A Year in Pictures: Week 16

Saturday 16 April


Keri sent this gorgeous dress before Christmas. It says 3 months on the label, and whilst it fits her fine (at nearly 8 months), I thought I'd better take some pictures of her in it in case she has a growth spurt. I have a few lovely ones, but this is the best one from the session, and one of my all-time favourite pictures of Daisy. Her hair was a little crazy today but I decided against flattening it down ;).


Sunday 17 April


So cute ;).


Monday 18 April


One of her favourite pastimes - eating a rice cake while watching Baby Einstein.


Tuesday 19 April


I converted the carry cot part of the buggy into a seat, as she's now big enough for it, and she seems to like it :).


Wednesday 20 April


Daisy's Nanna & Grandpa (my Mum & Dad) arrived yesterday for a week. Mum took this picture today, which immediately became a favourite of mine. There aren't too many pictures of me and Daisy together, as I'm usually the one taking them, so I'm really glad this one came out well.


Thursday 21 April


Got another one! Ben and Andy went to Portland with work last week, and Ben brought this one back with him. They connected in Vancouver, but Andy didn't let me have one from there as I haven't been. I suppose if it's my rule, I'd better stick to it :).


Friday 22 April


A lovely picture of Daisy and Grandpa to round off the week.

A Year in Pictures: Week 15

Saturday 9 April


We had a busy day today. We'd had tickets booked to see The Children's Hour in the West End since January, then a few weeks ago we were given tickets to see Peter Kay this evening in Birmingham. We drove to Birmingham in the morning, got the train to London, met Sarah, Clare, Ben, Claire, Jill, Andy and Cathy (taking the photo) for lunch, saw the play (which was fantastic), got the train back to Birmingham, saw Peter Kay (also fantastic), then drove back to Southampton. It was a 19-hour day and involved a lot of travelling for just over 4 hours' entertainment, but it was well worth it :).


Sunday 10 April


Jon's next-door neighbour lent us their baby swing and Daisy loved it!


Monday 11 April


I took this while we were walking to the shops. I often wonder what she looks when she's in the carrier ;).


Tuesday 12 April


This lovely little building is really close to Jon's house. The plaque on the wall says: 'This ancient lock-up was built in 1826 for the confinement of malefactors, and was restored in 1968.'


Wednesday 13 April


Daisy and I went into London to see Daddy's new flat today. Daisy's looking forward to staying in her new room in a couple of weeks!


Thursday 14 April


We were in St Neots this afternoon, browsing round a lovely little gift shop, and I saw this, which is the box for a double-thickness glass bowl. It's supposed to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. And for those who like their acidity unadulterated, it will do that too.


Friday 15 April

All week at bath time I've meant to bring the camera upstairs because she looks so cute in her towel, and I finally remembered tonight. I have a few pictures where she's smiling too, but I love this Little Girl Lost look :).

A Year in Pictures: Week 14

Saturday 2 April


Got another one. I'm up to 12 now.


Sunday 3 April


Daisy drew me a lovely picture inside my Mother's Day card :).


Monday 4 April


We tried rice cakes today for the first time. Note to self: buy plain rice cakes, or apple flavoured ones. These tomato ones just mean her hands, clothes and anything she touches get covered in red powder...


Tuesday 5 April


Weigh day! The scales had come straight out of the midwife's car and were still cold, hence the face. I actually have another picture of her on the scales and smiling, but there are lots of smiley photos on here; I thought we'd have a change :). She weighs 15lbs 10oz now, and has put weight on exactly according to the growth chart, despite having a tummy bug and only eating formula for 6 out of the 14 days since her last weigh-in.


Wednesday 6 April


Daisy got these pyjamas from Auntie Clare for Christmas and I realised I'd better take a picture of her in them as they're starting to get a bit small. Clare wanted to get ones with horses on them to annoy Rob (who is adamant that Daisy is not going to be a rah-rah horsey type like Clare), but she couldn't find any so got these farmyard ones instead.


Thursday 7 April


Another one! This one came from eBay as well, but I'm not buying any more that way; too expensive.


Friday 8 April


Daddy got these pyjamas from New York the other weekend. They're so lovely; really soft. The only downside is that she keeps undoing the bow on them ;).

