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.