2 May , 201621 December , 2017 - Sarah 1 Comment

A Family Portrait (April 2016)

I’m a couple of days late with this month’s Me & Mine post. I was away at Blog On (a blogging conference in Manchester) this weekend and we hadn’t managed to get a family picture through the month so we had to wait until I got home today.

Unfortunately it’s been another month of illness for us. Gabe has still had a cold and been teething again. He also managed to add an ear infection into the mix this time too. Barry and I both had some flu-type virus at the same time, and Gabe was really suffering, which led to me being told I should be enjoying my baby by a random stranger in the street. Toby managed to avoid the cold / flu thing but he ended the month with a sickness bug! It really hasn’t been a healthy month for us.

We have managed to squeeze in a few nice things though – I took Toby swimming for the first time in about 18 months and after a bit of initial reluctance he loved it. We also had a lovely walk in the woods, a picnic in the garden and a trip to the farm.

I took this quick selfie on my phone when I got home from Blog On today and actually I think it’s one of my favourite Me & Mine photos…I said it last month but I’m really hoping the illness is behind us now. We’ve got a busy month ahead with a trip to Center Parcs in a couple of weeks, my birthday at the end of the month and some very exciting developments for us as a family which I should be able to share with you very soon too – I promise I’m not pregnant again though!

Please send your healthy vibes our way and hopefully will have a better month in May!

25 April , 201624 April , 2016 - Sarah 8 Comments

Living Arrows 17/52 (2016)

It’s been a bit of a funny week here – we had some lovely weather and even managed to get out into the garden for a picnic but then towards the end of the week we had some tough times again as Gabe seemed to be having either a reflux flare up or a bit of stomach bug and threw up whole bottles all over me a couple of times. He seems to be OK again now, fingers crossed.

Toby is in a real toddler phase of pushing boundaries at the moment too so there have been a few tears and tantrums from him this week too when he doesn’t always get his own way. Bedtimes have been particularly tricky territory with lots of messing about and not wanting to go to sleep, but he does usually calm down and accept it’s time for bed when he realises he’ll be left by himself instead of one of us staying with him until he falls asleep like we usually do. I know this is totally normal for this age but it’s so frustrating when he’s been so good up until now.

Anyway, toddler troubles aside, yesterday we went out for lunch at a local farm and fruit picking place that has a great shop and cafe, and a fab playground too. I’ll probably share some more photos later in the week but for now I love these two close ups of the boys…

18 April , 201617 April , 2016 - Sarah 10 Comments

Living Arrows 16/52 (2016)

There have been some improvements this week; after Gabe’s sixth tooth cut through last weekend his cold has finally started to clear up too and we have a much happier boy on our hands. There’s still some work to do in the sleep department but we’re definitely heading in the right direction. Gabe’s main problem now is that he really wants to crawl but he can’t quite get all his arms and legs moving in the right order yet!

Toby has been his usual lovely self with just a couple of minor toddler dramas this week – mostly about not being allowed to play on my phone or having to put his shoes on for nursery. A major topic of conversation this week has been about who in our family has a willy. We have established that Toby, Gabe and Daddy all have willies but Toby is still not entirely convinced that mummy does not despite regularly following my to the toilet!

Toby is just generally pretty hilarious these days. His language is still developing so quickly and he comes out with the funniest things. He’s just such a cheeky chap…

And just yesterday I overheard something that almost made me cry, and it made me realise what a lovely caring big brother Toby is becoming. Both boys had just finished their tea and I was popping back and forth to the kitchen tidying up. Gabe gave a bit of a cry and I heard Toby say ‘It’s OK Gabe, I’m here’ – just too adorable for words!

4 April , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 14/52 (2016)

We’ve actually had a couple of days of nice weather this week (although as I write this it’s raining again) and on Wednesday we managed to get out in the garden to take March’s Me & Mine photos. When we were done with the family pictures Toby had a good run around. He’s just discovered shadows so was having a lot of fun chasing his round the garden!

In the second half of this week Gabe has been ill again – another cold, another temperature, gunky eyes again. I feel so sorry for him, but for us too because there have been quite a lot of sleepless nights lately. Anyway, I did take this photo last weekend of Gabe enjoying some homemade pancake for the first time. I know this is a very similar picture to last week’s Living Arrows but when he’s in his high chair enjoying some food Gabe is often at his happiest, and easiest to photograph as he can’t go anywhere!

31 March , 201621 December , 2017 - Sarah 16 Comments

Me & Mine // A Family Portrait (March 2016)

Another month has gone and as we head into April, with spring on the way I really hope we are putting the coughs and colds of winter behind us.

Unfortunately March has just been one illness after another in our house. Gabe has had it worse than any of us with croup then another cold that lasted over two weeks and brought infected eye with it, then I think he was well for less than a week before Toby brought another cold home from nursery and now we all have that one too. Added to that three new teeth and March has not been the best of months for the youngest of the Toby Goes Bananas clan.

Other than being ill we haven’t really been up to much this month. Barry’s mum came to visit the weekend of Mother’s Day and we had a nice lunch out and we’ve had a few trips to the park and soft play but we didn’t even do anything for Easter. I don’t really understand how Easter has turned into such a big deal but Barry was working on the Friday and Monday anyway so we just had a small egg each, and I’m still rationing Toby’s Easter chocolate!

