What's On The Specials Menu Today Then?

Always ready to squeeze one out

You really can't expect to read a mummy blog and not be presented with the obligatory 'poo post' can you?

I've already talked about poo on my blog - dog poo. You'd expect a 'mummy blog' to be talking about baby/toddler poo but no...until now.  By the way, if you fancy another giggle please do check out my 'Revenge Is Sweet' poo post.  It's a corker (even if I do say so myself), if somewhat gross.

No amount of NCT classes can prepare you for the amount of poo that will become part of your everyday life once you have a baby.  Sure, everyone jokes about it.  Everyone tells you about the amount of nappies and how many you'll get through and how much you'll become an expert in Bristol Stool Chart!  But you never truly know until you've experienced it first hand.

Entering the land of motherhood later in life (35), I felt a certain amount of pressure to be a 'natural'.  I thought people would be judging me because of my age and for the first couple of months I was a bit freaked out at certain obstacles I faced...the first car journey over 30 minutes with baby, the first meal out with baby, the first food shop with baby and so on.  I guess everyone goes through this as a new mother but I felt more pressure because of my age in some respects, like people would be judging me thinking I was a rubbish mother for my age.  Like they expected me to be some sort of earth mother or something.  Stupid really.

Anyway, as usual I'm digressing totally.

Mini Cheddar was born 11th March 2009 and at the beginning of May we were due to go for a meal with our NCT teacher and the other 'students' from the class.  It was a daunting prospect.  3 couples, 3 babies and one NCT teacher, in a lovely Cheshire pub on an unseasonably hot Sunday lunch time.  Thankfully I'd met up with the 2 other girls and their babies beforehand so the pressure had eased slightly as all 3 of us were breastfeeding.  I didn't want to be the only one sat in the pub with my boob out!

I put Mini Cheddar in a cute outfit, packed up the change bag and set out with my husband to meet everyone.

Mini Cheddar was a delight.  She was happy and smiling in her pram.  We ordered and the pub started to fill up.  I started to relax.

Then one of my NCT friends asked to hold her.  Now I'm not sure if it was the movement, the excitement or what but all of a sudden I was just aware of all this stuff dripping out of her nappy onto the floor. Imagine someone had poured about 2 pints of korma through her and you may get the idea.

I was in shock, I just sat there open-mouthed for a while, not knowing what to do.  My husband just grabbed the first thing he could which happened to be the specials menu and caught most of it. I was distraught.  Not only was my gorgeous daughter dripping everywhere but my husband was using the specials menu as some sort of poo catcher.

Mini Cheddar then started screaming blue murder, thus drawing attention to the pootastrophe that was developing. People were being served their roast beef and yorkshire pudding and I was grabbing Mini Cheddar trying to calm her as well as keep the poo escapism to a minimum.

My husband and I headed off quickly to the baby change room which happened to be right by where we had been sitting.  Good in one way but also humiliating as Mini Cheddar just wouldn't stop hollering.  By the time we'd changed her nappy and clothes, the meals had arrived.  I didn't feel like eating and Mini Cheddar was still bawling so my husband and I took it in turns to bounce her up and down to comfort her whilst the other one picked at their meal still reeling from the korma calamity.

I felt like a million eyes were on us when I know in reality they weren't (I hope). However, I couldn't wait to get out of that place.  I still don't know what happened to the specials menu.  I'm guessing one of my friends disposed of it.

I'm just thankful we opted for Sunday lunch and we hadn't arranged to meet on a Tuesday - Curry Night!

Posted for The Friday Club Carnival

Five Things I Want My Daughter To Know About Me

I'm joining in with Ella's fabulous Friday Club Carnival again this week because I started this blog, not only for myself but for my daughter.  This weeks theme is 'Five things you want your children to know about you and why' so here goes:

1. This blog.  As soon as my daughter is old enough to read and understand this blog in her teenage years, I want her to be able to read it.  I want her to have an open and honest 'library', as it were, to discover her Mum.  This blog wasn't started for readership popularity, it was started for me and my daughter - a place to document my thoughts, my fears and my life...with her in it.

