The Family Patch

Mamatography 2012 - Weeks 2 and 3

Well, so much for my keeping up with Mamtography! I completely missed last week so have to try and upload two weeks' worth of photos now. This is going to be a mammoth post so please bear with me.

Thursday 12th

My parents came over today to help us switch our living room and dining room around. When we moved here it was just the two of us and it didn't matter that the front room was smaller. We wanted the dining table near the kitchen so it ended up in the larger of the two rooms. However now Oscar is here and will soon be toddling around we felt it would be better to have our living room near the kitchen, so that I could potter and do what I needed to whilst still being on hand to watch, entertain and comfort him. It does mean a longer walk between the kitchen and the dining table but it was a good trade off as now we feel like we have a nice hub in the middle of he house and when one of us is cooking the other is only a few steps away!

This photo was taken by my mum who was cleaning behind the old sofa while waiting for daddy and Grandad to collect our new sofa. Oscar was fascinated by it all. 

Friday 13th (eek)

I started sorting out the front room (new dining room) today and got quite a good way towards sorting out the dresser. The rest of the room remained full of boxes for quite some time, but at least the dresser looked good.

Saturday 14th

We took Oscar out for a walk today in his pushchair rather than the pram. I hadn't planned to switch over just yet and still find it hard to think I'll never use the pram again, but I wanted to see how he did before taking him on the train later on in the week (which I never did in the end!) He slept the entire time so it made no difference to him, but mama was sad not to be able to peek in and see his sleeping face as easily as before!

Sunday 15th

Tim was working nights over this weekend and my little rascal refused to go to sleep at night, so I ended up extremely exhausted by Sunday night. Here he is enjoying chilling on the new sofa with no thoughts of going to sleep anytime soon!

Monday 16th

I tried putting Oscar in his bouncy chair today and realised that it is no longer safe. Oscar hates reclining back and wants to sit up straight all the time. 

Tuesday 17th

Following the loss of the bouncy chair, I moved Oscar's highchair into the living room so that he could sit and watch all that was happening and have all of his toys within easy reach. He is grabbing for things so much now but still drops them easily. He is also starting to have little tastes of baby rice and fruit and veg at the moment so the highchair is a welcome addition to the room for the time being.

Wednesday 18th

Oscar has started getting really grumpy if we leave him to play on the floor. He wants to be in on the action and loves to sit on the sofa either between Tim and me or just tucked into the corner. He is growing so fast, I can't believe it. 

Thursday 19th

WHOOPS! I seem to have missed this day, still it's better going than the previous week!

Friday 20th

Oscar and I went over to my parents so I could get my hair cut (first time since June!) and despite feeling increasingly sick I decided to make the most of having doting grandparents on hand and left Oscar at home so I could head into town. I didn't find what I wanted but did come home with some bargains for Oscar. He is growing so fast and needs new clothes almost every week it seems. I was glad to find some dungarees in the sale, as I think he looks his most adorable when dressed in them.

Saturday 21st

My parents brought us home today to save me taking the train as I felt particularly sick. So I took the opportunity to show my dad our tea cupboard and ask his advice on the best way to add some extra shelves so that I can store the multitude of boxes in a much more practical fashion. Currently several boxes seem to fall out every time I try and get a teabag out!

Sunday 22nd

We spent a quiet day relaxing today and so I spent quite a long time trying to decide if I was really happy with the way the ripple blanket was coming along or whether I wanted to frog it all and start again. I'm not sure if I like the interplay of colours nor the looseness that double crochet gives compared to the bright and cosy ripple I made for Oscar using single crochet. I need to make my mind up soon though as our nephew is due at the end of March and it is working up slightly larger than I meant it to, so maybe it will save more time in the long run to start again...

Monday 23rd

Having not seen daddy all that much over the weekend, Oscar had lots of cuddles with him today. Here they are chilling out before bed. (Yes, that is Oscar's Christmas suit, but we wanted to get some more use out of it before he gets to big!)

Tuesday 24th

WHOOPS! I forgot to take a photo again!

