Putting Nemo in a big bed

Nemo is 2 now and have been sleeping in a single bed at my parents for a little while now. People have kept asking me whether I had put Nemo in a bed instead of his cot yet and I kept arguing that why would I want to? Nemo sleeps through the night- if it's not broken don't fix it! I was worried about Nemo getting out of his bed but also knew it couldn't be too long before he learnt how to get out of his cot anyway! 

I also knew that I would have to toddler proof his room if I put him in a bed. However I had been thinking for a while that it would make sense to swap his room over with the spare one. Pebble has had her cot in her spare room which had my husbands desk and computer in for his studying however now he has passed his last exam he doesn't need a study anymore (yay!) 

So on bank holiday weekend we decided to move things around and while we were at it bite the bullet and make Nemo's Cotbed into a bed. 

We dismantled the desk and put the computer away- which felt really good! We switched around the furniture in the rooms, toddler proofed Nemo's room and this is the result:

I got all the dinosaur stickers for £5 from a man selling them locally having bought them in bulk for a soft play he was doing, however the contract was canceled. (What a bargain!) 

Nemo's Bamboo Bear and Nemo. Bamboo Bear was made for Nemo by his Auntie who knitted him just before he was born. Nemo loves Bamboo Bear and even took him to the supermarket with him recently and sat him in the trolley! 

The spare bed is still in Nemo's room for guests (it can turn into a double). The patchwork quilt on top was made for me by my mum. (The white powder is Nemo's talcum powder which he calls snow and likes to be smoothered in!)

This bunting was made for Nemo by another of his Aunts! 

More dinosaur stickers! Here is a bunting my friend bought us and a Thomas the Tank Engine clock his Nanny gave us. 

I have been quite grateful to move some of Nemo's bulky toys upstairs! 

This is a penguin hanging thing (?!?) that we bought from the Green shop in Berick (a shop I love!) before we even had children. I always knew I wanted children and am definately a child at heart! 

Here is Nemo's view from his window, now he's on this side of the bed he can see the bridge with the cars going over which he loves. 

This is some curtains that cost me about £6 from the local charity shop. Again bargain! 

So that is Nemo's room, here's Pebble's:

Again I wish I could pretend this was bought for the children but it was actually mine! 

Our trusty old rocking chair. Despite it being a maternity rocking chair, my husband (then fiancé) bought it for my 21st birthday because I had always wanted a rocking chair! 

More dinosaur stickers, a homemade bunting and a home made quilty thing I made when I was pregnant with Nemo that has found more use as a wall hanging! 

Fairy lights of course! 

Such a cute lampshade again bought during my pregnancy with Nemo. 

More stickers (yes the same batch I bought for £5!) 

A felt owl hanging, I have two of these, one my sister bought me and one my husband did. 

More stickers.....

Mummy and Daddy storage shelving because Pebble doesn't need the space!! 

We are so pleased with the result we also sorted through the entirety of the children's clothes to reorganise them. We are keeping all their clothes as we plan more children in the future. Here are all the clothes, including boxes of future clothes we have bought or have been given:

There were 19 boxes of various sizes! What a productive weekend!! 

A food challenge

So I was watching Jamie Oliver's food rush one night whilst hubby and the children were in bed and I was finishing the second dress my nieces' birthday. There was nothing else better to watch at the time so I thought it would just be a preachy program telling us not to eat cake! 

I have to say I was genuinely shocked at how much hidden sugar there is in food. They showed an example of a breakfast which was seemingly healthy which had about double the amount of sugar you should have for an entire day. They also showed a stir fry sauce for 2 people which had 20 teaspoons of sugar in it! (We should only be having 7 a day). It is worth a watch it certainly surprised me. 

Anyway I have been considering the food we eat recently, I think having young children, (especially a baby who's only just starting to eat the family meals) makes me think more about what we eat. 

We don't have ready meals (aside from oven pizza!) but we do use jarred sauces on a fairly regular basis. So I came to a decision to challenge myself to only cook with whole ingredients, using nothing processed (with a few exceptions.)

The acceptions I have allowed myself is: 

bread (I really don't have the time to make fresh bread regularly!) 

Dairy products- milk, cheese, yoghurt- I am however flavouring natural yoghurt with fruit and honey. 

Other things I use rarely like mustard and stock cubes. 

My fridge has been packed full of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs and it certainly looked lovely on the conveyer belt at lidl! 

