The Gallery: Food

This week is all about food. Not really the sort of thing that I take pictures of. So as usual I have gone with pictures of Piran. Our journey with food has been a bit rocky at times, and very frustrating but we are in a fairly golden period at the moment. We have found things that he loves to eat, and others that he is not too much of a fan of. We followed the baby led weaning route and I am glad that I did, although some days it all seemed too much.

I saw his appetite and eating habits change at around 11 months and now at 14 months it amazes me how much he wants to eat! So these pictures are of his first ever meal (not a great photo but a momentous occasion for us), and the last one that I have of him enjoying his favourite meal on holiday, pasta and tomato sauce.

Taking stock

I love being here. This is home to me. The streets, the views, the people, the places. Sadly, this is not the place that I live. This is the place that I used to live. Coming home is hard, I see glimpses of the life that I think we could lead if we lived here, and I think it could be great.

Part of me feels I shouldn't write this, that Mr C could read it and feel bad. But right now I feel that I have to. This time has felt different. Please do not misunderstand me. I like where I live, I like being close to his family, I like my job (at times) and I am happy with the routine we have found as a family. I am not sad, although I am a little lonely at times.

This week I feel envy and jealousy. I think about what we would have living here in Cornwall. I daydream about being close to my family, of finding our place in an existing community. I think about bringing children up with the freedom that I had as a child. I imagine days on the beach, sandy memories and salty swims. I wonder if my husband would be able to slow down, to relax and I think that this is the one place that could do that for him. I imagine Piran growing up with his cousins, automatic playmates. I would have my sister and sister in law and best friend around me who all have kids too. I would have my mum.

I am sure that this is a rose tinted view. If we were here I would get caught up with the inevitable family politics. Mr C would be leaving his family and friends and a job he has had for around 17 years. Who am I to swap my loneliness for his? We would not have the same money, the same opportunities. Life would be different that is for sure, but can I be sure it would be better?

All I know at the moment is that I am lucky that I get to come here, to have my taste of this life every few months. I have a house, a gorgeous child and a fantastic husband. I should be grateful and I am. I will be blue for a while when I get home and then life will just go on.

One thing I know, that as a Greek Philosopher once said, the only constant is change. This is our life right now, but everything changes so quickly all off the time, who knows where we will be this time next year or the year after. My dream may become a reality one day.

The Gallery: A smile

Those of you who have met our little man will know that he is a happy chap with a smile for anyone. However, there is one smile every day that is for me and me alone (okay, or Mr C!). This one, the first of the day. The one that says 'Wow! You came back. What fun stuff are we going to get up to today?'

That's the best smile in the world.






Still away, having a great couple of weeks. Loving being here, spending time with all the people I love. See you all next week.

The Gallery: A Celebration

I'm on holiday, with only an iPhone and phone reception so all I can do this week is pick a photo I have on my phone and hope I manage to post it!

The only pictures of celebrations I can find on my phone are from Piran's first birthday, which has been my favourite celebration in a long time.

Tommee Tippee Review - Explora cups

At CyberMummy I was chatting to the lovely ladies on the Tommee Tippee stall and discussing with them the fact that Piran was just about to turn one and I was trying to find something that would help me move him over from a bottle to a cup for drinking his milk. He has always used one of their simple flip spout cups for water but getting him to drink milk from anything other than a bottle is difficult.

They sent me two cups to try:

Explora First Sips

This cup is somewhere between a bottle and a cup. I found it too small for Piran, once half the liquid was gone he had to tip it up too far to get anything out, craning his neck. What I did like though is the lid and the handles fit on the closer to nature bottles which we have always used so I have added the handles onto his night time bottles to try and get him to at least hold on and give himself milk. I want to be able to read him a story and figure by now he should be able to hold his own bottle. However he seems adamant that it is my job! I will try and persevere.


Explora Easy Drink Cup


This is more like a traditional sippy cup. It seemed to be easy to hold and the handles were good to grab hold of. Piran seemed to like this cup straight away and I liked it because he couldn't spill anything when he inevitably turned it upside down. However, to stop it leaking you had to put the lid on very tight, and at times I have had trouble trying to undo it! Also, when it is full of liquid it seemed to me that Piran was finding it a little heavy.

So, we are still in the trial and error stages. I am trying to stop Piran using a bottle at breakfast time, but I am yet to find that elusive thing, the perfect cup. We have tried a few I tell you! Do let me know if you have any tips.

Disclosure: We were provided with two free cups for the purpose of this review.

Out of office

Thank you for your interest. We are out of the office, braving the English weather to enjoy a family holiday, a wedding, a christening and making some happy memories.

