#frankiefox, crafty hooking and Sarah and Duck!

Frankie is a very
handsome fox!

We've been trying to go on an adventure a week - especially now we have Frankie Fox in tow (I'll introduce him in a minute). We've been getting the small one out and about now she's more interested in things, and she is a particular fan of the great outdoors (read: trees. leaves, dogs) and while she's not walking it's nice to pop her in the tula or a wrap and let her look around while I have a nice long walk through a forest, park or field while we have the dog.
It's been nice to spend time as a family as well, and spending our time outside is even nicer, especially as the weather seems a lot better at the moment.

Spotted: Baby Gruffalo

Anyway, We (read: Harper) picked up a little stuffed fox toy in our local Morrisons and at a fiver, I couldn't really say no, I'm quite partial to a cute fox toy anyway! So we picked him up and paid for him and he has since been christened Frankie Fox and taken everywhere with us. Everywhere, we have even tried putting Frankie fox down the toilet for an exploratory mission - thankfully he was caught in the nick of time because I can't imagine that would have made for very nice pictures... I have started a little hashtag on twitter to document his whereabouts, if you want to see what he's been up to check out #frankiefox
We have been to the seaside, we have been in the garden and we have been to a
HUGE country park near us on a gruffalo hunt (which was enjoyed all the more by Harper off-roading in her smart trike - not a smart idea at all)

Frankie at the beach

It's so nice to get outside after months of dreary, grey, wet and cold crappy weather, and it's nice to appreciate the sunshine (while we get it) with Harper this year as well - even if it would be much easier if she would just walk already! She's taken a few steps but she's just not interested, and to be fair if I could get away with not walking, I would too!
I have also very recently learned to crochet! And I have a BIG project on the go at the moment, but can't show you until the luck recipient has received his present (for father's day, not long so I had better get a wiggle on) and I am going to be making Harper some Sarah and Duck toys because it is a fabulous cartoon and I love it - Harper isn't bothered one bit, but I need an excuse and a 14 month old who enjoys a little bit of cbeebies is the perfect one! Really though, if you haven't checked out Sarah and Duck yet, do! It's like a bunch of hipsters made a cartoon for their little hipster children and it's just adorably obscure and witty and I actually enjoy it more than my child, so it's got the grown up factor in there too, it's fab and I love it!

Belated Easter fun, growing, changing and loving!

Not even a little bit happy about her
bunny ears...  

Well, it's been a while (again) and a lot has changed (again) and Harper is growing by what seems like the second! She is still not big by any means - at 19lbs 11oz and 73cm long, she's a diddy dot - but so much bigger than she was yesterday, or she feels like it anyway.

She's saying more and more words, and knows the sign for Mr. Tumble now too - and she's enjoying her sing and sign classes (well, she's enjoying crawling around and causing havoc, I am the one doing more of the singing and the signing).

She's growing in to a proper little kidlet now, and looking less like a baby, she isn't quite walking, she's taken a few steps here and there but she's not really got the confidence to let go of things as she walks, but she's a bit of a pro when it comes to running the walker/pram/anything that holds her up in to my ankles - and thus we are learning the meaning of the word 'no', so much so that I think perhaps she thinks it's her name?

After the results of the recent general election, I'm a little bit torn as to what to do with her education, but I suppose I have plenty of time to think about it still. I am however beginning to find little montessori activities for her to do to keep her entertained and busy. She loves helping and she loves the phone too, she will have a real conversation with her toy phones, the remote pressed to her ear and most recently, a banana and it makes me wonder if perhaps I talk to much! She holds it to her ear and says 'Iya!! *insert loud, baby noises and chatter with the occassional word thrown in* BAH! *waving*' and then the phone gets chucked on the floor normally - to start the process again. She's so entertaining these days and an absolute joy to watch!

Brushing Rigby, immensely proud of herself!

