12 May , 20142 July , 2016 - Sarah 2 Comments

Toby is ten months old!

Another month gone – Toby is ten months old and we are getting closer and closer to his first birthday, I really don’t know where the time is going!

Toby has been doing some more growing this month. I finally got round to having him weighed the other day and he is now 21lb 10oz and happily sitting just below the 75th centile line. I’m not surprised though – he loves his food and is still eating everything we give him. He’s now wearing all 12-18 month vests and sleepsuits and some other clothes too. I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s grown out of all his 9-12 month clothes too. I know some people find it sad when their baby grows out of stuff but I’m just happy that Toby has new clothes for me to put him in! I’ve got him some really cute things to wear on our holidays, and I hope we get some nice weather this summer so he can get plenty of use out of them!

The big development this month has been that Toby is properly crawling on his hands and knees now. He still drops down to his tummy and commando crawls sometimes but whichever way he chooses to move he is very speedy! He is almost managing to sit himself up now too and has started reaching up for things on tables and shelves although he isn’t really trying to pull himself up yet.

He still has six teeth but I’m fairly sure the next bottom two are only a few days away (at least I hope so). Toby seems to suffer much worse with the bottom teeth than he did with the top ones and he’s been waking up in the a lot for the last few nights. It’s so horrible to hear him in pain and not really being able to do anything about it except administer Calpol and cuddles. Talking of sleep this month has been OK on the whole, although when we were on holiday it was a nightmare trying to get Toby to go to sleep. He would properly scream whenever we left the room we were sleeping in and I ended up lying on the single bed in there for ages most nights until he was calm enough to go to sleep. Once he was asleep he slept all night but it was horrible because it’s just something we’re not used to. At home we give Toby his milk, put him in his sleeping bag, say ‘night night Toby, sleepy time now’ and leave the room. And that’s it, he goes to sleep on his own. I think there were a few things contributing to the screaming on holiday though – firstly, now he’s older he’s much more aware of his surroundings and he knew he wasn’t at home. He hasn’t slept in the travel cot since Christmas either so that was different. It was really hot in the cottage too, even with no heating on, so hot that eventually I ended up just putting him to bed in his sleepsuit, without his sleeping bag at all. And lastly, the room had a skylight. There was a blackout blind but there was a small gap letting light in and I think looking up at that maybe freaked Toby out a bit too. I’m sure being out every day and not getting his proper naps didn’t help either. He was back to normal as soon as we got home so it wasn’t too much of a disaster – I’m just hoping we don’t get a repeat performance when we go on holiday to France next month!

He’s still such a cheeky little boy, always ready with a smile and a giggle (despite the teething!). It was lovely when we were away that he seems to have started to recognise his grandparents – he certainly had big smiles for them all when he saw them. He babbles away all the time too, although despite Barry’s best efforts to teach him he’s not really managed to say Dada yet, apart from a couple of times which I think were more luck than intention! He’s new way of communicating this month though, which I’m not quite as keen on is squealing. It’s so high-pitched and so loud too! I think he must be trying to shatter glass or something. It can be very cute though – when I had been in Dundee for the day for my Spanish course, and left before Toby got up he did the biggest squeals of excitement when he saw me walk back through the door.

So I think that’s it for this month – Toby is ten months old already, and he’s developing so quickly. I wonder what the next month will bring?

12 May , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 19/52

Another week and another Living Arrows picture. This picture just about sums up this week – Toby is teething (again!), more bottom teeth this time and they are really giving him some trouble. It’s been a pretty grumpy week, without many smiles and with everything in sight finding it’s way into Toby’s mouth. I can almost see the top of one tooth now so hopefully they’ll cut the gum in the next few days and we can all go back to getting a decent night’s sleep and have a happy baby again!

11 May , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 8 Comments

First tastes (The Ordinary Moments #21)

It’s been busy round here the last few weeks what with holidays and Spanish assessments so I’ve had a few weeks off from linking up with Katie at Mummy Daddy Me. We’re happy to be back this week though for another Ordinary Moment.

Toby has been eating solids for four months now so there have been lots of first tastes. So far he’s a really good eater – he pretty much eats everything we put in front of him. He’s got his favourites already (banana and broccoli if you’re interested!) but I try and give him at least one thing he hasn’t tried before each week. Up until now I’ve avoided giving him anything with added sugar; he has yoghurt, fruit and the odd baby biscuit but nothing with refined sugar (so that Cadbury’s Chick that his Nana bought him for Easter went straight in mummy and daddy’s faces!). On holiday last week though we were visiting the Apple Pie Café and Bakery in Ambleside, I was having an apple pie ice cream sundae and Barry had warm apple pie and ice cream. It really is the best apple pie, so good in fact that we got one to take away too! Seeing as Toby had finished his lunch I thought I’d give him his first taste of ice cream. He only had a couple of tiny spoonfuls but I don’t think he was too impressed! To be fair though he pulls this face whenever he tries something new, or even just something he hasn’t had for a while and it doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t like it. I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s loving it though – just like his mum and dad (and maybe one day we’ll take him to the Ben & Jerry’s factory too!).

