This post isn't particularly on topic regarding my little ones, but a big part of my life, and hopefully one that will enrich our lives when we are more mobile, and I can travel furthur alone!
I have finally started my driving lessons, just 2 months short of my 28th birthday. I started 8 days ago, and have had 3.5 hours of lessons in that time (two Fridays, 2 hours for the first one, 1.5 hours for the second). I've gone with an independant driving company, run by a man called Colin. So far, I am very impressed with his teaching skills. I have updated facebook after both my lessons with him, but for those who don't have facebook or have me on there, it seems that I am a complete natural :) In my first two hour lesson, he told me that I would be learning how to pull off, and come to a stop again. We did that, and I soon got the hang of it, so we also moved onto changing gears as well! That lesson was on a trading estate, so there weren't many parked cars or traffic, and there was pretty much just a circuit to keep going round and round. He left me with a very positive end note, and told me I was picking it up a lot faster than most people, and that he couldn't believe I'd never driven before hehe.
I then had a second lesson which lasted 1.5 hours, which felt a bit less exhausting, and a better length I think than the two hours. He drove me this time to a housing estate with more parked cars, and also lots of turnings. He put me straight into doing left turns onto a minor road, which again I picked up quickly, then moving onto right turns, which took a little longer maybe but still pretty quick, and then went onto pulling out of a T junction. And spent a fair amount of time towards the end of the lesson combining all three around this estate, giving me plenty of practice braking at the T junction and being ready to pull away again.
I feel like I'm making lots of progress and enjoying learning to drive a lot! I never thought I would enjoy it so much, or be as good as I appear to be! I went in with a fair amount of confidence, which I think helps, and just a "let's tackle this then!" kind of attitude, and it seems to be paying off! I'm hoping that I'll have passed my test before the end of the year, maybe even before Christopher's birthday. We shall see!
Saturday 28 May 2011
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Future health
Occasionally, my mind does wander into the not-so-distant (hopefully) future, when I will be trying for, and then pregnant with my third baby. I wonder how my pregnancy will fare - will I get diabetes again? How will the birth go? Will I be low risk? And if I am, will I choose a home birth again?
I am more aware than ever that my eating habits are slowly improving, I still struggle occasionally, and mostly with treats, I binge on them rather than spreading them out and making them last. But my meals are more healthy, I make a lot more food from whole ingredients, and very few things from heavily processed ready meals. I think the closest I get to those are the sauce jars, perhaps tins of baked beans, and other things like that. A new favourite of mine, and healthier alternative, is mashed cauliflower. It is a delicious alternative to potato, and I am quickly preferring it. I hope that there are lots more things that will gradually seep in and that as well as losing the final third of the weight I would like to lose, I will also become a healthier person. That any future pregnancies will be healthy ones, and that I pass down healthy habits to my children.
I hope I can make this vessel of life the most healthy it can possibly be, both for my future and that of my children. To think I am now the weight I was when I was around the age of 20, that over the last seven or eight years my weight crept up and down and up again to probably almost 17 stone at the height of pregnancy with Robert, and that in the last eight months I have lost almost 3 and a half stone, with maybe a couple of stone lost with the birth of Robert and between pregnancies, I should not scoff at the changes I have already made. My weight loss could have been greater, had I not had sticking points, but in a way I am glad that I've had them, as I think they have taught me as much or maybe more than managing to lose the weight I have done. It has shown me that I can maintain a weight by watching what I eat and allowing a few treats, and maybe going a bit OTT on occasion, but not as a matter of course. It has shown me how important it is to carry on eating healthily. It has shown me that I don't have to give up if things get slow, that I can just keep treading water and eventually I will get back the insentive and courage to carry on losing weight, without shooting back up the scales and un-doing all the work I've put in.
This weight loss journey might be as long as some people's, but it is still a fair amount, and one that I think will take me a year in total to complete, I think that to have stuck to something for this length of time is something I couldn't do several years ago. Becoming a mother has prepared me in some respect, patience is needed for both. Becoming a mother has spurred me into doing this, I want to be healthy for my children. I hope I can continue and that it will help me and my children to be healthy for the rest of our lives.
