A Matter of Choice

This weeks  Gallery  prompt is Emotions . They have also joined forces with the Writing workshop at  Sleep is for the weak  something which as yet I've not been brave enough to attempt! For years I've wanted to swim with dolphins, I can't remember when I first realised it was something you could do, it was certainly before going to the Caribbean for a holiday rather than the "Med" seemed like an option open to "normal" people   We went to Mexico for our honeymoon in 2004 and one of the organised trips you could go on was so swim with the dolphins. It was an amazing experience. The part I was most looking forward to was the bit where the dolphins pull you through the water whilst you are holding onto their fins, everyone lines up on the floating platform and one by one you enter the water so the dolphins can take you the middle of the water.  Once everyone is in the centre they have a play, the trainers get them to jump and swim amongst everyone, ...

Dear Weather, I know I've given you a hard time for years, you've been too cold, too wet, too windy and generally rubbish and unpredictable to me for years in the UK. I don't mean to complain now but I'm really  trying to get used to this hot sunny stuff which I've found out means it's summer. I'm really hot, but it's all good honest and I'd rather it this way, just maybe could you share it about a bit and send some to England, there's more than enough here and perhaps we could share? from a slightly sweaty Emma Dear Leo, Well done little man for learning to say "ta" it's adorable and very polite, especially as you are doing it unprompted when given things now. I think you are going to be walking soon too as you are really starting to get the hang of "cruising" along the sofa! From your loving Mummy. Dear AJ, Thank you, for working so hard to look after us and for wanting to move to Cyprus. I admire you for be...

This weeks Gallery prompt from  Tara  is  Creatures.  This is Ellie our dog that we had to sadly find a new home for last October just before we moved, being mainly black she did not do well in the heat, especially as she always insisted on sunbathing until you could hardly touch her coat! Ellie came to us from a dog disliking  friend of mine who had been persuaded to re-home her by her kids in a moment of weakness, it turned out that the kids were also non-fussed about her and eventually they all decided she had to go. I have grown up with dogs and AJ had always wanted one so she was a welcome addition to our family in 2003. She is a lovely friendly mad thing, always nicknamed "The Puppy" despite being about 10 years old due to her excitement and energy for everything. I've been asked since if I know how she is doing in her new home, she has gone to a friend of a friend up in Cambridge, apart from hearing that she settled in well I have...

We live on the east coast of Cyprus, in Derynia almost on the  Green line  which divides the Republic of Cyprus (South) from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. I don't wish to enter into the politics of the island, the invasion in 1974 is still very recent to most Cypriots and I don't know enough about it to be able to get involved in any kind of debate. (You can read more about it  here , should you wish to know more) Our apartment overlooks  Varosha , the 'Ghost town' of Cyprus, I've had many a walk with the little dude around the village since arriving here, not so much now - it's just too hot to go out walking with him strapped into his buggy now. Here are some photos from my springtime walks - note the lovely greenery, long gone now with the arrival of the hot summer. One of the UN checkpoints, as far as you can go in Derynia. 75% of the village is in the buffer zone.  Looking into the buffer zone, note the b...

The thing I miss the most I didn't even use in the UK. For years I had planned and pictured life with a baby and a big part of that picture was Mother and baby groups and various activities. Don't get me wrong I am not the "pushy mother" type - I'm just the organised mother type who likes a but of structure to my week! When Leo was born I looked up all that was available, most things at the time he was too young for, and then at 6 months we moved. I could have gone to "Baby bounce and Rhyme time", Music groups, baby sing and sign, Mother and baby meets, baby sensory....the list is endless. After hours of trawling the internet I eventually found one, yep just one baby group here.Jingle Jangles - a music group for 6months to 3 years. I joined in March and loved it, problem is at 35 euro a month for an hour a week now we have more month than money (more musing about that later!) it's an activity I cannot justify doing. It is a great group and I met ...

Happy father's day Dadad! (in case you are wondering that's how Leo says it, I haven't got a typing problem!) This year is AJ's second father's day, last year Leo was only a few weeks old. My present to him was a "Daddy Cool" t-shirt and a phot keyring with this picture in it.  This year I was brave (well, I was talked into it by a friend) and let Leo loose with some paints and we created a card and a desk sign for him. It was very successful actually, no paint was eaten, and we ended up not that  covered in it, well apart from a couple of purple highlights in Leo's hair.  Here is the finished result....

Today would have been my brother Scott's 34th birthday, I never met him as he was born on 18th June 1976 too early and only lived for 3 hours. As a young child I moaned at my mother for the fact I was an only child and was the only one of my friends not to have a brother or sister, I can't imagine that must have been easy for her to hear. I was still young when she told me about Scott and some years later she had his birth certificate framed and displayed alongside our family photos so he is still a part of our family. I told my Mum that everything happens for a reason (very philosophical of me at a young age!) and that had he survived I wouldn't be here. There would only be 16 months between us and as she didn't fall pregnant easily with me I think that she would have left a longer gap before really  trying for number 2 (especially having one myself now!) I don't doubt that given the choice she would have had more than one child but the second child would have ...

