specialness | stumbling through motherhood with my baby girl and loving every moment

Space

The best thing about our new house is the space. More rooms mean more space. More space means less stress. It is so nice having space to play, space to put the toys away, space to sit without looking at piles of stuff, space to walk without tripping over, space to crawl without bumping into things. Space to breathe.

The second best thing about our new house is the light. Our old house didn’t get much light in the living room, so it always felt a little gloomy even on the brightest of days. The new house gets so much light. As we are on a hill, and have three floors, the living room gets quite a view and, as a result, a lot of light. I didn’t fully appreciate until now what a little bit of sunlight can do for your mood. Of course, ask me again in the summer how I like all the light, when I am sweating from the sun streaming in. For now though, I like it a lot.

Know what else I like? Carpets. I didn’t think I would, as I’m a wooden floors kind of person, but oh my. Carpets are where it’s at. Being comfortable, and warm, when playing on the floor is a good thing.

Being higher up also means there’s more to look at. I can nose at people right from my living room window. I can look out over a lot of back gardens, while our own back garden is only overlooked by our two neighbours. Bonus. I can see far into the distance. There’s some hills and some lights. It’s nice though. Sunset is pretty awesome.

But yeah. The space. The space is ace. Space to play. Space to live.

30.01.2012 • Posted in Blog by Janet • Leave a comment

A Very Rainbow 1st Birthday Party

The day after the first birthday came the first birthday party. It was, if I’m honest, a little bit surreal. I had a baby, and that baby was one, and now her baby friends were coming over to have a party. I felt like there must be some other adult in charge, as it couldn’t possibly be me. Only, it was me. I guess I’m a parent, or something?

We were up late into the night preparing the food and getting the house ready. We got up early too, and I dashed to the post depot to collect some parcels before more party prep. The cavalry arrived at lunch time, and Alice & Alex did a marvellous job of hanging the bunting (what dip!) while Dave’s Dad and Sister blew up many, many helium balloons (and created a couple of fantastic balloon rainbows for me). It all came together brilliantly. In case you couldn’t guess, there was a bit of a rainbow theme.

During the week Becca had helped me to gather up all of her ‘rainbow’ coloured toys, which were in a basket in the playroom, along with the colourful wooden blocks and megablocks. The kids had a good run around, getting in to everything, while we waited for everyone to arrive. Then came the food. I suddenly realised I hadn’t eaten all day and I was faced with a wall of cakes.

The rainbow birthday cake, plus mini party rings and chocolate covered marshmallows, dipped in sprinkles.

We also had a selection of sandwiches, breadsticks & dips, a rainbow fruit platter and a rainbow vegetable platter. I’d made little tags for everything in photoshop and printed them out.

The sweet treats were rainbow cupcakes (all the different coloured cake batters layered together) and ice cream cone cupcakes made by my mum.

I took a close up of the totally awesome rainbow fruit platter, because I was seriously proud of it, but I have no idea what happened to it. I think it’s on another memory card. I guess it’s now a long lost memory card. It’s probably in the same place as my debit card, which disappeared this week without a trace after doing some online banking.. anyway.. back to the story..

We had just enough highchairs to go around. Becca had her first date, sharing a highchair tray with her baby buddy William. It was very sweet, and they even played a little footsie!

Singing Happy Birthday.

Of course, there were more presents..

Plus more general adorableness..

I think it was a pretty good party.

18.01.2012 • Posted in Baby by Janet • 5 Comments

Rebecca is One

On the 6th of January, our baby girl turned ONE YEAR OLD. Um, what? That can’t be possible. She’s just new, our little tiny baby girl, all new and cute and needy and cute. Oh wait, she’s crawling about and climbing on everything and dancing to every little tune. She’s not a tiny baby anymore. I’d be sad, if it wasn’t so totally awesome. One year olds rock!

Her birthday was a friday, and Dave had taken the day of work, so we got up late and then opened a bunch of presents. It seems like all we have done lately is open presents. I’m not knocking it.. but it’s going to be a long 12 months until the next lot! Pretty poor planning on our part, sorry kid.

Her ‘main’ present was a fantastic Grimms XL Rainbow, which I – I mean we – have already had a lot of fun with.

After presents we took a mini road trip to a soft play centre in Banbury, Rugrats and Half Pints. She loved it, and it’s the first time she’s really been to somewhere like that. We had a bit of lunch and then she had a great time crawling around and exploring all of the tunnels and lights in the baby area. We had a little go in the ball pit too, and she looked pretty funny trying to crawl on top of the balls, ending up just sliding along on top of them. Dave and I had a pretty ace time too. It’s got to be one of the perks of having kids, that you get the excuse to go in the giant soft play centres. As Dave said while we were there, they should do ones for adults, they’re so much fun!

We had a great time, worth the long drive to get there. Rugrats and Half Pints is a lovely soft play, with a really good separate baby area which a lot of soft play centres are lacking. It has nice sensory equipment as well as the expected.. uh.. soft bits. The food was pretty tasty too! I got her a couple of helium balloons to celebrate with but sadly one of them didn’t even make it home (the jury is still out on what happened, but rumour is she was trying out her new 4th tooth and got a little over enthusiastic).

Here she is at exactly one year old.. looking pretty grumpy on the drive home.

We lit her birthday ring after dinner, and talked about her year and all the amazing things she’s done so far. It was nice to think back and reflect on just how much she has grown in one year. It amazes me, utterly amazes me, that in just one year you can go from newborn baby to the baby we have now, the complete little character that we love sharing our lives with. She is a little person already, a little individual with such a personality. It’s been a pleasure sharing my last year with her, taking care of her and watching her grow. I can’t wait for what the next year will bring.