31 December , 201521 December , 2017 - Sarah 1 Comment

Me & Mine: A Family Portrait (December 2015)

We made it to the end of the year and I’m actually publishing my Me & Mine post on time! December has passed by in a blur of illness, sleepless nights and vague preparations for Christmas. Thankfully we were all more or less well for Christmas and spent the week staying with my parents and visiting with Barry’s parents too. Unfortunately the sleepless nights continued whilst we were away but I have a feeling that may just be the way of things for the next few months at least.

This month has seen Gabe turn four months old and he’s really starting to show his character now. He’s such a chatterbox and generally quite a laid back kind of baby these days (apart from at 4 am when he likes to keep his daddy awake for a few hours).

Toby is still developing at lightening speed. His speech has come on even more in the last month and he’s so clever. He’s playing with toys meant for kids a year older than him and he impresses me every day with the things he knows and can do. He’s starting to develop great relationships with our families too, which is really lovely to see. He still doesn’t get to see them that often so it’s taken a while to get to this point but he loves spending time with his grandparents and his uncle and auntie too.

This month’s Me & Mine photograph was taken on Tuesday just before we were about to leave Blackpool and head for home. For once we didn’t have to use the timer or remote as my photographer sister-in-law took the picture for us – thanks Becca!

And seeing as it’s the last Me & Mine post of the year I couldn’t let it pass without putting all the year’s photos in one place (although there are only 11 as I didn’t manage to take a picture in January). This is the year that saw us become a family of four and I love that we have these monthly family photos as a record of our lives together. I’m definitely going to carry on taking our family photos each month, for as long as the kids will let me at least!

30 December , 2015 - Sarah Leave a comment

Living Arrows 52/52 (2015)

Well, a lot of them were really late and a couple I doubled up two weeks in one, but I’ve made it to the final week of Living Arrows for this year. Apart from a distinct lack of sleep for Barry and I we enjoyed a lovely Christmas visiting both mine and Barry’s parents. Toby still hasn’t entirely got what Christmas is all about but he definitely enjoyed opening all his presents this year, and he got plenty of them!

Both of this week’s photos were taken on Christmas morning. Toby loved this shopping basket of plastic food that he got off my mum…

And I think it was all a bit much for Gabe…

As it’s the end of the year I always think it’s nice to look back and see what the first picture of the year was. I’m so glad I’ve been taking part in Living Arrows over the last two years and I have such a fantastic record of how Toby has changed. Of course at the start of this year there was no Gabe, other than as a tiny something in my tummy, but it’s going to be so lovely looking back of all the pictures of him too. Children change so much in the first few years of their lives and it’s fantastic to have these weekly pictures to remind us of just how much.

This is the first ever Living Arrows photo I took, back in January 2014. Toby was almost six months old here and although you can clearly tell they are brothers if you compare photos of him and Gabe they don’t look any where near as similar as they did when they were born.

And then this is the first Living Arrows picture of 2015 – Toby really did love that hat!

I’ve not quite decided if I’m going to carry on with the Living Arrows in 2016 (or indeed if it is continuing). My Living Arrows posts had veered away from the photography posts they were supposed to be and instead had become more of a weekly round up post of what we had been up to so I think that is how I am going to carry on with them. I just need to think of a name for them….any ideas?

29 December , 20155 August , 2017 - Sarah Leave a comment

Review: Twirlywoos Talking Great BigHoo and Toodloo

Toby has loved the Twirlywoos ever since it first appeared on CBeebies back in February. I have to say, of all the TV programmes that Toby watches, I quite like it myself! I knew then that he would also love the instantly recognisable Talking Great BigHoo and Toodloo toys from Golden Bear Toys that he was lucky enough to be sent to review.

And I was right! As soon as they were out of the box Toby loved the toys. They are a great size for toddler cuddles, and the plush fabric is super-soft. Each toy makes several different sounds and my only slight criticism is that with his small hands Toby finds it quite tricky to find the right part of the toy to press to make the noise come out. Other than that these Twirlywoos toys are brilliant and they have certainly become firm favourites with Toby and they were in hot demand when his friends Thomas and Edward called round the other day too!

