Mummy and daddy's bed....

It has been far too long since my last post. I have been completely swamped in work and all my free time goes to my growing demanding toddler... So I am afraid that my blog has been suffering from my lack of time... I don’t even have time for my never ending projects...  Which unfortunately means no news in the creativity sphere of my life as well.

Nevertheless, I still have time to do some reading and today I will be posting about a text  I read long ago with which I immediately resonated with. It described 'co-sleeping', sweetly narrating the night excursions children do to reach their parents’ bed and the comfort found by both children and parents. 

It described the peaceful sleep offered by the  'magic' that lays on parents pillows that ease  little one's sleep and effortless drive away any hidden monsters....:

“ The parents' bed has a magnet and I believe (no one convinces me otherwise ) it has a soporific magic, a mysterious love powder imbibed on its pillows which makes the children fall asleep immediately and that drive away the worst of nightmares or the most tremulous night terror.
The parents' bed offer the last  refuge where peace is absolute.
Children arrive, driven  either by exhausted and lost parents or by their own two feet, sweaty and frightened, as little birds flying at night jostling through the halls until they reach the place of places. Two laps with soft sheets and the parents scent. They fall as robins asleep, appeased.
Parents pretend to mind the following morning : “ Again on our bed! When will you learn to overcome your fears and to sleep by yourself? You have to grow up! “ But they say all this without facing their children's eyes, so that the little ones don’t know that  with the brief return to the nest, the first crib,  parents are filled with love and tenderness and they are also comforted. A warm neck. A chubby hand in our hair. One returning foot  to the mother's rib. The quiet breathing on a shared pillow. The secret desire that this nest will last forever and that the following morning arrives late. That the mysterious love dust forever preserve these nocturnal excursions treats, that are no more than a clever foreshadowing of an immense longing, the best days of this life.“

Translation from an original text by Rita Ferro Rodrigues. Find the original here

I am a mummy that is comforted by a chubby hand on my hair. A mummy that is sweetly waken in the morning by a little kiss. By a beautiful wide smile cheering me.
I am also a mummy that is waken in the middle of the night by a little foot gently squashing my stomach...

Would mummy and daddy sleep better alone? Maybe... 

And would we sleep better, alone,  if in the bedroom next door our little guy is disturbed and scared? Doubtfully.

In truth, I  don’t mind my little one’s night excursions that much...  Having my sleep troubled, and waking up certainly is exhausting, nevertheless I am comforted that our arms can settle him and ease him down. I am comforted by the notion that we can shield him from the cold night shadows. I am happy that he comes to us for this protection and warmth. That mummy and daddy are his safe haven.
I am happy to provide this solace. And as for us, tired parents from badly slept nights, I am also sure that these moments will be missed. As they grow up, these tender moments will never be enough...

They have time to grow up.
They soon will be facing and walking the world on their own. And then, if only mummy and daddy would be sufficient to guard him from all the uneasiness from the world...
For now I find solace in shielding from the known shadows through less rested nights.
It is the unsuspected ones  that keep me from a quiet sleep.

Toddling around Southampton: The Riverside Park

At first sight Southampton might not be the most glamorous city, but don't be mislead, this little port city has many and varied hidden gems. Surely, it doesn't present the charm once owned in the past, but still has much to offer today.  I believe Southampton to be a great city to live in, especially if you have young children. Southampton has incredible green spaces and playgrounds are spread all around the city, so is fairly easy to find one and let your little one enjoy himself while you try to catch on some readings... Or just loose yourself and play with him!

Today I will de writing about one of my favourite spots to go with my toddler, let me introduce you to to a hidden jewel of Southampton: Riverside Park.

I have been living in the city for a couple years now, but only last year I discovered this incredible lovely  park, which as the name suggests, is located around the river, River Itchen. This urban park is quite large, 32 hectare of pure pleasure for all ages, it has playgrounds, one skate park, one golf course, cricket pitches, football pitches, tennis courts.... And if you enjoy long walks, I do recommend you to walk along the River Itchen from this park all the way to Winchester. Sure, is indeed a long walk, it will take you a whole day but you will certainly enjoy the beautiful scenery that the Itchen's riverside has to offer.

Anyways, I as about to tell how how much both I and the little one enjoy Riverside Park.  This park
has so much for the little one to enjoy!

And theres always a new finding to discover.... Today it was a new public art piece that was greeting us while we were adventuring the park. I first saw it in our morning walk, while crossing Cobden Bridge we could see silhouettes of a pack of birds lifting of a tree:

Its a beautiful piece made out of mirrors that reflect either the sky, the tree branches, the light...:

After admiring the piece we began our long walk by feeding the ducks, gulls and swans...

We are not the only ones who love to feed the different birds. Today we also enjoyed watching the feeding frenzy!
If its Sunday on Summer months the little one can have a train ride on the mini-railways managed by Southampton's Society of model engineers....

The first playground of the Riverside park is located right next to the mini railways. Although this one does not offer many  playsets for the little ones, theres a slide and my little guy just loves the slide. Today we've continued to walk along the river and just admired some slight changes in the riverscape, the meanders of the river hide and show little surprises that we both enjoy watching.

Its a great opportunity to teach the little ones about nature, landscape, the different birds,... We've found a robin today:

We then reached other playground. This one is my little one's favourite as it has more items that he can play with.

And here is usually where we end up staying for hours.... Well, today it was just until lunch time as this was our morning walk. I still have much to explore in the Riverside Park. This was only a small area of it. However, just for this tiny bit that we already know we just love it!

Baking my very first swiss roll with my toddler!

