Little Miss at 6 mths

I’m a little late with Little Miss’s 6 month update as we were away on holiday when she turned 6 months, but here she is on the day she turned 6mths old. Our little beauty! I can’t believe we made her, I just can’t!

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I got her weighed this week at 6mths 1 wk and she is doing really well. Despite losing a little weight when she had Bronchiolitis and didn’t want to eat, her love of solids and her milk has meant she has put the weight back on and more, which is obviously is wonderful news and she is now 15lb8oz

So yes the weaning is going really well, for the most part. We have gone for the traditional puree style weaning as we started at a little younger than 6 mths, and because we found it worked well with Monkey. (I will go into more of this in a future post). Initially I made purees for her and just had jars on days out but while we were on holiday, jars were the easiest thing as I didn’t fancy making purees on my holidays! The problem being that now she mainly wants to just eat the jars and won;t touch any of the lovely healthy purees I am making at home. Which is really frustrating! So, for the sake of less stress, while we will keep trying her on homemade purees, we are using a lot of jars… so bring on the orange food I guess!

WP_20150425_10_15_26_ProMeanwhile she is the oddest child when it comes to drinking her milk. She hates being held to feed and is much happier lying down while drinking (?) where she can wriggle around to her hearts content and have a good nosey at what is going on around her. Seriously, we get into the oddest positions while feeding her!

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She also has a serious aversion to socks and they get pulled off all the time. We tried sock-ons but she pulls those off too and shoves them (and the sock) in her mouth and well the sock-ons felt like more of a choking hazard than anything so they have gone by the wayside now 😕

So what else is she doing? Chatting. Lots and lots of chatting which is adorable. It stopped for a bit but has come back with a vengeance again and is adorable. Here is a little clip of her chatting away in the bathy 🙂

She’s laughing a lot more now too and we have a gorgeous video of that but it has been vetoed as we make her laugh by saying her name over and over!

She’s not sitting unsupported yet, which is totally normal, but we had hoped she would be by now. Monkey was very stable sitting by 6 months and it is difficult not to compare… although he was a tummy sleeper from a few mths old so I guess he built up his muscles sooner than she has. We are eager for her to be able to sit properly though!

She still loves grabbing and Daddy’s ear is very much a target for her little hands at any opportunity. She also likes grabbing anything and everything that is in reach too, so we are having to be careful about where her little arms are heading! SHe is so inquisitive though and just loves grabbing and eating anything she is able to get her hands on!WP_20150423_18_12_54_Pro

Still no real routine in sight and actually it was ok while we were away as she was flexible and fit in to our plans easily. Now we are home it would be lovely if she settled down, but so far she is more up and down than ever and one day she barely slept at all! She is so good at night though (apart from the 530am starts some days) so we can’t really complain

Another exciting little development is that we have discovered today that our little lady has her first tooth! Very exciting. Not sure why I feel so proud of her about it… but I do 🙂

She also loves her walker now and is starting to scoot about in it, especially when trying to reach a toy she can gum (now semi-chew) to death!

So there we have it, our little lady at just over 6 mths old – how the time flies eh?

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Siblings March 2015

LM is now 4 months old and for the most part she and Monkey sort of co-exist without really interacting much. For her part she still stares at him as much she can but he is a little whirlwind and ball of energy flying past, barely pausing to give her the occasional smile.

But there are the odd moments of magic which I try and capture. They are fleeting so the photos are not the best but it is nice to capture them nonetheless.

The moment where I sat them side by side on the sofa and one of her hands tickled him prompting a fit of giggles from him while she merely looked perplexed.

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The moment where she was propped on the sofa and he ran over to take her hand and tell her she is his best friend (yes my heart melted!) and give her tummy a tickle.

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The moment he decided he wanted the phone she was looking at, but (after a little conversation about sharing toys) decided she was allowed to play with his Percy train.

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The times he wants to see what she is up to on her playmat and lies down alongside her.

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The moment where he ‘helped’ her play with the toys on the jumperoo, and said “Well done” when she turned it herself.WP_20150309_07_45_01_Pro

The moment when we were sat taking family selfies on the bed, where he kissed her, cuddled her, told her she was his best friend…then started patting her on the head saying “it’s a drum!” (Massively cute moment that ended with Mummy in a fit of giggles!)

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The last few weeks have been tricky with a lot of illness and chicken pox and I have struggled at times to meet both of their needs with the added complications of poorliness. But we have survived and I am grateful to have my lovely happy children back and I look forward to seeing them grow together, and catching more of these lovely moments :).

dear beautiful
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Little Hearts, Big Love

Siblings February

I am loving watching our two little’uns grow together, and joining in with the Siblings Linky really makes me stop and notice their relationship. At the end of January I wasn’t sure whether I would have much to join in with this month. Monkey seemed content to ignore his little sister for the most part and any display of affection was far too fleeting to capture. He loves her, he talks about her all the time and names the 4 of us and regularly talks about how we are a family. When naming characters he sees in books he always a finds a little one that can be called LM , but he didn’t seem that bothered with her.

