"Hello Sweetheart!"

"Does she like bugs?" I got asked when I picked J.R up from school today.

"What, like, real ones?" I replied. "Yeah," says the member of staff "It's just that we were handling bugs today and she seems to really like them..."

But not just any bugs, oh no. They were Locusts. Eugh! I hid my squeamishness with a smile as J.R ran over to the carpet and brought me over a small pop up tidy, the inside crawling with Locusts large and small. Thank god it had a lid, and that that lid was zipped shut... or i'd have been outta there so fast!

Apparently she loved handling them, I even saw a brilliant photo of it on their camera. She had the hugest one sitting in her hand and according to the staff even started talking to it, "Aww hello sweetheart!" she said.

Cannot Believe It

I am now into my third week of being ill with Gastroenteritis (or at least that's what they think it is) and since i'm not getting any better i'm having investigations done. This will determine which bacteria are causing the infection and i'll be given the appropriate medication.

I feel totally drained. I'm starving and i'd eat pretty much anything right now, but everytime I eat something it's a gamble...most of the time it worsens my symptoms.

I'm thoroughly fed up with all the pain and discomfort, I just want to be well again.

A Night Out For Two

As if we didn't have enough going on this week, Daddy came in from work tonight and told me he had a job for me: Be feeling better by the weekend 'cos he's taking me out! I tried to hide my excitement *plays it cool* "What brought this on then?" I asked him. He explained that he'd done a lot of thinking - trust me it's a long story - and said felt bad getting all dressed up in front of me on a saturday just to go out with the boys etc. So to make up for it, we have a date saturday night. Woohoo! Dinner and a movie, me likey.

My next job is to choose which movie I wanna see...better get on ;)

Swine Flu Vaccine Made Available To Children

The swine flu vaccination programme began in the UK in October 2009, with the highest-risk groups being offered the vaccine first.

They were:

Babies over 6 months - adults up to 65 years old in the seasonal flu vaccine 'at-risk' groups. Pregnant women. People who live with someone whose immune system is compromised (e.g people with cancer). And now, young children aged between 6 months and 5 years.

*Healthy people aged over 65 were not a priority group as they appeared to have some natural immunity to the swine flu virus.

Babies under 6 months were not vaccinated because the flu vaccines do not produce enough of an immune response in them to provide any sort of protection.

There was a lot of debate between parents as to whether or not their children should have the Swine Flu vaccine. To be honest, when I first heard the announcement on the radio that it was now being offered to young children I jumped at the idea and made the girls appointments asap.

A lot of people were worried about the vaccine's side effects, which we were told would mirror some symptoms of seasonal flu.. but side effects have varied from person to person.

Some parents say their child had a bit of a fever the evening of their jab, but that was soon rectified with a dose of Calpol.

While others claim their child became full-on ill. Fever, upset stomach, coughing and vomiting for days..but these cases have been few and far between.

Our girls had their jabs yesterday - and had no reaction to the vaccine whatsoever. Not even a fever. Nothing. And regardless of whether or not side effects had occured, I stand by my decision to have my girls recieve the vaccine. It puts my mind at rest to know that now they are protected.

We're Back!

Here's what's been going on over the last month...

Progress

Things have been moving fast round here making 2010 quite a good year for us so far, let me explain what I mean: I made a little over £60 in January simply selling the girls old baby things - toys, clothes etc. And these were all things I struggled to sell last year when I first came up with the idea. I'd listed most things twice, on both eBay and local parenting websites, but with no luck until now!

And speaking of progress: J.R is officially in a booster seat. No more BABY CAR SEAT... "Princess seat" now lol

And E.M is no longer using the buggy, she walks everywhere. I started trying to phase out the buggy last year (a little unsuccessfully I might add) it's just too easy to say "I need to bring the buggy 'cos I have a lot of shopping to do!" But things are different now. My E.M has made every journey without a buggy for the best part of four weeks now, and I intend to keep it that way!

Changes

I was writing this when I suddenly realised, it's nearly our blog's 1st birthday!

How time flies eh? I started up The Girls At Number 64 in mid February 2009 in the style of an online diary - but it's changed since then. The things I write about, my general blogging style and even the blog design has changed several times in the last year! All for the better I hope, but us mum bloggers are always learning aren't we. Thank you to our readers who stuck with us all this time, it means a lot, I love being able to share with you the exciting and always surprising journey that is, parenting!

