Last week

Last week was so horrendous and heartbreaking. Every morning when I dropped Daniel off, he cried so badly that I actually broke down on the third morning when I put him down in the nursery. It was so heartbreaking to see him waving his little hands so frantically and desperately to me and what I can do was just walking away. He was probably wondering why Mummy abandoned him in such a stranger place; First day he scratched himself very badly and didn't eat much, second day Terry went to work after loam specially to make sure Daniel had a short day at nursery as it was his one year birthday. Every afternoon when I finished work I drove at 80m/h whenever the traffic allowed, which was out of my character, just to be home a little bit earlier so I can enjoy a bit play time with Daniel before putting him to sleep… everyday when I saw him, he didn't smile to me like he used to do as if he was cross with me… I felt so guilty. Daniel only came back to normal after we spent the weekend down south to see his ground parents and two sisters. We drove down Southampton on Friday morning, arrived Marwell Zoo hotel just after lunch time. Me and Daniel was waiting at the reception of the while Terry went to pick up the girls. We spent the Friday afternoon in the Marwell Zoo. Daniel was a bit happier after seeing all the animals and stayed a bit late in the hotel room. We stayed this hotel in June, which wasn't that expensive. But this time maybe it was in half term, the room price shot up as £99/room/night and in the morning when we had our breakfast in the hotel restaurant I fount that it was surprisingly full.

Monday, Daniel was completely happy back to his old routine. He was laughing and giggling again. He even refused to get out the shopping trolley in the supermarket… He thoroughly enjoyed the day with mummy...

First day back to work

First day at work, I know exactly it's going to be like this and it happened like this:
1)Couldn't find my desk. After the help from some one's pointing, I found the desk with my name plate on it. Then I found it was not my old desk as all my stuff in the drawers had gone! Luckily my 3 boxes of books are still there labeled with my name by someone, thanks whoever did it for me!
2)No computer for me and the IT guy wasn't in today, typical, there is only a monitor sitting on my desk and the main part has gone missing.
3)Couldn't remember my log in detail.After the reminding of the colleague sitting opposite me, finally got in the network. 800 junk mails sat in the mailbox, something to do for today.
Daniel cried really hard this morning and he waved his hand frantically to me when I left the room, it was so heartbreaking!

Matlock Bath

It was freezing cold this morning when we arrived Maltlock Bath, a resort and natural beauty spot in Derbyshire. 2 C, it said on the thermometer in Terry's car. Lucky we took the cosy toe for Daniel, I had nearly told Terry not to bother before we set off. It was misty and foggy in this sleepy village and above its beautifully river bank, along the waist of the Apraham Height, a hill top park with superb view of Peak district. The Heights of Abraham is our outing place today. There is a chalet-style coffee shop, licensed restaurant, picnic area, all taking advantage of the superb view. There is also a Victorian Prospect Tower built in 1844, 2 show caves,Rutland Cavern and the Great Masson Cavern, nature trail,landscaped gardens and childrens play area. as we got there early, the cable car ride was empty and we had coffee first thing when we arrived on top the hill. From the terrace of the cafe, you can have a superb view overlooking the valley and the river and it's sunny on top the hill and warmer. Maltlock bath in Victorian time was called the 'Little Switzerland in Britain'. It felt really true when you sitting in this Alpine style cafe sipping coffee. Then we took Daniel a mini adventure down to the Cavern and was out halfway down the hill. As It's not allowed to take buggy down the cavern, Terry and me carried Daniel in turn throughout the film session about the history of the cave and the trip down the cavern. Carrying Daniel back to the hilltop cafe through the woodland proved to need a bit fitness and I did the job most of time as Daniel seems cling to me more these days... anyway, It's a great day out!

Poor thing

Little Angel when he sleeps
Bit tired, mummy

Daniel is in nursery now. A full-day session today!

As a bad start, he cried on and off while I was driving to get him to sleep ( he is not normally like this) before nursery. I dropped him off at 10am. He was smiling when I got him out of the car, once he saw the door of the nursery, he started to get upset, the the trauma of being left without mummy must flood back ( the memory area in his brain must be developed very well, I was thinking), I handed him, together with his little rucksack(in which I packed his milk and spare clothes),to one of the staff, he cried very hard with tears pouring down... Poor little thing! He must sensed this going to be all day...

After the drop-off of Daniel, I went to an optician for my eye test appointment. It felt such a relief to have an appointment done without Daniel's presence. My dentist appointment on Tuesday was completed with Daniel sitting on my lap while the dentist working on my teeth at the same time, it was so stressful as Daniel was crying when the dentist started drilling... However, I started to miss Daniel by lunch time, it felt so strange without him whizzing around my feet while I was cooking.

Picking him up in an hour...

