bye bye 2011

Pre-emptory disclaimer: I wrote this post at the very end of December, hence all the festive references - I only just got my laptop working again and all the photos uploaded. Prepare yourself for an influx of catch-up posts over the next week or so!

Seasons greetings all! i hope you all had a wonderful Christmas break. i was lucky enough to spend the holidays with both mine and the lion's family, so our cub got to see almost everybody!
This leads me quite neatly onto the subject of New Years resolutions...

1. TO SORT MY PHOTOS OUT AND TO KEEP ON TOP OF THEM!!!!! (hence why there are no Chrimbo shots decorating this post!) (Brackets number two: i HATE the expression "hence why")
2. To do something new with B at least once every single week
3. I'm not going to hold myself to this one, but it would be good to blog more often too, especially once resolution number two kicks in. I have taken so much inspiration from the blog world, and it would be great if I can give something back, and share my experiences too.

Today i actually tried a couple of things I'd seen widely across Pinterest - my 15-month old is very much in the stage of loving boxes - opening them, closing them, putting things in them, shaking them, dumping stuff out of them, eating them, etc etc etc. So i dug a load of empty boxes out of the recycling pile, added an egg box, and put random small objects in each one. The egg box contained a shiny pebble, a star-shaped cookie cutter, small handful of cheerios, a foil ball, and some other bits and pieces. Naturally he zoned straight in on the cheerios before deigning to look at the other items i had painstakingly put together! I am sad to say, however, that today was NOT a success... we'd had tears ever since he woke up from his late morning nap, and while I'd optimistically thought that maybe a new activity would distract him from his bad mood, I was sadly mistaken. Check out his withering expression in this picture where he's looking sideways at the box! Never mind, as you can see, there were some smiles interspersing the misery - his motorbike never fails to raise a laugh, and peekaboo? The last word in hilarity.

But i will NOT be put off! Check back soon for my list of 52 Things To Do With Hard-To-Please Toddler Boys... Ciao for now, and have a fabulous New Years!

PS. What are your New Years resolutions?

Project update

Good morning my possums!

I have missed my computer so much while it's been at Laptop Hospital (many thanks to my genius friend Kerry!), and now I have it back and have so many photos to do something with that I'm completely overwhelmed! I should explain, I have a LOT of projects swimming around in this head of mine at the moment - unfortunately, that's where many of them will stay. But I digress. Here is a little list of everything that's going on (we like lists):

• Wedding planning. I've been in the stage of cutting out pictures from magazines for almost a year now, and it's high time I did some actual planning. My scrapbooks are bulging. Seriously - plural. Scrapbooks.
• Christmas gift making.
• Christmas gift material purchasing (after payday. Hmph.)
• Project Alpha. More on this later, once the patent application has been submitted and I can boast that it's 'patent pending' so no one can pinch my lovely idea without getting an ass-whooping.
• Brody's first year photobook, which was meant to be finished over a month ago.
• Editing the million photos we've taken in the last two months. Ugh.
• Finishing the craft room that we finally started at the weekend, when I bullied the Lion into building a desk for me. We went to B&Q on Saturday and I went off to choose the paint while he sorted all the man stuff. We came merrily home with a big sheet of mdf, some brackets, screws, primer, and........ magenta chalkboard paint! I am sooooo excited, and the Lion couldn't be more disgusted :-)
• Rearranging the nursery since we sold the bed that was taking up too much room in there. Brody loves having his toys in his own room though, and would spend all day in there if he could.

Photos to follow, bear with me!!

On a brilliant note, the cub and i had a wonderful day on Friday just gone! Typical, as I instigated changing my working days both with my boss and our childminder last week..... But anyway, I don't know if it was to do with his daddy purposefully missing his morning bus in order to see him for 5 minutes in the morning, or being more rested this week, but I do know that I was determined to change my own attitude this week. I was actually dreading Friday, which is awful of me, but I put on a smile, had an extra cup of coffee, and made myself extra fun and silly for him. And it worked. I've never had so many strangers say to me what a happy child I have - he charmed everyone we met! Anyway, twas a wonderful day.

More on the projects later, plus some recent pictures, as promised.

Happy Friday all! xxx

Cub playing with Daddy Lion in the new nursery

Good intentions

NB people: this would've been posted on Friday had this stupid crappy laptop not kept dying on me.

Hello,

I follow several blogs, either craft/wedding/pretty thing/kiddo oriented, and invariably when I read them, I become so inspired and fired up that I'm like, the best mommy in the whole wide world. Mainly because I encourage him to make a mess, and because I like autumn a LOT. Explain that reasoning if you can.

