We picked up a paddling/ball pool from Tesco for just £5 earlier this month and this weekend Baby A had a play in it. He can’t quite sit up yet without help – but he seemed to like chilling out in the pool with his colourful balls.
I am sure this will be a great investment for the summer and it even has its own sunshade.
What is your garden fun essential for your little ones?
On my way back home from the fantastic Keelham Farm Shop today (where I spent many pounds on lovely fresh meat) and as I passed through Low Lane in Queensbury, I spotted an amazing sign outside someone’s house saying cupcakes. I screeched to a halt and dashed over the road to find Coach House Cupcakes in the kitchen of Maria.
She has been making cakes for about a month and the ones we had – Chocolate Orange and Lemon and Ginger, were delicious. If you are passing by – then make a pit stop. She is open every day from 11.00am. Find her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CoachHouseCupcakes?ref=ts&fref=ts.
Normal…. I remember, a few weeks into being a mum, wailing saying to a friend “I just want things to get back to normal”. Said friend just looked me dead in the eyes and said… “there is no normal anymore.”
They felt like the words of doom to me in my (then) state of mind – exhausted, anxious and a little bit lost. I had always been in control of my life and managed to organise everything – and I mean everything.
In my first 2 months as a mummy it felt like everything was turned upside down and I wondered what normal would look like once I came out the other side.
Normal for me used to be being a few steps ahead of everything. I had in mind the appointments and social events for the week, for me and The Boy. Knew where to grab the cheapest and best grocery shopping, had planned out the weeks meals and what books needed to go back to the library, did a little think each night about the next day. I went belly dancing on a Tuesday, met up with a friend for drinks/food once during the week and usually have at least one night out at the weekend. I pottered away hours making cards, planning craft projects and whipping up all sort of meals in the kitchen. I also ploughed through a book a week usually.
4 weeks into mummyhood…. Library fines were stacking up, my shopping took place in one supermarket and cost about 30% more and I had no idea what I was doing from one day to the next.
I wish this had all been ok at the time, but I felt worried; worried about how to cope, anxious about whether I could get everything done that I needed to…. and I mean really, what needed doing apart from feeding and caring for my Little A? As soon as I accepted that…. things did feel a bit more normal.
So the new normal is now whatever my gorgeous little boy needs and I fit in around that… which makes me very happy and more than a little frustrated at times. The adjustment to parenthood means that I am still trying to work out who I now am… a sum of my former parts and a whole lot of new things.
I used to read a couple of books and month and 5.5 months into Mummyhood am still struggling with book number 3. I used to be obsessed with food – shopping for it, preparing it, eating it, thinking about it. My signature dishes have changed from elaborate multi-ingredient dishes, to things like pasta and pesto and salad with the fridge contents chucked in. Socialising used to be drop of the hat plans with friends and family – and now I can count on my hands the amount of nights out I have had….
The new normal…. is still normalising and I am still adjusting too. The enormity of parenthood sometimes overtakes me and makes me catch my breath and other times I feel like I might actually have a grip on what I am doing.
“I presume it gets easier” I said to the same friend… “No, you just get used to it” she said.
I haven’t talked alot of my impending nupitals since The Boy proposed in December 2011, but lots has been going on in terms of organisation. Eeek – the wedding is creeping ever closer and there is a list as long as my arm to get on with. I had plans to make all sorts of handmade items for the wedding – before I had a baby – now I am keeping things as simple as possible!
Our wedding invitations were collected from the printers this week and I LOVE them.
They were designed by Cath at Northern Lights Creative from our brief. The Boy loves The Beatles (as do I) and music in general. You may have seen our annual festival Pleasantfest on here (click here to see how it plays out!) and we would like our wedding to have the same relaxed theme. We did toy with the idea of VIP passes or tickets for the wedding – but that has been done quite a bit already. So we settled on a mini record in a sleeve. I think they look stonking and hopefully people will get a kick out of receiving them.
They are in keeping with our Save the Dates which we again done by the lovely Cath at Northern Lights – these were designed to look like bookmarks as I love reading.
Name: Rachel
Blog: Dinky Thinks
Twitter ID: @dinkythinks
Height: 5ft 5in
Hair: V Dark Brown
Eyes: Green
Is this your first blogging conference?
It is indeed – I suspect it will be more fun than the other conferences I have been to.
Are you attending both days?
