Favourite Illustrations - Nursery Decor Ideas

Before Isla arrived and I had time on my hands to plan her new bedroom I put my mind to how I could make it a bit different from the usual pink fest (we knew we were having a girl), and so I started to think about some of the things I loved when I was growing up and what came to mind first was how I loved the stories of Roald Dahl. They fired up my imagination and I consumed his books like I do chocolate nowadays! As well as the wonderful stories I also adored the illustrations by Quentin Blake that went with the books and I believe that their partnership was amazing, they really complented eachother.

I can't wait until Isla can devour my favourite Roald Dahl stories, The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In the meantime though I wanted to impress on her my love of Quentin Blake's illustrations and so she has 3 of his framed prints in her nursery, my favourite one being of the Oompa Loompa's. We also have Matilda and Sophie and the BFG. We bought these from the webstore online at The Roald Dahl Museum. She knows their names and they get a 'night - night' at bedtime along with the menagerie of soft toys and all the wall sticker animals (see previous post Gorgeous Wall Stickers).

Perhaps you have favourite childhood characters that you could somehow incorporate into your little ones nursery decor? Another favourite of mine was Rhubarb and Custard and I've framed 2 cute greetings cards I found of them that I instantly I loved and they are also hanging up above her cot.

I love how Isla's room has a variety of things to look at and I hope as she grows up she loves it too.

The Year that was 2010!

Last year was predominantly a year of getting to know my baby some more and a return to work from Maternity leave. Here are some highlights of my year. 

In January it really felt like the countdown was on to my return to work and on reflection I think I spent too much time worrying and thinking about going back than making the most of the time I had left!

I always hate February, given that it's the shortest month of the year, to me it always feels like the longest. Always so dark, dreary and gloomy that I like to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, so lets move on to....

March: This was the month that Isla started nursery and how I hated those early days! The first day that I left her there for any length of time my hubbie and I went into town to do some shopping. I thought it was meant to feel like freedom and that I'd feel like the old me, but instead I just felt rotten! In the car on the way there I cried continuously. I walked round the shops in a daze with tears in my eyes and to make myself feel less guilty for being away from her I bought her some new things. I practically ran up the 45 degree angle hill to the nursery to fetch her to find that of course she was fine and had a better day than I had!

April: Back to work and it was like I'd never left!! I reduced my hours from 5 days to 4 days, with my day off being mid week so I didn't have to be parted from my little imp for more than 2 days - this fitted in perfectly with my best friend who also adopted the same work hours and so we have lovely Wednesday's together with our children playing together.

I also completed a swimathon for Marie Curie Cancer Care (see blog post The Big C) - 2.5km of breast stroke, back stroke, front crawl and by the end doggie paddle (!) in a time of 1 hour 9 minutes.

May: Isla's first shoes from Clarks. I loved that shopping experience - they take a photo of your child in their first shoes. It made it feel quite special.

June: More fund raising with my sister this time for Race For Life. In total raised over £800 with both of my efforts combined, so I was extremely proud of myself and as was my Dad!

July: The eagerly anticipated 1st birthday! Her homemade birthday card made with my own fair hands was shown on CBeebies much to my excitement!

We had a couple of get togethers planned but Isla was ill on the day (made for a bit of an anti-climax!), so we ended up with a small get together a bit further down the month. She had a lovely time and me and the OH felt very proud of ourselves at having survived the year.

September: Our first holiday abroad with a child on a plane! Hmmm, I'm not in a hurry to repeat that experience.....more on that at a later date....lets just say I learnt that holidays will never be the same again.

December: The month of snow (what a drag!) and Christmas! Our second Christmas as a little family and we were also in the knowledge that another baby is on the way. Good times!

Here's to a healthy and happy 2011 for everyone! Our baby girl is growing into a real little lady and I can't wait to see how she grows this year and adapts to life as a big sister!

This post also features on SuperAmazingMum pop over there and check her out, she's a lovely lady!

Pee on a Stick

You are now looking at a picture of a stick that I pee-ed on - yuk...but obviously its more than that, it's proof of another baby on the way!
It was planned (but to hit the bulls eye on the first go wasn't exactly expected.. Bully's special prize...) and we're excited but it has thrown up all sorts of questions and feelings, some of which I experienced last time but others that are new. Here they all are:

- Should we find out the sex? We did the first time round - this was because I'm no good at waiting to find things out - I hate surprises - and I really liked being able to think of names for one gender. This time around I'm not so sure. I had a terribly long latent phase of labour and then when finally in the hospital I had a dreadful time so I'm wondering if not knowing the sex might help to spur me on - or is this just poppycock?

- If it's a boy will I know what to do with it? This one is ridiculous I know, but I'm obviously female, I'm one of two sisters and I have a little girl. Will I enjoy watching Thomas the Tank Engine and doing rough tough boy stuff? And boys names, they're just not as easy to decide on than girls!

- Is the age gap going to be a nightmare between new baby and big baby - 2 years = terrible two's doesn't it? 

- How will we afford 2 children? This question came up the first time around and I keep telling myself that it worked then so it will work again - somehow!

- Will me and hubbie survive the sleepless nights again and more importantly weather the teething storm with another baby - praying that big baby has all her teeth by then or we'll have double trouble!

- How will our number 1 girl feel about being a big sister?

- Will Bobcat finally leave home as he realises that his home has been invaded by not just one but two marauding monsters!