Anyway, this month’s Me & Mine photo was just taken in the garden when Barry got home from work last night. We had some sunshine at least and Toby had fun on his slide and running around the garden for a bit. And I think we’re even all looking at the camera!

28 March , 201627 March , 2016 - Sarah 10 Comments

Living Arrows 13/52 (2016)

Toby loves nothing more than to make himself a nest out of the sofa cushions and get comfy to watch some TV, or to hide underneath them in his ‘house’. It’s quite sweet – but also quite annoying for anyone else who would like to sit on the sofa at the same time as he insists on using all the cushions!

He looks like he might be contemplating something deep and meaningful here but he was actually just engrossed in the Octonauts!

Gabe has finally recovered from his cold (although as I type this I think there’s another one brewing). He’s getting on great with weaning and is now having three ‘meals’ a day. He seems to be enjoying his daily breakfast challenge of ‘pick up the Cheerios’ at least!

21 March , 201620 March , 2016 - Sarah 11 Comments

Living Arrows 12/52 (2016)

It’s been a fairly quiet week here. Gabe has just about recovered from his cold and turned seven months old, and Toby’s just been getting on with being two and a half, just like he always does!

We had a fun morning at soft play on Wednesday and Toby really showed how much his confidence has grown when he was playing on the big kids bit. He continued his progress this weekend at the park. It was a lovely sunny day on Saturday so we walked up to one of the bigger play parks near where we live. He really showed no fear climbing up to the top of the slide… I’m loving this new adventurous phase of his!

Gabe has been adventuring in his own way this week too. Toby is very possessive of his toys and doesn’t really like sharing with Gabe. So when Toby is at nursery Gabe loves a chance to get his hands on all those things he can’t play with in the mornings!

14 March , 201615 March , 2016 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 11/52 (2016)

I feel like I’m repeating myself, but this last week has been very much like the one before. Gabe still has his cold and hasn’t been sleeping much. After getting some drops from the doctor his eyes have cleared up at least, and although he’s still snotty he does seem to improving slightly.

Toby is still just being lovely, funny, sometimes whiney, Toby. Most of the time he is lovely but he’s been getting a bit too attached to playing on the CBeebies app on my Kindle lately and we’ve had some tears when it’s been time to turn it off. I found him a colouring app too (which doesn’t let you go outside the lines) that I thought he would enjoy…which he did but every single picture he just wanted to colour them all purple! I’m assuming this is just normal toddler behaviour and not some sort of obsessiveness I should be worried about. We definitely need to work on limiting Kindle time though before it starts being an issue. He does call the Kindle the tiny telly though (we used to watch quite a bit of iPlayer on it when it was younger because it was the only way to get him to stay still when changing his nappy) which is pretty cute.

Anyway, to this week’s pictures. They were both just taken one morning at home – I’d been taking some product shots for a review and Toby wanted his picture taken so I took the opportunity to take a few of both of them.

I do love a good face shot of Toby – I don’t know where the scratches on his nose came from though, I think he must have done it in his sleep.

And as for Gabe, you can see he’s still suffering with his cold by the two streams of snot pouring down his face, but he still managed to crack a smile.

7 March , 201615 March , 2016 - Sarah 4 Comments

Living Arrows 10/52 (2016)

Here we are with another week of Living Arrows – and we’re into March already, this year is just flying by!

This week has been pretty miserable for the most part. Gabe has been choked with a cold – it’s been awful not being able to help him. It’s been so bad he even had snot coming out of his eyes, which has now turned into conjunctivitis. Poor little bear. The last few nights haven’t been too bad but most nights last week I ended up sleeping on the sofa with him because the only way he could breath was if he was upright on my shoulder. Aside from his eyes the cold does seem to be improving a little bit so I’m hoping he’s on the mend.

Despite feeling rubbish we have had a few smiles out of Gabe this week. He seems to enjoy being in his high chair (and weaning is still moving along quite well) which means he can stay there for a little while after lunch while I get Toby ready for nursery. I love the concentration on his face in this picture – this toy was Toby’s (and still is if you ask him) and it’s great because it sticks to the high chair so I don’t have to pick it up off the floor every two minutes!

So far Toby has succumbed to the lurgy beyond a snotty nose so here’s hoping it stays that way! I took this photo of him when I was getting him to pose for last week’s What Toby Wore post but I couldn’t resist using it for this week’s Living Arrows too because he just looks too flipping cute!

29 February , 2016 - Sarah 4 Comments

Living Arrows 9/52 (2016)

Week 9 of the Living Arrows and we’re already at the end of February! And I just want to say a hello and thank you to our new Living Arrows host; my friend Donna over at What the Redhead Said.

We had some lovely weather this weekend so on Saturday we put Gabe in the buggy then walked to the supermarket and came back via the little park at the top of our road. Toby used to quite like the swing when he was really little but then went off them and wouldn’t go on them at all for ages. They seem to have come back into favour again recently and this weekend, for the first time ever he was actually asked to go higher!

He certainly looks like he was having fun anyway…

Gabe’s photo this week was just taken one day while I was getting dressed in the bedroom. His sitting up is still a work in progress so I had built him a nest of pillows to sit in and he was having a cuddle with his fab fox that my brother and sister-in-law bought him for Christmas. It’s almost as big as he is!

Toby Goes Bananas

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