11 May , 201421 April , 2015 - Sarah 10 Comments

My Sunday Photo: 11th May 2014

9 May , 201429 March , 2021 - Sarah 61 Comments

I’m a Konfidence Swimologist

I have written before about taking Toby swimming – we have been going to Turtle Tots classes since Toby was three and a half months old and, after a bit of a hiccup after Christmas, it is something that we both really enjoy. I am super-excited then to announce that over the next few months we will be working with Konfidence as official Swimologists! Konfidence chose the name Swimologist after finding this fable – it concludes with this which echoes the Konfidence ethos:

You may study all the “-ologies” of the world, but if you do not learn swimology, all your studies are useless. You may read and write books on swimming, you may debate on its subtle theoretical aspects, but how will that help you if you refuse to enter the water yourself? You must learn how to swim.

Konfidence is a family run business based in Cornwall. The company is Europe’s largest designer and manufacturer of baby swimming products, buoyancy aids and UVPF sun protection clothing and wetsuits for children up to 14 years. Their multi-award winning products, are now sold in 22 countries worldwide, including 14 countries in Europe, North America, South Africa, Malaysia, China and Hong Kong. As part of our role as Swimologists we have been sent some of these products to try out (more on that in a minute) and will be telling you all about them in future posts. We will also be continuing our Turtle Tots classes and letting you know how we are getting on over the next term.

I learnt to swim when I was very young, in fact I can’t really remember not being able to swim. I’m not a fantastic swimmer, I certainly won’t be winning any races any time soon but I enjoy being in the water and I can happily swim a few lengths of our local pool. Perhaps more importantly it also means I’m confident in the water with Toby. I knew before Toby was even born that I wanted to take him swimming. Turtle Tots had been recommended by a few people and they run lots of classes locally so it was easy to get signed up. Toby has now passed the Level 1 and Level 2 baby swimming courses (and has certificates to prove it!) and we are now into Level 3. It’s pretty awesome what Toby can already do and I want to make sure we keep going to classes until he can actually swim on his own. We’re going on holiday to France at the beginning of June so I’m sure we’ll be spending plenty of time in the pool then and I know we’ll all have much more fun with Toby already being used to the water. I hope it’ll be the first of many holidays with lots of time for swimming.

To help Toby continue to enjoy his swimming Konfidence have sent us some of their best-selling baby swimming products to try, and they have kindly offered my readers the chance to win the same products, worth £50! Complete the Rafflecopter below and you could win the following products in your choice of size and colour:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5 May , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 7 Comments

Living Arrows 18/52

Toby is such a whirlwind these days – he always wants to be on the move, especially now he’s perfected his crawling technique! He seems to hone in on the most dangerous thing in a room; cables, plug sockets and fireplaces being favourites so far, and immediately make a beeline for it. He can now almost sit himself up from being on his tummy and in this week’s Living Arrows shot I managed to capture him in a rare still moment catching a breath. He was probably just scoping out his next target! Lord only knows what he’s going to be like once he starts walking…

5 May , 201411 February , 2018 - Sarah 6 Comments

Using cloth nappies on holiday

I know one of the things that often puts people off using cloth nappies is the thought of having to deal with them when you are out and about. Maybe you could be convinced to use cloth nappies in the house when you knew you weren’t going anywhere but don’t fancy the idea of having to bring your dirty nappies home with you when you’ve been out. Or even worse – what about using cloth nappies on holiday? Doesn’t that mean a lot of work when you should be relaxing?

Well, I thought I’d share our experiences of using cloth nappies on holiday and when we’re out for the day at home, because it really isn’t that difficult! I wrote last week about how we were coming away to the Lake District for the best part of a week and that I wasn’t sure whether to use our cloth nappies while we were there. We’re back home now and I’m happy to report we did use cloth nappies all week and it was really no more effort than it would be at home. It certainly didn’t make me feel like I wasn’t on holiday.

I made sure I did a nappy wash the day before we were going away so that most of our nappies would be clean and ready to use. As well as the clean nappies though, I also took our nappy bucket with the remaining few dirty nappies with us. There were a couple of reasons for this; firstly it meant we had all our nappies with us. We have enough nappies to wash every three days but if I left some at home then I would need to wash more often while we were away. Secondly, it meant I wasn’t leaving dirty nappies sitting at home for the whole week.

