The Saturday Update

We've had a great festive week here.

Christmas started on Christmas Eve with the opening of the first present. Isabella loved that Santa had been.

We had a lovely day on Christmas Day with lots of present opening, delicious food and drink and quality family time.

Boxing Day and Tuesday were quiet. Isabella loved her time with grandad - doing jigsaws, playing games and prancing around in the garden.

On Wednesday we took Isabella for her second haircut. She loved chatting with the hairdresser and the walk home.

Dad left on Thursday after a last shopping trip. I took Isabella to the playground.

Yesterday I took the kids shopping and to the bank before dashing home for coffee/a playdate with some friends.

This week Isabella goes back to nursery and I need to practice for being home alone with the baby!

Links!

Made me laugh.

Looking on the bright side.

Learn to switch off!

Cute kids gift.

I like to see people get what's coming.

A review.

Ideas for when winter arrives.

Looking forward.

Interesting take on praising children.

A lovely Christmas story.

December Goal Review

Here's how our month went:

• Find our groove as a family of four. - done.
• Celebrate our first Christmas at home. - done!

The Fourth Trimester Magazine

My first issue of this magazine arrived today. I came across it on social media because someone who I went to school with had written an article in this, the third issue of the magazine.

When Isabella was born, I started to follow more blogs and websites about motherhood. After Joshua's birth, I'm remembering how crucial such links, contact and support are for a mother's mental well-being.

I'm still at the beginning of this issue but I can already say I'll be ordering it again, along with the back issues. As with the Unmumsy Mum, it's so good to be reminded that I'm not the only mother who can struggle at times. At a time when the internet and society is often used to bring people down, it's good to know that there are niches like these, building people back up.

The articles are well-written and varied and the illustrations are beautiful.

If you're interested, look here.

Kirchweyhe Christmas Market

As I mentioned, we rounded off the nursery year by meeting some of Isabella's nursery friends and their parents at the local Christmas market.

There were four children (five with Joshua, though he slept in the carrier) and eight adults. We started the evening with a catch up at the big Christmas tree. The kids literally ran rings around us which helped tire them out.

Suddenly, Isabella ran up with a gingerbread Santa. A nice lady and her toddler grandson were handing them out as advertising for a local garage. We shared it out among the four children.

After a while we headed to the carousel where we all bought tokens and the kids must have had ten rounds and a go on each different part of the carousel. They loved it and it was a joy to see them together having so much fun.

Santa never showed but between the rides, the punch and food, the kids never noticed. I hope we can make plans to meet the others more often in the new year.

Make it Monday - Art Therapy

It's been a quiet craft week around here. I did receive a crafty Christmas gift in the form of this Anti-stress colouring book and I finished page one already! It's good that I can do it one handed, I'll see if it reduces stress...

Season's Greetings

From my house to yours, a very merry Christmas.

The Saturday Update

We've had a lovely week here. First we relaxed a lot and (touch wood) we're feeling better than last weekend.

Isabella had four good days at nursery and a fun trip to the Christmas market with three of her nursery friends yesterday evening. She must have been on the carrousel ten times.

Joshua's settling down a bit. This means I'm managing to get a bit more done. He's more and more aware every day.

Nico and I planned Christmas dinner, did a lot of shopping and got tidied up.

Dad arrived on Thursday evening and settled straight back into Grandpa duties.

Today we'll be doing the final preparations for tomorrow. Nico's family are coming tomorrow and I'm excited for our first Christmas in our home.

Links!

Shopping here would freak me out.

Sometimes I miss the divide.

Interesting (Mum).

Thinking about this when I go back to work.

Learnt something new here.

Wanderlust.

So much truth.

More parenting advice.

Cool.

A new journaler to follow. And another.

Children's Books

Since I last posted on this topic, Isabella has developed a few of her own favourites. Here are some of her current ones.

The Gruffalo

So much fun. She loves the book and the film and knows it off by heart!

The Children's Atlas

Lately, this has been hwr favourite bedtime 'story'. To be honest, it's getting on my nerves but we flick through looking at all the pictures. There are lots of animals and she's actually learned lots of new vocabulary thanks to this.

