One year old Update!

Rhodri's 12 Month Update

My baby boy is 12 months old. I have a one year old now! I don't know where the time went but it is crazy to me that my tiny little baby is now a little boy who gets more mobile, talkative and cheeky with each day that passes! 

As I'm typing this I am listening to my little darling using his cot as a trampoline. His name is written above his cot in wooden letters, he is currently attempting to pick them off the wall. Accompanied with lots of "Oooo", "uh-oh" and "Mamamamama ha!". I have no idea what joys await me tomorrow morning but I've become accustomed to this new phase of his development I like to call "Next stop Toddler-ville". 

Here's what happened this month -

Weight: He hasn't been officially weighed, but last check he was 9.5kg which puts Rhodri's weight back on his normal weight curve and on the 50th percentile line which I'm very happy with.

Height: He's won't be measured until his 1 year check up, which is due next week.

Clothing size: Rhodri is wearing a mixture of 9-12 and 12-18 month clothes. Most 9-12 fit him well, but some things (especially trousers) tend to look better in the next size up.

Sleep: He sleeps 6.30pm - 6.30am.

This months milestones: 

• Teeth - We are still on 6 teeth. He chews on his fingers alot. This is usually a sign more are on their way, but for the time being there are no other signs that the teeth will be making an appearance anytime soon. 
• Words - We have Mamma, Dadda, Nanna, Faff (One of his Auntys), Ta, Cat, Hiya, Yes, Go and Buhbuh (we think this is bye) from previous months. He is still working on Bottle, book and come. His newest words are Out, Ow and Uh-oh
• Walking/Crawling - About a week after he turned 11 months Rhodri started to stand on his own. I thought to myself, this is it. He's going to walk before he turns one. But no, two days later he refused to stand unaided and learnt to Crawl instead!! The day after his first birthday he took his first 2/3 steps unaided, but has now reverted to scooting around the furniture.
• Social skills - Very social child. Going through a phase where in the first few minutes of being with someone he 'plays shy'. After the first few minutes pass he reverts to his smiles, laughter and usual playful behaviour.

This months special outings:

• Rhodri has been enjoying spending time with his grandmothers while Mummy & Daddy are in work.

• We still spend every Thursday with his Aunty and cousins. Rhodri loves this family time.

• Rhodri spent a week with Mummy who took the time off work for some bonding. We thoroughly enjoyed playing, cwtching and quality time together.
• Rhodri's first birthday. He spent the day with Mummy and Daddy, had lots of gifts and cards. Had some visitors and then went out for a meal with a lot of his favourite people. There were some very special people missing but he gets to catch up with them all soon and he can't wait for that :)

Baby gear love: I bought myself a new wrap and I am totally in love!! It's the Lenny Lamb Broken Twill in Strawberry Blueberry. I had it 2nd hand so it was already broken in for me. It is so comfy and much easier to wrap with than my previous wrap. I love it and so does Rhodri.

Baby's routine: 

Rhodri wakes around 6.30am. He has porridge, toast or fruit a bottle of milk and then we brush his teeth. Change of clothes before we leave the house around 7am and drop him at his grandparents. We pick him up around 4.45pm get him home and have dinner. He has a little bit of a play and explore, before taking a bath. He normally watches 'In The Night Garden' before we head up to bed. A bed time story and then in his cot. We will normally hear him play for a good 20 minutes in his cot, but once he tires himself out he lies down and goes to sleep.

On the days he doesn't stay with his grandparents at 7 am we will play with his toys downstairs. Around 9am he will go for a nap. This will last at least an hour, sometimes 2 hours. Once he wakes up he has his second bottle and playtime resumes. around 12pm he has lunch. If we are going out we tend to head out after lunch. If not we go and play in his tent in his nursery. It has some balls and bean bags so he likes to throw them about and put different toys in his tent. Around 2.30 pm he will take another 1hour nap. When he wakes he has his third and final bottle of the day. We play some more, or go out for some fresh air before reverting to the usual night time schedule of dinner, bath, story, bed.