Bye Bye For A While

Just wanted to let you know i'll be leaving blogging world for a while...Nothing's wrong - just too many things happening at once round here! And it's hard to write quality posts when you're so shattered at the end of the day. I just need a few weeks to recoup, so i'll see you this time next month.

Take care x

Words Of Wisdom

Good things come to those who wait...

Who made that one up?

Cos they couldn't have been more right!

Our First Ever Snowman!

A momentous occasion: Our first snowman.

With two button eyes and a carrot nose, black scarf and a bowler hat. Bless him. AND we made him together, as a family :)

Do I have to? :(

Having just spent like an entire day in my pyjamas recovering from an evil hangover which actually forced me to take daytime naps - and I DON'T take naps - and drink almost an entire bottle of orange squash...

I do actually have to get up. Properly.

And get dressed. Properly.

Oh...that's twice as difficult.

Can't believe all that NYE drinking has worn me out. Especially when Daddy is perfectly fine, he spent the day looking after ME!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Notice me almost in tears with laughter - and this photo was taken at 1:06am!

Normally I don't look forward to the whole New Years Eve thing. Since it usually just involves going to bed and being woken up by hundreds of fireworks, but this year we were invited to a party - oh yes.

This will only be the 2nd one i've been to 'cos like I said, not a big fan! And it was at Daddy's parents' house, so we could all go together.

Fancy dress (But of course!) and they installed a rain-proof sheet between the house and the side fence, with two patio heaters just so we could mingle outside too WITHOUT the risk of getting soaked!

Big party it was, lots of drink, friends, family, neighbours etc. I let the girls choose what they each wanted to wear. J.R chose her green Tinkerbell outfit with wings and E.M chose to wear another Halloween costume (no surprise there then.) Daddy went as a priest and I went as Amy Winehouse - what a combination! Good it was, very 'eventful'.

The girls really surprised us though. Where J.R is normally the one craving attention, she went quiet. Could barely stand to be away from me. And E.M, yes Baby E.M, did all the talking. And she did not stop. She was chatting away to everyone - about everything. These were people she had never even met before...Daddy and I were very impressed.

Oh and did they make it to midnight? Nah, we took them up at about half eleven :)

Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

We're waiting in the queue at Morrisons. E.M is sitting in the buggy whinging, complaining and generally being miserable, minding her sister's behaviour and shouting at her for walking away. I've already told her off several times and she's wearing me down. J.R to E.M:

"Do you WANT to go to bed?"

E.M "No."

"Then STOP SHOUTING at me and leave me ALONE or Mummy will put you to bed!"

Cue sniggers from the customers around us...

Boxing Day

We had such a busy day yesterday that today we actually lazed about in our pj's until midday, all four of us! Then to add to a perfectly easy going day (for me anyway) Daddy made us all a nice lunch :)

The house is cluttered with presents everywhere, there is a big pile of brand new clothes for the girls sitting on the table, bathtime goodies on the hall table and new pyjamas on the stairs ready to go up but no-one's had a minute to spare!

And to top it all off, two gift bags choc full of the girls' sweets and treats sitting in the living room - talk about temptation!!

I will get it tidy in here, no...WE will get it tidy in here. All it needs is a good blitz... but we're all so busy chilling.

Oh and the dishes need doing now too.

Alright, i'm going.

Making: Easy Festive Wreath

A really easy-to-make festive wreath. Which as E.M demonstrates, is so easy to make it can even be made by a 2 year old.

You will need: 1 paper plate, some white paper, green paint, PVA glue, red tissue paper and scissors.

Draw some leaves on the white paper, paint them green and leave them to dry.

Cut the centre from a paper plate - this forms the base of your wreath shape. (Of course the adult has to do this.)

When the 'leaves' are completely dry, cut them out and glue them to the paper plate base.

Tear up the red tissue paper and scrunch into little balls for berries.

Glue the 'berries' to the wreath. Messy this bit.

And there you have it - Easy Festive Wreath! My E.M is so proud of hers...i've put it on the wall and she returns to admire it every once in a while :)

Tuesday's Fly On The Wall

Having just arrived home from a three hour shopping spree, we all pile out of the taxi and J.R turns to me and says:

"Mummy, I had a GOOD day today."

Aww how nice is that!

