In between Christmas & New Year ........

Christmas is now over and done with - can you believe it?  All that hard work, planning, wrapping and eating is done with for another year!  Christmas in our house was rather special this year - it was the 1st year that Sally "got it" .... She left her mince pie, carrot and san miguel (had to tell her Father Christmas wasn't a fan of fruit shoots!) out ........ and in return Father Christmas worked his magic and our house is now Toys R Us!

She loved it, we loved it and my mum & dad loved it ..... What a great day we had.  Ruby on the other hand just remained her very laid back self and took everything in ...... Sally so excited that she could open Ruby's presents as well!

Boxing Day we laughed at Mark's hangover, played games - you know the really noisy ones that you really don't want to play with a hangover, then got ready to go and do it all again at Mark's sisters.  What a laugh we had with the christmas game - doggie doo!  In a nutshell the aim of the game is to have 3 dog poo's on your scoop!!!  Yes you read it right the first time ................ It was hilarious and somewhat different to the games we played when I was younger .... i.e Blockbusters, Guess Who and cards!

We are now "In between Christmas & New Year" ............... Is it me or do you hear yourself saying to people "Yeah we'll catch up in between christmas and New Year" ... Crikey there's only a few days - not weeks you know!   To date though we have managed to achieve the following:

• Food shop for NYE :- family doo in ours - looking forward to it and I have requested my niece brings doggie doo!
• Hours of fun playing games and talking in silly voices (pretending to be Peppa Pig!)
• Sally had her pal Orla over for tea - both of whom are wild and very funny.  The best bit was that Orla brought her baby sister Lucy too!  Lucy is nearly 3 weeks and will be the perfect play mate for Rubes - we like!
• Attended yet another indoor play area!  Went with some of the girls from "mummy club" (established in 2009 when Sally was a baby) - had a laugh and came home with Sally in one piece - always a bonus!

That gets me to thinking of some of the classic / odd / bizarre little things  that Sally has done over the last few days - let me share a couple of them with you:

1. Dipped a segment of her tangerine into some ketchup and ate it ...............
2. When waiting for the energy efficient light bulb to come on she said "bloody light!" ... I think she might have got that from me!

The list goes on - however I liked these the best. 

Soooooooo, that takes us to 3 more sleep until 2012!  Can you believe that - 2012!  I remember leaving 1999 and entering into year 2000 so clearly ..... So what has happened in the last 12 years:

• Bought a flat / sold a flat
• Bought a house - still here now
• Had a successful Training career and travelled the globe for 10 years - sadly got made redundant in 2010
• Gained my CIPD qualification
• Met Mark ....... Its coming up to 10 years now (I think?!) ... That has just flown by!  What fun we've had / are having ... he's such a great person - love him!
• Made some new friends on life's little journey
• Had some superb holidays: Florida, Devon, Cornwall, Spain, Scotland, Jersey - only 6 months until Portugal!
• Had a lot of laughs
• Consumed a few wines!
• Have become a mummy (THE BEST FEELING EVER) to 2 little girls and a dog (Harry the chocolate lab!)
• Have said goodbye to my CD collection and hello to iTunes
• Have entered into the world of gadget / online madness .......... Did I tell you about my website www.parents2bee.com - check it out and tell your friends ... Let us be the first to make you a card with "Born in 2012" written on it.

Have yourselves a very happy new year - enjoy whatever celebrations you have planned and I hope you are as excited as me to be getting your house back to normal soon ............I mean I like the tree and everything - but it's nice when it's "back to normal!" .... Until next time.

4 sleeps to go ..........

We are now in the middle of "Christmas week" and what fun we are having!  Sally aged 2.5 is getting more and more excited by the day & asks as soon as she opens her eyes in the morning "can I open my calendar now?" ... So by 7am each day we have already eaten some chocolate!  On the plus side we have also done some counting - as she can only have her chocolate if we count to the right date number!

The remainder of the week has been consumed with completing the postal orders for parents 2 bee - which might I say has been great fun & exciting knowing that there will be some very pleased people out there when they get their new goodies.  Spread the word!

We have attended the obligatory "soft play" area ...... believe it or not - it wasn't too bad.  The highlight for me was when Sally said to me after an hour of being there ... "Mummy I've already had a brilliant day" ................. of course I cried!

We've caught up with pals, wrapped pressies (to send to father Christmas of course!) and had the daily battle of Sally being too heavy handed with her sister Ruby (7.5 months). Ruby however, has come into her own and now spends all day driving her walker into the Christmas tree!

How much more fun is there to have you ask?  Tomorrow is the BIG fun day ......... Christmas food shop!  Dreading it already!!  Got to be done though and I have already made a mental note to 'buy only for this christmas' - not the next one as well!  Once that is done we are then at 3 sleeps to go ....

3 sleeps to go:
- get food
- put food away
- write another list of things I forgot

2 sleeps to go:
- get forgotten food
- put forgotten food away
- have a Christmas tipple (as feeling smug that all shopping is done)

1 sleep to go:
- wish I'd stopped at 1 Christmas tipple
- family outing to get the Turkey
- get very excited with Sally & Ruby
- eat rubbish whenever we like (it's Christmas after all)
- make sure father Christmas displays the presents in a Monica kind of way!
- go to bed feeling blessed to have 2 special little girls who have been spoilt rotten!

So there we have it ..... "bring it on" is what I say ..... having kids makes Christmas FABULOUS!

Well We Did It!

Well we did it - we have finally launched our website!!

After hours and hours of hard work we are now out there - out there in cyber space!  We launched the site on Saturday 3rd December 2011 - a week later than planned, but all good things have technical hitches right?

The technical hitch in this instance being 2 poorly children.  Sally has had the delightful winter vomiting bug - which we are thrilled to say has now left the building.  Whilst poor Rubes has had one thing after the other - we are now on week 3 of Rubes not being herself - however, today seems to be the "turning point" day - she's getting better - horaaaay!

So 2 days in to Parents 2 Bee and I am hearing lots of nice, positive comments - keep them coming folks.  Obviously, all nice, not so positive comments are welcome too - as we need to hear this stuff from time to time, in order for us to constantly improve!

We hope you enjoy the website and we look forward to bringing you lots of new items / products as we grow and develop in 2012.

For now, we will enjoy the hustle and bustle of the "Christmas build up" - We'll ponder how to get a further 24 hours out of each day, in order to ensure the food shopping, christmas card writing, present wrapping and christmas party duties are fulfilled in time for the 25th!  Let the challenge begin ..............