Her and our dog Rigby are best friends, even closer than they were before - unfortunately we lost our beautiful little black and white cat who was very tolerant of an overly excited and loving baby and we all felt the loss, even Harper did I think. But Rigby is brilliant with her, of course she's never left alone with him, but they play together and they have their

morning nap together and it's just beautiful!

I'm going to leave you with a beautiful picture of them napping together for now - but I'll be back soon (probably not!)

Food for thought...

I think they should make an attachment parenting bingo!

We have a one year old!

On the 19th it was Harper's first birthday! This bog has become somewhat neglected as late but a lot has kind of changed or been affirmed but more on that later...

My baby is ONE! That went so fast I barely had time to blink! My tinker is now standin, crawling as causing all sorts of havoc and I don't think it'll be long until my baby is a toddler (she's not a toddler yet babycenter stop telling me she is!!)
She had a wonderful day and was very, very spoiled by the whole family and will have a lot of things to do outside this summer and I can't wait!
She's learning new things every day and she keeps growing over night I'm sure of it - she blows kisses, sings twinkle twinkle with the actions and incy wincy spider and if you're happy and you know it - she also likes to clap herself when she's finished. She points to people if you ask where they are and she barks when you ask her what noise a doggy makes (she also barks if you ask her what noise a kitty makes, but you know...) she has taken one step but hasn't done so since and really I'm not too bothered she will do in time and she's difficult enough to keep up with these days as it is!
She is an entertaining little character as well and she knows what she wants (and doesn't too) and she is growing in front of me and I'm so lucky to get to watch it all happen!

Christmas, Tula love and a little bit ofweight loss!

Our OTW Tula, isn't it gorgeous??

Wow, I have somewhat abandoned this for a little while, but everything's been going in a little bit of a whirl lately, and Harper is taking much more watching and chasing... She is learning something new every single day and getting cheekier with it by the minute! My previous post talked a bit about our new tula, that we got in November, we have since added another to our arsenal and there is another on the way - but we will be selling the first to make room for it soon. We have used the pram once since November, ONCE. I keep the pram on stand by purely because I still have problems with my back and hips post partum (the joys of an epidural where my back's concerned but we're still trying to work out just how to fix the hip thing...)
ANYWAY, Harper will not sleep when we are out normally, she will get tired and whinge because she won't sleep but she won't sleep no matter how tired she is - at least not in the pram and I think has only done it once since she was a newborn and slept all the time anyway. Well, the babywearing has changed that, and she will get tired (and a little grabby with her tiny knife fingernails) and then she will put her head on my chest and fall asleep, leaving me to do my food shopping in peace without worrying whether people are getting irritated at a baby crying - which I know I shouldn't worry about, but I do - we quite often get comments saying how happy she is and how smiley she is, and she is happy, she is happy that she gets to look about when we're walking, she's happy that she gets to grab me in the face as we're walking, she's happy that she's close to me or her Daddy! What baby wouldn't be? We do of course get less polite comments, one tat stuck out to me was 'she'll never learn to walk if you're carrying her!' - ONE: She is NINE MONTHS OLD we aren't quite aiming for that yet and TWO: How would she be learning to walk if she was in a pram? But blah to the naysayers, we have happier baby and a happier mummy too because it makes trips out much less stressful.


Harper's Evil grin!

Nearly two months have passed since my last post, in which Harper was 8 months, she's now 9 and a adorable), she waves to everyone for everything, and she waves a little bit like the queen which is funny, she claps and thinks she's clever - she claps when she's pooped now too, which is... something? She has the cheekiest smile you've ever seen, and she also has an evil grin, which entertains the family no end! She is growing and learning before my very eyes, and in a way it's affirming that I am doing something right for her, which is very reassuring!
half months, starting to get herself around a room (I don't know how), pull herself up to stand (or for a cuddle, which is
Speaking of me! I started Slimming World on the 26th November, so it's now been almost 6 weeks - and I have lost 14 and a half pounds! I have a long way to go until target, but it's feeling much more reachable now than when I started! I guess my competitive streak helps in that I want to be getting slimmer of the week and slimmer of the month (I have gotten slimmer of the week twice, and my first month I got slimmer of the month, result!).
Anyway, I am going to leave this here until the next time - hopefully before Harper's first birthday... I can't believe how soon that's going to come up! We are moving her to a bigger bedroom and decorating it for her so she can fit all her Christmas presents in it - honestly I have never seen (or heard) so many toys!

