HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I know there has been a distinct lack of posts on my account and for that I apologise.  Life has again gotten in the way and this happens to be (other than October) the busiest time of the year for our family with a son born in December.

The preparations took a lot longer than I expected and my husband being the trooper he is, had to step in to help make everything on time.  Nonetheless, I am now blogging from the other side of a very successful 1st birthday and 1st proper Christmas.  This time last year, I was still in hospital waiting to be discharged so our Christmas didn't take place till the 27th and it was cold Christmas dinner and crying newborns all round.  I wanted everything to be perfect and although old me would have picked at little things that happened, new me thinks neither could have gone any better if they tried especially with an unpredictable toddler.

So without further ado, a run down on what I have been up to during this busy time.  As you know, I had photos of my son and our family done for his 1st birthday.  Unfortunately, my son was not having a very cooperative day but we did manage to get some lovely pictures including at least one of our family I would be proud to display on our wall... yay.  He wasn't interested in smashing the cake at all, he tried a bit, turned his nose up and then tried to wreak havoc by running around the photographer's house with cake covered hands.  That being said, we also have some fantastic pictures of when he did approach the cake and then got washed off afterwards.  As you know, I had to make my skirt as apparently a reasonably priced navy tulle skirt is not something easy available on the current market, so here was my finished outfit taken after the first photoshoot.

   

Then there was the birthday.   The rundown was basically this: Filling his room with balloons while he slept, leisurely breakfast, opening presents, getting changed, Father Christmas in his grotto at 1.15pm, lunch with the family in the Rainforest Cafe's restaurant at 1.45pm and then Kew Gardens Christmas Night Walk at 5pm.  Sounds easy right? Well, I don't know how but we were still a little late for the night walk but it still worked out fine.  For ease, here are the links to what we did: 
http://www.therainforestcafe.co.uk/events/grotto (I know I posted this a couple of posts ago)
http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/whats-on/christmas-at-kew-2015

Now the Rainforest Cafe we thought would be a great place for kids and to an extent it is but there seem to be a lot of steps/stairs everywhere and no ramps so my son being the climber he is was off exploring all of them.  The staff employed there left a lot to be desired.  I won't name names of the bad ones but out of the very many we encountered, there only seemed to be two who actually knew what they were doing.  I also won't go into great detail about how many times we were asked how many people were in our party (despite me confirming numbers) then who were the three with allergies only to have a what seemed like endless discussion about how many high chairs and to be given food that wasn't dairy-free as the servers didn't think to ask.  That aside, my son seemed to enjoy himself.  He loved the decor, being sung to and trying to stamp on the projections on the floor (of fish and leaves).   This is all I could have asked for and he was none the wiser about the staff and confusion thankfully.

The night walk was great, my son absolutely loving lights and the outdoors was unfortunately asleep for the first part of the walk but thankfully we managed to sneak round again when he did wake up for him to do the best bit, a light curtain.  The only way I think to explain it is, if you have seen Frozen, when Anna and Kristoph are trying to find Elsa and they wander into what seems be curtains of icicle crystals.  Imagine this, in lights.  My son was in light heaven and didn't want to leave! I would definitely recommend it for kids although it is quite a walk round so wrap up warm and be prepared.  We also had some amazing marshmallows from the Marshmallowist stand which topped it all off perfectly.  My son fell asleep on our drive home content and probably exhausted from all of the excitement.  His face on the night walk spoke a thousand words and I couldn't be happier he enjoyed himself. 

Trying to schlep his cake across London wasn't appealing so we ended up cutting the cake the day after and he still enjoyed all of the attention.  Again in an earlier post, I posted the image of the cake I was hoping to model my son's after.  I will caveat now, I'm in no way a professional as you will see below but I think it turned out pretty well! 

 

Finally Christmas day was extremely busy and full of presents and food but in the end, my son loved his new toys (only a couple of them, the rest were ignored) and absolutely loved his Christmas dinner.   He got to visit my parents and my sister and had a good old play around in my Dad's house flitting from room to room exploring. 

