I Want the Pink One!

Leila is so funny sometimes, she's a proper entertainer she loves to dance and sing and pull funny faces. When she gives you a kiss she puckers up and reaches out to hold your cheeks while she plants her smacker, it's adorable. And she gives the best hugs, never mind mummy making thing better, there is nothing like a Leila hug, 'all better now.'
Lucy loves anything pink and will always ask for the pink one if given a choice. Leila has picked up on this but with the inability to actually recognise pink. No matter what she wants it's always the pink one! She'll stand in the kitchen pointing and saying 'want the pink one' when she could be asking for anything from a cup of juice to a banana. Confusing but cute :-)

I have to admit at being a little slack at the potty training. I don't know if it's because I think it may be a little early, or because my 18 month plus trauma with Lucy has put me off. Leila is keen and she will go to the potty if undressed, she can tell when it's about to happen and rarely has an accident. However, the second you put any clothing on her she just wets herself. I've tried nappy pants and shown her how to pull them down and sit on the potty but she still doesn't 'get it.' She certainly doesn't like wet nappy pants though. What I have to do is keep reminding her and taking her to the toilet or potty when she's wearing them, but I'm not very good at remembering this. It'll all come together one day, I still think Leila will be better than Lucy, who has now regressed to using the potty instead of the toilet. I could never get her to go on the potty before, that's why I paid £50 for a toilet seat with a special seat fitted in it for her use.

And while I'm talking about my girls, a little mention of my big girl. We found out today that she needs glasses. She doesn't seem to stressed about it, and the glasses she chose really do suit her. I had my eyes done to but I'm ok. I might need reading glasses in a year or so.

My Instincts Didn't let me Down

Well, I did say yesterday that my instincts rarely let me down, and I did say I felt something bad was going to happen and it did.
Last night Graham and his mate Ste where in an accident. Their van was hit from behind by an artic. The van is in a bad state but the guys seem ok, they do need to get checked out though because they have whiplash and back/shoulder pains.
I couldn't sleep last night because it hit me how I could have lost Graham. If they had been in a car and not a van they probably wouldn't have stood a chance, also they were approaching an island so the artic wasn't going too fast.
Now they are stuck in Ipswich until the insurance sorts things out. I've begged Graham to get himself checked out by a dr and he's promised he will do as soon as they have transport.

Can't get rid of the lurgy!

Well, Lucy is back at school, she's still not 100% and I would have preferred to keep her home a little longer but she was so bored and just couldn't wait to go back, plus she's only got a few days before the half term holiday. Her cough has cleared and the spots have almost gone, she's just a bit sniffly still.

Now it's Leila's turn. I barely had any sleep at all with her last night, she couldn't breathe properly (Thank heaven for Vicks) and was burning up. I had her in bed with me all night which may have made things worse, but at least I didn't have to keep getting out of bed.

Craige was supposed to have been going on a course today in town but he's just not motivated. He's been ill too and now I think he may be depressed. I've spoken to those running the course and they were understanding and said I could call them when he's feeling better.

I managed to get Cassie out of the house yesterday which meant for the first time in ages she didn't spend the whole day in bed. And she managed to eat a fair bit of her tea last night. She's got her language course tonight so I hope she'll get up and eat today.

Graham is in Ipswich working for a few days. I wish it was permanent (the work, not him being in Ipswich) but we have to take what we can. I don't like him working away, even though he's barely home when he isn't.

And finally, I've had my instinct radar going barmy the last few days. I've always instinctively known when something is up, or something is going to happen but I don't know what it is until it happens. This doesn't feel good, I feel someone is hiding something from me, or I'm going to get some bad news. I'm probably just going bonkers with all this illness and depression around me. Fingers crossed it's nothing too bad.