Harper playing with her shape sorted and being taught by her cousin - she loved Christmas!

Baby wearing and festivities!

We have been having adventures in baby wearing since my last post, I got my first tula a couple of weeks ago and we haven't used the pram since! I love it! It's supportive, it's comfy for me and for Harper and it's good for her legs. You can front and back carry with it (though we've only been so brave as to try front carrying so far) and it's lovely! Harper never sleeps in her pram she gets cross and whines about being tired, but never sleeps, yet we have had none of that using the tula at all! I am so impressed by it, I love it!

I haven't posted in a little while because my computer is out of commission, so I am currently posting in my phone (which is a pain in the bum). We have got the tree and some lights up now though, and Harper has just turned 8 months! She's growing so fast!

Hopefully my computer will be fixed soon and I can wrote a better post, but for now I can thoroughly recommend the tula baby carrier!

Finger painting and puppy cuddles

Lots of fun was had with
our edible finger paint

We have been looking on pinterest a lot lately since we got Harper's yumbox (see my previous post, there will be more about that soon!) and we discovered lots of different edible finger paints recipes, so we figured we'd give it a little go!

A masterpiece,
I am sure you will agree

We have a bunch of baby rice and stuff that we never used and probably never will so I decided to pop a bit of food colouring in that and see how we diddled - it was a great success! She really enjoyed herself - more "paint" on her than the paper, but a good time was had by all nonetheless. She really enjoyed squishing the paint in her hands and er... throwing it across the room too. She painted her first picture and once it's dry (providing it keeps) it'll go on the fridge until she's 20 probably, if it doesn't keep I have a photo of it that I will print out and keep on the fridge instead, with her name and age on it. I really enjoyed doing this with her, of course she sits on her own now but I sat just behind her and watched her have fun and it was nice for me to watch (despite the colourful baby rice that is encrusted on my jeans now).

After all her painting she was quite tired, so we put her in her bouncy chair (that she's pretty much outgrown, but still loves) for a nap, and the dog got in and joined her, making probably the cutest thing that's ever happened ever happen in our house - shortly before I fished him out because he's not allowed in there, which woke her up and I got this beautiful picture. That's one for the album!

Yumbox excitement

Harper's yumbox arrived today! I am so excited about using it, we're going on a long trip on Saturday and we will definitely be packing it up for the journey. It's in framboise pink, and it's awesome, we're going to have a go tomorrow at putting purees and finger food in it, as she is having a mix of puree and baby led weaning foods, so she gets all the benefit of learning ot feed herself and I know how much she's eaten. I've been inspired by a few people on my instagram feed, and the yumbox tag on instagram too, and finally decided that I would get one of my own and let myself be a bit creative with her lunches.
Given the non-leaky nature of the yumbox, we can easily transport both puree, yoghurts along with solid food like rice cakes and sandwiches/toast soldiers (or that's the idea anyway!)
I'm now on the hunt for cookie cutters and stamps to make little themed lunches for when she's older and learning shapes, I can't wait to get stuck into this, it's letting me have a little creative flair with how I feed the little one and I'm having a bit of a nerd-out about it.
I have a pinterest board for yumbox ideas and you can find it here - I am way too excited about a plastic box! I'll be posting more as I do some, and will be reviewing the whole non-leaky thing too, can't wait to test it!

6 months! + Family member update!

