Our Christmas 2014

Posted by

4

We are back! I hope everyone had a lovely festive break? Got everything they wanted from Father Christmas? Ate lots of ymmy food? Good! We have all had a lovely Christmas. It has of course been LM’s first christmas but also the first Christmas that Monkey has really understood what is happening and really enjoyed the build up and everything involved in Christmas. He has been so cute, shouting “Merry Christmas” to anyone and everyone and you may have seen our little video of him singing Merry Christmas which was just adorable. If anything we are struggling to persuade him that it isn’t Christmas again for another year!

It hasn’t been the easiest Christmas with a demanding baby and over-excited toddler but it has been a lot of fun. We have spent lovely time together as a family and all been very spoilt with lots of lovely presents. I won’t bore you with the details but here are some pics of our lovely Christmas 2014.

WP_20141225_06_58_09_Pro

Family selfie opening presents on the bed – nearly all of us looking!

WP_20141225_07_01_14_Pro

Monkey amazed by the tree and presents

WP_20141225_07_04_39_Pro

Monkey helping LM open her present from Father Christmas

WP_20141225_07_22_20_Pro

LM in her pretty Christmas Dress

WP_20141225_10_47_15_Pro

Cuddles with Nanny

WP_20141225_11_07_38_Pro

Cuddles with Great Auntie Maggie, Uncle Marky & Nanny

WP_20141225_10_39_47_Pro

Cuddles with Daddy

WP_20141225_11_09_21_Pro

Our first Christmas Family photo as a four…

 

WP_20141225_11_09_14_Pro

With Monkey’s best smiley face 🙂

WP_20141225_11_27_09_Pro

Reading one of his Christmas present books with Uncle Marky!

WP_20141225_11_55_20_Pro

Auntie Fran and Nanny

WP_20141225_12_40_43_Pro

Yummy Cider Braised Ham and all the trimmings

WP_20141225_13_28_30_Pro

And a slightly crazy Christmas Pudding firework (?)

 

Linking with #Tinsel Tuesdays

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

Posted by

3

I feel I have been neglecting the blog quite a bit lately but there hs just been a lot going on in the run up to Christmas, as I am sure you can imagine! It is only set to get busier over the next few days so this is my last post for a bit while I enjoy Christmas with my family and will be back again next week at some point.

In the meantime though we have been having a lovely time with friends and family. Hubs has now finished work, although he is still checking in remotely he is not going into the office again until after Christmas, meaning we get to spend some time as a family. I have been really looking forward to this day as the past few weeks have been difficult and it is nice to have some help with the kiddies.

Continue reading →

Getting Christmassy!

Posted by

7

This week has been one of those weeks. After a lovely time at the wedding on Sunday we both still felt really poorly and hubs spent all of Monday in bed, which just isn’t like him. Then just lots of things have gone wrong, there’s been spilled drinks, the light bulb in the downstairs loo went & its a funny halogen one and of course we don’t have spares. Then when some lovely friends paid me a surprise visit to cheer me up, one of them hung up her coat and the shelf with all the coathooks on fell off the wall on top of her, sending coats, bags, etc. flying across the hall. Just what we needed! As she rightly said thugh, thank goodness I wasn’t underneath it carrying the baby, as I had been seconds before!

LM has been poorly too meaning sleepless nights for hubs and I (though I have tried to take the lion’s share so he can actually get better!) and it has just felt like one thing after another so if I’m honest I have been pretty mopey. One thing I really haven’t felt, is particularly Christmassy.

But things seem to be looking up. Hubs is on the mend. We’ve changed the bulb in the bathroom loo (though yet to tackle repairing the shelf :() and even LM seems to be getting better so this has all improved my mood no end. With less than a week until Christmas I decided today it was time to get Christmassy. We’ve had the tree up for a while but didn’t have any other decorations up so today I got out some tinsel and with Monkey’s help (?) hung it around the house.

Monkey and I also did some simple Christmas crafting  today, he is sooo excited about Christmas bless him and after watching a Christmas episode of Mister Maker he was desperate to get his Christmas Craft on. I first got the idea for the snowman picture from the lovely Tarana at Sand in my Toes. With Monkey’s own twist because of course the snowman has to have hands (?). Monkey is obsessed with Snowmen, we bought the Raymond Briggs duo fo The Snowman and Father Christmas and they have basically been on on repeat for over a week, he loves them! So if anything I have “Another Blooming Christmas” going round in my head, not particularly cheerful for someone who actually loves Christmas!

WP_20141218_15_18_48_Pro

WP_20141218_15_19_06_Pro

The Christmas tree is as simple as it looks, I cut out a tree shape and invited Monkey to stick a variety of sparkly shiny bits on! And of course the obligatory glitter, which of course ended up in his hair and all over the place, but he loved it :).

