The beginnings of life

My neighbour has had her baby!

A little baby boy.

She gave birth on Tuesday, 12th of august, after 9 hours of labour to a healthy 7lb 15 oz baby boy using only gas and air. Unfortunately couldnt use the birthing pool because she had to be monitored. I dont know why yet but I'm almost certain it was for some ridiculous reason or the other....

I am going to go visit her after lunch today. I can't wait to hold and feel that soft baby floppiness in my arms again.

To smell that sweet baby smell.

To hear those cute baby noises.

It will get me broody...

Oh how lovely little babies are!

I'm all about poems at the moment

Now I've found this one:

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

a poem about babywearing

INTO YOUR ARMS

Into your arms I was born
for you to hold me
to protect me
for you to nourish me
to love me.
I can smell your sweet scent
I can feel your movements
your heart beating
in tune with your gentle rocking

Sometimes its you I can feel mummy
sometimes its daddy
his deep voice soothing me
I can feel it vibrating in his chest
so close to him
in his arms

Into your arms I was born
for me to get to know you
and love you
for me to get to know the world
from the safe place I can always return to

9 months I spent in your calm warm womb
you let me grow in peace
until I decided to be born

Into your arms I was born
so I can continue to grow in calmness, warmth and peace
until I'm ready
to walk out of your arms
into the world

but always knowing
I can return

into your arms.

I copied this from startling lives blogspot

What you've got to do is mark the books you've read. Seeing the film doesnt count.

1 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations Charles Dickens
11 Little Women Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
13 Catch-22 Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare William Shakespeare (some)
15 Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis
34 Emma Jane Austen
35 Persuasion Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières
39 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh AA Milne
41 Animal Farm George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney, John Irving
45 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies William Golding
50 Atonement Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi Yann Martel
52 Dune Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
62 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
72 Dracula Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery (a lovely, lovely book!)
93 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks
94 Watership Down Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl (think ive read all her books)
100 Les Misérables Victor Hugo

Nursing Fishy

Nursing my 18mo old is like
Nursing a singing octopus fish out of water
at an olympic competition for flopping
Our once restful bed is full of
flipping and flailing
humming and tapping
twisting and turning
Please don't talk with your mouth full dear fishy
those teeth pinch!
leaning and pulling
pinching and pushing
bending and leaning
and just when I've had enough
Just when I think I can't last one minute more
I look down at you in total frustration
Ready to take away your precious boobie
And your eyes sparkle up at me
You smile and I get the littlest peek
of your tounge and milk dribbles down your chin.
Keep nursing dear fishy.
I love you.

Written by T.L.V. aka "Milkmommie" on Mothering.com

bedtimes???

not here... not anymore

Sandra Dodd as always has something nice to say about "letting" your kids sleep when they like where they like:

SANDRA DODD SLEEP

As I'm writing this my son is sleeping on the sofa next to us. And happier, calmer and more peacefull than in a "routine" of being put to bed the same time every night...

long time no write

I'm back from my holiday now. We went to Reutte in Tirol, Austria for two weeks to visit my mum and go to the medieval festival / market where we sold handmade (by me) childrens clothes. We went by ferry Hull to Rotterdam and then travelled the ten hours to Austria in the car. William struggled with the journey which isnt surprising - being strapped into a car seat for such a long time. But considering the circumstances everything went very well!
We had a lovely time at my mums, we were able to go out for a few meals as mum watched William for a couple of hours. We went swimming and we went to the Sauna / Spa in Fuessen which was so beautifully relaxing!
We arrived back here on Tuesday morning and I think we are all glad to be back home. Although I could have stayed longer. Hopefully I will be able to go back some time this year. Two weeks is just too short.

When i got chance, after unpacking etc I checked my emails and read up on a few blogs i like to read. I was upset to discover one of my favourite blog writers, Veronika is not going to write any more. I loved reading her blog - she always got straight to the point and told it how it was.

I will have to subscribe to the Mothering magazine - she edits it - just to be able to read some sane peoples opinions ;oP

Today I finally got rid of our old double bed frame and chair with footstool to British Heart foundation. (British heart because my dad died of a heart attack 5 years ago)

I also managed to put Williams bed up in his room and it actually LOOKS like a childrens bedroom now. His toy kitchen is up there too and we have had a nap in his bed already and he has also emptied his kitchen and played with it all over the upstairs! I think he likes it!

The living room looks a lot better now we have gotten rid of the chair - a lot more space! (for william to mess up)

I also brought across a fair trade swinging hammock chair which is hung up on the swing hooks in the kitchen / conservatory at the moment but i want to get some fixings for the living room so I can move it about. It will also fit onto the extension arm of our swing outside so on nice summer days (of which of course we havent had any since coming back) it will be nice to hang out there and read a book or watch william play.

Which Im going to do now.