The Whole Tooth, and Nothing But the Tooth

Offending tooth, top middle The Wednesday morning trip to the dentist left us feeling much relieved that the tooth wasn't causing DC any major discomfort - having seen the dentist prod and poke with DC not even flinching, that much was evident. With the dentist's words of 'nothing to worry about, just wait til the adult tooth grows through' ringing in our ears, we felt like a huge weight of worry had been lifted from our shoulders. But, little by little, the worry-weight started to come back - is his tooth really going to look like that for the next 4-5 years til the adult tooth comes through? is he really going to have to eat by pushing food into the sides of his mouth and not biting at the front? are we going to be on tenterhooks just waiting for him to knock it again? etc, etc. So, on Friday we got an appointment at the emergency dentist who specialises in children; by this time the tooth looked different yet again, sort of swollen and boil-like (sounds odd, looked odd!) This dentist was pretty adamant that the tooth had to come out, and we were really rather relieved at this diagnosis. So, after a trip back to our original dentist for a referral letter and a trip back to this dentist to deliver said letter, we got a phone call that very afternoon to say that DC was booked in a week later at 7.30am at the Royal Berks to have the offending tooth whipped out. Hooray! We then had just one more trip to the dentist to sign some forms on Monday morning and then it was countdown to Friday.

Friday morning, 7am and we were on our way to hospital. By 9am we were in theatre where I cuddled small boy while he had a needle put in the back of his hand (which had already been numbed with copious amounts of 'magic cream'); within seconds of the needle going in and the anaesthetic being pumped through, he was sound asleep in my arms. I popped him down on the operating table and hubby & I were quickly chivvied out of the room, told to go and get a coffee and come back in 25-30mins. So off we went to the cafe for drinks and a sausage sarnie for hubby, reading matter at the ready. The time flew by and we were back on the ward a few minutes before DC was wheeled in in the arms of a nurse, just coming round from his little sleep. For the next 30mins or so he was a bit teary and upset, probably caused as much by a feeling of 'where am I? what just happened?' as much as the discomfort of having an operation, but not long after 10am we were back in the car heading home and the distraction of being out and about did the trick and we had no more tears. Home by 10.30am, small boy tucked up in a blanket, cuddling his favourite teddy, drinking milk and watching Chuggington. 11.30am small boy running round the house, eating pureed lunch and acting as if nothing had happened.

The fact that Friday happened to be April Fool's Day wasn't lost on us; I was very tempted to phone Granny and tell her DC had been fitted with a lovely little set of falsies, but I didn't.

Without offending tooth, but with big gap.

Cliveden. Twice in One Week!

I've not been to Cliveden since hubby & I celebrated our third wedding anniversary with afternoon tea there in December 2008, and now I've been twice in one week. On Wednesday afternoon my friend Trevor & I went for afternoon tea; it was Trevor's idea as a sort of celebratory send-off for me; usually we meet in the Costa inside Waterstones, so this was a bit of a change!

We had delicious finger sandwiches - salmon, cucumber, beef & horseradish, chicken; yummy cakes - chocolatey ones, fruity ones, macaroons, fruit cake; and scones with jam and cream. All washed down with coffee for me and Earl Grey for Trevor.Tea was served in the Great Hall and we spent a lovely couple of hours ensconced on a squashy sofa eating, drinking and chattering away.

Then on Sunday, we made a visit to Cliveden en famille, although this time not to the house, but to the grounds. DC had a whale of a time playing with his football - letting it roll down the steps and chasing after it (great way to burn off his energy while we watched from the top..)while hubby & I enjoyed a little breakfast-y snack outside the orangery:Then we hop, skipped and ran along the parterre to enjoy the fabulous view back to the house, before heading off through the water garden to the picnic area. The weather was fabulous and since we arrived at 10.30am on the day the clocks had gone forward we had the place almost to ourselves for quite a while. By the time we were ready to head home at lunchtime, it was getting busy so we were very pleased to have got ourselves up and out before the crowds.

