Teeth

We have teeth - finally! Olivia is nine and a half months and the last of her friends to get teeth. I know some babies don't get teeth until later and I was in no rush for Olivia to get hers however if one more person expressed surprise that she didn't have any I'm not sure what I would have done. So Olivia decides to get her own back and her 2 bottom teeth have come through at the same time. At least I think she has whenever I try to look she either clamps her mouth shut or sticks her tongue out over her gums!

It wasn't without a struggle she seems to develop and cold and a cough when she is teething and sleep goes to pot, she was even crying in her sleep the other night (heart breaking). Hopefully this will improve again and I will get my smiling happy little girl back just in time for the school term to start again and me to go back to work.

On a positive she is also crawling (One of the things I wanted to achieve before the end of the summer holidays). She crawls with one knee on the floor and the other foot on the floor - apparently this is because she crawls from sitting position rather than from being on her belly! She doesn't move fast but she gets where she wants and when she gets an idea in her head there is no distracting her! Current favourites are Daddy's PS3 controllers and the laptop wire!

I'm hoping that we see no more teeth for a while now she has proved she can grow them lol!

Slinging

This week Mr T has been on holiday from work and so we have been on lots of day trips. We spent a lovely day on Wednesday (our wedding anniversary)at our reception venue. Olivia had fun looking at the animals and playing in the playground. That evening Mr T surprised me by having booked a babysitter (my lovely sister) and took me out to dinner. It was lovely to spend some time together without the distraction of laptops or PlayStations! Although we spent a lot of time talking about Olivia!

The following day we drove up to Greenwich and took the tube to Waterloo to meet Mr T's friend who is visiting from South Africa. I decided that I couldn't face fighting the crowds with a pushchair so we put Olivia in the Beco Butterfly and I carried her on my front for the day. It was really comfortable and Olivia even managed a small nap (she gave up sleeping in a sling at a very young age!). It meant that we could wander around London easily and when we went to the aquarium daddy could carry her and she could see all the fish up close rather than at pushchair level. She was completely in awe of the fish and was a delight all day.

Olivia spent most of the day charming the tourists and even had a violinist in Covent Garden playing to her. I was even offered a seat on the tube! I was a bit worried about carrying her all day thinking I would really struggle but was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable she was and how calm she was in there.

Today we have spent the day at home recovering from the past two days of excitement!

3 Years

Tomorrow is our 3rd wedding anniversary. In some ways it seems like we have been married for longer but I'm also unsure where the time has gone!

Our wedding day was the only dry day of the summer we got married at the registry office (The Archbishops Palace ) and then had our reception at the Museum of Kent Life

The day was filled with lots of laughter and it was one of the best days of my life. The highlight of the day was travelling to the reception on a boat along the river. It was the perfect opportunity to talk to our guests on the hour trip and spend time together catching up on the morning activities while we had been getting ready.

We had many friends come and share our day including ones that had travelled from Australia and South Africa (Mr T is South African. It was lovely to look around and know everybody in the room and watch as they chatted and enjoyed themselves.

The only problem we had was Mr T's mother who was in a grump and refused to be in any photos and a lot more but I won't bore you with the details. It didn't ruin our day and she was the only one who didn't enjoy herself.

I can honestly say the past 3 years have been great although since having Olivia it has been hard work finding time for each other amongst the chaos that is our life! I love Mr T more now than I ever did he is a great husband and a brilliant dad. Lets hope we have many more happy years to come.

Tomorrow we are going to take Olivia and visit the Museum of Kent Life again as it has recently been revamped. I am looking forward to our day together as a family celebrating and reminiscing.

Holidays!

My first school holiday since becoming a mummy! It is amazing how much Olivia has changed since I returned to work 7 weeks ago - she can now clap, blow kisses, eat peas (pincer grip is developing well!) and is really beginning to giggle at her daddy and me! When choosing a book at nursery she leafs through the books and pulls out he one she wants, she tries to sing along to songs on the radio (how long can I get away with not putting nursery rhymes on!)
What I hope to achieve before the 1st September:
1. Lots of fun with Olivia
2. Have a crawling baby - she is so close but is also beginning to pull herself up to standing as well. Not that she needs to crawl as she seems to be able to move quite well on her bottom.
3. Baby proof the house or at least get a playpen (any recommendations they seem very expensive)
4. Put up shelves in Olivia's room for her christening presents (she was christened in February!)
5. Catch up with some mummy friends for tea and cake!

