A Catholic school and a non-religious child

As you know from my last update, we're moving.  I'm going to write a whole separate post about that nightmare, but one of the issues we are faced with, is the local primary schools.

Local to our new home are several primaries.  Most of which are only Welsh speaking, which we don't really want to send him to.  The non Welsh speaking schools don't have very good rankings, which doesn't make us keen to send him there (when he's old enough).  However, there is a Catholic school nearby which is very good.

So we feel torn.  Both the hubby and I aren't religious and we're faced with the decision of sending Squidge to a religious school for the benefit of his education. 

Both the hubby and I believed in God when we were young, it's only as we got older we stopped believing and decided it wasn't for us. So we know there's a fair chance Squidge could follow the same path regardless of the school he goes to.  And regardless of what school he does go to, he'll still be taught about religion.

We go back and forth on this, I'm happier to send Squidge to a Catholic school than the hubby is, but we both want to put Squidge's education needs first.

What would you do? Would you be open and honest to the school that you're not religious or would you lie to increase your chances on getting a placement?

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Life update | Babies, moving home and life after maternity

I know I do regular updates on the little man and how he's getting on, but I don't write many updates on how life is in general.

Trying for babies

So we've decided we're ready to try for baby #2! It's not the best time as we're in the process of moving house, but it took 8 months to concieve Squidge, so we thought we'd better get started :) We're pretty sure that in January I had what's called a chemical pregnancy.  I started having some feint positive tests (testing before my period was due (within 6 days) using a First Response Early Result test) which got stronger. But then, the day my period was due, my period arrived, and wasn't like any other period I've ever had. I won't go into detail, but I was pretty confident I was losing the pregnancy.

A lot of people say ‘if you hadn’t of tested, you would never have known’ but I disagree.  At least, with the period I had, I could tell.  Anyway, after that blip we stopped trying for a month – I’d heard that after something like that you have increased risk of an ectopic pregnancy for the next cycle, so we thought we better wait.

Moving home!

It’s so exciting to say that we’re moving!  We don’t have a date yet, but a date is imminent and is likely to be in 2-4 weeks. Everything is with the solicitors at the moment and has been for over 6 weeks.  We’re moving to a slightly bigger home (3 bedrooms) with a much bigger garden. More to the point, we’re moving from a new-build type house, to an old Victorian town house, that has a wood burning stove!!! I honestly can’t wait for Christmas, the hubby will have finished his OU degree, we can light the real fire and enjoy Squidge opening his presents :)

Returning to work after maternity, nearly a year on

So in July I’ll have been back at work for a year, and I’ll be honest, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. The work is good, I’ve always enjoyed what I do and who I work for, in fact, I’m very proud of where I work. But I haven’t found it to be easy. I didn’t expect it to be such an emotional thing, this far on. It was like starting a new job, except you know most of the people there (with a few exceptions), but because you weren’t there for 9 months, you feel like you know nothing. People then assume you don’t know/remember anything, so stop asking you for your thoughts and advise.

For me, I’ve felt like an extra in a long running tv show, a temporary addition that offers little value, but are necessary for the narrative. No one is to blame, it’s just how it feels.

2016 – To blog or not to blog

I did think this might be the year I stop blogging, as you know, I’ve barely blogged – only about once a week on average. But for the first time in close to a year, I’ve started to really feel the pangs to blog again. I’m finding my feet again and feeling like I might have something of worth to say.  Maybe my lull all tied in with how I’ve felt on returning to work? Hmm, that might be a bit of an epiphany!

Growing older

Sunday marks my birthday, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll be 37, that’s so depressing! I had hoped to be pregnant again by now, and do feel sad that I’m not, but I remain hopeful that I will be at some point again this year.  I’ve no idea what we’re going to do for the big day, probably not very much.  The hubby has an insane amount of uni work on at the moment, so more than likely he’ll need to focus on that – then in the evening we’ll have a cheeky curry and some birthday cake.

Slimming world

I’ve rejoined slimming world! I’ve been back on it for about 6 weeks and so far I’ve lost 1 stone.  I’ve done it twice before, each time losing 4 stone, and then over the next year or so putting it all back on. I always found it easy in the past, but this time I’m really struggling, all I want to do is have chocolate and bake cookies. I’m pretty much having my birthday weekend off it, then back on plan on Monday.  I am trying to keep as low-syn as possible this week though, just to help take the edge off the weekend (if that’s even possible!).

