More!

Hooray! I am finally able to say that the 'Sing and Sign' classes are starting to pay off. Ever since last October, Anna has been attending sign language classes, specifically designed for babies. I suppose I was a little naive at the beginning and thought that, within a week of starting, Anna and I would be having conversations about the meaning of life, conducted entirely by sign language. Not quite! 4 months on and Anna was still looking at me as though I was an alien from outer space when I started waving my hands around with accompanying facial gestures (the facial gestures are not part of the signing but I was just trying to inject some enthusiasm into it!).

However, all that hard work, is now starting to reap the rewards. Anna is now doing the signs for 'duck', 'bird', 'all gone/finished', 'drink', 'hello/goodbye' (which is just waving really) and 'more'. It is wonderful to see Anna being able to communicate to me and actually being able to understand what she wants to say.

However, it is the sign for 'more' which has made the biggest difference as it is definitely keeping me busy! Whenever I read a book, Anna asks for 'more' at the end. Whenever I sing (badly!) a song to Anna , Anna asks for 'more'. Whenever I make a silly noise to make her giggle, Anna asks for 'more'. The problem is that Anna isn't just asking for 'more' one more time. She asks for the same thing over and over and over again so you end up singing Twinkle Twinkle a thousand times and Anna is still asking for 'more'!!

There does come a point when I think 'Right, I will make this one the last one and explain that there will be no more' but then Anna asks for 'more' and has that look of excited anticipation in her face with those big blue eyes and those fluttering eyelashes (think of the face of 'Puss in Boots' in the Shrek films and you have the idea). I cannot help but give in and continue to sing the song for another hundred times.

I am such a soft touch when it comes to my daughter! The worrying thing is that I think Anna knows it too!!

Is It That Time Already?

Yesterday morning, I received a letter addressed to 'The Parents of Miss A Gibson'. In this letter, it notified me that, from her 3rd birthday, Anna was eligible for 5 free morning/afternoon sessions at nursery school and that attending would mean great educational benefits and gaining of vital social skills. It also helpfully informed me that I should start looking at possible pre-schools/nurseries now as I would have to decide in the next few months, due to over-subscription of popular places.

I genuinely thought that there had been some administration error. 'Anna, my baby, has only just turned one' I thought as I glanced up to see Anna attempting to get the Weetabix on her spoon, only to see it catapult across the room and land on the bookshelf at the opposite side of the room (Anna can now feed herself with a knife and fork/spoon although she it sometimes falls off the cutlery before it reaches her mouth! Miss Independent won't let anyone feed her nowadays and you receive a serious dirty look and scowl from Anna if you even dare to attempt to help)

In fact, I was so convinced that there must have been some mistake that I phoned up 'Cheshire Children's Services', just looking for some reassurance that it had been sent far too early. I think the lady on the other end of the phone must have to deal with this quite a lot from mothers like me! 'No, you have been sent it correctly' she said, trying her best to sound reassuring 'It is hard to realise that they are growing up so fast but we do advise that you put Anna down for your choice of nursery school in the next few months'. What!!!! I haven't even decided what Mums and Tots playgroup that I want to take Anna to yet (which is taking months as I devise checklists, data graphs and a clear comparison chart of what resources each playgroup offers!!! Well.... maybe not that much but I am still comparing the two finalists in my list!!) .

So we now face the task of deciding which nursery/pre-school that Anna will go to when she turns 3 years old (I'm still not sure that she will go for all 5 mornings to start with but obviously I do agree that she should go for important social and independent skills). It means that James and I will be taking tours around the chosen finalists (we currently have 4 pre-schools/nurseries on the list). I think James is dreading it, not because of the nurseries themselves but because of me! When I was considering going back to work, we did a tour of day nurseries and after every one, I walked out saying 'No, that is not the right one for Anna'. I have to admit that my reasons were quite lame (Wrong colour carpet, uniforms looked too formal etc). James thinks that I will be exactly the same this time. However, I am reassuring him that this will be different. 'Don't worry', I say 'I know that Anna will only be there for 2 and a half hours each morning and she is so much older and will be desperate to play with lots of other children/toys/books. By 3 years old, Anna will probably want some escape from her mummy too'. Even as I say it, I have a fear that, in my opinion, no nursery will be good enough for her, which is just crazy as lots of them will be. As long as Anna is happy and having fun in a safe and supportive environment, it will be fine. I will just have to keep chanting that to myself when the time comes to choose!

