Browsing Tag

autumn

An odd season

Posted on 24th November 2017

Usually we have a lot of fun this season, with Halloween and Firework Night with the best of all Christmas following later. It’s so far not quite worked out like that, Ariella has been really unwell. If she doesn’t have a cold then she has a vomiting bug or fever, an infection.

I think it’s really difficult when children are unwell, they don’t sleep well, they don’t eat well and really don’t want to do much. The days can feel much longer and you might end up watching a lot more television than you originally planned. This is the first time however that the illness has really reacted badly for Ariella, she really struggles with a runny nose because it’s sticky and then hairy once she tries to wipe it away and picks up all the various cat hairs floating around. A few weeks ago we had her assessed for occupational therapy, this highlighted a bunch of areas which we can work on with Ariella. Sensory concerns aside we have great anxiety to overcome which seems to making everyday life much harder than it has ever been before.

When you have a sick and easily anxious child it’s a recipe for disaster, one who doesn’t like sticky things or items on her hands that she cannot removed. Snotty noses turn into days of repetitive wiping away, hairs proceeding to then get stuck to her hands, over and over “help, help, help”. Crying and screaming, biting and aggression – mixed with repetitive phrases that have no context over and over. She uses a bank of maybe four phrases which she will now scream out while trying to bite or throw herself around when frustrated throughout the day. I cannot stop her nose from running, just like I cannot change the rest of the world for her. In these times the whole day can focus on aggression with little structure or sense and you just have to stand firm to it all and hope that tomorrow she might come back.

Illness really takes it out of Ariella, it can take several days before she will be able to stand up and walk or have any energy to lift things. Once she is up and about it’s usually quite wobbly until she can gain her strength again, it definitely makes me appreciate how hard motor can be for her. I’ve seen a lot of activity on the blog and social media lately of visitors checking in, I know it’s been a while since I posted just about Ariella so wanted to make sure I really update with this post.

As Ariella wasn’t well enough to go outside for the fireworks we watched them from our kitchen window seat, she had gone to bed but the fireworks started around 8pm. We woke her up and brought her in to see them, I’m glad we did as she loved watching them. In fact over the coming days she saw lots of fireworks in the sky and even now asks for them when it’s dark out. It didn’t feel completely like a loss, which was great and I’m so pleased that she now understands the concept of them even if she wants to see them every evening!

Ariella seems to fixate on one type of “thing” which at the moment is fireworks, we watch fireworks a lot on YouTube using our television. She particularly likes the London fireworks, so we’ve watched several different years of these – I won’t keep up for New Year but she can watch them the next day this year.

The last week or so Ariella has been recovering a little, she’s taking more steps indoor again unaided and has managed to stand herself up. But it’s a long, slow process and makes you really want to avoid sickness at all cost. For her illness costs her time, which doesn’t seem that important right now as a child but having worked for months to get to this point and have it wiped off in a few days – it’s just tragic! Physio have suggested that we go back to using her wrap again during these periods and certainly no chance of weaning off her supportive shoes any time soon.

The last few trips outside have brought with them some pleasant progress, although Ariella doesn’t like to walk outside or touch the ground she is much happier in the pram than previously. No more screaming when I stop, telling her exactly where we are going and breaking it down for her seems to help. It’s not always perfect, I wouldn’t expect it to be with a toddler but it’s getting more manageable. Now if we can just build up her strength and with it confidence then hopefully she will start walking outside too.

Checking out the animals in our local pets at home store

We took Ariella to our favourite spa hotel Calcot Manor in the Cotswolds to celebrate the pending arrival of number two with friends. She coped remarkably well, during that week she had started eating different things at home (rather than cereal every morning it’s now crumpets) and at nursery has begun trying new foods. We also saw improvements in her overall diet while eating with her over the weekend at the Manor, she tried some of the deserts and has branched away a little from beige coloured foods which are “safe”. It was a really rejuvenating weekend for us, we stayed for two nights and had a babysitter booked for both evenings, they usually use staff from the crèche for this. Ariella attended their crèche during the day for a few sessions which she really enjoyed too, playing lots with their musical instruments. I wasn’t sure how she would cope with the environment but she seems to remember previous trips which I think helps. Appropriate childcare really is the only way to full relax as parents, giving us time to attend massage appointments at the spa. My second massage while pregnant, first one of this pregnancy though – very much welcome! We also had some time in the spa to just relax, I do wish I could have taken a dip in their outdoor hot tub but next time.

