a while, I felt as though I was coming to the surface.

Elephants and boobies

We had a day in Kent on Sunday. The lovely Menai is back from India for a little while and it was her youngest daughter's christening.

It was a 10:30 service so we opted for travelling the night before and staying locally rather than trying to wrangle both children into leaving the house at 7:30. We had a relaxing night's sleep at a local Premier Inn, leisurely breakfast and headed back to our room to get into our posh clothes (we sensibly decided they weren't a good mix with a three year old eating baked beans).

Back at the room I made a discovery... in my haste not to forget anything the children needed, I had forgotten my bra. I would be freeboobing in my white strappy summer dress. Oh well. At least the breastfeeding meant I had the cleavage to carry it off. What could possibly go wrong...?

The christening service was good fun, with Menai's father (a Methodist minister) presiding. Afterwards we went for a lunch at the local WI hall, which had been decorated with an elephant theme. This is where disaster struck...

It appears that the plastic adjustable clasps on my strappy dress did not appreciate me pulling them over my shoulders to feed Badger Cub. They broke. Yes, both. With no bra. Thankfully I managed not to display my baps to the world.

Thank you to Menai (for being supermum and prepared for anything and supplying a safety pin) and Father Badger (for not being bothered to remove the dry cleaning tag from his suit and therefore supplying the other safety pin.

Image courtesy of koratmember / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

To the farm

A couple of weeks back we had a glorious week in Devon for our family holiday. Note that I say glorious rather than gloriously sunny... It was somewhat damp at times, but very enjoyable nonetheless. We had such a good time that I have to share with you the details - I'd recommend each and every place we visited!

We stayed at Birchill Farm: a group of self-catering cottages on a farm with no less than two cats, two ponies, two donkeys, several sheep, some alpacas, two kune kune pigs, two goats, two pigmy goats and a large number of chickens and ducks! The guy that runs it works his socks off, and every morning all the children staying at the farm joined in with feeding the animals and counting the eggs. I swear he must be Mr Tumble's alter ego - the energy and entertainment factor was amazing. The cottages were great too - high chairs, toddler plates and cutlery and cot all provided, well equipped kitchen, and a great adventure playground split into zones for little people and less little people.

We found something different to do each day and here are the highlights...

Quince Honey Farm is a museum all about the honey making process with the added excitement of being able to see 20-30 working and occupied bee hives, all behind glass (because bee stings hurt) but with magical buttons that opened doors into the hives so you could see exactly what was going on. Once we'd exhausted the museum, we had a spot of lunch on the cafe and through the door into the soft play warehouse. Baby Badger decided she'd outgrown the toddler area so I was nominated to accompany her up ladders, through gaps and down slides with a slightly dodgy moment where she decided to zip round the comedy padded mangle and I had to squeeze myself through it to catch up, bump and all.

Possibly the most bizarre tourist attraction I've ever visited was the Gnome Reserve. Yes, it's what you think it is: lots of garden gnomes. In fact, probably thousands, all posed in a woodland clearing according to themes such as fishing, sports, food, potty time (I kid you not). As part of your entrance fee you are even presented with a selection of gnome hats so that you can visit the gnomes "without embarrassing them". Baby Badger loved every minute, and must have hugged at least 100 of them. Once we were done with the gnomes, we ordered our sandwiches and tea (which were delivered on bone china into the garden) and then we went round the wildflower garden next to the gnome's wood. There was even a treasure trail for finding various plants and counting fairies!

The Big Sheep, which would have won "most bizarre tourist attraction" had we not already been to the gnome reserve, was fabulous. Sheep shearing demos, duck trials where dogs herded the ducks through an obstacle course, a farm safari (aka being pulled around the swampy farm tracks on the back of a tractor to see more animals) and of course feeding the sheep. There was plenty to amuse us and Baby Badger, but I think it would be ideal for primary school age as there were various fun things to do that she was too little and timid for.

