Just over a month ago I started the 30 day shred. Unfortunately a week and half in I injured both my ankles after I had gone for a run, did one of the 30 day shred level 2 sessions and stupidly then did another exercise DVD (both exercise DVDs without trainers on!). Because of this I've had about a month off of any exercise as my ankles were simply too painful. Luckily, this coincided with my giving up chocolate for lent so I didn't actually put any weight on, but it certainly leveled out for that time. However, this weekend I managed to go out for two runs and a short session on the rowing machine, and was pleased that the old ankles seemed to cope well with them.
So, in yet another bid to try and get rid of the leftover "tum from being a mum", I am attempting the 30 day shred yet again. To be fair, when I started it last time, it was making a difference. Even in just a few days my stomach felt firmer and stronger.
Weight has been checked and measurements taken (I've never taken exercise this seriously before), so, here's hoping that with a bit more sensible eating (my downfall I'm afraid) and a refreshed attitude towards squeezing a workout into busy days of entertaining 19 month old daughter, working and extra studies, that the leftovers will be banished forever. Well, for a little while at least!!
Bye Bye Bottle
During February, Mr BB was lucky enough to have a few days away skiing with work - a perk of the job which hasn't been available for a few years, obviously. Still, for days and weeks leading up to his "work trip" he went to great lengths to establish that it was a "work trip", and practically no fun would be had. None whatsoever, really, it's work, with work people and clients. Hmm, I nodded in agreement knowing full well that skiing is one of his favourite holidays and could see that despite himself, he was leaping for joy inside, which was really nice to see.
At first I thought it would be quite strange without him and I wondered how BB would cope without him. He tends to put her to bed and they have a little bedtime routine, and they had only had one night apart and that was a year ago when she was 6 months old. So this could be different. And tricky. So I braced myself. We spent the first night just the two of us, and luckily BB was fine. I had managed to tire her out enough in the day that she just wanted to go straight to sleep when bedtime came round. But in the morning, she kept looking for her daddy. Pitter-pattering from room to room, but no luck. This routine took place every morning until he was back and he got her up, to a lively cuddle and a "welcome home" jump on his belly back in our bed. Order was restored.
Whilst Mr BB was away, I took the opportunity to try and get BB off of the bottle. I've read that it is ideal to try and wean them off the bottle by 18 months but I know that many have struggled to do this. And despite my wanting this, flashbacks of the times we tried to get BB to actually take a bottle in the first place kept coming back to me! So, without any fuss I put BB's milk in a beaker (with a top on) and placed it in front of her on her high chair and walked back to get her cereal ready. As I turned back, to my amazement BB was guzzling away at the beaker, with no complaints. She had been used to drinking her water out of a smaller similar cup so I think this helped, but still, I was so relieved. And we haven't looked back since. Bye bye bottle, bye bye calling BB a baby.
At first I thought it would be quite strange without him and I wondered how BB would cope without him. He tends to put her to bed and they have a little bedtime routine, and they had only had one night apart and that was a year ago when she was 6 months old. So this could be different. And tricky. So I braced myself. We spent the first night just the two of us, and luckily BB was fine. I had managed to tire her out enough in the day that she just wanted to go straight to sleep when bedtime came round. But in the morning, she kept looking for her daddy. Pitter-pattering from room to room, but no luck. This routine took place every morning until he was back and he got her up, to a lively cuddle and a "welcome home" jump on his belly back in our bed. Order was restored.
Whilst Mr BB was away, I took the opportunity to try and get BB off of the bottle. I've read that it is ideal to try and wean them off the bottle by 18 months but I know that many have struggled to do this. And despite my wanting this, flashbacks of the times we tried to get BB to actually take a bottle in the first place kept coming back to me! So, without any fuss I put BB's milk in a beaker (with a top on) and placed it in front of her on her high chair and walked back to get her cereal ready. As I turned back, to my amazement BB was guzzling away at the beaker, with no complaints. She had been used to drinking her water out of a smaller similar cup so I think this helped, but still, I was so relieved. And we haven't looked back since. Bye bye bottle, bye bye calling BB a baby.
Parents' Evening v Parents' Evening
Apologies for lack of posts of late, have been meaning to post but just haven't got round to it...naughty Mummy BB!!
