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

Bed Time Routine of my 7 month old

Since Baby R was born, it became quite clear to me he was a child of habit. He whimpered for his first feed 3 hours after he was born and for the next few weeks, (until his reflux became an issue) he fed every 3 hours at daytime. He slept at the same times and woke at the same times every day. 

So, seeing as he seemed to like routine, once he started sleeping through the night we established a bed time routine for him. 

It can change slightly with times if we've had a busy day, or if we are out visiting family. I try not to be too rigid with it and if he is tired earlier than usual we don't force him to stay up. Sometimes I miss out parts of the routine deliberately, this is so he doesn't need the entire routine to help him go to bed. If he doesn't have a bath one night or if he's staying with his grandparents he still needs to be able to go to bed, and some of his routine isn't always going to be possible. So it is flexible to a degree, but our routine looks a little something like this:

4.30 - 5pm Dinner Time 

Around this time of evening eye rubbing is Baby R's favourite thing to do. He's getting tired but won't nap even if I did attempt to put him down for one. It is also this time of day he starts making a popping noise by smacking his lips together and this is his 'I'm hungry' sign. So once the rubbing of the eyes commences or he lets me know he's hungry, I take him in to the kitchen and sit him in his highchair with his highchair toy (1st on the list in my 3-6 month Must Haves). I make his bottle and put it to cool before feeding him his solids. Sometimes he has food from a jar or a pouch, other times he has what me & hubby are eating but mashed up a bit. Either way, once food is ready I take his toy away and he eats his dinner. After he's eaten his food and chucked strategically placed what he doesn't want on the floor, highchair, his face, bib and clothes we attempt to wipe up the mess. The majority of cleaning is met with little fuss, but as soon as I wipe his face I am told in no uncertain terms that he doesn't like it. 

I grab his bottle, remove him from the highchair and we go sit on the sofa together while he has his bottle. He's getting more mobile and active these days so bottle time & bed time are rare opportunities for a cuddle! This is his last bottle of the day. Baby R used to have a feed/bottle at bed time, but he eliminated this himself and started refusing any bottle offered to him at bed time.

5-5.45pm Play Time

After dinner Baby R has his final 'Play Time' of the day. I like to let him burn off that excess energy he suddenly acquired from nowhere! Usually he goes in his door bouncer or walker/activity centre. He loves being stood up so these are his favourite things to play with, but occasionally he's not in the mood for either of these activities so we will play in his sensory tent, or with some of his other Christmas gifts. I will normally put Cbeebies on the telly, music on my phone or Baby Einstein on YouTube for him. Some days he will take great interest in the programmes or songs but usually it's just background noise to him. He doesn't like the house to be too quiet so background noise keeps the levels of happiness up.

5.45-6.15pm Bath Time

Bath time!

I run Baby R a bath most nights. At the moment he is enjoying Johnsons Baby 2in1 bubble bath & wash. I use Johnsons Baby Shampoo with calming Lavender. I put his bathtime buddy (a sponge shaped like a frog, his bath book, a hippo water squirter and his rubber duck for him to play with and then sit him in the bath. For those who have read my must have posts you will notice we are no longer using the bath seat. I still love it and if he's very tired having a bath I will lie him in it, but he enjoys sitting up and playing in the bath these days.

Although Baby R is currently using and loving a lot of Johnsons products, our bathroom cupboard is filled with lots of different products/brands. I was bought a lot while I was pregnant and most of what you see in the picture is my pre-pregnancy stock. I like to try different brands to check he isn't allergic or sensitive to anything. 

Once Baby R is all washed, and he's had a good 10 minutes of playing & splashing I take him out of the bath wrap him in his hooded towel and dry him off. Twice a week I put baby lotion on him to try and keep that skin lovely and smooth. If I use it any more or less often his skin suffers. Twice a week works for us. Then it's a clean nappy and fresh PJ's to end his bath time ritual. He is always calm an relaxed after his bath.

6.15-6.25pm Bed time story & cuddles

Baby R's book collection

Baby R has quite a collection of books already. We even have a few in Welsh for him, although my pronunciation isn't the best, we are hoping it will stand him in good stead for school. We normally read him one book, but if the story is long we will split it in half. The favourites at the moment are One Ted Falls Out of Bed & Guess How Much I Love You. We have a cuddle, read the story and look at the pictures together.

