Sink Bath

How has my baby got to the grand old age of 11months and 3 weeks old without ever getting a bath in the kitchen sink!?

I feel like the baby-in-the-sink image is one that features in every baby album.  When Joel came home from hospital we used a baby bath that we borrowed from my generous sister-in-law.  But it wasn't long until Joel was bursting out of the baby bath and progressed to the big bath.

We used a cloth bath support like this one. Joel lay happily and kicked his legs but soon he learned to wriggle and he would squirm his way too the bottom of the bath support quicker than you could reach for the baby shampoo!

So then Joel progressed to his big boy bath seat.  He loves to sit up in the bath a look around him and reach for his bath toys.  He learned to use his arms to splash and flood the bathroom!  

On xmas eve our boiler gave up.  Our water ran cold and our heating went off.  We called out a boiler repair man fully expecting to pay through the nose for the xmas eve privilege.  The company we rang said we would have an repair man by 1pm and sure enough at 1pm he was at our door.  He assessed our boiler and told us it needed a new printed circuit board.  Unfortunately he did not have the circuit board that we needed and prepared us that it would be optimistic to expect to be able to locate one before new years as all the suppliers were closed for the holidays.  He then told us that as he couldn't fix our boiler there would be no call out fee charged!  Well who would have guessed?  Anyways my hero husband was able to perform a quick temporary fix which enabled us to use the boiler for a bit of background heat but no hope for hot water. 

We have an electric shower so this has been our saving glory!  We attempted to put Joel in the shower.  We placed his bath seat in the shower but he was not happy about it.  In fact he was VERY angry about it.  He cried and cried!!  So it was a very short shower, more of a sprinkle..

With it being the christmas season we have been out and about visiting family and abusing their bah facilities for Joel but tonight we were in out own house, with a very stinky baby.  Nothing else for it, time for sink bath!! 

LOVED IT!

However, I am certain that there is a very limited time span on this adventure, before Joel realises he can just stand up and climb out.  

Joel then had a post-bath nosey around the kitchen, rounded up with a wee on the floor.  Look at his face, he totally knows what he's playing at.... 

Monkey

On the subject of baths have you heard of the Tummy Tub?!  I am gutted that I didn't know about this product until recently, I would have loved to have tried it with Joel.  I have seen photos of friend's children using it and they look so relaxed and content!

 

(image from the web)

Have you ever given your baby a sink bath??

Do you have a Tummy Tub??

I'd love to hear your experiences... 

Merry Christmas

Have you met me?... Well then you'll know I love Christmas! I'm often told off for mentioning the 'C' word far too soon, but the scoldings never deter me!

I have always worked in the childcare sector, the excitement of the children only serves to further my enthusiasm for the holiday season.  I love the build up to the big day, the santa letters and decorating the tree.  This year I am working in a soul sucking paper pushing job.  The benefits are great, and I am very, very grateful for my job but there is not an ounce of christmas cheer to be found.  It was ruining my christmas buzz, so I decided to inject a bit of christmas sparkle into my life...

Thats right, I worked a couple of shifts with the big man himself.  I signed up as a volunteer elf at a local Santa's Grotto at Hillside Garden Centre.  The grotto was run by CLIC Sargent, a very worthy cause doing fantastic work.  In fact only this month they opened a new home from home centre next to The Royal Victoria Hospital.  This provides a place to stay for families who have to travel miles and miles for their child to receive treatment.  As Santa's helper I got to see children's reactions to seeing meeting Father Christmas.  It restored my christmas cheer to see this magic at work and even more so to know that every smile that came through the door meant that a donation had been made to a great cause doing great local work.  I only worked 2 shifts at the grotto but I will be back again next year!!

Topped up with festive cheer I was ready throw myself full pelt into traditional christmas preparations!!  Mum and I got together for our christmas baking day.  We whipped up a festive frenzy in a domestic goddess way and made yummy gifts for family, friends and neighbours.  We made cranberry sauce, apple and onion chutney, cranberry and pistachio biscotti as well as spiced chick peas (a wee idea I found from Mrs Thrifty.)

