My baby likes to hide in boxes

At our house we love Lynley Dodd books and generally read at least one a day (sometimes that one many many times). Little Moo’s current favourites are ‘Hairy Maclary’s Caterwaul Caper‘ and ‘Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack’.

However one of hers that we don’t currently have that I really love is ‘My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes’ which has cats from all over Europe doing fancy things like flying aeroplanes but their cat just likes hiding in boxes.

Which sounds a bit like us this month others have been out and about doing various baby classes and things while we have been home playing with boxes.

Whoops

Our walk through the bush to the beach started like this.
Then it rained and we discovered that we had a change of clothes for Little Moo but not his rain suit. So he wore Mummy’s coat.

But the sun came out again as we arrived and we had a lovely explore.

I love getting out side even when it is damp makes us all feel so much better afterwards.

A spot of sunshine on a cloudy day

We had been stuck inside for several days with horrible windy rainy weather and finally we got some clear sky. Robbie was as sick of being inside as we were so stopped working and decided it was escape time. We went down to Titirangi beach and had a glorious time stomping around on the wet ground, playing on the playground, finding a geo cache and exploring the beach. It was a perfect couple of hours.

Sick days and days and days

Some days there is this moment, a moment in time when you know that the next 24 hours is going to be hard work.

Mine was last night around 8pm when Little Moo woke up for the second time after being put to bed. Normally once asleep he stays that way until we go to bed then wakes for a short feed (probably because we are noisy, whoops). See one wake is ok, usually he has wriggled out of the blankets and is cold or went to sleep too quickly and didn’t get his full feed of milk, but once we hit 2 wakes then we get a zillion wakes (Ok not quite a zillion but it feels like it).

Now normally a night of lots of wakes isn’t a big deal, they happen every now and then but most other nights I get enough (though my definition of enough has change dramatically since he was born).

But we have had a week of itchy chicken pox spots and about 4 days before that of fever and looks like now he has a cold as well as spots.

So not only have I had not much sleep and a grumpy toddler who needs full on attention ALL day, but we haven’t been able to go to all our usual groups and activities in all that time.

Turns out I NEED those groups because not only do they wear him out and he slows down and sleeps, but I get to talk to other parents! Other people whose world is also their child/ren.

I also NEED outside time and out of the house time which has been rather tricky since it’s been pouring with rain most of the week. Though we made it out on Tuesday when the sun came out for a beautiful day. Little Moo and I sat on top of North Head watching the boats and helicopters go past, then had a yummy bakery lunch on Takapuna beach (and hopefully didn’t manage to spreed too many bugs).

  Before becoming a Mummy I thought that sick days would come 1 or 2 days at a time, and they would mean snuggles on the couch watching movies all day long. Turns out I was very wrong. He may be sick but that does NOT mean he sits stills. But that’s ok, instead we have baked, cooked, made cardboard castles and tunnels, couch forts, painted, danced and sang. Although we have had our melt downs we have also had a lot of fun and had a really good couple of weeks

 

10 things I love about being a Mum

Making its way around the blogs at the moment is 10 things I miss about life before kids and while I have quite a few of those,
Like going to the toilet by myself and not having tiny bits of food and toys all over the floor,
today I would rather focus on the things that are new and exciting about being a Mum.

1. Staying home when the weather is crappy.

2. Being able to sew and make stuff – Yes I could have done this before my son was born and I did a tiny bit and even had more time to do so, but no inclination.

3. Baking with Little Moo, its hilarious he tries everything that goes in the bowl. Watching him trying to catch and pick up the egg yolks and having them escape every time was priceless.

4. Getting down to his level and playing.

5. Robbie working from home 2/3′s of the time and him being willing to put everything down for a minute to give Little Moo a cuddle or attention just about every time he comes and asks for it.

6. Being a family.

7. Going to the playground and having an excellent excuse for playing on it. Though its a little different when all my siblings and partners come too, Don’t mind us 8 noisy adults playing and all the equipment we have a child with us… somewhere… oh look over there on the slide, we are with him.

8. Morning cuddles in bed, just wish they could start a little later, 7am would be good.

9. Watching him grow. A few weeks ago he could only walk a couple of steps and a time, now he can walk (wobble) across the room at great speeds holding two plastic golf clubs.

10. Being his Mum. You see that adorable smart little person over there, he is mine, I made him from myself. Now I get to watch him grow and show us more and more of his personality.

Just a note these things change month by month as he grows and changes, last month it was different things.

Christmas Projects Finished

A while ago I promised picture and more details of my Christmas projects and since Little Moo has gone straight back to sleep after morning cuddles, all curled up in bed with Robbie, its super super cute, I can finally do so.

Farmers Market Bag –

Hand bag for my sister – Dapper Day bag, Sew inspired
Turns out I forgot to take photos once it was actually finished, so this is before I sewed the lining in.

