Life with two...currently.

I am not going to lie, two kids is hard work. A toddler going through the terrible twos is hard work. A high maintenance, sensitive 7 month old is hard work. Both of them together...well it's really hard. I have a newfound respect for single parents, and anyone with more than two children. It may be the age gap, there is 2 years almost to the day between them. I can already see my hands are only going to get more full. But, I love it. I love the chaos and I love that I have two amazing little characters for children. Obviously there are plenty of days where I want to hide in a cupboard with a straw in a bottle of wine, but then one of them will do something that will remind me that they are just children and everything they do is learning. My sister thinks I am insane and we have totally put her off of having anymore children. I'm always busy. If I could change one thing, it would be that we had a cleaner. The only reason we don't is because I couldn't bear someone picking up after me and I'd feel like I had to clean before they came. Oh, and I refuse to pay someone to do something when there is no reason that I can't do it myself. I just have to learn to manage my time better. I paid someone to professionally clean our oven before Christmas because I just couldn't get it clean, and I begrudged that. Although, it looked amazing after. I didn't want to use it, but Christmas dinner wasn't going to cook itself.

My days are just non stop and I honestly don't think I sit down until well after the kids have gone to bed. Which I'm sure is the case for most parents. 7-10am and 4.30-7.30pm in our house is just chaos. Jacob doesn't like to do anything he's asked at the moment, getting dressed is the top of the list. And Alba isn't the best sleeper, day or night. So she is tired alot. But also refuses to nap for more than about 30 minutes unless we are out and about with the pram. Jacob very rarely naps at all now. I think he's worried he will miss out on something if he sleeps while Alba is awake. He has been very jealous and I think he has found it very hard adjusting to life with a sibling. Alba says "mum mum mum" when she's crying and he says "No, she's my mummy!!!" And if I'm holding her and he wants a cuddle, he won't share me. He says "No, Alba on floor!" It's so hard as I know we have spoiled him with attention and so have most of our family. As much as I say we didn't, we probably overcompensated because of what he was going through.

The walk to nursery is usually a stressful affair. Jacob waddles along like he wants the snails to beat him there or screams most of the way that he wants to go to the shops. Recently, he wanted to ride his scuttlebug to nursery but wanted to go the wrong way, which ended in a full blown tantrum and being 20 minutes late for nursery. The worst part is that when we actually arrive at nursery he runs off and leaves me at the door! He goes to nursery Monday, Tuesday and Friday afternoon. Normally on a Monday, I'll pop into town and do some food shopping or potter around the shops. And then Tuesday I will try and get a few things done in the house but most of the time I end up playing with Alba or fighting to get her to have a nap! Fridays, Rich is usually home from work so I'll take this time to try and get the housework done so the weekend is ours to do what we want.

The nursery run tantrum.

We swapped the kids into the bigger room over the weekend. I was all excited until we'd finished and then it hit me that Alba wasn't in our room anymore. Jacob went into his own room at 3 and a half months old as he used to wake at the tiniest sound and would thrash about in his Moses basket like a caged animal. So with Alba being 8 months old, it's alot later than when Jacob left our room. It's been tough as I can't leave Alba to cry for very long as she would wake Jacob and vice versa. We've had one of them in our bed every night so far. Hopefully they will get used to each other soon. Bedtime is a nightmare as since Jacob gave up his dummy, he will not go to sleep unless someone is sitting with him, and Alba has always needed someone to stand with her otherwise she screams until she is sick and choking. Everyone says about letting her cry it out, but I have tried it with her and it is awful. She is relentless. And I can't bear to see her in such a state. With Jacob, controlled crying was amazing. A life changer. But again, I tried to leave him recently to go to sleep on his own and he got into such a state. And then it occured to me that there will soon be a time when they won't want to be cuddled at all, or have snuggles in our bed. So I decided that the back aches and kid dribble all over me is worth it. And I'll cuddle my little people to sleep if that's what they want. 

The big boy bed...

I have started writing a blog post everyday for about a week, and keep getting distracted by one thing or another. And as I started to write this one, I somehow managed to delete the whole thing. So I'm starting again. Although what I wanted to do was throw my phone at the wall...