Anyway, since my last post we have had BB's second parents' evening and as she is graduating to the "Toddler Room" we were given her handover book to keep. We were also lent her "record" book for a few days, before having to return it to the nursery, in which they have stuck photos of BB that they have taken during various activities. It was really lovely to go through, but most of all, it was simply astonishing just how much BB had changed over the last 6 months or so. Of course she has grown, but she seems to have changed so much from the slightly grumpy-refusing-to-smile-for-photos stage to the happy, dancing, giggling little girl she has already become. So much so that I am sometimes ashamed at how difficult I found the first few months of BB's life and at how much I struggled to bond with her properly. Now, it is a totally different matter. We have a great bond and she just makes me so proud to be her mummy.
BB has made friends with a lovely little girl at nursery who, whenever I drop BB off, comes running over to her and waves in her face - a really lovely sight as I leave BB for the day.
I also celebrated my 33rd birthday recently. Well, when I say celebrated, what I mean, of course, was that it was just another normal Tuesday. I couldn't bring myself to go to the toddler group over the road though, so we went to the playground just BB and me, which was lovely. Mr BB and I were going to go out for a meal but as it was a weeknight and he tends to be the most shattered man on earth after work we decided to put it off till the weekend. This also happened to be one of the snowy weeks so we were limited as to where to go depending on which roads were passable. We ended up opting for the pub in the village. Much easier. As we left the house it started to thunder and lightning lit up the non-street-lamped streets, so that was sort of a bonus. As we were waiting for our table at the pub, the fire alarm started to go off. Yet we persevered with the evening, with a group at another table who were also celebrating a birthday and who finished off with a cake and candles. We kept the low key element alive by sharing an array of starters and good old fashioned pub grub mains. Still, I was wearing my lovely new birthday jumper and I was out for the evening with my lovely hubby. And that's all I really wanted.
Anyway, since my last post we have had BB's second parents' evening and as she is graduating to the "Toddler Room" we were given her handover book to keep. We were also lent her "record" book for a few days, before having to return it to the nursery, in which they have stuck photos of BB that they have taken during various activities. It was really lovely to go through, but most of all, it was simply astonishing just how much BB had changed over the last 6 months or so. Of course she has grown, but she seems to have changed so much from the slightly grumpy-refusing-to-smile-for-photos stage to the happy, dancing, giggling little girl she has already become. So much so that I am sometimes ashamed at how difficult I found the first few months of BB's life and at how much I struggled to bond with her properly. Now, it is a totally different matter. We have a great bond and she just makes me so proud to be her mummy.
BB has made friends with a lovely little girl at nursery who, whenever I drop BB off, comes running over to her and waves in her face - a really lovely sight as I leave BB for the day.
I also celebrated my 33rd birthday recently. Well, when I say celebrated, what I mean, of course, was that it was just another normal Tuesday. I couldn't bring myself to go to the toddler group over the road though, so we went to the playground just BB and me, which was lovely. Mr BB and I were going to go out for a meal but as it was a weeknight and he tends to be the most shattered man on earth after work we decided to put it off till the weekend. This also happened to be one of the snowy weeks so we were limited as to where to go depending on which roads were passable. We ended up opting for the pub in the village. Much easier. As we left the house it started to thunder and lightning lit up the non-street-lamped streets, so that was sort of a bonus. As we were waiting for our table at the pub, the fire alarm started to go off. Yet we persevered with the evening, with a group at another table who were also celebrating a birthday and who finished off with a cake and candles. We kept the low key element alive by sharing an array of starters and good old fashioned pub grub mains. Still, I was wearing my lovely new birthday jumper and I was out for the evening with my lovely hubby. And that's all I really wanted.
Oh
So...today was the first day that when I dropped BB off at nursery she just waved me off and went on happily to play with her friends. This is a good thing. Of course it is a good thing. But I didn't quite realise just how quickly the "I'm fine on my own, Mum" stage would surface! I'm sort of glad that she didn't want one last cuddle from me and that there were no tears, as is the usual little ritual. But at the same time, as I walked down the stairs and saw that she had caught sight of me leaving and simply smiled and carried on playing, a little part of me wanted to just stop and say "Oh!". So here it is, again, "Oh!"
