Posts Tagged "Christmas"

The Week According to Sam- Week Four

Posted by cafebebemama on Dec 26, 2011 in Bebe, Motherhood, Week According to Sam | 0 comments

Week four of Sam’s life has been a busy one. Grandma arrived, Auntie Julie and the cousins arrived and Mummy lost her mind thanks to Christmas and the need to try to be more than she was capable of. Just your average week then!

Thanks to my inability to prepare for Christmas at the best of times, much less four weeks after giving birth, we needed to go out and about into the great, wide world to shop for anything we could find. The week kicked into high gear with a trip to the city Registrar to officially register Sam’s birth and get his birth certificates. This will allow us to get his British passport and start the process for registering Sam’s birth with the US Embassy in London and getting his US passport. It is unfortunate that there isn’t more pomp and circumstance to the Registration “ceremony”…it’s pretty special after all!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday we spent shopping in Peterborough. Sam is the most outstanding shopper that ever was! He falls asleep once in the car seat after a few minutes, we transfer him in his Snugglebundl into the Xplory pushchair and that’s about it for excitement as far as Sam’s concerned. He sleeps until I wake him up to change his nappy and feed him several hours later. Obviously the key to happiness as far as Sam is concerned is rolling transport. I may have to walk many miles in the coming months!

On Thursday we had a mini-Christmas party with Mummy Matters, Little Bean and Beanie Boy. What fun they all had! We can’t wait to have Sam join in on the fun in a few months. Friday was my Day of Meltdown, however. Faced with the prospect of driving my Mom, Ella, Sam and pushchair, etc. into Stamford for the day with it raining, I simply could not cope. Instead, I cried and stayed indoors thus getting nothing accomplished. How fabulous hormones are! But the real question is, how much longer will I be able to use hormones as an excuse?

On Friday night, Mark and I attended his work Christmas dinner at a restaurant in Stamford. It was nice for us to get out as a couple for the first time while my Mom babysat for the kids. I was very twitchy about 3 hours in and we only made it to 3 1/2 hours before heading back home. I was rather pleased to see my boy in the end. Phew! This is an accomplishment though. We didn’t leave Ella for at least the first six months of her life!

The weekend was filled with Christmas preparation and celebration. I got none of my goals accomplished and requested that Mark wrap the presents this year which was a genius plan. I did manage to get some pictures printed off to create presents for the family so that was one box ticked off. The breakfast dish, Muddy Flourless Cake and Rice Krispie treats, however, remain unticked to this day. Hey ho…next year maybe. Ella was thrilled beyond belief with all of the glee of Christmas while Sam remained placid, calm and asleep for a majority of the day. What a good boy! Everyone in the family commented on what a good boy he was. Proud mama moment there then!

We’re looking forward to the next 8 days of having Daddy at home with us and getting a few jobs done with Sam’s nursery. And maybe catching up on some sleep? Is there a better way to end the year?

And now, the week according to Sam- week four…

Sorry to say that I couldn’t resist putting a Santa hat on baby Sam while he slept!

Proud sister Ella with baby Sam at the Register office in Peterborough

This is how much Sam likes his Moses basket. As in, not at all. I’m looking forward to getting Sam’s crib reassembled to see if he feels any differently about that mode for sleeping. Sigh…

A very special Christmas celebration for some very special friends

Mummy tries to multi-task (see laptop in the background) while Sam does his best to distract her. Sigh…

Sam enjoys his Snugglebundl in his Xplory while Mummy, Daddy, Ella and Grandma tire out their feet with all of the walking and shopping

Daddy and his boy enjoying some quality time during Sam’s First Christmas at Nanny and Grandad’s

Another week of Sam amazing and delighting us, another week of Ella being an outstanding Big Sister and more excitement to look forward to in 2012.

Top Tips for Parents at Christmas

Posted by cafebebemama on Dec 20, 2011 in Motherhood | 1 comment

We’re a Pampers family. Yes, I know…disposable nappies! Horror! One of the main reasons that we are a Pampers family is down to the UNICEF Maternal and Newborn Tetanus campaign that Pampers has been a driving force in for the last 6 years. I have had the priviledge of participating in the awareness campaign for the last 3 years and wholeheartedly support their efforts and causes.

But Pampers is a lot more than nappies and wipes! Their Pampers Village site has loads of information and support opportunities for parents of all ages and experience. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to one of the Pampers experts this year in regards to Ella’s temper tantrums at the time. The information that she shared with me was invaluable and aided me (and my husband) a great deal in changing how WE approached situations with Ella.

