23 and 24 Week Pregnancy Update

Here's my 23 and 24 week pregnancy update....

Symptoms: I have been feeling much more myself this week but have been more sensible with not picking the kids as much and making sure that I'm not putting to much pressure on my back. 

Food Cravings: Nothing in particular. 

Movement: Feeling baby every evening and so has Chris. 

Sleep: I've been struggling to get to get to sleep this week but not been feeling tired either. 

Things I am Missing: The ability to sit on the floor, haha! When I sit on the floor for any period of time, my sciatica really plays up. 

Best Moment: I had a midwife appointment and it is always lovely to hear the heart beat but Jackson is surprising me this pregnancy too - he's so excited and so involved! He was right next to the midwife listening to the heart beat and asking loads of questions, which was so cute. 

Worst Moment: My hormones are still a bit all over the place, but they are getting much better. 

Love Sophia xx

Evening Routine

Here is our normal evening routine:

Florrie and I pick Jacks up at 3:30pm from preschool. 

He's normally tired and very hungry!!! So when we get home I give him a snack straight away. We had to walk the dogs today so he had a bar to take with him. 

When we got back today, I put on the telly for the kids, although only Jacks tends to watch it (Florrie just plays and potters around). 

Tonight's dinner was an easy one; pasta pesto and corn on the cob, which they had at around 4:45pm. I would say 75% of the time, we eat the same meals as the kids but tonight Chris and I had Gnocci using the same pesto, hence why the kids had pasta pesto too. They probably would have eaten the same meal but Im not sure how nice it would have been re-heated for us!

For pudding they had tangerines. 

After dinner, we normally have another little play, before heading up for a bath at 5:45pm. On Mondays, I like them to be in bed early as they are knackered from the weekend and from a day at preschool. 

Bath time is probably both of their favourite times of day, they are such waterbabies! 

Either just before or during bath time, Chris tends to get home, so I will get the kids PJ's out and make sure their rooms are ready for bed. I also try to sort out any washing or any other little jobs up stairs. 

We both tend to get the kids ready for bed and one of us reads them a story. Normally both in bed by 7pm. 

Once they are in bed we head downstairs, tidy up, and start on our dinner. The living room wasn't too bad today but I think that's because Jackson was too tired to get all of the toys out! Florence normally plays with a few toys at a time so didn't have too many to put away. 

After dinner, we do any jobs that need to be done and then relax in front of the telly. Tonight we had the joys of cleaning under the sofa and then mopping. I try to do this every few months so that the dust and toys don't build up too much. 

When we are chilling on the sofa, both of us normally get our laptops out and go through any 'life admin' that needs to be done (paying for the kids activities, Christmas shopping, etc.). 

I am normally in bed by 10pm and Chris about 11pm. 

Love Sophia xxx

What My Kids Ate - Nov.

It's shopping day and the food was arriving at 9-10am, which was much needed as we had VERY little in the cupboards and fridge! 

Jackson, like normal, was up before Florence, so we headed down for breakfast. He opted for Multigrain Hoops and Weetabix (the Tesco's version) and a little glass of milk (we had to share the little milk we had between us all, hahah!). He ate all of the hoops but left quite a bit of the Weetabix. 

Florence didn't wake up until 9:45am, which, even for her, is very late and she slept well last night too (don't worry I am only boasting because she has not been a good sleeper for a while now!!!). By the time she woke up, the food shop had come so she was able to have her fruit with her breakfast. She had Multigrain Hoops and blueberries. 

Jackson wanted a fruit salad made up of grapes, blueberries and strawberries. 

He also spotted the smoothies in the food shop so wanted one of those too!

Both kids wanted more and more blueberries so not even an hour after the shop had arrived, they had already gone through £3 worth of blueberries! And I wonder why my food shopping is so expensive, haha!

For a snack, we were out and about so they had a banana loaf each. 

For Lunch, I made sandwich thins with ham, 1/2 a packet of quavers and 1/2 a banana each. 

Florence ate almost all of the crisps and banana but not too much of the sandwich. She is very hit and miss with food at the moment. After lunch, she asked for some milk. 

Jackson ate all of the crisps and banana (plus another banana) and most of the sandwich. 

They both had a dance class in the afternoon, so afterwards I wanted them to have a big enough snack to see them through to dinner, as Friday is normally an earlyish dinner so that Jackson has enough time before his swimming lesson. 
I put together these snack packs, they had 2 ginger biscuits, obviously Christmas themed, 2 Tuc biscuits and then some grapes. 

