Update On Footmuffs!

As I said in a previous post, I wasn’t impressed with the size of the footmuff on the Maxi Cosi Mila pushchair. I did notice though that when looking at the Maxi Cosi website, they advertise the footmuff that used to come with the Mura as the ‘Maxi Cosi’ footmuff in general, and it will fit onto any of their brand pushchairs now.

Well, when I first got the Mura footmuff, I couldn’t find one anywhere in Tango Red – to match the Mura. Instead, I originally got a Grey Slice colour – this is an ‘old’ colour so it was cheaper too. The Grey Slice footmuff is the same style footmuff but was produced then specifically for the Grey Slice Mura, and the footmuff has the grey fleecy lining and the outer is black ‘shellsuit’ type fabric, more like a waterproof jacket than the heavier, more canvas feel of the Tango Red footmuff.

Anyway, I used it once on the Mura and it was great and everything but then as luck would have it I happened to find a Tango Red one, and got that. Originally I was going to save the Grey Slice one as a ‘standby’ in case the Tango Red was ever in the wash when I needed it, but then having realised that the size of the Mila footmuff was quite small, I decided to take the Grey Slice footmuff to my mother in laws house for her to use on the Mila, as it fits.

I demonstrated to her how to fit it – as she is an ‘easily confused’ type of person, as I think we’ve established with the whole can’t-fold-the-Zapp-chassis stories, however she was quite happy as I showed her that it wasn’t too bad although it was a bit of a fuss. I said that it was, and you couldn’t leave it in place if it wasn’t needed as there’s no real way of keeping it out of the way if it’s on the pushchair but not in use (unlike the Quinny footmuff, which the back remains in the seat without the front, to provide a seat liner) However as we are now in October I think she’ll be needing the footmuff on more often than off, so we shall see how it goes. Once it was in place and I harnessed in The Boy so she could see from start to finish how to do it, The Boy was then all geared up thinking we were going out somewhere, so he took a walk around in the garden with my father in law to keep him entertained for about fifteen minutes. Back indoors, I walked off and allowed parents in law to remove The Boy from the footmuff and the Mila, which they achieved relatively quickly although there were complaints about how much fussing about it was. Mother in law then started waxing lyrical about old-fashioned pram suits, like the sort The Boy had when he was really tiny, so you put the baby in that and into the pushchair rather than struggling to get a footmuff that’s more like a body bag into place before putting the child into it, but I said to her I hadn’t seen one I could afford in his size and that seemed to persuade her to stop worrying about what I hadn’t got and appreciate what I had! (After all, this is RRP £50 and once again she’s not paid me for it!)

Anyway it was a real success, so I thought I’d share my story that I can confirm the two-legged Maxi Cosi footmuff can be fitted well onto the Mila and does a fab job while it’s there – The Boy was content and warm and cosy as we stood in the autumnal wind watching his parade laps of the garden in his pushchair!

Product Review: The Maxi Cosi Mila

What? The Maxi Cosi Mila

Where? All authorised Maxi Cosi retailers

How Much? RRP £200

I’ve said a couple of times in previous entries how much my mother in law hated the Quinny Zapp. She couldn’t get on with it at all, and every time we went to visit she would go on for a good half hour about why she hated it so much. I took the hint, and sought out a pushchair that ticked her boxes.

One thing she was fond of saying was that the fold/unfold was very complicated (for those of you who’ve never played with a Zapp before, it’s a very straightforward pressing of buttons 1, 2 and 3 whether folding or unfolding). I think her main problem was that it didn’t fold/unfold the way she expected it to – i.e. umbrella stroller style. She wanted something that reclined (she didn’t get on with the Xtra seat unit, either) and she wanted a four wheeler instead of the three.

