Sunday 29 January 2017

Living Arrows 5/52



Another week of Living Arrows! I feel so chuffed to have actually made it five weeks in and not given up!

This week my boys have been crazy! But poor James started the week with a day off school after ending up in out of hours doctors on the Sunday morning! He was well enough to go back to school on Tuesday thank goodness as he spent Monday driving me crazy! He also managed to fill his reward box for the first time (post coming on that!), so after school on Friday we came home got him out of his uniform and walked across to McDonalds at Kingston Park for his treat!




Freddie turned 14 months old this week and  got to try his first McDonalds chicken nuggets! We had a week off our group this week as mummy has been ill with the nasty cough thats been going around! We have also had a bad week with teething. Molar number one is almost fully through and molar number two is about to start cutting through. So its been unsettled bed times and ending up in between mummy and daddy virtually every night. 





Thursday 26 January 2017

Summer Born

So most of you know I have a summer boy and a winter boy. I have been thinking about things you are not told about having a summer baby!

The most important for me is they could be youngest in their class, especially if they are late! James was due August 18th, but didn't arrive till eight days later on 26th August. This makes him the youngest in his class at school, and not by a few days, it's a month between James and the next youngest child in his class. There's actually kids in the school nursery with closer birthdays to his!

Another thing is their birthday will always be in the school holidays, but that also means friends and family are on holiday so having a party is a bit hit/miss. Last year there was only ten including James and Freddie at James party!!

Hand me down clothes can be wrong season! Freddie is into James old 12-18 clothes but I have a pile of 12-18 shorts that I don't think will fit Freddie come summer! 

Toilet training can be hit/miss. James didn't potty train till he was 3, that was literally two weeks before he started nursery. We had issues with James refusing to go to the toilet at nursery. So for the first few weeks we had to pick him up early or would get a phone call to pick him up early. Now a year on he will happily use the school toilets.

James is a reluctant writer and does struggle a bit with fine motor skills, this is also down to how young he is compared to the rest of the class.

If anyone has anything to add about summer born babies then leave a comment below! 

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Freddie at 14 months

Freddie you are now 14 months old! Where has the time gone! It really does not seem five minutes since you were a tiny newborn!

You are very mischievous, definitely worse than your brother ever was! You have finally realised you can walk with your push along walkers. It's so funny to watch you zoom across the lounge!

You have discovered we have stairs in our house and that they are for climbing! You love nothing  more than standing at the bottom banging and yelling at James! Although today at 14 months old you made it half way up when you escaped daddy! 

You are still in 12-18 clothes with the odd bit of 9-12 thrown in. You hate having your nappy changed! You are always taking off mid change, laughing your head off! You have just graduated to the bath with no bath seat and boy do you give us a soaking!

You love nothing more than playing with your big brother! You think your brother is brilliant and he can always make you laugh! Your face always lights up when your brother comes into the room or when he runs out of school shouting Freddie! 

You still love your milk, just as much as food! You are still a mummy's boy. 

You have three teeth at the front at the top and four at the front on the bottom! You also have your first molar nearly through on the top left! These teeth have turned my happy boy into such a grump! 

Lots of love Freddie bear 
Mummy
xxx



Tuesday 24 January 2017

Zip and Zoe by Babymel

Before Christmas a fantastic email landed in our inbox from the lovely people at Babymel saying we had been chosen to be ambassadors for their gorgeous new range of kids bags Zip and Zoe!

We got the choice of one of their bags to review, so we went for the kids Dino multi for James!

James absolutely love the bag! He has used it for school everyday! He's actually carried it on his back rather than making mummy carry it like he does when we use his book bag!


The bag has a fantastic large main pocket, which we can fit in everything James needs for a day at school! We always keep his reflective waistcoat in there as some days it is dark when we are going to and from school! Going to and from school in bad weather, we have had: his reading book, key words folder, reflective jacket, pair of shoes and still had space in the bag!

The smaller pocket on the front is the perfect size to keep his hat and gloves in so they are not lost in the cloakroom! The bottle pocket is brilliant and it means James always has his bottle on his way to and from school!


