Our Summer Holiday - Week Two

Our Summer Holiday - Week 2 - Saturday 25th - Friday 31st July 2015

Henry's first trip to Sunderland Airshow. He loved the Red Arrows.

Sunday buffet breakfast in Harvester.

Holiday shopping spree, a tired baby asleep in his stroller and so a cocktail pit stop for mummy and daddy.

Cinema date to see Thomas the Tank with these beauties.

Playing at Lanchester Garden Centre after tea and cake.

Aqua aerobics at the new Consett pool.

Lunch and ice cream at Wheelbirks after swimming with Marmar and Zach.

Late night naughty treat for us, cinnapie!

Sage teddy bears' picnic music class.

Friends over for tea, cake and play. This is before and after! 

The farm for the afternoon with my happy little one.

Ice lollies in the sunshine 

Morning girl date with my best girl. Cinderella at the cinema followed by Yo Sushi.

The BEST dessert - black sesame ice cream, warm apple and vanilla gyozawith  raspberry crumbs in a waffle cone with a syringe of salted caramel miso sauce!

Another baby?

I've always wanted a big family, always imagined myself surrounded by loads of children and if Mr B would let me, I said we'd have 5 children (he only wants two so this is an issue!). One of my first ever blog posts was about the perfect age gap between siblings, so it's been on my mind for a while now. I hear so many mummies tell me that a small gap is perfect because their children grow up being the best of friends - I meet a lot of children in my job and now as a mummy and I can honestly say that I've never met siblings that are best friends before they hit the teenage years. Why does this happen?! But then I can see that big age gaps are a total nightmare too, what would you even do for a day trip to entertain a 2 year old as well as a 10 year old. There's no easy answer. 

I have so many pregnant friends and friends with newborns at the moment and with Henry coming up to his second birthday, a lot of people have asked us about #2 and we've discussed it a lot recently too. And the really strange thing about it is, despite the crazy broodiness, I really don't know if we want another one yet or any time soon. In my head I know that a three year gap would be ideal for all kinds of reasons, but I can't seem to get excited about it, so I'm not sure 2016 will be the year that Henry becomes a big brother.

Truth be told, I am absolutely terrified of having another. There's the usual things of worrying that you won't love another baby as much or that your first born will feel left out. The usual worries about money and the realities of poor maternity pay are never far away. But that's not all, there's something more that's making me seriously reconsider trying for number two and I just can't seem to shake it.

You go into your first pregnancy blissfully unaware and naive of all the things that can go wrong, and now I'm more than aware of all those things having chatted to a whole host of mummy friends at baby groups and reading mummy forums since having Henry. I'm pretty much guaranteed another 3 months of morning sickness, this time with a toddler to get up with and to entertain too. I was so lucky to have an easy pregnancy (minus the sickness), but I'm so aware now of all that potentially can go wrong and realise just how lucky I was last time. I had a long, but pretty easy birth and I felt absolutely fine just an hour afterwards. No stitches, no pain and a really easy recovery. I'm so worried that that won't happen next time and I'll really struggle, especially with having Henry too. Breastfeeding was an absolute dream first time around, but I've heard more than my fair share of shredded nipple horror stories since having him which makes me think that we just got lucky. He was a dream baby, slept horrendously, but was, and is, such a happy amenable little thing, so adaptable and just fits in with whatever. It's Sod's law that we'll get an absolute demon child next. I really have found myself thinking that maybe we should just stop at one, we should count ourselves lucky with what we have and enjoy our very beautiful and easy life.

I really really love our life. I love the hours that I work, I love my trips out for coffee and cake with Henry, love our afternoons spent at the farm or the park, snuggling in bed at nap time and quiet evenings just the three of us. I love going for lunch together on a Saturday afternoon, knowing that Henry will be well behaved and a Peppa Pig sticker book will keep him happy. I vividly remember how hard meals were when he was 5 months old and I'm not sure I'm ready to go back there. Quite honestly I really don't know if I'm ready to give up our beautiful life yet, as selfish as that sounds. I know a lot of people feel like this before they have their first child, but we never did, so it's all a bit alien to me and I think I'm just hoping that these fears go away in a year or two because in my heart I know I don't want Henry to be an only child.

