A Wee Bit of Cake: February 2017

The Me and Mine Project - February 2017

By A Wee Bit of Cake - February 28, 2017

Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like they have blinked and February is over and done with? It barely feels like any time has passed since I wrote January's Me and Mine post yet here we are ready to take part in February's.

This month has seen us find our groove with the whole work/nursery routine and I actually find I'm quite enjoying work now we are back in to the swing of things. Yes, life is very busy and suddenly all jobs are being crammed in to the weekend but we have found what works for us and settled in to a new routine.

As I've said this month was very busy with 2 first birthday parties, family coming to stay, cake club, Ethan's 12 month review with the Health Visitor and everything else in between so snapping a family photo totally slipped our minds. I planned to take one over the weekend then Ethan was poorly so this one was hastily snapped before work on Monday. As you can see Ethan is still unwell and unimpressed by having his photo taken but for me this is our real life and I know I'll look back on these photos in years to come remembering how chaotic is was juggling work and childcare with a poorly baby but somehow we managed it. A few hours after this photo was taken I got a phone call from nursery saying Ethan was still unwell so after an early finish and an evening of mummy cuddles I decided to take today off to look after him. He's on the mend but still not 100% poor thing.

I was torn up with so much mum guilt yesterday and today - do I send him in to nursery? Who should take time off work? Do I use annual leave or try and work from home? It's so hard to know what is the best thing to do but as Mr T has a mammoth amount of marking to do this week and Parent's evening tonight on top of teaching his normal lessons I decided that a day's annual leave was needed to spend with my poorly boy. Thankfully he's napped quite well so I've got a few jobs done around the house and typed up this blog post.

Roll on March which is a very exciting month for our little family as Ethan turns 1!

As always I'll be linking up over at Dear Beautiful. Make sure you pop over and check out all of the other wonderful family photos.

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evening meal

Meal Planning Monday

By A Wee Bit of Cake - February 27, 2017

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holidays

Our Top 10 Travel Must Haves #MarkWarnerMum

By A Wee Bit of Cake - February 26, 2017

I relish family time whether we are off on an adventure or snuggling at home, those precious moments together are priceless. Now I'm back at work after almost a year off on maternity leave we find our evenings are so busy from the moment we get in from work until we finally go to bed that snatched moments together have become even more important.

I finish work at 4:30pm, pick Ethan up from nursery at 4:50pm and we get home around 5:20pm. We have a cuddle and a play and if he's in good form I'll prep dinner (unless it's in the slow cooker). Bath time is at 6pm and this is when Mr T usually arrives home from work. One of us bathes Ethan while the other is getting his bedtime bits ready. Time slows for a little bit as I feed him before he goes to sleep then it's downstairs to make dinner while Mr T catches up on work emails, we eat, clean up, he possibly has some marking or lesson planning to do while I repack Ethan's nursery bag and before we know it it's bedtime and we have to start the whole process all over again.

There are some days I feel like we are ships passing in the night and we barely get to connect as a couple never mind as a family but then before we know it the weekend rolls around and for two whole days time slows. We can stay in our pyjamas until lunchtime watching CBeebies, there is time to cook and play and just mooch about. Sometimes I'll bake or Mr T will tackle another item on our ever growing DIY list but whatever we choose to do the time is our own and we are all together. Yes, being married to a teacher means he's always got an element of school work to do on a weekend but it's on his terms and not ruled by a timetable. Some Sundays he is locked away in the spare room doing work and it's just me and my boy but I know he does this for us and to give us a good life.

The baby years are so precious and fleeting and already I find myself looking back at photos and videos to remind myself of how little Ethan was a year ago. I did my utmost to savour every moment of it and to use maternity leave to its full advantage. There is many a day I find myself longing for those days again when life was slower, I could spend time with Mr T on an evening and we got to enjoy some quality family time over every half term. As I've already mentioned Mr T works very long hours so to know we had him to ourselves for one whole week every 6 weeks was pretty special. Last summer we took advantage of both of us being off for those 6 weeks to cram in as many memories as possible. Yes, the broken toe scuppered his diving trip but it did mean an impromptu trip to Ireland and I got to show him the beauty of the West Coast (and how cold it is in August - even the need to light a fire!) We also enjoyed a few UK city breaks and took Ethan on his first trip to the British Seaside.

