Dear Alice - 27 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now just over 27 months old, although I had to count that as now I just say 2 and a bit! I have no idea how much you weigh - I just asked your dad and he estimated you weigh about the same as a large sack of potatoes. Although you are probably not as lumpy.

Your language is better every day - you now use full sentences all the time, including conjoining words like because, almost, instead etc. You also use the right tense the majority of the time, and you constantly show me how silly I am! The other day I asked you if Lola wanted a tip top, and you looked at me like the biggest fool in the world, and deadpanned - "No mummy. Don't be silly. Lola's a cat. Cats don't likey tip tops."

I love your use of the word "likey" for everything and make no effort to correct it. I also like that you call the puffin a muffin, so will never ever correct you.


Your sentences have certainly led to you expressing your opinion a lot more, and we have most definitely had some epic melt downs. You get frustrated very easily, and you want your own way all the time - obviously not possible. This week we've introduced the naughty step a little, with some success. It seemed to work well at the beginning, but at the moment you ask to go there - not quite the reaction we had in mind! Perhaps we need to install some spikes or something?

We introduced the big girl bed a few weeks ago, which I had been really worried about doing - you were sleeping so well and napping so well I didn't want to ruin it all! However you completely surprised me and it was very successful, quite easily. We've had a few nights of disaster, and a few napless days, but nowhere near what I expected. You still go to sleep around 7 and sleep till about 6am, with a little nap in the afternoon most days.

You are pretty anti pushchair at the moment, but you are quite happy to walk either holding my hand or pushing your own pushchair. This is fine, but it means it takes us approximately 10 hours to get anywhere! You also inevitably decide at some point that you want carrying which can lead to a total melt down when I can't carry you for miles being 8 months pregnant!

You learned to jump, and you are a constant little bouncing bean of energy. You do not stop moving or dancing at any point throughout the day, unless I bring in the iPad parent temporarily. I wish that we could be a family that doesn't watch TV or iPad or whatever, but you are pretty crazy, and mummy needs to sit down sometimes. You can tell me I'm a failure when you're older ;)

After the potty success of a few months ago we have attempted it again a few times with no success. I'm fairly sure you know what the potty is for, but have no interest in sitting on it for longer than 30 seconds, and I have no interest in forcing you to! You're a bright kid - I'm sure you'll figure it out sooner or later!

Your favourite things to do are still singing and reading. Currently you are loving The Gruffalo / Gruffalo's Child which I have to read many times a day, but daddy reads it better. You love to sing pretty much anything, but particularly "Miss Polly had a dolly" and "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" at the moment. Sometimes you tell me off for singing though, as apparently you are much better.

You also love to play with your doctors set and train set. About 30 times a day we have to listen to my heartbeat and your little sisters heartbeat too, which is pretty adorable until you get the scissors out to remove my nose.

I had to crowd source the internet for some crazy hair control ideas as you were beginning to look less adorbz, and more Stig of the Dump. We are now under control for the most part, although you do not like having it brushed / touched / looked at for longer than 10 seconds.

We went on holiday to Heacham for a few days this month, and you had a brilliant time. The weather was absolutely melting, so you loved the beach; lots of ice creams; paddling; swimming; feeding the ducks; making sand castles; dancing party times and just being with daddy for a week. You were a joy to take on holiday, although we all came back pretty shattered.



The weather has been super hot for a few weeks, so we've been making tons of use of the garden, and eating boxes upon boxes of ice lollies. We bought you a little water table which you're obsessed with, and you like to water the plants for me every day.

It's really not long now until your baby sister is here, and we talk about her all the time. You keep telling me that you're going to meet her soon, and you love her a lot. I hope both of these things are true! I keep finding myself getting teary and wondering how on earth she is going to fit into our little routine, and how on earth I could possibly love anyone as much. Mainly I wonder if I will ever have time to brush my teeth ever again.

You helped me get her room more prepared this morning, after a bit of an incident involving your dad and a foot and the ceiling. I'm hoping she stays away for a few more weeks so I can enjoy my time with my big girl. We all love you very much pudding!

With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 5 Months

Dear Alice,

This month I'm a little slow with writing your 5 month round up, but I've finally had chance to sit down and write it.

This month you have been full of smiles, and it's amazing going to fetch you from your nap when you have this huge grin! You think lots of things are now hilarious, and I will do anything amillion times just to see you smile. We've also had a few more giggles, which I keep trying to catch on camera and completely failing.

You are rolling over left right and centre, and you hold your head up t0 look round and see the world on your front. You keep rolling over in your sleep and you seem to end up the complete opposite way to how we put you down.

You're also now attempting to chase the cats when you're on your front, and really want to crawl! Obviously it's a little advanced for you at the moment, so you sort of bounce then give up.