Highlights of the month: 

• Rhodri turned 1 this month. Bitter sweet to have my baby grow up so quickly. Of course I am happy that he is growing up and developing well, but yes I do miss my tiny little baby and those cute sleepy cuddles. These have now been replaced with "Let me go" squirming and "slap" I found your face mum!
• I love all the things he's learnt. Clapping, blowing kisses, waving, pretend coughing, standing up, crawling, walking around. Simple things for us to do, but the effort he puts in to doing and learning these things makes me appreciate it all.
• Celebrating his birthday and looking back on a year with Rhodri was the main highlight this month. 

Rhodri's monthly favourites: 

• Toy - Scout - his talking dog.
• Teddy - Goodnight bear.
• Food - Banana, toast, strawberry yoghurt, raisins.
• Music - All music, pretty much anything in the UK top 40, along with the classics such as Queen, Bon Jovi etc!! 
• Activity - Crawling, cat chasing and turning lights on & off.
• Person - Mummy & Daddy of course!
• Book - The Gruffalos Child

Rhodri's monthly dislikes:

• Being told "No". 
• Having anything dangerous or breakable taken away, or put out of reach.

Thats all for this month. As always thanks for reading!! xoxo

Rhodri's 11 Month Update

Rhodri's 11 Month Update

My baby boy is now 11 months old. 
He's more & more like a little boy and less like a baby every day!

I seriously start to tear up every time I think about just how close we are to his 1st birthday. This time last year I was on maternity leave getting everything ready for our baby to arrive, and now we are planning his 1st birthday.

Rhodri is learning and changing so much everyday. So lets dive right in and see what has changed. 

Weight: Rhodri's weight gain has slowed down considerably. I think this is partially because he is a lot more active these days, but also because he has once again had a virus and this has affected his appetite for about 2 weeks of the past month. Now that he's feeling better his appetite has returned, so I'm sure his weight will be back on track soon.

Height: He's won't be measured until his 1 year check up.

Clothing size: 9-12 months. These are fitting him nicely at the moment with plenty of room to grow although shoes and hats for this same age range are too big for him.

Sleep: He sleeps 7pm - 6.30am. We do sometimes have to wake him at 6.30am so that we can get him out the door and get ourselves to work, but more often than not once he hears us stirring he starts to wake also.

This months milestones: 

• Teeth - He now has six teeth (the two bottom and four top. A further two top teeth are on their way. This past month his teeth have been coming through but he has seemed less bothered by teething than he was in the past
• Words - Mamma and Dadda have been perfected. He has now added Ta when thanking us for food, Cat (or Gat as it sometimes sounds), Yes, ooo, hiya (but only when pretending he's on the phone, he won't say it to us!). It sounds like he is starting to try saying more, bottle, book, go, come and bye sometimes. Only time will tell. 
• Walking/Crawling - We have started crawling backwards begrudgingly. He will move in circles using the "bum-shuffle" but he still prefers standing. He will walk holding on to your hands or furniture.
• Social skills - Very interested in other people and especially other children. On the bus the other day he high fived a child sat next to us and tried to hold/shake the childs hand. He smiles and giggles whenever people talk or show an interest in him.

This months special outings:

• Rhodri has been enjoying spending time with his grandmothers while Mummy & Daddy are in work.

• Rhodri has had too many outings to the Drs surgery this month, but he's thoroughly enjoyed flirting with patients, nurses and Drs

• We still spend every Thursday with his Aunty and cousins. Rhodri loves this family time.

• Rhodri had his first outing to the beach! It wasn't a total success as he was poorly, but he definitely loved the sand!

Baby gear love: Still in love with my wrap. Also loving our Koo-do Pack-it Seat Me Safe Seat Harness. Normally £10 but is on offer for £5.99 at Argos if you want to try this out. When out and about, if a high chair isn't available, we can sit Rhodri on a normal chair in this harness. He loves being in a big boy seat and I love knowing he wont fall off!

Baby's routine: You can read our bed time routine HERE. 

The day time routine hasn't changed since last month...

