21 Months Old

Very late I know but I've been rather pre-occupied recently, so here are Ellis' 21 month and a bit pictures.















No news really other than Ellis has some more teeth coming through so is dribbling everywhere and constantly making funny faces. Bless him. I have been giving him Calpol every now and then to try and help.

Sainsbury's had a 25% sale on so I used it to buy Ellis some pants. They are so cute. They have George on them from the Peppa Pig collection. He loved them too but didn't keep them on for very long.

Went to Ikea today and bought a 97p vase and then went to Mum's for dinner. It was yummy, we had poppadoms with mango chutney, rice and chicken korma. For dessert we had strawberries with a scone too.

We got home very late but I gave him a bath anyway. He was falling asleep in the car so I was expecting him to go straight to sleep once in bed but he didn't. He was still banging and chatting at 8:45pm! Hopefully I might get a lie in tomorrow then.

Cutie Pie

Nothing much happened today. I haven't been feeling 100% so after a nice shower I went back to bed when Ellis did. We ended up having 2 hours sleep which was brilliant.

This is Ellis in his last combination of the pack of 3 pyjamas. I love them!



Ellis really enjoys trying on shoes and then asking me to take a picture of him. I take one picture and he says "look". I show it to him and then he potters off back to the shoes for another one. Very cute.



Another cute thing today was Anna's hair. Her Mummy had put it in bunches for the first time and she looked really grown up. I managed to get a picture.



Rob was home when we got back from Little Stars and we then went straight up my Mum and Dad's house so that he could some work on their computers.

We left at about 6:40pm so Ellis had a late bath and bed routine, but it didn't make much difference. He will still wake up at 6 tomorrow anyway, but luckily Rob has said he will do the early shifts for the weekend! Wicked!

Yummy Italian

Another picture of his new pyjamas. Don't forget it was a pack of 3 so another photo will follow shortly.





Ellis was straight back onto the computer first thing in the morning, and I got breakfast ready.



We had a lazy day and then in the afternoon we went to Music with Mummy.

We stopped in Sainsbury's for a cuppa and a cream tea before doing a bit of shopping.

Back at home, Uncle Dave came over and I went out to my Active Birthing class. Rob came home shortly after I left to do the bath and bed routine.

Today wasn't a very good weather day but that didn't matter. We had a very lazy start to the day and then after lunch, Nanny and Chloe came over so we all went swimming together.

Nanny has been on holiday so it was really nice to see her. She was very brown and very tired as she didn't get in until the early hours of the morning. By the time we were getting dressed Nanny wasn't feeling too good. I think she should have stayed at home getting some rest really.

I drove us home and gave Nanny something to eat before she went home herself. She called me to let me know she had arrived safely and was going to chill in front of the telly.

Ellis and I were home for 20 minutes before getting back into the car to go and meet Sally and Anna for tea. The local Italian restaurant has a cheap meal deal offer on in the evening and both of the Daddies are away so we thought it would be a nice idea.





The kids were really well behaved in their high chairs and tucked into loads of food.









We were finished quite quickly and we were home in time for bath and bed routine. Ellis fell asleep at about 8:15pm and I spent the evening sorting the house out and doing the blog.

I'm sure I wont have enough time to do everything and the blogging may slip a bit. I hope to be able to continue with it as I love looking back at what we have done. I will try hard to keep up with it a little bit, even if it just a lot shorter with just pictures and videos on.

Geek

Ellis has been a total Angel again today.

We went to see our new Mummy group in the morning, and there were only 2 others there as one has had her baby boy, Charlie, on Friday.

Ellis sat in a high chair just drawing and watching us chat.

We then finally made it to the post office depot to pick up a parcel that we had previously missed.

I managed to keep Ellis awake until we got home, when we had lunch together and then I put him straight to bed.

I pottered for an hour then went to bed myself.

Woke up at 2:30pm and realised that Ellis was still sleeping. By the time I had used the loo, Ellis was calling for Mummy.

We got straight in the car and went to Charlotte's house for Mummy afternoon.