The Lynton & Lynmouth cliff railway was a lovely day out. The two villages are at the top and bottom of a cliff with a water-powered cliff railway linking them. The journey is all of five minutes, but fascinating and the views amazing. The two villages are lovely too, and we were subjected treated to an hour of green clad morris dancers while we relaxed on the village green.

We did of course have the obligatory afternoon on the beach, arriving just as the heavens opened but at least there was plenty of room for us!

Image: www.thebigsheep.co.uk

I'm so excited...

I'm very excited. Incredibly excited. We've just booked our skiing holiday for next January. I honestly don't know how I'm going to cope waiting for the next four months. I may implode.

We didn't go last season as Baby Badger was only six months old. There was no way she could come with us, nor could we leave her with anyone. Father Badger very kindly offered to let me go, but I didn't fancy building a stash of expressed milk to last a whole week, nor did I fancy the idea of pumping on the edge of the piste every three hours!

As you may know, we did go the year before, our sixth season, but I was 16 weeks pregnant. We went with my midwife's blessing and the instruction to ski within my ability (black runs definitely out of the question), no moguls (for those of you who don't ski they're the bumps that are "fun" to ski over, although I never have got the hang of them), and definitely no ski park ( that's the bit with the ramps and jumps that I normally fall over on!).

So... we're going next January! (Excuse me while I do a little dance of joy around the living room.) Father Badger, Baby Badger and myself along with my sister in law and three friends. Father Badger and I are going to share a lift pass so we each get to ski half of the time while the other is on parent duty, and sister in law has offered to do some of the looking after.

Excited as I am, there's a little part of me that's worrying that I'm being selfish: Baby Badger doesn't want to go on a skiing trip, and she's definitely not going to enjoy the journey (waiting at the airport, short haul flight then coach transfer). I'm hoping she'll enjoy the experience of being somewhere so snowy, and a chance to experience something new - she really has proved herself to be very versatile so far.

What do you think? When did you first take your little one away on a proper holiday? How did they fare on the journey? Have you any tips for entertaining them; anything we should not go without; anything not worth the luggage allowance?

I've added this to the show off showcase, not because I think the post is a corker but because I really could do with some advice for next January!

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our holiday in Cornwall

We've just had a wonderful week. Last Saturday we went to a wedding: a childhood friend marrying in my home village. Our parents pulled together and gave us 12 hours child-free so we could enjoy the day without worrying about feeding, entertainment or bedtime. We had a wonderful day but demonstrated that we are not the party animals we used to be: stopped drinking wine soon after dinner, and left at 11pm to come home and sleep! The following day we caught up with a friend who is due her second baby very soon, then went on to a birthday lunch, this time with Baby Badger in tow.

Monday morning was spent packing and that afternoon we were off... to Glastonbury. Not the festival (obviously we missed that by several weeks), but to the town itself. After one night in a randomly selected B&B, we walked up the tor after breakfast, something I had never done before. The hill was hard work but the view at the top was amazing, and the scattering of incense waving, didgeridoo-playing hippies were very amusing!

From there we went on to The Chapel Guest House just outside St Austell, where we spent four nights. I honestly can't recommend them enough (and no, I'm not being paid in any way to say this!) - the room was lovely, the welcome warm, and they were great with Baby Badger. Other than some great reviews online, we chose them because they were a mere three miles from The Eden Project and a good base to explore Cornwall.

We spent our first day at The Eden Project, somewhere we've been meaning to visit for years. The two undercover biomes, the rainforest and the Mediterranean, were very interesting. The rainforest was, unsurprisingly, rather warm and humid, but I found the Mediterranean one the best: lots of examples of plants and fruit & veg that we could be growing here. What surprised me is that I actually found the open air areas the most interesting - the choices of plants and the layouts are so carefully thought out. Baby Badger found the whole experience fascinating; so much so that she went until early afternoon without a nap, and finally fell asleep to the reverberations of a drumming troupe! Best of all, Father Badger paid for me to have a 15 minute back and head massage before leaving!

Day two was spent at The Lost Gardens of Heligan. It is part formal gardens, part jungle and part woodland. I really wish we lived more locally - I honestly could see myself getting an annual pass and wondering round on a weekend looking for the sunny spot to sit and read.

