Guest post from baby (uncredited)

Guest post from baby (I can’t take credit for this, it was shared on a mummy group)

How to Stop Mummy Sleeping Through the Night!

OK, here’s my situation. My Mummy has had me for almost 6 months. The first few months were great. I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened.

Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep through the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I’ve talked to other babies, and it seems like its pretty common after Mummies have had us for around 6 months.

Here’s the thing: these Mummies don’t really need to sleep. Its just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep and they just don’t need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the

Crybaby Shuffle. It goes like this:

Night 1: cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, its hard. Its hard to see your Mummy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, its for her own good.

Night 2: cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3: every hour. Most Mummies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mummies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mummies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don’t give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW ITS HARD! But she really doesn’t need the sleep, she’s just resisting the change.

If you have an especially alert Mummy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mummy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it. Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT!

I cried for any reason I could come up with. My sleep sack tickled my foot. I felt a wrinkle under the sheet. My mobile made a shadow on the wall. I burped, and it tasted like pears. I hadn’t eaten pears since lunch, what’s up with that? The cat said “meow”. I should know. My Mummy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL. Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room. Too hot, too cold, just right – doesn’t matter! Keep crying!! It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mummies internal clocks.

Sometimes my Mummy will call for reinforcements by sending in Daddy. Don’t worry, Daddies are not set up for not needing sleep the way Mummies are. They can only handle a few pats and shhing before they declare defeat and send in the Mummy.

Also, be wary of the sleep sheep with rain noises. I like to give Mummy false hope that listening to the rain puts me to sleep sometimes I pretend to close my eyes and be asleep and then wait until I know Mummy is settling back to sleep to spring a surprise cry attack. If she doesn’t get to me fast enough I follow up with my fake cough and gag noise that always has her running to the crib.

At some point I am positive she will start to realise that she really doesn’t really need sleep.

P.S. Don’t let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out. Trust me.

Uncredited – author unknown

Typical preschooler loves Daddy behaviour

They are even merging into one

Yesterday I reposted a blog I wrote almost 4 years ago about how great a day baby had when I left him with daddy for the day.

He napped longer, ate better, pooed less and was generally less of a baby! No witching hour for daddy.

Since little man number 2 arrived we have well and truly entered a ‘Daddy is life’ phase with the 4 year old.

In fact it’s not just Daddy, yesterday he told me I wasn’t his favourite. Daddy, Uncle Darren, Nanny and Uncle Dan are his favourites.

He’s not talking to me.

He doesn’t care.

I’m not his best friend

All because I made him go to the toilet (did I also mention he’s turned into a teenager).

You see it’s a similar scenario to the baby Mummy vs Daddy chart (pictureD below). I end up doing a lot of the boring stuff which means giving him the wrong kind of attention. Making him brush his teeth, making him try for a wee, making him sit nicely at the table. That’s not to say that Daddy doesn’t do any of this stuff, he definitely does and if anything is more strict and less patient (which makes this Daddy is number 1 situation even more woeful for me). However, I experience the majority of the 1 vs 2 situation. A lot of the time when he looks at me now days, I have another little face right next to mine. His little brother. When Daddy is around we normally have a more equal 2 vs 2 combo.

I find myself saying, just a second, let me just…., I’ve just got to sort this first…..A LOT!

So naturally he loves daddy 1 million, thousand, 1 hundred (completely valid number there) and me 4.

I know deep down he doesn’t mean it but ouch!

His world has been completely turned upside down and in general he’s done amazing but this is the part of the transition from one to two that I struggle with the most. The part that resulted in the majority of the middle of the night, post partum tears. I miss how close we were before, when he got all the attention. I know the solution is to make sure we have more one on one time and that’s what all the experts would say but it’s easier said than done. Today we drew on a box together…..does that count?

The reality is that in terms of basic needs, baby number 2 needs me more than he ever will right now. But he’s still a little, cute, ball of squish, who doesn’t say much yet. Whereas the 4 year old has these raw emotions that can sometimes explode out of him causing a mum guilt overload.

I, as always, try and keep calm and stay positive. There would have been times in the last 4 years that I would have rejoiced at the following Preschooler loves daddy behaviour:

• Daddy always has to do bedtime (but we make sure I do it every other night anyway)
• Daddy always has to go with him for a poo
• Daddy has to answer 100 quick fire questions about the justice league
• Daddy has to brush teeth
• Daddy is called upon during the night 👍🏻

I know this won’t last forever and in a few years or even a few months everything will likely already be very different but in the mean time I may start buying love with Smarties just to give my ego a boost.

