National Trust Blickling Hall

Posted by Caroline Elliott

On the way to our little holiday in Norfolk last week we decided to take the opportunity to stop off at a fabulous National Trust property I have wanted to visit for a while, Blickling Hall.

The Blickling Estate is huge and has so much to do see and do, with a variety of walks and cycle rides you can do. They even have holiday cottages on the estate as there is so much you can do there, much more than you could do in a day!

Because we were just stopping off for a fairly short visit, and because even with my pelvis support I can’t walk as much as I normally would at the moment, we confined our visit to the lovely gardens and grounds surrounding the house. With one of the prime reasons for the stop off being so that Monkey could run around and burn off some energy, we decided not to go into the house.

When we arrived, a lovely lady asked whether Monkey would like to do a scavenger hunt in the gardens, and of course we jumped at the chance. So he was given a lovely little basket and a list of things to find – which included some different seeds, something fuzzy, something round, etc, etc. So we set off to stretch our legs from the car journey, and see what we could find.

The grounds and gardens are so beautiful and there is so many different paths and directions you can go. Daddy loved showing Monkey the different seeds, such as sweet chustnuts and acorns, and Monkey loved collecting things like sticks and stones and popping them in his basket.

While we hunted for acorns we found a lovely fluffy looking caterpillar on the floor which Monkey was fascinated by!

When it was time for lunch we took the basket back to one of the lovely volunteers and showed her what Monkey had collected, and Monkey got a sticker! We could have get all of our, er…. souvenirs but as we were going to the holiday home we decided to leave them behind 🙂

After a lovely lunch we had a a bit more of a run around and Monkey was very brave, walking the along a huge fallen tree!

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Soon enough it was time to continue our journey to the holiday cottage. As ever though we had a lovely time at the National Trust house and look forward to visitng Blickling Hall again at some point, hopefully with enough time to see inside the house and see more of the estate!

Evening fun with daddy

Posted by Caroline Elliott

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.

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

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 🙂

33 weeks & my last physio appointment..

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I am 33 weeks pregnant this week and yesterday saw potentially last physio appointment. Not because I don’t need it or want it anymore though. My lovely, amazing physio, who has really helped me so far, is going on Maternity Leave herself today as she is 34ish weeks pregnant! I’ve known the day for her to leave would come, so I was semi prepared for it, but I had hoped there would be a transition to another physio.

Sadly there won’t, because her replacement hasn’t started yet and probably won’t be starting for at least a month. The other physios at the hospital are fully bookd with their own existing patients so there is basically no appointments for me to have. It’s not like I am off the books, I have an “open appointment” which means that if things get really bad I can call and try and get a cancellation with one of the other physios… but my fortnightly sessions are a thing of the past.

I am trying not to worry about this. Trying to positive that I will be ok. Fear has been a big part of my problems with SPD. Fear of it getting worse. Thanks to my physio it hasn’t got terrible, it’s not fun but it’s been manageable and with not long left to go I have to try and be positive.

Hubs is going to try and do the same elbow “massages” that she has been doing for me to release m muscle spasms and I have been thinking for a while about trying out some reflexology as I have heard that can help, and it looks like now is the time to try it!

Hopefully that may also help me sleep as I hate bedtime at the moment. Trying to get to sleep takes hours and leaves me so frustrated and often disoriented as I am just dozing off when my legs and hips start twitching or tingling or I get that sharp stab of pain down my leg. So bizarre when you are just about in dreamland and get jerked awake. I was so confused last night as I was dreaming about someone called Maisie and someone called Joan…. then I was suddenly awake and very cross! Poor hubs too as I often wake him up too with all the constant tossing and turning. Sleep deprivation starts now it seems.

In other news all seems ok, our girl is a right little wriggler and she is trying very hard to get herself head down. The other night I had so many kicks on my right side, which is very unusual for me, that I thought she may be getting close to doing it… then she settled back into the left side of my Bicornuate Uterus again with her head very much up in my ribs again.

It was enough to shock the Hubs though as he has been very much convinced that we will have a C section and suddenly panicked and revealed he is not at all prepared for me to go into labour naturally. I think in his head C section is the easy option purely because it is known, we’ve done it before, we know what happens and what the recovery is like. We will know the date so can arrange childcare for Monkey. He is as much a planner as me and that side of it is definitely appealing.

