The Big Boy Bed!

The time has come now that we say goodbye to Benjamin's cot and hello to a 'Big Boy Bed'! Yes that's right, it's the end of an era. Poor Benjamin was often waking himself up in the night by bashing his arms and legs on the sides of the cot and sometimes he just couldn't get comfortable at all. He is such a tall boy and it was quite a small cot compared to the size of some I've seen so.....it's gone :(
But......that meant a shopping trip to Ikea which never fails to cheer me up ha! We found a large single bed which had built in bars around 3 sides of the bed and one side without. The bars are not too high so even with the bar-less side against the bedroom wall, Benjamin could still climb out as he is an expert climber these days! So we got this bed home fine but had to leave it unassembled for a week. We wanted to introduce Benjamin to the new bed when Ben had a few days scheduled off work so that if he had some trouble adjusting to the change, then at least Ben wouldn't be requiring matchsticks to keep his eyes open whilst at work! Plus we ended up having to take a second trip to Ikea to pick up the correct mattress as we soon discovered that the one we already had at home just didn't fit the bed! 
So here is the new bed in its rightful place....

And here is the view from the bed.....

Anyway, so once his room was sorted, we introduced him to the new bed and let him explore a little before bathtime....

I was a little worried about how he would cope with the change. But he surprised me and I am still stunned this morning! We usually have cuddles etc before we put him in his bed but last night he didn't want to entertain it and kept asking to be put down in the bed. We left the room and within 5 minutes he was asleep! He didn't attempt to climb out at all. He seemed very happy about his new sleeping arrangements :)

He slept really well and woke up happy, as did Mum and dad ha! He is even taking his nap in it right now. I am really proud of my little man for being so willing to adapt and accept change. You are brilliant Benjamin xxx

At the park

Benjamin and I had a great afternoon with Catherine and her son Joshua. We couldn't have asked for better weather as we had planned to take the boys to the park....

'Ahoy me mateys....'!

This roundabout once had seats on it but the boys still enjoyed it anyway...

They were really good at turn-taking on here and there was no pushing and shoving :)

Back at the house afterwards we were all a little exhausted and a bit warm. Not too tired for a story though....!

And look at the cuteness of this gorgeous little 'bro-mance' going on over here! -

Definitely an afternoon well spent :) 

xxxxx

Daniel's 4th birthday

This weekend we were invited to Daniel's birthday party at Lordswood Leisure Centre. We have known Daniel since he was a baby and Benjamin just adores older children. Benjamin only had a short nap before we got there so he was a bit ratty to start with and was a little wary of the bouncy castle! But he soon started to enjoy himself in the soft play area and was obsessed with being inside this hole haha.....

Charming as always......

Flirting with the ladies....

Balloon crazy......

It's time for the food.....'help me out of this hole'!!! ;)

The men did a lot of this.....

Yummy buffet :)

And here's the birthday boy being presented with his superhero cake - 

The three of us had a lovely time, thank you for inviting us Jackie :) xxxxxx

22 months!

I cannot believe that in 2 months time, our son will be 2 years old! Where has the time gone? If I could, I would freeze time and have him at this age forever ha! I love it...he is old enough to do a few things for himself and he interacts with us but at the same time he is still my baby and needs me quite a lot. Here are some amusing updates on Benjamin:

- His interest in cars and other vehicles has now escalated into a full scale obsession/love affair with them! Benjamin is car/digger/tractor/lorry/fire engine crazy!!! Whether they be large or small he doesn't care! Cars are now required to keep little man amused on car or pushchair journeys and when we left Great Grandpa's house earlier this week, we had a great big tantrum because he had to leave behind Grandpa's collection of model cars, buses and lorries.
- He is also book-mad and constantly asks to sit on my lap for a book to be read to him! Even visitors and other family members have to suffer this haha....

- He still enjoys quite a few programmes on the Cbeebies channel but his favourite programme by far is Mr Tumble.....! We have a morning ritual....I have a bath while he plays with toys in his room then we go downstairs again in time for Mr Tumble to start and he has a drink and snack whilst he gives Mr Tumble his undivided attention for a whole 20 minutes! 

- He is a huge fan of music and anything by Psi seems to get him moving, every time, without fail (groan!).....

