Not Babies Anymore

As fast as my keyboard decided it wasn't going to play rightly, it decides to go back to normal so I have the equipment and a few minutes to spare, here's a taster of whats happening in my world.

Master Matthew is awaiting his first visit from the tooth fairy. He finally has a wobbly tooth. All of his friends seem to have gappy little smiles but since my kids seem to get their teeth through later than others then the baby teeth are hanging in there. He says he's nervous about loosing a tooth but I'm sure once the tooth fairy leaves him a cash bonus in exchange for his tooth, a football magazine will have my son smiling again.

Master James is now less than a month away from turning 2 years old so it seems the perfect time to move him into a big boys bed. We spent the day yesterday sorting out the boys room. It had been more of a toy/junk store since we moved in 5 months ago but all toys are now sorted and they have a play room. The cot has been taken apart and made into a toddler bed for him. The stairgate is up and he has a lovely new Thomas The Tank Engine bedding set. He was just too excited for bed last night bless him. All the toys we'd organised nicely on his bookshelf were all over the floor within seconds. He loved it. When it came to sleeping he fought it well. Eventually, all went quiet around 9pm (bear in mind bathtime is 6pm and bedtime is around 6.15) and I went to check on him. Expecting to find him asleep in a pile in the corner beneath an avalanche of toys, he was on his bed sound asleep. Thomas blanket over him. I was amazed at my little man. Well done James.

James loves to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "The Wheels On The Bus" He always joins in the actions and has a lovely sweet little voice. :)

Master Liam is not his happy little self at the moment. I don't know what it is but he just isn't right. He has a little cold and I think it's getting in the way of eat and sleep for him. He is such a happy little boy most of the time and I feel sorry for him right now. Poor fella. He is developing so fast. Though he isn't walking by himself just yet, he loves the practice holding onto mummy or daddys hands and getting himself across the room. He stands at the coffee table and finds it hilarious.

Liams favourite song is still Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. I sing it to him quite a lot and when he wants me to sing it, he says "Ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra". We have an understanding between us. 

Hubby and I got our main wedding photos back at the weekend. Did you guess?

Hubby and I are planning a date night on Saturday. If we forget about the honeymoon, we've not had a night out, just the two of us since before we moved house. That's well over 5 months now so we need a night off. His mum will babysit so we can have a tour of the village, check out a pub or two and have a nice Indian meal. My kind of evening out.

I really like this picture, though in general I prefer our coloured wedding photos.

This is a close up of how we had our top cake decorated. I am particularly happy we have a picture of this since we think we left the heart behind somewhere. We accept it as lost. But since it was on a spike stuck into the cake, there's not a lot else we could have done with it.

Hmmmmm, cakes. Still allowed on my Slimming World plan, but I've never been a cake girl.

Here are the T***** family women. My mother in law and my 2 lovely sisters in law.

That'll be it for now before you all fall asleep looking at my photos. :) However, I have another couple of hundred on facebook if anyone who reads isnt already on my friends list - drop me a line and I'll pass on details of how to add me. I am always happy to greet new friends. x

So Far So Good

My keyboard is playing up so need to keep this short since I keep getting things on screen I am not pressing. A sentance takes forever.

The new diet is going good. I did wonder how on earth it would work but at my first weigh in I lost 2lb. Despite not getting it right the first 4 days. I am happy with that.

All else is good. I need a new keyboard before I go crazy.

I Need To Blog More Often

I am missing blogging. I just rarely have the time to do it. I feel I am missing out so much I wish to record. I haven't written about our holiday, about parts of the kids lives and how they are changing and learning so much so quick. I haven't said that hubby has the job with the water company. I've even missed out on things from the wedding I wish to record.

The small things.

The personal things.

When we married we used ready prepared vows. Although some do it over here, writing your own vows remains pretty much an American thing to us Brits. However, I did want to do and say something alot more personal for hubby on our wedding day.

I find it very hard to find a card I like alot of the time. When looking for a wedding card, it was a nightmare. Cards were either far too manufactured, too soppy, too impersonal or just tacky. So I went on the search before finding the perfect wedding card

Instead of buying him one of those "To My Husband On Our Wedding Day" cards that are over priced and full of general verse that would make most men sick, I opted for a basic card with figures on it and the words "Happy, Ever, After" on the front. Inside it was blank. I wanted to write my own words and make it as personal as I could. I spent a little time on it, a couple of hours, before hand writing it inside his card. I've never really been that poetic but this is my wedding verse and vows of sorts.

I write this special verse for you, to show how much I care,

To show how much I love you, to show my heart stripped bare.

I might not always know what to say, or whats right at the right time

All I know is I how I feel that I can officially call you mine.

