Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween To Everyone!

 

 

Daddy's Girl

It's always said that girls are more daddy's girls and boys are mummy's boys. This is definitely true in Calleigh's case.

But I don't mind (although I do grump sometimes when Daddy gets smiles and all I get is a half hearted glance before turning back to Daddy), I think it's lovely that Calleigh adores her Daddy. After all he is the one who will protect her and keep her safe.

 

Calleigh has always had a special bond with Daddy, I think she knows he's the one she can wrap around her little finger.

 

We recently went as a family to go and feed the ducks and I just wanted to share with you some of the photos I took that day, as they really show that special bond between Father and Daughter.

 

 

We didn't actually do any feeding of the ducks that day, we just watched and I went mad taking pictures. I've got about 20 pictures of what looks like the same Swan, I shall call her Susan.

 

 



Chocolaty Halloween Cake

Yesterday Calleigh and I spent the day at mother's for the purpose of baking. This is what I took along in my bag of goodies.

And this is what we made :-)

 

 

Chocolaty Halloween Cake with Meringue Ghosts

I just love the little ghosts, they are super cute, although Calleigh just wanted to squish them.
 

I used a recipe I found on the BBC Food website so if you would like to try it too, find it here.

 

 

The Great Escape

Since Calleigh has become a very (very!) speedy crawler is has been essential for us to install a Baby Safety Gate into her bedroom, especially as it leads directly out to the stairs. Now Calleigh being the genius that she is, has already figured out how to open it, luckily her mini little hands are not big nor strong enough to do it (phew).

 

 

So instead Calleigh has resorted to pulling on Paul's leg to let her out, yet more evidence that Calleigh is secretly our pet dog.

 

 

 



Outfit Of The Month: Halloween Special

Look at that pose

 

Mummy's Little Pumpkin Outfit (inc tights)- George at Asda

Pumpkin Slippers- Tesco Baby

 

I love Halloween and am very excited for Calleigh as this will be her first one. There isn't a lot of choice for baby Halloween costumes but when I saw this whilst shopping at Asda I couldn't resist.

I can't wait to take her out in it on Halloween :-)

 

 

 



Liebster Blog

Hi everyone, I was nominated for the Liebster blog award by Vicki over at The Domesticated Me. I have never heard of it before but it was lovely to be nominated, Thank you Vicki :-)
Now if I've got this right It's an award for blogs with 200 or less followers to tell them you like what they are doing. When you receive the award, you post 11 random facts about yourself and answer 11 questions from the person who nominated you. Then you pass the award on to other blogs you think deserve some acknowledgement and ask them 11 questions.

So here are 11 random facts about me :-)

1. I have a twin sister although we are not identical or alike in personality.. Chalk and cheese
2. I got engaged at a Metallica gig :-) Rock on
3. I am terrified of Whales
4. My favourite food is Lasagne
5. When I was younger my favourite band was Westlife (cringe)
6. I once cried at an episode of Futurama (It was really sad though)
7. I am currently addicted to playing Lego Batman
8. I hate to be alone
9. I don't think before I speak
10. I need complete silence to get to sleep (this annoys Paul when I shout at him for breathing)
11. I survived depression in my teens

Questions from Vicki

1. If you could live anywhere, where would you live? why?
I would love to live in Florida. I've been there for family holidays and it's my favourite place.

2. What's your favourite childhood memory?
Any Christmas.. I love the whole family being together (and of course presents)

3. What's your favourite room in your home and why?
Our bedroom because it's the only room that we decorated ourselves

4. Favourite season and why?
It's got to be Autumn, It's so beautiful with all the colours and I love wrapping up warm in big knits and wool scarves.

5. What's your "peeve" about blogging?
I don't really have one

6. Favourite TV show right now?
Dexter.. It's getting so exciting!

7. What project have you worked on most recently? Provide a link if you can.
I am not working on a project right now.. All my time is put into looking after my baby and planning her birthday.

8. What do you do first thing every morning?
Go in and see the smile on my little girl's face and then drink tea :-)

9. If I gave you a million dollars, what would you do with it?
Get a bigger house with a nice garden for Calleigh.. Probably in America as well.

10. Favourite thing about your children or your furbabies?
Her personality.. she is soo weird it makes me laugh.

11. What country would you most like to visit? why?
Denmark, I've always wanted to go there. Paul went a lot with work and I've always wanted to go with him but not been able too.. It's very expensive.

