A slight case of overblogging

So I went into the office by the front door for a change on Wednesday, and Lily on reception called me over to let me know the person I'd given the old toaster away to had never collected it from reception, so I've brought it home again. Ocado have said they'll take the new one away even without the box, which is great. On a whim this evening I made two slices of toast, one in each, and though the new toaster has a slightly bigger slot they both came out equally uneven and equally not quite toasted to the edge. Far better to keep the existing slightly rubbish toaster than pay £30 for a new one. Shame it's taken 4 weeks and so much faff to discover!

Still tempted by the see through Magimix one mind :)

Deliberately bought a stair gate for upstairs which the manufacturer claims can be used by just attaching the wall cups to the wall with the supplied stickers, rather than having to drill and use screws. Went up ok last weekend, though the wall cups on the bannister side seemed to slip a few mm as I tightened the pressure fittings. Trouble is over the rest of the week they slipped more and more and last night one of them slipped off entirely!

Took the gate down this morning, but when I turned my attention to the wall cups on the other side it seems they were rather better stuck to the stickers, and the stickers were well suck to the wall. However it seems the plaster was rather less well stuck! This is the result:

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I'd been meaning to get round to doing something about that crack!

Amusingly as the other gate at the bottom of the stairs had to be fitted on the second step up Matthew has now managed to fall off the second step a few times, making it feel slightly less safe than when the gate wasn't there :)

We have had a fun filled weekend. Saturday was Terry and Karen's wedding at the Quy Mill hotel, and they couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Everyone had a lovely time, the sun shone, lots of gin was drunk (sadly not by me), there was much fun with bubbles and loads of exploring in the gardens. Matthew did not fall in the mill race, or in the pond, nor did he manage to eat any gravel. He loved clapping all the speeches. Caught up with several lovely friends I haven't seen in far too long. And of course most importantly of all the bride and groom were incredibly happy, and Karen's dress was Amazing. I just wish I'd got any nice photos. (It was also Becky and Stu's wedding, which is one of those coincidences which makes you wish for the ability to be in two places at the same time - it sounds like they had a lovely time too). Wishing them all many happy years together.

We had a lovely Sunday too - out exploring the quiet routes over to Fulbourn and back with a visit to cheeky monkeys soft play to break the journey :) It's surprisingly hilly between Shelford and Fulbourn, but we got the big bike up the hills no worries, and enjoyed going back down again! Also discovered a great route back via the Roman Road and Wandlebury which was just about doable for most of its length - just a couple of sections were rutted enough to need to get off and push. Off-road on a bakfiets - I like it! And all in glorious sunshine. Then despite his cold Matthew only work twice overnight, and then slept from 1am to 7am - bonus.

Today Mike is having his first dry run of being chief child carer on a Monday, so we got up this morning and I had my breakfast with Matthew before saying bye bye and leaving at 8:30 to go to 'work'. I actually headed to the gym for the first time in a year and did a BOSU class (squats, lunges, planks, pressups, sit-ups and burpees with the aid of a large squashy dome on the floor - odd but good fun - it was the only level 1 class on at the right time or I might not have tried it) followed by a nice long swim. And now I've popped into town to the library and sneakily used Matthew's library card to do some printing - and am having a cuppa in the library cafe - which is sadly a bit soulless given how nice the new library is. Next stop lunch, and then home for 1pm to see my lovely boys.

( obligatory cute matthew photos )

Matthew is now over 11 months old, learning to walk on his own, has his first pair of outdoor shoes, and is generally feeling quite grown up - well, for a baby anyway!

I'm going to be going back to work the day after his birthday, so he'll be starting at a child minder to settle in next week, and she's asked me for some information about his routine and likes to help her get to know him, so I figure I may as well post it here. It'll probably be useful when we have our one year review with the health visitor next week too.

