Hello Kitty Twilight Duvet Set Competition

There were a whopping 84 entries in the end so I'm afraid that I had to replace Piran with a random number generator (for competition purposes only of course!)




The winner is .... @ashlallan.

Congratulations.

Baby signing - guest post

Piran and I used to go to Sing and Sign classes every week. He loved it, it was the only thing that used to get him so excited. I tried to keep up the signs at home and for a while he did use a couple of signs. It was lovely. Sadly, when I returned to work four months ago we had to stop going to classes and then I stopped using the signs and now we don't do it at all. Which is sad because I think that at this age this is the time we would be seeing the benefits. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think to myself 'I wish you could tell me what is wrong / what you want'.

The following guest post is by Misty Weaver, Chief Editor of Baby Sign Language. I found it really interesting and I am trying to take her advice and get back into using the easy everyday signs. I hope that it works.

Baby Sign Language – What if You’ve Taken a (Really Long) Break?

Momhood is so darn overwhelming. Yet, we manage to get smarter. We get wiser. We learn more. Our priorities change. I followed my first child around with disinfectant wipes. Sometimes I forget to bathe my second child.

And with my first child, I was a baby sign language guru. I had Baby Sign Language Flash Cards hung all over my house. I had recruited the neighbors, the babysitters, the grandparents – heck, I practically had the dog signing. Then my second child came along. I started out ambitious, but my enthusiasm quickly waned under the weight of dirty diapers and empty tubes of lanolin.

Part of it was his fault. Yes, I will blame my failure on an infant. Whereas my daughter thought signing was great fun, my son just looked at me like I was from outer space. Yet, I didn’t consciously give up. I just gradually forgot to sign.

But if the story ended here, it wouldn’t be a very good story, now would it?

The bad news is, by the time my son was about 8 months old, I had stopped signing altogether.

The good news is, when he was about a year old, I started again, for no particular reason, except that maybe I was no longer distracted by all the lanolin. And guess what? My son learned to sign. He picked it up quickly, loved it, and hasn’t yet scolded me for taking all that time off.

Of course, ideally, you want to sign with your baby from the time that they are about six months old until they are about three years old. Ideally. But the ideal doesn’t always happen, does it?

So, if you are like me and you have fallen off the baby sign language wagon (or even if you haven’t gotten on it yet), it is never too late to climb aboard. It is so much fun to sign with toddlers because they are fast and enthusiastic learners and because they need signing so much. They will definitely want to be able to tell you when they are hungry, thirsty, tired, or hurt.

So just pick up where you left off. Start with some of the signs that you have already done. Your baby may or may not remember them, but it doesn’t really matter. Just start incorporating them into your everyday speech. When you ask, “Are you hungry?” make the sign for hungry. When you ask, “Are you tired?” make the sign for tired.

You don’t have to go hog-wild. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Take it one sign at a time. Infant Sign Language is not an exact science, and there will be no standardized test at the end.

Above all, Baby Sign Language is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be a way for us overwhelmed moms to bond with our babies. I think I forgot that part for a while, in all the mayhem, but I’m grateful that I started signing again, and I think my son is grateful too, though he still looks at me like I’m from outer space. Maybe I am – who really knows?

Friday morning

We had a solid 7 hours sleep last night. Sadly, that is worth mentioning these days!

It was a cold but wonderful morning outside. Pale and soft. The sky was powder blue and covered in broken up scribbles of white clouds. The world seemed slightly pink around the edges, promising sunshine later. Ribbons of vapour hung magically in the air, seeming to disappear as I got closer. The fields were iced with frost and mist and great oak trees rose majestically out of the haze. It was beautiful and mysterious and took my breath away.

Paulo Nutini was on the radio and I bopped and sang along, freed by the rare occurrence of being the only person in the car. Lyrics made tears appear in my eyes as I had the time to stop and think about how lucky I am. I was there in the moment, not thinking about what comes next or worrying about this pregnancy or the future. I didn't feel ill or tired or overwhelmed. It felt wonderful.

Seems such a shame to waste this mood on a day at work *sigh*

Happy day

Today was a very happy day. Today I went for my 12 week scan and met our new baby for the first time. Sadly Mr C could not be with me, as he is away with work but everything went fine and I have one little baby all snuggled up in my stomach. It's not a great photo of the picture but I need to wait until I am at work to scan it.

It was harder than I thought going to the hospital. I just wasn't prepared for the onslaught of memories from last year and how that would make me feel. Still, this is a new baby, a new pregnancy and it will be a new birth experience. I am older and wiser and I know a lot more this time. It is in my power to have a different experince than last time and that is exactly what I am going to do.

I have felt terrible so far! The nausea has been horrific, all day every day and all night as well. Which isn't great when I have been up with Piran almost every night since I found out seven weeks ago. Still it is starting to pass and I am beginning to feel better. I am excited. It is weird this time though - I can go almost all day without thinking about it. There just isn't the time to sit and dream with my feet up anymore.

I showed Piran the scan picture and he tried to eat it. I think that means he is very excited about the new baby. I know we are.

Competition: Win a Hello Kitty Twilight Duvet Set

When I was a little girl it was all about Care Bears. I loved them, I wanted everything to do with them and I even wrote to Jim'll Fix It asking to meet them (he didn't fix it for me, sadly). I know I never had a Care Bears duvet set though. I did have one wall with the wall paper though. I though it was the best thing ever!

I am reliably informed that it is all about Hello Kitty these days so I hope that there is a young girl out there that will be made very happy with this prize!