I will be there with Baby A on the Friday and on my own on the Saturday… not sure how to manage bedtime on the Friday – he likes to be in bed by 6.30pm
What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2013?
Meeting all the lovely ladies who have kept me sane over the first 5 months of motherhood and working out how to get my blog looking its best.
What are you wearing?
God I haven’t even thought about that… will have to dig something out that looks clean and un-creasable!
What do you hope to gain from BritMums Live 2013?
Ways to keep on blogging and keep improving. As well as some technical skills… my pictures never look right.
Tell us one thing about you that not everyone knows
I once had an audition to be on a television programme, but I turned up on the wrong day and missed my big break 
Baby A has an bit of an animal and nature theme in his nursery. I wanted to share our tree with you. All you need is some sample paint pots and some wallpaper or patterned craft paper.
The Boy painted the trunk and made some foam templates for the leaves which we then stamped on randomly… but I reckon real fallen leaves would work really well.
The birds were made from a hand drawn template for the body and a separate template for the wings. I then stuck the wings on the bodies and you can either paste them onto the wall, or use foam squares.
We all love the tree – and might add some more birdies to it later on.
I was nervous about our first overseas trip with the little one. We probably wouldn’t have gone when he was so young, but my uncle passed away last year and we were heading to scatter his ashes in his favourite spot.
The last time I did the trip I was 4 months pregnant and it was tough on me emotionally and physically, I went via the Eurostar and we decided to board the train as we would have more time for my family to enjoy Baby A and we could move around more and watch the world go by.
Baby A had at least double the amount of luggage we did… I just didn’t know what to pack for him so I packed loads of clothes, blankets, toys and equipment. I found myself short on clean clothes once we got there!
The Eurostar and TGV through France kept Baby A amused and the motion seemed to calm him and he managed to get some power naps in… It was bedtime I was worried about, but we followed the usual routine of getting him cleaned up and into his sleepy clothes and he went off to sleep on our laps.
In Marseille, we stayed right by the train station in the Adagio Access St Charles – which was so handy when arriving late at night. They provided us with a great brand new travel cot and the apartment was well equipped and clean. There is a bus station right nearby and the tram runs from not far away.
Marseille is a sprawling metropolis with some fantastic architecture and a swanky harbour. We have spent many a holiday in the city and its environs so here are my top tips.
Calanque de Sormiou
nomnom
Baby A enjoyed munching on his previous unloved Sophie Le Giraffe…. definitely in keeping with the trip!
Something strange has happened in our house since the arrival of Baby A…. we have developed some new vocabulary… which makes no sense whatsoever.
Why does having a baby reduce you to strange words which seem to appear from nowhere?
What are you on about Mum?
The funny thing is, we speak to him in normal vocabulary usually, as I know how important it is to help him learn… but don’t even get me started on all the songs we make up for him….
“Are you a cheese and onion pasty? Are you a beef and onion pie…. I’m neither, I’m a sausage roll…” Yes we are going slightly insane in this house!
What crazy words or songs have you made up?
Phew this is a real get to know me session! Here goes
11 Answers
11 Random Facts
Lots of people I wanted to tag don’t have blogs but I am tagging the following lovely twitter peeps with blogs and less than 400 followers – well some have more than 400 – to carry this on:
I have to ask myself whether Sophie Le Giraffe is the most overrated toy ever?
She was touted as the must have toy for our ‘chiplet’ before the bump (christened Chiplet) became A. Some people were not keen on spending £15 on a squeaky giraffe, but one of my friends was keen to buy us something and we were in Hebden Bridge when I spotted Sophie in their cute shop ‘The Old Treehouse‘ (well worth a look in if you are in the area).
So off I trundled home, very pregnant and pleased that I had the must have item for my new baby. Apparently Sophie is the perfect colour, shape and material for babies to fall in love with and she is a great teething tool later on.
A…. is not so sure. When he first met her, he was very excited, but now greets her with something a little less than disdain….
A et Sophie
The lady at the local children’s centre asked if it was from the poundshop and was in shock on discovering her price! My friend’s dog thought it was a toy for him and I had to hide it away. The Boy hopes that A will never like Sophie since she has a very annoying squeak!
Sophie gets around…. everyone seems to have one…. from a lovely fellow blogger featuring on the fantastic ‘Whats in Your Change Bag’ feature on Make Do and Push to popping up in the film 3 Men and a Baby.
So who has a Sophie and is she an essential item in your parenting arsenal?