Finally a decent mocktail! Thanks Calcot Team

The last couple of longer trips with Ariella in the car have resulted in her throwing up several times, usually when we get to roundabouts or twisty roads. Driving into the depths of Wales back in the Summer was particularly gruesome, it’s quite hard to clean up several projectile vomits while on route. We even managed to use every outfit we had packed on one occasion, amongst a huge amount of water wipes and the seat has been washed more times than I can count. In light of this we decided it was time to turn her, weighing up the pros and cons of the extra safety extended rear-facing car seats provide I feel comfortable with the choice. For now at least it has meant zero vomit during the most recent trip and Ariella seems a lot happier in this position as she has more control over viewing what’s happening, so we have less screaming to contend with. It didn’t take Ariella too long to get used to the impact cushion, it’s quite unusual as you hide the straps away under the fabric of the seat and then the cushion holds the child in place. Much quicker from my point of view and Ariella is now used to lifting her arms up ready for the cushion to go down.

Ariella in her Cybex Sirona carseat

Just what every child needs at Christmas when arriving, a cookie. I hope they never stop this tradition!

We have some amazing friends, a fabulous baby shower afternoon tea.

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Being Mum Lifestyle

A little update – Walking, looking to Autumn and where is the time going?

Posted on 30th August 2017

If you follow the Unruffledmum on Instagram you’ll have noticed a few shots of Ariella walking as of late. It’s been a really difficult journey to watch as her parent, she started walking holding on hand on the 28th of March and then in June she amazed us by walking from room to room all by herself for several days. The day I announced this great achievement on my personal Facebook she stopped and she stopped completely, refusing to walk the smallest of steps between two people and certainly not by herself to a location in the room.

The lag coincided with some of my sickest weeks with my current pregnancy and It definitely seemed rather daunting that I may end up with two children come January who cannot walk, not ideal at all given we have eighteen steps from our door down to ground level. But you come up with ways of coping and certainly I began to rethink how to cope in that scenario.

After about eight weeks of not a huge amount of progression gross motor wise we realised she wanted us to sit down, she would only walk between us if both of us were sat and if one of us tried to stand up while she walked between us she would immediately stop walking and fall to the ground. So we did this every evening, with Ariella pacing the hallway back and forth – slowly Jamie would shuffle backwards (while still sat!) further and further and bit by bit Ariella gained confidence. Ariella really finds the outside scary, she cries if she has to walk on or touch grass. We would take her to the park and sit down further and further way from each other making her walk the long stretches between us. Eventually we moved to disappearing still sat down behind rooms, over time walking clicked in and sometime in August just before we headed off to Barcelona she could walk.

At present she walks from one point to another, she can stop midway and stand for a few seconds, she often prefers to walk and her walking over time is becoming less awkward looking and more fluid. She has learnt to turn herself while walking, turn herself while standing to – set off – by herself rather than needing to hold our hands first. Sometimes I catch her walking in the corner of my eye and I’m still surprised, it hasn’t quite sunk in yet – we’ve watched every single piece of her development down to the smallest detail piece itself together. I think that’s one of the best things about developmental delay, you don’t miss a thing.

Although the last two months have been a bit regressive in terms of gross motor she has progressed so much in other areas of her development. Pretend play has exploded, I often now see her playing with her dolls, talking to them and putting them to sleep. Making pretend food in her kitchen, making soup, cutting vegetables, drinking from her tea set with dainty fingers. Her happy land set has seen a renewed spike of activity, with Susie and Savannah showing their faces once more – we even purchased a red bus for her as her reward for staying in bed until the sun came up using her Groclock. It’s so much easier to live with her at the moment when she is showing an interest in her toys rather than just throwing them around, I’m sure it’s less frustrating for both of us.

Ariella has a fantastic memory, it’s definitely her thing. She remembers numbers, counting, the alphabet, object flash cards very quickly and it’s lovely to see these things spreading out across her play. Social development too has just blossomed, she loved spending time with all the adults around her in Barcelona – taking home many of the funny things they shared. She is still shaking items in her hands left and right now and often talks of each of our friends in turn.