- He has become very sociable, more so than usual, waving at anybody who just even looks at him. Most people wave back :) If we leave a shop after having paid for my goods, he will always wave goodbye to the shop assistant.
- He is fascinated by toilets! The lids, the flush...in fact the more powerful the flush, the better! I am actually pleased about this as I was frightened of toilets other than my own as a young child. Whilst he really is not ready for full on potty training yet, I have got him a toddler toilet seat adaptor which sits on the toilet, which he enjoys sitting on for about a minute just before he gets in the bath. We have not seen anything in the toilet yet ha!
- After months and months of refusing to eat porridge....he suddenly likes it again!?! In fact his appetite has really increased lately and he is really enjoying his food and makes approving sounds when eating my homemade meals and desserts :)
- He went through a phase of slapping heads/faces quite a bit....sometimes due to over excitement when somebody played with him, sometimes when I said 'no' to him or during a tantrum. We have been consistent with discipline and soon discovered what technique worked for him. He soon stopped this behaviour and the amount of slapping has dramatically reduced I am pleased to say. Although it got to me a bit, I was really glad to have learnt something new for myself about parenting and now look at it in a positive light.
- A couple of months ago he began saying 'yeah' in response to questions we asked him....this month he has mastered the art of shaking his head to say 'no' and he does this A LOT haha!
- He is becoming interested in his own body....as well as mine ha! He can point out his own ears, eyes, nose, hair, mouth, hands, feet and belly button when I ask him and can point those features out on me too....as well as one or two other features ha! ;)
- He does a few animal impressions on request such as a crocodile, snake, dog. lion and monkey.
- He makes a point of greeting Ben home from work every day by going to the front door for a kiss and cuddle :)
- He says 'uh ohhhhhh....', sometimes when it's appropriate ha!
- If I tell him we're going out he gets his own shoes out of the cupboard and hands me mine as if to say 'get a move on, love'!
Benjamin is not the best at posing and keeping still for photos (just like Dad!) but here a few I managed to catch today....

We love this boy so very much, he is the best! :) xxxxxxxx

Scrapbooking!

During the last few years, I have been a huge fan of scrapbooking. A friend introduced me to it and I discovered that it is a great way of creating your own personal family history or keeping a record/journal which is based around photos. I don't print out every photograph I take and scrapbook every single one, I just pick out the best ones! You may be wondering how on earth I find the time....well every now and then Benjamin might spend an afternoon with my Mum so I often use that time to get together with a friend and we both scrapbook together. Or if there is a rare occasion that I have a spare hour before my bedtime and am not feeling too tired, then I may do a page or two then. 
I have been working on an album recently which contains a range of pages, mainly family photos of days out or funny events etc. But it does have one or two pages inside featuring the weddings of some friends. I have selected my four favourite pages to share with you and I apologise if you cannot read the journalling :( I just hope you appreciate the over all effect :) I am not the world's greatest scrapbooker but I enjoy it and I don't think I'm too bad haha! xxx

Jen's home improvements...

I have wanted to make some improvements to our living room for quite some time now and we finally got around to doing it! For those of you that are interested in home improvments, then I hope this is an interesting post for you. But if you are not interested then this will be incredibly boring for you!! So don't read on haha!
Anyway, so to start with, our old furniture was sort of  'makeshift'. The TV unit and the larger book cabinet were both originally open bookshelves. But when Benjamin started moving about, the DVDs came off the shelf at least 5 times a day and it was driving me mad! So in the end, Ben went to B&Q and bought some wood to make his own cupboard doors. While this did us fine for a while, the units were starting to look very rough around the edges and tatty. When we moved house in September they became even worse! In the past we have always opted for light-coloured furniture so I really wanted to have some darker stuff for a change. Our old leather sofas served us well for 5 years but one was starting to break at the back and they had many scuffs and permanent stains on them. Here are some 'before' shots for you.....

So this time I chose some fabric sofas in 'mink' from Tesco Direct. I had to choose very carefully as we have such a narrow front door, larger sofas would just not have made it through! I really wanted some patterned curtains so I chose some from ebay, which blend in nicely with the teal theme. The rug was also from ebay and I love having a fluffy feeling under my feet :) The walnut-coloured TV stand and nest of tables came from Argos and the larger wall unit came from Homebase. I got the smaller bookshelf from Tesco Direct too.

And here are the 'after' shots....

I am a lover of bright colours so I 'jazzed' it all up a bit with some extra colours in the form of photo frames, cushions and plant pots :) I am most pleased about the fact that I got all of these homewares for such bargain prices and really didn't break the bank at all. xxxxxxx

Blake's 1st birthday party

Benjamin was recently invited to a first birthday party at Monkey Bizz. Ben had the day off work so we made it a family day out and we had a great afternoon with Blake and his family. Blake's mum, Sarah, worked with Ben before she went on maternity leave and became a stay-at-home mummy, like me :) The boys have had one play-date together so far and we look forward to many more!
The party started with a bit of playing in the soft play area, followed by a cold buffet-style lunch with ice-cream for pudding in a special room for all the party guests -

 Hanging out with the big kids ;)

Here is the birthday boy with his cake!

After lunch we were back in the play area -

 Please ignore my funny face in the photo above haha!

Boys and their toys.......

Just hanging out in my bachelor pad.....

 "Little pig, little pig, let me come in....." ;)

This slide was SO much fun.....!

And one of me being a complete poser but who cares.....after all - I have lost 2 stone so far... :) :) :)

We were really pleased that Benjamin was invited to Blake's party. Thanks Sarah! We hope that Blake had a good time too :) xxxxxxx