A Peter Rabbit christening

I wanted to write a post about my littlest boy's christening which we had two weeks ago now. It really was a totally perfect day, not how I imagined it to be necessarily, but so perfect and something I wish we'd done for Henry and something we'll definitely do for any subsequent children that we may have. It wasn't a big affair at all, in fact I'd felt so guilty about it for the weeks leading up to it because we'd had a big party at home with 30 guests for Henry's christening when he was 9 weeks old. When Archie was 9 weeks old I couldn't even imagine doing something similar and truth be told, I found Henry's christening more stressful than it needed to be and whilst I'm sure everyone else enjoyed themselves, I was stressed, tired and spent the majority of the day feeding my hungry newborn and pacing up and down with him to try and get him to sleep. When everyone went home at the end of the day we still had guests staying that we needed to entertain, and carpets to hoover, cups and glasses to wash and chairs to put away. I just knew that I didn't want to do such a big party this time around and certainly not at home.

When Prince George was christened I remember thinking that it was a lovely idea to just have closest family and godparents invited - his was the first christening where I'd heard about someone doing that and I decided that that was what I wanted to do this time around. Of course there were a few really good friends that I'd have loved to have been there and family too, but we just had to be really strict. It was a case of inviting 12 people or 30; once you start inviting odd friends or family members, there are suddenly others that you 'have' to invite and then you end up with a huge party again. So that's what we did. Invited our very immediate family and Archie's godparents - my cousin and his fiancee and my oldest childhood friend. Three people that I know will be there for my little boy forever. Three people that were so excited about his arrival and adore him so much. He's so lucky to have so many people that love him and care for him and most of those people were there to celebrate with us that day.
At the church there were three babies being christened and one family must have had over 100 guests - quite a contrast to our 13! 

The service was really lovely though and Archie was an angel throughout. Henry enjoyed sitting next to the vicar's feet and being a 'helper' and as far as christening services go, it was really really lovely. We had a few photos afterwards and then headed out for a posh lunch just down the road.

Chinese food isn't your average christening lunch but there's an amazing posh Chinese restaurant by us and that's where we chose to go. Everyone at the table knew one another well, no one felt uncomfortable or awkward and we all had such a lovely meal chatting and laughing. Both boys were so well behaved and it was lovely to be surrounded by our closest family and friends.

After the meal,we came back home for drinks and cake, and again, because everyone was so close, it was really relaxed. 

Most people just helped themselves to drinks, the boys soon disappeared upstairs to watch the Sunderland game and the ladies sat downstairs and chatted for hours.

 It was so so lovely and a pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday. When everyone had left there were literally a few cups to wash up and the house was back to normal once again. So easy compared to last time and we'd all had such a lovely afternoon.

I loved planning the christening this time around and we had some lovely little details that made the day more personal and special. Lovely Peter Rabbit invites, little seed favours for the table and pretty place cards, a playlist of songs chosen especially for Archie and a few decorations in the house. The whole thing didn't cost a huge amount of money, and both sets of parents kindly helped us to pay for it, but it was so perfect. I can't imagine having done anything else now and I'm so glad that our little Archie was able to have his special day surrounded by 12 people that love him so much. He's a lucky lucky boy.

5&6 month update

Apologies for lack of updates. Life is busy with two little ones. Lazy, laid back, relaxed, but still busy. I rarely get a chance to sit still for a second, let alone drag out the laptop for a blog post. I'm going to make a conscious effort to blog more though, maybe setting aside one morning a week when Henry's at nursery and it's just me and Archie at home. But those mornings are oh so precious. 2 and a half hours of precious toddler-free time. Time to hoover, disinfect, cook, freeze tiny cubes of puréed down baby food, time to shop, pick up orders, do a Post Office run, send emails, stop for coffee and cake, wander aimlessly around the shops without the usual swift run in and grab anything off the shelf accompanied by two small children. You get the idea. Mornings are precious and we bloody love them. Sorry to future Henry who may be reading this, but I do love them. But what I love more is my absolutely favourite time of every day. Honestly, my very favourite. Coming to meet you. I love that more than anything.

