What a year

Well Christmas was lovely. We spent Christmas and Boxing Day with my family, before going up north to spend a few days with Bretts folks. It is nice that we have managed to spend time with everyone this year. Emma got lots of lovely presents too. :-)

I can't believe it is the end of the year already. This has seemed like such a quick one. I am a bit lost for words about 2007. I don't want to go into detail summing it up - it has been both the happiest and saddest year all at the same time. But I am looking forward to 2008. I have loads of goals, hopes and resolutions but I will save those for tomorrow's post in order to start the year on a positive vibe.

Here is my favourite photo from 2007. (Brett has just told me to write that it is "our" favourite photo... but I had to remind him that it is my blog... haha!) It is a bit blury - Brett was holding the camera above us. But I love it all the same.

Happy New Year. xxx

Happy Christmas!

Oh ok then - a couple of pics

OK - I couldn't resist. I took these during the last few days. Emma is really into spaghetti hoops at the moment. She sticks them on the end of her fingers and eats them off. :-) And apricot yogurt has become a hit too. Shame that I can't stand the smell of it!

I can't believe it is Christmas Eve already!

We have been madly busy getting ready for Christmas. We didn't actually buy anything really big for Emma this year - but seem to have got her loads of little bits and pieces. Needless to say it has taken ages to wrap them all up! I have also been busy making presents (will divulge fully after Christmas because I don't want to give away a surprise).

We are off to my Mum's for Christmas dinner this year. Thing is, Christmas dinner is my absolute favourite meal to cook. So, to compensate, I have been making some bits to take some of the pressure off Mum tomorrow. I have made cranberry sauce, Yorkshire puddings, a cheesecake, stuffing, and some really gorgeous cranberry jam tarts. I am ready for a rest tonight!

I am looking forward to Emma's reaction tomorrow. She knows something is going on, and is obsessed with the Christmas tree! I hope she lets us have a little sleep in though - she has been up very early the last few mornings. She seems to be developing so much at the moment which probably accounts for it. She clapped for the first time today, she is chattering more and more, and yesterday she instigated a game of peekaboo with me by holding up the towel herself in front of her face and peeking out at me. It was priceless!

No photos today I'm afraid, but I am sure there will be lots from tomorrow!

Sewing show off

I was posting some pictures of the cool reversible mei tai carrier I made recently on another forum, and realised I had never really shown it off here. So, here it is. The first thing I ever made with a sewing machine!

I love it - because I made it myself, everything is just how I like it - the body is just the right height, the straps are exactly the width I like and really long... Emma seems to like it too. :-)

I have the sewing bug now, and plan to make another one after Christmas!

Forgive the overexposure in the photos - it is really sunny today!

Christmas warmup

We went to my mum's place for lunch today. My sister Anna and her husband were there too. They decorated the Christmas tree, and it really felt like a Christmas dinner practise run! Emma was good as gold, and really enjoyed herself.

I heard on the news that there is a lack of holly with berries this year. Well, I live in an old cemetary (yes really!!) and our garden is fully of berrified holly. So I chopped a load down to decorate the lounge this afternoon. We have bought a little Christmas tree too - I wanted a huge one, but I guess it is not the most practical idea. I can just picture Emma trying to climb up it... I am rubbish at decorating trees. All the lights have ended up at the bottom, and it looks like it might topple over. I will have a better go at it tomorrow and post some festive pictures.


I spoke to my gorgeous friend Cath today for the first time in ages. She was pregnant at the same time as me. Telling each other about our respective pregnancies was one of those phone calls I will never forget. ("What you're pregnant.... weeheee... congratulations... um...not wanting to steal your thunder, but so am I!!!") Since then, we have been totally rubbish and only seen each other once when we went to the peak district for a sensible (!) late pregnancy holiday. Her little one is almost a year old, and I still haven't met her. So, we have decided that when we drive up to see Brett's parents after Christmas, we will stop off half way and meet them for lunch. I can't wait - it will be lovely to get together after such a long time.


Enough rambling for one weekend. This has been quite a bitty post! Here is a rather random picture of Emma for today. This was taken while we were visiting my dad in the Netherlands last week. It is in Vroom & Dressman (a department store) in Den Haag. This chair just looked perfect for her.

Crawling.... well nearly

Emma is nearly crawling, thanks to all the practise she got on my Dad's huge wooden floors! She finally realised that it was more efficient to try to go forwards instead of just rolling everywhere and banging her head all the time. She does go up on all fours and rock about quite a lot now, but she hasn't worked out that she has to move both her hands and legs together. Anyway, I thought it was high time for a video!

This season, I will mostly be wearing party dresses

OK... I know it is a bit early, but I couldn't resist a little sneaky peak of Emma's Christmas party dress. I just wanted to try it on her to make sure it was the right size (because she is at a bit of an in between stage right now) and it looked so lovely on her. It is a bit of a blurry photo, but gorgeous all the same. :-)

Be warned - I will probably be inundating you with cute Emma/Christmas pictures over the coming weeks!

