November and sickness and such.

Poppy has been blissfully napping for two hours now (I'm assuming she'll wake up halfway through this post - scratch that, she made it one sentence)

Happy December! Where has this year gone?! It's been an eventful month for the Horvath clan.

Mat and I had our 1st wedding anniversary on the 1st of November. We celebrated by going out for a boozy lunch (sans baby - she was at home refusing to nap with a very hungover Ollie and Carrie who graciously volunteered to babysit) at Pollen Street Social (which is incredible). I bought him some socks and new cufflinks, and he got me a pretty paper bouquet with our names and wedding date printed on it - his gift was a bit more thoughtful than mine but oh well.  I did my best!

We also had my birthday this month. Emma, Andy, Evie and Finley came up for dinner at Bread Street Kitchen.. because Mat can't stay away from work for one day ;) We had a lovely dinner and then back to our house for cake afterwards. The day was marred by my being sick but a good time was had by all anyway.

Speaking of me being sick, I've been sick for a LONG time. 3 weeks now. Went to the doctor three times and they kept saying "just a virus, nothing we can do for you, try inhaling some steam"... which was super helpful. My sickness peaked on Thursday with a temperature of 40.1 (that's 104 in F) at 6 in the morning and a call to NHS Direct.  For the Americans who aren't blessed with a free healthcare system, NHS Direct is a 24 hour medical advice line - you get to speak to a nurse, they give you advice, sometimes they send you to an out of hours doctor. 

In this instance, they sent me an ambulance! I think the nurse thought I was having a heart attack because I was having chest pains.. in any case, by 7 am we had 2 ambulances and 4 paramedics in our flat! They decided I wasn't having a heart attack and I didn't even have pneumonia or anything! Just an aggressively high temperature and chest pain. They hung around for 2 and a half hours waiting for my temperature to go down (must've been a slow day for London ambulances) and referred me back to my doctor. The doctor finally gave me antibiotics, which seem to be working their magic now. I still have a cough and chest pain but feeling much better in myself.

Update (I wrote the rest of this post earlier this week): The doctor has now decided I have asthma which is causing my ongoing cough (amazing how moving to London has given me "asthma"). Poppy is also sick with bronchitis so we have matching inhalers (so sad, I know).

Poppy has had lots of Daddy time since I've been out of commission the last few days.  Those two are so cute together. And Mat has been a champ leaving work early to get Poppy from nursery and doing all the normal mom jobs. Thanks Mat! I'm sure you'll be sick in the next few weeks - sorry!

That's about all I have to report. Work has been absolutely manic for both of us. Mat works approximately 1 billion hours a week and I am barely surviving my job. 

Poppy is a real mobile baby now - she crawls, she pulls herself up and scoots around. 

She's a handful :)

BUT SO CUTE! Seriously. Look at her.

But so mischievous.

It took me approximately a week to write this post. Poppy is feeling a bit better now, thank goodness. She's been wheezing so much and it's so sad. I still have a cough, which I'm fairly confident will never go away. 

On a happier note, Momma and Poppa Keys bought their plane tickets to come to London in February! WHOOP WHOOP! We can't wait :)

A cute little London Saturday

After a manic few weeks of me going back to work, Poppy being sick, and Mat starting a new job, we desperately needed a relaxing Saturday together.  I let Mat sleep in (I know, I'm the best wife in the world) and Poppy and I went out for a morning walk. She went down for a nap when we got home and Mat and I made lunch. When she woke up we walked down to the park and then stopped at the pub on our way home for a drink. Another Poppy nap, Mat made dinner and we caught up on some TV. Then we all went to bed early (and Poppy stayed in her crib all night - a rare occasion these days!) It was a gloriously lazy day and I loved it.

Poor Poppy is finally recovering from a virus. She was voiceless from Sunday night to Wednesday. Trust me, silent baby crying is way worse than normal baby crying - she looked so sad! But she seems to be making a full recovery - almost back to normal decibel ear-splitting crying 😉

Mat is working today and I'm struggling to find the energy to accomplish anything. It's 7 pm and I could go to bed! I blame the time change. We did manage to go to the library so I could read Poppy fun books and she could ignore me and try to climb on the colourful seats. 

Here are some photos..

"Get this hood off my head Mom!"

Yes she is playing with a pack of Pampers. It was an impromptu pub stop and we didn't have any toys so we were improvising.