Harper is 6 months! (tomorrow, anyway - but tomorrow's a busy day so we won't be able to do proper pictures!) I was just looking through the pictures from when she was just born and it's amazing how much she's changed in only 6 months. Then I think... 6 months has gone so, so quick! I can't believe where the time's gone, we're already halfway through her first year and that's weird to think about!
At 6 months (near enough) Harper can sit unaided for about 30 seconds, she babbles and chats, she likes to death grip everything, she is trying to pincer grip certain things now (like labels), and she goes 'mmmmmm' when you put a spoon in her mouth! She loves bolognese and she enjoys salmon too, she loves it when people talk to her and smiles at anyone who remotely pays her attention. She likes car journeys and her favourite toy at the moment is Simba, that we got from a local charity shop for £1! She sleeps well, despite her teething (we can see one of her bottom teeth trying to pop through) and she's generally a happy little thing until I try to eat anything, then whatever she is doing she'll stop and start crying instead! Harper is now on 3 meals a day, with bottles in between, some days she will have 4 7oz bottles and others she will have 3. She won't drink water, she will only drink fruit juice (heavily diluted as it may be) and she has a real little personality, she's a cheeky little moo and we love it! She's really growing into an amazing little person who does new things every day - I am constantly amazed by her!

We also have a new family member! An 8 week old Boston Terrier called Rigby - he's gorgeous, a bit crap at the whole not peeing and pooping on the floor thing, but gorgeous nonetheless! He loves Harper and she loves him (she shows us by smiling at him and then trying to grab his face, poor dog!) Wherever Harper is, he is, he will sit under her high chair at dinner times and follow me or Elliott if we have her. He's a lovely little addition to our family, and I can't wait til we can take him out with Harper for walks, it'll get us out and about and Harper will get fresh air! Win win - until it starts raining!

My Photo of the week!

Set up my studio for the first time!

So this week I set up my home photo studio for the first time! I got a few backdrops so thought I'd test the pretty pink one with polkadots first for H... Gender stereotypes? Oh dear.
Well, I think they turned out really well, and this was my most favourite of the 10401239847192384 I took. She got a little fed up towards the end, but was a smiley happy girly for the most part so I was taking major advantage of the good mood she was in, (that she seems to have skipped this week!)
So here it is, my favourite photo of her from this week!

'...What can YOUR baby do?'

The question that's never asked, but always heard. In the back of our heads, the dark little space that echos loudest when it speaks - you hear a fellow mother, perfectly innocently (probably... Maybe) say 'oh, well my darling cherubic son is sitting unsupported and juggling his baby bottles and counting backwards from 10 in German! He's only 3 weeks old, don't they just grow up so fast?!' while you sit there thinking, oh my GOD, why can he do all that, while my 6 month old is showing absolutely no interest in sitting supported or not? Hell, she's not even babbling! And you're thinking that because you heard 'so what's your baby doing?' or 'is your baby as clever as mine?' when the question was never asked, nor even really implied (probably, we know what some mothers can be like am I right?)

I do the same thing, I think 'why can't my baby do that when (X) can?' and you know what? It's bollocks. Absolute bollocks. People are all different, people all do things and develop differently and babies are people too! So it makes sense that they don't wake up at 6 months to the day and sit upright, crawl and say 'Mother! I am ready for solid food now!' because that's not how life works, not for anyone, not even for tiny wee people who still need their parents to do everything for them. 
Perhaps instead of thinking 'why can't my baby do that?' think about all the things your baby has learned as they've grown, be that a little or a lot - what has your baby done that has made you proud? Because I know I'm getting prouder every day of seeing my little girl get really fascinated by a label on her clothes, or that she goes 'mmmmmmmm' when I put the spoon in her mouth - it's the little changes that are happening every day that you need to focus on. Milestones don't matter, because the more you wish for a milestone to happen, just to be like the baby who ice skate at 8 months, the less time you have to notice how your little is growing and changing in small ways every day and before you know it, your baby is a walking, talking tiny hurricane and you forgot to treasure the little things that are happened along the way.

