I Love This Boy

22/365,
originally uploaded by Kazza, Mizzo, Lils and Daniel.

He gets more beautiful every day. How did we get so lucky?

I'm not getting much sleep

For the past 4 months I feel like I have hardly slept, but it doesn't seem to matter once 7am rolls around. Danny's wind stops and he is suddenly awake. Wide awake. With smiles and giggles and rolling back and forth between us and touching us. Then we hear the princess in the next room calling, "Mummeeee Daddeeee!"

And then there we are -the family together snuggling and giggling and smelling of sweet dreams. Of course, then the moaning and the grumbling and nappy changing and incessant chatter and all the rest of the stuff that will fill the next 12 hours starts - but those few moments before the day really begins are magic and make the sleepless night somehow worthwhile.

OK I admit it, I am very very sad

I LOVE cleaning, I LOVE decluttering and I LOVE organising.

One of lifes greatest pleasures is seeing a room sparkle and gleam. It makes me happy to be organised and my house to be ordered.

I have been lost for the past three years, I have been unable to keep up with everything and it has driven me a little crazy but I have learned to relax a little and allow the clutter and cobwebs to make a tiny appearance. This is only because I have had no choice in the matter as I have been busy making babies but now I am determined to get a hold on the house again.

I have rejoined Flylady in order to give me some focus. If you haven't heard of Flylady go here and see what I am talking about. It is a cheesy American system of house organisation and cleaning and although it is very 'american' - it works and allows you to keep on top of the house with very little effort once you have done the initial few weeks of prep.

I love Anthea Turner's Perfect Housewife programme and her book is a bit of a constant companion. I aspire to Bree Van de Kamp's perfect home (although maybe not the rest of her life!!) and I am never without my list of chores.

Imagine my joy then to discover 'Method' cleaning products. Wow - non-toxic, natural cleaning products that work brilliantly, smell heavenly and look gorgeous (I keep caressing the bottles!!!). I am in love. Take at look at the little beauties here and get on down to John Lewis to grab yourself some.

My husband was recently asked in all seriousness if I have OCD he laughed at his friend and replied 'no' but maybe there is a little truth there somewhere.

I'm off to mop my floors now..... only joking - *maybe*

August?

Is it really summer?

This evening I am chilly and that is whilst sat in the house with all the doors and windows closed. It has been raining again. Today we did a lot of our Christmas shopping (happened across a toy shop that was closing down and had all stock at 50% off) - IT'S AUGUST !!!!!!!

Arghhhhhh.

In the rest of our lives, all is going well. We have just returned from a little break in Cambridgeshire with Tony's parents. The weather was grim but we all had a nice, relaxing time. The princess was great, she had so much fun, was brilliantly well behaved and ate like a horse. The boy was pretty cool too, he smiled through most of the day and kept to his night time routines so that was all good. Today he rolled over from his tummy to back for the first time. It was not intentional on his part and gave him quite a shock but he has rolled - that is the start!!!!

His wind issues continue - we had him to the GP again on Monday. She was a horrible woman who spoke over me, didn't listen to a word I said and made the boy cry by throwing him around and making stupid noises at him. I was furious. I am so concerned by what took us to the surgery in the first place but was basically told to go away. That is now our third visit to GPs with his digestive system and they won't hear me - there is something wrong but they just don't want to find out what. They are just hoping that whatever it is goes away. I am planning on seeing the Health Visitor on Wednesday and if necessary start shouting as I KNOW as his mother that there is something not right and we need to know if we can stop his pain.

Rant over.

Innocence and Independence

My friend Emma has recently blogged her thoughts on the Madeline McCann case and how it affects her as a parent. This got me thinking about how we keep our children safe and protected but also fulfill one of our ultimate roles as parents - nuturing an independent and confident child.

I am a very careful (read paranoid) parent, I recently stopped the Princess attended local gym classes as I wasn't happy with the level of care given by the instructors. After watching a session I didn't feel that they were equipped to watch the children adequately and I am just not willing to take any chances at all.

Other than pre-school (in which I have confidence), the Princess is always with me or someone I trust, but terrible things can happen in the blink of an eye. Only the other day we discovered that whilst we had been downstairs blissfully unaware, she had been up on her windowsill - the thoughts of what might have been still make me feel cold.

