Growing The Bump

First Week At School I wasn’t sure how I felt about sending my firstborn off to school. She turned four on Thursday and then walked into the classroom to begin her formal education the following Tuesday, a mere five days later. That’s very young to be pulling on a school uniform, walking into a room full of mostly unknown faces and start learning new things five days a week every term for the next 13 year

Owning Two Toddlers Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay I think the time has definitely come when I have to admit that Max is no longer a newborn, and he’s not even a baby anymore. In fact, he’s a fully fledged toddler with his own likes and dislikes, feelings and thoughts about things. He can walk, talk (shout) and has countless opinions which he now voices loudly. With Alexandra not yet at school she̵

What The Pox Taught Me Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay Well it has been a while hasn’t it? I have been prompted out of my blog semi-retirement (okay, not retirement, more like a really really long holiday/gap year) by something that happened last night. I’d written a blog on The Motherload entitled ‘Five Parenting Phrases That Need to be Banned‘ last June – I remember it attracted a fe

Potty Training I feel like potty training is one of the major events in the first few years of your child’s life, and now we’re dry in the daytime with our oldest, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts and how we went about it. My first, and most important, piece of advice for anyone who’s nearing the stage is don’t rush it. I truly believe some parents make it 100x harder for

Baby 2: 21 Months Old Okay so he’s nearer to 22 months (and achingly close to being a two-year-old), but better late than never eh? Max is still full of the boundless energy that most people can only dream of – perhaps that’s what has happened to the energy I seem to have misplaced sometime around 2015, it was accidentally implanted into my baby instead? Don’t get me wrong, he does have the occ

Baby 2: 20 Months Old 90s rave Max Baby number two is now 20 and a half months old, meaning we’ve had two babies for longer than we had one. Max has got the funniest little personality, he is a proper character. You know those kids that everyone says ‘wow he’s got a lot of energy!’ about? Yep. That’s Max. Food: He’s still dairy and soya free and has now had a skin-prick test which co

Baby 2: 18 Months Old Both of them love being out and exploring, Just getting some more use out of his 9-12m coat from last winter! Better late than never eh? Max turned 18 months old on the 26th September. Alexandra was 18 months when her little brother was born so it’s kind of weird that he’s now at the same age! I feel like he’s still very much a baby (although people keep commenting how grown up h

A Catch Up I know, I know. My children have pretty much grown up and moved out since I last blogged. Well not quite but I now own a THREE year old. Three! And the other one is hurtling towards that 18-month mark with gusto. There have been some big changes over here and there have also been some lovely days out and a little holiday. Holiday: We popped to Bournemouth for the week (‘popped’ impli

We Hate Soya We hate soya, we love sand. I don’t think I’ve updated about Max’s allergies in a while and everything is sort of whizzing by in a big fog of crazy days and nights, so I thought I’d better commit pen to paper – or hand to keyboard – before he’s 30 and I’ve forgotten all about food trials and nappies and all that faff. Super quick summary for the unin

Baby 2: 16 Months Old A whole month has gone by and I haven’t even got round to writing anything on here. Max is 16 months old today and life is as hectic as ever (plus I’ve kind of been prioritising watching Love Island!). Teeth: 12 now with just the canines and back molars to come through. Walking: Walking fairly steadily now and trying to run all the time! Toys: His absolute favourite thing to do at t

Baby 2: 15 Months Old Today Max is 15 months old (anyone else feel a bit weird at this age when someone asks you how old your baby is. Like I don’t want to say ‘one’ cause it makes it sound like he’s just 12 months, but then I feel a bit too specific saying 15 months! Hurrah for when they get to 2 and you can just be like two/two and a half/nearly three.) I have hardly any time because he’

The First Year Is The Hardest? When I was pregnant with Max and even when he was born, I read and heard a lot of people talking about how the first year with two small children is the hardest. That once you’ve got past that then you’ll be home and dry, pretty much. It makes sense. The more independent they get, the better things should be. You’re in a routine and you kind of know what you’re doing. But

Baby 2: 14 Months Old For the first time last month, I managed to miss a monthly update! Things have been CRAZY round here and time has been precious (and I’ll be honest sometimes when I have an hour or two to myself, I use it to aimlessly scroll through Instagram or just sit and watch television!). People told me the first year with two under two is the hardest but honestly they’re both at (cute but) exha

Using Their Images There seems to be a lot of hoo-ha at the moment surrounding people using images of their children. It’s more specifically around the ‘influencers’ who include pictures and videos of family life, and a lot of the time benefit from freebies or even sponsorship by doing so. But it does get you thinking about your own approach to your children’s privacy. We have always been fa

Tantrums: Not Everyone is Judging You My child having a tantrum on a town-centre bench, because she wanted to go home for lunch and we were going home for lunch… You know when you’re out and about with your little darlings and one of them absolutely loses it. You’ve probably been dealing with this all day (or since their first birthday, terrible TWOS my arse) and you’re probably absolutely sick of it. You want

Dear One-Year-Old Max Max, it’s your birthday! You may not be able to read this right now but I hope in years to come you will and you will realise how utterly loved you are. A year ago today, on Mothers’ Day, I was in a delivery room at Birmingham Women’s Hospital with your dad, a fabulous midwife and various other health professionals buzzing in and out of the room. Although you were a little early,

Alexandra at 2.5 Alexandra bossing around her cousin Zachary. I stopped writing monthly updates for Alexandra when she turned two, mostly because there’s only so many times you can say ‘yeah her routine is the same, she still has the same amount of teeth’ etc before it gets a bit boring! I mean, you might find these updates boring anyway, but I enjoy having them to read back on and maybe the kids

Baby 2: 11 Months Not going to lie, I am slightly freaking out about the fact my tiny little baby is one in under three weeks! I feel like he’s really progressed in the last months and has come on leaps and bounds. We are so proud of him. I know everyone is proud of their children, and I know a lot of children have things going on which affect every single aspect of their lives in a much more profound way; b