When to stop breast feeding.

When I decided I wanted to breast feed Archie I discussed with boyfriend how long I would do it for. We both agreed that 6 months would be long enough, what with my returning to work when Archie was 8 months this would give me two months to wean him on the bottle and to get him on solid meals as well. However, Archie is 7 months old tomorrow and I am still breast feeding him and I have no plans to stop any time soon. I feel very positive about this, he's happy I'm happy so why should I stop? Work is no problem. I shall be returning May 31st to do evening and weekend hours meaning I can continue to breast feed while I work. The only real problem I have is deciding when to stop, I certainly don't want to be one of those mother's who breast feed their 5 year olds because in my view that's taking it one step too far but at the same time I don't want to stop before I'm ready to and totally regret my decision. So I have a question (or two) 

When did you stop breast feeding? 

What was the reason? 

Did you regret it?

~

note : I plan to do a post on my breast feeding journey, the good and the bad soon.

A girl called Eva.

Eva Ann Hopkins,
Age 5 years.
Favourites-
TV show : She's crazy on anything to do with animals, always has been, her favourite being any David Attenborough documentary. Cartoon wise she adores Tom and Jerry or Scooby doo. 
Food : Jacket potato. She could live off them given half the chance.
Colour : Pink. She does like purple too but pink is always her first choice.
Animal : She's Owl crazy, I think her obsession with them began as a toddler when she saw a barn owl for the first time. By the age of 2 she was able to tell you all the breeds. Her favourites still remains the barn owl.
Dislikes-
Having her hair washed. Flys or spiders. Meat. Wearing trousers. Dirt. The wind blowing her hair. Not getting her own way. These are the main things that can cause a melt down. She's beginning to get that teenage temper already, many days I've had her bedroom slammed in my face! She's a diva that's for sure.

5 things I need to buy.

Highchair.

 Now that Archie is on 2 solid feeds a day it's about time I actually invested in a good high chair. My house isn't the biggest and we don't have a dinning room so something small will be perfect. I quite like the Hauck Alpha Highchair it's currently on sale on Amazon so I may have to snap this up quickly.

Car seat.
Archie is beginning to outgrow his Aton carseat after over 6 months of use so we are now looking for another one. We do have Eva's old one - I don't remember the make - but its seen better days. It's in full working order however storing it in an attic has caused it to become damp so the fabric looks dirty. I may use it for a short time while buying the new one. I have totally fallen in love with the Cosatto Zoomi in either "vroom" or "cuddle monster" I can't decide. Again it's on sale on Amazon so I shall have to get this sooner rather then later.

New cot bedding.
Boyfriend would not be pleased to hear that I want to get Archie a whole new bedding set. Mainly because I brought plain set, with not knowing the sex and now I want to upgrade to a boy set. Not blue per say just something more for a boy. I love alot of the ranges from Mama and Papa's at the moment.
Although whether my budget can stretch to buy any of these is another matter all together.

 
 



















School shoes.
Eva's Clarks shoes have lasted until Easter, which I am very pleased about because they don't come cheap, but I am glad I listened to my mother and went ahead and got them. With only one term left before summer I won't be getting Clarks as come September her feet would have probably grown again and another pair would be needed. No, instead I'm looking at the cheaper pairs from Asda living at the moment.

A desk
At the moment Eva does all her homework from our dinning table but it would be nice for her to have her own desk in her room. Not just for homework but for when she's reading or doing her drawing as well. I meant to get one for her birthday, but it completely slipped my mind! I want to decorate her room so this will wait until her room is ready.

What's in my bag?

I thought I would do a completely different sort of post today, the what's in my hand bag post. I actually had no idea what was in my bag, I tend to just stick things in there and forget there even there!

My bag is from New look, I love it because of it's size. As a mum I have to carry all sorts of things as well as my own so having a larger bag is a must. I also love the metal corners at the bottom which make it a more sturdy bag. 

- Tesco Love Baby fragance free wipes.
- Little big nappies.
- Hair bands.
- Tigger teddy.

- Teetha Teething Granules.
- Ibuprofen.
- Elemis Sp@home Hand and Nail cream.
- Vaseline Aloe Vera Lip Therapy.
- My spare glasses.

