Blog Motivation!

I have just noticed that it has been a year since I last wrote a blog post - how blooming awful of me! I do have a tendency to start things and not follow them through, please refer to my thousands of failed diets, countless money making schemes and my son's baby book. But I want to keep this blog alive and so have decided to restart it at a point in my life when I have some big changes happening.

The first and biggest is that I am currently on maternity leave, awaiting (not very patiently) the arrival of our second child. I will use this to inspire posts related to the challenges of increasing our family size and the changing dynamics of becoming a 2 child family - I don't think Casper has any idea of the impact that Hurricane Baby will cause!

Secondly, I have just turned 30. It doesn't seem so bad when I say it quickly! This has made me feel more motivated than ever to sort my life out in regards to my weight. I can not waste another 15 years feeling miserable about my body. I am going to avoid 'dieting' - it is a vicious cycle which inevitably leads to failure for me. I will be focusing on healthy eating, and living a moderate life style. I plan to purchase a fitness tracker with my birthday money and will aim to get moving everyday once the baby is here. I do not expect this to be a quick process, but I will be using the public forum of this blog to document my progress and motivate me to keep going.

Thirdly, I want to make a dent in our household debt with the aim to make us a mortgage-able as possible, and potentially start saving for a wedding... This may not be entirely possible while on mat. leave, but I shall certainly be making an effort! Watch out for some more, rather boring posts regarding this!!

So, let's do this! I hope that at least some of what I write about will be interesting to you, please comment, like, share etc. I will crave human interaction while I'm not working!!! xxx

Sleep Talk

Since HC arrived in our lives nearly two and a half years ago sleep has been an on-going issue! Initially he only slept lying on me, so for 12 weeks I slept propped up on pillows and Casper slept on my chest. For the next 6 months he would only fall asleep being rocked by me, then he was put into his moses basket/cot and would sleep for a few hours, when he woke up we went straight to him and either rocked him to sleep in our arms or rubbed his back until he fell back to sleep depending on how upset he was and his age- as soon as he could roll he only slept on his front.

When HC was 9 months old I returned to work so he had to learn to sleep with The Man too, so the same routine continued, except that he came into our bed wen he woke in the night because we were both too knackered to persevere and keep him in his cot. Until he was about a year when I decided that he was too old to be being rocked to sleep so we sat next to him in our bed until he fell asleep, using various methods of restraint (generally a well placed arm), when he was asleep we moved him into his cot, but as he got older we ended up just leaving him in our bed as he always woke up in his cot and we weren't getting proper nights sleeps. In our bed he sleeps all night but The Man sleeps in the spare room as he is an awful sleeper too and struggles to sleep when we are all in the same bed.

Understandably this has done nothing for our relationship and things have got to change! So the next step is to take down the cot and put up a single bed in Casper's room and then we can sit with him in that bed or get in with him in the night if we need to but we can have our bed back and some actual adult alone time!!!

But as for baby/toddler sleeping in general I have 3 main thoughts:

1. Take the path of least resistance - I do not believe that controlled crying is good for anyone in this house - obviously each family is different but I know I could not have done it and Casper has always been a very determined character and get hysterical very quickly.
2. This too shall pass - I know that he will not be sleeping in our bed when he is 14 so eventually it will all come right. 
3. It's only a problem if you think it is a problem - I always loved cuddling my sleeping baby, I quite like having him asleep next to me and I wouldn't change how we have got to this point. Everyone has got to do it the right way for them and you get so much advice about all aspects of parenting but you will only regret going against your gut instinct, so do what suits you and your family.

 Actually, this is what I think about most parenting issues! Pleas feel free to add any thoughts or tips in the comments. xx

10 Things...Holiday Edition

10 Things We Took On Holiday That We Really Didn't Need!

1. Teddy Bear &
2. Story Books - I actually thought that we would continue our normal bedtime routine...Fool!
3. Socks for me when I'd only packed shoes that I don't wear socks with...
4. Vests for Casper- I think even I can agree that 26 degrees is warm enough to go without!
5. Towels- they are heavy and the hotel provided them, which I would have known if I had actually read the info instead of skim reading it. My aunt brought micro fibre towels for going to the beach- they are lightweight and fold up very small, I shall be investing in some before the next holiday.
6. A really uncomfortable bra which creaks when I move - definitely should have tried it on before taking it away. 
7. Three shirts for The Man who hates wearing shirts and only wore one of them for approx 20 minutes as it was too hot and uncomfortable. We were only away for 5 days and knew we wouldn't be doing anything too formal. 
8. A book for me to read- I absolutely did not have time to sit and read!
9. A handbag, everything we took out with us went in The Man's pockets or on the buggy. My hand luggage bag would have been just fine without a handbag as well.
10. An empty tube of deodorant..the full one was on the kitchen table at home...don't pack with a rampaging toddler assisting!

