An Almost 1 year old

Next week my baby girl turns one!!
WHAT!!! I can hear you gasping from here! Oh wow, this year has gone fast. She's almost a toddler and no longer my little baby.

I definitely have not had the same amount of quiet, gazing into my baby's eyes moments that I did with Ezra. Life is full of chaos and something is always on the go. I will admit, it is nice to have one day a week where Ez goes to play school and I can have some one on one Willow time! Although, mostly she is bored because she doesn't have her older brother around to entertain her! And, that is one awesome thing about having a second baby, you don't have to do ALL of the entertaining ALL of the time! There is a whirlwind of toddler action going on around her! Today I found them playing in the spare room, Ez lying in the pram bassinet on the floor and Willow climbing up on it and then body slamming him, I left them to it, and had a cup of tea. It was quite relaxing!

Her personality is really shining through, and I'll tell you, this girl is feisty!! She know how to stick up for herself and if you steal one of her toys you will hear her wrath! She has a grip so strong, probably developed to stop an older brother taking toys off of her! And she will fight him for it, and boy she is determined! If there is something she wants, she will just keep on trying to get to it, nothing will distract her.

I mean, apart from food, she'll drop anything at the sight of food! Some mornings she eats more breakfast than anyone! She's an eater, although meal time is rather strategic, either it is finger food, which I'm a big fan of, or she HAS to have the bowl on her tray table, and she HAS to have her own spoon, which is great because she is soo good at feeding herself with a spoon already!

She is just learning to walk, and its such a fun time in a child's development, such a big milestone, I get so excited for her! Her max is about 4 steps at a time, but generally she takes about 2 steps and then flings herself into a belly flop on the ground and then thinks its hilarious! She's a joker, anything for a laugh, so she becomes more interested in the laughs than learning to walk!

It is pretty amazing the second time around to have a child who actually sits still and plays with toys. Ez is my beautiful wild-child, and he was so full on from the day he could crawl (5 1/2 months) and then he was walking at 10 months, and he was into Everything and never stopped and NEVER played with his own toys and was like a baby tornado! But Willow will sit there putting blocks into a bucket and then taking them out again for like 15 minutes, I cleaned the bathroom today whilst she opened and closed a small cupboard door putting things in and out!!!!! WHAT! Amazing!

Anyway. 1 year. Where does it go. Life zooms past.
I'm trying to get things together for her party, but theres so much going on at the moment I am not even organised at all!!

Trying on shoes at the Mini Melissa Animal Lovers Launch Party at M Dreams the other week! (I chose the blue Rabbits)

Such a cheeky chops!!

Hexagon Crochet Baby Blanket

Oh LOOK!  I crocheted YET another baby blanket! This one is definitely the most time consuming one I've done to date, you know, out of all 4 of them! But, I wanted to make something a little different, and use some interesting colour combos! And of course, who doesn't love hexagons.  With changing the colours every round and then joining them all up it definitely took many, many hours! But I find crocheting helps me to relax and wind down, I'm a serial multi-tasker in front of the TV so this keeps me from getting fidgety! Plus, it was a very special project for new niece, Meadow, so really I didn't mind at all. 

So, I was really clever this time, and I took a picture of the colour codes of the wool I used. Brilliant right! So, hopefully that is helpful if anyone wants to use the same colour combos! It is all Cleckheaton, 100% wool. I have a thing about making blankets with only wool! But it is a little pricey, and the not so clever thing I did this time, was once again forget exactly how much yarn I used (SORRY), but I know I used at least 4 balls of each colour and more cream than the other colours because of all the edges. 

The pattern for the hexagons is from the lovely and talented Pip at Meet Me At Mikes, and that can be found HERE.

I used a 5mm crochet hook and 8ply wool.

I did 4 different colour ways you can see and count from this picture how many of each I used. I really should have done one more row on the left side (from the picture below), but I ran out of the blue/green wool and I thought it was already looking big enough.

I then joined them all together with a slip stitch, I found the instructions HERE.
This picture shows the back side of the blanket so you get an idea of what the join looks like.

If you have any questions, please ask!!

Now, onto my next projects!

Kiinde Twist Breastmilk System Review and GIVEAWAY

* I was sent a Kiinde Twist Starter Kit for the purpose of a review, but as always, all opinions are my own. 

