Domestic God

Let's hope Rowan's fascination with household cleaning doesn't fade as he gets older...

 I spend half my life peeling

Rowan off the vacuum cleaner

 That must be what the delicate 

cycle is for

   Um. Bit sinister

Going viral

These last couple of months been hard. Really hard.  Since Rowan started nursery about 8 weeks go, he has had cold after cold, with the odd bout of teething interspersed.  He has had to come home from nursery a few times, which fortunately has mostly worked out with Gareth's shifts.  There's only been one day I've had to come home to collect him (oh yeah, I've returned to work too).
It is inevitable that with that amount of virus being coughed, sneezed and snotted about that the rest of the household will succumb at some point.  Unfortunately, Gareth and I caught Rowan's worst cold.  One of the ones that make your entire face feel like it's going to burst open, with your eyes being pushed out from sinus pressure. Ok, I know that's a tad melodramatic when really it is just a cold, but we discovered how difficult it is to look after a baby whilst you're feeling like you'd rather slither behind the cushions in the sofa, and only be missed when an unpleasant smell starts to emanate from said sofa.
Add to this a constant cramping from the coil I've had for 7 months (I don't have a good track record for coils, but this one (a Mirena) was different so I thought it was worth a go) and I've been pretty wiped.

Anyway, moan over, we're all starting to feel a lot better now, and normality is crawling back (i.e. Rowan is resuming destroying the house and we're struggling to keep up with him!)  I have a scan tomorrow to check the coil is in the right position.  Depending on the results, depends on what I decide to do after. 

The house became a bit of a state whilst I was unwell.

Here Rowan is happily about to play with a pile of his

vomit*.  My life is all about the glamor. 

Gareth discovered a great way to keep track of Rowan

when we were perhaps not at our most alert.

Tether-Baby. Patent pending.

*I didn't realise he'd been sick until I took the photo, other wise I would have prioritized cleaning it up.  I'm not that much of a slob.

Discovery boxes

One of the best ideas I've come across for baby toys online is discovery boxes (I think it was from The Imagination Tree).  It's such a basic concept, but the entertainment potential seems endless. Essentially, a discovery box is a box or basket that is filled with a selection of items from around the home.  The only stipulation is that no grotesque plastic toys are allowed (and nothing that will actually kill or hurt your baby, but if you need to be told that then you should probably stick with air plants instead of children).

Rowan's current box has an array of items such as CDs, a piece of felt, a leather keychain, an egg box, a tennis ball etc. I tried to pick a selection of things that would be a varied sensory experience for him (the light reflecting from the CD; the fuzzy felt etc.) and he loves it!

Rowan exploring his discovery box

Tangent also loves discovery boxes, and tries to 

claim certain items that takes his fancy 

Discovery boxes do not appear to help refine

elegance.