Sinterklaus has visited

Laura came to visit last week, and it was great to see her. We even managed a quick trip to my local pub (Brett kindly babysat). I haven't done that for a v-e-r-y long time!!

I was really touched that Laura remembered to help me celebrate Sinterklaus with Emma. Sinterklaus is like the Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus, but his story is rather different to the one we know. St. Nicholas is a tall man, dressed in a red bishop's outfit with a golden crook. He travels with his companion Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). They travel together on a ship from Spain, and arrive in the Netherlands on 5th December. He leaves treats for the children if they are good (chocolate letters, marzipan shapes etc). If they are naughty, Zwarte Piet leaves a piece of coal.

When I got up in the morning, Laura had put a chocolate letter for Emma in one of her shoes. It was so sweet! I was even more touched when I found she had done the same for me and Brett! :-) Emma spent ages rolling around on the floor with her chocolate letter (still in its box!)

It may be a Dutch tradition, but I really want to carry on celebrating Sinterklaus with Emma in future years, as a reminder of where she was born. It is a good excuse to travel back to the Netherlands each year to pick up some chocolate letters!

Its been too long

I just realised how long it is since I updated the blog. So much for me trying to do it more often! :-S

Things have been pretty busy around here over the last few weeks... So this is a kind of bitty post, just to update about what has been going on. The usual pictorial service will be resumed this afternoon. (Because I have some photos that I really want to share!)

I had the first sling meet at my place a couple of weeks ago. It was really nice, but my place is just too small for all those kids! So, with the help of a friend, I found a local hall for the next one. It is booked, and now I need to get on and do some flyers for it.

In the same week as the sling meet, I went to my first English La Leche League meeting. Emma decided to sleep in my arms for most of it, so I didn't get to talk to many people, but it was nice to meet other mothers from around the area.

I had this crazy idea about making Christmas presents this year. We have a lot less money than last year, and to be honest it seems a bit inappropriate for a variety of reasons to go mad with presents. But time is ticking on and I have only managed to do one so far. I won't say what it is though - I don't want to give it away for the intended recipient. Hopefully I will get time to make one or two more.

Last week, Emma got really sick. Brett and I both had colds recently, and Emma got it too. But then last week she started wheezing and was having difficulty breathing. It was really scary, so I took her to the doctors and was told she had bronchiolitus. She made a super fast recovery thank goodness, and seems right as rain now.

And the final busy thing was that we popped back over to the Netherlands for a little visit. I didn't really see many people, because the weather was horrible and we were staying in Den Haag with my Dad rather than Amsterdam where all our friends are. I ended up only spending a couple of hours in Amsterdam! I did get to visit my gorgeous cat Tegan though. Her pet passport is in progress, but for the time being she needs to stay put in the Netherlands. We hope to have her back soon. Emma was so lovely when she saw Tegan, and started chattering to her straight away! :-) We stayed at my Dad's place, and it has a lot of open floor space which Emma really loved. She looks like she is going to crawl properly any day soon!

(Laura (Amsterdam Laura that is) - I haven't mentioned your visit in this post, because I am saving that and all the lovely photos we took for this afternoon - I can only write so much in one go!)

Personality development

I have noticed that Emma's personality is really developing at the moment. A few things have caught my eye.

I take her to a baby singalong at the local library every week. The first time we were there, she saw another little girl sitting up and playing with some sleigh bells. She was really interested. Eventually, she rolled over to the little girl, pushed her over, took the bells, and rolled back to me. I was so embarrassed!! At the weekend we had a meet up of a few mums who all post on the same parenting forum as me. We all had our babies in the same month. I thought Emma was quite chunky for her age, but next to these other babies she was tiny! This time, she saw a little boy with a toy she liked the look of. She waited until he looked away for a moment, rolled over to him, sneakily stole the toy and rolled back to me with it. Devious little monkey! She certainly knows how to get what she wants.

Another thing I noticed recently is that Emma really loves to be the centre of attention. At the library singalong, she bounces along with me, beaming at all the other mothers and babies, cooing at every bit of attention that is lavished on her. Today, I hosted my first slingmeet and had a house full of toddlers. Emma was the youngest by quite a long way. She was so good, and was happy to play along with the other children. At one point, she and another girl were playing with a doll. Emma would wave the doll about, and the other little girl would kiss its head. Emma started to copy her after a while. It was so sweet to see her playing with someone else! :-)

So... is she going to be a selfish little madam who pushes kids over to get a toy, or a sweet little baby who loves to share and play with other kids... I can't wait to find out! But which ever way it goes, I can see her still liking to be the centre of attention as she grows up - she doesn't seem to have a shy bone in her body at the moment!

Glasses

Emma has a thing about my glasses. Almost every time I pick her up she goes for them! She is so quick too, and has them off before I know it. It is only a matter of time before I end up with them held together with sticky tape!

