Wicked Wednesday: Park Strife

Just discovered the lovely brummy mummy's blog and so am excited to join in with her #wickedwednesday Linky.
I love a good Linky as they often encourage me to blog when I haven't got the time or motivation.

So here is my #wickedwednesday snap...

Is it the hat? Is he embarrassed to wear it in public?

Is it the ice-cream? Shock horror does he not like ice cream?

Or is it that mummy insists on taking hundreds of photos of me?

Or is it a combo of all three?

Me on a Monday

  Its been a B&Q cruising, paint pondering, family strolling, rain dodging, pizza munching, ice-cream creating, diet avoiding, Saturday brunching, church going, blog post writing, Project Lifing, bargain hunting, photo taking kind of a weekend.

How was yours?

 

Recipe: Oreo and mint aero ice-cream

So its no secret that I am obsessed with ice-cream.
Its my fav sweet treat for sure.
I love cookie dough or caramel fudge or oreo cornettos.
Basically anything with a vanilla base and plenty of chocolatey goodies.
Apparantly August in National ice-cream month (it figures, I guess, since its holiday season) and the ice-cream maker we received as a wedding gift finally fits into our freezer and so I was keen to try it out.
So when I spotted this recipe for Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and Oreo ice-cream I knew I had to give it a go. However I had to modify it a bit for the ingredients we have in England - plus I prefer mint flavour to peanut butter. No offense to my bro-in-law who is obsessed with everything peanut butter!

So here is my recipe and method: (adapted from Juggling Act Mama's blog)

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
2 cups of heavy cream
1 package of oreo cookies, crushed
1 share size bag of mint aero bubbles, crushed

 

Method:-

1. This recipe works perfectly for a 6-cup ice cream maker. Before starting, be sure your freezer bowl has been in the freezer for at least 6 hours. (I left mine in over night.)
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar, vanilla and salt until the sugar is dissolved. Gently stir in the heavy cream. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, crush the Oreo cookies and aero bubbles - place them in a mixing bowl and use the bottom of a cup to crush. Break up the mixture using a fork if needed.
4. Turn on the ice cream maker and pour the mixture into the frozen freezer bowl and let mix until it begins to thicken, about 15 minutes. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture.
5. Carefully add in a little of the mix ins at a time.
6. Use a spatula to scoop the ice cream into an airtight container and freeze for about 2 hours so that the ice cream hardens thoroughly.

Notes

1. Store the ice cream in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1 week (if it lasts that long!)

 If I am honest I found that the ice-cream was still a bit runny - more like the consistency of a milkshake - but it was fine as I like it like that. Any tips on how to make it firmer?

So in the words of Craig David...tell me what's ya flava?

Me on a Monday

It's been a present opening, family gathering, friends supporting, baby spoiling, house sorting, meat charring (on The Belgian's new gas BBQ), anniversary celebrating, auntie babysitting, Mcflurry sharing, cinema going, cupcake making, salad shaking, garden playing, sun shining, ice-lolly devouring, pirate party decorating, helium ballooning, blessing counting, heart exploding with love for my little one-year-old kinda weekend.

The best kind really.

The One with the Birthday and the Anniversary

Five years ago today, on a sunny day in Leeds, I married The Belgian after a year and a half 'courting.' We had a gorgeous photo shoot afterwards at Kirkstall Abbey and then got sealed for time and all eternity at the Preston Temple. 

It was a fantastic, whirlwind of a day filled with family, friends and great Thai food.

Today a year ago, after a traumatic and grueling ten hours (and three days!) ending in an emergency c-section our perfect little man was born. (Read more about the birth here.)

Our lives have never been the same since - in a good way. With less sleep.

Such happy memories of this year. Our anniversary is somewhat overshadowed as we spend the day celebrating and preparing for the pirate party tomorrow.

 

Can't believe our happy chappy is one year old. 

He is sociable, confident, sporty, strong, smiley, cheerful, lively, active and always entertaining. 

Here's to many more...

Currently...

Loving shopping for soft furnishings for our new place

Enjoying days off in the sun with friends, a picnic and babies

Anticipating summer holidays starting next Wednesday

Organising a pirate party for Ellis' first birthday on Saturday

Hoping the weather will be sunny on Saturday

Watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix

Catching up on blog reading

Me on a Monday

(old photo from a few weeks ago when the dream was still very much alive for us!)

It's been a child minder hunting, baby escaping (up the stairs), frozen yogurt making, project lifing, ignoring the unpacking, festival going, Costco perusing, mock exam marking, new top purchasing, works do attending, drunken colleague avoiding, picture framing, family chatting and skyping, poorly baby soothing, eye dropping kind of a week(end) here.

