As the nights aren’t so dark any more, I caught a lovely shot of you splashing in the bath. We love bath times here, lots of chatter and giggling between you and your brother. It’s an ordinary activity that we will no doubt do thousands of times before you grow big enough to just do it yourself. I can barely imagine those days right now but I know soon I will find myself there, with a little girl and no baby. Already there is talk of weaning, and suddenly I find myself feeling like I’m falling behind on the time scales. Then I look at your ever growing face and realise that it all happens naturally, you have all that learning within you.
I think it every week but you are just growing in every way, so quickly. We say something, you repeat it and then somehow you know it. You can remember it, even call on it at a later date. You have started using more connective words, ‘and’ ‘ has made its first appearance as well as your first “Aneurin”. It kind of seems crazy that it took you 2 years to know your full name. That will serve us right for giving you such an unusual one I guess, but at least you have an interesting story to tell people. You are happy, boisterous, busy and love to make us laugh. Anything you do that raises a smile you do over and over, trying to get the same reaction. Everyone says how happy you are, what a beautiful smile you have and we take it for granted. You are of course difficult in equal measure, because you never do things by halves.
Like most mums I am always on the hunt for a reliable spill proof bottle that I can use while we are out and about. So when I was recently asked if I would like to do a grip ‘n gulp review for Nalgene it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try a new product.
We’ve had a busy first week of the holiday, crossing off items on the to do list and generally keeping busy as a family of 4. I’m desperately trying to catch up on myself, I know I’ve been neglecting the … Continue reading
The Works 10 childrens books for £10
May 15, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 0 comments
We are big book fans here, we love to go to the library each week and discover new characters, whisking ourselves away to many a different fantastical location. We sit down every night in our armchair, cuddling up and work our way through 3 (or more) books. Nye picks books from the shelves saying, ‘nutha one mummee, peaase’ and usally I can’t resist his thirst for reading, even when I am truly exhausted. There’s usually a Peppa Pig or Thomas book involved and we love our friend Maisy and anything with scary monsters and repetition.
We were particularly fond of Ribbit, which is full of really lovely illustrations, with the story nicely laid out over the pages to build up suspense. Nye always likes books where there is something unexpected, he loves frogs and finds the idea of a pig saying ribbit very amusing. Then there’s the noisy books with interesting sound effects. Snore fits into this category perfectly and we just love the journey of all the animals.
I was asked if I would like to choose some books from The Works 10 for £10 range, I thought it was a great opportunity to try some new books, and this time we get to keep them. I’ve previously bought a few cook books from The Works but I hadn’t realised they had a website, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that standard delivery is £3.99 which is great value when you are purchasing lots of books. There’s actually free delivery until the close of today so head on over!
Disclosure:
I was sent these books free of charge for the purpose of this review. All words, photos and opinions are my own.
Happy Easter everyone! Have you had a good first week of the holiday? We’ve been tackling the spring cleaning here, but that hasn’t stopped us making a bit of a mess in the kitchen.
In your daddy’s arms is where you like to spend your time. He carries you round in the crook of his arm, and even has you sitting on his knee whilst he eats his dinner (one handed.) You two are bestest palls, he knows how to settle you and gives you a thousand kisses a day. When you smile your whole face lights up and your dummy just drops to the floor as every muscle extends into a gummy grin. Your happy disposition amazes us, you rarely fuss or complain you are just contented and we feel so lucky. You are now gently settling into 3 nap times during the day and we are trying to put you down in your cot so you can get used to your own room. Admittedly, at night we miss you when you aren’t snuggled up next to us in bed, but you soon return for your food.
And then I turned my attention to the rest of my seed packets to find that there were more things to plant so I’ve sown some green headed calabrese, white strawberries (wishful thinking I reakon) hollyhocks, and then thought I’d be brave and sow my carott seeds in drills straight into the soil. As a precaution I have planted a row of onions next to them to try and deter the dreaded carott fly that everyone seems to go on about!
Then there’s all those other exciting things, blueberries starting to flower, sweet peas getting bushy, that black hyacinth emerging, and having a go at regrowing celery from the root.
Somehow Evie is now 4 months old and we are slowly starting to contemplate a vague bed time routine. So far we’ve played it by ear and been exceedingly lucky that she has since birth, slept in 3 hour blocks through the night, inititally from around 11/12pm until 9am. She’s awake more in the day now and I make an effort to stimulate her with conversation, play, laughter and fresh air when she is bright eyes and she now sleeps from about 9pm until 9am (waking for feeds every 3/4 hours).
My toddler just loves to be in the garden pottering. Digging and watering are his loves and these activities have maintained his interest for at least 6 months, so giving him his very own space seemed like a great opportunity to get creative.
To give the garden a fun personalised feel I used some tin cans to add my sons name to the edge of his patch. To do this I simply used a nail and hammer to add letters to the ends of some tin cans and dug these into the soil. You can’t see it but I also added a star, for more complicated patterns it’s probably best to use a marker pen to draw the outline. They’ll look better when the mud subsides and I can’t tell you how satisfying it was hammering holes into tin.
Ah my little Evie you are so different to how I remember your brother I can hardly believe it. It reminds me how amazing nature is, all the endless possibilities that arise for character and temperament. They are right when they say no two babies are the same. You just love to sit up or be on your tummy, spreading out your arms and legs and determinedly holding your chest and head high. This week I felt the winds of change, you will no doubt be on the move in a month or two. Can it really already be time for you to start practicing those first moment of independence? You’re already grabbing for things and playing with your hands with purpose, what will be next?