Catching up!

I have been neglecting my blog!
So here's a quick overview of what we've been getting up to over the last few months.

Esme still isn't crawling (aged 13 months) but she has become quite an expert bottom shuffler.

Thomas' asthma seems to be a lot more under control now. His preventative medication was changed back in October and so far his wheezy episodes have significantly reduced.

Thomas is still on the small side, although he has grown a little bit in the last few months. I still hope there are no long term side effects of all the steroids he's been on.

Over Christmas we went to watch an ice-hockey game. My brother is the coach of the Bracknell Bees so we've been to a few games now. This was the first time that Thomas really took an interest and got the bug. He keeps on telling us how he wants to be a Bracknell Bee. So my youngest brother, Daniel, cut an old hockey stick down to size for Thomas and he spent a good couple of hours playing in the garden with his cousin, Cameron

Learning the ice-hockey basics

We also went ice skating on New Year's day. Bracknell ice rink are well equipped for younger children. They have little penguins that children can push around the ice to help them get their balance. It was fantastic to see Thomas' confidence grow during the skating session.

My maternity leave ended in September and so it was back to work for me. Three days a week to start with and as of January full time. I can't say I'm too pleased with that. It's no secret that I'd rather be at home looking after my children, but unfortunately the mortgage needs to be paid!

As a way of supplementing our income and hopefully getting me out of full time work in the future, I became a distributor for Forever Living products in July. The products are amazing and I'm having great fun building my business. It fits perfectly around my job and the needs of the children.

I like Mummy's boots!

Esme's baby

Learning to walk

Fireman Thomas

Holiday at Sandy Balls

Last week we stayed at this fabulous place, Sandy Balls near Fordingbridge in the New Forest. Although I love camping, I'm not quite brave enough to do it with the two little ones (maybe next year). So we decided to opt for the 4 berth oak lodge. There are loads of other accommodation options from bringing your own tent to pre-constructed tents to lodges etc.

The lodge had a double bedroom with en suite bathroom and a small twin room and family bathroom. There was an open plan living room & kitchen. The only downside was that we couldn't fit our travel cot into either of the bedrooms. This wasn't really a problem for us as we co-sleep with Esme for most of the night anyway.

This is the perfect location for an activity based holiday. You are in the middle of the New Forest so you have excellent access to cycle paths and bridleways for a family cycling or walking adventure. It was lovely to re-discover my bike. We even managed to get a second hand Burley Cub cycle trailer for Esme to go in.

Thomas at the Toddlers adventure playground

As she isn't sitting up yet we ended up strapping her car seat into the trailer using the belts and lots of bungee cords. I was a bit nervous about putting Esme in the trailer but after checking on the CTC website and reading lots of cycling blogs I was reassured. Esme loved riding in the trailer and could be heard cooing and singing to herself around the Sandy Balls site. Thomas went on the bike seat behind Paul.

Sandy Balls also has an indoor and outdoor pool, which we visited everyday. I think my kids are water babies. It was lovely to see Thomas' confidence in water growing day by day and Esme enjoyed floating and kicking in the water.

On rainy days (lets face it - UK summertime - there's gonna be a few of them) then Sandy Balls has a soft play area for children under 6 and also a range of craft activities that you can book onto. So there is plenty to do.

Looking at fishies in the River Avon (A nervous daddy holding on tight!)

Sharing the babywearing love!

I decided I was not going to put Esme in disposable nappies for our week away and packed most of our cloth nappy stash. There are laundry facilities on site so I thought I'd be able to get a wash in if we needed to. I think I somewhat over estimated how many nappies we'd need. I didn't have to do any laundry and we still had plenty of clean nappies to take home with us!

The kids (excuse the dummy, Thomas was exhausted!)

We had a fantastic time. The active week has really spurred me on to get on my bike and exercise more. We are already planning next year's holiday there. Still not sure if I'm brave enough to camp so maybe we will be back in a lodge again.

For my husband : Happy Father's Day

He's exhausted! 

A combination of working during the day and a lot of disturbed night's sleep. He is the ultimate "hands-on" dad and the kids and I are lucky to have him.

Happy Father's Day, Paulie.