I’m not a big fan of buying loads of toys that are linked to films or TV shows and sometimes it does seem that they are all that’s available in the shops but I can also see why. Kids love getting toys that they recognise from the TV, and seriously, how cute does Toby look watching Twirlywoos with Great BigHoo and Toodloo by his side?

Our only problem now is that he keeps asking for Chickadee and Chick too!

Talking Great BigHoo has an RRP of £16.99 and Toodloo has an RRP of £14.99.

**Disclosure: I was sent the featured products in return for this review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

23 December , 2015 - Sarah 1 Comment

Gabriel is four months old

I’m a little bit late with Gabe’s update this month – if you’ve read any of my posts over the last week or so you’ll know we’ve all been ill with various coughs and colds and unfortunately blogging just hasn’t been top of the agenda. Also, I blame Barry who has got me into playing Fallout 4 on the PlayStation so if I do have a spare half hour in the evening then that’s what I’ve mostly been up to!

Anyway, contrary to what I usually say, it actually feels like quite a long time since I wrote Gabe’s three month update. Although I still can’t quite believe that he is already four months old!

After needing to be held almost constantly for the first two months of his life Gabe has now turned out to be a rather chilled out baby. He’ll now quite happily sit in his bouncer or lie wriggling on his play mat while I get on with things around the house or when I’m occupied with Toby. He still has times when he being held is the only option – he has especially liked to show his daddy this side at 4 am over the last week!

Gabe is feeding and napping in more of a regular pattern now too. He usually wakes up once in the night for a bottle, which is OK apart from that he then often seems to wake up again a couple of hours later (at around 5:30) and be ready to start the day. He then has four bottles through the rest of the day, two or three naps and is in bed asleep by 7 pm. I try and make sure he gets at least one of his naps at home in bed and he sleeps for anything from 30 minutes to two and a half hours!

He is still taking Gaviscon and ranitidine for reflux although I’m actually not entirely sure he needs them. He certainly doesn’t have the same severity of symptoms that Toby had. Gabe still has some days when he’s really sick but quite often he seems fine. I’m thinking of trying him without the ranitidine after Christmas – there’s really no way of knowing whether he needs it or not other than trying it.

I don’t know how much Gabe weighs now – the last time he was weighed was at 14 weeks and he weighed 13lb 7oz so I’m sure he’s well over a stone by now. He’s definitely long like his brother – I’ve just had to move him into 6-9 month sleepsuits, although most of his other 3-6 month clothes still fit.

He’s full of personality these days and pulls the funniest faces sometimes. He’s such a chatterbox, he gurgles and babbles much more than Toby ever did. He’s full of smiles too, big grins that are so adorable! It seems he hasn’t inherited the dimples that Barry and I have like his brother did.

Gabe has developed massively with his gross motor skills this month. He loves grabbing at the toys on his play mat or bouncer, he’s really close to rolling over too. He’s definitely found his hands this month too and can often be found with several fingers (or a whole fist) stuffed in his mouth.

He is totally fascinated with his brother too. He sits and watches him as he plays, and quite often if he’s getting a bit grumpy waiting for a feed he’ll stop crying when Toby goes over to him. And as for Toby, he is definitely more tolerant of Gabe now, although he’ll still often tell me to put Gabe in his bouncer or put him in bed when he wants me to himself. I think he’s starting to get a bit more interesting for Toby now too so I’m hopeful that he will continue to interact with Gabe more over the next few months.

I think that’s probably about it for this month, I can’t believe that in another couple of months we’ll be starting to think about weaning and it won’t be long until Gabe’s on the move then the chaos will really start!

22 December , 2015 - Sarah Leave a comment

Living Arrows 51/52 (2015)

It’s only been a few days since my last Living Arrows post so I’m not going to say much this time! We are all slowly recovering from our various coughs and colds, and the boys are sleeping a little better for now too. I’m hoping we are all fully better for Christmas and our visits to all the grandparents.

Toby is going through another phase of mummy having to do everything which is frustrating for both me and Barry. He’s been quite clingy this week too, with lots of ‘my cuddle mummy’, ‘my sit on mummy’, ‘mummy do it’… which is lovely at times but quite annoying when I have Gabe to look after too and other things that need doing, and especially because Barry is now at home for the Christmas holidays and he is perfectly capable and willing to provide cuddles and a knee to sit on!