It is one thing her going for them when I am holding her in front of me, but it is quite something else when I am carrying her on my back! :-S

















But when she looks this cute, I have to kind of let her off. Maybe I will get her some of those baby sunglasses to play with! :-)


















She is supposed to be napping at the moment, but I am listening to her over the baby monior. She is blowing raspberries at her cuddly bunny. It is so funny, but I bet she stops the minute I go up there!

Blo off

I got an IM from Laura at RIPE today, asking what had happened to nablopomo, and if it had blo'n off. It made me giggle, so I thought I had better explain...

OK... well the plan was to update the blog every day in November. Last Thursday I forgot. I can't remember what was going on (it seems like ages ago!!) but I know it was a bit of a manic day. I can however remember what I was going to write, so I will save that for a rainy day!

So, on Friday, I realised that I had forgotten... and then forgot again. Can you feel a theme starting here?

Saturday came. Brett was working, and Emma was being a little on the troublesome side. (She is in super teething mode at the moment). I was wiped out by the time she went to bed. I realised that I had forgotten for the last two days, but to be completely honest I was too tired to think about it.


Then it was Sunday... and I forgot again.

Wow this feels like a "the dog ate my homework" post!! I mean really - this blogging is meant to be fun, not a chore!

So, I will pick up again for today, and see how I go. My new strategy is to try to update the blog every day. :-)

Other news in brief - Emma's teething is getting better. Her first tooth at the top made an appearance this morning! She also seems to think she can stand up... except that she can't and I have to hold her upright almost constantly. Funny thing is she still hasn't even worked out how to get from lying to sitting, so I think standing for real is a way off!

And finally, just to make up for the last few days of missing posts, here is a lovely picture that I took on Friday. I had carried Emma on my back in the wrap to the shops and back. She fell asleep, which is unusual when she is on my back - normally she just wants to look around at everything. So then I was faced with a problem. She was all wrapped up in warm clothes, and was so hot once we got inside. So, I needed to get her down and get some layers off her. But she was so asleep, and I didn't want to wake her. Somehow (and I wish I know how!!) I managed to get her off my back and onto the bed, then take some layers off without waking her up. I even then managed to get her to her own bed, and she slept for an hour. I got a sneaky photo when she was on the bed though, because she looked so sweet. (And I love the way the wrap matches the bed spread!)

Bolognese

As promised yesterday, here is the mess created on Emma by pasta bolognese. If you look really closely you can see her teeth too! (She only has two - at the bottom. But I am pretty sure by her recent desire to chew everything in sight that there will be some more along soon).

















I have only recently started to feed really messy stuff like this to Emma. Before then, if I was cooking bolognese, or casserole or something, I would cook the meat, take some out for Emma, then finish it off for me and Brett. But now I just give Emma what we are having. It is so much easier and gives her a lot more variety. It also makes me think more about what I am eating too. If I am going to give my food to Emma, then I want to make sure it is healthy and low in salt and additives.

My mum came over to visit this afternoon. We had macaroni cheese with broccoli for lunch. Yes - I know I have done whole posts purely about how much I detest broccoli, but hear me out! I was told that if a baby is fussy about a particular type of food, then you should offer it again and again. After ten times they will normally eat it. So I thought I would try the same thing on myself! Actually, the broccoli taste was completely masked by the lovely cheesiness, so it was fine. Emma seemed to really like it too. Mum and I talked a lot about Emma's eating habits, and she was really complimentary about the BLW path that I chose to follow. This means a lot to me. It has taken time and perseverance, but it really has worked out well and now I have a really healthy happy baby who will eat almost anything that is on her plate (as long as it is not banana or porridge).

Political stuff

I normally stay away from politics in my blog. This blog is about my family life, so I don't think it is really an appropriate forum for me to bombard you with my political beliefs. However, a couple of things that I am quite passionate about came up today, so I thought I would add them here. This is a bit of a one off for me! Back to fluffy baby pictures tomorrow. (I got some lovely shots of Emma and some spagbog earlier, and I can't wait to share them with you).

Babies on TV:

I don't know how many of you watched the "Bringing up Baby" programme on Channel 4 last month. For those who didn't, it was a reality TV show following families with newborn babies who followed different methodologies for raising their children with the assistance of a mentor. The methodologies were Truby King's regimented regime from the 1950's (babies should be on a fixed never changing regime for feeding and sleeping), Dr Spock's Baby and Childcare from the 1960's (teaching parents to follow their instincts), and the Continuum Concept from the 1970's (babies should have constant physical contact with their parents for the first six months).

I was absolutely incensed by this programme. On the one hand, it did show some interesting different ways in which parents can choose to raise their babies. However, some of the methods were very questionable (verging on cruel in my opinion) and the programme failed to really highlight government recommended safety guidelines. There were also some infuriating throw away comments about how it doesn't matter whether you breastfeed or bottle feed. I am all for parents having choice, and bringing up their babies in the way that they feel is best. However, I thought the programme was misleading and it missed a huge opportunity to promote sleeping safety guidelines, breastfeeding support, and other issues that are important to new parents.