The team of Pampers experts has some great advice to share with the blogosphere this Christmas season. Some top tips for parents at Christmas, if you will. Unfortunately none of them involve Bailey’s Irish Creme **darn**. Have a look at what these wonderful experts have to offer:

Pampers Top Tips for Christmas

Pampers understands that although Christmas is a happy and exciting time with a new or young family it can also mean over excitement, strain on relationships and lack of routine. That’s why the Pampers Village Parenting Panel experts have compiled their ultimate tips for an enjoyable festive season with baby – so everyone can treasure those wonderful Christmas memories.

Baby Development advice from Dr Maggie Redshaw:

• The first Christmas stocking is really exciting – bubbles to blow, finger puppets and small picture books are great for babies and parents. Interacting through play helps to facilitate conversation through facial expression, sounds and movement.
• Babies really enjoy wrapping paper and boxes at Christmas, and play with them as they would expensive toys so there is no need to spend a lot, but just take care about items that might not be so good to put in the mouth. A box can be a boat, car or den so use your imagination to bring games to life – this will help baby develop through social and make-believe play.
• Christmas is usually a time for lots of indoor play, but make the most of it when it’s bright and crisp to get out to the park to try a kick around with a ball or play in the leaves/snow – this will help baby to develop physically while having fun.

Sleep advice from Wendy Dean:

Christmas can be a disruptive time when you are trying to establish or stick to a baby sleep routine. Here are some tips to ensure that your baby will be asleep when Father Christmas arrives:

• Try and keep your bedtime routine consistent whether you are at home or at a relative’s house. Your baby will then be prepared for sleep, despite the excitement going on around them.
• If you do take your baby out in the evening to enjoy a Christmas festivity, do the bedtime routine at home, put them in pyjamas under their coat, feed at the normal times whilst you are out and then when you get home, your baby will be ready to be put directly to bed.
• Do a wind down routine in a quiet room before daytime naps so that your baby takes a break from the excitement and throngs of people to prepare for sleep.

Skin health advice from Dr David Atherton:

Winter is tough on everyone’s skin, but especially in the case of babies with naturally sensitive or dry skin. Consider the following:

• You can use a humidifier in baby’s bedroom – if you can, make sure it incorporates a hygrometer to shut it down when the humidity is optimal to prevent dampness.
• Apply a protective moisturiser to baby’s face and hands before leaving the house, and re-apply on your return (this one can apply to mum too!)
• Cover the skin when outside. Use gloves, a scarf and a hat to help keep baby’s skin protected and warm.
• Make sure your home isn’t too hot and dry, especially in baby’s bedroom. Turn down the boiler setting, make sure it is off at night and, if you can, get some house plants to help increase the humidity.

Health and fitness advice from Laura Williams:

• Try and resist the temptation to buy too many Christmas treats in the run up to the big day. Reduced price tins of chocolates, packets of mince pies and tubs of peanuts will be calling you after a long hard day and if you’re cold and tired, willpower alone might not do it. Put off stockpiling them for as long as you can, or stash treats in the car or even in the garden shed – this will make them trickier to access when cravings come calling.
• Have some sort of Christmas fitness plan. Pledge to just 15 minutes a day over the holidays to get your heartbeat raised. You don’t even need to lace up your trainers – a game of Hide & Seek could burn quite a few calories in a relatively short space of time with your toddler, while a long(ish) post-lunch walk (45-60 mins) with the family will burn off a small helping of Christmas pud.
• Try and curb your big eating days to just two or three over the Christmas period. For example, give yourself a green light to eat what you like on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and for the other days, try and practise moderation, e.g. say no to a mince pie and have a satsuma instead or swap a handful of peanuts for a handful of olives.

Pregnancy advice from Midwife, Mary Steen-Greaves:

• Take a relaxing bath with some lavender drops added to help you de-stress and a warm milky drink to help you have a good night’s sleep.
• Try not to over eat, especially late at night. Eat small meals frequently to help your digestion and keep spicy and fatty foods to a minimum.
• You will still need to wrap up to keep warm when outdoors even though you will feel warmer than usual due to your increased blood. Wear comfortable, sensible footwear to help you maintain a good posture and reduce the risk of slipping in the cold (possibly icy) weather.

