Paper Mama - My favorite photo of June (so far!)

I took this about three hours ago. I love the sky - so blue and cloudy, it's been grey and muggy all day but cleared up late afternoon so I took the boy to the park. I love the green trees and the way the speaker stands frame Charlie (he's actually completely blocking the stage). BUT look at that pout! He was so intent on the blade of grass that he wouldn't smile for the camera.

This was the first time I've taken him to the park without the buggy. We were handed down some reigns and now that he's walking I thought we'd given them a go. They were brilliant, Charlie loved the 'freedom' of walking and deciding which direction we should go! I loved the fact that if he got too near to that oh-so-tempting but dirty and sharp drinks can I could pick him up by the reigns and bounce him over said can/dirty stick/muddy patch.

Fill in the Blanks Friday

Thanks to Lauren at The Little Things We Do for some more little things to think about!

1. The last thing I ate was grilled salmon and an Innocent Moroccan Veg Pot - it was yummy (I'm in week one of my four week hardcore 'lose the baby weight' diet. I'll then switch to a more sustainable diet to sensibly shift the weight.

2. The next thing I'd like to eat is PIZZA. Mmmmmm pizza, it's my favourite but I'm sticking to the diet and just fantasising about hot, sizzling chicken and peppers.

3. The best things happen mostly when I'm with my boys. A baby hug here, a Daddy hug there and I'm happy.   
4. Something that makes me supremely and utterly happy seeing my cousin who lives hundreds of miles away in Dundee.

5. Sports are something I need to get back into. I've just been invited to play badminton with some work colleagues at lunch times, maybe I'll take them up.   

6. I miss being able to go for spontaneous drinks after work.     

7. Right now I am enjoying an evening in, baby is asleep and I'm on the sofa updating my blog and watching Grand Designs.    

Sleeping - I think we've cracked it!

It's 7.20pm and for the first time ever I've put Charlie down to sleep with no feeding, no tears and no fuss!

Whilst I was breastfeeding he always used to fall asleep on me and I'd put him into his cot asleep. At first every time he woke up he needed a feed to go back to sleep. Then we introduced rocking him to sleep when he woke in the night. When I went back to work Daddy put him to bed two nights a week, and got him to sleep by rocking him in his arms. Then he started to sleep through the night.Then about a month ago he stopped breastfeeding - it was Charlie's choice. At that point I tried to rock him to sleep like Daddy and he wouldn't have any of it, so Daddy took over putting the boy to bed. Over the past week he's had less and less rocking time and we started to try controlled crying. Before I could always fall back on a feed, but now that's not available, we thought we'd try the crying method... and it worked! We didn't do it properly, we never left him longer then 15 minutes to cry, and if he just wasn't going to sleep Daddy would rock him or we'd let him stay up for a little bit until he got tired again. But over the last week we've spent less time rocking and actually put him in his cot awake and yes he cried but only for 10 minutes and then he fell asleep. Tonight Daddy is out, so I had to bite the bullet, I did our bedtime routine, then rocked/cuddled him against me for 5 minutes and put him down. He whined a little at first, then settled down and is now asleep.

I'm so happy, it's such an important step in my little man's life, it's taken 13 months, a lot of tears and zombie-tired parents but I'm so pleased we're finally there :)

A Year Ago Today

The first time I captured his beautiful smile on camera!

I also wrote this post which was the first time I really, seriously came back to blogging!

Walking Baby II

I realised today that Charlie is fully walking, not part cruising, not part crawling but totally walking all the time. I'm so proud of my little man. And he's so happy about his new skill. He loves just walking up and down and round and round all the time. I really think being at nursery has helped him, seeing all those other kids running around must have helped spur Charlie on. Running next... eek.

This happens WHENEVER I put my sunnies on my head

Bits and Bobs in one post

Did you have a good Father's Day weekend? We did, on Saturday we had 3 Daddies together, Tom, Andy and Gordon. We had a lovely meal and I got a nice long cuddle with 10 week old nephew Max. On Sunday we gave Daddy his presents - True Grit special edition Blu-ray, 123 Farm lift the flap book plus two cards one from Charlie and one Charlie helped make at nursery.

We came back from Nana and Grandad's early, and did some chores. This is the week I start working from home on Fridays, so I cleared the table off to use as a desk, the room looks so much brighter with the clutter tidied away!

Also Charlie has been fully weaned for 4 weeks now - yay! Which means I can start to try and shift some of this baby weight. I started Slim-Fast today for 4 weeks and then will switch to a more sustainable diet.

C-bear is also fully walking, hardly crawling at all now, plus saying a few new words - duck, Nana and Yeah Yeah Yeah being his favourites along with Cat which he still uses to describe any animal or cuddly toy.

