18 Months today

I cant believe my little girl is 18 months old today, I really don't know where the time has gone but at the same time I really cant remember what life was like before she arrived. She really is the most amazing and beautiful little girl in the world and she makes me so proud.

Here's a picture of my gorgeous girl

I LOVE BEING HER MUMMY 

Potty Talk

Over the last month or so Pete and I had started to notice that Eliza was telling us just before she filled her nappy. It became clear that our little girl was beginning to get a grasp of what is going on in her nappy. When she needs to do a poo she will usually go and stand in a corner and pull the usual faces. If we ask her what she is doing, we get a very definite reply of "pooooooooo".
Eliza is only just turning 18 months old so we don't intend on potty training her yet, however we decided that it would be a good idea to get her a potty so that she can get used to its presence so to speak. I did a bit of research online to see what sort of potty other people recommend and eventually decided on the Lindam 3 in 1 Potty Trainer.
This particular potty incorporates a detachable toilet seat which can be used on your normal toilet and when closed the potty can also be used as a step so that your child can get up to the sink and so on.  Another useful feature of this potty is the removable pot so that it can be easily emptied. The potty itself is a little on the large side but this ensures that it is completely sturdy especially when your little one is using it as a step. In some respects, I would say that the large size of the potty is an advantage because there is less likelihood of your child picking it up and waving it around after they have done their business in it. 
Eliza's first reactions to the potty seem to be positive and within a few minutes of assembling it, she was already saying "Potty" and telling us that you do a poo on it. She seems to enjoy sitting on the potty although she hasn't yet done anything on it but there is plenty of time for that. All in all our first impressions are good and I will post more when she begins using it properly. 

The weekend has come and gone

Wow its Sunday night already, the weekends always seem to come and go so quickly. It's been a fairly chilled out weekend really, on Saturday morning Pete had to work so I popped over to my parents house. My big sister has been visiting for the weekend so it was lovely to see her. My sister Emma lives in Glastonbury, Somerset so we don't get to see her that often but she popped down to see us this weekend as she is on her way to Ireland for about 6 weeks. 

I came back home at around lunch time and Pete was just getting home from work so we gave Eliza her lunch and then put her down for her afternoon nap. I was feeling pretty sleepy myself so for some reason I snuggled up on the living room floor inside Eliza's play tent and had a snooze. It was quite comfy in there but I'm sure it would have been more sensible to lie on the sofa. 

In the last few weeks Eliza has learned to open the fridge door, as you can imagine this is beginning to get quite annoying especially when she finds the yoghurt's or chocolate buttons and helps herself. We already have locks on the cupboard doors but didn't need anything on the fridge until now. We had a look online to see what sort of fridge locks are available and to be honest they all seem pretty rubbish so after some deliberation we decided that it would be best to get a child safety gate across the entrance to the kitchen in order to keep Eliza out altogether. It wont be long until she can reach the drawers and work surfaces so for her safety and our sanity we think its the best idea. 

Once Eliza woke from her nap, Pete suggested that I take her to Argos to choose a safety gate so that he could have a shower without her banging on the bathroom door.  Unfortunately I chose the worst possible time to go out. The very second I parked up and got Eliza out of the car we were hit with torrential rain and were both wetter than if we had actually been in the shower ourselves.  We got the gate we wanted, struggled back to the car and were back home within about 30 minutes. 

By now it was time to go out again as we had been invited out for tea by our friends. We headed to the Toby Carvery on Festival Park and Eliza was thrilled to bits when she realised who we were having our meal with. She absolutely adores her Uncle Jabba, Aunty Amy and Uncle Neil and had spent most of the week asking to see them. Eliza enjoys going out for tea but after about 45 minutes of sitting in her high chair she is bored and shouts "out" at me until I let her sit on my knee. She soon cheered up when Uncle Jabba shared his dessert with her though. I can see why places like Wacky Warehouse were invented now because it can be hard to entertain a toddler for longer than an hour at a dining table. All in all we had a lovely meal then we all headed back to our house for an evening of the X Factor and snacks.

This morning we headed up to Hanley  because I desperately need some new boots, my current ones have a hole in the bottom of them and have started to let water through. Unfortunately I didn't see anything I liked so I'll have to look online instead. It wasn't a completely wasted journey though because I got Eliza a few new books from T K Maxx. We are going on holiday to Tenerife in a few weeks and need a few things to to keep Eliza occupied on the aeroplane. 

This evening we all went to my parents house for a meal, Eliza really enjoyed seeing everyone and had a great time showing off to us all. We arrived home at 7pm and it was time to get Eliza in to bed, she already had her PJ's on so we popped her straight in to her cot and left her to cuddle up with the teddy's for the night. 

Its been a nice relaxed weekend so lets see what the week ahead brings. 

