Hickory Dickorys ...

Eva was unsettled in the night. She woke in the early hours, and even though she was shattered, cried every time I put her back into her cot. She has got another cold and her temperature went up slightly in the night to 37.4, so she obviously wasn't feeling great and she woke up with a very snotty nose and sounding quite croaky this morning.

She was fine once she was up. Still had the cold, obviously, but was fine with it, apart from getting annoyed at me blowing her nose every 5 minutes. I use a bib on her nose when it's like this, as the cotton is very soft, so gentler on her little nose.

She had a lovely play with her toys after breakfast, then went up for her sleep and slept from 12.15pm to about 1.45pm.

When Eva woke, I got her ready, packed a little snack of breadsticks and raisins, and off we set to meet Vic Breheny and little Evan, and her friend Wendy and her little boy, Daniel, at Hickory Dickorys. We'd never been before, as I couldn't see the point in going to soft play when Eva couldn't even crawl. I had also assumed they were mainly for older children and would be too manic for a baby, but after going there today, I reckon she's at the perfect age to start going now. They have an area just for under 5's, which was lovely. I sat Eva down on the mats, and straight away she went after a little orange ball that had come out of the ball pit. Evan sat down next to her for some photos, and me and Vic were saying "Eva kiss Evan" "Evan kiss Eva" and today's pics were the outcome, such cuteness. I took her into the little baby ball pit then, and she absolutely loved it, kicking the balls around, and I was putting more and more over her legs as she kicked them off, and we were getting lots of "oooooOOOOOooooohhhh"'s from Eva. I sat her by the end of the wiggly caterpillar tunnel then to see if she'd crawl through, but she didn't want to. She had a really wonderful time and it was so lovely to catch up with Vic and the ever handsome little Evan, and to meet Wendy and little Daniel. After playtime, we went over to the cafe area, sat the babies in a highchair each with their little snacks, and bought ourselves a drink to have more of a natter. Eva didn't like the shoulder straps on the highchair as she likes to sit forward, so I kind of did her up so she couldn't slide through under the tray and fall out, but the straps weren't over her shoulders, and she was happy. I couldn't believe it, but Vic brought over a Christmas present for Eva, and she practically unwrapped it herself. It was a little train made of little books which Eva will love. Such a thoughtful surprise. Eva looked at her books and shaked her maracas whilst sat in the highchair too, as I always carry a few toys in her changing bag.

Eva took until nearly 10 o' clock tonight to go to sleep, poor baby. She wanted milk after milk after milk and her little nose was streaming so much :-( she was absolutely shattered and just kept sitting up in her cot, but obviously needed to sleep, but just wouldn't stay lying down and kept crying. I ended up taking her into our bed, put the quilt over us so she got all warm and snuggly, gave her yet more milk, then carried her back to her cot with her head resting on my shoulder and she went to sleep Xxx