The Truby King mentor in particular was particularly forceful about the strict regime of her program. (Feeding only a tiny bit to a hungry baby, then force feeding it loads later on to make it sleep through the night, not paying any attention to crying babies and claiming that the babies were being manipulative, I could go on and on). When I complained about it amongst my friends and family, a lot of them said that the programme was trying to be sensationalist (it is Channel 4 after all!!) But what really upset me was that in the middle of all this were a group of innocent newborn babies.

Anyway... the series finished a few weeks ago, so you are probably wondering why I am still ranting on about it. Well, I was looking on the NCT (National Childbirth Trust) website today, and see that they are adding their voice to calls for an independent ethics committee to be set up to monitor so-called 'reality' TV shows that involve babies and children. I am so pleased to hear about this, and completely support the move. I just hope that it can prevent such appalling programmes being made in the future.

Follow on Milk advertising:

There is an advert doing the rounds at the moment for SMA follow on milk, which has a father to be talking about his promises to his baby and the mother. It is really lovely, but then he promises to do his share of the night feeds, and it cuts to a tin of SMA formula milk. Anyway, there are a lot of people who think this is inappropriate (although it is legal), and a number of complaints have been filed with the Advertising Standards Agency.

Once again, I am all for choice. I choose to breastfeed my baby, and intend to do so until we are both ready to stop. (Meaning that I have no fixed plans about duration). However, I had a load of problems with this when I was starting out, and for a couple of weeks I had to substitute with formula. I had done a lot of research prior to Emma's birth, and received a lot of support from relevant health workers, so I made informed choices. If women consider breastfeeding, and decide for whatever reason that it is not for them, knowing full well that their baby will miss out on the health benefits of breastfeeding, then that is their choice and they should be able to make it guilt free. But adverts like this give very little real information, and make it look like formula is a natural choice. This is pretty confusing!!

Anyway... the Food Standards Agency is currently making decisions about advertising regulations for infant and follow on formula. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6933188.stm and if it is something you want to know more about, then here is another blog all about it:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2007/11/support-uk.html

Home again

Posting every day is harder than it sounds... especially when you have spent most of the day in a car, watching the M1 go by!!

Emma was good as gold yet again on the way home. I was so proud of her this weekend. I know I am lucky to have such a well behaved little girl - she very rarely crys, and almost always has a smile on her face. She sleeps through the night 99% of the time, has a good appetite and is hardly ever ill. I call her my "trainer" baby. :0)

Emma was always a quiet baby. I was looking at the notes from the maternity nurse from her first week of life the other day, and every day starts with "Emma is still very quiet!" I used to worry about it, and people used to tell me not to get used to it because it would change eventually. But she is 9 months old now, and still so placid. Put it this way - our car journey today took 5 and a half hours. We got home, had a cup of tea, put Emma back in the car and went to the supermarket. I complained much more about it than she did!! She just sat in her car seat, gave me a smile, and waved her toys at me.

We had a lovely time in Ripon with Brett's parents. We often only saw them for one day, or sometimes even just an afternoon when we lived in Amsterdam. So it was great to be able to spend some quality relaxed time there.

Ripon - day 2

Sometimes, my little girl amazes me with how well behaved she can be!
She was out like a light last night, but woke up at 3am very upset. She spent the rest of the night in our bed, but didn't sleep very much so we are both pretty tired. She missed her morning nap too, so I was a bit worried that she would get grouchy today.

We went over to see Jamie for his birthday, and a big group of us went out for Sunday lunch.
It was great to see Jamie and Jack (Emma's half brothers). They both looked fantastic in their pin stripe shirts! (I am used to them being in scruffy hoodies!) It was about 2pm by the time we actually got any food, but Emma was so happy to sit at the table and play with a plastic tray that the kitchen staff had found for her. She helped herself (literally!) to some of my dinner, and then was passed around the table from person to person for a bit of a cuddle. She was good as gold, and had a smile for everyone. I was so worried that she would be grouchy, because lunch was rather late and she was tired, but she was good as gold. I have said it before, but sometimes I really need to let up and give her more credit!

Both Brett and I forgot to bring our cameras to Ripon, so I will need to get photos from other people. There were some greats ones taken though so I will put them up as soon as I get a copy.

Ripon - day 1

We drove up from Surrey to Ripon in North Yorkshire today to visit Brett's parents. It is a long long car journey, made slightly longer when Brett couldn't remember if he had turned the cooker off before leaving the house so we had to turn back. :0S

Luckily Emma was in much better spirits today. She slept a lot on the journey, and we only had to stop once. She was such a happy bunny when we arrived, and was very charming to her nana, grandad and auntie Hayley. She sat at the head of the table for dinner, and ate loads. Well we thought she had... we found most of it on the floor under the table after she had finished! Emma's nana (Anne) did a good job of wearing her out, and she went off to sleep really quickly tonight, even after all the sleeping in the car. It seems that sleep out of bed (i.e. in the sling or the car) doesn't count - she still wants to sleep as normal.