"Around 6.30am he wakes up, he has porridge and a bottle before brushing his teeth and being dressed for the day. We tend to leave the house around 7am dropping him off before heading to work. His grandparents play with him, take him out and just enjoy him of course. He naps around 9 for two hours. Has a bottle and lunch around half 11. Second nap half two ish for an hour. His last bottle after the second nap. I pick him up around 4.45pm. When we get home he has dinner and we resume the normal evening routine. Thursdays & Weekends Rhodri doesn't go to his grandparents and so I try to maintain the routine while still making memories and enjoying quality time together."

Highlights of the month: 

• Rhodri is becoming a very funny little boy and he knows it. He loves pretending to talk on his phone... which can be a remote, computer mouse or anything really. He will babble away and laugh straight after as though he's told you a joke.

• Rhodri high fives, claps, dances and plays peek a boo using a teddy to hide his face. He's very playful and it's such a pleasure to see.

• Celebrating my first birthday as a Mummy. It was a completely different birthday with a meal and an afternoon in the park, but was by far my best birthday yet! Couldn't have asked for a better day.

• Getting home from work every day and getting smiles, kisses and cuddles is still the biggest highlight of my day/week/month.

• Rhodri discovered balloons this month and they are great fun. Until they pop!

Rhodri's monthly favourites: 

• Toy - Soft toys. He likes to bite them.
• Teddy - Goodnight bear.
• Food - Toast, Raisins and cauliflower.
• Music - All music, pretty much anything in the UK top 40, along with the classics such as Queen, Bon Jovi etc!! 
• Activity - Walking or dancing.
• Person - Mummy & Daddy of course!
• Book - Guess How Much I Love You

Rhodri's monthly dislikes:

• Being ill. Coughing is his least favourite activity and he is not impressed with being given medicine.
• Being dressed. Particularly dislikes putting coats on - this continues to be an issue.
• Being in a car seat or pram if we are still. He wants cars, prams, mums & dads to constantly be on the move!

Thats all for this month. As always thanks for reading!! xoxo

Rhodri's 10 Month Update

Rhodri's 10 Month Update

Hello there! I know posts have been thin on the ground recently, but I am working hard at developing some sort of work/home/blog life balance. I have a few posts in the pipeline and am grateful for all of you who read my blog and who are patient as I figure out how to juggle everything

My baby boy is now 10 months old.  He is in to everything. Everything is a toy, and belongs to him! He seems to change almost every day, constantly growing and learning. Now that I'm back in work it seems like by the time the weekend comes around and I can spend the full day with him, he's learnt so much without me. He's more and more like a little boy, and less like a baby every day. I am loving watching the changes and development. Here's what's happened in the last month!

Weight: Rhodri hasn't been weighed this month, judging by the return of his appetite I think he is probably right back on track. 

Height: We haven't had this checked since last month. He's not likely to be measured until his 1 year check up.

Clothing size: Around two weeks ago Rhodri moved up to his 9-12 month clothes. I probably could have held out a little longer as the arms and legs seem slightly too long. He was in that awkward stage where 6-9 was starting to get small and I'd rather his clothes were too big than too small.

Sleep: He sleeps 7pm - 6.30am. We do sometimes have to wake him at 6.30am so that we can get him out the door and get ourselves to work, but more often than not once he hears us stirring he starts to wake also.

This months milestones: 

• TEETH!! Holy moly! We went two and a half months with just the two bottom two teeth, when finally one of his top front teeth came through. Then two weeks later he is teething with three more top teeth! The poor little man is teething like crazy! We have made his first dentist appointment for next month, and hopefully by then the three teeth will be through!
• Rhodri is learning more words/sounds. Mamma and Dadda he has down to an art. He's working on Yes and Bye at the moment.
• In the past week Rhodri has been standing unaided for a few seconds. Not for long, but we are getting there and his balance is noticeably improving.
• He can walk when holding on to furniture or our hands.
• Still not crawling, but he has recently moved from a sitting to almost crawling position before lying down and giving up... it's progress!
• He is showing signs of being sociable with other children. Although he can't talk to them, he mimics the sounds or crys they make to try and grab their attention.
• The health visitor visited me after my first week back in work and said Rhodri showed signs of Separation Anxiety. He wasn't overly upset, and he quickly warmed to her again and showered her with smiles. But showed that he was certain who his Mummy was and who the stranger in the situation was.

