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Remembering Childhood // Pondering Parenthood

It’s that time of week when another blogger is going to be sharing their childhood memories. This week’s Remembering Childhood comes from Jules at Pondering Parenthood.

Which decade were you born in?

The 1980s. Decade of Margaret Thatcher, the walkman and Ford Escorts.

What is your earliest memory? How old were you?

I think my earliest memory was when I was around four years old. It was my uncle’s wedding and I was a bridesmaid. Strangely, I have no recollection of the bride or the wedding itself, but I do vividly remember my grandmother being helped down a set of steps to a wedding car. It’s funny the things that stick in the mind! I think I must have been worrying that she might fall (she didn’t, thankfully!).

What was your favourite toy at 5 years old? At 10?

At age five, I definitely remember having a red plastic Snoopy lunchbox, in which I kept my prized collection of Neigbours cards! I remember my friend’s mum picking me up from school and she would always take me and my friend to the shop on the way home, to choose some sweets. I always politely declined the sweets but asked for a packet of Neighbours cards instead! I’m still a Neighbours fan now, nearly thirty years on!

Pondering Parenthood

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Potty training // 8 months on

Like most things parenting related potty training was something I had no idea about. I’d heard of kids being out of nappies before their second birthdays and others being closer to four before they potty trained. As with most other things we took a fairly relaxed approach to getting Toby out of nappies, and let him take the lead.

He had no interest in the potty for a long time. We had one in the house from him being about two I think and he would occasionally sit on it fully clothed but wouldn’t entertain the idea of sitting on it with a bare bottom. I wrote back in October about our reluctant potty trainer – at that point he was three and three months and although we had finally got him weeing on the potty at home he was still insisting on wearing nappies.

I realised I have never written an update about what happened next…so here it is. A week or two after I wrote the last post Toby decided he would wear pants instead of his nappy and once he had made the decision that was that really.

Toby in the early days of potty training

For the first five months or so we hardly had any accidents. He was still wearing a nappy at night at first, and it was often wet when I took it off in the morning. But I realised if I took it off as soon as he woke up it was actually dry, and he was doing a wee in it once he was already up. Read more

- Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 23/52 (2017)

Seriously, where is the time going? I can’t believe we’re in June already and almost half way through the year. It’s seems like I write another Livings Arrows post every three days!

This week’s picture of Toby was taken at home on Thursday while Gabe was having a nap. Can you believe he’s four next month and I have never let him paint at home! I’m really not a big fan of mess and I knew it wouldn’t be fun for either of us with me hovering over him trying to avoid any spills.

But he’s nearly four though, and he doesn’t really like getting messy either, so we gave it a go. And it was great. He spent some time mixing colours to see what happened, then we made a butterfly picture by putting paint on one side of the paper and folding it in half. Finally we made some art for our kitchen wall by putting red and yellow paint on some canvases, covering them in clingfilm then splodging it all together. And I’m actually pretty impressed with them! Anyway, it was a great success – I’m not sure how long it will be before I let Gabe get in on the painting action though!

Toby painting at home

Gabe’s picture was taken on Friday Read more

- Sarah 2 Comments

What Toby & Gabe Wore // The Bunting Tree

This week’s What Toby & Gabe wore features two awesome tees from The Bunting Tree. The boys have had these since Christmas but I’ve only just got round to taking some pictures of them both in them. In fact they did appear in a Siblings post back in January but only in one picture (and how much have the boys grown in the last six months?!)

Toby playing DJ with my phone

The Bunting Tree is owned and run by Emma, a mum of two who started making organic clothing to help her son’s eczema. When she first started Emma made the clothes herself, Toby actually had some of her leggings a few years ago (which Gabe is now wearing). She has now moved on to designing fabric and out sourcing the manufacturing but the clothes are still made from organic fabric and ethically produced in India.

We had a quiet day at home yesterday but after Gabe woke up from his nap I decided we could probably do with burning off some energy. So we put some music on my phone Read more

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Remembering Childhood // Tattooed Lady With A Baby

It’s that time of week when another blogger is going to be sharing their childhood memories. This week’s Remembering Childhood comes from Louise at Tattooed Lady With A Baby.

