Morning sunrise

Just after sunrise there was a vibrant red hue to the sky, but by the time

I got my camera it had subdued to this equally nice (if subdued) view.

Resolutions

I'm not a massive fan of New Year resolutions.  I think if you want to change something in your life don't wait until the 1st of January, do it now.  I also think it's easy to overlook the accomplishments of the previous year by focusing on what you want to improve. However, I do love makin' me some lists so here are 2 goals for 2015:

Make/upcycle more sewing projects
Inspired by my friend Amy over at craftandthrift, I would like to do more sewing this year using stuff I already have stashed away.  This also nicely links into another aim of learning how to use my over-locker, and the embroidery software on my sewing machine (seriously, that thing is more computer than sewing machine and I've been scared to use it!) 
I've set myself a flexible target of 1 making item per month (flexible in that I may make 3 things one month, and then nothing for 2).  That might just be sewing a few bits of ribbon or buttons onto a tired old shirt to restyle it, but it still counts.

Decorate the house
We've been in our house for 2 years now, and the decorating progress has stagnated.  Except for Rowan's room, the whole house needs decorating. Frankly, it can be overwhelming when you list the jobs that need doing (and remember how I love lists?).  So much so you end up doing nothing.  I'm going to break down the jobs so they are more achievable, and accept that sometimes I can't complete the whole project in a weekend.  For example, this evening I finished putting a second coat of gloss on one of the doors.  I ran out of steam for the second door and just packed up.  Normally I'd push myself to complete the last coat as I hate half finished jobs.  Sometimes it's better to conserve your energy for another day.  I'm hoping this change in attitude will help maintain motivation.


I'm not making a massive list of self-improvements. I think that sort of thing is a continual process anyway (e.g. improving fitness; do more for charity; declutter; attain Nirvana etc.).  Plus, who knows how much spare time I'll have in the next year with a 2 year old to entertain!  Especially as I probably have potty training to look forward to this year. Yay to no more nappies! Boo to the inevitable wet bedding and accidents!

More of this in 2015, and less wasting time on social media!

Is this a trick question?

Rowan and I were reading one of his counting books (Margaret Wise Brown's "Count to 10 with a mouse" which was given to him by his Great-Nanny) a couple of nights ago.  This has become quite a regular read lately, and Rowan loves asking about the pictures on the pages.

This is a lovely book with a good rhythm:

'There was a little mouse, no bigger than a mole

who lived in a round place that he called a hole'

Number 6 is illustrated with six cats playing with some wool. Rowan pointed at each cat and said "that one?" which is his version of asking "what's that?"  The conversation went as follows:

Rowan: "That one?"

Me: "That's a cat."

Rowan: "That one?"

Me: "That's a cat."

Rowan: "That one?"

Me: "A cat."

Rowan: "That one?"

Me: "That's another cat."

Rowan: "That one?"

Me: "That's a cat."

Rowan: "That one?"

Me: "What do yo think it is?"

Rowan: "Cheese."

I'd love to understand the logic of a toddler.

 

 

 

Birthdays and snow

It was my Dad's 60th birthday a few days after Christmas, and my family managed to meet up at my sister's to celebrate.  It is very unusual for us all to gather in one place these days, so it was nice for the cousins to have the opportunity to play together.
My sister and her husband put on a lovely spread for my Dad, which included a massive 60 profiterole cake.  My Dad does so much for his family, so I hope he enjoyed having us all there!

 Happy 60th Dad!  Thank you for always 

being there for us

Unfortunately, I didn't take many photos since I'm still paranoid about actually using my camera, but I did take a couple of photos from our visit.

My youngest nephew, Alex, is 7 months old already and he is such a good baby!  You can see him absorbing (and gumming!) everything around him. 

Baby Alex - how sweet is this face!

It was lovely watching the cousins play, and Lily was so good with Rowan, and held his hand when we went for a walk through the snow.  Rowan was a little unsure about the snow at first, but enjoyed stomping through it by the end - he started copying Lily and tried throwing some snowballs. Rowan was quite taken with Lily, and gave her a goodbye cuddle when we were leaving.

A snowy walk with cousin Lily

 Stomp! Stomp!

 

Rowan also enjoyed rough-housing with Tom.  I'm not sure how much Tom enjoyed that, but he took it all in good nature.

I'm hoping that we see our family more in 2015.  It isn't until you see how much the children have changed between visits that you realise how much time has passed.  I am lucky to have a brilliant, loving family, and it would be good to catch up more.

My sister

My Mum

First family holiday

Last November we went to Center Parcs for our first family holiday.  Gareth and I were a bit concerned as we would be sharing a room with Rowan.  He has had his own room since he was 3 months old, so we wondered how a sleep-over would work out. We had nothing to worry about and we all managed to sleep relatively well.  Although there was one morning where I had to slowly retract my foot from Rowan's reach, as he had woken up, grabbed my toes and started saying "mummy mummy" on repeat.  The photos were taken with my old camera so I'll apologise now for the poor quality.  Regardless of blur, red eye, over-exposure etc. I'm grateful that I have been able to record our family memories, so thank you trusty old camera!

Tree covered in Christmas lights.

Center Parcs really go to town at

Christmas

When I booked the break I hadn't realised that it coincided with the Winter Wonderland period.  There were lots of Christmas themed activities and decorations to entertain us, and despite only booking one activity (Santa's grotto for Rowan) we were not short on things to do. Rowan particularly loved the animatronic singing reindeer, and every morning the first thing Rowan said was "reindeer, reindeer."  There were real reindeer right next to these comical Rangifer tarandus but Rowan wasn't the slightest bit interested in them.  The zoologist in me was a little disappointed by my son's indifference.