2. Making mistakes.  I want her to understand that it's okay to make mistakes in life and that making mistakes only makes us stronger, makes us who we are.  I want her to know about the mistakes I've made in life like getting married far too young first time around when I thought I knew it all.  Without my subsequent divorce, I wouldn't have met my gorgeous husband Matt and we wouldn't have her, our beautiful daughter.

3. Being young and carefree (aka stupid).  I would like her to know about my teenage years and the things I used to get up to and what I hid from my parents.  I want her to know that there was once a time when I was young and I did things that I look back on now and shudder at the thought of.  I want her to know that I once went to Blackpool for the weekend with my boyfriend and a couple of friends when my parents thought I was staying at a friends house.  Thankfully nothing went wrong but imagine if something had happened?  I want her to know that I would like her to tell me everything for her own safety and that she can trust me completely and I'm a cool Mum.

4. Friends.  I want her to know that my friends are hugely important to me, like an extended family.  I want her to understand what the true meaning of friendship is and to hold on to a handful of true close/best friends throughout her life.  I want her to know that, when I was in my teens and first started showing a proper interest in the opposite sex I still made time for my friends.  I believe that is hugely important lesson in life because boyfriends come and go but true friends are there for life.

5. Last, but by no means least, I obviously want her to know just how much I love her. I want her to know that her Dad and I worship the ground she walks on.  Every smile, every look, every word, every giggle, every tear and even every tantrum is felt with such unconditional love that I can't imagine a time when she wasn't in our lives.  I started on my parenting journey later in life but she was definitely worth the wait.

    

Reasons To Be Cheerful...Week 4

I've just seen the lovely Michelle has put this weeks Reasons To Be Cheerful up so I need to join in as I've been in it from the first week and not missed one yet.   It's great to sit and think about what's good in life.  Also, I wanted to get that Memetastic award off the top of my blog as soon as possible!

So here are mine this week (there's an 'F' theme):

1. Freya (aka Mini Cheddar)

My daughter who is now really talking well and she makes me smile constantly with her little sentences.  She never shuts up but it's just so comical.  She's also helped me in the kitchen lots - I know that sounds crazy for a 22 month old but I have a feeling she'll give Nigella a run for her money when she gets older.

2. Friends

It's been a great week for catching up with friends.  I had a great Sunday morning natter with my best friend.  Last night I went to an old friends house - and lost track of time and didn't get home until gone midnight (I'm such a rebel!).  Today I met up with my new friend again and tomorrow night I'm seeing 3 of my closest friends for much cider drinking and fish finger butty eating.

3. Friday

It's Friday tomorrow and I have the day to myself as my parents have my daughter for the day.  Not only that, my husband who normally works from home is out most of the day.  I love having the house to myself sometimes (although I miss them both obviously).










Join in the blog hop and cheer yourself up!

Twitter World - The Extended Friday Follow #ff

Ella from Notes From Home has invited people, as part of the Friday Club Carnival, to blog about Twitter today and talk about who they follow and why.

The thing is, for me, I have only recently gotten into using Twitter despite opening my account a while back.  I wanted to see what all the fuss was about but I just 'didn't get it' at first so I didn't use the account.

As someone who used to pretty much live and breathe Facebook it was a big step for me to deactivate my Facebook account but I did it back in September and I haven't looked back since.   It pushed me to jump on the Twitter train and I'm glad I did.  I find Facebook can be rather intrusive, whereas Twitter is quick.  It doesn't consume your life with long-winded status updates, hundreds of photo albums and wall posts.

The thing about Twitter is you need to get yourself out there and meet new people, you need to tweet, you need to answer peoples tweets but most of all I think you need to polite (e.g. thank people for following you, thank people who give you a shout out or retweet etc.)  All these little things go a long way.

If you haven't got a Twitter account I highly recommend it.  You can follow celebrities, find out all the latest gossip but most importantly meet new people and have a lot of laughs.

