The Gallery: Me!

Have I mentioned that I love, love, LOVE The Gallery?
I do, I really do.

This week, Tara's prompt is... 'Me.'
originally, I thought about taking new pictures of things that are important to me, and make me who I am (my sketchbook, my iPod, the Little Dude & The Mr & The Dog...) but, as is normal, time got away from me, so instead, I went through my old photos, picked some favourites, and you get this:

From left to right, Me =  a fiancee, a mummy, a friend to many, a lover of fashion (that's me lusting over Karen Millen pretties in Bournemouth), an arty crafty chick (not really evident in this pic, but it's the one I use on my columnist bio at ArtFire, so sort of makes sense), a girlie girl (feeling the hello kitty love in Leicester Square), a boozy floozy (though also a complete light weight since making a baby), a music lover (that's me at Hyde Park waiting for Blur to rock the bejeesus out of the place.), and a domestic goddess. Well, trying to be.

So there you are, that's me.

Who are you?

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The Darkside of Babyled Weaning...

Let me start by saying, I love Babyled Weaning.

It's definitely one of the best parenting decisions I've made. (Ooh, that was a scary sentence to type - check me out all grown up. yikes.)


We've been super lucky in that The Little Dude took to it like the proverbial duck to water - happily chowing down on anything he could get his hands on. (And if that happened to be whatever mummy & daddy were trying to eat, all the better. We can get round to teaching table manners and decorum at a later date... right?)

Now, we're at a point where he basically has mini portions of whatever we're having, which is great as it encourages Mummy & Daddy to eat lots of veggies & generally err on the side of healthy and nutritious (honestly couldn't tell you the last time we had Chinese takeaway!), but it also presents a little problem.
As you more experienced mummys will know, babies need a healthy diet, but they also need lots of calories.
Which means: full. fat. everything.

Just to quantify that, I have diligently bought reduced fat healthy options of everything other than chocolate & cake (if you're gonna do it, do it right.) for as long as I can remember. Now, my fridge is choc-full of full fat cheese, full fat houmous, WHOLE milk...


And I know, I know - I could abstain, keep buying the healthy versions too, but seriously - Have you tasted full fat Philadelphia? I always thought the skinny version was pretty great, but there is absolutely no comparison.
It's lucky really that the full fat revolution coincides with The Little Dude mobilising and therefore my spending much of everyday running interference between him & impending doom, otherwise, I would surely be the size of a house.

And that, friends, is the darkside of Babyled Weaning.  And possibly the real culprit behind the curse of the mummy tummy.  Maybe.

What do you think? What did you/are you secretly indulging in under the guise that you 'buy it for the baby'? - own up! (I won't tell, promise.)

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Music to mother to...

Dear CD Producing Bigwigs,

It seems to have escaped your attention, but there are babies being born, and therefore mothers being created every. single. day.
It follows then, that musical tastes in the mother demographic, are constantly evolving.
Or to put it another way, not all mummy's are fans of Ronan Keating, Westlife, Michael Buble et al.
And dear God, John Barrowman?! Exactly who told you that would make a perfect gift for mum?
*shudder*
I did not abandon my love of noisy Indie Rock and/or sign up to the easy-listening-middle-of-the-road fanclub the moment my waters broke, nor do I intend to anytime soon.

And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.
Actually, I'm certain, if for no other reason than I can't think of a single mum I know who'd have any use at all for a Barrowman CD other than an overpriced coaster.

To be fair though, I don't think there's any CD that could be dubbed 'the perfect gift for mother's day'.  Unless it's a subliminal message affair that instantly lulls a stressed out baby to sleep, or miraculously sheds several pounds from your mummy tummy while you sleep.  Then maybe we could talk.

Fact is, Mothers, are as individual as the children the bear, and the idea of a 'one size fits all' collection of songs, is just plain silly.

So please, just stoppit.

Many thanks,
The Little Dude's Mummy.
(for whom a nice card & some flowers will do just fine, thank you please.)

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The Gallery: Beauty

Tara, over at Sticky Fingers has had a rather brilliant idea for all of us snap-happy bloggers - The Gallery. Basically, she's posting weekly prompts to inspire photo-taking - anyone can take part, regardless of skills or experience - photos can be new or old, anything goes! Click here to visit Tara's blog & find out more.