This months special outings:

• Rhodri has had a few outings to the park. He loves the swings. Slides are mildly interesting. Nosing in on other peoples conversations is of course the best part of any outing.
• We continue to spend Thursdays visiting his Aunty and cousins. Sometimes when he's really lucky his girlfriend is there too. He's very fond of women. Flirt.

Baby gear love: My brand new woven wrap. I'm still getting to grips with it but I am enjoying trying out different carries using my wrap. I am building up the confidence to take him out minus the pram and with just the wrap.

Baby's routine: You can read our bed time routine HERE. 

Around 6.30am he wakes up, he has porridge and a bottle before brushing his teeth and being dressed for the day. We tend to leave the house around 7am dropping him off before heading to work. His grandparents play with him, take him out and just enjoy him of course. He naps around 9 for two hours. Has a bottle and lunch around half 11. Second nap half two ish for an hour. His last bottle after the second nap. I pick him up around 4.45pm. When we get home he has dinner and we resume the normal evening routine. Thursdays & Weekends Rhodri doesn't go to his grandparents and so I try to maintain the routine while still making memories and enjoying quality time together.

Highlights of the month: 

• Rhodri is constantly babbling and chatting. He laughs and giggles alot. Seeing him attempt communication is so rewarding and enjoyable to hear.
• Rhodri claps, waves and does a lot of dancing. I find it so lovely to see him enjoying movement and music. It's lovely to see him so happy.
• Getting home from work every day and getting smiles, kisses and cuddles is the best.

Rhodri's monthly favourites: 

• Toy - Anything musical
• Teddy - Goodnight bear.
• Food - Cauliflower, banana Pancakes and toast.
• Music - He just loves music. Sam Smith, Taylor Swift, Sia, Meghan Trainor... pretty much anything in the top 40 are his favourites. He loves Queen and Bon Jovi too. Anything he can bop along to!! 
• Activity - Standing, walking, dancing.
• Person - Mummy & Daddy of course!
• Book - The Gruffalos Child.

Rhodri's monthly dislikes:

• Being left the first few days Mummy went back to work.
• Being dressed. Particularly dislikes putting coats on - this continues to be an issue.
• Being put in/strapped in to seats, chairs, prams. He wants to be held or walking and doesn't particularly like being restrained.

Thats all for this month. As always thanks for reading!! xoxo

Rhodri's 8 Month Update

8 month update

Rhodri playing in Nannas

So Rhodri is 8 months old now. It's crazy how time has flown, that the cheeky, funny and very bossy little man has been in our lives for 8 months already. Yet I also feel like he's always been a part of our lives.

One of my biggest blogger regrets is that I didn't come back to blogging sooner, that I missed an opportunity to keep all my pregnancy milestones and memories here, and until I wrote Rhodri wrote Baby R's First Blog Post I haven't done the best job at marking his milestones either. 

So new year, time to turn over a new bloggers leaf and get those memories typed up. Starting with his 8 month update! 

Weight/Height: He's gaining weight exactly on the trend he should be. Our Health Visitor has joked that he must have had a copy of the baby book and read it before he was born!

Height wise, he's only ever been measured once when he was was about 13 weeks old and never since so I don't know. He definitely seems longer but that's not very accurate of me!

Clothing size: 6-9 month.

Sleep: He sleeps 7pm - 7am most nights. 

This months milestones: 

• Rhodri got his first two teeth just before turning 7 months, and it's looking like some more will come through now he's 8 months. Slowly but surely!
• He's been able to sit with very little assistance for a while but around the 7 month mark he got his balance and can now sit unassisted for quite some time while playing without falling.
• He learnt to clap new years eve.
• He has also learnt to fake a cough. He finds this highly amusing.
• Hand eye co-ordination is definitely improving, he can now close the pop up section of toys deliberately and has a vague idea of how to make them pop back up.
• He can stand up for a short time when holding on to toys/tables.
• He does walk forward if you hold his hands and point him in the direction of a toy or person he wants.