On the whole though Toby is really lovely to be around and he’s very funny these days. He had us all giggling the other day when he proclaimed ‘just a minute daddy, I have an idea!’ We never did find out what his idea was though… Or yesterday, he was playing with his flashcards and we had them all on the floor asking him to find different things. He found loads of them with no trouble; a fish, a dragon, cheese, an apple, bread, jam….and then I said ‘now can you find the milk’, at which he immediately got up, walked into the kitchen and produced the bottle of milk from the fridge! Well, you can’t fault his logic.

This week’s photo tickled me – I love how toddlers see absolutely nothing wrong with sitting eating their lunch whilst wearing a bobble hat.

Gabe is still being a little superstar really. Apart from a few early mornings (which luckily for me Barry got up for), and a bit of shouting around bedtime on a couple of nights, he’s pretty chilled out most of the time. He’s been loving his play mat this week and has gone from seemingly not being able to reach the toys to grabbing on for dear life and not letting go! He’s getting really close to rolling over too – another couple of inches and he’ll be there.

Thanks to Donna at What the Redhead Said for hosting Living Arrows this week, and for featuring one of my pictures.

21 December , 20155 August , 2017 - Sarah Leave a comment

Review: aden + anais muslin bodysuit

Every parent knows how useful a muslin cloth can be, especially if you’ve got a sicky or reflux baby like Gabe. We go through several every day! They also come in useful as makeshift bibs, blankets, changing mats…you name it, a muslin is always a useful thing to have around. I first heard of aden + anais when Toby was small – they are very well known for their muslin swaddle blankets. What I didn’t know until recently, when the lovely people behind Mummy and Little Me got in touch, was that as well as their muslin blankets, sleeping bags, bibs and various other products, aden + anais have also recently launched a range of baby clothes made from their super soft muslin.

We were sent a kimono style long-sleeved bodysuit for Gabe to try, in a fab blue star print (and I do love a star!). As I expected the muslin material is really soft, and it just gets softer with every wash. It is made with 5% spandex so has a slight stretch to it as well – essential for a wriggly baby! The kimono style means it is really easy to put on said wriggly baby too – it has poppers on both sides of the body meaning it opens out completely and you don’t have to try and pull anything over the baby’s head.

We were sent the bodysuit in 3-6 months, and it fits Gabe really well at 4 months. There isn’t a huge amount of growing room left in it for him but he is a pretty big baby and is growing out of most of his 3-6 month clothes now so I would say it is true to size.

Gabe looks really comfortable in his aden + anais bodysuit and I love how the material is so soft against his skin. At £19 it is perhaps on the expensive side for a bodysuit but it is really great quality and would definitely last for a second baby. I think it would make a lovely gift for a new baby too, and is something that little bit different.

You can see some of the other products in the aden + anais range on Mummy and Little Me… I’m tempted to get some of the muslin sleepsuits in the range – I think they will be really great for the warmer weather in the summer.

**Disclosure: I was sent the featured product in return for this review. All opinions are my own.

17 December , 2015 - Sarah 2 Comments

Living Arrows 49/52 & 50/52 (2015)

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything for ten days now, missing two Living Arrows posts in the process. This has been because the last two weeks have been clouded in a fog of illness in the Toby Goes Bananas house.

Toby was first to succumb; he had an awful cough, a snotty nose, temperatures of nearly 40° and pretty much stopped eating for three days. He was also waking up a lot in the night leading to lots of broken sleep for me too. I was, perhaps inevitably, the next to fall and although I avoided the temperatures I still felt rotten. We were really hoping Gabe had managed to avoid it as he seemed to still be well after a week but no such luck, and then finally Barry also lost his fight against the germs.

On top of that we’ve had to deal with the Forth Road Bridge being shut which has added an extra two hours to Barry’s working day. With that and looking after poorly boys, while trying to look after myself there hasn’t been a lot of time for blogging, hence this double Living Arrows post.

This photo of Gabe was just taken at home last week. It’s terrible trying to take pictures inside at the moment, it’s just so dark all the time, and what with all the illness we’ve not really been out of the house much. Gabe is four months old today (update post on the way when I get a chance!) and he’s really turning into a proper little boy now, there’s nothing of the newborn left in him. He’s so interested in everything that’s going on and sits watching his brother with fascination every day. I can’t wait for the next few months for him to start sitting up and hopefully then he’ll be able to interact with Toby a bit more too.