Keep Calm and Carry on Mum

No more naps….don’t panic!

My love affair with nap times has been a bit of a rollercoaster since I became a parent. When you have a newborn, you don’t really think about. They sleep a lot (during the day!). When our little person got slightly older, he had a few tricky nap avoidance stages. Where i’d result to walking the distance of a small island to ensure that sleep happened. 

Throwback to the most cosy newborn ever #allaboutthenaps

It sucks.

I stressed!

A few sleep deprived reads on Netmums would convince me that a semi-decent night time sleep would only come from good day time naps. Good day time naps were a priority!!

Then we had a 1 year old. In my experience this was the nap wonder year. You’re in a routine, you know the timings, napping in the cot happens. Wonderful!
I became complacent, thinking that each day, nap time would bring time to load the dishwasher, prep for dinner, do some exercise (ie; catch up on made in Chelsea).
Then they reach 2, and the more experienced mums start warning you. ‘Oh it won’t be long until he gives up naps’. 
PLEASEEE, I don’t want to hear it!
Even my own mother…….’you know, youstopped napping at 18 months’

La la la – I can’t hear you!
Then one day it happens, he won’t nap and this time it’s not a fluke.
You try the car, walking the length of a marathon with the buggy. Nope, not interested. This time it’s different. He’s not over tired or easily annoyed. He’s fine, he survives the whole day……and the world doesn’t end. He even goes to bed pretty easy every night.

Sleeping toddler 👍🏽👍🏽

It took me a while to get used to this idea. At first I was frankly devastated that nap times were no more. If anything they really broke the day up and made those long days at the weekends with daddy at work, run a little smoother. 

So I’m using this post to reassure you of the positives.

The fear – you loose it, the fear that he won’t nap, that he will nap too long, that he won’t nap long enough. That he will wake up when you’re still half way through preparing a home cooked meal (ie; an episode of made in chelsea).

The fear that your whole nights sleep is possibly no longer a guarantee because he hasnt napped! Gone! My husband and I have a ‘joke’ saying in our house. ‘Sleep breeds sleep’. I’m sure once again it was something I picked up from a sleep deprived Netmums browse but I kept repeating it every now and again when worrying about nap times! 

Lunch out – doesn’t have to be scheduled for 11.30 to ensure we are home for nap time. I remember turning down several a lunch date because losing that 2 hour window of peace at home was like missing out on a free, all inclusive weekend at a luxury spa! You have to be crazy to turn down free lunch with the grandparents.

Flexibility – is back! I feel like my inner control/OCD freak has really excelled with motherhood. I like to think I was once a lot more laid back but my anxiety when the toys don’t go back in the right boxes might say otherwise. When nap times ruled, I felt restricted. Every plan, whether we went ahead or not always revolved around a conversation about whether it would screw up nap time.

The joy remains – when every now and again he does sleep, most likely in the car but the magical moment when he stays asleep as your transfer into the pushchair and he stays asleep as your browse Tesco uninterrupted #magical 

Movie time/chill time – snuggles! It’s surprised me how quickly my little man has grown from a baby who would constantly stay in my arms to a little boy who (apart from bed time) just wants to be doing his own thing. If we have a uneventful day planned then nap time
Is now replaced by ‘chill time’. Grab a snack, a blanket and a kids DVD….normally the same every weekend (Secret Life of Pets, hellloo Max, again!) but I get lovely cuddles.

It’s all about the sofa snuggles 😍

So in summary, it’s going to be okay. You’ve got this! 

It’s not as bad as you think…..well you get used too it anyway.

But saying that, if I’m honest…..I’d push for those naps for as long as possible. Hang on for dear life!!
Keep Calm & Carry on Mum

Can we press pause for a minute….?

I had a dream (….nightmare) in the early hours the other morning. It wasn’t about monsters, zombies or because I was remembering something embarrassing I did about 20 years ago. I dreamt that my husband had turned the cot bed into the toddler bed. Frightening!

I’m not ready for full on toddler mode. I like my little baby/toddler stage. He’s funny, cute and learning every day. He’s a little stubborn and pushing the boundaries but he can still be somewhat controlled in the same way he could when he was a baby, baby.

For example: he’s confined to the cot, he knows it’s his sleepy place and he’s all safe and secure. I’m not ready for bed training. I will be one day, but can’t he stay a toddler/baby a bit longer? 