Kelly, Mr C & Piran

Change

Dear Piran,

Eleven long months ago I wrote a post on this blog. It was all about my bedroom, the place that we used to hang out every morning. You would lay next to me yawning and smiling, cooing and kicking your legs and waving your arms. Your Dad would make me a cup of tea and then leave for work with waves and smiles and kisses. The two of us would cuddle and chat, watch TV, go on the computer. Around 8.30 you would slip back into sleep there on the duvet next to me.

This morning you started chatting away in your room at 6am. You seem to be happy to stay there as long as you cannot hear us moving about, as soon as you do your shouts for attention get more immediate and much louder. We go into your room and more often that not you are up on your feet grinning away at us. We pick you up and you wriggle and squiggle. If we are very lucky you will come and sit between us in bed but unless we play with you constantly, hiding you under the duvet you are off, clambering all over us to get off and see the rest of the bed. It makes my heart jump into my mouth every time you go racing off as you have no idea how to get off the bed!

People told me to cherish every moment of those early morning snuggles, and I like to think that I did. But now you are changing more and more every day, going faster and faster making me want to just hold onto something to make you slow down or even stop. Days, weeks, months blur into each other and I am scared that I will forget what these days were like. In the month since your birthday you have found your feet, sitting is boring and crawling is a means of transport but standing up is where it is at. You have such interest and focus in your surroundings, you are never still. Cuddles are brief, within moments you are wriggling your bum around trying to lever yourself out of my lap and off to your next adventure. Nothing is safe, you are so tall that when you stand you can reach everything. Yet again I have to rearrange the house to stop you destroying it.

If I am very lucky you will put your lips together and make a mmmmmmmm sound as you place your head against mine, a beautiful kiss. You have some words, Go, Bye, Daddy (all the time), Tessie, Diddy, Bubby. Some mean nothing, others do. You say "Cor" with an intake of breath which is so cute. Your Dad is away with work this week and every 'Daddy?' you mutter makes my heart twist in my chest. I wish you would say Mummy, but I guess I am always here. You talk and shout and chatter constantly, particularly in public. I can do a weeks shopping in Tesco and you make noise the whole time. You charm everyone we see with your smiles and giggles.

I am now back at work two days a week and after a few bumps we all seem settled in. Every time something changes I feel lost, like I have broken free of my anchor. I need routine to function, which is not always possible with a small person around. I am not always great with change but for now we have carved out a new week for the three of us and you love spending time with your Nanny and Grandad and Aunty Alison. I wish you got to spend as much time with your other family but soon we will visit them and you will get spoilt rotten.

What I have found since becoming your Mum is that change is inevitable. I used to avoid it, now I have to accept it. There will always be something to adapt to, to include in our days, or to deal with at night. Change is not a bad thing, although I have shied away from it in the past. I am not afraid of change anymore my gorgeous boy, you have made me brave.

Love Mum x

This post was written for Josie's Writing Workshop this week. She asked us to write something about change as she tries to process everything she has seen and heard on her trip to Bangladesh. If you haven't already please click on the box below and go and find out more.

The Gallery: Back to School

This week the gallery prompt is Back to School. I did think about taking a picture of Piran as he went off to nursery, but that is just him in his usual clothes! You have seen enough of those already. Actually seeing all of the photographs this week taken by proud parents of their shiny children in their smart uniforms reminded me of this photograph of me. I don't think it is my first year at school, although I could be wrong but I must have been either 4 or 5. Check out the size of that fringe. There are no words.

CSN Stores review - Cookware

This post has been a little delayed as the kind people at CSN gave me a generous gift token to spend on items to review, but their Cookware store has so many great items at such great prices that not only did it take me ages to decide what to get it has also taken me quite a while to have the opportunity to use the things! The website itself was simple and easy to use and has great choice. My only complaint was that I had trouble with the checking out process on the website, if I didn't do everything perfectly it all fell apart and I would have to start again. It was quite complicated as I was using a voucher to pay but if I had just been trying to buy something I might have given up!

That said, the items came quickly and were delivered and left in the place I requested. Everything arrived in perfect condition, but I did feel that the packaging itself was a little excessive.

I am pleased with all of the items we ordered. In the end we picked:


Le Creuset Large Spatula Spoon in Teal £6.99

I got a few Le Creuset Teal items as wedding presents. I wanted a plastic spatula for Mr C so he would stop using my wooden spoons to make scrambled egg. I hate when you can't get the egg off the spoon when you are washing up! Unfortunately, he still uses the wooden spoon at times but we have used this almost every day!


Cooling rack - £4.99

Not much you can say about this. Here is it in action!

Emile Henry Classics Ceradon 30cm Le Grande Pie Dish - currently £20.99

I have wanted a proper pie dish for ages and this was the first pie I made in it. It was perfect and yummy and so much better than making pies in pyrex dishes. 