As for when she starts pre-school, James has a clear picture in his head of how it will be. He describes it as one where Anna runs off to play without so much as a backward glance at her Mummy (which is often what she does now at her various clubs and groups). Meanwhile, I will be stood at the gate crying. He is probably right!

An Eggcelent Easter

What an eggcelent and eggciting Easter!! (Enough of the egg jokes... although they are cracking!!! Ha Ha)

Despite my poor attempt at egg humour, I really mean it when I said that our Easter has been great!

Easter Sunday started by Anna opening up her presents. Presents? Well... as I am very harsh mother, I am still not allowing Anna to have chocolate (I can almost hear the sharp intake of breath as everyone reads this and thinks 'How cruel') so she got presents instead. I seriously don't think Anna is missing anything by not having any chocolate yet. She doesn't even know what chocolate is and you can't miss what you don't know. I am NOT going to continue banning chocolate when she is old enough to understand but I also hope that, by then, Anna can understand that chocolate is an occasional treat. I should know... I am a self-confessed chocoholic although I have got better in recent years.

So instead of chocolate, Anna had presents instead although I still wanted to keep the 'meaning' of Easter (eggs symbolising new life etc). Therefore, Anna received playdough eggs!!! Basically, it was an egg case (a little like a Kinder Surprise egg case) with playdough inside!! I personally thought that it was rather funky but James was still trying to get his head around the fact that I spent hours wrapping gifts up for Easter, let alone gifts that happened to be playdough eggs. Anyway, Anna was impressed although admittedly she did try to eat the playdough at first! We still haven't got to grips with the fact that you can mould shapes with it as Anna is still at the stage of walking around with it while picking off little bits at a time and treading them into the carpet (James became even less thrilled at the Easter gift idea!).

So after James and I had spent some of Easter morning picking up the luminous pink bits of plasticine off the carpet, we then headed to Grandma Lynn and Grandad Flob's house, remembering to take their personalised Easter egg.

It was a glorious moment when the shop assistant asked what I would like iced on the egg that Anna had chosen for her Grandad. 'Grandad Flob please' I uttered. 'Flob', the shop assistant repeated, talking as though I was hard of hearing just so that the whole shop could hear. At this point, James and Anna had bolted for the door, leaving me with a shop full of customers looking at me with huge grins on their faces as I nodded and confirmed that they all hadn't been hearing things. 'Don't worry' said the shop assistant 'I've been asked to do a lot worse than that' before she then gave a few examples, most of which are too rude to be made public on here! Thankfully, the minor embarrassment I had to suffer was worth it as Grandad Flob and Grandma Lynn seemed thrilled with Anna's Easter gift to them.

James' parents live close to Formby beach (a National Trust site) so we took the opportunity to have a stroll on Formby beach in the morning. Although it was rather windy (to say the least!), it was wonderful. Of course, Anna refused to go in her buggy so walked instead. At one point, we did start to worry that she had walked too far for her little legs to cope and also the wind was rather nippy and strong. Therefore we did put her in the buggy. 2 minutes later, Anna's shouting at the top of her voice told us that we were far too nasty and that a 16 month old Anna was more than capable of walking another mile or two so she came back out again! At one point, Anna even headed for the sea, getting very excited about seeing water and looking determined to take a dip. If she could talk, I'm sure she would have been shouting to everyone 'Don't worry... I can swim'. Unfortunately for Anna, we didn't allow her to demonstrate on this occasion.