And finally, the hillbilly teeth (actually a whole rice cake but I like to think she's channeling her inner American 😉)

Mat is old and Poppy is cute

Our big exciting news recently is that Mat is now 30 years old!  WOW who knew I married an old man?! (just kidding Mat, you're a spring chicken) 

We celebrated his birthday by going out for a fancy brunch sans Poppy.  She got to spend the day at her Auntie Lauren and Uncle Dave's house with her BFF Ada!  To be honest, I'm not sure she wanted to come home with us when we picked her up - she had so much fun! Thank you Lauren and Dave :)

Anywho, we went to a fancy brunch on Park Lane and it was glorious having a few baby-free hours.  We sat on the upper deck of the bus, we drank cocktails, we had a three course brunch AND tea at a leisurely pace, AND we walked up the escalators in the tube station (these are great luxuries for a person who is always pushing a buggy (stroller, pram, whatever) around!).  

The restaurant was amazing.  It was called Cut at 45 Park Lane, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.  Mat had an amazing chicken dish and I had brioche french toast (naturally).  We were serenaded by live music and had a view of Regents Park from our table.  It's nice to venture into the ritzy part of London every so often - there are so many Ferraris, and fancy hotels, and ridiculously expensive flats.  It's a completely different world to our south London neighbourhood!  Sadly, I didn't take any photos. But here's a cute one of Poppy playing with her BFF Ada (aka bullying her).

The rest of the week has been pretty standard except for Poppy's refusal to nap ever.  We've had to change around her feeding schedule which has resulted in her only napping in the stroller after at least 45 minutes of walking - I suppose she's just trying to help me lose the baby weight ;)

We've been to the park swinging a few times this week.  Poppy seriously loves the swings.  Her eyes light up and she beams with every push.  Happiness incarnate.

Poppy got a new toy this week, which she hasn't figured out how to play with yet.  Also, her mom is mean and puts it just out of her reach to encourage her to crawl - poor baby.

"Do I eat this Mom? I don't get it."

So close!

This is just a cute photo.  Poppy has a slight obsession with Scottish accents (don't we all?).  I took her to the doctor when I thought she had an ear infection and she giggled the whole time at the doctor's Scottish accent.  In this photo, she's giggling at a TV show about a Scottish town.  She'll be so sad if Scotland leaves the UK - look at that face Scotland, how could you leave her?

We're off to the US next week (whoop whoop!)!  I am SO excited about 10 days of America. We get to meet little Maddie and have some much-needed family time. And we get to go to Chris and Ally's wedding, see Kelly Kiley AND hang out with Abby Tina!  

On that note, I'll end this post. I need to go to bed!

Tower Poppies, Cornershop and baby friends

It's been a while since I've written a post about London so here goes.

We live walking distance from the Tower of London now (by walking distance I mean about a 40 minute walk - 2 miles).  The Tower of London has an exhibition on from August-November commemorating the 100 year anniversary of World War I called "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red."  They are planting a ceramic poppy in the moat for every British and/or Commonwealth soldier killed in WWI - 888,246 poppies in total.  The last poppy will be planted the 11th of November (Armistice Day).  It is a really impressive display, even though it's only halfway done in these photos (you can see the volunteers in the background working diligently).  And, naturally, we had to take a photo of Poppy with the poppies. 

More info here if you want it: Tower Poppies

You can also buy a poppy for £25.

Today, my friend Lauren and her baby Ada went with Poppy and I to visit an art display of sorts in east London.  The Cornershop is a shop stocked with normal things you'd find at a corner shop - but everything is made out of felt.  The artist, Lucy Sparrow, stitched almost 4000 different items to put into the shop (it took her 7 months).  The result is a really cool little shop where you can't touch anything but you can buy a felt pregnancy test!  Here are some photos:

 

Here's an article about it: Corner Shop

And finally, some candid photos of Poppy and her NCT baby friends.  We meet up every Tuesday with all these babes and their moms, usually to eat cake and drink tea (or a cheeky Tuesday afternoon glass of wine) and talk about our babies' poos!

I have about twenty of these photos and they are hilarious!  The babies are in order left to right from youngest to oldest.

Ivy, Ada, Poppy, Ivo and Max

Food and teeth and brains.

Not a lot to report in this blog.  I just thought I'd do a quick update!  

Poppy is doing well - she's moved into 9-12 month clothes (although her new wetsuit is size 12-18 months and is TOO SMALL - stop growing baby) and now has two little teeth on the bottom! She's started eating real food - her favourite combination is avocados and bananas.  The little monster is very particular though.  She doesn't like purees and she doesn't like being spoon fed (unless she's holding onto the spoon also).  So, essentially, she's forcing me into baby-led weaning.  It's really messy but she's so cute trying to feed herself. And we have nappy-only dinner now (because all of her clothes were getting stained) which only adds to the cuteness.