Anyway I digress, on to Archie's 5&6 month update. I have a 6 month old. Half a bloody year. It feels like we've had him forever, but it's terrifying that he's no longer a young baby. He's learning new tricks by the day, developing his own little personality and quirks and we've really settled into life as a four now. I no longer have the pangs for alone time with Henry, or with Mr B, I'm used to having my little Albicoccs with me 24/7 and I adore it. I adore him. He's just so nice. I can't really describe his personality in any other way. He's so so nice. Except for when he has the odd bad day...then he's bloody awful and everyone knows about it!! But for the most part he is really really settled and easy. He's happy to be put down and left alone, happy to be held by people he doesn't know all that well, happy to be smooched and squeezed and snuggled by his big brother, he's just generally a happy little boy. Here's a quick 6 month update:

Weight: He weighs 22lb or 10kg exactly now - still tracking that 98th centile line. A proper chubby little bunny.

Sizes: He's mainly wearing 6-9 month clothes, although a couple of his things are now 9-12 months. I can't believe how quickly this child has grown out of clothes, it's ridiculous!! He's wearing size 4 nappies now too.

Feeding: He's still breastfeeding like a pro, he's a super quick and efficient feeder and in the last few weeks he's dropped to feeding every 3+ hours. Finally! He had a really funny few days when he first got his teeth when he refused to feed completely (so stressful) but after that was over, he never went back to his constant feeding and we're in much more of a routine with milk feeds. He started solids too at 5.5 months and is doing so so well with that. He manages really lumpy foods and does well to hold food and feed himself too. He's loved everything he's tried so far - every fruit and vegetable you can imagine, as well as pork, chicken and salmon in various forms. Tonight I made the boys a separate tea to us and it was so nice giving them an early dinner together, both of them eating the same thing, giggling at one another across the table and being generally silly. It's how imagined having children to be and it was just lovely.

Routine: He has three naps a day, one in the morning a couple of hours after he wakes up, a longer one in the afternoon and then a short evening nap after tea. His evenings are pretty horrendous because he just doesn't settle well until really late and we've tried everything we can think of but nothing's worked. So for now we're just taking it a day at a time, telling ourselves it's a phase that'll pass, and enjoying having him snuggled with us (often dozing on and off) downstairs on an evening until about 9pm. His routine is super flexible and he's generally a really flexible baby. He'll happily nap wherever we are as long as he's in a pram, his car seat, or in someone's arms being cuddled in - the joys of having a big brother with a busy social life mean that that's his only really option! He's finally stopped screaming in the car (except for night time journeys, bizarrely) which is such a relief because it was so stressful knowing that he was so distressed being out in the car.

Sleep: Ugh, sleep. Still terrible. No real reason for it being so terrible other than he's a baby and clearly not 'a sleeper'. He regularly wakes up every hour over night, every two hours is standard. Any more than that is a miracle. Thoroughly depressing, I look horrendous with the worst eye bags and I'm carrying a good few pounds of unnecessary weight which is a direct result of a new addiction to lattes which I can't really get through the day without. The less said about sleep, the better.

Milestones:

* Archie got his first tooth when he was still 4 months old and his second followed a week or so later. Really really early for teeth, but they're so super cute in photos and there's no sign of any more as of yet. He had a few days of being really grumpy because of them but all in all, not too bad considering.

* He can roll from his back to his front now, as well as the other way which he's been doing for a while. He can actually travel quite far just by rolling which is funny and we need to be really careful where we put him and what he can grab that's nearby!

* He learnt to sit up at 4.5 months and has slowly got better at sitting for longer periods. He's much much stronger now and sits really well on his own for ages, occasionally topping sideways if something grabs his attention before he's had a chance to steady himself.

* He's had his first food and is loving life now that he can eat. I've heard people talk about babies who were obviously ready for food and never really thought much of it until I had Archie. I only decided to start weaning one day when we were out and he was practically launching himself, open mouthed, at my scone. Even now he is like a little bird sat waiting for his mummy to feed him with his mouth wide open if we're eating something nice. He's definitely a hungry little boy.


And that's all I can think of at the moment to include. It's almost 10pm and I'm so ready to sleep so I'll probably end up editing this during a night feed when i suddenly remember something that i meant to include. Roll on month 7. I'm most definitely not ready to have a 7 month old - this is getting ridiculous.