Hellooooooo! I'm back!
Warning, huge catch up post ...
OK, so it's taken me literally hours to read everything and try to catch up and I've probably forgotten most of it already.
News sorry to hear about your poorly girls, hope they are both on the mend now. Am extremely of your radio flyer truck. They are huge on the VW scene and we've wanted one for ages. Often see tiny newborns being pulled around shows in them all schnuggled up, so cute.
Dog I had one of those faint ebay lines that you could only see if you held it up to the light - she is 7 months old now!!!! Great news about Arlo's speech coming along!
All this DM stuff is doing my head in, have sussed a couple of the namechanges, but am non-the-wiser with others so bear with me. Bloody rag papers and reporters!
MissJ think I was in your area yesterday. We stopped on the way home to walk the dogs and have lunch at Llangorse lakes near Brecon then drove on to Hay on Wye where DH and the boys went shopping while I sat in the veedub with dd who was asleep. Then we had a tootle around the area before heading to the Malvern hills to walk the dogs again and have a picnic tea before heading home.
Holiday was good, we had great weather for all but the last two days, did a mix of beach stuff, dog walking and touristy stuff and managed not to get into fisticuffs with (although came close a couple of times - even mild mannered DH had to bite his tongue) our best friends partner who is not the easiest person to get along with.
DD was not at all right for the first week, kept refusing to feed off the right boob, was really restless and waking at night, then suddenly popped a bottom tooth overnight, followed by another the next night! I got mastitis the day after we arrived, probably due to the infrequent feeding and bottles she had to have on the journey there. Took two days to clear it with a mix of expressing, hot baths and feeding although it was on the side she refused to feed off so that didn't help much. Twas very painful indeed, but was grateful I didn't need antibiotics. Carried her in the moby a lot (including all the way to the top of a huge lighthouse that had over 200 steps!) and also in the karrimor framed back carrier. Moby was definitely the best as she completely flopped if she fell asleep in the karrimor. She loved the beach and ate plenty of sand!
Had a few stomach problems, but managed to slowly get back into eating again and am now pretty much back to normal. Came home to a letter from the GP saying they want me to arrange an appointment to discuss my test results.
DS2 was sick on the ferry on the way out and I was pretty bad myself but not actually sick.
We caught the tail end of Wednesday night's wild storm on the way back, which made the crossing the worst I've ever been on in 38 years of travelling. You could literally see the sea one minute then the sky the next out of the windows and as it was the small (supposedly) fast ferry we were tossed around, shaken and rattled beyond belief. DH and the boys took some stugeron anti-sickness pills, but poor ds1 was still copiously sick all over my best cardigan, his coat, his tshirt, his sweatshirt, his jeans, his shoes and the seat about 15 minutes before we docked. I had to grit my teeth and concentrate on the horizon to stop myself being ill so I could deal with the dcs. We ended up stopping overnight in a travelodge in St Clears just to get over the crossing! Never, never, never again! Definitely the overnight ferry and a cabin on the big ferry for us in future (at least you get your own ensuite to throw up in private that way )
While we were away, my mum had her laptop stolen, my sister had her bank account cleared of thousands of pounds and both my Mum and SD had swine flu!
Arrived home late on Friday night to find our landlady (who was arranging for the fenceline to be cleared and a fence to be put up between us and next door while we were away) had actually cleared the entire garden of everything, only one small greengage tree is left out of a garden that had several mature trees (including two damson trees which I used to climb as a child) and a thriving wildlife-full hedgerow. DS1 sobbed and sobbed when he saw it and I had to fight back tears myself as my childhood garden now looks like ground zero. They also didn't get round to fencing it, so we are without any hedging or fencing until next week, which is great with 3 dogs that need to go out regularly. I feel really exposed at the kitchen window now and daft as it is, I feel like crying every time I look outside.
Anyhoo, that's pretty much me. Good to be back - hope I haven't managed to miss anything drastic.