Gratitude - An Award

I have been awarded the Gratitude award by both Hayley at SingleMummy and Beth at My Good Life. For that, am I grateful!

But this would be a rubbish post if I stopped there! So here are the other things for which I am grateful.

• I am grateful for my job. I love doing what I do and the best thing is, I earn money doing it. In the current job market and financial culture I am grateful that I have a job at all, let alone one that is so challenging and rewarding.



• I am grateful for my house. OK, so my current neighbours may not be the kind of people I'd choose to live amongst (see my recent post); but at least I have a home to call my own. In a few months time I'll have a new house and a new place to call home.



• I am grateful to my parents for having put me on the right track and having equipped me well to cope with life, work and motherhood. It is thanks to them that I have the skill to code, the ability to cook great food, to grow great food, make clothes for my daughter, decorate my house... the list is endless.



• I am grateful to my sister-in-law for all the free clothes she gives me for Lara, and to the strangers in the world of Freecycle / Freegle who pass on to me their baby goodies for free.



• I am grateful to Lara for letting me get a good night's sleep. I realise now that this is very unusual as a parent and unless she is genuinely unwell, I think my little girl currently likes to sleep as much as I do, which is handy!

I would like to pass this award on to these fine bloggers

BabyRambles
Beetroot & Gherkins
Mummys Space
Life As I See It

Remaining Mellow About... Chicken Pox

My mellow state of mind has been tested again! On Friday, one of my childminders rang me to let me know that her daughter had been diagnosed with chicken pox. She gave me the weekend to think about whether or not I wanted to send Lara to her this week.

My first thoughts were for Lara. Should I be worried for her? What does it mean for her? My worrying was short-lived. She's a generally healthy child and we'll be there for her when she needs us. Chicken pox may be miserable for them, but in most cases, it is not a serious virus.

Then my mind turned to her other childminder – she's 5 months pregnant. I spoke to her that evening and she seemed remarkably mellow about it. Chicken pox during pregnancy can be very serious. Thankfully, she has already had the virus and has been given a blood test to ensure that she has developed immunity to it. It is still possible, as an adult with immunity, to develop shingles (a variation on the same virus) but this is rarely harmful during pregnancy. This settled my mind a lot as it meant that I would not be presented with a childcare void.

Finally, I worried about my husband. He's never had chicken pox and I've been warned that it can be a lot more unpleasant as an adult. In fact, I can still clearly remember seeing my own Dad when I was a child, he having been laid up in bed for a fortnight with the virus and having not shaved – the sight was the stuff of nightmares!

Anyway, I have decided to remain calm. Lara spends every afternoon with school children and every day with their younger siblings. She goes to playgroup, swimming lessons and family friends. Lara is going to get the virus sooner or later (in fact, 90% of UK adults will have had the virus as a child). In all likelihood, if she was going to catch the virus this time around, she has probably already caught it (the time taken from infection to the spots showing can be as much as three weeks, and it is most infectious a couple of days before and after the spots appear).

There is no way that her daddy is going to avoid infection either, without moving out for the next 9-10 years (!) it would be pretty much impossible for him to avoid it.

And so, I shall sit back and wait for the inevitable...

Lara: A Portrait

This week's theme at Tara Cain's Gallery is 'Portrait'. Until Lara was born, I had always been a landscape kinda person and have always failed miserably when it comes to taking photos of people rather than places. But now I have a great subject to practice on, I feel like I can't take a bad photo of Lara.

I have posted plenty of pictures of Lara in the past few weeks but here is one of my latest, and one of my favourite portraits of her which I really feel captures the Laraness of her right now.