Friday 28 February 2014

Word of the Week: Broken

Monday started early, very early. 4am early. Not for L but for me. Yawn. L woke at 5 because of her teeth and she was still exhausted. Luckily J was able to get her back to sleep. I decided to grab Monday by the horns and while L slept in I baked a cake and put dinner in the slow cooker. Then during breakfast I made flapjacks. 

Me and Mine: February

It was the first beautifully sunny day in weeks, after all the rain, after all the gloom after all the days stuck in side.

We were certainly not the only people to be making the most of the sunshine on this day. And Lloyd Park was full to bursting! This is a park in which J spent many a day when he was growing up, this was the first time he has taken me and we will certainly be going back.

So here is a massive photo dump of our day out. Check out the cool swing so that mum and dad can join in the fun, or siblings obviously but I can not be the only adult who is jealous of a child on the swings.

Thursday 27 February 2014

Picture Book Challenge: January and February

Here is a round up of the books we have read so far in our 300 Picture Book Challenge. I have recorded the books in various ways.
 

My favourites from this list include My First Taxi. L's Granddad is a taxi driver and this book was brought for L by a family friend when she was a newborn. 


Wednesday 26 February 2014

Weaning Wednesday: One Meal to Feed Them All

One of the main reasons I wanted to do some or all Baby Led Weaning was the promise that baby could have what you were also cooking for your own dinner. 

This saved on weekends spent concocting purée meals for L to fill our freezer. It would also mean we started as we meant to go on. I was brought up with the philosophy that you ate what was offered or went hungry, we had no special meals cooked for us. 

When we started weaning I admit we did not always give L what we were having, she would have a baby friendly muffin and veggies or fruits. But as we have become more confident in L's abilities and in what she can and can not eat we now regularly sit down to a meal for three.

Here are some of our more successful meals to date.

Mac and Cheese

Monday 24 February 2014

Play Space Set Up

As I said in our 3-6 Toybox update we retired our playmat by four months as L took to rolling like a duck to water, she hasn't stopped moving since. 

Instead of setting up L's playmat daily I now had to set up the whole rug space in our living room, not that this has ever really worked to focus L's playing. She much prefers playing with the dirty shoes, trying to get into the kitchen or playing with the wires at our desk. 

This is an example of our daily play set up.

Music Basket

 

Wednesday 19 February 2014

Weaning Wednesday: Guest Post: Belle du Brighton

Lauren blogs over at Belle du Brighton about everything from love, life, beauty and her gorgeous 8 month old daughter A. It is lovely that through blogging and twitter I have met other mums whos babies are the same age as L. It means there is always some one to ask about weaning, growth spurts or teething.
 
When I heard that Mummy Morkus was after people to talk about feeding their babies as part of her Weaning Wednesdays series I was happy to oblige. With daughters that are really close in age we started the journey around the same time, and via instagram I’ve loved watching L have her first tastes ad we’ve shared our experience there too, so I thought I'd keep a food diary for a week to share with you. There are a few tips at the end too, that I've learnt from our experience. We are more or less following a baby led weaning route, however when we are out or staying away it is often easier to use Jars, although it is harder to feed her with a spoon these days as she’s adamant she can do it herself (which she more or less can now!)
 

Monday 17 February 2014

L's Toy Box 3-6 Months

I realised that I have not done a playtime post in a long while so I thought what better way to break the drought than a Toybox update. 

 
At three months I noticed a step up in the way L was playing, she was starting to do things to her toys rather than just respond passively to her toys. So the first thing I started to collect were musical instruments.

Sunday 16 February 2014

The Week That Was Spent Watching and Recording

I have spent the week with my camera.

It is not a good love story, there are frustrations and cross words and a lack of understanding. Neither side are properly listening to the other. The results of this are plain to see, may a rejected photograph with very few giving results I am happy with.

Friday 14 February 2014

Word of the Week: Work

This week I had my most dreaded work conversation after the one telling my head I was pregnant. Again this conversation was with my head. It was about my return to work. 

 
Work has been a looming presence since the turn of the year. The year I could not deny I would be returning to work in. 

 
This week also my Facebook feed has been full of articles about stay at home or working mums. Seems neither mum can win and you are either lazy by 'just' staying at home or negligent for leaving your children without a mother.
 

Thursday 13 February 2014

Photography Frustrations

I have a Nikon J1 I received in November. 2012 with 10-30mm and 30-110mm lenses. I had tried it out and loved the size and ability to properly start exploring settings to go manual.

I have always loved photography, loved taking photographs of family and friends. I have always previously had a point and shoot, various Sony's and a Lumix. I had gotten on well with them in auto mode and can compose a decent photograph. I was ready for a next step. 

I thought about going the whole hog and getting a proper DSLR but thought I did not have the time to dedicate to learning how to use it properly. So I thought a bridge camera was a good compromise. 

When I first got it I was really happy, I was pregnant and excited to get to know the camera before Pip arrived. J thought it the perfect gift just before our family extended. I was enjoying the camera and used it in various modes and began to explore the settings and how I could manipulate the camera to get the shots I wanted. 

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Weaning Wednesday Guest Post: Sophie is ...

A very different weaning guest post today from the lovely fellow newbie blogger Sophie who blogs over at Sophie is ... It is really fun and after Sophie tweeted me the link I knew I had to share on Weaning Wednesday.

Baby-Led Weaning Ears

Sunday 9 February 2014

The Week That Was Spent Swinging

I took some photos this week on my trusty iPhone. Inspired by The Reading Residence's Learn With Me feature and a post by my lovely friend Mama H over at Thursday's Child. 

The post was all about perspective. 



Baby (swing) height 

Friday 7 February 2014

Word of the Week: Holiday


We have just booked our first family holiday!! 

I am beyond excited. 

ELC Valentines Day Art Challenge

I love being crafty and creating, this is certainly something I can't wait to share with L as she grows up. So when I received an email asking me if I wanted to take part in the ELC Valetines Day Art Challenge I jumped at the chance. We crafted our own Christmas cards and decorations in December so we have had a bit of crafty practice but haven't done anything recently. 

I was very excited when a box arrived for us, a very big box! It was full of lovely crafting materials and a clever Collage Toolbox storage box which shall come in handy in the coming years. 

Thursday 6 February 2014

Twelve Short Months: Team Yellow

I had always known that I wanted J to announce if we had a son or a daughter at delivery. I wanted the anticipation and mystery for the entire pregnancy. 

We went into the 20 weeks scan much more prepared and much more accepting of the fact we were going to become parents. J had been feeling movements as had I. My bump was growing every day and I was feeling well and excited. 

This scan was not without incident however as we arrived at the hospital to be told we had missed our appointment. Turned out they had written the wrong date on my notes. A slight foot stamp saw us put on the list for that morning. 

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Weaning Wednesday: Apple Pancakes

I know my last post on #weaningwednesday was also about apples. I do eat other fruits, I promise. But the sound of these apple pancakes was appealing (hehe) to many on my twitter and Instagram feeds so I promised to share it on the blog.