This is the day I've always dreamed of, this day makes me so proud,

A day of future promises and to practice those words we've vowed

I look forward to our  future and the next set of challenges it holds,

And know that together we can help one another with our goals.

I may not have all the answers to whatever life throws our way,

But I do always try my hardest to brighten the cloudiest day

I promise to be the best wife I can be - I'm not perfect, why pretend?

You are not only now my husband,  you are forever my Best Friend

Last of all I want to thank you for your love, our lives, our boys

For always being there for me, and bringing me so many joys.

Thank you for the pleasure of sharing with me your life,

                   And last but most importantly, thanks for making me your wife .

                              

                                                                xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

                Lots of love to my amazing husband on our wedding day.

                                                                xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

                                                                   Yours Forever,

                                                                Rebecca Tedder

                                                                xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

                                                                August 21st 2010

 So yes, it was rather personal from me and I do have a little romantic side to me. I just like to do things more personally a lot of the time. 

Thats part of the reason I have begun my hobby of card making. I've already done 5 and I should have photographed them before sealing the envelopes but I wanted to do something creative again and have made a few birthday cards for family and my best friend as well as a personalised thank you card for my mother in law for all she did for the wedding with the dresses and so on. 

My diet appears to be going well. If my scales are right, I have already lost 3-4lbs this week. I'm hoping to loose 4lb this week so hopefully I am on target for that. I still have 2 days until weigh day, so tomorrow and Monday will be the days I am on my best behaviour. I think I am doing ok and I am loving the eat more to loose weight principle. I wasn't sure at first how on earth this could work for me after really cutting back on meals before the wedding, but it appears to be working. I am feeling rather confident but we'll see what the scales say Monday evening.

Project Thirty

For the past few weeks I have been trying to think of things to do over the next 10 years. What milestones do I wish to meet in life? What can I do that I've never done before? Where do I want to be 10 years from now? What do I want to be doing in 10 years time? When I say I, I mean I as myself as an individual. Family plans and goals are different. I have my life in stock now, I have a lovely husband and 3 beautiful boys that are growing up in the blink of an eye and would like to go on a bit of a personal journey and do a bit of self discovery.

The bare essentials come down to the following:

Learn to Drive.
Get back to work.
Get a new look.
Get to a size 12-14 and keep the weight off.

I've already started the new diet. I've just dyed my hair a shade or two lighter (it will be more apparent after a couple of washes) and got myself a fringe (bangs) cut so I am slowly moving forwards already.

Despite thinking and thinking, there's little else I want to achieve. I am not into extreme sports so sky diving isn't on the agenda.

I would like to visit more cities around Europe. I want to say I've experienced Paris, visited Venice, seen Rome. With 3 young boys I know that won't be easy for a while but there is always birthdays and anniversaries to take a few days out.

I still want to create a new circle of friends. I guess this is partially why I've joined a slimming group. I can make friends with like minded  people. Maybe not to 'hang out with' in so many words but to have someone I can talk to a little more often and being in the same boat, we can all have something to talk about. I have my family. I don't want constant socialising every weekend just friends for the odd conversation.

I don't want to start body art. Tattoos aren't my thing.

That's my next 10 years planned out then. If anyone can think of anything else I can add to the list, then I am very open for suggestions.

More Newness

Last night I joined Slimming World. It was ok. I weighed more on their scales than I do on my own but never mind. It's not the starting point that matters but the journey and the arrival. :)

It sounds good. It will take some getting used to but it could be rather interesting. After eating as little as possible for several months, I'm now being encouraged to eat all day and all night. Not to allow myself to get hungry. Snack on fruit, veg and salad all day. Ok, I can do that! We'll see how I do with next weeks weigh in.

The living room is just about finished in the decorating stakes. We still want two new sofas as we only have one big one but that will be our living room complete.

This is how our room looked when we moved in mid May:

Now after a few pounds of wedding money being spent, our room has been transformed entirely.

This is how the side on the left now looks. Lone beech bookshelf has been replaced with new large bookshelves along the whole crevice. There's even a view of our new curtains too.

We've gone for a lovely vibrant red as you can see and with the white detailing including the white rail and upper of the room, it doesn't feel too cramped since some rooms can feel smaller with bold colours. We're really happy with it.

Little Liam had his 12 month jabs this morning and the little sweetheart did not make a bit of fuss. What a good little boy!!! Here's a picture of him enjoying his holiday.

My little darling!!!

I......

I haven't been in here for way too long.

I am now 30, I celebrated my birthday on Thursday.

I was on holiday at the time and most of it was great.

I was rather unwell most of the week.