10 Things We Didn't Take That We Really Should Have...

1. Sun Hats for all three of us - I also left these on the table at home because I am a dick!
2. Sun Glasses - see above.
3. The Athens guidebook - see above!!!
4. A variety of sun cream - I only took factor 50, mainly for Casper, but I have olive skin and 50 is a little overkill for me. 
5. Toddler Milk in ready mixed cartons - we don't use this anymore but it would have been very handy for a pre-bed drink as Casper usually has a beaker of cow's milk at home. I thought it would have been easy to source while away but it wasn't really so he just had water instead. I wasn't too worried as we weren't away for very long but the cartons would still have been handy!
6. A light baby blanket - it would have been very useful for naps in the push chair and on the plane. 
7. A book for The Man to read- he doesn't like afternoon naps or sleeping on anything that isn't a bed so he would have had time to read. I would pick a nap over almost all activities - I fully blame nursing for this, before I started my training I never napped now it's whenever I can squeeze one into my day!
8. A really bright luggage tag - I hate the baggage carousel anxiety; a disgustingly loud tag would have made it much easier to spot our bag. It's another thing to add to the list for the next holiday (we are off to Oman in September).
9.  Nipple Cream - not for nipples but for almost everything else! I use the Lasinoh Lanolin Nipple Cream as lip balm; barrier cream when Casper has a sore bum and on all of us if we get sore/dry skin. It is a life saver and would have been lush on my sun burnt shins and on Casper's legs where his swim nappy rubbed.
10. More snack food for Casper - I pack lots for the plane journeys but didn't think about the days that we were there. We were in a pricey hotel so we avoided eating there at all costs! But this did mean we sometimes had quite big gaps between meals, so Casper ended up picking on foods that I would not normally give him so often (packets of crisps and biscuits) which were easy to get and throw in a bag. But if I had been more prepared I could have brought dried fruit or baby snack foods with us to tide him over. 

This was our first abroad holiday so I don't think we did too badly but there is definitely things to remember and change for the next trip!

Holiday! A Review of the Companies We Used.

Apologies for the silence, we have been in Athens for few days. This was our first abroad holiday since firing out a baby two and a half years ago, so consequently was Casper's first time on an aeroplane too! So I was a little apprehensive about how he would behave but he was actually fine - only a couple of strops, mostly due to having to stay in his seat for landing and takeoff! His ears didn't seem to bother him and the other travellers were fab and happy to engage with him so it was much less stressful than I had predicted.

We flew out with Air France who were great, the staff were friendly and really lovely with Casper. We got priority boarding due to the toddler and in a particularly awful queue we were skipped to the front which definitely avoiding a major tantrum! There was a special kids meal which was brought out before the adult ones it included a hot pizza pocket type affair, a potato salad, biscuits and a mini Mars bar. Casper was asleep when it came out so I packed most of it away or later but the adult version was similar but with an orzo salad and an apple tart which was all very tasty and seemed fresh. We kept the buggy with us until the boarding gate when the staff took it to the hold for us, unfortunately they didn't return it at the transfer airport which was a bit of a nightmare as we had a wild toddler rampaging free around Charles De Galle airport for nearly 3 hours but that was really the only negative of the outward journey. I would happily fly with Air France again and recommend to anyone, but especially those with small children.

We stayed at the InterContinental Athenaeum in Athens which was stunning! The rooms were huge, as were the beds- all three of us happily slept in ours. We were in a newly refurbished room - it was slick and luxurious but also felt cosy and relaxing. The staff were amazing with Casper, they were all so friendly and smiley; in fact everyone we met in Athens seemed to love children- he's never been kissed by so many strangers! The only thing that let the hotel down was how pricey everything was, we didn't eat there as main courses were 30-40 euros, a coffee and an orange juice was 15.50 euros, but we got a great deal on the room and the hotel puts on a free shuttle bus into the centre which meant we could go and find food that was more in our budget.

The return flight was with Alitalia who I wasn't as impressed with, Although they didn't really do anything wrong as such everything just seemed a bit less than Air France. The staff were professional but did not come across as very personable and didn't really engage with the toddler.Te food was particularly miserable, there was no child options so he had to have the same dry sandwiches as us - he didn't eat much that night (luckily I still had the Air France food in my bag, so they saved the day!). We took the buggy right up to the plane door and it was returned for the transfer- very handy with an over tired toddler and a long way to walk. The planes were also really rattly and noisy, fine for me as I am not a nervous flier but I can imagine it would be pretty unsettling if you were anxious. I would fly with them again if they were cheaper than other options but I wouldn't recommend them.

Things I Have Only Said Since Having A Baby...

1. Please don't rub pork in your hair.
2. Why is there a tombliboo in the grill?
3. Can you take your tummy out of my tomatoes?
4. Don't kiss the drain!
5. Please don't put jelly in your pocket...
6. Get out of the washing machine!
7. *screams* He just hit me with a bottle of rice wine vinegar! 
8. Do not put anything in the toilet that you expect to get back out.
9. Did the dog just eat your poo??
10. No, don't poke the spider, just wave hello.
    
    
     I'm sure there will be many more! Have you got any to add?

It's All Blues and Twos!

I am not working until tonight so I have all day to play with the monster. We have mostly been out in the garden- HC loves being outside more than anything. But we have also been playing with his building blocks- which are actually my old blocks from when I was his age! I am trying to persuade HC to engage with colours and counting at the moment, so we were sorting the bricks in to piles of the same colour- which are all "Blue" according to HC- he is able to sort them into the right piles but will not say any colours except blue! We also build towers and count how many bricks are in the tower, the only number HC will say is two, although he did say "One two three GO!" when he forgot I was listening the other day...

HC's speech is generally pretty good he is just very stubborn- in many aspects of life but especially with requests to say specific things- here is an example of such a conversation:

"Casper, can you say three?"
"Bob Dylan"
"Bob Dylan??? Can you say three?"
"Mummy, where's the dog?"

But with enough repetition from The Man and I things do eventually seep into his vocabulary- "thank you" being a prime example, after weeks of pointed hints he suddenly shouts "FANK OOO MUMMY" at an appropriate time- so proud!

Monty took the opportunity to sunbathe by the potty...of course.