However, on a Friday, when I do get to spend the day with B, he's always in such a bad mood from having spent 3 days with his childminder Jill (in that he's tired, having had such a great time, not because he's unhappy. I wouldn't let that happen), that we just have an absolute bummer of a day. He more or less constant whinges, and I more or less constantly entertain wistful thoughts about large glasses of wine, and any creative ideas go out the window and I turn into a harridan mother.

On a Monday however, after we've spent a couple of days as a 3-part family, we have The Best Day Ever. We have trips to the woods, we explore parks we've never been to before, we do painting, we build sofa-cushion forts, we dance......

We follow this pattern week in, week out. And every single Friday I tear my heart out and swear I'm going to change my days at work. So why haven't I done it yet?!?!?

Cannot believe my first post in over a year has been one of frustration - I'm so sorry. I'm wanting this to be a truthful blog though, warts and all! Here are some wonderful things that you must know, to balance out the above:

• he's just started walking, and it's hilarious
• he's just started kissing, and it's wonderful
• his first reaction upon waking up is to smile
• he's actually a very cuddly kiddo
• he can do 'gimme five' and 'sooooo big', and is always saying "boo!" and laughing
• he adores books, and regularly toddles over to me with his choice of book for me to read to him, with an imploring look
• he loves his teddy blanket so much that we had to buy him a second one, just so that we could get it in the wash every now and again
• one of his favourite ever pastimes is to go through his wardrobe with an intense look of concentration, deciding what he wants to wear. He has done this since he was born. No lie.
• He thinks my make up brushes are brilliant

DISCLAIMER: there are some recent pictures coming up, however, all were taken on my phone, so please excuse the poor quality. I've had a virus on my own laptop and it's had to be rebuilt, so I'm using the Lion's for the time being until I get all my pictures back...

DIY soft-play centre

Think the wall needs some blusher

Back to business

Does this Donald Duck shirt go with jeans?

Adventuring in the woods

Serious business, this yogurt-eating lark

Typical Friday face

I need to get back to my blog.

Watch this space............. x

Very hungry

Hello lovely readers!

It has been such a long time since I have blogged, for once, not for a lack of time, but simply because I have SO MUCH to write about!! Want a clue...?

But before I ramble and ramble and ramble about my life in recent weeks, I just wanted to post a link to this entry on Nicole's site at Bubby Makes Three. I love catching up with their lives over on the other side of the world - she has the sweetest two little children, and the BEST craft ideas for them. I just don't know how she does it...

But anyway - I want to make ALL of those things she's linked to!!

xxx

Hello....

....Christmas baby socks!!!

xxx

This weekend I am hearting...

Beer and X Factor

Big chunky warm cardigans

Pub lunches with my two boys when it's grey and rainy outside

Knowing I've got a haircut booked for tomorrow first thing and not having a clue what to have done

Knowing I've got a haircut booked for tomorrow and knowing that I have a couple of precious hours just to myself while the Lion looks after our Cub.

My 6 week old son enjoying his playtime and nearly nearly pulling off his first proper smile (while he's awake - he smiles all the time in his sleep, the lovely little weirdo)

Planning and making endless lists for our trip Oop North next weekend!

Dozing on the sofa watching Toy Story and eating Maltesers

Scrummy yummy hot coffee - I never get to drink my coffee hot during the week!


What are you hearting about your weekend? xxx

New project

To keep me from going a little bit stir-crazy; to keep my creative juices flowing; to learn more about my new camera; to ensure I have some beautiful keepsakes of my little son's first year; and to keep him in touch with family that we live too too far away from.... I have set myself a project. 

Every month, we will take a suitably seasonally-styled photograph of Brody, have postcards made up with our favourite image, and send them to family and friends with a short message about what he's been up to that month.

Here are some more piccies from Septembers shoot:

We'll keep you 'posted'!

xxx

September mummy-hood

OK, while my favourite little boy is catching up on some zeds with my favourite big boy, I can catch up on my favourite blogs and add a quick post of my own!

Couldn't you just bite that big scrumptious bum?

