Goodbye, and thank you

You've probably worked out this post has been a long time coming. I've been thinking about what to do with this blog for about a year.  Since having Squidge, my interest in makeup has waned, and I find myself blogging almost exclusively about parenting, but it just doesn't feel right to that here.

So after a lot of thinking, I've decided to say goodbye to Makeup-Pixi3.  This blog has taught me so much, I can't even begin to describe it here.  And I've met so many amazing people along the way. But the time has come for a fresh start.  This isn't the end, Makeup-Pixi3 has been an amazing stepping stone that has brought me to this point.

With that in mind I'd like to reveal what the mysterious #ProjectPixi3 tweets have been about.  Over the last couple of months I've been working on a new blog.  Yes that's right, a new blog! It's an evolution of Makeup-Pixi3, a non-beauty centric blog.  Yes beauty will appear over there, but it's not the main theme, in fact, there isn't really a theme, it's a true lifestyle blog (with a real lean towards parenting).  Ladies and gentleman, I give you www.pixiedoes.com.

If you've been a reader of mine for any length of time, I'd really like to thank you for all your support, and I hope that you'll join me on the next step of my blogging journey :) 

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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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Royal Rascals Car Mirror

Quite a while ago the hubby and I bought a car mirror. It was made by Lindham, grey coloured around the side.  We fitted it and immediately hated it - it rattled like crazy, keeping Squidge awake. It also felt really flimsy. I should have sent it back (I'd bought it on Amazon) but instead it's sat on our shelf, and will probably end up in the bin.

When I found out about the Royal Rascals mirror I was really intrigued.  Firstly, it has a yellow surround (sturdy plastic), so for the driver, when they're looking in the rear view mirror, you don't have to search around to see it, instead your eyes are immediately drawn to it, keeping your eyes on the road for the maximum amount of time.

It comes with a small 'baby on board' sign - it's not something we'll use as we're not keen on them. But handy if that's something you'd like/use - I like that it's a small innocuous one, so don't take up too much space.

The mirror is slightly concave too (only ever so slightly) which helps to make sure that the baby/toddler is in view.  What I love most about this is that it doesn't rattle, it's really solid. It was really simple to fit to the car, it strapped in over the headrest.  And what's more, Squidge loves it.  He can now see his Daddy, and see that he's not alone in the car.

We've found that he's been much calmer and I haven't had to sit in the back with him constantly. When we drove to the beach the other day, we drove a long way back which took an hour.  He would have been pretty hungry at this point, but didn't cry or moan, just giggled at us every now and then. It's really helped make the car journeys more pleasant as he's calmer and reassured.

Daddy's view of the mirror, you can see it's not too 'in your face'.

This is one I took while sitting next to him while he was sleeping, awwwwww

The mirror costs £16.94 (it's on offer at the time of writing this) - only a couple ££s more than the rubbish Lindham one. For us, it's worth every penny - both Squidge and Daddy love it, and Mummy loves that it doesn't make a god awful racket!

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Wilfreds Pies - Lovely Welsh Bakes

Back in January a rather exciting email landed in my inbox. A local Welsh brand called Lewis pies were launching a premium range called Wilfreds. Lewis pies was set up in 1936 by Wilfred Charles Lewis and the new range of pies focus on using prime Welsh ingredients.

Fast forward to early March, and I had a rather exciting delivery of 6 Wilfreds pies. Given that we were starting Slimming World just 3 days from taking delivery of these, we needed to nom them up quickly!

Each pie in the range has a quirky Welsh themed name, like 'The Gower Cwtch' (named after a pub in the Gower) or have a local ingredient in them like Collier's Powerful Welsh Cheddar, nom!

All together in the range there is:

The Saucy Cow - PGI Welsh beef steak with Gower Power ale gravy.

The Steak & Tatws - PGI Welsh beef steak in a rich gravy with chunks of British potatoes.

The Gower Cwtch - PGI Welsh beef steak with leeks and a hint of horseradish.

The Fiery Chick - British chicken in cajun spiced sauce with Colliers Powerful Welsh Cheddar.

The Clucking Valleys - British chicken and vegetables in gravy.

The Lamb of my Fathers - PGI Welsh Lamb and vegetables with mint, faggots and a dash of local laverbread.