Now here are my nominees:

Sarah at The Road To Being A Yummy Mummy

Helen at Diary Of A Newlywed

Dixx at @Imeowlife

Amy at My Crafty Mummy

 

 

And here are my questions for you:

1. What made you want to start blogging and do you still feel the same about it?
2. Where do you want to be a year from now?
3. What's your favourite film?
4. If you were stranded on a desert island what three things would you want with you?
5. What is your favourite holiday?
6. How did you celebrate your last birthday?
7. What is your favourite photo? (please post it)
8. What food do you love/hate?
9. What are you most afraid of?
10. What is the best thing that happened to you this week?
11. What makes you happy?     

 

I hope you all have fun filling this out and let me know if/when you post it :-)

Thanks again to Vicki for nominating me :-) 

 

 

 

My Top 3 Baby Buys

When your pregnant and expecting your first child it can be pretty daunting when deciding what to buy for the impending arrival of your first born. I know for me and I was looking at lists and lists of things you need and I often found myself wondering do I really need this? When am I going to use this?

Once you've got the essentials all sorted there is still an endless list of things that might come in handy.

 

Here are the 3 things that are not essential but what I have found to be extremely useful.

 

 

1. Tommee Tippee Sangenic Hygiene Plus - Nappy Disposal Bin

 

 

It's no secret that baby poo smells.. really bad. So for me this has been a life saver. It kills germs and locks in those nasty odours so your not constantly running outside to get rid of those dirty nappies to save your house from the smell. It holds about 20 nappies until you have to empty it and the wrapping lasts for ages. Refills are cheap too and come in handy packs of three so you never find yourself without a spare.

 

 

2. Slumber Buddies Butterfly Night Light

 

 

This is such a great item, we put it on every night at bedtime and Calleigh loved looking at the stars it projects onto the ceiling. It glows blue, red or green and plays soothing lullabies or a heartbeat sound to simulate what baby heard in the womb. It also has auto shut off after 30 minutes so we didn't need to disturb Calleigh to turn it off. It was definitely Calleigh's favourite bedtime companion.

 

 

3. Disney Store Wonder Room and Linen Spray

 

This is more a favourite of mine. It smells absolutely gorgeous and I use it to spray around Calleigh's bed  and in her room to keep it smelling baby sweet. Disney describes it's aroma as "A delicate scent of lemon sugar, apple blossoms and marshmallow clouds" and it really is heavenly. It's alcohol free so it's completely safe and even described as the perfect environmental scent for a baby's room. It's also available as a perfume for you or a reed diffuser. 







A Look in Calleigh's Toy Box

 

We got a new toy box to keep all Calleigh's toys in (and save us from tripping over them 5 times a day).

Today you get to take a peek inside at some of Calleigh's favourite toys.

 

 

 

 

This is monkey we brought Calleigh from Saint Louis. This is more a favourite of mine as it has sticky arms and legs. I like to wrap him round Calleigh when she's crawling around and watch her get angry with him for following her around.

Haha.

 

 

 

Some books and Handy Manny DVD's. Calleigh loves books, in the first words book theres a picture of a cat which she meows at and a dog on the next page which she shouts "Do" at (I think that means dog).

 

 

Here are some random things that Calleigh sneaks in there. A comb, a TV remote and some sun cream.

Strange child.

 

 

Calleigh usually goes in there and picks out what she wants to play with. Or just throws things on the floor and puts them back in, this can go on for a while.

 

 

 



Nowhere is Safe

Calleigh and I went to visit Auntie Lana yesterday. Every time I walk in the door I can almost see the cat think "Oh No! Not Again!!". You see now Calleigh is, shall we say, mobile the cat finds it very hard to sit down in peace.

Now yesterday I think Calleigh took it to a new level and informed the cat that sitting at a height is no longer safe either. Bianca (the cat) jumped up to the top of her scratching post and Calleigh, displeased with the fact that she could no longer chase her around the floor, began shaking the post to try to get her to come down.

Motion shot so a little shaky

Poor Cat

Upon realising that cat's have exceptional holding on skills. Calleigh gave up and moved on to something new. This time she decided that Mee-Maws glass door was a bit dirty and gave it a little clean for her.

