TV Troubles

I am feeling incredibly guilty to admit this but I do feel that I have to confess... my daughter has developed an obsession with the TV.

All that effort that I have made since she was born, to ensure that she didn't get exposed to rubbish blaring out of the box in the corner of the room and I go and undo all of it this summer. I am feeling as though membership to the Bad Mummy's club is going to land on the mat any day now!

Up until this summer, we have never had much time for TV so it was fairly easy to keep to the 'only 30 minutes per day of TV ' rule. (The 30 minutes would always be 'In the Night Garden' due to the fact that Anna still adores it, so much so that she can do all the impressions etc). With all our clubs and meets, we were never in the house long enough to watch TV. Mornings would be a mad race around the house, normally involving me holding Anna's shoes in one hand, pouring milk over her cereal in my other hand and trying to grab her coat off the hook using my foot, all while trying to encourage Anna to sit down and not go terrorising the cat in the garden! By the time that we got back form our hectic social occasions, it would be time for lunch. After that, Anna and I would watch 'In the Night Garden' and have dedicated play time together or go for a walk to the park. (I have always insisted that the start of the afternoon is dedicated to Anna's play time or otherwise, I just find myself doing chores all day). After this Anna would have an afternoon nap while I raced around the house again, trying to get the household jobs done, which normally involved me picking up CD's and books off the floor which Anna had decided to browse through while I made lunch, whilst trying to ignore the huge pile of ironing that was taking over the breakfast room. We didn't have time to turn the TV on, let alone watch it.

However, this summer, while the clubs are on a break too, we have had a much more relaxed approach to it all. The TV still hasn't been turned on until 10am every morning but that is more to do with the fact that I can't bear to see smug TV presenters looking like they have just stepped off a catwalk while I look like I have just slept in a cardboard box for several nights. I have lost count of the times that I have opened the front door during these summer mornings to various members of the public (including postmen, decorators, plumbers, a landscape gardener and a parcel delivery men who are never for me but for the rich woman down the street) and then started to wonder why they are looking at me so strangely. I later discover that they are probably scared by the hair that looks like I have just received an electric shock, the way in which Anna's weetabix is smeared across my cheek or the uncanny ability I have to put clothes on back to front!

However, when I finally do turn the TV on, I am ashamed to say that Anna becomes transfixed. I'm not even sure why I feel the need to turn it on. I suppose, because I have been doing the ironing at a more leisurely pace, I felt that I could afford the luxury of glancing up to the TV while doing it. In the end, it just becomes background noise but that is just wrong! Meanwhile, Anna is sat there transfixed. She is fussy though and won't watch any old rubbish. It has to be C Beebies or the one music channel that we have. I have also restrained from having the TV on in the afternoon as I much prefer music or the radio. However, Anna is still watching far too much TV for my liking so it is still wrong.

I didn't even realise how much I was doing it until this morning. For the first time this Summer, we were actually organised so had finished breakfast and cleared away before 10am. I was waiting for the washing machine to stop so sat down and played with Anna. It was brilliant as Anna and I became engrossed in puzzles and jigsaws and we found ourselves having a conversation about Tigger and Piglet and Pooh. After half an hour, I suddenly realised that there were no distractions. No TV or Radio. It was wonderful. It was so lovely that we carried on all morning, playing with the jigsaws and taking her baby doll for a walk in her pushchair around the garden. It was great to see Anna being so loving and maternal towards Polly, her baby doll. That is until Anna decided that she wanted to go and say hello to the neighbours who had just appeared, so promptly threw Polly into the bush and ran off.

It made me realise that I have missed this time during the summer. Anna and I have always had dedicated play time or a walk to the park every afternoon, even throughout this summer, but the majority of the summer mornings has seen us in front of the idiots lantern. How awful is that!

In my defence, I haven't actually been at home very much this summer so it hasn't been every week. In fact, we have spent literally half of the holidays in Hereford for one reason or another and we never have the TV on in Herefordshire as Anna is ALWAYS outdoors in mum's large garden or, if it is raining, sat in the breakfast room watching the tractors (!!) or playing with her toys (there is no TV in the breakfast room).