This months special outings:

• We took Rhodri to visit his new baby cousin just before Christmas
• We also took Rhodri to his grandparents to spend time with his Auntie, Uncle & cousins who came to visit for Christmas. They live far away so that was quite special for him.
• Rhodri met his new twin besties. He was intrigued by the two small people, and very much liked their soft blankets.
• Rhodri went to his cousins 3rd Birthday Party. He didn't really understand what was going on, and I suspect he thought all the attention and fuss was for him. Either way he enjoyed.

Baby gear love: I would say my love this month would be the Summer Nasal Aspirator. I can't quite remember how it came to be in my possession, I remember thinking how gross it was and chucking it in a draw somewhere. Cue the cold he had over Christmas... love it now don't I!?

Baby's routine: You can read our bed time routine HERE. 

Daytime wise he wakes at 7am, has porridge for breakfast, has a bottle, plays in his door bouncer or walker. Around 10am he goes for a nap. This is usually for about 1 and a half hours. He then has a little play until 12pm when he has lunch and his second bottle. We play with his more interactive toys until about 2.30pm when he goes for a second nap. This is usually an hour nap. Once he wakes up we tend to play with his sensory tent and then he goes in the door bouncer or walker for a bit as well. This takes us up until dinner time which the bedtime routine covers :)

Of course there are days this differs slightly, if we go out he tends to avoid naps as long as possible and playtime isn't so scheduled but you get the gist.

Highlights of the month: 

• Rhodri has started to give proper cwtches, not just I'm being held and cwtched by you. But the proper arms around my neck, head nestled into my shoulder kind of cwtches. A cwtch is a cuddle by the way, Welsh term.
• He also gives kisses. If you say "kiss please" and he's in the right mood he puts his open mouth on my check, so that counts as a kiss right? The affection is certainly one of my highlights. 
• It was Rhodri's first Christmas shortly after he turned 7 months. That was a huge highlight. Loved seeing him with all his family.

Rhodri's monthly favourites: 

• Toy - door bouncer closely followed by his walker/activity centre
• Teddy - goodnight bear closely followed by scout the talking dog
• Food - Pork & Apple Casserole
• Music - Sam Smith 'Stay With Me' - I can't explain he just loves it.
• Activity - pretending to cough or sticking items like remotes in his mouth.
• Person - Mummy & Daddy of course!
• Book - One Ted falls out of bed.

Rhodri's monthly dislikes:

• Day time naps, especially if we aren't at home.
• Being dressed. Particularly dislikes putting coats on.
• Toys with pop up bits. You know where an animal pops up when you push a button? Yeah he doesn't like that. He shouts at the toys and slams the pop up bit shut! Weird but true.

That's all for this month. As always thanks for reading! xoxo

Review of Baby's Big Box of Little Books

You might have noticed in Bed Time Routine of my 7 Month Old that Rhodri has a little collection of books slowly building on his bookshelf. Every night either me or my husband read him a bed time story before he is put in his cot and left to drift off to sleep. I've done this since he was about 8 weeks old and since he has gone to bed in his own room. 

Story Time

Why, you might ask, have I read to him since he was so little? Well I think it's important to encourage all children to read, it sets them in good stead for school. For babies it encourages them to learn to talk and communicate with others.

I think the earlier we introduce books in to their routine, the easier it is for them to fall in love with stories and characters. I'm a bit of a book worm myself, often escaping in to the pages of a good read. I hope that Rhodri will one day enjoy the comforting pages of a book and enjoy reading more than games consoles... I can hope!

So when Puffin Books kindly sent me Baby's Big Box of Little Books to review I couldn't wait to give them to him and see what he made of them! The books are written and illustrated by Janet & Allan Ahlberg. They wrote and illustrated one of my all time favourite childrens books - The Jolly Christmas Postman, so I had high hopes for these little books. I wasn't disappointed!