The Snail and the Whale

This is also one of my favourites and from the same authors as the Gruffalo. It's about a snail who travels the world on the tail of a whale.

Peace at Last

We had this book when we were little about a bear who can't sleep. It's a cute story and she joins in with the reading.

For Christmas, Isabella's getting this and Joshua this.

More festive spirit

Day In The Life

After my success with the 31 Things project, I managed to squeeze in one more Ali Edwards project - Day in the Life - just before Joshua's birth.

 I ordered the kit directly from Ali's website and it made the whole process very easy - especially since I put most of the format together one - handed while feeding Joshua.

 The project actually documents the day before I went into labour. It was a Sunday and Dad's last full day with us.

I took a photo and made some notes every hour. I wrote the notes up on the cards, printed the photos and added the embellishments - simple!

I love the finished product, I enjoyed using some of my products from Project Life and I'll definitely be documenting Day in the Life again!

Make it Monday - Christmas Cards

This year, with the crazy run up to Christmas that we've had, I decided to keep the Christmas cards simple. Following on from the November birthdays, I used the brown card stock and cracked out my Christmas stamps. I tried some red and green ink to make them festive but in the end I prefered the clearer black.

I also used matching gift tags with my wrapping. It's a theme I may stick with for a while. Unfortunately I don't have a picture for you due to 'baby brain'.

Weekly Wisdom

If you get tired, learn to rest, not quit.

The Saturday Update

It's been another week of ups and downs here. It's gone so fast and I can't believe it's just a week to Christmas!

On Monday we went to Ikea and Nico rearranged thd kitchen - it looks so much better. In the afternoon some friends came over to meet Joshua. It was good to talk to them.

On Tuesday I took Joshua to brunch with the yoga mums. Again, it was really nice to get out and about and mix. Joshua slept for most of it and it was crazy to see the difference four months makes in the babies. It was a good reminder to enjoy the moment with Joshua (and Isabella) as it goes so fast.

The rest of the week was mainly spent at home but we got lots done - cards and letters posted, presents wrapped, place on a post-natal fitness course booked, Joshua's clothes resorted (pink is out), Christmas lights up, journaling done and two midwife visits.

This morning Joshua's full of cold, I've got some kind of tummy bug and Isabella is still coughing. I'm hoping we can all get some rest and get healthy for Dad's visit and Christmas.

Links!

As a linguist, I find this so interesting.

This is so sweet.

On the topic of cats.

Looking for something to watch over the holidays?

Not sure about all of these.

Recently been relearning this.

An interesting read.

We didn't do this but it sounds clever.

May have to get these.

If I weren't breatfeeding over Christmas, I would so do this.

Christmas Lights

Nico recently bought some waterproof remote controlled lights. They're perfect outdoor Christmas decorations and we decided to put them in the garden so we get to see them and they're in range of the house for turning on or off. Extra Christmas spirit!

Surprising things about birth #2

I'm hoping to share our birth story soon - when I have time and two free hands to type more. One thing I know for sure is that I went into the process naively thinking that the second time would be more or less the same as the first. Boy was I wrong. Here are some of the biggest surprises I had bringing Joshua into the world.

1. Yes, I'd done it before, just 2.5 years before but it's incredible how much you forget; the different stages of pregnancy, the pains, how tiny they are, how much longer it takes to change an uncooperative newborn who doesn't 'point their toes' or 'put their arms up'.

2. The after pains. I barely remember them from the first birth but they were as bad as some of the contractions this time. Apparently they get stronger with each birth and women who have four or five births behind them say that they get worse than the labour itself.

3. Boys are different! Apart from the obvious physical differences (I've been peed on several times already), both he and I have rashes from the hormones and apparently boys are louder.

4. The red tape. I saved the paperwork we had to fill out with Isabella to help us out this time but in just 2.5 years the birth certificate application process, the child benefit form, the medical tests, and who knows what else have changed.

5. It's harder with two. I've often wondered how single parents cope, now I'm in complete awe. If Nico hadn't had paternity leave, I'd never have managed. Friends had warned me and it's true, the hardest thing about parenting two is not being able to satisfy both children all the time. It's a good learning curve for us all though.