For the time that we have been at home on our own, I would love to blame the British weather and say that, due to the constant rain, we had little choice but to turn the TV on but that's not true. I didn't have to turn the TV on, regardless of what the weather was like. I could also say that the lack of clubs and classes means that I can keep up with the ironing and cleaning much more efficiently but I would much rather be able to say that Anna and I get to do exciting activities rather than having a tidy house.

So, as we near the end of the summer holidays, I have learnt some lessons during this holiday period and the TV is being switched off again. I think I will have to make one exception to the rule of '30 minutes per day' of TV though, due to the fact that Anna loves 2 TV programmes now. 'In the Night Garden' is still a firm favourite but Balamory is a very close second. Luckily, Balamory is only shown once a week. I think the Balamory attraction is all the singing and dancing that they do. Either that or she just follows her mummy and has a fondness for men in kilts talking in a Scottish accent (although anyone that has seen Balamory will know that the one man who wears a kilt is no George Clooney or Phillip Schofield!!!)

The photograph has nothing to do with the blog post but I hope you don't mind me not needing an excuse to show a photograph of my daughter looking gorgeous (even more gorgeous than Phillip Schofield!)

Truck, Train and Tractor Spotting

Anna has a new love.. or should that be obsession?

In the past week, Anna has been out train-spotting, tractor-spotting and truck-spotting and now can't stop talking about them! The problem is that we don't get many trains, trucks or tractors passing our house, seeing as though we live in a small suburban street in the middle of Chester, much to Anna's best attempts at spotting them (by gazing out of the window when she heard the dust cart!)

It all started with our visit to Grandma Lynn and Grandad Flob's house. As part of our visit, we went to Southport which features a Miniature Railway Village. Anna adored the trains and, every time that she heard one coming around the track, she would stop and watch it intently until it passed. The only slight problem was that there were lots of trains and so we didn't move 2 or 3 steps before another train could be heard and we would have to stop again. Anna then accompanied the trains by shouting 'choo choo' with lots of enthusiastic jumping around and running after the train (before another came along a few seconds later and we all had to halt again).

Once Anna's legs had become a little tired after all that running for trains, we retired to the cafe where Anna found a Wendy House, which she thought was very good. Even better was the fact that it came complete with little boy inside. Anna has another little obsession for little boys at the moment. Any time that we pass a little girl, Anna will walk past without any comment. If a little boy happens to pass us, Anna will shout 'BOY' at the top of her voice before running after them. When we visited the farm a couple of weeks ago, Anna had found an empty shed and placed herself inside. She then waited until boys walked past (ignoring all the girls who had walked past previously), where she would then lure them inside by talking to them in her sweetest voice! She managed to entice 3 boys into the empty shed and gave each one a cuddle before they ran off. To find a little boy in the Wendy House, with no means of escape (Anna had already blocked the doorway) was her idea of heaven! Unfortunately, Anna soon scared the boy off with her talk of re-decorating and introducing soft furnishings.

The trucks and tractors obsession has come from Hereford. At the end of Nanny and Grandad's house is a gate which looks onto a main road. Ever since Anna has been able to walk, she has loved the outdoors and her Grandad has always found himself leaning on the gate with Anna, watching the vehicles go by. In fact, Anna loves it so much that there really is no rest for her Grandad. As soon as he gets in from work, Anna has picked up his boots (one in each hand) and carried them to her Grandad and placed them down by his feet. All of this happens before her Grandad has got through the door. By the time that he has managed to get inside (in order to put his bag down), Anna is saying 'Outside please' over and over again. They then spend 2 or 3 hours walking around the garden and, for the majority of the time, stood or sat on the gate watching the cars. The only time that she will allow her Grandad to take her back indoors is when it is is just too dark to see anymore!

Anna is now able to name every vehicle that goes past so all we get to hear for the 2 hours whilst stood at the gate is 'Car...car...car...lorry...van...car...tractor...car'. Anna does have trouble with the 4x4's though. She isn't sure whether they are a car, tractor or van so just shakes her head when they go by.

