This Was Calleigh's Year: 2012

Wow, what a year this has been.

It has definitely been an interesting one.

Paul and I have been finding ourselves as first time parents and Calleigh has grown up so much .

 

It doesn't seem that long ago since we all saw the year 2012 in (well Calleigh fell asleep at 11:50pm so didn't technically see it in). I can't wait to see what next year has in store for us. One thing I am sure of is that Calleigh will continue to grow into a beautiful little angel drama queen!!

 

2012 was the year I started this blog for Calleigh and I am determined to continue it throughout 2013 hopefully after that too. Here are some of my past posts that mark important milestones of the past year.

 

Calleigh's first time in the snow

My first Mother's Day

Calleigh's first trip to skegness

An unusually warm couple of days in May

Calleigh's first holiday to St Louis, Missouri

 her first steps

her first Halloween

 A trip to Copenhagen

A trip to Ipswich

 her first Birthday

Meeting Santa for the first time

And a very Merry Christmas.

 

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year!!

 

Calleigh and I celebrating last year



Calleigh's Christmas Day

 

 

We all had a great Christmas this year. Calleigh got Lot's of presents from Santa, ate loads of food and overall had a truly amazing but tiring day (she couldn't wait to get to bed).

 

Presents!!

More Presents!!

Calleigh opening her present

A few of the things Calleigh got for Christmas

In her Christmas dress

The dinner table all set

Calleigh's Christmas dinner

Yummy :-)

More presents at Mee-Maws



 

Calleigh's favourite part of the day: Opening the Cat

My favourite part of the day: Seeing Paul shed a little tear when he opened his iPad (I fooled him into thinking I only brought him some teabags and a book, then sprung it on him)

Paul's favourite part of the day: Probably the same as mine.

 

The fun isn't over yet, tomorrow the three of us are going to Nanna and Grandad's for another Christmas dinner and to see Auntie Emma and Uncle Jim.

Looking forward to that!

 

Thank you to all our family and friends who brought Calleigh gifts :-)

 

I hope you all had a brilliant day too!



Calleigh's Menu: 12 Months

The time has finally come where Daddy and I get our table back. Good bye steriliser! Goodbye bottle's. Hello sitting down and eating meals together again.

 

Now Calleigh is a year old, pretty much anything goes. She eats what we eat, when we eat, 3 times a day.

 

For breakfast she is now on 2 Weetabix and a slice of toast (piggy).

We have tried her with Lot's of new food's for dinner, these include Chicken Fingers, Pizza, Brussels and other veg, Egg Mayonnaise, Tuna, Gammon and countless other things. She pretty much eats whatever you give her, although sometimes a bit funny with it at first.

I think her favourite foods are potato and beans.

 

She hasn't quite been able to get her head round a fork yet and just stabs at her food like a crazy person then throws it on the floor and goes in with her fingers instead.

Hopefully we will get there soon.

 

 





I was going to put some more photo's on from my iPhone but I accidentally deleted them all without copying or backing my phone up.

So now I am just going to have a little cry at my stupidity and all my lost photo's of beans :-( 

 

 



Outfit of the Month: Christmas Special

 

Mrs Santa Costume: Matalan (only £8!)

Meeting Santa (Sort of)

On Sunday Mee-Maw took Calleigh and I to Westfield Centre in Derby so Calleigh could meet Santa and get a little present from him.

We got our time slot but still had an hour to kill so decided to do some browsing. Calleigh fell in love with a new cat teddy so of course we persuaded Mee-Maw to buy it for her. It actually freaks me out a bit, It's got massive eyes!

 

After a lovely black forest hot chocolate in Costa it was time for us to go back and meet Santa.

There wasn't a long wait, just enough time to get some pictures of the grotto.

 

You will notice that there are no actual photo's of Calleigh meeting Santa below, this is because as soon as we entered and she caught sight of Santa she burst into tears and actually started shaking a little with fear. Who knew Santa was so scary. Poor Calleigh.

 



"Oooooooh"



Love for the freaky cat

 

 

If you do want to see Calleigh with Santa there is a photo of her with him on a previous post when she went with Nanna and Grandad.

 

 

While I'm here I would also like to say a big thank you to Charlotte from CharlottesWeb for my new blog design. Love it :-)

 



Brush-Baby Dental Wipes Review

At 12 months old, Calleigh has finally cut her first two teeth (Better late than never).

Teething has not been too bad so far, there have been a few days when she has not been herself but overall I think she is handling it pretty well.

 

As the teeth are not fully through yet, I don't want to go ramming a toothbrush in her mouth so after searching around I found Brush-Baby on twitter and ordered myself two packs of their Dental wipes and a Chewable Toothbrush/Teether.