Tooth Update, and Other News

So far we've taken small boy to see two different dentists. The first didn't really have much to say except for the scary mention of anaesthetists; her colleague, however, who we saw yesterday was much more reassuring. He poked and prodded small boy's tooth quite firmly, and small boy didn't even flinch, he was a little superstar in fact - opening his mouth wide when told, biting together when told and generally being in awe of the big blue chair, the bright lights, etc. The lack of flinching on small boy's part, coupled with the fact that he is eating, drinking and behaving (or mis-behaving) in his usual manner suggested to us and the dentist that the tooth is causing him little or no trouble. It simply looks a mess. The dentist wants us to get it checked regularly but is not keen on removing it or doing any work since putting a toddler under sedation is not an easy task. We left the dental practice feeling much better than we had 24 hours earlier. Just a pity then that small boy then proceeded to bump the same tooth twice in the course of the day at nursery...

In other news, it's exactly four weeks today that we move to Somerset. EEEEEEEEEEEK!

Small Boy Has An Eventful Weekend

Sounds like an Enid Blyton book, but it wasn't all quite as lovely as that, I'm afraid.

On Saturday, Granny & I took small boy for a walk along by the river (Thames); we had lots of fun kicking a football, running about and picking up twigs and when small boy tired of such fun, we bundled him in his pram and walked along to the park. Once there small boy got very excited and insisted on going on the bigger slide, not the baby one he is usually hearded towards by me. Still, he's just a day short of being two, I thought to myself, and he really is quite adept at climbing the steps and hurling himself down the slide, so I let him carry on. Uh-oh. What a mistake that turned out to be as, on his third (or was it fourth?) slippy-slide down, he came down feet first on his tummy (if you can picture that), landed with a thump at the bottom and smacked his face right on the end of the slide. ***shudder***

My first thought as I rushed to gather him up (apart from 'why did I let him go down the slide that way round?') was ''Oh god, he's broken his nose' so I was actually pleasantly surprised (if it's possible for anything to be pleasant in such circumstances) to see just a small amount of blood on his bottom lip. Then it dawned on me, as we mopped up the blood and tears that there was actually a large amount of one of his front teeth missing. Bugger.

I was straight on the phone to the emergency dentist who advised taking small boy to A&E first because of his age. So Granny and I hot-footed it home with a not-particularly worried small child who was busy sitting in his pram drinking milk, bundled ourselves in the car and drove the 10mins to the hospital. After being assessed by the triage nurse we then spent the next hour with small boy running around, chattering, eating and generally bouncing off the walls in a "look at me, I'm perfectly well, what on earth is my over-protective mother doing here with me wasting the doctors' time while there are some properly poorly people waiting to be seen" kind of fashion. Five minutes with the doctor who advised taking small boy to our regular dentist and handed over a tube of antibiotic cream (meant for conjunctivitis, according to the leaflet...) for the small cut on his lip (about which said doctor was "not overly concerned") and we were back outside in the spring sunshine with a small boy who just wanted to go home and have his lunchtime nap.

As it happens, small boy's tooth really is in a bad way, but he is showing no signs of discomfort and is eating and drinking normally, and behaving in his normal boisterous manner, thank goodness. We went to the dentist today and have to go back again on Thursday. There was much talk of "pulp", "anaesthetists", "not something that can be done on the NHS", "concern for adult tooth", etc, etc. It doesn't sound good, but at least he seems unfazed and isn't in any pain. At the moment...

Such a Busy Day

A couple of weekends back Family W had an extremely busy day.

We went to the zoo and saw the lions Then we saw the changing of the guard at the castle

Then we walked along the pier

Then it was off to the races for a little flutter

Then it was time for a little history lesson at the archaeological dig

Before a quick round of golf

A whizz past the airport

and, finally, a zoooom down the helter skelter and round and round on the carousel.

All before lunch.

We were exhausted!
(In case you're wondering/worried, small boy hadn't just fallen off the slide but was instead sulking because I either wanted him to stop doing something he was doing or start doing something he wasn't doing - I forget which...)