Wednesday 25th

As you can see, the living room/dining room switch over has taken some time. It's not that I haven't wanted to do it, just that I have a very demanding little boy and have been busy with other things too, so it wasn't really my priority. But, finally, I managed to finish sorting the room out and all the remains is to switch the books around between the 5 bookcases dotted throughout our house. 

So, here is our new dining area :) 

Phew! I've finally caught up. Here's hoping I manage to keep up properly next week!

This post is part of Mamatography...

 

Guest Blog: The Family Busyness

Today I have another guest blogger for you.

Ruth gave birth to her son Andrew just as I was finding out we were going to have a baby of our own, and has been a great support for me during some of the harder times in m pregnancy and during our breastfeeding journey.

She recently started blogging and you can find her over at Mixed Bag of All Sorts

Before I begin, I’d like to thank Amanda for suggesting that I could do a guest post, and for inspiring me to start my own blog. When we first emailed about me doing a guest post, it was just before she changed the name and layout of her blog to reflect her growing family. So I thought it would be appropriate to share on this Family Patch my experience of family life. I hope to show (and remind myself whilst writing!) that all the busyness that family life brings can be a good thing, even though it can seem overwhelming at times (especially when little sleep is involved).

Since about this time last year, my boys – husband Tom and 11-½ -month old son Andrew – and I have been a three-person family. For me, the step to becoming a two-person family back in 2008 when Tom and I got married was amazing enough, but I have been even more amazed at just how much I’m enjoying life with another little person. For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that I wanted children, but until I actually had my very own child, I didn’t quite realised just how much I would love being a mum. Likewise Tom didn’t realise just how much he would love being a dad. Before Andrew came along, we weren’t even sure whether conceiving our own child would be easy, because I had suffered with anorexia in the past and had a very low body weight for several years, which could well have interfered with my fertility. So we feel incredibly blessed to have Andrew here with us today, so healthy and happy.

Adding another person to our family has meant that there is more going on now from day to day than before. Don’t get me wrong – I was busy before we had a baby, and I actually like being busy to a certain extent, and get bored quite easily if there’s not much going on, but the busyness isn’t quite the same as it was in pre-baby times. Before I could focus on what I personally wanted to be busy with, and of course we did things together as a couple. Now I feel like there are so many different things in my weekly routine that need to fit together in the best possible way for all three of us – it’s like one of those puzzles with little tiles that all move around within a bigger square, and there’s always one hole that you can move a tile into, to eventually make a picture that makes sense. I try my best; most weeks I feel like I succeed in sliding things into place so that we get a good picture, though some weeks it’s not perfect.

Two and a half days a week, my job is to look after Andrew. As he’s so active, we go out for much of the day to various play groups, so he has lots of space to explore the world around him and interact with other children. For example, there’s ‘Rhymetime’ in the library, where we say rhymes and read books, and ‘Little Music Makers’, where we sing songs, play parachute games, and have fun with musical instruments. We also go swimming together, which Andrew loves (so I’m very happy, having been a keen swimmer all my life). It’s also great to spend time at home together, where we tip all the toys out, stick a cool kids CD on, grab some refreshments, and even have a chat in French or German (since I studied these languages at university and researched them for my post-grad studies, I’d like to introduce Andrew to them as early as possible) – he of course still only babbles back to me whatever language I speak in, but it’s amazing what must be going on in his brain with language acquisition.

Two and a half days a week, my job is to be a post-doc research associate (fancy name for the fact that I do research and have a PhD) at the University of Cambridge. The project I’m working on is looking at how children with a language impairment hear rhythm in music and speech, and how we might ultimately be able to improve their language development with music-based interventions. I find it a really interesting area of research, particularly now having a baby myself. Currently I’m sifting through all the data we’ve so far collected, which mainly involves staring at spreadsheets of numbers all day, which drive’s me crazy; but this term I also get to do one school visit a week, which means playing some specially designed games on a laptop with kids, and getting them to do some karaoke – lots of fun!

