Favourite Photo Of January

Ask me who my favourite child is.
I can't answer you.
I feel this way about photos. I feel guilty saying a photo of Charles is better than a photo of Harry.
I desperately want everything to be fair.

When I saw the theme for this week for The Paper Mamas Photo Challenge I panicked a bit.
What if I pick a photo of Charles, will people think I find him cuter than Harry? Will people wonder why I didn't select a photo of Harry? And vice versa.

Of course most people won't think that, my crazy little mind does though. And I would have felt guilty.
So I picked this one. I was playing with the settings on my DSLR and experimenting with the focus.
Pretty pleased with how this came out.

http://thepapermama.com/

Freedom

unedited

unedited

I'm adding this to Country Kids from Coombe Mill link up.
 

Reasons To Be Cheerful {4}

My RTBC list last week went to pot as soon as I hit publish!
I thought my car a fixed and started to drive to the breastfeeding group I had raLly looked forward to going to. I almost didn't go because of my shyness but built up my confidence that morning and by lunchtime I feel good enough to go.
A quarter of the way there though and my clutch went...again. Thankfully I was able to keep going round to a quiet road if not I'd of been stuffed as the clutch had gone on one of the busiest roads in town.
My husband and his friend saved me.
I never made the group.
Husband tried again to fix the car on Sunday, then it broke again whilst out. My husband was able to get us home thankfully although it was just luck!

So I'm housebound once again. Going mad. Shouting at the rain outside stopping me from going for a walk.
So time to turn that frown upside down and think of some positives.

1: My wonderful husband is buying me a new car (well second hand but you know what I mean). Despite the fact that we have now figured out the problem on my current car and have found and alternative way to fix it (design fault rather than something my husband is doing) I'm too scared to drive it incase the next thing that goes wrong causes an accident!

2: I was able to book a hotel room at the place my husbands friend is getting married at in May. This makes everything so much easier with the boys (if they get tired I can just take them to bed) and it means we can both have.a drink.
I got it for a good price too.

3: I had to go to see my doctor yesterday (nothing serious) and after seein him I always feel lucky enough to have such a great doctor who I trust.

4: The cat seems on the mend and her poorly tummy appears to have been down to her food rather than a bug.

Feet

The theme for The Paper Mamas Photo Challenge this week is 'feet'.

In general I hate feet, my brother has a real feet/foot phobia but I love baby feet.
My own babies feet in particular.

Sleepy feet, whilst Charles sleeps on his great aunties bed.

Things To Do Before I'm 40

Over a week ago was tagged by Not My Year Off in a post which was thought up originally by Two Point Four Children.

Ok I'm only 26 now and I could make this a things to do before I'm 30 list but it would be either extremely boring or totally unachieveable.

1: Take the boys to Disneyland Paris.
Ideally I want to do this in 4 years time to celebrate my 30th, my husbands 40th and our 10 year wedding anniversary (we honeymooned at Disneyland.

2: Take the boys on a Mediterranean Cruise.
I'd like to have a wedding blessing on a cruise ship.

3: Go on a boat trip leaving from the North Norfolk coast going out to see the seals.

4: Take the boys to Tenerife and go on a boat trip to see dolphins.

5: Go for a trip on a Hovercraft.

6: Lose weight and be happy with my body.

7: Become a breastfeeding peer supporter or similar.

8: Visit most of/all of the towns on the Norfolk/Suffolk coast.

9: Raise money for charity.

10: Kick anxiety in the bum and overcome it or learn to deal with it.

A Weekend To Be Proud Of.

On Friday my husband went to London for a friends stag celebrations. We'd planned for me to take the boys and drive to the city to meet him to then go on for lunch somewhere.
With my car broken our plans were almost ruined until I decided to be brave and confident.
"I'll take the boys on the train"
The train station is a 30 minute walk from our house. Its a nice walk but at the time I hadn't thought about how much of a hassle it could be. I didn't want to take the double buggy on the train, into the city and into a restaurant so had only planned on taking the pushchair for Harry to sit in and for Charles to stand on.
In this time I just knew he would want to walk, would fall off (its only a small ledge for his feet), would need a wee, would want to see the boats we'd be passing...and of course we'd be late.
So my mum came round and drove us to the station. She kindly waited with us for the train to arrive, although she didn't need to, and placed Charles in the doorway and waved us off.

