"I need the toilet!"

Daisy has done remarkably well this past week or so. After trying to get everything ready for the beebee's arrival I took potty training by the horns and decided to just do it and get it done! I'm a very impatient girl and when I want something done, it has to get done there and then. I understand that kids will be dry when they are good and ready but I had been dancing around potty training for quite some time, spending days with Daisy in just her vest running about the house and others without offering the potty at all. How terrible!?

Anyway, I brought Daisy some proper big girl knickers (the sweetest thing to peg on the line!) and popped her in them. She was super happy and has had about two accidents since being in them which is absolutely fab! I am cheating a little with a potty training aid in the form of the Dry Like Me training pads which turn knickers into 'training pants' They where invented by mums Jude and Di and are nothing more than a sticky pad that goes in pants to partially absorb any leaks to save a little mess and embarrassment but leaves the child knowing they have had an accident. They are really a security blanket for parents, without these Daisy wouldn't be flashing her knickers to people in supermarkets and she would have me asking if she needs the toilet every 5 minutes and hassling her. They have left her confident and feeling grown up enough to ask to use the toilet where ever we are, at nursery and has even been dry through the night! So she has one nappy a day (while shes asleep) and doesn't even pee in it which is saving me some pennies :)

The best recommendation I can give to the parent of a potty training child!

Plus Seven.

Day 7. As in seven days since due date and no Beebee.

Everyone has been swarming me like vultures for information on the progress of this beebee! This is what I look like. This is how many days I have unfortunately kept everyone waiting. I am uncomfortable and the meanest woman around to the poor Mr (who could make himself some money if I pop today) which might make up for how grumpy I have been towards him lately :/

 I will lovingly apologise, especially after he brought the Daisy home from shopping and got her to run through the house with bunches of flowers shouting 'I LOVE YOU' 'SMILE MOMMA'

 (he is wonderful.) I couldn't possibly be grumpy after Daisy chose one of my fav flowers!

After a 41 week appointment at the hospital this morning, Mrs Midwife says she is likely to see me back in hospital in the next 24 hours after doing her 'thing' to get things moving. Eek. If not and I go another 5 days its Bristol hospital for me :(
Just as a footnote, I am freekin' petrified of having a beebee. (just so you know.) Me, Daisy and the Mr are such a team and nothing scares me more than the possibility of something changing that.  

Momma's Monkeys.

So Daisy had her first trip to the zoo this week, well first where she wasn't a tiny bean asleep in a pushchair, and saw my favourite puffer fish... who had somehow lost an eye?! :/ and sadly the lions where no where to be seen but she had a good time, costing me a fortune in kiddy rides and stuffed animals. We had been saving up for quite some time, putting pennies in a piggy bank and selling old toys until we had enough to have a day out together before beebee comes along so I was pretty happy to throw £14 at a deformed looking giant guinea pig type animal teddy.

 After a fabulous screw up with maternity pay, no blame placed anywhere other than where it should be placed.... I'm happy to start a new week with a lovely picnic in the park with the Mr and a whole bunch of family from his side. Watching Daisy running about and enjoying an ice cream is always a beautiful sight and hopefully after I sort out a stack of forms and payslips etc. tomorrow, I can enjoy some time with the sister, who has a week off and maybe make some bits and pieces with Daisy and other delights of not wanting to risk going outside incase I pop.

 (Place your bets)

A recent make sees these guys born.
I'm putting together a little 'I'm a big sister!' package for when Daisy visits me and beebee in hospital or when we bring beebee home, which will include this little pickle along with several other little goodies to help her feel as special as she is (and if she hates beebee to start off with she has the fun of having some pressies to open.) I have also made one for the Boy. I'm hoping they will both be very loved and be kept until 'the kids' are old and the monkeys are smelly, have eyes missing and an arm of the others sew on to the other...

...See you when I'm old and I'm sad about my children growing up too fast guys.

Baking My Own Nemisis.

So, the last time I get to see beebee while he is still protected from the outside world, I'm told the 'computer is guessing' he weights roughly 6 pounds!! This is average. To most quite small if he was to be born now but Daisy was 5 pounds 15 ounces so I have had a firm word with the little blighter and ordered him to stop growing or ask to get down from the table.

Get out!
Get out!
(I'll miss you but...) Get out now while you still can!

Daisy got her usual good girl sticker from the sonographer (if that's the correct term) Its so nice that she can be allowed to see her baby brother in Momma's tummy. I guess this makes up for seeing the midwife who helped deliver Daisy, the cleaning cupboard you gave birth in and all the noises and feelings of when I gave birth the first time. needless to say I was a little pale coming out of the maternity ward. 

Make it, Daisy Maker.

While the Mr was cooking us a wonderful dinner, as usual, me and Daisy sat in the garden while it was still warm and made some lovely colourful pasta. Fab for filling half an hour.