So that’s the five weekdays covered, and we’re left with the weekends. Saturday mornings are more Daddy and Andrew time – they toddle off to ‘Daddy and Me Club’ once a month and ‘Rhymetime’ the other weeks, leaving me home alone. Give me a few hours these days, and it’s amazing what I manage to get done around the flat: having a baby has made me much more productive at things like cleaning and sorting stuff out. Before I know it, I’ve caught up on the washing, the floors are vacuumed and mopped, the bathroom is clean, I’ve baked something tasty, I’ve been for a swim, and I’ve even sat down with a cuppa in hand and written something to go on my blog. Saturday afternoons I usually let Tom have a go at catching up on things he needs to, by taking Andrew to the park or some other out-of-the-flat activity. By the evening we’re all ready to have some family time over a meal of comfort food. Then comes Sunday (read family-day). We go to church in the morning, and then a trip out somewhere for an afternoon walk. It’s time for us all to catch up with each other, after a week of spending most daylight hours as, at most, a pair and a singleton.

Of course we are together as a three for quite a lot of each 24-hour day, but then I’m talking about evenings and overnight. That’s when being a mum really feels like a vocation, not a job. I mean I can leave my research job behind at 5pm(-ish), knowing that I’m not contracted to be there indefinitely on a daily basis. But when I drop Andrew off at the childminder’s in the morning, that doesn’t stop me being mum. If he’s ill, he comes first – so far I’ve only needed to have half a day off due to him having a cold (he’s generally very healthy), and even then my work is flexible so I could make up the hours in the evening when Tom got home. Likewise when I come home, I continue being mum, spending time together after our separate days, as well as getting things like dinner and washing sorted, and even fitting in a quick swim for some me-time to unwind. During the night I’m also on call; although we’re very grateful that he’s a pretty good sleeper at night for his age, he can still wake up at any moment, especially if he’s teething or a bit under the weather. I can’t exactly say to him ‘Sorry Andrew, Mummy can’t come and cuddle you when you wake, I’ve got work in the morning and must get back to sleep’. Mum-hood is a 24/7 role, and the rewards I get are well worth the long hours!

Before Andrew came along, I thought that being a part-time working mum would give me a good mixture of activities that being a full-time stay-at-home mum wouldn’t; for example, I thought I would miss the ‘mental stimulation’ (as lots of people seem to refer to in this context of working mums) if I didn’t go back to work, but I also didn’t see the point of going back full-time, as I would want to play a large part in my baby’s environment in the pre-school years. However, throughout my 9 months of maternity leave, and also since I’ve been back at work, I’ve come to realise that I’d like to look after Andrew full-time. I do enjoy my work, and I see definite advantages of working whilst having a toddler, but to me it will never be as amazing as looking after Andrew full-time, at least until he goes to school. I like the challenges that being mum presents (most of the time), and the end result of seeing my boy grow and develop makes it all worth it. I get plenty of interaction with other adults at the groups we go to and at the committees I’ve joined (La Leche League breast-feeding support group committee, Chesterton Parents’ Group committee, editor of The Voice – NCT Cambridge branch magazine… all of which are completely compatible with looking after kids as they’re run by parents for parents). I enjoy the mental stimulation of writing my blog and articles for The Voice and other parenting magazines (at evenings/weekends and during Andrew’s nap times).

The feeling (growing within me over the past year) that being a full-time mum is my ‘calling’ is something very much linked to my faith as a Christian. I believe that God has a plan for my life, and I want to follow His will, which I try to discern through prayer. It can be easy to see prayer as something that I ‘have to fit in’ along with everything else in the busyness, but I do find that when I actually prioritise prayer, the other things fit together more easily as I feel more able to tackle the challenges. Of course being a stay-at-home mum is not the plan for every mum, and I don’t want to give the impression that I think no mum should work. We all have different gifts and talents, and all families are different, so there can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach to working and having kids.

I can certainly waffle on about this family busyness, but I think drawing to a close would be good, for my and your sanity! I guess the purpose of writing this was to share my experience of our family life, and to make the point that it’s important for me not to lose sight of the bigger picture, the good things about the busyness, even when the multitude of small day to day activities and tasks cloud this. By this I mean I try to reflect as often as possible on questions like why I’m doing what I’m doing, what are the most important things to me in our life together, what are my longer term plans/aims. The answers are along the lines of giving Andrew the best quality of life that I possibly can, with as much help and encouragement for his development, and also growing together as a family unit, in which we are all happy with ourselves and each other.