All in all, who can complain when your son is happy and enjoyed himself? Certainly not me, the mother of a toddler. 

Hope you had an amazing Christmas and wishing you all a very Happy New Year. 

~AB~

Driving home for Christmas

I have been able to drive for over a decade now.  It's a fortunate position to be in as many Londoners don't bother to learn to drive because public transport is so convenient.  Since passing my test I have always had a car and had always been reliant on driving but in March 2013, my husband and I had to hand back his company car as he was leaving the company and we were left car-less ever since.  

As I have mentioned public transport makes it easy to get to anywhere we need to go so this wasn't an issue.  Then I fell pregnant and my in-laws couldn't cope with us being car-less so put my husband on their car insurance (again them also being Londoners means they don't use their cars much either).   Since my son was born I was then also put on the car insurance but having not driven since 2013, I had been too scared to jump in front of the wheel.  I know this may seem like an overreaction but people do crazy things on the road and it was daunting to have to remember everything whilst not getting into an accident.  My husband kindly took me out so I could do some laps of a car park as I have also never driven an automatic car before.   As I have slowly become more confident,  I keep being asked why don't I drive my son here, or drive him there and again I have been too scared.  He is my precious cargo and I am a rusty driver, I didn't want to put him at risk.  

On Tuesday, my son was extremely unwell he couldn't keep down anything and started vomiting bile.  For those who know my son, he is a waif of a baby.  He has a little pot belly but he is still under 10kg so for him to constantly vomit you can imagine my concern.  I called our potential non-emergency line and they advised to take him to hospital.  How would I get him there? The pushchair and bus would take over an hour, a taxi would take 20ish minutes but would cost money and I didn't have cash or... I could drive. Because of a mixture of fear and concern I drove my son to hospital.  Maybe he could read the situation and how scared I was but my son played and babbled to himself and there were no tears when he couldn't see me, so the car journey was completely stress free. 

My son was eventually fine but I was elated.  I had just managed to safely drive my son somewhere.  This opened up a whole new world of places we could visit together and I finally felt confident I could do it.  The following day I took us to a taster toddler gymnastics class but to get there via public transport would have meant over an hour's travel on three trains, I got there in 20 minutes by car.  I should mention that the venue is under 5 miles away but there is no direct transport there.  What a revelation!  

I know I'm speaking like cars are a new thing I have just discovered but I was genuinely too scared to drive my son anywhere.  Now I feel like we can truly explore and I couldn't be more excited about it especially just in time for Christmas.

~AB~

Countdown to one

As I have previously mentioned, my son turning 1 year old is imminent.  I simultaneously want to cry and woo hoo. Cry at the baby he has left behind, the helpless little creature who clung to me and needed me for everything is now a bottle holding, don't show me I can figure it out myself, face palming, walking toddler.  I complied some photos for our house calendar showing my son every month since his birth and my husband and I really had to struggle to hold back emotion at the year that has flown by before our eyes. 

Then there is the woo hoo-ing.  I have almost two pages in the diary of milestones my son has achieved since birth.  They may sound menial to everyone else but I have made sure I have written down every little thing he has done or achieved and I couldn't be more proud!  At the moment he is still walking aided but every day mostly unknowingly he takes more and more steps unaided so it's only a matter of time and I'm so happy for him.  

I would also like to take a moment give myself a little woo hoo.  Since my son's birth I have seen myself go from a shell who didn't want to go out or see anyone to a working mother to a thriving toddler.  I'm still the anxious mother I started out as but maybe a little less so than a year ago and although I'm still neurotic about bringing up my son, I'm trying to be more open minded.  Although mentally I have also come a long way, changing the way I think will take a long time but I will better myself for my son.   

I have lost weight (not as much as I would like), cut and dyed my hair and discovered a little something called patience. So much has changed and although I never thought it would to this extent, I could never have things back the way they were.  

I'm sure you can read that this is difficult to write and honestly it's hard not to cry.  The next month will be an emotional rollercoaster but once I get everything in order, I will finally be able to sit back and enjoy the birthday party, the festivities and most importantly my first proper Christmas with my one year old son. 