What have you been up to? 

What we're eating this week...

So I have a confession to make.

It's pretty embarrassing.

I am addicted to the Facebook group 'slow cooked wonders.'

Seriously what you can't cook in a slow cooker is not worth cooking.

Baked potatoes, eggs and even cakes.

Plus there are some pretty funny heated debates.

So I share with you seven things we have been enjoying round these parts - slow cooked or otherwise.

1) Skinny Enchilada Tostadas - am making these tonight.

They sound really easy, minimal ingredients and they sound delish.

2) Crock pot Hawaiian meatballs - I have made these twice recently as they are really tasty and really easy.

3) Slow cooker mushroom risotto - it was sloppier and stodgier than if you had made it on the stove, but there was no stirring involved and in this heat that is a bonus.

4) Slow cooker macaroni cheese - there seem to be lots of different recipes, but this was the most simple. I left it on a bit long, as I got distracted, and so the pasta was too mushy for my taste but still yummy.

5) Instant banana ice-cream that is healthy too - such a hit

6) I was seriously drooling over this pineapple fried rice pizza and definitely plan to have a go when life settles down a bit and there are less boxes to unpack and jobs to do around the place. In the meantime I got a good quality margarita pizza and topped it with fresh pineapple and pesto and it was very tasty indeed.

7) Lastly, since you can't make dinner every day of the week, we have discovered a new hang out in Leeds called Belgrave Hall that has a street feast once a month and so we took my sister to check it out. They had exciting treats like indi ices with spices and chilli in the ice-cream and the most delicious pizza from Dough Boys with unusual flavour combos like beetroot and goats cheese. The Belgian got a dripping burger from Patty Smiths and their chips were out of this world.

What have you been making recently?

One Photo Twenty Words: Simple joys

Boxes full of toys,

Some flash and make noise,

He is so easy to please,

as he prefers my keys!

____________________________

Joining in with the lovely Abby of Creating Paper Dreams

Sunday Sillies...

Since you all enjoyed the last video of The Baby licking the window, I thought that I would share some other funnies. (The quality of my phone camera isn't great and we keep planning to get a proper camcorder, but you know buying a house is ££££!) 
Top video is of The Baby getting into my thickers collection - I kept finding random letters on his foot, elbow and forehead for the rest of the day!
Below he is enjoying some deconstructed tacos. In fact most things he eats get deconstructed by him...

A sleeping shot, just because, it's so cute...

He has started taking some steps. Very quickly. Between sofas and boxes. He always looks very pleased with himself. 

Lastly I have been introduced to the silliness of snapchat - are you on it? I didn't get the point of it before, but now I enjoy adding doodles to my photos and sending them to my friend and sister. How many of your husband's have spent the last fortnight like this?

Lastly it is my little sister's brithday today and so I made a collage of her and The Baby. She has always been his number one fan and its really cute.

Me on a Monday

Its been a window licking, present making, pop can stacking, sister visiting, pizza eating, football marathon watching, father's day celebrating, friends gathering, dessert assembling, some box packing, baby smooching, solicitor hating, paper work never ending, bath soaking kind of a week(end).

How was yours?

One Photo & Twenty Words: Push it

Apparently tensions run high during 

the World Cup? Have they ever been to our

families' Easter egg hunt?

______________________________

Linking up with the lovely Abi over at Creating Paper Dreams

  

Me on Monday...

It was a box packing avoiding, IKEA crowd dodging, meatball munching, clothes vacuum packing, conference listening, baby wrestling, face pulling for snapchatting, macaroni slow cooking, Breaking Bad completing, craft stuff missing, blog redesigning (was on a whim & I'm not convinced but I always wanted a name change), Pointless app playing (or cheating according to the sisters), Eton Mess indulging, rain hating kind of a weekend.

And yours?

Musings on Motherhood: My baby is ten months old!

Well another whirlwind month.
I guess with this particular brand of baby 'whirlwind' will always be the operative word.

So this month:

• he has been obsessed with shoes and especially eating them (gross!)
• he enjoys perching on the window sill and looking at the cars and people walking by
• and licking the window or pressing his face up against it - very amusing!
• he loves sweet things and has had a little taste of white chocolate buttons, brownie and a donut and he loved it all
• he loves sausages and meatballs - quite the carnivore it seems
• he likes munching on breadsticks and supping on apple juice

• he is FINALLY sleeping through till five or six and with a small bottle can stretch it out till 7 most days
• his cruising is reaching new heights and he is growing in confidence and whizzing around and along things
• he can stand for up to ten seconds on his own
• first night in a hotel as a little family - it was quite fun
• first carousel ride

• he's proved he's very resilient as my childminder had a few days off for a family bereavement and he had to go to two different emergency childminders - was an anxious few days for me, but every time I picked him up he was smiling away and enjoying himself. Well done baby boy!
• he had a nasty chest and eye infection and has been on antibiotics which tasted like banana and so he would get a banana milkshake at bedtime

• putting sounds together to form 'words' like 'mama' and 'dada'
• he's been enjoying climbing in and on top of the boxes we're trying to pack
• he loves crawling round on the floor after other kids and we've had lots of play dates this month
• we've switched to the big car seat and he looks so tiny in it, but loves the view
• loves to climb everything from stairs to the sofas to the bed but he is very skilled at getting back down safely

An explorer, a charmer and a wriggler.