After the dance lesson, we went to the park for a play but we all got a bit cold so headed to a coffee shop. Jackson got a Babychino and they both shared a tea cake, although I'm not sure how much Florence actually ate. 

For dinner, it was left overs from last night, which was vegetable risotto. I gave them both a little bit as they had eaten quite a bit that afternoon. 

After Jackson's swimming, we always take a little treat and last week we brought these chocolates, so we took one again this week. 

When we got back, Jackson said he was starving so I gave him some grapes and an orange.  

Florence always takes a bottle of milk to bed, which is a habit we need to get rid of but sometimes, at the end of the day, its whatever makes for an easier bedtime! 

I feel like the kids are eating loads at the moment, especially Jackson. Does anyone else feel the same with their little ones? 

Love 
Sophia xxx

22 Week Pregnancy Update

22 week update...

Symptoms: The infection has finally gone, yay! But the horrible metal taste has returned, which I thought was only a 1st trimester issue!!! My sciatica is really playing up too. 

Food Cravings: Salty foods but think that might be due to the metal taste, so it needs a strong flavour to try and mask it. 

Movement: Loads and it's lovely. Chris feels the baby most nights and has also felt rolls and kicks. 

Sleep: I've been struggling to get to get to sleep this week, I just have so much to do in the evening that I think my brain doesn't switch off. Although I'm not sure if that is just baby related. 

Things I am Missing: Nothing this week. 

Best Moment: Just feeling the baby move. I also think that I am starting to look pregnant now, instead of just fat!

Worst Moment: I have to admit, my anxiety levels have not been great this week. I've just generally not been feeling my normal happy self. 

Love Sophia xx

20-21 Week Pregnancy Update

Here's my 20 and 21 week updates, and I even remembered a photo this time....

Symptoms: So, unfortunately I was right and had another infection, which meant more antibiotics, but I am feeling so much better now. We had our 20 week scan and the baby is doing amazing. We took the kids with us too, which was interesting, however the sonogram technician was really good with them and she talked us through everything. My sciatica is really starting to kick in now though, which I have had before but I am not sure if it was this bad (or if I have just forgotten). 

Food Cravings: Nothing in particular this week. 

Movement: This baby has gone straight into a routine; every morning, dinner and bedtime, (to be honest every time I sit down!)  there is lots of wriggling around. Chris has also felt the baby quite a few times already. 

Sleep: My sleep has been fine this week. 

Things I am Missing: The ability to get off the floor in the evenings, as my sciatica is definitely the worst in the evening! 

Best Moment: 20 week scan! 

Worst Moment: I have to admit that the anxiety leading up to the scan was insane, which meant I didn't want to talk about it, as I was just so nervous. 

Love Sophia xx

November Goals

November's goal list:

• Get to yoga class more often - my sciatica is getting the best of me at the moment so I want to try to help ease it as much as possible. I am hoping that yoga will do the trick. 

• I want to finish the kids Christmas presents and most of our other present buying too, or at least to have an idea of what to buy everyone. I like the thought of having most of the Christmas shopping done so that December can be nice and relaxing.

• Sort through the kids old clothes - we recently had some furry friends join us in the attic, in the shape of squirrels! This made us notice quite how much crap we have in the loft. We also know the sex of the baby now so we can start selling or giving some bits away. 

• While on the subject of the baby, I also want to have a think about what we need for him. I'm not necessarily looking to buy anything yet but want to start getting ideas. I still have just under 20 weeks to go but in between that time we have Christmas and Florence's birthday, and general life with the kiddies, so I know its going to fly by!! 

• I want to do more crafts with the kids, or at least with Florence, as Jackson comes back with 100's of picture from preschool nowadays. We did a few bits last month and Florence LOVED it!!

Love Sophia xxx

Morning Routine for 2 under 4!

Our morning normally starts with Chris' alarm going off at 6:30 and he heads into the shower. 

We have Jackson's grow clock set to 7am but this morning he strolled in at 6:40am! 

Once Chris is out of the bathroom, I then head into the shower. When I came out this morning, Jacks was watching the iPad in bed. During the week, we have stopped the iPad in the morning, as we did get into a bit of a bad habit of letting him watch it when I was getting ready, so he normally doesn't have it but today the IPad won!. 

Once I was dressed,  around 7:15am, I went into Jackson's room to sort out the clean washing from the night before.

It was bed changing day so I also changed Jackson's bed and straightened his room up.

By this point, Florence also woke up, at about 7:30am, so I did the same in her bedroom. 