This challenge has driven me to do some things which my husband probably secretly thinks are crazy- like making homemade ketchup. I used a Jamie Oliver recipe:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/homemade-tomato-ketchup/#moxFSWt9pgdxyDak.97

It was quite faffy and took ages in reducing and sieving time so I would reccomend doing maybe two bottles at a time if your pans are big enough. The recipe makes about one bottle worth which keeps about 6 months. It is very very yummy it is just a tiny but spicey and has a really lovely strong flavour.

Actually comparing it to a bottle of normal ketchup makes me realise how weirdly bright red ketchup is...

I do have the problem that my husband is very slim and has the opposite problem I have, he needs to eat quite a lot to not lose weight. So I have been doing some cooking for him to try and give him some unprocessed calories! 

Here are my homemade potato, beetroot and parsnip crisps:

I made the equiliant of about 3 packet of crisps worth. The potato ones were definitely the easiest, I could slice them finely quickly using a peeler and they cooked very quickly in the olive oil. Parsnip was the next easiest, it didn't cut so easily into fine pieces and took longer to cook as a result however the result was good. Beetroot was defiantly the hardest, it was really tricky to cut finely and took a very long time to cook. I don't think I would repeat the beetroot in a hurry but the potato crisps were definitely a winner. I weighed all the ingredients and measure the oil used and leftover and I estimate calorie wise it is comparable to a normal crips (about 140 calories per 25g).

I also made some Mary Berry Flap Jacks with Nemo for my husband 

Humm yummy. They work out about 160 calories per small portion so defiantly good for my husband to fill up on! 

So anyway I am continuing on my challenge, today we are having some Moroccan chicken for dinner, yum! And I think I am going to make some banana, oat and honey biscuits for bake off night! 

Summer days

So as I mentioned earlier it's been the summer holidays so without the usual groups I have had to be a bit more creative with our day time trips. Nemo loves going out and has lots of energy so dealing trips out are a necessity. So this is a flavour of what we've been up to.

Lots of evening walks with Daddy. 

We get some lovely views on sunsets from the back of our house :

Lots of walks in the woods. I live these teepees :)

We have a yearly pass for the aquarium and being next to hubby's work we can meet him for lunch then drop in. 

In the entire aquarium this is one of Nemo's favourite bits...a plastic shark model! 

This year Bristol is full of these Shaun the Sheep models that are decorated differently. There were Gromit's on a previous year and they raise money for the children's hospital. Here are some more we visited.

Here is an amazing whale which has been erected in a fountain in millennium square. The waves are made from plastic bottles it's quite amazing. 

Nemo always has to come a visit this bug when we visit the aquarium. 

 

Also by the aqaurium is a lovely fountain type feature in millennium square where the children can play. Nemo has spent hours here over the summer. 

In the background you can see a metal wall which has water running down it.

Nemo and Pebble are getting super close now that Pebble is more interactive and plays. 

Here is Nemo feeding Pebble! 

A bit blurry but I love this picture of them both. I found Nemo crawling around on the floor with Pebble- they were both squeezing in delight. 

We have made full use of our garden this year, we have patio doors which lead our to our garden and it's been lovely to let Nemo roam in and out. Nemo has his Cousy coupe and slide from his first birthday, and a tractor, tent and trampoline from his second birthday. 

Here and Nemo and Pebble enjoying the trampoline together. I think Pebble will be being wheeled around in the trailer of the tractor before too long! 

We have visited some soft plays this summer,. My friend and I went to one in Portishead which was really good. I have not dared this too often though as if couldn't face the crowds that flood to these on rainy days in the summer holidays! 

Pebble has discovered a love for food this summer and is now very competent at feeding herself. Here she is eating watermelon. I was really concerned for a moment the next day when her poo was pink! 

We have spent a lot of time enjoying our local town. There is a really cute park we often go to (it is not possible to walk past it without going in without Nemo having a meltdown!)

Nemo also loves walking to see the bridge and the boats.

Even in the rain! 

Today we got the bus into town to have lunch with Daddy. When we were walking to the bus stop the river was so full:

When we came back about 3 hours later this is how it looked 

I promise that's the same place!!

I wish I had taken a picture of this embankment before but the water had risen up to the wall and had flooded into the field. I'm used to the river being tidal but I couldn't believe how quickly it changed. 

So that is a flavour of what we have been doing. We have had a great summer, it will be nice for our groups to be back on so we can catch up with people we haven't seen. 

See you soon! 

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