(Added: when I went to pick up Daniel at 4pm, I expected to see his puffy eyes and red nose from crying. To my surprise, when I popped my head on the high window of the door, I saw him sitting there calmly in the cuddle of Karen's arm (she was cuddling another new-starter baby in the other arm) without any sign of puffy eyes and red nose. Apparently he had a 45 minute nap after lunch, which is another surprise to me, I had predicted that he wouldn't nap at all in the nursery. Karen said honestly that Daniel was very unsettled in the morning,but he was not distraught. I knew that as I phoned an hour later after dropping him off and was told he was still crying. Daniel's voice did get a bit hoarse though. Terry said he felt sad all day as if we abandoned Daniel today)

11 month

One more week Daniel will be 1 year old, but I haven't write about his 11-month-old development, this is partly because he's having new tricks everyday and I can hardly keep the time and energy to write about it on daily basis, from time to time Terry would shout to me from lounge 'Daniel can do this , Daniel can do that and you missed it! ', when I pop back from kitchen I would say 'I saw him doing this the other day'... Maybe I am more relaxed about Daniel's development these days, after all he is doing what an 11-month old meant to do. Obviously I am still thrilled by every little progress he made.

The remarkable progress he made on physical side this month was he started to cruise around coffee table in a standing-up position unaided and can lower himself down unaided in a sitting position, I don't even remember since when and how he did it at first place, but now everyday he just happily cruise around the table picking up toys or putting them on it...the other remarkable progress is on language development. he now understand a lot of what we say. He knows his favourite toys/books name in English. For example:

I say 'Daniel, go get your choo-choo train' he would crawl fast to get it and have a pla;
I say 'Get your Yellow Digger Book, mummy read you a story' He would go to his toy box and pick out the yellow digger book and give to me;
If I cite the 'Daniel, it's snooze time' at wrong time, he would immediately cry or throw himself back;
If I say 'it's trekker time' He would wave his arms with a smile on his face immediately and crawl fast to his trekker. A trekker ride in the garden with mummy's push is Daniel's favourite daily routine in the afternoon. On his ride if I ask him to beep, he would push the horn; if I say 'Daniel change gear' he would change gear. It's hilarious watching he can follow our words.
Today when I handed a toy phone to him and said 'phone waipo!' I saw he put the phone right on his ear... he must see me phone my mum too often! This little copycat!

Ski holiday booked for Christmas

The nights are drawing and the temperature is dropping, it's this time of the season again... we just booked family skiing holiday for Christmas.

Alpe d'Huez in France is destination for five of us, Terry,Daniel, Charlotte, Hannah and me. Alpe d'Huez is part of the Grandes Rousses Ski Area, the resort has been made famous by its thrilling World Cup downhills. With over 200km of slopes to explore,it is said that the resort is lively and youthful. Apart from skiing, the activities include a grand sports centre, a large outdoor pool and a skating rink - all free with full area lift passes (we've booked this pass). We booked everything online, flight, accommodation, ski hire, lift pass and the most important, childcare for Daniel. We booked 6-day full day care at resort creche for Daniel though the plan is only to use full day care for Daniel at first day when all of us go skiing together to get familiar with the area, then Terry and me will babysit Daniel in turn for half day each day so Daniel only go to creche for half day.

Since I met Terry, We go skiing every year especially Christmas time apart from last year due to Daniel's birth in Nov. Before Daniel was born I'd always say if I had baby I would take him ski when he was 2 or 3, especially when I saw all these cute little tots skiing down the nursery slopes. Having said that I didn't expect to take Daniel skiing when he just turns 1 year old until couple weeks ago Terry suggested that we go skiing this Christmas, which really made my feet started itching, so I agreed. We considered options like skiing in Finland, which is cheaper than France, but I thought it probably too clod for Daniel. At one point, after the calculation of all the cost, added up the travel insurance, airport parking and the clothing for 3 children(they grow so quickly that we need to buy ski wear for them every year), Terry suggested we should have a beach holiday in Canary Island instead as it will be £700 cheaper, but the girls are not keen on Spanish holiday. In the end we still booked French one.

A few photos for Pugney

wrap up warm
some place where we can do sailing
tranquil
walking in the woods






There are a few nice country parks around where we live. Pugney is among the ones we'd like to spend our Sunday for. Though the winter is looming, it is still quite nice to go out for a walk in a nice sunny morning and have some coffee in the park cafe...

Gym training so far

Gym training is still going to plan so far. On top of my normal cardio program, I added the chest-press, sitting-up on inclined bench on last Friday's session. Did the same on Monday. The training results were like this:
Fri: calary,300; Performance Index, 46 ( 30% dropping from pre-pregnancy): chest-press, 3 sets, 12 reps/set, tour de France 3.9km
Mon: calary,350; Performance Index, 56 ( picking up): chest-press, 3 sets, 12 reps/set, tour de France 3.9km.

When comes to gym training, motivation is not normally an issue for me, my aim with gym isn't to lose weight, is to keep fit and body tone. So far so good. (Terry hasn't gone down gym training once since we joined it! Excuses lined up...)

