We're on holiday.
For a week by the sea.
Time with my boys all day every day.
That is all.
PS - I can't stop smiling :)
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Working full time?
I'm still emotionally torn over whether this is the right thing to do. Yesterday I was supposed to be working from home but because Charlie was sick at nursery the day before and we couldn't take him back for 24 hours, I took a day's holiday and had Friday off with him. I could have taken unpaid emergency parental leave, but it's near the start of the financial year so I thought paid holiday would be the best option.
Learning from yesterday? I miss the 121 time having a weekday off lets me have with my son. I haven't noticed any change in him whatsoever to going from four days at nursery to five, but it was so nice to have a whole day just to ourselves.
Once Charlie was in bed, my friend had posted this Guardian article on FB which made me feel a lot better. Working is the absolutely right thing for me to be doing right now, it might change in the future but I firmly believe that Charlie will have a better quality of life with me earning then if I stayed at home and we scraped by on T's wages alone.
Learning from yesterday? I miss the 121 time having a weekday off lets me have with my son. I haven't noticed any change in him whatsoever to going from four days at nursery to five, but it was so nice to have a whole day just to ourselves.
Once Charlie was in bed, my friend had posted this Guardian article on FB which made me feel a lot better. Working is the absolutely right thing for me to be doing right now, it might change in the future but I firmly believe that Charlie will have a better quality of life with me earning then if I stayed at home and we scraped by on T's wages alone.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Lost Bunny
We've lost bunny :(
Bunny was a Christmas present from Nana and Grandad, in the last few months Charlie and bunny have been inseparable, he sleeps with bunny at night and gives him hugs all the time. Today whilst on a walk with Daddy bunny went missing. Daddy searched on the way home and I got off the train one stop early to retrace their footsteps, but no luck.
So, we've ordered another, thank goodness for Amazon. It's a special edition Jelly Cat toy and we got the last one available. Hopefully the boy won't be too sad, I'm not sure if he's noticed, tonight he's gone to sleep with Cat, but hopefully he won't miss him until the replacement arrives next week. And now I am going to write my mobile number on all Charlie's toys!
Sunday, 17 July 2011
First Haircut
How old was yours when you gave them their first haircut?
Tonight, at 14.5 months I had a first attempt at cutting C-bear's hair. Just at the back, it was growing long and rat-taily. First problem was working out where and when to do it. Charlie hates (H.A.T.E.S) having his nails cut, it's a full blown operation trying to distract and clip each one. So I was pretty sure he was not going to like having his hair cut. It's small metal things (scissors, nail clippers) that he loves and wants to hold, he just doesn't understand why he can't hold them. So, Daddy bear thought I should do it dry whilst he's distracted with toys. I thought probably best wet, so just after his bath, in his cot whilst I get him changed. In the end I cut it in the bath. Just the back, not really very short, but although it was five or six cuts across, it's pretty crooked. Daddy thinks he now looks like a girl with a bob, long fluffy baby curls at the front and short/wonky at the back. The poor little love, I expect this is the first of many terrible hair cuts for him.
Tonight, at 14.5 months I had a first attempt at cutting C-bear's hair. Just at the back, it was growing long and rat-taily. First problem was working out where and when to do it. Charlie hates (H.A.T.E.S) having his nails cut, it's a full blown operation trying to distract and clip each one. So I was pretty sure he was not going to like having his hair cut. It's small metal things (scissors, nail clippers) that he loves and wants to hold, he just doesn't understand why he can't hold them. So, Daddy bear thought I should do it dry whilst he's distracted with toys. I thought probably best wet, so just after his bath, in his cot whilst I get him changed. In the end I cut it in the bath. Just the back, not really very short, but although it was five or six cuts across, it's pretty crooked. Daddy thinks he now looks like a girl with a bob, long fluffy baby curls at the front and short/wonky at the back. The poor little love, I expect this is the first of many terrible hair cuts for him.
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Peekaboo in Wiltshire
We went to see Granny and Grandad in Wiltshire this weekend (nominally to look at a wedding venue - a whole other story) but C-bear had a wonderful time playing in the garden. We live in a London flat 5 mins from Crystal Palace Park, we have a communal garden too, but by the time you've locked the flat up, you might as well go to the park. We spend a lot of our time in the park, but times like this weekend remind me how simple it would be to have a private garden for Charlie to toddle around.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Losing the baby weight
The title of this post might be a slight lie. Yes, I have baby weight, but I also have Mummy-sitting-drinking-tea-and-eating-cake-with-other-mummies weight to lose. Charlie is 14 months, I stopped breastfeeding totally about a month a go so three weeks ago I decided it was time to do something about it.
