Cruising

We have a cruiser! Or at least Mia's trying desperately to cruise! She can pull herself up easily now on the sofa and in her cot. She can also balance with one hand now but she's still pretty wobbly! She is trying to cruise as well but hasn't quite got the coordination. Isn't it strange how babies develop new skills so quickly?! It was only last week she had just begun to crawl - which by the way she's better and quicker at but still not as fast of as coordinated as some of the babies I've been at the babies cafe. 

My week behind the camera

I've been busy cooking, filling my freezer full of Mia's dinners! 

Pulling herself up. 

'Look mum, one hand!'

New bath toys!

Someone ended up in our bed!

Waitrose cupcakes have lollipops in the top! 

Wallpaper crafts

Using wallpaper for your crafts is an easy, cheap alternative to using other papers and card. It is free if you go and collect samples from your local hardware store and it comes in many colours, patterns and textures. 

Print templates from the Internet or draw your own. 

Use your templates to cut out patterns in your wallpaper samples. 

You can make cards, collages.....well pretty much anything you like :)

We used ours to make cards. The children wrote lovely poems to go inside their cards for their mummies. 

Preparing and storing food for your baby

So today I decided to share my love of home cooking for Mia and share a few recipes, show you how to store your food easily and hopefully help anyone thinking about home cooking for their baby. 

This post is by no means me preaching about home cooking over jarred baby food. It's completely your choice what you want to feed your child. I have not got the healthiest diet myself so I definitely can't say we only make food from scratch blah blah. We do not. But for Mia we do. We made the decision before she was born that we would cook everything fresh and try to avoid good high in sugar and salt. I simply want to help other mums out there who need some inspiration and ideas. Plus I went a little mad today and made a huge amount of sweet potatoes and carrots so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to write this post!

The first few months we started weaning I didn't give Mia any sugar or salt apart from sugar naturally occurring in fruits. This last month we have started to feed her what were eating but just a 'baby version' i.e. no salt, no chilli etc. 

Ideas for meals 

•shepherds pie - prepared how a classic shepherd  pie is made, leave out the salt in the potatoes and use a low salt cheese on the top. 

•white fish with mash and green beans - very simple and good brain food! Again cook without salt and ensure your fish is boneless. 

• soup - there are many varieties you can make and it's so easy and healthy! It can be stored so easily and give baby some bread to go with it and its a great lunch!

• baby burgers - why not try to make your own mini beef burgers? We used lean beef mince mixed with some coriander and bread crumbs. We usually give these to Mia with some potato sticks we just simply cut a potato into thick strips and partially cook so try are soft enough to gum! 

• chicken and sweet corn - Mia loves this. Simply boil your chicken and cook some sweet corn to go with it. We serve this with mash. 

Preparing food

I like to boil or steam vegetables. If we are cooking meat in a pan we use as little oil as possible and try to use a light variety. Prepare lots in advance - I'm going to show you a great way you can store food in the freezer! 

Sweet potato to last us around a month!

Storing 

So you have cooked your food, in my case carrots. 

I have some cut into small chunks which will accompany a meal and some in sticks that she can have as warm finger food. 

Next you want to put portions into an ice cube tray. 

This is sweet potato which I also made today.

These are great because you soon learn how much your baby will eat i.e. 1 cube, 2 cubes etc. This way there is very little wastage. 

Once you have filled your tray you put it in the freezer until its frozen. Once it's frozen you pop the cubes out and put them in a freezer bag. Label the bag - usually 3 months is the rule for how long you have to eat it. 

Broccoli and cauliflower

Shepherds pie

Green beans 

Now you have your food split into portions ready to defrost for your baby! 

If you want any recipe posts or any other information about storing or preparing baby food please leave me a comment below :)

Meerkat!

Start your meerkat toy collection. Find out more at comparethemarket.com

The Organising Game

Mia's new favourite game...

Pull out all the clothes and throw them onto the floor...

Does anyone else have this problem?! 

Mia's 9 month update

I know I write this every single month but....where has the time gone?! I can't believe Mia is 9 months old! That just seems crazy to me!

This month has been an exciting one! First of all Mia has started crawling! We had been taking her to this cafe for mummies and babies and she had been watching the other babies crawling and I do think it helped her to crawl for sure. She actually crawled for the first time at the cafe! 

She is on 3 solid meals a day, always home cooked food and always low in salt and sugar. I try to avoid salt and sugar altogether but it's not always possible. Did you know that there is sugar in nearly all breakfast cereals?! She has 2 bottles a day now, one in the morning and one in the evening before bedtime. I have discovered this month that Mia loves blueberries!

Sleep wise I think she has struggled this month. It could be due to moving house and her getting used to her new room. She usually goes down for the night between 7:30-8pm. This last month she has woken nearly every hour from her being put to bed until around 3am, which sucks! ( I'm very glad I'm not at work though with it being the summer holidays!) there has been a few times where I've wanted to give up and just go back to co-sleeping! I haven't! These last few days she has improved and isn't waking as much *touch wood* it continues! 