First thing I do when we get downstairs is put on a washing load, so that it's all ready to put away at the end of the day. 

It's half term at the moment and I had no work, so we got a treat breakfast of croissants, which is the kids favourite. This happens around 8am. 

After we were all finished, I headed upstairs and changed our bed sheets. The kids very slowly followed behind me. 

It's then time for teeth brushing - we use the 'brush time' app and even though Florence still doesn't brush her teeth for a full 2 minutes, it really helps. Once they are both dressed it's normally 8:45am but if we have preschool, we would be out the door now. 

I don't normally hoover in the morning, I tend to do it in the afternoon but due to the breakfast choice there was crumbs everywhere!!! 

We were having friends over this morning so we had a little bit of time to relax. Jacks and I left Florrie downstairs playing and we headed up to dust the bedrooms. 

Jacks LOVES helping me clean, I got this new duster so he could help without using any chemicals. 

And that was our morning done! We then played until lunchtime with some of our friends. 

Love 

Sophia xxx

18/19 Weeks Pregnancy Update

Symptoms: I feel that I've gone a bit backwards recently. I'm not feeling that ill really but I am nearly half way so surely I should be fine by now?! We have also had a couple of weeks of sickness in the house with both kids being under the weather, which I am sure hasn't helped. Jackson had a full day of his temperature being nearly 40, which ended up being tonsillitis, so he had to have a course of antibiotics. I have also wondered if I have another infection so will be getting it checked out.  

Food Cravings: I have been enjoying tuna lately. I know your not allowed too much of it so I've just been having a little bit at a time. 

Movement: Feeling lots of movement now, which is just lovely! 

Sleep: My sleep has been fine this week. 

Things I am Missing: Nothing in particular, apart from feeling myself!

Best Moment: Of course, feeling the little squidge move.

Worst Moment: Again, just not feeling myself but hey, I am growing another human so it's never easy!

Love Sophia xx

A special weekend

This weekend, Chris and I managed to get away for 2 nights by ourselves. We left after Chris finished work on Friday, at about 6:30pm, and then didn't return until Sunday morning!!! 

My sister had bought me a 'buyagift.com' voucher for 2 nights away and my Mum kindly offered to look after the kids for us. It was so lovely to have some time to ourselves. We went to St Albans where we ate loads, did some Christmas shopping, visited the Cathedral and, on Saturday night, went to the cinema to see Bohemian Rhapsody, which was amazing!!!!! 

We were going to come back late on Sunday but due to my working schedule at the moment, we don't get much family time all together, so we headed back early and picked the kids up at 10:30am.

We had a Halloween fun-filled day planned and the first stop was to pick up our pumpkins from a local farm. We were originally going to go pumpkin picking, like we have for the last few years, but we didn't really have enough time. Of course we did manage to get some gorgeous pictures of the kiddies though!

When we got home, we started with the carving. Florence is obviously a bit too little for that though, so we also let the kids paint their pumpkins. Florence LOVED this! I did so much more craft stuff with Jackson when he was little and now he's at preschool he does it there too, so I really need to make sure that I do more with Florrie. 

Our boiler had unfortunately broken on our return home so I was wearing a hat and Jacks wanted to copy so wore Chris' hat! 

Things got messy quickly, haha! 

Jackson took it all very seriously. 

Afterwards, we let the kids watch a movie, mainly so we could clean up but also, a weekend at Yaya's meant 2 very tired children. Jackson has always loved being snuggly when watching a movie, which has started to rub off on Florence! Although, this angelic scene lasted all of 10 mins max, before they were up making a mess and asking for more food again. 

For dinner, it was very basic, mainly because we had VERY little food in the house (food shop was coming at 8pm) but they had a big lunch anyway. We did have to eat it in the dark with the candles on in mine and Chris' pumpkins, at Jackson's orders! The kids' ones were too wet still. 

For me, it was a perfect end to an amazing weekend. We also penciled in with my mum for our anniversary weekend in 2 years, so that we can go away again, haha! We so needed it and they loved 2 sleepovers at my mum's, which gave some special bonding time with her. 

Thanks to my mum for looking after the kids and dogs and thanks to my sister for the voucher! 

Love Sophia xxx 

Top Children's Books - Under 4

Jackson LOVES books now, especially before bed, which could be because he's trying to delay bedtime but it's not exactly a bad thing to be honest. Now that the weather has changed, I'm sure that we will be back taking trips to the library to mix up our collection but for now these are his favourites. 