Also, Potty training, no! I’m not ready, he’s not ready. What’s the rush? As a working mum, I wish we could spend weeks at home letting him run around naked to get used to the nappy idea but I fear we will be facing a ‘potty train in a weekend!’ type scenario. Which will go utterly, disasterly wrong. We’ll go straight back to square one when I’m back at work on Monday. Followed by several stressful potty training weekends….and I imagine lots of wine! Eek!

No more highchair, but I love the high chair! I’m in control, he can’t escape. You’ll probably starting to see a theme here. I can be a massive control freak mummy. I like that I’m boss and as the little man becomes less of a baby he’s got a lot more will to rebel.

I already get the feeling that toddlers don’t allow for much of this control freak business. They don’t care that it’s supposed to be nap time after lunch. They don’t care that they are supposed to wear wellies to splash in puddles. They don’t care that they’ve eaten peas a hundred times before. They will decide they suddenly hate them. They are their own little mini universe and will jump around singing wheels on the bus one minute and fall to the floor in a strop the next because mummy isn’t singing along at quite the right tempo.

Just when you think you’ll starting to figure this all out, motherhood sends you a whole lot more to concern you’re already busy brain with! 

Give me a newborn over a toddler any day!

Perhaps I just need to close some of these tabs?

Keep Calm & Carry On Mum

A few words of warning when holidaying with a toddler…

1.Don’t boast about your luck – the first full day on holiday we got a full nap time, in his cot, in our room. While I got to enjoy some sunbathing just outside the door. Hooray, the change in location has not unsettled him, I thought! I post a lovely and not at all cliche Instagram picture of myself enjoying this moment. BAD IDEA! This was the first and last time this happened the whole week!

2.Don’t moan to much about your toddler misfortune – after we had firmly established that napping in his holiday cot was not preferable (screaming, crying, launching himself out and generally not falling asleep) I spend a couple of days pounding the pavements in 29 degree heat. Which worked, but it wasn’t quite the time I imagined. (ie: lying down, enjoying a cocktail). However, I soon discovered that once we were sure a deep sleep had been established (mouth open, sprawled across the buggy, dribbling buckets), I could stop and sit (and drink!). I of course celebrated this with a cocktail in one of the bars on the resort…………I did get some strange looks, it may be frowned upon to drink a cocktail when you are alone with a sleeping toddler.

3.Although you may be wishing for that magic extra long nap the whole time you are away, once you get it, you start to miss them a little bit. You start getting a little bit bored with no one to demand you stand in the ‘puddle’ (baby pool) with them. Applying snapchat filters to your sleeping toddler may also be frowned upon……

So cute though!

4.Remember you are not the only normal mum – you may only notice the other mums who more than happily get away with wearing draw string bikinis but there are plenty of other mums rocking the messy hair, red face, running mascara and swimsuit look! (PS: A lot of the dad’s had six packs too!)

5.You will not be at all jealous of the mums who bring a nanny on holiday (I KNOW, who knew….) the fun times in the pool, beach, play park and even picking up cars from underneath the restaurant tables, out-weight getting child free time to lay in the sun. I promise!

6.Children do take toys to the pool and a lot of ‘sharing’ takes place, all toddler parents know this can be a difficult concept for little ones to grasp. Mostly the other parents aren’t bothered if your kid suddenly has hold of a 1 euro Daddy Pig Water Squirter, 50% of the time the other kid doesn’t care either. Despite this, you will feel the need to talk very loudly to your toddler, saying stuff like ‘aww very nice Daddy Pig, who does that belong too?’, ‘Now remember that’s not yours and you will need to give it back’. Just to make it clear that you are not okay with your toddler shouting, ‘My Daddy Pig’, ‘My Ball’, ‘My Car’, My Whale’, ‘My *insert anything which isn’t actually his*’.

7.If you get hit in the head by a wooden truck on the plane on the way home, just count yourself lucky it wasn’t your toddler doing the throwing!

8.Plane entertainment will go down surprisingly well with the adult members of your party as well as the toddler.

Daddy enjoying the Paw Patrol Colour Wonder

9.Do not be ashamed to use the iPad if needed – look around, everyone else is doing it and if you even try a colouring book, some cars, some stickers before resorting to the iPad then you are doing a hell of a lot better than most 🙂

10.You will commit to a alcohol detox on your return from an all inclusive where you had wine with every meal, this will probably only last a week

WARNING: Toddlers on holiday can drive you to the point of insanity!