Relationship advice from Denise Knowles:

• Involve toddlers in making presents and wrapping them. Taking time to make cards and gifts together helps build the bond between parents and child…it is fun too!
• Delegate as much as possible and ask family to provide elements of the festivities; they’ll feel part of your family and useful – and you won’t feel so stressed. Share the ‘chores’ too. And if you are pregnant, don’t feel guilty about relaxing and putting your feet up; you need to be a little self-indulgent.
• Discuss and stick to a budget for all of the Christmas festivities, presents, food and outings to avoid any disagreements in January when the bills start rolling in.
• Make some time just for you, it’s not selfish to take some time out and sit with a cuppa.

For more information visit the Pampers Village or connect with other mums and log onto the new Pampers UK & Ireland Facebook page.

Do you have some Top Tips to share for surviving the holiday season? With a 4 week old baby and a 3 1/2 year old toddler and a rather large family to join in with, I’ll need all the help I can get! Enjoy your prep for the weekend…I’ve got to get some Bailey’s, come to think of it. And a straw!

Flashback Friday- Last Christmas

Posted by cafebebemama on Dec 16, 2011 in Blogger Love, Flashback Friday, Little Miss Adventures | 0 comments

I was reminded last night how important holiday traditions are to a toddler. Last night, at dinner at the inlaws, Ella began talking about Father Christmas and how we need to leave a carrot (we had carrots as one of the veg for dinner, naturally) for Father Christmas’ reindeer. There was a heated discussion amongst the adults about what beverage should be left for Father Christmas after that (Captain Morgan’s and Coke anyone?)

Then Ella started talking about how Father Christmas puts wrapping paper on the door. How does he do that she wondered? And I remembered, on advice from some Twitter/Blogging friends, that last year we used wrapping paper to close off the door to the lounge so that Ella would have to burst through it into the lounge to get her presents. At the time, last Christmas, Ella was terrified of the prospect of breaking through the paper and what might be on the other side but it obviously stuck with her as it’s all she could talk about last night. Now I know that we simply MUST repeat this tradition again this year no matter what.

In our house, this has obviously become a tradition. Generally, we have a relatively quiet present opening on Christmas morning with just our wee family and give Ella the presents from us (I mean, Father Christmas) and assorted family from America. Then we gradually get ourselves presentable and head over to the inlaws house where more present opening will happen later in the morning. My husband’s family also has a tradition of (to me) a rather unique Christmas morning breakfast. They ALWAYS eat crumbed ham, pork pie, chutney & pickled onions and lovely rustic white farmhouse bread. They throw in the odd fried egg as well and other bits and bobs to round out the breakfast. Unfortunately, due to my coeliac disease, I can’t eat most of this but it is their tradition. I might have to bring my own gluten-free tradition from now on.

What are your traditions on Christmas? Do you have any memories from Christmas Past to share? I’m really looking forward to this year’s Christmas as it will be Sam’s first and Mark’s sister Julie and her family will be with us for what will probably be the last Christmas in a while. Also, my Mom is here from America to share the holidays with us. So this Christmas will be a special one indeed.

I’m not including a Linky for the Flashback Friday today as I’ve been off for a few weeks (thanks to having a baby and all that jazz) and I think everyone’s forgotten about Flashback Friday. However, feel free to share your holiday/Christmas memories and link back if you like. Starting in the New Year I’ll be revitalising the Flashback Friday linky so get ready for that! In the meantime, Happy Holidays!

Flashback Friday: First Christmas

Posted by cafebebemama on Sep 16, 2011 in Blogger Love, Flashback Friday, Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 9 comments

December, 2005…our FIRST CHRISTMAS TOGETHER! I got to thinking, as there are apparently only 100 days until Christmas (God help us all!), about Christmases past. In 2005, Mark and I spent our very first Christmas together. I was very keen to include some of my American/family traditions as well as adapting to my new family’s traditions.

I REFUSE to allow artificial trees in my home so Mark and I tromped out about 40 minutes from our house to select a REAL Christmas tree. We bought ornaments that were OURS and I set to filtering out some of Mark’s “old” ornaments and decorations. We ended up with a rather lovely tree, if I do say so myself.

One of my American traditions is that in our family we tend to open the bulk of our presents on Christmas Eve. So I insisted that Mark and I would always open at least one present for each other on Christmas Eve and we have stuck to that. That first Christmas together was probably the last Christmas where we actually bought each other more than one or two tiny presents! Ah, the good old days, eh!

That first Christmas in 2005 was actually a WHITE Christmas which I like to think was England’s Christmas present to me. I love snow at Christmas as I am from Wisconsin where there is almost always a VERY white Christmas. I’m a bit crazy like that. Nothing says winter and Christmas to me like SNOW and plenty of it. My English family doesn’t necessarily agree with me but that’s ok!