It's Like the Oscars, Only Better

An award? For moi? Why, thank you. Gush, gush, sob, sob, I'd like to thank my...sniff... parents... my...sniff....husband...my....oh golly I'm getting tear stains on my Dior (Galliano to be au courrent...) dress.

Sorry, I'll pull myself together and say a proper thank you to Tracy at Mad About Bags for nominating me for the Stylish Blogger Award

The rules are that I have to thank Tracy (which I would anyway, even if it wasn't one of the rules, because I'm polite like that!); tell you seven random things about myself; nominate 15 more bloggers; and let those bloggers know they've been nominated. So, here goes

Firstly, thank you, Tracy, for thinking of me when it came to giving out this award!

Secondly, seven things about me

1) I live in Reading (I was born in Bristol, came to Reading in 1990 to study at uni and sort of got stuck here) with hubby and our little boy who is soon to turn two (where did that time go?!)

2) In seven weeks time we'll be moving to a small village in south Somerset - ayyyeeee, I'm nervous!

3) I work from home, for a publishing company, which offers me such a huge amount of flexibility in how I plan (or don't plan) my days

4) I studied Ancient History at university and have an MA in Ancient Social and Cultural Studies

5) I love coffee (has to be proper coffee, none of that nasty instant stuff) but don't like tea one little bit

6) I'm always late. I get sidetracked so easily and always think that whatever needs to be done before I need to be somewhere will take less time than it invariably does. This is a bad habit.

7) I'm addicted to buying books. But you probably already knew that.

Now for 15 blogs to nominate

My Life in Flip Flops

Curlew Country

Gigi Bird

How Soon Is Now?

Skein Queen

My Little Life

Oh dear, this is taking me so long that I fear I'll never get this post published, so I'm going to stop there and have a think of some more blogs to nominate next time. Until then, have fun!

Obsession Continues

Avid readers of this blog (who am I trying to kid?!) will know that I have a bit of a problem. It's regarding books. I just can't stop buying them. And last weekend was no exception. Before Christmas I'd seen this book in Waterstones. I know the old saying advises against such a thing, but it was the cover that caught my attention. Surely judging a book by its cover is what most people do? If I ever write a book (and there's a book in all of us, don't forget!) I'll be sure to have some (a lot of) input as to the cover design.

Anyway, last Sunday Family W were having a wander round Henley-on-Thames and we took a little look in the Oxfam Bookshop (of course.) And what should I see on the shelf, but the book from Waterstones. And not just that one, but several others from the series. What's a girl to do? Even though I've not read any by this author, the cover got me, and I quickly snapped up all five.

Now my bookshelves are even more crazy-full than they were before, (below are the books I bought in New York still struggling to find themselves a spot)even though I'm doing my best to read as quickly as possible and cramming in an extra hour a week by reading while on the treadmill at the gym - multi-tasking at its best. I'm just making no inroads whatsoever. Top shelf are my 'read' books.

Last time I wrote about my groaning bookshelves was back at the beginning of September; at that point I had 131 unread books, now I have 180...

Oh well, never mind. There are a lot worse things to be addicted to than books.

Test Driving

Hubby & I are on the hunt for a new car. We figure when we move to a small village where there's about one bus a day, as opposed to one every ten minutes where we live now, we'll probably have to become a two-car family. Our current car is a ten-year old Ford Focus estate known as Monty. Monty will still be a valued member of the family, but he probably won't be as well-loved as the new car will be.

Yesterday we took one of these not-so-little beauties out for a test drive, the Honda CR-V:

and we really rather liked it. Obviously the Honda garage pulled the top-of-the range model out for us to take a spin in, so we were wowed by the leather seats, panoramic glass roof, sat-nav, iPod docking thingamijig, etc, etc. We also like the fact that it has 4WD which kicks in automatically when needed, which is something we think could come in handy on those country lanes in rural Somerset-shire.

Today we are off to test drive one of these, the Nissan Qashqai:

Don't you just love the name? Who came up with that? Did they realise it sounded like 'cash cow' and thought it would be just the perfect moniker for a car that has become extremely popular?

Do any of you own either of the above cars? If yes, what do you think of them? Would you recommend?