Then he seemed to see that she is growing and changing. We have his old jumperoo down which fascinates him by itself (yes he has tried to get in it, no that is not happening :)!) and he loves it when she is in it. She isn’t overly excited by it yet I have to admit but he legs it over to her whenever she is in it, to show her all of the toys “look a sun, look a rainbow.” He insists on squeezing behind it, next to the wall and crouching down to her level where he sits grinning at her and stroking her, or rather tickling her “tickle, tickle!”

LM has been a little bemused although as always she loves watching her big brother. Then  a couple of days ago I hear a shout from Monkey “look it’s happy, it’s happy!” as LM was giving him a huge grin. Bless him, need to work on “she” I think rather than “it” but he was so pleased to see her smiling at him!

So here are some cutie shots of Monkey and LM starting to have fun together! (And yes, Monkey had a haircut in between some of these shots :))

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dear beautiful
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Little Hearts, Big Love

Monkey’s first day at playgroup!

This week was a big day for us as it was Monkey’s first day at playgroup! Looking after Monkey, raising him and teaching him about the world has been my job since he was born. It is why I wanted to be a SAHM and I feel privileged that I have been able to do so for this long. However there are many reasons why we think it will be good for him to go to playgroup. One day he will have to go to school and we want to be able to ease him into it, first of all with a couple of days of playgroup, then preschool before he starts school. The local playgroup generally feeds into the local school so our hope is that he will make friends at playgroup and pre-school and that they will move up together to school one day.

Making friends is the biggest reason we have been keen for him to go to playgroup as although he sees my friends’ children, with jobs and other commitments he doesn’t see them quite so often anymore and it would be nice for him to have more time playing with other children. But he has never been left without me, hubs or his grandparents before so we knew it would be a big change for him, and for us, for him to be in someone else’s care.

He was originally due to start in November, when he was 2 1/2, but with LM being born we didn’t want to make such a big change at that time, as we didn’t want him to feel that he was being taken there because  she was here. So we delayed his start date until after Christmas as we felt that would be the best time for a new start to the routine, and Friday afternoon was his first day.

WP_20150109_18_57_43_ProWe had been trying to prepare him and help him feel enthusiastic and excited about starting playgroup in the run up to the big day. We were recommended a lovely book by a friend who had used it with her son to help him prepare for playgroup, “Lulu Loves Nursery.”* We substituted the word nursery for playgroup but it is a really lovely book and talks about how Lulu is worried about being without her mummy, and feels shy at first, but then decides to be brave and she really loves her day at nursery. It is a great book and also comes with a certificate you can fill out and give to them at the end of their first day.

Monkey absolutely adores this book and we have been reading it over and over since we gave it to him, it has definitely helped Monkey with the concept of me leaving him there but coming back again afterwards. It has also helped that our playgroup provided a little leaflet, which reads like a story, about all of the things you can do there.

The big day dawned and we had a fairly quiet morning at home to make sure he was well rested. Daddy didn’t want to miss it so he came home and we all went off to playgroup together. Monkey had his little backpack on and was dead excited, running basically all the way there and dragging Daddy along! We got there much quicker than I thought we would have actually so had to wait outside for a little while!

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When it was time to go in, Monkey was straight in there, playing with puzzles, he didn’t seem bothered about us at all. We decided not to hang about too long so said our goodbyes after a few minutes and headed out. He only gave us cursory hugs and goodbyes, but as we were leaving we did see a bit of a sad fac, though we heard no cries and saw no tears.

We were both a bit on edge that afternoon, though I think because I still had LM to deal with I was a little less anxious than hubs who was back at work, unable to focus! I did keep an eye on my phone though in case they called but we heard nothing. When we went to collect him the staff said that he had been a little upset, and cried a few times, but that they had been able to distract him with books and toys each time and he had got over his tears.

At the end of the session they have all the children sat together to wait for their parents and then call them out one by one to us parents who are waiting in the foyer, though they can’t see us. I didn’t really know how they did it and if I had I would have asked if he could come out first, but I didn’t so they called out 4 or 5 other children before calling him out, so by the time he came out to us he was very unhappy again. I can understand it as from his perspective, sitting there waiting for mummy and daddy, watching other children go out to their parents, wondering if we were coming for him, it must have been pretty scary.