All pies are in a hot water crust pastry.

You can either warm them in the oven, or in the microwave. We opted for the microwave as it was much quicker - you just need to remove the foil dish they're in. We warmed them for 2 mins each - although the instructions said 1 min should be enough.

The important bit, how did they taste? One word, delicious! I had two clear favourites, The Gower Cwtch (the subtelty of the horseradish really made it) and The Fiery Chick (so full of flavour!). Each pie we had was lovely, the pastry was lovely and the pies had lots of filling in them. The hubby really liked The Lamb of my Fathers too (I don't like lamb, so that was earmarked for him).

You could really feel and taste the high quality ingredients. In The Gower Cwtch pie, there were really big chunks of beef in it, which fell and pulled apart with the fork, the beef was so tender.  We didn't find any gristle or anything nasty like that in them, just nice good quality ingredients and lots of yummy flavour.

This range launched on the 22nd February so keep your eyes peeled to see them in the shops! I'll come back and update where you can get them from and how much they cost once they have published a list :) 

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The Tuesday Edit

In an attempt to ‘get back into blogging’ I’m going to start a series. I’d planned to start it on Sunday, and call it ‘The Sunday Edit’ with it being a bit of a review of our week, and in all honesty, that’s what it will hopefully remain as after this week, but as it’s going live on a Tuesday, I thought I’d kick it off with a ‘The Tuesday Edit’ just this one time :)

The last week has been a bit mental – we’ve had typical toddler sleepless nights, we’ve had a trip to A&E, I’ve had my 2nd nasty cold in 3 weeks, and we’ve been to the beach.

A&E

So it had been a typical Tuesday. We’d picked up Squidge from his grandparents after work, we’d headed home, had dinner and were bathing the little one.  He’d just got in the bath, when he slipped, hit his chin on the edge of the bath and bit right through his tongue :( He bit it so hard, his little tongue was embedded on his tooth and his daddy (thankfully) freed it (which wasn’t an easy task), Chris said his tongue was really stuck on there).  He screamed and cried so much (understandably). It’s something that’ll haunt both of us :/ Anyway, we called the out of hours Dr who told us to go to A&E.  I booked off the next day to comfort him and keep an eye on him – he was glued to my side and needed lots of mummy cuddles. Poor little boy :(

Slimming World

The hubby and I have started slimming world! I've done it twice before, each time losing about 4 stone, but I have a lot more to lose than that. 4 stone seems to me my 'wall' that I just can't get past. I'm determined to lose more than that this time, for Squidge's (and my) sake. We've done our first week, and my first week's weight loss was a whopping 11lbs! Hubby lost 6lbs which is amazing as he's barely overweight - that 6lbs would probably have been enough to put him back in a normal range. Lucky sod. I'll try to include in the Sunday Edit each week how we've done and share any good recipes we've tried and loved.

Ill… again

Friday (my day off – I work Monday-Thursday) I fell ill again. I still had a bit of a residual cough from the last cold (2 weeks ago) and boom, I have another cold :/ On top of that I have my seasonal cluster migraine, these tend to last between 2-5 weeks, I’m only coming up to week 1 at the moment. So Friday the little man and I didn’t get up to much as I felt so rough – the cold is all up in my glands, so giving me a really sore stiff neck.

Weekend - Ogmore by Sea

Saturday was all about doing the weekly food shop, and Chris and I feeling like zombies from being up all night with the little man for the 2nd night in a row. But Sunday was a different story. I was still ill, but feeling more human again. The weather was gorgeous (cold but really sunny), so we decided to take Squidge to the beach (Ogmore on Sea). We were only there for an hour, but he absolutely loved it! He fell over in puddles (and the sea) lots and loved it :) It’s great seeing him explore, picking up sand, dropping stones in rock pools to hear the sound of the plop, then him recreating that sound :)

It was a good week, albeit marred by feeling rough and a trip to A&E. His tongue is healing really well too

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Grobag Travel sleeping bag

Squidge fast asleep at 7am in his sleeping bag, it was so horrible waking him up!

I work 4 days a week, Mon-Thurs and each day we’re out of the house pretty early, usually when it’s still very cold. Each morning we drop Squidge off at his grandparents (Teddy Bears and Cardigans) before heading to work. But we were struggling to keep him warm in the car – even with putting 3-4 blankets on him to keep him cozy.