1. Toy Story- Where's Woody by Kristen L. Depken

One of Jackson's favourite games at the moment is hide and seek - we must play it about 5,000 times a day! This book includes Jacks' favourite characters playing his favourite game and it has flaps that the children have to lift up to help find Woody. 

2. Elmer by David Mackee 

He doesn't really have a favourite from the series as he just likes the whole collection. They are a bit of a classic book but just in case you haven't heard of them, it's about a patch-work elephant who likes to play tricks on the other elephants. 

3. Superworm by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

This one is from the creators of 'The Gruffalo', so you know that it's going to be a good one. Its about a 'Super Worm' that gets kidnapped buy an evil lizard and all the other insects help together to get him rescued. 

4. There's a House Inside my Mummy by Giles Andreae and Vanessa Cabban 

Obviously this ones a bit more specific but I think that it's one of the best for explaining a mother being pregnant. We bought it when I was pregnant with Florence and Jackson had no interest or understanding though, so it is definitely one for older children. 

5. There's a Dinosaur in my Bathtub by Catalina Echeverri 

We got this book as a present and it's brilliant and so much fun. It's about an imaginary dinosaur that only the little girl can see and they do all sorts of fun things together. 

6. Kipper by Mick Inkpen 

Again, Jackson likes the whole range of the Kipper books. They are such sweet books and easy bedtime stories. 

7. Pog and the Birdies by Jane Simmons 

I really like the illustrations in this book, they are done to look like paintings. It's about a cat who loves the sound of the birds singing but then chases them so they don't sing to him anymore. Eventually, after showing he can be kind again, the birds then return to sing to him again. 

8. Daisy and the Moon by Jane Simmons

This one is from the same author as the one above, so the illustrations are the same. This one is about Daisy the duck who wakes in the night and goes out to play but then an owl scares her so she needs her mouse friend to help her back home to her Mama. The first few times I read it to Jackson, he was quite scared but now he enjoys the scary part of the story! 

DITL- Relaxing day

A relaxing day with the kids....

Love Sophia xxx

What My Kids Ate - Oct

We have been using the Grow Clock for Jackson again recently, as he was getting up sooooo early all the time. We now have it set it for 7am and, with it being so dark in the morning, he generally stays in bed until then. 

He was down stairs before me this morning. I got down about 7:15am and made his breakfast straight away. He started with his 'coffee' (just milk in his elephant cup) and a bowl of multi grain cereal. 

Then, for his second course (thats right - we have courses for breakfast!), he had toast with honey and some strawberries. He ate all of it, leaving just the crusts. 

We were at my mums last night until late, so Florence had an epic lie in and I had to wake her at 8:50am to go and drop Jacks at preschool! Then, when we got back, we had just enough time to grab some breakfast on the go, before heading to a school visit for Jackson. 

Florence had her milk and the cereal but she didn't have the Soreen bar until she woke up after her nap later on. 

Jackson was in a full day at Preschool, so I made him his pack lunch. He had Dairylea Dunkers, a yogurt, grapes, blueberries and a homemade banana cake. Jackson ate most of it, minus a few blueberries and some of the cake. 

Florence had a similar lunch - Dairylea Dunkers, blueberries and strawberries. She ate all the fruit and about half of the bread sticks. 

After preschool, Jackson is always soooooooooooooooo hungry. I made a bowl of blueberries, grapes and strawberries and started on dinner straight away. The kids do eat other fruits as well as berries but this has just been their fruit of choice today! 

Dinner tonight was an easy one as I had made it a while ago, so it was just a case of taking it out of the freezer and popping in the oven for 20mins. We mostly eat the same as the kids but tonight we are having prawn stir fry, which wont be nice reheated, so I tend to have a few meals that I have made previously in the freezer for times like this. 

I made them corn on the cob as well, as I did forget that there was sweetcorn mixed into the meal, but at the moment Florence is going through a fussy food period so if its not sweetcorn or fish fingers, she barely eats it. Like I expected, she just ate the corn on the cob and I'm pretty sure she didn't even touch the fish pie, which used to be one of her favourite meals. Jackson ate the whole thing, even though he announced beforehand that he doesn't like fish pie! 

For pudding, I gave them both yogurt. I don't remember ordering muller corners but Chris was here to collect the shopping so it may have been a substitute. Needless to say, Jackson was over the moon!!! Florence had the little one. 

Hope you enjoyed a day in my kids' tummies! Let me know if you have a suddenly fussy eater and have any tips - hoping it's a quick phase that she's going through. 

Love Sophia xxx