I didn't actually put that much weight on when pregnant, I was eating a lot healthier then I had previously and when Charlie was born yes I had a flabby, stretched belly, but I wasn't fat. 14 months later, I've put on more weight then I'd planned!!! I think it's justifiable, having a newborn is tiring, stressful and the last thing you want to think about is preparing healthy food. Throw in a tight maternity pay budget and tea and cake sessions with other Mamas, balanced out slightly by burning calories through breastfeeding, and your waist is the last thing on your mind. When I started weaning and slowly stopped breastfeeding, I also went back to work, mostly sitting down all day, and suddenly my weight ballooned.
So my plan:
4 weeks of Slimfast, to lose some initial weight and also as a sneaky way of being really appreciative when I switch to a long term diet plan.
Long term sustainable diet - I'm currently looking into Weight Watchers or Sainsbury's diets. Cost is important, I don't have loads to spend, but also I need this diet to work, so it's got to be something I can easily follow.
I'll keep you posted on how it goes... eek.
I didn't actually put that much weight on when pregnant, I was eating a lot healthier then I had previously and when Charlie was born yes I had a flabby, stretched belly, but I wasn't fat. 14 months later, I've put on more weight then I'd planned!!! I think it's justifiable, having a newborn is tiring, stressful and the last thing you want to think about is preparing healthy food. Throw in a tight maternity pay budget and tea and cake sessions with other Mamas, balanced out slightly by burning calories through breastfeeding, and your waist is the last thing on your mind. When I started weaning and slowly stopped breastfeeding, I also went back to work, mostly sitting down all day, and suddenly my weight ballooned.
So my plan:
4 weeks of Slimfast, to lose some initial weight and also as a sneaky way of being really appreciative when I switch to a long term diet plan.
Long term sustainable diet - I'm currently looking into Weight Watchers or Sainsbury's diets. Cost is important, I don't have loads to spend, but also I need this diet to work, so it's got to be something I can easily follow.
I'll keep you posted on how it goes... eek.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
UK Bloggers - thank you NetMums
I feel like a kid in a sweet shop.
I've mentioned NetMums quite a lot, this was the site I went to almost daily when I was pregnant to read their week-by-week pregnancy guide. When I went into labour? The first thing I did was login to check that the symptoms were actually labour. When Charlie was born I clung to the advice I got from this website, I buy most of his clothes and toys from their fabulous Nearly New boards, get their e-newsletter and more importantly (because I work in a world of e-newsletters) I open and read it! So you can see I'm a bit of a fan. This week however NetMums have given me exactly what I crave and what I have attempted to find in the past without much success, they've given me a whole database of UK Mummy bloggers.
The Parent Bloggers Network features thousands of blogs from the UK, thousands of Mums and Dads just like me, writing down memories and stories of their children and tips on what not to do! I am so excited, there's so much choice to find new blogs to read and follow. So far I've found two that I want to follow. One of the pleasures in life is immersing yourself in a new blog, reading the 'About' section and working your way back through the posts. So take a look at:
Toddler Kit at We Are Wild Things
Dawn, Zara and Oscar at Knees Up Mother Brown
And of course I signed up to be on the list, so if you've found my blog from NetMums, welcome welcome welcome. Take a look around and if we're your cup of tea follow me so I can follow you too!!
I've mentioned NetMums quite a lot, this was the site I went to almost daily when I was pregnant to read their week-by-week pregnancy guide. When I went into labour? The first thing I did was login to check that the symptoms were actually labour. When Charlie was born I clung to the advice I got from this website, I buy most of his clothes and toys from their fabulous Nearly New boards, get their e-newsletter and more importantly (because I work in a world of e-newsletters) I open and read it! So you can see I'm a bit of a fan. This week however NetMums have given me exactly what I crave and what I have attempted to find in the past without much success, they've given me a whole database of UK Mummy bloggers.
The Parent Bloggers Network features thousands of blogs from the UK, thousands of Mums and Dads just like me, writing down memories and stories of their children and tips on what not to do! I am so excited, there's so much choice to find new blogs to read and follow. So far I've found two that I want to follow. One of the pleasures in life is immersing yourself in a new blog, reading the 'About' section and working your way back through the posts. So take a look at:
Toddler Kit at We Are Wild Things
Dawn, Zara and Oscar at Knees Up Mother Brown
And of course I signed up to be on the list, so if you've found my blog from NetMums, welcome welcome welcome. Take a look around and if we're your cup of tea follow me so I can follow you too!!
Monday, 4 July 2011
My 14 month old - what you're doing
At 14 months you're into everything. Properly walking everywhere now, last weekend I took you to the park for the first time without a pushchair. You loved being on reigns but got tired really quickly. we also had a battle of wills to keep you from walking into the pond or picking up rubbish.
Speaking - you babble A LOT, plus as well as learning from us you've started copying words from CBeebies - last weekend you said Shell and Three. You still say Cat whenever you see any animal, your current favourite word is Yeah Yeah Yeah, always 3 in a row and you answer it to most questions.
