by iamcrabstix | Jan 17, 2017 | general parenting, rlt
It feels as though he has always been here, but it also feels like no time at all. How is that possible? RLT is seven months old.
We’ve been so lucky to have such a calm, smiley, happy little baby that the chances of us doing this again are slim to none. We’d never get another baby quite like RLT.
It has definitely been the best seven months of my life. Even with the hormonal fluctuations, OH changing jobs and car accident – usually only one of those things would send me into a spiral of anxiety – but I’ve had a little dude who has kept me focused on what matters. It took me a while to me OK with just being me and not having work to define me, I even went in for a few weeks, but then I realised I would never get this time again. Things at work come up, they always do, people wouldn’t have jobs if places ran themselves, but RLT will never again be as young as he is today. It has been a joy. Even through the leaps, because we are learning together.
It got hard at around five and a half months when he wasn’t sleeping, teething and had a bunged up nose, but you just have to take every hour as it comes, tell yourself that it won’t last forever and you’re an hour closer to it finishing than you were before. Mindfulness training from the hypnobirthing at it’s finest there!
I only hope that we don’t let him down, I’ve never done this before – what if I smother him too much, or don’t show him enough affection? I need to keep reading. I’ve also started looking into deferring school for a year as he will start at four years and 3 months old – it is too young in my opinion. It has also got me thinking if because I started when I was four years and 2 months old if this is why I am not as socially well formed as my friends who were December babies? I know we have a lot of time to think about this, but I’d rather be armed with facts before it is too late and we get pressurised into doing what everyone else does!
by iamcrabstix | Jan 12, 2017 | general parenting, rlt
As the local Artventurers women is yet to get back to me I have decided to do messy play at home until I can find an alternative.
I know my mum has done a few messy play at home sessions with my niece and nephew, due to the lack of availability in groups where we live, so I decided to try it myself – easing both myself and RLT in.
So, in a babygrow that is only suitable for indoor wear – off we went!
Note: It is advised to have a sweeping brush or hoover handy for clean up!
What do you need?
To ease RLT in as he is not yet 7 months, I decided to use food as it wouldn’t then matter if he put things in his mouth.
We went for black eye beans that he could crush and mush, gluten free pasta and gluten free rice vermicelli (we had no spaghetti).
A babygrow/not their best clothes
Sweeping up materials
Baby wiping materials legs/face/hands – anywhere they can get food!
A high chair
Any preparation needed?
The beans, drained of juice, were good to go as they came from the can. The pasta and vermicelli needed cooking, just as you usually would, then I put them in a colander and poured filtered cold water over them. So there is approximately 9 minutes preparation time required.
What did he think?
At first he was very quiet, probably wondering what on earth was going on. He was running his left hand through everything on the tray, going side to side. After a few minutes he started picking things up and throwing them over the side of the high chair and laughing. As the minutes past he was picking things up with both hands, throwing it everywhere and chattering away like he was providing a running commentary on what he was doing!
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by iamcrabstix | Dec 29, 2016 | general parenting, rlt
So, RLT’s first Christmas has been and gone! As usual I got massively anxious about everything, such as having people dig at my parenting methods, RLT getting overwhelmed and out of his routine, the state of the house and the cat feeling left out. Turns out, it wasn’t all that bad (with exception of the state of the house, that got pretty bad).
RLT has been sleeping soooo much better for the past three nights – it is a Christmas miracle! Last night (28th), he didn’t wake once between 7.30pm and 7am. This has never happened before in his 27 weeks and 5 days on this earth!
He has been so brilliant over the Christmas holidays, he is so nosey, he has skipped a few naps, but I’ve tried to be quite strict in putting him down at 10am and 2pm to try and keep some kind of routine for him. I’ve also tried to keep his meal times as normal as possible too. Even as an overtired baby, especially on 27th when we went to Mark’s mum’s for the afternoon, he didn’t create he simply just rubbed his eyes alot. He definitely has a brilliant temprement (although, I have seen a different side to this when he has eaten all of his chocolate pudding).
Christmas Eve was lovely spend as a family, we popped round my Mum’s around lunchtime as she was doing the annual making mince pies for Santa with the kids. We got the table set early and Mark prepped the birds for Christmas Day (as in following Jamie Oliver’s recipes, not giving them a team talk). We couldn’t find anything we wanted to watch on TV so after browsing Netflix for an hour as we do most days, we settled on some film about a blended family with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, it was alright – I cried probably more than I should have at a comedy film! We got RLT’s presents prepped, stocked with batteries and ready to go for Christmas morning. Christmas tradition dictates that you have to have new pyjamas for Christmas Eve, so we all looked very festive (my Home Alone ones are from the men’s section of Tesco, don’t tell anyone). RLT is sporting my ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU FILTHY ANIMALS’ hat which I bought from Urban Outfitters in New York, last Christmas.
