My tiny cowboy!

Today I feel I have acheived awesomeness. Having a baby has re ignited my passion for sewing, it started with embroidery as I made blankets and hats for him before he was born. Lead onto the awesome cross-stitch samplers that were finished after he was born so as not to jinx anything and has now culminated in creating whole outfits for the little blighter!! I touched on costume making for MCM, but to be honest that was just a basic alteration of a baby carrier and shop bought yellow clothes, what you see above is a full on mummy-made cowboy outfit. I didn't make the jeans though, we have so many trousers it would have been a waste to make a pair just for the sake of it. I started with the shirt the other day which, I can very proudly say, only took 3 hours from start to finish. It was so simple I'm going to make him some more shirts for day to day wear as he looks adorable in them! I found a simple pattern online and because he's just a wee babby found a piece of brown gingham check in the remnants box at the fabric store that was big enough to do the whole piece, with some left over. Why do I love the remnants box? Because at 50p a piece it means I can go all out and make a full blown cowboy outfit including cowprint waistcoat (yep, remnants box again :o) ) which took me an impressive half hour just adapting the shirt pattern pieces.
Then came the hat. I am so proud of my hour to make cowboy hat! It has pipecleaners in the brim so it can be bent into a cowboy shape, but because it is all felt it's nice and lightweight, definite bonus with a boy who is not too sure about things on his head. The longest part of it was seam stitching by hand, but I think it's well worth it! When I went to try the whole ensemble on Alfred there was very nearly a drool related incident so, after raiding the stash, he had a red & white fleecey lined dribble bib to save the shirt. Goes quite nicely I think. You can't see them in the picture but there are felt cowboy boots, far from perfect but perfectly cute and adequate for a baby who can't even crawl yet!

This is primarily in aid of a friends 4th of July party, but also largely to satiate my love of costume making. So, if you read this post your review below. I think I've done quite well and armed with a stack of patterns ready to go I think my little 'uns gonna look rocking this summer!

I'm no expert and nor are you!

It's always been important to us that Man Cub learns to enjoy or at least tolerate days out, especially in Central London. There's such a wealth of fantastic (and free) things to see and do, all within easy reach of where we live that it would be a waste to never take him into town. Personally, I think we're doing pretty darn well. He's been into central London quite a few times now, twice in the last week! We started him off on Grand Designs Live and MCM ComicCon in May, both of which went down really well despite them being quite busy and quite long tube journeys.
Last Saturday was the City of London's 'Celebrate the City' event which was brilliant, predominantly free and open access to a lot of places you would normally bypass. We visited the market outside the Guildhall, via the Cheapside Fayre of course, where Alfred got absurdly excited about the blacksmiths who had street furnaces and were demonstating their skills very well. The market itself was worth the journey alone, free ice cream, bargain fruit from Kent and other people with their babies in slings!! It sounds mediocre but where we live we get nothing but strange looks and snide comments about the fact I carry my baby. I do of course then sit smugly as those looking at me with such disdain cannot board the first, second or third bus they need because there is no space or are struggling to get through shops and along busy pavements, we stroll past with our Moby all snug and hands-free and a million times more portable! It's sad that it's only in central London we see other baby carriers, even then I've never seen another Moby lots of Asian mothers with Mei Tai carriers and more Baby Bjorn carriers than you could shake a stick at, so maybe we're still a minority. Carrying Alfred on Saturday meant that we were able to get around the Clockamkers museum and the Guildhall Library, where we saw Shakespeare's First Folio and his genuine signature. We also breezed around the amphitheatre underneath the Guildhall Art Gallery and marvelled at John Singleton Copely's
'The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782' which is giant and beautiful. We also got to go through the Founders Company Exhibition at St Lawrence Jewry, which is single handly the msot beautiful place I have fed Alfred so far, I wish everywhere we stopped for food had such a glorious things to look at! What was even nicer here is that the vicar came up and asked if we needed anything and offered to find a space to change Alfred if I needed to. It's little kindnesses like that that make the day better! The best bit of the day was the tour of St. Brides' Church, Crypt and Charnel house, perhaps the strangest place Alfred's ever eaten. All in all everyone had a good day, especially Alfred.
Yesterday my Dad and I went up to London for an Auction and general wander. This is where someone announced, quite loudly as I got off the train, how unwise it is to bring a baby into London. Is it? Is it really? We always get on at the end of the line so we're seated, he's always in his sling so we don't take up any extra space and he's effectively harnessed the entire time, in any case he thrives off the attention and adores watching the world zoom past. So why exactly is it unwise to restrict my child's access to the capital? Should I wait until he is older and all the loud noises and smells are strange and scary? Perhaps I should only let him see things in books or on TV? I don't think so, Alfred loved the National Gallery yesterday, thank you Titians exhibition curator!, and cleary enjoyed it more than he does looking at pictures in books. He's four months old and has already seen Buckingham Palace, fabulous hidden city gems, artworks by Van Gogh, Monet and some of the most famous renaissaince art works in this country. So no, badly dressed office worker lady, it not unwise to bring a baby into London. It is stimulating, educational and fun and keep an eye out because we'll being doing it a whole lot more!!

