Baby + Oreo = Massive mess!

Just as well it's warm enough to be naked and there was a shower by the pool! Messy boy.

Feeding my Spanish baby...

So it seems that Spain didn't get the memo about organic, no-additive baby food. I haven't worked out if this is because the Spanish cook all their babies' meals from scratch or if their famous laid back attitude means that they don't lose sleep over feeding their babies bland rubbish from a jar.

At home I pretty much make all of Henry's food from scratch. I use organic pouches of food for when we're out and about but I certainly wasn't going to waste precious luggage allowance bringing a week's worth of baby food, nor was I going to spend precious holiday time in front of the stove when we got here. I didn't lose any sleep over what I'd feed him; we were only going away for a week and living on jars full of crap wouldn't kill him if that was the only option. 

On our first morning we located the baby aisle in the huge supermarket (way bigger than our biggest Tesco Extra). I was so surprised by how little baby food there was. Whilst in England we have shelves full of healthy baby snacks and biscuits, pouches and jars, here there was hardly anything. Anyway, because of Henry's allergies I had to be sure to read all the labels on the back of the jars and I couldn't believe how may additives they contained compared to back home. Most of them still contained salt for a start. Some brands seemed to be worse than others but Carrefour Baby seemed to be the best brand so we bought a few jars for this week.

Who knows what they've done to the ingredients to make them taste of nothing but it's an achievement in itself! I've never tasted anything so bland in my life. Henry didn't seem to care but we've resorted to just letting him eat what we're eating now. Today he had jacket potato, tuna and fresh tomatoes for his lunch and he loved it. Last night when we ate out he had bread dipped in gazpacho and verduras a la plancha (aubergine, peppers, courgette, asparagus, onion and artichoke done on the BBQ). He's enjoying all the gorgeous ripe fruit; melon, mangoes, bananas, kiwi and pineapple, and he even had a sneaky piece of his mummy's Oreo biscuit (cute photo of baby smeared in a black biscuit to come!). For the record, Oreos are pretty much the only vegan/dairy free biscuit available so they have become my favourite for the time being. 

So for anyone travelling to Spain I'd pretty much avoid the jars altogether....that is unless your child likes the taste of air in a purée form. All restaurants are so baby friendly that they don't mind a bit of mess on the floor when you leave and they always have plenty of things that your baby will love. We are off for a long walk along the beach tonight and a tasty stop at our favourite Italian for supper. 

Not like the tasty paellas we've tasted before!! Probably just as much salt...

Couldn't go wrong with chicken and rice...shame it was only 10% chicken! 

A happy little face before his lunch earlier today. He much preferred the tasty Spanish tuna fish.

Come fly with me

Why is air travel just so bloody irritating?! It's people watching at its most annoying. To be fair I think the flight to Alicante is always the worst. I'm sure Heathrow to Barbados is an entirely different beast, but that's another story.

It all starts at check in when they ask the same stupid questions that they've asked for years.

"Did you pack these bags yourself?" never stopped Al Qaeda. I understand that they tick a box, but they're just annoying. 

Then there's also always those people that have a 22kg case and spend forever at check-in finding items that collectively weigh 2kg to go into their hand luggage. Sort it out at home next time people!

You eventually get to security and you end up all in a fluster again. I found out yesterday that this is twice as bad with a baby! Apparently it's necessary to remove the baby from their pushchair (do the people who make these rules know how long it takes to get my child to nap?!) and flatten the pushchair so it can be scanned. Fair enough I suppose, just very stressful!!

Anyway, that bag that you so carefully packed earlier now needs to be unpacked in a hurry. Laptops, iPads and mobiles need to be taken out and placed separately. As does baby food and drinks. Shoes, belts, jackets and coats must be removed and the sunglasses on top of your head also need to be placed into a tray. So basically you are half naked, scanning an empty bag while the contents of said bag and your clothes go through in a separate tray. You then walk through the scanner and what do you know...the metal in your underwired bra sets off the alarm! Gets me every time.

The thing that irritates me most about flying is the amount of time spent in a queue! The English LOVE a queue. Despite the fact that we all have an allocated seat on the aeroplane, as soon as the flight is announced, the crazy queuing people rush forward to claim their place at the front. They then end up standing in a bore off queue for a good half an hour while us sensible folk continue to sip our coffees in peace and just join the end of the queue when it starts moving. I actually enjoyed being one of those irritatingly smug parents who just skips the whole queue because I have a child under 5....take that crazy queue lovers! 