I ended up calling the emergency out of hours Doctor just after midnight Saturday morning with chest pains to be told no-one could do home visits and that I'd have to make a trip to the drop in centre 15 miles away. With 2 kids, a hubby being sick and me having been sick also it was impossible.

I wonder what the point of emergency out of hours doctors actually are.

Liam wasn't sick. Not that night, he started it two days earlier. It appears that Liam picked up a sickness bug and passed it onto the rest of us.

At least we were at home and not travelling.

I finally got to see an out of hours doctor yesterday morning. I didn't have a chest infection as I suspected but what the doctor called "the real flu".

I am now on antibiotics 3 times a day.

I still have a very tender feeling beneath my rib cage.

I've been so unwell I've lost 4lbs this week which is alot considering I was on holiday and eating too much rubbish for 5 days.

I start a new adventure tomorrow. Slimming World. Woohoo. I've got this far myself, I want to go further. Lets try a new spin on it all.

I have the best family in the universe.

I got some new tatty teddy figurines for my birthday.

One of which was one we've searched for over several months.

It's a limited edition one which we only saw once, even after ebay searches and the like, but we found it.

It's an official wedding one and there were only a select few made so I am REALLY pleased we finally found one.

We found similar ones but they weren't the same. It wasn't even trackable with the normal shop we buy them from as it was a Limited Edition.

These figurines will be staying in their boxes until we get our new book cases.

We have decorated the living room, got  a new tv fixed to the wall and the rest of our wedding money is going on furnishing the living room. We're getting one room just as we want it at a time.

I am already beginning to feel better after 1 day on my antibiotics.

I am, on the whole, a happy little lady. xx

Liam Oliver - One Year On.

September 16th 2009.

This beautiful little boy arrived into the world.

I remember thinking how pissed off he looked when he was born.

For those fairly new to my blog you didn't miss much on the birth story. I had perfect deliveries with all 3 of my boys. Liams can be summed up in 5 sentances.

4am, I awoke with contractions.
5am they were stronger and more frequent.
6am we headed to the hospital.
7.11am Liam was born.
No pain relief.

I have always been lucky with my babies. Still, Liams birth was twice as long as James birth. My waters broke, instant contractions born within an hour.
I was nervous of having my third.

I had a few false alarms with Liam and joked I would only believe I was in labour should my waters break.

This happened as his head was being delivered so I was rather glad I didn't wait at home longer in case it was another false alarm. This was the most painful of the births and he had got into a little difficulty on delivery and passed meconium (baby poo) so we had to spend 24 hours in hospital for him to be monitored before we could go home just to be sure that there were not any underlying health issues.

The pregnancy was more comfortable than the second but I needed to be tested for gestational diabetes as I was measuring large for my weeks from midway through pregnancy. I did not have GD and extra growth scans showed I was unlikely to have too big a baby.

Liam was born a healthy 8lb 1oz. Very much in average proportions.

Liam was never a happy baby and if the truth be known, I found it a little hard to bond with my little man in the first few weeks.

Some of what I'm saying here has never been said to anyone, never been addressed but I really felt like I failed my baby boy in the first few weeks of his life.

I know I've never said this before but as much as I loved having my 3 boys, I found it incredibly hard when Liam would just scream all day and night. I never had this with the other 2. He sounded in pain. He was bringing up wind, I wondered if it was gripe. The days and nights were long and I was frustrated and wanted to know what I was doing wrong with this baby when the other two were fine.

It wasn't long before we found a lump in his groin.

Those days were the hardest of my life. The hernia was initially found days before James's first birthday and when my GP said he may need surgery, I sat in the GP surgery crying for failing Liam and for the fear I would miss James's birthday. I think the relief of knowing there was a problem and the fear of my baby going under the knife bought out a whole new outlook.

The hernia was pushed back into place but it could always come back.

My poor baby was in pain, it wasn't my fault, I wasn't failing as a mother and it could be treated. The days that followed became easier. The days where I would try to get him comfortable and hug him through his tears were met with tears of worry and distress of wanting to help him. I felt guilty for being annoyed at his screaming, for being so useless, for not being a good enough mother to him and for feeling like I didnt love him as much as I did the others from the time they were born.

Hubby and I had decided to ask if he could have the operation regardless when we next saw my GP.

The day we had booked an appointment, we didn't make it there. The hernia came back and couldn't be pushed back so we went directly to Cambridge Accident and Emergency Department and were there for the next 5 days.

For two days he was fasting in case the swelling was low enough to operate. This didnt happen. It's tough having a baby starving and wanting milk but not being able to help him.

His surgery only took about an hour but it was a long stressful hour. I stayed at the hospital with him the whole time. Hubby had to take time off to look after the other 2 boys and this was the time I really had a chance to bond with Liam.