The Maxi Cosi Mila seemed to tick the boxes, so like a dutiful daughter in law trying to appease the other woman in The Hubby’s life, I went off and brought one. Prior to purchasing, I was dreaming of a gorgeous colour – the Bleached Denim looked promising, but I was disappointed when I saw it in the flesh to find the chassis was quite a purple colour and the fabrics themselves more lilac than blue as well, and the overall look was very feminine. I then admired the Intense Red, til I remembered a conversation previously with the mother in law when she’d mentioned that another factor of the Rebel Red Zapp that she didn’t like was how ‘garishly bright’ the colour was, and after all this purchase was to please her. I eyed the Steel Grey, but decided against it as I knew she would only complain that the fabric was too pale and a nightmare to keep clean (she’s the sort of person who will bleach the sink on a daily basis to keep it bright white and who cleans and organises her kitchen cupboards every month to make sure they look nice and presentable when you look in them) The Dahlia Pink was out of the question for The Boy, so that left me with the Total Black. I picked up the box, paid my money, and off I went.

The Maxi Cosi Mila is designed for use from birth, with a fully lie-flat seat position for younger babies. It has a very nice compact fold (with the standard umbrella fold technique which makes it a one-handed fold, which is handy) It also has a storage lock which clicks on when it’s folded and ensures it won’t come unfolded while you’re carrying it. The Mila has rear suspension for a ‘smooth’ ride (more on that later!) and comes complete with a matching footmuff for chilly weather, adaptors for the Maxi Cosi Group 0+ carseats, raincover, shopping basket and sun canopy.

I wasn’t about to hand over this purchase without having a play with it myself, so I popped open the box upon my arrival home and unpacked it. The Mila comes pretty much assembled and ready to go – all you have to do is click the wheels into the chassis and it is very straightforward to do, and takes about 30 seconds. Once it’s unfolded and locked into position I found it didn’t feel particularly sturdy – but then I’m used to the Mura, the mother of all buggies as far as sturdiness goes – so I put the flimsy feel of the Mila down to the fact that it was simply a lighter weight pushchair and so was bound to feel a little less solid. The basket is a lovely large size, with space for plenty of shopping, and it is a decent shape too, with high sides so your shopping won’t fall out, and the base of it feels fairly solid so there’s no risk of it sagging down and dragging on the floor. The front wheels swivel, or if you prefer you can lock them with a little grey button located on the front of each wheel – not as convenient as some designs, as you have to bend down to the wheels to lock them, but once locked they are firmly in place and I decided this would please my mother in law no end.

To take the Mila for a test run, I loaded The Boy into it and stuffed the nappy bag into the basket. The weather was cool and drizzly, so I added the footmuff before putting The Boy into it and found that despite his age (he was 10 months old at the time) he almost reached the end of the footmuff. I know he is tall for his age, but surely the footmuff should be able to accommodate a child of up to at least 18 months old? There is a clever little design addition on the footmuff on the inside – a layer of plastic around the bottom end of the footmuff, so that if your LO has been walking around and has dirty shoes on, the plastic will protect the inside of the footmuff from becoming filthy, enabling you to wipe clean when you get home – but due to the small size of the footmuff I can’t see many children capable of walking around still being able to fit into it. Snug and cosy in the footmuff and with the raincover in the basket along with the nappy bag ready for the next drizzle that was sure to happen while we were out, we set off. I straight away didn’t like the fact that The Boy wasn’t facing me, but it’s the same with the Quinny Zapp and he seems to quite enjoy having a good nose about, so I tried not to dwell on that point. (After all, at no point did Maxi Cosi advertise a parent-facing option for this model).