6.25-6.45 Quiet Time & Bed Time

Calpol, Slumber Buddy, Light Show & Goodnight Bear

Obviously calpol isn't a constant in our routine, but I'm 'featuring' it because at the moment Baby R is teething. He has two teeth and another two are trying to push their way through. I have tried every teething product I could get my hands on. Even the so called miracle teething powders but nothing really helps him much. If he is showing signs of suffering with teething at bed time, we will sometimes give him a dose of calpol to take the edge off so he can get to sleep. Then we put on his Slumber Buddy which shines stars on the ceiling and plays different lullabies or soothing sounds. Brahms Lullaby is Baby R's favourite. We have a cuddle and some quiet time in the rocking chair and wind down. At the end of our routine Baby R is placed in to his cot, while still awake. He is given his goodnight bear and tucked in. I say "It's bedtime now, night night." and then leave the room. Normally he is asleep before I get to the bottom of the stairs but sometimes his chattering can be heard over the monitor for a few minutes. After a few tired giggles & some cooing he drifts off. By 7pm he is asleep.

Coffee and some Brahms!

After that I settle down with a cup of coffee, the baby monitor & YouTube. If Hubby is home we natter and catch up, if not I enjoy the quiet time. That's it then until 7am when Baby R wakes us up with the joyful babbling and giggles over the monitor. It really is the cutest alarm clock ever!

What does your little ones bed time routine look like? Let me know down below. If you're a blogger and have already written a post about it then leave the link for me in the comments so I can have a read! As always thanks for reading! xoxo

My Big Fat Weight Loss Jouney - Part 1

If you read my Liebster Award Post, or if you follow me on twitter you might well know that over the past three years (12 months of which I was pregnant) I have lost 9 stone in weight. Shockingly, despite all that weight loss I'm still not at my goal weight and still have a further 2 stone and 6 lbs to loose. 

My three year journey has been quite a journey so I'm going to split this in to two parts. Part one is the lead up to weight loss, and part two (coming soon) will be about my actual journey, the diets I tried, the hurdles I faced and how I plan to reach that final goal by the end of this year!

I won't be putting my weight on here, but I'm sure you can all guess from the 11.5 stone total loss goal, that I probably weighed more than your average British woman in her 20's. My BMI started at just shy of 50. Which you probably all know is morbidly obese and incredibly unhealthy. I had eaten my feelings for many years, along with a truck load of pizzas, chocolate bars, ice cream and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I did eat healthy meals the majority of the time, but my snacking habit was ridiculous. 

I knew what I was doing to myself and to my health, but honestly I just didn't care enough to stop eating. I was in a really dark place, throwing the biggest pity party ever, due to non weight related health problems and just added to them by making myself so overweight and unfit that I was always ill. 

Back on NYE 2010 my hubby proposed to me after six months of dating. We had been best friends for 5 years at that point and he had spent the last 18 months seeing me through one of the most difficult times of my life. We'd gone from friends to partners and I'd fallen head over heals for him, so of course I said yes! We spent the next few months wedding planning and discussing things like starting a family. It was at that point I decided something had to be done about my weight. If I was going to be someones wife I needed to commit to them for life, I needed to live longer than 40! If I was going to be someones mum I needed to be able to take care of them, play with them and help them to be happy & healthy individuals. I couldn't do that while I was overweight, unhealthy and unhappy. So I finally decided in July 2011 that this was it. I was going to go on a 'diet' or rather I was going to change my relationship with food forever and I was going to be healthier.

I used things like my wedding dress, the wedding photos and wanting to have children as my incentives and on day one I got my now husband to take a picture of me. A picture of me at the heaviest I'd ever been and at a weight I have vowed I will never ever get close to again. Here are the photos that were taken, please forgive the poor quality, they were taken on my old phone 3 years ago, and weren't intended for blog posts! 