This week's prompt is 'Beauty', so of course I thought of sharing a photo of The Little Dude, but figured that was a bit of a given, so instead, you get a shot a shot of my beautiful Daffodils.


(Which The Little Dude bought for me- with a little help from The Daddy & the good people at Marks & Spencer.)

I love Daffodils. They're cheerful, simple, sunshiney, and they renew my faith that spring actually is on the way. That's a thing of beauty right there.

The Mr & The Little Dude got these for me at the weekend & they make me smile every time I catch them out the corner of my eye.

Over to you.
What's your idea of beauty?

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The good, the bad & the just plain weird of cBeebies...

So as you know, The Little Dude has been a poorly bunny since Friday. (He does appear to be lots better this morning - but I don't want to jinx it, staying home & taking it easy today just to be a million percent sure!) Anyway, the last 5 days have been spent mostly curled up on the sofa, with him on my lap in various states of half-awake, watching cBeebies.
We don't usually watch an awful lot of TV - just In The Night Garden (because Dylan loves it) & Mister Maker (because, well, you know why...) so three days of watching it more or less all day, has been something of an education. Here are my thoughts.
The Good:

I Can Cook. Real kids, making reasonably real food. Good stuff. And although I could live without Katie’s ‘re-cap songs’ (cringe!), I could see myself recreating her recipes with LD in years to come. (Unlike Big Cook Little Cook, we’ll get to them in a minute.)

Charlie & Lola. We actually really very love this. The animation is quite kitsch & old school – and I like that it doesn’t dumb down the English language for little people. Thumbs up.

Timmy Time. It may just be because I love Wallace & Grommit, or I might have been brainwashed by maybe the catchiest theme tune ever, but I like it.

Chuggington. Not one of my favourites (let’s face it – it’s just Thomas Tank for the next generation, right?), but the little man seems to love it- I think because it’s really bright & colourful. And again, I challenge you not to get the theme song stuck in your head.

The Bad:

Show Me Show Me. Does. My. Head. In. The girl presenter, looks like she’s dying inside (I’m a classically trained actress don’t you know – how did it come to this??!), her male friend could only ever have been a kid’s presenter (really, could he be more enthusiastic about everything?!), and I’m sure it’s a huge thrill for the parents of the children who get to go ‘Show Me Show Me …Penelope!’, but personally, I just find it annoying. And Penelope is a rubbish cartoon anyway. The LD generally zones out when it comes on, so I’m guessing he’s not a fan either.

Big Cook Little Cook. What fresh hell is this? The best café in town? Really? When you have to wait God knows how long for little cook to whizz away & get half the ingredients to make whatever delicacy Big Cook’s book reckons you’ll love? And really, they may differ in size, but they are equally enormously annoying. And unlike Katie – their ‘recipes’ really are rubbish in the main. Last time I checked, ketchup wasn’t an ‘ingredient’. Richard Herring sums them up better than I ever could. (Go have a read, hilarious!)

The Just Plain Weird:

Waybuloo. The jury’s out on this one. It seems to catch the little man’s attention, and I guess the characters are cute in a weird big-eyed kind of way, but what’s with the pigeon English? Is this the best example for ‘cheebies’ that are learning to talk? I’m not so sure.

Dirt Girl World. I thought I’d caught LD’s fever first time I saw this one. It’s just odd. I’m all for teaching children about growing veggies, and taking care of the planet & such – but I’d prefer the little man to join The Green Balloon club than watch this weirdness.
So yes, a mixed bag, to say the least! I’ll be glad when we can get back to filling most of the day with music & playing & going to the park & stuff – I fear too much more cBeebies may melt my tiny little brain!

What do you think?
Do your little ones have any favourites that make your head hurt? 

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This time last year...

This year, in her world famous* writing workshop, amongst other things, Josie asks us "What were you doing this time last year".  Well, let's see...

This time last year, I was very very pregnant. (The LD was due 10th April. He actually made an appearance on the 20th- longest 10 days of life!).
I was lucky, in that I had a 'nice little bump', or so people kept telling me.  Personally, I felt like a freakin' whale, and by this time last year, I was perpetually exhausted. (No change there then.)