I have a Hello Kitty Twilight Duvet Set to give away.

This prize has been supplied courtesy of Argos , who provide a wide range of kids bedding, bunk beds and toys.

There are two ways to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me what you were obsessed with when you were young.
2. Tweet: I'm entering @Kellyfairy's competition at A place of my own http://bit.ly/6S5eU to win a Hello Kitty Duvet Set

Small print: The competition is open until midnight on Saturday 30th October. It is open to UK residents only. All entries will be placed in a hat and the winner will be drawn by my glamorous assistant gorgeous son Piran. The prize will be sent by Argos and the winner will be required to provide me with a contact name and address that I will pass to them for the purpose of sending your prize.

Disclaimer: I have been provided with reimbursement for running this competition.

The Gallery: My favourite photo

I am late with my entry to the gallery this week. I am not sure where the days are going but this is the first chance I have had to open the laptop all week. I am dead tired, weeks of bad nights are taking their toll and I am getting to the point where I just want to stand up and scream "It's not fair" at the world. But as my step dad was so fond of saying as I grew up, life isn't fair and when I was up for three hours last night I got to watch the last four Chilean miners rescued and it gave me a little perspective. Life could be a lot worse than this.

I thought this week's gallery would be easy as I already picked my favourite photo when this was a meme flying around our blogs, but then I realised that The Gallery has always been about photos I have taken, and that one, although precious is of me, not by me.

So after a lot of thought I have picked this one. My heart skips a beat every time I see it. I know that I am biased but seriously, how cute? Anyway, it is my favourite photo that I have taken. It has such precious memories and will forever remind me of the joy of having a little baby. Piran is all boy these days, all traces of baby are disappearing faster than I can cope with and this reminds me of that wonderful time when he was small and cute and well, my gorgeous baby son. Who doesn't love a baby in a hat!

Simply magical

Today was one of those perfect days that I want to bottle and get out whenever I feel blue. The sun was shining, the air was fresh, there was a breeze blowing the leaves from the trees. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, just airplane trails and silent gliders dancing above.

We went out on an adventure.

There were swings.

There were leaves falling from the trees.

And apples all over the trees.

There were weird and wonderful fungi.

We filled our basket with conkers and windmills.

We played with feathers and threw conkers at each other.

It was exciting!

It was great fun.

Piran learned to take photographs - of Mummy and of himself.

And on the way home, boxes of free sweets!

Simply a magical afternoon.

And this is post number 400 on my blog, which is pretty cool too!

ZingZilla's review - The Album

Initial thoughts: We watch a lot of Cbeebies in this house it is fair to say. However, Piran does not yet show much of a preference so the shows we watch are the ones I can tolerate! I like the concept of Zingzillas but in reality they scare me a little. It is the way that they occasionally try and imitate how monkeys move. Totally freaks me out. So I wasn't sure what I would make of the album.


We liked: There was a lot to like actually. The songs are catchy but none of them have particularly annoyed me on the first few plays. There are 26 tracks which seemed like a lot to me. I actually even quite like some of the songs, Welcome to the Island and Drift Away in particular.

We didn't like: One of the only things I like about the show is the birds that sing the disaster song when something goes wrong. I remember tweeting that life would be better if you had birds singing the disaster song when things went wrong so I was disappointed that this wasn't on there as a filler between the tracks.

Overall: Piran always stops what he is doing when there is music on the television but this didn't have the same effect as he is used to hearing music without the television on. He is too young to recognise particular songs and so I think he is probably a little too young at 14 months. That said, I am sure there will become a time when it is much more popular with him.

Further information: October sees the release of ZingZilllas: The album, which will be available on CD and digital download. The album includes the band’s first single, Do you Didgeridoo? As well as an extended version of the infectiously catchy ZingZillas theme tune.

Serving up listeners with a host of world music from over 20 counties, the album features 26 tracks including hits such as Bhangra Beat, The Great ZingZilla Band and Let’s Hear You Scat

Certain to get fans singing, grooving and dancing just like their favourite primate friends, Zingzillas: The Album will be available through all good retailers.

Release Date: 4^th October 2010
RRP £9.99


Disclaimer: We were sent a free copy of this album to review.

My Merry-go-round

I am empty of words or enthusiasm or inspiration. I keep thinking that I should blog, that I haven't really written anything for weeks. We have been home from holiday for a whole week but other than my weekly gallery post I have hardly even turned on the computer. I am not sure what is wrong with me or why it is but right now I have nothing.

I am tired. Being back at work is frustrating, tiring, fulfilling, eye-opening. I get flashes of the person I was before I was a Mum, it both frightens and intrigues me. I miss Piran more than I expected, and get annoyed that by the time I see him at night I am too tired to appreciate and enjoy him so end up counting the minutes to bedtime. I am definitely still striving for the work-life balance that I need.

I am not living I am surviving and it annoys me. I am hormonal and difficult to live with. I have nothing to share with you, my friends and that is irritating me. This blog is the key to my sanity most of the time, so I worry when I cannot even manage to find something to write about here.

Still, I know that this feeling will lift soon and I will move on to the next thing we have to deal with. This year is passing so fast, it makes me feel like I have lost control. I am hanging on by my fingernails to this merry-go-round and just wish, for a day or two that things would slow down. Or that I had a magic pause button that stopped everyone and everything in it's tracks so I could sleep and sleep and then when I feel refreshed I would clean and tidy and organise everything around me. Then I would eat and sleep again and when I woke I would hit play and life could start again but I would feel on top of things and in control.

In my dreams eh?