Toddling and ball play

Here are a few pics of our boy this week, lots of play when we get home from nursery!!

Treadmill 4 days in a row!!

Have done the treadmill every night for the last 4 days and am feeling leaner and combined with sensible diet have lost the two pounds I put on during the wedding marathon. Now if I could knock a couple more off to deal with the love handles I would be delighted. I think it helps that I spend the whole day rushing around and alot less time vegging in front of the telly – which was what I spent alot more time doing BT (before Ted). Now its a luxury to see a half hour re run of Sex in the City before getting to bed with a magazine.

I am sure it helps me handle stress better, its free and I am noticing my stamina is increasing quite quickly so its all good. I am also convinced that seeing the chiropractor is increasing my energy levels and improving my posture as I have definitely felt better and more like I want to excercise since I have been getting my neck and back sorted out, so thats a plus too.

I made an offer to the candidate I have been hoping to hire at work yesterday and she accepted – yay – so I now have both my team members recruited and so help is on its way – which is great news as I have so much I want to be doing and I haven’t been able to focus on any of the really interesting stuff yet – with two extra people I think we can really make some progress which is great. Now I just need to look at who is going to do what and make it clear who has accountability for the different areas.

T had a good day at nursery – he now stands and throws things out of the window which is fun for him but not so fun for the staff, but he is quite the little character which is cute. I was early to pick him up today, often I end up being the last Mum which makes me feel terrible – although he is at least not first in last out as most of the other littleuns are already there when he arrives, but it still feels bad when I collect him and hes the only one and the toys are tidied away. So I try every day to get there before that happens.

Ry is out with Mark tonight which is fine – they have not been out for a while so  its not an issue at all. I am off to bed shortly anyway.

Ry – aged one ….

Thank you Granny P – I can definitely see Teddy in these pics – especially in the body shap – all long and lean, but also in the posture and in the face.  Very cute.

Costs keep going up and up and up…

So far this year our joint account monthly cost has just kept going up and up and up, and the housekeeping is going up every month too. Its insane how fast the price of food, petrol, utilities, travel and everything is getting more and more expensive every week. Latest bug bear is that the insurance companies – who have nothing to do with the credit crunch have all put their policies up too. So the car insurance on both cars has increased by >£100 a year – we haven’t claimed, we haven’t got more penalties but they have decided to increase our premiums anyway – jumping on the bandwagon.

Then this months housekeeping – with 2 trips to weddings, hotels, travel, Teds party and playhouse, all our other little one year old friends, plus the normal food, petrol and other general costs of living (which seem to be goin up daily) – is ridiculous, so I have told R we need to reign in the spending for the next month or so. Especially since we have the remortgage of three of the company flats in September which is almost certainly going to require us to subsidise payments given current market conditions.

What happened – it all seems to be going abit pear shaped very quickly. R has a report from work which shows house prices are likely to go down by as much as 35% between now and 2010 – how depressing is that!! As long as we don’t have to sell any of the properties we will be fine with that and we arn’t planning to, but it has caused me to consider that for people living on a much tighter budget, with less contingency must be feeling the pinch quite badly. Doom and gloom from an economic standpoint. Still, we invested in our falts for the long term so thats what we are doing, and in the long term it will pay off. We have put Brighton on the market as its the least useful in terms of funding itself and is too far away to manage easily. R is looking at the figures to see what our minimum could be to break even. If we can’t get that we won’t sell it but its worth testing the water.

Childcare as well .. thats a new expense for us and its a biggie – I don’t see how a single parent with limited income could afford to pay a mortgage and living costs and day care, I am not sure I could make it work on my salary. Fortunately theres the two of us and between us we have it covered so thats ok. Saving is going to be tough over the next 2 years though, especially if we have to subsidise the company.

Work is going well though and I am loving my job – which is good because I need it!! I have my team recruited now (just about) – all women! thats the way it turned out, so hopefully we can really start to make some progress implementing the changes I am tasked with over the next few months.

Ted had his first visit to ladybirds this week and spent the whole time walking around and chatting with the older babies. Apparently he didn’t crawl at all because none of the other babies / toddlers in the new class crawl so he didn’t want to either. Bless him. He is doing brilliantly and is on the next menu too – lots more finger food and stuff to eat with a spoon. He is a thirsty boy too and drinks lots of water which I am sure he gets from me, I remember always being thirsty. I don’t give him drinks until he has finished his food though or he just drinks it all.

Back in the gym now – so far every day this week for 30 -45 mins after T goes to bed. I feel better for it and my fitness is improving and I am finding it helps me let go of the day and mentally unwind.

Well thats my news. Can’t belive petrol was 120p per gallon in BP this morning – or is that the cost per litre – must be gallon – see now even I can’t keep track. Middle of the week tomorrow…

Junes wedding marathon is over

We got back early afternoon having had a wonderful time in Selby at David and Kathryns wedding. Lovely ceremony, great reception, hog roast ..mmmmm crackling galore, Ted was a dream child, and we were home in time to get some grocveries, collect the dry cleaning, sort the laundry, have a jog on the treadmill and give Teddy a proper meal and normal bedtime.

We drove up on Friday which was fine – I had been dreading such a long car journey as jsut lately T has been kicking off even on the journey tonursery which is not more than 20 mins and this was going to be a minimum of 4 hours on the motorway, but he was surprisingly chilled out. I had a bag of tricks and it seemed to help for me to sit in the back with him to participate in the playing and to provide refreshments and read stories. He was hilarious with the food we had, I had some plain ham sandwich fingers for him, but he wanted the chicken caeser wrap and mini pork pie that Ry and I had so we all shared together.