Three years later, in 2008, we had another FIRST CHRISTMAS to celebrate…Ella’s 1st Christmas! Ella was 6 months old on her first Christmas so was able to sit up, grab things, rip things and enjoy the fun of opening presents. I believe we even let her try a teeny bit of the Christmas dinner as we were in the weaning stages then.

Christmas 2008 was a lovely one as we had Mark’s twin sister and her family here from Singapore so we really got to celebrate properly. The Christmas before (2007) I had been pregnant and was lucky enough to have my Mom around as well as Mark’s sister and family. We’ve been very fortunate to have some truly special Christmases, especially since Ella has been around.

This Christmas we will have another FIRST! Bebe #2 will be a few weeks old for this Christmas so we’ll have another special member of the family to include in the fun and frivolity. Mark’s sister and her family are coming specially from Australia this year as this will be their first opportunity to meet their new niece or nephew/cousin. I plan to sit back and enjoy the fun.

So, 100 days from now…CHRISTMAS! Do you have any wonderful Christmas Flashbacks that you’d like to share? Or any other wonderful memories? Flashback Friday is a walk down memory lane, complete with photos, and an opportunity to share them with the blogosphere. Happy remembering!

Flashback Friday: Sunny Hunny in the Summer

Posted by cafebebemama on Jun 24, 2011 in Blogger Love, Flashback Friday, Little Miss Adventures, Motherhood | 6 comments

Every Summer since my arrival in England in June 2005, Hubby and I and various combinations of his family have spent time in Hunstanton, Norfolk. We are about a 45 minute drive from Hunstanton and I have really grown to love spending sunny and not-so-sunny days on the beach there.

The photo on the left is of our dearly departed Sinjin, my hubby Mark and our niece Charlotte (prone) enjoying the rays on one of the sunny days. I’m flashing back to Hunstanton because next weekend we’ll be spending another long weekend with the family on the shores of Norfolk beaches (unfortunately not near Hunstanton this time). Mark’s sister and her family have been overseas for the last 15 years (USA, Geneva, Singapore, Australia) but each summer we’ve had the pleasure of their company for a few weeks at least.

This year we’ll all be gathering minus our niece Charlotte who will be on a grand school adventure in Australia and won’t be able to make it back this time. We’ll be missing Sinjin for the first time but I can’t tell you how excited, to bursting, Ella is to go find some “crabbies” at the seaside next weekend.

Mark and I enjoyed the beaches of Hunstanton as a couple for 3 years before introducing Ella to the sun and sand. In fact, our 2nd Christmas together, as my inlaws were in Singapore celebrating Christmas with my sister-in-law and her family, Mark and I decided to pack Sinjin in the car on Christmas Day and head for Hunstanton. It was a blustery day without sun but we didn’t care. We ran to the water’s edge and shouted “Happy Christmas” at the top of our lungs. And I learned how strong English mustard really is as I ended up making an inedible ham sandwich for Mark loaded with Coleman’s English mustard. **note to self: go easy on the Coleman’s**

Eventually, in 2008 we were able to introduce Ella to the joy of Hunstanton when she was only about 3 weeks old. I had, stupidly, dressed her in a pink sun dress and cardigan but was horrified to discover that the temperature at the seaside was about 10 degrees colder than in the Peterborough area. The wind was swirling and the sand was blowing which made for an excessively irritated and nervous new mummy. Ella was snuggled up in my Baby Bjorn carrier and covered up in a blanket but I was still worried about the sand and wind. We ended up spending several hours sitting in the car and bothering the cafe for hot water in a jug to warm up her bottle. It wasn’t the most fun we had ever had!

What a happy face I have! But still, despite the sometimes frigid temps and crazy winds, Hunstanton remains a wonderful (and thankfully close) location for us to enjoy a bit of the “sea”. I know that Ella will enjoy it for years to come.

We’re really looking forward to our long weekend with the family this year as Ella, at 3, will be even more capable and will thoroughly enjoy (we hope) the rock pooling and creatures. Last year, as we walked along the sand, we found a “sleeping” crab that Ella wanted to hold. She clutched that crabby the entire afternoon but we were finally able to convince her to let the crabby go to see it’s Mummy before we left the beach. Let me tell you, it was mighty difficult to remove the stench of dead crab from her hand but we sorted it in the end!

So thank you, Hunstanton (and the rest of the Norfolk East Coast) for providing the Joyce family with some wonderful adventures and a bit of “sea” air to keep us sane. Feel free to link up your Flashback Friday in the Linky below. I love it when you feel the pull to share your memories too.