Metal Mummy » Summer

The End of Summer

Hannah — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:52:11 +0000

It seems like lately, despite it still being August, the weather has completely gone to pop. Where’s the sunshine gone? Does the weather not realise I have a toddler to entertain, and the inside of these 4 walls are not that entertaining once you’ve spent a few days inside them? Luckily, today seems marginally better (although rain is forecast at some point this afternoon.) I’m hoping I can cram in a quick visit to the park and the shops before the skies open. Even though I am the new owner of a Jack in a Pack, I don’t really want to get stuck in a downpour. But, Freyja needs to get out the house as much as I do, so we’re going.

Last week, we got stuck in the rain (again) after walking 3 miles (!) to the Blue Reef Aquarium on the seafront. We met up with a friend of ours and her scrumptious little boy, and wandered down to see all the fishies and the octopus (who hid) and the otters (who slept). Freyja really enjoyed it down there, wasn’t scared by the sharks and rays at all – in fact, she tried to climb into the tanks with them! On the way out, I bought her a very cool purple and leopard print snake thing I saw, and went for a well-earned brew, before embarking on the 3 mile trip back – That was when we got stuck in it. Luckily, it wasn’t too heavy and didn’t last too long, but my trousers were a bit soggy by the time I got home.

At the weekend, a couple of Freyja’s baby friends had their 1st birthdays – one at home, and one in a restaurant, so we went out for those. I’ve decided I don’t like birthday parties very much. They make you want MORE toys for your own little one.

Once home, I got completely stuck into my latest read – “One Day” by David Nicholls. It’s not usually the kind of book I go for, but I have to say it was ruddy excellent.

Freyja’s being a bit up and down at the moment. Four pre-molars have decided to emerge in the space of a week or so, so she’s having bouts of grumpiness because of the teething. All in all, she’s doing fabulously, and getting more crazy and daft by the day. She’s a superstar.

Think I may enrol in the local library today – it’s only down the road, and on the way to the park, so I may pop in. The only reason why I haven’t done so before now is a little bit silly – it’s because the building doesn’t have automatic doors, and I am completely useless when it comes to steering a push chair through a non-automatic door. Silly I know. Maybe today is the day for me to overcome my stupid phobia.

Where Does the Time Go?

Hannah — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:32:44 +0000

It only feels like yesterday that Freyja was too small to fit in her Newborn clothes. Yet, here I am, packing them away into one of them funky vacuum bags, because she’s too big for them! She’s in the 0-3 months clothes now – most fit her fine, some are a little big for her at the moment. So, hopefully, she still has plenty of wear from them yet. The sizing of the things just baffle me though. It depends what shop you buy them from – some 0-3 month clothes fit up to 12lb babies, some up to 14lb, some 15lb. It’s very odd.

We attempted to weigh her on the bathroom scales yesterday (she will be weighed properly on Wednesday at her 12 week jabs – not looking forward to those!), but I wanted to see how close we could get accuracy wise using the bog standard scales at home. They say that she’s 12lb, which is about right.

The other thing I want to quickly write about is baby swimwear – it’s CRAP! We went into town yesterday to try and find a UV suit for her, so that she won’t be confined to the shade when we go to France. They don’t do UV suits in her age group. Which is understandable, seeing as she won’t be able to run around in the sun anyway, and should be with us in the shade all the time. But what if we want to quickly introduce her to the pool? They do swimming costumes for her age group (very cute btw), but they don’t protect her as much as I’d like. And we can’t just slap on some suncream because of her delicate baby skin, which, to make matters worse, I have the gut feeling is like mine. If this is the case, she will have endless trouble trying to find a suncream which doesn’t bring her out in heat rashes. The only allegedly baby-friendly suncream I have seen is sun block, but if she does have skin like mine, it won’t be any good for her. I recommend Piz Buin Allergy by the way – if your skin hates sun block/sun cream like mine does!

So the plan is to keep her in the shade at all times. She can have a quick introduction to the pool, at like 8am or something, so that the sun isn’t too high in the sky and the heat is bearable. Other than that, she’s being a recluse with me!

An Afternoon at Castlefields

Hannah — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:31:49 +0000

I haven’t written for a while. I really need to pull my finger out and update this more often! Another week has passed – it’s been quite a difficult one in comparison to some, and I’m blaming the excruciatingly hot weather. Everybody else seems to love these temperatures, but I don’t. And it seems that Freyja doesn’t like them either, so has decided to not nap at all during the days for a week. This week has had some sort of a British Heatwave, reaching temperatures of 30 at some points, which, in comparison to some parts of the world, is pathetic, but to me, is VILE. I like temperatures that hover around the 20 mark, and can deal with temperatures higher than that, as long as there’s a nice breeze to go with it. But, this week, there’s been no breeze, and high humidity. Not nice.

We did manage to get out and enjoy the sunshine though last weekend. It was James’ birthday, so we decided to pop down to Castlefields in Southsea, as there was some sort of event happening, to celebrate 500 years since Henry VII’s coronation. I didn’t personally go for this, I was just happy for us to go out as a family, catch up with friends and show off our gorgeous daughter! We arrived, in the blistering heat, only to find that we had forgotten her sunhat. Stupid buggers. So I crafted a makeshift bandana out of her (clean) muslin. Personally, I think it looked awesome! She suits bandanas, and makes a very cute pirate.

It was a lovely afternoon. And I think James had a nice relaxing birthday. I cooked him a three course meal, only to find that if I want to make a cake that rises, I should really use self-raising flour. Numpty. So the third course ended up being a blob of ice cream. But he said he enjoyed it nevertheless.

This weekend involves a visit to Mothercare to try and find a UV suit. We’re going to the south of France next weekend, so we need to get something that will cover Freyja up and keep her skin nice and healthy!