This time last year, I was getting ready to finish up at work.  I was neurotically making lists and cheat sheets and post it note after post it note of helpful tit-bits for my replacement.  I hated the idea of handing over my responsibilities & my execs & all their little quirks.  I truly did have every intention of going back.

This time last year, I spent most weekends shopping with the Mr, picking out teeny tiny little babygrows and hats and sleepsuits. Every purchase brought squees of 'loooook, it's SO lickle!!'.  Never got old.

This time last year I was reading about my pregnancy a lot.  I got almost obsessive about knowing how big my baby was getting in relation to fruit & vegetables. (16 weeks, about the same as an avocado - 27 weeks - a head of cauliflower.)  I blame the hormones.

This time last year, I needed help to remove myself from the sofa.  And God help me if I tried to sit on the floor.

This time last year, I spent a lot of time convincing myself that labour couldn't be that bad. Could it? (Yes, it could, you deluded fool.)

This time last year, I had no idea how to change a nappy.

This time last year, I had no idea just how little sleep a human being can survive on.

This time last year, I'd never even heard the word Tombliboo, much less knew what one was.

This time last year, I hadn't even met the little monster who now simultaneously rules my life, and makes it feel complete.

What a difference a year makes.

How about you?  What were you up to this time last year?


...don't forget to take a reip to the shiny new-look Sleep is for the Weak & show the other entries some love- there's always a whole bunch of good stuff to read.

(*The world being that of a select group of Mummy Bloggers who think it's cool. Which is good enough for me!)

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The best things in life are free.

Yep, they really are you know.
The South's most rockingest bump of the moment, Miss Beetroot & Gherkins, tagged me sometime ago in a meme to illustrate that very point, and this is me finally getting around to doing it.  (I always get there in the end!)  In short, I have to share with you, good readers, my 10 favourite things that cost nothing.  So here we go...


1. My family.  More specifically, my man, my baby boy, and my dog.  My little posse are all I really need to be happy.  I forget that sometimes, but then one of them will do something to make me smile & I am swiftly reminded.  Love them.


2. Laughing.  There are few better feelings than an uncontrolable, unstoppable, fit of giggles.  The ones that have you gasping for air, hugging your aching ribs & crossing your legs so as not to pee your pants.  In the words of the great Dick Van Dyke, I love to laugh.


3. Cuddles.  From the Mr, the Little Dude, chums, other peoples kiddlies, random strangers on the stroke of midnight at New Years... all good.  The best though, is a big group squish with my two best boys before we get up in the morning.  The little dude curls up in between us & we sneak a few extra minutes of zzz's before facing the day.  No other feeling like it :)

4. Sunshine. I like winter, and I actually sort of love autumn - actually, I love the seasons and the changes they bring in general, but my favourite is a bright sunshiney day with clear blue skies save for an occassional candyfloss cloud.  You can't not smile on a day like that.


5. Birds singing.  I love little tweetie birds.  We get quite a nice variety in out garden and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to listen to them tweeting and chirping. And gooing in the case of the big fat wood pigeons with their fancy pants collars.  It must be a pretty good life being a birdy.  They're always cheerful.


6. Trips down memory lane.  You know, when you sit in with someone you love & a bottle of plonk & wind up just chattering about days gone by... 'Do you remember that time when...' blah blah blah.  I'm a nostalgic fool and I love to reminice.


7. Daydreaming.  In my former life, before boarding the good ship motherhood, I did *a lot* of office jobs.  And spent *many* a bored-out-of-my-pretty-head hour gazing out of the window pondering what I might be doing instead if I scored a huge lotto win.  Or if I happened to bump into Johnny Depp in Cafe Nero.  Or if Simon Cowell happened to be in the pub when I was singing karaoke and insisted on signing me up right there and then.  You know, normal stuff.


8. Sitting indoors, cosy & warm, watching the rain.  I hate walking in the rain (doesn't everyone?), but I love watching it pour down when I'm safe & dry inside.


9. Rainbows.  Just one of the most pointless, random, and yet utterly beautiful things ever. Well done nature, well done.


10. Watching the Little Dude sleep.  Particuarly when he crashes out on top of me.  One of the best feelings in the world is a tiny baby cuddling up to you, getting all comfy and squishy, and falling asleep.  I don't think I've ever seem anything more content in all my life.