In short its been a really uplifting month a brilliant end to Summer 17′, I’ve been feeling better and Ariella has been making huge leaps in progress developmentally. She’s lovely nursery, she is really changing from a baby to a little girl and her development is either catching up or progress which is all we can really ask for! I’m so looking forward to Autumn, my next goal is to crack her anxiety and aggression. Some of the routines and anxiety behaviour is really limiting her outside play, I’m hoping that her occupational therapy assessment next month might help us understand which area to focus on to help. For now however we continue to just compared sizes of bites between us and hope that eventually this too will change.

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Lifestyle

Lasting out January, reflecting on the Seasons

Posted on 23rd January 2017

When I woke up this morning to another chilly Winters day looking out over the roof tops of Surrey at everyone’s chimneys stood like pillars smoking away, I’m reminded how great the last year has been and felt I should reflect on it a little below. Soon we will be coming up to our “moving home anniversary” and last week we had our purchased new home anniversary, we had a few months to decorate before moving in you see. I think we spent quite a lot of our weekends living here in Surrey in the spare room and London during the week over that time. It was quite exciting those weekends, living on ready meals/takeaways, garage sandwiches and wine in plastic champagne flutes. Ariella always slept very well in her room snuggled into her travel cot and I think it helped so much with her transition when we finally did “move in”, she wasn’t moving into the unknown but a room she had seen shaped just for her.

The Nuna travel cot (large version) is awesome by the way!

It’s absolutely beautiful in Surrey, I don’t know if we were just lucky with the weather in 2016 but the Seasons this last year have been defined. We moved in the Spring and the garden which is quite mature was blooming alive with vibrant pops of colour in very unexpected locations. I’d sit at my dressing table in the mornings, looking out at the garden with beautiful birds chirping away in front of me, foxes dashing across my window and a mass of every changing colour – I’d never really appreciated gardens until that point. I could tell what the day would hold just by looking out the window, whether it would be a cold day and the grass would be frosty or a lovely Summer’s morning. Every season is as it is told in books, this is something I’ve never really experienced before. When living in Bristol we used to get a lot of cloud, sure sometimes it would snow in Winter but usually it was pretty mild and grey – when it’s always grey it’s very hard to see the beauty in England. London it was warm, cold in Winter but comparatively warm to most places due to the build up of people, buildings and stuff.

Summer here is hot, just as you’d expect you get some rainy days but the warm days were lovely. We could eat outside a lot, it was – too warm – at times. Lighting up a BBQ on the terrace, lugging up the ice bucket to chill prosecco by twilight and watching dangling little fairy lights in the dark. Fond memories of Ariella paddling in her first little frog pool, splashing around in her Summer hat while Strawberries are growing (ready to go in the glass with the Prosecco) nearby.

Once Summer starts to wane Autumn arrives with a mass of beautiful leaves, where I grew up we had some trees in the road to mark the season change but it was never on the level of Surrey. The green is everywhere and you are confronted with a mass of ambers and red, it’s impossible to forget that Autumn has arrived here. People dig out their Autumnal wreaths, they bring out pumpkins and Autumn treats. We watch fireworks shoot across the sky to mark firework night, the darkness starts to take over more of the day and you find yourself lingering indoors a little more to keep out the cold.

You can actually feel it here, have you every played the game “Animal Crossing” which was available on the Wifi and Nintendo DS? I loved that game, I enjoyed in the game watching the seasons change too.

Finally here we are in Winter, I actually love Winter. I love the build up to Christmas, I don’t even mind January – not really. As long as Winter is actually cold, cosy and maybe we see a glimpse of Snow that’s always been my view. Far too many Winter’s have passed in a grey, cloudy blip – boring Winter’s those are the ones I don’t like. Surrey has provided us with frost, snow, minus digits on the thermometer. For the first time in my life I’ve had to grit the pathways due to ice and the garden has had a layer of frost on it that has remained there for weeks.

I know that for some people they dislike one Season, or they only like one – Summer perhaps. But I’m one of those people who has a true appreciation for the way that they mark the changing of time. I think it’s rather beautiful and I’m glad that we live somewhere which seems to celebrate this change through nature, festivals, community and life. Soon January will be over and we will be closer to the Spring, only to repeat the cycle all over again. I’ve already heard the phrase “I can’t wait for Summer so we can do…” I love how we all live in tune with the Seasons.