As One Of My Facebook Friends Put It...

"If this country was a business it would be constantly in liquidation.

The slightest bit of SNOW and it causes chaos!

The slightest ray of SUNSHINE and we have a water shortage!!

The slightest dribble of RAIN and we are flooded!!!"

All Dressed In White...Still

Despite all the blinding sunshine we're having, the snow isn't melting.

Our garden is still under a blanket of white, and although most of the main roads are back to normal again, the side roads are still dangerous.

Just this morning we saw two cars sitting at the bottom of the hill, hazard lights flashing, one had gone down the hill too fast and tried to turn left at the bottom - unsuccessfully - she ended up smashing into the car waiting at the junction instead. Daddy's been driving everywhere very slowly, not taking any chances.

You're not in a hurry, what's the point? Better to be safe than sorry. We already had two near misses on friday, when we went shopping. Not good.

Read what happened on Friday 18th December, if you haven't already.

It's Snowing!!

It seems the snow was waiting for the holiday's to begin! I woke up at 4am, desperately needing some cough medicine, and spotted the snow falling outside. J.R heard my footsteps on the stairs and asked me for a drink, lucky thing got to see the snow before her little sister. I pushed their bedroom curtain aside and lifted her up onto the window sill to get a better look. She got so excited. "It's a snow! Lots and lots and!" Indeed.

The snow was falling pretty fast. And now our garden has disappeared under a blanket of white. It's freezing, but it does look lovely.

Last Minute Xmas Shopping

Last minute shopping today, this is the last chance we'll have to get out and do any bulky shopping with daddy before christmas day. But despite the crowds it was surprisingly easy to get what we wanted. I've found if you do all the 'thinking' at home and put your final choices on paper, you can't go wrong!

Anything I think of later i'll have to manage on my own with the girls, and nothing is gonna be easy in this weather... The traffic is slow cos the roads are still hazardous, we ourselves had 2 near-misses in the car this afternoon. First one was coming down a very slight incline towards the junction at the level crossing, Daddy braked but the wheels crunched on the ice and the car kept moving. We were sliding slowly, but because of the traffic, the first car in the queue was unable to move back and Daddy had to swerve so as not to clip his headlights. No damage done.

The second instance was in the multi storey car park, we were on the 4th level and there weren't any cars around. We approached the down ramp slowly but on turning right (to go down it) the wheels crunched and slid on the ice again, meaning we slid left - towards the barriers. SO CLOSE to clipping the front of the car on the corner of the brick wall! But once again Daddy managed to steer us out of trouble and thankfully we got home safe.

Snow Forecast?

This week? We'll see.

But this is what we've woken up to this morning...

Ok so not really snow, more a light frosting LOL

But one thing's for sure, it's REALLY chilly!

The bookies have started putting the odds on for a white Christmas

- Now wouldn't that be nice :)

The Holidays Officially Begin!

Today the holidays officially begin for us. I had J.R's little Christmas Party to go to. It looked quite fun - they had a huge bouncy castle, which she's been looking forward to attacking all week - it's always nice to see her having a good time. Brought with us a punnet of seedless grapes and two boxes of chocolate covered cupcakes. Oh, and 19 mini christmas cards we spent most of last night writing out to friends J.R can remember the names of!

I am such a procrastinator, I always wait until the last possible minute to do cards and Christmas shopping, Lord knows as much as I enjoy shopping, I don't really enjoy the 'Christmas Shop'. But the four of us are heading off into town tomorrow either way, i'm sure it'll be fine!

Nativity Show @ Pre-School

We were so proud of our little Diva today, she did really well. Singing along she was, occasionally glancing at me and Daddy to make sure we're watching, but then lowering her head in embarassment!

When the children first came out and climbed the steps onto the stage, J.R saw us sitting in the second row and ran over babbling in excitement, and was equally disappointed when we told her to join the rest of the children! She went into a bit of a sympathy cry, bless her. (We just laughed it off!)

But she was fine after that, this is her second christmas at the pre-school, and just like last year they made up DVD's of the play and photos of the children all dressed up in their nativity costumes. What was new this year is they also made up a couple of photo baubles - I bought the lot. I love her professional photo, J.R was an angel again and although both this and last years photos are nice, this time she is smiling at least :)

This is gonna be the last christmas she spends at this school.

Next September she starts junior school... Where has the time gone?