As each week gets busier than the last I find myself pining for the summer again. I know this year we won't have 6 weeks off but I'll make sure to use up some of my annual leave for more family adventures. We may or may not get a trip abroad (hello moving house and sapping all our funds) but it hasn't stopped me putting together a wish list of our top 10 travel must haves that we would take on our first family holiday abroad.

1. Mr T has been scuba diving for years with BSAC and the crazy man usually dives in Scotland but whenever we go abroad he will try and find somewhere that offers the chance to dive in a warmer climate. For us no holiday is complete without him packing a few diving essentials.

2. We love to explore the area beyond our hotel and often hire a car when we are away. We've had all sorts from a battered Peugot with it's bumper half screwed on to a fancy Chevrolet Camaro convertible when we were on Honeymoon but whatever the vehicle it's been amazing to leave behind the touristy places and see the country for what it truly is.

3. Considering the fact Mr T hates having his photo taken he loves to be the man behind the camera when we are away, whether that's snapping photos of places of interest or videoing a fight with a lobster on a dive (true story!), he will always capture so many memories from our holiday.

4. I love a good book but since I got my Kindle it makes reading on holiday so much easier. No longer am I eating into my luggage allowance with books, I can load them onto my Kindle freeing up space for more clothes and shoes.

5. Speaking of clothes I do love a good summer dress. I plan to stop breastfeeding soon so I'm looking forward to being able to wear clothes next summer that don't involve boob access. How adorable is this dress from Lindybop and even better it's in the sale!

6. I'm such a milk bottle (Irish skin and all that) so I can't go out without lathering myself in Factor 50 suncream and even then I can still burn. I would love to tan as easily as Mr T but I now just embrace being pasty white - it's perfectly fashionable yes?

7. Ethan hasn't been abroad yet but now he's crawling about and will hopefully be walking by summer we need to get him a Trunki. We are a tiny bit obsessed by dinosaurs and how cool is this one? I can totally see him whizzing through the airport on it come summer.

8. For us no holiday is complete without a spot of swimming. I've always admired the Konfidence range of swimwear and how adorable is this baby wetsuit? Mr T wants to instill a love of water in Ethan therefore the earlier we can introduce him to it the better.

9. Good old Apple, how did parents cope before the iPad existed? Ethan's a bit little to be let loose with crayons to do a spot of colouring on a journey so the iPad provides the perfect entertainment. From games to cartoons, it is the perfect electronic babysitter that everyone needs.

10. And finally Trip Advisor! Now I know it's not a physical item but we can't be without this app when we go on holiday. From checking out places to visit and where to eat (cake shops!) especially now we have a little person in tow, it really is a lifesaver.

So there you have it, our top 10 holiday essentials. Now we just need summer to arrive with a good old dose of sunshine!

It looks like Ethan is all ready for his holidays!

***This is my entry into the Mark Warner 2017 Blogger Ambassador Program. Fingers crossed! Normal cake and baby spam shall resume shortly.***

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baby led weaning

Cheese and Tomato Pinwheels

By A Wee Bit of Cake - February 23, 2017

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evening meal

Meal Planning Monday

By A Wee Bit of Cake - February 13, 2017

Have you all had a good weekend? Ours was really good apart from the fact it rained and it rained. So much for snow eh?

Friday night I spent baking and decorating my nephew's cake and it was lovey. I haven't sat and modelled with sugarpaste in ages so it was nice to sit at the kitchen table while watching some of my favourite vlogs and get immersed at the job in hand. My nephew Finn is obsessed with pigs so it was only fitting to bake him a "Pigs in Mud" cake. He was delighted with it when we dropped it off on Saturday and even proceeded to decorate it with more of his plastic pigs.

Saturday evening saw Mr T's nieces come to stay which was lovely. The girls live a couple of hours away and we don't get to see them all that often so this was a rare treat. Now the girls are 15 and 17 they don't need looking after in the same way, in fact they looked after Ethan, gave him his bath and he thoroughly enjoyed having entertainment on tap. Saturday evening saw us chilling out in front of the TV with a pizza which was so lovely, it felt like hanging out with friends and we both said we enjoyed getting that one on one time with the girls. No longer did we feel like we were babysitting, it was simply a lovely and relaxing evening.

Sunday was a much needed lazy day and after the girls went home we enjoyed a bit of family time, Skyped the grandparents, cooked a roast and before we knew it it was bedtime and the whole Sunday evening routine started. I had a decent night's sleep (only one wake-up woo!) so I'm feeling refreshed for the week ahead.