~AB~

It's oh so quiet

I know I have been missing for a while now, truth be told I have no time to actually write anything let alone write something someone would want to read.  

Our last weekend was spent in Poole visiting family, something which we should but never get round to doing quite enough.  Needless to say, the lack of sleep from my son growing and teething at the same time not so much ruined the weekend but helped to contribute to it not going so smoothly... also in true English style, it rained.  Torrential downpours, the entire weekend, topped off by traffic in London as per usual. 

Anyway, it is now December and everything has been kicked up a gear.  I have only just gotten round to doing the Christmas photos of my son so the cards will be later than I would like but it means I have two months down for the calendar (I did Halloween at the same time).  I am still in the process of buying Christmas presents and I am cursing myself that I left it this late, this will definitely not be happening next year! What I have done is confirmed numbers for my son's birthday, sorted out his birthday outfits (yes plural as he has a photoshoot as well), booked his year assessment, vaccinations and first dentist appointment and wrapped all of the presents I do have.  I am not letting myself off of the hook just yet though!  I would like to share with you some of the things I have achieved this month and where I got things from/what I used to help me. 

My planned skirt for the birthday and family photoshoot in two weeks time but in navy as it appears noone sells an affordable navy tulle skirt courtesy of Miss Kris: 
 














My son's birthday and Christmas bow-ties courtesy of Melody of Cuteness: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MelodyOfCuteness

Santa's Grotto for your little one for next year as they are all booked up now:
http://www.therainforestcafe.co.uk/

And finally, my son is a massive fan of the star from the Little Baby Bum youtube channel so I will be trying my hardest to make him a twinkle, twinkle cake and have used these to help me mentally create my vision: 

I'm going to try and do this without the words across the middle but instead a big fluffy 1!

 And I saw this tutorial as I'm going to need to hand paint the cake: 

Please let me know if you try/buy any of these as I would love to know what you got up to and hope they all work out for you.  I will definitely post pictures of the finished products though so you can tell me what you think. 

~AB~

Like a kid in a candy shop

I absolutely love food.  Of course I loved it much more when I could eat whatever I wanted before I found out I was dairy intolerant and before being pregnant.  I have always had a massive sweet tooth and cakes have always been my absolutely favourite.  

Firstly let me start by clearing things up.  How could I not know I was dairy intolerant? Well to put it out there, I only had gas and bloating.  It sounds weird but I didn't realise I was bloated as my weight yoyos a lot and the whole gas thing I thought was down to my predominantly sweet and not so balanced diet.  The first week I went without dairy I was shocked at how much better I felt, I downed pints of milk when I was pregnant to relieve indigestion so I wouldn't have to buy bottles of Gaviscon so it's a wonder I wasn't much worse off.  I do wonder if I would have carried much smaller had I have downed pints of Alpro hazelnut milk instead. 

Anyway I digress.  I love cakes/desserts, a lot.  My favourites have to be black forest gateau and lemon meringue pie (I would also settle for key lime pie if that isn't available).  My birthday cake was a bespoke black forest gateau my husband had managed to acquire through many many phone calls and I will never forget how amazing it was.  I will also not understand how it lasted so long when it tasted so good and I would have a massive slice before/after each meal (ok now I'm seeing why I carried so big when I was pregnant...).  Sweet treats have also been a big weakness of mine and they still are now that I have discovered bars of Cadbury's Bourneville - the creamiest tasting non-dairy chocolate I have had so far! 

I would love to share with you some of my favourite dairy and non-dairy treats:

http://englishcheesecake.com/choose-a-cake - my son bought my husband a minis pack for Father's Day which went down a treat (especially as I got to have some)
http://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/ 
http://www.lolascupcakes.co.uk/SubMenu1/1/cupcakes.htm 
http://www.chinchinlabs.com/ - for the warmer seasons, or if you just wrap up like I would because it's so worth it
http://www.themarshmallowist.com/collections/all
http://www.tastethedream.com/products/adfrozen_category.php - I have only seen Salted Caramel, Mint Choc and Praline Crunch in the UK but I can vouch for them all and my fave is the mint.  They taste amazing!
http://www.coconutco.co.uk/things-we-make/category/frozen/
 

There are many many more but some have no websites so I will just leave it with these for now.  They are all amazing and although I miss dairy and shouldn't indulge, if I'm not going anywhere for a few days and it's a particularly bad day... it's totally worth the bloating.  