- A book ; I have no idea why this is in my bag. I read it at home not while out and about.
- Nikon DX 55-200mm lens ; my Nikon D5000 camera with a 18-55mm lens attached to it is also normally in my bag too.
- My purse, from Next
- My house keys.

- Spare clothes for Archie.;; T-shirt & socks both from Tesco. Jogger's were a present and the bodysuit is from Asda living.

Easter illnesses.

Easter is almost here and I am drugged up to the eye balls due to getting the flu. I feel like rubbish, honestly I am never ill, I'm a mum.. who has time to be ill? Normally it's the kids or Boyfriend who are unwell and me running around looking after them. I hate being ill, it makes me sad, more so now because it's Easter and I had so many plans of things I wanted to do for Archies first one and now it's looking very unlikely that I'll get to do anything for easter at all. I feel sad reading all these amazing easter blog posts and wanting to be more active and baking cakes, painting eggs and having fun with the children. Being ill makes me feel selfish because I can't just go do things with the kids like I normally do - Although I have been getting lots of snuggles from them! I am hoping that by Easter Monday I'll be fighting fit and I can do the whole easter thing in one day, if not I may have to have a late easter instead. Oh how I hate being ill.

Sunshine and parks.

Sunday morning I woke up early and full of energy, this could only mean one thing the gym. I haven't been since my birthday - not out of choice I may add - with Sean at home with Archie and Eva still sleeping at her grandparents house I thought I'd go annoy my mother and drag her along too. The most amusing thing that morning was my mother's face when I turned up at her front door all bright eyed and bushy tailed, put it this way she is not a morning person! We had a good hour in the gym, laughing at how stupid we looked and probably looking like two people who've been let out for the day rather then two regular gym goers, but we had fun and I think that's what it's all about. We normally head for a swim before steaming the morning away in the health spa but as boyfriend didn't have any milk for Archie we decided to skip this grab some food in the little cafe and call boyfriend to take us food shopping. Yes that boring weekend task that turns old ladies into crazy shoppers and have other's diving out of the way of their trolley driving. I won't bore you with what went on here, I'm pretty sure you can guess - pick up an item stick in trolley and repeat - but we decided it would be a shame to waste the rest of the day doing housework, yet another glam weekend chore, so after dropping the food off at home we headed to the park. Archie's never been, well he has but he was a few weeks old and slept the whole time so I'm sure I'll not be counting that one. Eva ran off to play with some other children the moment we got to the park followed by the boyfriend who was told to keep an eye on her while I headed to the baby swings with Archie. He cried, the moment I sat him in the swing he cried. I quickly snuggled him back up and realised there was an awful smell coming from his nappy. A quick change and back on the swing and he was laughing and giggling. He loved it! Eva and boyfriend spent a good hour or so playing (boyfriend being a huge child was loving his day out maybe more then the children) We ended the day with a walk by the river while eating ice creams.

A day at birdland.

Saturday we took the children out for the day to Birdland (Bourton on the water). Archie's finally better after having a bad round of chicken pox and the sun was out so we thought there was no better way to spend the day. We last went here when Eva was smaller, a year or so ago. She's a massive fan of British birds, mainly owls, and loved coming here back then, Saturday was no different. We planned to leave around 9am but it ended up being 12pm as Eva and the boyfriend decided to watch his birthday gift from the children "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2". Archie slept the whole journey down the car while Eva enjoyed eating the travel sweets I'd brought that morning. I love driving through the countryside, Eva and I like to spot how many animals we can see on our way. This time we saw sheep, horses, pheasants and a ginger cat. This game keeps Eva happy so we don't have the whole "are we there yet" routine which drives me insane!

The first thing I noticed while walking around was how many wild birds there were hanging around. We saw three herons sitting around watching and waiting for fish, lots of small birds eating from the feeders in the woods and then the black swans and ducks (I didn't take any photos of the last two)

They have lots of different birds here, from the common to the uncommon, birds from all over the world! Eva enjoying finding them all and loved how funny some looked. Archie found the noises the parrots made very funny.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Eva's favourite part of the day was finding the baby chicks, We had to back and see them again before we left just so she could say goodbye!

10 things to do this summer.

