To laugh or to cry

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Today was delightful, I got to be full time mama again and we had a great day.

After the wonderful sailor themed baby sensory, which was awesome, sprog went to the peaceful land of nod in the car. Now, he normally goes for a good couple of hours after sensory as he’s worked so hard developing different so many new ideas at sensory so I sat myself quietly down, returned a phone call, had my lunch and went to it to start putting the washing out and doing a bit of planning but sprog had other plans. He woke after only an hour and was of course in fine spirits to begin with.

I love the smiles when he first wakes up, daytime naps are not as good as first thing but it’s such a beam of happiness. After a little play upstairs, we headed down for lunch. And what a lunchtime it was! I think you can probably only truly appreciate this if you’ve ever been in a similar situation. Until today I would have said that I’d seen him get very messy with his food but this was something new!

The menu was ratatouille leftover from our delicious dinner last night. As always with baby led weaning, I take my lead from him, so we had spoons out, we had the bowl etc and he quickly established that today he wanted to take the food off the spoon and eat with his hands. He was loving it and eating so well. And then came the fatal move… The eye rub!

This may sound like the most simple and insignificant of movements… How can one rubbing ones eyes really be so disastrous?! The answer is when ones hands are covered in food. And not any old food, oh no… Yummy tomato food which has that delightful orange stain to it.

It was game over then. He spent mere seconds rubbing his face and the clean up operation when from baby wipe to stripping him down for a bath! I would have cried but he enjoyed the food so much and giggled his way through it so that I could only laugh at him!

Cue 30 minutes of trying to avoid getting the tomato sauce on anything else, covering the bathroom in tomato sauce and cleaning my mini monster and we were finally ready for the afternoon (it was only about 3.30!!)

Off we popped to tesco, I did remember the money off voucher this time – win for me! I was naughty and bought a couple of little bits for his birthday (not yet, I know, but some of it was reduced and some of it was just cool). We dashed back to the car as the rain drizzled down and made it home. As I pulled the handbrake up, the heavens opened. We had no waterproofs, no coats, not even hoodies on! Laugh or cry?!?! Laugh!! We sat and played on the car for a couple of minutes with fingers crossed and thankfully it eased off. I didn’t really have a plan for how long we were going to sit there!

One final laugh or cry moment… As I tried to write a card from sprog to his godmother, he continuously grabbed the pencils from me and crawled across the card. This isn’t the bad bit! We’d also bought her a cactus complete with funky tash (later to be compared to sprog’s godfather!). Fear not, the cactus was within a plastic container so I wasn’t hugely anxious when sprog nabbed it and started waving it around until I saw the problem… There was soil inside that Mexican painted pot, soil that isn’t magic and gravity defying! As the soil flew out of the packet and across the lounge… Laugh or cry?! It’s got to be laugh right!!

I had a blast with the little man today… Luckily I have tomorrow where he’s at nursery to help the house recover from today and prepare for Friday!!

Top activities… BabyCalm

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At 10 weeks old, Sprog and I were doing fairly well when we started our BabyCalm course with the lovely Naomi.

I remember introducing ourselves and describing him as a generally calm baby but I was just after some ideas for ‘in case’, he then screamed pretty much non-stop for the 2 hour session as he couldn’t get latched on when I was trying to feed him! Unfortunately for us, it was our first go at feeding out because before then I hadn’t felt confident enough, and when I was ready, he wasn’t!  So much for a completely calm baby!!

Naomi allowed everyone to talk openly and led discussions about all manner of parenting topics. It was so good to be able to share that development with 3 other new mum’s. Naomi shared the research, reading and some of her own experiences with us so that we were able to make our own decisions. The links for some of these recommendations (some in particular, I have come to rely on, are below). I would never have thought of researching some of those ideas, let alone been able to find and understand it in the newborn haze so I would recommend the course for that reason.

I found the science behind the brain functions and sleeping patterns of babies fascinated and it really helped me to relax into knowing that there is not such a thing as ‘normal’ sleep for a baby.

I am the most confident that I can be in my parenting decisions because of the course. I would have been a much more ‘traditional NHS mum’ and not taken some of the slightly ‘alternative’ routes like babywearing and baby led weaning that I have done, and I would not have been so open to some of the attachment parenting ideas that I have adopted, at least in part. In retrospect, this course really helped to shape me as a Mama and in turn the hubby as a Daddy.

The Wonder Weeks http://www.thewonderweeks.com/gb/ You must read this or download the app! I have the book and app and at times it has been a complete lifesaver as it explains to me the developmental changes in my little man’s brain!

Babywearing http://babywearinginternational.org/

http://babycalm.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BabycalmToddlercalmSussex?fref=ts