this little house

A WEEKEND SANS TODDLER

A couple of weeks ago, thanks to my lovely Aunty Linda, Michael and I found ourselves toddler free for an ENTIRE weekend.

Three whole days of no one to think about or put first, other than ourselves. A crazy, almost surreal like notion, when you're a parent. There were equal measures of excitement and anxiety. On one hand I wanted to shriek through the streets, 'I'M FREE!!!', and on the other hand cry, 'Bring my baby back'.

So what was a gal to do with herself and all this toddler free time?? A whole lot of nothing and a whole lot of everything.

Long lies, breakfast in bed, crap TV (no cartoons in sight!!), nails painted, girlie catch ups, and dates, dates, dates with my man. Oh yes, we brunched, we lunched, we had dinner out. Dinner out with a 9pm booking, no less! Yes, 9pm, as in the '9pm' that we usually go to bed. Who'd have thought ;)

It was a lovely weekend. Not only did it make me appreciate the much needed rest and alone time, but also my life as a mama. As much as I was relishing in my freedom, I missed Caleb like crazy. Do you want to hear something completely bonkers? I slept worse than I have in a long time because Caleb was not in the house. Oh the irony.

These pictures were taken after our Friday night dinner in Stockbridge. Instead of doing our usual rush home to get Caleb bathed and to bed, we were able to stroll along the canal. It's those moments that have really stuck with me from the weekend. The simple things, like a walk with my love. Just chatting, laughing, with not a care in the world.

Wednesday, 30 April 2014 Comments: 0

Oh yeah, we are 34 weeks pregnant, baby!!

Where the time has gone is a mystery. I still think Christmas was just last week, and here we are with Easter now already been and gone.

So as you may have guessed from the title of this post I am nesting like a crazy lady. The exact same thing happened before Caleb was born. Anything broke, no matter how insignificant, needed to be fixed. Any changes to our home that I've been debating for the last two years have had to be done....like yesterday. In the flurry of all the running to Ikea, B&Q, Homebase, the hammering, nailing, drilling, painting, cleaning, comes this sense of peace and satisfaction. It's addictive. As soon as I finish one task, I'm eyeing up another. Strange how not only our bodies but our minds react to pregnancy.

I have to champion my mum this last week, she came up to celebrate Easter and I'm pretty sure she thought she had landed herself in a episode of DIY SOS. Thanks, Grandma Liverpool. We love yooooooou!

As for baby bump, active is an understatement. I'm starting to think I have a little gymnast in there. I had forgotten the movement at this stage, gone are the subtle kicks and in their place are ones that pack so much force behind them, it brings the reality home that there is a real, live baby in there, with bones that are growing stronger by the day. A baby that will be with us in a short while. A thought that terrifies me and makes my heart swell twice its size, all at the same time. We first stepped foot on this path over two years ago, and here we are, soon to be a family of four. This life can be crazy, it can most certainly be tough, but my god, how I wouldn't have it any other way.

On a side note, what about the Easter weekend weather? Sunglasses out, light jacket on (or even off!), bare legs (gasp!). We'll have more of that please :)

Tuesday, 22 April 2014 Comments: 6

Beep! Beep! Man coming through with (soon to be) two babies!!

Oh yes, we're in the, 'how the hell are we going to get around with two littles?' conundrum.

Finding a double pram that fits all our needs is proving tricky. We want slim line, but we want light. We want it to be easy to collapse and car boot friendly, but preferably collapse in one piece. The side by side doubles are just proving too wide for everyday life but at the same time I'm not the biggest fan of the doubles where the baby is stashed underneath like hidden cargo ;)

So we've decided to wait till baby bump is here before we make any big purchases. In the meantime, I always knew I would want a buggy board for Caleb. Rather than wait till the baby was here (we didn't want it to appear like he was getting his eviction notice from his own pram ;) ) we thought we would get it now so Caleb could get used to it.

After a tricky start, where upon he thought it was a seat :/. Nice try, Caleb, if only it was that simple! He is loving it. We road tested it in town to see how easy it was to get around and manoeuvre, and I'm happy to report it was a complete success. Caleb adored the perspective of the world he got from standing tall, it's actually the most content I've seen him in town in a long time. He's become pretty restless in his pram of late (hence us not being so keen to make a big purchase for a double just yet) and prefers to walk mostly. With the buggy board we get the best of both worlds as once he's tired or if it's too crowded he can just jump on.

Since the buggy board has been such a success, I'm thinking the way forward for us may be a sling for baby bump. That way when Caleb is tired or needs to take a nap he can hop into the pram and baby bump can go into the sling. Sounds simple. Right?!

Well, if there's anything I've learnt from this mama gig....only time will tell ;)

*this is not a sponsored post.

Wednesday, 16 April 2014 Comments: 6

So, it happened, my baby turned two.

It was a lovely day, an understated affair, perfect for my little two year old. You see, for a boy who is by no means shy, he is not a big fan of being the centre of attention, and it was so important to us that he enjoyed his birthday, so we decided to make it a low key affair.

Just family, balloons, pasta, and a mama who had promised not to shove a camera in her son's face every two minutes ;)

It was perfection.

Monday, 7 April 2014 Comments: 1

Ahh I can't believe it, my baby boy is just days away from turning two. TWO!

My pregnancy hormones are really doing a number on me just now, I'm so excited for this milestone but at the same time wanting Friday to just take its time in coming. I want to keep Caleb, one, for that little bit longer. My baby.

The fact this will be his last birthday as an only child is also throwing me through a loop. Two years old, and a soon to be big brother. You really are going to be my grown up little man, Caleb.

Right, I need to cut this out before I'm a sobbing mess over my laptop. Sob, sob ;)

Turning to things that literally make me laugh out loud when it comes to Caleb at the moment, his choice of toys these days. You see, as you can imagine I've had various family and friends get in touch asking what would Caleb like for his birthday. The best had to be when my sister asked, 'What is he playing with most just now?', obviously looking for present inspiration. What inspiration did I have for her....fruit and vegetables.

Yes, fruit and vegetables. We ain't talking plastic, we ain't even talking wooden (the irony being we own plenty of both), we're talking real fruit and veg. Like outta the fridge drawers, fruit and veg.

Out come the fridge drawers every morning, you can see one of them has already incurred a Caleb induced injury :/

After he tires of exchanging them from one drawer to the next (and let me tell you that can take a while), the fruit and veg then graduate to the dining room table or the TV unit.