Illness

I've just had the most dreadful week health wise. Both me and Lucy have had flu. I have been aching all over and I'm pretty sure Lucy felt the same, bless her she's barely moved all week. We've not been sleeping too well either, Lucy has been coughing throughout the night. Although I've had a really sore throat, I've not had the cough, lucky escape maybe?
Leila hasn't been too bright either but she's not been anywhere near as poorly as Lucy. And Graham has complained of feeling unwell too, but it didn't last long.
Craige has barely been out of his bedroom all week (not that that is too unusual) but when I have seen him he looks like death warmed up. And just to make it a full house Cassie hasn't been right either, and in particular she's not been eating properly so I'm keeping an eye on her.
So I'm going to paint a big cross on the door and turn visitors away and fingers crossed we'll all be well again soon.......

Potty Training round 2

Lucy was such a nightmare to potty train, I still have problems with her now at just over 4 years old. When she started nursery school last September we really had to focus on getting her dry in the daytime because she was suspended for a while until she was trained. I'm sure I did things right, but maybe I didn't, to be honest I think the advice on potty training is pretty scant. I searched the internet, read books, asked other mum's but it seemed no-one had the same set of problems. Still I persevered, trying just about everything and we got there in the end. Now we just have problems with her number 2's but I'm still not sure if it's a medical problem and she is being assessed by our gp.
Anyway, this post isn't about Lucy, it's Leila's turn now. In my mind I wanted to leave it as long as possible before even attempting to potty train Leila, I wasn't sure I would ever be ready to go through it all again. But Leila had a different idea and recently she started taking her own nappy off and asking to go to the toilet. At least she will sit on the toilet/potty, something Lucy would not do. In fact it's not been so bad so far, although we had a set back when she got poorly for a couple of days. If I leave her without her nappy then she will know when she needs to go and just go straight for the potty. However, if I put anything at all on her, pants, pj's, she will just wet herself. ~The strange thing is, if I put nappy on her she will take it off and go to the potty.
So today I bought some pull-up nappy pants. I figured they will be easier to remove for her to use the potty, and give her the practice of pulling down pants. If she can recognise the need to go with a nappy on, then hopefully she will still recognise it with the nappy pants and if she doesn't well at least I won't be cleaning my carpet and furniture all day.
Today I was especially proud of her as she took off her nappy and did a number 2 on the potty without any fuss at all.

A Day at the Seaside

When Graham said his mum and dad wanted us to go out with them for day to the seaside I jumped at the chance. We decided to go to Weston-Super-Mare because it's really close, we took Graham's mum in the car with us and his dad and brother went on the train.
We started out at 8am, picnic and spare clothes packed. The girls were excited but that wore off after an hour and Leila decided to have a screaming fit in the car. We thought that maybe she had filled her nappy but a stop at the service station proved it was because she was hungry.
We got to Weston at 10 am and headed straight to the beach, grabbing a much needed coffee on the way. The girls got stuck into making their sandcastles and the weather was holding out for us even though it was already October.
While we were waiting for Graham's dad and brother to arrive I decided to check the location of a geocache that I thought was nearby and discovered it was really close. I sent Graham over to pick it up, it was a really easy find and full of goodies but missing the travel bug it was supposed to hold. I still left our travel bug inside, I thought it would be a good place to start it's journey.

After Graham's dad and brother arrived we realised there was nothing much for us to do in Weston so we decided to move on to nearby Brean. Once there we discovered it was Country and Western weekend and the place was full of people dressed up as cowboys and indians. We stopped for our picnic before moving on to the fair where the girls were in their element. Then we moved on to Brean beach but it was starting to get a little cold then so we didn't stay long.

We had a walk around the country and western market tents and then the shops before heading back to the leisure park and arcade. Shortly before tea time we were heading back to Weston and I drove straight up to a place I'd never been before, Marine Lake. We all went into the park to look for a geocache but we didn't find it. That was disappointing but it was a really lovely place so we didn't mind too much.

Then after tea in a chip shop restaurant we set off home again. All in all it was a lovely day. :-)