Toby’s picture was taken in the garden at the weekend. We actually had what felt like a proper winter’s day; cold and frosty, rather than the miserable wetness we’ve had almost every other day for the last few months. Barry took the chance to do a little bit of tidying up in the garden and Toby wanted to go out an join him. I think he looks ridiculously cute in his big bobble hat!

And lastly I wanted to include this picture of me with the boys, even though it’s not that clear. We only managed to get the Christmas decorations down out of the loft this weekend, and we decided this year not to put our big tree up, mostly due to lack of space but also so we wouldn’t have to spend a month telling Toby to leave it alone! Instead we’ve just got this little fibre optic tree. Both boys love the lights and for this year it’s good enough…

We are all now on the mend but none of us are entirely well yet. I’m just hoping we’re fully recovered for Christmas and that we’ve seen the last of the germs for this year!

6 December , 2015 - Sarah Leave a comment

Living Arrows 48/52 (2015)

I’m back to my old habits of being super-late with my Living Arrows post again – I’m just going to sneak this one in before the next one is due tomorrow!

There has been a general lack of blogging this week; at first it was because I was giving the blog a bit of a design overhaul (What do you think by the way? I really love it!), and then my computer decided it was going to have a go slow for the rest of the week. It’s been having trouble since I upgraded to Windows 10 last month, Barry did his best to try and sort it out last night but it’s still not working brilliantly. I might just have to ask Father Christmas for a new one!

I’ve been up a lot with both boys too – lots of early starts and not a huge amount of sleep have made for rather a lack of blogging motivation.

Anyway, here’s a couple of pictures of the boys this week and hopefully next week I’ll be back on my blogging game!

This picture of Toby is just a quick snap I took the other day when we were having a Teddy Bears’ picnic for lunch. Toby has been getting a bit fussy about his food recently so I thought I’d try something to make lunch time a bit more fun. Toby certainly enjoyed it but I think he ate even less than he usually does!

I can’t believe Gabe is heading towards four months now – he’s at that great age where they really start paying attention to everything that is going on around them, you can really see his personality starting to come out now and I love his expression in this picture, looking right into the camera.

And lastly I have to include this Instagram picture – Toby hasn’t really been too bothered about Gabe so far. He mostly tolerates him but he generally doesn’t seem that impressed by him. This week though I think he has started to realise that his little brother might actually be quite interesting, and he asked if Gabe could sit on his knee. I’m not sure that Gabe was convinced but it was too cute not to take a picture!

30 November , 201521 December , 2017 - Sarah 1 Comment

Me & Mine: A Family Portrait (November 2015)

This month has been a bit of a mixed bag, but as ever time is absolutely flying by! I can’t believe Gabe is now three and a half months old and that we’re heading into December and Christmas will be upon us before we know it!

We had quite a lot of quiet days in November; Gabe is doing really well with his sleep at night now, sleeping from 6:30 pm to 5 am most days, but his naps are still a bit hit and miss. We’ve not been going out in the mornings very much as I’m trying to get him used to napping at home in his crib. On the odd day he might have a two hour nap but usually it doesn’t last much past 40 minutes at the moment. Toby has been brilliant really – he’s definitely used to his brother being around now, and although he doesn’t always seem too happy about it he’s really good at behaving when I take Gabe upstairs with his nap.

We’ve all had colds this month which has been a bit miserable and it has been disturbing Toby’s sleep more than anyone – in fact I think I’ve been up with him more than I have with Gabe this month! This weekend though we took the plunge with something that we have been putting off for months; we took the cot down and moved Toby into his big boy bed! We went to stay with my mum and dad last week and he slept in a bed there without any issues so we decided it was about time we made the move at home too.

Two nights in and it’s going well so far. He woke up the first night but that’s fairly normal at the moment and last night he slept right through without any problems. He didn’t even get out of bed when he woke up this morning – just lay there waiting for me to go and get him. Having a bed now at least means if he does wake up I can just get in bed with him and go back to sleep (we went straight for a full size single rather than a toddler bed) rather than having to sit next to the cot for ages waiting for him to settle back to sleep, or sleep on the uncomfortable floor!

