1 Year Old

Countdown begins...

3 days. 3 freaking days! My not-so-little-anymore baby turns 1 on Saturday! This past year has been incredibly... I don't even know the right word as it was just a mish mash of emotions.



 

"Seriously mum? Must you insist on taking photos all the time...?" He looks so grown up!

He has for quite a few nights been so clingy that I reverted back to co-sleeping if he absolutely would not sleep in his cot. He is really out of sorts with his cold and teething. Poor little dude. But doesn't he look so handsome with his hair styled after his bath? LOL



Dylan loves playing with his cousins. He got to hang out with little cousin Oscar on Gareth's birthday at a big soft play in Cardiff.



and lots of attention from his big cousins Elijah and Oliver too! Here he is being tickled by Elijah.



 

We shall be having a small tea party for his birthday with Gareth's family. Super grateful that Gareth, Dylan and myself will get to spend the day together for his birthday :)

At the moment I am lucky that the monkey is napping in his cot at the moment so I can get all my paperwork up together for the job centre as I have an appointment tomorrow. This fortnight has seen another 5 applications made, and currently one rejection but hearing anything back is quite rare, but at least getting that rejection means you know where you stand. There is one job in that 5 I am keeping everything crossed for. It is weekend work pretty close to home and more than minimum wage in retail and I put my CV in to the store last week.

But all the stressing about everything has had consequences and that is my colitis is flaring. I am putting off phoning the IBD team at hospital for now by upping my meds to what they were originally (3 caps, once a day was keeping symptoms at bay and the nurses agreed for me to keep it at that, so I'm back to 3 caps, twice a day).

Just need to keep a positive outlook on everything.

Currently | September

Watching (kiddy shows) Jake & The Neverland Pirates, Curious George, (mummy shows) Tia & Tamera, The 100, new CSI, Bewitched, Melissa & Joey.

Feeling overwhelmed still, trying to juggle job searching and spending time with Dylan. And tired, though we are down to 2 wake ups at night minimum, it's still exhausting.

Planning on doing something with the old blog, even though I say it all the time, I really REALLY need to get started on something.

Wondering how many times I need to say "NO! Don't do that because..." to Dylan before he actually listens. His favourites are grabbing the bin and pulling it over to get at the rubbish inside, pulling DVDs off the shelves.

Disbelieving that he turns 1 in a mere 3 and a half weeks!

Waiting for autumn. The leaves have begun to change, and funnily enough this has only been my favourite season for the last couple of years :)

Wishing I could play my Sims game. So little time, and it doesn't agree with the Mac very much, but so many memories dating back to my college days when I first started playing the original Sims. Not very interested in the Sims 4 at the moment.

Devising a plan of action for next week, when it comes to meal plans for the whole family, though myself and Dylan will eat together and daddy will have to reheat his food when he comes home after 7pm.

Trying to make our 1 bed flat work for the 3 of us, and keep Dylan safe. There is a gate at the top of the stairs (though we were told it wasn't possible to have one) but we have to be super careful with it and we stuff a pillow down the gap and it works for us, we got a guard for the kitchen door as our doorways are narrow and couldn't find anything that didn't require drilling & fitting so had to get a guard instead, to be used when cooking so that Dylan can see me if he plays with some toys on the landing. The door remains closed, unless I'm going out there and let Dylan follow me and we also have some catches on the cupboard doors now, so thankfully no more pulling out his food out of the cupboard! The lounge is still a work in progress so his travel cot remains up so that I can put him in there if I need to do something where he can't follow me.

10 months

It was a little sad celebrating Dylan's 10 month milestone when it turned out to be the day that Robin Williams passed away.  Photos of him just seem to be a blur these days. I want to update my cover photo on Facebook but long gone are the days he would stay where he was put!



 

I think this was the closest I could get to a photo that I could use!  That face melts me every time.



Can't really get cuddles much either, as he constantly wants to be on his feet but hasn't found his balance yet. But he sure loves tickles! We are also on tooth number 3! (They are like buses!)



 

I adore Curious George, and no matter what we are doing, at 8am we stop to watch George. I find there is something strangely comforting about this show, I just love it and I cannot for the life of me put my finger on what it is. For me, the day is off to a bad start if we do not watch George.



 

My fitbit needed sprucing up, so I did this which has since come off, but that will be for another post I'm sure, as I have had my fitbit since 2nd January so I should do a post about it!



 

S, how is the weight loss going?  Pretty well I'd say! Over a stone off (148lbs starting, currently another lb off so 133lb currently) and just 1 more stone to go! Slow and steady wins the race after all ;) This does mean I am going to have to go clothes shopping :/ I really dislike clothes shopping!



