...Visiting friends

Jesse and I left Sam and Badger at home to work while we went to visit our girlfriends Anna and little Lady A in Buckinghamshire.

Anna is my friend from our days at Bournemouth Uni. Over the years, we have been through break ups, holidays, birthdays, job moves together and mamahood is the newest adventure.

Aurelia and Jesse have really taken to each other as well, there is only three months between them. Its so great to see our babies being friends.

It was a treat to have the company of another mama who is on the same baby schedule as me. We never used to be such early risers and early-to-bed as we are these days but we did manage to sneak in a glass of something in the evenings so I guess things don't change all that much.

On the last day we took the littles to Odds Farm, where Aurelia loved the baby goats and Jesse loved the ball pit fan. Seriously, this child would not leave it alone.

I was worried he would get wind chill. 

Thanks for a lovely stay, see you soon x

...on the move

Now that Jesse is crawling we are having to finally baby proof the house.

Up high seems to be the best option so we are looking for a wall bracket for our tv. If anyone has any advice on how to keep a baby away from the fireplace or any other childproofing gems I would be very keen to hear them!

Badger doesn't quite know what to make of this mobile baby but is still quicker than him so can get out the way of any grabbing.

...best friends' weddings

This has been a special year with two sets of our closest friends tying the knot.

Will and Laura wed in April at the Asylum in Peckham. The bombed out old church is such a beautiful venue and a very fitting one for the idiots' first wedding.

Here I am chatting to the mother of the groom who helped to decorate the venue. Thanks to my mama for lending me her Biba jacket.

Woody and Natasha married in Chichester and the reception was held at the Walled Garden on the last super hot day of the summer. It couldn't have been a better day for it - beautiful.

My dress is from Lipsy a couple of years ago.

Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness together and looking forward to all the adventures to come x

...playing farmers

On Sunday we took the boy and the pup two miles up the road to a petting farm called Honeybrook.

We got off to a very good start, as we were visiting after 3pm our tickets were half price, babies and pups go free.

The animals all came up to greet Badger, he was quite the popular one, and he himself was very taken with a donkey. Sam warned Jesse that naughty little boys turn into a donk donk while I assured him that his daddy was telling fibs. Killjoy mama.

Here's Jesse squealing back at the piglets.

Just chilling...

PS: No babies were hurt making this photo

...hen do's and wedding bells

Nearly 10 years ago I met Woody while working at a skatepark company. He's sure his enthusiasm helped me get the job. We had a blast Woody, Sam and I in that attic office. It was the beginning of idiot club.

Idiots

This August, Andrew (as his bride-to-be calls him with a soft American twang) is getting married to the gorgeous Natasha. The stags sailed up the river to birmingham in a canal boat while the hens did the do in style in London. 

The afternoon began with a Mad Hatter's Tea party at the Sanderson. 

Here's a peek at the tasty treats...

Thanks to Natasha's lovely mother for the photo.

Ladies, apparently the tune in the music box was "Somewhere over the Rainbow"we couldn't quite place it... 

We then moved onto Berner's Tavern for drinks. Check out its comprehensive drinks cabinet...

Is it wrong to choose a drink for it's colour? You've got to love the pop of orange from an aperol spritz...

After more drinks and games we ended up at Satan's Whiskers for shots and fizzy cocktails, where the hen met a well endowed stuffed Badger - pretty glad Badger wasn't there to see it.

Sunday brunch took place at the highest restaurant in the UK, Duck & Waffle, where we sampled the tasting menu. 

The signature dish was a real winner for me.

A big thank you to all the girls for organising a fun weekend. I am so looking forward to meeting up with everyone and celebrating Woody and Natasha's nuptials so soon.

This was also Sam's first weekend on his own with Jesse and the boy did a stella job. Too good. It's very obvs who his favourite is now...

...recommending the Blissful Baby Expert

In the early days, Jesse co-slept with us. This was never my plan. The thought of having a baby in my bed frightened me. But when a newborn baby cries so hard that he can't catch his breath you quickly reassess your options.

Breast feeding and sleeping all merged into one. This suited me fine as I actually think i got more sleep that way. But as the months went by it became clear that Jesse was using me as a dummy. In the evenings he would get so restless that he couldn't even get to sleep on me. He was still waking at 3am to breast feed and I had a feeling that it was more for comfort than hunger. 