Anyways, we have had a busy week this week. Play dates, lunches, work and eye fittings is just the start. Jacobs eye fitting on Friday the 13th (I'm the most superstitious person ever by the way) was a disaster. We went to Wild & Wacky beforehand as his appointment was 11.30 so he would most likely have his nap afterwards. But he absolutely wiped himself out at soft play and was almost asleep when we got to the hospital. Jacobs prostesthist suggested trying to make a mould of Jacobs eye this time as he normally sits so nicely for his appointments. However, he wasn't having any of it. So we had to go for the usual colour match, which means he will have a new eye in a few weeks. Then we will try again with the mould. Apparently moulded eyes have much better movement so I'm quite excited for him to get one.

We bought Jacob's toddler bed his week, he has a cot bed, but as the little lady will be needing one too, we thought it would be better (and cheaper!) to buy a toddler bed as opposed to another cot bed. I sat basically crying while Rich (and Jacob) dismantled the cot and built the bed. Jacob was so excited to get into it. Bedtime went so smoothly, I expected constant trips up and down the stairs putting him back into bed, but he went off like usual and didn't wake up until 7am, when he was at the baby gate shouting for us. I could not believe it. Nap time is proving a whole different matter... He has been upstairs an hour and still not asleep. I've been up and laid him down a few times, but to be honest I'm not really sure how to tackle this one!? Help?!
...an hour and a half later. He's finally asleep. I really hope this doesn't make him hate the bed at bedtime.

On the bump front, we officially have our friend "heartburn" staying with us. My god, I forgot how horrible it is. And absolutely everything seems to be setting it off this time. My sisters best friend is a midwife, so whenever I used to see her when I was pregnant with Jacob, I'd be like "where's the baby lying?!" And I saw her on Thursday and she had a feel, and as I suspected, lady Wright likes to hang out right up near my ribs. Which explains why I can't hardly breathe. I had breathless moments with Jacob, but I honestly feel like I am constantly gasping for air with this one. I have become obsessed with checking my heart rate too as my phone has a monitor on it. Obviously not as medically accurate as a proper one I'd have thought, but it still seems quite close. Your heart works so much harder when you're pregnant and I am positive mine is screaming for help when I'm having these breathing difficulties! I am so uncomfortable already, I have no idea how I'm going to get through the next 3 months if I'm moaning already! Although she doesn't stop moving around. Particularly in the bath. Jacob never used to move when I was in the bath and I always felt sick afterwards so went for showers instead. But it is so funny laying there watching my belly go nuts. Although I honestly can't say the baths will last. This shifted centre of gravity business is no joke. I tried to do a yoga pose at work on Thursday, and just toppled forward like a weeble. Pretty tragic.

Feeling very lucky!

Jacobs cough and cold had cleared up quite a lot by Tuesday evening so I didn't feel the need to cancel his appointment. I was so nervous about today, I hardly slept last night. Partly due to nerves and partly due to Jacob coming into our bed at 2am. What have I done?! I really hope its just where he's been poorly. He normally just slips back into his normal routine otherwise I think I'm going to have to get the controlled crying method on the go again! Which I absolutely hate but it always seems to work! We were up at 5.30am this morning so we could leave around six. We always leave Jacob in bed until the last possible second so he doesn't have a chance to wake up and think "where's my milk?!" But as he was in our bed, his beady little eyes opened up the second Rich and me got out of bed! Typical! He was still very dozy so we managed to get ready while he just laid in bed talking to the dog. For the first time, I got all of Jacobs stuff ready the night before. We normally leave it until the morning because I always liked to do it last so I know if I need anything else. And then we always end up being late because I flaff about. So I made all his lunch, got all his clothes and toys and everything ready to go last night. And it was much less stressful this morning.
It was so strange being back at the hospital after six weeks off, it felt like ages but at the same time, only felt like we were last there yesterday. Its weird because you see the same nurses and doctors and staff every time, you get to know them and they get to know you so I was quite looking forward to seeing everyone. Jacob made himself at home straightaway, throwing his ball around and running about like he owned the place. I could tell he was getting hungry because he started to get ever so slightly more grumpy every time he threw his ball and then had to go get it. And then he spotted his lunch bag under the stroller. Total mummy fail. I normally put it straight into the fridge in the ward kitchen but must have just forgotten. He went MENTAL. Absolutely crazed. Just as I was trying to calm him down and explain (pointlessly) why he couldn't eat, the nurses came in and said they were ready for him in theatre. We have never changed him into his gown and ran out of there to theatre quicker!
He was only gone half an hour again which is always a good sign because with treatment, he's normally about an hour. Again, we tried not to get our hopes up. But when the doctors came round and said he was stable again, I just burst into tears. Rich and me had both gone into today thinking he would need treatment so we couldn't believe it when they said he's still stable. We were allowed to go quite quickly after so were out of there by 11 which I think is a record! We are back in six weeks again. So another long break!

