As you can see he has a toy vacuum, but I guess nothing compares to the real thing! This could be veeeery useful quite soon:)!
Someone who will remain unnamed is OBSESSED with this book at the moment. We must read it about 10 times a day!
Samuel has learned the word 'YAY!" I don't know where he learned that from... hmmm....The top things that get a 'YAY!' from Samuel are:
3. Getting to brush his teeth
2. Getting an orange or a banana
1. When daddy gets home
It's the simple things:)
For Christmas, my friend gave me the best gift you can give a pregnant lady. A gift that satisfies your desire to snack constantly! Actually this is an amazing gift for everyone. She gave me a gift certificate towards Graze which means that every week I receive a box with an assortment of yummy snacks. On their website you can rate what foods you like and there is also an option to say if the food item is something you would never want or one you would want soon!I was very excited when the box arrived! At first I just had a little taste from each box... then I ate more... then I started rationalizing that since it was a gift for me I didn't need to save it for the next day or for Adrian to try when he got home... once I started it was so hard to stop! When Adrian got home there were none of my favorite item left (the olives) but he did get to try everything else. As you can imagine, there definitely wasn't any left the next day. They were just to good to save!
My first box contained:
Sammy and I took a little expedition to South Kensington today. It's funny how being a stay at home mom means I stay so local all the time that going to where I used to go to work 5 days a week feels like a big adventure. We went there to see my former co-workers and had such a lovely time catching up with them. It was also fun to see what changes had been made since I was last there especially the new shops and restaurants.
I knew I wanted to get something sweet before we headed home and was debating between a Hummingbird Bakery cupcake and a cookie from Ben's Cookies. Ben's Cookies won but then when we got to the shop it was closed for refurbishment:(. What to do, what to do? This pregnant ladies wants something sweet!
And then I remembered Snog- a delicious frozen yogurt place located just around the corner from S. Ken tube.
It was a perfect place to take Samuel as we could share the yogurt and toppings plus the decor is really fun for kids. The ceiling of the restaurant has moving clouds, there is a fake grass floor and the chairs are like toad stools! We had a mandarin frozen yogurt (that was a new flavor to me and it was really good!) with mango, mochi, and brownies. Yum!
We had big plans for Saturday ... mainly going to Hyde Park so I could take some photos as I may have been having a pity party recently about my lack of time to spend on photography... but after being woken at 6 am by Mr. Samuel we decided on a much lazier day. There were english muffins and scrambled eggs for breakfast, COFFEE, naps and I don't remember much else except that we didn't leave the house til about 2.30 pm when we cycled to our local park.
I am loving our bike rides! I can tell Samuel does too as he gets so excited to get on the bike and put his helmet on but once we are out and about he acts so nonchalant about the whole thing. If I cycle past Adrian and him and wave a big hello, I'm lucky if he even looks my way! It's like he is thinking: I know, mom, I see you, but I am trying to blend in here:).
Could they be any cuter?! Samuel is loving the ducks at the park especially now that he has learned the word duck. Now if we can just work on his pronunciation:)
This week's meals (16 - 22 Jan):
Mon: Tortellini and salad
Tues: Vegetable soup and rolls
Wed: Leftover vegetable soup and rolls
Thurs: Sweet potato falafels
Fri: Dinner at a friend's house (so nice to not have to cook!!!)
Sat breakfast: Egg on English muffins
Sat lunch: Leftover falafels
Sat Dinner: Moroccan chick pea and chicken stew (will work on posting the recipe)
Sun lunch: Tortilla pizza
Sunday dinner: Leftover from Sunday night
Nothing will keep him from a clementine...
It's hard to tell him no when he is this cute! I will now be keeping fruit in the kitchen... hopefully out of sight will mean out of climbing range!
This week the baby is making it very apparent that it has a good kick! Even Adrian was able to put his hand on my belly and feel some kicks. It looks like we are going to have another strong child!
Samuel is going to be the best big brother!
This little one keeps me on my toes with his acrobatic tendencies! Such a climber! I find our days such a roller coaster of emotions as one minute we can be having so much fun together and then just a few minutes later I will feel exhausted or impatient or frustrated. I think there are tweaks you can make to minimise frustration but I think some parts of parenthood are simply challenging and it is okay to admit that! I read both of these posts earlier in the week and found them super encouraging.
2 great posts about the ups and downs of being a mother to young children:
We put on all our layers including water proof boots and trousers (for Samuel) and headed out to the park early Monday morning. A little frost was not going to put us off being outside! It was a clear, sunny morning and we had the park to ourselves. I almost felt a bit smug at how prepared we were and was thinking how rain or shine - nothing would keep us from enjoying the great outdoors. Then the first hour passed... and my pride began to dissolve. I began wishing I had put on another pair of socks and Samuel was getting tired of me putting his soggy mittens back on his hands. We braved it a bit longer and than threw in the towel- it's too cold! More layers needed! Oh well, at least by the time we got home (after thawing off in the grocery store) it was time for lunch and then NAP TIME!
I have been trying to do a bit more meal planning as of late and it has made such a difference in the day to day stress of preparing dinner! I have also bought bigger quantities of things like baking potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, courgettes/zucchini and garlic plus having chopped tomatoes, chick peas, pasta and couscous on hand really helps with quick meals!