July 2011

I have now lost 9 stone and this is what I currently look like, taken 06/01/2015. Forgive the lack of make up. I realised I didn't have anything from Xmas or NYE that didn't have the baby in. As Hubby and I are undecided on whether or not to share pictures of Baby R on my blog we took an impromptu photo at 11.30pm and frankly you were lucky I wasn't in PJs at that time of night! :)

Find out how I did it, the hurdles I faced and how I plan to drop the final bit of weight in Part 2 (coming soon). As always thanks for reading xoxo

5 Baby Brain Moments

Curse you baby brain! There was a time when I could remember birthdays with out checking & double checking my diary. I was able to get to the end of the street without having to go back for something. But then there was pregnancy and my brain turned to mush. There is something about all those hormones and the constant stream of baby related things to think about that gives women 'baby brain'. Or maybe I just lost my marbles?

Here are five of my funniest, albeit potentially dangerous, baby brain moments:

1. Set fire to my microwave. No, I'm not joking. While getting ready for work one morning I pulled some bread out of the freezer to make sandwiches for lunch. I put the bread in the microwave for 1 minute to defrost and walked away to finish getting ready. When I returned to the black cloud of smoke that was my kitchen, I had an inkling that something was wrong. The source of the black smoke was my microwave, it was billowing out of the sides. I panicked for a second before opening the microwave door and covering the now cremated bread with a wet towel. If you can guess why this happened you get 10 brain points. Go on take a guess... 'defrosted' the bread on full power. Forgot to press the defrost button didn't I?
2. 'Polished' living room. Doing the housework one Saturday morning. Thought to myself the polish smelt like apple & cinnamon, which was odd because the polish I used at the time was beeswax, there was no added smell. Continued cleaning and moved on to the dining room, went to spray the dining room table and something on the spray can caught my eye. As you have probably already guessed it wasn't polish I'd used to dust my living room. It was air freshener.
3. Cried over Multi purpose wipes. This is kind of my hormones fault, but I'm blaming baby brain because in my crying fit that's what I decided was to blame. I grabbed and opened a pack of wipes. Wiped my kitchen work tops and went to put the pack of wipes away. Realised as I put them away there was already a pack of wipes opened. I blamed baby brain that I'd opened a pack when I already had a pack open and then sat on the kitchen floor and cried that there were now two open packs. Crying turned to laughter when I explained to Hubby why I was crying but for a good five minutes I was genuinely distraught!
4. Had a bit of a mix up. Trying to be a supermum in the earlier days and doing many things at once I made a bit of a boo boo. I was tidying the house, making me some lunch, feeding the cat, putting on laundry and making the baby a bottle. Look at me go with all the multi-tasking! Right, lets put the washing powder in the machine, and the milk powder in the bottle. Add some hot water, well that's not right is it? The milk doesn't get that frothy until you shake it. Yes, you guessed it. Milk powder in the washer and washing powder in the bottle. No babies were harmed, I noticed straight away but never do the two things at the same time any more! 
5. Made an error putting together our new wardrobes. We moved in to our new home this time last year. In our old house all the rooms had built in wardrobes. So as well as purchasing a lot of nursery furniture we also needed a rather large wardrobe to fit all of our clothes in. Eight months pregnant, one evening in April, we finally got around to putting up our wardrobe (I was sick of pulling clothes out of black bags and laundry baskets). Hubby refused to let me help much and instead 'allowed' me to read the instructions and tell him what to do. That was his big mistake! I did read the instructions, but not very well and after about half an hour Hubby was balancing the top of the wardrobe on his head, while one side was being built. I got to an instruction that said to put the other side on and then lift wardrobe off floor and stand upright. I suddenly realised I'd missed the glaringly obvious instruction at the beginning - Assemble on floor.

I wish I could say I'm joking but it's all true. Luckily I find it all very funny now and although I still have my moments they are definitely less dangerous! Did you have the baby brain? Did you still have it after your babies were born? Leave me a story in the comments about your 'funniest' baby brain moment. 

As always thanks for reading xoxo

Baby R's first blog post

Hello there,

My name is Baby R, you can also call me Chops, Monkey or Tinker. Mummy does ... alot! I thought seeing as my Mummy blogs about me ALL the time I'd come on here and tell you a bit more about me.