But then I see stressed looking mummies with their brood of naughty children throwing food around the restaurant and screaming at one another about who won the last round of eye-spy. I see their enormous double buggies squeezing through tiny gaps in cafes and shops and their harassed faces as they try to find their purse whilst breastfeeding a baby and reading to a toddler. I'm really really not ready for that yet. 

So in the meantime, until this ridiculous fear has subsided, I'm going to flick through the Boden Autumn catalogue and make the most of being able to afford posh baby clothes while I still only have one. I may even go and make myself a cup of tea while Henry sleeps or have a nap myself. Let's just hope I get bored of napping, Boden and peaceful afternoons soon, or poor Henry will never get a sibling. 

Our Summer Holiday - Week One

Week One - Saturday 18th-Friday 24th July 2015

A beautiful sunny morning at the Nurture Barn in Essex where Henry rode his first ever horse. He LOVED it so much. The barn itself was gorgeous too and we had a yummy lunch together.

We went to the Splash Park in Maldon with our friends. Henry loved running in and out of the water with his little friend Jess and then we had an ice lolly by the sea while the little ones threw pebbles in to the water. A really lovely afternoon.

A day at the zoo. We went to Colchester zoo for the whole day with my sister in law and Henry's three cousins. He particularly loved feeding the birdies and has talked about it ever since.

Some science fun at The Discovery Museum in Newcastle. He was particularly impressed with the mirror room, he was absolutely fascinated!!

Wednesday was all about coffee and cake. We met one of my friends in Durham and then met Marmar at the garden centre for a walk then play inside with coffee and cake. A lovely midweek treat.

So many gorgeous lazy mornings this week just snuggling up and watching cartoons.

A trip to Broomhouse Farm for tea, bacon sandwiches and cake with Marmar and Parpar. And to feed the goats and chickens, of course! 

A picnic in the park, just the two of us.

And some strawberry and raspberry picking at Brocksbushes. Henry just plonked himself next to the basket and tucked in, I couldn't pick as fast as he was eating which was a struggle! 

Rhubarb sorbet at Wheelbirks. A lovely Friday treat.

My beautiful big boy with his new horsie t shirt. 

We did some baking and made Bing Bunny's favourites - carroty muffins!

Our first ever Friday night family pizza and film night. Hopefully the start of a new tradition. 

What we ate Wednesday

Breakfast

Henry had Cheerios, peanut butter on toast, raspberries and half a banana. I had a bowl of Cheerios and a cup of chai tea.

Lunch

Henry had toast and veggie crudités dipped in houmous with a slice of ham. He had a coconut, strawberry and banana smoothie to drink and I had ham and houmous on toast. I make so much effort with Henry's meals and then make myself something super quick and easy, I really ought to make more effort!

Dinner

I made us all a super healthy and tasty tomato and veggie risotto. I've never made risotto for Henry because I usually add loads of butter and parmesan but I missed them out today and was really impressed with how tasty it was. It contained six different veggies (onions, celery, carrot, aubergine, courgette and tomato) and Henry wolfed it down which made the feeder in me very happy. I even made enough to freeze an extra three portions for the freezer for Henry. We then had a big slice of watermelon for pudding.

On top of all that tasty food I've eaten cake (I was way too excited to eat it and forgot the photo), drank copious amounts of tea and also a gorgeous chai tea latte too. A really good food day, the diet starts tomorrow (maybe...)

Crazy little toddler

I've blinked and somehow my little baby has grown up into a totally crazy, eccentric little toddler. I loved the newborn days, really really loved them. I then thought that it couldn't get any better than when he started crawling or walking or talking. But it just got better again. He's his own little character, he has his own little quirks and knows exactly what he wants. He's obsessed with horses, loves feeding the birds, loves wearing his wellies and sunglasses all day and generally just adores being outdoors. He's pretty much the opposite of me.

I'm loving these little personality quirks and find myself really encouraging them, something I didn't think I'd ever do.

'My child will fit in with my life and my interests' - that irritating thing that all pregnant period genuinely believe to be true, me included. Fast forward two years and I'm frantically googling to find places that allow one year olds to ride ponies, buying shed loads of carrots to feed the horses and bird seed for the birds. I don't care that he looks a clip trotting around in wellies in July or wearing his sunglasses to wear Peppa Pig, I think he's absolutely bloody hilarious.