He finally got to wear his UGG boots as it was so cold this morning!

I was way too excited about his sticker!

Going home.

Crazy family selfie.

We went to Pets Corner this week with my friend Sarah which is a little petting zoo/farm near where we live. Jacob loves animals and for the first time I let him run around on his own. Although he was just running around not too interested in anything except the ducks and birds. He is so brave, he was just running at the ducks and geese and chickens like they were nothing. I'm terrified of ducks and geese, especially those ones as they're vicious little things! He was going right up to the chicken coop, at one point I thought he was going in! We had our first "I don't want to get back in my stroller" tantrum, the full arched back, kicking legs kind of tantrum. I did win, eventually. I think it was mostly down to him being tired though!

Jacob loves the "That's not my..." book collection, and I think they're brilliant too. They're touch and feel books and there's so many of them! I've become a bit obsessed with buying him them, and Rich said about my obsession to his friends at work, and he came home on Tuesday with a big pile of them that one of his work friends found at a fête over the weekend! My friend Sarah also bought him 3 new ones too, so he has ended up with about 8 new ones this week. It's lucky he doesn't quite "get" presents yet or I may have a spoilt little boy on my hands. Verruca Salt anyone?! 

I think I may have a problem...

4am is the new 7am.

Oh my gosh, I don't think I've been this tired since Jacob was first born. We've recently decided that afternoon naps are no longer necessary (again) and that its completely normal to get up for the day at 4am. He's just gone down for a nap and it's only 8.30, which is going to ruin his whole day now. Yes, I am a routine drill Sargent. Jacob has always had the same sort of routine so if anything changes, it just messes up his whole day. So the 8.30am nap means he will be an absolute grotbag by around 1pm. And if he skips his afternoon nap again, he will be a total sleep deprived monster by bedtime and then we can do it all over again. We have been very lucky with Jacob going down to bed. From around six weeks old, he had a bath, bottle then bed. At first, he went in his Moses basket in our room and we'd leave him to go off on his own, although for the first few nights, I would sit outside our room or peer round the door until he went to sleep. Then he went into his own room at 3 and a half months as he filled his Moses basket and we wanted him to be used to it before his chemo started as we didn't want an upheaval when he would be feeling rubbish anyway. The times obviously changed as he got older and settled more into a routine with feeding and daily naps and bedtime slowly dropped from 10pm to 7pm which it is now. Although last night he went to bed at 6pm as he was so tired. I wish babies understood when you explained to them that if they slept, they wouldn't feel so pooped. Jacob just looks at me like I'm mad when he's throwing a wobbly and I'm stood there going "well Jacob, if you'd have slept or gotten up at a normal time this would be happening right now would it." I just get another scream as a response.
So right now, with the first bit of quiet I've had since 4.45am, I am torn between having a nap, washing my hair or having a cup of tea (as I couldn't drink the first one I made due to my insane little monster refusing to allow me to sit still.)