A friend posted on Facebook about her wonder woman, the Blissful Baby Expert author Lisa Clegg. I asked if her book could help me teach Jesse to go to sleep by himself without using me as a dummy. She said absolutely, and even better than that I could email her direct for help.

That night our attempts of the 'pick up put down' method were proving particularly fruitless - Jesse would cry whether we held him or not so it was more 'pick up and put down 40 mins later once he had exhausted himself'. I emailed Lisa in the wee hours and she got back to me early the next morning to ask me a few questions before advising me on what to do.

After an awful first night for both me and Jesse, Lisa was on hand very early to give me tips to help us adjust and Jesse went to sleep by himself very quickly for his 9am nap. He now goes to sleep in his cot in his own room and can resettle himself back to sleep if he awakes during the night. This is no small part down to having the Blissful Baby Expert on the end of an email giving me the confidence to help my little boy self settle.

No wonder the baby on the front of the book is so happy...

...#whatwouldyoumiss

What would you miss if you lost your sight?

Personally, this is a question I have often thought about...From the age of seven I had very poor eye sight which seem to worsen with every trip to the optician. I mainly put this down to delinquently continuing to read in the dark once my parents had asked for lights out!

Once my prescription had stabilised at an impressively blind -8.50 I was lucky enough to have laser eye treatment. Unfortunately, the first treatment left a residual prescription of -1.00 and because I couldn't wear contact lenses until my eyes had healed from the lasik, I felt worse off for a year until I could be retreated with lasek.

Now being able to see just doesn't get old. Ask Sam... he can tell you how many times he's had to listen to me exclaim "I can see!"

My darling friend Jaya works for the Dorset Blind Association, who are being forced to close a very effective club for young (working-age) blind people.  She told me "We are trying to raise £12,000 to keep the club going, because it makes such a huge impact on those who attend."

To raise awareness of their cause, Jaya and her team are asking people to upload pictures or videos representing what they would miss if they lost their sight, using social media with the hashtag #whatwouldyoumiss." 

To kick start this, I would very much miss seeing these little faces...

and my family...

And the chance to see this again...

Facebook a photo of ‪#‎whatwouldyoumiss‬ and

donate via www.tiny.cc/wwym or text WWYM14 £3 to 70070

... 101 days and counting

So Jesse is 101 days old today.

He has moved from his moses basket to his cot but is still in our room with us.

He is on to size 3 nappies and at last week's weigh in was 14lbs 12 oz

He has the cheekiest grin in the morning times.

                                               

He loves a good giggle with Patch his dog from Zia Carly and Uncle Charlie.

He has nap time in the pram with Long Neck his giraffe from Karen (daddy named him).

He stares at the colours and snuggles with the blanket from Natasha.

He likes a good thump about on the computer just like his daddy.

He has rolled on his back from his tummy (but we think it was a fluke as he's only done it the once) and he is desperate to sit up. He does these cute little crunches with his little elbows tucked in to let you know he wants up. Thanks for the octopus and the baby-gro now fits him, Amy.

He enjoyed a visit from his little girlfriend Aurelia (Lady A), who was quite taken with Badger.

And Jesse's pretty fond of Badger too.

We just want to thank everyone for his gifts, we have been completely overwhelmed by your generosity and send our love to you all x

...baking Cadbury's creme egg brownies and cookie slabs

It could be this breast feeding lark is making me hungrier but mamahood is turning me into a bit of a baker... 

Creme Egg Brownies
For Easter, I baked these decadent creme egg brownies with a recipe found on Precious Little Worlds blog.

Recipe:

185g unsalted butter 

185g best dark chocolate 
85g plain flour 
40g cocoa powder 3 large eggs
275g golden caster sugar
6 Cadbury’s Crème eggs cut in half

Preheat the oven to 160C and grease a 20 cm square baking tin.
Melt the butter and dark chocolate together either in the microwave or in a bowl over boiling water.
Break 3 large eggs into a large bowl and tip in 275g golden caster sugar. With an electric mixer on maximum speed, whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy, like a milk shake. This can take 3-8 minutes. You will know it's ready when the mixture becomes really pale and about double its original volume.
Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, and then gently fold together.
Hold a sieve over the bowl of eggy chocolate mixture and sift the cocoa and flour mixture, shaking the sieve from side to side, to cover the top evenly. 

