Tuesday 29 April 2014

Losing The Babyweight - The Plan

Last week I wrote about the problems with trying to lose the baby weight while looking after 2 young children.
Writing that post was actually really helpful in getting me to pinpoint exactly what the main issues were for me personally.


Saturday 26 April 2014

Book of The Week - Week 2

This week's book is The Big Animal Mix-Up by Gareth Edwards and Kanako Usai

I first saw The Big Animal Mix-Up on CBeebies Bedtime Hour.
It is not often that a story read on there jumps out at me but this one did.
Even hubby looked up from his computer to follow the story.
It is just so cleverly written!
C was not paying much attention to the television therefore I decided to order the book in from our local library so we could read it together at home.

New Arrivals

I always wanted our garden to have animals.
If I had the time, the energy and the space I would have loved a small holding.
In reality we are lucky enough to have enough space for a few small animals.

When we moved in to our home 3 years ago, one of our first purchases were chickens, a variety of large and bantam breeds.
We have slowly increased the numbers over that time so that we currently have 6 large hens and 7 bantams, 13 in total.
It was not ideal to have them in a single run therefore since February, DH (with help from his parents) has been building a new segregated animal enclosure closer to the house.
It was finally finished last weekend and looks amazing!

Friday 18 April 2014

Losing The Babyweight - The Problems

There was an article floating around the news last week stating that Mothers who failed to lose excess weight within a year after delivery or put pounds on may be risking their health.

"What we're seeing is the period between three and 12 months after delivery is a critical window during which practitioner and patient attention to weight control may be very important to long-term metabolic and vascular health."

Well that's all very well... but how does one juggle losing weight while looking after a baby (and possibly older children as well)?


Our First Easter Egg Hunt

2 years old. The perfect age for her first Easter Egg hunt.
I had been planning on doing one just for her but when a couple of friends expressed an interest in doing one for their toddlers too, we decided to combine forces.

I purchased a large number of plastic eggs from eBay and filled them with a mixture of Milkybar buttons, Dolly Mixtures and a few small plastic toys.
Not too many sweets in each egg, just enough to keep their interest up.

On the day, while C was down for her lunchtime nap, I hurried off into the garden with my filled eggs.
Now came the next challenge....
How to make them obvious enough that they could be found but again not too easy that it would all be over too quickly?

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Book of the Week - Week 1

This is a new feature I am going to run every Wednesday if I can.

Every week C goes to the local library with my parents and chooses a handful of books to bring home for that week.  Some are good, some are pretty awful and some are little gems that I would never have come across otherwise.  I wanted to take this opportunity to briefly share some of them with you.  Some of them you may already know but I hope to also bring some new ones to your attention.

This weeks book is The Gobble Gooble Moooooo Tractor Book by Jez Alborough.


Monday 14 April 2014

Dressing A Boy - Part 2

In July last year, when I was 5 months pregnant, I wrote a post about my thoughts on dressing a boy.
I spoke about my disappointment at the lack of comfortable and flexible clothing out there for boys and asked for advice of brands that did provide the type of clothing I was after.

Here I am, 9 months later, with a 4 month old bouncing baby boy and clothing him is proving an interesting experience.  Not least because of his size!
At his last weigh in baby B was 20lb and he is just growing out of his 6-9 months clothes.
The few 9-12 months clothes I bought him are going to be completely useless as I bought them to fit him next autumn/winter, not spring/summer.  I also bought them with an almost toddler in mind not a young baby.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Upcoming Surgery

We received the date for C's eye surgery last week.
OK, so surgery is not strictly the correct word.  I think the correct term in "procedure".
She is going to undergo a procedure to unblock her tear ducts which have been blocked in both eyes since she has been born.
The result is her tears cannot drain away properly, which leaves her eyes either constantly weeping or crusted up.
Not only is this unattractive, it is obviously uncomfortable and leaves her prone to conjunctivitis.
The procedure needs to be carried out under general anaesthetic and involves sticking a probe through the tear duct and into the nasal cavity to push through any blockage, and then stretching the duct to allow it to drain easier.

Monday 7 April 2014

Sibling Love

Today has been a rainy day.  Our first for a while.
Stuck indoors I was worried that the 3 of us might be climbing the walls but we have actually had a really good day.
Baby B is really starting to take an interest in C.  He adores her and his face lights up whenever she comes near.
As a direct result, C is becoming more interested in him.  She goes out of her way to get smiles from him and she enjoys trying to entertain him with toys.
Today they have been particularly loving towards each other.
It melted my heart.

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Halcyon Days

In 2010, DH and I bought our house in the countryside.
I wouldn't go quite as far as to call it our dream home but it had the potential to be wonderful.
We had no children back then but we hoped beyond hope that some would come.
You see, this house wasn't just for us, in fact, for me at least, it was not bought with me in mind at all.
It was a house, a space, for our children.
A house where we could give them an idyllic childhood.
At the heart of that for me was the outside space.