FINDING TIME TO BLOG

I think one of my most asked questions, is How do you manage to blog with two Children? And if I'm honest it's not something that just clicked into place, I have times when it's a piece of cake and there are other days when it's seriously difficult to get anything done or be productive - it's always worth remembering just how unpredictable life and definitely children can be, so you do need to be organised. Let's also be realistic here, blogging is not my job so it doesn't really come near to the top of my priorities, but it's something I do enjoy and have started to make an income from so there are times when I just have to focus and get on with things. Enough rambling, I wanted to make this post to detail a few things that I found helped when learning to juggle two children, a household and a blog.

5 TIPS FOR PREPARING A PREGNANCY

A lot of people plan a pregnancy in advance, they spend time trying and during that period it can be quite frustrating if nothings happening. These things generally take time and all being well, it will happen. However there are a few things you can do to help prepare your body for what is about to come, and give yourself a little headstart. With these 5 top tips from HARTMANN Direct, your mind, body and soul will be healthy for the challenges ahead!

JANUARY FAVOURITES

January always feels like a time to discover new favourites, perhaps it's because it's a new year, 'new start' all that malarkey so you give up things that aren't working and venture into something new. Or is it because you got some bits for Christmas that you are enjoying having a play with, mines a bit of both. I was lusting after some new beauty bits as I felt I needed a shake up, for the past six months of being a Mum I haven't had time to do much pampering. Though Christmas changed that for me, with having some time off blogging and now that Patrick is in a comfortable routine, I can easily slip away and enjoy some me time in the evenings, thus I have discovered / rediscovered my love for a fair few little products that I can't help but share with you.

BOYS WILL BE BOYS?

As a 'boy Mum', I've noticed such an overwhelming trend in almost anything from clothing, to books and television shows - boys are labelled as naughty. It's not even an opinion, it's a fact. Boys are completely negatively stereotyped in almost everything you see particularly when you compare them to girls which are more often than not given the 'sweet and innocent' brush. Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't all children sweet and innocent? I'm not stupid, my boys can be lary, rumbustious and adventurous but so was I when I was their age - and what on earth is wrong with that, they're children and I'd expect nothing else from them. What hurts though especially as a Mum of two incredibly soft, adoring and caring sons is that they're growing up in a world that is subliminally teaching them they're a little bit naughty and hard to handle.

DIONO RADIAN 5 - #dionodriving

I find car seats generally quite overwhelming. Heading into a showroom is probably your best bet because online it's somewhat impossible to distinguish between them all, what is good and what isn't. I often rely on other bloggers honest opinions to gauge whether a seat is 'the one' for us. There are certain things that win me over and intrigue me from the onset, we previously (and still do have in my Dads car now) the Maxi - Cosi Pearl, it was great and did the job, initially luring me in with the recline feature though Noah quickly grew too big for it and after forking out almost £400 for both the seat and base it seemed ludicrous. I felt a little robbed. Diono however, recently reached out and asked me if I would like to review their Radian 5 car seat, and I have to say I was very excited when I took an initial glance to see 'All in one, from birth to 25kg'. Amazing.

COCO LOCO WONDERBALL - Giveaway

My first love in my life is always my boys, has been from the moment each of them was born and I'm sure will be till I draw my last breath. But as you may imagine giving the name of my blog, there is another love aside from my babies, and that's beauty. I'm not ashamed to admit I have three pots of make-up brushes, and an obscene amount of lipsticks, because in the same way some people collect classic cars or enjoy running chasing Pokemon on an app. I enjoy all things beauty. And of course, hair tools most definitely fall into that category. Lee Stafford is a brand that has been around for as long as I can remember, I've used their shampoos and hair treatments in the past but never ventured into Lee Stafford Hair Tools. And that is when the CoCo-LoCo Wonderball caught my eye.

BEING A YOUNG MUM

Being a young mum is never something that is talked about highly, it's almost hushed down as if you should automatically be ashamed that a baby didn't come after 'more important' things that society deem you need to have first. It's ridiculous, of course that I can see now. It still doesn't stop the frowns, tuts and stares I often get as a mother of two at 24 years old. I think people automatically place you into a stereotyped category, they're thinking 'reckless, jobless and single' It sounds extreme but it's how I've been made to feel on several occasions. I don't get chance to explain that actually we have a home, both me and John work full time and we've been together for seven years. I know quite a lot of these thoughts may be in my head or me over thinking, but I can't help thinking that as soon as you become what society deems a 'young mum', you are on the back foot. Having to defend yourself and prove yourself to strangers, health professionals and even those around you.

THE MUM I WANT TO BE IN 2017

In my head I always have a clear picture of what kind of Mum I would like to be, there are certain types I just never could be - you know the all singing, baking and dancing ones, yeah that isn't me. I am probably the furthest away from being a pinterest-mum you can get, but I can dream right? I see pictures daily of seriously fantastic things other Mums have done, and although half of the time I'm certain I couldn't pull it off, it did get me thinking of what kind of Mum I want to be this year, the things I want to do more of, the things I want to do less of. Especially as I'm heading back to work half way through this year, I wanted to make myself some little Mummy resolutions that I will try my very best to stick to throughout the year.