I am trying to keep an open mind though, we have an appointment with the consultant at 35 weeks to check her position and potentially book the C Section if she is still stuck head up. There is also the little voice in my head that says that a C Section would mean delivery between 38-39 weeks, whereas trying for a natural birth could mean waiting until up to 42 weeks for delivery. An extra 3-4 weeks of pain and sleepless nights. I feel guilty for bringing that into the equation and feel like I should put up with the pain if it means she can come naturally… but I have to admit that it does influence my thinking.

Anyway we shall see! Not the most cheerful of pregnancy updates I’m afraid! Did you have trouble sleeping or suffer from restless legs? Any tips would be gratefully received!

Evenings at the beach

Posted by Caroline Elliott

We had a lovely little holiday at Overstrand, just south of Cromer on the Norfolk Coast at the weekend and we really had such a lovely time. There was a lovely beach at the village itself, walking distance from the cottage we were staying at. It is very much a tidal beach and unfortunately this last weekend there were high tides in the morning and low tides later in the day. With Monkey still very much napping most afternoons we weren’t sure how much time we would get to spend at the beach.

Thankfully with it being so close though we managed to pop down every afternoon/evening for a play in the sand, and had a lovely time. Of course being September it wasn’t the warmest time of day to be on the beach but that didn;t stop us having a lovely time, and making the most of the last of the suns rays!

Monkey loves playing in the sand, doing lots of digging and helping daddy make castles… then promptly knocking them over again! Daddy was aso having lots of fun digging and creating moats, because of the tides he didn’t have to dig the sand too far before it started filling with water. Perfect to make a moated castle 🙂

He also just loves running around barefoot on the sand, and I have to admit I love to see it. There’s just something about running on the compacted sand that means he can be entirely free. No shoes, no stumbling over, just running carefree. I just love to see it. Maybe it’s because I know that if he falls he will have a pretty soft landing. Yes he may get covered in sand but much better than falling over on tarmac!

I love this little video of Monkey running around on the beach. Note I am perched at the back of the beach as we forgot a chair (d’oh!), I managed the walks but couldn’t stand too long and would have got a soggy bottom if I sat on the sand! ANyway we just love this video of Monkey enjoying the beach so much 🙂

We had a bit of an achievement on the beach too on one of the days. On our holiday in June we couldn’t get Monkey to enjoy paddling and this weekend looked set to be the same as he didn’t want to go anywhere near the sea. Then Daddy had a good idea of drawing numbers in the sand. I have mentioned Monkey’s love of numbers before and believe me it has not dimmed, if anything he loves them even more!

Anyway, by drawing numbers in the sand he slowly and gradually coaxed Monkey closer to the waters edge. We wouldn’t force him if he really didn’t want to do it but with lots of positivity and encouragement he gradually got closer and closer to the waves.The sea was quite gentle on that particular day, and ater running bare foot on the wet sand for a while the water felt quite warm.

It took a little while but once he was in he was in, and actually got quite brave and went pretty deep (for him)!

The sun was starting to go down behind the cliffs so it was time to head back to the cottage, we were very glad we got to make th most of being at the seaside though with lots of beach play!

Linking up with Mini Creations for the joint Monkey-Daddy effort on the moated castle, Small Steps Amazing Achievements and Loud n Proud for Monkey’s paddling bravery, and Savouring the Season for making the most of the last bit of warmth on the beach :).

Also linking with

A little Norfolk Holiday

Posted by Caroline Elliott

At the weekend we took our little family on a short little Norfolk holiday. Our last little holiday as a family of 3 before baby arrives! We looked at a variety of places to go but it was all last minute (as we wanted to see how I and my pelvis were faring before we booked anything) and didn’t want to go too far from home as long car journies aren’t great fun in late pregnancy.

We considered going to Butlins as then there would be no cooking involved, but even on offer we thought the food packages were quite pricey and honestly we weren’t convinced about the quality of the accommodation. I don’t mean that to sound snobbish but we wanted to be comfortable. With Hubby being as tall as he is (6’2″) we really need a king size bed, especially now I am the size that I am too! But we also wanted it to be a good bed. We stayed at a Premier Inn when we went to a wedding recently and honestly had such a rubbish nights sleep as the King Size bed there was basically solid as a rock. We wanted this to be a lovely relaxed holiday and so wanted to find somewhere offering comfort.

(I’m sure there would be other benefits to going to Butlins such as the other things included, but with Monkey the age he is I am not sure how much use he would have got out of the other activities on offer, he is generally happy as long as he can have a run around somewhere!)

