Happy Easter!

Hope you all had a fab Easter! We've had a lovely Easter weekend so far! Friday we visited a soft play and farm, yesterday we visited Wisley Gardens and today we spent the day with family!

Tomorrow we're planning on visiting another farm which has an Easter open day! They have lambs and chicks to hold!! Can't wait!!

I leave you with my gorgeous chick in his Easter bonnet we made at play group in the week!

Controlled Crying Progress

A couple of nights ago I posted on here discussing my decision to start using the controlled crying technique with Xander. He was waking a lot, often for no apparent reason - apart from possibly his teeth playing up.

Well the first night was successful. He woke up once. I eventually settled him down using the Jo Frost (Super Nanny) technique. Once he was back to sleep he slept through until morning!

So confident I was with this progress I tried it the next morning for Xander's nap and low and behold within 2 minutes he was asleep in his cot and had a nice long nap waking up in a lovely mood!

That evening I tried the technique again and it worked perfectly! In fact he slept all night! 7pm - 6am, he then went back to sleep until 8.30am! Bliss!

That takes me up until tonight... Night 3. He went to sleep well. But now he's awake. I'm working through the controlled crying progress and it's taking a while tonight. He's not screaming anymore, just murmuring a lot so I'm hoping he's started to settle but he's squirming around a lot tonight and I don't think he's going down without a fight. I suspect his teeth are giving him jip. His cheeks are rosy red. I've just got to be strong. I'm
Sitting outside his door and have two more minutes before I need to go in and settle him again...

So I have just gone it and 'settled' him
and now he's screaming again! I really hope he settles down soon. I just need to stay strong and remember this is for his own good! Thank goodness for facebook, twitter, pinterest and blogging during times like this! All of which are occupying me during the intervals.

About 28 minutes in: Xander has really started to settle now. I'm still sitting outside his door. There's long periods of silence then a bit of murmuring, but I think we're getting somewhere! The cats sleeping next to me in his bed and snoring away, hubby is upstairs in bed...I'm just so tired I need sleep!!

30 minutes in: I'm due to check him in 2 minutes time. He's settling down now. And then I go and have a huge coughing fit outside his door and he's crying again!!! Nooooooooo!!

I go downstairs get myself a glass of water. Compose myself and give myself a talking too. I must be strong! Remember why I'm doing it! I'm the boss! I'm in charge! I come back up stairs and do my check. He's asleep!!

Off I dash to bed! Fingers crossed this is the only wake up of the night!!

More Easter crafting!! Footprint chicks!

Tuesday afternoon we had a wonderfully crafty time all in preparation for Easter! I'm an avid card maker and love crafting with my (8 month old) son, even if at the moment he's not 100% sure whats going on!

For ease we create a lot of footprint art! So we made a couple of easter chick cards to send out to Xanders grandparents! 

They were so simple to make. All we did was painted Xander's foot in yellow poster paint (he likes this - it tickles) and then stamped it down on a white card base. Then using an orange felt tipped pen drew on the beak and feet details. We stuck on some goggly eyes and some yellow feathers for wings! To finish off the card we printed off a happy Easter sentiment using the computer!! 

I just love these Easter chicks!!! Hope you manage to find some time for Easter crafting with your little ones! Happy Easter! 

Round One: Controlled Crying. Mummy 1, Xander 0.

It's the middle of the night and I'm looking for something to occupy me for the next ten minutes before I check on Xander again. Yes... Tonight I've decided enough is enough and I've given into the controlled crying technique!

Xander has slept through the night on and off since about three months. Just when I think we're getting somewhere something pesky comes along and puts a spanner in the works (colds, chest infections, teething)

He's just got over a chest infection. He's well, he has rosy cheeks so expected teeth soon. But there's no reason why he should be waking as frequently as he is at night. I haven't made it easy on myself. I've succumb to giving him milk feeds at night. Which isn't a problem if he was only waking up once on the night. But last night he woke up 5 times! He's drinking milk he doesn't need (he's having three solid meals a day and at least a pint of formula during the day) I'm
Essentially rewarding him for waking up unnecessarily. He needs sleep... So do I!