Today (Easter Monday), we went on an Egg Hunt at Chirk Castle (near Wrexham) with the prize being a chocolate egg for everyone that found the Easter hunt answer. It was fantastic. We were a little worried that the staff would judge Anna to be too young for the event (not realising that her Mummy and Daddy were big kids!!) but they didn't bat an eyelid! Basically, our task was to find 6 pairs of lambs (pictures) that were hidden around the castle and gardens. The initial letter of each lamb's name was the clue and once you collected all of the letter clues, it would be an anagram of the answer. For example, the green pair of Lambs were called 'Isabelle' and 'Ian' so the clue was I. Unfortunately, each pair of lambs were not hidden in the same place, which meant that there were 12 hiding spots to find. At first, we thought it was going to be easy after finding the first 3 clues within the first 10 minutes. It was only when we realised that the castle and gardens are rather large that we realised that this may be more difficult than first thought! By 1pm, Anna was asking for her lunch ('Forget the stupid lambs, I'm hungry' thought Anna.) However, by the time we came back outside, the snow was falling fast and within 10 minutes, it was blizzard conditions. Despite being wrapped up warm, the combination of the wind and snow meant that we couldn't see much but we still had 2 lambs to find!!!! However, by this time, we had found at least one lamb from each pair so we knew the answer was 'Spring'. It was just a matter of principle now that made me want to find all 12 clues.

For anyone that knows me, you will know that I am highly competitive and was not going to let 2 lambs, blizzard conditions and gale force winds beat us and, if it had just been James and me, we would have still been there now if we hadn't found those last 2 bloody clues! However, we had Anna to consider and I wasn't going to let her get cold (she did have blanket, fully lined coat, gloves, 2 hats and her rain cover on, over her fully insulated pram but it was freezing cold and all of that may not have been enough protection!!). We agreed that we could look for another 10 minutes but we really would have to stop if the snow hadn't stopped by then. A strategic plan was needed so we went in opposite directions agreeing to meet up in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, we now had to find Anna's hat as well as 2 lambs (Anna had decided that enough was enough and had thrown her hat off at some unknown destination before we actually realised what had happened.)

10 minutes later and we regrouped. James had been much more successful than me, finding a clue as well as returning with Anna's hat on his head, albeit covered in mud and snow!! There was one last clue to find. My head was yelling at me to carry on but my Mummy instincts shouted louder and, for the first time in my life and for the sake of Anna not getting cold, I gave up without completing the task!!!

I was still going to try though so, as James went to get two hot steaming cups of coffee, I headed for the prize desk, covered in snow with dripping hair and very muddy wellies. 'We did the Easter trail' I uttered as I walked up to the desk, in my best 'please feel sorry for me' voice. 'We found the lambs from each pair so we know the answer. The clues are an anagram of spring'. I said, feeling like a school girl again. 'Great' said the organiser. 'Can I have your form with all 12 lamb names please?'. I hadn't bargained for this. I thought she was going to be content with the answer. 'Oh' I said as I hesitated to think of a cunning plan.. 'Well, the red pair of lambs were Rose and Richard which is R' and the purple pair of lambs were Gareth and Gemma so that is a G and....' as I thought that baffling her with my waffle might let me off. 'I'll just have your form thanks' said the organiser who was taking the whole thing far too seriously!!! 'But...but...but we didn't find the last clue... the blue girl lamb' I mumbled. I really did feel like the naughty school girl by now so really started to talk uncontrollably!!! 'I know it must start with a P because the boy lamb was Peter so the girl lamb must be called Penny or Petula or Petal or...'. I was also taking this far too seriously now but I had become the mum who was determined for her little girl to get a reward for having to put up with a Mummy and Daddy who do stupid things like go looking for pictures of lambs with stupid names, while it is snowing a blizzard and blowing a gale, all in the name of fun! Thankfully, because we had found one of the pair of blue lambs, knowing that it was a P and spelling the word 'spring' and showing that we had tried very very hard, we received our award after all- a chocolate Easter egg.

All three of us then sat in the car, warming ourselves up, with a gorgeous hot cup of coffee (Anna had warm milk) and the best chocolate Easter egg that you have ever tasted (although it was no different from any other Cadbury Easter egg, this egg had been hard earned and well deserved so tasted so much sweeter!!). The perfect end to a wonderful Easter!!! As for Anna... because she had to put up with a mad Mummy and Daddy... it was only right that she had some chocolate Easter Egg too!!!

