It has been a long stressful week. My mom was meant to get here early in the morning on Saturday the 20th but because of severe snow storms in Canada and the States was delayed 24 hours in Chicago and finally made it on Sunday morning. She was pretty tired so we spent most of Sunday at home playing with Annie and napping!Monday the 22nd was Annie's birthday and it was a wonderful day. I was busy all day long getting everything ready and was on my feet most of the day, but I would do it all over again for my baby girl. She is a year old and was spoiled rotten. We had a big party for her and she took great joy in demolishing her cake and eating every inch of icing off of it. She was awake until almost 10:30 at night (sooo close to her exact birthday -10:37pm) and crashed out when we put her to bed.
I had to work Tuesday so Andy, Annie and Nana hung out all day and played. We had our first mad dash to A&E too (ER for those of you over the pond). Just before bedtime we noticed a rash on her neck and assumed she was too hot so we stripped her off to just one layer. We then noticed the rash was down her back and tummy too. We decided to get her in the bath to try and cool her down but within 10 minutes it had spread up on to her face and down on her legs. She was scratching like crazy and Mummy went in to panic-mode! My first thought was allergies (my mom was thinking measles - there has been a recent outbreak in my area). So Andy and I bundled her up, loaded her in the car and drove to the hospital, by which time her face was covered in red blotches. We only had to wait about 20 minutes and were sent straight in. The doctor checked her over thoroughly and decided that it wasn't an allergic reaction or measles. It was something called Nettle Rash which can be caused by about a million different things. She had some new pyjamas from my mom which she slept in Monday night and was in all day Tuesday. I was naughty and didn't wash them before putting her in them (bad Mummy!) and I think it was the perfumes and starches in the material that caused the reaction. But there's no way to know for certain what caused it. She was given some medicine and was absolutely fine the next morning (phew!). It was the first time she has ever been sick (besides the 1 cold she had in September) and I was a mess! hehe...I'm such a softie when it comes to my girl.
Christmas Eve was spent at home. Annie had to have her next round of immunisations in the morning but they didn't seem to affect her and she spent most of the day playing and laughing with Nana and Nanny while Andy and I snuck out to have some time to ourselves.
Christmas Day started out absolutely lovely. We opened presents and had french toast. Annie didn't like the french toast but LOVED the Canadian maple syrup! Then we went to the cemetry to lay a wreath for Andy's dad and on to Rachel's for Christmas lunch. We spent the afternoon with Rach and her sister and then went home to meet up with Andy's Nan and Mum. As usual it ended up in an argument (I swear the women in Andy's family cannot spend more than 10 minutes in a room together without arguing). They were shouting and bitching at each other in front of Annie and I was tired of dealing with it. I shouted back at them that I was tired of this happening everytime we all got together and if they couldn't stop arguing they could both leave. Nan went off in a huff after calling me a "dirty liar" and Sue eventually left after I refused to speak to her. Everything is fine with Sue now, but Nan has still not spoken to either of us and I have a feeling it may be a very long time before we see her again. She comes round every Tuesday to visit with Annie and she didn't come today, so I am guessing she is still angry. That is fine. I know the way I spoke to her was wrong, but I won't apologise for what I said. I will not have Annie raised around arguing. Simple as that.
My mom left early in the morning on Friday and we then went on to Andy's Uncle Ian and Aunt Trish's house north of Manchester. We spent the day visiting with them and then stayed the night. The heating was turned off before bed and it was incredibly cold in the room. Annie woke up at 2am screaming and was absolutely freezing. I ended up bringing her into bed with me while Andy slept sitting up to keep Annie from rolling out of bed. We all dozed off and on but it was nearly 6am before Annie finally settled again. We were exhausted. We then hit major traffic heading home and an hour and half drive turned in to over 4 hours!
Now we are just trying to get Annie back on schedule and caught up on all the sleep she has missed in the last week. It was nice having my mom here for Christmas and Annie's birthday, even if it was just a quick visit. We've booked our tickets to Canada for 11 - 24th February. I'm not sure how much of a holiday it will be as we have loads of paperwork to get sorted for Andy in readiness for our permanent move over there, but hopefully we'll find some time to just relax.
I think I've blathered on for long enough. That's it for now!
Lots of love
Summer
xXx