Seond settle-in session without mummy

Daniel had his second settle-in session without me this afternoon. He was crying on and off after I left, which mainly was due to the lack of nap this morning. He slept until 8am first time this morning since I can't remember (probably around 8-9 month old), therefore there is no need for him to nap in the morning and he only napped about 50 minutes lunch time before I dropped him off at nursery. I warned Karen that Daniel might go cranky as he hadn't napped enough, she answered' Oh, don't worry, we can cope!' Just after I plonked him on the floor, Daniel cried immediately. I left nursery without too much worry this time as I knew they would comfort Daniel after all these visits and i would think this nursery would be a happy place for Daniel. I went to the library to borrow some books, again one hour has gone very quickly. When I walked in the baby room, Julie, the nursery manager, is comforting Daniel and she told me that Daniel like being cuddled to get sleep... also Karen told me that I should meet the twins' mum and she will tell me that how bad her twin were when they started nursery and she never believed that they would settle. 'But they settled very quickly' Karen said. She reckon that Daniel would settle in the nursery routine very quickly as he got Tue/Wed/Thur 3 consecutive days.

Test Run

Today Daniel had his first nursery session without my company, only one hour though, it was a test run for me to see how bad he could go. He had another 2 hours' settle-in session with my company on Monday, which went well. So Nursery deputy manager Karen suggested me to leave him for an hour on next visit. I booked 3 one-hour session to leave Daniel alone, One was on today, the other two will be on next Tue and Fri 2-3pm respectively, and a full-day without me on 19 Oct /Fri, the last week before start to work.

Life is pretty hectic at the moment. Daniel's nap has been getting worse since couple weeks ago, he totally refused to sleep in the cot during the day since he was able to pull himself up in the cot. Since then the settling method has gone backwards to driving him to nap again, which works very effectively, Once the car start moving, Daniel would doze off quickly. Today was no exception, I drove him to a country park prior to his nursery visit just in case he would gone hysterical in the nursery without me.
2 pm, the moment of truth, I asked Karen if I could stay for 5 minute watching him from the window, she just told me to go, don't make any fuss and ring up later. She picked up Daniel from my hands before I even finished kissing him and saying good-bye, Obviously Daniel was in distress immediately in a stranger's hands.I did what I told, left without fussing over Daniel. Walking out the nursery, I didn't burst into tears like what I thought I would do. The moment has passed, I think. My mind has already been well-prepared for this scene. Had this parting scene been in couple months ago, I would react pretty badly. Remember one month ago on one Saturday morning when Terry took Daniel out on his own leaving me to have a break at home, I was totally at loss and felt tearfully after they had gone, and I was alarmed by this emotion that moment, remember I was thinking what I'm going to do with myself when Daniel goes to school and when he goes to university...

Leaving nursery I walked to library, which is nearby, to have a cup of coffee and return some books. Seating in the library cafe, I phoned my mum telling her Daniel has gone to nursery on his own first time, then phoned Terry telling the same thing, 20 minutes later I phoned nursery asking how Daniel getting on. They answered he is fine, stopped crying 5 minutes after I left and now is playing the toys...anyway, one hour has past quicker than I realised, Before I have time to finish my coffee and pick up some new books, it was time to pick up Daniel. Obviously Daniel must know the time when I due back as I can hear his screaming from outside the nursery. He was crying in a staff's arms in front of his favorite toy when I walked in. Once he saw me he cried even louder (this is to make me feel guilty, according to nursery staff). I picked him up he stopped crying. We sat there for another 5 minutes, I can see that he want to get on toys again...

Joined gym again

Finally we signed up a joint gym membership again after quitting it two years ago due to my pregnancy. The plan is like this: I go Mon/ Fri 4pm, the days when I'm not working, Terry will come home early at 4pm to babysit Daniel and settle him to sleep. He goes Tue/Wed/Thur straight after work. I work 8am-4.30pm on these days, back about 5.15pm to pick up Daniel. Terry will go to work a bit late on these days to drop off Daniel. I am aiming to do 1.5 hours work-out on each gym visit.
Had my first gym session since pregnancy this afternoon, it felt really good afterwards. It meant to be my induction session, because i was with them for four years before, the instructor didn't bother to induct me. What he did was just quickly input of my medical details and the program I wanted into the computer system and gave me the tag key. I did bike, treadmill and stepper today on a lower resistance level than I used to do. After 30 minutes, I was very sweaty but felt really rejuvenating. Told myself not to overdo it on the first day, also worried about Daniel's evening routine, I didn't do weights after finishing my cardio program...

The cost for the gym membership wasn't that bad, £50 joint fee, £54 monthly payment and we get the 6th, 9th, 12th month for free. Considering I spent about £20 a month taking Daniel swimming in their water park every Thursday, it's really not bad as the swimming now is covered by the membership, plus classes i might do,like boxercise or yoga and the free off-peak badminton / squash court hire.