Jenson At 6 Months (Flashback Friday)

Having seen my friend Harry tell you about himself I thought I would get in on the act! mummy is always telling me I am noisy and have a lot to say, so I thought I would hijack her blog and tell you all about my time here so far.

Can you believe it I am 6 months old!! Its been 6 months since Mummy and I first laid eyes on one another.

A lot of people say I looked like Mummy as a baby when I was born and grandma often says that she can see Mummy and my Uncle Nick in me

Here I am during my first day at home having a sleep in my moses basket just before I was introduced to my big brother for the first time - I made the most of that sleep because once Burton was around I didn't get much nap time downstairs!!

I think my big brother was a bit over whelmed by all the excitement of having a little brother the first time we met each other. He looks a bit shell shocked here doesn't he?

and he often woke me up from my naps and poked and prodded me. I even got hit on the head with a maraca once! Not on purpose Mummy said and Burton kissed me afterwards. Now my big brother likes to kiss and cuddle me and splash me in the bath and he always rushes over to greet me if he hasn't seen me for a while, like after a nap.I think he really loves me - I love him too and I think we will be great friends. Mummy calls us her cheeky monkey's!

I often hear Mummy say to people that she cannot believe how old I am now and how fast the time has gone. In those first few weeks of me being born poor Mummy, she was very tired and had to cope with me not letting her sleep all night and then having to look after my brother and I during the day. She was only getting 2 hours sleep a night - well I liked snuggling up to her and having my milk. It was so warm and cosy - better than this basket thing she tried to put me in.

I still wake Mummy up at least once in the night but at least she gets more than 2 hours sleep now.

I love bath time and I splash as much as my brother does which means Mummy and Daddy get wet as well as the bathroom floor.

I also enjoy swimming and taking a shower, Daddy tells me I am another water baby.

The older I have got the lighter my hair has become and Mummy wonders if my hair will stay fair like my brother's or whether it will got darker again like hers. Apparently I look more like my Mummy's side of the family than Daddy's (who Burton takes after), but sometimes members of my family say they can see I look like Burton sometimes. I certainly share his cheekiness!

As much as I enjoy Mummy's milk I have started eating some purees now and am enjoying it and the mess it makes!

I have also had a go at what Mummy refers to as 'caterpillar crawling' which gets me across the floor slowly in-between me grumbling and rubbing my face into the rug!! I just want to be up and about like my brother. It can be very frustrating being a baby and just rolling around on the floor chewing and sucking on my toys, you know!

Its been an exciting first 6 months and Mummy and Daddy often say that they will have their hands full once I am toddling around like my bother. Hee hee I cannot wait :) so much fun and playing to look forward too. I love my family and they love me very much

For other Flashbacks please check out the other entries

Lemon Cheats-Cake

This week Keith has set the challenge of posting a recipe which uses just 5 ingredients. It really got me thinking and it's amazing how many ingredients the average meal I cook actually contains! Anyway, in the end I have opted for a sweet recipe in the form of a cheesecake type dessert that doesn't actually contain cheese, although you wouldn't know from how yummy it tastes.

Lemon Cheats-Cake






You will need:

*300g crushed biscuits - I like to use ginger nuts because they go well with lemon, but digestives would also work
*100g melted butter
*200ml double cream
*Zest & juice of 3 lemons
*I can of condensed milk

Method:

*Mix biscuits and butter together and press down into a greased and lined loose bottomed cake tin and allow to cool completely.
*Meanwhile put the cream, condensed milk and lemon into a bowl and whisk until thick and creamy
*Spoon the creamy mixture on to the biscuit base and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours
*Decorate with your choice of topping eg. Raspberries or chocolate or both!

This dessert tastes like you have made a lot more effort than this, and it always goes down well with anyone who I make it for.

Don't forget to check out the other 5 ingredient based recipes over at Keith's Recipe Shed

I Love Cake - Cup Cake Challenge : The Results

Firstly, a big thank you to those of you who joined in with my first I Love Cake linky. I really loved how you got your gorgeous children to join in with the cake making fun.

So the cookalicious Nick from My Daddy Cooks very kindly judged the Cup Cake Challenge and the results are in!! Take it away Nick:

I loved looking through the entries.


Special mention goes to this post for the extreme mess prevention technique of cooking with a half naked toddler!


The Boy and Me somehow contrived to make green butter icing which, in my opinion, deserves an award in its own right!


Lara and Emma definitely used the prettiest decorations...


These cupcakes were gorgeous, all the more so because they used Amy Lane's brilliant book.


I LOVED the idea of using cornets for the base


I may well be making these Oreo cakes myself!


Brilliant effort by little Jack and I was particularly impressed with Kayleigh's skills and concentration 


But ultimately the two winners are the posts which made brilliant original recipes.


These fruit and nut cupcakes were always going to win. After all, fruit and nut is my favourite chocolate bar!


And being a chocolate fiend, the mere title of this post was always going to be a major contender! Plus I loved the photos of Noah helping in the kitchen.


All in all, brilliant efforts from everyone - well done!

Yay! Well done everyone and especially Lauren/Charles and Kerry/Noah. Please let me have your contact details so I can have your prizes forwarded on to you.

Also a massive thank you to Nick for taking the time out of his busy schedule to judge this competition and for generously agreeing to donate two of his fab cookery books as prizes.

October's I Love Cake theme will be HALLOWEEN - more details to follow very soon.

The Gallery - Home

This week Tara has given us the simple theme of HOME for this weeks Gallery.