My top 3 Christmas Films

As an English teacher, I love having an excuse to crack out the Christmas films with my pupils every year, I'm missing it right now but I'm hoping to introduce Isabella to one on Christmas Eve. Here are my three favourites:

Elf

Brilliant comedy, suitable for family watching and full of Christmas spirit.

Love Actually

I love these kinds of films - lots of different stories woven together. This film is so focused on what's important at this (and any) time of year - friends and family.

Home Alone

This one takes me right back to my childhood. I always wanted to fill our house with booby traps too!

Make it Monday - Origami Christmas Decoration

This is my latest project from the Mollie Makes magazine. It was really easy - I think I had it in 20 minutes and I used some of the craft paper that comes with the magazine so it was free!

I plan to do something similar for the kids' rooms and look forward to doing a project like this with them. Isabella was very impressed when she saw this on the tree.

Weekly Wisdom

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Saturday Update

Well another week has flown by in a whirlwind of feeds, nappy changes and naps. Joshua is thriving. Isabell is full of beans despite having a tummy bug. Nico is doing a great job looking after all of us.

I took Isabella to nursery on Wednesday and it felt good to get out. We also walked to the shops yesterday - our first outing as four. We discovered two new ways to settle the baby - walks and the vacuum cleaner!

We got our house decorated and the Christmas shopping done and even a bit of crafting.

Next week we have a few more appointments and outings planned. Here's hoping for another restful but productive week.

Links!

Almost starting to miss work.

Interesting.

A positive side to the patchwork family.

Let's take note!

Some of these look like fun!

Important message for our daughters.

An interesting idea.

A fun map!

Symphoniacs

Loving this band at the moment - amazing talent. Already bought their album for Christmas presents.

Christmas!

 Amazingly between feeds, changes and naps, we've also managed to get our house decorated for Christmas. This is always something of a highlight for me.

My in-laws always buy me decorations so the collection is ever growing. This year I had totally forgotten the big snowman from last Christmas. I love it!

The growing collection fits nicely into the house. I feel like we're getting more rooms into the spirit.

Another highlight this year is that Isabella gets it. She's been so excited with advent and Nikolaus and she loved helping to decorate the tree. I think it turned out quite well considering how high a two-year-old can reach.

Advent!

 For obvious reasons we were a little late setting up for Advent this year but yesterday, I finally got around to it. Like last year Isabella has a daily and weekly calendars.

She also has a chocolate one from family.

Here in Germany it's tradition to put something other than chocolate in there which I love. (Although she will be disappointed by the time January gets here...) Since she's old enough to get it, I found her a 24-piece jigsaw. Some pieces barely fit but she's so excited already.

For the weekly one I got her a couple of little figures, a car and a mini-torch. Can't wait to see her face when she opens them.

Make it Monday - November Birthday Cards

This was my first attempt with new card stock and stamps. I kept it fairly simple which I liked but the names made each one individual.

I like the new neutral stock and I have since made our Christmas cards with it too. Amazon had some great offers on card stock this month so I was in luck.

Weekly Wisdom

Winter is for home and hibernation.

The Saturday Update

We had a life changing week here. After a weekend of walks and visiting the local Christmas market, Dad left on Monday morning.

By evening I was in labour and Joshua was born in the early hours of Tuesday. It was a quick labour in the end and he is like Isabella in so many ways but much louder!

We came home on Thursday and we're still finding our feet but it's getting a bit better. I'm so grateful that Nico is home with us and that Isabella is taking the changes in her stride.

We had our first visitors yesterday. Joshua barely noticed - he's a real Mummy's boy, but Isabella loves having family here.

More settling into the new routine and getting ready for Christmas next week.

Links!

Might need this soon.

Love these.

Glad I'm out of this for a while!

How different some of these films might have been.

I've learned this lately!

Sweet.

Going to try this.

Continuing the Christmas theme. (It is December now...)

December Goals

Here are my plans for this month:

• Find our groove as a family of four.
• Celebrate our first Christmas at home.

And that's it! This year has been manic and wonderful and I feel we deserve some time for ourselves to recharge the batteries and find our way into a brand new stage.