We bought jars from Ikea to put the cranberry sauce in.  A little fancy curly ribbon and they looked lovely as a gift!

The apple and onion chutney made the kitchen smell like window cleaner.  I expect it was something to do with the entire bottle of red wine vinegar in the recipe.  I am yet to get any feed back from anyone who received this as a gift from me, perhaps it has just ended up in the bin!!

I also managed to whip up a few knitted christmas tree dish cloths as gifts too, here's the pattern.  Dead easy, if I can do it anyone can! 

I continued my domestic goddess streak with wrapping all my presents that night.  Yes I am one of those people who love wrapping presents, twirling ribbon and making gift tags.  It makes me giddy, get over it.   

This year I was extra excited about Christmas as I was looking forward to soaking up every magical moment of baby Joel's first Christmas.  Over the next few days we created some lovely moments with Joel...

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Dancing with daddy at the santa band in Hillside Garden Centre. 

Sussing out this santa bloke...

Look  at him, we packed in so much christmas cheer he's all drunk on festive-ness!!

Mesmerised by the dancing snowmen in Auntie Chloe's christmas garden. 

This time last year I was spread out on the sofa like a beached whale lapping up my last days of relaxation.  Joel was due on the 26th December but kept us waiting until Jan 5th before he made an appearance.

Last year I was served my christmas dinner with my feet up.  I savoured my dinner, had a selection of deserts followed by a wee snooze and then more treats, mince pies and tea.  It was a day of relaxation and over indulgence. This year however I was running after a very energetic 11 month old, stuffing my dinner into me before he got fed up in his high chair and juggling nap times and family commitments. I wouldn't change it for the world.  I am a very lucky girl who's mum and dad cook the christmas dinner and all I have to do is turn up, but boy christmas day has never been so tiring!!
It was wonderful to create new traditions as a family.

Dressing silly for christmas dinner.

Taking the new wheels for a spin, in his new threads!

Adding the new 'Baby's First Christmas' decoration to the tree.

And what was my favourite present I got on christmas day?  A tin of beautiful handmade mince pies. Baked by two of the main men in my life, my husband and my son.  These photos were stuck to the tin..

P.S I know I haven't blogged in a while.  But I'm back!  2014 will be a year of continuing to document all our new discoveries...

Detox from Asda..

Anyone else find that they spend a FORTUNE every time you go to Asda?
The weekly shop has become more and more expensive, obviously we have a little person to feed now but it is not just that, the price of groceries is definitely going up.  Despite my best intentions of planning meals and sticking to a list I always end up impulse buying and ending up with food going to waste.
There are so many times that I have nipped in the car to Asda to pick up milk and ended up spending the guts of a tenner on things I don't need.  I walk about like an Asda zombie hypnotised buy their BOGOF biscuit offers.

Well enough is enough!  Asda, me and you are done - I'm going cold turkey!

Recently I have been reading these blogs and they have inspired me to be more mindful of my budget and my waste when it comes to food shopping;

Mortgage Free in Three
Skint Dad

After a bit of online research I found a company that interested me, Castle Farm Fresh Produce.

Based in the foothills of the Mourne Mountians this company provides a wide range of local products and even delivers to your door.  Reading through their website I loved the business goals that they listed;

• Provide local quality produce at a competitive price
• Provide local employment
• Cut down on food miles
• Promote the Mourne area
• Support existing local producers
• Farm in a sustainable, enviromentally friendly way
• Encourage customers to buy local produce

I was also attracted to the 'Box Deals' option in their website, providing value and quality.  Cheack out the range of 'Box Deals' here.    

