And that’s it… January & February are almost behind us and spring is around the corner. I always breathe a bit of a sigh of relief when we get to the end of February, it’s such a watershed moment. The weather always makes a significant change when March starts and in a month’s time it will be light at 8pm which is such a heartening thought.
The three of us were on our own this weekend while Jim is away on business which meant Theo had to spend a bit of time entertaining himself whilst I looked after Alice. He has always been particularly good at doing this in the garden and I try and encourage it as much as I can by not interfering or complaining too much when he digs the soil over or explores amongst the plants.
We are going to try and make another go of growing our own veg this year. We attempted it two years ago and my precious baby plants were obliterated in one night by the local wildlife. Theo is desperate to grow things and I want to feed that enthusiasm, so we need to start thinking about a pretty serious rabbit proof enclosure for our raised bed. Paying out for a (lovey local) organic veg box every week also focuses the mind a bit and will make investing in the necessary equipment seem worth it.
Last weekend I had a rare chance to walk round Chichester without children. It was also the first time I’ve tried looking for baby clothes for Alice in actual shops rather than online and I was slightly taken aback by the prices of some of the things I found. I’m convinced this is at least in part because she’s a girl and girl’s clothing is often more appealing and therefore easier to price up.
In the end I came home almost empty handed except for a multi-pack of M&S t-shirts and I got the sewing machine out. It’s not just the cost, I didn’t want to be sucked into fast fashion of dubious quality and provenance. I have a pretty good fabric stash already and most of the stuff she needs is pretty simple to make and customise. Baby clothing only requires a small amount of fabric and a little knowledge and you can knock up a couple of things in an evening.
One of the challenges of having a second baby is trying to find a bedtime routine that works for two very different age children. Since Alice was born I have tried a number of different ways of doing things, sometimes bathing the two together, sometimes separately. Since they started sharing a room recently there has been more of a need to find a way of doing things that works for the both of them, so when Johnson’s challenged us to try their 3-step Bedtime Routine we thought we’d give it a go.
Last week a parcel of supplies arrived and with half-term this week we are ready to be eased into a new routine gently. The big change for us will be the introduction of some baby massage between bath and bed. I’ve not tried this before in any capacity, so it will be interesting to learn about it and I’m hoping Theo might be able to get involved too.
Johnson’s recommend some quiet time and reading before bed, so we are going to try and combine Alice’s night-time feed with Theo’s bedtime story, the end goal for me will be to try and make the whole bedtime routine a bit smoother and relaxing for everyone. We’ll report back in two weeks time to let you know how it went!