Over Half a Year Old Already!

Wow! Arjun is officially over half a year old! I cannot believe it. I don't remember my life without him but I can't believe it's gone so fast. It's crazy! 

 

We celebrated with a fruit cocktail "cake". 

 

 

He's becoming a proper little man now. I can already see signs of upcoming independence. You can see how frustrated he is about not being able to move :( He's started rolling from front to back but more by accident. He ends up in a fit of tears when that happens as he doesn't know how to get back! Lol. He's closer to mastering a push up than his crawl! Lol. We're encouraging plenty of tummy time, not necessarily because I'm in a rush for him to crawl (I'm actually really really nervous about what life will be when he's running riot in the house!), but more because I can see he really wants to. I feel for the little guy. 

 

Arjun sits up comfortably unaided and although he hasn't quite mastered it yet, he tries very hard to pull himself up when lying down. 

 

Arjun is at stage two of weaning now and is having breakfast, lunch, a snack and dinner. He's now on three bottles a day (about 500ml). He really enjoys his food (touch wood).  This month we tried rice crispies which he hated at first but now loves! His favourite food is probably pizza bread at the moment. I made this by spreading a thin layer of tomato puree on wholemeal bread, sprinkling some cheddar cheese and seasoning with basil and oregano. Other new foods he tried included bean salad mixed with sweet potato and lentils. He didn't love the latter - defo mummy's boy! 

 

He's started holding his own sippy cup - it took us a while but he's starting to let us know more when he wants water too which is great. 

 

The last time we had him weighed a few weeks ago, he was a hefty 18lbs! 

He's more or less been sleeping through the night since New Year's Day with a few difficult nights (one night where he woke about four times and a few nights where he's woken twice) but on the whole we are in a better place. 

We are getting ready for our second holiday in a few weeks - again to Dubai but this time with Preetam's parents. I'm super excited to go but nervous about how it'll disrupt his sleep pattern. I'm guessing this "routine" will be short lived anyway when another bout of unbearable teething kicks in! 

You can tell Arjun's first tooth will be making an appearance soon as his gums are quite white and raised. But still no tooth as of yet! We're brushing his gums with a finger tooth brush which we purchased from Amazon (Finger brush) just to get him used to the sensation. He loves it! 

Arj has almost completely term two with Water Babies. He's a little more confident under water - we've seen less tears but they haven't completely disappeared! He seems to enjoy the water more. We'll soon see when we go to Dubai again! It'll be great comparing how he was at five months there versus how he is now. 

 

We've decided to forego term three with Water Babies purely because of their policy which is a little inflexible. The previous two terms we've known that we weren't going to be able to make a few dates in advance but we still had to pay in full with no flexibility in terms of attending another session. We've wasted a good £50 already and we definitely don't want to do the same next term when we know we'll be missing two of the dates so we've decided to look at other options as we know other private swimming schools do offer flexibility - usually in terms of attending an alternative session which would be great for us. 

Arjun hosted his first party this month - Lohri (Lohri). A little social butterfly already! He also attended his first birthday party at Snakes and Ladders for his buddy Taran's 3rd birthday.  He enjoyed it for the most part but got tired and quite hot towards the end - cranky! 

 

Arjun seems to be going through separation anxiety surprisingly (only because it's normally with the mummy!) with his daddy. He's extremely attached to his dad and is so excited and happy when he's with him - like a proud little son. When Preetam leaves for work in the morning or even leaves the room to have a shower, if Arjun is awake there are lots of tears. I know Preetam also finds this really difficult especially as he feels like he's missing out on Arjun's life as most of his waking day is spent at work :( I'm hoping it's just a phase and he'll become comfortable in knowing that daddy will be back soon. It's quite heartbreaking to watch :( How have you managed separation anxiety?

Bestest buds x

What milestones have your babies reached at seven months?

 

P.s. don't forget to check out our free hamper giveaway filled with lots of our favourite goodies ending on Sunday 1st February!: Giveaway!

Baby Brain Memoir Giveaway!!

Hello everbody!

 

Hope you and your tots are all well!

 

With a chance to win your very own Baby Brain Memoirs hamper which includes lots of our favourite bits featured in my blog, follow us on Facebook/Instagram and share this picture and tag us in it :) The winner will be selected at random on Monday 2nd February!

 

The hamper includes the following:

• A Mom’s One Line a Day diary

• Toy Links

• A monkey change/craft mat

• An animal bath book

• A giraffe bath toy

• A giraffe squeaker toy (one of Arjun’s favourite first toys)

• Sensory wipes

• Sensory sponges

• A baby hand printing canvas kit

• All enclosed in my one of my favourite things ever – a flexi basket!

 

Also now that you have an insight in to the life of Arjun and mummy, it would be great if you could let me know what you'd be interested in hearing about in future posts by commenting in the comment box below :) 

Get sharing and good luck!