Those few days were the defining moment I stopped loving my baby but fell completely in love with him.

After the surgery we had a completely different child. He was always happy and smiling and was a breath of fresh air. Liam was becoming the little Liam that I absolutely adore.

So my wonderful, amazing, beautiful baby boy, Mummy wishes you the best birthday ever and loves you more than she can ever explain. I am so proud to be your mummy and we all love you to pieces.

Happy Birthday Liam, my precious little boy. xxxx

Back To The Old Routine But With Plenty Of Excitement To Come

I am still getting wedding photos in albeit in dribs and drabs whilst we still await our main photos. But I am doing my best to feature as many pics as I can still as I do an update on everyday life and a little on the kids.

This was our special balloon and here's the cutting of the cake with our little cupcake tower beneath.  I was very impressed with the cakes and hope we have more pictures to come.

We posed with the nice knife and the cake for pictures but the cake had to be taken off the stand to be cut properly. It was the top shelf and it was a little wobbly just holding the knife to it.

I love the way the kids are queuing up to get their cupcakes.

The honeymoon is certainly over and normal life beckons once again.  For a couple of weeks until we have our family holiday at least.

Matthew is back at school and is still 100% into football. There's only so much I can take in about Manchester United but he is growing into a fine little man. He is just so full of energy and just makes everyone smile.

As of today I am back to the daily grind of  a better diet and exercise. With big fella at school I am now guarenteed 80-120 minutes walking a day again and I will be honest, I have missed this routine. I never stopped losing weight in the run up to the wedding, but I certainly slowed down. I need an exercise routine and something I can't find excuses for getting out of. The school run is one thing I can always rely on. I hope this will be the kickstart I need to lose the excess weight. In the past 2 and a half weeks I have put on 8lbs. It's not great but I am glad I had a few indulgent days, I don't think putting on weight occassionally does any harm to a diet. It brings a new sense of determination. I feel confident that with eating the right things and daily exercise I can lose up to 6lbs this week. It took 2 weeks to put it on and if I can lose it in 2 weeks I will be a happy woman. If not, it's not the end of the world. I want to remain level headed and enjoy life rather than become self obsessed and miss out on the good things in life.

I am becoming a bit more creative as time goes on. Having done hair pieces for bridesmaids and flowers for us all my next project is to create a wedding photo album. I will buy a plain album and decorate as I see fit. I have ideas in mind and have ordered the mulberry paper I need, I just need to find a few extras.

I am even considering baking. Now, for anyone who's been reading my blogs for some time, they may be questioning m motives as baking only tends to prop up when I'm in a certain "condition". To just set the record straight, I am not pregnant. But I am prepared for something equally exciting.

Next week my baby stops being a baby and becomes a 1 year old!!!

We spent part of Saturday birthday shopping for our little guy and bought him a ride on walker. Not just any walker but this:

We have two little boys absolutely Buzz Lightyear crazy. We took him round a certain toy shop and he went so mad when he saw this. Buzz has interactive features and moves and talks. James was equally impressed so I feel that this will end up being a sharing toy since Liam is still a little small for this. Liam has had a few goes on James' Thomas the Tank Engine ride on but he can't reach the floor to do it himself nor is he walking just yet. He takes a few steps if holding on to Mummy or Daddys hands but he hasn't got that confidence yet.

James is growing fast too. He also loves nothing more than Buzz Lightyear as Thomas the Tank Engine seems to have fallen in popularity a little. Toy Story 2 was on tv a few weeks back and since then he's been so into it. We have pictures in mail order booklets and a catalogue store book and he will spend hours just looking at pictures of toys. He really is interested. James can now sing along to The Wheels On The Bus and do some actions to it. He knows many animals and will say their names and what noise they make too. He is getting to be a very clever little boy.

Hubby is currently at a job interview for a local water company. He left his previous job when his holiday started a few days before the wedding and got an interview by email which he had already decided he wanted to attend. He had already accepted a job at a local pub but has always been more interested in this water maintenance position but the pub was a job to get us through. We thought that the water company were never going to get back to him as we didn't get the email until almost 3 weeks after the application date ended. He began cheffing at the pub on the Sunday we returned. Sadly it didn't work out and he left after 5 shifts on Friday. They were seriously understaffed and the boss seemed to take out his problems on the few staff that were there. Hubby didn't want his chef job to go back to being like the chef job he had before his health really suffered and I admire him for that. Work stresses can easily be bought back home and cause a problem within the home. So fingers crossed that this job interview goes well for him. I know he would rather do a practical job as a technician of some kind as opposed to being stuck in a kitchen for 13 hours at a time.

So, watch this space......