The World From a Different Perspective

Our darling boy has had/still has various obsessions in his short life thus far - we have endured a 'thing' about doors which meant no fingers or toes were safe in the vicinity while he merrily swung doors (internal doors, external doors, gates, cupboard doors, washing machine doors - you name it, if it came with a hinge, it was sent a-swinging) back and forth. For the most part, that particular obsession seems to have run its course, with the exception of the washing machine door which still gets flung about on a regular basis. And, talking of washing machines, that was another of his obsessions; whenever it was on he would stand there for hours watching the clothes spin round, sticking his head in the door, opening and shutting the soap powder drawer; even now he loves to turn the switch to 'off' while the machine is trying to clean the copious amounts of dirt/dried food/vomit out of his clothes (and ours), he also likes to 'help' put the dirty clothes in and get the clean clothes out. Bless.

There are two current, on-going obsessions; one is with phones in all shapes and sizes - mobile phones, cordless phones, old-fashioned phones, toy phones; the other is with cameras.

Firstly, let's talk about phones or, as DC would have it, 'daddies'. Yes, that's right, a phone in this house is called a 'daddy'. Confusing, non? Let me explain. When DC was even younger than he is now (and he's not yet two, so that's quite young) and Daddy used to phone us, I would always point to the phone and say 'It's Daddy' while I was talking. Poor little sausage. I obviously didn't make things clear that the dismembered voice on the other end of the contraption was 'Daddy' while the contraption itself was a 'phone.' We're getting there slowly and now phones are sometimes called 'tone' and sometimes still called 'daddy.' Luckily for Daddy, he is always called 'Daddy' and not 'tone'. The obsession with phones also means we can't walk past a phone box without him having to go in and play; he got a bit upset the other day when somebody actually wanted to use the phone box he was playing in - I literally had to drag him out and then he lay on the pavement sulking for ages and I had to pretend he wasn't mine.

Now, on to the camera or, as DC would have it the 'cheese.' Ah yes, a camera is called a 'cheese.' Again, my fault because every time I point a camera in his direction I say 'Say cheese.' And he does. And holds out his hands for the 'cheese' to be handed over so he can play with it. And, therein lies the explanation behind the title for this posting because, while playing with the phone, DC has also worked out how to press the 'taking photos' button. And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a selection of photos of the world as seen through the eyes of a small boy and his cheese:

This one is entitled 'ear and microwave at home'
Here we have 'ear and back door'This is 'swirly wall, Abbotsbury'Here we have 'phone box, Bridport'And here is 'wall, tree, berries, ear'Here is 'pavement, location unknown'And finally 'bib on floor of hotel room, West Bay'. Nice play of light on floor, don't you think?

A Weekend in Somerset

Tomorrow Family W are off to Somerset/Dorset for the weekend. We've a VERY busy Friday ahead; if all goes to plan, it should look a little something like this:

8.30am: leave house with car packed to gunwales, including small child, if we can squeeze him in
11am: appointment to view potential nursery for small child in Ilminster
12noon: meet architect and windowman (plus my mum and other visitors) at the Somerset house to discuss where we are at/what happens next
1.30pm: very important part of day's schedule - lunch in what will be 'our local' pub, The Lord Poulett Arms
2pm: (think we'll have to nip out from the pub for this one) appointment to view potential rental house in village so we have somewhere to live while our house is being demolished/extended/generally titivated
3.30pm: appointment to view another potential nursery for small child in Crewkerne
Then, head to West Bay where we are booked in for two nights at the lovely West Bay Hotel; am hoping they still have the wonderful scallops/garlic/bacon combo on the menu that I drooled over last time.
And reeeeeeelaaaaaaaaaax.
8pm: meet up for dinner at said West Bay Hotel with our lovely friends R&G, who run the fantabulous Lazyhill Gallery in nearby Abbotsbury.
Later: sleeeeep.

Luckily there's no real timetable to stick to on Saturday, so I expect a spot of pottering in Bridport (weather permitting) and then a trip along the coast to Abbotsbury will be in order.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!