P.s: Before any kind relatives start getting any ideas... Anna only had the smallest amount of chocolate imaginable before she fell asleep with a huge smile on her face. She is NOT allowed any more chocolate until next Easter!

A Lifetime of Sunshine

It is a sad time for us all at the moment. Anna's Great-Grandad Tom has passed away.

I have been sat staring at the computer screen for 20 minutes and, even now, I can't seem to find the words to write what I want to say.

Being 92 years old was a remarkable achievement but it still feels like it wasn't long enough for someone as lovely as Grandad Tom. To James, he was invincible. This was the man who was born when TV hadn't even been invented yet but who started doing a computer course at college in his mid-eighties, just so he could keep up with latest trends! Even more amazing when you consider that he would walk a mile to get to college in the first place.

There are some wonderful memories. James often recalls times when he and Matthew were little and would go on a caravan holiday with his Grandad to Fleetwood. Our more recent memories include shouting out the punchline to all of Matthews jokes when he was best man at our wedding (no one minded... except maybe Matthew!!) and no family occasion seemed quite right without a few of Grandad Tom's legendary jokes (which sometimes left us all feeling a little confused!). His 90th birthday party was also memorable, especially when the big finale came with Grandad Tom stood right in the middle of a huge circle of family, performing high kicks (high for a 90 year old) to 'New York New York'. It was also telling that all of his family was there, from the youngest to oldest, because it was a party for Grandad Tom.

I also remember him for being a true gentleman. The very first time that I met James' dad and Lynn was when Grandad Tom was with them. I was rather too quiet and shy but Grandad Tom jokingly whispered to me 'They don't give you a chance to speak because they don't shut up for a minute do they' I smiled to which he said 'They take a bit of getting used to but I can tell that you will be fine'!!! He knew exactly what to say and immediately put me at ease and made me relax a little more. I also remember there was one conversation which I couldn't join in easily (possibly about fellow family members that I hadn't met yet). I didn't mind at all but Grandad Tom said 'Right, I want a conversation that Louise and I can join in now'. He always made sure everyone felt included and happy. I think my favourite memory was Anna's first birthday party, which was also the last time that we saw him. It was time to go but before he left, he felt it was only right that he make a speech thanking us for a lovely party and wishing Anna 'a lifetime of sunshine, as bright as the sunshine that she gives to everyone' (which was also what he had wrote in his birthday card to her, which is safely kept in her 'Memory Treasure Box'). It all sounded rather twee at the time but, looking back, it was just a wonderfully thoughtful thing to say.

Being 92 years old was certainly a remarkable achievement but it feels like it wasn't long enough because Anna never got to realise for herself how wonderful her Great Grandad Tom was. She would have loved him a lot, as much as everyone who was lucky enough to know him did. However, I am just thankful that there are a wealth of wonderful memories that we all have of him, which we will be able to share with Anna so that she too will know what a very special Great-Grandad she had.

Anna's First Shoes

Last weekend (It has taken me ages to get on the computer to write about it!!), we managed to find time to venture into Chester. The time had come to buy Anna her very first pair of shoes.

We went to Clarks as I had many recommendations and I suppose, for selfish reasons, it was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me. Every summer holiday, my brother and I would be taken into Hereford to buy our Clarks shoes before we were then allowed to go and buy our pencil case and stationary (which always excited me much more than new shoes.... how times have changed!). I remember having to put your foot in that machine which saw the metal blocks inching towards your precious foot. There was always that slight worry that they would forget to stop when they hit your foot and, instead, carry on going while crushing your foot to tiny pieces (Remember, I was 7 years old at the time!).

I cannot tell you how excited I was about taking Anna to buy her shoes. It was like several Christmases all rolled into one! However, there was a slight fear in the pit of my stomach. I had visions of Anna creating chaos in the shop, with several shop assistants chasing after Anna as she hot-footed it out of the door with a different shoe on each foot!