DECLUTTERING OUR HOME

Judging by what I'm seeing around so far this month, everyone is having the same thought processes, de-clutter, de-clutter, de-clutter. Our house is in serious need of it, since having Patrick and really getting back into blogging again, the amount of things we have accumulated is sickening, boxes upon boxes, along with a toddler birthday and Christmas, you can just imagine the influx of new things that without throwing out the old stuff yet it really all was becoming a bit much. I ended up actually turning into my de-cluttering mode on Christmas Day, which seems ludicrous I know. I had seen videos and Instagram stories of others enjoying all the toys out everywhere and I do think good on you, but that is not me. When the boys went to bed I had to open all of the boxes, battle with cable ties and scissors to free all singing and dancing plastic monstrosities, to find homes. I couldn't live in a sea of toys, even for a day.

BABY ESSENTIALS - THE WHISBEAR

I've made no secret about the fact we got super lucky and had a baby that slept through from five weeks *everyone clap*. I don't know how or why it happened, but it did. As time went on however, we slowly realised that the more aware Patrick became of his surroundings the more he began to struggle with sleep. I'm using the word struggle, very loosely as on the whole he does sleep through - we certainly haven't had to give him a night feed since five weeks, though he does sometimes sporadically wake during the early hours. Quickly we found something that worked for him, white noise and we downloaded all the apps recommended on our phones, yay great, a sleeping baby again. Though in reality, this wasn't a practical or long term solution, our phones were drained of battery, finding somewhere to balance them close enough to him was becoming harder and honestly, we missed having a nosy through social, finding ourselves bickering over which phone to use. Then shone a beacon of hope, in the form of the Whisbear.

Bidvine - Tried And Tested

I think we can all relate to how frustrating it can be when you need to call in a third parties help, whether it's because you need plumbing work, and electrician or in our case, a photographer it can generally be quite time consuming and a palaver to get exactly what you're looking for. So the time has come when we are thinking about Patricks christening and having learned from Noahs about what we do and don't want, as well as where we are willing to spend our money which for us this time is photography. There are so many different things I wanted, that ringing around could be a lengthy process, but Bidvine have took every element of stress out of the situation as possible, with their fantastic trusted professionals search tool.

Living Arrows 2/52

This year I'm determined to join in more linkys, are have more reflective posts to look back on. I'm always grateful that I've done monthly updates with my boys till they are 1 and yearly thereafter as it's so nice to look back on and just sit in awe at how much they have changed. The lovely Donna set up Living Arrows and I am thoroughly enjoying seeing everyone involves posts, so here I am, a week late, but joining in with the wonderful project. The name comes from “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth" a poem by Khalil Gibran and a such a touching analogy. 

Nomi By Evomove - First Impressions

Weaning with Patrick slowly began almost two months ago now, I say slowly because I was so reluctant, he had shown signs of being ready from five months, but baring in mind his prematurity I really didn't want to push him. I was quite happy supplying my baby with milk and feeding him in my arms, I really was not in a rush to have him up and spoon fed, in all honesty I dreaded it because I knew deep down it was a sign of him growing up, something I didn't want to admit was quite obviously happening too fast. Though like every month has since his birth, December flew by and here we are fully into the weaning game. Initially I didn't rush out and buy a highchair for Patrick, we still had Noah's which I presumed he would grow into, it wasn't until mid December I realised that actually no, he wasn't filling the Ikea highchair out enough and we needed something with a bit more support for him. Noah had transitioned into that highchair when he was over one, so was well fitting for it, Patrick however at six months - not so much.

Patrick At Seven Months

THIS ISN'T FAIR, time is going past with the blink of an eye and it feels so daunting knowing you are closer to a year than we are your birth. I think I feel particularly sad about this month passing by because it's actually been one of my most favourite ages with you, don't get me wrong I loved you as a newborn and sleeping most of the day away but you're really becoming someone now, I know you, I understand what your actions, sounds and behaviour means and that makes me happy because it means we understand each other - kind of. It's also been a month of growing up for you and although it does pain me to see my baby not being so much of a baby anymore, it's lovely seeing how pleased you are when you learn new things that I will never become tired of.

We've Booked Our Holiday!

Hooray! New year can be a dull time as we're all in post Christmas blues, with Summer a complete distant memory and no sign of it in the foreseeable future, it's pretty hard to be upbeat. Unless of course you've booked yourself a holiday - yay. John was quite the little sneak and after we had trawled the web for flights for the four of us, he went back and booked them. So in May we are heading off on our first holiday as a family of four, I'm not looking forward to the flight but I am seriously excited for the sun, sea and sand.

A Weaning Lust List

Weaning is such an exciting time, especially as your child approaches four months, most days seem very similar so it's incredibly nervy but interesting to begin a whole new stage with your baby, whether that is baby led weaning, purees or a bit of both. Of course, with Patrick turning six months last month, we have dabbled in weaning already and begun a slight routine. He has dropped a lunch time bottle and replaced it with a meal, we've even introduced a pudding afterwards which is usually fruit or yogurt. Breakfast is slowly creeping in, we trial it every other day at the minute as he really isn't too keen, but we shall see. This post is a quick run through of some things I've had my eye on, that I think might make our transition from milk to solids, that bit easier.

Worries Every Parent Has

As new parents, you have so many worries, from the very second you see those two lines, even before hand when you're trying to conceive, it's worry after worry. People say it gets easier, I don't think it does, there just get to be new things to worry about. Even with subsequent children the worry doesn't go away, you just become more confident in yourself and sure of your thoughts. It's natural to worry, if you didn't, then I'd be worried (Worry worry worry). I feel I'm not alone in sharing a few of the worries that I think we all have as parents.