Riley's Best Friend - Staffies are softer than you think

Riley's best friend is my Mum and Dad's dog, Lily! She loves her, whenever she sees her she has the biggest grin on her face. She giggles while Lily runs round and round. Lily seems to quite like her too, she will sidle over a bit so Riley can give her a pat and she gets all excited when she sees us. All in all they seem to have a developing friendship.

So what kind of dog is she... nope not a beautiful lab or a bouncy spaniel... she's a Staffie, a Battersea stray. Staffies are given a really unfair time of it, it is very unfortunate they resemble pit bulls and have been kept by many people to look tough. But the truth is yes there are a few aggressive staffies just like there are a few aggressive labs or spaniels. But on the whole the breed have a natural bond with people and are often known as nanny dogs because they are great with children.

Battersea dogs home is full of unwanted staffies and Lily is one of them... a battersea stray.

www.battersea.org.uk

She is great with people, dogs and goes to work with my Mum so is around horses and in the office. Of course we're careful, obviously any dog can be aggressive, never leave a child alone with a dog even for a second. Lily is great, she's never shown aggression to anything, my friend's cat even scratched her face and she just ran away!

Research has shown dogs can benefit young children, it can improve communication and self esteem. It also has been shown that babies who grow up with a dog are less likely to get asthma and get less colds and ear infections. My theory is there is good dirt and bad dirt, I don't over clean the house, I'm not paranoid about wiping Riley's toys if they fall on the floor but I make sure all kitchen surfaces etc are wiped with disinfectant... Dust - good, Salmonella - bad!

All in all I think dogs are a plus for kids and staffies shouldn't be ruled out as a family pet, give Staffies a chance, think you might like them.

Swimming continued - Aquatots started again

Term 2 of swimming started. With Rich having a bad arm I swam with her. It was great. The instructor said her 3year old just did her 5 metres and some of the 6 year olds were doing their 1000 metres. To me that's amazing and I want her to be that confident in the water so although it's expensive I really want to keep going with it. Nanny and Grandad have given her this term as a Christmas present which is great. Here's a few photos, the underwater one was from the end of last term.

www.aquatots.com

Riley's first snow :)

I love snow... I know it causes chaos in this country but years of ski holidays means I just love it. My Dad's a ski instructor so I've skied since before I can remember and Riley will be lucky enough to have that opportunity too.

So we're planning a holiday to California with my parents and Nikki and Dan next March - all very exciting and saving the penny's.

This was Riley's first proper snow so making the most of it - all wrapped up we went for a snowy walk yesterday. She loved it, lots of smiles then a little sleep, then more smiles and rosy cheeks.

Teeth ~ that'll help her eat her toast!

She's got her first teeth!  Didn't even notice them coming through til she bit me feeding! Ouch!  She's very brave.

Ashton and Parson's herbal teething powder is great stuff for both pain and tummy (she's had really bad nappy rash)  www.ashtonandparsons.co.uk

Epilepsy Action Pregnancy Campaign

Wow, the Epilepsy Action Pregnancy Campaign launched last week and it seems to be reaching a lot of media (if your reading this you quite possibly found it through the campaign...)

I can't believe we have our photo on the cover of the pregnancy diaries and  even more unbelieveable is being interviewed by local radio stations and papers.

I hope that the campaign and being able to tell as many people as possible my experiences of pregnancy and being a mum, will help women feel more confident and less alone.  Hopefully it will also help health proffesionals have a better understanding of epilepsy and pregnancy and some of the issues and worries women with epilepsy face during pregnancy and as a new mum.

To have a look at the diaries we have helped write go to:

http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/pregnancy-diaries

Worrying about development

I think every parent worries about their babies development.  I know that  all babies develop in different areas at different rates but at the end of the day almost all of them reach the same point eventually.  I guess I worry about it from an epilepsy meds point of view, in the back of my mind there is a niggle - what if my AEDs have had some more long term effect on Riley.  I'm always looking for things... like she's not crawling yet, most babies of her age aren't but when I see my friends 7month old crawling around I worry which is silly I know.  It's not that I want her to crawl to be competitive, I don't even want her to crawl as I know it will bring lots of extra challenges, I just want her to crawl to put my mind at rest.  But I know when she does there will be another milestone to worry about so I need to just relax a bit, she is a very alert baby and she sits on the sofa and plays with her toys, she is a normal baby - I need to sit back and enjoy every minute.

Rich's Birthday Weekend ~ full of surprises

Since coming out of hospital Rich has been signed off work, he says he feels he's dosing but he is really tired and not himself, in quite a lot of pain I think, so I think he's doing the right thing, if he goes back too soon he could end up back in hospital.  But it has been nice having him around more and I know Riley has loved it, so many smiles and giggles.  But all good things must come to an end (and bad things as his arm is improving) and he is back to work now.

It was his birthday this weekend and his brother and me organised a surprise birthday meal with friends Saturday and a family meal (Korma his favourite!) on Sunday.  He hadn't really thought about his birthday so I think it meant a lot.  Riley is such a star, she was really happy all weekend and was just such a pleasure and not difficult at all. We feel very lucky to have such a happy baby who fits in with things so well.  We are truely blessed :)