First post of 2014.

Wow.  This is my first post of 2014 and it's nearly the end of March.  Oops.  Since Rowan started nursery last October our household has had a plethora of viruses.  We've all just recovered from the last bout (an insidious cold that saps your energy in excess of 3 weeks) and I'm hoping that's it for a while.  Poor Rowan has had colds, hand foot and mouth disease, bad ecema between his fingers, more colds and teething over the last few months.
It's also surprisingly exhausting balancing part-time work and family life.  Whilst trying to be taken seriously at work, I'm also struggling with guilt at leaving Rowan 3 days a week - no different to many mums out there!

I would like to post a lot more regularly, but I'm making no promises!

One of the few cupboards without any childlocks.

Naturally, this means I spend most evenings putting

everything back in them after Rowan's investigations.

I keep giving Rowan pencils to draw with.

He keeps eating them.

Santas on the run

Rowan is running his first race on 15 December (well, actually I'll be pushing him along in his pram, but he insisted on entering) to raise money for Children's Hospice South West. It's the 2km 'Santas on the Run' race, so everyone will be dressed as Santa. If you would like to donate please click on the attached link (it's the IOPP team Just Giving page).

http://www.justgiving.com/IOPPsantas

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.

Hallowe'en 2013

I have been looking forward to this Hallowe'en since Rowan was born.  I love Hallowe'en, with all the costumes, games, and fun baking.  Whilst I know Rowan is too little to understand all the hype, I still wanted to make his first Hallowe'en awesome.
I spent the night before carving a pumpkin, making pumpkin pies and baking a batch of monstrous mouldy muffins.  Gareth had the idea of using some hand and foot prints from Rowan as the basis of the carving pattern, and I hacked away at the pumpkin with a scalpel (no fingers lost this year. Result!). I have to say the overall effect was really good!

Too little to carve his own pumpkin, but

we still involved Rowan for his first

Hallowe'en 

I was pleased how the hands/feet looked

like a happy face

Rowan went to nursery sporting his 'my first halloween' shirt from his nanny.  When he got home, he stole a piece of pumpkin pie I turned my back on briefly.  

Mmmm... pie...

We haven't had a lot of trick or treaters over the years, but luckily Rowan was awake to see the first visitors. Can't say he was overly moved by the experience, but he stared at them for an uncomfortable amount of time.  

We are now stuck with a ridiculous amount of Haribo. Erg.

Rowan went to bed in his new Hallowe'en baby grow (it glows in the dark!  In. The. Dark! How cool is that? I may or may not have been a child of the 90's...) and I read a scary(ish) story, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson because Stephen King's the Shining was a bit long.

Sleepy bones!

Finally, the monstrous mouldy muffins I mentioned previously were made for Gareth and I to take to our work places.  They were just a basic muffin mix with copious amounts of green food colour. I then added some more drops of food colouring on the tops when they were nearly baked. I added white chocolate chunks, and dollops of jam in the middle.  I'm quite proud of how terrible they look:

The mould effect came out better than I though it would

Trips to the park

When we first took Rowan to the park, aged 8 months (to actually go on the swings instead of merely carrying around a floppy headed baby), he wasn't too thrilled.  Despite an obvious lack of enthusiasm, I was determined fun would be had so persisted with our family trip:

'I want to go home...

... Like, now.'

A good time was had by

all. Really.

Trip To The Park II was marginally more successful, with Rowan at least trying to look like he was enjoying himself.  I believe he cottoned on that if he made the right noises etc. the ordeal would be over quicker.  He cheered up considerably when we ventured away from the park equipment and let him go free-range on the grass.  

Aged 10 months

 A climbing wall that in years to come will give us

heart attacks watching Rowan climb it

'Let them eat grass'

Happiest in a field with his dog.  His mother's son

alright!