TJ @ 20 months!

My baby is 20 months old!! And I have to admit I just love from this age on, I way prefer it to the baby stage. I just love watching them in awe of the simplest things! I feel like his little personality is really beginning to shine through! He's a little messer, a stubborn little boy too! 

FOOD

TJ seems to eat most things. Although bananas are perhaps his least favourite! 

I would like if he ate a breakfast cereal such as porridge or weetabix but he won't! Every morning he has chopped fruit, usually melon, pineapple, strawberries and blueberries with a few raisins thrown in. 

These are some of the foods he might eat for lunch or as a snack: youghart, a cheese sandwich, ham, apple, orange, apple and pear purée, beans, scrambled eggs, they're the main ones. 

Dinner is usually whatever we are eating, shepherds pie, spaghetti bolognaise, spuds, veg and meat, he loves pizza and chicken goujons! And there is always a spare jar of baby food in the press, he has been known to get on occasion! 

SPEECH

So, I'm not hugely sure where he ment to be at but he has the usual Mama, Dada, bye-bye, he seems to have a lot of the -uck words, truck, buck, duck, stuck. He hasn't grasped his brother Senans name yet but he is starting to put 2 words together 'Hiya Dada' 'All gone'. 

SLEEP
TJ is a nightmare when it comes to sleep!! He usually ends up in our bed by 4am! He has a great bedtime routine and goes down easy, but he will not sleep the night through! I'm told this should improve naturally by the time he's 2...I'm waiting patiently!! 

At the moment he is obsessed with tractors and lorries and trucks! (Not as interested in trains as his big brother was at that age.) He is really starting to enjoy looking through books and pointing t the pictures, hi favourite is a farm book he has. He loves playing outside. He isn't very interested in TV, I know most parents would be happy with this but he wudnt even sit and watch a cartoon so you could load the dishwasher!! He enjoys going for walks in his buggy. He's starting to throw the ball to his brother! He really does seem like a little messer, full of divilment! We love him to pieces!

The Nibbler- Review

Baby TJ got this as a present from his aunty and he loves it! (and so do I!)
She spotted it in Tescos and knowing how much he loved his food thought it might come in handy and that it has!
Basically it's a little net that you can screw off and pop in different food and it has a handy handle for the baby to hold. I found giving TJ fruit like strawberries and melon was tricky because it was so slippery it just kept falling out of his hand! But with this he can get a good grip and still suck the juices and taste lots of new flavours!
So far he has tried melon, strawberries, peeled grapes, orange, blue berries (they were a bit sour) and some peeled apple (juicy red ones).
To clean it I wash out all the bits left in the net, I soak the net in boiling water and pat dry with a tea towel, I wash the handle with soapy water. I find it really handy if I'm out for coffee or dinner, it keeps TJ very happy and busy! :)
As you can see in the photo 'The Nibbler' by Nuby costs €4.49 and is available in Tescos. It gets a big 'THUMBS UP' from me!

Baby TJ @ 7months old with his 'Nibbler' 

Baby shower party!

I know this is going back a while but I was browsing through old pictures and thought I'd write a quick post about my baby shower just in case anyone is thinking of organising one!

I was about 8months pregnant for my shower, I got my cream lace dress in H&M, it wasn't actually a maternity dress just a few sizes bigger! My beige wedges I got in Dunnes Stores.
I made the invitations for the shower myself (lots of free time back then!)

Baby Shower Invitations     

I was lucky enough to have my sister and mother do the majority of organising for my baby shower. I didn't know if it was a boy or girl so we went with neutral colours! We had buns and cakes with tea and coffee. The main cake of a baby bump myself and my sister made! It was a chocolate biscuit cake with roll out icing on top, again, I had lots more time on my hands back then before the baby was born!

