Loving Autumn

I really adore autumn. I love the crisp air and bright sunshine during the day and then the darker evenings where we can whack the heating up and snuggle in our PJs. I love picking blackberries and baking, love the muddy walks collecting leaves with an excited little boy. I love that there are muddy puddles and we have a good excuse to wear our wellies and coats on an afternoon. I love getting the wooly jumpers out of the wardrobe and buying new ones for my little one, I love the pumpkin spiced lattes that arrive in Starbucks that literally taste of autumn and the long cosy afternoon naps we can have, snuggled right under the duvet. It's probably my favourite season (I say this about every season when it arrives) and I just love the 4 seasons we have in England. Here are a few photos of us enjoying the arrival of Autumn...

Henry at 2!

Somehow I have a 2 year old. I'm not sure how this happened but the time is just flying and I somehow now have a proper little boy, not a baby anymore. He is at such a fun age, learning new words and tricks every day and he is just an absolute pleasure. I don't find being a mummy stressful or hard, I feel like it's what I was meant to do and I love every second. That's not to say we don't have difficult days, some days are full of toddler meltdowns and disasters, but there is love and laughter every single day and I love our little life as a family of three.

Weight: Henry now weighs 26lb which is 3lb more than last year. He's gone from being a chubby little baby to a lean toddler. I really miss his little wrist rolls of fat and his chubby knees but am also happy that he's a perfectly healthy weight for a 2 year old - pretty much at the 50th centile for weight and height. His height is 87cm which is bang on average too.

Routine: Henry usually wakes up at around 7am and has one nap at lunchtime which varies in length from 1 hour to 3! It's usually around 90 minutes though and he then has his bath at 7:30 before having stories before bed. 

Food: Henry eats amazingly still. I really expected him to become fussy but he hasn't. When he's not well he won't eat or he'll be fussier than usual, but apart from that he'll try anything and everything. He absolutely adores all berries, I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the number I consumed when pregnant or not! He also loves olives, pomegranate seeds, grapes, tomatoey pasta, meatballs and beef. I am quite strict in that I'll only ever offer him one meal, there's no pressure for him to eat it, we don't shout or get cross with him, but he knows if he doesn't eat it I won't make an alternative. I can't even believe how hard that is to do, in theory it sounds so easy but the crazy motherly instinct tells you you need to feed your child no matter what. Henry has tried it on a few occasions and has pushed a meal out of the way when we've put it down but he seems to know that he won't get an alternative so usually will try a few mouthfuls at least. He has 3 meals a day, plus supper at bedtime and also snacks on fruit throughout the day.

Sleep: I never thought sleep would improve but it really has. Henry sleeps way better than before and we've had long stretches in the last few months where he's slept through. Unfortunately illness and teething really really affect his sleep so we also have hideous weeks still. Generally though it's 100% better than a year ago so I really can't complain. 

Sizes: Henry is in a mixture of clothes, mostly 18-24 month things, with some 2-3 thrown in too. His feet are a size 6 and he's in size 5 nappies.

Milestones/other random things 

• Henry's speech isn't great for his age but it's improving all the time. I do want to get his hearing tested though because I had glue ear as a child and it's often hereditary. He can say 40-50 words and has started putting 2 or 3 words together too. He's just started counting to three which is so cute and is pretty good at communicating what he wants to us with a mixture of words, actions and sounds! 

• He now has 16 teeth and we are just waiting for the dreaded back molars to appear

• We finally finished breastfeeding last month, I'm beyond proud that we made it so long and I was able to feed Henry until he was almost 2. He transitioned amazingly well to having no milk on a night before bed and night weaning a few months previous to that was also way easier than expected, I genuinely do think he was just ready.

• We can now play actual games with Henry like simple games of pairs and snap. He has a farm sorting game which he loves and will spend quite long periods of time playing with certain toys. He also loves books and we can now read the entire book to him rather than just bits or re telling the story in our own words and pointing things out in the pictures. His current bedtime favourites are My Henry, The Gruffalo's Child, Goodnight Moon and Stick Man.

• We are currently making our way up the egg ladder to reintroduce egg into Henry's diet. All signs suggest that he's grown out of both allergies (wahoo!) so we are slowly reintroducing egg before we get started on milk. 

• He is generally such a laid back and easy child. He goes along with everything we do, very rarely has a tantrum and is so easy to entertain. He definitely takes after his daddy who is pretty much the most laid back man in England. 

• Henry loves the farm and animals in general. Some boys seem to be into trucks and vehicles but the only vehicles Henry loves are tractors. He is definitely an animal boy. He is especially obsessed with horses and absolutely loves feeding them. He regularly has two carrots, one in each hand, and is constantly making horse noises or pretending to be a horse. It's hilarious. He loves birds too (or tweet tweets as he calls them) and loves feeding them on a morning at Marmar's. He also loves Toy Story at the moment, his Buzz and Woody were easily his favourite birthday presents. He loves Peppa and Bing on TV and his favourite toy is still his mini Dyson hoover!! He goes to Jittabugs, a singing and dancing class, and absolutely loves it. He also really enjoys swimming and we are trying to go at least once a week if we can. 

I think that's all there is to say about our little Pigwidgeon. He really is an absolute treasure and fills our lives with such love and joy. I don't know what I ever did to deserve such a well behaved and easy baby, I certainly wasn't one as a child and we both fear that our next baby will be a total demon after Henry has lulled us into this false sense of security!! I'm so excited for Henry's third year and to see what surprises and excitement this year will hold.

