Say Cheese!

Monty all of a sudden has taken an interest in my camera and wants to take photos as well as be in them. He has taken a lot which are of his fingers and with his entire hand covering the shot but my absolute favourite has to be this one he took of his Bobobs!

Snigger!

Story time (for those that listen)

This weeks entry to #silentsunday. Click the LINK to be taken to Mocha Beanie Mummy's blog to take a look at all the other entries.

Brother Max review

For the purpose of this review I was sent a bib set and a set of bowls from Brother Maxx free of charge.

I have to say I have found these scoop bibs preferable to the normal scoopy bibs on offer, most are really rigid and don't seem at all comfortable for the wearer but as these are made of cotton Blossom was completely happy in them.

I loved the concept of being able to just popper the insert in and out of the scoop and it was very easy to do this.

A scoop bib is an essential with baby led weaning as a lot of food gets dropped in the early days and instead of it being given  to the dog I was able to grab it back from the scoop and give it back to Blossom. They are available to buy for a reasonable £6.99 from amazon.
The only negative was on washing one of the inserts the edge of the bibs colour (red) ran onto the white bib itself, I would of thought the braiding used arounsd a white bib would of been colour fast?

These bowls were great when Blossom was in a high chair with a plastic tray as they stuck very well to the surface. But I have a tray less highchair and they didn't stick brilliantly to my wooden table  to be honest.I like the bright colour as it avoids staining and I love that they are bpa free so no harmful chemicals.I also thought at less than £6 for the set from amazon that they were very reasonable in price.

CLICK HERE for brother max stockists.

Words you don't want to hear while you are baking

''Mummy this bowl that we made the dough in is the bowl that I sometimes do sick in when I am poorly''

In real life

I love twitter. For so many reason that I won't bore you with but the main reason being that some of the people that you tweet become 'in real life' friends and they come to your house and bring you flowers. And that is really rather lovely.

A little bit lovely

Yesterday was one of those perfect days.

I took Monty and Blossom to Brighton, on the train as requested by Monty. We stopped by the pottery cafe on North street and Monty decorated a plate and we made foot imprints on Blossoms plate. They are to give to a very special someone on her imminent birthday.

I took them for lunch and they behaved beautifully which always makes me incredibly proud.

We spent the afternoon exploring the North Laines aimlessly, one of my favourite things to do and Monty loved looking at all the street art while Blossom looked on from the buggy.

Have you noticed that he's refrained from the inane grin that was his usual pose for pictures and is now adopting the mean and sultry look? Ever the artistic temperament.

We finished the afternoon with a trip to the toy museum, on Trafalger Street.Mecca for retro train sets and dye cast cars and buses and puppets and and and........all those things that leave 3year old boys in awe and Parents smiling at the nostalgia.

And then to top it off by chance I ran in to the lovely Naomi aka The Kids Coach and her gorgeous boy.

As always I have childfriendlybrighton.co.uk to thank for brilliant suggestions for things to do with my little people what ever the weather.

I'm only sorry that the gorgeous husband was on a night shift the night before and slept through all the fun.

Brighton Banksy

Here is this weeks Silent Sunday photo. Pop over to Mocha Beanie Mummy's blog to see all the other gorgeous contributions.

The one with 'nastics'

Finally after two years, yes TWO YEARS of having Monty's name down at the gymnastics centre his name has finally reached the top of the waiting list and he had his first lesson this week.

He was always going to have gymnastics classes, (or 'nastics' as Mo calls it.)I am sure it is written somewhere in his DNA as his Daddy is quite the gymnast.Many a drunken back flip I kid you not, even on our wedding day, in his suit, across the beautiful lawn. He used to teach gymnastics and has always encouraged Monty to do his exercises and point his toes as he executes them.

So off we trundled to the next town to a centre where I used to take the reception class children weekly in my former life as a teaching assistant. It was nice to see familiar faces in his teachers but odd to be a 'parent' this time and not trying to get eleventy small people back into sweaty *gags* tights and spinning backwards jumpers around on tiny torsos. But I digress.

I paid my extortionate amount of money over and thrust Monty towards the other kids and the class began, warm ups and jumping into foam pits and such like.

Then of course the tears, and the 'Mummy cuggle' came.

Shit! I have just paid quite a sum  of moolah and he's not even going to join in? What? I had not even considered this. Bugger.

So we sat. And sat. And sat some more.

And we watched. And watched. And watched some more.

Then his group go over to the trampoline.

'Mummy can I be able to have some goes on that?'

So I did what any nurturing Mother would, I took him to the trampoline, I shoved him in the queue and ran off and hid.

With Mummy out of eye shot hiding stealth like behind a pillar and looking like an utter twat to all the other yummy Brighton Mummy's, he waited patiently in the queue and once he got his turn he executed a perfect seat drop and a 360 degree  turn.

Something odd happened that day, as I watched him spin on the  bars and listen intently to his teachers and stand straight as a pole, eager to please. I had goose bumps, my eyes were a little wet. He seemed to grow up before my eyes in the space of an hour.

I'm starting to come to terms with saying goodbye to my baby, he'll be going to school in September a few weeks after he turns four. But I hope my big boy will stay by me for a bit longer.

Favourite people favourite place

As usual I'm a bit slow to the party here but the ace of bases blogger Mocha Beanie Mummy has been running #silentsunday over on her blog where by the idea is that us bloggers post a picture on a Sunday that has been taken that week and you DO NOT ADD ANY WORDS!

So here is mine.

