Dear Boy - 15 months young #flashbackfriday

My dearest gorgeous boy,

this week you've turned 15 months - that is 1 year and 3 months in regular people's money ;) - but both you and mum were too sick, so this letter is, in fact, a bit late. Still, you are at such a lovely age that I couldn't let it go by without writing you a few lines.

The day you turned 15 months, we had a friend visiting with her lovely boyfriend and we took them to two of our favourite places; the park and Lilly's - our local tea shop. We all had a lovely time and mummy was super proud with her friend's comments, they kept on saying how lovely, beautiful and smiley you are and I know R really wanted to be able to spend more time with you. Unfortunately that evening you came down with the same cold mum had and from there on I have tried my best to make sure you have some fun but still get some rest to get better soon.

Cold or no cold our days are always filled with loads of laughter, dancing, cuddles and tantrums as well, why not? This is what you look like when you get a bit cross - usually because you can't get your own way:

One of your favourite things to do right now, is rolling around with mum and dad, laughing and being silly. You like TV time - why wouldn't you if your parents are addicted to it? - but you also look forward to reading your books at bedtime. You will pick up whatever you want to read - at the moment the favourites are All Aboard and Letter to the Zoo - and bring it to daddy or to me so we can read it for you while you sit and watch the pictures, sometimes you will simple run around the room whilst listing to the stories.

Lately you have started to eat on your own like a big boy, however, the mess is too big so we are taking baby steps on that one. You have also turned into a big muncher, you don't eat EVERYTHING but most times you're seem willing to try most foods. This is what meal times look like:

On Sunday we went to our local park to the End of Summer Festival and you had such a lovely time, we found you a balloon and from there on, all you wanted to do was to play with it. You also seemed really excited about the bouncy castle, unfortunately even though you are a biiig boy now, you are still not big enough for this amazing bouncy experience, in fact you haven't learnt how to jump yet - you very well try but instead your feet won't leave the floor and your knees bend giving you a a springing  motion...which is really cute!

Mummy and daddy are always so proud of you for being such  a good boy and so determined to learn new things and explore the world around you. As you grow, your speech is coming along at great pace. Since you are learning two languages at the same time, it is normal that you don't say actual words yet but you do chat all day, I have notice a few "words" that you say over and over again and I'm sure one day they will make sense to us as well.

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Harry is a big boy now - Flash Back Friday

I took a few weeks break from certain things in life, mainly to look after myself but also because I lost the space bar on my laptop :) I will write about the ME time part soon but for now a nice little post for Flashback Friday!

So my last post here was about Harry turning 14 months, what I didn't know was that he really was growing into a big boy. The day after my boy became one year and two months young, the one thing I have been waiting for, has finally happened; my gorgeous little boy stopped breastfeeding.

I never had a set time that I intended to breastfeed Harry for, I hoped I could do it for at least 6 months but never really planned when to stop.

When Harry was very little I used to pump milk and leave it with my mum whenever I had appointments to go to, breastfeeding was really stressful in the beginning so that was a big help. Looking back I realise that even then and even being my milk, he was never a fan of the bottle. If I left him milk on a Monday he wouldn't even try a bottle on the Tuesday. Basically he would take a bottle of my milk when needed but of course, wasn't too keen on it.

For some reason, I decided that whenever Harry turned 5 months I would start replacing his bed time feed by a bottle of formula and as you can probably guess, easier said than done. A couple of months later we found out that lill guy had an ear infection.

At that time both formula and food were no no so I had no option but carry on breastfeeding. That wasn't a problem then, I was working my KIT days from home and my gorgeous boy was sick for months so I was glad there was something I could do for him.

Once He was better from all the non stop ear infections and finally started to eat some food - not until he was 9 months old - we tried the bottle malarkey again, no success. Lill guy would scream and kick at the mere sight of that stuff. I knew then; weaning wouldn't be all that easy.

A whole lot of attempts and a bunch of months later, Harry turned 1. At 12 months of age milk is no longer a baby's main source of nutrition so we decided it was our best chance to give it another go.

It took us about a month and a half from start to finish and our little guy done so well with his new routine, he is such a good boy! I will write a post on how we've done it to share our experience and to hopefully help other parents out there, who might have the same problem - but that will be another day.

At this point I am still trying to get used to the idea of not breastfeeding my gorgeous little boy AND since we don't plan to have another baby, don't ever breastfeed - ever again. It was such an amazing experience and it thought me a lot about the kind of person I am. I had my reasons to stop  - a number of them - and am glad we've managed to do it in such a swift way but if I am 100% honest, I will miss those lovely unique moments. No nostalgia though as I don't believe in that!