Be aware of scars you can't see

As a rule, 'celebrity' deaths don't usually get to me. They're sad and all, especially so when they're young and they leave families and children behind, but because I don't know them, usually it's a fleeting feeling of sadness for their family and I don't think much on it afterwards, I'll usually get on with my day. Robin Williams however has affected me differently, it's sad, it's a horrible shock and it's scary. It's scary because his story is one that is so easy to relate to, the sad clown. What's even scarier is that so many of us can relate to him, so many of us have this outer self that we show everyone else and only those closest to us know differently - so many of us suffer with depression or any other mental illness and it's something that the media overlooks, it's something that people still say 'well, why don't you just try cheering up?' or 'try to be more positive!' or even 'what have you got to be depressed about?' Clearly, those people are blessed  to not understand how depression, or any other mental illness actually works - or they're overcompensating who knows? 
Depression, to me at least, is like getting in a car and having it not start. No matter how many times you turn the key, or how quickly, or even how determined you are to get the car to fire up that engine - it won't. The more you try to get the car to start, the more angry, or frustrated or hopeless you feel about it not starting; you can't start the car, you are a useless person. You can't start the car, what's the point? The car needs a mechanic, but instead of going to see a mechanic you're blocked by people saying 'well, that car's a Ferrari, it should start!' and 'Ah you don't need a mechanic, you just need to go fill the engine with petrol and it'll be fine' when it won't be fine, because somehow the engine fell out. And with people telling you how silly you are for seeking someone else's help, and that you can do it by yourself, you try to fix it yourself, and the more time you spend trying to fix it, the more time you're spending not fixing the problem at all, because this one you just can't fix by yourself.
I saw a lot of comments yesterday from some very lucky people who haven't apparently been affected by depression, and therefore feel like they can pass judgement on someone's darkest final act. I saw comments saying that suicide is the most selfish act, and it made me wonder how many people believe that suicide is an easy way out. I honestly can't imagine a harder thing, genuinely believing that your death would somehow be better for your friends and family, that the world would be better off without you in it. I know that I have felt that way in the past and it's horrible, there is not a worse feeling I can think of - to look into oblivion and to welcome it despite knowing everything you have to life for and not caring? It's really, really hard and I know I wouldn't wish that on anybody. As sad and as shocking as Robin Williams' death is, let it be one that raises awareness of a horrible illness rather than judging his final actions. Mental illness kills, you just don't see it on the outside.
If you know someone, or are someone who is depression, or someone who is showing signs of depression, don't let people tell you not to get the help if you think you need it. If you need someone to listen to you there are so many great sources out there now, including the Samaritans who have helped me lots of times when I first started struggling with my mental illness. Please don't hesitate to do something before it gets worse.

Aunts, Shopping, Cousins & Animals!

Enjoying the monkeys!

We've had a busy old week this week! My sister in law and two nephews came to visit on Sunday and we've had an action packed week - we went shopping on Monday, Adventure Island on Tuesday and Colchester zoo yesterday and boy have we slept well for it! The shopping, of course meant that Harper was very, very spoilt (especially in the Next sale). She's got some absolutely gorgeous bits and bobs for when she's a little bit bigger... And for now too, even though she has more clothes than me now! Here are the bits we got for her during the week:

Then on Tuesday Riley (the youngest) and Nicky (my sister in law) went to Adventure Island, while Elliott, Harper and I took Lewis (the eldest) to Southend High Street for a bit of shopping and a drink because he wasn't bothered about going on the rides too much - and neither were we so we had a lovely time just ambling about, and I got a hole poke in my nose (it's still sore *sigh*). Of course, madam was spoilt further because Monsoon had a sale on, and have you seen their girl's stuff? It would be rude of me not to have got her something...

Beautiful boy!

The main event though, responsible for my still aching legs, more than 24 hours later, was Colchester Zoo! We had a fab time, and did the whole zoo, Harper is still a bit young for it of course but she had a lovely day just being out and about, and she did enjoy the monkeys! I forgot how hilly the zoo was though, and we were all absolutely knackered by the end of the day (and I was a little grumpy because my hips still hurt 4 months after giving birth... Grrr). We had a lovely week and we can't wait to see them all again, we miss them already!