1. Visit the beach. 

Building sand castles, splashing in the sea, eating fish and chips, ice-cream cones and spending pennies in the pier. The summer for me is all about the beach! We try to go once a year, even before having children the boyfriend and I found ourselves at the beach eating ice-cream watching the sun setting. This year will be the first time we take Archie, I'm not so sure how he will react to sand and I dreading the whole fist full of sand in the mouth moments which from what I remember from Eva's first beach day are not fun for either of us. We're planning on our beach trip before summer - next month - as I'm back at work in June and want to have a nice day out before then.

2. Visit a zoo.
Another yearly thing for us. Boyfriend loves zoo's, even as a child his parents had to take him to one every year on his birthday. I think this year is the only year he's been unable to go to one at all due to Archie being unwell with chicken pox, although we are planning to go to bird land tomorrow. Eva visited her first zoo aged 3 weeks, Archie is 6 months and yet to step foot in one, mainly due to Eva being at school now and boyfriends work hours. we only get the school holidays and boyfriend doesn't always get the time off. This year we are visiting Noah’s Ark zoo. (www.noahsarkzoofarm.co.uk) It's one we are yet to visit and seems to be a very child friendly place.

3. Have a picnic.
No trip is complete without a picnic. Whether it be a trip to the beach, a walk out in the country or a simple trip to the park. I normally end up eating sushi rather then sandwiches which sounds weird, raw fish? But I love sushi, I'd probably opt for a veggie range rather then fish while out and about though.

4. Go for a walk in the countryside.
I'm very lucky to be in the middle of the Cotswolds meaning I am surrounded in hundreds of amazing walks and places to explore all year around. I love walking in the summer mainly because the sunshine makes for good lighting while taking photos and the ground tends to turn into a bog during the wetter months. I'm looking forward to going for a walk in the woods to see the blue bells, something we do yearly. We also take Eva on a deer walk, whether we try and see how many animals we can find. One year we found wild boar!

5. Fly a kite.
Kite flying for me sends flash backs of the tantrums my brother would throw when his kite wouldn't fly and ended up being thrown in the bin not long after it was brought. We headed to Worcester Woods last year and brought Eva a cheap (I say cheap but the smallest ones were £10) kite and used the fields to go fly it. She loved it, and was actually better then all of us put together! I've just sorted out her kite from the garage ready for trips out this summer - if it's lasts that long!

6. Slimbridge wetland centre.
Or as Eva calls it "Duck land" because it's all about the ducks here. With loads of things to see and do there it's a winner even on wet days. They have hundreds of ducks, geese, swans and other such birds as well as the wildlife, it's beautiful and well worth a visit. We are going with the in laws this year, nanny being a nature lover she's excited to go with Eva and see what they can find.

7. Baking.
This a must for the summer, with Eva off school keeping her entertained on the wet days will be a mission so that's when baking comes in. I love baking, I'm covered in flour most days from baking biscuits or cakes. I plan to do alot with Eva. She tends to get bored making things so I shall bake things for her to decorate and of course she gets to lick the bowl!

8. Go to the park / feed the ducks
With quite a few local parks I can see us spending alot of time visiting these over the summer. Archie is now sitting up unaided so I shall have to take him soon for his first try of a swing. Parks always come hand in hand with feeding the ducks, we normally buy an extra loaf just for them and I've found that if we are in town when we decide to feed the ducks we end up buying them a loaf from the bakery rather then something cheap! They eat better then most.

9. Swimming.
We do this anyway, once a week at least but it's one of those things that need to be there on a list of things to do in the summer. I may look at taking the children to another pool rather then our local maybe one with slides and things.

10. Take photos.
The final thing on my list is photos. I plan to take alot over the summer and post them on this blog. I feel I've forgotten photography over the past year or so and I've run out of excuses to not get the camera out. Go back to 2012 and my camera rarely left my hands!

Chicken Pox take two.

Chicken pox has reached the littlest baby of the house. Poor Archie woke up yesterday with 3 rather large red blister type stops around the nappy area. I actually thought he was going to have it very mildly and that the 3 spots would be it.. no luck there. He woke up this morning with 5 on his head, and throughout the day more and more have been popping up. He's covered! Eva never got ill with hers I'm hoping the same goes for Archie ; touch wood ; he's very sleepy but very smiley so far.