As much fun as I'm having staying at home with Poppy, I can't help but feel like my brain is turning to mush. I went from being a full-on academic, writing a dissertation and getting a masters degree, to obsessing about bath temperatures and room temperatures and the million constant mom worries running through my head - "Is Poppy hungry or tired? Is she getting another tooth? Is she not eating carrots because she's allergic? How do I know if she's allergic? What if she has an allergic reaction?  Why won't she eat pureed food?  Is it bad if I let her watch TV? Why does she like TV so much? Does she have enough toys?  Is she hot? Is she cold?..." I could go on and on and on.  I love being a stay at home mom (how could I not? I have the cutest baby in the world!) but I am looking forward to getting back to work in October and using my brain for other things again.

Now for some photos:

TOOTH!

Aunt Amanda sent Poppy a bow but she doesn't quite have enough hair for it yet :)

Yummy food!

Yoga baby in the stroller. She's such a lady.

Watching her favourite show, Maya the Bee. I hate how much she loves TV.

Daddy showing her the ropes! As soon as she can walk we're putting her to work ;)

Today I dressed Poppy in a blue and white striped dress with some pink and grey in it also.  THREE different people called her a he.  Three.  She was wearing a dress.  One guy said "Oh it was the stripy top, I couldn't tell..."  IT'S A DRESS!  They could just say "how old is your baby?" instead of making things awkward and calling poor Poppy a boy.

Rant over.

Duck-face Poppy

Big developments in Poppy world!

She seems to be having some sort of cognitive growth spurt (is that a thing?).  In the last two days she's learned how to roll over AND how to sit up by herself.  So now, every time I lay her on her play mat, she immediately rolls onto her tummy... and then cries because she can't figure out how to get back onto her back.  It's a hard knock life for little Popsicle.

Another big development - last night, she slept from 8:30 pm until 5 am. FIVE AM! That's amazing! 8 and a half hours of solid baby sleep.  I was shocked when I woke up and looked at the clock.  I'm not getting my hopes up that it'll happen again but it was amazing.

Poppy also got a new cousin this week!  Madelynn Lee Hehr.  She's a beaut.  Congratulations Katie and Andrew!

As I'm sure you've all seen, Poppy has been working on the perfect pout/duck face/pucker for the last few weeks.  She does it ALL the time.  I've been saving up the duck face photos for this post. 

Upside down duck face.

Duck face-ing because we went to meet Daddy and he wasn't finished with work yet.

Duck face-ing because she's stuck in the corner of the couch.

Duck face-ing because she can see herself in the phone camera.

Duck face-ing because it's really bloody hot today.

Duck face-ing because I washed her play mat so she had to lay on the quilt instead.

Duck face selfie with Mom.

And my favourite duck face photo - duck face-ing because I wouldn't take her out of her stroller on the bus.

That concludes the duck face photos.  Now some photos of Poppy being cute last weekend.

Trying to eat my face.  I can't wait for the day she gives me a hug without trying to eat me!

Waiting for the bus.  She loves weekends with Daddy!

The end.

Poppy stuff

I've just come to write in my blog and realised I have about 6 drafts of entries that I've started and not finished in the last two months. Whoops :)

I'm going to try to be better at this blog from now on.  It will be nice for Poppy to be able to go back and look at the posts and photos when she's older.  Speaking of Poppy, it's 9:24 am and the little monster is still asleep.. must be tired from her 330-430 am meltdown, which seems to be becoming a habit. 

So for all you curious people out there, the answer is no she is absolutely not sleeping through the night. Not in any way, shape or form.  If we're lucky we get her down at 10 and she'll sleep through until 3, which is not too bad.  But she's then up at 5 and 7 and 9.  Not exactly a restful night of sleep! And she still hates her cot. It's like we're laying her on a bed of gravel when we lay her in there. She immediately throws her arms out and cries.  Soon we're going to turn into those ridiculous parents who buy their baby memory foam (okay not really but so tempting).

Other news in the Poppy department:

- She can now roll over front-to-back and back-to-front (okay she only did back-to-front once but it counts!)

- I think (KNOCK ON WOOD) her vomiting has slowed down a bit

- Her favourite book at the moment is "Fox's Socks"

- She is lulled to sleep by the bus and traffic whizzing by.. she is a proper city baby (even passing sirens don't wake her up!)

- Poppy forgot to remind us to bring our keys when we went out the other night so we had to call a locksmith to drill the lock... this was obviously all Poppy's fault. She's so irresponsible...

That's about it! Mat is still working a million hours and I'm still keeping Poppy alive.  I have tentative plans to go back to work in October (which I can't even fathom at the moment, just like I can't imagine how all you American moms go back to work at 6 weeks! WHAT!? England does maternity leave so much better than the US).

I don't even think I have very many photos to post.. but here's a few!

Celebrating the 4th of July in style :)

Poppy and Daddy at Maltby Street Market, our favourite place.

"What do you mean I can't have a drink of your cocktail?"

She can read. She's advanced.

The end.

(9:43 and the baby is still asleep - I'm going to attempt a peaceful cup of tea before she wakes up.. wish me luck!)