Thankfully, Anna was wonderful. There was no machine this time but Anna did let the man measure her foot, providing that he tickled her other foot at the same time. It turns out that my daughter is very average (Average??? Is he daring to suggest that Anna is average!!!) with a size 4G foot. Apparently, most toddlers are this size when they first get measured!

So Anna was then fitted for a very stylish pair of shoes (as picked by her Mummy and Daddy). At first, it looked like Anna had the heaviest space boots on the ends of her feet as she attempted to walk around the shop. I had to do my best to convince the man that Anna actually walked 'much better than this normally... honest'. I suppose it must feel a very strange sensation when you try shoes on your feet for the very first time (Anna has never ever worn anything on her feet apart from socks and she takes those off at every available opportunity). However, after a few minutes, Anna had got used to them and was definitely the cat who got the cream, with the biggest, proudest grin on her face!

I think James had prepared himself for the price of the tiny pair of shoes that he was about to buy (I had warned him beforehand, just so that he didn't embarrass me by fainting in the shop). However, I had forgot to warn him that her next shoe fitting appointment is in 6 weeks, as her feet have probably grown out of her first shoes by then.

So it was then time to let Anna have her first experience of walking outside! Anna had looked pretty pleased with herself inside the shop but that was nothing compared to the grin she displayed when she realised that these things on the end of her feet would actually allow her to go outside. For anyone that doesn't know, Anna is definitely an outdoors baby. Whenever I get Anna out of the car, she will start to point to the trees and say 'trees' and then point to a flower and say... something completely unrecognisable, followed by Anna pointing to a car and saying something else completely random. Whenever someone leaves a door open, Anna has always attempted to get outside. Therefore, these shoes were like giving her the key to a whole new world which she had only dreamed of before. Freedom at last!!

We were wary that Anna's legs might tire quickly so we thought a quick 5 minute stroll would be enough! Anna wasn't having any of it. Half an hour later and Anna was still pounding those streets. I suppose her stay in hospital should have given us the first clue, seeing as though she walked the whole of the Women and Children's building before then embarking on several thousand more laps of those corridors. The problem with being in town was that whenever we went into a shop, Anna did a complete u-turn and started heading back out of the door. Shops were boring... outside was where the excitement was!

Her first shoes also saw us dealing with our first Anna tantrum. Unfortunately, Anna's first full blown tantrum also happened to be in a public place. Due to Anna having walked a considerable distance and really not warming to the idea of a walk around Sainsburys as outside seemed much more interesting, we attempted to pick her up. Big mistake. Anna arched her back and then threw herself to to the floor. When we went to pick her up, she kicked her arms and legs so that we couldn't get a hold! There was no way that this girl was giving up her new-found freedom without a fight. We eventually did pick her up but she then shouted at full force for several minutes, just to let the passers by know what terrible parents we were for trying to help her feet from aching.

So we have now entered a new phase for Anna. Suddenly, any contraption which means that Anna is not allowed to walk, such as a pushchair, pram or car seat, has become the enemy to Anna. We have a great gymnastics display whenever I attempt to put her in one of these things, Her arched back and knees bent is very impressive and I am convinced that she has more strength than me. My back is a clear reminder of how determined Anna can be. All of this means that Anna is now walking everywhere and at remarkable speed. Meanwhile, her Mummy is feeling more and more tired and old (with aching knees and feet) by the day! Those shoes were made for walking and that is what Anna will do!

March Madness

I HATE March! You may remember that March last year was the most horrendous of months for us. There was a car accident, Ofsted visited school, James got ill and went into hospital, came out and went back in again, I had to step down from the 'Healthy Schools' advising committee (I couldn't attend as I was too busy with James getting ill etc), a beloved pet dying and various other numerous stressful situations.

However, this March has turned out to be just as awful and we have only had 2 days of it so far. The reason for it?