Post natal Pilates

Since February I have been attending post natal pilates classes with this lovely lady.
There are 3 of us who regularly attend the classes, although this is about to increase to 7.

We bring our babies with us and we can pop in and out of the class as and when our babies need a feed or a change. Sometime the babies come into the studio with us, and sometimes Priya's husband becomes "Daddy day-care" and looks after them.

While Pilates alone won't help me lose weight (only aerobic exercise and a healthy diet will do that) it does tone muscles. Pilates focuses on your core muscles, and I've found over time that my posture has really improved. I'm now standing taller and straighter. It's also helping me to become aware of my body, posture and core muscles when I'm doing my other exercises, especially when I go for a run.
The other thing I love, is how invigorated and refreshed I feel afterwards. It really spurs me on and motivates me to exercise more.

But if I'm honest, what I love the most about these classes is the good company. As we are all mummies with similar aged babies, it's great to exchange stories and share handy hints and tips while we work on toning up our post pregnancy tums!

Baby led weaning

We went down the purée route when we started Thomas on solids. This time round I liked the idea of BLW, mostly because I'm lazy and couldn't be bothered boiling up veg to mash up.

The beauty of BLW is that we can all sit down as a family for mealtimes and Esme can eat (or gum) whatever we are having.

Esme's first meal: marmite toast fingers!


Today's lunch was sandwiches, fresh pear and banana.


Tonight's dinner will be chicken breasts, potatoes, broccoli, carrots and gravy. I can't wait to see her get her gums into that!

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An eczema treatment that works!

We have tried various lotions and potions on Thomas' skin. Some have been on prescription from doctors and others on the recommendations from friends and family. However, I have now found one that seems to be working after just 2 days and it is sooooooooo cheap and easy to do.

1 old sock
1 elastic band
handful of porridge oats
1 bath

Fill the sock with the porridge oats and ties the elastic band around the end.  Chuck the sock in the bath and run the water (usual bath temperature). Give the sock a squeeze and the bath water will turn a bit cloudy and milky. Allow yourself a good long soak (or if the bath is for your kids, then have a good splash and play with the ducks!)
Use the sock as a sponge over the particular dry areas (legs in T's case).

Voila - Beautifully soft and moisturised skin!

Thomas the Tank Engine & Chicken Pox

It seems like its been a while since I last posted. Things here have been a little hectic with Thomas recovering from his asthma attack, then it was Easter weekend and now chicken pox has struck.

On Good Friday we visited the Watercress Line for a day out with Thomas the tank engine. What a fantastic family day out! Our Thomas thoroughly enjoyed chugging up and down the line between Alresford and Alton on various steam and diesel trains. They also had little rides at each station on Thomas and Toad and lots of the other trains from the popular childrens' program.

Here comes Thomas

Riding on Diesel

Esme and big sister Fenella

Picnic

We spent Saturday visiting my family up in Bracknell for a picnic at South Hill Park, before heading over to Pizza Hut for my nephew's birthday bash.

Big Boy slide

When i woke Thomas up on Sunday the poor little mite was covered in spots and feeling very sorry for himself. Lots of mummy cuddles were required!

showing off the spots

Feeling poorly

I think we're over the worst of it, although I'm now on spot watch with Esme - so far she's been spot free!

Asthma....

... is an ongoing issue in this household!
My dad and brother are both asthmatic and I was diagnosed with mild asthma last year. It looks as though Thomas is going the same way.

He had his first "episode" in early Dec 2009, just after his 1st birthday. He'd been ill all over his birthday with a bad a cold, and then a few days later he didn't want to eat or drink anything and was a bit wheezy. We ended up in hospital, where he was monitored on the paediatric ward. We were also given inhalers although at the time it was still being referred to as a "viral induced wheeze".

He is currently taking Beclometasone (brown inhaler) as a preventer: 4 puffs using a spacer morning and night, and Salbutamol (blue)  up to 10 puffs 4 hourly as and when he needs it as a reliever.

Paediatric ward Nov 2010

Since July 2010 Thomas has had another 6 episodes, 3 of which we've ended up in A&E, and then onto paediatrics for monitoring The other 3 episodes have all been in the last 3 weeks, which makes me wonder if there is something triggering it.