After a bit of a search we came across Poppyland Holiday Cottages. They have a number of holiday cottages to rent in Norfolk and they had availability at Rectory Cottage in Overstrand, just south of Cromer on the Norfolk coast. We felt that with doing breakfasts ourself and eating out all of the other meals it would still cost around the same as a Butlins trip, and we would hopefully have more spacious and more comfy accommodation.

We were not disappointed!

The cottage was gorgeous and the lovely king size bed was perfect, not too soft, not too firm… just lovely really. I even slept better on that bed than I have at home on our lovely bed recently, it was wonderful.

There was lots of little touches that welcomed us to the cottage including milk in the fridge, a bottle of wine, tea bags, yummy chocolate biscuits and fresh flowers. They were very family friendly too, and, knowing we had a 2 year old with us, they kindly provided a lovely box of toys for Monkey (you may see in some of the pictures that Monkey very quickly aquainted himself with the toys!) and a baby monitor. They also have a travel cot, high chair and stairgates available if you need them. Very reassuring when you have little ones and lovely not to need to pack everything.

Overstrand village was a very sweet little village and we were walking distance from the beach (even for me!) which was lovely – although the tides were not in our favour much this week and generally low tide was in the afternoon during Monkey’s naps. We still managed to get some good beach fun in the evenings though and the weather was very good to us.

We spent some time at Cromer and nearby Sheringham and in general had a lovely relaxed weekend together. Sadly Monkey came down with a cold on the Saturday so we did have some wonderful grumpy meltdowns in restaurants which as a parent always make you feel wonderful. We let him have ice cream for lunch on Saturday as he seemed to have a sore throat and it was the only thing that cheered him up – but oh my you should have seen the judgement and disapproving looks coming from other people in the cafe. We weren’t too concerned and chuckled if anything, but I do wish people would mind their own!

We did lots of holiday things – played on the beach, walked the promenade and went on Cromer Pier. We played with stones on Sheringham beach and ate lots of Ice Cream! We went in the penny arcades where Monkey proved to be hugely skilful at one of the games and won enough tickets to get himself a cool glider aeroplane. He was very pleased with this and we were quite impressed by his skill/fluke! 🙂 We treated ourselves to some lovely meals out, including a yummy fry up breakfast at the local cliff top cafe in Overstrand one morning.

A couple of more detailed posts about specific places to follow, but here are a few of our fave shots of what was a lovely and relaxed few days away, at a gorgeous holiday cottage! It was a lovely little cottage in a great spot and we will definitely look to go back at some point when no.2 is here!

Aeroplanes!!!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I love it when traditions get carried down through families, when we do something with Monkey that we remember loving as kids. I love it even more with grandparents carrying things down things that they loved doing as kids. My Mum and Step-dad (Aka Nanny & Pops) were round on Monday after Rhyme Time and we were all playing in the garden (well, I was sat watching mainly).

Pops said he wanted to do aeroplanes with Monkey, and I wasn’t sure what he meant to start with, but it turned out they had done it before on their day out with Monkey. It is something Pops remembers his Granddad doing with him as a child, and how much he loved it, and he wanted to carry it down and do it with Monkey. Which is just lovely!

Monkey took a tiny bit of encouragement to start with (he is a 2 year old after all, and takes a bit of encouragement with most things at the moment!) but then he absolutely loved it.

It was hilarious, and a tiny bit hair raising to watch, but seeing the glee on Monkey’s face was priceless.

And of course hearing the “Aaaa-gain” repeated over and over afterwards until Pops gave him another whirl..

The angle of this is weird and I know it looks like Monkey’s leg is at an odd angle but I promise it’s not!

and another…

Nanny & Pops then tried to get him to do wheelbarrows, and I have to admit we have tried to show Monkey this before and we failed… and unfortunately they failed too, though he did enjoy it I am pretty sure he didn’t have a clue what was going on!

Just a lovely bit of fun in the garden 🙂

Acceptance

Posted by Caroline Elliott

My word of the week this week is acceptance.

Because, at the moment I am very much having to accept the fact that I am 32 weeks pregnant, I have SPD and I can’t do all of the things I want to do, or that I am used to doing. It’s frsutrating but there is not long left and I have to accept it.

Luckily we have a lovely supportive family to help and make sure Monkey is still entertained. Hubby has started taking Monkey to his Tumbletots class on a Tuesday in his lunch hour, because I just can’t physically manage it anymore! My parents have also started to take Monkey out on a Wednesday so he can get a run around and burn off some energy.