Sweet potato falafels
This dish is my favorite one to get at Leon (a tasty, healthy restaurant in Leon) and I have been meaning to try to cook it myself for ages. I used the falafel recipe from this site and the aioli sauce recipe from here. We put the falafel balls in a whole grain pita with cucumbers and a mixture of marinated grated carrots and onions. They were delicious and made enough for a leftover lunch. Samuel loved the sweet potato falafels too so it was a hit all around!
Note- these are great to prepare in the afternoon and then pop in the over just before dinner (they only take 15 minutes to bake!).
Penne Giardiniera
This again is a recipe that I first had at a resturant here in London (Carluccios). It is one of those dishes that I only had once but have remembered loving the combination flavors and textures. I have to say I found the recipe a bit unclear at times, but it all tasted good in the end. My main recommendation is to somehow keep the spinach balls warm as ours got cold as I cooked up the pasta. Recipe here
This dish is my favorite one to get at Leon (a tasty, healthy restaurant in Leon) and I have been meaning to try to cook it myself for ages. I used the falafel recipe from this site and the aioli sauce recipe from here. We put the falafel balls in a whole grain pita with cucumbers and a mixture of marinated grated carrots and onions. They were delicious and made enough for a leftover lunch. Samuel loved the sweet potato falafels too so it was a hit all around!Note- these are great to prepare in the afternoon and then pop in the over just before dinner (they only take 15 minutes to bake!).
Penne Giardiniera
This again is a recipe that I first had at a resturant here in London (Carluccios). It is one of those dishes that I only had once but have remembered loving the combination flavors and textures. I have to say I found the recipe a bit unclear at times, but it all tasted good in the end. My main recommendation is to somehow keep the spinach balls warm as ours got cold as I cooked up the pasta. Recipe hereLast weeks menu (10-15 Jan):
Tues - Dinner at church small group
Wed - Tortellini and salad
Thurs - Penne Giardiniera
Fri - Sweet potato falafel and salad
Sat - Baked potatoes with beans and cheese and salad
Sun - Homemade pizza with mozarella, red peppers, and courgettes
Oh and if anyone has a good recipe for pizza dough, please send it our way!
There has been a big change in my mommy world... I have stopped breast feeding. I stopped just before Christmas. It is hard to say exactly how I feel about it. It was a sad feeling letting of go of that special closeness and dependency that Samuel and I had shared from his first day. Yet it also felt like the right time. We had been gradually decreasing how often he breastfed over the last several months. Soon after he turned one we went down to twice a day- when he first woke up and then right before bed. Then a month or two after that I stopped breastfeeding him in the evening and he instead drank cow's milk but we carried on first thing in the morning. It was such a special way to start the day! He had always been unsettled first thing until he breastfed so I had wondered how we would ever stop at the time.
But like most changes with Samuel various factors or situations seem to crop up that make the change less difficult. For instance, mid December there were a couple of mornings where I needed more sleep so Adrian fed Sammy a cup of milk in the morning and then there was a morning where he didn't have milk straight away... and he was fine! Basically it was much easier than I could have anticipated and hasn't been hard at all. I think this is mainly because we have taken our time with it all.
So that's our story of stopping breastfeeding in a nutshell!
Afterthought - this is a very simplified version of my thoughts on this subject. I have found breastfeeding at times amazing, convenient, exhausting, frustrating, restricting, but mostly I have found that it has gotten easier over time and has been very special for Samuel and I. As I don't know who will be reading this post I have edited many of my thoughts and feelings on the subject, but please feel free to e-mail or message me with any questions/thoughts.
Sammy's vocab seems to have tripled over Christmas! He is now saying: up, keys, banana, apple, shoes, socks, out, me, coat and hello. He also sings' row, row, row' and 'twinkle, twinkle' with actions with the expectation that I will take over and sing the rest of the song. Lets just say I've been singing those 2 songs quite a bit recently! My favorite words he has picked up are definitely please and thank you! Such a a polite little boy! Please is so much better than the squawking that used to happen when he wanted more food.It is amazing seeing him be so expressive! We just fall more in love with him each day.
Today is Adrian's 29th birthday!!! I love him so much and am so excited to spend a day celebrating him! Here is a peek at our breakfast ... coffee, bacon, and the most delicious baked french toast. Yum!
1) Samuel riding a fire engine, 2) Samuel with his beloved clementines, 3) Sammy & I love, 4) My sis Rachel at a German Christmas market
To say I was excited about Christmas this year would be an understatement:) We watched Elf on Thanksgiving and soon after I discovered a tv channel that had suddenly appeared called Christmas 24. Christmas movie marathon month began! Let's just say I watched a few too many super cheesy films during December most of which had a plot line that went something like this: single mom takes her son to see his gradfather who now lives somewhere called Santaville. She isn't really in to Christmas but her son and dad are and then she meets a handsome carpenter who she ends up falling in love with and her Christmas spirit is restored... . Yes, they were pretty bad!
I also got into watching some of the Christmas cooking shows. As we are major Jamie Oliver fans in this house I of course watched his Christmas cooking special. On it he talked about making a Turkey Wellington. It looked so delicious and could be made the day before. So I offered to make it for Christmas dinner. And the offer was accepted:)! I was really happy with how it turned out especially as it was my first time making any type of wellington. It was delicious in my unbiased opinion! Here is it...
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