The curses of Mother Nature

I have had one sad little man cub today, and thanks to natural instinct I have had no sleep with which to prepare myself for such a day. Last night was a constant chain of intense baby sneezes, not the cute tiny little sneezes but oh dear god has he given himself whiplash sneezes, and tragically sad noises at the obvious distress he was in. The unwelcome arrival of mucus resulted in bouts of snoring / gasping for air, cue mother nature waking me up at every single snort. By morning everyone was exhausted and quite fed up, especially poor Alfred but we motored on and went out regardless. I've been quite lazy in terms of going out this week and as my Mum's off for a couple of days we decided sitting around the house, feeling sorry for ourselves wasn't going to cut it, so we went to Ikea. Normally everywhere we go Alfred goes in his Moby wrap, I'm shamelessly lazy and the wrap makes life a whole lot easier but given the combination of a baby leaking drool from mouth and nose, mass of bug bites on my back and the inevitable items that would need carrying home we decided to take the pushchair. I have learnt that my pushchair, although lovely, is quite large and I perhaps need to care less about others on public transport in order to enjoy my journey more. Alfred fell asleep on the train in his carriage, a bloody miracle on the Metropolitan line!!, and remained asleep most of the travelling. Halfway round Ikea, he seemed to all of a sudden feel himself again and little smiles came back. Whatever ailment he had seems to have passed quite quickly so we're going to brave playgroup tomorrow.

Aside from that this week has been a bit more subdued, foul weather predictions kept us away from going up to London to see Trooping the colour. We stayed at home where it wasn't chilly, windy, over crowded and at high risk of rain and watched it on the TV. Evidently it is a very exciting bit of programming, I ended up having to build a baby nest so Alfred could sit up and watch and I could actually get some stuff done.

Sunday was Alfred's first fathers day, he cheaped out on the present so I had to pitch in, but I think his daddy had a lovely time. Playing with miniature trains and going for a nice walk around a big ol' lake. The in alws attended too which was nice as they got to spend more one-on-one time with him than they did at the christening, we like to keep these things balanced!!

Monday was disastrous, to the point I ended up pitifully standing in the foyer of my Mother's office building one remark away from full blown weeping. Between the car failing is again, getting stranded half a mile out of town, at a swimming pool that was closed so we couldn't swim, with no pushchair or baby carrier, feeling nauseous from too much tea and melting because I had my swimming costume on underneath my street clothes whilst trying to balance screaming baby and swimming bag (with no nappies other than swim ones I might add) it was too much. Luckily Alfred's daddy saved the day, closely aided by a half price steak and chips lunch.

Tuesday we managed our weekly mammoth walk (about 1 1/2 hours long along a canal) with ease, even though we'd walked the long way to and from playgroup at lunchtime. This is quite impressive for me, even moreso that I refrained from rewarding myself with the lovely cake in the kitchen when I got in! Wednesday we had another photoshoot, Alfred was in one of my favourite outfits, that his Great-Granma sent over the states for him. I really hope the pictures turn out okay, but we have to wait until next Tuesday to find out.

So yeah, that was our week, it feels much more exhaustive than it sounds. But we've learnt valuable lesson this week, like any problem can be solved with a panda, a hug and mummy's boobs.

I think I'm raising a nerd . . .

I should have seen it coming to be honest, having read profusely to Alfred since he was a few days old, watching Star Trek with him and explaining all the gadgets, playing XBox with him and taking him to Comic Con ... it shouldn't be surprised he is showing some nerd tendencies. No interest in fluffy teddy bears but a full blown adoration for books. It's now to the point even just looking at his bookshelf as we choose a book is a very exciting event, it doesn't even have to be his books. My dad was showing him the Medal Yearbook this afternoon, not on most people's shelf admittedly..., and lo and behold a big dribbley paw was reaching out to touch it and all sorts of gurgles and coos were emerging from his mouth. I am quite aware it is just the pictures and the one-to-one time he's into but I love how excited looking at a book gets him. The above book was only bought because he spent a lot of time chatting to it in the shop whilst I was browsing, it's quite a good book to be fair aside from the picture of dismembered teddy bear heads (four of them). And it seems to amuse him enough to justify it's meagre cost, it lasted long enough to clean the living room and start the ironing this morning, check me out talking like a real grown up (it's all a lie fyi).