 

Thank you Ruth for taking the time to write this post. 

Please do leave Ruth a comment to let her know what you think or pop over to her own blog to read more about her life as a mum. 

Hyperemesis Gravidarum

I just wanted to let you all know that I have now updated the page on Hyperemesis Gravidaum here on the blog. 

I have been struggling a lot with this over the past few days and have plenty I'd like to write about, but also have very limited time to blog right now because I want to spend as much time with Oscar as possible. 

In short, I have been struggling with seeing other pregnant women, especially those pregnant with a second or third child, because that makes me face my decision to never go through pregnancy again. And that hurts. Anyone who knows me well will know I always looked forward to being pregnant and having a family and to turn my back on expanding my family in that way is painful.

As it stands we won't want to even think of expanding our family until Oscar is several years older because I need to get my health sorted, having been ill for several years with Endometriosis and the treatments for it before my Hyperemesis Gravidarum hell last year. We still aren't sure whether we will have more than one child and whether that addition will be through adoption or not. 

This past week I started wondering if I shouldn't have said "never again" so hastily during my pregnancy and yet I know I would be terrified to try again. So basically I am torn in two by it all and am trying to work through my thoughts and emotions rather than pushing them down and letting them build to unbearable levels. 

Of course these decisions don't need to be made now. And I am more than happy with Oscar being an only child for the time being. I love every minute with him and want to cherish these early years and would be quite happy if we didn't expand the family until he was 4, 5 even 6 maybe. But I know that one day I will have to make the decision as to whether I can face the possibility of HG again or whether Tim and I need to look at adoption or even remaining a one child family.

So I am trying to deal with these emotions as they come up. I don't want to feel jealous every time I see a pregnant woman. I don't want to have to change channel every time an advert for One Born Every Minute comes on the tv, or turn of Twitter because it is trending. I don't want to become bitter about it, and so that means I need to work through it.

So I decided now was the time to finally get around to writing my page on Hyperemesis and I would be hugely grateful if you would check it out. 

This post has been added to the Tuesday Tea and Sympathy Linky. Click on the image below to check out the other posts taking part.

 

Mamatography 2012 - Week 1

I have never really taken part in any blog challenges, but when I saw Mamatography I thought I would break that trend and have a go. The idea is to take a photo each day and share them once a week.

Well, I haven't started on a very good foot as I have forgotten to take a photo on several occasions and lost the post I was trying to write yesterday amid soothing a grumpy baby! But here it is, just a day late and with photos for at least half the days this year...

Sunday 1st January

WHOOPS! How could I forget the very first day? Let's blame 'baby brain'.

Monday 2nd January

Daddy had to work over New Year but had today off, so we bundled up against the cold and decided to go for a walk. 

Unfortunately the wind was ridiculously strong and Oscar got a blast in the face as we got hime out the car. Oh my, my boy can scream! It took us half an hour to calm him down again and so our walk got cancelled. Nevermind, hey?

Tuesday 3rd January

WHOOPS! I can't even remember what I did on the 3rd, but I know I have no photos from that day. I think getting into this habit is going to take longer than I thought. But I shall get there...

Wednesday 4th January

On Wednesday Aunty Debbie came to help me fill in my tax return. We had been meaning to do this for months but it kept getting cancelled, first because I was so tired by the end of my pregnancy, then because I was beyond exhausted during Oscar's colicky stage. 

I decided that the best way to thank my sister for her help was to make sure Oscar was as adorable as ever, so the elephant dungarees came out! Good job too, as I had thought they were still too big for him but thanks to yet another sudden growth they are almost too small.

Thursday 5th January

WHOOPS! Can you see a pattern yet? 

Friday 6th January

Daddy had the weekend off so we decided to travel to see family once he got home from work on Friday. By the time we reached our home for the weekend we were all rather tired, so we got out the Tummy Tub and let Oscar chill out in front of the fire for a little while. 

Saturday 7th January

We had a hectic Saturday and Oscar was rather puzzled by it all, so he really enjoyed resting in his swing and listening to Paps singing to him. He loves anyone singing, but as neither Tim nor myself pay an instrument this was the first time he had heard a guitar being played and it completely mesmerized him. 