As is the way with memes. I'm supposed to tag some lovelies to carry on the happy - but as I've left it so long, everyone I know has probably done it.  So, if you haven't, consider yourelf tagged & come back & leave me a coment with a link to your post :)

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The surrealism of Motherhood...

The very lovely Carly over at Wives & Daughters, is holding a fantastic carnival, with a bunch of great prizes up for grabs, all about people's top 10 surreal mummy moments. To be perfectly honest, as a first time mummy, everything is still a bit surreal most days (even now, nearly 10 months on!), but I've narrowed it down, and here's my top ten...

1. Laying in the bath at 8 months pregnant (having had help from the Mr to get in there in the first place), watching my bump literally wriggling - less movement in the last trimester? Yeah.  Tell that to the Little Dude.

2. Coming round after my emergency c-section to see the Mr looking like an extra from Scrubs, with a tiny little baby in his arms and me asking 'is he ours?'.  (He was.)

3. Day 3 - 4am feed - having been awake for about 26 hours, I was sat with the Little Dude breastfeeding and me watching god-awful infomercials, thinking who on earth watches this junk let alone buys it? And then thinking, ooh, actually, that looks pretty good...

4. The first time I phoned the doctors to book LD an appointment (for his first round of jabs).  Saying the words 'I'd like to book an appointment for my son', out loud, to a complete stranger - suddenly made everything very real, and a bit odd.  In a good way.

5. The first time we left him with someone else for a whole day.  We had tickets to see Blur in Hyde Park, I had been looking forward to it forEVER, but spent all day feling like I'd lost a limb.  So surreal.  And just when I managed to stop being a big sap, and start to relax & enjoy myself, I found a small felt fish in my bag which nearly made me blub.

6. The first time the LD rolled over and pushed himself up.  I squealed.  I cheered. I took a dozen photos. I phoned the Mr at work and gushed incoherently. I so wasn't prepared for that insane rush of pride & joy over something so small!

7. Having cBeebies tunes ingrained in my brain.  We don't even watch much TV (LD prefers to rock out to music of the loud & noisy variety), but I have lost count of the times I've caught myself singing the 'munch munch munch' song while getting lunch ready.

8. What has become affectionately known in our house as 'the Tombliboo incident.' 
We were Christmas shopping, and came across some cute lil Night Garden Beanies - I picked out one of each, but oh no - there was no Tombliboo Eee! I stood, in a very busy shop, with an armful of Night Garden beanies, and shouted to the Mr 'Babe, can you ask if they've got anymore Tombliboo Eee's - because there's no point in buying them if we can't get a full set of Tombliboos!'  Oh. The. Shame.

9. Other Mummys.  I still find it quite surreal that I can start a conversation & chat for hours with a complete stranger purely on the basis that we're both mummys.  Those tiny little people who rule our lives are quite the ice-breaker, no?

10. The mush factor.  The first gummy grin.  The consequent toothy smiles.  The tinkly baby chuckles.  The chubby armed cuddeles.  The 'kisses' (ie: open mouth, plant on mummy's face with a hefty portion of dribble).  I had no idea the power those little things would have to turn me to a complete mushy mess of goo.
Love it though :)

And there we are.
Ask me again next week & I'll probably have chalked up a whole bunch of new surreal moments. But that's all part of the fun of being a mummy.

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Hello again Blogger!

So, I'm feeling a little sheepish, but here's the thing - The Little Dude & I have moved back to blogger.  I know, I know, I am a huge pain in the bottom, and I am super duper sorry, I really am!
But Wordpress and I, well, we just never really clicked... we weren't compatible... we wanted different things... we grew apart.
I'm sorry I ever doubted you blogger - and look - you've even gone and made yourself all pretty for me - with your spanky new 'pages' for me to fill up with bits and pieces. Oh the fun we'll have! 

And as for you, dear readers, oh how I love you.  And I'm truly sorry to keep messing you around, and I love that you keep coming with me, but please, pretty please,  could I ask you, just one last time, to resubscribe to the new RSS feed, and/or become a follower again?  There are pretty new buttons over there>>> just begging to be clicked!! (And that twinkly cake over there <<< is just for YOU.)


And although I am still tweaking my pretty new blogger palace, I faithfully PROMISE, I won't move again.
Honest.
Love you guys :) ♥

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Awww. We've all been there.