I'm not sure what Anna's favourite mode of transport is, if she had to decide between tractor or truck. My first instinct would be to say tractor. Even without looking, Anna can be sat in her nanny's breakfast room, hear a tractor coming from miles away and shout 'tractor' before running to the nearest adult and asking to be picked up to see it (we can see the road from my mum's breakfast room if Anna stands in the window). She then cheers and claps EVERY time that one passes, which is frequently at the moment, as tractors haul potatoes from the fields to nearby farm (the farm is big in potatoes, being one of the main suppliers for McCain's chip factory in Northern England). I am fully expecting Anna to start naming the tractors soon. I can almost hear Anna saying 'Look Mummy... a green tractor is a John Deere. Look Mummy, a red tractor so that must be a Massey Ferguson'. In fact, after Anna and her Nanny was involved in an in-depth conversation about tractors and potatoes, Anna now even recognises when a tractor is pulling the root vegetable. Imagine my surprise when Anna chirped up 'Look Mummy... tractor with potatoes'. No exaggeration... this is exactly what Anna said to me, where I then proceeded to do goldfish impressions! I will hit the floor when she starts telling me what type of potato they are carrying as well.

However, trucks do have an appeal that tractors don't. For a start, Anna has a lorry/truck named after her. My dad owns several lorries and therefore felt it was only right that his beloved lorry (!!!) be named after his grandchild! There is a red lorry driving through the Herefordshire countryside and beyond with Anna emblazoned on the front of it!! However, Anna is a little too young to understand that yet. For Anna, there is another reason why trucks/lorries are so wonderful. This is because lorries do something that tractors don't. Due to the fact that my dad is in the lorry industry, it means that he knows an awful lot of other lorry drivers. This means that when Anna sits on the gate and waves to these lorry drivers, they wave back and, because they know my dad, the kind lorry drivers will pull out all the stops to impress Anna, who gets to see lorries that flash their lights, beep their horns and even play their musical air horns at her when they go past! Now some adults, let alone toddlers, might be a little taken back by a full blast of air horns as they zoom by. Not Anna! She just thinks it is her entourage on tour as she gives them a royal wave back and giggles loudly!

Writer's Block

I am aware of the fact that I have not posted anything on this blog for quite a while now but I don't want friends and family to start worrying that Anna is back in hospital or likewise. Therefore, I am just posting this to say 'Hello... we are here'.

Anna seems OK at the moment although I am terrified of writing that for fear of tempting fate. We continue to take each day as it comes. It has been 5 weeks now, which is the longest we have gone without going back to hospital, since it all started in March so we are trying to keep hold of the positives.

The summer holidays are going well. It gives Anna and me a good opportunity to not race around at 100 miles per hour and catch up with friends (especially teacher friends), which is brilliant. However, I do have to confess that I am missing our clubs and classes a little. Maybe I am becoming one of those mum's who likes to chat about sleep routines and dirty nappies..... NO, NEVER!!!

The only reason that I can fathom for lack of recent posts is writer's block. I can't seem to find the words or the time or the enthusiasm or a combination of all 3!!! That doesn't mean that I am getting bored of my blog (even if I do wonder if anyone is still reading it apart from me!!). I still love writing this little diary-like blog and I enjoy it even more when I think that writing this blog will result in Anna loving it to read when she is older.

Maybe I am just getting too old and far too sensible so that the bizarre and surreal events, that Anna and I used to find ourselves in regularly, don't occur with such frequency anymore and, therefore, I don't have so much to post on this blog! Dare I say it... Maybe life has just become too 'everyday normal'? Maybe Anna is even enjoying the lack of 'embarrassing mummy moments'? However, this is me that we are talking about. James always says ' I have never known anybody that can find themselves in so many bizarre situations as you'. I am sure that normal blogging service will resume shortly!!!

Down on the Farm

Last week, we spent a week down in Hereford. Of course, Anna loved every second of it as it just meant her getting spoilt by her nanny and Grandad and various other members of the family.

It was a very busy week. We took her to the Royal Welsh Show, where she got to see flying motorbikes, lots and lots of farmyard animals looking their best (coats shampooed and brushed every hour) and lots of welsh people talking welsh!