I am just a lot less mobile now as the pain is increasing so it is nice to know he still gets to have a run around, while I can stay home! He is a lot better at playing independently and staying at home more, but the longer we are stuck in the house the harder it is to keep him entertained, and his behaviour gets a bit more destructive and boisterous. Getting him out for even a short walk and a run around makes life so much easier. I am so grateful to my family for doing this as even a walk round the shops or round the block is getting very painful now and feels like a daunting prospect! I’m not sleeping well either and the tiredness is making it a bit harder to be imaginative with playtime ideas!!

I’ve also had to stop my morning walk with my neighbour. For well over a year we have gone for a 9am walk most mornings. It has been so good for us to get us out of the house and have a good old natter. It has been really lovely and I have been desperate to keep it going. The walks were getting more sporadic as I have had to miss days I have been in too much pain and even the days we have managed it, the walks have been getting shorter and shorter (and slower) as even on good days I can’t do much. What started off as a good 40 min walk of a couple of miles has become more like a 20 min slow stroll of maybe 1/2 mile?

For a while I think even that was doing me good but then I realised it wasn’t anymore and that actually I was ending up in quite a bit of pain afterwards, so we have officially put it on hold for a while! Another change I just have to accept.

I am still doing a lot better than I was in my first pregnancy, I am not on crutches yet and I am grateful for that. I am also massively grateful my supportive and helpful hubby, family and friends. It would all be much harder without them! There is not long to go now really and I just have to keep the goal in sight and accept that I can’t do as much as I want to do.

What is your word of the week?

An Autumnal Painting Attempt – 27 mths

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Well now we are in September I guess it is officially autumn. The mornings are definitely cooler though I have been enjoying the sunny days. With my pregnancy progressing (and the joys of SPD) it is getting harder for me to get out and about with Monkey. We manage but there isn’t quite the amount of walks and time outside that there used to be. Meaning I have to find ways to entertain him at home.

On the whole he is a lot more easier these days but it is nice to try a new activity sometimes so I thought we would try some autumnal painting this week. My attempts to guide Monkey down a crafting route rarely succeed so I usually let him have completely free reign to create what he likes. But he is growing up all of the time and you don;t know how they will get on with something if you don’t try, and as he has been loving colouring in some of my amazing drawings when we draw a road, I thought he may like to do something similar with painting.

So when I was setting up the painting stuff I quickly drew a couple of trees, in the hope that he would like to either fingerprint or paint some leaves onto the trees.

He was dead excited when he saw the trees and I painted a few dots on to give him an idea of what he could do….

Then he dove straight in and painted all over the paper. Lol, was worth a try but after that I very much sat back and let him create as he wished. Clearly not bothered yet about making a picture that resembles anything and he had fun so that was all that mattered. They are nice autumnal colours too hehe.

He was very proud of his pictures too as he insisted on showing them to his Aunt & Uncle when they popped round later that day.

The freedom to climb… and fall?

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Monkey climbing at 15 mths old

Monkey loves climbing. As an early walker he was always desperate to climb from quite a young age, and to be honest, this isn’t something we have discouraged. For a long time it has been one of his favourite things to do at the park and he is so good at it. Going to tumbletots has helped with this too as there is a lot of climbing involved and it has also been a great way of teaching him the safe way to climb up but most importantly the safe way to climb down again.

Little ones don’t have much concept of height or fear and I am sure this causes many a parent to have heart in their mouth moments and leap to the rescue of said little one who decides to step off the top of a climbing frame! Monkey has done that to us so many times, though thankfully now he is learning the safe ways of getting up, and back down again!

I recently read a post on Happiness is here all about using the term “Be Careful” with your kids. It was a really interesting read so I highly recommend it, and I have been thinking a lot about it ever since. How much do you and should you allow your child/ren the freedom to explore? Does saying “be careful” negatively affect your child and the way they play, making them more likely to stumble than if they were let be and able to trust their instincts? I’m not sure.

We use the term “be careful” all the time, but usually with an explanation. For example yesterday during a mad half hour while Monkey was spinning round the living room like a little loony and I had to step in to stop him bashing his head on the corner of a table he was told “be careful you have to look where your going or you will hurt yourself!” When he gets exctited half way climbing up something and wants to take his hands off to give himself a round of applause he is told “be caeful, you have to hold on or you will fall off!”