 

 

We had an absolutely lovely week! We can't wait until we do it all over again! Harper has never slept so well!

Sensory play!

She loved messy play today!

Now Harper is a little older and sitting a little better I am always trying to think of new things we can do to help her development. I've seen a lot about sensory play and messy play and I've been thinking I'd like to try it with her, but wondered if she was maybe a little young. She is holding her head up a little better I thought it would be quite good to trust a messy play can see how she enjoyed it - as you can see by the smile on her face she loved it! What I did with make up some baby rice because we we won't be using it for weaning any way because we'll be doing baby led weaning. I used the baby rice because it didn't matter too much if she put it in her mouth, which she does with everything else! She had a lot of fun and was giggling the whole time, as she smooshed it all up in her hands and rubbed it on her face and on me - so I'm thinking maybe she is old enough for basic sensory and messy play and it might be good for her! In a couple of months we'll be using colours in the rice or smooshy stuff so it's visually developmental too, but for now I'm pretty sure her little system wouldn't appreciate the food colouring! We've also got her a paddling pool which we fill with ball pit balls (she likes to chuck them round the room when she's in there) and she also loves to splash in the bath - we are thinking of getting her a small paddling pool to use in the garden with toys that she can play with in the hot weather (she hates it, just like her mummy!) I've seen that blowing bubbles is good for hand eye coordination too, so we might be giving that a go - but I am really looking forward to using edible finger paints in a couple of months! Does anyone have any sensory ideas for 4 months olds? Comment below with your suggestions!

Crafty ventures and baby brain

So! This week has been a busy one, I started my new crafty business venture - and oddly, at the same time my brain stopped working. I missed the whole of Tuesday thinking it was Monday for some reason, thus missing the Delta group that I was looking forward to, oops!
Anyway, the new venture! I make fairy doors, figurines and Christmas decorations and more things on the way! I'm just waiting on a shiny new logo from my friend Toni and it'll be perfect! Please do check out my page (and maybe give me a cheeky like!) It's called Harper's Hideaway, and you just have to click on the name!
In other news I've had a bit of a transformation week, turning back into the old me, dyed my hair pink and got it chopped off and I feel better already, just to get my nails done on Friday and get my nose pierced eventually... *cough* I'm very lucky to have a hubby who occasionally works from home and can look after my little while I get some Mummy time!

Review: Annabel Karmel Quick & Easy weaning

All you need to know about feeding
your baby in the first year

I received this in the post today, and while Harper was sleeping I had a little looksee through it. Bearing in mind Harper is only 4 months next Saturday, she's not quite ready for weaning, but with the wealth of information out there about weaning it's probably a good thing that I'm looking now and not in 2 months. It's all a little overwhelming, and that's what makes this book so good. It's not a thick book, it's not an overly wordy book and it's simple; quick and easy just like the title suggests. The beginning has a lot of information about the whole weaning process, what kinds of vegetables and fruits are best to begin with, and why they're best to use. This is all before the recipes too, (which are fabulous, by the way!) but there are meal plans for the beginning of weaning and as baby gets older and you start to introduce more than one solid meal per day. It's set out nicely, and it's really easy to have a little flick through when you don't have time to have a real read of a book - which, let's face it, if we've got babies we're about to start weaning, we don't have the time to sit and read among the million other things we have to do! It's full of useful information, but it's compacted in to little chunks that are easy to read through but still get all the information you need on hand. The recipes are simple, quick and easy and can all be frozen in an ice cube tray for later use. The first tastes ones are nice and simple and look like they'd be lovely for any little one, especially as far as veggies go - it shows lots of different veggies and fruits that one might not eat if they were fussy so it's good to introduce a really little one to them nice and early in a bid to make sure they're not such fussy eaters as they grow up! The later recipes after the first tastes are fantastic though! Looking through them made me quite hungry thinking about them. Being a foodie myself, I enjoy cooking and making nice meals for myself and my husband, so weaning and cooking for Harper when she's bigger is something that I am quite looking forward to; and making more interesting foods that I can eat too? Sounds ideal to me! We can all have healthy meals, though Harper's will have to be a little squishier than ours of course. When I start using the recipes I will be posting reviews and thoughts about them too, but that won't be for a couple of months... All the same, I heartily recommend the book for the mum (especially the first time mum, like me) who's about to start weaning, it's got some good, clear, information in it and I enjoyed flicking through the recipes thinking about what I'm going to make first! (I am half tempted to make some now and freeze them for later...)