Flashback Friday - one year ago today

According to our dating scan, Harry's due date was the 18th of June, 2012. Even though both D. and I had the feeling he would arrive a bit earlier, we still booked the week before his due date to be the week we would get all the last minute things done.

We moved into our flat in the beginning of May 2012. We left all baby furniture to be purchased after we were in the new place; cot, changing unit, chest of drawers the lot. I was heavily pregnant and in no condition to  help much with the move. Because of the mess we didn't have much time to put things together but since D. took some time off work from the 11th June we thought that would give us plenty of time to get things done.

An year ago today I was 38 weeks pregnant, shopping online for moises bedding, completely oblivious that the pain I was getting  when walking was in fact my first contractions.

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Flashback Friday - The time when I used to sleep

at 2 months he used to wake up full of smiles, he still does that but some mornings
I need to put myself together to smile back

So life with a baby is full of surprises and the biggest one for me is the fact that I've grown up surrounded by babies - being away I have lost count but I have over 15 nieces and nephews, not counting my parent's 4 gray grandchildren - and still there were things I never took notice of or thought about. One of those things is how your day's main topic becomes SLEEP.
I talk to one of the local mums almost daily and all out conversations seem to start with an update on how night went.
There is one mum at the children center who never talks sleep, of course her little girl sleeps through the night so instead she usually tells us about her nights in with the other half, romantic dinners, bottles of wine and active social life. Oh yes! There is life beyond sleep deprivation, hooray!
I miss the first few months when lill guy used to sleep 12 hours a night with the one feed and I used to wake up refreshed and ready to enjoy every moment with him.
Last night he fed at 11:30pm and 3am, he then woke up 5:30 this morning but after winging a bit stayed happily in his cot until I came in for the first feed of the day so I actually got a lie in, until 6am - SMILE!!.
These days i call that a good night. Early in the morning my breasts were so full, it felt like it used I to on the first few months. He has been feeding every 2 to 2:30 hours during the day and waking up at least every 3 hours during the night so I guess my body as well as my brain was taken by surprise by the "good night's sleep".
There are days when I sit in the front room early in the morning - often after a horrible night - and I daydream about having a proper lie in, like the ones we used to have on the weekends the get up for a junky breakfast and a pajama day. One day - i repeat to myself like a mantra - one day. For now it would be enough to get me over the moon if he just went back to be the good little sleeper that he once was.

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Flashback Friday (even though today is Saturday!)

Worry free times with my beloved friends Sarah and Karen 

This picture was taken exactly 8 months before Harry was born.
Exact 6 days after this photo was taken, I've taken a pregnancy test, the first and only one to ever be positive.
About 7 days after this photo was taken, I was thinking of how much I've been drinking on that past month with all different events i had attended for work.
About  17 days after this photo was taken, I found myself thinking of the events of that day whilst reading the list of things you should avoid during pregnancy.Minutes later I was freaking out with the fact that on the day this photo was taken i was out for a SEAFOOD lunch where I had loads of SHELLFISH and WINE. Lunch was followed by about 4 JAGERBOMBS and MORE WINE at the office in the end of the afternoon.
Almost an year after this picture was taken I'm happy that was about the only drinking I've done during pregnancy. To be honest i really didn't fancy alcohol at all so that bit was easy - apart from the odd say when I had this funny craving for G&T but with all the sickness I was getting that came and went very quickly.

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Flashback Friday - Halloween one year on...

This is a picture from Halloween last year. Life in general was very spooky then; the company i worked for was going under and I had just found out I was pregnant. Our  pregnancy although very welcome was never planned so that was another scary factor, one day I was looking for another job to keep on working with events and on the next I was facing the fact that I was pregnant and soon to be unemployed.
At that time I wasn't yet worried about the fact that I would soon become a mum and have this little life in my hands, someone who would be 100% dependent on me, a life-changing addition to my own life. No, by then I was more worried about how I was going to get through pregnancy and be able to buy all the stuff you need to buy AND move to a bigger flat if I was soon to loose my job? Worse, how was I to get a new job if I was pregnant?
This picture was taken at a friend's Halloween party. It was the very first time my other half ever dressed up for Halloween and I must say I actually think he had fun. On the way to the party people kept on looking at him with surprise and he would laugh. I particularly remember this girl - she must have been at least 30 - who kept on looking outside the bus and covering her face with her hands in order not to look at him.
The spookiest thing about that night? A completely stranger announced my pregnancy to the whole party. He is friend's with one of my former work colleagues - at that time,  apart from our families, only the 3 people who shared the office with me actually knew about the baby - and she told them about this girl in the office who got pregnant just a few weeks after stop taking the pill. That was a very surreal moment if ever so slightly embarrassing. Looking back, even though he was rather drank actually was quite a sweet thing he done.

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