Me-me-meme (mosaic)!

Seen this on a few blogs now (here, here & here) so thought I'd have a go when I'm supposed to be working.



1. What is your first name? (Leigh)
2. What is your favourite food? (lamb)
3. What high school did you attend? (West Park Community School)
4. What is your favourite colour? (blue)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (None)
6. What is your favourite drink? (Cherry Coke)
7. What is your dream vacation? (Japan)
8. What is your favourite dessert? (Lemon Tart)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (hairdresser or magician)
10. What do you love most in life? (family)
11. One word to describe you (annoying)
12. Your Flickr name (leighbob, although no matches, it suggested I meant 'neighbor' so thats what I searched for!)

Credit where credit is due...

1. Small boat at old leigh, 2. That's a BIG Noise from a Lil lamb..:O))), 3. 801 CD10 Parks, Schools and Pools by City Council District, 4. wham:a different corner, 5. Sunny Side Up, 6. Scientific Bean Review, 7. Fuji-san Sunrise, 8. Hello cake, 9. Secret World, 10. Watching the fireworks, 11. Sea In my Fingers (thank friends), 12. Berried Cedar Waxwing

The best 31st Birthday ever!

00.08 - Woke up to hear Z griping and K pacing, no mention of birthdays, fell back to sleep.

02.45 - Woke to hear Z griping and K pacing, was about to suggest a feed but before I could a baby was plomped onto the bed next to me and satiated with boob. No mention of birthdays.

06.00 - Woke to hear Z griping and K marvelling (read: despairing) at how wet he was. First big nappy malfunction in new reusable nappies. Z balling. I realise that since I'm off work there's really no excuse to lie there listening to it and get up to help.

08.00 - Wake up to see Z quietly sleeping between us, happy and contented. Wondering why I'm so lucky to have such a beautiful family.

08.10 - K wishes me happy birthday and asks if I'd like presents...she knows me very well!

08.30 - Presents all opened...very spoilt, highlights include a K-penned "Daddy & Zachary Adventure Book", a box of sweets, meeple t-shirt, Carcassonne coasters and a couple of board games.

08.35 - Lying in bed playing with Z while K makes breakfast downstairs.

08.45 - Eating bacon and fried eggs (with the egg fried into a heart shaped hole in the toast) with tea and orange juice, whilst in bed! Bliss but crumby!

09.00 - While K feeds Z I take phone call from my aunt who has mixed up me and my brother and sent him a birthday card instead of me!

09.30 - Lie in bed reading "Dad Rules" by Andrew Clover (a present from Z) while watching Zachary have fun playing with himself, before dropping off for a nap.

10.00 - Squeeze in a game of Citadels.

10.30 - Get fashion show as Z is paraded in front of me in the 2 family christening gowns. At least they fit...there were worries about fat arms.

11.30 - Everyone up and dressed, still reading my new book.

12.00 - Wander into town for lunch. Neglect to bring parasol as it is cloudy but hot. 5 minutes into town glorious sunshine directly overhead, can't be bothered to go home and fetch parasol.

12.30 - Find orzo in small deli. K pleased as it is the final ingredient in my birthday tea (having searched fruitlessly at Morrisons, Sainsburys & Tesco yesterday)

14.45 - Back home having spent a load of money on nothing much. I seem to have a constant urge to buy my son books he won't be able to read for years to come.

15.30 - Played with Z, watched some of The Shield series 6 (naughty Shane!) and helped K fix the pomegranate granita.

16.30 - Read some more of my book, punched the bits for Tikal.

18.30 - Put Z to bed while smelling nice things wafting from the kitchen.

18.55 - Receive phone call with new improved offer from people wanting to buy our house! Hooray! Offer not brilliant but we feel that its the only one we're going to get before the prices plunge any further. Hopefully tomorrow will see our new lower offer accepted on the house in Long Eaton.

19.10 - Start blog.

19.15 - Settle Z again.

19.20 - Continue blog.

19.25 - Settle Z again.

19.30 - Eat delicious meal prepared by K of Chicken Roulade with dolcelatte, basil, tomatoes and pancetta served with orzo pasta with mushrooms. Followed by an indian dessert which was made from pomegranate granita, with melon, coconut milk, pomegranate seeds on the next layer with toasted almonds on top. Delicious along with a nice glass of rose. K shall be doing the cooking more often.

20.00 - Watched Celebrity Masterchef

21.00 - Played Tikal and K is so far beating me up. Clearly she is better suited to searching the Mayan jungle ruins than I am.

22.00 - Finish blog while K feeds Z.

Baby Update

1. The cradle cap is almost entirely gone! A combination of daily hair washes and coconut oil have worked their magic and he even has some lovely fuzzy groth of hair coming back!

2. His stomach is most days a bright scarlet colour. Ezcema unfortunately, and each cream we've tried makes it worse. K is back to the doctors tomorrow so they can prescribe a different variety. Fingers crossed this one will help.

3. We're back on reusable nappies! Using these at the moment. And they've been really effective. The best part is that they've made from bamboo which is eco-friendly to the max!

4. He won't take a bottle from me yet. He just spits it out in disgust! We're going to try with a higher flowing teat as the one we have is for newborns.

5. His 'tummy time' is producing real dividends!



Today he almost rolled over whilst reaching for Mr. Quackles! A real milestone once he achieves it but it also means we'll not be able to leave him alone on the bed!

6. The dreaded D word. Zachary has spent the last week screaming every time we put him in his cot and not going to sleep without a feed and then only for a short time. We've tried putting him on his side (this worked one night), Calpol (this didn't work at all) and rocking him to sleep. This last one works while he's still in your arms but as soon as you put him down he starts balling. He spent much of the week in our bed which is interesting since he is so grabby with his little chubby hands! Anyway things came to head last night where not even feeds would settle him down and he was screaming non-stop for about 10 minutes.

So he's now upstairs, sound asleep with a dummy in his mouth! And part of me feels like a terrible parent, but then again, that small piece of silicone managed to settle him in 2 minutes flat and he's fast asleep with no bother!

The funny part is that he clearly didn't know what to do with it at first and it kept popping out of his mouth. Its quite surprising how far he can propel it with an over eager chew. After a few minutes he got to grips and a few minutes later he's still asleep with it firmly tucked in his mouth. Despite feeling a little like failures apparently his risk of cot death has decreased (worth any feeling of failure) and clearly his problem was one of comfort and not anything medically wrong (which was a worry).

We're going to limit use to bedtimes and it won't used as a way to get him to be quiet in the day. Also it will hopefully mean that if he wakes in the night the dummy will settle him without a fresh feed and a bit more sleep for me & K. To be honest we don't begrudge the lack of sleep but he was so distressed that we succumbed to the lure of the dummy.

And my goodness, there's a lot to choose from!

Blog, He Wrote

K keeps hassling me to update my blog and I'm finally presented with an opportunity to. There's nothing on the TV and Casualty that we Vision Boxed on Saturday seems to have only recorded the last 10 minutes so we've reverted to the old stand by of Murder She Wrote. Not sure why since we have 3 discs from Lovefilm to watch. Unfortunately we're on pause at the moment as K has gone to attend to crying Zachary. From the sounds of things I'm not sure she's going to be back anytime soon.