The big development of the last few days has been food! You are now trying lots of different foods, and we've bought you a lovely high chair. So far your favourite food is apple, but you quite like carrot and potato. You don't think a lot to baby rice or sweet potato but so far you haven't spat anything out, and will eat whatever's put infront of you. (I'll write a proper blog about this later!)

We're finally getting there with some semblance of daytime routine now, as well as our lovely bath and cuddle nighttime routine. We have followed your natural timings and you seem to be a 3 nap a day kind of girl at the moment :).

We went on your first holiday to Cambridge, where you had a paddle in the sea and spent some time on the trampoline! You seemed to really enjoy the change of pace and it was lovely going with so many friends and family. We're going away again in a few weeks to Norfolk for the weekend, so hopefully you'll enjoy that just as much!

You also went to your first birthday party! It was your friend Phoebes first birthday, so you got dressed in your lovely party outfit and we had a lovely time. I can't wait till you can join in with the dancing and getting your face painted.

The weather's turning colder so we've been wrapping you up a lot more, and you look so adorable in your cute little hats and cardigans. Please stay tiny forever little one!

With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 2 Months

(Your daddy loves this picture for some reason!)

Dear Alice,

Today you are 2 months old exactly. That means it is exactly 2 months, pretty much to the same time of day, that you came into the world. How amazing is that?

So much changes every day that it's so difficult to remember how quickly you are growing up. I keep trying to take a step back and appreciate how perfect you are, and how big you're becoming!

At 2 months old:

- You weighed 10lb 10oz a few weeks ago, so I would guess you're probably just over 11lb now. You are still very long, so we think you're going to be a tall little lady!

- You are now completely out of your newborn clothes, and struggling to fit into a lot of your 0-3 sleepsuits - mostly because of your length rather than your size! I'm trying to cram as much wear into your beautiful little clothes before we have to start putting some of them away.

- We are now using cloth nappies exclusively, including at night. So far we're still doing really well, and as mentioned in the previous post we are really happy with these. You seem to really like having a big cuddly bum too! We are also using reusable wipes when we are at home now to avoid using chemicals as much as possible :)

- You had the first set of your jabs, which was awful but necessary. You have another 2 sets to go at 12 weeks and 16 weeks. Mummy doesn't like seeing you in pain!!

- The most exciting development for us (well me!) is that you are now smiling! And what a beautiful smile it is too. You completely beam at daddy, and it just makes everything seem perfect. You don't smile as much for mummy but I think that's because you see me all the time! You smile in the bath, and especially smile in the mornings when you're in bed having a cuddle with mummy and daddy.

- You're holding your head up and looking round a lot more. You always want to be sat up and seeing what's going on in the world - you don't want to be lay down as you want to be a nosy bear!

- You're also now awake a lot more during the day. I'm hoping that this means over the next few months your night time sleep will get better, but we're not going to force you into a routine. You're in charge little one :)

- Mummy is getting a little more confident with feeding, and we've been feeding out and about. I finally feel like we've cracked it, and that I can hopefully carry on breastfeeding till we're both done!

- You react a lot more to voices and noises, and you follow people round and focusing on their eyes. It also means you want to be looking at mummy all the time, so you love being in your bouncy chair and watching me make lunch or vacuum up!

You can read the other Dear Alice posts by clicking here :)

With love and light xo

25 Days

I've not had chance to write part 2 on the birth story, but wanted to write a quick update!

We're all settling in to normal life now Mitch has gone back to work (last week). I think I had slightly unrealistic expectations of what I'd be able to do on maternity leave - I was determined I wouldn't sit on my bum watching Jezza Kyle and I'm beginning to realise that sometimes I'm going to have to do that for a big chunk of the day while Alice feeds!

At least for these first few weeks I'm lucky if I manage a shower and to eat lunch, but I'm sure it will get easier as we fall into a routine and she can go a little longer between feeds. Today I'm hoping to get into Mansfield for a wander round this afternoon, but I've learned I can't really plan anything at the moment - quite frustrating for a serial organiser such as myself!

The midwife came last Tuesday to weigh Alice and she'd put weight on to 8lb 7oz! That's half a pound in 5 days - fantastic weight gain! The midwife signed us off so she won't be weighed now until she's 8 weeks old, unless I go to any of the Surestart clinics.

We've had a few good nights and a few bad nights, we get up normally 3 times a night, but the thing that varies is normally how long she stays up for. The easy feeds we're up for 45 minutes, the hard ones could be a couple of hours.

She's certainly developing and changing a lot! Her eyes are beginning to focus and she'll look at people's faces / follow them if they move. She's more alert and spends much more time awake than she did at the beginning. She'll now sit awake and look around without crying, just quite content to be sat and being held. She loves cuddles, to be held, and loves being bounced and rocked.

Anyway, a few photos :)

With love and light xo