- Most important wilI I ever find the time to get my hair cut again? Not had a cut since February (!), and while I'm on the subject I could do with a full mummy makeover, so any TV execs out there - I'm your haggard example of a 35 year old who once liked to look nice, who now is lucky to have time to drag a brush through my hair.

There are plenty more questions and thoughts where they came from but I'd be all night, these are top of mind right now. Typically they all enter my head as I'm about to crash out for a nights sleep. All I know is that we're entering the next stage of the adventure of life and who knows what it will bring?

The Library

Once you've been home from hospital for a couple of weeks with your new baby and your partner has finished paternity leave, the best thing you can do is to get yourself and baby out and about. I realised this after about 3 weeks and found that the days where i had no plans were the ones where i got the most stressed and fed up. It's hard when you're a new mum and it's not always the 24 hour 'love-in' with your baby that you think it will be, sometimes you can really feel isolated and wonder where your own identity has gone.

In the early days with Isla I would spend lots of time with my best friend and her little boy and also my new NCT friends who were really good at setting up weekly get togethers. Some mornings after a rough night of no sleep I'd really not feel up to leaving the house but I knew that once I'd closed the front door behind me and started my trip out I would feel better. I'd also have the fear of her crying when we were out. I think this is a common fear, we're worried about how other people see us dealing with our new baby.

Once I was a bit more confident with Isla I started looking into places to take her for play and stimulation (and a chinwag and cuppa for me!), as I realised we needed to do a bit more than just take a weekly walk to the see the health visitor! One of the things I loved doing was going Rhyme Time at the local library. It's basically a half hour nursery rhyme sing song. The first time we went she was only about 8 weeks old and spent the entire 30 mins snoozing, while I probably looked like a zombie singing The Wheels on the Bus. As the weeks went by though, she usually stayed awake for it and loved looking at all the slightly older babies and children and defintely loved the songs involving being lifted up in the air and swung around. A trip to the coffee shop would usually follow whereby the smallest coffee shop in my town would house up to 20 mums, babies and buggies, all huddling over 1 cup of coffee each and all asking for our bottles to be warmed up! It was so nice to be out of the house, looking at the four walls could really get me down, especially as the housework had taken a nosedive and our house was a sh1thole!!

The other good thing about the library is it's where you can collect your baby's 'Bookstart' bag. Bookstart is a national programme that encourages parents to enjoy books with their children from an early age. The best thing about the bag is it contains 2 board books. We love reading to Isla and she's always had bedtime stories since we started a bedtime routine at 3 months. She now knows when we're asking her to fetch particular books and can point out things within the books and name them. Her books of choice are 'Spot', 'In The Night Garden' and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. 

We try to go to the library at least once a month now, either for Rhyme Time, where she interacts a bit more these days and imitates us singing the songs (Row, Row, Row and Baa Baa being her favourites) or just to let her roam around and look at the books. I know not all local libraries are that warm and welcoming but it's worth checking out if yours has mummy and baby sessions as it can be a really great way of meeting other people and sharing fun times with your little one!

Silent Sunday - Bribery

For more Silent Sunday entries pop over to MochaBeanieMummy

White

As a relatively new blogger I've only just come across Tara Cain's Sticky Fingers blog and 'The Gallery'. The idea is that Tara will give a prompt (can be a word, phrase, object etc) and then people respond by posting a photo that captures that prompt for them. This is my first time having a go at The Gallery, but when I saw the word was 'White' the only thing that came into my mind was our cat, Bobcat. Here he is:

He is our big, beautiful, white fluffball, I like to think of him as the Liberace of cats! We've had him for nearly 3 years since a good friend of mine moved flats and no longer had a garden. He has settled in and really has a big place in our affections - see previous blog post 'Nocturnal Awakenings' for proof of just how much he gets away with. He has dealt with having a new baby (now toddler) in the house very well, although he spends a bit more time under the bath than he used to! He's found this week a little bit trying with the snow, only ventured out once, for 30 seconds and the scuttled back pronto. This caused havoc with his daily ablutions - he's very modest and doesn't like an audience when he's in the litter tray....
Isla adores him but the feeling isn't reciprocated - he's not so keen on her shrieking "Bobbeeee, Bobbeeee". My favourite picture of them together is this one:

And speak of the devil, he's just hopped up on the sofa to keep me company now. We love you Bobcat!

Recipe Time - Mince Pies!

There is no better time to get cooking than when you've been housebound for a week due to the white blanket currently covering the country! So, yesterday we all rolled up our sleeves and made some yummy mince pies. Isla played her part (mostly by covering her hands in butter and eating it!) and Hubbie did the eating part afterwards....

Mince Pie Recipe

Ingredients:
225g cold butter, diced
350g Plain flour
100g golden caster suger
Pinch of Salt
280g Mincemeat
1 small egg

To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour, then mix in sugar and a pinch of salt. Combine pastry into a ball. You may need to add a dash of water at this point to help it combine. Knead pastry briefly.

Preheat oven to 200C/ Gas 6/ Fan 180C. Grease cake patty tin - we made 12 mince pies from this recipe (with a bit of left over pastry to stick outside for the birds!)

Roll out pastry to about quarter - half cm thickness. Then use cutters to make the bases and lids for the mince pies. Put bases in the tin and fill with a full teaspoon of mince meat. Top pies with lid and then brush with some beaten egg.

Bake for approx 20 mins until golden. Pop onto a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar. Put the kettle on and once the teas made, your mince pies should be just about cool enough to scoff down with a brew! Yum!