Now I know that I probably wasn't an ideal candidate to sit next to on our flight yesterday due to the little human strapped to my lap and the potential for screaming, sick and seat-kicking. But trust me, there are way worse options! The lady next to us was properly crazy. Why is it that some people don't get social cues? We were singing nursery rhymes to Henry to keep him amused and she still kept harping on about her sandwich that she'd dropped down the side of the chair or pondering on why she couldn't see the sea from our side of the plane (not rocket science). We weren't encouraging the conversation one bit but she kept on going. Crazy lady. To be fair she could have been much worse....I could write a whole blog post on crazies on aeroplanes.

Anyway we've arrived safely and on a completely separate note, Southend airport is totally fab. Small, easy to navigate and all shiny and new. Couldn't recommend it enough. The angel baby also lived up to his name and was perfect for the entire flight...good times!

A very tired traveller 

Sunshine Baby

Henry has loved his first day in Spain. He was an angel on the flight, slept well when we arrived and has been a little treasure all day long. He's experienced Carrefour, eaten so many tasty things, swam in the pool and soon he's off out for dinner with his Mummy and Marmar. Daddy arrives tomorrow which is super exciting too.

I downloaded 3 new books on to my kindle for this week which I'm now beginning to realise was a bit ambitious! I'll be lucky to read 3 pages I think. I'm loving spending the day with my little water baby though, who needs a nice, even tan anyway?!

Looking super gorgeous in brand new dungarees which lasted all of 10 minutes due to a poo explosion at breakfast. Oh, the glamorous life of a mummy.

Hanging out by our super cool Audi rent a car!!

All ready for shopping in Carrefour

We love the sunshine

I love that England has 4 very distinct seasons. I love the freshness of spring, the warmth after a cold winter. Lighter mornings and evenings make me smile, as well as the thousands of daffodils that line the paths and roads. I adore hot, sunny days. I love summer dresses, flip flops and ice lollies in the garden. A few months later I'm always ready for cosy jumpers and sick of BBQs. I love watching the leaves change and finally fall to welcome winter. Christmas is perhaps my favourite time of year, cosy fires, comfort food and snowmen can never be bad.

Now that spring is finally turning into summer, I'm loving the sun again. It's even better than usual because I have my little pigwidgeon to enjoy it with. We've had a lovely few days in sunny Essex before flying to spain tomorrow, where we'll enjoy even more sunshine. What a treat. Here's a few photos of us enjoying the sun together this weekend.

Feeling...lucky

I caught up on some tv tonight once Henry was in bed and we watched a programme on adoption that was on ITV earlier in the week. What some of those children have gone through is absolutely heartbreaking. What the poor parents have gone through in the journey to becoming a parent is also hideous. I can't even imagine how painful it must be to not be able to have children naturally, particularly if that's all you've ever wanted. They then have a long battle through the adoption process and it certainly doesn't end when the children arrive at their door. These parents and children are totally inspirational and the strength that they must have is amazing.

Watching the programme made me feel so very lucky. Since being a little girl all I wanted in the world was to be a mummy. At the end of 2012 we decided that September 2013 was when we would be ready for a baby and perfect for maternity leave (teachers will understand the desire for September babies!). Henry arrived on 21st September 2013. We didn't have to battle or fight to get him and I took that for granted really. I now realise how incredibly lucky we are to have a happy and healthy little boy. I've had a perfect maternity leave that couldn't really have been timed any better if I'd tried, and I've loved every single second of it. 

Im going to bed tonight a very happy mummy, feeling very thankful for my lot and thinking of those whose lives aren't quite so easy.

Cosy Day

Since being on maternity leave I've been to lots of lovely places and done exciting things but today was one of my favourite days so far. Today we've done absolutely nothing and loved every second.

This was the forecast when we checked yesterday...hideous! Perfect for a PJ day with my littlest hen though. We turned the heating on, put cosy PJs on and hibernated all day long.

I took advantage of being able to go back to bed with Henry at nap time and we had a lovely 2 hour snooze together. I will miss this SO much when I'm back at work. Not just the extra sleep, but the sleepy cuddles too.

We had plenty time to play together. We played, read books, sang songs and watched tv. Henry had my full attention all day.

After his lunch Henry went down in his cot for his afternoon nap and I took the opportunity to lie on the sofa with the blanket and just chilled out. I'm not sure I've done this for over 7 months. It was bliss. When Henry woke up he was still really sleepy and he fell asleep again for 10 minutes when I cuddled him in on the sofa. More sleepy cuddles for Mummy. He was in a really snuggly mood which I just love.

Overall a pretty perfect day with my little baby bee. We are now waiting for Daddy to get home and then we'll all have dinner before the craziness of bath and bedtime comes round again. Happy days.