Our town is what I’d describe as pretty average as far as bumps in the pavements, cracks in the roads, there’s some crossings with those knobbly style paving slabs up to the dropped curb edge and a section of cobbles at the front of a particularly old pub, it’s mostly fairly flat but there are some gentle slopes here and there, and usually in the Mura, The Boy is perfectly contented and comfortable as the Mura glides effortlessly over all the imperfections. The Mila, however, despite the claim of ‘rear suspension for a smooth ride’ really wasn’t offering a smooth ride. The Boy was wobbled and jolted, jiggled and bounced along as I struggled with the smallest of bumps (those paving slabs at the crossing were a nightmare) and at every tiny crack or uneven patch or curb I had to do the old stop-and-tip-backwards technique, which is something I’m not too familiar with, being used to the Mura which you can plough toward anything and it will bump up or down with minimum effort. I found it quite scary crossing the main roads, as I was still in the road putting the pushchair onto the back wheels and trying to get up the curb when a vehicle whizzed by behind me so closely at times I thought they were trying to pick my pocket! Mid-way through our maiden voyage, the rain started spitting so I pulled into the shelter of a shop front with a large porch and put on the raincover. Being brand new it was stiff and awkward, but no more than usual, and it fitted the seat well. However I was disappointed to find that the moment we stepped out of the shelter of the shop front, it flapped about a fair bit in the wind and to be honest I was quite concerned I was going to loose it – and it wasn’t a particularly windy day, certainly not compared to what I’ve witnessed in our time living around here! (For instance, a few weeks back the wind was so strong that it knocked over an ancient wall surrounding a local churchyard) We continued on our journey and reached our destination – I had letters to post, and the only post box in town I trust to be collected on time is the one on the front wall of the post office itself. As this is on a slight slope I took care to angle the Mila so that it couldn’t simply roll away down the slope, and I applied the brake before putting the letters in the post box. (Keeping one hand on the pushchair at all times, obviously, as per the user manual of not leaving the pushchair ‘unattended’)

A friend came out of the post office and we had a quick chat until The Boy became verbal so I bid her goodbye and we set off. I’d got a good few paces down the road when I realised I hadn’t released the brakes – yet the Mila was moving easily. I pressed the pedal to dis-engage the brakes and pushed forward, and while it was easier it certainly hadn’t been difficult to do with the brakes in the ‘engaged’ position. I stood there for a while, engaging the brakes and seeing whether there was something I’d missed, whether perhaps I hadn’t done it properly or if there was something I’d done wrong, but as far as I could tell the brakes really were that lazy.

The rain stopped and the sun broke through the clouds, so I removed the raincover and put it back in the basket but left the sun canopy down to shield The Boy from the brightest of the sunshine. It’s a good size sun canopy and provided good protection – until The Boy realised he could get his hand out between the seat fabric and the sun canopy and was pulling at the fabric, waving at passers by and undoing the Velcro fastenings that join the sun canopy to the seat fabric!

On the way home, The Boy went very quiet and when I checked he’d fallen asleep, so I decided to try and recline the Mila to see how well that worked. The Mila has a very simple recline, a bungee cord on the back with a plastic toggle, so in the upright position the toggle is pulled as tightly as it can be on the bungee cord and to recline you gradually move the toggle down the bungee cord. I loosened it off and lowered it back, and it was easy to do but I’m not convinced that the toggle is strong enough for a much heavier child – for instance, up to the 15kg that the pushchair is meant to be able to cope with. We bumped and jiggled and bounced and wiggled our way home again and I must say I was so pleased to get home and be finished with my test run of the Mila. I was thoroughly unimpressed that this pushchair is RRP £200 yet I could have got the same quality with a cheap, £20 stroller. While I may not have got the footmuff and the raincover I don’t think they’ve been particularly well designed or made anyway so I wouldn’t like to guess how long they might last. I also noticed that despite the fact our journey had only been a short one – a couple of miles worth of walking around town – the wheels were already looking quite battered and worn.