( probably boring details )

I shall close with the obligatory cute photo :)

Some time over the last couple of weeks Matthew has suddenly got the hang of how to sit up when lying on his back, he's got better at pulling himself up on things, and much more stable when standing, he's still clapping at every opportunity, and has also learned to point, mostly at lights, best of all though is that yesterday he finally indisputably crawled! Not very far as yet, and he'd still rather walk, but as well as tipping forward on hands and knees to pick things up then sitting back up he's managed to move a few paces on hands and knees too - though he does rather tend to drag his legs behind him. Now he just needs to get faster :) He's eating a bit more at mealtimes too, and I've finally started to get Mike's knack of resettling him in the cot without picking him up (though we always do milk first still, and just have to settle when he's put back down).

After yesterxay's lovely sunshine today is definitely what you might call changeable, with wintry showers. We've had some grey spells, some bright sunshine and blue skies, and an impressive thundery hailstorm! Thankfully just AFTER I'd swept the drive.

I don't really do New Years resolutions, but I have some vague hopes for the year to come:

Enjoy the baby
Enjoy getting back to work
Get some more knitting and reading done than I have managed this year
Try make more time to see friends and family
Sleep :)

I'm not going to stress about any of them, but I have made a start on the knitting today, with one foot of a basic doll body from the book of knitted wizards, pirates, witches, etc that Mike got me for my birthday. I may be some time :)

I have some fun photos today of Matthew pushing his trolley of wooden blocks around - one handed with Mike to hold his other hand. I also have some photos of book covers, which I took while adding Matthew's 18 books to librarything. Plus some exceedingly silly ones in rather dim light of him licking Mike's tummy (what?). I could have gone for any of those, but instead I looked at the collection of ones I took this morning of the decorations on the Christmas tree and decided it was time for another collage. Fuzel is a rather handy app for that. I,m pleased with how this came out, apart from the fact you can't really tell the difference in size between the large (red/gold) and small (blue/purple/silver) baubles. The snowman was a lovely new addition this year, a gift from my brother-in-law's mother-out-law from Austria, along with some lovely Mozart Kugeln marzipan sweets. I always like to add a new decoration each year, and although I bought lots of baubles and new tinsel this year, he's much more in the spirit of it.

Matthew is looking much better - and has been pretty cheerful again today. I took him out for a walk before lunch to the park, to play on the swings and let Mike have a rest. Took a few snaps but the trains came out uninspiring and the blossom out of focus. Hurray for sunshine of holly leaves and another smashing blue sky. Lunch was leftover leftover-turkey curry, and tonight we aim to out the last of the turkey itself in a risotto. Then there's just the cheese, and al the mince pies, cake and chocolate to tackle. I fear we may have over catered!

Another lovely day. My turn for a lie in, which helps ;) a chilled out morning, then Uncle Pete arrived for lunch (turkey soup, turkey sandwiches and Christmas cake) and stayed for the afternoon. Another nice brisk walk to Stapleford, intending to let Matthew play on the swings, but he fell asleep, so we all had a go instead. Lovely blue skies and fiery contrails. Some fun watching all the boys play together with Matthew's even newer toys, then another nice meal all together (turkey curry, leftover roasties and trifle :) Sad not to see Alice and Val, but with a possibly infectious Matthew and a long drive for a tiny baby they decided it was more sensible to stay home. Sent Pete off with more baby clothes and toys for Alice - but he forgot the leftover trifle (all the more for me)! The leftover mountain in the fridge is gradually reducing at least, though we have a really monstrous quantity of cheese. Matthew's still spotty, and going a bit scabby, and coughing, but he still seems very well in himself and a bit hungrier for solids again today. Might give NHS 111 a call tomorrow just in case.

A trip into Sawston today to get weighed at a slimming world group myself, to pick up some fruit in Budgens, and to get Matthew weighed at the health visitor clinic. I've lost weight, he's gained it, and though he seems to be a bit spotty today they tell me it's probably just a side effect of yesterday's fever and not to worry unless it gets worse :/ The slimming world group is held in the primary school, called the bellbird school, which has some lovely little mosaics in the paving outside.

Had a little selection of friends over this afternoon for mince pies - including a couple of babies - which was good fun, and then Mike's parents arrived around 4:30. We've had a lovely evening with them, though Matthew has struggled a bit to get to sleep after all the excitement, but the washing up is done, the turkey's stuffed and weighed and timings are calculated, and the veg are all peeled. And there seem to be a million presents under the tree. Looks like we're all ready to go!