The Little Monster & I nipped into Co-op earlier on our way back from the post office - to grab some milk, an apple for the Little Dude & certainly not a packet of Rich Tea Cream Fingers for me. Oh no.
(Foxes, need a biscuit connoisseur to do you a super blog review? I'm all over it.)

Anyway, we were stood behind a man, about the same age as my Mr, who I'd guess, on a good day, would be quite attractive. Today wasn't a good day though. His clothes were crumpled, his stubble was way past the point of being designer, he had major bedhead going on, and his blood-shot eyes were like two holes in a bewildered looking head.

Then I saw what he was paying for & it all became clear.

A pack of teeny tiny newborn nappies.

Awww.
I wanted to give him a big cuddle & tell him it gets better, but the Little Dude & his new found grab-things-from-comfort-of-stroller skills were working on toppling a precariously high tower of Digestives, so I decided against it.
Hopefully he'll get a few hours sleep at some point in the next few weeks :)

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It's official...

...I am now a full time mummy.

Actually, it's been official since last month when I took a deep breath & told my boss I wasn't coming back after my maternity leave, but I haven't had the chance to blog about it until now.

I haven't been this particular combo of super excited & completely terrified since I found out I was pregnant in the first place. On one hand, it's incredibly liberating. It's such a relief to not have to worry about finding great childcare / missing out on important stuff / re-learning my job - and I *love* knowing that I can spend the next couple of years just enjoying watching the little dude grow up.
But on the other side of the coin, I have no job. (Well, not a paying one anyway!)
It's the first time since I was 15 that I haven't had a job.
Eeek.

Don't get me wrong, the plan is not to be a 'lady of leisure' (ha! does that apply to any mummy??), I am actually hoping to be classing myself as a WAHM, or even a Mumpreneur very soon (balls in the air... plans forming!), as we do need for me to be bringing in *some* de niro.
It's a bit of a leap of faith, but it feels right. And very exciting.

So, if anyone hears of great opportunities to work from a home, point me in the right direction if you please!
Every little helps! :D

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Settling in...

Oooh, first post in my new wordpress home - like what I've done with the place?

I don't really want to get into the whys & wherefores (spelling calamity!) of why I decided to move, because in all honesty, anyone who's not me, probably won't care, but at the same time, I feel like I should probably offer *some* explanation to those of you have kindly followed the removal truck.

Basically, I was feeling a little exposed.  Over at Blogger, my mummy blog was all connected to my business blog - same username & all, with no way of separating the two - and while I'm happy to have anyone and everyone read my business related blog, I'm a bit choosier about who reads the personal stuff.

This place gives me just enough anonymity to feel comfortable.

Now if I can just figure out where everything goes and which buttons do what, we'll be all good!

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where has the time gone?

so technically, i'm a little late in starting this blog, as my 'new arrival' is already 5 weeks & 3 days old! (first thing i learned about babies? they make time fly!!) that said, i'm getting used to being perpetually behind with everything, so i suppose i may aswell start as i mean to go on!

anyway. there are two main reasons i want to blog about my baby:
1. therapy! :P - or to put it another way, it's a good way to babble about all my new mum discoveries, tribulations & delights without completely boring all my non-mummy friends to death! plus, hopefully it'll help make sure my brain doesn't completely melt into a gurgly-goo-goo mess!

2. motherhood is easily the biggest & scariest learning curve i've ever faced. don't get me wrong, i am absolutely loving it - but that's not to say that i haven't had (several) moments of complete despair where i've been convinced i'm the worst mum ever & i'm never going to get any good at it!!
all the helpful (yet often completely conflicting!!) advice you get from health visitors, midwives, doctors, strangers on the street, old ladies in the supermarket & well meaning friends & family can be utterly overwhelming and confusing.
if you make the mistake of reading every book you can lay your hands on (like i did!!), it can be even worse!
i'd never claim to be offering any sort of 'expert advice' (i'm very new to this remember!) - but so long as my little man is happy & healthy, i figure i'm doing a decent job - and if reading about my trial & error proceses helps someone even less further along even a tiny bit, or just makes them smile in a moment of despair, then that makes me happy :)

so that's the motivation for the blog.
i have no idea what i'll end up posting, because every day is completely unpredictable & totally different to the last.

but to be honest, i think that's part of the fun :)

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