First Shoes.

Date : 23.11.2014

Age : 14 months & 26 days.

First shoe size : 5.5 F

Bean xo

Archie's first steps.

(please excuse the large pile of clothes in the back ground I was in the middle of my ironing)

Tweleve months, two weeks old and my little baby took his first steps. I guess this mean's he's not my baby anymore but actually my toddler. Crawling seems a thing of the past, or something he only does when he's mid strop. He's thirteen months now and tomorrow I shall be buying him his first pair of big boy shoes, *insert sobs here*. 

Bean xo

Bath time.

google image

 Leaving a child alone in the bath is okay when? In my personal opinion never. Okay, so I don't mean older children (10+) I mean younger children who are not mentally mature enough to take responsilby for themselves in a bath full of water. Eva is five years old, and even though she is aware of the danger's of water I don't think she is ready to be left alone, for one I'm far too scared of something happening to her plus the fact she probably wouldn't bath herself opting for just playing instead. 

It's so easy to drown in the bath, it takes a matter of seconds, the time it takes to answer the front door, the time it takes to answer a phone, the time it takes to run out the room to get that towel you forgot. Yes, okay Eva can swim, but what does that matter in a bath? That skill is made void by the fact unless you are 2 inches tall or a fish, swimming in the bath is impossible. Of course I could kit her out in a rubber ring, arm bands and anyother buoyancy aid, but let's face it, that's a little bit over the top.

So when is the right age to leave a child alone in a bath tub? Many pediatrician's say that a child between 8-9 years is mature enough to be left alone, and I have to say I agree with this. Of course that's not to say all children are of the correct mental maturity, some may need a parent / carer in with them beyond this, but on the most part this seems reasonable. It's around that age that some (again not all) children begin puberty and I believe they should be given some privacy to bath in peace. I'm sure we already remember that awkward age and not wanting anyone looking at us naked while our bodies were changing.

So when do think a child is safe to bath alone?

Weaning Diary.

7 months old.

Two meals a day

+ snacks.

 Breakfast : Baby porriage, I also mixed in a a spoon of his berrie baby cereal for a bit of extra flaour. He loves this (although it looks a little too sticky in this picture, I did add more water before feeding it too him)

 Lunch : Yesterday I made apple and pear puree. It was meant to have beetroot but tesco delievered the hot and spicey ones instead of the one's I ordered so I have to skip them.

 Snack : Strawberry in his Nuby. I love this thing, I normally give it to him which I am getting on with housework as it keeps him busy and I don't have to worry about him choking!

He also has his milk, I am still breast feeding him on demand, but during the day now he'son food, this tends to be only 3 times and normally around 30 mins after his meals. As of today I am adding a third meal also around 5pm.

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.

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.

Six months.

 September

28th - Archie arrived in the world.

October.

3rd - Heel prick test (everything was fine)

23rd - Hearing test (everything fine)

28th - First smile. 

November.

2nd - Starts babbling.

26th - First jabs

 December.

5th - Rolls belly to back.

25th - First christmas.

31st - Second jabs.

January.

6th - First laugh (to soft kitty song from the big bang theory)

28th - Third jabs.

 February.

There were no milestones this month, but his hand eye coordination greatly improved.

March.

11th - found his feet.

13th - sitting unaided.

14th - First word ; Dada.

16th - First swim.

26th - Rolling back to belly.

Weaning.

Yes Archie is really at that stage already, I'm as shocked as you! He's been showing signs of wanting solid food for a while now, and I've been putting it off for two reason's. The first being his age, I wanted him to be at least 6 months and secondly - with is probably a selfish reason - I didn't want him to grow up so quickly, putting him on solid food like admitting he is getting older and is no longer that baby who needed me for everything! Although he still does. 

When it comes to weaning I am all for homemade food rather then the vile pots you buy from the shops. Seriously anyone buying those for their child have you tasted them! I brought one for Eva - chicken dinner I believe - and tasted it before I gave it her, It tasted like mashed up cardboard with a hint of cat vomit. I read into baby led weaning and I do plan to do it this way later on, right now though I don't have a high chair, or the room for one so I am sticking to the well known puree method.

  I made up three puree's yesterday, Butternut squash, Broccoli and Parsnip. I had a taste of all three and the only one I wasn't happy with was the broccoli  one, I think this might be because there is no salt or pepper so it's very bland. I'll see how Archie takes to this one soon enough.

The first one he had was the butternut squash. His face on the first mouthful was a picture but he soon hoovered it all up and and a huge smile on his face. Yes, he loved it!!

I've been reading up on some recipes for puree's and I'm quite excited by some of them - small things - once he's got the hang of these ones I'll be moving him on to some fruit puree's. I'll be doing many blog posts on this subject mainly for my own personal use and also for anyone who's also weaning their children. 

I'll be adding the recipes of any foods I make for him as well, so keep your eyes peeled.