Pumping, oh pumping. I used to think (before I was a Mum) that just pumping a bit of breast milk and then heading out for the day would be such an easy task. I thought I'd be leaving Joel with night time bottles and we'd be sharing night feeds, and I'd heading out on the weekends frequently. Then I had a baby, and then another one, and I realised that pumping and leaving milk behind isn't as simple as it seems! First you have to find time to pump, and it always takes longer for me than breastfeeding, because my let down doesn't trigger for AGES when I pump. Then, you have to actually have milk left to pump. It's easy in the first few weeks with my over abundant milk supply, but after that I have a hard time finding a time when I'm not stealing my baby's milk for her next feed. Maybe it's just me, but I have never been that great at pumping, if I know I need to go out it can often take me a few times pumping just to get enough milk for one feed!

So, if after all that time and effort, I then spill even 20ml of milk when I'm trying to transfer it to freeze it, or back into bottles, I will definitely cry over spilt milk!

So, when I saw this Kiinde Twist breastmilk direct pumping, collection, storage and feeding system I was desperate to give it a go! Anything that gives breastfeeding Mums a little more freedom and makes feeding my baby when I'm away easier, makes me a little excited! The Twist system is so simple, and prevents those breast-milk spills because you never have to actually transfer the milk.

So from pumping, to freezing, to warming, to feeding it all stays in the same bag! Brilliant! 

The Kiinde Twist system comes with attachments for most of the popular brands of breast pumps, so I use my Medela swing and I can attach the Twist pouch right on to my pump with the attachment, not like the Medela pouches, that if you dropped your pump (which happens more than you think when you have to jump up and stop a toddler or protect a baby) then your freshly pumped milk would go everywhere. The Twist pouch with the pump attachment won't spill, yay! These pouches are 150ml, but they also come in larger size of 225ml, but for someone like me who can't ever seem to pump very much, the smaller pouches are perfect!

You then just untwist the bag from the pump, put the lid back on, write the date on it, and store it in the freezer in their freezer storage system, the Kiinde Keeper, that means no loosing breast milk to the back of the freezer, or in my case with freezer drawers, the bottom! Yay for organized freezers!!

When you need to use the milk, you simply warm it in a bowl of warm water, or use the Kiinde Kozii, (which will be available in May) milk warmer, then snap the pouch into the Kiinde Squeeze bottle, attach the nipple to the top and you are ready to roll! The folk at Kiinde say that the active latch nipple can eliminate gas from your bubs meal, which is awesome! I just really love how easy the whole system is, and it is especially helpful that this part is easy because there is a pretty high chance it won't be Mum feeding the baby the breast-milk. It can easily be used by a grandparent, Dad or babysitter to quickly get a hungry bub their milk. There's nothing like a complicated bottle system to throw off a first time babysitter! The pouch, like the other leading pouches on the market, isn't reusable, but it can be recycled!

I'm a pretty big fan of anything that saves time and energy when you're a Mum of young children and I'm a fan of things that make sustaining breastfeeding easier! When you don't have a lot of extra time for stuffing around, things like this make things just that bit faster and simpler. I love that this Kiinde Twist system just helps to give breastfeeding Mums a really great system to pump, store and feed without unnecessary time wasting or spillages! And, the big plus is that Willow LOVES it, she thinks she is so clever holding onto the squeeze bottle and feeding herself, she's always been pretty efficient sucker! She actually cried when I took it off of her, even though it was totally empty!

The best part!! Well the folks at Kiinde Australia are giving away an entire Kiinde Twist Starter Kit (See picture above) to one lucky Yellow Dandy Reader, valued at $79.95 !!! Woop, Woop!

What You Get:

20x Twist Pouches

8x Direct Pump Adapters

1 x Keeper breastmilk storage bag holder

2 x Squeeze natural feeding bottles

1 x Slow flow active latch nipple with case

1x Medium flow active latch nipple with case

2 x nipple cleaning brushes

That is a WHOLE lot of stuff!

How to enter? 

Check out rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ahh look at her, she does not want to give this up! 

