Musings on Motherhood: My baby is a year and a half!

And the worst part is he is not a baby anymore. Perhaps I will have to rename my blog, but then surely he will always be my baby?

So what do I want to remember about him for the last few months?

I want to remember how sociable you are and how everywhere we go you charm everyone. You really do attract attention and will sometimes just toddle up to complete strangers and touch their knee and beam up at them. Very endearing and they can't help but smile back. You are very tactile. The childminder says you play really nicely with the other children she minds and are particularly chummy with Caleb, who is a month younger than you, she said babies your age don't usually play together but you two definitely do. In fact she said you both love her play kitchen and she spends the whole day restocking all of the plastic pots, pans and food as you both love throwing it everywhere, or transporting as she kindly calls it!

I want to remember your new words like 'buh bye' 'hiya' (a firm favourite accompanied by a wave) 'what's day' 'oh wow' 'uh-oh' 'dada' 'nana' and 'baby.' You first said 'wow' when daddy proudly showed you his carved out pumpkin glowing in the dark. You are saying around 12 words at the moment. You have also taken to pointing when you wants things, like your bottle or a toy, but it's sometimes difficult to work out what you want and this is why it can be a frustrating age and can end in tantrums. Luckily your tantrums just involve throwing yourself on the floor and are not accompanied by screams...yet.

I want to remember your boundless energy and how you fly from the sofa to the chair and climb right up onto our laps. Or how you climb all over us - not always welcomed when we are trying to chill out. You climb up the stairs no problem and have even managed to go back down them on your tummy - although we don't encourage this!

I want to remember how coordinated you are and how well you negotiate levels, steps and obstacles in your path. It is often commented on by others how advanced your physical development is. Your childminder is always commented on your strength, stamina and balance. You love doing the toddler squat as you play with all your toys.

I want to remember how you're finally interested in books and love to sit on the floor surrounded by all your board books and turn the pages. You have a lot of texture books and so you tend to swipe the surface of every page just in case. Your favourite bedtime book is 'Patch of Black' and you often want it read to you again again...perhaps you are just delaying bedtime! Recently you have enjoyed reading about Peppa Pigs Christmas and also Fancy Dress Christmas where each of the animals is dressed up and you have to turn the flaps - you love doing this over and over again and I often don't get to finish the page as your so keen to flip it over.

I want to remember your love of sausages, pasta and anything sweet. More often than not your food is thrown in the floor when you've had a few bites, but the few times you get chocolate buttons or sweeties not one is wasted. In fact you tend to shove them all in five at a time and keep cramming more in. (We're working on your table manners.) You always preferred finger foods and I even make your porridge chunky so you can eat it with hands, however in the last few weeks you've been asking us to load up your fork and enjoyed feeding yourself. It takes twice as long and our dinner gets cold but hey ho! In Belgium you loved the frites and waffles and are showing your affinity to the culture through your sweet tooth! You love attacking the mound of whipped cream on top of the waffle too.

I want to remember how happy you are and how happy you make other people. Your smile is infectious and it lights up your whole face. You've started playing a lot more games with us and enjoy peek-a-boo, wrestling with daddy, feeding us your dinner and giving us kisses (only when you feel like it!)

Your favourite toys are definitely your cars and anything with wheels. Your building up quite a collection - especially after Christmas. You make 'brmm brmm' noises and run your cars along the carpet or up the sofas. You love opening the doors and putting cargo in the back of your trucks. You also like the brio set grandad glued onto a piece of wood and painted like grass. You most enjoy sitting on it as you play with it. You enjoy watching In the Night Garden, Peppa Pig and Baby Jake but recently have liked anything on the big screen! 

Being your mamma is exhausting and relentless, especially since your still not the best sleeper in the world and are a little bit too obsessed with your bottle for an eighteen month old. However there is never a dull moment and you enrich our lives so much.

(NB: These photos were taken between September - December 2014) 

Hello 2015!

I thought that I would begin the New Year by reflecting on some of my goals from last year:

• Blog twice a week at least - not far off, I blogged 94 times in 2014. I think my commitment to Blogvember helped this as I managed 22 days in a row and then life got busy! I have been pondering blogging and in December was toying with quitting. However during the holidays I looked back over some of my old posts and realised that even if I didn't have loads of followers or page views etc I have a loyal 'following' and I enjoy having the record for myself as I don't keep a diary anymore.

• Take more videos of The Baby - I have taken more as he loves to watch himself!

• Upgrade my SLR so that it has a video function - these two are linked really and I didn't upgrade my SLR yet as we're always a bit hesitant about big purchases and this year we made a big purchase (see below) so some things had to wait.

•  Learn a new craft - not really. My friend started a sewing club in November but due to babysitting issues and parents evenings etc I haven't attended yet but this is my plan for the new year.

• Start and complete Project Life for the year (yikes!) - this one is basically done just waiting for some more pictures to be delivered. I definitely have a lot of spreads for each month and I've kept fairly on top of it. I planned to share it more on the blog but found the project life posts don't get a lot of views or comments and so didn't bother. I am really proud of my album though and my December Daily is almost completed too.