Emma's half brother turns 18 tomorrow. Wow how scary is that?!?! I still always think of him as a little 11 year old kid, but then when I see him I realise what a great young man he has grown up into. We are all off for a nice Sunday lunch together tomorrow - should be fun!

Unknitting

We had a quiet day today. Emma has been teething like mad over the last couple of days, and it has been really upsetting her. That, coupled with frustration about not being able to get around as much as she would like (she is learning fast, but there is a long way to go!) has led to a rather miserable little girl today. I found that the only way she was happy was if she was being held in a standing position so she could jump up and down (much as I love her, I can't do that all day!!) or if I sat on the floor and played with her. If I so much as looked at the door, she would burst into tears! Luckily she had a really long sleep this morning, so I managed to get all the housework done before lunch.

We had a lot of fun when Emma got hold of my knitting and unravelled it all. I wasn't sure about the colour anyway, so wasn't that bothered. But when I started to wind the wool back up into a ball she fell about giggling. I have no idea what it was that she thought was so funny about it, but we ended up spending a huge amount of time winding and unwinding balls of wool today. I love the weird things that make this little girl laugh! I got a bit of video of it, so I will post some up if it is any good.

So, all in all, it was a fairly uneventful day. I was going to write up some blw recipes tonight for the blog post, but to be honest I am too tired. There will be plenty of time for all that later in the month. ;-)

Ten photos for ten years

For a change, my post today is not about Emma! It is a post about my wonderful husband Brett. I realised today that we have been together for 10 years, and if that is not worth a post in its own right then I don't know what is. (We don't actually know the exact date that we got together, just that it was around the start of November 1997).

So, here are 10 photos to tell the story of our life over the last 10 years:

Back in the late '90s we were both a couple of goths. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately depending on your point of view!!) I don't have any digi photos from back then. So my first photo is from July 1999 at Cath and Ian's wedding. Check out the hair extentions!! lol :-)




















In April 2000 we went to the Netherlands to stay with my Dad for a long weekend. It was Brett's first trip to NL, and it coincided with Queens Day. Here is Brett looking rather chilled out on a terrace. It was quite a pivotal holiday for us - we moved to Amsterdam in November the same year!















In August 2002 we got married at the Amstelkerk in Amsterdam. Here we are leaving the church. I love how chuffed I look in the first photo. I have a husband, a beer, a ciggy a wicked dress and my mate Cath is holding a brolly for me. How much better does it get?? ;-)
The second photo with my sister Anna (my bridesmade) and Pete (the best man).
















And off we went on honeymoon to Thailand. It was the most wonderful place, and someday I would love to go back there. We seem to look progressively more sunburned as the holiday photos go on!



















Married life was great. We had a lovely little apartment in Amsterdam, and both worked together at UUNET. Some people found it weird that we worked together, but actually it was really good. We were not in the same department, but when our paths did cross professionally we worked really well together. Brett left the company the next year, and I left in 2004. We both ended up working together yet again, this time at the RIPE NCC. This time we were working a lot more closely (but still different departments). It worked out fine though, and I really enjoyed it.

So, married life continued... we got ourselves a lovely cat called Tegan in 2005. She is still in Amsterdam, and I miss her terribly. Hopefully she will be able to move over here soon.
















And then finally, in Feb 2007, Emma came along and changed us from a happy couple to a loving family. The first photo was taken at the hospital just after Emma was born, and the second one was in August.

And thats it!! Here we are ten years later - older, more sensible hair, slightly wider waist line, back in the UK again, but very very happy. xxx

Plain English campaign for knitting patterns

Well, last night was not so bad. I should give Emma more credit really! She did wake up at about 8.30 but just for a cuddle. I brought her downstairs, and she fell asleep in my arms about 10 minutes later. I love it when she does that!

When I was in town today I finally went inside a really cute little knitting shop I found recently. I can knit, but haven't done it for a while. I wanted to knit some booties for Emma to keep her feet warm when she is in the wrap, but all the patterns I have found online are for newborns and she has really big feet. So, I went in and this absolutely lovely little old lady helped me out. I bought a pattern, some wool, even the right sized needles! (I normally just make do with the needles I have, and then wonder why it doesn't look right).

So... I got started this evening after Emma went to bed. A pair of bootees can't be that difficult can it? Well (hope I am not breaking any copyright here) check this out:

Using 2 3/4 needles and C cast on 51 st. (C is the contrasting colour, M is the main colour).

1st row: K1 *P1 K1, rep from * to end
2nd row: P1 *K1 P1, rep from * to end

OK... I am fine with that bit... so we are 2 rows in and then it all starts to go a bit wrong...