I was born in May 2014, which makes me 7 and a half months old. I live with my Mummy and Daddy. Mummy stays home and looks after me at the moment, but she will be returning to work in March. Daddy works, and he sometimes misses bedtime which makes us all very sad, but when he is home he plays with lots of toys with me and I love that!

Over the last 7 months I have become quite the clever little boy, even if I do say so myself. I can do loads of tricks, some of them make mummy squeal with excitement. Mummy's funny when she makes excited noises. It gives me the giggles.

Mummy was having scans from as early as 6 weeks pregnant with me, that's why she calls me Tinker, and the fact that I kept her on the toes for the entire pregnancy. At 40wks+2 I made mummy go to hospital by refusing to move for hours. She was sent home because even though the Dr wanted me to be born, they were too busy at the hospital. They told her to go back the next day to discuss induction. The next day we were told she was definitely going to be induced because I was distressed, but she'd have to wait another day because there were no beds. I didn't want to wait anymore, I wanted out! So as the nurse said 'You can go home' I started Mummy's contractions every 4.5-5minutes apart. Mummy wasn't allowed to go home, and good job too! I didn't hang around for long once I got things started. Mummy's active labour was 3 hours and 11 minutes! She was in a bit of shock when I was born, and it's been a whirlwind ever since!

From about 1 week old I've slept for 5/6 hour stints at night and since I was 7 weeks old I have slept from 7pm to 7am. This is not just because I love Mummy, it's because I love sleep! I know I could wake my parents up a bit more but I love cuddling up in my cot and sleeping the night away. I think I'll save the sleepness nights for when I'm older and Mummy isn't expecting it.

Around 5/6 weeks Mummy noticed I was being sick a lot. I tried to tell her I had reflux, but she didn't understand the arching of my back wasn't wind related. It got worse and worse, I was so sick that I was constantly hungry. That made Mummy cry and I was in so much pain! But a lovely woman at the Doctors surgery gave me Gaviscon and we've never looked back.

I learnt to roll over when I was about 4 months old. I'm NEVER doing that again! I hate being on my tummy. So now the furthest I roll is on to my side and then back again. I much prefer sitting up which I learnt around 6 months. It took me until 7 months to get the balance to stay sat up for any length of time.

I don't want to crawl. It's not fun. I'd rather sit with my toys or stand up. Standing up is great fun! I have to hold on to Mummy, a toy or a table but it's much better than crawling or rolling! Besides once I start crawling Mummy will stop fetching my toys and that's a game I enjoy way too much to give up.

I learnt to blow raspberries thanks to one of my Aunties (you know who you are!) when I was about 4 months old and since then I also developed a talent for sticking my tongue out as soon as I detect a camera in the room. Mummy paid for professional pictures of me, and all but one of them I had my tongue out!

I was 4 months when I started trying solids, I couldn't wait until 6 months. I just wanted food and once or twice tried to take food off Mummy. I used to love eating carrots or tomato and blowing raspberries. A mouth full of carrot can stain clothes, bibs and even my mouth like nothing else! Mummy wasn't very impressed with that trick, so now I only do it if I'm in a bad mood. It's my way of telling Mummy I don't want to sit in my high chair, I don't like bibs and I definitely don't like have my face wiped after dinner.

My favourite foods are pasta, tomato, banana, cheese and yoghurt. Although these tend to change dependent on whether mummy has bought a lot of my favourites. I then decide that I like something else. For example my favourite food was scrambled egg, until Mummy bought a truck load of eggs, so I promptly decided I don't like scrambled eggs and so Mummy had to eat all the eggs.

My favourite books are Guess How Much I Love You & One Ted Fell Out Of Bed. My favourite toys are my door bouncer, my activity center/walker and my mummys mobile phone. I have a favourite teddy called 'Goodnight Bear' I suck on his ears or his hands for comfort. All the white fur is now grey, and no matter how much mummy washes him he never gets white again.

I found my voice a while back, but I'm just about mastering copying certain sounds. So I can go Bababababa over and over while Mummy says 'Not Baba, Mama'. Oh yes and this Christmas my Auntie who came to visit me for Christmas taught me to clap. I'd like to thank her for that, because now every time I clap I can demand cheering and clapping from Mummy. It really lifts my mood when I'm getting bored of eating, sleeping, playing and babbling.