 Disclaimer: A copy of this book was sent to me through a PR contact via Tots100, no monetary exchange has taken place.

Time flies when you're having fun... Or even if you're not apparently!

I'd say TGI Friday, but we woke up this morning to find a paddling pool had been installed on our kitchen floor courtesy of our boiler and washing machine. I think the two may be related or it's just really bad luck - but it's not really the kind of thing you want to be finding first thing in the morning. So, we've rang up and we're getting someone round to fix that today, but in the meantime I've got my biggest saucepan under the pipe. Joy.

The bouncer and I have a
love-hate relationship.

Anyway, I can't believe it's already Friday, this week has gone so quickly! We've had highs and lows this week, mostly in the space of a few hours. For those who follow me on Instagram will have seen my excited post about how Harper was asleep in her crib! In her crib! She has been going through a bit of a stage lately, where she will not sleep in anything but her bouncer, the thing has become the bane of my life quite frankly even though it does allow me to get a full night's sleep, it's not a guilt-free night's sleep because I feel bad for letting her sleep for so long in it. Well, she slept in her crib on Wednesday night, not for as long as I'd have liked, but sleep she did - and it felt like a huge victory as I fell asleep without guilt for the first time in about 3 weeks. Well, it did until she woke up at 4am wanting to play leaving nothing less than trunks under my eyes for the rest of the day afterwards. 

Other than sleeping adventures and paddling pools, we've made great progress in the whole grabbing stuff idea. She particularly enjoys Mummy's hair (that is in desperate need of a cut right now), especially when Mummy is caught unawares in the middle of a nice blowing raspberries on the tummy game! She also enjoys Daddy's chest hair and bracelets. It's good though because we were beginning to worry that she wasn't showing any interest in grabbing things for herself, but she's getting there with it. She gets so excited that she's holding something that she flaps and then flings it quite fast in whatever direction she might be facing - she did the very same thing with her bottle yesterday in fact, and hit the cat who was not even a little bit impressed.

She's also making real progress with sitting with support, she's been able to do it for a little while, but she's noticeably stronger now and holding her head with really good control - she also gets very excited about sitting and celebrates her achievements by shouting, loudly and for a long time. Very exciting apparently, as you can see to the left!

Oh! I nearly forgot! I bought a cover for Harper's NHS red book, and it is adorable! Make it look a little something different and it won't get lost! I love it, and when we're done using it it'll be going in Harper's memory box for her to look at when she's a bit bigger. I've started a memory box for her to look at when she's older, I'll probably go through the contents of it another time, but I hope that one day she'll appreciate it anyway! A bit like the cat we did of her foot that she definitely did NOT appreciate at the time. I digress, if you would like a red book cover, check out Hannah's Red Book Covers on Facebook, just click on the name and it'll take you straight there!

Posh new car seat! (and other things that happened today!)

Little princess seemed unimpressed at first!

Me, Elliott and Harper went to our local MASSIVE Mothercare to shop for car seats today, opportune timing considering it's belt-up Britain week and they have a sale on, and I do so love a bargain. I was not expecting the super bargain I got today, however! We've been planning on getting a carseat that stays in our car for a little while, so the belt-up britain thing seemed a good time to go and look! Weeeeellll, let me tell you a thing. I was correct, very good for me, for our bank balance and most importantly of course, for Harper's safety in the car.

We were looking at the Britax first class one at first, or the joie one that I forget the name now, they didn't rear-face for too long though which put us off a little bit.