Decisions Decisions (a mini post)
I thought I'd got away with it, but I haven't quite. It has started. People are now starting to ask whether we are planning on having any other children. I guess I've been lucky that it has only just started. BB is coming up to 16 months and I guess it is inevitable. And truthfully, we have started to talk about it. Talking about the fact that we're not sure whether we are ready to add another little one to the mix, just yet, if at all. We love BB so much and we really struggled with the first few weeks and months of parenthood - do we really want to go back there? Looking back at BB's baby photos I really find it hard to think back to those days. Motherhood just didn't feel all that natural at first, I was shattered all the time, Mr B and I argued a hell of a lot and it took a long time to recover from the birth physically and emotionally. Having thought about it more and more over the last few weeks, after Mr BB stated, quite seriously, that he really wasn't sure whether we would have another, I got to a point where I could just about be OK with focusing just on BB. But at the same time, I can't quite get my head around the fact that BB could be an only child, like me. I always wanted more than one. But maybe waiting a bit longer to consider it seriously is the answer.
Got myself a walkin', talkin' livin' baby bish bosh
...well almost - BB is now confidently walking between myself and Mr B and we try and get her to do this every evening (as well as me placing her by the sofa as she clings on to it and then sitting a few feet away from her and saying "walk to mummy", which makes her turn, giggle and waddle over!).
I came home from my weekly run last Saturday to Mr B stating, "Right, something's happened. You are going to be both pleased and unhappy. I think". Great! I know that BB is OK as I am sure that Mr B would have been a bit more forthcoming with information if something had happened. As it turned out, whilst he was hoovering with our Henry Hoover, BB was following him, pushing Henry around - very helpful little girl that she is. As he was starting on the stairs (we have stair gates at the bottom and the top) he made sure she was safely with him. And then it happened. She started to climb. Climb and climb and climb right up to the top of the stairs. Now, she hasn't done this before, most likely due to the fact that pretty much as soon as she started crawling we installed the gates, so this was quite a big achievement in our eyes. And a scary one at that. But she proudly showed off her new skill to her grandparents later that afternoon to raptuous applause - so I'm sure it is a skill she will keep pulling out of the bag on demand.
As the autumn/winter sets in we have started to light our log burner again, which has meant we have had to get a fire guard. Although we live in the countryside, our house is fairly modern so we have gone for a pretty sturdy, unswurly type, which actually looks pretty modern as well as safe.
This weekend saw BB's first ever projectile vomitting, and the first vomitting in my car! At least it was on the way to the Doctor as she had not had a great night with a horrible cough which was making her almost choke on phlem she was bringing up (this was going on for about 1h30 in the middle of the night so pretty scary). As it turns out she is fine but when she coughs it is putting pressure on her diaphragm and bringing up whatever she has inside. She had a good Saturday night and Sunday so we thought she was on the mend. However, she was sick again this morning after some more coughing. Unfortunately, she has also been off her food over the last few days. So plenty of rest and cuddles for her as well as healthy snacks throughout the day.
Having had a bout of doing lots of exercise, a few months ago, and altough I am running at least once a week, I have started to feel like a bit of a frump again, so, I am determined to start up a new fitness regime. I just need delve into my week and, like on an excel spreadsheet, minimise some columns in order to maximise my fitness column. Hhhmmm we shall see...
I came home from my weekly run last Saturday to Mr B stating, "Right, something's happened. You are going to be both pleased and unhappy. I think". Great! I know that BB is OK as I am sure that Mr B would have been a bit more forthcoming with information if something had happened. As it turned out, whilst he was hoovering with our Henry Hoover, BB was following him, pushing Henry around - very helpful little girl that she is. As he was starting on the stairs (we have stair gates at the bottom and the top) he made sure she was safely with him. And then it happened. She started to climb. Climb and climb and climb right up to the top of the stairs. Now, she hasn't done this before, most likely due to the fact that pretty much as soon as she started crawling we installed the gates, so this was quite a big achievement in our eyes. And a scary one at that. But she proudly showed off her new skill to her grandparents later that afternoon to raptuous applause - so I'm sure it is a skill she will keep pulling out of the bag on demand.
As the autumn/winter sets in we have started to light our log burner again, which has meant we have had to get a fire guard. Although we live in the countryside, our house is fairly modern so we have gone for a pretty sturdy, unswurly type, which actually looks pretty modern as well as safe.
This weekend saw BB's first ever projectile vomitting, and the first vomitting in my car! At least it was on the way to the Doctor as she had not had a great night with a horrible cough which was making her almost choke on phlem she was bringing up (this was going on for about 1h30 in the middle of the night so pretty scary). As it turns out she is fine but when she coughs it is putting pressure on her diaphragm and bringing up whatever she has inside. She had a good Saturday night and Sunday so we thought she was on the mend. However, she was sick again this morning after some more coughing. Unfortunately, she has also been off her food over the last few days. So plenty of rest and cuddles for her as well as healthy snacks throughout the day.