So I've read up on sleep training and controlled crying. I had a good chat with my friend Steph and even saw it in action today as she put her son jack (a week younger than Xander) down for a nap. And have decided to adopt the super nanny (Jo Frost) approach. 2 minute interval... Check ... Double to four minutes... Check... Double to right... Check... Double to 16... Check... I now have one minute before I need to check him again and he's literally stopped crying...

I've been and checked... He's asleep!! He's turned 180 degrees in his cot but he's fast asleep!

I'm under no illusion I'll probably have to do again at least once if not twice tonight. The technique says should be effective after seven consecutive nights. We will see! But round one to mummy!

(also wish to thank a lovely guy on twitter called Spencer, @adadcalledspen who offered me a lot of support tonight during intervals. It meant a lot to have some encouragement!)

Getting excited about Easter!

With it being Xander's first Easter I'm keen for it not to pass us by. We've had lots of fun this week with paints making Easter cards for friends and family! I also scoured netmums and came across a free Easter themed event at our local toy shop - Enchanted Wood in Farnham. I was delighted to discover they still had some places and so booked Xander on! We went along yesterday morning!

We had so much fun! Firstly there was a Spot The Dog Easter story. I was amazed how quietly Xander sat and he listened so intently! Afterwards followed some singing and dancing to Easter themed songs including 'If you're hoppy and you know it' and then a puppet show involving the Easter bunny and a chick (I think this was Xander's favourite bit!) He squealed with delight each time the Easter bunny made an appearance!

The session finished off with a mad rush Easter Egg hunt around the toy store!! Xander seemed more excited in eating the laminated Easter egg halves rather than anything else!

I'm sure next year he'll be a lot more excited!! Especially if he's hunting for real chocolate eggs!!

The session was specifically for 0-4 year olds. Although a fair deal was geared around the older children Xander still appeared the have lots of fun! Why not check out whats going on locally this Easter in your area!!

Footprint crafts: Easter Bunny Cards!

So Easter is fast approaching! It's cold outside and you may be planning a few days in with your little ones! So why not occupy them with some crafting?!

Get out the scrap card and paper, poster paints and glue and make some Easter cards for your little ones to give out to friends and family!

That's exactly what we did this week and here's our creation:

Ideal Cases (ipad case) Review

I was lucky enough to receive an iPad from my hubby for Christmas (I must have been a good girl!!) I was concerned that It would easily get damaged and was keen to get a case for it to keep it in tip top condition. So I was utterly delighted when Ideal Cases gave me the opportunity to design my own cover as part of fuelmyblog campaign!!

Ideal Cases has a really fun website where you can create cases for mobiles, tablets and e-readers!! you can create something really plain and simple (if thats your thing) You can create a case with photographs using a whole range of templates provided for you or if you're feeling super creative you can completely freestyle and deign your own from scratch!!!

Never being one to shy away from a challenge I decided to create my own design and this is the final result:

Being a crafty person I really enjoyed the creative process!! It was very similar to digital scrapbooking. You can use photos, doodles, images, patterns, text or clip-art or a combination to create your own unique design!! The whole process was very easy to do and lots of fun!

I choose to have my design printed onto a faux leather case (although there is also a clip on case option available too) and received my order just three days after I sent off my order and I was thoroughly delighted with the finished product! The design was printed exactly as I had created it on screen. The case offers high scratch protection to front & back of ipad & medium drop protection (which is perfect for clumsy old me!)

The case is designed with a prop feature so you can prop your iPad up whilst using it, this is a feature that has proven invaluable as I use my iPad to Skype my relatives and it means that we can have a steady conversation!!

Overall I really love my new iPad case, my only minor criticism is that occasionally the case slips over the sensor and my iPad locks mid use. Although now I'm aware of this I can often prevent this from occurring.

I think that the final product is brilliant!! I would thoroughly recommend using Ideal Cases to create fun but practical, personalised gifts for all your gadget loving friends and family!!