So here is what we ordered;

Large family essentials box 

2 x 2.5kg maris piper potatoes

2 x 2 litre milk

1kg carrots

500g parsnips

1 x head of broccoli

1 choice of cabbage or 500g sprouts, 

1 choice of cauliflower or turnip 

500g white onion

18 free range eggs

500g loose tomatoes

1 x pack of 3 mixed peppers 

10 x small lunchbox mixed apples

1 x Punnet Clementine’s, 4lb bananas

White sliced loaf or pack of 4 soft baps

250g mushrooms

500g Dromona butter

Soup Pack (250g of buchanan soup mix, large bunch whole soup veg, 8 plain chicken drumsticks) 

2 x packs of 4 skinless chicken fillets

2 x 400g packs of plain beef, beef and chilli, plain pork or pork and leek sausages

2 x 400g steak mince

2 x 400g pack of Chicken goujons

2 X 300g pack of Unsmoked or smoked back bacon 

Price: £60.00

What I like about this box is that it includes the essentials such as milk, bread and butter aswell, removing the temptation to go to Asda!

£60.00 may seem expensive for just me, husband and the little person but I was confident that with careful planning and using the freezer we would be able to make to food last us at least 2 weeks.    £30.00 a week- not bad in my opinion!

This takes some planning, although the chicken goujons that are included were great for a night off cooking from scratch!

Here are some of the goodies that we cooked up!

 These chicken drumsticks were included as part of the soup pack.  However we had a sticky barbecue marinade in the cupboard which we used to cook them with.  These drumsticks did packed lunches for my husband and I for 2 days.

Here is the massive pot of soup that our soup mix made.  We used two chicken breasts instead of the 8 drumsticks for the chicken element.  This pot served as a hearty dinner for the whole family as well as leftovers for lunch the next day.  There are also 5 baby sized portions in the freezer.   

This is a chicken and broccoli pie, helped along with a wee tin of condensed soup in the store cupboard.

As you can see, in the deal 18x eggs are included.  We were so busy in focusing on making sure none of he meat went to waste that the eggs were forgotten and before we knew it the use by date was approaching.  We gave in and went to Asda to get 3x pastry bases at 90p each and whipped up these lovely cheese and broccoli quiches.  This was such a hit with Joel and so easy to make.  Phil was so proud of this creation he sent one to his mum!

We also made cottage pies, pots of belly warming curry carrot, parsnip and apple soup, vegetable stew and sausage casserole.  I also tried this recipe from the Mortgage Free in Three blog which has become one of my favourites.  It has to be said I have not mastered onion soup- my version tasted less sweet than I would have liked - but I will try again!  All these dishes take that wee bit more effort to make, especially after a day at work but are worth the effort as they all provide leftovers for packed lunch the next day as well as the possibility of freezer portions.  

Not all the meals required such effort, we also had sausage sandwiches, bacon turnip and potatoes, chicken goujons and roast vegetables and as shown above, bacon egg and sneaky oven chips.  The bacon and eggs provided in the box are beautiful!!  So tasty.

 The other advantage of this way of shopping meant that all the food was Joel friendly.  Cooking from scratch means that you can monitor the salt content and know that there are no hidden nasties.  There is a real satisfaction in everyone sitting down to dinner at the table, all eating the same meal, cooked from scratch.  Any leftover could be used with a few store cupboard bits to make a new meal.  See above, just a few left over roasted vegetables added to pasta and pesto and some tomato made a delicious lunch for Joel and I.

However I have to confess, I was not able to go Asda cold turkey, we had to go for formula, and the pastry bases for the quiches.  We also had to go to Lidl for milk - always the cheapest.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, Lidl are by far the best for nappies too!  There was also a trip to Home Bargains for pesto and breakfast cereal.  There was a minor chippie slip up and perhaps a Dominoes splurge as well.  Not quite a frugal queen yet, but heading in the right direction!

Another 'first' done!

This is all going to fast.  Joel's first Halloween has been and gone! 

I had all intentions of lovingly making his Halloween costume but never got around to even thinking about it properly.  So we found this really cute creation in TKmaxx.

And with a well timed news article in the local news ....

