Ball pool

Rowan loves going to softplay. He loves scrambling over the equipment, climbing up the slides (yes, up) and diving headfirst into the ball pool.  I love the fact I can relax watching him dash about at top toddle speed, and not worry about him incurring a skull fracture.

At our local softplay centre.  I managed to get a quick snap of him
before he disppeared in a blur of excited toddler frenzy.

One afternoon, Gareth took us to Mothercare.  He didn't tell me the purpose of this visit, since we were already stocked up on over-priced baby stuff.  Gareth went straight to the paddling pools, and started perusing the available range.  Meanwhile, Rowan had dived into an inflatable car display filled with colourful balls.  Decision made!  We came home with Rowan's very own ball pool, which can also be used as a paddling pool.  Rowan adores his new toy, and is constantly asking to play with it.  He enjoys falling backwards into it, throwing the balls at for the dog, tipping it up and trying to climb on the roof (probably why it already has a slow leak!). Gareth made an excellent call with this, and has further proved his 'best daddy ever' status.

An amazing rare unblurred photo of Rowan!  Look at those

flushed cheeks of happiness!

A mini back massage at the end of a busy day toddling.

Forays into sewing

With the weather gradually improving there have been more opportunities to dry the washing outside.  This meant I could no longer ignore the need for better peg storage.  The last few years, our pegs have been crammed into a Tupperware tub which was sufficient.  However, since having a baby our laundry has inexplicably increased and the need for more pegs couldn't be ignored.  Unfortunately, our glut of pegs no longer fit in the faithful Tupperware anymore.  I decided to make a peg bag, and searched the web for suitable tutorials.
The one I chose to do was from Vintage Folly since it seemed straightforward and I'm not an accomplished sewer.

Overall, I was happy with how it turned out.  I had to make my own bias binding (bit of a lie, since I realised after that I hadn't actually cut it on the bias) which ended up a bit wonky, and the buttons pull on the fabric a bit.  But hey, it does the job!

Making the peg bag has fired up my enthusiasm for sewing (that and episodes of the Great British Sewing Bee).  I went on to make Rowan a pair of trousers upcycled from one of my old tops.  I didn't have a pattern, so I used an existing pair of Rowan's trousers as a template.  There wasn't quite enough fabric, so some of the fabric pieces included parts of the seam from the top.  They aren't great, but they fit him.

I've also made myself a pair of trousers from a Simplicity pattern (2414).  They turned out really well, apart from accidentally sewing the side seams together on the waistband, so I had to unpick it in order to slide the twill tape through.  Annoyingly, despite taking my measurements and using the correct size on the pattern, they have turned out massive.  When I was cutting the pattern out I thought it looked large, but told myself not to be arrogant, and trust the pattern.  I now need to learn how to alter them.  Or put on about 2 stone.

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.