Our final day was spent exploring Padstow (incredibly busy and disappointingly full of cars trying to squeeze down narrow lanes). After lunch we headed off along the coast and spent a couple of hours late afternoon at Mawgen Porth beach - Baby Badger's first time at the beach. She loved it. We had her in a SPF suit and cream and she spent almost the entire time putting sand in the bucket, taking sand out of the bucket, putting sand in the bucket, taking... you get the drift.

Not only has she been drinking in the experiences of new places and things to do, she's also found a new enthusiasm for food, trying pretty much anything we could find, and did us proud at every eatery, even a very posh restaurant. She would recommend the belly pork by the way...!

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Silent Sunday - 17 July 2011

Take a look at more of today's Silent Sunday posts...

Do toddlers and restaurants mix?

Apparently there's been a debate on Radio 4 recently over children in restaurants - whether they are welcome and what should be expected of them and their parents. The debate was sparked by a recent news article where a man had a wine bottle smashed over his head after asking a couple to quieten their baby (which had been crying for some time).

There's part of me that can understand how a parent might snap in those circumstances - baby crying continuously, you want some semblance of a social life (I've been there) - but I certainly don't condone the action taken. I also understand the victim's point of view: if you go out for a quiet meal, shrieking from a six month old is probably not your planned entertainment!

Today we went out for lunch for my sister in law's birthday. We went to a very nice local restaurant on the Thames (The Beetle & Wedge at Moulsford), chosen partly because of the lovely food and great reputation but also because their website said children are always welcome. The provided not only a nice clean wooden highchair with safety harness but also some chunky brightly coloured plastic cutlery, which Baby Badger loved playing with! When our starters arrived they brought some french bread crusts for her to chew on, and gave a tickle or funny face each time they passed our table. We really couldn't have asked for more (and as a bonus our food was delicious!).

Baby Badger did us proud. She was smiley, had a go at pretty much any food we passed her way: olives, vegetable crisps, ratatouille, beans, carrots and duck. She also went crazy for the chocolate pot (gorgeous, rich chocolate ganache with chantilly cream and chocolate icecream). She managed a whole three hours without a complaint!

Which brings me back to the debate... What would we have done if she hadn't been happy? Without a doubt we would have tried to placate her with food or a cuddle. If that didn't work, we would go for distraction: a walk round or a toy, perhaps a bit of mummy milk (because I have no issue with feeding discreetly in a restaurant). If that didn't work, we would remove her and one of us from the restaurant and not return until she was happy to be there. It's the only polite thing to do.

Do you take your little ones out for meals? How do you handle it when they're just not up for the experience?

Image: vitasamb2001 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Happy Birthday to me...!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday dear ****!
Happy birthday to me!

No, I'm not telling you how old I am, but it's somewhere between 30 and 40 and it's not a prime number.

For the last few weeks I've had the usual questions about what I want for a present, and the honest truth is nothing. There's nothing I'm itching to have and nothing particularly I need, and I really don't see the point of people buying me something for the sake of buying me a present.

I had a lovely pre-birthday. Yesterday, as their "present" to me, Father Badger's mum and sister came round and helped me weed a flowerbed. You've not seen the state of my neglected garden, so you don't really get the scale of their generosity! It's gone from three feet high nettles, goose grass, twitch and other assorted weeds to neatly isolated plants surrounded by bare earth. Wow. I say again: wow.

I also had a lovely birthday today. Father Badger took the day off work. He and Baby Badger ran errands this morning, leaving me to lie in until 9:30, I had breakfast cooked for me and then I relaxed in a lovely hot bath to melt away the aches from yesterday's gardening. Once I was up and dressed we went off to a local farm centre to show Baby Badger dexter cattle, geese and alpacas (but mallard ducks waddling past, quacking, were definitely her favourite). We had a lovely lunch at the cafe, with Baby Badger happily scoffing our peas, potatoes and spinach (and a sneaky bit of chocolate pudding). It has truly been a lovely family day together.