First get the little one to put pasta shapes into a lock seal sandwich bag and then pop a few drops of alcohol hand sanitizer in with the pasta. Get them to pour in some food colouring and lock the bag which they can then have great fun shaking up and rubbing all the colouring into the pasta. Do several different bag with a different colour in each. Great for learning colours!
Once you have done all your colours beebee might find it hard to leave them to dry but they need to be put on a paper lined tray and left in the sun to dry. May take a day or two so have something else to do for when the fun colourful pasta thing is snatched away!

After the pasta is dry tie a knot in some string and ask beebee to thread the shapes onto the string to make 'jewellery' wonderful for motor skills and learning colours and also for Daisy to get her confidence kick of 'LOOK AT ME PAPPA! BOOTIFUL NECKLACE!'

Garnier Perfect Blur & Mirical Skin Perfector.

I've been wanting to try the new 'Perfect Blur' by Garnier for sooo long now. I was hoping to save enough Boots points to get it for free but My God it takes forever! so I brought it while it was a little bit reduced and used the points I had to get the new BB cream ' Miracle Skin Perfector.
I was looking at the Nanoblur, which claims to make you look 10 years younger in 40 seconds! but I had seen nothing but bad reviews. the Perfect Blur is AMAZING. it visibly blurs wrinkles, imperfections, open pores and shine. Its light reflector technology helps give a lovely glow when applied to the skin after the normal moisturiser thanks to its high concentration of light reflectors to diffuse light in all directions for delicious looking skin.
   The packaging is super girly which is always fab, A quick shake and a little blob of the product (goes a long long way, which is also a bonus...) it glides over the skin like silk and instantly my quite large and 'orrible pores disappeared. not even exaggerating. My complexion was instantly considerably more even and fresh looking. I could have easily worn this without any additional make up, with a possible reapply during the day but all in all the best primer product I have found. Its always good when you can eventually find something that works for your skin (we all know what a challenge it is ladies) so I cannot rate this product enough.

   The BB cream on the other hand.... is pretty bloomin' fab too! I tried two or three BB creams before and absolutely hated them. they didn't cover, they go patchy and orange but the Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector goes on like a moisturiser and covers evenly and effectively. the Perfect Blur is a sure help for the application but the BB brings its own little goodies with its anti shine, extension of blurring imperfections and pores, evening the tone of the skin and boosting glow and sprinkles a little sun protection on top too. For someone with dulling pregnant skin, red patches and large pores and shine I just love these products. Im sure Daisy will squeeze the BB cream all over a mirror somewhere and use the other to wash her hands or something but for now they are a little slice of happy.

Ultimate test: Apply after child birth and see how it makes me look! Beebee due in a month Eeek!

Gromit Unleashed.

From July 1st to September 8th, Wallace and Gromit Grand Appeal and Aardman Animation are hosting a public art exhibition which has been scattered across the city of Bristol in form of 'Gromit Unleashed.' At the end of the trail the Gromits are to be auctioned to the highest bidder to raise money for the Bristol Children's Hospital Charity. (You can register your interest of bidding on the below website.)
   The Bristol Children's Hospital is one of "only a few specialist children’s hospitals in the UK providing life-saving surgery, care and treatment to children on a local, national and international scale. The hospital is now expanding to create one of the most influential children’s hospitals in Europe.
Specialist paediatric healthcare and pioneering treatment require constant investment. By supporting Gromit Unleashed, you will be helping to save the lives of sick children. Treatment unimaginable a decade ago is now within reach, and with your support we can make this happen." -  http://www.gromitunleashed.org.uk/

With over 70 sponsors and a lucky collection of celebrities and artists Nick Park's Gromit has never been more sought after. over 100,000 people have already been on the look out for 80 differently designed 'Gromits' which have taken over the city of Bristol. Standing over five foot tall, each Gromit embarked on a journey, on the 1st July, to their individual locations for all to discover on the Gromit Trail. The Gromit Trail can help you discover lots of Bristol's oldest streets and landmarks down to the usual central locations. From Cath Kidston to Joanna Lumley's 'Poetry in Motion' its hard to have a favourite!
If your following the trail, you can pick up a free Gromit Passport which you can have stamped at 6 different passport stops, giving you a piece of Gromit Unleashed merchandise to take home at the end of your search. There are also plenty of limited edition pieces to go around. With over 400,000 visits to the Gromit Unleashed website, of which a quarter where from overseas, and more than 16,000 people visiting The Art of Gromit Unleashed shop, opposite Bristol Children's Hospital and the exhibition inside the shop at The Mall Cribbs Causeway has seen an average of 2,000 visitors a day, everyone is going to want a piece to take home!

A personal favourite of Daisy's is the "Stat's the way to do it, Lad!" by artist Gav Strange. Daisy has also been inspired to paint her own Gromit after a ride on the Gromit Train in Cribbs Causeway and a find of several Gromits. I don't know about anyone else's little one but Daisy is very much enjoying "GROMIT!"