I was able to find a space for all of us to sit. Charles on a seat by the window, me next to him. Harry was in his car seat, asleep, so I placed him on the floor in front of us along with the folded chassis, 2 bags and raincover.
Charles was so well behaved on the train I couldn't believe it. I expected him to at least play up a little bit.
We met with my husband and went off to Nandos. Harry was still asleep.
I was so proud of not only Charles on the train journey, but of myself.

I bought Charles an umbrella in case it started to rain. At £2.00 I didn't care if it didn't last long.
As we left the station it was raining so Charles asked for him umbrella. He walked really nicely to the restaurant, although I did carry him at one point...mainly so I could get under the umbrella too.
In the past trips out for lunch or dinner have been ruined by boredom, not liking his dinner, not being hungry, wanting to run off because its "funny" (apparently).
Except today he sat and ate all of his dinner plus half of his daddy's chocolate cake. He was a tiny bit bored but was easily distracted.
Harry woke just as I was finishing my dinner and sat in a high chair and ate some pitta bread we'd then ordered for him with avocado and yogurt I'd taken myself. Again he was happy and well behaved.

Going back home wasn't as easy. My husband was now with us and Charles was over-excited so the trip home wasn't as smooth as the previous, although it wasn't awful by any means.
Charles then mananged a very long walk home from the station.

Then Sunday my husband was working on my car so again we were stuck at home waiting for him to finish.
We ran out of time to go shopping so my husband said for me to find somewhere for us to go for dinner. I booked us a table for 6 o clock at Prezzos. I didn't want to go for our local one as it is in the town I used to work in and I didn't want to bump into anyone I used to work with, so we went to one which was 45 minutes away.
The boys both fell asleep in the car which I thought meant they'd be grumpy at the restaurant.
Harry immediately scanned the place for women to flirt with and other diners to grab attention from and Charles collected all of our knives and forks.
Both boys had a starter of garlic bread, Charles ate all of his and Harry ate quite a bit of his, with us giving him a little help. When the mains came we were surprised at how much Penne Pasta (with tomatoes) that Harry ate and how well he ate it. Charles only managed a quarter or his pizza but brought the rest home.

Both boys were amazingly well behaved and we had people from others tables coming over to tell us how astounded they were and how proud we should be.
As we were about to leave Charles even danced with a waitress.
I don't think I could've been any prouder this weekend and really appreciated having others coming over to compliment us.

Parenting can be really hard sometime and we put so much pressure on ourselves on top of the pressure given by others, so its nice when people say "well done! You've done a good job" and ease some of that heavy load so we can relax.
I ALWAYS compliment my friends all the time.I need to do this with strangers more often.

I'm linking this up with Parenting on the Frontlines #medalmonday

Saturday is Caption Day

Get your funny thinking caps on ladies and gents............

Check out the other entries by heading over to Mammasaurus

Charliebot & Daddybot

A car seat box can either be useful or a hassle because of its size.
In our case it we found it useful.
My husband cut a hole out either side for their hands/arms to go through and on the front drew some buttons. Charles decided that these buttons made daddy pop, freeze, poo and sneeze.
We added a silver gift box robot hat to finish the ensemble.
If only we had two boxes!
I'm linking this up with Multiple Mummys Family Frolics

The Weaning Diary {3}

Well in the past week and a half/2 weeks things have definitely stepped up a gear in terms of weaning.
The arrival of a tooth and the possible arrival of others any day now has affected how Harry eats and what he eats.

We are going down the route of finger foods and purees rather than just BLW or simply purees. This makes life so much easier as I'm not always able to sit and feed Harry but I can give him finger foods and sit with him and prepare dinner, make purees, sort washing or colour with Charles.
Also Harrys moods change. Some days he will want purees, other days he will want toast or similar. I follow his lead.