We also had a walk in the forest. All was going well except when we got back to the car and there were some big boys playing football on the grass. Anna wanted to play so ran over and grabbed the football, just as one boy was about to take a penalty kick. Unfortunately, Anna didn't understand when they didn't want to play chase with her (I think she thought it was rugby!) so then lay down in the middle of the 'pitch' and had a tantrum! The boys were not amused but were kind enough to just stand and watch until Anna stood up, glared at them and then stomped off!

Anna also went shopping in Hereford town centre, which wasn't the most exciting adventure but was probably a highlight for Anna when considering that Nanny spent a fortune in the toy shop! She also spent lots of time at Goo-Goo's house (her great Nan) where she seems to have an uncanny ability to create absolute chaos and mayhem!

We attended my friend's wedding, where she wowed all the guests with her singing in church. We were lucky enough to be sat immediately in front of the choir who were extremely good and seemed to fill the whole church with their voices, which Anna was mesmerised by and fell in love with. Anna then promptly fell asleep while the organ recital was being played.

Anna also got to drive, not 1, but 2 cars. My parents have quite a long drive (when compared to our driveway anyway!!) so Anna was allowed to sit on Grandad and Uncle Phil's lap while holding the steering wheel and being shown how to change gear and indicate. She was worryingly good at it (although did drive on the lawn several times!!!) Unfortunately, her car seat now seems very boring and she is asking to sit in the drivers seat of my car ever since we got back home! Not a chance!

Having a new obsession with strawberries, we also planned to take Anna strawberry-picking but, unfortunately, ran out of time so she just had to make do with eating lots of Herefordshire strawberries instead!

However, I think the true highlight of the week was down on the farm where she got to see, stroke and feed the donkeys, pigs, guinea pigs, rabbits, kittens, cats, ducks, cows/calves, goats, sheep/lambs and chickens. She also got to see her mum milking Daisy who was a very patient and placid cow, thankfully! I would love to post the photographic evidence on the blog but sitting on a stool caressing a cows udder is not the most flattering of images! Anna had an amazing time talking to the animals (lots of moo's, baa's and 'hello's'). I think her favourite were the ducks who responded in loud chorus when Anna shouted 'Quack Quack' at them and they all shouted 'quack quack' back, which Anna thought was very polite of them!

The photograph is Nanny Mary milking Daisy, with Anna and her Daddy cheering her on (with Anna wondering what on earth her Nanny is doing with that poor cow!)

We also went on a tractor ride and I got an opportunity to show Anna the beautiful views of Herefordshire. I think the scenery was a little lost on her but her Mummy enjoyed it!!

Although meeting the animals was very special, I'm not sure that Anna would have said that was the best bit, if you were able to ask her. I think she just enjoyed the fact that she got to run around in huge fields and meadows with no obstacles or hazards and nobody telling her to slow down!

Within 10 minutes of arriving back at my parents house, both James and Anna were fast asleep. All that fresh countryside air must have got to them!! It wasn't even a short nap... they were both asleep for 3 hours!! They're such Townies!

This photograph was taken whilst on our tractor ride. If you look closely, you should be able to spot a church steeple (tucked behind a cream coloured house). The church is our local village church where James and I got married, 4 years ago today! What a great view!

Happy Talk

An echo has suddenly developed in our house. Anna is talking! For the majority of the time, she is getting her inspiration from everything that James and I say and she then repeats it back to us. Up until this week, I was keeping a list of everything that she was able to say but that list has flown out of the window as she is attempting to say everything and being successful most of the time! There is definitely no swearing in our house for the next 18 years!

I'm not even sure how it has happened. 2 weeks ago, she was saying approx 20 words and now, Anna is saying everything! We have been in Hereford this past week so it must be that Herefordian air and being surrounded by farmyard animals. Anna is now talking non-stop! It really is like we have an echo in the house. She is copying every word that we say with amazing accuracy. Scarily, she is also 'reading' whole books back to us. Obviously, she is not actually 'reading' but has memorised the book and can now say the words, word-for-word, on every page of her 'Where is Jessie?' book and 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear'! (Admittedly, they are not the most complicate of words but even so...).