Speech Development

Over the last few months, Eliza has been coming on leaps and bounds particularly where her speech is concerned. She started to say the odd word before she was one and she seemed to understand what we were saying to her some of the time. She is almost 18 months old now and seems to know exactly what we are saying all the time. We can get very definite Yes and No answers from her now and like most children "No" is one of her favourite words at the moment. Today I kept asking her if she was happy and she would just look at me with a massive grin on her face, shake her head and say "No",she thinks it's hilarious but I'm sure she was fibbing because she looked happy to me.
I have lost count of the amount of words she can say now, she seems to learn a couple of new ones every day and often takes me by surprise. Yesterday she came out with "Meat" whilst we were eating some steak at tea time then she asked for "More". Today whilst emptying the changing bag she found my Ipod charger and said "Wire" whilst passing it to me.
I'll try and think of the words she can say so that I can put them in to a list, it will be nice too look back on this in a few months time to see how she is developing.

Hmmmm here goes...

Daddy
Nana
Mama
Grandad (occasionally)
Wheel (she says this for car wheels and also she calls her uncle Neil, Wheel)
Cat
Rat
Mat
Woof Woof
Meow
Hoover
Hot
Tent
Chair
Apple
Spoon (although it comes out at Boon)
Cheese
Cup
Breakfast
Dinner
Tea
Button
Chicken
Cockerel
Wire
Purse
Bag
Bowl
Birdie
Cow
Hair
Knee
Stairs
Bagpuss
Choochoo
Baby
Bell (this is what she calls her friend Isabel)
Mower (as in lawn mower)
Head
Toes
Shoes
Nose
Eyes
Meat
More
Bubble
Ball
Bath
Hiya
Bye
See Ya
Oh Dear
Oh Wow
Cracker (this is what she called biscuits and crisps)
Juice
Mouth
Ears
Peppa (as in Peppa Pig)
Nee Naw (this is for a fire engine)
Digger
Car
Keys
Out
Up
House
Yes
No
Hide
Jessy (her Jess the cat toy)
Bear
Bed
Poo
Potty
Wee
If she wants to go on a slide or swing she also says Wheeee

Eliza is also really good at her animal noises and her favourites are:
Moo (Cow)
Grunt Grunt (Pig)
Cocka Ooo (Cockerel)
Eee Or (Donkey)
Squeak Squeak (Mouse or Rat)
Wit Woo (Owl)
Roar (Lion)
Oo Oo Oo (Monkey)
Meow (Cat)
Woof Woof (Dog)
Quack Quack (Duck)

Weetabix Continued

Following my recent post regarding Pete's Weetabix addiction I decided to contact the Weetabix company as I'm sure there can't be many people out there who have eaten as many as Pete. The following day I had a nice suprise when I checked my emails to find that the Weetabix company had replied to my correspondence.  So here is their reply (I have removed the senders name for privacy reasons):

"Dear Laura,

Thank you for your email, and for telling us about Pete’s love for Weetabix. A true fan if ever there was one!

Your blog did indeed make interesting reading! We do not keep records for Weetabix consumption but if we did are sure he would be very high on the league table, so to speak.

Your comments really are the best endorsement we could have. Naturally, we would say how good our products are but to have that belief confirmed by a satisfied customer is most gratifying. We will keep up the good work!

Eliza will also have plenty of Weetabix to enjoy in the future as well!

Once again, many thanks for taking the trouble to contact us. It was great to hear from you.

Yours sincerely,

Dan ***

Consumer Services Manager

The Weetabix Food Company"

38,325 Weetabix

I’ve been meaning to write something about this for a while now but never seem to get round to it, so my blog seemed to be the perfect opportunity to get Pete’s secret out. When I met him in 2003 I was truly amazed when he informed me that he eats 7 Weetabix every morning for breakfast. I really couldn’t believe it, I can just about manage 2 and I’m stuffed, but every morning Pete loads his bowl up and adds a few raisins for good measure. He then sits himself in front of the TV and begins to shovel them in to his mouth. He can actually eat all 7 Weetabix faster than I can eat a round of toast.

According to his parents, Pete has been a fan of Weetabix since an early age and has gradually increased the quantity over the years. Thankfully he stopped at 7 when he was about thirteen years old. What I haven’t yet mentioned is that Pete sometimes gets a little bit peckish before he goes to bed in the evening, so to satisfy his hunger another 4 Weetabix are consumed. That’s a whopping 11 Weetabix every day.

I actually decided to do some calculations once and in the last 15 years Pete has eaten more than 38,325 Weetabix and that doesn’t even include the ones he has eaten for supper. I must admit, when we decided to move in together I was a little worried because I wasn’t sure if we could afford to satisfy his Weetabix addiction, luckily we seem to be managing so far. However, I think I might have another problem on my hands because Eliza our 18 month old daughter already eats 2 Weetabix every morning for breakfast. How on earth am I going to keep their bowls full? 