...So, I opted for all three, and managed to squeeze them all in! Well I didn't really have a nap, just laid on the bed revelling in the silence. And I don't think I've ever enjoyed a cup of tea more in my life. Jacob slept for around two hours, and woke up in a reasonably good mood! We've started going for a walk after his morning nap, just to kill some time really because he normally is quite miserable between his morning nap and lunch. Plus it builds up his appetite a bit! We've had some trouble with him eating since we've been letting him sit at his little table and chairs to eat, he gets up and looses interest quite quickly. He still eats, but just takes a lot longer and then he gets bored. So I think we may go back to the booster seat at the table.
My dad and step mum came over with my little sister this afternoon, and for the first time, I saw Jacob being a bit of a monkey with sharing his toys. My little sister is nearly 3 so she's still learning about sharing too. But Jacob was trying to take everything Katie picked up. And he was not happy when I took it back to Katie. This age is definitely living up to its reputation as "the hard stage." My happy, independent boy has become a miserable clingbot. He woke up from his afternoon nap extremely unhappy and sat on my lap eating his rice cakes through groans and moans. Rich played some ball with him when he got home from work so I could cook dinner, which probably would have proved a mission with Jacob hanging off my leg! I feel like I constantly repeat myself, but I really hope he sleeps better tonight!

We went to Wild & Wacky as usual on Monday and to Jo Jingles. Jacob really enjoyed himself. He climbed around all of the soft play and went up to the slide all by himself which he never normally does. And he stood up and participated in most of Jo Jingles. He was hilarious, just wandering around like he owned the place. 

 The troublesome twosome...

 "Participate" also means "eat the instruments."

 Walking.

 We went to the park on Tuesday to try and burn some energy so Jacob had an afternoon nap. It failed.

 Jacob is obsessed with this tree stump in the woods behind our house. 

Cruising in Jacob's car.

I am arranging a fundraiser for The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust as I couldn't make the Carrots Night walk this year, which we did last year and raised an unbelievable £7000! In all honesty, I just totally forgot to sign up this year which is a bummer because I really wanted to do it as it was quite good fun and I met some amazing people last year. So, to ease my guilt for being useless and forgetting, I have decided to throw a children's Halloween Disco. Originally, I was going to just have a Halloween party at home for my friends and their children, but my friend suggested we turn it into a fundraiser. So since last week, I have been planning that! It's quite stressful but people have been so generous with raffle prizes and donations. Its so lovely to know there are people out there who want to help. I'm sure it will be worth all the stress and worry on the day! And I cannot wait to dress Jacob up in some crazy costume!

Monday movie day.

Jacob slept reasonably well last night, I tried the rousing him a few hours after he went to sleep as my friend Kayleigh said it can sometimes do the trick. So I tried at around 11pm, but there was no waking the little monster! He stirred a little bit but thought I'd just leave it at that as to be honest, I was petrified of him waking up and doing his 3am screaming session there and then. He woke up quite a few times after around 3.30am, but none of the screaming like usual. He woke up for the day around 6.30 which is earlier than when he's in our bed, but I'll take it if he is in his bed! We battled the naps in full force today, Jacob started to get grumpy at around 10am as usual, but we really wanted him to just hang it out until after lunch because as he is only having one nap, I don't want it to be too early! We decided to go for a rainy walk with the dog as he has never fallen asleep in his new stroller so I thought that and being outside would keep him entertained until lunch. How wrong was I... He fell asleep in his stroller. At 11.45! All I needed was another 45 minutes so he'd eaten lunch. Typical! I tried to wake him up but he wasn't having it so moved him into his cot. He slept until 1.30pm which actually worked out quite well because it was still kind of lunchtime, although he woke up so so grumpy where he was starving! We normally have lunch around 12-12.30 and he didn't have a morning snack so he must have been ravenous! 

A bit of a rubbish picture, but couldn't resist a little selfie on our walk. 

Nap battle fail.

As the bank holiday was such a wash out, as always in England, we had a total movie day. After a supermarket trip in which we let Jacob walk around for the first time, he went straight for the balls down the toy aisle, we spent the afternoon watching The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, Casper and The Lion King. And then before bed, we watched the vlog I follow on YouTube called The SacconeJolys. I absolutely love it, it's just a little daily vlog of an Irish family and their lives. They kind of gave me the idea to start this too. Check them out here if your a bit of a reality fiend. 