• Try to read a classic book every month - definitely failed with this one. Teaching really takes over your free time. I want to recommit to this one.

• Buy our first home together - I am very proud that we achieved this one. All on our own as well. Turns out we're quite good at saving when we put our mind to it. The house is still in progress and this is why I've not shared many (any) pictures on the blog. Completing a few rooms is definitely on my 2015 to do list with the gallery wall a priority for January. 

• Spend less time browsing online and more time socialising with friends and spending time with my lovely family - still a work in progress. I got an iphone so that pretty much ruined that goal.

• Be more active - the Baby ensures I get the run around often but I've been pretty useless about joining a gym or a class and this is a top priority for 2015 too.

• Eat healthier - I did well on Slimfast in July and was even able to fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans for my works end of term do. I found it wasn't that sustainable and when summer came too many ice-creams and eating out undid some of my work. 

• Take The Baby to Eurodisney (I know he's too young, but still!) - we did Bruges twice, had a day out to Whitby and lots of adventures around Yorkshire but didn't manage Disney. I think I was getting carried away after seeing someone's instagram pics and that actually he's too young at the moment. We saw a leaflet for Peppa Pig World, the other day, and that is a must-do for 2015.

5/11 ain't bad hey?
How did you do with your goals and resolutions?

In other news I just found this funny list of toddler resolutions on twitter, my Baby certainly needs to work on some of these - especially number 6 & 8!

Me on a festive Monday

It's been an escaping santa, Christmas jumper wearing, ladies what do lunch, pizza gorging, kiddy entertaining, last minute shopping and wrapping, cheeky sneak previews from the Baby, Christmas tunes blaring, tree abusing (toddlers and trees don't mix!), fast food craving, recieving a letter from the big man himself, a hairy night with lots of little one coughing, a blissful lie in till 9,30 and editing pics in bed kind of a Monday.

Thanks Sian for keeping my blog going with this meme!

All about the tree

Finally getting a chance to join in with Sian's Christmas club. Every week I have racked my brains for a story I haven't yet shared and then always change my mind as I don't have a corresponding picture or I've left it too late. So here it is...

So Christmas 2010 was a pretty memorable one. In many ways it was quite a quiet one as my youngest sister and her husband were working out in the paradise that is Turks and Caicos and my older sister decided Christmas on the beach was a better option.

When we arrived at my parents house we were disappointed, but not surprised, that they didn't have a tree yet. We're a real tree family and so we set off to the tree farms to find the perfect specimen.

This was also the year of the white Christmas and this smattering of white stuff makes everything instantly more magical. 

There seemed to be a shortage of trees a few days before Christmas and so we ended up in Homebase where they had two measly specimens left. See below...

Certainly not the best spread of branches and a bit bare at the top. This is when I hit on the idea of asking for a discount. 

Now my dad is Irish and like the Scottish and the Yorkshire folk they are very careful with their money (read: tight) whenever we've been shopping and dad asks the price we always halve it and he'll still comment, "that's expensive!" We knew for his sake we had to get a discount.

My mom, however, is the opposite and loves the luxurious things in life. Her idea of a sale if the Harrods sale where everything is 20% off and still barely affordable! So I dared her to ask for a discount.

The pimply sales assistant was clearly not used to such bolshy customers and so he had to call the supervisor and we wee beginning to lose our nerve by the time he turned up. 

However she used her South African charms and logic in pointing out that it was one of the only ones left and the big day was almost upon us. He ended up taking a tenner off for us and so we found dad in the bargain corner to tell him our exciting news.

His response? "£18 for a tree? That's expensive!"

No pleasing some Irish men.

Sunday Scrapbooking: July Project Life

I have loads of Project Life spreads to share. These are from July when a certain baby turned one and we threw him a pirate party.

Since my talented sister, Gem, was taking the photos I kept the layouts simple to just keep the focus on the stunning photos.

These were some of the first spreads that I did and I didn't have much product so I just tried to find any black, white or red cards from the few part kits I had.

This stamp was a great find in the £1 bin at Hobbycraft and I used it for a lot of the small touches at the party - like the napkins and signs on the buffet table.

I used wrapping paper and some of the larger Project Life cards to fill these bigger pockets. This is my least favourite size to work with but I had purchased the variety pack and these are what I had left to work with! 

Again stamping was the main embellishment and I used it to provide minimal journalling to enhance and tell the story of the day.

The front side of the top layout and a similar approach. I included the invite to tell some of the details of the day.

Lastly the helium balloons which helped everyone to find our house as we had just moved a month prior to the party. 

A close-up of the smartie cookies which were a hit on the day - again thanks to my talented sister Gemma.

So that is my Sunday scrapbooking shared and in the meantime I will bask in smugness that I have actually managed 23 days of blogging in a row. What have you been creating lately?