Back in December I discovered that Grobag sell something called a  Travel Gro Bag – it’s a sleeping bag that you can use with a car seat – there’s a hole (covered by a flap) at the front and back so you can harness them into a seat safely. We thought we’d give it a go – it can’t be worse than the blankets?

The Grobag in it's packaging

Of the sleeping bags we have for Squidge, the Grobag Travel is by far the nicest. It’s thick and beautiful quality. The cotton is really soft.  I’m also totally in love with the pattern on the front (dinosaurs). We opted for a 2.5 tog as we were heading into Winter at the time, and his room can get quite nippy in the middle of the night. It costs £29.99* for his size, and you can really feel the difference in quality compared to the £15 supermarket ones we’ve used before.

Squidge in his sleeping bag, safely strapped in to his rear-facing car seat

It took a few go’s to get the hang of getting the strap through but as long as you make sure the sleeping bag isn’t bunched up on your little one it should be easy enough.  Once strapped in, he feels really secure, I’m confident he’s not going anywhere!

Most importantly, he arrives at his grandparents nice and warm and cozy J  He’s starting to grow out of this one and the weather is warming up, so we’ll be purchasing the next size up soon, but in a 1 tog ready for Summer.

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The cry it out method and why it's bad

A lot of the time on my blog, I sit on the fence and try not to be too controversial (I'm really not a fan of drama).  However, the ‘let babies cry it out’ attitude and method is something I feel so passionately about, I felt I had to commit virtual pen to paper to share my thoughts.

First off as a disclaimer – this is only my opinion I’m expressing, everyone is free to raise their children how they see fit, I’m simply expressing my opinion against this method.

The ‘cry it out’ (CIO) method has been popular among new parents for some time. I won’t name names, but when Squidge was only 5 weeks old I was told I was spoiling him by picking him up when he was crying.  I was shocked that someone would think a mother picking up their crying newborn baby was ‘spoiling’ them… spoiling them with what, love?  It felt like the natural thing to do, ignoring him would have been unnatural.  A few of our friends who are parents also suggested the CIO method when Squidge was struggling to sleep at night.

Fundamentally letting a baby CIO is both highly distressing for the parents, and the baby. It’s not something we’ve done with Squidge and certainly wouldn’t do with our next child. That’s not to say you need to go running to them the second they make a sound – from experience we know Squidge’s cries, and often when they’re more whiney he will naturally settle himself and isn’t crying out for us. On those occasions, we’ll wait a moment to see if he sounds like he’ll settle, if not we’ll go straight in and comfort him. But I stress, they are whines, not cries. If he cries, I go to him.

There’s been studies published recently that talk about why the CIO method is so detrimental to a baby. They learn that no-one will come when they cry, whether they’re crying through fear, nightmares (babies start getting nightmares when they’re just a few months old) or needing comfort with a cuddle.

It also hinders their brain and emotional development. The study found that babies who were picked up when they cried weren’t as clingy and were emotionally healthier.  They found that adults who’d been let to CIO as babies had more social anxiety, a poor memory and physical symptoms such as IBS.  A study published in 1994 also discovered that babies who were picked up when they cried grew up to be more independent than their counterparts who were let to CIO.

The dangers of letting a baby CIO:

• The synapses in the brain can be damaged (leading to issues in adulthood - anxiety) which can also affect intelligence
• A baby being stressed can cause damage to the vagus nerve, potentially leading to digestive disorders when older
• Babies can develop mistrust (if no one comes when baby is crying), which can lead to self-confidence issues

If you don't let your baby CIO your baby is more likely to be:

• More intelligent
• Independent
• Emotionally balanced
• Happier and healthier

I know how hard it is with a young baby, it’s beyond exhausting and your arms ache from holding your little one, so any few minutes you can steal for rest you do. But I urge you not to let them cry it out. If your arms are tired, put on a sling so you can go hands free, even just for in the house (Squidge would love being wrapped up in a sling) - they'll thrive on the contact.

You can read more about the study here by Dr Narvaez. 

I feel so strongly about this, going to a crying baby feels right because it is right!

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