I'm very quickly learning that with a newborn and a toddler in the house having a pile of books available so that all three of us can cuddle up on the sofa together at feeding time is a good thing. It's lucky therefore that Little Miss C and I have a backlog of books to review together at the moment. We've read quite a few Richard Scarry books together, but as soon as I saw a description of Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever I knew that we just had to review it. Little Miss C is really into numbers at the moment and is getting quite good at counting things and we try to encourage ... read more
Introducing…
... Master C. Born in the early hours of Saturday morning and allowed home late on Saturday night. So far he seems to enjoy sleeping, eating, filling his nappy and wearing lots of hand knitted goodies. Little Miss C has gone from being slightly bemused to being incredibly excited about "her baby". As she keeps telling anyone who will listen "he's only little". ... read more
Little Peter Rabbit
Yep, here I am STILL waiting! All I can say is that this baby must be pretty damn comfortable in there. All this sitting around waiting for things to happen is pretty damn frustrating, but there is one small advantage. I have at least managed to finish one of the sewing projects that I started for Baby C. Before Little Miss C came along I had both a knitting and a cross stitch project on the go for her. OK, so neither were finished before she actually arrived (mainly due to carpel tunnel during the last month of that pregnancy) but eventually I did manage to complete both her blanket ... read more
New books
With baby's arrival a bit delay I've already managed to keep my promise to myself that I made last week and squeezed in a quick trip to the local bookshop and picked up a bit of reading material which is now helping me through the early morning pregnancy insomnia: The Little Village School by Gervase Phinn and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson. I've read plenty of Gervase Phinn before, but this is the first of his novels that I've tried. When it comes to Jeanette Winterson I have of course heard of Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit but ... read more
Still waiting
The moses basket has sat in our bedroom waiting for someone to sleep in it for nearly three weeks now. The hospital bags are all packed and one of them's even ready in the boot of the car. The baby car seat is all fastened in on the back seat too and the double buggy is assembled ready. My wonderful knitting group have even had time to knit some extra booties. Both sets of booties from Holly and her magical knitting machine. But, we're still here waiting for member number four of the C family to join us. My impatience is really showing - not helped by the fact that we've ... read more
Baked couscous with chicken and spices
As I'm now into "due date territory" this week's menu planning revolved around things that were pretty easy to make, specifically so that they could be done either whilst heavily pregnant or with a newborn in the house. I picked up my copy of Nigel Slater's Real Cooking to look up a particular pasta recipe that we've done a few times now and whilst I had it out I managed to find a few others that looked simple enough - one being baked couscous with chicken and spices. What appealed about this recipe is that while there is a little bit of preparation ... read more
The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman
One guilty pleasure that I had in my days before children was wandering into a bookshop, browsing the tables of new releases that they all have just inside the door and then coming home with a selection of books that I didn't need, but that had inspired me to read them based purely on the back covers and any review comments that the bookshop themselves had displayed. With a toddler in tow that just doesn't happen any more - picking up what you need in a supermarket is hard enough, let alone being able to browse and daydream about the stories and characters that these books may ... read more
Jack’s Mega Machines: The Rocket Racing Car – Alison Ritchie & Mike Byrne
We love books in this household, absolutely adore them, and our bookcases are heaving as a result. As good as they all are they therefore have to be pretty special to stand out from all the rest around them especially when you're reading them through for the first time. That's where Jack's Mega Machines: The Rocket Racing Car has a fantastic unique selling point that instantly makes it stand out from all the other books on Little Miss C's bookcase - inside the back cover is this cardboard vehicle - exactly the same as the racing car in the story. When we put this together for LMC ... read more
Knitted gifts for the new baby
I've written before about the talent and generosity of the knitting group that I go to every week, but even the excited looks they exchanged when I told them I was pregnant didn't prepare me for the knitted baby shower that they threw for me at our meeting last week. My photos aren't exactly amazing, but I'm still lacking a model to wear most of the items I've been given - one thing's for sure, I'm going to have a very well dressed baby who is going to be kept lovely and warm! Mary has made this lovely ball for Baby C to play with - complete with ... read more
Dear Zoo – 30th Anniversary
If you read any parenting blogs, or follow any bloggers on twitter, then you can't have missed all the recent celebrations for the 30th anniversary of Rod Campbell's excellent book Dear Zoo. Publishers Macmillan have hosted tea parties with author Rod Campbell, complete with interactive storytelling sessions and I was pretty gutted not to be able to attend - I figured that a trip into London when only two weeks off giving birth, and with a toddler in tow, might not be sensible! Dear Zoo is a fantastic book for sharing with a young child and the simple storyline behind it means that it really ... read more