New photos!

As promised, some new pictures of Bear!! He’s so big now!

Bear absolutely loves ice cream! We are so thankful he grew out of his dairy allergy, here he is enjoying a mini milk in the garden and a Mr Whippy style ice cream from his nanny’s new business (check her out on facebook, twitter or instagram – @justvwdesserts she serves ice cream and sundaes from her amazing VW campervan!) Bear definitely is nanny’s no.1 customer…..he insists on sampling all new ideas!

Bear is also quite partial to a babychino when we are out and about – we have to keep our eye on him though, given half the chance he will be sipping our coffees too!!! He is most definitely lively enough on his own, without the coffee!!

We love to get out and about, whether it is digging for worms in the garden, the park or taking advantage of our national trust membership (thanks nanny & grandad for our Christmas gift!) So far this year we have visited 6 different national trust sites (some a number of times as they are so close by!), with lots of plans to visit lots more soon. We got Bear a little ‘passport’ so he can keep  track of all our adventures. We have had a lovely warm weekend, this weekend, Bear and daddy even got chance to wear their shorts. Outside activities this weekend included painting fence panels, playing with lots of new garden toys Bear got for his birthday and lunch outside! Bear was very, very happy to be able to be back outside for long periods of time (when it was icy and cold he could only manage 20 minutes of play at a time!)

A fantastic new find for mummy!!

As I updated in my last post, I have been suffering with severe itching with my change or hormones and incredibly dry skin, I had been using lush cream to help, which it was but I was needing to reapply 4 or 5 times a day to keep on top of the itch. This week I was fortunate enough to have been sent a box of samples from Weleda…..lots of wonderful things for myself, bear and for our new cub too. I thought I would try a few of the samples out, seeing as they are a holistic, natural company I thought I might be ok with their stuff. Turns out I was right….

skin food

One of the samples was this skin food, designed for dry and rough skin it moisturised my legs (my worst effected area) so intensely, the first day I tried it I only needed to reapply it twice, the following day, just once!! At roughly £10 a tube, it isn’t the cheapest, but can currently be found in Holland and Barrett’s on their buy one get one half price sale. I have also used this on my face, feet and even treated hubby to a foot rub too!!

Stretch mark oil

The Weleda stretch mark oil made an equally good impression on me this week, it rubs on just like any other oil, but the smell is amazing, instantly makes me feel relaxed. I’m getting very paranoid about stretch marks now, so I am using this once or twice a day (I barely bothered with any cream when I was pregnant with bear, but my bump appeared a lot quicker this time around).

Was just a quick one this morning, to update you on my new loves, because sometimes mummy needs a bit of a treat too! Busy week ahead for us this week, so hopefully will post an updated picture thread towards the end of the week.

Let’s get cooking and be a little frugal!

Now bear doesn’t follow a dairy free diet shopping has become simple. We no longer have to read every label and we can try new things. We always encourage Bear to at least try things, he obviously has the things he likes and things he doesn’t like, but nothing makes us prouder when he just tries things because he wants to. the other day he helped himself to his daddy’s hummus, dipping some of his daddy’s cucumber (he didn’t like that much) and a raw carrot (he enjoyed chewing) although he has had these things before, he didn’t like them on a number of previous tries, but we were so pleased he gave them another go…..and all by himself. He also ate a slice of ham for the first time ever (he has very recently just cut 3 back teeth…..making it 11 teeth in total!! We think this helped him to chew, and enjoy, the ham)

We also like to encourage Bear to help with the cooking, and some fun baking too. We are trying to encourage a healthy relationship with food for him. We all love good, healthy, home cooked meals….cooked from scratch. We have discovered muscle foods as a source for amazing quality meat for a cheap price (they often do really awesome deals on big bundles, so we are definitely needing our big freezer!) I have included a link to muscle foods in case anyone is interested, if you use my referral code you will also get a free item (and i will receive some credit too). Our meat portion of our meals work out at around £2 a meal (with the latest order made, should come out somewhere near £1.50 a meal…..and that is for the 3 of us!) You can also get great groupon deals for muscle food bundles, that is where we sourced our last order…..and don’t forget you can get cashback on it if using quidco (I will also include a quidco referral code for anyone who wants it, once you start earning, we both get £5 cashback) Using quidco I have received almost £200 cashback in the last 15 months on things that I would have bought anyway…..we are really trying to live a little more frugally to save money for the finer things in life (life trips out and nice holidays!) I am thinking I may start to turn this blog into a frugal living and general life type of blog to share my experiences now we don’t have allergies to concern ourselves with. Will see how it goes and see what our followers reaction to it may be.

Muscle food link, and referral code: Receive a free gift (and i get a little bit of account credit!)

http://www.musclefood.com/LS201491

LS201491

 

Quidco referral code: we both get £5 cashback once you start earning!

http://www.quidco.com/user/4763630/2147432/

Where did my baby go!?!

We have noticed for a while now that Bear is growing up way too fast….he likes to eat off a plate with cutlery now and give himself his milk. He knows what he wants and certainly knows what he doesn’t! But it really has hit me this morning, with his birthday only 2 weeks away, I have been watching him at work and have just realised that I no longer have a baby! He has gotten into everything and anything today, whizzing from one side of the shop to the other in the blink of an eye and has entertained himself for hours on end. He has mimicked sawing and hammering (we were doing a little bit of ‘Bear proofing’ this morning) and sat on the rug eating his sandwich so independently….and as I was typing I heard something snap as he broke his chair with a tray and have I have just found his cup in the bin! It made me laugh to myself when he has been ‘chatting’ with the customers, so very clearly answering their yes or no questions. He has been becoming very brave, standing up and cruising around the desks and chairs so easily and trying to climb everything, squeeze through every tiny gap and the little bumps and tumbles no longer bother him. Just the last 24 hours he has decided that he would quite like to keep standing completely independently, he can hold his balance quite well for 10-20 seconds now, as soon as he has worked out to balance and move there will be no stopping him! I am feeling a little sad about my baby growing up, but am so excited to see our Toddler Bear soon! We have so many plans for the summer, in the garden, trips to the seaside, walks up the woods….all of these things were amazing last year, but will be so much more fun this year with Bear being able to join in, talk and play with us. We are still hopeful that in the next 12 months Bear will grow out of his CMPA, but if he doesn’t it doesn’t matter, he is happy just as he is!