A blessing to all who come in contact with him.

Tiring but so worth it!

The One with the Birth story

So this post had been a long time in the making - mostly its been in my thought process for the last ten months. But I feel like I'd like to share it and that some of you may relate to my experience.

Before we begin there are some things you need to understand about me. I may, or may not have, done some (or all) of the following:

a) Fainted during sex education in Year 6. Most of the other kids in the class thought I had either died or had a heart attack.

b) Passed out in my history classroom following the BCG injection, thus hitting my head on the radiator and making an embarrassing noise that was hard to live down for the rest of Year Nine.

c) Been sick at the side of the road in Harrogate on route to the hospital to have my blood test for the pregnancy. Harrogate is very posh and I got some funny looks at 8:30 a.m right next to the bus stop. I may have muttered, "I'm not drunk I'm pregnant!" That old chesnut!

So there is some background to my fear of needles and anything medical. My birth story may not be the perfect "Lazy Daisy", giving birth in the birth pool, you-can-do-it-drug-free type of story. I avoided going to any ante-natal classes as I was in denial, I avoided reading up on it and refused to join The Belgian in watching One Born Every Minute. I didn't want a birth plan as I knew how disappointed friends had been when things hadn't gone according to plan and I didn't want to put that pressure on myself. After all no-one can prepare you for it and you don't know how you will feel.

So July 10th was my due date. It was a sweltering heat wave of a week and to make matters worse our agency decided to get the painters in. So the Chuckle Brothers turn up every morning at the crack of dawn and laugh and joke loudly outside my window pretending to paint. Then, just as we buy outside furniture for the garden, they infiltrate this too and spend about three weeks painting the doors and window frames bottle green. Just what I needed when I wanted to relax.
Due date came and went without a twinge, the picture above shows how I spent my time preparing the nursery and all the toys. We were team yellow so I had kept it all a neutral yellow and grey with a zoo animal theme.

At my last midwife appointment there was still no sign and so she booked me in for an induction. I wasn't keen on this so asked if I could meet with a doctor at the hospital instead and have a consultation to discuss the different options. 

However another stifling, hot weekend passed by and when you feel the size of a whale you have a desire to clothe it all in layers and chunky knits, but there is no hiding from your bulge in the summer and I was running out of cool and airy maternity wear. In fact I was resenting having to wear clothes at all. 


But most of all I was running out of patience. So we phoned the hospital, on the Saturday, and they suggested that we come in for a 'sweep'. I wasn't thrilled about this, but wanted to feel as though we were doing something.

Four frustrating hours in what had to be the hottest room in the hospital and no sweep as I wasn't ready yet. Head wasn't engaged. This baby did not want to come out.

So back to the hospital on Monday, but this time I just wanted to be induced, it wasn't a decision that I came to lightly and my old housemate the Doctor and I had a long text conversation at midnight debating the pros and cons of induction. She made me aware that there was a higher chance of a difficult, more painful birth and/or c-section but that waiting another week increased my chances of a stillborn. I was not willing to risk this.

So Monday morning we roll up to the hospital and I am thinking I will just have this procedure and then go home and wait it out. I have the pessary and am very impressed that I don't cry and/or faint. They hook me up to the monitor and a few hours later I enquire when I can go home. The midwife gives me a bewildered look, "that's it you're here till the baby comes now." 
Oh well thank-you for telling me. I think. I did have my hospital bag in the car, just in case, but I hadn't double checked it all and may have been lacking some of my creature comforts. 
So we were stuck. Stranded in the waiting bay. We passed the time by playing Uno, Million Pound Drop on the Nexus and chatting to other expectant mothers. Also The Belgian tried to feel my pain...

Hmm...

Next day same again and still no change. My parents arrived laden with gossip mags and the hugest punnet of strawberries I have ever seen. We sat in the hospital gardens and chatted. If I hadn't been, y'know twelve days overdue and all, it would have been a very pleasant visit. The Belgian in-laws had been waiting in the wings at the local Marriot since the previous Friday and their ferry back was Wednesday 24th so the pressure was really mounting.