I believe that no matter where you live it is WHO you live with that makes it a home and makes that home special. Afterall, they say that the home is where the heart is and this being the case my home is made special by those I love the most.

Kitchen




Bathroom








Dining Room









Lounge





My home sweet home

For other Home entries check out

It's Just Rubbish

So I am going to have a rant.

Yes a moan. Well I am allowed. It's my blog afterall!

You may agree with what I am going to rant about as you may well suffer with the same problem and, like me, maybe it is driving you maaaad!!

Its about my rubbish. Yes rubbish - I am blogging about my rubbish!!

Basically, we have refuse collections weekly and fortnightly as follows:

*every Thursday the recycling is collected and for this we have
a green box for plastic and glass
a brown bag for cardboard
a green bag for paper
a small green box for food waste

*every other Tuesday our household waste is collected.

This really, really annoys me. Why can't it be the other way round? For two weeks I have to find places to store our bin bags which are full of, among other things, two weeks worth of nappies!! Because my road does not have front gardens we are not given wheelie bins so it is down to each house to store it's own bin bags anyway it can.

This is what the front of my house looked like this morning on collection day



There are 8 bin bags and 1 carrier bag - how does the council expect a household to store all these smelly sacks of rubbish? I cannot leave them in the back yard because they are ripped open by the neighbourhood cats and prone to maggot infestation! I have a bin the backyard just for the nappies which are wrapped in bags, but that is full before bin day! I end up having to stuff two bin bags under the sink in the kitchen; and the rest go inside the shed door where my washing machine and tumble dryer are.

Not to mention all the recycling bags and boxes I have to fill and keep aswell!! I do recycle as much as I can and but really infuriates me that plastic fruit containers, certain yogurt cartons and the plastic boxes that meat is packed in are not recyclable because they take up a lot of room in my refuse bags. I know that I could buy my meat from a butchers to cut down on plastic waste, but I buy my grocery shopping on line (much easier with two little ones in tow) and meat is packaged in this way. I do try to buy my fruit and veg loose to cut down on packaging, but berries are not sold like this. I don't understand why the cartons that mushrooms and berries are sold in cannot be re - used by the suppliers. They only need to be re-cellophaned or have new lids - I think these forms of food packaging should be returned to the food producers.

Food packaging debates aside, I just don't understand why the council feels that refuse collection can be made fortnightly, and yet recycling can be weekly. Re-cycled waste does not go off or smell so it could stock pile better. Food waste needs to be collected weekly still but paper, card, tins, glass and plastic could become fortnightly. I appreciate that the council needs to save money, but it just isn't hygienic to store so much rubbish. I am surprised I haven't attracted rats into my back yard if I am honest, I guess those neighbourhood cats have their uses afterall.

I would happily pay a small amount to have my rubbish taken a way once a week if I could because it's just not nice to have it hanging around for so long.

Grrrrr is all I can say!!

Do you also have to wait two weeks for your refuse collection? It's just not on is it, in this day and age? It's just rubbish really!

Rant over!!

All New Mr & Mrs Paulin

As I mentioned in my Flashback Friday post on Friday, my Dad got married on Saturday to Sheila, who he has known for just over year.

We travelled down to Cornwall for the wedding as they live in a village called Chacewater which is near Redruth. It was sunny when we left Devon, but unfortunately as we headed into Cornwall the skies turned grey and it rained :(

The ceremony was held at 3pm in a little chapel at Gwenap Pit (which is an open air amphitheatre). Before the wedding began Burton took to the 'stage' and danced along to the music being played by the keyboard player at the front of the chapel!!! Much to the amusement of the waiting guests! Then during the service while 'All Things Bright & Beautiful' was being sung he stuck his fingers in his ears which made his Daddy and I laugh a lot! My brother was the best man and despite being a tiny bit hung over, he did a great job.

After the wedding the sun came out which was a relief as we didn't get wet while the photos were being taken. Burton wouldn't stand still for the photos and most of the ones taken has me looking away shouting to him to come back!! Or having to restrain him long enough for the camera to take a quick photo file he was in it!

Then we headed back into Chacewater for the reception. It was quite amusing really, because out of the 48 guests who attended only 10 were members of my family as the rest were from my new Step Mum's (thats the first time I have said that, but she is) family. The buffet had, among other things, mini Cornish pasties which were made in the bakery opposite the pub where the reception was held - so very much local produce. I didn't try one as they are not my 'thing' but Jon ate 2 so I guess they were tasty!

Unfortunately we didn't stay very long at the reception because a certain little baby boy wouldn't go to sleep, and in the end wouldn't settle or stop crying so we left. Plus there want anywhere suitable for me to feed him which was a shame because we were back at our accommodation by 7pm!

So Dad and Sheila are now Mr & Mrs Paulin and that feels strange writing that, because that was my Mum and Dad's title once!

Silent Sunday

Inspired by

Fill The Gap - Week 1

The lovely Carolin from Mummy Alarm has started a new linky feature where each week she will put a sentence on her blog which we need to finish either through words, poetry or photos - anything goes really as long as it fills the gap!

This weeks prompt sentence is

the best thing about being a parent........

Here is my Fill The Gap entry:

The best thing about being a parent is........

The over whelming love and happiness that you feel every time you look at your children. Its just like the first time you hold them and look into their eyes after they are born. It never fades.









The way their smile melts your heart









Watching your children show love for each other



The sense of pride you feel everyday to be their mummy




Being a family and being there for each other





It's the best job in the world*

*despite the sleepless nights, constant worrying, toddler tantrums, no more private toilet time etc.... :)