This week's prompt from  The Gallery  is Motherhood. It's taken me a couple of days to think about this one and even still I don't feel there are the right words to describe what motherhood means to me, I could come up with many different words but I don't feel I would have done it justice. Looking through my pictures, (and that takes a couple of days!) I was having a hard time deciding, until that is I came across this one. During my pregnancy I had planned to breastfeed, I had a couple of bottles which I planned to use after a while with expressed milk, and had NO formula (hence the  midnight dash to buy formula ) but breast feeding didn't happen. I decided before Leo's birth that I wouldn't beat myself up about it if it wasn't working for us and apart from a slight hormonal wobble I didn't. Obviously breast milk is the "ideal" as it's designed for the purpose but I have a healthy happy little boy who doesn't seem to be dis...

Ok, I'm going public... I have a love of really bad music, not just a bit rubbish but really bad. I even know the songs are bad and in the rare event someone agrees with me and says it's good I have to disagree with them an point out that it is actually terrible but for some reason I  still like it. AJ says I have a bad music gene in me! So imagine my delight on seeing this post by Emily O over at Babyrambles I like three of her five, and I'd never heard of one! (to see her five click here Five songs I shouldn't like but do) So I thought I'd share with the world some of the songs I hate to love, what's quite depressing is the fact that I've been thinking about this for a couple of days - there's a lot of terrible music to choose from don'tcha know. In no particular order Buck Fizz, Making your Mind Up I remember dancing around my front room to this at the time, I was only four though so it was cute rather than worrying, whenever I hea...

Some weeks ago Tara at  Sticky Fingers  started a weekly photo showcase and with my love of pictures I though it would suit me down to the ground.  Here in her words is what it's all about..... The Gallery If you're new to The Gallery, here's the brief: I will give you a prompt, an idea, a notion and you go out and take a photograph using that prompt. Or just use a photo you already have. The prompt could be one word, an object, an idea, a phrase, anything, and you have to post a picture which you feel represents that prompt. Post it on your blog and write about it. That's it. This week's theme is Still life and I thought with my weather obsession this would be perfect. This was taken this afternoon, it's been about this temperature for a while and I love it! It's great to know that it's summer, and it will be summer for months. I know in England we all moan about the weather but I hated it, really hated it.  I'd be so confused on a hot su...

It's been a long week this week, one which started off by my discovery that there was more month than money left in the bank, not great two days before a party! Fortunately we were saved by a good friend of ours and cake ingredients, jelly and beer (well, if you're going to be outnumbered by toddlers you may as well have a drink or three!) were purchased and all was well. The party went very well, the birthday boy seemed to enjoy himself and in fact all the kids seemed to play very nicely. He ate loads of food, and ended up wearing lots too! Then happily crawled around playing with his friends and lots of new toys. It was Sunday that it all went downhill, after a nice family afternoon round the pool Leo woke from a nap feeling very hot and was not  a happy bunny. I ended up being up most of Sunday night with him. He woke about every 10 - 20 minutes, despite being "calpol'ed up to his eyeballs and with a combination of air con and fan near his cot. Monday ...

Now that Leo has turned one I find myself looking back to his first few weeks with us, it was a surreal time, wonderful, tiring, amazing and much more that I could never find words to describe properly. I was told over and over to really cherish the early days as they go so fast, sounds like a cliché but for good reason. So I did. I remember leaving the hospital, walking slowly and painfully down the corridors to the car park, AJ carrying Leo in his black and yellow car seat. I think it was quite a hot day and I was unsure how to dress Leo, all the babies seemed so wrapped up and I felt it was too much but didn't know what to do, a dilemma that stayed with me for most of his first year actually especially arriving in Cyprus where the local babies are often still wearing coats and its over 30degrees. I had planned to breastfeed, however it didn't end up happening (I'm not having the breast versus formula debate now, I may come back to it if the mood take...

Happy Birthday Leonidas, You are one whole year old today! I don't know where that little baby (you were never tiny being born weighing 9lb 9oz) went, you were born with a mop of dark hair which disappeared as you rubbed your head on the cot every night, in fact I used to have to hold your little hands onto your chest to stop you fussing with your head. Your hair came back much lighter and now we spend every day in the sun you are going a lovely shade of blonde. You still have "happy feet" you used to lie on your playmat and kick your feet around with such enthusiasm, this has now been replaced by your foot clapping that you love so much - and making "sand angels" with your feet in the sand. You love to talk, (you definitely got that from me) you say Mum mum a lot but I'm not entirley sure it is directed at me. Your first sound was Daddaddad but you often forget to say that for several days at a time. The saying has stuck and I think your Daddy will b...

