My WIld Ones // Day out in Knaresborough

So I don't know about where you live but in Leeds half term was a bit of a wash out. Not ideal when you have a very active toddler who needs to run off steam every day.

Most of the week was spent in soft play hell or child friendly cafes - if such a paradox exists.

So when the blue sky appeared we decided to go for a day out to cute little town of Knaresborough.

As you can see The Toddler was very keen to have a good run around.

He did so well walking all around the cobbled streets, up really steep hills and then when we were five minutes from the car he said, "daddy carry!"

We sought refuge in Subway for a while to feed The Baby and warm up as it was freezing.

We also looked in a few charity shops as The Belgian is into finsding good vinyls for the vinyl player I got him for his 30th birthday.

The grounds around the castle were so pretty. The flowers gave us some hope for spring.

We all enjoyed admiring the views and The Toddler got really excited watching the trains pass over the bridge. He is very into 'choo choos' right now.

And as this cheeky smile on his face shows he enjoyed the clear blue skies and the chance to run around and explore. 

We had been planning to do the Sculpture Trail but it was really cold and all of our hands were like ice and The Toddlers nose was red with cold. The Baby was snuggled up warmly in her carry cot and snuggled in several blankets so she slept soundly the whole day out.

Where do you enjoy going on a family day out?

Project Life 2016 // Week One

I am determined to keep up with my Project Life this year as I think its always better to create when all of the stories and memories are fresh in your mind. In December I treated myself to a printer and this has really helped with making the process quicker as I can send them all by wifi from my phone or laptop and create a spread within an hour.

First half of the week features a cute SLR pic of them in the bath - I added the text in picmonkey - then a picture of the Belgian and The Toddler at our local park and then two SLR pictures of them in their Sunday best. I am trying to take more pictures with my big camera as even though my skills are limited the prints are always clearer and better than when I use my ipone 4s.
 

The second half of the week has a picture of The Toddler dressing up at soft, journalling about our week and how we fed the ducks ice-cream cones but The Toddler was eating them everytime I turned my back, then a black and white picture of The Baby and one of her in her moses basket sleeping as I loved her little waving hand. 
 

Each week I am making a collage in the Becky Higgin's Project Life app with a photo of The Baby and an update of what she is doing that week. This week she had her first bath and has been very snuggly. I then save the collage on my phone and print it straight away for my album. 

Supplies used: I have been trying to clear out a lot of things around the house and through doing this I have rediscovered some older stash. I mainly used a Dear Lizzie 6 by 6 pad and cut out the captions from the cut apart page and then used the same pink thickers for the titles of both sides to bring together the colour scheme. I also inked the edges - an older technique that I haven't used in years. Thanks Glitter Girl for inspiring me to use older stash and older supplies. 

The Siblings Project // Hanging Out

Since having a new baby I have struggling through the night feeds only to get a rude awakening at the crack of dawn from The Toddler so I have appreciated a slow start to the day.
This often involves snuggling in bed feeding the baby whilst the toddler watches some cartoons or plays games on the tablet.

Most of the time he is not too concerned about her but he does look for her in the mornings and sometimes he holds her hand when he's watching cartoons which is sweet.

Also he gets protective when other kids show an interest in her. At a mummy group a little girl kept fussing over her and trying to put her dummy in and he came over and said, "no! My sitter!" So hopefully he will play the protective older brother and look out for her in the playground and scare away any potential boyfriends.

Me and Mine // January

So we failed to get a family shot of all four of us and so this is the closest we came.