 

Lots of love,

 

Harps and Arjun x

Baby Brain Weekly Memoir: 23rd January

Hello all! 

I've done quite a bit of writing yesterday/today and it was heavy writing so I'm going to keep this post short and sweet (she says!) 

So this week we had our Lohri party which I posted about. In summary it was brilliant. I was so pleased with how everything turned out!! 

The day after we were knackered especially as Arjun was up every few hours - I think he thought the party was still happening!  But nevertheless we woke on Sunday and soldiered on. We woke a little late for Arjun's swimming lesson but Arjun went for a walk with Bruno and his daddy in the baby carrier instead. It gave me a little break - I had my feet up and enjoyed my breakfast. We don't use Arjun's carrier often - we really need to start! 

After that we went to see our friends, Amit and Vaishali and their newborn baby, Josh. Josh is the smallest baby boy I've seen since Arjun was born and he is so adorable! I can't believe Arjun was ever that small! I had a long cuddle and baby Josh fell asleep on me - bought back so many memories and he felt as light as a feather compared to my little tanker now!  Arjun really enjoyed being at Josh's house as several of our friends were there and they're all so great with babies!  He got plenty of play time and attention!  It was so sweet watching Josh and Arjun interact - they were mimicking each other!  I had a lovely time, it was very relaxing especially with so many pairs of hands to help with Arjun! 

Monday to Wednesday we pretty much stayed indoors. I had a pretty tough day on Monday where it was taking hours to settle Arjun for his naps. He fights his sleep so much that we end up in overtired land and then it's just a huge battle. Monday night it took us four hours to settle him at bed time - he went to sleep at midnight! :( His teeth were also bothering him which was really hard - I found water filled teethers give him comfort. He hasn't actually got any teeth yet! All in all, not the greatest timing especially following the tiredness after the party. 

Arjun was kept entertained for a while with his latest new thing - a sensory tent bought for him by his Sav Masi (thanks Sav!). He was intrigued and spent a while in there whilst playing and watching TV. 

We went to music and movement on Thursday morning where he really enjoyed himself as usual. He's so interactive with the other babies and parents now. You see a noticeable difference every week. It's a shame it coincides with his nap time and we kind of have to rejig things to ensure sure we make it. He loves it once he's there though! 

After music and movement we went to our friend Reets who also has a baby. It was a nice chilled out afternoon where Arjun was pretty content playing by himself whilst baby A slept. Had a little bit of a terrifying experience whilst there; Arjun was having his snack of sweet corn rings and almost choked on one. I panicked and froze. I knew what to do but just couldn't move! He was struggling to breath and his eyes were tearing, thank God Reet was with me as she took control and did exactly what you're supposed to - put him on his tummy over her knee and gave him a few firm blows on his back and it came out. I was so scared! I knew he was going to be ok but I was pretty peed off at myself for just freezing like a useless lemon! :(

Writing my blog post about my initial days post birth was actually really therapeutic and almost immediately it became apparent that it was going to help me on facing my fears. I decided to take Arjun to Toys R Us as I had to pick up a gift anyway. Where usually I'd have left him at his grandparents, he came with me. He slept through anyway but I went in with total confidence - I felt like a new person. It was really strange. I wasn't my usual panicked self. I was cool calm and collected and it was totally fine! 

Yesterday Arjun had his first taste of mummy's most favourite food - pizza!  I made him pizza bread on whole meal bread with a thin layer of tomato purée, grated cheddar cheese and some basil and oregano seasoning. He absolutely loved it! There wasn't even a crumb left! He also started holding his own beaker yesterday - it's so cute watching him grow. But it's all happening too fast! :( 

We spent the afternoon visiting Chico - Arjun's best friend! 

What have you been up to this week?x

Fire, Food & Fun! ... Sounds like Lohri!

Hello All!

I hope you’re keeping well and wrapping yourselves up warm in this cold weather!!

It feels like it’s been a while since I wrote a “proper” post!  I’m feeling super tired from this weekend’s shenanigans but wanted to put this together before my baby brain left me speechless!

So what exactly IS Lohri?! If you were to google “Lohri” (trust me, I’ve tried it!),  you’ll be given about a hundred different reasons as to why it’s celebrated. 
 

"OMG it's Lohri!"

It came up in conversation with a friend, and in turn she asked her mother in law who kindly summarised it for us: it's harvest time in Punjab and we all get together to celebrate the new things in our lives. It's mostly celebrated by those who have newborn babies or those that are newly weds. Lohri is not a Sikh celebration but more a cultural one.

We all get together, eat food (the harvest crop is spinach, which makes saag) and light a bonfire. We then sing old Punjab folk songs and dance.  Basically a reason to have a party! :)

As Arjun marked our "new beginning", this is how we celebrated. 