Anna has been in hospital this weekend. 'Hell' would be one word that springs to mind (the experience, not the hospital). It all started last Monday with an innocent cough that has lingered for a couple of weeks. I was a little concerned that it was lasting too long so took her to the GP, who said it was just a virus that would go away. It soon developed into a cold so I figured that the cough was all part of it and it would clear. By Thursday night, Anna was rather subdued (not tearing around the house at 100 MPH). Her cold had cleared up but she just wasn't herself. By Friday, Anna was very lethargic. All morning, she just lay on the sofa and didn't even want to crawl to get her favourite doll. The doctors said that they could fit me in at 5.30pm (after I made a fuss). I knew it was getting serious when i dropped a plate with a loud crash and Anna didn't even pick her head up. At this point, I was ready to take her to A and E and James had come home early. However, curiously, she then got a sudden bout of energy and started talking and being her normal self, walking around at rapid speed. However, by 4.30pm, she had started to become very tired again and her breathing was becoming faster with sharp intakes of breath so we went to the doctors early, in the hope that they may see her quicker. As I picked Anna up, all fully clothed with our coats and hats on, Anna was violently sick (after a coughing fit) and threw up the 2 yoghurt's, 1 rice cake and several cups of milk and water that she had eaten that day . Anna has a good aim as it landed in my hair, down my face and dripping off my chin as well as a drenched outfit, including underwear! I wasn't prepared to hang around though so the quickest outfit change that I have ever done and we went straight to the doctors, complete with a not-so-delightful aroma in my hair! Thankfully, getting to the doctors early worked as we were so early that the earlier appointments hadn't arrived (and the doctor hadn't got anybody to see). It didn't take long for us to be heading to hospital.

Anna had bronchitis. Basically, her wind pipes had become blocked so she was having to breathe in much more oxygen than normal to help her breathing, hence she had no energy to do anything else because she was concentrating on her breathing. Thankfully, the doctors and nurses were wonderful and amazing and did everything so quickly that Anna was walking the around the entire children and maternity unit by the following morning (There was no way that Anna would sit quietly in the ward when there was so much to explore!!) A dose of medication and inhalers and it was playing as normal. Unfortunately, although her oxygen levels were perfect on the Saturday, whenever Anna went to sleep, they would fall below the required rate. It was not dangerously low but lower than normal, which meant she had to stay for a second night with an oxygen mask. Thankfully, by midnight, the levels had risen, even though she was asleep so we could go home this morning (Sunday).

As you can imagine, I feel like we have all been put through an emotional mangle this weekend. Friday night felt like she was a newborn baby again as I sat up all night watching Anna sleeping with an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose. The nurses had offered me a bed in an empty ward, just one room down the corridor from Anna's room. I refused to go so they found me a camp bed to put by the cot. It didn't matter because I wouldn't have slept anyway. I sat up all night on the night she was born so this wasn't going to be any different. The nurses kept coming in to try and persuade me to sleep but I really couldn't. As it turns out, that was probably a good thing as Anna was alert and wide awake at 3am on Saturday morning. She didn't actually need that much sleep because her oxygen levels were now back to normal and she had all of this excess energy to use up, which she hadn't been able to do on Friday. (The oxygen levels returned to normal within literally 1 minute of Anna waking up so it was now only sleep that was the issue). At 4.30am, Anna was toddling around the hospital looking for mischief! The inhaler can make children hyperactive for 30 mins (even more hyperactive than Anna on a good day!) after taking it and Anna had to have a dose at 4am so, by 4.30am, Anna was virtually flying! The nurse said that she has never seen such an active child and that Anna and I were probably the only people awake in the whole of the children's building! Anna didn't go back to sleep until 2PM on Saturday afternoon.

I suppose the only good thing to come out of the whole experience is that Anna has learnt loads of new words. She can now say 'dog' (which can be embarrassing when she points to other children and says it) and has a very good go at saying fish (there was a fish tank right by Anna's bed so she got a very good view). She said 'Hello Nurse' when the nurse came in on Saturday morning (!!!) and, the most curious of all, was that she has said 'water' several times but she has only said it in her sleep. Thankfully, I have witnesses. The nurse, Kathryn, was checking on her and Anna said 'water'. I immediately looked at Kathryn and she looked at me before she asked 'Did she just say 'Water'. 'I'm not sure' I replied so Anna dutifully said it again for our benefit. However, when I gave her some water, she threw it back to me (She is very good at throwing as one of her favourite games is throwing her cube to me so I can throw it back as Anna tries to catch it (the catching is not so great!!).