As an added bonus to the day, I stepped on the scales this morning to see my change of attitude this past week has paid off: 4lb lighter than last Monday! I've enjoyed a day off with extravagant breakfast and pudding at lunchtime, but I'll knuckle down again tomorrow and see what this week can achieve.

Image: Rawich / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Steps, sleep and missing my mocha!

Baby Badger has now been in her cotbed in the nursery for two weeks, and is doing remarkably well. She has been sleeping from 11pm until 7am quite happily, so I decided it's now time to work on an earlier bedtime so that we're established with a good night's sleep and a 6:30 start in time for my return to work in June. Obviously, it was never going to go smoothly.

Monday evening went well: she was in bed asleep at 7:45 ready for my mum to babysit for an hour or so, but woke soon after 10 (luckily I was home) screaming at the top of her lungs for milk - screaming so hard that she gave herself hiccups! I got her back off to sleep again, and she woke again at 3am. I've reminded myself that compared to a few months ago when she was waking 2-3 times per night, this was actually a good night! After the recent luxury of a full night's sleep, it didn't feel so good...

I'll put forward my excuses now: after a disturbed night, day two of the new healthier me was not quite as good as day one. I had two biscuits at Baby Signing, but I did skip my usual (much enjoyed mocha) and get a  mug of tea instead. I'm not sure that entirely balances out, but it's a step in the right direction! Speaking of steps, I managed 5,777 of them, again with a 20lb Baby Badger strapped to the front of me for most of them. She did do her best to help me make up for it however, as she ate going on half of my chilli pasta bake at Baby Lunchbox! Don't you just love Baby Led Weaning?!

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A new healthier me: day one

Today is day one of a new healthier me.

I'm not expecting overnight miracles. I'm not expecting to drop all my bad eating habits overnight. I'm going to try to chip away bit by bit at the unhealthy me; try to make each day slightly better than the last.

Today started with a few aches after a lot of digging in the garden yesterday, but I dragged myself out of bed as soon as Baby Badger had finished her first booby feed at around half past seven and got on with the day.

Food-wise it's an improvement on recent weeks. Muesli for brekkie, and toasted bagels with cheese, olives and apple for lunch (shared with Baby Badger). I had a slice of toast with marmalade mid-afternoon, which shouldn't have snuck in there, but hey ho. Dinner was chicken, boiled potatoes and asparagus with a little mayo. Also, only three mugs of tea today so, on balance, a pretty good day.

What about the dreaded exercise? My pedometer says I've done 6,015 steps, and most of those were done in my MBTs*. A good 3,00 or so were done with my 11 month old daughter in a sling, so that's got to count for something!

I'm counting today as a success. Roll on day two.

* If you don't know what MBTs are, check out the UK MBT website where they explain the benefits. I can honestly say that my leg and bum muscles feel like I've spent hours in the gym!

Image: www.milletsports.co.uk

Silent Sunday - 1 May 2011

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Reasons to be Cheerful: sleep, splashes and family time

I thought it was about time I joined in with Michelle's Reasons to be Cheerful blog hop, especially considering what a lovely week we've had.

Father Badger has been off work since last Thursday, taking advantage (as millions of other people have) of the extra bank holiday to get lots of time off work for minimal annual leave. A full seventeen days as a family! It really has been lovely to spend so much time together, even if a lot of it has been spent catching up with jobs around the house. We've had a day out in Bath shopping, we've spent hours doubled over holding Baby Badger's hands while she walks around, we've spent time with family and gone on walks. I really don't want it to end after the bank holiday.

Today we went swimming, all three of us. It's the first time we've taken Baby Badger to a swimming pool. I know this is rather late in the day at almost eleven months old, but for months she hated baths and my reasoning was that if I couldn't keep her in a bath for more than thirty seconds without screaming, attempting a swimming pool was not going to be a winner. She loved it! Our local pool has a beach effect where it starts incredibly shallow and gradually gets to a depth for swimming. We spent the first ten minutes or so sitting in the shallows while she splashed and gradually went deeper. She was pretty happy being pulled forward on her tummy with my hands under her arms, not at all keen on going onto her back, however she was supported, and forgave me for dunking her under four times!