She soon fell asleep though

Then, the lovely, lovely lady we were talking to said 'Oh! We have a car seat that's been reduced from £389 to just £88!' I thought I'd miss-heard at first, but she took us round the corner to a lovely Besafe izi combo car seat and sure enough, it was £201 cheaper than it;s original price purely because it's belt-fitted and not isofix. This car seat rear faces until little lady is FOUR, it has so much leg-room between the back and the chair itself so it's nice and spacious and it looks really comfy too (I'd quite like one myself to be honest) - another thing I like, that is perhaps a little less important than it's over all safety is that it has magnets. Magnets that hold the harness to the side when you put baby in the seat! Which you know... Simple things please simple minds, and I still reckon I have a touch of the ol' baby brain. I'm pretty sure that my brain's gone on holiday for the past three months... So, after our amazing saving we had a little bit of our original budget to spare on weaning spoons shaped like aeroplanes (adorable) and a super cute sleeping bag...And maybe a couple of toys. So little miss has been thoroughly spoiled today, but she's appreciated everything so far today, and has been enjoying sitting up in her donut ring with all her toys. She's suddenly decided that holding her own toys is the best thing ever (though that doesn't mean she's not more interested in playing with her dress, however).

Mummy isn't ready for this sort of independence!

In other news, Harper held her bottle herself for the first time today! We also got her weighed today, and at 14 weeks and 1 day Harper weighs a very healthy 14 pounds, meaning that she's put on half a pound a week since she was last weighed.

All in all, today's been a pretty good day, the new pram is a huge improvement and we got a shopping trip in without her crying again! Second time this week, we've cracked it!

Feeling crafty!

Over the weekend I've been busy painting and making, some for customers, some for Harper... 4 for Harper. I've been hand painting baby clothes for a little while now and people seem to enjoy them so I thought I would share them with you too!
I'm going to get round to making a Facebook Page for it at some point, but obviously it's a bit difficult to find the time between looking after Harper, sorting my house (which takes an unfortunate back seat... oops) and updating on here, I need to think of a name for it really because it's something I really enjoy doing! If you see anything you like here, or have any other requests I'll absolutely give it a go! I love Adventure Time myself, so the yellow and purple bodysuits were already assigned a character each and then I got a bit carried away and made two more for her as well... If you would like something made for your little one you can email me here!
Just for reference, here's how the Lumpy Space Princess one looks on:

Isn't my model cute?

What a long week!

This week really has dragged by, it feels like each day was actually 48 hours each - which makes a change, usually there aren't enough hours in the day! Harper had her injections on Thursday so we've been kind of taking it easy since, though, thus far she's a lot better than she was last time! She's much more herself bar a bit of a tummy ache and a little temperature last night (nothing a little calpol didn't fix).

Excuse the litter tray!!

After her injections we went to collect her new buggy, because she seems to hate her silvercross one... She cries EVERY TIME we leave the house, which is nice, fun and not even a little bit stressful and I love taking her out it's a treat; but I digress - the new pram, the Babystyle Oyster seems to be going quite well! It parent faces which I think has made all the difference for her. I don't think she liked facing out and she got a little overstimulated looking out at everything, meaning that she didn't sleep even though she was tired. I got it for a steal on ebay, and it came with a lovely turquoise blue seat cover and hood, but I got a nice black and white spotty one for Harper because I want to put a nice pink bow on the hood... Before she does what I did as a child and refused to wear anything remotely pink or 'girly'. Aaaanyway, I love it. Love love love it. It's tiny when it's folded up, it fits beautifully in our boot, it's really easy to fold and unfold and also I love it. Did I already say that? Because I do. It's so light to push, and I like that it's parent facing because I can see Harper's face and hopefully avoid a meltdown before it happens! I would say that it's well worth the money brand new, purely for how compact and light it is - and all the customisation options! You can even get completely personalised ones in fabrics of your choice online, though I can't really justify spending that much money when I could make a bow and harness covers myself really! So we have a much happier mummy and a much happier Harper too when we go out! (So far at least!)