Jacob wore real skinny jeans today for the first time! He looks so grown up. He's wearing all Next today. Their clothes are definitely my favourite for Jacob. 

Jacobs gone to bed quite well at 7pm, so fingers crossed for a good night! Hope you've all had a great weekend, although I think most people have spent it getting soaked in icy water! 

More tantrums & Ice bucket challenges.

It's been a tiring couple of nights since Friday. We are still battling the transition from two to one nap and it's so hard! On Friday night, Jacob spent an hour screaming the house down at 2am before I gave in and brought him into our bed. He slept til 8.15 which was lovely, but it would have been much nicer if he was in his own bed! It was really nice for us all to wake up together and just relax in bed for a while, we don't normally get to do it because it's either too early so I come downstairs with Jacob, or we have somewhere to be. If it's a morning where we haven't got to be somewhere, I will normally bring Jacob into our room from his and we will watch tv and all have our cup of tea in bed, but it is so rare that this happens! Because Jacob woke up at 8.15, I thought he would skip his morning nap and have just the one after lunch, but bang on 10am, he wanted his morning nap. He slept for about half an hour, which seemed to be enough for the rest of the day, because despite extreme tantrums and crying and hanging off of me everywhere I went, the little boy did not want to sleep! We tried to put him down in his cot a few times after seeing the "tired" signs. This is normally the crankiness and he gets very whingey, and starts tugging at his ears and poking his artificial eye (which is just lovely.) We needed to pop out, and low and behold, Jacob fell asleep in the car at 5pm. I try really hard not to let him sleep past 4pm otherwise he is an absolute nightmare to get to bed because he's like a supercharged Duracell bunny if he sleeps past then. He had about 20 minutes in the car so was not a happy bunny when we woke him up for dinner. He's started to go to bed at 7pm too as his daytime sleeping has gone up the wall, and last night he just wasn't having any of it. He absolutely screamed the house down for an hour, it was so hard not to go up and sit with him, but we've done controlled crying with him before and it does work for us. So every ten minutes or so, I was going in, laying him back down and leaving again. My dad was visiting and after about five attempts he was like "it's a tantrum! He knows you'll go up, so just leave him!" I really hate it because he does get himself into such a state. I left it 15 minutes, and he went quiet, then five minutes later he was asleep. A crazy part of me thought that he'd sleep through as he'd wiped himself out throught his tantrum. But nope, 3am this morning and he was off again. I refused to give in this time as it would have been the 5th night this week he came into our bed. After 45 minutes of screaming and launching dummies across the hallway, I just stood next to his cot and he fell asleep. Probably another bad habit to get into, but one step at a time! He slept through until 7.15, so I can cope with that for today. My friend said it could be night terrors, as she had the same troubles with her little girl around this age. She said if you rouse them slightly around two hours after they go to sleep, it disturbs the sleep and therefore disturbs the pattern. So we are going to try that tonight! 

Jacob hasn't stopped toddling around now and everyone said how much harder it becomes once they're walking. But to be honest, I haven't found it much different, he is such a bulldozer anyway and climbs absolutely everything so I've had to have eyes in the back of my head for about 8 months now! The trouble now is that he actually wants to walk EVERYWHERE. In the supermarket, to the car, and if the front door opens, he's up on his feet and running for it! The neighbours must think I'm awful to live with because when I pick him up and close the door, the screams are like somebody is being murdered. We at currently battling the word "no." Jacob thinks it's the funniest word in the world because when I point and say "noooooo" in that voice that every parent seems to say it in, he just laughs at me. And then I laugh because I can't get over how cheeky he is. So it's going to be a tough one I think. Any tips!?

My little climber.

I could watch these two playing together for hours.

I did the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge" tonight after being nominated by my sister. I think these things are such a brilliant idea, as long as people actually donate. I hated the "no make-up selfie" campaign to begin with as a lot of people were just using it as an excuse to post a picture and get likes, and not actually donate. After Cancer Research got onto it and people started donating, it was brilliant. So with the ALS challenge, I am all for it if people are donating, although watching people soak themselves with ice cold water is brilliant in itself. I did two buckets as I wanted to donate to CHECT too. They are such an amazing charity and I know it sounds silly, but I felt like I was cheating on them! Haha. Below is the video of me getting a soaking! It was SO cold. 