If you want to check out all the other entries CLICK HERE

So this is Christmas, and what have you done?

Yeah sorry for the naff lyric in the title but it did make me giggle. I wish I could have been a bit more organised over Christmas and New Year and posted right while we were in the thick of it but I didn't. However I want to sum up how magical it was for us this year as we did more, experienced more this year than we have previously. In fact while I'm here I should probably thank childfriendlybrighton.co.uk for pretty much sorting my children's Christmas festivities as we did so much that was suggested on the site and I had it booked in it's entirety by early November!

So anyway, here is what we got up to in mostly pictures.

 We had snow, Blossoms first experience of it!

 We took many trips to Brighton and warming hot chocolate were always needed by lil legs.  (Shortly after this pic he then threw up all over himself. The second time he has done it at the same place. Can't imagine we'll be going back there again. Ho hum.)

 Took the children to see their first pantomime. Cinderella.Blossoms face was such a picture it had me in tears. And they had a Shetland pony pulling the pumpkin carriage. Amaze!

 Blossom (9months) was stuffed into Monty's old 2-4 months snowsuit while I waited for hers to arrive. Sorry about that lady bug. x

 Monty did his first carol concert. This is him waiting outside the church. VERY excited.

 Reindeer ears were required

 Last day of term dressing up, the theme was Christmas. Superman is festive no?

 Snow boots were purchased for what seemed like the coldest winter ever.

 We saw the most realistic Santa. I BELIEVE!

 It was emotional.

 After stuffing Monty into his snowsuit he had an epic tantrum, which was rather like watching Barney on acid. Oh well, we then went to see the burning of the clocks parade in Brighton on the shortest day of the year

 It was a fantastic evening

 The procession was fantastic

 The fireworks were phenomenal

 But Blossom did not even bat an eyelid

 Stockings were left out and filled

 And Christmas day was enjoyed by these two

 Presents were played with

 And we learnt to stand with support

 It turns out plastic toys are not needed (I knew this already)when you have a discovery basket with a whisk

 Blossom has nearly mastered crawling

 And is rocking a towelling robe not dissimilar to what I imagine Barbera Windsor wears in her dressing room

And obviously lil legs has one too! ( I bet Paul O Grady has one like this? Except his would say Paul, not Monty of course)

We had a very Merry Christmas and we hope you did too. x

Change

Last year my lovely friend Claire (Cheshire Mum ) tagged me in the theme word meme, whereby instead of new years resolutions you choose a theme word to live your life by for that year. Last year I chose family.And boy did I live by that word.

In March  I gave birth to my beautiful little girl who I see as completing my little family, a trio was amazing, a gang of four? Immeasurable joy. I threw myself completely and utterly in to my little unit and have held my babies closer than I ever thought imaginable. I have made time for the close family that are important to me and likewise they have reciprocated.

So a part of me still holds on to that theme word. But this year my, or our theme word is CHANGE. I don't want to say too much because as a family we are in the initial stages of making the changes that we want to. Those of you who read this blog that are close to me will know what changes I mean. Big ones. Exciting ones. Drastic ones. Changes for the future of myself and my family. I can't wait. But am also a bit scared. the changes are somewhat sacrificial (not in a slaughtering a lamb way just to make that clear!) but for the greater good of the four of us. I will stop there as I don't want to let the cat out of the bag for fear of jinxing any plans.

We have reached a stage where life is for living, no regrets, it is not a rehearsal and all those cliches.But often times the cliches are true. They are in this case.

I'm not going to tag anyone as this is not one of those posts really where I need to, although having said that I am so glad that Claire tagged me last year. x

Not a great quality picture but a very Happy Christmas day image all the same. And these two kind of sum up my post as they have instigated changes in our family in so many ways. Some mental, some physical, some just circumstantial. But changes none the less. And I'm psyching myself up for one of the biggest ones of all.

Baby led weaning - a follow up

I posted a while back when Blossom was showing signs just before six months of being ready for solid food about my concerns with trying baby lead weaning. And as usual, I received so much help and support, advice emails, tweets from you guys that I decided to give it a go.

I am so glad I did as it has probably been one of the best decisions we have made for Blossom.

So firstly a big thank you to MTJAM, Kelly, Nick, Tasha, Claire lovely CW (who lent me the book) and Hannah. You all gave me so much advice and gave me the confidence to go for it and I have really not looked back.

It's quite liberating to not have pureed one single batch of anything and she basically eats whatever we do- this little lady really has been weaned on olives and humus!

Great early foods were sweet potato wedges, good quality sausages, split down the middle banana (great tip as if you cut it it is too slippery for little mitts) but the most resounding success has been blueberries. She loves them. Big style.

I have no worries food wise for my little lady and she really enjoys eating whatever is on offer. It has been so easy to go out to eat as a family, she's tucked into garlic bread, chunks of meat, roast potatoes, fried holoumi, fish cakes are a particular fave when dining out.

Sometimes I question whether I am a purist in baby lead weaning terms as after allowing Blossom free reign with a yogurt once I realised that this was an experience never to be repeated until her fine motor skills are finely honed. Ditto that with shepherds or fish pie. Oh and soup.So sorry but in those cases its spoonville. But never pureed mush.Just straight up exactly how we would have it.

So if you are reading this wondering whether to take the BLW route, do it! Chat to people on twitter by using the hashtag #BLW or comment on this post and I can direct you to lovely people.

But in the words of My Daddy Cooks 'Just give em what you have!'

And here she is enjoying her food. Good girl!