Creative Tops Granite Work Top Saver in Black - £14.99


We have a very small work surface in our kitchen and I have a bad habit of not getting a chopping board and just cutting things on the worktop so this granite worktop saver has been great. It is always there, simple to clean and great for putting hot dishes on when I take them out of the oven. The only downside is it is very heavy so cleaning up the crumbs from underneath is sometimes a struggle, so perhaps wood might have been a better option. I love it though and as you can see from the pie picture, it matches my worktops. 

Disclosure: All of these items were provided free of change for the purpose of this review and in response to this post.

Do you keep secrets?

At the weekend I was getting something out of the boot of the car and casually mentioned to my husband that I had reversed our car into a concrete post a few days ago, but there had been no damage. His response was to say that was okay, and by the way, my old car that I had about three years ago, he once reversed it into someone but didn't tell me as there was no damage.

I was stunned. I just can't keep a secret from him at all. Yes, things like presents and surprise plans I try and keep quiet but I know that they will be revealed at the time of the special occasion, and sometimes it is all too much and I have to tell him anyway. Like when I arranged for us to have a VW Campervan as our wedding car instead of the car he thought we had arranged through my parents. I managed to go all the way to the day before but I just couldn't make it to the day.

I was thinking about secrets this afternoon as I came clean about something that I had done, that I wasn't meant to do and had subsequently messed up. If I hadn't told him it was very unlikely that he would have discovered what I had been up to, but I knew that it would eat me up inside and it was better just to come clean. In the end I deflected any telling off I might have received because he was checking his work emails on his Blackberry as I was owning up and I am so fed up of him doing that I shouted at him instead!

I am not sure that knowing everything about your other half is necessarily a good idea. I know for sure that we have not told each other everything about who we were before we got together, and I certainly am never going to come clean about all of the crap I got up to while I was young. But from the day that we got together I can honestly say I cannot think of any secrets I have kept from him.

What about you? Do you think honesty is the best policy in all cases or are a few secrets the key to a successful relationship? Are you good at keeping secrets?

Tommy's Baby Race, Saturday 11th September

Baby charity Tommy's is calling for parents, babies and buggies to take part in the first Tommy’s Baby Race, in association with Buggyfit, in Windsor Great Park on Saturday 11^th September 2010 at 10am. Unfortunately I am unable to make it but I feel it is a great charity and sounds like a great day out so I agreed to mention it on my blog. If you live close enough why not join in, or spread the word.

More exciting than your average stroll in the park, the 8km sponsored power walk or run means people can actively help Tommy’s to give more babies the best start in life.   The charity funds research into pregnancy complications such as miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth.     

Along with babies and buggies, hundreds of like-minded mums – or other family members who want to take part - will power walk or run the stunningly beautiful course.  The day will begin at 10am with an aerobic warm-up, led by Buggyfit’s qualified instructors. The music and easy moves will get everyone ready to tackle the wide, flat route – perfect for prams. It will be a great day out for little-ones too, with face painters, balloons and entertainment at the start line. At the finish, Heinz will be providing free baby food for children at one of the many picnic tables, whilst parents can take a well-earned rest.

Jane Brewin, Chief Executive of Tommy’s, says: “Tommy’s Baby Race will be a great day out for both parent and baby and the money will have a direct impact on saving babies’ lives”. 

Despite the fact that 1 in 4 women experience complications in pregnancy including miscarriage to premature birth and stillbirth, traditionally little funding has been made available for research into these problems in the UK – Tommy’s therefore relies on the fundraising efforts of the public to carry out its work. 

Registering for the Baby Race couldn’t be easier: just visit www.tommys.org/babyrace

Picture courtesy of Tommy's Press Office

The Gallery: One Day In August

This week Tara set us a new exciting challenge, this week is not so much about the photo itself as long as it was taken on a certain day. So, everyone had to take their photo on Sunday 29th August. It is a one day Blip for everyone (my own Blipfoto, Lazy Little Shadow, is sorely neglected. I must sort that out). Anyway, I only took a handful of photographs on Sunday but I am having a really difficult time picking just one. But, that is the way of the thing so this is the one that I have chosen. For the first time in a long time we had Sunday lunch free and so we decided that we would head to the sea. The three of us walked along Eastbourne seafront and had sausage and chips. Oh I wish I could have captured that smell of vinegar on hot chips. The photo was taken on my iPhone as I forgot my camera.

Sunday was the day that our intrepid blogging friends went on an adventure to Bangladesh for a week to help raise awareness of the work Save the Children is doing with mothers and children in one of the most poverty-stricken places on the planet. This is our way of marking this inspiring day for Josie, Sian and Eva.