All weekend (I have had many hours to sit and think in the middle of the night), I have been tearing myself up with guilt. If only I had insisted that Anna go to the doctors earlier. If only I could have breastfed Anna for longer, then maybe her immune system would have fought this virus off better. If only we lived in the countryside, maybe she wouldn't be exposed to so many germs. Then I thought that maybe I shouldn't be taking her to all of these clubs and classes, exposing Anna to all sorts of germs and viruses from lots of different groups of children? Maybe I could have prevented it by not letting her have that non-organic ham and cheese? Maybe I have fed her something that she is allergic too? Maybe the multi-vitamin supplements that I give her is not good enough? A million things went through my head (some crazy and some not-so-crazy). I think it is only natural that all parents feel guilt, it comes with being a parent along with stress and worry on a whole new scale that you can never ever anticipate until you become a mum. I suppose I stupidly thought that, by feeding Anna organic food, doing absolutely everything physically possible to keep my baby safe and healthy (e.g: still giving cooled, filtered, pre-boiled water) and by following everything that the guidebooks/other parents/medical people advise, my darling daughter would be immune from everything and never get ill. I'm now not sure it works like that. I still feel guilty but I'm really not sure what else I can do to stop it happening again (The doctors and nurses ensure me that there is nothing else that I could be doing) and that scares me because I don't like it that Anna can get ill and that I can't stop it from happening. It frightens me senseless.

The only other good thing about our weekend of hell is that even more people now know how wonderful Anna is. It was astonishing how many doctors, nurses, fellow parents and visitors all stopped and said how gorgeous she was. It helps that Anna is very friendly and tends to greet everyone with a huge smile and a wave. One doctor told me that she was very special and I heard one nurse say 'Have you seen that little girl called Anna walking up and down the corridor. She is such a cutie and so gorgeous'. (I was around the corner so I don't think they were saying it for my benefit). Of course, I already knew that she was beautiful and gorgeous and clever and wonderful but it is lovely to think other people realise it too!

Talking Finnish to a Flamingo

Anna was Little Miss Chatterbox this weekend. The reason that she was so talkative was due to her Uncle Matthew and Auntie Ulriikka coming to stay. Anna loved it!! They were a massive hit with Anna. In fact, she was so taken with them that she refused to eat her breakfast (this is the girl who eats EVERYTHING) because it meant being away from her Uncle Matthew. Therefore, we had to resort to Anna eating her toast in the living room while Anna walked from Ulriikka to Matthew and back again. As for her Mummy and Daddy, we didn't get a second glance from Anna! As to why Anna became so fond of her Uncle Matthew and Ulriikka so quickly could have been because of the way that they played with and talked with Anna so brilliantly. It may also have had something to do with Ulriikka's bead necklace (which Anna liked to play with and inadvertently strangle poor Ulriikka with) or her Uncle Matthew's patterned socks which she thought were highly amusing as she stroked them!

We also discovered something very interesting this weekend. As far as we were aware, Anna could only say 'Hello, Hi, Mummy, Daddy, Good Girl, Nana and Goo Goo (Anna's name for her Great Nan Barwell which she uses in context every time that she sees her!!). However, Ulriikka has told us otherwise. Apparently, Anna can speak Finnish. Ulriikka is from Finland so was shocked when she heard Anna say mother ('Iti' in Finnish I think!) and numerous other words in Finnish. All of this time, we thought that Anna's random mixture of syllables was baby talk but she has been talking Finnish all along! This is great news for when my delightful Health Visitor does her 18 month check with Anna. When she consults her ever-so-helpful checklist of 'things that all babies should be doing' (despite every baby being unique and developing at their own pace!) and asks 'Can Anna say 12 recognisable words?', I will be able to confidently say 'Yes, she says loads of words''. It doesn't actually state what language these words have to be in so I won't be lying either, even if half of them are in Finnish!