I am more aware than ever that my eating habits are slowly improving, I still struggle occasionally, and mostly with treats, I binge on them rather than spreading them out and making them last. But my meals are more healthy, I make a lot more food from whole ingredients, and very few things from heavily processed ready meals. I think the closest I get to those are the sauce jars, perhaps tins of baked beans, and other things like that. A new favourite of mine, and healthier alternative, is mashed cauliflower. It is a delicious alternative to potato, and I am quickly preferring it. I hope that there are lots more things that will gradually seep in and that as well as losing the final third of the weight I would like to lose, I will also become a healthier person. That any future pregnancies will be healthy ones, and that I pass down healthy habits to my children.
I hope I can make this vessel of life the most healthy it can possibly be, both for my future and that of my children. To think I am now the weight I was when I was around the age of 20, that over the last seven or eight years my weight crept up and down and up again to probably almost 17 stone at the height of pregnancy with Robert, and that in the last eight months I have lost almost 3 and a half stone, with maybe a couple of stone lost with the birth of Robert and between pregnancies, I should not scoff at the changes I have already made. My weight loss could have been greater, had I not had sticking points, but in a way I am glad that I've had them, as I think they have taught me as much or maybe more than managing to lose the weight I have done. It has shown me that I can maintain a weight by watching what I eat and allowing a few treats, and maybe going a bit OTT on occasion, but not as a matter of course. It has shown me how important it is to carry on eating healthily. It has shown me that I don't have to give up if things get slow, that I can just keep treading water and eventually I will get back the insentive and courage to carry on losing weight, without shooting back up the scales and un-doing all the work I've put in.
This weight loss journey might be as long as some people's, but it is still a fair amount, and one that I think will take me a year in total to complete, I think that to have stuck to something for this length of time is something I couldn't do several years ago. Becoming a mother has prepared me in some respect, patience is needed for both. Becoming a mother has spurred me into doing this, I want to be healthy for my children. I hope I can continue and that it will help me and my children to be healthy for the rest of our lives.
Sunday 15 May 2011
Crying It Out
I remember writing a while ago, some time early April saying I thought I had ovulated, and would be surprised if my period hadn't shown up by May. Well, it's now the middle of May, and still no period. I have also taken a pregnancy test, and I am not pregnant. The last time we could possibly have made a baby before I took the test was a long enough time previously that I felt confident that the answer would be correct. Soo.. I don't know what was up with that, just odd niggles I guess! Still, the longer without one the better I think, and seeing as Christopher is about 7.5 months old, that's fine by me! Robert was 11 months when my period returned, and he had been nightweaned for a few months by then.
Christopher is not nightweaned yet, but we will be nightweaning him gradually like we did Robert. I have read a lot of gentle parenting blogs, which advocate breastfeeding, co-sleeping, babywearing, cloth nappies, BLW, etc etc. And while I can see why people want to let their child learn to sleep by themselves in their own time, I personally needed to nightwean Robert for my own sanity, especially as when he got to 8 months old and was starting to wake hourly again, I just could not handle that! And while I am coping with motherhood-to-two better than I did with motherhood-to-one, I think the fact that I have two to look after would make me be in need of my sleep, especially since one is a very independantly-minded toddler! I think that in every aspect of parenting, we all just find our own way. Whether we do lots of research or little to none, we all do the best job we can, and sometimes I think it is important to remember that.
Why is it then, that as a pretty well-researched mother (at least I believe so) I sometimes read things or hear ways of parenting and cringe? Perhaps not at what is being done, but at the reasoning or the justification. The example I am thinking of right now was a discussion on someone's status about CIO. Someone replied saying that they did it with their baby, and after a week (a WEEK!) they finally "learned that bedtime meant bedtime". I read that, and my heart drooped a little for the baby, and my initial thoughts were "no, your baby learned that no-one would come no matter how distressed they were and how long they cried for." I have no doubt that this person loves their baby more than anything, and that they felt that CIO was the only option, but to me it just feels so harsh on a baby, I can't help but think how scared the baby must feel, in the dark and alone, desperately wanting to see their mummy and know she is still there, that they are safe, and no-one comes to get them.
I think what I find saddest is that I read so many people saying "I was in tears listening to them scream". How can anything that feels so WRONG possibly be right? What has happened to mother's instinct?
If you want to get to that Magical Land of Uninterrupted Sleep, there are several paths you can take. You can take the shortest route so you get there faster, but the road is made of broken glass, nails and shards of rock, and you are barefoot. You get to your destination in a fraction of the time than if you went on one of the other paths, but it is a journey filled with anguish and pain, and by the time you get there you have scars you will never get rid of. Or you can take one of the longer paths. The paths consist of sand, grass, smooth paving slabs, but they are significantly longer journeys than the short path. You reach your destination eventually, probably more tired than if you had taken the short path, but you had a relatively easy and painless journey, and no scars to show for it.