Well that's it for now folks, I'm really tired and probably need a nap. So I'm going to grizzle for a bit and then give my mummy a cuddle so she knows I'm ready for a sleep. If you have any questions for me let mummy know in the comments and I'll be sure to answer them all for you.

Thank You. Raspberries, slobbery kisses and giggles from me! xoxo

Liebster Award Part 2

Having been nominated and written my Liebster Award post (linked) I put it to one side. I don't know if all bloggers do this, but I like to give myself at least a few hours after initially writing a post to think about it and to re-read it. Just in case there's anything I want to change. So thinking I was all done I sat down to some twitter when a 2nd nomination came through from MummyBexM.  

Thank you MummyBexM for the nomination! I won't do the whole post all over again, I've already given the rules, my 11 random facts, and picked 11 nominees so in this post I'm just going to answer MummyBexM's questions and of course tell you a little bit about her blog!

A relatively new blog and a new mum to her almost 4 month old little boy. She blogs about her life as a mummy, throws in some lovely pictures of her family and also writes some really informative posts to help other mums on things like sleep routines. A really enjoyable read. Be sure to pop over and say hi!

The 11 questions I've been given are:

1) When and why did you start blogging? 

This is a question I touched upon in my first Liebster Award post. I originally started my blog, which was then called 'Just Add Colour' back in October 2012 shortly before my wedding day to share some of the hints and tips I'd picked up along the way for planning a wedding. 

Eventually the wedding posts got mixed in with beauty, recipes and a lot of other random stuff. I eventually took a break from blogging for personal reasons, the break was about 16months. In May 2014 my little boy was born and in October 2014 I decided I missed blogging, but wedding blogs weren't for me anymore so my blog was renamed Blogging Mamma and my lifestyle/parenting blog was born!

2)What recently read blog post have you enjoyed? 

There's a few, especially with all the Christmas posts recently. But one that springs to mind is Plutonium Sox post The Little Things. A lovely mix of getting to know the blogger, some lovely pictures of her two girls and a lesson I stand to learn that children aren't materialistic and Baby R doesn't need half of what I got him, because Christmas told me to!

3) If you could learn a new skill, what would you like it to be?

I'd learn to drive. I wish I'd done it when I had the time and money earlier in life. Would make things much easier now with baby. Especially when I go back to work.

4) If you could have any 5 guests over for dinner who would they be and why? 

My Grandfather and My Nan who passed away many years ago now. But I miss them like crazy and if I could have them over for dinner and have them meet my hubby and hold my son, it would be the best thing ever.

Michael McIntyre because I find him hilarious, and I think there is nothing better than a good laugh with good company.

J.K. Rowling because I am a Potter fan and I'd love to spend an evening with the woman who created my favourite characters.

Brendan Carroll in the character of Mrs Brown. I'd probably eat very little and just laugh all night, but laughter is the best medicine.

5) Who is your favourite fictional character? 

Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice or Dumbledore from Harry Potter

6) What question would you like to ask the Queen, if you could? 

If you could have done anything in this world, if you weren't royal so didn't have the obligation to rule the country, then what would you have chosen to do or to be?

7) If you won the lottery, what would your first 3 spends/buys be? 

I'd buy my parents, sister and my hubbys parents & siblings houses.

I'd build my dream home.

I'd pay for a big family holiday for when Baby R was old enough to remember. Make some memories for him.

8) Which is your favourite film and why?

Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistlestop Cafe. It's the perfect mix of sadness, love, humour and addresses big issues like domestic abuse and racism. I just love it.

9) If you were a biscuit, what type would you be?

I'd probably be something like a digestive. Rather plain and boring, but reliable and perfect with a cup of coffee.

10) Where in the world would you like to go/visit? 

If I could I'd love to do a cruise and visit loads of landmarks etc. But if I had to pick one place it would be Sorrento in Italy. I'd love the food, the gorgeous weather, the beautiful town and scenery. Plus it's close enough to go visit Pompeii which is on my bucket list!

11) If you could be in any film, TV or book which would it be and why? 