We stopped halfway for a coffee and break from the car and then pressed on and arrived at 7sih. We went over to Robbs for some food and a drink and to meet some of the family and other people who were going to the wedding which was lovley and T launched his charm offensive being a cherub, smiling at everyone and generally being very happy. He especially warmed to a chap called Stan who was great company along with his whole family. In fact all the people we met were really nice.

T stayed up late and finally went to bed at about 10.45, but despite this he was still up at 0730 so we had an early breakfast on Saturday and then went back to sleep for an hour or so befire getting dressed up for the wedding. The weather was awful but it didn’t matter. The abbey was lovely – a beautiful building and Robbs sermon was really beautiful – especially so since he was marrying his son. After the ceremony it was off to a marquee at Cawood Castle for the reception. It was a shame about the weather as the coutry air theme would have worked so well outside but the marquee was decked out so beautifully and the hog roast soooooo tasty that it didn’t matter abit. With Irish dancing to round off the evening it was great fun – even Ry was doing a jig or two and Teddy loved it. Looking forward to Lis and Johns in July all the more now! Ted – again stayed up til 11 with no fuss and seemed to delight in making everyone laugh by smiling and giggling at all and sundry – he really is such a sunny child. He crashed the minute we put him in the car though and didn’t stir when we got him back and into his bag for bed. He was still up at 645, so early breakfast and departure. But he slept for the first part of the journey – as did Ry and then we played in the back from the halfway point to home.

It did highlight that one of the many benefits of having a baby is that we got back in time to settle in at home and get on top of things, whereas in uor previous life we would have been just getting up for breakfast at the time we were leaving, and would only hve left in time to get home for supper. Didn’t feel so great about that at 645, but feels good now that I can go to bed with everything done.

Following a load of pics from the weekend …

Well done Fran and Colin

Look at little Felix …..

can’t wait to take T over to meet him for tea and cakes once he has settled into being ‘out’ later in July maybe. He was born on 29th May and was 8plus pounds. Fran and Colin both fine

Kisses for Felix from all of us

How time flies

It seems to get harder and harder to find the time to post – which is a shame as I find it really cathartic – but I am now doing 45 minutes a night on the treadmill which eats into my blogging time. I am getting fitter though which is a plus and firming up some of the wobbly bits that are still hanging around since Ted was born.

Work is crazy busy and although I am back to full time hours and I work through lunch most days its difficult to stay on top of it all, and just the last couple of weeks losing my Friday to travel has meant no time to do laundry and shopping and so on. I get drawn into so many meetings and so many discussions about policy that it is a real challenge trying to actually deliver anything. Since there is alot that requires me to actually do things it is a pain having to spend so much time talking about things, and I am going to have to be more disciplined about that if I am going to make the job a sucess. My new Analyst starts next month so at least then I can delegate a bunch of things to her, and since she is so eminantly capable thats going to be a great help.

After this weekend though things should settle down abit as although we still have plans most weekends we are not going away and the activities are much more local which makes it easier – no packing, car journeys, etc.

T has been in great form, loving nursery and charming everyone. He is happy all day at the moment only cranking when tired and even then only til he gets some cuddles. He is on cows milk now at nursery and at home, and is moving to stage 3 meals so more finger food and chunky meals. He will also start to spend half an hour in the next class up each day to ease the transition.

Ry is also head down at work, he is enjoying biking in, and it means he is always home for bath and story which is great for me, him and T. He is out doing his run now which is also a good thing as it helps him relax and it means we are getting great value from the treadmill!

Following latest pics of our golden child :O)

Back to business

We are back. Ted had a lovely time at Grannys and is now ruling the roost at nursery. Ry scooted off to work this morning on his motorbike from Godalming and got into work fine. I have been working from home and am just enjoying a quick tea break before getting back to it for 40 mins before I go and get Ted. At least te laundry is done and we have a few groceries as I nipped into M&S on the way back from dropping him off this morning. I probably got more done at home in less hours on account of how there was noone dropping by the desk to winge about how my processes are onerous, or how stupid it is that something has to be done, and of course no loitering by the coffee machine chit chatting either.

Planning some gym time later when T has gone to bed. Also need to do all thank you e-cards for his pressies and start to think about what needs to be done before this weekends wedding in York.

Gens wedding was lovely and wentoff without a hitch – it even stayed dry despite terrible forecast so that was great. Ry and I enjoyed being away, alone for a couple of nights and did alot of sleeping and reading which was wonderful. But we missed our little man too and were really pleased to see him this morning. He just took it in his stride and acted as if we had never been away – very nonchalent – so he must have been very relaxed at Grannys which is good to know.

Now its back to balancing home, work, baby and me time and probably failing badly – at least its not long now til our holiday (only about 2 months!!) but this little taster of a long weekend in france has wet the appetite for what the next next will be like.

No time – just wanted to share our little gurner

WIll try and post before we go to France but wanted to share these little gems…

Ted was making all his best faces in cafe nero the other day – I am quite sure people thought we mist be raising a devil child with some of the faces he was pulling. He thinks its hilarious – probably because it always get a reaction!

Still gorgeous – even when being a little devil

We made it

to the end of a stressful and difficult week sorting everything out with the various properties, and tomorrow we can have a nice family day out at Nathans Christening. We now have the Wallington property redectorated and relet with the new tenant moving in tonight. We have sorted out the bits of work at Brighton which needed doing before we get it on the market. We have instructed the agent and informed the tenant that we are going to sell, and its all done before we have the two upcoming busy weekends where we would not have been able to do anything so its good to have it all sorted out so we can enjoy our other various events.

Ted has been a little gem putting up with being dragged from pillar to post, and at least we made it toswimming this morning and Islas 1st birthday party this afternoon so he got to have some fun.

Bedtime already – next weekend we will at least have some time for R&R