On Saturday, Anna went to the zoo with her Uncle Matthew and Ulriikka. She was also accompanied by her Mummy and Daddy! Thankfully, Anna took much more interest of the animals on this, her second visit to the zoo. Back in July last year, when we took Anna to the zoo for the first time, she showed no enthusiasm whatsoever for the exotic creatures and endangered species, despite my best efforts to make all of the right sound effects (causing much amusement to the other visitors). This time Anna was very impressed with the elephants and giraffes (including a 2 week old baby giraffe called Margaret). However, the animal that Anna fell in love with was the Flamingos! I have feeling that it was the pink that did it. Maybe this is the first sign of Anna becoming one of those 'girly girl's' who adores everything pink. Oh dear! I'm not sure what she was saying but she was chatting away to the Flamingos for an awfully long time, with a very big smile on her face. Maybe they are fluent in Finnish too! Anna was also very lucky as, when we arrived back from the zoo, Ulriikka and her Uncle Matthew, very kindly, presented Anna with her very own pink Flamingo. It wasn't actually a real life Flamingo. I think the Flamingo's had heard about the way in which Anna tortures her John Giraffe by pinning him to the ground and dragging him round the house by clutching his neck tightly! They were not keen. However, it is even better than a real one (imagine the mess!) as Ulriikka and Matthew have given Anna a pink, fluffy cuddly toy Flamingo instead. Tonight has seen Anna dragging it around the house and she even insisted that he sit on the table and watch Anna eat her tea! Thank you so much Matthew and Ulriikka.

As well as the Flamingos being the highlight for Anna, there were also several highlights for me when we visited the zoo . I loved the moment that James said 'Oh Look, there are some monkey's'. At this point, Ulriikka, Matthew and I all looked at him in silence before Matthew said 'James... those monkeys are actually vultures'. Even Anna gave her Daddy a puzzled look! The second highlight was the Marmot tunnel. For those of you who may not know (I didn't!!), Marmots look like wild guinea pigs. They make underground tunnels with holes that allow them to poke their head above ground to see what is going on. Within the Marmot enclosure at the zoo, they have created some tunnels which children can crawl through (so that you can pretend to be a Marmot!). Within these tunnels, they have then put holes which you can poke your head through to see above ground and also get a close up view of some real life Marmots (although there is a clear plastic dome covering the hole, just so that you don't get your nose nibbled by a passing Marmot!) What fantastic sight it was to see Matthew and Ulriikka emerge from one of these tunnels. It looked a little cramped in there but the on-lookers, including a crowd of strangers, enjoyed it.

Although Anna enjoyed her weekend so much, it was also tinged with sadness. In a couple of weeks, Matthew and Ulriikka are emigrating. I suppose, for Ulriikka, it would not be correct to say 'emigrating' as she is going home to Finland. Matthew is understandably going out to Finland to live there too. Although we don't get to see them very much now, despite only living in Manchester, it was nice to know that they were near. With Anna taking an instant liking to them, it would also be great for then to live so near when babysitters are required! On a positive note, it will be nice to go and visit them in Finland. Ulriikka has said that she will give Anna ice-skating lessons (Ice-skating is a curriculum subject in Finnish schools and Ulriikka is excellent at it!!) and
Anna will actually get to play in lots and lots of snow! Anna will also be able to do all the talking in the Finnish restaurants, seeing as though she speaks it so well!

At the moment, one of Anna's favourite games is to point to various family members on the framed photo montage that we have hanging up in our hallway. I then have to tell her what each family member is called, in which Anna then attempts to say the name back again (although she is trying very hard, we haven't actually got any names sounding the same at the moment!). I would like to imagine that, from now on, when she points to the photo of her Uncle Matthew, as well as attempting to say his name, Anna will remember the fun weekend at the zoo, with Ulriikka and her Uncle Matthew with his funny socks.