Gently fold in to the mixture.
Pour into the baking tin and cook for 15 minutes then take out of the over and gently press the cadburys crème egg halves into the mix, spacing them apart evenly. 

Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Leave to cool before removing from tin and cutting into squares.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Slab

I love this Chocolate Chip Cookie Slab recipe because it is so simple to make and so addictive.

Recipe

220g (7 3/4oz) butter, softened

200 (7oz) brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

300g (10 ½oz) plain flour

200g(7oz) plain or milk chocolate chopped into chunks

Preheat the oven to 180 °C/ 350 °F /gas mark 4.

Lightly grease a 38x25 in (15 x 10 in) baking tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer until light and fluffy, (no less than five minutes!). 

Beat in the vanilla extract. 

Stir in the flour and chocolate chunks.

Pat the dough into the prepared tray.

Put in the oven and bake for 28 minutes. You know its ready when the edges go slightly crispy.

Cool and then cut into slabs.

Another incentive to bake more is that the sound of the electric mixer stops Jesse crying...

Chilling while I'm mixing

...reading Crazy, Undercover, Love

If like me you read Fifty Shades of Grey and were appalled by the bad writing (the amount of times she bit her lip or said 'On My', honestly I could have lumped her one) but like a bit of well-written romance... then I am delighted to say that my best friend's debut novel with HarperImpulse - Crazy, Undercover, Love - is released as an ebook today, 24th April 2014.

I can't tell you how proud and excited I am to see my friend get her first book cover. I've often wondered about how much say authors get regarding their covers and while I now know they don't necessarily get to choose and meet the model (mores the pity Nikki), they do sign off the final design.

Here's the blurby bit for you...
"The protagonist Charley Caswell-Wright takes on an assignment as PA to the gorgeous (of course) Alex Demetrio, CEO of Demetrio International, she's there under entirely false pretences; to get her life back on track. Having lost the job she worked so hard to earn, she’s determined not to give it up so easily, especially when she didn’t deserve to lose it in the first place. Mr Dreamy CEO is her only chance of clawing back her career – and her reputation. So she has to keep things strictly professional…"

Uh oh, forbidden fruit and all that, i smell trouble.

To buy Crazy, Undercover Love as an ebook:-
Amazon 
Google Play 
iTunes 
Kobo
Sainsbury's

Or to buy it as a paperback on pre-order, released on 26th June:- Amazon

Here's a bit more about the writer herself...
Nikki Moore lives in beautiful Dorset and writes short stories and sexy, pacy romances. A finalist in several writing competitions including Novelicious Undiscovered 2012, she graduated from the Romantic Novelists Association New Writers' Scheme after four years and and has contributed to their magazine Romance Matters. She has far too much fun attending the annual RNA conference and has previously chaired a panel and taken part in a workshop at the Festival of Romance.


Here are some of the lovely things that people are saying about Nikki's other stories...

The Love Letter and A Day in the Life... HarperImpulse short story collection Be My Valentine,  with Teresa F Morgan and Brigid Coady, attracting 4 and 5 star reviews.

'I loved all 5 stories and will look out for more books by each author.' 
CometBabesBooks, Amazon

'Whilst I enjoyed all of the stories, I particularly liked Nikki Moore's … her voice as an author really resonated with me and I can't wait to read more of her work.' 
Kate Beeden, Goodreads

Nikki's short story A Night to Remember in the Mills & Boon/Romantic Novelists Association anthology Truly, Madly, Deeply which has also attracted 4 and 5 star reviews.

'My favourite story was A Night To Remember. I think what drew me to this … was its resonance with real life. I'm not going to spoil the story but I could feel the emotions spilling out of the page - it was beautiful.' 
Beckie, www.beckiesbookmix.blogspot.co.uk

'A Night to Remember - Beautiful, devastatingly so.'
Cheryl M-M, Goodreads & http://mmcheryl.wordpress.com/

Check out Nikki's blog www.nikkimooreauthor.wordpress.com or hit her up on her social media links here www.facebook.com/NikkiMooreAuthor and here @NikkiMoore_Auth 

...Six weeks later

These last six weeks have been like nothing I've known as Sam, Badger and I get to know Jesse.
Needless to say we are completely in love, and as time is short (he has just filled another nappy), here are some of my favourite photos from the last few weeks.

Love that little face x