Some memories from January:-

• lots of play dates at 'Nancy's house' and hanging out with my mummy friends
• lots of mornings spent tearing around Wacky Warehouse (making the most of our monthly pass) whilst mummy snuggled with The Baby
• family walks at Swintsy Resovoir and Yeadon Tarn
• The Toddler's obsession with 'Bickey Mouse' and play dough and Thomas and Friends stop motion videos on youtube
• The Belgian had a busy month at school with lots of cover lessons, his own lessons and two offers for teaching placements in September. Proud of how well he did in his interviews. He also had his first experience of Ofsted and our school got a 'good' rating overall which we were all really pleased about.
• The Baby is growing up so quickly. She is very alert, loves standing up and looking all around and near the end of the month started giving gorgeous smiles.
• I arranged a mummies on maternity leave meet up with my work colleagues and was impressed to get six mummies plus toddlers and babies to attend. We had fun catching up and didn't talk about work once - which was a relief!
• The Toddler dropped his nap (sob) but now has an earlier bedtime of seven and this works quite well 
• The Toddler started the month pushing lots of boundaries so has had a sticker reward chart to reinforce positive behaviour like eating his dinner, brushing his teeth and staying in his cot at bedtime. His rewards have been kinder eggs and Thomas surprise bags.

Bring it on February!

The Ordinary Moments // Baby's bath time!

Due to a a mixture of the business of Christmas, the logistics of bathing a baby and a toddler at the same time, being a bit overwhelmed with two tiny tots in the house and feeling too exhausted we only bathed The Baby for the first time at five weeks.

I remember when The Toddler was a baby we googled 'how to bath a baby' as we were anxious about doing it right and not hurting the poor little thing. He had a few tears, but she took to it like a duck to water (scuse the pun!) No tears - even when The Toddler accidentally dropped her under the water!

I love this top picture as it showcases how calm and watchful she is with her gorgeous big eyes.

We find its often easier for one of us to hop into the bath with them and I adore this bottom photograph of baby and daddy. Its so precious and I know these years of shared baths, shared tears and smiles will be over before we know it and so its a reminder for me to not wish away the years.

______________________________________

Linking up with lovely Katie over at Mummy Daddy Me who will soon 

have her own newborn to bath.

My Wild Ones // Donut Date 🍩🍩

So the weather has been so yucky this week that our adventures have largely involved using and abusing our monthly pass at Wacky.

Saturday we headed to IKEA to check out big boy beds - I know seriously what were we thinking!? Luckily for once the toddler was plied with snacks and juice and stayed in the trolley seat.

As a special treat (and in truth since I'd been craving them all week - are post-partum cravings a thing?) we stopped in at Krispy Kremes.

The toddler always loves watching them being made on the production line and now that his vocab is growing he was able to explain some of the processes 'cooking mummy', 'hot mummy' etc

He selected his choice whilst we shared some of the free, fresh hot original ones. He chose a chocolate ring with extra chocolate sprinkles on top and I deviated from my usual choice of chocolate sprinkles for a caramel iced ring. The Belgian wanted originsl , as usual, despite the fact they were giving them out for free. The toddler took one bite of his and quickly rejected it so I guess he is going go be a vanilla kind of guy too.

And the spare donut? Well...I'll leave you to work that out for yourselves!

Saturday Snapshot // Ice-cream farm family shot

Reasons why this photo reflects us right now:

• mummy looking a bit exhausted ( newborns will do that to you) but very pleased to be indulging in a rocky road sundae
• toddler choosing the 'boo' bubblugum ice-cream and then barely eating it
• daddy winding the toddler up with his 'hipster' beard looking a bit unkempt

My Wild Ones // You cannot be cereal!

One of my goals this year is to use my big camera more and capture plenty of special and everyday moments of my two bubbies whilst they are young. So when I found this wild ones linky over at Make, Do and Push I decided I had found the perfect motivation for me.

In the constant battle against binge watching Paw Patrol on Netflix I am always looking for quick and easy activities to help to increase the Toddler's attention span and keep him occupied whilst I am busy feeding and tending to Baby Girl. I think I saw this idea on pinterest and was pleased that we had everything in the house already.

I love the look of concentration as he threads the cheerios onto the spaghetti. It also helps his fine motor skills too - win win! Please excuse the messy background - it was an impromtu exercise and so I didn't stage the backdrop and a lack of storage means lots of piles. Another goal for 2016 - get organised, Is there a linky for that?

Till next week!

Friday finds

Things I've enjoyed online this week:

1) I loved the honesty in this post by Elise about her struggle with postpartum depression. I never experienced this but I know many friends who were guilty of googling all of the symptoms and diagnosing their babies with all kinds of awful diseases.

