My Beloved Dyson

Here is my dyson. Ben and I bought it at an amazing boot sale near Jaz and Tom's house a couple of years ago for £35. It was in perfect condition and still sucks things up amazingly. Ahhh, I never dreamed I would own a dyson so young. I feel like I've "arrived"!

Unfortunately, Oliver HATES the hoover. He always has done, and despite thinking he'd conquered his fears a couple of weeks ago, it is now back with a vengeance. Today was the worst ever- he always starts crying as he sees me get it out, and he wiggles from side to side nervously. And today, he didn't just cry real, sad boy tears, but he was properly SCREAMING and crying all the way through and didn't stop the entire time I was whizzing around upstairs. I really hope the neighbour wasn't in or he probably thought something VERY terrible was happening to him! I can only ever hoover half the house at once, but my hair falls out so much that I have to hoover at least twice a week, at least downstairs. Aghhh!!! I plan to continue to hoovering, I'm afraid... but for the sake of my ears and sanity I hope he gets over it SOON!

This time last year...

Oliver was small and cute and entered the world at 11.04pm on 7th December after a speedy water birth, weighing 7lb 4oz. Here he is today last year...

Now he is ONE and still small and cute. I have really enjoyed getting to know him this year, it has been great to see his personality emerging and see him learn new things. Here he is on his 1st birthday:

What a year. I don't think I was completely clueless when he was born, but I have definitely got better at balancing life and (most importantly) feeling happier about putting his needs and wants before mine- as well as realising what my limitations are so I know when to give less or ask for help. I am so thankful to have the bigger picture that I didn't have this time last year. Poor me last year- or any new Mummy- all the pain and no sleeping and tricky bits seem to go on forever at the time, but looking back tricky times have been few and far between and interspersed with a LOT of lovely blessings. I am enjoying life as a Mummy and being a friend to this wonderful, happy boy!

Latest goings-on with us...

Hello, just to let it known that we are all still alive and well despite my blogging absence! In recent happenings...

- Ben got a new bike! It was absolutely necessary since he cycles to work and he had really flogged his last one, which had been stuck in the two highest gears for months now, and has really EMBARRASSINGLY squeaky brakes and was really on his way out. His new one is much cleaner, doesn't squeak and presumerably gives him a much smoother (and safer?!) ride. Although it's getting pretty icy up here now so he may have to start driving in at some point, or his limbs might start dropping off!

- Oliver continues to amaze us, and believe it or not, is into EVERYTHING even more than before. I admit, sometimes I am absolutely exhausted in the yucky 6-7pm hour of Ben coming home, dinner making and a waily, sleepy baby who goes off to bed straight after dinner (usually at 7pm). Having said that, he now officially sleeps through the night!! I can pretty much sign him off, since he sleeps through more than he wakes now: amazing. It's been fairly guaranteed for the past two weeks now, so next time I will know that it took us ELEVEN AND A HALF MONTHS to get to this point!!! I think I'm glad I didn't know that upfront when he was born, I might have cried! Now he is so old and mature he is taking on a lot of responsibility around the house. Here he is doing his assigned 'chore' of emptying the tumble drier when the washing is done:

What a good boy!! :)

- Oliver went to the cinema for the first time!! It was a BP event- they hired out the cinema screen to see 'Arthur Christmas'- a very lovely new animated film, and we thought since it was free we'd try Oliver at it. Each person also got £5 to spend on pick and mix or popcorn etc, so we had £15 between us which was quite outrageous!! Oliver surpassed all our expectations and only got wiggly and restless during the last 15 minutes (when I did the only thing left and gave him milky! He usually only has it once a day now- just before bed) But the rest of the whole film he spent sitting on Ben's lap and the two of them munched through the best part of a big bag of popcorn!! It was very funny to watch Oliver eating popcorn continuously without taking his eyes of the screen. Also a bit scary how naturally it came to him!

- A couple of weeks ago we went to an Enchanted Castle- it was an evening National Trust event with the castle open to the public and all lit up, enchanted trails in the gardens, storytelling, a hog roast and fire eaters! We wrapped up warm and had a lovely time wearing our glow sticks and woolly hats.

