I have an obsession with words.  

They tell a story.  They set a scene.  They can make you laugh.  They can make you cry.

Yet I also love taking photos.  

Photography is my passion, I love how you can snap a photo in a second and that memory is forever captured for you to remember.

I love song lyrics.  Reading them aloud so they sound poetic, I can really resonate with what the song writer is trying to say.  Likewise I also love quotes.  I find myself looking at pinterest constantly for inspirational quotes and meaningful words that look pretty and visual too.

So I thought why not do my own?

Hence my new little blog series 'Words'.

 Just words that mean things to me, written on photos that mean even more.

A very apt first one. 

Last Week's News.

LL slept through for the first time- yippee!

She has been suffering from a bad tummy again this week- she hasn't been going for a number two hardly at all and she cries out in pain because she has trapped wind- I feel so sorry for her so am going to take her to the doctor asap to see whether they can do anything for her.

I know it could change at any stage but at the moment she is just the most chilled out, happy baby.  She really rarely cries unless she has wind and is so content, I almost feel like I am tempting fate by typing it- she will probably become a little monkey from next week onwards!

Sleep.

Last Monday LL slept through for the first time- going from 9pm in the evening until 7.30am the next day.  She stirred a couple of times in the night but I just turned Ewan the dream sheep on and she went back to sleep.  I was so excited in the morning that she had done it!

She did it again on Friday night as well.

The rest of the week she has been great as well, not waking for a feed much before 5am, and she has been coming into bed with us later in the mornings as well, generally around 6 or half 6 for an hour's worth of snuggles before we get up as Mr E has to get up for work.  

On Saturday morning both babies treated us to a lie in until half 8 and I enjoyed that extra hour of snuggles with my girl.

A couple of times this week she has woken at around 2am and cried and been unsettled for about 10 minutes with tummy pain- Mr E has had to rock her until she calms down but she hasn't fed.  It is horrible to see her in pain.

I am sure that this sleeping phase will change, it is so unpredictable when they are so little, but I am so pleased with my little superstar for sleeping so well this week.

Food.

LL isn't a hugely hungry baby- in fact apart from the early evening she rarely even whimpers for milk, instead waiting until I wake her up.

She is feeding anything from ten minutes to twenty, sometimes longer, but generally it is about ten.  

My boobs don't seem to feel as full as they did with Mads, and I do often worry about my supply  especially cause she doesn't really feed at night, but I just hope that I have enough milk.

My Dearest Big Girl,

Another month, another letter written to you by Mummy.  I can't quite believe I have written you 29 letters now, if you count the one I wrote to you the night before you were born.  Every time I look at you I swear you have grown just that little bit bigger.  It doesn't help that your speech is so good- you feel like a little girl way beyond your years.

I have been trying to keep a track of some funny things you have said this month- although I managed to break my phone and therefore lost some of the notes I had been recording.  I have a few though, hearing you say silly things makes my heart sing- I love your complete and utter innocence and the way in which you look at life.

1. 'You will never ever ever ever find my bum.'  You were naked and Daddy kept pretending to go and try and pinch your bottom.  You sat down on your horse so obviously your bottom was covered and said those words in the most indignant, cross voice with your hands crossed.  It was so funny.

2.  'Oh yes that's where my pink buttons live, they live in my tummy.'  Auntie Paula bought you some pink chocolate buttons when you went there one Thursday and you asked the next day where they were.  I said that they were in your tummy and you said this.  Very cute!

3.  'I like your bits Daddy, you have big bits.'  I was sitting on the bed feeding Baby LL and you were in the bath with Daddy when I heard you say this.  There was a big pause while Daddy obviously figured out the best thing to say.  I absolutely love your innocence, I just wish you didn't have to lose it one day.

4.  'Mummy Baby LL is crying, I think she's got windy pops.'  I always say LL has windy pops when she is crying and you must have picked up on it, so cute, and then you patted her on the back to burp her for me.

This is just a few of the hundreds of funny things you come out with, I really am trying to keep a record of them so you can see how much you made us laugh.  You really are a little character and we are so proud of you for your speech.

This month we started potty training you- I wasn't going to just yet but one day you decided you wanted to do a wee in the potty and that was it.  The first week you were amazing with only a couple of accidents but this past week hasn't been so good- you get distracted when we go out or if you are engrossed in something.  We are going to keep perservering though as I know you can do it- I am so proud of you so far.

Another thing that has struck me this month is just how affectionate you are, especially with babies.  A few friends have had babies recently, and obviously we have LL and you are just such a little Mummy around them- you fuss over them all, stroke their heads and play with their ears, and cuddle them all.  It warms my heart to see you like that with them, you are such a kind hearted soul.