 Silly Baby

Pumpkin Soup

Every now and again I like to turn my hand to a bit of cooking. On the odd occasion it may go horribly wrong. But more often than not I'm quite proud of the end result.

As it's October and Pumpkins are ripe in season i decided it was time to try a pumpkin soup (I've never had pumpkin before, only carved silly faces in them).

If I may say so myself my soup was the best, It tasted gorgeous, had the perfect texture and looked the part too. The only thing I will say if I ever try this again is that I will be getting someone else to cut up my pumpkin. It took me far too long and my hands ended up red raw from chopping. Maybe I should invest in some decent knives.

If you would like to try this here's what you will need:

•  1 Pumpkin
•  2 Onions
•  2 Cloves of garlic
•  150ml Double cream
•  700ml Chicken stock cubes (or vegetable for a vegetarian friendly version)
•  2 tbsp Olive oil
•  Salt and Pepper to season

And here's what to do:

• Prep your pumpkin and dice into cubes and rinse for later.
• Finely chop your onions and crush the garlic. Add both to the olive oil in the pan and simmer gently for 5 minutes until the onion is soft.
• Add the pumpkin cubes and continue to simmer for 10 minutes until the pumpkin is slightly soft and yellowish.

• Add the chicken stock and seasoning and bring to the boil. Then simmer for another 10 minutes until the pumpkin is very soft.
• Add the double cream and bring to the boil.
• Using a hand blender, blend together until you are happy with the consistency.

 I liked it with a few lumpy bits but if you don't you could always push it through a sieve to make it smoother.



• Hey presto serve with thick bread or add some croutons to it. I roasted the pumpkin seeds for 45 minutes and added them.

 I did a separate pan for Calleigh without adding any additional seasoning. I froze some pots (these will last for 2 months) so Calleigh can enjoy it whenever. She's having her first taste for dinner today so I will let you know how it goes.





Someone's at the Door

It no big news that Calleigh loves cats.

Her first word was cat, her favourite toy is a cat and she loves to chase Mee-Maws cat around the house.

So it was a nice treat for her when we were visited by next door's cat.

 



 

Apologies for the phone video, my camera couldn't be found at the time.

 

Outfit Of The Month: October

 

 

Calleigh is wearing:

 

Top- Baker Baby at Debenhams

Skirt- Toys R Us (US)

Tights- Baker Baby at Debenhams (from a set of 3)

 

Look out for Outfit Of The Month: Halloween Special coming soon!!



The Sacred Bond

This has got to be one of my all time favourite photo's of Calleigh. It was not long after Calleigh's first little smile that she beamed that big grin at me. And ever since then I don't think the smile has ever left her face.

My smiley little angel.

 

Paul has named this photo the sacred bond because of the way we are looking and smiling at each other, like we were the only two people alive, the only two that mattered. And I think at that very moment in time we were.

 

“This blog post has been written as an entry into the Tots100 competition in association with Boots Mother and Baby“

Grandad Came To Visit

Yesterday Calleigh and I had a lovely visit from my dad. We don't get to see him as much as we would like as he lives in Ipswich now but he visits as often as he can and we are planning a trip down there in November.

 

Anyway it was lovely to see him and he really enjoyed spending some time with Calleigh, especially now she's crawling around all over the place.. It's a little more entertaining than when she was a wee little baba.

 

 

Unfortunately just in the last couple of days Calleigh has started teething (finally at 10 months old) so halfway through the afternoon Grandad witnessed one of her teething moments. She cried and cried until she eventually fell asleep on Grandad. Poor thing, it really is heartbreaking when there is nothing you can do to help. Hopefully soon them little teeth will make an appearance.

 

 

See you again soon Grandad! Thanks for the visit!



It's October!!

Today is the first day of October, my favourite month of the year. Autumn has set in and the big knit jumpers and cosy cardigans are back out. I'm loving the new choice of clothes for Calleigh and can't wait to dress her up in them.

It's Calleigh's first halloween and I am definitely looking forward to dressing her up in some crazy costumes!

 

It's also a good time to let Calleigh try some new foods(and me aswell). I'm going to try making a yummy pumpkin soup. And for Daddy and I a lovely chocolate halloween cake :-)

 

I have also started window shopping for Calleigh's birthday. I can't believe she is going to be 1 next month, it's gone so fast!

 

Happy October everyone!