We have a play room for her now which is great now she's crawling as its safe and she can crawl around without me jumping around to stop her head butting furniture or trying to climb the stairs...stair gates are due for delivery next week!

Mia's hair is getting a little longer now too which is great as her hair didn't seem to grow for a few months. She has also got 2 bottom teeth now, which she uses a lot to chomp through fruit and snacks! Lol!

The Best Morning

Waking up to a smiling Mia.

That is all.

Mia's bedtime routine

We never used to have a bedtime routine with Mia when she was very young. Since we co-slept and I was working again and would be shattered by 7pm I just used to go to bed with Mia around 9pm after her last bottle and she would just fall asleep with me. Now, however we want her to sleep in her cot we have had to introduce a routine. Yes, it is quite a strict, rigid routine but it works for our family. 

It all begins around 7pm. 

7pm: biscuit 

7:15pm: bath time using Johnstone bedtime bath - this relaxes Mia and seems to calm her before bed. 

7:45pm: bedtime bottle

8pm: we read Goodnight Moon 

Straight after Mia's story I then turn on her lullaby cd. Quite often Mia will mess around in her cot but I'm ok with that as long as she then puts herself to sleep. She usually falls asleep by 8:30pm although we can have nights where she will fight sleep for quite a while!

I think persistence really is key in any routine. If you give in then it's like starting all over again with introducing the routine.

I would love to hear some of your routines :) 

Mia's new nursery room tour!

We originally started off with a nursery theme of Zeddy and Parsnip which is a mamas & papas nursery theme but the room was already decorated in Winnie the Pooh which is like new plus she has a quite a big collection of Peter Rabbit bits so we have just focused on a cream colour scheme and incorporated all her bits around it. 

What theme is your nursery?

Goodnight Moon

I had never heard of this story book until coming across it in Waterstones the other day. I had been planning on finding a short, good nighttime story book for a while to read to Mia each night before bedtime. My work schedule means I won't always be home until 7-7:30 and sometimes Mia will be with me meaning I want a short story to read so I can get her in bed by 8, because of how late I get home I won't be able to do the usual routines of a bath before bed as this will take too long if I want her in bed by 8 so baths will have to be done in the morning instead. 

Anyway I'm divulging, back to Goodnight Moon. Goodnight Moon is a great book to read before bed. It goes around a room in a house and basically involves saying goodnight to everything in the room. 

Mia loves this story and I can tell she definitely associates it with bedtime now. She's so cute, she touches the images on the page as we say goodnight. 

What are your favourite stories to read to your children before bedtime?

 

New surroundings...

Mia's memory box

Since the day Mia came into the world I have kept a memory box for her. Inside her box she has:

Birth certificate

Baby book

Hospital band

Scan photographs

Family photoshoot pictures

Cards from her birth

Her first Christmas cards

The outfit she wore at the hospital

Some of the keepsake gifts she received soon after she was born

2 sets of Beatrix Potter books that were mine when I was a baby!

Do you keep memory boxes for your children? 

Moving house with a baby

Moving house is stressful! even for the most organised of us. the packing, labelling boxes, unpacking at the other end, not to mention you will probably want to give your new pad a bit of a clean before putting all your things in as well! It's a huge job! 

When trying to entertain and organise a baby during a move get help! Seriously this is the best piece of advice I can give you! It's so stressful unpacking and loading/unloading cars & vans, add your baby demanding your attention and you might as well just leave the moving to your partner and concentrate on just looking after baby. If you have family or friends who are willing to help, use them! If like me, you still like to have your baby close by ask family to come with you to the new pad and look after baby there for you. That way baby is getting used to their new home and you are close by if they need you. 

Here are my top tips for moving house plus a few extras for moving with a baby:

1. Begin to pack boxes of bits you don't need straight away like spare handbags and shoes at least 2-3 weeks before your moving date. 

2. Label ALL boxes! You don't want to get to your new home and have to open up all your boxes to find out what's inside. If you label them you can take them to the appropriate room and then unpack them. 

3. Get as much help as possible with packing, loading and unpacking. 

4. If you have a baby or young child and have family or friends close by then use their help! 

5. Pack some toys and baby food for a few days in your handbag. The last thing you want to be doing on moving day is trying to cook for your child. You can prepare home cooked food in advance and freeze it for moving day. 

6. Take regular breaks. Drink tea, coffee, eat biscuits, chocolate, whatever you need to relax for a few minutes!

7. Be prepared for your new home to take a while before it resembles the home you dreamed of. Unpacking takes time. 

8. Ensure you bring essentials with you on moving day: loo roll, tea, coffee, milk, a kettle! 

9. If you have a baby or young child try to organise their room first. That way they can spend some time playing, napping in there before they have to sleep in there that night. 

10. Have fun! Moving house is an adventure and an exciting time however stressful! Don't forget to enjoy it! 

Add any tips you have in the comments. I'd love to hear them! 

The new house!

Just a few photographs of our new house! We are getting there with the unpacking, as soon as our bed and wardrobe arrive next week we can start to unpack more of our clothes. 

I am going to write a post on moving with a young baby because that was stressful! But it can be made easier, I promise!