Neon Granny Square Cot Blanket

I finished making this granny square crochet blanket, a number of months ago as a full sized cot/crib blanket for Willow. Yes, yet another baby blanket, my third one now! I used some of my favourite colours including this bright Neon pink! I love me some neon pink! I also incorporated, dark grey, mint green and an off white, natural wool colour. These will be the base of my colour scheme for her whole room! Which I have lots of ideas for but no time, so her room is a work in progress! When I started off I had no idea how to make a granny square, so the first few were very slow going, by the last ones I was speeding through! Alright maybe not speeding, but I definitely was moving a whole lot faster than the beginning.

The Ins and Outs of Using Cloth Nappies

I have a lot of people ask me about the ins and outs of using cloth nappies/ diapers (not the old terry toweling nappies, but the new and improved modern cloth nappies), so, I thought I would share how the wearing, washing, cleaning up, poo removal and all that other fun stuff works! Ezra is now almost completely toilet trained!! Waahoo! But now, Willow still uses the original nappies that I bought two and a half years ago, and that have had a major work out by her older brother!

D.I.Y Chevron Baby Headband

Although I named this a tutorial for a baby headband, it would also work and look really cute on toddlers and little kids too! You just might have to adjust the length a little! I'm generally not a huge fan of headbands for babies, especially when, like mine, they have no hair!! ha. But, I just couldn't resist. I love a little chevron boho style for babies, and something nice and bright like this is a bit of fun. So, I decided to give it a shot and use some leftover  wool and make it in a friendship bracelet macrame style I used to do as a kid, but as a headband, surely it would work the same!

Reverting to my Childhood {Sponsored Post & Giveaway}

(this post is sponsored by Target Australia)

There is just something about having a baby girl that makes me revert to my childhood. I get drawn back to the days where I used to LOVE spending my days playing with and dressing up my dolls (and my brother, because I was always DESPERATE for a sister, but ended up with three brothers). I love having a boy, of course, the trucks and the cars and the boyish stuff is awesome and fun, but it isn't the stuff I get excited about. It doesn't bring back any sense of childhood nostalgia for me, not like Cabbage Patch dolls, Care Bears and Trolls.

Love to Swaddle UP 50/50 Review & GIVEAWAY

*The Love to Swaddle UP 50/50 was given to me for the purpose of a review, but all opinions, as always are my own.

Well, it's not really a secret that I am a big advocate for the awesome products made by Love To Dream, I've already written rave reviews for their Love To Swaddle UP Organic and their Love To Dream inVENTA Sleep Bag. So once again I jumped at the chance to try this one too!

Willow is a great sleeper, and I honestly think it has a lot to do with the Love To Swaddle UP, and of course the love she has for her dummy. But, to get her to sleep she ALWAYS has to have her hands covered up, if those little fingers are free, she immediately pops that dummy out, throws it across the room, plays with whatever she can and then screams bloody murder. So, usually either I put her in the love to Swaddle UP or I put her in a sleep bag with a wonder suit on with the bits that fold over her hands. But, with the warmer weather the long sleeve suit isn't really an option, and now that she is rolling she should be transitioning out of the Swaddle. I've been avoiding it though, because I really don't want to loose my great sleeper, and I am not prepared for bedtime battles!

Why I love babywearing

I bought my boba wrap (a stretch jersey material baby wrap/carrier) when Ezra was only 6 weeks old. My arms and my back were tired and sore, I felt like I had no time to get anything done, and those afternoons or witching hour when I couldn't get him to sleep no matter what I tried was driving me a little insane. The books said to put the baby to sleep when they were awake but drowsy and teach them to self settle. Well this didn't always work, the mornings he was pretty good, but in the afternoons my dear little baby just stared at the ceiling with a zoned out overtired glare, which then made afternoons and evenings a huge battle! I dubbed him 'baby no sleep'. Then my boba wrap arrived in the mail. The first time I put it on, he was asleep within mere minutes. Ahhhmazing.

Seriously cute things for little people

The problem with being stuck on the couch/bed breastfeeding is that it gives me ample time for Internet browsing/shopping on my phone, it is really dangerous for my bank account. I often find myself adding all sorts of things to shopping carts, figuring out sizes, shipping costs and hunting for sales in the wee hours of the morning and barely buying anything. There are way too many really cute things out there. Things that are so hard to resist, the only thing stopping me from going on a crazy shopping spree, is that we need to save for all the extras and hidden costs on our new house, but it is so,so tempting to buy cute things for my kids. In case you wanted to be tempted as well, I thought I would share some of the things I am pining after right now.