 

As for the job hunting? Meh, do not ask. I have been on 1 interview which I still haven't heard back about and have managed to apply for the same 1 job on 3 different occasions.

Library Lovin'

I'm not entirely sure when it started, but for a very long time, I have loved libraries. I turned my bookcase at home into a library, cutting out little "tickets" out of sugar paper with the name and author of the book and kept it tucked inside each one and when any family member would borrow the book, I would take the ticket and put it in a little paper "pocket" with their name on. No due dates or late fees in my little library, and I always kept my books in immaculate condition.

I desperately wanted to apply to be a librarian at my primary school for our tiny little room which housed the school books, but I wasn't chosen and I was really upset. That was remedied just a mere couple of years later during my first year at secondary school there was a notice to be librarian at lunch times to a much more impressive, larger and busy school library than I had ever seen. We had to apply and then attend an actual job interview, but I knew I wanted to get the position so desperately!

The job was mine, and how I relished it! I would gobble up my packed lunch as fast as I could and head on to the library to help out, even if I wasn't supposed to be working there that day. Everyone else had numerous sports pins attached to their school jumpers to show off, but I proudly had my librarian one on mine. Still to this day I have that little badge tucked away to remind me of my very first "job" that I loved so much.
I don't know whether it was the organisation of the books, the little tickets and the wooden containers where each student had their paper "pocket", in which we would place the tickets into, or even stamping the books with due dates and the big library index drawers at the back of the room that I loved so much, but even now it gives me goosebumps and warm fuzzies thinking about it!



 

I also found out the other day that I can use ancestry website for free in libraries... I shall be leaving Dylan with his daddy one Saturday morning to take advantage!

My current book collection is slowly decreasing, there are some books I will never get rid of (witch child & the sorceress by Celia Rees to name but 2 that will stay with me in paper form!) space is a huge factor, so I have been focusing more on my kindle. Though sometimes you just cannot beat having an actual book in your hands. I do miss that with the kindle, and let's face it, reading in the bath is a great winter activity, and I am butter fingers (but even though I put my kindle in a zip lock bag in case I did drop it, I am pleased to say - touch wood - that I never have as yet!)



My mum used to take me and my brother to our local library when I was younger, and I was so excited to take Dylan for his first visit. The absolute kicker? He was asleep. My little insomniac child who often battles with me when it is nap time, had so much fun at the park that he was flat out in his pushchair. I clearly should have taken him before hand for such a momentous occasion! But even so, he had much fun diving into mummy's library bag and pulling out the books I acquired on his behalf and we read the stories about spot along with the obligatory "My first books from the library" shot for his scrapbook :) I excitedly got the "revenge wears prada" book out when I spotted it staring at me on the shelf. Of course, when am I going to get time to read it? Ha! I live in hope. But the reviews were not kind for that book so I most certainly couldn't justify buying it for the kindle but curiosity told me, as devil wears prada is one of my favourite movies, that I just HAD to try it. So what better than going to my library and checking it out, proudly walking home with my library bag. Yes, I just love them that much ;)



Dylan has his own little book bag, and we have a book start online account for him, as mummy has her Goodreads account ;) Speaking of the little monkey, he is getting his second tooth through... and don't we know it, my poor little guy! And as you can also see, his favourite thing to do lately is pull himself up into the standing position :)

July 2014 Daily Grind

Last Thursday I decided to do a "Day In The Life" as a snapshot of how life is at the moment with my monkey. It wasn't entirely a normal every day for us as things went a bit squiffy in the morning which then has a knock on effect for the rest of the day, added in to the fact I decided to cut the grass as Dylan fell asleep on the walk home only to wake up once I had got everything out and I wasn't about to put it all away again so he stayed quiet enough for me to quickly whip the mower round and head back in for a then belated lunch.



 

So check it out.

Chocolate Crunch

I completely came across this recipe by accident, but when I spotted it, I decided I HAD to make it! I remembered it from school and I absolutely adored this, and shared it with my school friends on Facebook before we started reminiscing about lunch times eating it and pink custard... Which as it turns out isn't even custard.

To save a bunch of washing up, I simply mixed the whole thing in the silicone tray that I was going to bake it in. It was super quick, simple and tasted just as I remembered it. I was quite surprised I managed to make the batch last a week! I saw some other recipes that showed eggs, but this one only uses plain flour, butter, sugar and cocoa, so it is nice and cheap too! I can see this being a comfort treat in the winters around here, as it certainly is good when warmed up :)

View the recipe here