So that's my life at the moment, a bit up and down, but mostly good :)

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Squidge | 18 month update

I almost feel a little choked up writing this, my little boy is 18 months old as of today! I miss him being a tiny baby, but I absolutely adore the little person he’s turning into. This last week he’s really started saying ‘Mummy’ (and perfectly!), he says Daddy all the time, and finally he’s started saying Nanny :)

He understands EVERYTHING we say, and I mean, everything. You can give him complex instructions, and off he goes to do it. He loves nothing more than being outside – it almost doesn’t matter what you’re doing, he just loves being outdoors – it’s all one big adventure and he wants to be part of it. He also really loves snuggling up to me and watching a film on the sofa, usually anything Studio Ghibli (the boy has good taste).

Clothes

Left: Top & socks: Mothercare, Jeans: Tesco F&F. Right: Top: H&M, Trousers: John Lewis

Apart from a couple items of clothes, he’s now fully in size 18-24 months and has been transitioning for about 2 months.

Sickness

He has started throwing up a bit though, which is a little concerning. Twice he’s thrown up his night bottle almost straight away – both times after feeding very well in the day (we think he was over full), and the other night he threw up a belly of pasta in his cot – we didn’t find out until we got him up in the morning (about to leave for work) and there was mulched up pasta all matted in his hair (nightmare!).  He’s got a bit of a cough again too, but other than that he’s been doing great.

Toys

I know this is a pic of a pic, but I love it all the same :)

He plays so differently these days, it’s almost hard to say what his favourite toys are.  He does keep going back to this little castle he had for Christmas, he loves opening the door and putting everything and anything in it, and playing with the little knights and horses that come with it. He likes having a quick ride about on his trike and absolutely loves being read books. He also loves feeding his stuffed animals from his sippy cup - we have little tea parties in the lounge with the stuffed animals, he loves that :) 

Speaking

His speech is really improving quickly, some of the latest words (other than Mummy, Nanny etc) he’s learned are:

* Pear

* Wheel

* Owl

* Wow

* Apple

* Stuck
* Bumble Bee :)

* Thank you (which he says, often unprompted when you pass him something! Amazing!)

I have to give a special mention to the word ‘Happy’.  He doesn’t just repeat it pigeon-fashion, he says it when he’s happy.  So if something happens that he likes, if we give him something he likes, anything like that, he’ll start saying ‘happy’ again and again while he plays. So amazing.

Crafts

He’s old enough to start having a go at crafts too.  He loves sticking things down and scribbling with pens and crayons.  I’m starting to do some painting with him too – I really want to nurture his creative side.  I’m very creative, from a very artistic background, whereas the hubby is very scientific and logical – I’d love for him to have a healthy balance of the two, but we’ll see :)

Eating

Squidge eating the chocolate from the Easter egg hunt at Dyffryn Gardens

He goes a bit back and forth with food.  He’ll have weeks where he practically eats nothing, and weeks where we can’t fill him up enough.  Overall he’s pretty good, albeit fussy. He’s great with a fork and spoon, often preferring to use these over his hands. The only ‘puree’ type food is has, is the odd fruit pouch as a dessert after his dinner – he has about 1 a day, maybe 2. Sometimes if he’s struggling to eat anything, I’ll give him a pouch as it’ll often give him an appetite for his main food.

Typically he’ll eat food like pesto pasta (or plain pasta – he hates tomato sauce!), fish (cod, salmon), black Kalamata olives, raspberries, kiwi’s, orange (he LOVES blood orange!), new potatoes (the only kind I have really been successful with), broccoli.

We’re still keeping him away from foods that give him wind – peas in particular are a nightmare and usually result in a terrible night for all of us – we also steer clear of beans, onions – anything like that.

He's such a happy little boy, we really are incredibly lucky. He's so gentle and affectionate too

 - his tantrums feel like they've eased off, and if he does have them they're usually pretty short lived, and make most of their appearances when he's really tired.

All in all he's doing great and we couldn't be prouder of him :)

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