I also have to include this photo taken before bed Saturday night because I just love it. Many of our photos of Oscar are blurry and out of focus as he is always on the move. And I love the blurriness of photos like these as they remind me just how active he is. And why delete a smile like that just because it isn't perfectly clear?

Sunday 8th January

Sunday was by far the quietest day of the weekend, despite having to travel home again. Between all the running around to see people I did manage to find a few moments to enjoy a hot drink in peace and I don't think I have ever relished in the sheer joy of doing so before. What a treat!

Monday 9th January

When we got home on Sunday we found a delivery note to say that some of our post had been too large to fit through the letter box. So we headed off to the post office Monday afternoon and picked up the first part of a correspondence course I have just started. Oscar was kind enough to carry it back from the car for me.

Tuesday 10th January 

On Tuesday Oscar had his latest lot of jabs, so he had a pyjama day while mummy and daddy made a start on switching the living room and dining room around as our current dining room is bigger, warmer, quieter and closer to the kitchen than the living room, making it a much better place to spend our days now we have Oscar. 

This was take as Oscar chilled on the floor, watching as daddy unhooked the tv unit ready for the move.

Wednesday 11th January

WHOOPS! You'd have thought I would manage to take a photo on the day of the photo share, wouldn't you? Well it wasn't so much that I forgot, rather a case of Oscar being really unsettled after his jabs and not letting anyone put him down for more than 10 minutes at a time for the entire day and night. Which is why the post is a day late and yesterday's photo got forgotten in preference of trying to soothe him.

So, until next Wednesday, when I hope to have more photos to share with you all.

This post is part of Mamatography

2011 - The Year in Review

Last year in November I looked back at 2010 to see how things had changed in that year. I thought given how much has happened this year that it might be good to do the same thing as 2011 draws to a close as well. So here are the highs and lows of 2011...

Just before New Year, I painted this picture and had no idea just how quickly my prayer would be answered.

I then wrote the words, "it feels like we have come through to the end of the storm" in this post, which were perhaps those 'famous last words' as I ovulated around the 3rd or 4th of January, wrote this post on the 10th, was already beginning to feel nauseated by the 12th, got a postive pregnancy test on the 14th and had my first awful bout of sickness on 21st before being bedbound by 7th February and almost hospitalised by 22nd February. 

Because of the intensity of my sickness I had to miss my dad's award. I was so proud of him!

I then went pretty much off the radar in terms of blogging for a while. 

But then I got to write the most precious post I have ever written. I was still mighty sick at this point and got through the journey to the hospital for my scan relying on sheer willpower not to puke. 

A similar sense of determination not to throw up on the school playground got me through working at my new job which started at the end of March. 

In April I wrote a post that sparked quite a heated debate in the comments section. 

It was around that same time that we started receiving gifts for the baby. September still felt like such a long way off and I was surprised and overwhelmed by the beautiful generosity of friends and family alike. You would not believe how many beautiful gifts we have been given for Oscar.

I then wrote a post about what I hoped for my child in his or her life. This naturally led me on to wondering about how we would introduce the idea of faith to our child.

Finally we dicovered that our instincts were right and we were expecting a boy!

At 22 weeks I finally got some meds from the doctor to help with the sickness and started being able to get out of bed and do things without throwing up. We started going out and about in nature again!

It was when I started feeling better but heavier and heavier with every single day that passsed that I finally got to grips with crochet and went a bit mad with granny mandalas, crocheted crowns and baby hats. 

During those "easier" months in my pregnancy I started thinking more about other people's experiences and asked my readers for their thoughts on pregnancy.

I then went on to think about who I am and who I want to be now I am a mother. 

And this, in turn, led me to think about Endometriosis and why I had stopped writing about it due to my pregnancy.

Finally, we started to near the end of my pregnancy and took the time to take some photos to remember it by. It's hard to believe I got even bigger than I was then, but I did!

Things seemed to be going really well, and happy moments were coing thick and fast with my parents celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. 