My favourite part of the bag has to be the chest strap! James can put his bag on and then I clip it up and it does not fall off his shoulders when we are walking to and from school!

When we have had bad weather and James has needed to wear his wellies to school, I have been able to put his school shoes into his bag to change into. Although sometimes I might be better off just sending the wellies for all day use! 

Not only does James use the bag for school, he also takes it to aldi. We always take rucksacks to aldi with us to do the shopping and since James got his, he's been wanting to take it with him to help carry bits of shopping home!


Over all I am 100% happy with this bag and would recommend them to anyone with kids! 

Zip and Zoe sent us a fantastic discount code ZipAndZoe20 at checkout 

Disclaimer; We were sent this bag free of charge in exchange for this review! All words and pictures are our own!

Monday 23 January 2017

Living Arrows 4/52

My boys are so cheeky especially when they are together. Freddie absolutely adores his big brother and the feeling is actually mutual now! 

James had his second forest school afternoon at school and came home covered in even more mud than last week! In fact the whole class were so bad they couldn't bring them back through the school! The staff kept the kids outside while parents nipped in and grabbed water bottles and bags!


Freddie has been teething so bad this week with his molars! There's been a lot of disturbed nights and a few days of not much napping or napping across mummy so I couldn't do anything! We were back to our baby group this week which he loved! Some of his little pals who he went to baby social with were there. It was so nice to have the little gang back together! 

Friday 20 January 2017

Puddle Ducks North East


Just before Christmas a lovely email landed in our inbox inviting Freddie and myself to try out our local puddle ducks franchise. Having been a bad mummy and not taken him swimming before we jumped at the chance to go!

We were sent a list of our local classes to chose from. The class for Freddie's age was their splashers group for babies from 6 months to 15 months. The Puddle Ducks website states for the splashers class "As they get older, your baby will begin to gain stronger back and head control.  They will now be able to swim with woggles,and jump in the pool, developing the skills elected to be strong swimmers in the future. Our splashers especially love splashing and blowing bubbles in the water."

We chose to attend the class at the new Crowne Plaza hotel in the new Stephenson Quarter behind Newcastle Central station, with a lovely teacher called Nadine.  


Sadly for me Freddie was not in the best mood and screamed his head off for virtually the whole class! He did enjoy bits of the class and did have a few moments of no screaming. 

The activities in the lesson were fantastic, however I do think they were aimed at babies who had been swimming since they were very young.

Freddie at 13 months was the oldest there and it was his first time in a swimming pool. The other babies looked to be between six months and one year and had obviously been swimming since they were quite young. I do think the classes should be aimed at ability not ages.

I do wish I had been able to do this when he was younger, but James nursery timings did fit the timings. It's only now James is in full time school we have the time to go.

I am however going to start taking both boys swimming more often and I hope Freddie will soon love the pool like I do!

Disclaimer: We received this class free of charge in exchange for this review. All words are my own and images are from https://www.puddleducks.com



Saturday 14 January 2017

Living Arrows 3/52

We've had snow this week! James was so excited for walking to school in it and erm well Freddie was not impressed as it meant he had to wear his snowsuit which he hates wearing!

James had forest school on Tuesday afternoon. A fantastic north east company called Stomping Grounds come in and take the kids into the schools "secret garden" and do loads of fantastic activities with them. If you have me on Facebook and Instagram the. I'm sure you will have seen the photo already! He was doing his job of collecting our bin in the photo. 

Freddie had his first experience of swimming with Puddle Ducks North East. Sadly for me he hated it and screamed from the second he entered the water till the second he was dressed and wrapped up in his pram! Other than that he's had a great week been very vocal and very mischievous! He also got to experience his very first jam sandwich, which he demolished! 

Siblings project January

So it's now 2017 and I'm once again attempting to join in with the siblings projects. My boys are now four and one. 

Since James turned four its like a switch flipped and he's totally obsessed with his little brother! He's always giving him kisses and cuddles and Freddie in return climbs all over his brother! The only time James is not impressed with his brother is when Freddie decided to try and steal food off him!