Peppa Pig World

Today we went to Peppa Pig World for a birthday treat for our Peppa-obsessed toddler. We are currently driving home, all very tired after a long, but totally amazing day. Henry absolutely loved it. The rides were all so perfect for little ones and even  just wandering around the parks was fantastic. There were characters everywhere, recognisable buildings to wander around and an amazing park and splash park in Peppa Pig World and then so many animals and birds and beautiful park land in Paultons Park itself. There were even two rides that Henry was allowed on by himself in Paultons Park, he went on the digger ride like such a big boy and Mr B and I were both beaming the entire time, waving at him and taking his photo. My eyes were full and I had to blink back the tears, I can't believe how quickly the time has gone and how proud I am of my little boy. We also went on a fab tractor ride and a pirate ship ride in the main park and the queues were really short which was great.

The queues weren't great in Peppa Pig world, most were around half an hour but Henry was so good and spent the time waving to other children on the rides or looking around at the characters around us. We went on Daddy Pig's car ride, Grampy Rabbit's boat ride, Peppa's Windy Castle ride, George's dinosaur ride and Grandpa Pig's train ride. Henry had a play in the amazing park and would have happily spent hours in there. We met Peppa, George, Mummy Pig, Daddy Pig, Suzy Sheep and Zoe Zebra and Mummy Pig even tickled Henry's tummy which he thought was absolutely hilarious. There were a couple of rides we didn't go on as well as the soft play and splash park that we didn't have time to do today, I really think we'll need to find another time to visit this year, it was really really brilliant. Here are a few photos from our day:

A thoroughly lovely 2nd birthday party

Today we celebrated our beautiful boy's second birthday party with his friends and family. He's not actually 2 for another week, but we have a very busy and exciting weekend next weekend, so had to bring his party forward. We debated about where to hold his party and settled on Wheelbirks dairy farm, one of our favourite places to visit. Oh the irony of holding a dairy-free toddler's party at a dairy farm!! 

We had such a gorgeous day which started off with 5 of Henry's toddler friends joining him and his cousins for his party. They played inside and out, saw the cows and had a lovely time whilst the mummies and daddies chatted, ate ice cream and drank coffees. After the children had eaten and had their ice cream, we sang happy birthday and gave our the party bags before Henry's friends left.

We then had a family lunch with a few friends outside in the orchard and the children played. The weather was amazing considering how awful it was yesterday and how unpredictable September weather can be so we were really really lucky. 

We are so lucky to have so many beautiful family and friends to celebrate special times like this with us and Henry was absolutely spoilt rotten. After a LONG nap this afternoon, he spent ages opening his presents and cards and had a lovely evening playing with all of his new toys. What a lucky lucky boy.

Our last ever feed

As I write this post I am sobbing. My body aches to just go and pick up my sleeping baby and let him have one last boob feed. Tonight he went to sleep without a feed for the first time ever, in almost two years. It is time to stop, so tomorrow I won't offer a milk feed and will use the 'milk is for babies and you're a big boy' line which will be ripping my heart in two as I say it. He isn't a big boy, he's my baby. I'm not ready for him to grow up. But my head tells me differently and I know that the plan was always to stop feeding around now and we've really just been looking for ways to do it. Today presented itself with a perfect opportunity; a very sleepy boy who hadn't napped all day. I knew he'd go to sleep easily and quickly so I decided to just see if he'd be happy to cuddle in rather than having milk. 

I'm not going to pretend he was happy; he wasn't. He cried a bit and asked for boob but after 20 seconds he stopped asking and cuddled in. I rocked him and told him the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Apart from I didn't make it to the end where the Bears find their beds have been slept in because I was crying by then. I took 5 minutes to sit with my sleeping baby/big boy and reflected on the incredible journey that we've been on (sorry for the cringe American cliche there). I thought about the midwife syringing colostrum from my boob minutes after he was born (you know your dignity is well and truly gone when a midwife is squeezing your boob whilst prodding your nipple with a syringe). I thought about the struggle I had for two days to get him to latch and then the following weeks of constant feeding, day and night. I remembered the soreness and the tiredness that I felt, but the pride I felt each time I had him weighed or a health professional told me I was doing a good job. I remembered his refluxy cries and his obvious discomfort that later turned out to be down to milk and egg in my diet and I remember all too clearly the real struggle to be dairy free for a year and a half. The cakes I had to pass up, the tomato pasta that I had to choose from every menu because it was all I could eat. The lack of a chocolate advent calendar, Easter eggs, end of term chocolates and pancakes on a weekend. It hasn't been easy. But he was worth every second and every hardship. It's the most selfless thing I have ever done and I'm beyond proud of myself for sticking with it and putting Henry's needs ahead of my own for so long.

So for now my body will finally have a rest after almost three years of looking out for someone else through pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. I will miss the sweet smell of my baby's night time breath and the way his eyes used to roll into the back of his head when he fed at night. I'll miss him gently stroking my face and his little grunts as he fell asleep feeding. I'll miss being able to settle him in seconds and hope to God that I still get bedtime cuddles every night.

My head tells me that this is the next chapter and that my baby boy really is growing up. I'm not sure my heart can take it...