This is a toughy. There's far too many to choose from. As a child I'd always imagine I was the heroine in my favourite books or films.

I know it's odd but I always wanted to be the Little Princess. To be such a kind and warm hearted person in such dire times. To have an imagination that kept me going, and of course to be reunited with my very rich father. I just love the book, and if you love a book enough you tend to want to be part of it. 

OK so that's my 11 questions given by Mummybexm! As always thanks for reading xoxo

Liebster Award - Discover New Blogs

I was very kindly nominated (Thank you) for the Liebster Award by Yogaberry, a yoga loving mum of two who not only enjoys, but teaches yoga. Her blog is a lovely mix of family life, Yoga and her thoughts on things like being honest to your children, and loads more. Go over to her blog and enjoy!

I had never heard of the Liebster award until I was nominated, but after reading Yogaberry's post and doing a bit of research I have surmised that basically it is a way of discovering new, smaller blogs and for those bloggers to get to know each other. The rules are as follows:

1. Acknowledge and thank the blog who nominated you.
2. Look for an award image that you like, and post it on your blog.
3.  Answer the 11 questions asked by the person/blog who nominated you.
4. List 11 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 11 blogs with under 200 followers to receive the award.
6. Let the bloggers know that you nominated them.
7. Give them 11 questions to answer.

Here are the questions I was given -

1. What are 3 things you learned in 2014?
I learnt to make the best of what you have. Things aren't always going to be lollipops and sunshine but that's OK. The happiest people aren't those who have everything, but those who appreciate what they have. Cliche? Maybe! But it was definitely my main lesson in 2014.
I learnt lots of practical things about being a mum. Like how to do things one handed, things that 8 months ago I would never even have attempted one handed. How to change a nappy. How to change a nappy in a rush. How to take a bodysuit off without pulling it over a babies head (envelope sleeves, brilliant invention and very useful when baby catches a stomach bug!).
Finally I learnt the beauty of patience. I've never been particularly patient, but my son has taught me to slow down a bit and enjoy the little things in life. 


2. Why did you decide to start blogging?
I actually decided to blog a few years ago when I was planning my wedding. I fondly called myself a budget bride and set about arranging my wedding for half the cost of your average UK wedding. I decided to share some of those tips. I enjoyed it so much I started to share other things I liked and learnt. I took a break from blogging for personal reasons but when my son was about 4 months old I decided I wanted to record my journey in to motherhood and my blog seemed like the perfect place. So 'Just Add Colour' was renamed Blogging Mamma, and wedding posts were replaced with lifestyle/mummy posts.

3. What is your favourite blog?
I have a few. But one of my favourite mummy/beauty/lifestyle blogs back from before I even started blogging on Just Add Colour is Sprinkle of Glitter. I found her blog, which in turn led me to her YouTube videos. I find her blogging style very relaxed, down to earth and easy to read. Even her longer posts are easy to digest. I like the mix of beauty, mum posts and arty project type posts. There are many blogs I love now, and it's hard to pick a favourite but there's a definite soft spot for the first blog I started reading regularly.


4. What would you do tomorrow if it was your last day?
I would spend the entire day with my family and my closest friends. We'd all spend the morning playing games with Baby R until he went for his nap. Then we'd all have a cuppa and chat/laugh until Baby R woke up. We'd go down the Mumbles (a beautiful area of South Wales) for the rest of the day, eat ice cream, walk on the beach and take far too many pictures then come home and put Baby R to bed. We'd order a takeaway, watch a film and talk until we were too tired to stay awake. I'd go to bed and cuddle my hubby until I fell asleep. Sounds like the perfect day to me!

5. Who do you admire and why?
That's a toughy. I admire a lot of people of course but it's tough to single one out. I'm going to go with my father for this one. I've always admired his work ethic. He's always worked hard, taken opportunities others wouldn't because they involved sacrifice, worked through illness and pushed himself to work his way up the ladder. There were times this wasn't easy for him, that he had to spend a lot of time away from his family for work reasons. Yet he traveled a long way (approx 360 miles each way) to see us almost every weekend. For as long as I can remember he's been learning new things outside of his work life too. Whether it's been organised lessons or teaching himself new skills. But I really admire that. I think it's an excellent quality in a person to have a good work ethic.