His latest "episode" started last Wednesday night. He had a dry sounding cough which woke us up several times in the night. By Thursday morning he had started wheezing so we gave him his blue inhaler to take. Things did improve a little, but by Thursday afternoon we were getting a bit concerned as the inhaler wasn't being as effective as it should be.
Paul managed to get an emergency appointment with our GP who put Thomas on a nebuliser. His breathing soon returned to normal.

We have now have a nebuliser on loan for Thomas to use over the next two weeks until he is clear of this episode. His breathing is OK most of the time, but he does get out of breath and wheezy if he has been doing a lot of running around. He is such a good boy with it and as long as he can watch Fireman Sam on the TV he is happy!

Nebuliser time

fast recovery!

We have an appointment at the asthma clinic in a couple of weeks time to review his medication. In the meantime I'm trying to source some local honey as a friend of mine suggested that it could help if his asthma is triggered by hay fever. Hopefully things will improve for our little chap soon.

what a weekend!

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been looking forward to today. It's the first Sunday in months where we've not had anything on...bliss!

Taking it easy

Stanley Cat enjoying the sunshine

Today is also the day after the concert.
I play the oboe in the City of Southampton Orchestra and last night we played at Southampton Guildhall.  We played....

Portsmouth Point - Walton
The Sea - Bridge
Symphonie Fantastique - Berlioz

...... a challenging programme,  technically, mentally and physically!

So today is all about family time and relaxing, and where better to do that than in the garden in the sunshine. We're all just pottering about doing little jobs. The nappies are in the washing machine about to be hung on the line. Paul is doing some bike maintenance on his "road" bike with Thomas' help. He's planning on getting a good ride in this afternoon, maybe 25 miles.

pumping up tyres

Bike Maintenance

Paul has also promised Thomas that he'll take him out on the mountain bike later. Thomas LOVES going out on the back of Paul's bike.

SLIDE!

Esme and I are going to take it easy today. My mum came to look after her and Thomas yesterday while I was rehearsing for the concert. Esme was a bit of a pickle. She bluntly refused to take any of the milk I'd spent the week expressing for her, so subsequently spent all night feeding. At least I didn't have to keep getting out of bed to her as we co-sleep.   

Thomas is now playing cars in the flowerbeds and Esme is asleep in the sling, so I'm going to settle down with a good book and a cup of tea in the garden.......aah!

Esme and Grandad Jurd

Friday Fun in the Sun

What a glorious day again!
The washing was out on the line by 8.30am and the back door has been left open so that Thomas can thunder in and out as he chooses.

I love Fridays. Paul has most Fridays off so we get to spend "family" time together. He's already been out to cut the grass so we can spend the rest of the day in the garden out in the sunshine.



Bear Bear is ready for the sunshine.


Thomas is also having a good day...so far (it's still only 10am) He's had two weetabix, has read some books and played "picnics" with his favourite teddy, the not very imaginatively named Bear Bear.

We've also been playing races up and down the driveway, which seems to be his favourite game at the moment.


nose kisses with Bear Bear





Thomas can't quite work out how put his shades on!



Almost got it right!





Ready....steady....



.........GO!



While mooching around the garden we also spotted that one of our chooks has laid an egg in the flowerbed while free-ranging. I thought it was a bit strange that there were no eggs yesterday. I'm going to have to keep an eye on that!



That's not the nesting box!





Tulips in the sunshine



Mothering Sunday

Today is Mothers day. I've not really had a "day-off" as Paul was taking part in a cycle event - The Meon Valley Riser, a 50 mile ride over the south downs.

Thomas riding his bike, just like Daddy

So while he was out we had our usual chaotic morning. The living room has been well and truly trashed. Thomas has gone through a wide range of activities from playing with his Brio set, to sliding his cars along the laminate flooring, to colouring and finally settled on his aqua-doodle mat.

Aqua doodle

Meanwhile, the chickens are doing a lovely job of digging up the garden and the cats have decided that it  is time to take it easy.

Mabel - Spring chicken

Poppy and Stanley - having a snooze

So with all that going on, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and celebrate mothering Sunday by treating myself to a naughty nibble..... A cup of fully caffeinated coffee and TWO slices of broken biscuit cake.

yum!

To all you lovely mummies out there - 

Happy Mothers Day xxx