To get the Mila back into the house, I either needed someone else to help me lift it up the two steps and over the lip of the front door, or I needed to pull in backwards. With my Mura, this is no problem – while the movement bounces The Boy a fair bit he does generally stay asleep if he’s already asleep, and the Mura can take a fair bit of rough handling and pulling backwards without complaint. The Mila is a different story – When we went out, my mum had picked up the front and I’d lifted the back to get it out of the door, and as we’d done so the footrest (where she grabbed hold of it) started to fold onto her finger, despite the fact the pushchair was fully locked out into position, and gave her a black ‘pinch’ mark where it had caught her skin. On the way back in, she decided she’d rather not risk that again and was trying to figure out how else she could grab it, so I said to her that I’d do it alone as I wouldn’t always have someone to help me anyway, and I wanted to see how well it would cope with the fairly simple task of getting into the front door. Upon pulling it backward just a short distance the rear wheels splayed out noticeably and when bumping up the steps and over the lip of the door it jolted quite a lot. While Maxi Cosi may say this pushchair is suitable from birth I would certainly not use it for a newborn or young baby for the jolt factor alone – after all, we’ve all been told how dangerous ‘shaken baby’ syndrome can be! And even if you used a carseat on the chassis, surely this kind of jolting could damage the carseat with the same type of hairline fractures they warn against if you drop or bang the carseat?

Once we had got The Boy out I removed the wheels and gave them a clean and hung out the raincover to make sure it was dry before packing the Mila back up into the box ready to go to the mother in laws house. I can’t say I was particularly sorry to see it go, either – I really didn’t rate this pushchair at all. Why would you pay so much money for something that performs the same as a much cheaper product? I was bitterly disappointed, but still I took it round to the mother in law the next time we visited.

She was thrilled. She got it out of the box, attached the wheels without worry and unfolded it with a single, simple movement. She loved the fact that it is a four wheeler, and she particularly likes it with the front wheels in the locked position (even though I really can’t get on with it like that!) She loves that she can load the shopping basket with daily essentials if she has to go to the village shop when she’s looking after The Boy, and she loves how easy the footmuff is to operate (she didn’t like the Quinny footmuff and for the life of me I can’t work out why she thinks the Maxi Cosi Mila footmuff is any different!) She also prefers the Total Black as it’s a nice, understated, non-attention-seeking colour and as my sister in law was pregnant at the time of the purchase she decided it was just as well to have black as it was neutral (as it turned out, my sister in law had a son too, so it wouldn’t have mattered if we got a particularly ‘boyish’ colour, not that there was one available in my opinion) For the 2012 collection I have seen the Checker Blue option which is a much nicer blue than the Bleached Denim and has a silver chassis instead of them trying to match it to the fabrics and not quite making it, and it looks much better. The mother in law also praised the nice large sun canopy (even though The Boy sticks his hands out the gap!) and the comfortable hand grips (more angled than the Zapp, but still hard plastic and, as far as I’m concerned, no more comfortable than the Zapp handles).  She hasn’t stopped complimenting it since we brought it, and she’s more than happy to take The Boy out by herself, with her dog in rain or shine now she has a buggy she’s happy with. (And yes, she does remove the wheels after each use to clean them!)

I don’t like the Mila: But she adores it – I guess it just goes to show that everyone’s different. The only trouble is now when we go round there if we all go out together I don’t like using her Mila so I end up taking my Zapp anyway which kind of negates half the point of her having a buggy at her house!

The Quinny Zapp Xtra

It probably sounds a bit mad to some people, but I didn’t like using my Quinny Zapp Limited Edition Black chassis with the Zapp Xtra seat unit on, as the Zapp Xtra seat unit framework is silver (to match the standard Zapp chassis) and I thought it looked odd to have the seat frame silver on an all black chassis. For this reason, my Zapp Xtra seat unit was relegated to the cupboard under the stairs for a while.

Meanwhile, my mother in law, who looks after The Boy sometimes, wasn’t getting on with the Quinny Zapp that I’d got to keep at her house. She didn’t get on with the way it folded and unfolded: She said the seat was ‘too upright’ and made The Boy look like he was going to slip out of it (even though he was always harnessed in when he was in it) and that between the harness and the style of the seat fabric The Boy looked like he was ‘dangling’ and uncomfortable. She didn’t get along with the fact that it’s a three wheeler (because she felt like it was going to tip to one side when she went up and down curbs) and she didn’t feel that it was particularly ‘solid’ if she left The Boy in it when he fell asleep while they were out and she wanted to ‘park’ him indoors and leave him to sleep (even though I kept telling her she shouldn’t do that anyway). She didn’t like it on ‘swivel’ front wheel option because she said it was “like an out of control supermarket trolley” but she didn’t like it locked because it is a three wheeler and it was then difficult to steer. Anyway she went on and on relentlessly about all the reasons she found to hate the £155 pushchair that I’d got to keep at her house, so I took it back again. (I ended up purchasing her a Maxi Cosi Mila, which she loves, more on that at a later point). So now I had a Zapp that was surplus to requirements as well as the Zapp Xtra seat unit.