~AB~

Onto the next challenge

With November halfway through it feels like Christmas is practically round the corner.   I am somewhat behind with my Christmas present buying but at least half of them have been dealt with.  If this were any other year, my cards would have been written and ready to be posted on 1st December (stamps already attached), all of the presents would have been bought and wrapped and I would have started purchasing the non-perishables for Christmas dinner.

I am yet to stage and photograph my son for the Christmas card photos despite having the outfit and the props so no Christmas cards have been ordered and Christmas food shopping will have to be done in its entirety (much to my distaste as I despise Christmas crowds) nearer to the time.  This will not be happening next year I cannot allow the stress of being this behind again! 

That being said I'm so excited for Christmas this year because it will be my son's first official one.  Last year, we were holed up in hospital waiting to be discharged but our results had gone missing but that is another story for another time. This year, we will be spending the holidays with family and celebrating on the correct day with all of the lights and the food and the bloating and the presents.  Christmas, if you hadn't already realised is my favourite holiday of the whole year.  I love nothing more than to prepare for it and although it feels like an anti-climax when the tree is bare underneath, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing your loved ones enjoying the presents you have painstakingly chosen and wrapped.  I know my son won't quite understand what's going on but what I hope he will understand is the love and excitement of it all.  

We still have the wreath I made on maternity leave from last year so this year, I think I might try my hand at making some tree decorations before our tree is decorated with decorations by my son.  So without further ado, below are some I have seen which I absolutely love.  Oh and just in case you were wondering... 39 days left! 

 

I've made this one before so I know I can!

What are you planning to make this Christmas? 

~AB~

Poops and giggles

I have just spent an hour cleaning up projectile vomit. 

Motherhood has its perks and I know that poop and vomit were not going to be two of them but it really is true what they say, you will find yourself discussing poop like it's nothing like I currently am.  I have discussed newborn poop, weaning poop, unwell poop and teething poop.  None of them are particularly pleasant and I never thought I would hear myself say this but I miss newborn poop having smelt and dealt with all of the others.  

My son is sick yet again and although this isn't the first time he has projectiled, this is the first time he has done it all over his foam play mats and toys.  The last hour has been both gross and exhausting.  Thank God for Dettol.  Unfortunately when he did it, my shock made him shocked so he didn't know what to do and neither did I for a moment.  Then I spent an hour trying to get my son away from the concentration of vomit.  Boys are gross from birth, clearly.  When he finally fell asleep, I knew what I had to face and it didn't make it any easier. 

The one thing that has surprised me about all of this is that although it is gross, I took a picture of it and shared it with my husband and sister.  I always thought I would be ok with nappy contents, wet or soiled but never the vomit.  How wrong I was.  I personally think I handled this situation like a trooper and maybe my pride led to the overshare but why should I have to suffer alone? 

On the flip side of this my son has decided that the whole world is hilarious and spends most of the day laughing at things.  I'm pretty sure that he's not delirious from being unwell and I absolutely love hearing him laugh.  I will do anything to make him laugh and I have found myself hiding behind things, gesturing wildly, making up ridiculous voices and rewording songs to add my son's name (which he thinks is the best thing ever).  There is nothing better than a baby's laugh and that's what I think makes the Pampers advert here so effective... although I don't know many people not using Pampers on their child.  My son's laugh helps me gain some perspective that noone wants to be so serious all of the time.  I have also laughed more because of him and strangely I feel so much better.  My days are more enjoyable, I lose my patience less and I'm just enjoying my son and his laughter.  It only took us 10 months but we've finally arrived and I want it to be like this forever.   Maybe minus the disgusting smelling poop and projectile vomit.

~AB~