How long can we get away with blaming ‘Baby’ brain…

….15 months and counting so far, I have been blaming the baby brain.

In fact a lot longer than that if you count 9 months of pregnancy before hand. Although sometimes I do think, is it really ‘baby brain’ or have I just always been like this?

Recently, the below ‘baby brain’ moments have happened to me:

• I’ve left work at the end of the day, walked to the passenger side of the car, opened the door, sat in the passenger seat, messed around on emails for 2 minutes. I do not have a driver to take me to work, I’m driving home, what am I doing?
• I’ve left work for the day, driven the hour journey home…….to the house we moved out of 4 months ago.
• I’ve visited the supermarket, paid for shopping and returned to car park. I’ve spent 15 minutes searching the car park for my car.
• I’ve made myself a cup of tea at work, I’ve opened the dishwasher, I’ve placed milk in the dishwasher.
• I’ve left the house on several occassions, little man wrapped up warm and cosy with a bag packed with water beaker and snacks, while I rushed out of the house with no coat, no money and starving from no breakfast.
• I’ve driven half way to work and had to turn around when I remembered my laptop is still perched up againest the wall in the hallway near the front door……..
• I’ve got half way to work and noticed the car seat in my rear view mirror. The car seat my mum is supposed to be using to collect the little person from nursery…..we now have 3 car seats!

Ahhhh!

 

 

Social occasions with a 1 year old…

I’ve discovered in the last few weeks that I was more than a little bit naive before baby. Kids and babies at weddings are mega cute right? With their little outfits and the bows in their hair, running around getting up to mischief while the adults watch, glass of champagne in hand (the adults, not the kids).

I had quite a few little ones at my own wedding and I loved them running around,. I loved the little giggles (even mid ceremony!), dancing to the cheesy music completely out of time and then magically falling asleep in the corner of a very loud disco. Cute hey?

However, last month I experienced a wedding from a whole new perspective. From the parent perspective. Although the above still applies, it’s just all a bit more complicated when you own one of these little people.

As I blogged earlier this year in my ‘Back to the pre-baby dimension for 24 hours’ post (http://keepcalmandcarryonmum.com/2015/08/21/back-to-the-pre-baby-dimension-for-24-hours/), going to a wedding post baby , without baby is actually quite lovely. Apart from the guilt of course, theres always the guilt!

I think the main problem was we had no ‘cute’ running around getting up to mischief (you’ve got to walk before you can run little one!). Although I’m sure the parents of toddlers who could run around would tell me to be careful what I wish for, having a 1 year old who wants to be on the move but could only manage crawling around a wedding venue was a little tricky. Lots of people, holding drinks, stiletto heels, tables set up beautifully with glass table wear etc. My head was thinking….little tiny hand, grabbing table cloth to pull himself up, bang, crash, wine glasses everywhere. Thankfully this didn’t happen, but you can see where my mind was wandering. No longer was I checking out the other ladies outfits, or worrying if my dress was too short or my hair had fallen out of place……I was spotting potential toddler danger zones!

Our little man wants to walk but can only achieve this by holding onto our hands. Bending + dress + heels + several hours + potentially too short a skirt = not good!

I missed the main event, my baby spent the ceremony tucked around the corner with me, out of sight due to a ringing, grizzle noise he decided to adopt just at the moment the bride appeared at the end of the aisle. Perfectly happy sitting still and quiet with a book pre bride arrival. Then a red, ball of grumpy when the show began to start……sods law! Although I’m sure it sounded a lot worse to me, I started to feel a little bit like everyone was looking…….and judging as I attempted the dummy solution……which didn’t work!

I also didn’t imagine I would spend a wedding reception, circling a tarmac car park, in heels, wheeling a buggy around attempting to get 1 year old to take a nap. I didn’t imagine I would be at a wedding apologising for the chicken nuggets and chips shattered under the table or that we would be leaving by 7.30pm to take a little nap refusing person to bed.

However, despite all of this, he was mega cute in his jacket and his little shoes. He loved the attention of the ladies and played a vital role in reducing his parents alcohol consumption…..no free champs for us after the ceremony….did I mention we were in the car park instead??

So, in summary, I guess I still think babies and kids at weddings are mega cute, right?

‘Muuumm…what are you doing to me!’

All nice and happy before the bride arrived

‘I could do this for hours Mum.’….dummy working on the nap refusing grizzler here!

