Leave my baby alone!

Really wish these germs would leave my little man alone. Sam was sent home from school again today. He'd been out of sorts this morning and choking as if he would vomit but he didn't do, and wanted to go to school, so I sent him in; but by 9:30am I had the receptionist on the phone asking me to go to fetch him. Poor little thing was pale, limp, and bursting out in tears at random intervals. So I rushed home with him (I'd been waiting in for a delivery between 7am and 1pm, figured it would be typical if they showed up during the few minutes I was out!) and we settled down on the sofa. Pretty quickly he got his lunchbox out of his bag, and soon perked up after a bit to eat and drink.

As it turned out, the delivery hadn't happened while I was out and the guy soon turned up with our shiny new television. So this afternoon I have done some rearranging of furniture, setting up of the new television, and now we have a TV in our living room instead of separate living room and TV room. The living room is the one to get all the sunshine, so if we ever get any I am very excited about spending more time in this room (without the ongoing fight over whether or not to watch CBeebies...).

Sam took himself off to bed at 16:45, refusing dinner or even a drink, so I figured that rather than causing an argument I would just accept it - we'll have the argument in the small hours of the morning, if necessary! Sam's in bed, I've moved some sofas around, and am now relaxing in front of my posh new TV! I'll be early to bed, ready to deal with whatever tomorrow throws - I assume that Sam's illness is still the same germs / virus that has been pestering him for the last month or so. I just don't understand how anything can have survived the huge dose of antibiotics he was given!!

S xx

A brief but brilliant break

How was everybody's Easter? Ours turned out to be really good, when it could have been very different :)

Months ago, I booked the weekend at Lis's Bach so that Sam, Rick and I could go down. Since then Rick and I have split up, but rather than cancelling our weekend away I asked our friend Lilly if she would like to come - we've been talking about going to the Bach for years, but she spends most of her life at work (or abroad) so it's not been easy to find time. Looking at the bank holidays, we discovered that although she was working Saturday morning, we could leave at lunchtime and have two nights away before being back Monday night. So we did, and it was great!

We headed down via Cromer, where we nipped into Morrisons for some shopping (mainly chocolate, it being Easter and all!), then down to the Bach in time to get Chinese takeaway for dinner. Sam went to bed, and Lilly and I got huddled up to watch a film. Sunday morning saw a drizzly start but we decided to brave it and head to Pettitts - we passed through rain on the way there, but it held off for most of the day. We had a great day with lots of laughs (and an injury, Lil bruised her coccyx which was painful for her but hilarious for me! Sorry Lilly, love you!).

Sam finally got the chocolate cake that he had been requesting all week - thank you Nanny Janny :) (Lilly's mummy treated us to some Easter cakes)

 ...and very much enjoyed burying himself in the sand. He was at it for ages, even asking other people to help. All the adults around found it hilarious!

 Mummy decided she had to be brave, as Sam wanted to go on the slide. Much screaming, from me....

 ...but eventually it became fun, and Sam and I went time and time again.

 Auntie Lilly wasn't keen to go on the train, but Sam insisted - and she survived :)

 I had planned to stop for an ice cream on the way home, but it looked like rain was going to stop play for us. However just as we reached Mundesley, the rain stopped :) Obligatory trip to the beach...

 ...and eating of ice cream. Bubblegum flavour for Lilly...

 ...strawberry for Sam...

 ...and fudge for Mummy.

 On returning to the Bach, I left Lilly and Sam in the car for a few minutes whilst I set up the Easter Egg Treasure Hunt. Here they are deciphering a clue...








...and here's everything they found! Space hoppers, perfume, and lots of chocolate!

Phew, that was a busy day! Night night :)













Yesterday the weather gave up on us, and rained all day. So rather than going to the park as planned, we just headed home very slowly, along the coast road, stopping in Hunstanton briefly for lunch.