You are still being a monkey with your food- in fact you could be getting worse.  You only eat about four different meals- 'Daddy's ghetti', Fish Pie, Risotto and Pizza.  You turn your nose up at everything else and won't even try it.  We are hoping it is just a phase.  You would eat grapes and sweet things until you popped.

You are just such a little character and you make me smile many times a day.  You also drive me up the wall, but you drive me up a wall in the way that secretly I find you funny at the same time.  I try and put on my stern Mummy voice when you are being naughty but you are so amusing with it sometimes I fail.  Words cannot express how proud I am of you for the little person you are becoming.  I can tell that we are going to have some serious fun in the future.  

You make my day's better.  Even though they are tiring and at times stressful, you always give me a reason to be cheerful.  

You make me a better person just by being your Mama.  I see the beauty in things more than I used too.  Even the silly little things.  I have a huge amount to be thankful for, and most of that has come because of you.  You came into the world, turned Daddy and I's lives upside down- our little whirlwind.  We can't get enough of you.

Mummy loves you more than anything in the world.  But as always you already knew that.

Mummy

xx

I have written about my Mum before and how she is my best friend but I realised that I rarely mention my Dad on my blog.  

My Dad is quite simply, the most wonderful Dad you could have.  He couldn't be more different to my Mum, probably one of the reasons their marriage didn't work, and their parenting styles while we were growing up were very different.  

My Mum was the 'soft' one.  She was the one who spoilt us, and who let us do the 'naughty' things- like buy us the odd drink of alcohol when we were underage, or let my first boyfriend sleep over in my room.  My Dad was stricter, and you knew you couldn't mess with him if he was serious about something.  Whereas my Mum shouted all the time, and when I was young I didn't really listen, my Dad only had to look at me before I stopped playing up.  I only think I ever heard him raise his voice about four times, but when he lost his temper it was scary.

Growing up, he worked a lot, starting his own successful chain of businesses, but at the weekends I remember having so much fun with him.  He would always play with me- flying kites, riding our bikes, going swimming and throwing me in the air because I liked it so much...my childhood was full of doing active activities with him.

Yet at the same time he had an affectionate side.  He would carry me up the stairs to bed in a 'fireman's lift' and I would giggle in delight.  On the day I first started my period I was confused and a little upset and I remember my Mum telling him on the phone while he was at work- he came home with a chocolate orange and gave me a big hug even though he probably had no idea what to say!

He has my exact same sense of humour, a bit wry and sarcastic and I think he is one of the funniest people I know.  I remember so many times almost wetting myself laughing with him- in fact once I did when we were on a bike ride and he rode the rest of the way home with my wet cycle shorts on his handlebars!

Now myself and my sister have become adults, I swear he has become even more affectionate.  He never ever gets off the phone without saying 'I love you' and he sends us the cutest text messages.  He still treats us like we are little, ringing to make sure we are ok, and to constantly badger us that our cars are safe!  He is incredibly gentle, and loving, yet still makes me laugh so much.  We have a great relationship.

On my wedding day, we decided that he wouldn't do a speech because while we had 100 people to our party in the evening, our actual wedding meal was small and intimate with only 40 people, and I didn't want him to be under pressure.  He said therefore he would do us a toast at the start of the meal.  He did that at the start and I was happy and thought that was at the end of it.  However at the end of the meal, he clinked his glass, stood up and got a letter out of his pocket.  He proceeded to read aloud the most beautiful letter he had written to me starting it 'My Darling Katie'.  It was perfect- a mixture of funny, poignant, sad and emotional- nearly everyone there had tears in their eyes by the end of it- he even made some of Mr E's grown male friends cry and say it was the best wedding speech they had heard.  He had written it the night before, and his plan was that if he felt nervous he would not have read it aloud and just given it to me.

I will treasure it forever.

He had two little girl's in me and my sister and now he is a Grandpa to my two little girl's.  Mads just adores him, and she cannot wait to go and spend the day with 'Nana Jacqueline and BumPa.'  

Watching him run around the garden chasing Mads, or cuddling Baby LL in his arms gives me a glimpse of what he must have been like with us when we were really young.  My Mum says he used to walk around the room with me for hours and rock me as I wasn't a great sleeper.  

I love watching him with MY girls as I can imagine how he must have been with HIS girls.  

My wonderfully affectionate, slightly soppy, yet incredibly funny and sarcastic Daddy.

The first man in my life.

Grandpa and LL!