What We Wore Wednesday

I made a pact recently with myself that on my days off I am going to try and make a conscious effort to wear something other than my staple jeans and a t-shirt or vest top (or spruce up said staple outfit a bit) in an attempt to make myself feel more human and also more confident.  We all know if you look good you usually feel good too.  Anyway, since one of my days off coincides with Transatlantic Blonde's "What I Wore Wednesday" I thought I'd link up and take part.  I'm also going to try and include Luca in it too so shall be calling our posts "What We Wore Wednesday" (hope that's allowed?)

So here it is.....(excuse the head chopped off, will try and get better ones next week and also I know it's late, shhh!)

Swithen's Farm

We recently visited Swithen's Farm in Rothwell, Leeds for a cheap, fun day out. Swithen's Farm is a family run working farm that has opened its barn doors for the public to visit. The free of charge, open farm area has sheep, cows, pigs, chickens and even rabbits and guinea pigs to see, stroke and even feed for 25p. The main idea of the open farm is that it aids in teaching children about their food, where it comes from and how it is produced. This for me is fabulous. As a reluctant meat eater (I am not gonna get into it or else this post will be ridiculously long) I like the idea of having somewhere to take Luca when he is older to explain to him how his food gets to his plate, so he has a greater appreciation and understanding of what he is eating. However, this isn't forced upon the children so for those who maybe don't like this idea you can just take them there to see all the lovely animals instead. Although the farm area is not massive, when it's free who can complain? Plus there were lots of friendly baby animals to have a good stroke of, or even a kiss in my case.

It wasn't so bad after all...

So as you regular readers will probably be aware I went back to work just over two weeks ago. I had not been looking forward to it as you can read here and here but it turns out all my fears and doubts were for nothing, so far it has gone better than I'd ever imagined.

My first day back at work was also the first day I would be leaving Luca at the child minders. That morning however went brilliantly, we were ready with time to spare and I when I dropped him off he went happily and I was brave and didn't cry.  Ok, I may have shed a tear or two but not until someone sent me a kind tweet, yes I'm looking at you Isadora Watts!! Apart from that little lapse though, I was composed all day.  My worry that Luca may not settle at the child minders couldn't have been more misplaced, he absolutely loves going and has bonded so well with one of his minders that I'm sure he'd rather stay there than come home some days. They take him on little trips out and play lots of games everyday. He couldn't be happier.  Even better is the fact that when I pick Luca up on an evening he is in a lovely mood, albeit very tired and is now in bed and asleep for 6.20!!  The first time in his life he's ever been in bed before 7, ever.  The down side to this however, is that he now wakes up before 6 usually, even on a non-work day.  Despite these new early morning wake up calls he is sleeping better than he was before (not perfectly but better) and he is in bed earlier too, leaving me more time to spend with Ant on an evening. Bonus!

The Damn Dummy

I always said pre-child that when I eventually had my own I wouldn't give them a dummy. I had various reasons but the main two being the damage it does to their developing teeth and mainly the dependence children usually develop upon them. Then I became a mum.

Luca had his dummy from around 10 weeks old. I eventually caved and gave him one when he started feeding every two hours for about an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, therefore leaving me an hour maximum between feeds to try get things done. Most of the time he was suckling for the comfort and there would be times when he would just be latched on for the sake of being latched on. So the dummy came into play.

To begin with I was astounded at the difference it made. He settled and soothed much quicker with it and it gave me a little more time between feeds if I needed. I was a convert.

New Things April 2013

Just realised I never posted our new things for April, I apologise for the delay. They aren't too exciting this month as I have follow up posts on most of them to come and I've been so busy this month. Anyway, I digress, here they are...

 New Thing 15: This mummy and daddy took me to the child minders for the first time whilst they went to work. Mummy was very worried about me but she didn't need to be, I love it. I have made some new friends there and they take me places and do nice things with me, even if they do make me wear pink hats!!