2) I love Mandi's dolls house as it reminds me of my obsession with dolls houses when I was younger. I used to love making little fruit platters and ice-cream sundaes out of fimo and little pieces of furniture. Sadly my mom got rid of it when they moved house, but its definitely a future project now I have a baby girl. But seriously my efforts didn't compare to Mandi's attention to detail - it seriously is the most stylish dolls house around.

3) I loved reading Alison's tips on newborn photography. I always think everyone else seems to have a great eye and so it was good to get some tips on how to capture cute pics.

4) Now I'm on maternity leave and the rain won't stop I'm constantly scouring Pinterest for ideas. This article has 23 ideas for activities to do with a toddler on a rainy day. I especially love the rainbow rice - watch this space!

5) And lastly I love this man and I love Adele so what could be better than them meeting and jamming for a session of carpool karaoke? Check it out on YouTube.

Ellis' 2015 highlights and favourites...

Favourite games: hide and seek (tou ALWAYS hides behind the curtain), you  also loves nothing more than being chased and tickled and wrestling with daddy.

Favourite activities: puzzles (you are obsessed with jigsaw puzzles and are so good at them), playing with brio or cars.

Favourite songs: jingle bells (especially the HEY part!), five little monkeys jumping on the bed (we play this in the bath with your bath toys), sleeping bunnies, twinkle twinkle little star.

Favourite films: Mickey's Christmas (in December you watched this at least every other day), Cars.

Favourite cartoons: Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Uumi zummi, Pokoyo, Mickey Mouse clubhouse and Thomas and friends on YouTube.

Favourite books: Acorn Farm lift the flap books, Cars book, Peppa pig books, Patch of Black and his Disney Encyclopaedia - recently I told you you could chose one last story before bed and so you brought this over to me. Cunning!

Favourite colour: Boo

Best buddies: Nancy, Annabel, Big Ellis and Asher.

Favourite drink: milk and juice. You are still obsessed with your bottle and used to call milk 'mil mil' now you pronounce it 'melk' like a South African.

Favourite foods: pasta and cheese, sausages, cucumber, toast, porridge, chips, garlic bread, fish fingers green beans and Yorkshire puddings.

Favourite snacks: popcorn, kinder eggs, pineapple, crisps.

Favourite days out: Harlow Carr, any kind of soft play, St.Ives park, Blackpool, Royal Armouries.

Favourite things to do on mummies day off: library, local park, Asda Cafe, Play Barn, play dates with Annabel, Nancy and Huxley.

Favourite words: kitchen, Rara (grandad), yes please, goal, football, Mia (we decided her name based on what he could pronounce), hiya, bye, mummy, daddy, you love to do all the animal noises, car, tree, no, crying, baby.

First sentence: 'where's this go?' When doing puzzles. And ' I don't know' accompanied by throwing your hands in the air.

Countries visited: Wales, Majorca, Belgium, France and Holland. 

Favourite animal: next doors cat, lions, donkeys and monkeys.

Best feature: your killer smile and big brown eyes. You are irresistible.

Favourite outfit: Star Wars vans, baseball cap in the summer and surfer style shorts, Chinos and Fair aisle sweater in winter. You wear a lot of Gap, Zara, H&M and supermarket brands.

Favourite sights: Eiffel Tower, Blackpool illuminations.

 

We feel extremely blessed to have such a charismatic, playful, lively, affectionate, perceptive and self-assured little boy. You made us parents and we've learnt so much from you. Here's to the next 16 years...

Our new arrival and birth story...

We are delighted to announce that on the 4th December Mia Robyn Anna came into this world. Just like her big brother she was overdue, but unlike her brother's hectic birth story we opted for a calmer experience.

The consultant advised that we had three options:

1) induction, as before, which would 

likely be long and painful and end in an emergency section

2) wait it out which could be risky for her as we were concerned about lack of movements

3) elective section which would be calmer and less risky than an emergency section 

It was a tough decision as last time The Belgian had the whole summer holidays off and thus time we have a toddler too. However I didn't want a repeat of my previous birth and so I was prepped for my surgery three days later.

