Life as we know it

Life as we know it is going to change.  I don't mean all of us, I mean my little family.  Right now our days revolve around the three of us.  Our alarm clock is Dylan waking up and having a little chat with his teddies.  My breakfast time is his breakfast time.  We go to baby groups designed for his age group - designed for parents looking after one child.

When he goes down for his nap I get myself dressed and ready for the day, do housework catch up on blogging and twitter and get our lunches ready.  His 7pm bedtime means the bloke and I get time as a couple  to watch films, do housework catch up on blogging and twitter.  We have a lovely little routine. 

We can go out the house, grabbing the ready packed changing bag, the buggy and the baby and it isn't the hour long mission it once was.  We plan our holidays for 3, our days out for 3 and there is the perfect space on our sofa for 3 people to snuggle.

Soon there will be 4.

Life as we know it will change.  My nights of sleeping through will come to an end.  Our late mornings look unlikely to stay as a permanant feature and suddenly there is an extra little person to get ready every morning.  I am excited about the impending arrival of squish but also sentimental that our little routine will be broken.  

I remember all too well the tiredness.  I know that as soon as you have the nappy bag packed and the pram by the door, the newborn will have a pooplosion that involves an entire change of clothes, and he will then decide he cannot go anywhere until he has had a feed.

I cannot wait to proudly push both my gorgeous children in a double pushchair and show them off to everyone.  I cannot wait to see Dylan change from my little baby into the fantastic big brother I know he will be.  I know I have enough space in my heart to love both my babies, but there is no doubt that life as we know it will change.

I have been told by many people that the second child has to fit in with the first.  That the baby will learn the existing routine and (hopefully) follow it too.  I can't wait to welcome our second baby into the family but for now I am enjoying life with one and the life we know.

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My Little Reader

When I was younger I always had my nose in a book.  I would ignore the TV, choosing the written word instead and it would take me twice as long to do anything as I couldn't put down that day's book whilst I was doing it. The love of literature never left me and I ended up doing my degree in English Literature.  Unfortunately at the moment I find very little time to indulge this pleasure as having a toddler, working part time and blogging takes up pretty much all of my day!

It is nice to see that this is something I have passed down to my son, and he is happiest sat on the floor surrounded by his books.  He likes to be read to but he loves to read to himself.  He picks up a book, opens it, points to the words and babbles his own version of what is going on in the picture.  He reads a whole book this way, turning every page and when finished he puts it back down before choosing another and starting again.

TV is ignored and toys seem invisible.  He is most content around his books and he is growing quite a collection.  He will read anything from board books, to paper paged ones, to a random catalogue that falls through the door.  He has his favourites but won't ignore any.  I love watching him delve into a new story and I wonder what he is thinking about, whether his imagination is taking him to beautiful places already.  

At the moment we have story time in the mornings as he gets far too excited when the books come out that he cannot really have a bedtime story yet.  Every morning we cuddle up and read a book and we point to the pictures and turn the pages together.  I find it very difficult not to read all the words before we turn over but he goes at his own speed, favouring some pages more than others.  I love watching him learn and cannot wait to teach him to read!

Since his birth I have been told constantly that Dylan is the spitting image of his daddy and it is nice to see that he got something from me.  I hope his love for books continues, maybe I might get to read more too that way!  Until then, I love the peace that I get when he is sat on the floor looking at his books and I love watching his imagination grow.

Do your children love reading?  Did it start when they were little or did they grow into it?

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The Mad Blog Awards

II may not have been there as a finalist but getting to mingle with fantastic bloggers and dress up was not an opportunity to be missed so I was delighted to win a ticket.  The Mads took place in a swanky hotel in central London and there were people on call to do our hair and make up before the big event.  I was very impressed that the girls from Regis managed to curl my hair, and that they stayed in! This is a first and I am hoping that with the samples they gave me I can recreate the look at home

The awards were preceded by a delicious three course meal where I got to catch up with one of my favourite bloggers, Kate from Makeshift Mummy.  There were some fantastic winners including the brilliant Mamasaurus, and the wonderful Coombe Mill but all the finalists have such fantastic blogs that my google reader is now very full! 

Tiffany Rose, a company selling gorgeous maternity dresses provided me with an outfit to wear and I felt so elegant, despite having a rather large bump.  The dress was stunning and beautifully made, perfectly flattering for pregnancy and I had a lot of compliments.  Now I could really do with some more invitations to glamorous events before February so I get to wear it again!  

The Liberty gown is a gorgeous two layer deep blackberry coloured dress, floor length even with 5 inch heels on (and I am 5 foot 9)!  There is a removable sash that helps show off the bump and the cowl neckline hangs beautifully.  I absolutely loved wearing it and felt very glamorous! 

Before I had to run off to catch the last train home (next time I am definitely booking a hotel!), there was just enough time to climb aboard a giant red stag in the hotel lobby with fellow pregnant blogger Katie from Mummy Daddy Me.  Surrounded by cushions it was far too inviting and I know for sure we were not the only ones making the most of the photo opportunity!  

 Congratulations to all the nominees, finalists and winners of this year's event, and thanks to the wonderful orgnaisers!  I would love to go back again next year!