The Dental Wipes are suitable from 0-16 months and it is recommended on their website that you should start wiping babies gums and teeth early to protect against decay in the early years.
They come in handy finger sleeves which you just slip onto you finger and wipe around inside your little ones mouth and gums. They are also banana flavoured so your baby can enjoy the taste too, Calleigh tries to eat my finger when I'm doing it.
These are only £2.95 for a pack of 12 on the Brush-Baby website which is a very reasonable price for what you get.

Whilst browsing the website I also found a chewable toothbrush. I haven't started using this yet, but it looks really good for those first teeth and to give your baby some independence by brushing their own teeth. It also works as a teether to sooth gums and teething pains.

 

It comes in a choice of three different colours, clear, blue or pink and only set me back £4.99.

I can't wait to try this one out, It may just save my fingers being eaten.

 



Outfit of the Month: December

 

Top and waistcoat- Matalan

Denim shorts- Next

Tights- Baker Baby (again)

 

Or how about this adorable jumper from Tesco:

 

 

 

*Apologies for the poor photo's, Calleigh refuses to sit still for more than 2 seconds these days. *

Weekend with Nanna and Grandad

Calleigh went to stay with Nanna and Grandad last weekend. It gave us some time to do some present wrapping and a well needed house clean.

It looks like she had a great weekend. She met Santa at the Little Eaton Garden Centre on Saturday and also touched a Pereguine Falcon. And on Sunday she went up to Bakewell.

Here are some lovely photo's of her weekend.

 

Chilling with Big Ted

Ticket to see Santa

Meeting Santa for the first time

Touching a Falcon (Lucky girl!)

Excited at the fish

All wrapped up in Bakewell

Having fun on a ride in the amusements

Looking thrilled

Don't look now Nanna, there's a purple Dinosaur behind me!



The Love of All Things Cat

Calleigh's most favourite thing in the world is her cat.

She meow's for him when she wakes up in the morning, she cuddles him all day long and we make sure he goes with her wherever she goes.

He even came to Denmark with us.

 

 

That's why when asked what Calleigh would like for her birthday or for Christmas we easily say, anything with a cat on it.

My friend Charlotte of Charlotte's Web wrote a post about how hard it was to buy for a baby, and it is, even when you have a baby it's difficult to find something that's in the right age range that she will enjoy playing with.

 

But I think Charlotte pulled it off in the end.

She brought her a little cat book called That's not my kitten by Usborne.

 

 

Calleigh really enjoys books, obviously she can't read yet, but the good thing about this book is that it is interactive (and of course, It's a cat).

On each page there is a different part of the cat that you can touch and each has a different feel to it.

It's a great way for babies and toddlers to learn about texture.

 

 

There are other books in the series too.

I have got her one for Christmas called That's not my reindeer.



Calleigh's Christmas Shopping Guide

Even though this will be Calleigh's second Christmas, she is still only just one and doesn't really understand or know what she wants.

That's why I don't want to go mad buying her lots and lots of presents (especially as I've already done that for her birthday- eek!), but rather get a few really nice things.
That's also why I've been looking around for something a bit different.

I've been looking recently at Kidsen. They have such a unique range of clothes and embroidered toys, along with everything from cups and plates to funky wallpaper.

A personal favourite of mine are these adorable crochet teddies. A perfect Christmas present for any baby or toddler.

They also have a special section called top ten where you can find great gifts for under £10.



Image Source

 

 

 

At the moment they also do free gift wrapping and free UK delivery on any order (£150 minimum spend for free world wide delivery).



Calleigh's Advent Calender

I brought Calleigh her first advent calender this year.

 

When we started weaning her she wasn't too keen on chocolate, but the other week whilst at my mum's she managed to find mum's stash and helped herself to a piece (much too big for her mouth I might add) and happily munched on it. That was until she tried to fit it all in her mouth at once and choked on it, I swear that girl's eyes are bigger than her belly.

 

So on our weekly shop I picked up a Peppa Pig advent calender and excitedly waited until December the first to give Calleigh her choccy.

(I also picked one up for me too, you're never too old for advent calender's)

 

 

I hope you are all enjoying your advent calender's too!



Party Time

It was Calleigh's 1st Birthday Party on Saturday. She had a great time and lots of friends and family were there to celebrate with us.

Daddy looked after Calleigh whilst I prepared everything ready for the party. Everything went to plan (yay) and Mee-Maws house looked great.

 

 

 

I ordered a special Minnie Mouse cake and cupcakes for Calleigh and they both looked amazing.

 

 

Calleigh arrived fashionably late as usual. But once she was here she went straight into opening her presents, or more precisely, playing with the bows. Thank you to everyone who brought her a present it really means a lot to us and Calleigh beans.

 

 

Calleigh enjoyed playing with Sarah's little kiddies Luca and Leora too and it was great to see them, they are so adorable! Once the presents were all opened we could all eat, Calleigh didn't eat much as I think she was a bit tired but she did enjoy picking at the party food on her plate.

 

 

Thank you to everyone who came and made the day extra special!

And just to finish off here is a little video of Calleigh opening something that she didn't much like the look of, hehe.