Teeth - You have 6 now, 4 at the top and 2 at the bottom, all in the centre of your mouth.
Food - you can be quite picky and I find it hard to get you to eat pieces of vegetable. You'll eat veggies if they're blended up but only pick at big veg. Fruit we have more success with, you love grapes and apple pieces, but are not fussed about melon, strawberries, raspberries, banana or peach. You've not yet learnt to chew food so have issues if things are too chewy. You love snacking on cheerios, apple rice cakes, bread sticks and baby biscuits. You love my homemade chicken lasagne, fish pie and apple crumble. We've also just discovered Organix toddler meals and juicy water. You drink three cups of milk a day, two cows milk, one baby milk. Your absolute favourites are toast with butter and marmite and yogurts. You've started to feed yourself and will hold the yogurt pot and spoon by yourself for your evening snack.
Sleep - you've learnt to sleep by yourself and are sleeping through the night - yay! In the evening we can hear you on the baby monitor babbling away until you fall asleep.
Clothes - you're still in your 9-12 month vests, but you're also wearing lots of new 12 - 18 months stuff. You have a Mr Happy vest and a really cute orange Gap vest with a milk bottle and 'Pint Sized' on it. You have tons of new dungarees and T-shirts. You've got a pair of below the knee shorts that at the moment are like trousers on you.
Toys - you love your cuddly toy cat and bunny, your digger and aeroplane. You constantly carry a toy in each hand, usually small round plastic ones. You love boxes of all sizes. You're really into putting lids on things and putting together and taking apart toys. You sort shapes really well and play toy cars in your ELC garage. You also like snuggling up to read books, but will only stay for a little while before looking to move onto the next thing.
- Nursery, you now go 5 days a week and really enjoy it. You never cry when we drop you off and Joyce is still your favourite teacher. Now that it's hot you play out in the garden with all the other kids. You still love going on the jungle gym, also hitting the wooden pegs and listening to nursery rhymes.
- Other stuff - a couple of weeks a go you figured out how to walk backwards. You thought it was the funniest thing but would keep forgetting how to do it and go forward by mistake. You also love dropping down to you hands and feet in a bear position and going round in circles. You love climbing everywhere, particularly on Mummy and Daddy and Daddy is always making you laugh with silly games.
Speaking - you babble A LOT, plus as well as learning from us you've started copying words from CBeebies - last weekend you said Shell and Three. You still say Cat whenever you see any animal, your current favourite word is Yeah Yeah Yeah, always 3 in a row and you answer it to most questions.
Teeth - You have 6 now, 4 at the top and 2 at the bottom, all in the centre of your mouth.
Food - you can be quite picky and I find it hard to get you to eat pieces of vegetable. You'll eat veggies if they're blended up but only pick at big veg. Fruit we have more success with, you love grapes and apple pieces, but are not fussed about melon, strawberries, raspberries, banana or peach. You've not yet learnt to chew food so have issues if things are too chewy. You love snacking on cheerios, apple rice cakes, bread sticks and baby biscuits. You love my homemade chicken lasagne, fish pie and apple crumble. We've also just discovered Organix toddler meals and juicy water. You drink three cups of milk a day, two cows milk, one baby milk. Your absolute favourites are toast with butter and marmite and yogurts. You've started to feed yourself and will hold the yogurt pot and spoon by yourself for your evening snack.
Sleep - you've learnt to sleep by yourself and are sleeping through the night - yay! In the evening we can hear you on the baby monitor babbling away until you fall asleep.
Clothes - you're still in your 9-12 month vests, but you're also wearing lots of new 12 - 18 months stuff. You have a Mr Happy vest and a really cute orange Gap vest with a milk bottle and 'Pint Sized' on it. You have tons of new dungarees and T-shirts. You've got a pair of below the knee shorts that at the moment are like trousers on you.
Toys - you love your cuddly toy cat and bunny, your digger and aeroplane. You constantly carry a toy in each hand, usually small round plastic ones. You love boxes of all sizes. You're really into putting lids on things and putting together and taking apart toys. You sort shapes really well and play toy cars in your ELC garage. You also like snuggling up to read books, but will only stay for a little while before looking to move onto the next thing.
- Nursery, you now go 5 days a week and really enjoy it. You never cry when we drop you off and Joyce is still your favourite teacher. Now that it's hot you play out in the garden with all the other kids. You still love going on the jungle gym, also hitting the wooden pegs and listening to nursery rhymes.
- Other stuff - a couple of weeks a go you figured out how to walk backwards. You thought it was the funniest thing but would keep forgetting how to do it and go forward by mistake. You also love dropping down to you hands and feet in a bear position and going round in circles. You love climbing everywhere, particularly on Mummy and Daddy and Daddy is always making you laugh with silly games.
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