Also, she says the last word of most lines form the 'Mercy' song, in time with Duffy and then proceeds to hum the tune in time to the music.

I have always had conversations with her but Anna has normally replied with something that I am obviously just too silly to understand. However, I now find myself having proper conversations with her and it feels very new and strange. E.G:

Anna: Look Mummy... sheep'.
Me: Well done Anna. What does a sheep say?
Anna: Baa.
Me: Good girl Anna.
Anna: Bye Bye Sheep (as she waves her hand).

We then go through every animal in the book/toy box/field/on the TC with the same conversation going over and over again. We also have the same conversation but with the 'In the Night Garden' characters (along with vocal impressions of the characters as she says their name. Her Makka Pakka voice is very good!) Having such conversations with Anna is almost like having a new child (albeit still the same gorgeous, beautiful and funny Anna that I have always known).

Last week, while staying in Hereford, every time that my mum (Nanny Mary) said Hello to James, Anna copied it and said 'Hello James' to her Daddy!

We get a lot of 'No' as well! E.G.

Would you like some milk Anna?
No
Would you like to eats something Anna?
No
Could you stop pouring water all over the carpet Anna?
NO!

Suddenly, Anna is a little girl!

The photograph was taken this weekend, just before attending my friend's wedding. Many thanks to Bethan and Dave for inviting us to such a wonderful day, Grandma Lynn for finding the beautiful dress and Nanny Mary for being so lovely that Anna even allowed her Nanny to brush Anna's hair for the occasion!

A Winter's Tale?

Just as I was starting to feel brave and get my hopes up that hospital trips may just be a winter hazard....

Another 3 days in hospital.

Exactly the same scenario as the previous 4 occasions. Exactly the same thing said by the doctor, exactly the same frightening emotions, boredom and frustration and exactly the same ever-so-helpful advice of 'There really isn't anything else you can do to prevent this from happening again'. However, I think, even the doctors are starting to sympathise with the frequency as one look on their faces when they read the notes tends to give it away. This was the 5th admission in 5 months.

Private consultants, constant questions, endless background reading and numerous specialists all say that this is just unlucky and something that we may have to endure.

Meanwhile, the parties planned for end-of term clubs, the week we had planned while James is off, the meet-up with friends all now look dubious as Anna may be too unwell to attend. This feels more than just unlucky... this feels very unfair and very difficult at the moment.

Club Chaos

The start of this week started off very well in playgroup but, unfortunately, it seems to have gone downhill at the rest of our clubs!

We began our week with Anna visiting a friend's house. I think it would be fair to say that I was slightly nervous about it, due to Anna's reaction to other little children in recent times, specifically when they have been playing with toys that she has an eye on (see previous post regarding playgroup). However, I am thrilled and relieved to report that Anna may have turned a corner!

When Anna was playing with her little friend, even if he was playing something that she wanted, she patiently watched until he had finished with it and then had her turn. Even when her little friend wanted something that Anna had found, Anna simply let him have it and went to find something else. The only slight issue was when her friend tried to take her red cube. For anyone that doesn't know, Anna's red cube is her most treasured object in the whole wide world. She takes it everywhere and, without her red cube, sleep would be non-existent. It is her security blanket and seeing someone else taking it away was a little too much. After playing so nicely, Anna's little friend looked slightly miffed at having this strange new object taken off him by Anna so his mum suggested that he go and find his teddy. Unfortunately, he couldn't see it but Anna was soon on the case and, without any prompting from me, had found the Teddy within seconds and had ran back to give it to him, to make him feel better. They finished the day by playing Kiss Chase! I think it would be fair to say that the game was a little one-sided though as Anna was doing all the chasing and her friend had a job on his hands to run away from a determined Anna! Once Anna had caught up with him, he was the recipient of some huge hugs and kisses.

Following the success at her play date, Playgroup saw Anna demonstrating her wonderful side yet again. She didn't snatch any toys and, if other children were playing with something that she would have liked, she either watched them or just walked away and came back to it later. Cue one very relieved Mummy! I have also decided that Anna is incredibly sociable. With the staff and other mum's being ignored for the majority of the time, Anna insists on going up to each and every mum, carer and staff member and waving and saying 'Hello' before giving them a huge smile.

