mummy & Mimi

Here we go - the first round of winter bugs have arrived.  We came back from Venice two weeks ago to a poorly Mimi, which I caught then Mike caught (obviously this has turned into "man flu"), my Dad caught it then came down with another cold which has since been passed onto us and then last night I had a message from playschool to say that there is a sickness bug doing the rounds.  Great!!!  It is always at this time of the year that I develop the wonder lust - I was definitely designed for warmer sunnier climes.

Ooo if only I could go back in time! - Aitutaki Lagoon, Cook Islands
Aitutaki was part of our round the world trip 03-04

I feel washed out at the moment.  Work is stressing me out and I have tonnes to do, the house is a tip, there is washing every where and we all have colds.

I had to take cakes into work the other week because it was my birthday over half term.  I found this trick on pin-interest and decided to try it out.  I was quite pleased with them although the icing was a bit too warm.

Multi-coloured swirls.

I am also considering making Christmas Hampers for some people this year and thought I would have a trial run making a Dundee Cake and some Mince Pies - or as Mimi calls them Wince Pies.  Mince Pies were ok but I think I over cooked the Dundee Cake so its quite dry.  Maybe I should feed it with some Brandy.

However its not all been bad.  Mimi is being very cute - although I wish she would stop licking her chin as she has made it sore with a nasty sore rash.  If you had asked me yesterday it may have been a different story.  The potty training seems to be regressing.  She keeps hiding and doing number two's in her knickers.  This happened yesterday, I am trying to stay calm about it as I don't want it to become an issue which manifests itself into something more than it is.  However I struggled to keep it together yesterday and burst into tears.  I stood her up and pulled down her knickers but she decided she wanted to sit down so slid down me and landed on the floor, you can imagine the rest!  Her response was "don't worry, your daddy will be her soon"  "daddy will make it better".  Hence we all needed clean clothes.

She does not like going to playschool, she is like an octopus that clings to you and has to be peeled off however she comes out 3 hours later with a huge grin on her face, covered in paint, a fist full of paintings and proceeds to tell you what a nice time she has had.  I was sitting with her at lunch time today when she said to me "I was a naughty girl at playschool".  I asked her what she had done and apparently she had been told off for standing on her chair at lunch time. 

The other day I met a very old friend of mine and her little girl at the Ashford Outlet Centre for a couple of hours.  The two girls are so cute together, however because we meet their quite often and we both like a bargain both of the girls were dressed in almost identical clothes.  This time they got matching boots from Clarks.

Mimi & her little friend with their matching coats & umbrellas.

Yesterday morning we were going to take Mimi on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Miniature Railway but its not running at the moment so instead we took her to Dover Castle.  The weather was beautiful.  It was lovely and warm and virtually no wind at all so we were able to go right to the top of the Great Tower without being blown away.

Mimi on the little land train which takes you around the Castle's grounds

Mimi decided to tell everyone very loudly on the train that Mummy & Daddy had both been to the toilet.  She then proceeded to tell them that she wasn't having a very nice time.  When I asked her if she wanted to go back another day she said No.

What has everyone else been up to?  Weather was great again today.  Mike went sailing first thing this morning then this afternoon we took a walk around the field.  Mimi (I wish I had taken a photo) decided that she would wear her bike helmet the wrong way round for the entirety of the walk.  Crazy baby!!!  I did try and remove it but she became fairly hysterical about it so we left her!