As I mentioned we went to visit my parents in Blackpool last week – this was partly because we haven’t seen them for ages but also so we could do a few things to progress our relocation plans. We looked at a few houses and even saw one we think we would like to buy which is very exciting – more news on that soon hopefully!

And lastly I had my first night out in forever this weekend. I went out for a lovely meal with some of the mums I met through pregnancy yoga classes. I had a fab time, and even managed to stay out for a cocktail. I’m glad I didn’t drink too much though because having only got home at 1 am, Toby woke up at 2 am so I ended up sleeping on his floor for two hours (Toby is totally anti-dad if he wakes in the night so I have to deal with him). Gabe then woke up at 4 am and although Barry got up to feed him and he tried his best he just couldn’t get him to settle so I had to get up to him at 5 am. I did manage a bit more sleep snoozing on the sofa in the morning while Barry watched the kids but I was still exhausted!

So, to this month’s Me & Mine picture – despite spending a few days in Blackpool all together we didn’t manage to get a family picture there so this one was another last minute job, so last minute that I didn’t even use the big camera. This one was an iPhone selfie taken at the garden centre yesterday. I actually quite like it though – it captures a normal Sunday for us…we often enjoy a garden centre coffee and cake at the weekends!

25 November , 201524 November , 2015 - Sarah 5 Comments

Looking forward to forty

Yes you read that right. I’m looking forward to being forty. It’s still a few years off yet (2018 to be exact) but there are several reasons I’m looking forward to forty. It’s not the age as such that I’m looking forward too, more where my life will (hopefully) be in three years time…

We’re currently in the process of trying to relocate from Scotland down to England to be nearer both mine and Barry’s parents. Hopefully within the next six months or so we’ll have moved so in three years time my boys probably won’t remember a time when they didn’t see their grandparents every week or two, rather than only a few times a year like they get at the moment.

We viewed some houses just last week and we think we’ve found one we’d like to buy. It needs quite a lot doing to it in terms of decoration, plus it has potential to extend or remodel in the future but all that will take time, so it’s another thing that hopefully in three years we’ll be living in a house (even if it’s not that one) that is decorated to our taste and works well for our family.

Of course moving nearer to my parents has the added benefit of providing us with babysitters much closer to home. So in three years time I’ll be able to enjoy the odd night out, or even away, with my husband. We’ve only had one night away from Toby since he was born – that was back at Easter this year, and in fact that was the last time we went out as a couple at all!

The other thing I’m looking forward to is that the boys will be 5 and 3 by the time I’m 40 and hopefully a bit easier to manage. I know there will be different challenges as they get older but just things like being able to go on holiday, or even out for the day without having to take seemingly the entire contents of our house with us will be amazing. At the moment, with buggies, travel cots, nappies and everything else there’s barely room for us in the car! There’s also the fact that we’ll be able to go on holiday to places where the kids are old enough to join in with activities (and go to kids’ clubs giving us a bit of a break too!) and hopefully they’ll find it exciting going away and sleeping somewhere different rather than freaking out. The last holiday we attempted we abandoned after one night because Toby screamed his head off every time we tried to get him anywhere near the bed he was supposed to be sleeping in. (To be fair that’s better already – he slept in a double bed at my parents’ house last week and was been absolute fine).

Work-wise I don’t really know where I’ll be in three years time, or where I want to be. I can’t really see myself going back to full time teaching but you never know. I’d love to set up my own business teaching French and Spanish to pre-schoolers, and maybe doing some tutoring as well but I need to look into it in more detail and see if there’s actually a demand for it in the area we’re planning on moving to. If I do go back to teaching in a school, even part time, then Toby will be at school and Gabe at pre-school so we won’t have anywhere near the childcare costs we’ll have if I go back to work at the end of my maternity leave.

So although I don’t want to wish my life away, and I know I should make the most of these baby days with Gabe, especially because we’re not planning on having any more babies, I’m still very much looking forward to forty. Are you looking forward to being a particular age, or time in the future? Or are you happy with where you are now?

Toby Goes Bananas

A family lifestyle blog

Author: Sarah