Christopher is not nightweaned yet, but we will be nightweaning him gradually like we did Robert. I have read a lot of gentle parenting blogs, which advocate breastfeeding, co-sleeping, babywearing, cloth nappies, BLW, etc etc. And while I can see why people want to let their child learn to sleep by themselves in their own time, I personally needed to nightwean Robert for my own sanity, especially as when he got to 8 months old and was starting to wake hourly again, I just could not handle that! And while I am coping with motherhood-to-two better than I did with motherhood-to-one, I think the fact that I have two to look after would make me be in need of my sleep, especially since one is a very independantly-minded toddler! I think that in every aspect of parenting, we all just find our own way. Whether we do lots of research or little to none, we all do the best job we can, and sometimes I think it is important to remember that.
Why is it then, that as a pretty well-researched mother (at least I believe so) I sometimes read things or hear ways of parenting and cringe? Perhaps not at what is being done, but at the reasoning or the justification. The example I am thinking of right now was a discussion on someone's status about CIO. Someone replied saying that they did it with their baby, and after a week (a WEEK!) they finally "learned that bedtime meant bedtime". I read that, and my heart drooped a little for the baby, and my initial thoughts were "no, your baby learned that no-one would come no matter how distressed they were and how long they cried for." I have no doubt that this person loves their baby more than anything, and that they felt that CIO was the only option, but to me it just feels so harsh on a baby, I can't help but think how scared the baby must feel, in the dark and alone, desperately wanting to see their mummy and know she is still there, that they are safe, and no-one comes to get them.
I think what I find saddest is that I read so many people saying "I was in tears listening to them scream". How can anything that feels so WRONG possibly be right? What has happened to mother's instinct?
If you want to get to that Magical Land of Uninterrupted Sleep, there are several paths you can take. You can take the shortest route so you get there faster, but the road is made of broken glass, nails and shards of rock, and you are barefoot. You get to your destination in a fraction of the time than if you went on one of the other paths, but it is a journey filled with anguish and pain, and by the time you get there you have scars you will never get rid of. Or you can take one of the longer paths. The paths consist of sand, grass, smooth paving slabs, but they are significantly longer journeys than the short path. You reach your destination eventually, probably more tired than if you had taken the short path, but you had a relatively easy and painless journey, and no scars to show for it.
Wednesday 11 May 2011
Big delay in update!
Well it's now May, Robert will be 2 and a half at the end of the month, and Christopher will be 8 months two days later. The boys have been lovely at times, and challenging at times, such is the job of "Mother" ;)
Christopher has begun to crawl, of a fashion anyway! He is most definitely able to move forwards to get at something he wants, and is able to get where-ever he wants to on one level. At the moment it's more of an army crawl, pulling himself along by his arms with a boost from his legs. His new trick of the last few days is getting his legs right underneath himself, and then pushing up on them, locking his legs straight, and lifting his body up so he's on his hands and his toes, and his bum is hiiiigh in the air! It's very cute, and I don't remember Robert doing it to that extent! Robert's was more of a little push up, with a fairly straight body. It won't be long at all before he is zooming around. I wonder if he'll be an early walker like his brother?
Robert is chatting away all the time now, and his sentences get more and more complex it seems. I'm struggling to think of examples though as it's just what he does now, and he talks about everything and anything around him. If he watches something on TV, he is able to talk about it afterwards, and he is able to recall things he did several hours before hand to somebody who was not there with only a little prompting, things like "When we went for a walk around the village, what animals did you see?". His pronounciation for words I notice are getting clearer, but again right now I'm struggling to recall which ones in particular. He now says our cat's name (Hazel) very clearly, exactly how it should be said. Since she has had some problems with her eye, she's had numerous visits to the vets in recent weeks, with another planned for Friday, and most likely another one some time next week. She's had a biopsy taken on a growth in her eye which may or may not be a cancerous tumour :( But she does seem to be more placid and accepting towards Robert lately.
Robert is becoming very compassionate of late. This afternoon, Christopher was over-tired, and was on the floor and moaning/crying while I rushed to get Robert's dinner ready. I came back in when it was finished, looked at him, and said "Do you want a cuddle, Christopher?" and picked him up. I hadn't even stood back up properly when Robert came over and leant his head towards Christopher's head and holding onto his shoulders (how he hugs a lot of the time), and then gave him a kiss on the head. A moment which melted my heart.