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Brush Baby Review

We started brushing Dylan's teeth when the first signs of those little white buds were peeking through.  We wanted him to get used to the routine, and brushing the gums can help with teething.  We bought a little toothbrush and some toothpaste, and got in the habit of visiting the bathroom with him twice a day to clean those little toothy-pegs.

He has never seemed particularly excited or bothered by the process, but does enjoy watching himself in the bathroom mirror!  He also loves having a good chew on the toothbrush, and sucking off the toothpaste!

Brush Baby were kind enough to offer us one of their chewable toothbrushes, which encourages independance as it consists of a small silicone piece, with bristles designed to be chewed.  Dylan holds the brush himself and has a great time exploring his mouth with it and biting down.  They also sent us some of their apple mint toothpaste, which is low in flouride so less worrying when they inevitaby swallow it!  Teaching a 13 month old to spit out the bubbles is near enough impossible and Dylan seems to love the flavour of this one!

We had a few issues to start with as he put the whole toothbrush in his mouth but with a little help he has learnt the right way to chew it, and loves that he can do it alone.  

Brush baby is designed by a dentist and can be used without toothpaste as a teether too.  You can even store it in the fridge for cool relief.  We have found it really easy to get on with and would recommend it to anyone whose children prefer to chew a toothbrush rather than brush with it! I am hoping that when we do have to move him onto a proper brush he will understand a bit better what to do with it and will transition easily.


Disclaimer:  We were sent a Brush Baby toothbrush and toothpaste for the purpose of this review but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Glow Stick Bath

Dylan has always loved bath time, splashing around and playing with his toys.  This week we had a special bath time though, a glow in the dark one!

I turned off all the lights and shut the curtain.  The one benefit of the evenings getting darker is that by bath  time it is getting dark outside and  there is less natural light coming in so it does make it easier.  I bought a pack of 20 glow sticks from the pound shop and popped them into Dylan's already run bath.  Voilà, a glow in the dark bath!

He loved playing with the glow sticks and watching them swirl around and didn't even try and eat one! (I wouldn't recommend letting them near your child's mouth.)  He was in there until his skin was all wrinkled and even then he didn't want to let go off the fluorescent green stick!  

I think this is a great sensory experiment for babies who are growing out of the everything in their mouth stage and would be great for older children too - I mean who doesn't want their bath to glow!  Add some music and you have your very own bath disco!

I would love to tell you where this idea came from as I know I have seen it before but I have no idea of the source unfortunately. 

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Jackernuts - Tasty Flapjack Review

 Pregnancy has let to my snack habit becoming even worse than usual.  I have always been a fan of snacking but being pregnant I find it hard to go longer than a couple of hours without eating and I am prone to spells of dizziness and fainting if I attempt to.  My lovely friend has sent me some of her delicious new snack bars, Jackernuts and I am finding them the perfect handbag sized treat. 

Homemade and individually wrapped they are sold as a 'nut butter bar' and are like flapjacks.  There are many different flavours, with the hazelnut being my favourite.  They are lovely and crumbly and I am using this as a great excuse not to break any off and share it!  

I have just tucked into the plain bar as I type this post and I can whole heartedly and full mouthedly recommend these! 

Disclaimer:  I was sent these snacks by a friend who is also the creater of them.  I was not asked to write a blog post, I just wanted to share them as I am a huge fan. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Change

Sometimes I sit back and realise what a beautiful, smart and wonderful child I have created.  I may be bias but to me he is perfect.  He cries, he tantrums and there are days I am counting down until bed time, but all in all he is such a happy and content little boy and I know I have been blessed.

With another baby on the way, I cannot let myself believe we will be lucky enough to have two children like this.  Whilst we do have only the one and all our time and energy to focus on him, we are making some transitions now to prepare him for toddler-hood.  He has always transitioned so well; from milk to solids, from breast to bottle, from crib to cot bed and from feeding to sleep to self soothing.  We have never had struggles or battles and he has done everything in his own time.  There are still a couple of changes we wanted to make though and it feels right to do it now before we have our hands full with two.

We are in the process of cutting out bottles.  There seems to be so much conflicting advice on how long to keep milk in bottles for, but eventually they must all move on and the time feels right for Dylan to start having his milk in cups.  He only has milk twice a day - when he wakes up and at about 5pm so we have already changed one feed over to his trusty cup.  Turns out - he isn't too bothered!  As long as he gets his milk he is happy whatever the vessel.  Next week we will drop the morning bottle in favour of a cup as well.  It feels sad to lose another 'baby' thing, but whilst he can transition so easily it seems silly to keep the bottles.

Our next challenge is moving from sleeping bags to a cot duvet or blankets.  He is 13 months now and old enough for proper bedding.  We have decided not to introduce a pillow until he is older, but are going to see how he goes with pajamas and blankets rather than sleepsuits and gro-bags.  He still manages to migrate around the cot at night, so we have started this now whilst it is not too chilly to see how it goes.  I know you can buy sleeping bags for children up to 3 years, but I love snuggling under my duvet and I am hoping he gets used to his before it gets chilly.

My little baby is growing up far too fast, but I am so proud of how well he copes with change.  He is becoming an inquisitive, talkative and adorable little boy and I really hope that any future changes are met with such ease and smiles.

How have you found making changes in your child's life?

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