It felt surreal driving into hospital early knowing by lunchtime our baby girl would be with us. I had a carb heavy pizza and garlic bread the night before and a small carton of Ribena for breakfast as advised.

We had to answer lots of the same questions and sign forms. We met Dawn our midwife with the toddler and I was a bit disappointed when she didn't remember us quite as clearly! 

Our appointed midwife Lorraine was very down to earth and kind and came to get us around 11 to walk me down to general surgery.

The Belgian sat watching Homes Under the Hammer whilst I was taken for the bit I was dreading - the spinal. I am not the biggest fan of injections and obviously last time it was all a blur if madness and necessity in a haze of gas and air. But this time I was lucid and opting to have this big needle inserted into my spine. Craziness.

The young anesthetist, who had seemed so lovely and competent, took half an hour to get the needle in. I was zoning out and singing songs in my head when I noticed all had gone eerily quiet and there was a lot of fiddling going on behind my back. They kept asking if I was a horse rider and if my spine was straight!? In the end an older guy had a try. A 'fresh pair of hands' a midwife subtly suggested.

He did it first time.

When they wheeled me into the bright lights I broke down. That experience had been pretty traumatic and the idea of what lay before me was daunting too. Luckily it was my consultant Cat and she was clearly very proficient at her job. The OR filled with random chat between colleagues and the calm I had been promised was evident. 

Our baby girl was lifted out and cleaned up and given to The Belgian. I couldn't believe how much she resembled her brother from the dark hair and eyebrows to the button nose and milk spots to the perfect little rose bud mouth. Once again we were in love.

We had three names in mind Mia, Amber and Lexi but when we looked at her we both agreed she was a Mia and we had already agreed on the middle names. Robyn as it is my sisters middle name and Anna like her super-Oma and also her daddy's middle name.

As they wheeled me out she made a little cry and the midwife said she was hungry. The moment I'd been dreading. I thought I would give it a try and she latched on straight away. I was really proud of us both. I had been led to think I was defective with Ellis 

We had worried we didn't have enough love for a second but this is clearly not the case and we can't stop smelling her, cuddling her and marvelling over how perfect she is.

Week in the life 2015: Thursday

Today I am going to journal about the story behind the picture.

The story behind this picture is that I was running late. I don't love driving but luckily the toddler is quite keen - helped along by an in car snack of wotsits (hence his orance face.) He is in his bright orange tee as we're in a public place today and its easier to find him.

The story behind this picture is that Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate was doing a Mad Hatters Tea Party theme for summer. We saw this spread and thought - 'photo op.' I had the big camera and wanted some good snaps for my Week in the Life.

The story behind this picture is that he is still too young to realise it was plastic food. He really wanted that strawberry.

The story behind this picture is that I am glad for the friends I have made at church. There is always someone around for my toddler to hang out with. He particularly liked the older girls and I am glad they know how to pose for a picture even if he gets a bit distracted.

The older ones were all taking part in a challenge trail and he wanted to join in too and would hit all the boards and babble as if he was passing information on.

Pond dipping is a dangerous business with a toddler who can take it too far! We saw some pond snails though.

The story behind this picture is that he is obsessed with car, trucks, trains and so when he saw this empty car he couldn't resist and so I helped him up and got a perfect snap. 

The story behind this picture is that thirty seconds earlier it was a perfect snap of the toddler. Story of my life these days.

The little explorer ruining the photo op again.

He is obsessed with hide and seek at the moment. He kept running off and I would chase him as best I could and then have a mini heart attack when I couldn't find him - only to see his cheeky little face peeking out from the bushes so excited to have been able to trick mummy.

Another great photo op but it reminds me of the strain of having to lift all of them up onto the chair one by one as it was too high and their mummies were no-where in sight.

The moment that makes it all worthwhile - the ice-cream at the end of the day. It ended up being a late night as he napped in the car around 5 and so bedtime was postponed, whilst he watched some cartoons...