This week we are having:

Monday - Pulled pork cottage pie (using up leftovers)

Tuesday - Steak with asparagus and braised red cabbage

Wednesday - Chicken curry with rice

Thursday - Beef casserole and mash

Friday - no idea yet as Mr T is off this week on half term so we are heading out for the day

Next weekend sees Ethan at two birthday parties (that boy has a better social life than us!) so it might be a freezer dive or slow cooker meal but I've yet to plan it.

Have a great week!

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baby led weaning

A wee bit of weaning

By A Wee Bit of Cake - February 13, 2017

Weaning, it’s something I never expected to feel emotional about.

When I was pregnant with Ethan I was adamant that I would breastfeed and that the only type of weaning we would do would be baby led weaning (BLW). Older members of the family were baffled that I wanted to wait until the NHS guidelines of 6 months to wean as we were all introduced to solids at 3 months old but I knew he was plenty satisfied by my milk so I followed my gut and waited until he started to show an interest in food.

Around 5 months Mr T offered him a piece of cucumber to help with teething and I remember watching them and feeling very tearful. Up until that point my milk alone had nourished and fed Ethan from the day he had been born yet suddenly we were giving him real food.

During the weeks between 5 and 6 months we started offering Ethan bits of food to play with and explore. We weren’t too bothered if he didn’t eat anything, it was more about him getting used to meal times and what food was all about.

Once he turned 6 months we started actively weaning and it’s been an interesting experience to say the least. At the start I was adamant we would only do BLW. I never offered purees and only gave preloaded spoons. Initially Ethan took to it really well and everything I offered he put in his mouth but this stage was short lived. He then started ignoring what was on his high chair or chucked it on the floor, it was so disheartening.

It was also hard to judge when to offer food. I was advised to offer it about 1 hour after milk but not when they are hungry or tired which often proved difficult to time just right.

After a while I decided to start trying some purees just to see how we got on and Ethan took to it really well. Initially he was wary and wanted to feel the food before he ate it but it finally felt like we were getting somewhere with meal times.

To begin with I didn't want to give him pouches or pre-made baby food as I always cook from scratch and felt guilty that I was cheating somehow but I soon realised that they aren't a bad thing. Pouches turned out to be so handy if we ended up being out at a meal time or if we got home late and there wasn't time to cook. I guess it's a difference between using them every now and again compared to using them for every meal. Ethan loved them too so if he was having a day where he didn't want solids it was useful to be able to top him up with a pouch.

Some days he clamped his mouth shut and wouldn't let me near him with a spoon while other days he lapped it up. Even though the BLW mafia (they are on Facebook and are so strict!) said you couldn't do mixed weaning, we found it worked really well for us. A typical day went like this:

7am: milk

8am: weetabix with toast/crumpet/fruit loaf

9/10am: milk

12pm: sandwich thin with cream cheese, cucumber fingers, tomato wedges and yoghurt

1230/1pm: milk

3pm: milk

4pm: snack (ricecake/fruit)

5pm: whatever we had for dinner or a pouch with fruit for pudding

630pm: milk

As we progressed with weaning Ethan proceeded to drop his milk feeds and is now on 3 full meals a day plus snacks with a milk feed first thing when he wakens and just before bed. At one point it felt like a never ending cycle of milk and solid meals but slowly it all clicked with him and now he's a bin that I sometimes feel like I can't fill.

One thing I found with weaning was that I had to be organised. I always cook from scratch so meals at home were fine but if we were out I needed food to give Ethan and didn't want to solely rely on pouches (those things can be expensive!). I then discovered Pinwheels and oh my they are so so easy to make.

All you need is a roll of ready rolled puff pastry and a filling of your choice. Roll, fill, slice, brush with egg and pop in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes. They are great to take out with you and freeze well too. Perfect for little hands to hold and minimal fuss! These ones I filled with tomato puree and grated cheese and Ethan loved them. I actually haven't made any in ages so I definitely need to make some more to keep in the freezer. I'll pop a proper recipe and photos in another post soon but they are are so easy to make.

Weaning... it's be interesting. Disheartening when you see food chucked or ignored yet exciting too when you see your little person tucking into a meal with gusto or their reaction to trying something for the first time.

We have now discovered Ethan loves Yorkshire Puddings, Roast Potatoes, Carrots, Oranges, Yoghurt, Sausages and Black Pudding. He flaps his arms in excitement when he sees any of them coming his way. At one point I thought we would never get there and he would be stuck on the boob juice for life but honestly it does get easier. One day it all clicked and now my little man loves his grub.