Cont in rib as set and work (2 rows in M 2 rows in C) 4 times then 2 rows in M.

Right then...

So how many rows in total is that? How many stripes should I have? (To make matters a bit worse, I am ignoring the stripes and only using one colour). Each stripe should be 2 rows. So, should I do a main colour stripe then a contrasting stripe 4 times, then do an extra main colour stripe at the end? So this should be a total of 10 stripes, including the first stripe in rows 1 and 2? So that is 20 rows? This is how I read it anyway!! If there are any knitters out there, please stop me if I am completely wrong!

I am a big advocate of Plain English for instructions. Have a look at the campaign if you are not familiar with it: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ I completely understand that knitting instructions need to have common abbreviations, but that is just ridiculous!

I thought that bootees would be a simple thing to start with. Maybe I should stick to scarves!

We are driving up to Ripon at the weekend to visit Brett's parents, so this is supposed to be something to keep me quiet in the car. But if I am stuck after 2 rows I am not holding out a lot of hope...

Overtired in pictures

Before I became a parent, I didn't really get the concept of kids being "overtired". Well, Emma is now the overtired queen. About once a week she goes on nap strike all day, and then decides she wants to sleep at exactly 6pm (dinner time). After fighting her way through dinner she will normally then be grumpy at bath time and a nightmare to get to bed. Like most kids (I now know!) she gets so tired that she is all tensed up, and it makes it difficult for her to get to sleep.

Well what would you know it - today was a nap strike day! I actually did manage to get her to sleep this morning, but only for about 15 mins so I don't think that really counts. I was fully expecting a difficult time from her this evening, and Brett is out for the night.

OK - when I say "a difficult time" I really shouldn't moan - Emma is really such a good happy little soul most of the time. So I am a bit oversensitive when she gets grumpy from time to time!

Anyway, here is how the evening panned out in pictures:

6pm. Dinner time. Yum yum.

















6.05pm. Still having dinner. But we have given up on actually eating anything now, and are just having a laugh.

















6.06pm. Well that didn't last long did it!

















So we went and got bathed and ready for bed...


6.45pm. zzzzzz

















Ahhhhh bless her. She normally goes to bed at about 7.30!

I think I spoke too soon though - it is now 8.30pm and she has woken up. I think maybe this is going to be a long night... wish me luck!

Babble babble

Emma's new thing is to chatter away to anything that will listen. She talks to me, to Brett, to the TV and all her toys. To the sofa, my feet, her feet, the mirror... you get the picture! At the moment everything is dada this and dada that. It is so lovely, especially when she says it to Brett when he comes into the room!

I thought Emma was going to skip crawling and go straight from sitting to walking, but just this weekend she started to commando crawl. Now she is unstoppable - she is never ever where I put her, and always where I don't want her to be! If there is a hard surface, she is next to it waggling her head around. If there is something breakable, she is trying to get her hands on it. She is just into everything at the moment, so I have to be so careful!

I will try to get some good video of all this soon! :-)

On the eating front, she has a voracious appetite at the moment and is devouring just about anything that is put on her plate.
















That is, unless she is tired. She is getting into the habit of skipping naps, which always makes dinner a bit of a nightmare because she gets grumpy when she is so tired. Its just a little phase I think and I am sure we will be over it soon.































We had a lovely time this weekend. We are finally all feeling fit and healthy again after a bout of colds and flu. Our friend Amanda came down from Scotland to visit on Friday. It was so lovely to see her. Emma was quite taken with her too! We popped in to see my Mum on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to Winkworth Arboretum. The autumn colours were just lovely. Check out my gorgeous new silk mei tai baby carrier - I made this one myself and I am very proud of it!

Sunday Papers

Emma has a bit of a thing for newspapers (something to do with the crunchy noise perhaps) and she managed to get hold of the Money section of the Sunday Times...

Fireworks

We had our town bonfire night on Friday. Brett was away for the night, so it was just me and Emma in. She went to bed like a little angel at 7.30 and I was going to settle in for an evening of movies. However, she didn't manage to stay asleep for very long with all the noise!

The poor little thing was so scared. I picked her up, wrapped her in a big blanket (a lovely crochet one that my mum made) took her into the bathroom and opened up the windows. From there, we had a fantastic view of the fireworks display.

So why am I sharing this rambling thought? Because as I was holding Emma, and watching her eyes light up in amazement at the pretty patterns in the sky, I suddenly got a little taste of what it is going to be like in a few years time when we can get all wrapped up in warm clothes, and go to the fireworks display together. I can't wait! I always loved bonfire night as a child - not the fireworks (I don't like the loud bangs even now) but because the warmth of all my wooly clothes, the cold of my cheek, the heat of the fire and the sweetness of all the toffee and marshmallows would make me feel like winter was well and truely here. And of course winter means that Christmas is just around the corner! ;-)

Drying up

Now the problem with posting every single day, is finding something to write about on those days when absolutely nothing has happened! The thing about being a stay at home mum is that sometimes the highlight of my day is a walk down the road to the post office. That is not really the kind of stuff that people want to read about.