 Rowan was mesmorised by the singing reindeer.  Every day entailed a visit to listen to

them sing

 Sorry real-life reindeer. Not today

We spent a lot of our time in the subtropical swimming pool which Rowan loved.  He adores water, and so he had a great time going around the children's rapid pool. Gareth even took him down the small water slide with him.  Gareth and I were able to go for a lone swim each on one evening, when we took it in turns to watch Rowan.  It was so relaxing swimming through the warm water whilst cold November rain dashed on your face.

The outdoor rapids. You can see the steam 

rising from the heat of the pool 

Looking at Santa's 'magic river' (blue and silver baubles

floating in a stream) 

Waiting to meet Santa. I had to turn the 

flash off to prevent the whole image being

over-exposed, so unfortunately it came out

blurry 

Inside the plaza. These are all real plants, 

and there were goldfish and koi in large

pools along the path

  We ended up returning home 1 day early as Rowan had started to come down with a nasty cold, but we didn't feel like we had cut the holiday short.  We all had a fun break, and enjoyed spending some rare quality time together.

 Awkward family selfie

 Tired Rowan (and tired Gareth!)

It rained for most of our holiday, but it

meant I could get this atmospheric misty

tree shot, so silver linings and all that 

Christmas 2014

Fortunately, Gareth wasn't working Christmas Eve or Day this year so we enjoyed a quiet family Christmas.  My amazing husband managed to sneakily buy me a DSLR camera  which I've been lusting after for over 10 years!  Since we only recently went on holiday (post to follow. Eventually), this year we'd agreed to only do small token gifts, so I was really not expecting a camera.  I've been going a bit snap happy, although I have been afraid to use it too - I'm so terrified of damaging it!  I'm sure the more I use it the less worried I'll be (although with a sticky 2 year old that may take a while!)  I intend to blog more now that I can take better photos - with my old camera, I am usually so disappointed with the images it puts me off taking pictures.

Anyway, back to Christmas... Rowan is old enough to understand that something different was going on, but not to the extent that he was too excited to go to sleep on Christmas Eve (despite plying him with sugar from his first ever hot chocolate!).

First hot chocolate (with marshmallows, of course)

Cuddles on Christmas Eve

Throughout December, we have had regular shouts of "reindeer" and "Santa beard" from him, so he at least knew the association.  Surprisingly, our Christmas tree survived despite Rowan pushing it over once, and pulling baubles off on a daily basis. He did put them back in different places, so we had a very interesting yet lop-sided tree by the time Christmas arrived.
Gareth and I woke up before Rowan on Christmas day (no doubt the last time that will happen for some years!) and we both took his stocking into his room (Santa had thoughtfully left it on the outside of Rowan's door) when he woke up around 9am.  He was thrilled to find a chocolate in his stocking, and happily ate it whilst opening the presents.  Although he did direct Gareth and I to open a fair amount on his behalf.

 Rowan's handmade stocking. I was pleased 

with how this turned out - it's lined and everything!

After his stocking was emptied, we went downstairs for breakfast and found Santa had delivered a present to Rowan, and also one for the whole family.  However, a boy led by his stomach, Rowan had his breakfast first before seeing what Santa had left.  Rowan was happily playing with his new Aqua-doodle pad from Santa, and then noticed more presents under the tree.  He helped Gareth unwrap Santa's present to the family (a calendar with a tag reading "To help you find time together") and then proceeded to go steadily hyperactive throughout the day.  He was too excited to nap, and was put to bed early at 5:30pm, where he promptly fell straight to sleep.  He still has several Christmas and birthday presents to open - I think if we allowed him to open everything on one day it would have been too overwhelming for him.  Everyone has been very generous, and we want to ensure he enjoys (and appreciates) everything that has been given to him.

Rowan helping Tangent open his present. I love the look of

anticipation on Tan!

Opening more presents

Unfortunately, we didn't have our dinner together as a family as Rowan was too excitable (and fighting the tale-end of a cold).  However, it was nice enjoying a quiet meal with Gareth after Rowan was settled in bed.  We did make sure Rowan had his birthday cake in the afternoon, so I don't imagine he would have wanted much 'proper' dinner anyway. 

 For Rowan's birthday cake, I made a Christmas yule log

with Lindt chocolate ganache

Everyone says Christmas with children is a magical time, and it is.  It is also absolutely exhausting!  I think it's going to take a month to recover our energy.

Update

Good grief.  Another two months have passed since my last post.  Things have been crazy-busy lately and a lot of the time I feel like I'm a living version of the Red Queen hypothesis (i.e. it doesn't matter how fast I run, I still stay in one spot!)
Rowan has had a couple of colds lately that have typically affected his sleep.  Apart from one glorious day when he slept in till 11am (yes; 11am - that is not a typo!) he has been foregoing his usual 8am lie-ins on our days off.  His nap time has also decreased.  Although I think he still needs more sleep since he's the crankiest toddler imaginable when he wakes up. As he's quite a full-on chap, I've found this increased demand on my time pretty hard. I'm postulating that his shorter naps may be reflecting an impending readiness to potty train soon, but I suspect I'm just trying to find justification where there isn't any!

Gareth has been studying hard for an all-day exam and I think his absence to study has affected Rowan, so perhaps that explains the change in his sleep. It's funny how kids pick up on changes. Since Gareth works shifts I assumed Rowan didn't have any expectations of routine, but it seems there is an element of predictability even for shift-workers.

Regardless, Rowan continues to sleep through the night so I don't feel I can legitimately complain.

I've also got a new job, which is exciting.  It's still with the same company just a different role.  It's worked out well as I don't need to change the days I work, so there's no effect on our childcare.  It basically means a bit more responsibility and pay.  To be honest, I'm just happy to be doing something a bit new for a while.  I was in my old role for nearly 5 years, so I was more than ready for a change!