The Zapp I’d got for my mother in law was a standard silver chassis with Rebel Red fabrics, so the silver chassis matched the seat frame of the Zapp Xtra seat unit and gave me an idea. I took the standard Zapp fabrics off the chassis and put the recline adaptors in place and then took the whole thing to my parents holiday home at the coast the next time we went to visit them there for the day. Folded down, the Zapp chassis fits nicely under one of the sofas and the seat unit stands in the wardrobe in the spare bedroom. Now I’ve got a pushchair there that can be used when we’re there or when my parents take The Boy there for a day or overnight which saves space in the car when you’re making the journey as you don’t need to worry about taking a pushchair, and I’ve freed up the space under my stairs again. My mum likes the Zapp (now she’s figured out the fold and unfold method!) she loves that with the Zapp Xtra seat unit she can have The Boy in ‘grandparent facing’ mode and she loves that she can recline it so easily. I got a Rebel Red Zapp footmuff (to go with the standard fabrics that were on it in the first place) which contrast with the Rocking Black Zapp Xtra seat unit and now even on the chilliest of days The Boy is snug and cosy in the pushchair when his nanny takes him for a cliff top walk after lunch! I also have a Rebel Red parasol and parasol clip for my own Zapp, which I keep in the boot of my car, so if we’re over there and it’s sunny I can use that on the Zapp Xtra as well.

In addition to this, when The Boy and I went to stay with my parents a few weeks ago, they took the Zapp Xtra back to their house from the holiday home for us to use – again it saved space in my car and meant I didn’t have to take a pushchair, but there was one there for us to use and it was compact enough that I stuck it in the boot of my car and it didn’t take up all the room available. I only used it once – when we went to visit a friend and couldn’t park anywhere near their house, so I had to park in a back street quite a distance away and walk to their house – but The Boy was snug and cosy in the footmuff and comfortable in the Zapp Xtra as we trotted about five or ten minutes to their house. I could have managed with him in my arms – just about, he’s quite a weight and a real wriggler – but it was more convenient to have him in the pushchair. Plus when we got to their house after playing for a while and wanting to settle down for a nap, I put The Boy into the Zapp Xtra and he dozed off and had a ten minute cat nap before we went back to the car to go back to my parents house.

For use like this, the Zapp Xtra comes into its own; lightweight, small sized and easy to manoeuvre, it is the ideal urban buggy for getting around. It’s rubbish on rough terrain (at the holiday home, mum goes for walks on the grass and its very bumpy, though that’s generally the point at which The Boy falls asleep I wouldn’t be happy with a young baby being in the Zapp Xtra on that kind of terrain) but it’s smart, nippy and practical for stowing in the car boot and popping into the shops or out to a friends house. I wouldn’t use it for long distance walking just for the fact that it doesn’t seem very comfortable for that – the handlebars are hard plastic which makes my hands hurt after a while, and for LO there isn’t any suspension and the wheels are solid so it’s a fairly rough ride. The addition of the footmuff on the seat unit makes it look a lot more comfy – whether this is imaginary or not – because you can take the front off the Quinny footmuff and leave a cosy, fleece liner on the seat it gives it a softer, more comfortable look. The only downfall of this product is the fact that by adding the Xtra seat unit and providing recline and parent facing options, Quinny have negated the point of the chassis being so small, compact and lightweight – the Xtra seat unit flattens down but doesn’t fold, so as well as the chassis you’ve now got a seat unit to carry around with you. The seat unit doesn’t fit in the travel bag, only the chassis will, so while the chassis can go into the travel bag and is suitable to put in an overhead storage compartment on an aircraft, in a coach or on the train, with the Xtra seat unit as well that isn’t going to be possible. Having said that I’m unsure whether they could develop any way of folding down the seat unit so that it does collapse into something more manageable for travel purposes.

