Dad, Daddy, Dada or Bob, Fred, George

Inevitably our 14/15 month old daughter finds Dada a much easier sound to make than Mama. She doesn't make the sound in relation to her Dad yet but I think that is because we haven't jumped on her with encouragement and reinforcement. My husband doesn't want our daughter to call him Dad, Daddy or Dada. He'd like her to use his name and although she has a lot of opinions about how many spoons she needs to be holding she has yet to form an opinion about how she refers to her father - who knows what she'll chose to call him. I just hope it is polite at least until she is a teenager. He, and his siblings, have always called their parents by their first names. I think his older sister started it and then never went back to Mum and Dad, I'm led to believe that a lot of children go through a phase of calling their parent's by their first names. My first reaction I suppose was to worry that people might not realise that he is her Dad - I really need to stop worrying about what people think.  My family although respectful of the decision don't seem to be able to get used to it. We've just spent a weekend correcting my Mum and her constant dadadadadada noises. Unfortunately his name is going to be quite a challenge for a babbling baby as it isn't as simple as dada but that is a wait he is prepared for. I'm desperate to be Mama/Mum but it appears I'm going to have to wait for that too. Friends have also found it quite difficult to get used to it. I guess common practice is that we call our own parent's Mum and Dad and therefore we become Mum and Dad when we become parents. I was interested that his sister, who allegedly started the whole thing, is called Mum by her own children.

Where do you stand? Do you call your parent's Mum and Dad or by their first names? What would you want your child to call you?

It's a book

I'm a very lucky lady and was given a kindle for Christmas. I love it, I love going away for a week and only having to carry the kindle even though I read three and a half books in that time. I love being able to buy and receive books instantly (I'm an instant gratification type of a girl).

I still love books, our overflowing book shelves are testament to that. I got my love of books from my parents, while staying with them we managed to spend a long time browsing through a book shop. My Dad, a local primary school governor, came across this book and bought it for the school. 

Kind of optimises modern day thinking on books.

I cringed when a colleague suggested buying a kindle for her 10 year old daughter. I just kind of think at that age you should still be enjoying the feel of a book and turning a page.

It's a book by Lane Smith (Amazon)

Salts Mill

Last week I had to attend a work event in Sheffield. Instead of staying the week in a hotel on my own I decided to save my employers some money and stay with my parents who live about an hour from Sheffield in Leeds.


It was lovely to spend some time with my parents, even if I did miss O (it has been a long time since we've been apart for that long). My course ended on Thursday and I decided to spend the day with my parents and travel back north on Friday evening.


We spent Friday at Salts Mill, a place we went to several times some years ago but had fallen off our radar more recently for some reason. 



Yorkshire and the surrounding area is full of huge textile mills but Salts Mill was special. Titus Salt opened Salts Mill in 1853, building a whole village (Saltaire) for his workers.The village included a church, school, park and an adult learning centre. Most mill workers lived in absolute poverty, the mill owners having little thought or concern for the welfare of their workers or the workers' families.


Salts Mill was lucky enough to fall into the hands of another forward thinking, community driven business man. Jonathan Silver, bought the Mill in 1987 and transformed it into a wonderful place of art, good food and shopping! Until he sadly passed away in 1997 Jonathan was an ever present supporter of the mill. I remember sitting in the diner having lunch while Jonathan chatted with his staff or came for a drink. The Silver family continues their support of Salts Mill in Jonathan's memory.



The third man that completes the Salts Mill story is David Hockney, who's art collection along with the works of other talented individuals lines the walls of the Mill. Currently on display on the top floor of the Mill is David Hockney's Fresh Flowers - the latest works of David Hockney created on his iPhone or iPad and emailed to the Mill.
We had a lovely lunch at the Diner, slowly strolled through the art galleries, the shops and spent and really long time in the book shop.






A most enjoyable way to spend a lazy afternoon. I would thoroughly recommend a visit. 

pictures from Saltaire Village

Weekend

I managed to get myself on a course in Leeds so we are having weekend at my parent's house courtesy of my work. On the list:

Visit the jewellers to pick up O's wedding ring and to leave my engagement ring so the wedding band can be made to fit along side it. Really don't want to give them my engagement ring but it will be worth it.

I'm sure there will be plenty of wedding chat.

Saturday night:

(source)

We are going to see the Blues Brothers with my parents. There will be singing and dancing, O might get very embarrassed. I promised that we wouldn't get dressed up.

Weekend

Hello lovely readers,

A couple of things I guess, first of all thank you for all your lovely comments and suggestions regarding my silk dilemma

#1 thinks that the dark blue is too bright and she would prefer an even darker blue. Everyone likes the light blue on my niece so we are likely to stick with that. #1 and #2 are going to visit some fabric shops with my Mum and Dad who are down to visit next week so that they can get samples of dark blues to send to me. We will then think about pricing for buying new fabric vs dyeing the fabric.

Received a sample of my wedding dress fabric and I'm very pleased with the colour - funny how memories and pictures on the internet distort things in the muddled mind of a bride-to-be.

Secondly the big parental meet up. You were of course correct it went fine. They were all very civil to each other, on their best behaviour and nobody did anything too embarrassing. Don't think they'll be best friends but that isn't really necessary. We went to our venue for a tour and for dinner. Very relieved that everyone liked the venue and that the food was wonderful! I've been questioning every single decision I've made for this wedding so I'm glad that I'm still happy with the venue. My Mother-in-law described it as quirky and relaxed - bingo, I love that woman.

Thank you again for all your sane rational thoughts and comments they mean a lot to me.

R x