What’s your favourite Season?

Being Mum Featured Lifestyle Parenting

A very Surrey Sunday – Polesden Lacey

Posted on 13th November 2016

Sunday started pretty relaxed, we had a couple of things on the to-do list, Jamie (the husband) was tasked with taking a bunch of items to the local recycling centre, I needed to find those items from around the house – we often wait and bulk up until we have enough that needs recycling to make the trip worth while. It feels great to have lots of extra space again, we had acquired silly things like two steam mops and two floor mops (yes lots of mops). I guess these things are made, bought and then when they break they are a pain to actually get rid of. We’ve also gone completely digital, finally we have taken all our DVD’s everything from games to films and they’ve been sent packing, even the PS3 is gone. Of course now everything is either stored digitally or streamed, there really isn’t much need for physical media and if anything it’s more effort to retrieve. I’m a huge fan of really clearing out things that just aren’t used, it’s how we maintain such a organised life here, our cupboards are organised purely because the things in them are used and put back. Everything has a place, if it has a use!

After all that hard work, we had earned a nice lunch, home made Eggs Royale all round!

Ariella loves eggs just like her dad, she also likes smoked salmon although doesn’t get it too often due to the salt content and is a big fan of home made hollandaise sauce on top of a poached egg. Once she caught sight of it, she was pretty difficult to keep distracted while hers cooled down.

Lunch followed a long nap for Ariella she usually sleeps for two hours in the day now, this was perfect for us to get ready for the afternoon. Since joining as members of the National Trust we’ve been seeking out new places to go visit and Surrey is absolutely filled with venues. Alongside looking for somewhere to spend the afternoon we also decided to really start hitting the Christmas Shopping list, we ordered Ariella’s main Christmas present from us (we’ve gone down the route of a kitchen and accessories). This will hopefully help her to stand up and play more and work alongside encouraging imaginative play. I’m hoping to top up her presents with extra from “Santa” for her personalised sack that we bought her last year from a store on Etsy.

Once Ariella woke up we packed up the car and drove to check out Polesden Lacey.

‘This is a delicious house…’ remarked Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother on her honeymoon at Polesden Lacey. This country retreat, only four miles from Dorking and junction 9 of the M25, has glorious views across the rolling Surrey Hills and acres of countryside. It was home to famous Edwardian hostess Mrs Greville, who entertained royalty and the celebrities of her time.

Marvel at the glittering Gold Room, designed to impress kings and maharajahs, or Mrs Greville’s extensive collection of art and ceramics ranging from world-famous Dutch old masters to sparkling Fabergé objects.

The gardens offer something for every season, including climbing roses at their best in June, a herbaceous border that we’re currently restoring to pre-war glories and a winter garden bursting with yellow aconites.

The wider estate provides plenty of space to let off steam on a walk through woodland or over rolling hills, with four waymarked trails to try.

– Official Website

On arrival we were surprised how vast everything was, there are walks that you can do up to around two and a half hours (maybe another day!). The carpark was packed and there were so many people which surprised us as we did go later in afternoon.

We were really just looking for somewhere to walk but we were hoping to actually go into the house too, sadly one of the staff waiting by the entrance to the house said they were closing. Which was quite surprising as it was only 3:20pm! However we are hoping to visit again during the Christmas festivities they have planned and it’s only a forty minute drive so disappointing but we hadn’t made the trip exclusively to view inside the house.

The grounds are truly beautiful it’s really no wonder that this is one of the National Trusts most popular venues. Looking out onto the renowned Surrey Hills, I could very easily picture living here back in the 1900’s. The gardens were very well maintained and in spring and summer would be spectacular, at the moment everything is sitting quite dormant preparing for the long winter ahead. Even driving to the property was a treat, it’s a really pretty area. Over the weekend I ordered Ariella an all in one waterproof fleece overall from Polarn O. Pyret so once that arrives (providing it fits) I’ll be able to put Ariella down on the Autumn/Winter ground to explore more for herself.

There is a play area too but it’s a little walk from the main parts of the property and we didn’t have our wellies on (we were hoping to spend more time in the house). Certainly though we will be taking a look at that next time. It was great getting about with the Tula Toddler, although we did see plenty of families pushing strollers/prams around so if you wanted you could definitely do that too. One downside was that they had wrapped up the statues for winter, they had done this tastefully with white material and white tape but it was a shame. I can understand why though, to preserve them but It did definitely felt like the venue was somewhat like the plants in a dormant phase, preparing for the winter and that if we wanted to see it in it’s best light we would have to come again (which we will be! Look out for the Christmas 1930’s makeover blog post that I will be doing once we visit in December).