6. What is your favourite cake?
Coffee cake.

7. What are 3 things you would like to do or learn if you had all the time and money in the world?
a) I'd learn to drive. It would make life so much easier if I could put Baby R in the car and head on out. Instead I rely on buses or Hubby when he's not in work. We can't afford for me to learn with the average hour lesson costing £18.
b) I'd like to go on a world cruise. Stopping at places like Pompeii, going on Safari in Africa, visiting hot & cold countries. Just experiencing as much of the world as I could. Not everywhere obviously, but to swim in the bluest oceans, lie on the whitest sands, taste different foods. It's something I would love to do if I won the lottery.
c) Build my own home. I've given this whole all the time and all the money thing some thought over the years. See if I got to design and build my own home, decorate it exactly as I want it, have all new furniture and mod cons I'd never need to move house ever again. As someone who has lived in 6 houses since 2007 the idea of never moving again is very appealing. So yes, to build my dream house.

8. What book have you really enjoyed reading in 2014? 
There's two I want to mention. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. An inspirational woman and a story that made me weep many a time. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. Childrens books are not always the most thrilling to read but I really enjoy reading this one to Baby R.


9. What's your favourite snack?
Yoghurt, toffee or vanilla flavoured are my faves and when I want to feel like I'm being good I'll chop up a banana and chuck it in my yoghurt.

10. What did you want to be when you were a child?
What didn't I want to be? My answer when I was asked was -  a dancer, pop singer, shop owner,  book author, teacher, chef, doctor (who rides a horse to appointments) with children. I even had it scheduled so I could fit all my professions in. I decided I really could have it all! 

11. What is your blog post that you most enjoyed writing so far? (send me a link)
From my Just Add Colour Days - Bully For You It was a very hard piece to write for me. But I really enjoyed the therapeutic nature of saying what was playing on my mind.

From my newer Blogging Mamma Days - Dear Baby R I feel proud of this post and the original paper copy that now sits in Baby R's memory box for him to re-open when he's older.

11 Random Facts About Me

1) I have lost 9 stone in weight in the last 3 years. I hope to loose the final 2 and a bit stone in 2015
2) The first wedding ceremony I ever attended was my own. 
3) I love marshmallows. Prefer flumps, but will eat mini, or pink & whites.
4) I once wrote a poem about pink Yorkie bars. It was for A'Level English and earnt me an A.
5) I have never broken a bone (touch wood).
6) I am deaf in one ear.
7) I grew up in England but am Welsh and now live in Wales again.
8) I love Harry Potter. So much so I dressed my son up as baby Harry for Halloween! Ha!
9) Once I put baby milk in the washing machine and washing powder in the baby bottle. Don't worry didn't give the bottle to baby. Realised what I had done pretty much straight away. Got to love baby brain!
10) I love coffee. I drink more coffee than is advisable and still fall asleep easily at night. Must be immune to caffeine by now.
11) I am allergic to peanuts.

The 11 bloggers I want to nominate are (I don't know that your blogs have less than 200 followers, turns out it's quite hard to find out how many followers a blog has. Mainly due to all the different platforms you can be followed on, so I've gone with the amount of followers on Bloglovin and if you're not on Bloglovin then goodness knows what number I used. I appreciate you may have more than 200 in total but I tag you anyway!) :-

MummyBexM
Plutonium Sox
Play At Home Teacher
Welcome To My World
Stuff Babies Need
FUZZYPEACH
The Diary of an Unexpectant Mother
Academic Mummy
Slummy Mummy
Mummy's Retreat
Dillydrops

11 Questions For My Nominees

1) If you could only ever eat one food/meal for the rest of your life what would it be?
2) What's your favourite, non-blogging, related thing to do?
3) If you could meet any celebrity (living or not) who would you want to meet and why?
4) What is your biggest pet peeve?
5) Main goal for 2015?
6) Link your favourite blog post written by someone else.
7) Link your favourite blog post written by you.
8) Are you a planner or a spontaneous kind of person. 
9) What non physical trait of yours would you change?
10) What made you begin your blog?
11) Tell me a quote or mantra you identify with.