19 April , 201520 December , 2015 - Sarah 6 Comments

Mummy, mummy! (The Ordinary Moments #26)

Something exciting has happened in the last week. Toby’s speech has been coming on quickly of late, and he seems to be learning new words every day, but last week he actually started saying mummy!

He’s been saying Daddy for months and months, I think it was one of the first things I heard him say, and although we’ve had a few mamas they’ve only really come when he’s been crying and could quite easily just been a sound he happened to make rather than actually saying my name.

But last week we started getting a definite mummy. He still doesn’t always get it right and calls me daddy, or now is calling his daddy mummy but he always corrects himself if we point it out. On the downside it also means that he has started crying ‘mummy’ when he’s upset, which is difficult, particularly for Barry when he’s trying to comfort him. But there’s nothing more adorable than the big grin and ‘mummy!’ I get when I pick him up from nursery.

His other favourite words at the moment are ‘oh, wow!’, ‘nee naw’, and of course we still get a lot of ‘hats’ and ‘shoe shoe’. Apparently he has started saying lots of the names at nursery as well this week so I can’t wait to see what we get next.

After a very long break I’m linking up with Mummy Daddy Me for The Ordinary Moments again.

6 July , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 6 Comments

Round and round the garden (The Ordinary Moments #25)

You know the rhyme…. Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, one step, two step, and tickle him under there!

Well, at some point this has become one of our lovely Ordinary Moments. Toby now knows the rhyme so well he starts giggling before I’ve even touched him!

He keeps giggling as he tries to push my hands away. And by the end we are both laughing.

I just love what a happy, smiley, giggly baby I have. The sound of your baby laughing is something to treasure for ever. That pure, unadulterated joy. I hope he keeps hold of that for a long time to come and that to hear him laughing is forever one of our Ordinary Moments.

29 June , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 3 Comments

Milky cuddles (The Ordinary Moments #24)

I’ve read so many blog posts about the bond mums have with their babies when they’re breastfeeding. How special those milky cuddles are. And I’m not denying that they are special. But for whatever reason they aren’t something that all mums get to share with their baby. But even though we stopped breastfeeding at six weeks (and even then every breastfeed was topped up with formula) I wanted to write about our milky cuddles. It doesn’t matter that Toby is drinking formula and it is coming out of a bottle – we still get to share some special bonding moments together.

Although Toby is nearly one now(!) he still has three bottles a day; one when he gets up, one before his afternoon nap and one before bed. And no matter how crazy he has been just minutes before, wriggling and crawling and standing and bouncing, as soon as he sees that bottle coming his thumb goes in his mouth and as soon as I pick him up he snuggles in. And then we have a quite few minutes where he actually lies still. Usually he’ll play with my ear, or try and put his fingers in my mouth, or play with the cord on my hoody, basically whatever is within reach.

I love these quiet times we have together (during the week I do the morning and afternoon bottles and daddy gets the bedtime one) and I’ll miss them when they’re gone. You read so many stories about the end of breastfeeding being an emotional time (and I’m not for one minute denying that it is) but I think the end of bottle feeding will be sad for me too. I suppose it just means my little boy isn’t a baby any more. For now though I’m going to enjoy our milky cuddles while we still have them.

Linking up with Katie at Mummy Daddy Me for The Ordinary Moments

25 May , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 4 Comments

Dada dada (The Ordinary Moments #23)

This week’s Ordinary Moment is one that has only become ordinary in the last week or two. After a few weeks of persistent training (mostly from Barry!) Toby has now learnt how to say Dada. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have any idea what it means yet but he says it all the time! Although I’m a bit sad that he’s saying Dada but not Mama (I know that will come and it’s something to do with it being easier for babies to say Dada) it is still so cute to hear. It’s so obvious that Toby loves his daddy to bits. And I love watching them together – my two favourite boys!

In fact Toby is babbling a lot more of everything these days – it’s so sweet to listen to him when he’s playing by himself and just chatting away to his toys. Or when he wakes up and we just hear baby babble over the monitor. I’d love to know what’s going through his mind – I’m sure it all makes perfect sense to him!

I’m very excited for Toby to start learning more words, although I know I’ve got a while to wait before he really starts talking. And once he does I bet I’ll be wishing for some peace and quiet!

18 May , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 7 Comments

Baby Sensory (The Ordinary Moments #22)

We started going to Baby Sensory when Toby was about two and a half months old. He has gone from being one of the youngest babies in the class to being the oldest. He’s also gone from lying and just watching and taking it all in to causing havoc! Now I can hardly keep him in one place long enough to do any of the activities and I’m always trying to make sure he doesn’t hurt any of the smaller babies when he’s crawling and rolling about all over the place!

We love Baby Sensory though – there are lots of different activities and it’s been fantastic watching Toby as he develops and is able to interact and participate more. It’s been really interesting to see the other babies in the class getting bigger too; the older ones leave and then new tiny babies come to take their place. Toby loves the ‘Say Hello’ song (if you’ve every been to Baby Sensory you’ll know the one I mean!) and I often sing it to him if I need to calm him down or keep his attention. It’s quite sad to think we’ve only got a few months of Baby Sensory left. There’s only a couple of weeks then we’re on holiday, then there’s a few more weeks before the school holidays start here and there won’t be regular classes. Baby Sensory is for babies up to 13 months and then after that there are Toddler Sense classes. These have just started in our area and they look awesome (lots of inflatables to play on!) but the classes are only on week days at the moment and I’ll be back at work by then.