Christmas Eve
On Christmas morning, the house seemed freezing, so when RLT woke at about 6:45, I brought him a bottle upstairs and we all snuggled in our bed until the heating had kicked in at about 8am! I went downstairs to take a video of RLT’s face when he saw his presents, in true RLT style, he wasn’t phased! But he’s six months old, we’ll let him off with that! As i’m on maternity leave, Mark and I decided not to buy each other gifts, he did however, surprise me with a night away at Rudding Park on 7th January, which was in a card from RLT. So now I feel terrible for not getting him anything!
Back to RLT – most of his gifts seemed to be made of yellow plastic, which made us laugh. As grandparents came over, the living room was getting packed with the stuff, so we decided to designate the conservatory as his playroom, however, we haven’t quite worked out how this will work over the winter months as it is freezing with that door open!
Christmas Haul
As RLT’s toys are being stored in the conservatory at the moment, foam mats seem to be a good shout on how to keep the cold out – the floor is ceramic tiles and freezing! We have an electric heater in there, but are very conscious of the electricity bill from having it on all of the time.
We even managed a night out on Boxing Day, was nice to get out. Probably shouldn’t have drank so much in such a short space of time, but I thought we may regret not going as we haven’t really been out as a couple since September 2015! Was nice to see friends too.
Here is our Christmas in pics.
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by iamcrabstix | Dec 8, 2016 | general parenting, rlt
Thank you to the second best Nicola I know 🙂 for the tag (she’s at Mummy to Dex, I recommend you have a look at the supermum she is, mixing up a storm in the kitchen with this baby led weaning malarky).
Reading her post this morning got me sooooo Christmassy that I went out and bought Winter Spice Ribena!
We don’t have our tree up yet, but I have a garage full of reindeers made from logs if anyone wants one? A good deed went wrong… It deserves its own post when I can laugh about it! Here is a work in progress pic of the little horrors!
- What’s your favourite Christmas movie? Home Alone – obvs
- Have you ever had a White Christmas? Yeah, when I was a bit younger. It gets pretty cold up here in the North East, a white Christmas is not uncommon. We’ve had snow already this year, snow lie!
- Where do you usually spend your holiday? There is no ‘usually’! This will be the first year as a family! Last year Mark and I avoided Christmas and went to New York until 27th Dec. We walked around Central Park on Christmas Day morning and went to a Brazilian bbq for lunch! The year before that we didn’t spend together as it was going to be my last Christmas in my family home, as my parents were selling up, as they decided to separate after 34 years! So was quite sad, as was last year for personal reasons. So looking forward to smiling this year!
- What is your favourite Christmas song? Julian Casblancas (from The Strokes) I wish it was Christmas today or Dominic the Donkey, no idea who that is by.
- Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve? Yeah, new jarmas. Although, I’m not sure if I’ve told Mark about this tradition, must remember to!
- Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yeah, Shaniqua, Donna-Marie, Donna-Sharon, Donna-Louise, Ellie-Mae and Maisie-Mae.
- What holiday traditions are you looking forward to this year? Starting our own, whatever they may be – also locking the door and spending time just the three of us. Hoping to do this on Christmas Eve.
- Is your Christmas tree real or fake? Non-existant at the moment, but will be real when we go buy it.
- What’s your all time favourite holiday treat/food/sweet? Sausage meat stuffing, but I no longer eat pigs as I’ve read alot of literature about how they are as intelligent as dogs, so I don’t eat them now. Maternity leave has given me lots of spare time…
- Be honest, do you like giving or receiving gifts better? Giving. I hate opening presents in front of people because I have a very expressive face. If I don’t like something, my face goes from resting bitch face to disgusted and there isn’t a thing I can do about it.
- What is the best Christmas present you have ever received? Money from my dad to buy RLT’s cot, wardrobe and drawers last year. Saved us a small fortune! Thanks, dad!
- What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season? Some ski resort. I went to South Africa for Christmas in 2012 and it was just weird being in the heat (and with teetotal mormons).
- Are you a pro present wrapper or do you fail miserably? One side will be awesome and the other, usually the last one, will look dogshit.
- Most memorable holiday moment? I never have any memories of Christmas. I have gone out on Christmas Eve with my friends for 16 years (except 2012 and 2015) and pretty much ruined Christmas Day every year. We always say we’ll start early so we go home early, but this never happened. Obviously now I have a baby, I won’t be doing this anymore so will start memorable moments from now.
- What made you realise the truth about Santa? I was nine and a boy called Damien told me, he was two years older and a pig. I still remember that moment and I still hate him.
- What makes the holidays special for you? I work in education – so we have mandatory holiday… so it is special because I’ve never had to work it! waaahahaha
Again, I’m not tagging anyone because there are a few of these doing the rounds… that’s my Christmas present to anyone with a blog that I know! Merry Christmas!
Me at Google offices in NYC, Christmas 2015