I do like the Quinny Zapp Xtra, but let me put it this way, if it was my only pushchair I wouldn’t be impressed; as my ‘holiday’ pushchair (or at least, the pushchair at the holiday home) it is ideal. My faithful car boot companion will remain to be the standard Quinny Zapp as it does fold up so well and I don’t have a separate seat unit to worry about, and for my long walks, shopping in town, meanders through the countryside and day trips to the beach, you can’t beat the Maxi Cosi Mura 3. Lucky for me that I didn’t have to pick just one!

I'd Like A Day Off, Please ...

It’s pretty much a given, in any other job in the world, that once in a while you get a day off. Whether you get the standard Saturday & Sunday every week, or you get a random couple of days depending on your work rota, you expect a couple of days off, and you expect a certain amount of holiday time, to take a week or two off to totally unwind.

Motherhood is the exception. I realised the other day that since The Boy was born, I hadn’t been away from him overnight, I haven’t had any real amount of time where I’m not responsible for his wellbeing, I haven’t had any real time to spend with The Hubby, and when I do get the opportunity to relax while The Boy is asleep, I end up working so I don’t really get to unwind.

Recently I’m realising that isn’t a good thing; That needing a break every now and then maybe doesn’t mean I’m not doing a good job, it maybe doesn’t mean that I’m rubbish at being a mum; It just means maybe I’m human, and I need a break every now and then.

When The Hubby does loose his job (still no further date than the 17^th July, so that’s only a couple of weeks away) we’re going to leave my mum here to take care of our dogs, and The Hubby, The Boy and myself will go to her holiday home, for a long weekend, to chill and have some proper family time. After that, I’m hoping to maybe get my mum or  mum-in-law to take The Boy for a weekend, so that The Hubby and I can have some proper couple time; It’s been a very long time since we spent an evening together relaxing, and I think we could both do with it.

I just wish I didn’t feel so damn guilty about it. What is it about leaving your baby with someone else that makes you so nervous, even when that someone else is a family member; your own mother for heavens sake – what do I expect her to do? What hasn’t she dealt with before when looking after kids? My brother used to have febrile convulsions when he was younger, sometimes his breathing would stop afterwards, and between her and my dad they coped with that (admittedly my dad’s job – as a frontline ambulance technician – probably did help them cope with that a little better than many couples would have!) I had a mystery virus as a baby myself, and was in hospital for a few days with a raging fever, but they coped. What makes me think they won’t be able to cope taking care of The Boy overnight, or for a weekend? Yet still I worry!

Having said that, the level of concern I feel about leaving The Boy with my own mother is nothing in comparison with leaving him with my mum-in-law. I don’t really know why it worries me so much; I think maybe because she has to make everything into such a huge deal and effort and there’s always an analysis and a breakdown and everything afterwards, that it makes me worried she’d be like that before making any decision about The Boys wellbeing, and in that time of faffing about he’s got bored and roamed off somewhere, or fallen asleep, or eaten the dog biscuits from the bowl on the floor in the front room.