Baby Shower            

During the baby shower we also had a few games organised, while it seemed a bit awkward to get
them going at first, once everyone got stuck in they were great fun and I would definitely recommend playing some!
The first was easy, everybody had to guess and write down what weight they thought the baby would be (some crazy guesses!) and when they thought it would arrive! My friend Nicola was nearest with the weight and my mother nearest with the date.
The next game was a roll of ribbon was passed around with a scissors and everybody had to cut of a length they thought would fit around my tummy (have plenty of ribbon!) and then I tried each one on, this was great fun and someone actually had the length almost spot on!
Next we had a card with different attributes (eyes, ears, nose etc.) and people had to fill in who they thought the baby should/would take after! Some interesting answers! :)
Our final game was just a quick multiple choice quiz, the questions were aimed around baby facts, it gave us lots to chat and laugh about!
My mother made gorgeous white rose flower arrangements in glass vases as party favours that everyone got to bring home.

It was such a fun, special day with family and friends.

Baby Shower Games

Maternity Leave is OVER!!

I had such plans for my 7 months of maternity leave. I'd go on little shopping trips all over the country, have regular coffee mornings with friends, I could experiment with new recipes and bake lovely buns and cakes, maybe redecorate the house and spend time on my crafting, perhaps join a yoga class to help get my figure back,,, the only thing I didn't factor in was the actual reason for maternity leave-the baby!! And how minding a baby takes sooo much time and effort!!

Looking back I was in cuckoo land, many a day I was lucky to get dressed and put something (not necessarily nutritious) on the table for dinner, never mind actually leave the house!!
I do feel I got off to a bad start, I had an emergency c-section so really my first 6 weeks recovery knocked me for six! I got so used to being at home home in comfy clothes ie. tracksuit bottoms and baggy tshirts, that when the time came that I could leave the house I nearly didn't want to! I plodded through the first 12 weeks of sleepless nights and was quite reluctant to leave the house with the baby, it seemed like more hassle than it was worth! He fed every three hours so it seemed like I was always stopping to feed him and never actually getting much done in between!
When he did start to fall into a routine of his own accord things felt like they were getting back to some sort of normality. We have had highs and lows, sleepless nights and smiles and giggles!
I'm sad to be going back to work now that he can interact and notice what's going on around him. I feel terrible that he knows when I leave the room, I wonder is he going to spend the day wondering where I have gone! But I cannot wait to walk in the door and see the smile on his face and give him a big cuddle and kisses after my days work.

Baby related highlights of my Maternity Leave:
1. Holding TJ for the very first time.
2. The first time he slept for 8 hours!
3. Watching TJ fall asleep on his Daddys chest.
4. His Christening day, having so many friends and family to share his special day.
5. Watching TJ and his brother play and laugh together.

Baby related Lows of my maternity leave:
1. Finding breast feeding so difficult I had to give up after 6 days.
2. The sleepless nights!
3. TJ and me being sick the same week-torture.
4. Watching TJ get blood samples taken to check his iron levels.
5. Recovering from an emergency c-section, I found it very difficult.

Non baby related highlights of my Maternity Leave:
1. My first night away without the baby, staying in a hotel in Dublin, going to dinner an a show with Enda.
2. Completing a 15 mile run in Monaco!
3. Going to Paris with my 2 sisters.
4. Starting a blog!
5. ALL the coffees I got to go for with friends.

Non baby related maternity leave lows:
1. Having wardrobe meltdowns when so many of my clothes didn't fit (and still don't!), it can be tough adjusting to a new body size and shape.
2. Losing so much of my freedom. My older boy is 8 so I was used to just hoping in the car and going here and there without much effort or fuss!
3. Never knowing when my next sleep in might be!

Overall it has been a great maternity leave, I got to spend so much time with my gorgeous baby boy, but, with lots of sprinklings of me time thrown in-to keep my sanity!
But I can safely say I am in no rush to have another maternity leave anytime soon! (if u know what I mean!)

Lovely lunch for 7month Baby...

I love that TJ I onto solids! And I think he does too!
Today he tried yogurt for the first time! I mixed some Greek yogurt (from Aldi) with his apple and pear purée, he also had a banana chopped up. He really doesn't seem to like banana, I've tried them a couple of times with different fruit and baby rice and he just doesn't seem to want it! He gobbled down his yogurt and fruit though!