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24774587

 ...we were ready to rock! 

Have to say that this costume was a great buy, an all in one for minimum fuss and very cosy for those nippy autumn evenings trick or treating. Yes we did take our 9 month old round the street trick or treating, what of it? 

There was lots to do in Belfast over the Halloween period. 

Joel and his wee mate Sonny partied like hallions at the Baby Big Disco in the Black Box Belfast. 

This event was a bit pricey if you ask me, £5 a ticket, even for the babies but Joel had a ball! There were spooky movie projections, bubble machines, parachutes, sensory toys and a great selection of music for the babies to boogie too.

Joel and his mate Morgan went to a pumpkin carving event at the local community garden. Now put that phone down, there's no need to call social services, they did not give the babies knives and get then to carve the pumpkins!! There were pumpkins on display

Some face painting ( or hand painting for the fussy baby) ..

And belly warming soup on offer, which made for some happy chappys! 

Due to lots of rain and not being able to find the pram rain cover we missed the Lantern Parade at the Waterworks Park, but maybe we will make it next year! 

We didn't make it to the Monster Mash Fireworks display as I was afraid the crowds and noise would overwhelm him but it's another date in the diary for next year! 

20 days later..

So its been 20 days since I last blogged.  I've been a lazy girl.

Heres what has happened in 20 short days, and I mean short.  Aren't the days getting shorter?   Christmas is sneaking up!

We made the most of the lovely mild autumn weather garden hopping and swing hopping!

Joel became a party baby lapping up the attention at his big cousin Sophia's 5th birthday party (with a little experimentation with cross dressing)...

And at Great Granny Semple's 75th garden birthday party joint with cousin Beth's 15th Birthday....

And at his mate Sonny's Christening party, where he got his first ever ballon sword. 

We all began to get excited about Joel's first Christmas, especially Auntie Chloe! 

Joel tried swiss roll and custard, not any swiss roll and custard, Marks and Spencer swiss roll and custard!!

 Joel had a holiday sleepover at his Nanny Heather's house.

Joel became an expert in walking while holding on to furniture or onto mummy or daddy's hand.

Joel became a baby igeek, engrossed in the Apple Keynote.

Joel also went from 2 teeth to 8 teeth in this time.  This I do not have a photo of.  It was hard going, but we are glad that we got so many over with in the one go.  Poor Joel.  Yay for teething powders.   

And what did I do??  Hhhmmm, well the highlight of my 20 days was the MacMillan Cancer coffee morning in work.  A full fry followed by strawberry scone, then a wee sausage bap and banoffe wrapped up for lunch.  AND there was no guilt attached as all proceeds go to a great cause. 

Is it sad that this is the highlight of my 20 days?  All the rest of my 20 days was taken up by standing by, amazed, watching Joel's new discoveries and experiences!  A great 20 days. 

Me and my best boy. 

And he's off!

Quick wheres the plug covers???!! Some one get me a stair gate!!  Who left the nail scissors on the floor??

AAGGGHHHHH!!

Baby Joel has only gone and suddenly learnt how to crawl!!!

After months of rocking back and forward on his hands and knees today he took off!!  All it took was an interesting bit of fluff on my carpet - who needs toys?  Or hoovers for that matter!

He has been coasting around the furniture tentatively, walking and holding on.  Showing off this new trick has lead all the family to come to the conclusion that he would never be a crawler, he would go straight to walking.  He proved us wrong.  He's just crawling about as if its no big deal, I am having a massive health and safety related breakdown.

I feel like suddenly I can't trust him.  Gone are the days where I could nip to the loo and come back to find him more or less in the same place.  I'm pretty sure the next time I leave him alone he's going to wreak the place!  He may have just started crawling but I'm pretty sure he's been planning his tour of chaos for months.

Look at this face, I have a whole new perspective on this photo now.  Cute as a button when sitting still, but now I know, he was luring me into a false sense on security, ready to strike, planning mischief on the move!