This week I introduced a plain fromage frais. I've been really mixing flavours from simple banana + yogurt, strawberries + yogurt, avocado + yogurt, grape + yogurt to his definite favourite of...
Avocado + stawberry +mango + banana
+ yogurt!
Stawberries are a huge hit. Straight from the fridge so they are cold seems to soothe his gums and the tough texture as he bites into the fruit seems to offer a relief.
He still doesn't seem too keen on banana by itself but when mixed with something else and with the taste calmed down he will eat it. Although a banana porridge was rejected yesterday.
He also decided to steal some of his brothers grapes which again I think helped with his teething.
Another puree I made was parsnip, carrot and peas. Once again Harry loved this and had it as a puree but also on toast.

I've again used simple fruits on toast as an alternative to jam. Mango on toast was well received yesterday.

The main food that we've tried this week which Harry has shown the most interest in was Pancakes! I smeared a tiny bit of yogurt onto the pancake and within a matter of minutes it was gone! Almost half a pancake!

We've also added Apple Biscotti as an odd snack. He seems to like these and finds them easy to eat...as does his brother!

This week I am introducing rice cakes. I have a pack of plain and a pack of flavoured. I'll add cream cheese to the plain one as well as fruit or veg and may also add some cream cheese or fromage frais to the flavoured one.
I'll also be introducing butternut squash and sweet potato, both as purees and as finger foods.

We'll also be attempting a meal out! Eek!

Weaning Week Three: DONE!

I'm Making Lemonade...!

 I think it's safe to say that already in 2012 we've been thrown a huge amount of lemons. An overwhelming amount of lemons have hit us from all directions.

I've been without my car for 2 weeks now. We live on the outskirts of town, although we have a cuple of small hops  near us it's not the same as being able to nip to Asda when in need of essentials or do browse at clothes. Especially as there is a distinct price different between Asda and these other shops

So today, with the car parts all here, as soon as the car was fixed, I started the engine and started my drive into town. I'd planned to meet a friend at a Breastfeeding Group. Except I got a quarter of a way there and my clutch stuck.
Crap.
My car was going nowhere.

Tomorrow we [me, Charles and Harry] are due to go to a friends house. I was going to drive.
Now I will walk...weather permitting!
When life throws you lemons...walk!!

This weekend we were going to meet my husband in another town and then go for lunch. I was going to drive.
Instead I am now going to attempt the train with a baby and a toddler, for the first time.
When life throws you lemons...get some confidence, have some fun and experience something new.

Bring on the lemons.
I'm making lemonade!

Reasons To Be Cheerful {3}

1: Harry has his first tooth.
This should fill me with fear surely. What if he bites me?
Gah, I can deal with that. I breastfed and 18 month old with a mouth full of teeth.
Little "developments" like this really excite me.

2: My friend came round with her new baby this week. She is also breastfeeding and we've planned to go to a breastfeeding cafe together. I didn't go to one with Charles as I hated going by myself.

3: At 6 months old Harry is still breastfeeding really well and we're enjoying every second. My supply is still good which is obviously a relief.

4: We are still cosleeping and my husband has no issue or problem with us still being in seperate rooms.

5: I *think* my car is fixed!!

The Gallery: Eyes

So, this week's Gallery theme is simply: Eyes

When Charles was first born he was constantly mistaken for a girl. Infact this has only recently stopped.
The reason: his big blue eyes and his annoyingly long eyelashes.
"He's too pretty to be a boy"
"With eyes like that he should be a girl"
"She is so pretty"
I'd wrap him in a blue blanket, dress him obviously as a boy but people still thought he was a girl.
It used to annoy me and I worried that Harry would have the same problem. As yet he hasn't and everyone seems to realise he is a boy!
All of the photos below are Charles [the third photo is unedited other than a major crop]

Want to eye up some other Gallery posts: Click here:

Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday as inspired by http://www.mochabeaniemummy.com/silent-sunday/

White

Today I've come across a new weekly link up. Its a photo challenge held by The Paper Mama.
Each week there will be a theme which we have to stick to. 

This weeks challenge: White
The challenge: All my photo challenges should be based around your children (pets are always welcome). There should be white somewhere in the photo.

I know I've shared this photo before, a few times, but I couldn't not use it.
It was the photo I immediately thought of when I saw the challenge theme.

This was taken when Harry first started to really interact with us. I love the detail and specks of short hair.

http://thepapermama.com/