A Year in Pictures: Week 13

Saturday 26 March

Daisy's got a tummy bug. She threw up her breakfast yesterday as soon as she'd eaten it, in fact before she'd finished, and I didn't think anything of it until she threw up her lunch as well. I rang the doctor, as it was Friday and I didn't want to go the whole weekend without speaking to someone about what it might be, and I was told to keep her hydrated, let her eat if she wants to, and it would probably just be a 24-hour thing. We drove to Jon's this morning and five minutes before we arrived, she threw up all over herself and the car seat, and then she brought back her lunch as well, so she's gone back onto formula, as she's keeping that down, at least. She thing is, she's not unhappy; and if she weren't puking you wouldn't know there was anything wrong as she's still full of smiles. But seeing as I didn't take any pictures of her today (believe me, I was tempted to take one of her smiling through the puke, but I decided even I wasn't that cruel), here's a placeholder showing the aforementioned tummy.


Sunday 27 March


How cute is this??? It was dropped through the letterbox this afternoon. I really hope they found it.


Monday 28 March


Daisy still isn't better and is only having formula (I tried a spoon of baby rice in with the formula on Saturday but that came back up), so I took her to the doctor today. He examined her and said he couldn't find anything wrong, and seeing as she's clearly not unhappy it might just take longer to get rid of this bug. He told us to go back in 10 days if she wasn't better by then. On the way home, I passed a shop that had this slogan outside. The security may well be at its best, but the punctuation clearly isn't. Sigh.


Tuesday 29 March


This is Daisy's new favourite pastime: waiting for Mummy to build a tower then knocking it down...


Wednesday 30 March


Looks like the end is in sight for the tummy bug, although I felt really rough all day today and even had a nap when Daisy did; something I haven't done in months. So again, no pictures today. Wow, if I can't even make this last three months, I don't know how I'm going to keep it up for a year... Another placeholder, but such a cute one!


Thursday 31 March


I felt much better today, until about 17:00 when I went downhill very quickly and actually ended up hugging the toilet myself at about 19:45. I felt much better straight away, though, and after a full night's sleep was right as rain in the morning. I didn't get vast amounts done today, but I did manage to coat part of one wall of Jon's bathroom with tile paint. The tiles are flowery, and while I'm pleased with how easily the paint went on, I think it will probably take three coats to cover the pattern completely, and in the week that I've been here, I've only managed to put a coat of primer and a coat of paint on part of one wall, so I have a feeling it might be a long job... :)


Friday 1 April


Today I picked up the pottery we painted last Thursday, and it came out really well, considering I wanted a 7-month-old squirmy child to keep her hand still for long enough to imprint it on a tile - twice. This is the one we sent to Nanna in the hope it would arrive tomorrow (it did :)).

A Year in Pictures: Week 12

Saturday 19 March


Jon went to the Spurs match today, so I got a lift into London with him and met a friend for coffee. I had an hour to kill before meeting him after the match so instead of going shopping and spending money I don't have on things I don't need, I went here, the National Portrait Gallery, which was free. I really enjoyed myself; I chose the floor that housed pictures from 1900 to present day, and there were some really lovely ones. Some not quite so lovely, and some just plain bizarre, like the self-sculpture someone's done using his own blood...


Sunday 20 March



We have a tooth!


Monday 21 March


Now that Daisy's sitting up on her own a lot better, I converted the doughnut ring thing she had (which she didn't use all that often) into the playmat with sitting support for if she loses her balance. She did lose her balance after a while, but she seemed content just to lounge around and watch TV...


Tuesday 22 March



I decided that for the time being, I'll collect Starbucks mugs from places I've been to personally (except the one that Jon brought back from Dublin...). I've been to San Francisco twice, so I didn't consider it cheating to buy this one from eBay. I did consider it daylight robbery when I factored in the postage, though - it would almost have been cheaper to fly there myself and get one. Won't be doing that again in a hurry. At least, not once the one I bought from Chicago has been delivered...


Wednesday 23 March


You know how babies are so difficult to photograph, and you take dozens of photos just to get one decent one? Well, this afternoon I took about 7 or 8 in a row that were all beautiful. Here's one of them.


Thursday 24 March


We went to the pottery cafe in Eastleigh this afternoon with some friends and had a lovely time doing hand and footprints of the kids. Here are Eden and Daisy, receiving some bad news by the look of it.


Friday 25 March


Peekaboo!

A Year in Pictures: Week 11

Saturday 12 March


When we got to Auntie Jen's yesterday, our cousins Oliver and Alicia came over straight from work for the evening, as Oliver hadn't met Daisy yet and Alicia couldn't pass up the opportunity to see her again :). I had already undressed her for her bath but I couldn't resist a quick photo - I think babies never look cuter than when they're in the nuddy. Not quite sure about the expression on my face though - and this was the least 'surprised' of the 4 or so that Jen took...