Ribbons for my Niece – Folk Haven

Montessori Numbers also for my Niece – Growing up Sew Inspired
Another one I forgot to take photos once finished, but they are numbers 0-9 hand sewed onto cotton (edges of a old sheet) then backed onto felt and trimed

Skirt for my youngest Sister – I forgot to take a photo of the actual skirt which is made for the book Sew Inspired (link above) and only the embroidered Pohutakawa flower that I added to it, which is a shame as I really liked the skirt, will have to make one for my self.

Plum and Strawberry Jam – I just put fruit in pot cover with water with some sugar then cook for ages added more sugar as I go as I taste it. In theory I cook it until soft ball stage but in reality I make a mess and when it goes sticky and yummy I figure its done (or when Robbie has had enough and wants to go to bed) so sometimes when have soft fruity jam and sometimes we have sweet sticky jam. Both taste awesome so its all good.

Being at peace with parenting

In the last little while I have been questioning and worrying about the choices I have made and my style of parenting. Should I really be ignoring half of what Plunket (Baby/child health visitors) and many parenting books say? Maybe now that Little Moo is a bit older I should be trying some of the other techniques.

We have Just come home from a wonderful week camping at the beach with Robbie’s family. Which has been a great time to lay my fears to rest and be at peace with parenting by instinct and from the heart.
Because we were really lucky to have Robbie’s sister and her family camping with us.Her gorgeous daughter is 5 months older than Little Moo and the two of them had an absolute ball playing together and we all really enjoyed each others company. But what I really loved was having a chance to parent alongside another family, who generally share our values and have a similar parenting style, for a whole 6 days and nights.

Normally I see I only see other parents for a few hours at a time. Which is great for talking about what is going well and what isn’t and letting our children play ‘together’. But there is only a really short window to see each other parent and get ideas for our own parenting. Talking is great but it doesn’t its not quite the same. I know many times I have come away from a Mum’s group with some great ideas only to find when I go to try them that I don’t quite have all of the info/steps etc to be able to use them fully.
For example before Little Moo was born we practised using our Moby wrap with stuffed toys making sure that we knew how to wrap it and get him into it, but once he was born and we tried it we could never quite get him into a good position. It wasn’t until many months later at a La Lache League meeting I saw one of the other Mums using one and had her baby up much much higher than we had been putting Little Moo. I went home afterwards and tried wrapping it tighter and carrying him higher and it worked perfectly and we have been using the lots and lots since.

Another thing is when I only see them for a  short time it is easy to think that they are doing so much better than me and making much better choices. Their baby seems to be so much happier/more advanced/better dressed etc etc and they are more patient/playful/full of energy etc etc than me, I must be doing something wrong.

I found having another set of parents alongside me really reassuring and relaxing (though that might have had something to do with also having Grandparents there to hand Little Moo to so I could go do something else, like nap). So nice to be able to think to myself oh that’s how you do that, that’s a good idea must try that and occasionally I don’t think I will try that.
I realised that babies are just as varied and different as the people they are and just like us they are not perfect at all times, just gorgeous and lovable.
As I was lying in our tent with just the fly screens open, looking up at the trees as I fed Little Moo to sleep I discovered that I loved having that beautiful peaceful time with him snuggled up against me, time to let my thoughts run loose or read a book, time when I can’t be doing anything else, time to lie down for a moment and rest. I’m not ready to give that up yet.
I got to see just how amazing parents they are.
I was able to step back and be really pleased with the choices I have made as a Mum, because my choices are right for me and my family. It didn’t matter if they are different from some of the other parents I know because we all love our children very much and try and make the best choices for them.

Christmas projects.

This year I have been striving to make as many home made presents as I can and for the ones I can’t purchase them from markets or online small awesome people (this is all a good excuse to avoid the mall completely and spend lots of time looking at pretty things.

As much as I would love to show you all the things I am making I don’t want to give away the surprise for those on the receiving end.

But lots of them come from the books Sew Liberated and Growing up Sew Liberated which you can buy from this awesome blog. I have really enjoyed making these projects because the books are so easy to follow (unlike normal patterns which I need someone else to read and explain to me, I have a great deal of difficulty following instructions with lots of steps), have helpful diagrams and pretty pictures.

My next lot of Christmas projects will be from this blog. Which look pretty and easy. Lets face it I love easy, especially with Little Moo crawling around my feet and wanting to be picked up every 5 minutes.

I have also made this. From scratch pattern and all, and I am really pleased how it has turned out.

Taggy stegosaurus

I am really loving making things but hand and being creative again. Starting to feel like I am good at stuff again (much better than at this writing stuff, spelling is HARD I tell you, and don’t ven start on grammar). Plus I have been swimming regularly again, every thurs night at Kohimarama beach and The New Zealand Ocean swim series. Really nice for my body to feel tired and used plus my fitness is getting back up again. Must go to bed now this is getting too hard.

Precious moments

Seeing his fuzzed up hair when he wakes up.

Big eyes staring at me while he feeds.

Massive smiles whenever he sees me, even if he has been sitting right beside me.

His wobbly crawl.

The funny noises he makes.

Snuggles.