Above: fox, seed shoes, leggings, shirt

Below: cardigan, fawn pillow, spotty shoes, onesie

Above: moccasins, dolls, blankets, jumper

Seriously way too cute right.

What are you pining after at the moment?

Karen xx

(P.S Willow is doing awesome! Sleeping all day, partying all night, well slight exaggeration but you get my drift, doing all the normal newborn baby things)

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Bringing Home Baby

It's been over two weeks since we brought Willow home from the hospital, and since we have been navigating life with two kids. Joel was able to work from home for the last two weeks, and just went back to his regular schedule on Monday. It was such a huge blessing having him around, especially to entertain Ezra during the days that I was still in recovery mode. Living with my folks has been a massive help as well, my Mum is around during the days to give me a hand, and doing a lot of cooking, she is lapping up those baby cuddles, and when Dad is here on the weekends Ezra is his little shadow. Lets just say I've had it pretty easy so far.

The second time around I feel so acutely aware of how fleeting the sleepy newborn stage is. Willow has been a really good bub so far, I guess it is just a whole lot easier the second time around. I often find myself wondering why I thought having one baby was hard, and wondering what I did with all my time I must have had then. It is still that first baby that takes up most of my time right now! But, of course, the first time round I spent so much more time fretting, figuring out breastfeeding and adjusting to my new life as a mum. This time, thankfully I feel so much more proficient. Willow has been stacking on the weight, and had already put on half a kilo in a week since we left the hospital. She is such a good eater, soon she'll be my little chunky bub I'm sure.

Ezra is adjusting to being a big brother. He really seems to care for his baby sister, which is so sweet to watch. He just has to be careful with the occasional stray elbow or foot. Every morning he jumps into bed and asks for a 'carry', meaning he wants me to put her on his lap for him to hold. He then likes to point out all her facial features and smother her with kisses. He definitely goes a bit over the top sometimes to try and get extra attention, he's shown signs of the green eyed monster making appearances, extra tantrums (which I think comes with the age in general), waking up in the middle of the night and using her dummy and climbing into the bassinet trying to be a baby. I am trying to make sure to spend as much quality time with him as I can, so that he doesn't feel neglected, reading stories, playing play-doh, being the one to put him to bed at night, special Mum and Ezra lunch outings. It is such a big change for a little one. But mostly I'm really impressed with how well he is taking to the changes.

On top of everything else we have been finalising our house plans and hopefully building will start soon!! Yay. We are also moving out of my folks house next week, just around the corner, so still nice and close. Because the build was taking so long to get happening we felt like we should look for a place of our own, it could be another year before the house it built.

Karen xx

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DIY Crochet Chevron Baby Blanket

So I mentioned in a couple of previous posts about how I was trying to teach myself to crochet. I really wanted to crochet a baby blanket. I love hand made crochet blankets, there is something so warm, fuzzy and homely about them, I guess you just can feel the effort than has gone into making it. I saw this blanket pattern whilst perusing Pinterest, and decided it's exactly what I wanted to try to for my first crochet project.  I am so excited that it actually turned out like I'd imagined it, I really love it so much, I think I might make another one. You know sometimes you have these grand plans for craft projects and then they are a massive fail!! It is so disappointing and discouraging... it happens to me, often. Originally I wanted to make it with a natural coloured wool and neon pink, but I couldn't find the exact colours I wanted, so I think that will be my next one!

With the help of some good left-handed instructional crochet You Tube videos and searching on google about how to read crochet patterns, I managed to figure out the chain stitch and single crochet stitch and make this blanket. It was time consuming, mostly because I was so slow at first, but it really wasn't that difficult to pick up. This blanket is pretty simple, and really repetitive, so even if you are a total novice like me, I think you could make this too. All you need is a crochet hook (I used a 5mm one) and the wool colours that you want to use.

HERE is the link to the pattern I used.

I'm linking with Jess for #IBOT because it is Tuesday after all.

Karen xx

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