My photo of the boys this month were taken when we had the first snowfall and we were were about to go to school! James was loving being all wrapped up and was loving the snow! Freddie however was not impressed at being all wrapped up in his snowsuit!

Wednesday 11 January 2017

Weaning at 13 months

Our cheeky little Freddie Bear is now 13 months old and a total food monster! He is at the stage where he is wanting to do more and more himself at meal times, meaning more on himself and on the floor!

When the lovely people at Tommee Tippee offered to send us a bunch of their weaning equipment to help us on our journey, we were thrilled! The parcel arrived literally just before Christmas so we have been able to use it over what has been a busy family time!

We were sent a fantastic 360 cup, but as yet Freddie can't get the hang of it! He's not too good with cups with valves! However we were also sent a first sips free flow cup which he loves! He seems to get on much better with free flow cups! I actually keep one of these free flow cups empty in our changing bag as a few times we have gone out and forgot his water cup! 


We were also sent a magic mat to assist with self feeding. We used one of these with James who used to managed to pull it off the table! Freddie started using this on Christmas Day so he could feed himself while rest of us had our meal and it worked brilliant! He was also wearing the roll n go bib which for a mucky puppy like Freddie it was brilliant! The bib can be rolled up so it takes up next to no room when we are out. The bib has actually become a big favourite of mine and we use it at every meal time and snack time! I think I'm going to have to invest in a second one to keep permanently in the changing bag!


We also got some storage pots and some heat sensitive spoons. The spoons were the very first ones we used with James when we were weaning him and they were fantastic! The pots have come in very handy for putting snacks into for when we are out and also for freezing portions of food!

Disclosure: We were sent these products free of charge, in exchange for this review. All words and picture are our own! 

Tuesday 10 January 2017

2017 Blog Resolutions


So I've decided to try and set myself some resolutions for blogging for 2017. 

The main one is to go self hosted. I have been looking into it for a while and I think I am finally ready to take the plunge! Especially as my parents have an account with a hosting company.

Another resolution is to try and take part in more linkys. The main ones being: The Sibling Project, Me and Mine and Living Arrows. I have already posted in the Living Arrows linky twice and I'm starting to write my post for the Siblings Project.

I would like to try and use my camera for more photographs, but I think I will fail on that one as my new phone has a 13mp camera and I do tend to do most of my blogging from my iPad simply due to time and the fact Freddie likes to slam the laptop shut on my fingers!

I definitely want to try and post more often at least twice a week, so I think I need to get a good stock of posts written and scheduled. 

I also need to work out how to schedule through blogger as I just cannot get it working properly on the laptop.

I'm really hoping I can succeed with these resolutions this year! But I'm guessing it all depends on a certain little boy aka Freddie letting me work! 

Monday 9 January 2017

Living Arrows 2/52

So week two of Living Arrows brings James first full week back at school. The first day back him and his pal decided to play army men, crawling underneath the toilet cubicles! Mummy was not impressed at having to wash uniform after one day.


Freddie has discovered he has a tongue and is forever sticking it out! He's always been such a happy boy, but teething is making his pretty grumpy at the moment.


Both my boys are really loving their daddy at the moment. This was before school watching milkshake on channel five!




Monday 2 January 2017

Living Arrows 1/52

So one of my big resolutions (post coming out soon) for 2017 is to try and take part in more linkys. The first one I'm trying is Living Arrows hosted my the Lovely Donna at What the Redhead Said

So my boys are four and one, up until a few months ago James barely went near Freddie, and if Freddie went near him he would scream and shout take him away or get the baby away. But now the boys love each other to bits! 

James is full of beans and hardly ever sits still! He is a typical boy who loves trains, planes, fire engines, tractors in fact anything with wheels! But when he's asleep he is adorable.


Freddie is a cheeky mischievous little boy! He's a speedy crawler and demon climber! You have to make sure everything is out of his reach especially empty cups as he likes to try and chew on them!