The weather was good so we were able to go in the garden. It was really windy but still quite warm.

The kids played really well together and there was only one slight argument over a buggy.

Anna had a nasty fall from a step straight onto her head. She had lines on her egg shaped bruise as she had landed on the decking. She didn't take too long to recover and was soon running around again.

We left a little bit early to go to Sainsbury's. We did quite a big food shop and got home just after 5:30pm.

Ellis was quite quiet in the living room, and I soon found out why. Just like Daddy.





I quickly put dinner on, put the food away, tidied up, sorted the washing and dishwasher before bath and bed time.

Ellis didn't settle until nearly 9pm. He was chatting, shouting, singing and jumping around. I put him in his sleeping bag eventually to see if that would stop him moving around so much. It sort of worked, he just head butted the mattress instead! He was so funny.

This is a short video of him playing peekaboo with Rabbit.

Thomas

Where to begin! Been very busy over the last few days.

My Angel returned quite quickly after things had settled down at home. I think the bank holiday weekend was just too much excitement for one little boy to handle.

On Wednesday we started to get back into our normal routine, although Ellis didn't go down for his morning nap so I went out to the shops instead to buy a few things. I actually ended up spending over £100 on clothes for Ellis including 3 pairs of new shoes. One set of trainers, one set of sandals and one set of normal walking shoes. They should all last him for quite a while.

One of the things I bought him was a pack of 3 pyjamas. I love buying pyjamas for myself but seeing as I can't at the moment, I think I'm buying them for him instead.



We were late for Music with Mummy as Ellis was asleep in the car and I wasn't watching the clock very closely. He finally managed to wake up and did enjoy himself.

Just a random picture of my flowers that I have recently received from Mum, Saskia and Vivien.



Thursday Ellis was really good again. He went down for his morning nap and I tried to sleep but I had a nurse come over to do a test right in the middle of the morning.

After lunch we went swimming and it was so relaxing. We were the only ones in the pool and it was really warm, I almost fell asleep hanging onto the side.

We stopped for a quick snack and on the way home, Ellis was saying Nanny and Grandad, Katie, Chloe, Kamron. We usually go to my Mum's for dinner on a Thursday so he was expecting us to go. I had to tell him that Nanny and Grandad are on holiday and that they went on a plane. He now tells me this at random times during the day.

I was 38 weeks pregnant on Friday which was quite exciting. Nearly at the end now and it wont be long until Ellis can meet his baby brother. I wonder how it is all going to go!?

Was supposed to go and see my friend Cathy in the morning but I was having lots of niggles and didn't really want to be too far away from home, so she kindly came to see me instead.

8 weeks ago she gave birth to her son, Thomas, and she looked amazing! I only hope I can recover that quickly. Ellis was a bit of a handful and I just didn't have my head screwed on at all. I didn't even offer her a drink! How rubbish is that?



They left at 3pm and we got straight in the car to go to Little Stars. Ellis had his new trainers on and he looked really cool. Daddy was already there and Ellis was very pleased to see him.

Saturday morning, Rob went out to get some new tyres for his car and after lunch Ellis and I played in the garden.













Once Daddy was home, I got ready and went out to see the birthing suite at the local hospital. I have been there before when I had Ellis but I wanted it to be fresh in my mind and I wanted to see what a delivery room looked like again as I don't really remember from before. It was quite a good refresher and I got to ask a few questions too.

In the evening, Vivien came over and kindly looked after Ellis so that Rob and I could go out for a meal together.

We had an amazing time. The food was great and we had a really good chat about loads of stuff. Strangely enough we didn't talk about babies or Ellis too much, which was quite refreshing.





After the meal we went to a pub that had a pianist and a magician. It was very cool and it was really nice to be out. Everyone seemed really happy, including us and we both agreed that it was well worth doing. Hopefully we can do it again soon. I wouldn't mind going to see Angels and Demons with him but you don't get to talk much and Rob doesn't like films much either, so it might be a bit of a waste of time and baby sitter. We will have to see.