Anyway, I know this sounds like a bit of an advert for Baby Sensory but really going to the classes has just become an ordinary moment for us, which is why I’m linking up this post with Katie at Mummy Daddy Me this week.

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!).

31 March , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 4 Comments

Getting into everything (The Ordinary Moments #20)

I know all I seem to talk about lately is how Toby is almost crawling (and he is still almost crawling), but it really is dominating our lives at the moment! He rolls around the floor to get where he wants and has now started commando crawling forwards as well and you literally can’t take your eyes off him for a minute because he is getting into everything!

He does have a few favourite things that he likes to get at though – first up, my handbag. It has tassels which are obviously fascinating to a baby but he mostly just likes to get the strap and try and wrap himself up in it.

Next there’s the coffee table, a whole treasure trove of things to grab and pull – look mummy’s old netbook, it’s black and shiny! And don’t think putting your leg in the way will stop me!

And look what else I found up here – tissues, a whole world of fun!

I know this really means we need to have a big tidy up and try and move everything out of Toby’s reach but actually, as long as I’m there to keep an eye on him, I like watching Toby explore, seeing where he can get and what he can reach….and next week we’re getting a playpen delivered so at least I’ll be able to go to the loo with Toby getting himself into too much mischief!

Linking up with Katie at Mummy Daddy Me for another Ordinary Moment.

24 March , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 5 Comments

Cuddles (The Ordinary Moments #19)

Apart from when he was a tiny baby Toby hasn’t been into cuddles very much. He’s so nosy and interested in everything that’s going on around him that if you try and give him a cuddle he’s always turning and squirming, trying to see what’s going on behind him. He’ll sometimes sit on my knee and rest against me while we’re watching TV but usually he’s just desperate to get away and explore.

The last few weeks though Toby seems to have started to realise that cuddles can actually be quite nice! When I go in to get him up in the morning or after his naps he is usually on his tummy, pushing up on his arms, craning to see me coming in. If I go and put my arm under him and give him a cuddle that way he has actually started cuddling my arm back – it’s so cute!

And then, when I’m settling him down to go to sleep I usually put him up on my shoulder and he’s started snuggling his head in and even sometimes giving my shoulder a bit of a squeeze. And sometimes he just uses me as a ladder and tries to climb up over my shoulder! But you can’t have everything…

Anyway, I love these new cuddles with my baby boy (although they are very hard to capture on camera so apologies for the rubbish picture!). It’s so sweet and I’m looking forward to him working out just how awesome cuddles can be and wanting them even more often.

17 March , 201430 September , 2017 - Sarah 7 Comments

Watching TV (The Ordinary Moments #18)

It’s time to link up with Katie at Mummy Daddy Me for another Ordinary Moment. This week’s Ordinary Moment is something I have to admit I’m not entirely proud of! Toby has been fascinated by the TV since he was tiny. He will usually sit with us on the sofa quite happily (for a little while at least) and watch whatever it is we happen to be watching.

But recently I have actually succumbed to the lure of CBeebies! I was never one of those parents who said ‘my child is never going to watch TV!’. After all I’m a bit of a telly addict myself. But I didn’t think I’d be putting on kids’ TV shows to keep him quiet just yet.

Actually we have the TV on much less now than before Toby was born. If I had a day at home before I would literally turn the TV on when I got up and it wouldn’t go off until it was time for bed. But now Toby is so enamoured with watching TV that it is impossible to feed him (milk or solids) with it on because he gets too distracted. So with that and starting this blog I seem to have a lot less time for watching TV these days.

Anyway, there never seems to be anything good on CBeebies when I turn it on so I’ve recorded a few episodes of Raa Raa the Lion and Waybaloo so there’s something to stick on if I need to keep Toby’s attention and keep him out of trouble for five minutes. He seems to be transfixed by it and so it stops him rolling and wriggling all over the room!

So there we are – watching TV is a very ordinary moment in our house. I’m actually quite looking forward to Toby being old enough to concentrate on TV and films, and actually understand what’s going on, so I can start sharing some of my favourites with him.

9 March , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 7 Comments

Swing (The Ordinary Moments #17)

We’ve been talking about taking Toby to the park for a go on the swings for a few weeks now but either we haven’t had the time, or the weather has been horrible, but yesterday the sun was shining so we bundled him up and headed to one of our many local parks.

I’m not sure Toby was entirely convinced about his first go on the swing – I’m sure he’ll work out soon enough that it’s supposed to be fun!

We did manage to catch this little smile though…

I’m sure that going to the park will soon turn into an ordinary moment for us. I can’t wait until the weather gets a bit better, and Toby gets a bit bigger, so we can enjoy trips to the park. There are loads of little play parks all round the different bits of housing estates round here and we’ve also got a huge park in town that has got a lovely cafe and what looks like an awesome playground (although I haven’t tried it myself!).

And if you fancy a bit of video, here’s Toby in action!

Toby Goes Bananas

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