It was a fantastic break, and we're looking forward to going back for a bit longer, with hopefully better weather :)

S xx

Pretty things :)

Well what a lovely day I had yesterday - there were smiles, there was laughter, and there were tears. I went wedding dress shopping with my best friend Helen :) The wedding isn't until 2014 but she wanted to just see what was out there - as it happened, she absolutely fell in love with "the one", and my goodness did she look beautiful. We've been friends since we met 16 years ago, and it's so good to see her life come together so perfectly. I won't describe the dress or post a photo, just in case word gets back to the groom (I don't think he reads my blog, but it's really not worth the risk!), but she looks so stunning in it that I had a little weep!
It was a lovely girls' day out with the bride, the mother of the bride, the mother of the groom, the bridesmaid, the bridesmaid's mother, and myself (the maid of honour, wahooooo!!!). Helen tried dresses, then we went for a lovely pub lunch (thank you Carolyn!), followed by a return to the shop to try on a few bridesmaid's dresses. Didn't imagine we'd find the right ones for myself and Alice, but actually one I tried fits in perfectly - it suits me and my style, and also matches the style and theme of the wedding, as well as looking great next to Helen's dress. Result! Now we've got two years to wait before going shopping again for Alice's dress - she's only 10 but will be nearly 13 by the time of the wedding, so her figure will change so much that we can't even make a decision on style at the moment. Mind you, she fell in love with one and was very reluctant to take it off!

She was also beside herself looking at the tiaras, and tried on at least two different tiaras with each dress, just to see how they looked :) I must confess, when she put one on me my smile did get a bit bigger and I felt almost like a princess, and I'm secretly very very excited about the prospect of maybe wearing one on the big day (well, if Alice gets one then I want one!!!)

I also now completely understand those girls who get swept away with the details of a wedding, and almost forget about the marriage itself! Dresses, jewels, it's all so amazing and beautiful. If I ever get married, I don't think there's much chance of it being a low key affair!

Whilst we were prancing around and feeling pretty, Sam was having a day with Nanny and Grandad - and from what I can work out he very much enjoyed himself :) He's learnt all sorts of new words, and is finally eating again. His thrush has nearly gone, and even his cold is improving at last. We're currently chilling out - everytime I suggest something to do, Sam says "No Mummy, go to sleep" and lies down! Ah well, I don't mind having a quiet afternoon :)

S xx

Well if you don't know...

Today's been a non-productive drag of a day, and I can't believe it's not even 4pm as I'd happily go to bed right now!  Sam woke up far too early given that it was a bonus day off school, so we spent a couple of hours in our pyjamas, watching Mr. Tumble.  A follow up call to the GP surgery (and an apology from them for not phoning back as promised, yesterday) confirmed that Sam's GP had written a prescription for an alternative cream for his thrush, since there's a manufacturing problem and no one has the initial one in stock. Dispenser promised to fax it across to our local pharmacy, so we got dressed and set out for the 3 mile round trip. Myself, Sam, the buggy, and the guitar! However our pharmacist informed us that there is also a manufacturing problem with the replacement that had been prescribed. Oh FFS!!!! But, being the lovely man that he is, he simply said "Leave it with me, I'll sort it out. Come back this afternoon."


 So we went home, and attempted to relax in the garden for a while - easier said than done. Briefly, this was Sam's attempt at enjoying the sunshine:

If anyone was in any doubt, then yes - the television is playing a DVD of Something Special.



After a brief period of not relaxing, Sam asked to go to the park. So we went to the park. He didn't want to walk the two minutes down the road - I politely informed him that if he wasn't able to walk that far, there was little point going to the park at all. At the park, Sam didn't want to go on anything. His main objective was to get himself on the opposite side of the gate to Mummy - it didn't seem to matter who was on which side!  Eventually we came out of the park and sat on the grass patch that backs onto it. Crying. A good twenty minutes was spent here, with no explanation. I was running out of ways to ask "What is wrong?" when finally Sam answered me - "I don't know!" Oh flipping heck boy, what chance do I stand if you don't even know what's up?! At last Sam was persuaded that we could sit on the grass to cry at home, so we gathered ourselves up and left - on the condition that Sam didn't have to walk, but could have a 'cuddle' instead (long ago he realised that "Give baby a cuddle" was much cuter than just "Carry me").

At home, it was clear Sam was very tired, so I thought if we snuggled up on the sofa he might fall asleep. Nope! He came very close a few times, but always realised just in time to rouse himself. So I rang the pharmacy and, wahoooo, they had managed to get hold of the cream we needed. Typically, there had been one tube in the GP's dispensary all along, but because of the prescription system we are not allowed to collect from there as we live too close. Regardless, we jumped in the car and went to fetch the cream which is now doing its job smeared all over Sam's rash.