I feel have have officially joined the blogging world by being tagged  in my first  meme ,  What's In Your Bag?   So, thanks to  rock and roll mummy  I now feel like a propper blogger!    Before we delve in, I just feel the need to explain the bag.... while pregnant I realised that I rarely carried a bag so could justify having a posh changing bag as it would be also my handbag for quite a while. Although realised that if I had a pink changing bag or suchlike it would lessen the likelihood of AJ taking said bag to change litte'un. I brought a lovely changing bag with matching bottle bag  which I used for all of a week before I realised how annoying it was with straps that wouldn't stay on your shoulder or go over the buggy, as a temporary measure I started using the free boots bag that everyone gets with the nappies.... 1 year on and guess what? Yep still using the freebie bag, although being out here I've ...

Wow, we've been in our new home 6 months already! Time confuses me, how can it seem that we've been here forever as well as feeling like it's happened in the blink of an eye? It doesn't really feel like 6 months since I've not seen people I saw every week but I can hardly seem to remember being anywhere other than here! I love it here, both our home and our adopted country. It took me longer than AJ to get it, it was a bigger change for me though once he started work. I went from being surrounded by people to help with Leo and friends I could ring and visit when needed, to having no car, no friends nearby and dealing with a baby for the first time on my own in a country I'd hardly spent any time in. AJ on the other hand was going to work and playing pool on a Wednesday with the boys and living in his own place for the first time in nearly two years. I did have a few low days, no regrets though even at the time, I knew I had to give it time but the days can ...

I really don't want to forget Leo's first few weeks but already they are hazy, saying that I think they were probably hazy at the time! Yet again I listened to the advice of people telling me to savour the early days and just like my wedding day, and last weeks of pregnancy I am glad that I did. I do feel that I need to record them in some way so here goes.... Leo was born at 11.30am on May 29th, AJ was reluctantly at the birth, a fact that I thought he would be grateful for afterwards...NOPE! If we ever have any more then I know there is absolutely no chance of Daddy being present! In the end it was an assisted delivery with Leo needing some encouragement in the form of ventouse, not that it was Leo's fault - I only really got the hang of how to push very close to the end and by then it was 12 hours in and they needed to help. Looking back now it seems almost like it all happened to someone else, as he was born the midwife took him to be cleaned up, something I had asked ...

Something you should know about me and AJ....... we don't do late! It is one of my biggest pet hates! I feel at this point I must also add that many people told me to wait until I had a baby, then I would change....NOPE, still don't do late! I get ready earlier! Now I admit there have been times where I have been late, due to unforeseen puking or nappy incidents but nothing that a text or phone call apology doesn't cover! Sorry, I digress..... back to my story. Leonidas (or Bob as he was known at the time!) was due to make his appearance on May 16th 2009, now despite reading and hearing time and time again that first babies are usually late I was completely convinced that this did not apply to us! I found out that 38 weeks (not 40) is classed as full term so a baby born at this time is not early, therefore was expecting an arrival any time from the start of May. I was asked a lot towards the end if I was getting fed up, I really wasn't... I was getting a little unc...

Oooh, what a big decision, what to name your baby! So many things to think about.... what do you like, what does the hubby think? Do you both agree!, does it go with your surname, what can it be shortened to, what will it sound like on an adult! I'm not brilliant with decisions at the best of times, you know, what shall I have for dinner, what do I want to wear today! One day before I was even pregnant AJ annouced that if he had a son he'd like to call him Leonidas, I believe I wasn't too impressed at the time! He had just watched the film "300" with Gerard Butler and not only that had always been a fan of Greek Mythology and suchlike. I thought no more of it really as it was not a revlevant converstaion being that we had no baby on the way The conversation obviously came up again once we found out we were having a boy..... and after MUCH debate we did decide on Leonidas. It grew on me so much but I was still worried about having an "unusual...

I never realised how much of a reaction you can get when you answer a simple question, a question that everybody asks, I'd asked it previously, it's the natural follow up to... When are you due?, Is it your first? and sometimes comments such as Aren't you big? Are you sure there's only one in there? Yep, you must have guessed... are you going to find out what you're having? I had always assumed I would probably find out as soon as I got the opportunity unless AJ really didn't want to and then I might have been persuaded otherwise, but I'm not good with suspense! However he definitely wanted to know, and even said he would try and find out and not tell me if I didn't want to know! After posting my first scan picture on Facebook and commenting we would find out at the next scan I was surprised to see the replies saying I shouldn't find out. I had similar reactions in "real life".... apparently it would be something I'd really regret and ...

Perfect pregnancy or good old rose tinted glasses? I feel I was very lucky with my pregnancy compared to so many people I had such an easy time, I was never actually sick just felt a bit queasy for a few weeks the main downfall of that is now the smell of ginger ale makes me feel sick! I had no dramas at all and it generally went very well. The early days where no-one knew where very surreal, as you could possibly guess I'm not good with keeping my life private! I totally understand why people wait until the scan to go public but 3 months.....was never going to happen! Told both sets of parents, so then obviously my sis-in-law. Best friends... and work (a small office of 3 of us) They all know me so well so even if anything had gone wrong I would have had to tell them all anyway. All through my pregnancy I made an effort to appreciate each moment, obviously I didn't actually do that as I'm sure AJ will confirm! However I generally loved it and even with the aches and pains...