Sunday we went to the local train station to meet Thomas the tank engine. Ellis has a story read to him every night and he always picks a Thomas story so we thought it would be nice for him to have a day out seeing Thomas and actually going on a train for the first time.

Ellis was way ahead of us in getting ready. He had his bag on, glasses on, and new trainers and was looking very grown up.





We parked down the road from the station and Rob carried Ellis on his shoulders.



The only problem with Ellis being on Rob's shoulders is that he tends to grab hold of his ears! Rob was in a lot of pain at times, but I love these pictures of the two of them.





We had arrived quite early, so after picking up our tickets, we had a look around.

There was a small fair ground ride that we thought Ellis would hate. We couldn't have been more wrong. He went on it 3 times and was still more interested in this ride then doing anything else.





We did the mini railway, which I thought was hilarious! What a waste of time that was. Ellis didn't seem that impressed either and tried to get off as it was going along.





There were also other Thomas characters around the station and we took our pictures with a couple.







We watched the train before ours, pull out of the station and waved at the fat controller too. Ellis seemed to enjoy it.





It was then time for our ride on the train. First of all we went to the other end of the platform to actually see Thomas' face.





We boarded the train and were crammed into a little room with 4 other adults and 4 other children. It was hot to say the least and the chairs were very uncomfortable for me but Ellis didn't mind as he was sat on Daddy's lap.



We went along the tracks a short distance before Thomas is taken to the other end of the carriages to pull us back.





You then go past the station again until you get to the end of another short piece of track. Again Thomas is moved and you are then pulled back to the main station. In all it took about an hour.







We let Ellis have one more drive on the fair ground ride before we went back to the car and home for dinner.



Ellis was shattered so after a quick bath, he was sound asleep in bed.

He woke up this morning saying "train", "Thomas", "choo, choo", very cute.

We went to Sing and Sign first thing in the morning and he was so good! He sat on my knee, singing and signing to the songs and played nicely with the other children. I felt rather relaxed and happy.

We then went to the library and he sat and read the books and played with a copule of cars from the toy box. He was again, so good!

I then took him to the doctors as I needed to use the toilet and I had a midwife appointment. He sat in his buggy for over half an hour without one complaint. In fact he was very happy and was just chatting to everyone that came near him. One man even commented on how friendly he was.

In the midwife appointment, you wouldn't even have noticed that he was there. So good!

We then went home for lunch and although he was shattered he ate really well and was then quite pleased to go to bed.

He slept for nearly 2 1/2 hours and when I went to wake him up he just started off happy.

We played in the living room all afternoon without one whinge or telling off. It was brilliant and it made me so happy. We did reading and colouring, played with his bus and his lion and just generally had fun together.

He was really good at eating his dinner and bath time was relaxing for a change. He hasn't hit or kicked once today and only had one whiney moment, I didn't really want to put him to bed.

Daddy arrived just as I got him out of the bath which was nice as we all laid on the bed together for story time. Ellis was then full of beans jumping on the bed and flopping on the pillows. It was so cute to watch.

We put him down but he didn't settle for ages and ages. I went out to my yoga group anyway.

I hope tomorrow is the same as we are meeting up with 2 groups of Mummy friends. Fingers crossed.

Little Horror!

I don't know if it is the fact that we have been in the house for 2 days straight or if it is because Ellis had to share his toys 2 days in a row, but the child has been a horror this afternoon!

He didn't go down for his morning nap, which was fine as I knew I could fit it in after lunch.

We were having lunch as Faith arrived. We were looking after her for the afternoon.

Faith played while I tried to get Ellis to have some lunch and then we all sat in the living room for a bit before I put Ellis up for a sleep.

Ellis went straight to sleep and Faith and I read on the sofa and just generally messed around.



I had to change 2 girly nappies today, and I haven't done it for a very long time and it was strange to say the least. Thanfully, Faith was very patient with me.

Sally and Anna arrived for Mummy afternoon and I swapped the kiddies over in bed. Faith took 2 minutes to go to sleep and it only took Ellis 30 seconds to wake up and to start causing havoc.