So Wednesday arrived, no miracles had happened overnight so they booked me in to have my waters broken at 2 p.m. To say that this was not a pleasant experience is somewhat an understatement. They clamped on the gas mask reassuring me that it would just feel like I've had a few glasses of wine. Not very reassuring when I am a teetotaler and as expected the gas and air did make me feel light hearted and dizzy. Not in a good way. I was hooked up to a hormone drip and so the journey began.

A journey that involved a further 14 hours of strong contractions. I was very proud that until about 11 p.m I was just using the gas and air. It soon became my friend and something to focus on with the counting. I also found pushing my feet against The Belgian's hands during contractions and wriggling round on the bed/chair a good way to distract myself.

I was hooked up to all sorts and it made me laugh thinking of all of the propogranda of active births. Fat chance with all of these drips. I was also being really sick and wishing I had forgone lunch.

There was a funny episode where I wanted my hair to be tied up out of my face. Well The Belgian really struggled to capture all my hair into the bobble and I was getting quite annoyed. The midwife offered to help but she had short, grey hair and confessed she was no expert at hairstyles. So between the two of them they just about managed a messy top knot and if you scroll down you will see the results of their 'styling.'

So because the fake contractions were coming on strong and very quickly i decided that i was probably going to need some pain relief. I asked the midwives to go through all of the options with me and so she explained the pros and cons of each one. I decided that the only one i wanted was one make me not feel contractions anymore and so i opted to have an epidural. Can you imagine? Me opting to have a huge needle injected in my back? Things must have been bad.

The anithatist arrived and I had to sit up very straight. I also had to sign a disclaimer with some pretty scary conditions and risks. I recall my signature was a random scribble. The Belgian helped me sit up straight and just as the needle was about to go in I had a big contraction. Scary. 

I remember overhearing an American lady on OBEM describing the epidural as the 'cadaillac' of childbirth and I am inclined to agree. I told the midwife in a concerned tone, 'I'm not getting contractions anymore. They've stopped.' But apparently this was a good thing as it had kicked in! 

So the next few hours were a blur. The room was blisteringly hot and I remember The Belgian stood at the window snaffling grapes in an attempt to cool down. (My grapes might I add - but I was too sick to eat.) He told me afterwards that they brought him a chair and told him to sleep, but he was too busy pacing the floor.

A few more hours shuffled on and every time they took me off the drip the contractions would stop. This was not going well. The Doctor kept on going through the next step, but it would always end with "and then we'll have to do a section." Like 'da, da, daaaa' when the baddie comes on at the panto, I half expected the nurses and midwives to start booing and hissing. It was definitely presented as the last resort and this scared me.

Tests were done to see if the baby was struggling which involved a needle scratching his poor little head and then testing his blood. Again take a moment to appreciate how brave I was considering I hate needles. Shudder. But you go into autopilot and you just have to allow them to do what they can to get the baby out safely. The second test came back that he was struggling and so at about 4 a.m they called it. Da, da, daa a section it was to be.

The midwife went through it all in step-by-step detail with us right down to where The Belgian would be standing and what he would be wearing. I got ANOTHER injection so that I would be awake, but wouldn't feel the pain. They described the sensation as if someone was doing the dishes in my belly. Because of course that is a sensation I am familiar with. I was trembling and convinced I would be sick again so was wheeled into theatre clutching a metal dish under my chin. It must have been a combination of adrenalin and nerves. 

I remember thinking that the theatre lights were really bright and it reminded me of a Grey's Anatomy episode. We made small talk with them about possible names and decided that I wanted them to hold the baby over the screen to show me the sex when 'it' was born, rather than telling me. It was really quite quick, once they started, I barely felt anything but was aware that something was going on. 

The Baby was out and there was no sound for what seemed like ages and I was freaking out thinking it had all been for nothing and then I heard a distant little mewing and let out a huge sigh of relief. He was hung over me and I saw his vitals and exclaimed, "its a boy!" Ever one for pointing out the obvious.

In retrospect I don't feel angry or bitter about the way things happened. I don't feel robbed of the chance to give birth naturally. He was the most perfect little baby I had ever seen with no scratches or mishaped head or signs of a 'struggle.' His skin was clean and soft. He had these big eyes that just stared at me. I was probably still quite 'out of it' and it did take me a while to recover and to really appreciate what had happened, rather than focus on what was happening to my body and how painful it all was. 

I love my birth story and will always consider those midwives to be angels.

This is not my most flattering picture, but it reflects the experience I'd just been through and shows my perfect little baby.

Anyone have a similar experience to me?

Link me up to your birth stories as I love reading them.

And well done if you reached the end of this mammoth post!