Choosing the first pair of shoes for Florence is a milestone I have been so excited about. We all have that photo of our first shoe shopping trip as a little one up against the Clarkes shop wall wearing our first ever shoes don’t we? […]
Before I had Florence, I never really saw myself as a baby wearer. If I am honest, it scared me a little. I was terrified of the idea that I might fall while wearing her or that somehow she would fall out. That was until […]
It’s bee a while since I wrote your last update and my goodness, as I look back we’ve had quite a few months! You have come on leaps and bounds over the last twelve weeks and are becoming more toddler and less baby by the minute. You’ve also become a cousin for the first time and while you’re not quite sure why you’re having to share the limelight suddenly, I think you’re both going to grow to be the best of friends.
Not only are you crawling at speed, you are a pro stair-climber and spend hours each day waddling up and down the room with your walker. When you first mastered it, each time you’d reach one end you’d promptly sit down and applaud yourself with such pride. Now though, a few weeks in you have finally sussed how to reverse and turn yourself around. This last week you have even started to let go and just stand casually unsupported babbling away to anyone who will listen. 
I will be completely honest, I have been a bit worried about your speech and your lack of words, but suddenly you are singing out ‘Mum, Mum, Mum’, ‘Nan, Nan, Nan’ and of course, ‘Dad, Dad, Dad’ over and over again…. And breathe. You also take great pride in your ability to tell me what noise a cow and a fish make! You chat away constantly making all sorts of sounds, and eagerly wait for us to reply so we can have a proper chinwag. I have no doubt that you are going to be a bit of a chatter box!
Your sense of humor is really growing and you are becoming such a funny little thing. You have us in stitches every single day and certainly know how to play a crowd. You are at your best in a room full of people where you can really show off your cheekiness and blow kisses to everyone with such gusto that sometimes I wonder if you’r cheeks are going to implode! You’re finding us quite funny too, and I’ve caught you really chuckling at Peter Rabbit & Mr Tumble too which is just the cutest thing. 
Despite us all getting pretty much all of the glorious winter bugs over and over plus a delightful visit from the Chicken Pox, we seem to have fit in so many firsts and little milestones through over the last few months. You’ve seen and played in your first snow, we finally took you swimming, and we’ve celebrated your first Easter with an insane amount of chocolate! Now that we are all feeling better we made the decision to move your cot into your nursery, just after you hit 10 months old. It was such a huge thing for me that I just hadn’t been ready to do until right then. You’ve taken to it SO SO well and seem so completely unphased by it all. You just go with the flow! 
When it comes to play, you have learned a few little games that you love. You would play our own little version of catch all day long if you could – you squeal with glee each time you roll, throw or pass a ball to one of us and clap every single time. I have lost count of the amount of times I have sung If you’re Happy and you Know it, Horsey, Horsey! and Twinkle Twinkle after your constant requests. I love how much you love music and singing and dancing. But most of all, you adore books. Every morning, I pop you on the floor in the living room while I get your morning bottle ready and come back in to find you sitting among a sea of books that you’ve pulled off of the shelf, casually flicking through your favourites, lifting the flaps, fiddling with the feely bits and leaning forward to kiss the characters. Your love of reading and stories just makes me so proud. You are a girl after my own heart! 
Your relationships with your ‘people’ are just becoming stronger and stronger. You and your Daddy are becoming quite the mischievous pair. Whenever I turn my back I can hear you both getting up to all the things Mama doesn’t let you do – take Easter morning for example when I found you chomping your way through an entire Easter Egg before you’d even had your morning bottle! Hearing you both play and giggle together is simply just the best sound and your excitement when he walks through the door each day fills me with utter joy. 
We still see Aunty Libby almost every day and she seems to top the list when it comes to your favourite people, possibly only just missing out to the dog. She wears her badge as your aunty with such pride and absolutely wraps you in love every time she’s here, and trust me, you’re the only person on this earth who can get away with getting mucky handprints on her trousers and systematically messing up her make up brushes every time we go and visit her and Nanny. 
Alfie, oh poor Alfie. He’s doing his very best to accept your totally intense love for him. You seek him out at any opportunity and crawl at him with such conviction and yet he just lays there, gives you a quick lick on the hand when you reach him and promptly gets up and moves out of your reach. However, he is also your little shadow at times, checking on you every now and then just to see if you’re okay and getting a quick bunch of kisses on your cheek before I shoo him away! Which by the way, you find hilarious! 