Don't get me wrong - I am so happy that I made the decision to become a stay at home mum. Before Emma arrived I was really driven by my career. (Some would even say I was obsessive about it!) Most people were really surprised by my sudden decision not to return to work. But even though there is the odd boring day, I am still really pleased that I made this choice. I realised early on that these first months are so precious, and there is no way of getting them back. My career obsessiveness would have made it very difficult to spend enough quality time with Em, so really it was a very easy choice to make.

That still doesn't answer my question though does it? What to write about when I am having a dull day...

Well the whole reason I started this blog was as a resource for parents who want to follow baby led weaning. There is not a whole lot of information about it out there, and I found it really helpful to read other people's blogs about it. Over time, it has kind of developped into more of a blog about my family life, but I still like to focus on Emma's dinner. (If you have seen how much she enjoys it then you will understand why!) So there we go - I will post up BLW friendly recipes when I am all out of other ideas!

Not that today was a quiet day... Amanda came down from Scotland to visit. She has 3 beautiful girls of her own, so she knows exactly how to handle Emma. This was the first time I had seen her since Emma was born, and it was so nice to be able to talk to her about motherhood, and really understand what she means. oooo and she brought presents too, which Emma loved!

NaBloPoMo

I had better mention that I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. No - it is not one of Emma's new words! It stands for National Blog Posting Month. The idea is that bloggers post every day in November. Some of you family members who are always pushing for new photos (you know who you are!!) will be very pleased about this. Some of you might want me to carry on, and go back to religiously posting every day. Well who knows - maybe I will! But the older and more active that Emma gets, the more precious my spare time becomes. Having said that, I love looking back at older posts, and seeing how much she has grown and changed in such a short time, so posting every day is a great idea if I can manage it!

A message from Emma

Photo update

It has been a busy busy week. Emma had a cold last week, and this week she picked up a nasty cough from somewhere. I guess it is just the time of year, but I really wish I could take it all away from her and make it better! She has been very sweet about it though. She will sit and play for a while, cough a bit and get upset, but try to be brave because she wants to carry on playing. She is such a good girl!

My Dad visited from the Netherlands last week too. It was great to see him - I kind of miss living so close to him! Emma was, as always, pleased to see him and had lots of fun showing off her new skills - bashing toys together (alot!!) and standing up and making baby steps when I hold her hands. I will try to get a video of it at some point!

On the BLW front, things are continuing to go well. We have finally managed to fit breakfast into our daily schedule! I was trying to give porridge to Emma (because it is my favourite for breakfast) but she was having none of it. However, she does like oaty cheerios with a tiny bit of milk on them to make them more squishy!

I gave her cous cous for the first time the other day. I made it with tomatoes and courgettes in it. It was so funny! I have never seen such a mess! She ate loads of it by squashing it together, and shoving as much as possible in her mouth at once. When she was bored with eating, she decided to pick up big handfulls and blow it. The dining room looked like a cous cous bomb had gone off! I managed to get one photo during the meal. What you can't see is that she has hidden most of it under her bib!
















Another new lunchtime favourite is scrambled egg on muffins. It is perfect, because it is so quick to make, and I love it too!
















And here are a couple of other random photos. As most of you know, I don't use a buggy very often. I probably only use it once or twice a month because I prefer to carry Emma in a wrap. But the other day I had an appointment, and was running very late. It was a long uphill walk, so I thought it would be easier to take her in the buggy. I was very wrong. The pavement slopes to the right for about three quarters of a mile, so by the time I got there my arms were killing me!! And for the first time in 8 months, I had left the house without a sling! (I normally have one stashed in the bottom of the buggy). Emma was not overly impressed by the buggy or her big pink fluffy coat.
















And to round things off, this is just a photo of Emma looking cute! :-)

















OK - that is three blog entries in one day. I think I am off the hook now!

Catherine has a new toy too!

My new Pacifica wrap from Kati Wraps arrived this morning. I am so happy with it! Purple and turquoise make such a good combination! I know I know - it only seems like five minutes since Earthy Rainbow arrived. But this one is a different length, and better for back carries. (Unfortunately, Emma is feeling poorly again though, and is on back carry strike). And it is a different colour. Do you get the impression I am trying to justify this in some way??

All I need now is a green wrap, in an even shorter length (4.1m or 3.6m), with a fringe, and then I will have reached stash nirvana. Santa - are you listening?

Earthy Rainbow will always be my favourite though. The pictures from our visit to Cornwall really show me how lovely it is!

Right - that is enough of me going on about wraps for one day! Here are some pictures to show off the new one!

See how it matches Emma's eyes:

















Showing off both the wrap and Emma's lovely hat:

















And proof that Pacifica definately passes the snuggle and sleep test!