Which decade were you born in?

The 80s.

Louise from tattooed lady with a baby

What is your earliest memory? How old were you?

Sitting in a yellow onesie in my high chair eating Weetabix, I was about 2 and a half I’d say.

What was your favourite toy at 5 years old? At 10?

My doll, called Catherine at 5, and at 10 it would’ve been my arts and crafts box, I was always making something.

Do you still have any toys from your childhood?

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- Sarah 6 Comments

Me & Mine // A Family Portrait (May 2017)

I know I say it every month but… where does the time go? May seems to have just disappeared in the blink of an eye!

We did manage to fit in quite a few fun family days out though…

At the start of the month we went to SEA LIFE Blackpool as Toby’s treat for reaching the top of his reward chart. A couple of weeks later we took the boys to Brock Bottom for a picnic and a play in the river – it was a fab day out and one we’ll definitely be doing again.

We tried a few weeks without the reward chart but it seems Toby still needs it to keep him on the straight and narrow for now so he’s just completed another one and our next treat/reward trip is going to be to the zoo so keep an eye out for that one!

Towards the end of the month I went to Manchester to see Take That and then was back again a couple of days later for the Blog On blogging conference. And then this weekend it was my 39th birthday and we celebrated with a BBQ at my mum and dad’s house.

My dad took these Me & Mine pictures for us at the weekend. The weather was a bit grey in the morning but had brightened up by the afternoon and the boys had great fun running round the garden.

Me & Mine May 2017

Toby wasn’t quite in the mood for having his picture taken though Read more

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Take That // A 24 year love affair

I was writing this post and editing the video on Monday 22nd May, when I heard there had been a bomb at the Manchester Arena, a place I had been just three days earlier. I’ve written my thoughts about what happened that night here.  I don’t know if posting this now is the right thing to do but my feeling is that we have to carry on and live our lives. And so I am…

Take That formed in 1990 when I was in year 7 at high school and they released their first album in 1992. I remember becoming aware of them when I was 13 or 14 but it definitely wasn’t cool to like them in my school.

But then a new girl came to my school and we became best friends. And I can remember one day when we admitted to each other that we actually quite liked Take That. When Babe was released in 1993 we were 15 and we sat in her sitting room listening to it on repeat for hours one night.

Mark Owen taken from very close up - Circus Tour 2009

I bought all their albums and videos of their tours and would watch them over and over again. Mark Owen was always my favourite, although I had a soft spot for Robbie too. Read more

- Sarah 7 Comments

Living Arrows 22/52 (2017)

We’ve had another fairly quiet week this week. Gabe’s sleep has been a bit all over the place – on Thursday night I only got four hours sleep after Toby woke up with a bad dream and then he woke Gabe up and I ended up not getting to bed until 2:30 am and Gabe woke up again at 6:30 am. But then on Friday night he slept from 8 pm until almost 7 am, and in his own bed even! It seems it was another one off though as the next night we were just back to normal wake ups.

Yesterday was my birthday so after Barry got up with the boys and I had a lie in we had a fairly quiet day at home before heading to my mum and dad’s for a BBQ. On Saturday Toby helped me make my birthday cake – he loves chocolate cake, and also loves purple so we ended up with a chocolate cake with purple butter cream that you can see over on my Instagram if you want to have a look.

Of course Toby’s favourite part was getting to lick the spoon after we’d made the cake batter!

Toby with a chocolatey face after licking the spoon while making birthday cake.

Toby and Gabe love playing in my mum and dad’s garden Read more

- Sarah 4 Comments

What Toby & Gabe Wore // Maxomorra pineapples

Maxomorra is a Swedish brand and I’ve featured it before in my What Toby & Gabe wore posts. They release new prints several times a year and to be honest I’m not that big a fan of a lot of them, which my bank balance is pleased about at least!

But at least a few times a year there’s a print that I absolutely love. Luckily Maxomorra produce so many different styles of clothes in each design that it’s easy to match the boys too. One of the recent prints that I loved was these robots – Toby and Gabe love them too but they weren’t so keen on posing for a photo!

No photos today mum - in Maxomorra robots

I didn’t come here to write about robots though, I came to write about pineapples… Read more