My life has changed in so many ways over the last 4 weeks. I never realised how little sleep I could function on for a start! And then there's my to-do lists these days... anyone who knows me will appreciate what a ridiculously list-y person I am. I really do take it to the extremes sometimes. But where my old lists used to say fairly complex things like "sand all woodwork", "choose paint colours", "finish designing the kitchen", "get quotes for carpenter" or indeed "buy wine for girls night", I now get a massive sense of achievement when I manage to accomplish having a shower, making AND EATING breakfast, and sterilising B's 6 bottles. And no, I don't mean by 10am or even lunchtime. I mean all day. If I manage to do anything super-crazy, like wash my hair, do a load of laundry, or walk into town, I feel I have to celebrate, by sending the Lion an excited text immediately to tell him all about it.

But while my life maybe doesn't sound enormously exciting at the moment, I really can assure you that every day presents me with some little miracle, and that I am grateful for every tiring, smelly, doing everything one-handed, little minute.

For Brody has such a strong little personality already - he truly amazes us with his many different facial expressions, noises, actions, likes, dislikes.

He hates his mouth medicine and expresses his disgust rather vocally... He loves his windy-pops medicine and smacks his lips in pleasure every time it's administered.

He LOVES being snug in his mummy's arms after a feed, and will snooze there happily in the crook of my elbow for hours upon end. He also loves getting himself into the weirdest and most uncomfortable positions, but sleeping right through!

He wakes himself up to burp satisfatorily, but sleeps right through his many, MANY baby farts.

He likes Jeremy Kyle, but is not a fan of Trisha.

He pulls a million sweet faces, but our favourite is his 'please' face, which I have still not yet managed to catch on camera. He kind of looks up and wrinkles his forehead, and makes an 'O' with his mouth, as if to say "but pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease mum?"

He smiles, and even better, laughs in his sleep.

He adores staring at the curtains in our living room, but loves even more to gaze at the clothes hanging on show in our wardrobes. I think the colours and the patterns must fascinate him. Yesterday I took him for a 'play' in the wardrobe, and let him see all the patterns up close, and feel all the textures on his skin, and he was totally, silently rapt.

He has the cutest little loud squeak-cough whenever he's been a bit too enthusiastic at the beginning of a feed. And speaking of enthusiastic mealtimes, just look at the sheer excitement on his little face when he realises he's due one:

Right - he's woken up!! It's cuddle time............ Will just leave you with a couple of my black and white favourites from the past week:

xxx

This is my life now

Random - but i love it. xxx

Birth Story

Hello!

I'd apologise for being slack with posting, but I have a 2-week-old baby, and I don't have to! The last 2 weeks have been beautiful, hectic, tiring, overwhelming, touching, smelly, surprising, tearful, joyful....... I could go on and on and on.

I'm not really in a place where I can share all of the details of my birth story on here just at the moment, but here are some words that build up a bit of the picture (they're also pretty much all I can drag out of my pain-addled, away-with-the-fairies mind about it!)

VERY quick
exciting
proud
scarily grown-up
crawling down the corridor
in love with my Lion
soggy
scary
blissed out
p-a-i-n-f-u-l
forceps
low oxygen levels
tiring
lots of doctors
forgetting i was in hospital to have a baby, because i was enjoying my gas-and-air so much!
"it's a boy!"

and love.

xxx

Our son, Brody Harold Chan

Born 4th September 2010 at 4:40am. 8lb 1oz.

More to follow but here you go for now... Isn't he GORGEOUS?????

and the first one taken of me with my son, in the recovery suite...

More to follow x x x

I heart my home!

We're sooooooo nearly there with the house now - only a couple more tiny bits to get done, but I don't want to risk waiting any longer in case Babelina comes along and then the house will NEVER be tidy enough to show you!

So here is the tour as it stands at the moment...

just to give you an idea of the bright-pink-ness of our hallway!

bookshelves at the top of the stairs

we'll be putting a desk at the end of here, underneath the wall-mounted tv - just as soon as I can face another trip to B&Q!

as you walk into the living room...

photo wall

i knitted/crocheted that blanket you can see!

part of the Lion's 'entertainment centre'

the little Lion Cub's wardrobe!

some of the Cub's toys and books

bed, bath and border!

and... into the most gorgeous kitchen in the whole wide world!

complete with breakfast bar

sorry - kind of an irrelevant picture but I do love my toaster!

the bathroom

walking into our bedroom with its elephant-grey wall

my dressing table (but pls ignore the mess underneath it - I've not totally finished unpacking yet!)

a place for everything and everything in its place (eventually)

scaffolding wardrobe - the Lion's side. I still need Emmy-Lou to come over and organise my side for me!

So that was the Den! I do hope you liked it, and will come to visit soon.

xxx