We've had quite an alright week, it helps having other intensely bored friends from playgroups to while away the time with. We're managing to get out almost everyday, which anyone who has had a child will appreciate is an acheivement with your first at this age and in this weather. Swimming was good this week, Alfred had his daddy joining us as well as two ladies (and corresponding babies) from the NCT group we attend. I'm still getting used to only being in the pool for about half an hour, but it tires him out so much it's well worth it.

Alfred is currently working on his rolling and sitting up, so he's spending more time on mats on the floor as I'm not really feeling a test of the "babies bounce" theory. Between this and the constant stream of noises he chats all day he's quite high maintenance. He's a happy content baby, and relatively easily entertained but in need of near constant entertainment. I am very glad of such a vast library of books and a playgroup every day, I think we'd go absolutely bonkers without it. We definitely have our favourite groups though, namely Monday and Fridays groups. We still get strange looks everywhere we go because he never turns up in a pushchair, alwys in his carry sling, and occasionally he's in a cloth nappy too. I think once people actually talk to us though, realise I'm not some hippy teenager, it gets a bit easier. I don't think we'll ever really fit in at our Wednesday group though, but it gives us something to do!

I'm debating on taking Alfred up to London this Saturday, I'd quite like to see the Trooping the Colour procession, and excitement is apparently contagious with little ones. Now to balance the issues of potential rain and crowds with the awesomeness of seeing the troops trot by, oh and to find some mug to come with me!

Hello Hello

First post, new blog, welcome!

This will be slightly different from my other, very regularly updated, blog in that this is going to be crammed with baby talk. I don't intend to talk about man cub much on the other blog, as most people don't find any interest in other people's children, including me. There is nothing worse than someone who can only talk about what their immaculate darling has done, can do and how very clever they are. I like to think I have a bit more balance, or at least the ability to keep the two separate.

Who am I and who is man cub?

I'm Heather, I'm 23 24 and live in the greater part of London. I have a fabulous husband who I've been married to since April 2011 and intended to remain married to for a super long time, and a quite awesome baby boy, occasionally known as man cub. Man cub was born on March 3rd so at the moment he's just about 3 months old, so starting to get to the interesting stage, he hasn't done a whole lot up to now but with the advent of recognising people, sitting up and making conversationalesque noises he's much more exciting. At the moment our little family of 3 are living with my parents and brother. This makes for a super crowded house but we're hoping to move out as soon as OH can get a better paid job. Fingers crossed eh? It's good for man cub though, he gets all his family around him all the time and we get on hand help and babysitters!

We go to a lot of playgroups, this pretty much fills up our week, we have one every day apart from Thursdays which subsequently becomes a dull day often filled with the inevitable task of washing and such. Although it seems there's a wash going most days right now as we've just completed our switchover to cloth nappies. Now he's a bit more predictable (and less frequent!) it's just as easy to have him in funky poo catchers as crinkly paper, and my inner hippy is quite happy about this. My inner hippy of course doesn't have to suffer the whiff of the nappy bucket after a day or two . . .

We go swimming too, once a week so he gets used to it. I miss my epic swim sessions, find it hard to believe I'm only spending about half hour in the pool at a time now!! I hope he likes swimming, it's a nice thing to be able to do with him, and I don't want him to be one of those loser kids at school who can't swim and is terrified of the water. Monday mornings are nice for swimming, our local pool has an alright tiny pool, frustratingly close to the proper lane pool....

Apart from that we're a fairly ordinary mother and child pairing, frequently out and about with man cub in his moby wrap. Now he's enjoying days out I'm looking forward to just jumping on a train into central London and teaching about cool stuff. Kids are never too young to learn life stuff, like looking at dinosaurs or just sitting in Greenwich park reading books.

Maybe once a week, or after super cool events we'll write a little blog, it's advice of sorts to others out there. Proof even the laziest of people can parent without bottles, disposable nappies and even to a large part a pushchair at the moment (although, check back on that one with me when he's a bit more or a porker!). He's already ridden on many trains of varying sizes and antiquity, been to Grand Designs Live and MCM Expo and has only more excitement to come. This week has been half term so all our playgroups are closed, it's been a funny old week and in all honesty I'll be glad to get back to normal!! Starting with a splish and a splash Monday morning.