No prizes for guessing what we're doing now......Hello, I'm Justin, let's go and meet my friends....

S xx

How does your garden grow?

Well, it appears Sam should have been called Mary - the contrary! After half an hour of determined "We are going to enjoy the sunshine" from Mummy, and "No, I want to watch CBeebies, sob" from Sam, I gave in and asked if he wanted to go inside to watch CBeebies. "Yes please Mummy". He jumped out of his tent in the garden and ran over to where I was gathering things from where I had been sitting. But instead of following me inside, he proceeded to just sit in my chair, very happily. Enjoying the sunshine on HIS terms, it would appear!

On a note of development, Sam has discovered the personal pronoun 'me'. Sitting in the garden with his lunch, Sam wasn't really eating. At my prompt "Are you eating some more beans on toast Sam?" he responded incredulously "ME????" whilst pointing to himself. (Incidentally, he didn't eat anymore beans. Just as when in Boots he asked for Wotsits, and on receiving a packet ate three. Or like last night when he had one bite of a banana before announcing he had finished.)

Oh, and I'm now officially blaming Sam for my weight! He requested some chocolate spread whilst in Tesco, so I bought him some. At home this afternoon, I asked if he'd like a chocolate spread sandwich. "No thank you. Mummy's chocolate." Mummy's chocolate? "Yes, Mummy chocolate sandwich." You want Mummy to eat a chocolate spread sandwich? "Yes!" Well, I always do as I'm told...... ;)

S xx

Cometh the spring, cometh the thrush

And no, unfortunately I don't mean the feathery singing kind. I mean the red, itchy, oozing, fungal kind. Which my poor little boy has got at both ends of his system :( As if the meningitis scare wasn't enough, he's been suffering with a cold ever since, and then got a nasty nappy rash at the end of last week - couldn't get appointment with doctor until Monday, and by the time Sam got home after the weekend he had got the infection in his mouth too :( Horrible!  So he's now snotty, sore, and has a very gunky mouth.

Doesn't seem fair somehow, but then again my friend's little girl has just been released from Nottingham QMC after three weeks in ICU, and this isn't unusual for her.  So really, Sam and I have got it easy. We need to remember that - things could always be much, much worse.

So, after a very lazy morning we're shortly heading off into town - we need antifungal cream (getting the medication yesterday was such a faff: our usual pharmacy had neither the cream nor the medicine, they ordered in the medicine but couldn't get the cream at all; we collected the medicine last night after it had been delivered, and tried other pharmacies for the cream but no luck. Hopefully the big Boots in town will prove more successful), and both of Sam's pairs of glasses are currently broken so a trip to the opticians is also in order!

Hopefully this afternoon we can sit in the garden and enjoy the sunshine, like we did on Sunday:

S xx

Much better week :)

Things are much better in the Sara&Sam household!  Although we're still waiting for official blood culture results form the hospital, Sam is much improved and now back to his normal cheeky self. He's finally started eating a bit here and there, and is drinking huge amounts of fluid which is great.

We've had a relatively calm week, after the stresses of the weekend. On Monday we headed to Lis and Alan's to enjoy 'Mothering Monday' - lovely little walk, saw some gorgeous daffodils, and then a yummy lunch at The Teahouse In The Woods in Woodhall - bizarrely, now an Italian restaurant! [Photos on Lis's blog, here] Sam was hard work and unhappy, but it was nice to get out and about.  Tuesday saw Sam back at school, then we went for dinner with my Dad, after which my friend Claire came round for a few hours - not seen her for a few weeks, so it was great to catch up.

 Last night (Thursday) Lis and Alan came over to stay, and babysat while I went out with Lilly - trip to Sheffield O2, to see Noah and the Whale :) (Also known as Jonah and the Whale, Noah and the Machine...!).  Getting there was slightly stressful, due to Lincoln traffic and GoogleMap directions (lies, all lies!) but we made it in plenty of time.  Support act was the very cute but strong voiced Emmy the Great, followed by a great gig by the smart-suited boys :) Far more musically talented than I had realised, and they seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves which is always a bonus!

A great first gig to start off the year, next up is Example in Leeds, supported by Wretch 32.















S xx