- This past weekend we had Ben's parents come to stay with us. It was lovely to see them and they particularly enjoyed spending time with Oliver- he was always very silly and giggly with Mum which was nice. They took lots of photos, but I did get this one: (It's 'We're going on a bear hunt'- arguably the best book ever written)

While they were here we enjoyed lots of walks in the chilly but sunny weather and one day we went to Stonehaven- a nearby pretty village by the sea- and Dunnoter Castle- an amazing ruined medieval castle right on top of the sea. We also put our Christmas tree up on Sunday afternoon and now that I've finished all the present buying I am really starting to get in the mood... :)

- In sadder news, our car has been kangarooring the last couple of weeks. We took it in to be looked at back then but they weren't sure what it was and it has been getting worse ever since... we kept worrying it would just conk out at the weekend, but luckily we got Mum and Dad to and from the airport fine. It's in its second garage today... although I have a third booked up later this week just in case!! I hope they can work out what it is and sort it without it costing an arm and a leg. Poor car- it does treat us so well usually!

Baby Two's Photoshoot :)

Typical baby shot- it is definitely in there!

Stretching out the legs

Front on- you can see a couple of eyes

It has an arm!

Exciting, wonderful, happy, lovely news!

Ben is back, hooray!!! He got back yesterday afternoon and all is well :)

In other news, I can confirm that... I am housing an 88 mm small Twiglet in my tummy. Hooray!!!!

I got to see it on the ultrasound yesterday morning, and despite it doing "advanced gymnastics" with its ankles crossed we could see a heartbeat, and few limbs and a couple of eyes too, so hooray it is really in there! Baby Two is due mid-May, although I have to go back for another scan tomorrow morning (hooray, Ben will be there!) so they can measure stuff properly and give me a more accurate due date. I saw two different specialists yesterday because they couldn't get it to budge out of a very tight corner (VERY close to my bladder!)- but to no avail. I am 15 weeks along and after feeling pretty rubbish for the first few weeks I am now feeling wonderful... just starting to put on the podge and really look as though I might be pregnant! Happy, happy news.

Pictures to follow- hopefully he/she will be feeling more photogenic tomorrow!

Ben is off again!!

I am getting used to life without a husband- it is quite lonely!! He was away for training in Windsor all of last week, and a couple of days ago we found out that he could do his first bit of 'offshore' experience for a few days. He is basically on the boat to watch and learn and ask questions, while they do a site survey (I think they drop things off the boat and do tests about the strength of the seabed for prospective wells... perhaps??!) I think they are going quite far North (even further!!) and probably into Norwegian waters.

I dropped him off at the Harbour this morning, complete with Artic jacket, bright orange BP jumpsuit, balaclava and the whole lot! It was quite bizarre, since that isn't usually what he does for his work. When we got there, there was a line a crew members loading up the boat- the Ocean Seeker- with food. I spied UHT milk, orange and apple juice and SPAM!! For some reason spam always makes me laugh.

I'm not quite sure why, but in the end they didn't set sail until this afternoon, at about 4ish, but Ben had kept me updated so Oliver and I could wave him off and run along the Harbour wall as far as I could with the buggy until I got to lots of spikey fences. It was quite exciting and I felt a bit like we were in a film :) I tried to take a couple of photos but it was getting quite dark and they didn't turn out very well. But he is off! I stocked him up with travel sickness tablets, but he's a bit sicky at the best of times... urgh. Fingers crossed all will be well and he won't be away too long.

I found a photo of the boat online:

One of my favourite pieces of music

Just thought someone out there would appreciate what I have been listening to a lot recently. This is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time- Lux Aurumque, by one of my favourite composers of all time- Eric Whitacre, sung by one of my very favourite choirs- Brigham Young University Singers. I'm not usually one for much modern music, but I LOVE Eric Whitacre's music. And the BYU Singers blow me away every time, especially live when we did big choir/orchestra things at university.

By the way, the choir is coming to ENGLAND on tour next April and will be singing in Cambridge, mmmmm. You MUST go!