He was okay for a bit, sat nicely with Sally, eating biscuits, reading etc but then Sophie arrived and the excitment really got to him.





By the end of the afternoon, he had been in the naughty corner 3 times, had pushed Anna over, shoved Sophie into the telly, tried to shut the door on Anna, and had hit me in the face, which he has never ever done! I was very ashamed and I don't think the other Mummies found this afternoon very relaxing.



Just before 4pm I retrieved Faith and let her have some food on the sofa. She did really well and ate nearly all her sandwiches and her fig roll before her Mummy arrived just after 4:30pm.



Not long after that everyone left. I finished putting the toys away and mugs in the dishwasher before giving Ellis some pasta bolognese.

He was still full of beans after dinner so he had another run around before I gave him a bath and put him to bed. He was still wide awake at 8pm messing around. I was tempted to record it and post it again but I had had enough for one day.

Sugar Rush

On Saturday, Rob and I went to an Active Birthing partner workshop. It was really good and I think it was quite a refresher for Rob who is only just realising that a baby is coming!

Sally, Nick and Anna, kindly looked after Ellis again for us and they apparently had a good day with Ellis being well behaved. They did get out to the shops and the park, which I know Ellis would have enjoyed.


They are so cute together!

We arrived home just before 7 which is bed time, so we stayed for a quick chat before going home to put Ellis down for the night. He was shattered and we didn't hear from him.

On Sunday we went to Ashlee's 4th birthday party. It was at a local pub that has a soft play area for the kids. Ellis couldn't decide how to have his hair done for the party, but I think he looked super cute with a pink scrunchie in.









Ellis had tons of fun and at one point I lost him, only to find him wandering around above my head! I couldn't believe it but I was so proud of him for being adventurous.







Everyone sat together to have some food and Ellis especially enjoyed the ice lolly. He has had ice-cream off a spoon before but not a lolly so he kept scrapping his teeth on it and it made him shudder. I found it really funny.

















Obviously there was a cake and the usual song.



Ellis was really good and I loved that he liked wearing his party hat.



Ellis did some more climbing after and even went down this huge slide, twice, with Daddy. It was very fast and Daddy hurt himself trying to slow them down, and I don't think Ellis really enjoyed it either.





Ellis was asleep pretty much as soon as we left the car park. We stopped for a McDonalds, went to B&Q, Sainsbury's then home. The rest of the afternoon was quite boring although we eventually got a lot done around the house.





For dessert in the evening I gave Ellis a small fairy cake and I think the sugar and excitement from the day kept him up for ages. This video was taken at around 8:30pm. You can't really hear him, but he says, "belly out", "legs out". He does eventually go to sleep but not in this video. My favourite bit is when he hears me coming and quickly lies down as though he was asleep.



Monday seemed to arrive very quickly but Ellis didn't get me up too early which was nice. We were downstairs by 7:30am having breakfast but I did wish I was still in bed, Ellis on the other hand was quite happy to be sat in his toy box.





Rob stayed in bed until nearly 1pm but he made our sandwiches, vacuumed the downstairs of the house and did some other pottering as we had some visitors in the afternoon. Cheers honey xxx

Saskia, Rachael, and Sarah came over with their boys, Aidan, Euan and Thomas, along with our yoga/active birthing teacher/friend, Vivien.

We all had a lovely time, sat around eating cakes, biscuits and drinking tea and coffee. The boys were very well behaved seeing as they were crammed into a little living room, having to share toys.











I was bought some lovely flowers, cakes and a bottle of bubbly which I shall open as soon as we bring Dollop home from the hospital. I must admit that I am missing having a drink or two now. Last time with Ellis I wasn't all the bothered but I can't wait to have a nice cold lager.

Saskia and Aidan didn't leave with the others and the boys used their last few minutes together to work off a bit of their sugar rush. Very cute to watch.



We had dinner together and then I watched Rob bath Ellis. We all laid on the bed for story time and then put Ellis in his sleeping bag. He didn't take long to go to sleep.