Finally Complete

The last week has been a bit hectic in our house, we have been redecorating the living room so everything has been completely upside down and generally looking like a bomb has hit it. First of all we had the old fire surround removed and replaced with one that is much more to our taste. As well as the new fire surround, we also had two new living room doors fitted, my parents very kindly paid for these as a sort of late birthday present. It took the workmen two days to complete the job and then it was up to us to decorate as the old wallpaper had chunks missing from it because the old fire took up much more space.
The rest of the week was spent decorating, this was mostly done in the evenings when Eliza had gone to bed because as I'm sure you can imagine, decorating isn't an easy task when there is a toddler trying to "help". My mum and I did the first half of the wallpapering and then Pete helped me to finish it off. By now we were starting to see what the room might look like when it was finished but it still seemed like there was lots to do. I needed to paint the walls white and also paint the skirting board as well as varnish the new doors. It took us almost a week to get everything finished but there was still one more thing that we needed and Pete's Parents very kindly helped us out by buying a new carpet. The old one was in the house when we moved in and looked a bit worse for wear, especially since having the old fire taken out.

So 10 days after we emptied the living room for the work to begin, it is finally complete and we are both really please with how it looks. It was definitely worth all of the mess but I don't think we will be doing any more decorating this year. 

Anyway, here are a couple of photographs. The first shows the room just after we moved in and the second shows the newly decorated room.

Curry Night

Saturday night was curry night, it was our first proper night out in a very long time and it was a particularly important milestone in Eliza's book because it was her first whole night away from Mummy and Daddy. The night had been planned for a few months so I arranged for my Parents to look after Eliza for the night. As it was her first night away from home without us we decided that we would take her to my mum and dads at tea time and let her get chilled out, she had a bath then we put her to bed in the same way we do at home. We were a little apprehensive but she went down like a dream with no fuss whatsoever. So we said our goodbyes and headed out to meet our friends.
Together with ten of our Mummy and Daddy friends from Mount Pleasant and Heron Cross we went for a lovely meal at Sangams Balti Restaurant in Stoke. Its such a lovely place, the food is amazing and the building has just been refurbished to an amazing standard. The thing I really love about Sangams is that you can take your own drinks which seems to make the meal much cheaper. I must also add that the staff are really friendly and even though it was extremely busy, we were still served really quickly. Unfortunately I was so full that I couldn't finish my meal, I even had a smaller portion so that I could eat it all but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't fit it in.
Following our meal, most of us headed to The famous Lion for a few drinks. We found ourselves a nice corner to sit in and talked and the night away. We finally decided to make our way home at around 1am, the bar was rammed by then and there were a few people on the dance floor who looked a bit worse for wear which always makes me chuckle. We caught a taxi outside and one of the bonuses of living so close to Stoke is that it only costs a few pound to get home.
The next morning Pete and I took the opportunity to have a lie in and didn't get up until 10am, I think that's the latest I've woken up in well over a year. We weren't picking Eliza up until the afternoon so I decided to get some work done around the house and its amazing how much I managed to do in just a couple of hours.
At 3pm we arrived at my parents house to collect Eliza, she seemed really pleased to see us both and my Mum and Dad assured me that she was no trouble whatsoever so with any luck we might get to go out more often.

Black Soot

Well today we are having a new fire surround fitted in our living room, we have wanted to get the job done since we move in a year ago but it took us a while to get things sorted. We bought the new surround about a month ago and its been sat at Petes mum and dads house waiting for me to phone the handyman to arrange fitting.
So, this morning at 8:50am two workmen arrived and began by taking out the electric fire. What we found behind the fire came as a bit of a shock to me. Obviously, the previous owners of the house must have had a coal fire and when they decided to replace it with an electric one, they didn't bother to sweep the chimney first. So, there it was, a big pile of black soot ready to make its way on to my carpet. Luckily we had put plenty of dust sheets down before the workmen arrived so the mess might not be too bad.  Whilst we are having the work done my parents have very kindly offered to take Eliza for the day, can you imagine the fun she would have trying to climb up the chimney if she was here. I'm just praying that the job is finished by the time Eliza gets home otherwise she'll be messing in everything and we'll have lovely little Eliza hand prints in the fresh cement.
Anyway, here's a photo of the lovely big gaping hole we have in our living room wall, hopefully it will look good when its all finished so I'll post another photo then.

Helloooooo

Hi there, my name is Laura I'm 27 years old and live in Stoke-on-Trent with my lovely Fiancé Pete (28) and our beautiful daughter Eliza Mae who is now 17 months old. 
In 2007 I graduated from Staffordshire University with a BA hons in Photography which comes in handy when I'm taking photos of Eliza.
I've been meaning to do a blog for a while as a means of recording things that happen in our lives, especially Eliza's so that in the future we can look back on it together and see all the wonderful things she got up to as a baby. I'm not sure whether I'll do a very good job of keeping this blog up to date but i'll give it my best shot.