What about other areas? I'm not sure what to shield my kids from now. Sure there are the obvious things. Certainly, I don't swear in front of them and keep anything inappropriate out of earshot - I need to load Amy Winehouse, Prince and some of my gay tunes on to my I-Pod if I am to listen to it in the next 15 years. I know that hitting "next blog" when she's close by is a definite no-no. I don't allow her to see adult televison including soaps (Eastenders is so vile in it's content)

Obviously, their Internet access will need to be closely monitored as they get older to protect them from pervs and also the limit websites available to them - there is stuff they just don't need to know about anytime soon.

If you know me, you will know I am no prude and that I have certainly 'lived' but I find society today a scary place, there is little respect for others and the boundaries of what is morally and socially acceptable have moved so far away from what I find acceptable. It is the slow decline of manners and morals which I find hardest to grasp - again I blame things like Eastenders for the drip drip effect of changing our perceptions.


It's really overwhelming, the task of shielding our children.With society, television, films (even Disney), video games and the internet filled with violence, drugs, sex, and obscene language, how do we strike a balance between being a hovering parent who shields their eyes and ears from everything and allowing them to see and hear more than they should and becoming fully rounded people?

Really, how do we ever let them out of our sight?

Friday Morning Skive

The Princess is at pre-school (dressed as a pirate!) and the Boy is asleep in his swing, I am about to have a coffee and surf the net - bliss!!! The housework can wait. I was up from 4am with the boy moaning and groaning and eating his fists. I think there could be some teething action going on. The Princess had her first tooth through at 20 weeks which is only 4 weeks away so maybe...

I'm not an old hippy

and I do believe in 'live and let live' but this week I was shocked by some blatant and in my opinion 'wrong' advertising.

I was browsing through OK magazine, mainly to have a look at Katie Price and Peter Andre's new baby girl (she's adorable by the way) and within the interview Katie talks about the fact that she didn't want to breastfeed as she doesn't "want a baby drinking from me".

Ok, so it's a shame that she doesn't advocate breastfeeding as she is a great role model for young women and attitude like hers doesn't help increase the figures of new mums 'giving it a shot'.

She is perfectly entitled to do what she wants to do (and she always does!!!) but what I found shocking was the product placement of the formula milk she is using, the label aimed squarely at the camera and during the interview she talks of having crates full of the ready made bottles - no doubt in exchange for the photo 'advert'.

It is illegal to avertise formula for babies under six months but when celebrities allow themselves to be used is this manner, the formula companies get around the law.

There is a new call for ALL formula advertising to be banned, which may increase the poor number of women feeding naturally. At present only 25% of women continue feeding beyond six months.

Personally, I think that more help is required for new mums. I have found feeding very difficult this time and could have given up on many occasions but as I had such a good experience first time round, I persevered. Nobody has been there to help me through and Health visitors just seem to say 'keep trying' - not always easy when you are in pain and baby is hungry.

Young women, particularly those from less educated backgrounds and lower incomes need help and education, but sadly whilst role models like Jordan keep up the 'erghhh I don't want a baby hanging from me' attitude, this is going to be an uphill struggle.

Bit Of Both

The boy is doing great. He is a real character, very smiley, very chatty and great at blowing bubbles and shouting 'hey'. He is now grabbing toys and shaking them (and then dropping them). All in all he is doing fab.

His weight gain has slowed up dramatically though and has only gained 40z in the past 3 weeks - not so cool.

The health visitor isn't too worried but said to get him weighed again in 3 weeks time and then if things haven't improved it is because he is hungry and needs to be weaned. So it looks like we are just 20 or so days away from baby rice, bibs and mess mess mess. I can't wait to be honest. I know my son and I know that he is going to have his Mummy and Daddy's love of food.

Not sure if I should start to introduce a bottle into his life too. Breastfeeding is great- good for baby, convenient for mum and feeding from a bottle seems clinical and unemotional. However, it is a tie when you fancy a few beers or want to go on the mother of all diets. Its exhausting feeding every hour for days on end with no one to assist, and then running around keeping a lively three year old engaged during the day. We have recently turned down several party invitations due to being too far to feasibly travel and return home for the 11pm feed.

I've read that if you offer only a bottle for two days, baby will learn to latch and suckle from a bottle. A baby will never forget how to feed in his preferred method, and can learn to do both. This would be ideal but not sure I could handle the two days of confused crying and would whip out the boob to nourish him.

The other benefits of extending breastfeeding are avoiding the transition to bottle and goin direct to cup. This worked well with Lil. The other selfish reason is the cancer protection given to me if breastfeeding extends beyond six months.

The next month will be interesting and I am sure whatever is 'right' will prevail.

p.s. We have also booked his baptism - busy times!!!!