I’ve finished the meal plan and shopping order for Christmas week and even started on wrapping the humungous pile of presents that I have been avoiding. I normally love wrapping presents but have struggled to find the enthusiasm for it this year so far. Time for that to change. Though I have barely touched the surface yet have managed to go through 3 rolls of wrapping paper already… that can’t be good!  Anyway, with less than a week to go now until the big day, I am determined to stop moping and embrace the Christmas Spirit!!

Are you feeling Christmassy yet? What is your word of the week?

The Reading Residence

Meeting Father Christmas, and some Reindeer

Posted by

19

At 2 1/2 this is the first year Monkey has really understood that Christmas is coming, and therefore been really excited about it. Because of that we are very much enjoying sharing Christmas traditions with him as his enthusiasm is really contagious! He has been asking basically every day this month whether Father Christmas is coming, so we thought he would love going to visit him. As an aside, he is very much Father Christmas in our house rather than Santa Claus, it seems everyone is adopting Santa these days but that feels so American to me, am I alone in this?

Continue reading →

A Winter Wedding

Posted by

19

The last couple of weeks have been pretty rough and this weekend on the whole wasn’t much better. Hubs had seemed like he was getting better, then got hit with a hideous sinus infection which took him out for most of the weekend. We were abandoning various plans, but knew that on Sunday we were due at the wedding of some really good friends. So Sunday morning Hubs was at the walk-in centre getting antibiotics for both sinus and chest infections, and some strong painkillers to get him through the day.

We questioned the wisdom of going to the wedding but really, its a wedding! It’s a one off event for the bride and groom and we would have hated to have missed it. Monkey was already planned to spend the day with Grandparents, so off he went leaving hubs and I a bit more time than normal to get ourselves ready.

So for the first time since LM was born I sat and straightened my hair and put some slap on. I got into a pretty dress and control tights (squeezing into them was a bit of a challenge as I very much still have baby weight on!) and it felt really nice to make a bit of an effort for a change. Lately has felt like survival and even having a shower, let alone washing my hair, has been like a luxury some days so this felt very special!

LM had a new dress for the occasion and I have never put a baby in a dress and tights before so the tights were interesting (they were a bit big too so she looks slightly nora batty ish) but she looked adorable. 🙂

So off we went and had a wonderful time. It was a beautiful day and we were so glad we went. LM was good as gold and slept throughout, meaning that actually hubs and I could sit and relax and just chat, with each other and with friends. At home life seems so busy with the baby and the toddler and there is always so much that needs doing that sitting and relaxing doesn’t happen much at the moment. Being there actually forced us to do just that and it did us both the world of good to just be us for a while.

The bride was beautiful and they were both so happy it was a really lovely, I love a good wedding. It was a really intimate ceremony and we felt so privileged to have been included and would have hated to have not been able to go.

So here is a few snaps of us in our glad rags, enjoying a lovely winter wedding :).

winter wedding

Mama and More

Super Busy Mum

Moments of Happiness

Posted by

19

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 :).

Continue reading →

Siblings December

Posted by

19

Monkey is really growing to not only accept, but love his baby sister. He includes her whenever he talks about things as a family. When making cakes with Daddy recently he said “One a Mummy, One a Daddy, One a me, One a LM (he uses his actual name for her, not LM but just to avoid confusion).

He has gone from not wanting to look at her or have anything to do with her, to looking at her, and now to actively trying to engage with her. He gives her little cuddles and kisses. He holds her hand. He strokes her head and her arms. In the morning if she is asleep upstairs he asks where she is and wants to wake her up. He pretended to be Dr to her and gave her some “medicine” probably because he sees we are always giving her medicine (infacol, gaviscon, colic calm).

WP_20141130_12_04_13_Pro Continue reading →

Breastfeeding in Public

Posted by

39

I’m not a very big fan of breastfeeding in public and I feel really self concious about it. I feel like people are staring and judging me even when they probably aren’t. Stories like the ones in the news this week play a big part in making me feel like this. From the woman in Claridges who was told to cover up with a napkin to avoid making other customers feel uncomfortable (?) to MP Nigel Farage saying that a woman should sit in a corner to avoid being ‘ostentatious’ about it. His comments and the actions of the restaurant reinforce the idea that breastfeeding is somehow wrong or offensive and should be hidden away.

You are judged whatever you do as a parent and I know formula feeding mothers experience judgement too for the fact they are not breastfeeding so I know you can’t really win… But if you are bottle feeding, I’m sure no-one tells you to go and sit in a corner, or a toilet (as one mum was in another story I read) to feed your child. I don’t think anyone should be judged for how they choose to feed their child to be honest as everyone has their own reasons for doing things. But it seems so crazy that in a world where breastfeeding is rammed down the throats of every parent with the “breast is best” slogan, there is the flipside where actually you are judged for doing it in public. We should all breastfeed, but sit in a corner quietly, or hide ourselves away at home to avoid offending anyone! Barmy.

Continue reading →