He's currently sat next to me with a carrot in either hand, he spotted them in the fridge at 7am and will be still holding the same carrots at 7pm tonight. He'll spend the whole day doing horse impressions and offering us the carrots to eat in the hope that we'll do a horse impression too and have a munch on his carrots. At some point we'll probably go and feed the horses up the road and he may even cry because he wasn't sure if he really wanted to give up his carrots for his beloved horse friends. It's just crazy toddler behaviour and I absolutely love every second. 

Life lately..

The last few weeks of work have been totally manic and I honestly never seem to get a moment to myself to sit and blog. I never seem to watch TV or a film these days, we are constantly on the go. I'm hoping that six weeks away from work will help all that and I'll be able to blog a bit more, but until then I wanted to just upload a few of my favourite photos from life lately.

My crazy little toddler is developing a quirky and eccentric personality. Wellies and shades are a necessity for this type of character apparently! 

Daddy's birthday breakfast

My legs after running Pretty Muddy 5km for Race for Life

Beer garden fun, trying to be one of the big boys

My three 

Walks through the woods

Possibly the best photo ever. Being bitten on the nose by a cygnet!

My very happy little boy 

Night Weaning

I've dreaded night weaning for 21 months now. Henry has always fed back to sleep, despite all the 'helpful' advice telling new mums that this shouldn't be done. The fact that breastmilk contains oxytocin, prolactin, melatonin and cholecystokinin (all hormones to help mum and baby sleep) would suggest that  this advice is total rubbish and in fact, breastmilk is the perfect thing to get babies back to sleep. I just went with it, sleep was more important to us than following advice about getting into bad habits, and so we fed back to sleep for 21 months. I was dreading having to wean at night because I foolishly believed  what I read - that we were getting into very bad habits that would be a nightmare to break.

They weren't. 

This week Henry has totally night weaned, he hasn't had a night feed all week and we haven't had tears, we haven't lost any sleep and I'm so so relieved.

I was planning on doing it over the summer holidays because I really thought that we wouldn't get much sleep and it would be really stressful, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The other night Henry woke up and asked for milk and I just thought I'd see what happened if I said no and offered water instead. To my surprise, he was totally fine; drank some water, cuddled in to me, and fell back to sleep. I thought it was a fluke but tried the same thing next time he woke and again, the same happened. So we're now a week in with no boob during the night. He's still been waking up, but with a quick cuddle and a drink of water he's been more than happy to go back to sleep and he's then had a nice big milk feed when he wakes up on a morning.

It just goes to show that these babies know exactly what they're doing. Their little bodies (and ours) are made perfectly and know exactly what we need. Listening to totally useless advice has made me worry for 21 months about something that hasn't even happened. 

Next step, finishing breastfeeding completely. And I'm dreading that for totally different reasons, I'm not sure my heart is ready to give up my little baby just yet....

What Henry Ate Wednesday

I meant to do a WIAW post for myself but failed miserably, so decided to do what Henry ate instead. We've all had a tummy bug this last week and since his he has been eating like there's no tomorrow, obviously catching up on missed calories!!

Breakfast

No photo I'm afraid because he has breakfast at my mum's. He usually has two breakfasts there and plenty of snack too. I suspect cereal, toast, loads of fruit and a biscuit or two as well. Lucky boy.

Lunch

We came home for lunch and fixed ourselves a little picnic up to eat outside in the garden. Henry had ham and houmous pinwheels, Organix spicy tomato crisps, watermelon, an Ella's Kitchen smoothie pouch and some of my tasty pineapple and carrot juice watered down in his cup. 

Snack

Strawberries, strawberries, strawberries. He ate LOADS whilst we were out picking. I'm dreading the nappies...

We also had some amazing rhubarb sorbet in an attempt to cool down in this hot weather. He ate the lot and washed it down with some juice.

Dinner

For dinner we had sausages on the BBQ but that's not the most healthy tea for Henry so I made him some chickpeas and veggies in tomato sauce which he loves and he also had some of Daddy's vegetable rice too. It's so lovely to be able to eat our dinner outside. He'd usually have fruit after dinner but today I was aware of just how much he'd already had, so he made do with an Organix mini gingerbread man instead.

Drink

We used some of our strawberries to make strawberry and coconut babychinos this evening and Henry loved them. More importantly, they're full of that all important calcium that I'm always trying to get into him! God I'm such a bore....