Unfortunately our happiness was cut short with the tragic news that my cousin had died. Just yesterday Tim and I were watching our wedding video for the first time and spotted him in the background. It still shocks us to think he is gone. 

But life went on and we were happy to get a good harvest from our garden this year.

And as my due date grew ever nearer we began to plan for the birth. I finally hit "full term" but then at 38 weeks I found out I had developed Obstetic Cholestasis.

A date was booked for our induction.

And Oscar James Daniel was born on 19th September!

We fell in love with our boy so quickly and easily, despite problems with colic and sleepless nights. 

However the emotional fallout of the pregnancy I had experienced started to hit us rather hard. 

But we survived and celebrated our first wedding anniversary by looking back at how far we had come together. 

We then had fun at Halloween and started thinking about Christmas preparations. 

And I found time to reflect on just how much my little boy is loved. 

And after months of fighting it, I made the decision to give up breastfeeding. I have never looked back on this decision as Oscar is so much happier on formula, however I continue to give him a comfort feed first thing in the morning and last thing at night so we still get to enjoy it even if I no longer produce a full feed's worth of milk.

Just before Christmas arrived I looked back at Oscar's first three months. 

And then the BIG DAY arrived and Oscar wore some very special clothes!

Phew. Are you still with me?

Looking back on the year reminds me just how crazy it was at times. I feel like this year dragged on so long and yet how can we be about to start a new one already?

I am finding it hard at the moment transferring all my dates from my calendar onto the new one because I keep seeing all the notes I wrote about how I was feeling, when I had doctor appointments and so on and it reminds me that this time last year I had no idea what I was about to head into. 

So I am working on entering 2012 and releasing as much of that negativity and fear as I can. I felt a certain amount of peace and gratitude the other day for what I have and felt some of the pain drifting away from me, and yet then I see a date or think of a particular event during the year and I can't help but flashback to how I felt at that point. So I think it will be a long process yet.

2011 was, in so many ways, the best year of my life. We started it with the news I was expecting a child and are ending it with the most gorgeous boy I have ever seen (ok, maybe I am a little biased there). Looking back on the posts reminds me just how worth it every single moment of pain and heartache was. I wouldn't do it again, but he was worth it. 

So, what will 2012 bring our way? 2010 saw us moving home and getting married. 2011 brought us Oscar. It may sound slightly boring but I think I might like a quieter year this year...

Then again, anyone who knows me well will know that I'm not very good with "quiet"!

So, what has 2011 meant to you? What were your highlights and low points? And what are you hoping for in 2012?

This post is part of the BritMums Blog Hop

First Family Christmas!

Are you ready for a ton of gorgeous photos from our first Christmas as a family?

Here goes...

We started the day in our pyjamas, and stayed in them the whole day! 

We were all festive in our new red pyjamas. I had scotty dogs and spots on mine, Tim had Homer Simpson on his, and Oscar had a great fleecy number that he received from a very special friend.

Sarah, from BioGirl, sent us some of Henry's clothes from his very first Christmas and so Oscar spent Christmas Day and Boxing Day in the sweetest outfits from his new friend Henry! Sarah has become a very close friend to me and knowing that she chose to send some of Henry's precious clothes for Oscar when letting go of said clothes is hard means more than I can say. To understand just why it meant so much, have a read of her post here. 

I do so hope that Oscar and Henry will grow to be internet buddies, just like their mamas! So, Henry, here is Oscar in the beautiful sleepsuit you sent for him to wear when Santa came.

It was so exciting that Oscar had to have a nap half way through opening his presents. But we soon got back on track and although slightly bemused by the whole affair (he is only 3 months old after all), he seemed to like this new toys...

a new rattle...

a musical mobile phone...

and several new books!

Oscar actually bought this book for his daddy for Christmas and poor daddy was so overwhelmed that it took him two days to get to the end of it! 

Mummy received some books from daddy too and daddy got one from mummy, so as usual books were a big part of our gift giving. I get the feeling we're going to need to rearrange the bookcases again!

Tim then decided to put the hat I had made for my sister on Oscar...

He wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first. But then he got used to it and decided he looked mighty handsome and he ought to make mummy take as many photos as possible before it was wrapped up and given to Aunty Debbie!