Good luck to anyone who gets nominated, and please make sure you donate! 

WE NEED SLEEP!

So after the horrendous Saturday night with Jacob, I'd hoped that Sunday night might have seen him get back to his normal sleep habits. But apparently somebody thought it would be funny to leave me with the no sleeping, screaming infant as opposed to the sleeping (most of the time) quiet baby I'm used to. It was bang on the same time as Saturday night that he woke up. 11.30pm. After an hour, I gave in again and brought him into our bed. I knooooow it's bad! But I was so tired. Not that it made much difference because he fidgeted all night and then wanted to get up at 5.30. Talk about torture! I think the issue is that Jacob is ready to drop one of his daytime naps but it is so hard to try and work it out so that he doesn't go too early or too late. Yesterday we tried just the one nap after lunch. He only had around an hour which is a lot less than the 3 hours he would have over two naps but last night he went to bed earlier than usual, so 7pm instead of 8pm and slept through! So I had planned to stick to that today, but his second set of immunisations were today and apparently they give them sleeping drugs of some kind because as soon as we got in the car, he crashed out. At 10am!!! This was completely not part of my master plan!!! He's gone to bed okay, but I don't expect another sleep through! He has been quite grumpy today after his immunisations, and he got quite poorly last time after around 10 days so I'm hoping these ones don't go the same way. He did have the MMR on his first lot and I've heard that can be the one that wipes them out. He only had two today as opposed to five vaccines so fingers crossed he's okay this time!

Post imms snooze.

I got rid of Jacobs huge highchair today, it was a really lovely wooden one which also converted into a table and chairs but I really wanted him to have a booster seat that goes on our dining chairs so he can sit at the table with us. We try to all eat dinner together every night unless we are obviously having a late one. So I like for Jacob to sit at the table with us. I bought him a "Munchkin" travel booster seat. It was a right bargain at £14 and it folds up and looks like a bag so you can take it out with you. Obviously I'm not going to strut around the town centre with it, but it's handy to chuck in the car if we are going to my mums or something. He really loved it, but as always, most of his food made it's way to the floor. It was nice for him to actually be at the table with us too. 

Before the mess...

Oh dear...

Bathtime.

Im actually contemplating going to bed already and it's only 8pm. Wish me luck for tonight! 

More celebrating and a new trick...

We had a little birthday gathering for Rich on Saturday. Nothing big and fancy, just a BBQ at home with family and a few of Rich's friends. Rich got a new BBQ for his birthday so he couldn't wait to try it out. It was a really lovely day. I can't believe how much food everybody ate! We bought so much and everyone who came brought something too and nearly everything got eaten. Jacob enjoyed lots of birthday cake, and managed to make so much mess with his dinner. Jacob didn't nap all day because so much was going on and if he misses his naps we know we are in for a bad night usually. He kept waking up every hour or so after going to bed around 7pm, then once we went to bed around 11, he just would not settle back off so I gave in and brought him into our bed. I absolutely love having him in there because he can be so cuddly and I used to love just laying with him when he was tiny and didn't constantly want to run away from me. But on the other hand, I do really try not to do it unless it is a total last resort because I don't sleep well if he's in our bed and it can take a few days of controlled crying to get him to stay back in his own room. Which I hate doing!!! So many people have such different opinions on controlled crying, and I refused to ever do it for around a year. But when Jacob was still having a nighttime bottle out of habit and was waking at 4am screaming to get up, I thought we'd give it a go. And after two really horrendous nights and almost giving up because I felt like the worst mother in the world (and I was petrified my neighbours thought I was neglecting him!) he slept through on the third night. Which was amazing. He very rarely sleeps right through still as he normally wakes up and cries if he can't find his dummy. Which can sometimes be once or sometimes be five or six times. I'm sure he will sleep through one day...when he's 25 or something!

Enjoying dinner...