Copyright Buttercup Lane Childminders

Bank Holiday

This weekend, but mostly the bank holiday Monday, has been absolutely perfect for me and mine. We didn't do anything spectacular but for me it was just chuffing brilliant. As your all probably aware Monday was an absolutely glorious day, so we decided to get outside. Living in a flat means we don't have any outdoor space of our own so we tend to go places and do things. I've mentioned Temple Newsam in posts previously but i'll quickly reiterate, it is just across the fields from my parents house so has been a regular haunt for us as a family since I was little. It is a beautiful place with gorgeous views, gardens, woods and walks, a rare breeds farm and the big old house to look around too. We tend to go every year for a family and friends BBQ in the summer and take the dogs for long walks there too.

We packed up a picnic and set off on our way. Once we had found a spot for our blanket and parked our bums out came the food. Luca loved eating outside and being able to pick from the food scattered around the blanket for him. After our lunch we played throwing and rolling with the balls we'd brought and then blew bubbles.

He also loved rolling around in the sun with very minimal clothing on before eventually falling asleep in his pushchair whilst we went for a stroll to the ice cream van.

Once the evening started to creep in we packed up and went to my parents for our first BBQ of the year.

See, nothing special but our time spent together just being a family with minimal distraction was the perfect way to spend the bank holiday.

What did you all get up to this bank holiday?

Ciao!

Contemplating the work/home life balance

I recently posted here that I am not looking forward to going back to work VERY soon and that I would love to be able to be a stay at home mummy and look after Luca everyday until he goes to school.  At the point of writing that post I genuinely thought most of my negativity was related to leaving Luca for 3 days a week.  I do not relish the thought of handing my son over to another person to raise and care for 3 days a week despite them being absolutely lovely people.  In my eyes he is my son and that is my job, however it is also my job to provide for him the best life possible and this means returning to work.  Yet as my first day back creeps ever closer I have realised that is only one of a few reasons I am not looking forward to returning to work.  

There is the fear, the fear with work thrown into the balance I will lose balance.  I have just about managed to find a nice routine to our days where things usually tick over pretty smoothly.  Everyday I keep my little boy happy, entertained, clean(ish), healthy and fed.  I also manage to make sure that as a family we all have clean clothes to wear, food in the fridge and a clean tidy house to live in (ok not always but most of the time).  I do all of this but sometimes only just.  Until your a mum I don't think you fully comprehend just how much work this entails and some days are a struggle just to get through without squeezing in household tasks as well, for example teething days.  I am genuinely fearful that once I am working three full days a week that this balancing act will just fall apart. 

PAINt-balling!

My little brother turned 21 a few weeks ago. 

After celebrating sensibly with a family meal we decided we need to do something fun too.

Frazer decided on paint balling.

We booked it with Harrogate Paintball Centre. It's easy to find just minutes from the A1.

We woke up on the Saturday morning and there was snow everywhere, but despite that the centre was still open. Crazy old us got out the thermals and set off on our way.

When we arrived we were checked in and chose and paid for the package we wanted. There are 2 main ones, 300 paintballs for £35 or 600 for £45.

We were then given our oh so glamorous overalls and masks, including padding for the boob area for us ladies and taken to have our safety talk.

New Things March 2013

 This one is a bit later than usual. I seem to have been too busy to do much blogging lately. Anyway this month I think I've outdone Luca on the new things and a few of them have to be some of my more exciting new things so far this year.

So here they are.

 New Thing 11/12: This month I learnt a few new tricks but my favourite ones are waving bye-bye to people and playing peek-a-boo.

New Thing 13/14: It was Easter this month. It was my first Easter and I got lots of presents from people. Some people bought me clothes or toys but some people bought me CHOCOLATE!!!! I don't know why Mummy has never given me this before, it is yummy yummy yummy!

My 1st Mother's Day!

I realise this post is very late but I've been having too much fun with my family recently to get any blogging done. Anyway I thought I'd share with you all how my 1st ever Mother's Day went.