He also gets a lot of positive encouragement and guidance too. I’m a big believer in trying to be use positive reinforcement rather than negatives as I think it just works better all around (even adults respond better to positives and constructive criticism rather than purely negative feedback). So he gets lots of well done, that’s right put your hand their, yep and push up, well done, clever boy, etc. etc. But I do also warn him to be careful. After reading the post I wondered if I say it more for myself, because of my own worries, rather than for his safety. And I wondered if saying it actually made it more likely that he would fall.

As with many things parenting I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Hubby took Monkey out for a walk Sunday morning and Monkey was absolutely loving climbing up a huge climbing frame. Hubs said he started off really close and was right there to catch him if he slipped but actually realised he didn’t need him there so took a step back. And that was when Monkey lost his footing and fell between the rungs of the ladder. He unfortunately scraped his forehead a little on the way down and Hubs was riddled with guilt that he hadn’t been there to catch him or to stop the fall.

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But if the parent is always there to stop the fall and save the day, then will the child ever learn to be careful? Plus I don’t actually think you can be there to stop every hurt. Monkey fell off his blimming dining room chair and split his face open! As much as we don’t want to see our kids hurt, and it is our responsibility to look after them and keep them safe, we also have to try and teach them to be careful too. It’s part of life after all, sometimes you fall, but you just have to dust yourself down and pick yourself up again. After his fall on Sunday, Monkey had a bit of a daddy cuddle, and then was back climbing again, grinning as much as ever. No worse off for the little fall or scrape, though Hubs was beating himself up about it for the rest of the day!

I guess it’s about balance, which I guess is true of most things parenting. I know some people will think we are bonkers to let Monkey climb so high, so young and think we maybe aren’t careful enough. Whereas I also know some people will think we are too overprotective sometimes. I don’t really worry what other people think of us but I just say that to illustrate we all parent in our own way. So for me, I will carry on giving Monkey the freedom to climb and explore, but I will also keep saying “be careful” because I think it helps him learn his boundaries as well as making me feel better!

What do you think? How much do you say ‘be careful’?

32 weeks pregnant – starting to feel real!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I am 32 weeks pregnant and it is all starting to feel pretty real now. Bump is getting bigger by the day, and I am getting slower!

Slightly random bump shot but this is a shot of my wonky bump when I am lying down. Because baba is very much stuck in the left side of my Bicornuate Uterus, she is now pretty visible from certain angles and no mistaking her position. She is breech. She tries to turn and I get mental kicks sometimes but the best she manages is to lie transverse (across my lower tummy). She seems completely unable to get her head into my pelvis.

There is still time but with her getting bigger by the day it will only get harder and I guess therefore, probably less likely. We have an appointment with the consultant at 35 weeks to check and a decision (and probably C-Section booking) will be made then. I would have liked to try for a VBaC but there is also positives to having a C-Section so what will be will be. If we do have to go down that route then she could be here in a little over 6 weeks…. which really isn’t long!

Monkey’s new big boy furniture

We had a busy weekend sorting things out in her room. We built Monkey a new big boy chest of drawers which looks lovely in his room, so that the tall boy matching the cot and changing table could go into the baby room for baba to use. We have also built the cot and the nursing chair so it is really looking like a baby room now!

We also bought a lampshade and curtian rail, and the curtains our sister in law gave us are now up. They are gorgeous curtains and it looks lovely in there, I don’t think we would have gone for pink curtains if we were buying them, but they are gorgeous and we are not about to look a gift horse in the mouth! I guess I am just worry in case she turns out to be a he, the ultrasound tech was pretty definite but I won’t fully believe it until she is here I don’t think!

We still need to get the wall stickers up on the wall and there is a lot of things to sort out yet, but we are starting to get somewhere and it really is a bit nerve wracking now it is getting closer. I have started to pack the hospital bag too and that is making it feel really real.

I know people have more than one child all the time and I am sure we will find our way and manage, but I am nervous about how we will get on with a toddler and a baby at the same time. There is C-section recovery to think about, wondering how I will manage with breastfeeding this time round, how I will deal with feeding a baby while also looking after a very active toddler and keeping him entertained! I won’t know the answers to any of these questions until she is here and so I know there is little point worrying… but I guess packing breast pads and teeny nappies things makes me think about the reality of having a newborn again! Eek!!

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

National Trust Blickling Hall

Evening fun with daddy

33 weeks & my last physio appointment..

Evenings at the beach

A little Norfolk Holiday

Aeroplanes!!!

Acceptance

An Autumnal Painting Attempt – 27 mths

The freedom to climb… and fall?

32 weeks pregnant – starting to feel real!