What's in our Coach Bags?

So we are traveling from Newcastle down to Alton Towers via coach with National holidays soon. 

We have done a coach to London before last year with the boys, James had just turned 4 and Freddie was 9 months. Now Freddie is 16  month's, walking and very active!

We have packed the boys a little rucksack each to keep them amused on the trip down and back!

So in James bag we have an usbourne sticker book he got for his birthday last summer, his new laalaa Teletubby, his pad loaded with games and his headphones. Of course his best friend CB will be there too!

For Freddie we have packed a couple of teethers, his new po Teletubby, a book, his headphones, his bunny and a blanket he loves to snuggle up too. We also have the Trunki Yondi in Freddie's bag to stop his head drooping when he's asleep on coach.

We have made lots of little snack bags with a mixture of safari biscuits, mini chedders and little dish gogo's. These will be kept in mummy's bag to stop James eating them all! 

Mummy has her bag with the snacks, drinks etc in plus Freddie's milk and bottles. Of course my iPad and headphones too! I have download the postman pat movie on Netflix and a few other bits for Freddie while daddy has downloaded stuff for James! 

Hopefully we have packed enough for the coach! Wish us luck!

Freddie at 16 months

So the biggest thing that's happened with you this month Freddie is that you are now officially walking like a pro! You love nothing more than toddling around the house, very often you are following James! 

You are in mostly in 12-18 clothes, but I think you might be going to start wearing 18-24 soon in trousers especially! You wear a size 4 pull-up and a size 5 nappy. You are very hit and miss with your naps some days you will have two other days just one long one!

You start every night in your own cot, but normally end up in with mummy and daddy by 4am! You are teething badly again so as normal you have a nasty cold and snotty nose! You seem to be getting two more top front teeth taking you to a total of 13 teeth!

You have had your first sleepover with James at nana and gaga's house which went well! You slept for eleven hours straight through! I would love you to do that at home again! Mummy and daddy were meant to be going for a meal but both ended up ill. 

You are literally obsessed with your brother and love nothing more now than toddling up to him and putting your arms round him! 

We all love you so much Freddie Bear

Love always 

Mummy xxx

Messy Mat Review

With a weaning baby, you are guaranteed messy meal times! With a four year old you are pretty much guaranteed mess wherever you go! 

When Messy Me got in touch and offered us one of their messy mats to review we were thrilled! We chose to receive the mat in navy with white stars. 

Freddie is a very messy eater who likes launching food across the floor! My rug has been saved a number of times especially when Freddie took it upon himself to kick his bowl of porridge out my hands one breakfast time! 

The mat is basically a giant oil cloth and we love it! It is wipe clean and it has literally been a godsend since it arrived! 

Before we got the mat we were having to get our Hoover out at least three times a day now all we need to do is shake the mat of outside! James is a little disappointed though that the Hoover is not out as much as well he does love our hoover! 

We are looking forward to using the mat more over the coming weeks especially as the Easter holidays are coming up in a few weeks which means lots of messy painting with James! I generally don't like getting the paint out, but I can see the messy mat saving my table and floor from the paint!

Disclaimer: We received the Messy Mat free of charge in exchange for this honest review. All opinions and photos are our own! 

Living Arrows 10/52

So I'm a bit late this week. James had a 24 hour bug on the weekend which he then passed onto mummy then Freddie decided to have a 1-4am rave n be a monkey the rest of the week!

So James has been back at school a week now and what a busy first week back they had! They had a school trip to Whitehouse Farm on the Tuesday, Wednesday they had PE and then Thursday was World Book Day. James dressed at Willy Wonka! By Friday night James was shattered! They also introduced a new lunch system at school where the kids choose their meal at registration and are given a coloured wristband which they exchange for their meal. James however seems to be choosing the blue option every day! 

Freddie has been learning to walk this week! He has mastered ten steps on his own in the house and loves nothing more than toddling along holding your hand when you are out. Think it will be a trip for new shoes at the weekend! He does seem to have been a baby much longer than James ever was, but I guess that's because James was walking at ten months old! And by age Freddie is now (15 months) he was running everywhere!

Redesigning James Bedroom - The Shape and Layout

We have been living in our house now for nearly two years and to be honest we have done nothing to James bedroom at all apart from putting in a roller blind! I do have a series of posts lined up on paints and furniture we are aiming to get for his room so this post is basically on the layout and shape of his room!

As the room is such an odd shape we are going to have to use the space wisely when we start to redecorate and redesign his room to make it more suitable for him!

The room currently had built in wardrobes, a horrible carpet and horrible white puffy wallpaper! Below you can see the shape of his room without anything in it!

As you can see it is a very odd shape. The alcove on the right is actually above our stair case and currently is a dumping group for all his toys! 

Below you can see how his room is set out at the moment. Having the wardrobes where they are currently makes a a long dark passage into his room. His bed is actually in front of his window and radiator so his bed is sucking all the heat away from the rest of the room. 

Below is what  we are hoping to start doing to his room in the next month or so. We are going to take the wardrobes out and move them to the alcove. This new layout will give James so much more floor space to play and enjoy his room. at the moment all he does is actually sleep in his room as there is not much space for him to play with his toys or even set up his wooden train set.

Living Arrows 9/52

And so half term is over and James is back at school! I'm ready for a rest! 

This week the boys have been to the dentist! Both were really good and opened their mouths! Although nana did bribe James with his latest craze zomlings(??) 

We have chilled out this week watching lots of Netflix and playing online games! James is crazy about the cbbc program Swashbuckle so we have been watching it on BBC iplayer and playing the games in the cbbc website! Then on Friday as it was daddy's day off work mummy, daddy and James went to see the Lego batman movie! James loved it but mummy and daddy found it rather cheesey. It was also James first visit to the cinema and he loved it! Although I think the popcorn might have helped!

While we were at the cinema nana and gaga took Freddie off around the metro centre! He's learning to walk and will confidently toddle along holding your hand and has done five steps on his own! It won't be long before I have two boys running me riot!

So it's back to school and back into a routine for mummy and Freddie! Having James at home totally knocks me for six and I get so confused as to what day it is and what I'm doing when!

Freddie at fifteen months!

Freddie you are 15 months old and such a little monkey! You are into everything! You crawl into the kitchen and follow me round like a little puppy! Your favourite game is emptying the draw where I keep the tea towels! It's got to the stage where we have had to put your travel cot up in our lounge and stick you in there if we need to leave the room!

You are wearing 12-18 clothes and a size 5+ nappy at night. You have started wearing a size 4 pull up during the day. We found changing your nappies during the day so challenging as you would crawl off nappyless! 

You have been poorly again! We were staying with your nana and gaga, and you were up all of the Saturday night screaming, so nana, mummy and James took you to the urgent care centre and three hours later we found out you had an ear infection. 

You are starting to learn to walk and have done five steps so far. But you still prefer to crawl as you can get to places much faster! You do however love walking around holding someone's hand. You had a lot of toddle time in the metro centre with mummy then you had a toddle with gaga and nana!

You mastered climbing the stairs when we were staying with nana and gaga! You were zooming up their stairs, after a couple of days at home you started climbing our stairs, but u always seem to stop half way up!

Your relationship with your big brother is so cute to watch. You love nothing more than climbing on James to give him cuddles! You were playing so nicely with James in the hospital waiting room. 

I wonder if by your 16 month update you will be walking? I know I will definitely need eyes in the back of my head as you are definitely my Mr Mischief! 

Lots of love 

Mummy

xxx