I am sure there is just so much more that you’ve learned and accomplished over the last few months that I haven’t managed to fit in here. Little girl, my little Florrie Bum, you amaze and inspire me every single day and I am so happy to be able to call myself your Mama. 
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For me, there is nothing more magical, more heart warming than watching my baby grow and learn each and every day. Over the last few weeks, Florence has transformed from a baby to a little cheeky, clever almost toddler full of character. She learned to clap […]
It’s hard to believe we are already five months into Florence’s weaning journey. While it might have been controversial we absolutely did the right thing by deciding to wean at four months, there is no way she would have lasted to the advised 6 month […]
I’m not sure if you’ve heard… but it’s a bit snowy around here at the moment. Usually the thought of snow absolutely fills me with dread. I am much more of a sandals in the sun kind of girl as opposed to a walker in a winter wonderland. However, despite my determination to stay indoors and in the warm, my sister had other ideas and bounded around to our house filled with the excitement of a 5 year old and insisted we head out and play! We bundled Florence up nice and snug in the carrier and headed out to explore. It was snowing quite heavily as we left and she giggled and waved with excitement as the flakes fell from the sky and landed on her nose. Stopping at the local ‘tat shop’ as I like to call it to pick up a sledge we made our way to our local cricket pavillion. The green was untouched and covered in a blanket of fluffy white snow.
It was so cold! I took Florence out of the carrier and placed her down on the floor. She really wasn’t sure to begin with and just sat there a bit perplexed. Not only was the snow all a bit new to her, her snowsuit is so padded she can hardly move once it’s on. Tilly & Alfie on the other hand were in their element! They ran and rolled and leaped through the snow making Florence fall about with laughter and she soon began to seem a bit happier. She watched as we threw snowball after snowball for the dogs to chase after only for them to land disperse and despite my bets efforts to stop her, she thought she’d have a quick taste of the snow too!
After a quick ride in the sledge (clearly an essential buy!), we came back home to warm up and have some lunch. I’d planned to have soup but living opposite the fish & chip shop means that you can rarely walk by without inhaling that glorious salty chip aroma and so we decided upon a portion of chips instead! 
We were all warmed up again when Sean & Harry arrived home and so we decided to head back out to the Green all together. However Sean had different ideas and lead the way through the countryside in search of the perfect hill to sledge down. We walked miles! The boys were up in front with the dogs while Libby, Florence & I followed behind. It’s safe to say my sister isn’t that fond of walking anywhere – she much prefers to be chauffer driven whereever she goes – so she made it no secret that she wasn’t too thrilled to be passing all of these lovely hills which in her view would be just as good.
I had Florence in the carrier again and I’ll admit by the time we almost reached the top I was so out of breath. Sean suggested I get in the sledge so he could pull us up but it didn’t take long before I hit a bump and fell right back out. We really laughed! Florence didn’t seem in any way phased by the whole thing, she just sat contently in her i-angel singing away to herself. 
We finally reached the top to find that the hill Sean had had his sights on was completely free of snow! You can imagine my sisters face! She insisted on being pulled back down on the sledge and screamed the entire time she was on it because snow was getting in. We all laughed as she zoomed down all by herself shouting “somebody help meeeeeee!”. 
About half way down we found a little steep slope and each had a go at sledging down it.
By the time we were almost at the bottom, Florence was exhausted and the combination of the cold & being outside for most of the day finally caught up with her and so she got herself in quite a pickle until she fell sound asleep on my chest.
We had such a fun day in the snow and aside from the very end I think Florence’s first snow was enjoyed by all! With more of the white stuff forecast for the rest of the week, I’m sure we’ll be back out in at some point.
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We are well into our weaning journey with Florence and over the next few weeks we are going to be sharing some of the products that have made the whole process that bit easier right here. Today I wanted to tell you about the Vital […]
I’ve been meaning to write this post for absolutely ages – ever since we headed to Cornwall from Kent back in November. Holidaying with a baby for the first time can be quite a daunting occasion and even more stressful if there’s a lot of […]