*See’s pretty lady* *spits out dummy* *big smiles* ‘how you doing?’

 

Keep Calm and Carry On Mum

 

 

1st Christmas, 1st Birthday & Moving House!

 

‘He had no idea what was going on, so the time, effort and money on balloons, wrapping presents and party food was purely for the benefit of the adults in his life’

As if Christmas 2014 wasn’t out of the ordinary enough (little man arriving on 24th December – Christmas EVE!), Christmas 2015 kept us on our toes even further. We completed on a new house, moved all our possessions out of one house, into the grandparents’ house and then back out again into our new home. All while having 3 family Christmas celebrations and a very special first birthday! Phew…..The surprises really have kept coming, here’s what I’ve noticed along the way…

Moving house
– When planning to move house I had accepted that all packing would have to be done after baby’s bedtime, unfortunately, I was not proven wrong! Packing + a 1 year old or unpacking + a 1 year is a no go. There were a couple of times when I thought he might enjoy feeling some bubble wrap and watching me box stuff up….no, no, no, he enjoyed trying to eat the bubble wrap and trying to climb inside any open boxes.
– Any attempt to pack or unpack during a nap time resulted in a significantly shortened or non-existent nap time – how do they know you have nap time plans??
– I realised that I was actually a million times more organised than I thought I was. When the nappies, baby grows and Calpol etc are suddenly not in the ‘right’ place, stress levels increase! Its either in a box, or been put in a safe place in a state of exhaustion never be found again.
– A new set of stairs yet to be set up with a stair gate is the most exciting thing your baby will ever have come across, nothing is exciting enough to distract from the enticement of the stairs!
– Baby will find any tiny piece of packing supplies, little bits of plastic, cardboard, bubble wrap on the floor and attempt to eat. He will then pick up on your reaction every time he does this and start ‘pretending’ to pick up imaginary choking hazards from the floor and pretend to place in his mouth……..

Baby’s Christmas and 1st Birthday

Baby: ‘HELP ME!’

– 1 year olds are generally not a fan of Father Christmas, he’s very red, he’s very hairy and ultimately a strange, large man, normally in a room full of other nervous looking babies and over enthusiastic parents trying to get their babies into the ‘Christmas spirit’. All the babies want to do it try and pull the lights of the nearby Christmas tree!
– The toy I was most excited about, was not the toy the baby wanted to play with. The baby wanted to play with the balloons or the wrapping paper.                                                        – Pools of dribble from the baby’s mouth actually work in quite an artistic way on the new Aquadoodle he got for Christmas.
– Although a little puzzled at first by day 4 of opening presents baby had the hang of ripping paper and enjoyed it so much that he may have even enjoyed other people’s presents
– In my experience Christmas dinner was a hit and all other meals in comparison have obviously not quite lived up to the standard, after turkey, gravy and pigs in blankets it’s hard to go back to pasta and mashed up veg.
– Baby’s birthday and Christmas was just like any other day to him, he still poo’ed, he still woke up too early (I guess that is a given at Christmas with kids!), he still napped, he still got grumpy when he wasn’t allowed to hold my iPhone and when we’ forced’ him to get in his car seat. He had no idea what was going on, so the time, effort and money on balloons, wrapping, presents and party food was all purely for the adults benefit.
– Following up from the above, most of the new toys seemed to be very much for the adults benefit too! 24th December saw 3 grown men putting together the VTech Toot Toot Train Station while little man was fast asleep. Only for him to wake up and destroy it in seconds.

Engineering genius?

– A later bedtime, because of arriving home late from family Christmas celebrations, did not lead to a later wake up time. ‘HELLO’ 5am on Boxing Day, when everyone else is still in bed, sleeping off the turkey, chocolate and alcohol. Also, unfortunately Prosecco does not possess any  time travel capabilities in which Mummy get’s extra hours in bed.                                                                                                                                – Last, but not least Chocolate is good and giving it to baby for the first time has been one of my favourite parenting moments so far (the simple things hey?) – he loves it and goes mental for a milky button!

 

Exploring, risk and being a cheeky monkey!

When did my baby become so god dam mischievous!! One minute he’s a little ball of squish, who you can hold in your arms for hours, the next minute he is trying to put his head in the toilet.

I feel like I already know why mums fear silence. If I can’t hear a VTech jingle or the bashing of building blocks then there is normally cause for concern.