Sunday 13 March



Auntie Jen and I took Daisy to the Build-a-Bear Workshop in Leeds to see Alicia yesterday, and while we were there we thought it would be rude not to build a bear. So here's Auntie Jen and Daisy Bear playing with her new friend, Daisy Bear.


Monday 14 March


We travelled from Jen's up to Mum & Dad's yesterday afternoon to spend the rest of the week with them. But no trip up there would be complete without a little day trip to Durham to see the lovely Susie.


Tuesday 15 March


Daisy's been interested in her feet for a few weeks now, but she hadn't managed to put them in her mouth yet. Until now...


Wednesday 16 March


It's been 2 weeks since I sprained my ankle outside my front door and made my knuckle swell to twice its normal size, and I still can't get my ring on my finger. It probably wasn't helped by the fact that Phoebe stood on my hand at toddler group last week. Hurry up and get better!


Thursday 17 March


Last time Auntie Sarah saw Daisy, she was three days old and weighed 5lbs 4oz. She weighs almost three times that now :).


Friday 18 March


We travelled back home today, but we had time for a few quick snaps before we left. Of course.

A Year in Pictures: Week 10

Saturday 5 March

I love getting flowers. Especially when they're from the garden ;).


Sunday 6 March


I mentioned to Jon that Mum used to make smoked haddock on toast for Saturday lunch when we were kids, and I hadn't had it for years and years, so he made me some :).


Monday 7 March


Since she's been on solids, Daisy only wakes once in the night, sometime between 11pm and 1am, then she sleeps till about 7.30am. When she wakes up in the morning, it's not usually because she's hungry but because she just isn't tired any more. So this is generally what I see when I go in her room in a morning.


Tuesday 8 March


Nothing particularly memorable happened today, although we did go to the weigh clinic and she weighs 14lbs 9oz, which is a bigger gain than the growth chart suggests; I put that down to solids. She's still small for her age at just above the 9th centile, but in the past 6 weeks or so she's jumped up from the 5th centile. I forgot to take my camera to the weigh clinic so here's another shot I took of her today when we got home.


Wednesday 9 March


The bald patch on the back of her head is slowly regrowing some hair, now that she can sit for significant periods unaided.


Thursday 10 March



Daisy had her first train ride today! We went into London to see Eva, Juergen and Fabian and the day was pretty much a success. She was really well behaved all day and she and Fabian took a liking to each other, although it doesn't appear so from this picture. Fabian seems content to read Daisy's book while she parties :).


Friday 11 March


Fresh off the back of our train trip yesterday, we went on a road trip today - to Auntie Jen's in York via Manchester, which isn't really on the way (it's a 50-mile detour) but we couldn't resist a visit to this little man and his Mummy. James is 11 days old and weighs less than half what Daisy does - and I could definitely tell when I picked him up :). Catherine looks fabulous. Jealous.

A Year in Pictures: Week 9

Saturday 26 February


Spring is on its way! This is what I see when I pull into my estate.


Sunday 27 February


Daisy, Jon and I went to Jon's niece's 3rd birthday party today. Daisy was really well-behaved. Well, unless you count farting loud enough to stop all conversation...


Monday 28 February


I love this casual, arm-up-on-the-sofa look :).


Tuesday 1 March


On four occasions in the past week, I've put Daisy on her back on the play mat, then gone to the loo or even just turned round to do something, and when I looked back she was on her front :). I'm pleased that she can do it, but I just wish I could have seen it, even just once! I've sat and watched her for hours, then typically the times she rolls over are the times I'm not watching ;).


Wednesday 2 March


As well as mastering rolling over, Daisy has really got the hang of sitting up this past week. She's gone from being really unstable a week ago to being able to sit for periods of a few minutes without toppling over. In fact, I put all these cushions round her in case she did lose her balance, but she didn't for the whole 20 minutes she was there :).


Thursday 3 March


I stepped out of my front door yesterday in flat shoes and promptly went over on my right ankle, ending up in a pile on the ground. Daisy was already in her buggy outside - I've run up and downstairs with her so many times, and yet thankfully I wasn't holding her the one time I fell. I sat on the ground for a minute or two, assessing the damage. My ankle actually didn't hurt as much as I expected it to when I got up, so we stuck to our plan of walking into the village. However, by the time it came to walking back from the village, it was quite painful and I had a bit of a limp. I also bruised my back, where I hit the doorstep on the way down, and my left arm, when I put it out to break my fall. But the thing that hurts the most is my right middle finger - I had my house keys in my hand and I think I twisted my finger when I hit the ground. It's really swollen and painful this morning :(.


Friday 4 March


I see this face a lot. This is her inquisitive look.