Here are just a small handful of people I've followed for a while (in no particular order) and why:

• @shitmydadsays - A famous twitter feed started in 2009 by a young guy called Justin who tweets funny and random quotes his Dad says on various subjects.

• I'm a BIG lover of comedy so I follow @daraobriain, @MrEdByrne, @Herring1967, @Serafinowicz, @mrTonyLaw and the lovely @SarahMillican75.  Sarah has 'retweeted' me a couple of times too *proud face*.  I follow so many comedians I can't possibly mention them all.

• @hotpatooties - Dawn Porter, journalist and presenter and all-round fabulous woman with a big heart who you would just love to be your best friend.  Her tweets can be so random and funny they make me giggle a lot and she's the person I most look forward to in my Twitter feed.  I've had a few small conversations with her on Twitter and she's lovely.  She follows me too *another proud face*

• @flounderingsahm - I've been following Tina for a long while now and she was my initial inspiration for taking the plunge into the world of blogging. Like me, she's a SAHM but unlike me she is very up on her technology, I've gained a lot from reading her articles.

• @lauraloveday - I think Laura started following me after we shared some banter over the last series of X Factor.  She's a lovely girl, very warm, friendly and very very quick-witted.

• Finally, I would like to give a shout out to one of my best friends Claire, @clairepennphoto and her fab husband Tim, @mrparsley.  Claire has an amazing natural talent for photography and Tim has an amazing natural talent for witty remarks - he's the only reason I continued to watch X Factor.

Since I've started blogging (all of 2 weeks now) I've come to use Twitter more and more and have recently met some fantastic people online.  I'm just sorry I can't mention everyone but I'll be getting them all with a traditional #ff at some point in the near future.  I can be a bit picky about who I follow (oooh get me!) so EVERYONE in my follow list is definitely worth checking out :)

Here are the other entries in this Twitter Carnival:

Nova at Cherished By Me posts Tweet Tweet

Hayley at Simply Hayley posts Twitter :: Tips to stay safe!

Cass at The Diary of a Frugal Family posts Twitterholics Anonymous….

Ghostwritermummy posts Twitter

Kelly from Domestic Goddesque posts The Twitterverse

Maggy at Red Ted Art posts Nothing To Do with Anything and Everything.

Ella at Notes From Home posts her Twitter for Beginners - 5 tips to getting started.

Tweeties image (top) by Chris Wallace

Reasons To Be Cheerful...1, 2, 3

The lovely Michelle from Mummy From The Heart has started a new blog hop called Reasons to be Cheerful 1, 2, 3.  You can read about it on her blog here.

So what 3 reasons have I got to be cheerful about today?  I certainly don't feel that cheerful, my hormones are raging (ain't that mother nature a b***h every month) but I can be thankful for some small things.

1. It's Friday

I love Fridays for a number of reasons.  Being a SAHM I thought I'd never really be as happy for it to be Friday as I was when I was working full-time, but I am.  Friday is the day my husband (usually) winds down from his busy working week and I know that we have 2 days to look forward to where we aren't interrupted by business emails or phone calls.  He works from home and it can be quite annoying.  Friday is also the day my Mum & Dad have my daughter in the morning.  I miss her so much but it makes my parents so happy and also gives me some proper 'me' time - usually spent cleaning though :(

2. It's snowing - a lot

After the bad weather in December I should dislike it but I've always loved the snow.  Even when I had to do a long commute to get to work I would never hate it.  Sure, it causes problems on the road etc. but it's just so beautiful.  It will never fail to cheer me up.

3. Mini-break

Those who know me know I love travel.  Sadly our days of traveling Route 66 across the USA in a cabriolet or seeing the Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle are over (for now anyway) but we still like to get away from home when we can.  I'm not sure we will get to have a proper holiday this year but for now I get to choose a two night break thanks to my Mum & Dad.  It's a Christmas present from them.  They got us one last year and we spent a couple of lovely nights in the Cotswolds.  Today we are going to decide where we are off to this year.

So, what are your 3 reasons to be cheerful?