Things are relatively safe around the house so if I need to run to the loo, I’m not worried (although I’m now normally followed, watched and climbed on). However, hearing no noise coming from the other room is frightening…what is he doing in there!!

Pulling up on furniture is a much loved pastime and of course nothing naughty about that. In fact I am quite pleased he has finally mastered it. When he first started crawling I did let him go for it & try unsuccessfully a few times. I wanted to see what he could do…..one bruise and red looking chin later and I was done seeing what he could do. The coffee table and TV were then surrounded by cushions until further notice.
Baby takes great pleasure in wiping his snotty nose on the sofa and leaving a snail like trail as he goes (any tips for removing snot from fabric sofas would be greatly appreciated!). Which is surprising as he’s obsessed with tissues. Wherever I hide the tissue box, he will find it and proceed to pulling every single new tissue out of the box, then pulling them apart. I’ve got to admit, again, like the practising pulling up, I might have sat back and watched a few times. The concentration on his face is pretty cute and who said you needed paint and light projectors for baby sensory. It’s all fun and games until he tries to eat the tissues and I remember I’m the one who it picking up the mess.

I probably could have stopped this…

My little man seems to hate organisation, the stacking cups are not allowed to be put away, they must be destroyed. The hide & squeak eggs are not allowed to be put in there designated spaces, that must be destroyed. The DVDs are not allowed on the shelf which we complacently thought he wouldn’t be able to get too. Books are not allowed to be stacked on the coffee table and Mummy is definitely not allowed to tidy away any toys before baby has gone to bed, the toy box must be tipped over and destroyed!

The baby is definitely pushing the boundaries and trying to figure out what he can do with his body and what he can find in the world around him. On the one hand, I’m loving it but it definitely keeps me on edge. As a parent I like to think I land slightly more towards the relaxed side but whether my nerves would deal with my toddler doing this (rock climbling baby) ,is another matter!

In fact most of the time I feel a lot more comfortable with this….

……and relax

I don’t want to be a ‘hover’ parent, but there is definitely a fine line between our little ones exploring, being very cheeky or being way to close to hurting themselves in the process of both.

I read an article about ‘risky play’ not long ago and it was quite interesting. It recommended that children need some sort of ‘risky play’, it argued that children who were allowed to take risks had improved ‘reaction time in detecting risk, increased self-esteem and are less likely to takes risks related to sex and drugs as adolescents.’. Sounds good right, however it stated that ‘risky play’ includes climbing and jumping from a height, unsupervised play where a child could get lost, cycling fast down a hill, playing with knives, or playing near water or cliffs.

Hmm…….the cotton wall picture is looking rather appealing again. However, I hope I can stay on the relaxed side….as much as possible! On the other hand…..why am i worrying about this stuff when I am no where near having an adolescence. I’m failing at this relaxing thing before I’ve even started. I’m one step away from already trying to crack the babies facebook password years before he will even have thought of it. Oh the joys of parenthood!

Keep Calm and Carry On Mum

Should I let my child take more risks?

Luisa Dillner, The Guardian, Sunday 14th June 2015

I cried at the wildlife park today.

Today the little one and I went on a little adventure, just the two of us, to a local wildlife park.

It’s my last week before my maternity leave ends and it was going to be a long day at home while Daddy was a work so wanted (needed) to get out of the house.

  
We had a great time and baby adored the train ride, it was so cute! His little smiling face as we chugged around the track (or it might have been his excitement at stealing my sunglasses & trying several times to throw them overboard). Just looking at him, I felt tears unexpectantly, rolling down my face!

Instantly, I really wished little man would give me the sunglasses back and actually let me wear them while he sat on my lap. A very cute 5 year old and his mum had taken an interest in the baby and his smiley face. So we’re most probably noticing his crazy mum looking a bit mental & finding the train ride emotional.

It was his face, his warmth (i’d chosen to wear a t-shirt in 12 degree ‘heat’), how much he was enjoying it & knowing that soon I’d be going back to work & wouldn’t get to spend every day experiencing these moments.

I was being a massive sap about it and embarrassing myself but maternal emotions got the better of me. Could have just as easily been the 3 visits to baby changing within an hour and a lack of sleep I guess?

To add to it all we went for a nappy change in which little man pulled, tangled and screwed up my hair, then he fell asleep and I become the crazy lady pounding the pavements around the meerkats, with wild hair and smudgy mascara.

Now let’s pull myself together & Keep Calm & Carry On