We then just used our nappies exactly as we would at home and I did two nappy washes while we were away. I probably could have managed just with one but the second wash meant I was bringing mostly clean, rather than mostly dirty, nappies home with us. The only tricky part was figuring out the right programme to use on a different washing machine to the one I’m used to. The first wash I used the machine to dry the nappies but it didn’t seem to have a low setting so I was a bit worried about damaging them. They were fine but the second time I just hung our all-in-one nappies on the clothes airer and only dried the night time bamboo nappies in the drier. I also took our washable wipes with us – it’s not much extra to take or wash and if we’re using the nappies we might as well use our wipes too.

The only thing that was a bit more difficult than at home was going for days out while we were away. We use cloth nappies all the time at home but even if I do take Toby out somewhere we’re only likely to need one nappy change at the most while we’re out. Cloth nappies definitely do take up more room in my changing bag than disposables would, but when I’m only carrying one it doesn’t matter too much. I have a couple of disposables in my changing bag too in case of emergencies but I have never had to use one yet! I have a small wet bag that I take few of our washable wipes in and then another zip up wet bag to put any dirty nappies and wipes in to bring home again. If we’re out all day then it does mean carrying more nappies so the changing bag can get a bit full, but other than that it really isn’t too much of a problem.

The only other small problem I have come across when using cloth nappies away from the house is when we have a dirty nappy and the baby changing facilities we are using don’t have a toilet. With our cloth nappies we always flush any poo down the toilet before putting the used nappy in the bucket to wait for washing. But if there is no toilet in the same place as the baby changing then there are only a couple of options; either put the dirty nappy, poo and all, in the wet bag and bring it home, wrap the poo in something and put it in the bin with the disposable nappies, or take the dirty nappy into the toilet afterwards and deal with it there. To be honest we have never actually had this situation but it is something I do worry about when it’s time for a nappy change out and about.

So, having said all that, if you use cloth nappies at home (or you are thinking about doing) then there really isn’t any reason why you can’t use them away from home too (as long as you can wash them – I’m not sure what you’d do if you were staying in a hotel with no washing facilities). Having this week in the Lake District has pretty much convinced me to take all our cloth nappies to France for our holiday at the beginning of next month. I know we have access to a washing machine and hopefully the weather will be nice enough that the nappies will dry quickly outside. I have taken advantage of some Real Nappy Week discounts to buy an extra night time nappy (we use the Tots Bots Bamboozle) and a few extra day time nappies too so I should be able to stretch the nappy wash to every four days rather than every three. And when it comes down to it, I love our cloth nappies, I know they work for us and I just don’t think I could bring myself to put Toby in a disposable now!

Have you ever used cloth nappies on holiday? I’d love to hear if you have any experience of using cloth away from home.

4 May , 201427 September , 2016 - Sarah 3 Comments

My Sunday Photo: 4th May 2014

30 April , 201421 December , 2017 - Sarah 3 Comments

Me & Mine: A Family Portrait (April 2014)

Another month has gone so it means it must be time for another Me & Mine post and this month two family photos. We don’t seem to have done a lot this month really. Toby’s swimming and Baby Sensory classes both had a break for the Easter holidays so we didn’t get up to much on that front, and I spent most of the month writing a 2000 word essay, in Spanish, about Che Guevara, which wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had!

We have enjoyed a bit of sunshine this month though and now we have two cars Barry is getting home from work much earlier and has managed to get the garden all tidied up, and spend much more time with Toby. We took this picture after an impromptu picnic lunch in the garden a couple of weeks ago.

This week we’re having a wee break in the Lake District and we managed to get another family portrait this month outside the Bridge House in Ambleside. Unfortunately, the old guy decided to come and sit on the wall just as we were taking the photos. We had some others without him in but I really like the moment we were capturing in this one so I decided I’d just have to use the picture anyway!

We don’t have any big plans for the coming month – I’ve got my final exams for my Spanish course in a couple of weeks then at the end of the month it’s my birthday then we’re off to spend ten days in France at the beginning of June!

29 April , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 17/52

We’re on holiday in the Lake District this week’s Living Arrows post, which means somewhere new for Toby to explore. Not having the play pen means we’re having to keep our eyes on him all the time but at least the living area in the barn we’re staying in doesn’t have too much for him to get into mischief with. Having lots of space to crawl around means he’s started to move from commando crawling to proper ‘hands and knees’ crawling. He was doing it a little bit at home but he really seems to have got his technique down today – as you can see from this sequence of photos!