After 2 great successes, I was feeling on a high for Anna's music class on Tuesday. As I have said before, Anna doesn't just sing in this class (like all of the other children do!). Anna goes for the whole experience and likes to dance too! Her current favourite trick is to spin around until she is dizzy and then go swaying until she falls over (in time to the music of course!). Unfortunately, Anna didn't feel as though enough people were watching at Tuesday's class so insisted on standing in front of the teacher and demonstrating, to make sure everyone was watching her. (I don't know where she gets this showing-off from... 'like Mother, like Daughter', I hear some of you mutter!!!). Anyway, not only did she upstage the teacher but she then felt an extra song was needed so, while the teacher was changing the CD's over, Anna decided to give her own rendition of the naughty monkey song. Everyone was instructed to listen (by Anna singing louder and louder until everyone was quiet) and then finished it off with a rousing applause... for herself. All of the other mum's then joined in and cheered and clapped her too. I then reminded them that their applauding her just encourages Anna's inner diva.

Now, some teachers could have become slightly annoyed with Anna for constantly doing her song and dance routine and interrupting the flow of the lesson. In fact, I was talking to some mum's in playgroup this week who were complaining that their babies' music teacher (they go to a different class to Anna) was not very good as she made any child sit down if they started jigging about. I then replied by saying how fantastic Anna's teacher is and how she actively encourages Anna to go to the front of the class and 'perform'. Anna's confidence is unbelievably high, thanks to her efforts and I am so fortunate that Anna has had such a wonderful experience, thanks to Sue. Therefore, imagine my horror, when Sue (Anna's music teacher) announced that she was stopping the class! I feel gutted about it! The silver lining is that a teacher from another area has decided to expand her business so will take over in this area. However, I am now panicking that they may not be quite so tolerant of Anna's diva-like enthusiasm. Anna adores her music class and it just won't be the same anymore!

I then think back to today's session at Tumble Tots and my heart sinks even lower. I had decided that Anna may benefit from going to Baby gym classes again. We did attempt to do this when she was 6 months old (in the 6 months - walking class) but Anna refused to roll, let alone crawl so we had to stop going. However, seeing as though Anna is now using the sofa as a trampoline and the dining table as a climbing frame (given half a chance and a seconds hesitation by me!), I thought she would enjoy using gym equipment. Oh dear!!! For the entire 45 minutes session, Anna refused to go on any of the equipment apart from crawling through a tunnel twice, where she insisted on going in the wrong direction so that the queue of children coming from the correct direction had to back up. For the rest of the time, she ran around the hall like something had just stung her on the bum, only to then start spinning around extremely quickly until she fell over. Just in case the staff couldn't see, she then went round every staff member (all wearing white T-shirts so easily identifiable to Anna) and spin wildly directly in front of them. There was just no controlling her! Every time I managed to catch up with her and try to pick her up, she shouted and went stiff-like. I tried putting her on top of the slide (which she adores when we go to the park) and she wouldn't bend her legs so that I could sit her down. I wouldn't have minded her running around for the entire 45 mins if it was open-space but this was a hall packed with 2 year olds so Anna had no choice but to bump into unsuspecting children. The equipment was completely lost on her. Thankfully, it was a trial session but, after Anna's reluctance to do anything which involved gym-based activities, I am very reluctant to pay £5 for Anna to just run around for 45 mins. She does that in the park or garden most days and it doesn't cost anything!

Our baby signing has stopped now as well, due to a change in the teacher's circumstances and swimming is still too risky at the moment, even taking her to normal lessons which don't dunk them underwater. Considering that I used to attend 5 clubs a week (one each day), Anna and I only attend 2 sessions now (Playgroup on Mondays and Music on a Tuesday) and Music club might have to end if the new teacher doesn't see Anna's enthusiasm in quite the same way as others see it!

I am now feeling very lost about all of our social gatherings. I fear that, without enough clubs to keep us busy and entertained, Anna and I will find ourselves making a lot of mischief!