WP_20150111_11_11_05_ProWe had big cuddles though and he said he enjoyed himself. He showed us the fab picture he made and was excited about the fact he had been using glue.He was telling us about the books he had read and the friend he had played with (I’m not sure he actually did play with this little boy or just said it because we had talked about him beforehand) and within a few yards he said “I love playgroup” which we took as a very positive sign. In fact he even asked me if he could go playgroup again the next day, which is another very good sign. We stopped for an ice cream on the way home (as they do in “Lulu Loves Nursery“*) and he very pleased with his certificate from his  book 🙂

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I am expecting more tears on Monday, potentially even when I drop him off, and probably for a few more times, but hopefully he is off to a good start and it well get easier and easier the more he gets used to the playgroup, the staff and the other children. Fingers crossed anyway! But for now I am just a proud mama and think he did so so well for his first day!

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with his first ever picture from playgroup 🙂

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Moments of Happiness

To counter balance yesterday’s post about our awful week, I wanted to share a few of the happy moments we’ve had too. Because even amongst the screaming, hacking coughs, tantrums and general tearing of hair out, there has been the odd moment that has made me happy.

Wednesday, on the whole, was a good day. LM was pretty good, and Monkey spent a big chunk of the day at Nanny’s having cuddles on the sofa, giving him some much needed attention and me some much needed breathing space. While LM slept in the afternoon Monkey and I had a lovely play. We put up his little tent and tunnel in the conservatory and had a great time hiding from each other and generally giggling :).

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A Christmas Tree from Pines and Needles

Pines and Needles Christmas TreeI love Christmas and I love getting into the festive spirit. This year we are getting started nice and early with this fabulous Christmas tree from Pines and Needles.

I have always been a huge fan of real Christmas trees. I love the smell and there’s just something nice about having a real tree rather than an artificial one. There is also something really nice about going to choose a tree yourself. But, I have to be honest, that part has become more of a challenge now we have small children. Fitting the tree in the car along with said children is a bit interesting for one thing and then there is carving out the time to go and get the tree.

Pines and Needles, with their delivery service, take that hassle factor out of choosing a tree as they deliver them right to your doorstep. We chose a Nordman Fir, as the needles are softer than a “traditional” Christmas tree, and they drop less, which means less hoovering, a huge plus.

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Monkey’s Mini Milestones at 29 months

I haven’t done a mini milestones post in a while and there are a few lovely Monkey things that are making me dead proud at the moment so I thought it was time I did. It seems that he has grown up and his development has sped up rapidly just in the last couple of weeks since the arrival of his baby sister. It is incredible and he really is very fun to be around at the moment.

This may seem like a slightly braggy post (Look how amazing my toddler is) but it’s mainly to keep a record of what he can do, when, and if I sound a bit braggy it’s because I am actually pretty amazed by his development, and loving every minute of it.
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Daddy’s Birthday

It was Daddy’s birthday on Wednesday and it also marked our first outing as a family of 4! I was feeling like a bit of a rubbish wife in the run up to Hub’s birthday. With Little Miss arriving a week ahead of schedule all my plans basically went out of the window. One of his presents ordered early hadn’t arrived (we knew it was a long lead time so wasn’t a huge shock) and when I eventually got round to ordering the trousers he wanted, they didn’t have his size in stock online :(. I had planned on baking cakes and doing all sorts but none of which happened!

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Fun at Nanny’s house

As this pregnancy progresses I have been very lucky that my parents have been able to help out more with Monkey. The shop my Mum worked in recently closed down, meaning she has gone from semi-retired to retired, and the timing of this has worked out so well as it means she is able to spend more time with Monkey (allowing me to rest). Usually my Mum pops round on a Wednesday and takes Monkey out somewhere for a run around, but with the forecast looking so dire this week, she invited us round to her house instead.
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Evening fun with daddy

The days are getting shorter and the evenings are drawing in, but for the moment it is still quite warm at least. When Daddy comes home just after 6 in the evening it is family dinner time, but after dinner is very much Monkey and Daddy time. Monkey loves the time he gets to spend with his Daddy and lately they have been very much making the most of the warm evenings and having a lot fun in the garden between dinner and bathtime. Monkey always has loads of energy at this time of day so I guess that’s why it is called the witching hour!

Most of the time I leave them to it but a couple of times lately I have poked my head out to watch the giggles.

Sometimes they do a bit of gardening, and Monkey loves running under the stream of water from the hose if Daddy is watering the plants.

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Sometimes they just run around like a pair of loonies, or play in the sand pit, or on his climbing frame.

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Whatever they do though they have a lot of fun together and the fun continues into bathtime. There was so much giggling at bathtime the other day that I poked my head in… to be told “bye mummy, close the door” by Monkey. Charming eh? I know when I am not wanted! 😉 Made me chuckle and made me very happy to know he was just having fun with his Daddy 🙂

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