I'm really looking forward to catching up with my little girl and spending lots of time with her. It's going to be strange being a full time mummy again but I'm up for the challenge and looking forward to not having to rush around in the morning getting Olivia and I ready for the day so we can stay in our pj's if we want!

Life after maternity leave

So being back at work has changed life dramatically - there are no more sneaky afternoon naps with Olivia, no more picnics or walks with other mums and babies and no more wasting time watching my daughter as she discovers new skills. Not during the week anyway, the weekends however are different swimming on Saturdays means we meet up with some other mummy friends who have also returned to work so we can compare stories! It also means we can play in bed together rather than me getting up and getting ready for work hoping she doesn't wake until I am ready to feed her and give her morning cuddles.

In the three weks I have been back Olivia has changed so much she is such a smiley girl who has just learnt to clap - if you say clap she waves her arms up and down and then claps! She is also saying "dadada" repeatedly and we are getting so many more smiles and giggles at random things. We used to have to work very hard for these.

Work is manic and I never reallt know what I am doing from one day to the next but the days go so quickly and soon it will be the summer holidays. back to afternoon naps, eeting friends and generally having lots of fun with Olivia.

Back to work!

I have just completed my first week back after maternity leave - Olivia is now 7 months old. As my previous post I had a mixture of emotions but I survived. I'm tired but it feels like I have never been away.

I arrived at school on the first day not knowing what I would be doing turns out no one else knew what I was doing as nobody had heard if the teacher that had been off sick was returning or not! However as she wasn't in and is usually one of the first in we assumed she was still off sick - so I enter the year 4 classroom - I have taught this class for the past 2 years so I know what I'm in for - no planning. First day back and I have to teach off the cuff and then go home and plan the rest of the week.

End of the school day then have staff meeting it appears lots of decisions have been made whilst I have been off and the good news is I have been offered the job out of class running the reading recovery program and covering some PPA teaching science (my specialism. This is what I wanted and I'm really pleased that I can develop my career in this way.

This week has been tough - long hours, bad behaviour and catching up but it has been worth it to see how excited Olivia is when I walk through the door at night. She has been very well behaved for her daddy and is taking her formula milk like a pro and has even managed to only wake once at night the past 2 nights!

Daddy is tired and has admitted he didn't realise how tiring it would be looking after a 7 month old. He is however loving spending time with his daughter without me interfering.

Now a lovely weekend to spend as much time as I an with my beautiful girl before the whirlwind starts again next week.

Nearly all over

So this is my last week of maternity leave. I start back as a full time teacher as of Tuesday. How do I feel?

Well I'm OK about returning to work, I don't think I'm cut out to be a full time stay at home mum although I am envious of those that are and admire how hard it is. I'm going to miss meeting up with my mummy friends although there are three of us returning to work at the same time. I am also sad that other people will be spending more time with Olivia than me and possibly seeing her crawl, walk, talk etc. before me. She has changed so much in the past few months and is an absolute pleasure to be with her smiles and giggles melt my heart and I really am going to miss these.

Going to nursery will allow Olivia to watch and learn from other children. She has been going for one afternoon a week for a while now so she is quite use to the environment and it is a bonus that my sister is her key worker. The other days she will either spend with Daddy, Grandma or my other sister - so she will be cared for by people who love her but it's not me! I have to let go and trust that she will be OK and they will respect our wishes about how we want Olivia to be looked after.

The next few weeks are going to be easier because Mr T has two weeks off so he can look after Olivia then we start getting into what will become normal life. We are lucky in that the nursery will work round Mr T's shifts and also do term time only so I can spend as much time as I want with Olivia during the school holidays.

So I am ready to return to work and get stuck into teaching again how I will cope with the workload as well as being a Mummy I'm not sure but teaching for me now is a job rather than a career. I have to wait until I go back to find out what I am teaching as it all depends on whether one of the teachers is back off sick leave or not. If she is not back I will be teaching her class if she is back I will be team teaching with the great teacher who did my maternity cover. I like the idea of this as I think I could learn an awful lot from this teacher and we could do some great creative projects with the children.

So how am I feeling? Sad, apprehensive, excited, jealous and many other emotions all at the same time - is this normal?