After a little walk around to see the chickens and stomp around the grounds we decided to head back so that I could make dinner ready for Ariella. She always eats at 5-5:30pm and predictably in the car on the way home she was having a few grumbling moments about us daring to allow her stomach to remain empty. This evening we all had Paneer Butter Masala which is a very mild creamy curry, I have been making this dish since long before Ariella was born. My first taste of paneer was actually during our honeymoon in the Maldives, once of the dishes offered was Butter Paneer and once home I loved it so much that I had to find a recipe. As you can see, she loved it and if you fancy trying it at home you can follow the recipe here.

Right at the end of eating Ariella decided to run her hands through her hair (Noooooooooooo) so we had to give her a bath. We don’t bathe her every night, it’s definitely not part of her routine for bed and it seems to work quite well for her skin type. But alas tonight we did! Ariella suddenly developed a phobia of the bath, completely out of no where but we’ve been able to tackle this by using her bath toys – mostly George from Peppa Pig, this along with some reasoned talk seems to get her into the bath and happy once in to stay there. It was lovely to end such a wonderful day with a long line of words from Ariella, Jamie was showing her how bubbles from the bath can be squished together in the air and float down like snow. Alongside this saying “Ready, steady, go!” and Ariella copied every word completely and fully.

Being Mum Featured Parenting

An Autumnal picnic in Surrey

Posted on 6th November 2016

Picnics are one of my favourite things to do with Ariella, until now they’ve always been a Summer event. One of my most mundane parenting tasks is wiping the floors, highchair and Ariella after her meals, the beauty of picnics means that a good shake down usually does the job for you. Cleaning up after meals closely follows my other soul destroying task – emptying the dishwasher, but needs must.

We were going for an Autumnal picnic with good friends originally, sadly life had other plans but we plodded on just the three of us. I’m nothing if not a creature of habit and soon as our groceries arrived yesterday morning, after unpacking I immediately started mulling wine.

Excuse the rather surprise half smile, Jamie took this after appearing around the corner!

Prior to making mulled wine myself I can’t say I’ve ever really thought that much of it. I realise now that the best mulled wine is home made rather than from a packet or bag, the recipe I highly recommend is one of Jamie Oliver’s which you can find here. I had ordered two huge 1L flasks in the shop to put hot tea and the wine in but we decided only to take the mulled wine as with just the three of us (and one of us not being particularly helpful in the holding department) it would have been just too much for us to carry. We also ditched the wicker hamper in favour of a more practical backpack number that Jamie could attach to his back while carrying Ariella. This left my hands free to carry the food cooler bag, picnic blanket and my trusty flask of mulled wine.

Winkworth Arboretum in the Spring with Ariella

We have been to the Winkworth Arboretum a handful of times, once in the spring when glorious blue bells were out in full swing (for a picnic too) and once in the summer purely for a nice walk with visiting family. This time once again the season change was clear to see, truly beautiful colours can be seen here in Autumn. Winkworth Arboretum is run by the National Trust, which we finally decided yesterday to sign up for a membership for. It really was about time and now free’s us up to enjoy many of the other venues held by the National Trust in Surrey.

We walked around for a little while trying to find the right place to sit down and finally found this really interesting very red tree, it was definitely a point of interest as many onlooker stopped to admire it (as well as point and smile at Ariella).

I always like to take a big muslin square, one of those huge ones for Ariella to sit on because otherwise she would stain the picnic blanket when eating. It’s probably not the most sensible of colours for a picnic blanket, grey and white but I really love it! The extra layer helps and means I can bundle up the muslin once she is finished and wash it which removes any marks, unlike the picnic blanket which is a hand washing affair.When we weaned Ariella we decided to use a baby led approach so she has eaten well independently for a long time. When we first starting weaning her at six months old I remember the Health Visitor (HV) at the time saying that she may struggle to to swallow food, this was definitely a hard pill to swallow it’s hard to imagine now that we know she eats well the worry before. She was quite right though it’s a concern for children with Ariella’s suspected condition but luckily not a challenge we have had to deal with.