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas Day, our first as a family of three, and it wasn't long before we were heading to bed with dreams of starting again the next day with my parents. I'll post more photos of Boxing Day soon, but here is a sneak preview of how gorgeous my boy looked...

Incidentally, since I am showing you the clothes Henry sent for Oscar I thought I might show you the awesomeness of the sweet boy wearing a dino hat I made for him. I completely forgot to share the photos when Sarah first posted them, but doesn't Henry look so cool? If you're interested in making a similar hat, I used the pattern found here, simplifying it to fit in with my time scale by leaving off the tail and spots, but I think it still looked great!

Ein frohes Weihnachtsfest!

A warm and hearty welcome to you, this lovely Christmas Eve eve! 

That's such a funny saying, isn't it? It reminds me of being a little girl, excited about the fact that tomorrow would be Christmas Eve and Santa would be coming my way. 

This Advent has been a rather strange one and I'm not sure quite why it doesn't feel more like Christmas, after all I have Oscar to keep me busy. But then again I think that is why it doesn't feel more like Christmas as I have never had a Christmas as a parent before!

Tim and I were talking about this just the other day. He didn't enjoy Halloween as much as he usually does and I certainly am not enjoying this Advent as much as I normally do. And we realised it is because all the traditions we have just don't feel right now we are a family of three because they are part of who we used to be and not part of who we want to be for our son.

So it's time to start thinking about new traditions, maybe adapting the ones we already have and bringing in totally new ones too. Things like having new Christmas pyjamas to open on Christmas Eve, making mince pies together as a family, reading 'A Christmas Carol' each year, and buying Oscar a new Christmas decoration each year so he builds up a collection of his very own!

But one of the traditions I am really looking forward to starting is bringing in some more German-inspired joy to the season.

As you may know, I studied German at university and although my German is nowhere near perfect I plan on teaching Oscar as much as I can while he is young. I would rather him learn to speak slightly flawed German than no German at all. I do believe that having knowledge of a second language is a real bonus, not just because it enables you to communicate with people whose language isn't the same as your own but also because it often gives you a greater insight into the way your own language works by giving you something to compare it with.

But more than teaching him the language, I want to teach him about the culture too. And what better time of year is there to celebrate this than Christmas? Starting on 6th December with St. Nicholas' Day by putting his shoes outside the door and hoping to receive some chocolate from St. Nicholas right through to singing German songs and baking German treats, I want December to be full of all the wonderful goodies that the German culture provides.

We are lucky to have connections to people in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, providing us with great ideas and gifts such as the three books pictured here.

The first, Weihnachtszeit, is a gloriously fun book filled with stories and info from the North Pole and lots of little pop-out sections to enjoy. There is even a section explaining how Santa finds GPS a fantastic help in finding all the children of the world on Christmas Night!

This is the page on Santa's reindeer. Isn't it just lovely?

Then, of course, there is the little cookbook, Leckere Plätzchen für Weihnachten with tasty treats to make for Christmas. If you have never tasted German baking then you really having no idea what you are missing. I am so glad I spent time in Germany before developing an intolerance to wheat because I would have surely missed the wonderful breads and cakes I ate far too many of while over there. That being said, I plan on trying the recipes within the book with wheat-free flour because how can I resist such recipes as Lebkuchen and Honey Hearts?

This page shows Bear Paws and Pretzels!

Finally, there is the book called "Es Weihnachtet Sehr" which I guess I would loosely translate to something like "It feels like Christmas" because I have no idea how to convey the meaning in any other way (anyone have any suggestions?)

This book is filled with short one-page stories, craft ideas, recipes and Christmas songs. It even comes with a CD of music to sing along to. I think my favourite page has to be, of course, the one which provides a German version of "Jingle Bells"...

I have been showing these books to Oscar and singing the songs to him, but he is rather too small this year to take much of it in. However, he has been enjoying our "Was sagt die Kuh?" (What does the cow say?) game we've been playing, possibly thanks to the animal noises I'm making rather than anything else. I hope that I can continue to make it fun for him to learn a few bits of German through the year and it will be interesting to see how he reacts to figuring out that he hears two different words for each object.