52 Saturdays: Birthday celebrations!

Today we headed into a very festive looking Leeds. We instantly regretted it when the crowds were closing in on us and I had run into too many peoples' feet with the pushchair! Who goes into town so close to the big event?

However, as shopping was not our purpose we headed to the top floor of Harvey Nichols to our fav lunch spot in Leeds. The Belgian got to chose where we were eating as it was his birthday and so He chose Yo Sushi, a firm fav of ours (cue link to previous blog post and layout) and it helped that when you sign up online you get a third off voucher on your birthday. 

We treated ourselves to dish after dish and some filling miso soup for a very reasonable price. The Baby had pineapple and mango coconut water and plain noodles. He also enjoyed playing with the emdame beans and charming all of the ladies in the queue. As usual! He was also a lot happier out of his highchair and sat on a big seat next to daddy.

Afterwards we went to check out the Lidl outside of town as I keep seeing gorgeous kitchen toys that I am after for a certain Baby's stocking. However they weren't stocking them and so we just indulged in some of their Christmas treats. The chocolate Santas are for celebrating Saint Nicholas on the 6th.

When we arrived home the Baby pottered around. Played with some at dough and sensory bits and watched the footy with daddy.

Then dinner time, bath and bed so that mummy and daddy can watch some Netflix and do some sofa surfing! 

Did you brave the shops today? I have decided that I will only Christmas shop on my days off or online!

Friday Five: Five Happy Memories with the Belgian

In the spirit of Friday Five and the fact that it is the Belgians' birthday I will list five happy memories we have shared together:

1)  Night markets, sunset cocktails, lots of noodles (even for breakfast), five star glamour, karaoke and sight seeing on honeymoon in Malaysia

2) Dodging jellyfish, eating lots of delicious ice-cream, historic tours and our yellow bus setting on fire on holiday in Malta

3) A Californian road trip: three weeks of huge portions, town hopping, kayaking with tiger sharks, staying in some questionable motels, climbing the steep streets of San Fran and Jelly Belly World

4) A romantic mini break in the historic town of Budapest with visits to the night market, lots of selfies and lots of lounging around in saunas

5) Him holding our little baby is his arms for the first half an hour of his life whilst I was being sewn up. You were so supportive and he was the most gorgeous baby either of us had ever seen!

Happy birthday to a great husband and father!

Difference between men and women...

So tonight I had parents evening (yeah I know on my day off!) and so the Belgian was in charge of dinner, bath and bed time all on his own. 

I arrived back at 8:30 and can you imagine what I found?

The top picture shows the bath which had toys everywhere and was still full of bubbles. 

The Babies' clothes were strewn across the floor along with a just stepped out of wet nappy.

Dinner dishes were strewn across the kitchen along with a half eaten pizza.

Toys littered the floor in a car, block and duplicate explosion.

 The Belgian was no-where to be seen, but was finally found asleep in bed.

Who says that men can't multi task?

Workspace Wednesday: Favourite Product

So I turned to the #blogvember guru to help me stay on track with blogging every day in November. The prompt was your favourite product right now. Since I am no fashion or beauty blogger I shied away from sharing any fabulous make-up or beauty products. (Let's be honest half te time I use Johnsons baby shampoo as it's all we have in the house and whatever moisturiser is on special at the supermarket!)

So in my crafty time lately I have been loving my Heidi Swapp Interchangable stamp. It is perfect for adding a little sentiment to project life cards or adding embellishments to layouts.

I have mainly been using it just to stamp on a card but have also stamped and then cut around it and added it to a layout with a pop dot to add dimension. I can imagine embossing the image wod work quite well and you could even try stamping in a different colour if you don't mind getting too fiddly with it.

At first I wasn't getting a perfect image, but then I found this video and found the tips very helpful. 

What is the one crafting product you are loving lately? What is the one you could not love without? 

Cake smash step by step layout

So what is more shocking - that I have blogged every day in November so far or that I produced an actual scrapbook layout?

Bit of both I guess. But I had some time on my hands (umm...not really) and love, love, love this photo from the Baby's first birthday (which I still need to blog about actually!) of his cake smash. He really got involved. I love the pose and the wrinkled nose and the conviction of this shot.

He is his mother's son for sure.

I was also inspired by the gorgeous layers on this layout and so I cracked out a 12 by 12 pad and got building.

I started with this bright yellow polka dot print as it reminds me of the sunshine that day...

I built some layers with other papers and washi tape and a day of the week sticker.

I repeated the date stamp and the 'SO SWEET' stamp in alternate black ink and coloured ink.

I inked all of the edges to make it pop and built some more texture in with the wood veneers.

I added the photo with pop dots and built some more layer by cutting the sentiment out of a 12 by 12 sheet.

I added a banner and the number 1 in blue polka dot - both cut out from one of his birthday cards.

There you have it a layout created in about thirty minutes and I might be reverting back. Or switching it up a bit more. After all you can't create such impressive layers in Project Life can you?