CAKE!

The dreaded moment when Jacob takes out his own eye happened yesterday. It is far too small now so has so much room to move around and if he rubs it, it can move so easily, and as we found yesterday, come out. He managed to get it out twice before we even left the house yesterday morning, but he was only on our bed so it was easy to find. We were on our way home from Tesco in the car when I turned round to say something to Jacob because he was in the back waffling away, to which I was greeted with a one eyed little monster. He was sitting there chuckling away, obviously because it doesn't make any difference to him whether he's got it in or not. So I was in the back of the car scrambling around for this tiny little prosthetic eye. It made me laugh because of all funny experiences with your children, I never thought one of mine would be searching for my sons little plastic eye because he had managed to take it out and launch it across the back seat of the car. I cannot wait until Friday so he has his new one! 

We ended up staying home today as yesterday was so chaotic for Jacob and after last nights horrendous nights sleep I thought we better try and have a more settled day. We had a family roast dinner and as always Jacob shovelled away everything on his plate. The boy eats anything which is so amazing as a lot of kids who've had chemo can tend to become fussy eaters. Rich is an unbelievably fussy eater and I'll eat anything so I was determined for Jacob to be the same and enjoy his food. Plus it's an excuse for me to make more fancy stuff for us! Like we do most Sundays, we went to feed the ducks in the pond just up the road from our house. Jacob always tries to climb over the edge into the pond, so you have to have eyes in the back of your head as he's so quick now! 

He's gone to bed quite good so let's hope tonight is a better night!!! 

Snuggling Ralph.

Today was Ralph's last day with us! I'm sad to see him go! 

My little piggy.

The boys at the duck pond.

My world. 

<3

Fevers and Frozen.

So the post immunisation fever has reared it's ugly head over the last few days, at least that's what I'm hoping it is! Jacob started to get really grumpy on Wednesday so I got out my old pal the thermometer. It was like another part of my body when Jacob was having chemo, I would take his temperature every few hours and if he ever had a fever, it would be a trip straight upto our local hospital to have Jacob put on antibiotics for 3-10 days depending on what kind of infection he had. Thankfully this only happened once, and we stayed in for three nights. So when he came up at 38.2 degrees on Wednesday afternoon, it was calpol time! Besides being super grumpy, he had no other symptoms. Although he actually slept through the night on Tuesday and Wednesday which is a rarity in this house so I should have realised something wasn't right! Thursday morning his temperature was still around 38 and calpol didn't seem to be making a difference, I had read that this can happen 7-10 days after the MMR jab, but I still panic that it could be something else. My brother and Lou were meant to be looking after Jacob while I worked as Rich had to work Thursday too, but I called and said I wouldn't be in just in case! Plus he was so grumpy, I wouldn't expect anyone else to have to look after him while he's like that. And he only ever wants mummy anyways when he's not feeling great! So we spent the day watching Frozen, shock! I'm starting to get a bit worried though as one; it's making me excited for winter and snow, and two; I am developing a crush on the chiseled jawed Kristoff. I wonder if Jacob would appreciate watching The Notebook instead? Jacob has started to respond to things in the film, such as when the big marshmallow snowman growls and shouts and Anna, Kristoff and Olaf, he growls at the tv and shouts back. And I realise I'm talking as though everyone has seen the film, so if you haven't seen it, watch it. I've seen it 12 million times and I actually still enjoy it.

Jacob must have either been feeling better or 100 times worse last night because he was up literally all night crying. No amount of cuddles or calpol made him any better. I even resorted to bringing him into our bed which I try not to do, ever. And that didn't work. I ended up having to sleep sitting up next to his cot as everytime I went out of sight, he woke up going crazy. It's like he has a mum radar!! So to say I'm tired today is an understatement. Jacob however, had a 3 hour nap so he's feeling just fabulous and is all up for a party now. I really need to start drinking coffee. 

Fever= nappy day! 

I had to share this photo as I bought Jacob a cap the other day and he actually doesn't mind wearing it. Plus I think he looks ridiculously cool. If I may say so myself. 

They're so pleased to be going to Tesco...

xo