Mondays are my most exhausting week days. Mondays are also my favourite day. 

On Mondays I stay at home with my little one.... Its just me and him. Some Mondays go better than others... Thats also means that on some Mondays  I am more imaginative than others.

It can be difficult to keep your little one occupied, and at the same time keeping up with all the things you have to do. It does mean that you have to do the things considering that you have an extra hand to help you out.... That extra help some times can be extremely helpful....

After all chores done, which as you can imagine were so very easily done between the two of us, we managed to get some free time to do some baking.... 

You could think that baking would not be an easy thing to do with a toddler around... Theres extra cleaning to do (plus the extra bit of your helpful hand), and its baking.... But, 

Baking means that we are both occupied. And we get a sweet thing to bite on later! And it can also be so much fun!

The little guy chose the recipe that we would be baking, (it was really fun seeing him flipping through the recipe book without ripping the pages...), and he decided that we would be baking a swiss roll:

It was my very first attempt to bake this, so I had no idea how this would work out.... I read several times the recipe at first and it seemed simple to follow up. I was also lucky because I had all the ingredients around.

And we started to prepare all we needed! One thing that I have noticed, he really likes to help me out ... He is quite good following up on what I say if he feels that is contributing somehow. Although I also noticed that there are some things that he prefers doing than others...

But when it comes to baking, he does have some fun with me, baking together...:

Some easy tasks he can do, bringing the ingredients to the counter top, and then  adding sugar, flour... In the beginning he was a bit scared with the sound from the cake mixer, but then he wanted to see everything.

This recipe does not need much time in the oven, just 10 min or less, which is quite good when you have an anxious toddler waiting for it!

In the meantime we were spreading the sugar for the roll...:

He was quite good at spreading the sugar.... So much fun,.... And so much cleaning to do afterwards... But hey, theres a swiss roll on the oven so, its all worth it!

And he was also good spreading the strawberry jam!

The rolling was the tricky part. It didn't go that well, we didn't achieve the rolling look as the book.... But it was quite tasty!

And this is it, the swiss roll!

I have to re-watch some of Mary Berry's tips on rolling.... I also failed to use the right form size, so my roll  was longer...

But I do enjoy baking with my little guy. And so does he. When we are both busy baking, that means that he doesn't  get to feel bored, or unsure with what he should be doing. And so am I. 

I get the sense that Mondays when we are both entertained things run much more smoothly. When he gets bored tantrums show up. Seems quite logic right?  But no so much when you have a screaming toddler around and you don't know what else to do... And trust me, the extra cleaning its worth the lack of tantrums.... at least for me....!

Going for another bite now...

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

I am linking up:

mummy daddy me...

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

I am linking:

mummy daddy me...

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

 I am linking up with:

Mummy daddy me....

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

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Mummy daddy me makes three

Our Saturday

Once again we are able to keep up with this nice routine!

Repeating the previous scones recipe, we had a tasty batch of scones for breakfast... 

Someone was pretty happy with that!

And so was mummy!

We then went out, afterwards for our regular walk. Once again we had the company of our precious wooden friend, the little cow! This is definitely a favourite toy of his, we never dreamed to go for a walk without it....

He was given this little cow as a birthday gift last year. I don't remember who it was who gave him this, but whoever it was, spot on for his birthday gift! This little cow soon conquered his little heart, and it was a great help for his first steps.... He loves to walk it around! 

You can see this a favourite of his, as it is so worn out already.... !

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Our Saturday!

I am so pleased with our little weekend routine! We now have an established weekend routine... Our Saturday mornings start with some baking... Followed by a delicious breakfast, fruit of our previous hard work! We then head out to a walk by the near park... Feed the swans and the ducks is a mandatory stop... and then we walk and enjoy the sightseeing, which is just beautiful. River Itchen is just stunning really. On Sunday we go to the city centre and enjoy the local playground. This routine is working so well for us, we are able to have such enjoyable family time! So, lets describe our Saturday then...:

We started by baking pancakes...! Again the little one had so much fun helping me out! 

He had a blast using the whisk! The end result was just delicious....:

Just yummie!

I already posted a while back a picture of little one and his walking cow... He absolutely loves to walk the little cow! He is so happy and cute while at it... Hw waves bey bey to every walker by, and they just laugh out loud and wave back at him... We spent hours just walking the little cow...:

We did somehow managed to draw his attention to the river and swans... And then we fed the swans, he loved it too!

How was your Saturday?

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Our Saturday!

What a lovely sunny day we had today! And what a prolific day we had... Quite different from our previous Saturdays, I might add...

Our morning started quite early as usual, and I was feeling like having something special for breakfast, must be the GBBO effect, and so we started our day by baking scones. Of course, I had a little special helper with me for the entire process...:

The scones were really tasty, I might start a tradition now, as we both had lots on fun while baking. The little one is a keen observer and absolutely loves all things new! Baking with mummy was such new experience, he loved adding all the ingredients, mixing up the dough... And especially having a try of the final product!

After breakfast, we went outside, and enjoy the sunny weather with a bit of gardening... Daddy loves gardening, having a back garden is like having a new toy for this grownup! While daddy was gardening, the little one was having fun in the sun.

And to enjoy this weather and making the most of our garden today, nothing better than a little family BBQ! Sorry but no pictures to show this... We were enjoying ourselves and forgot to take some nice pictures! Next time!

Our day finished with some fun in the local playground, noticed the change of clothes? Someone enjoyed too much the BBQ and a quick change was demanded!

And how did your Saturday go? 

Did you enjoy the sunny day?

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