Baby Haze

Hello everyone!  I can't quite get my head around the fact that it is very nearly June and I have a 5 month old baby on my hands.  I have been in only what can be described as a baby haze.

I've been trying to think back over what I've (we've) been up to, so I can share it with you.  We had a tiny bit of summer weather sandwiched between an awful lot of rain (more rain than I've ever seen) and enjoyed lots of walks in the sunshine, topping up our vitamin D levels.  The countryside where we live is really pretty and it's been fun pointing out the E the names of the different trees, birds and flowers (the ones I know at least!), even though she's too young to understand.

E has been growing up way too fast for my liking.  Just the other weekend she slept all through the night, rolled over for the first time and ate her first bit of solid food (a tomato grabbed from my plate) even though we're waiting until she's 6 months old to introduce solid food.  All in the space of two days.  It blew my mind.  In attempt to try and hold on to her smallness while she is still small I attempted some baby friendly crafting one rainy day.  I took hand and foot prints:

  I thought this would be easy.  Let me tell you, it is not easy.

I bought some pretty floral paper from Paperchase, some non-toxic washable paint and a 6" by 8" picture frame (this one from good old BHS). After a messy failed attempt I realised the best way would be to tape the paper down to a hard surface (I used a weighty magazine) and do it while she sat in her chair.  I'd advise having a bowl of water, a cloth, kitchen roll and baby wipes to hand to be able to immediately wash the paint off before your baby puts their hand in their mouth or on their clothes.  I'd also advise marking out in pencil the frame area so you keep within the area.  Also have lots of paper to hand as it's mighty difficult to get a wiggly baby's hands and feet to go flat on to the paper, so you might (like me) have lots of failed attempts.

We've also been making and eating lots of cake (Jamie's blooming brilliant brownie recipe is highly recommended), and visiting lots of cake shops.  Peter's Yard is still my Edinburgh favourite.  They do the most amazing scones.  I'm all about the cake at the moment.  I'd like to blame the breastfeeding but really I've just always loved cake.

I've also been attempting some DIY, however DIY with a baby becomes stealth DIY - basically I do all I can do while she is asleep.  I have so far managed to strip all of the wallpaper in my hall and do some painting in the kitchen.  I feel a bit like a ninja, getting out the wallpaper steamer as soon as she falls asleep!  Life with a baby means life moves at a different pace - stripping the hall would have normally taken me half  a day - with a baby it took five sleeps over quite a few days!  It's a little bit frustrating when you just want to get it finished but such is life.  Our hallway is being plastered (by a professional) this weekend - goodbye horrible green textured artex and our infamous artex palm tree!  I'll share some photos as soon as it's done and painted!

This blog entry kind of feels like a school exercise I was made to do every Monday, where you had to write in your jotter what you had done at the weekend accompanied by a drawing :)  Did you ever have to do that or was it just my school?!

xx

ps: there is a fantastic giveaway happening over at Cakies blog :)