I poured out our cups of mulled wine while Ariella tucked into some pesto pasta, the wine went down a treat as it was bitterly cold out. We wrapped up warm though and Ariella was nice and toasty. Half way through Ariella went really quiet and strange then starting crying intermittently, immediately we both tried to work out what was wrong. Did she wants more food on her plate? What food did she want? A fresh nappy? Her water bottle? Eventually we worked out that she would cry each time Jamie put a crisp into his mouth, how unusual we thought. Crisps that definitely would not normally be part of Ariella’s diet, alas we caved and gave her some – sweet chilli thins seem to be right up her street as she was very demanding of more!

Next time I would opt for a hot soup as well as the mulled wine (in flask B), bread to dip in the cups and probably some blankets. It would have been a little difficult to carry though so perhaps we would have to rethink our storage solution! We tried to use more Summer appropriate foods which really didn’t work well in the cold, the cheese for example had no chance to warm up out there.

With all that being said I still highly recommend a lovely Autumnal picnic, it was beautiful to sit there as a family while leaves fell onto the blanket. Ariella had such fun looking up at the sky and for the first time said “Skiay” which we are taking as a another word! I’d love to hear about your Autumnal picnic food suggestions, so please if you do have any lovely recipes to share in the comments or you can message me directly using the about me page.

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The Pumpkin Patch trending in England

Posted on 2nd November 2016

Up until now you’ve probably skimmed through some pictures or articles online of Americans visiting pumpkin patches with their dear children during the run up to Halloween. This trendy idea seems to reached the shores of the UK with a storm this year, lots of local farms opened their doors for a short duration to allow you to go pick your own pumpkin, often incorporating tractor rides, face painting, seasonal food and other activities.

This year, having heard about this being advertised on Facebook and reading about it in one of my lovely mummy friends blogs (you can check her out here – Another Surrey Mum) we decided to take a trip to our local farm shop Secretts in Milford. They had plenty on offer, for only £1 each entry we could ride on a seasonally decorated tractor down to their pumpkin patch, hunt out our favourite – mostly my efforts – and bring it back home to eat or to carve. I bought a everyday regular carving pumpkin from a large retail store just in case I couldn’t carry Ariella and the pumpkin home. But safe to say, the Secretts pumpkins were so much better quality inside and out.

They recommended you wear wellies so I had to go shopping in a bit of a mad rush days before to find a pair in Ariella’s size. Opted for some Jojomamanbebe yellow ones with fox liners, she looked adorable! I went for a bigger size than needed as she isn’t quite walking yet so I want them to have extra room for when she is – also I wasn’t sure how much the liner would fill out the boots.
We had a blast! Ariella wasn’t too fond of waiting in line for the tractor, I like many other mums there decided to go for the carrier rather than taking her stroller. I’ve had good use out of this Tula toddler which I’m working on reviewing in the coming weeks.
I hadn’t expected how fun it would be to visit a pumpkin patch and all the extras with it. Everyone there seems really hyped up and it really got us into the spirit of Autumn. I have to compare it to going to a Christmas market or buying your first cup of mulled wine, it was throughly enchanting. The tractors were setup with hay bells to sit on in a long line, so it was close quarters on that front but added to the fun and Secretts didn’t skimp on the ride down, taking the long route there with lots of twists and turns.

Once you had chosen your pumpkin you could pop it through various sized holes to find out how much it was. Given it was just the two of us, we went for a smaller pumpkin costing just £2 but they also had monstrous sized ones back near the event setup for £15 each. Understandably these weren’t to be picked as you’d struggled to carry them back and fit it on the tractor with everyone else.

Plenty of lovely food, pumpkin curry and beverages although we decided not to eat as Ariella was at this point rather tired. But had she not been she certainly would have had a go on the mini children’s tractors and a lie down in the huge hay bed all the children were playing in. It was a great day for it weather wise too, if you enjoy this time of year as much as we do then I highly recommend you jump on this trend for 2017 and hopefully you’ll see the joy in a pumpkin patch too.

Certainly this will be on our list next year again, hopefully on a weekend so we can go as a family or with friends as it was a great day! Here’s a quick shot of my pumpkin carving skills, you can see I got quite bored after one pumpkin, must try better next year.