Having first received them, I was full of ooo's and aahh's at the presentation on these lovely little books in their presentation box.

I was also impressed with the box itself as it's quite sturdy and has a magnetic flap to keep the box closed. This keeps them all neat and tidy, minimising the room they take up on his relatively small book shelf.

 

 Inside the box, there are 9 little books. Each book has a different 'topic'. There are Mornings, Toys, Baby, Inside, Pets, Outside, Games, Family & Night-Times.

 

 Each little book is sturdy, always good with an 8 month old who has managed to rip a few paper book pages already!

The pages are thick, perfect for little hands to grab and keep hold of. Rhodri hasn't quite grasped how to turn pages yet but he held the book letting me turn pages for him, which is definitely progress!

 Inside each book words relating to the 'topic' are printed, illustrated with a clear and easy to relate to picture. They are very easily recognisable for babies and young children, which seems to keep Rhodri engaged. The words, at the moment, don't mean a lot to him. But the pictures keep him engaged, which will eventually make the words mean more to him.

 Each book has 5 words in, so a nice little bite sized portion of learning.

I love that these books introduce simple, everyday words. They are familiar words and concepts to him which keeps him interested in the books and pictures. Although Rhodri will sit and listen to a story every night, I feel that is partly because it is routine or habit, and because he is getting a cuddle at the same time. Normally a book in the day time would be considered a toy for chewing and throwing. These books have escaped that fate and Rhodri has enjoyed looking at the pictures with me.

I quite enjoy the fact that there are different topics that relate to every day life, so I can pull the books out at different times of the day for us to look at together. We have a cat, so if he's trying to play with the cat I will pull out the 'Pets' book and show him the animals. He definitely seems to enjoy that he recognises certain things from the books.

I really love these books and think they are perfect as a gift for a baby or to give Mum at the baby shower. It's a lovely little addition to our book collection and I think every Mum and baby should have these! The books are good quality, well illustrated and perfectly aimed at children who are learning, babbling and starting to gain a vocabulary. I would definitely recommend all my Mummy friends add this to their collection!

You can grab your self a set from Amazon or Waterstones. RRP £9.99 but both retailers are selling this lovely set for £7.99 (prices correct as of 21/01/2015).

**Disclosure: Puffin Books kindly sent these books to myself free of charge in return for a review. All opinions are honest and in my own words.**

Introducing Baby R

Last Friday night during #mblogchat I asked some of my fellow mummy bloggers a question on Twitter. How do they decide how much of their lives, or more specifically their children, to share with their blog readers? The overwhelming response was that of course it's personal choice and you need to do what feels right to you. They were kind enough to share with me what they had chosen. A lot of people chose to share names and photos, just as many used photos but just an initial, no name. 

For some time now I have found my self typing Baby R's name automatically before deleting it. Adding a photo to a blog post before realising Baby R can be seen. It started to feel like I was hiding him from you all. This couldn't be further from the truth. I am so incredibly in love with my son, and so proud of him. I want to show him off but of course I want to protect him.

So Hubby & I had a little chat and we decided that we will allow photos of him on my blog but any pictures we include will be taken with his face out of view or blurred. This isn't because we are ashamed of him, quite the opposite. I'm that Mum who constantly has a camera (or at least a phone that has a camera) in my childs face.  The only reason we are keeping his face from view is because he is our son, we want to protect him and we want to ensure we have control over his photos and who sees them.

In addition to this we decided that we were OK with sharing his first name. This is mainly to make writing about him that much easier. It is after all my parenting blog, and he is my child! We want to protect him but feel there is very little damage that can be done with a picture from the back of his head and his first name. So here it goes...

My name is Rachel, I'm married to Chris and our son is called Rhodri. It's the Welsh name (we are Welsh) of a 9th century King who was a great warrior. Rhodri has always been our little fighter, the name fitted for our baby if it was a boy. Once he was born and he was definitely a boy, once I saw his face I couldn't imagine any other name for him.

Rhodri, 6 months, discovering the joys of sitting unaided.

As always thanks for reading xoxo