I plan on sharing our journey towards learning a second language, and hope to even create some videos so that you too can join us. Perhaps by next year we'll all be singing these Christmas songs to and with our children, what do you think?

Oscar in 2011 - The First Three Months

I am, like many new mums, a bit obsessed with taking photos and videos of my precious boy. In fact I think Tim was a bit mad to buy me a smart phone for our anniversary because that means it is even easier now for me to snap a shot or grab a video when Oscar is in a good mood or looking particularly gorgeous.

So I had planned on making DVD compilations of the best photos and videos for the grandparents for Christmas and started uploading them to my computer a few days ago. The upload was fine, but formatting them so that my computer recognised them and then getting them onto a DVD that will play in a DVD player has been a bit of a nightmare. I've literally spent hours (when Tim was home to entertain Oscar) trying to get it to work and it still isn't working how it should, you know skipping bits and freezing in other parts.

I'll keep trying, but I thought I'd share the photo slideshow with you all on here because a) you might like to see it too and b) if I don't get the DVDs made in time for Christmas at least the grandparents can watch a part of it on here.

So, without further ado, here are the best bits of Oscar's first three months. Enjoy!

 

A Woodland Alphabet

Last night I slept in our spare room.

I say, "spare room" but it is actually Oscar's nursery. However as he is still sleeping in our room, we still think of it as a place to go when one of us needs a good night's sleep!

Tim has managed this on several occasions since Oscar was born, but with my oversupply issues it took me until last night to really get a chance to have a night's kip in there. I have just about managed to make my body go 6 hours without feeding him, however last night I tried going overnight (having given his last breastfeed at 7pm!) because I currently have tonsilitis and was in dire need of a good night's sleep. 

So, daddy got up with Oscar for the middle of the night feed and made up a bottle for him so I could sleep through. And it was just what I needed.

However, this tale isn't what I meant to share with you. But it plays a part. Because it was by spending the night in Oscar's room that I realised I had yet to blog about the wonderful Woodland Alphabet my mum painted for Oscar.

I think I wrote briefly about the idea during my pregnancy. I wanted a series of paintings for his room that showed creatures found in the woodland that we could maybe look for when out on walks as he grows. 

Well, my mum came up trumps and the picture at the top of the page is just the beginning.

I plan on writing various posts about this alphabet, sharing each painting individually. You may notice that on the sidear there is a new button ready to archive all the posts about it into a nice series you can follow. 

So, come the new year I do hope you will pop by and follow along.

Thank you mum for making such a beautiful alphabet. I loved sleeping in there last night and Oscar always smiles so brightly when in his room!

test

I'm a Little Bear...

Hello. 

I'm a little bear, wrapped up against the cold.

Mummy asked me to send you a quick message as she didn't want you to think she had forgotten you all.

So, here I am. 

She is a little busy right now getting everything ready for something she calls Christmas. She tells me I will love it when I am a little bit older. I have to say I quite like listening to all the new songs she and daddy sing these days. And all the lights and shiny stuff mummy calls "tinsel" are rather pleasant to look at while having a cuddle. Does it get even better?

Mummy told me to tell you that she is also planning some changes for her blog. She is thinking of changing the name to "The Family Patch" because we are a family now. I thought she should call it "Oscar's Patch" but she said that it couldn't always be about me... 

That's what she thinks!

She is working on changing the design, because she says she can't really have a pink blog when she has a little boy. She did dress me in something pink-ish the other day and I did look a little bit girly, so maybe she is right.

But it is taking her a long time to make the changes because I spend a lot of time cooing at her and smiling at her and trying my hardest to laugh so she knows just how much I love being bounced up and down and watching her and daddy making silly faces at me. So even when she leaves me with daddy and plans on doing some work she always ends up getting distracted by things like this...

I'm getting pretty good at this smiling malarkey, don't you think?

So mummy asks you to excuse her over the next week or two because between me and Christmas she doesn't have much spare time. But she promises to be back in the New Year with a brand new blog design to reflect her new life with me. 

I better go now. She has been busy for long enough and I think she needs to be reminded that I am waiting for more silly noises and face making as she attempts to make me giggle. 

Toodle-oo