It’s my bone of contention about my in-laws. They’re a lovely couple; they raised a great couple of kids, but their obsession with their dog annoys the hell out of me. It’s a West Highland Terrier and it’s about three years old now, and it rules their life. They’ve had it since he was a pup, and now he’s got them so under the thumb if they go out without him he’ll tear wallpaper off the walls, chew the skirting boards around the house, howl and bark and tear up bits of cardboard and paper, scattering it like confetti around the place. My response is, “Put him in a cage”. Make it a big cage, in the cool of the utility room now the weather is warmer, with his bed, a blanket, a toy or two and a bowl of water and that’s where he goes while you’re out, if you can’t trust him. Their response is that he won’t like it. My argument is, He is your dog, tough shit if he doesn’t like it! We have to lock our girlie dog away in a cage while we’re out, as she’s never got properly housetrained; It sounds awful I know, but we rescued her a couple of years ago, we don’t know her history at all, but we’ve tried every method we’ve found to housetrain, and it doesn’t work. While she’s in the cage overnight and if we’re out, she’s clean; I have no idea where the logic there is, but that’s why the cage works for us with her.

The in-laws won’t do that with their dog. Neither can mum in law go out and leave dad in law in bed (he works nights) with the dog downstairs, as the dog will make such a fuss he’ll wake dad in law. When my sister in law gave birth to her baby a couple of weeks ago, the only way they’d both go and visit was if I went and stayed at their house for the day with the dog.

When we’re at their house with them and the dog, the dog can be a pain in the backside. It barks a lot for attention, as well as climbing up you, licking you and generally being a bit of a pain. I can’t talk; My dogs behave the same way with visitors. The difference being, I’ll get up and get the animal off the visitor and tell it no in a firm voice; If they continue, they end up in the garden. My in laws simper at the dog not to do it in a voice that wouldn’t make a daffodil stand to attention and it goes on for ages and ages before they do anything about it, and when they do something it doesn’t make a difference because the dog runs back and continues anyway, and it starts again.

While I was there on my own, all day (with The Boy obviously) the dog was fine. He played nicely, he slept a lot, he had a couple of treats for doing what he was told, he ate his dinner fine and we had no issues despite a raging thunderstorm and the fact that The Boy has just learned to crawl, so the dog had a baby all over his stuff, in his dinner, playing with his toys.

My point is that my mum in law thinks more about the dog than she does about her grandson; and now my sister in laws husband has said the same thing to The Hubby and myself, and it’s quite obvious he isn’t pleased about it either. Why should you be? You’ve got these gorgeous kids – one almost a year old, one newborn – in your family, and she’s more concerned about leaving the dog behind overnight than she is about a newborn child travelling in a car for over two hours. Its like, Get your priorities straight, yeah? But you can never say it to her, because of her depression, and she’d take it wrongly and then you’d be the one in the wrong, because she’s ill, she doesn’t mean it, it’s just the way she is, she’s always been like this, she’ll never be any different … So what are we meant to do in the meantime? I don’t particularly want her looking after The Boy, given that one of her main concerns about a pushchair was one that she could push one handed so that she can smoke a cigarette at the same time, and whether she could tie the dog lead to the pushchair! But what choice do I get? It’s more logical; She lives much closer than my mum – It’s practical; Because she lives closer – and plus it provides her with some valuable Grandson time – As she won’t come and visit our house because she would have to leave her dog at home alone, and he gets funny when she’s been round here because she goes home smelling of our dogs. And The Hubby wonders why I find her frustrating!! So we end up always going to their house, leaving our dogs home alone, and having to cart The Boy and a pile of stuff in my little car, and hoping that the little car will survive the journey there and back, because it hasn’t been very well recently and it doesn’t seem to be feeling much better!!

Anyway, The Boy wants my attention … He is teething, poor thing, and I think it’s his molars coming through judging by the fuss. I’m seriously considering an amber teething anklet or bracelet (I don’t like the idea of a necklace on him) my friend swears by them but I’m not convinced, and while £10 may not be a lot to fork out if it works in comparison to paying out for Teetha granules or Calpol, it is a lot to fork out if it doesn’t work, especially with The Hubby about to be made unemployed.

The depression of a boring Sunday when you’re overtired and desperate for a rest! Such a long day yesterday; And The Boy didn’t sleep well, so neither did we, and then The Hubby was up and out early this morning for work, so it’s just been me and The Boy and the dogs (who haven’t been too bad today, but still doing my head in on a minor level)

Bye for now x