He has recently acquired the knowledge that if another child (his brother included) has a toy he wants, it is ok to thrust another toy into their hands, take the toy he wants, and call it "swapping" lol. We are working on getting him to realise that it needs to be a mutual agreement, and that the other child should want to play with the toy he's trying to give them. Even when he learns to wait for the other child to accept the toy, I'm sure that in his mind, it will very much be a selfish act on his part in that the only reason he wants to swap is because he wants that other toy.
When it gets to bath time, Robert climbs up the stairs, and I follow behind with Christopher, facing outwards. This lately has become an amusing time for all of us, but in particular, Christopher, who seems to find the ascending figure of his brother hilarious! This continues for a good while, with Christopher in fits of laughter as Robert walks around upstairs, sometimes not really doing anything funny particularly, just walking to or from him. But it quickly turns into a game where Robert will go into one of the bedrooms and then come out shouting "Air!". what the "air" means I'm not sure, maybe "here"? He is rewarded for his efforts easily as Christopher will chuckle away at his sudden appearance, and when Robert moves out of eyesight, he waits eagerly, bouncing on my knee, until Robert returns. It's really very sweet :)
Anyway I'll leave with a photo of my two boys that I got made into a canvas print for our anniversary last week.
Christopher has begun to crawl, of a fashion anyway! He is most definitely able to move forwards to get at something he wants, and is able to get where-ever he wants to on one level. At the moment it's more of an army crawl, pulling himself along by his arms with a boost from his legs. His new trick of the last few days is getting his legs right underneath himself, and then pushing up on them, locking his legs straight, and lifting his body up so he's on his hands and his toes, and his bum is hiiiigh in the air! It's very cute, and I don't remember Robert doing it to that extent! Robert's was more of a little push up, with a fairly straight body. It won't be long at all before he is zooming around. I wonder if he'll be an early walker like his brother?
Robert is chatting away all the time now, and his sentences get more and more complex it seems. I'm struggling to think of examples though as it's just what he does now, and he talks about everything and anything around him. If he watches something on TV, he is able to talk about it afterwards, and he is able to recall things he did several hours before hand to somebody who was not there with only a little prompting, things like "When we went for a walk around the village, what animals did you see?". His pronounciation for words I notice are getting clearer, but again right now I'm struggling to recall which ones in particular. He now says our cat's name (Hazel) very clearly, exactly how it should be said. Since she has had some problems with her eye, she's had numerous visits to the vets in recent weeks, with another planned for Friday, and most likely another one some time next week. She's had a biopsy taken on a growth in her eye which may or may not be a cancerous tumour :( But she does seem to be more placid and accepting towards Robert lately.
Robert is becoming very compassionate of late. This afternoon, Christopher was over-tired, and was on the floor and moaning/crying while I rushed to get Robert's dinner ready. I came back in when it was finished, looked at him, and said "Do you want a cuddle, Christopher?" and picked him up. I hadn't even stood back up properly when Robert came over and leant his head towards Christopher's head and holding onto his shoulders (how he hugs a lot of the time), and then gave him a kiss on the head. A moment which melted my heart.
He has recently acquired the knowledge that if another child (his brother included) has a toy he wants, it is ok to thrust another toy into their hands, take the toy he wants, and call it "swapping" lol. We are working on getting him to realise that it needs to be a mutual agreement, and that the other child should want to play with the toy he's trying to give them. Even when he learns to wait for the other child to accept the toy, I'm sure that in his mind, it will very much be a selfish act on his part in that the only reason he wants to swap is because he wants that other toy.
When it gets to bath time, Robert climbs up the stairs, and I follow behind with Christopher, facing outwards. This lately has become an amusing time for all of us, but in particular, Christopher, who seems to find the ascending figure of his brother hilarious! This continues for a good while, with Christopher in fits of laughter as Robert walks around upstairs, sometimes not really doing anything funny particularly, just walking to or from him. But it quickly turns into a game where Robert will go into one of the bedrooms and then come out shouting "Air!". what the "air" means I'm not sure, maybe "here"? He is rewarded for his efforts easily as Christopher will chuckle away at his sudden appearance, and when Robert moves out of eyesight, he waits eagerly, bouncing on my knee, until Robert returns. It's really very sweet :)
Anyway I'll leave with a photo of my two boys that I got made into a canvas print for our anniversary last week.
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