Full time Mama

Tomorrow is my last Friday off work, as of next week I will become a full-time working Mum. It's a real case of heart vs. head. I know it makes sense, financially we'll have more money as nursery will cost less per day when C-bear is full time and I'll be earning more. However when I think about it too hard, my heart starts screaming, my whole being wants to be with my boy, it was such a hard choice to make. My work has been really good, I've had a pay rise and I'll be working from home one day a week (to save time travelling and get a few chores done so I have more time with my boys on the weekend) but although I love my job, as a Mum it feels like something is wrong. Why is it that being a working Mum is not really a choice for the middle classes? If we were wealthy I could stay at home with my boy, if we were poor and on benefits I could stay at home, but where we are right now means that I have to work and pay the majority of my earnings to strangers to look after my baby. It just doesn't seem fair, and all I know right now is that I'm going to make the most of tomorrow and then plan every single weekend to make sure we have fun together when we can.

Who wouldn't want to be with this little face every day??

Hastings

We had a family day trip to Hastings on Saturday. The weather was gorgeous (blue skies and sunshine) and we fancied a trip to the seaside. The beach at Hastings is pebbly which Charlie loved. He kept on putting pebbles into his mouth and spitting them out again. He loved slipping down the pebbly slope on his tummy and Tom and I took it in turns to take him down to the edge of the sea. His new shoes really came into there own as he was able to walk tons. We had fish and chips for lunch and parked in a really scary multi storey car park. Plus Charlie has just started offering things to us, he picked up a pebble and gave it to me on the beach. I've kept it because it's the first thing he's ever given me - sentimental huh!

Eating pebbles - salty

Pile of grey pebbles and big boy sports cap bottle

What's in my ... Change Bag?

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Isn't it fun to see what other people have in their bags? Well here's the contents of our nappy bag. It's pretty full at the moment, I can slim it down slightly, but most bits are pretty essential.

(1) Nappy changing things - spotty change mat, baby wipes, disposable bags, Bepanthen nappy rash cream, sudocrem and Pampers Activefit size 4.

(2) Spare clothes - Vest, T-shirt, shorts, trousers, sun hat, sunglasses, bib.

(3) Toys - we need to take tons with us at the moment to keep his attention for at least a few minutes whilst we're waiting somewhere in public - books (Dear Zoo lift the flap and baby Sounds book), polar bear teething ring, toy i-phone, cement mixer, bubbles, little plastic workman, linkies with a teether attached, toy keys.

(4) Food - again loads to keep him occupied - fruity water bottle, cheerios, pink cat tub with snacks (baby biscotti, rice cakes, breadsticks, corn rings), spoon, food pouches (butternut squash, carrots, apples and prunes + Apples and bananas), Goodies fruit bar, alphabet biscuits. I normally have a carton of baby milk too.

(5) Sun lotion for Mama, sun lotion for baby and alcohol free kids hand wash (smells of yummy oranges)

(6) Mama bits - sunnies, inhaler, tic tacs (I also usually have my wallet, phone, camera and keys in there, but these are in my work handbag at the mo).

Here's the bag:

It was a present when I went on maternity leave. I swap between this one a red rucksack, depending on where we're going. With little man beginning to toddle, the rucksack is much easier to use as I have both hands free to chase after him!

Other baby changing bag posts from around the Blogosphere:

A Cup of Jo
Momma B & Baby Boy
Sometimes Sweet
Harpers Happenings
Madeline & Me

Hello new things

You know how you have that list of things that always come with you no matter what? For me it's keys, phone, oyster card and camera, I can't leave the house without them, even if it's just popping out to get milk. This weekend I had the horror of losing two of my precious essentials and I'm now slightly off kilter - weird how inanimate objects can have this effect.

Firstly on Friday I dropped my lovely phone (HTC mini) and the entire screen shattered (will post pic soon) the phone is unusable and I've still got 7 months left on my contract. Luckily T had an old i-phone I can use, but it's just not the same.

Secondly my beloved camera (Canon Ixus 70) has also given up the ghost. I've had it for four years, taken over 5000 photos and now the lens has stopped working. Last weekend it wouldn't focus properly but seemed to fix itself. Now the lens is open and won't retract, it just whirs and grinds and shows an error message. I can't be without a camera and there was a great offer on the Ixus 130 so I splashed out and got it.

I can't believe the weekend is now over. We've done so much, on Fri we met up with a baby friend and then C-bear visited my office, we went out for lunch with the rest of my team. On Saturday we went to Hastings to enjoy the sunshine at the seaside and today we caught up with an old friend and got caught out in the rain. Photos to follow but here's one I took when practising with the new camera.