Having had a bout of doing lots of exercise, a few months ago, and altough I am running at least once a week, I have started to feel like a bit of a frump again, so, I am determined to start up a new fitness regime. I just need delve into my week and, like on an excel spreadsheet, minimise some columns in order to maximise my fitness column. Hhhmmm we shall see...
Cuddles and Kisses
Apologies for massive time gap since my last post - suffice to say our household has been a little busy of late.
We had managed to pick one of the worst weeks weather-wise to go away, with most of the UK flooding due to the heavy rain. We had gone to Snowdonia and although some parts of Wales were badly hit, we were pretty lucky that the floods didn't reach us - although the heavy rain did.
This did not stop Mr B going on mountain bike rides (all on his own with no signal on his phone) as often as he could - three times - in an effort to make the most of his time away from the office, although this didn't mean he didn't check his work emails and actually have to do some work, most days.
In any event, we had a very relaxing week, well I did, particularly as Mr B did all of our cooking - I prepared all of BB's meals - and I managed to read and finish two whole books! A feat I have not accomplished for some time. SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!! One of the books was one that I had agreed to review as part of bloggers team who were reviewing the books shortlisted for this years Man Booker Prize - see link if you fancy it - http://ashasnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/
By the end of our week away, however, I was pretty ready to get back home...and start on the various tasks I had set myself to do. As some of you are aware, I am busy building two businesses around looking after BB and the home - multi-tasking is so long gone. I am way beyond that! ha ha ha!
But back to BB, who seems to be growing at a faster rate than my tasks list, is doing really well. She will now walk whilst holding just one of our hands (as opposed to the clutching onto both of them, which she has favoured for a while), has learnt to give cuddles and kisses (so, so, so cute) - so much so that she gives them to her cuddly toys too - and she said her first "Hi, Daddy" the other night - which just melted Mr B's heart after a long hard day at the office.
However, BB also caught her first sickness bug this week. She has never been a particularly sicky baby so this did worry us a fair bit. Two nights of being sick and a couple of days of rather loose poos (TMI?!?) and she seems to be on the mend. And yet, she does seem to be teething (a constant in little ones I am fast realising) and she has her next set of jabs this afternoon!! boo hiss! But, I am rather glad that she had the sickness bug before the jabs otherwise my mind would be spinning into all sorts of negative directions!
So...till next time...not as long as last time...promise!
We had managed to pick one of the worst weeks weather-wise to go away, with most of the UK flooding due to the heavy rain. We had gone to Snowdonia and although some parts of Wales were badly hit, we were pretty lucky that the floods didn't reach us - although the heavy rain did.
This did not stop Mr B going on mountain bike rides (all on his own with no signal on his phone) as often as he could - three times - in an effort to make the most of his time away from the office, although this didn't mean he didn't check his work emails and actually have to do some work, most days.
In any event, we had a very relaxing week, well I did, particularly as Mr B did all of our cooking - I prepared all of BB's meals - and I managed to read and finish two whole books! A feat I have not accomplished for some time. SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!! One of the books was one that I had agreed to review as part of bloggers team who were reviewing the books shortlisted for this years Man Booker Prize - see link if you fancy it - http://ashasnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/
By the end of our week away, however, I was pretty ready to get back home...and start on the various tasks I had set myself to do. As some of you are aware, I am busy building two businesses around looking after BB and the home - multi-tasking is so long gone. I am way beyond that! ha ha ha!
But back to BB, who seems to be growing at a faster rate than my tasks list, is doing really well. She will now walk whilst holding just one of our hands (as opposed to the clutching onto both of them, which she has favoured for a while), has learnt to give cuddles and kisses (so, so, so cute) - so much so that she gives them to her cuddly toys too - and she said her first "Hi, Daddy" the other night - which just melted Mr B's heart after a long hard day at the office.
However, BB also caught her first sickness bug this week. She has never been a particularly sicky baby so this did worry us a fair bit. Two nights of being sick and a couple of days of rather loose poos (TMI?!?) and she seems to be on the mend. And yet, she does seem to be teething (a constant in little ones I am fast realising) and she has her next set of jabs this afternoon!! boo hiss! But, I am rather glad that she had the sickness bug before the jabs otherwise my mind would be spinning into all sorts of negative directions!
So...till next time...not as long as last time...promise!
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