Emma has a new toy

I am sure that Emma is going to be musical!! Every time she hears the music from her singing turtle, she looks up and does a little bouncy dance. She even does it when she is just sitting on her own, and I play the video for her. So cute! :-)

Family resemblance

Am busy busy busy at the moment, so the blog is (once again!) not being updated as often as I would like. But I had a little thought this morning about family resemblances that I thought I would share.

Obviously, Emma looks quite like me. Our eyes are rather similar, and our cheeks too. She also looks very like Brett. With him it is the eyes too (I can't tell if they look like mine or his most of the time!) and definately the nose.

People often comment that my sister (Anna) and I look very alike. So therefore it follows that Emma should look like Anna. Well, here is a picture:

















Same cheeks, same eyes, same nose! I think that Em looks more like Anna than me!!

Forgotton Broccoli

I have said it before, and I will say it again. Broccoli is (in my humble opinion) one of the most vile foods known to mankind. And to make it even worse, it makes everything near it smell and taste like broccoli too. Don't even get me started on how it makes other veg cooked in the same pot taste. Trouble is, Emma loves it! Because of my broccoli loathing, I don't tend to cook it very often. I mean, why bother cooking something that you have absolutely no intention of eating? One of the best things about baby led weaning is that you can feed the baby whatever you are eating. :-)

So anyway... I was thinking today that Emma has not had much in the way of green veggies recently. I eat a lot of peas and beans, but they are too small for her and I worry about her choking. For dinner tonight I cooked chicken in a tomato and courgette sauce with pasta. I gave the same to Em, but also boiled up some of the dreaded broccoli for her.

I wish I liked it as much as she does! I don't know what it is about it that she loves so much, but I suspect it must be the colour. It certainly can't be the taste. But I get the feeling I am going to have to come to terms with this dislike, get over it, and cook it more often! Here she is trying to get two bits in at once!

Better now thanks!

Brett did a really nice roast dinner today. Emma was feeling much better, and tucked right in!

I mentioned earlier that Emma had gone for a nap on her own for the first time the other day. Well, my success was short lived. We are right back to nursing, rocking, coaxing and snuggling to sleep. Oh well! In some ways I like it. Having her fall asleep in my arms is always lovely. But it would be nice if she could manage it on her own too, so I need to keep on trying!

Colds

Things have been a bit quiet around here recently, because Emma and I have been suffering from colds. It has put Emma right off her food, and she has been so bunged up that she was struggling to breath. I am happy to say that she is getting better now though, so normal blogging service should be resumed very soon.


In the meantime, here is a cute picture of Emma in the new hat that my mum bought for her! :-)

Poor head

Emma bumped her head yesterday afternoon. She had a good old sob for a couple of minutes, then forgot all about it again. She was very clingy all afternoon though. When Brett came home from work, she really wanted a cuddle. I just had to post this picture, because it is so sweet.

What is the point?

Yesterday, I thought I would be a bit more creative with Emma's dinner. I had some "flash mash" (mashed potatoes with parmesan and spring onions) left over in the fridge. So, for lunch I added some tuna and some cooked mashed carrots. Then I formed them into tiny fish cakes, coated them in breadcrumbs, and fried them in a tiny bit of olive oil. They were absolutely lovely!
















However, Emma had other ideas, and turned them straight back into mash again. So all the faffing with forming nice cakes, coating in breadcrumbs and frying them was for nothing. I might as well have mixed it all together and dumped it on her tray! Oh well - should have known really shouldn't I! :-)

Breakfast - no thanks!

We are having a bit of a problem with breakfast at the moment. Basically, it just doesn't happen. I have tried, but the timing of it just doesn't work out, and she is not interested. Recently, Emma has started to master the art of eating with a spoon, so I thought I would start sharing my porridge with her. This morning was our first go.

When she eventually got some in her mouth, the face she pulled showed me immediately that this was unlikely to work. I tried a bit more, but she clearly didn't like it. I had one pear left in the fruit bowl, so I decided to mash half of that into it to see if this would help. I love these pears, and I had been looking forward to having the last one with my lunch! But if it means getting Emma to eat breakfast then the sacrifice is worth it! ;-)

That didn't work either... she was still not interested. So I gave her what was left of the pear. That ended up on the dining room floor. The only thing she was interested in eating for breakfast was her own bib.

Lets hope that tomorrow is more successful! Maybe we will have toast instead.

We did have one big breakthrough today though. A bit later on in the morning, I noticed that Emma was looking tired. It was 9.30 which is about the time she normally goes for a nap. Usually, I have to feed, rock, cuddle and coax her to sleep, then put her in the cot when she is absolutely zonked and sneak away. We had done this for just about every sleep in the last 8 months. But we were playing on my bed at the time and she looked like she was going to fall asleep. So, I put her in the cot, and she drifted off to sleep on her own! To those who don't have problems getting their kids off to sleep, this probably sounds like nothing. But believe me, this is brilliant news for me! I will try the same again tomorrow.