I decided a little while ago that I would like her to be in her own room by the time I go back to work in June. She'll be a year old and doesn't seem to need night feeds any more, and I think we'll all sleep better - we won't need to tiptoe, we won't wake her up turning over in bed, and I'll probably sleep better too. Last night we had her in her big girl room for the first time. How did it go? She slept soundly from 11 until our alarm went off at 7am. Hooray! I wonder if she'll do it again tonight...?

Silent Sunday - 24 April 2011

Take a look at more of today's Silent Sunday posts...

Shopping and a home visit

A few days ago I wrote a guest post for The Real Supermum about how I'd been feeling recently. I got lots of great advice about how to lift my mood, but also that I should take my blues seriously and work on dealing with them rather than hiding them away.

This morning happened to be Baby Badger's 8 month check (or in my area the 6-12 month check as they are too short-staffed to get everyone done on time). On Father Badger's insistence, I mentioned to the Health Visitor that I'd been feeling a bit weepy. I said I thought it was probably down to lack of sleep but that I thought I should mention it. She immediately launched into troubleshooting our sleeping arrangements and night feeds and asked nothing else about how I was.

I feel a tad short-changed! I'm fairly sure I don't have PND; I've done a bit of reading to rule it out and although I definitely am a bit down at the moment, I don't appear to be suffering enough for the label (and I honestly am relieved by this). It's not that I wanted her sympathy, but surely she should have asked a few more questions to rule it out for herself? It would have been reassuring to have a health professional tell me I'm okay.

My day did pick up after this. I managed to work my way through a few tasks on my list (arranging couriers to collect various bits, booking the cats in for vaccinations - thrilling!) then Baby Badger and I headed out for a bit of shopping.

We went to the local retail park to buy storage boxes and jars. I succeeded on the jars but in a moment of insanity left without boxes and instead a large neon parrot hand puppet. I know. Not the same. But it does make a very realistic skwawk when you squeeze the beak...

We then went round Tescos. I would normally have Baby Badger in a carrier, freeing up my hands for the trolley, but for the first time she went into the seat of a big trolley. She loved every minute, bouncing up and down (thank goodness for the safety strap), waving her arms, and generally charming the pants off everyone. A lovely end to the day!

Image: nuchylee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our first proper playdate

Today was Baby Badger's first proper playdate at home. We have always tended to meet up with other mums out and about: the local children's centre, tea (and of course cake) at the cafe, even the pub (bad mummy alert). In the early days it was to get us out of the house and preserve my sanity; nowadays it's because there is much better cake to be found out elsewhere!

Today was different. We had three mums and four babies (yes - a set of twins) coming over for tea. I spent the morning running round with the Hoover and generally tidying (have I mentioned before that housework is not my strong point?). A brief panic at lunchtime over the lack of cake in the house was averted by a trip to the local shop for the best looking biscuits.

The next step was to shift the living room furniture to accommodate five babies and mums and then fill the available space with play mat, gym, bouncy chair, bumbo and copious toys. Result: a happy looking mess!

Thankfully, the afternoon was a success. Toys were shared, noone impaled or bludgeoned themselves on unseen hazards, gossip and tea flowed, and best of all... the biscuits didn't get finished!


Image: Phiseksit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Escape from the Mad House

Tonight was a milestone in two ways. Firstly, it is mine and Father Badger's fifth wedding anniversary: the years have flown yet at the same time it feels as though we've always been together. Secondly, we left Baby Badger with my parents for a whole evening for the first time and went out to dinner.

We actually only went to a pub a couple of villages away, and had comforting pub food with a pint, but it was still an evening out and a stroll in the evening air to refresh ourselves, and it was great. We were very tempted to do what I'm guessing a lot of new parents feel like doing: go sleep, baby-free, for a couple of hours!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net