In the afternoon, we held a religious function at the Gurdwara (Sikh temple) where paat (prayers) was recited and kirtan (holy hymns) were sung.  Although Lohri is not a religious occasion, I use any opportunity to seek God’s blessings.

In the evening, we had a party in a marquee at home where our friends and family joined us to celebrate the birth of Arjun.  Here we lit a bonfire during the night, and people sang and danced around it.  The rest of the night was spent partying away to Bhangra and old Lohri songs played by the DJ :)  How did you celebrate yours?

 

So how exactly did we manage to plan the party with a baby? Not easily in short! Well not easily compared to how it was prior to having a baby but to be fair it wasn’t really that difficult. I tried to keep things as simple as possible (by my own standards which probably isn’t very simple at all!).

Before, I was the type of person that really didn’t like relying on others for help – I preferred to do things by myself.  When Arjun was born and because of the nature of my birth and the state I was in after, I quickly learnt that drawing upon your support network is not a bad thing. And that’s exactly what I do when I need to now. I did need a little help from others to plan for this party and I’m so grateful to have such a great support network.  I don’t really like to do things in halves either which doesn’t help!  

Organising in advance is definitely key!  I’m definitely a list orientated person (one of my many prominent traits!) and that’s just the way I manage to get things done! Thank God for excel (geeky accountant!) and for the notes section in my phone. I kept an extended to do list and also a few separate ones for the days leading up to the party so that I knew what needed to be done and when.

I asked my parents to babysit a few times especially when I had to visit the dress shop in Southall to get my outfit fitted (a few trips!).  Although I could have taken Arjun with me, I do find it quite tedious lugging him and his bags around (he’s a hefty 18lbs now!) especially when in a rush.  When time is of the essence, I find it easier to leave Arjun with either set of grandparents to get things done quicker.

Arjun’s grandmummies did the cooking and the food was absolutely delicious. I left the kitchen side of things to both our mum’s and tried my hardest not to get involved (I’m a control freak!).  We are truly blessed to have such amazing mothers/grandmothers who go over and beyond for us.

I decided to put together the centre pieces whilst Arjun played with his toys next to me as I knew he’d find the popping bright colours mesmerizing and he did!  I tried to involve Arjun in as much of the planning as I could to make my own life easier and to let him have a bit of fun too!

 

As always, my sisters were on hand to help with last minute bits – although not so much with the direct party planning, the night before they were at our house to take care of Arjun whilst I finished off some last minute preparations.

The night before preps were all getting a little too much for Arjun!

 

The week before I realised I’d completely forgotten to get any drinks (definitely baby brain!) so to save myself the hassle of having to go out to get them, I ordered them online and they were delivered the next day :)

To save myself having to traipse around the shops looking for decorations etc, I heavily relied on online shopping as you can see below.  The only real con of this is not being able to see before you buy.  But pictures online are pretty accurate. It saved me a lot of time and hassle especially with a baby! I was also able to compare prices and designs.

The day before the party, Preetam had taken the day off to help with last minute bits such as shifting heavy items for me.  As we were both in the marquee finishing bits off, we decided to wrap Arjun up in his snow suit and take him out with us in his little car. We whizzed him around and got him involved – for example I hung the table diamonds in a bag to his car and took him with me to each table to scatter them.  We made it fun :)

Man on a mission

 

I ensured Arjun’s bags were packed the night before for the temple and for the party so that I didn’t have to faff in the morning.  His outfits as well as ours were all ironed well in advance. Arjun wore jeans and a shirt for the religious function and an indian sherwani for the party.

Us ready for the Gurdwara
  

Arjun with his big sis at the Gurdwara

Family picture of us in the evening

 

We hired waitresses on the night to serve and replenish the food and to manage things in general.  They also ensured that a lot of the clearing up was done on the night.

So with a few highlights of how I managed to put things together, what theme did I go for? I always love planning decor for events.  As Lohri is associated with bright colours, I went for a colourful theme in the marquee.

We had colourful roof draping with a star cloth over the dance floor and fairy lights on the fence feature which the marquee company arranged.

I went for colourful centrepieces using aqua beads which are not only cheap and cheerful but also so effective in achieving popping colours.  These can be purchased from most party shops and online – the cocktail glasses required two packets each to fill and the fish bowls required four.  I purchased mine from eBay at £0.99 for two packets (Aqua Beads). 

I also used bright artificial silk flowers for the centre pieces which I purchased from Whittington’s online previously (Silk Artificial Flowers).

I used table diamonds on the tables to bring out some colour and these were purchased from eBay at £1.55 a packet, I only used a quarter of each packet so have lots left for the next function too (Table Diamonds) .

The gold runners were purchased from eBay for £24,99 for 10.  (Gold Organza Table Runners).

 

I also purchased colourful napkins to add to the pops of colour, again purchased from eBay at £2.29 for a pack of 50 (Napkins).

 

Arjun’s colourful personalised decoration that we’d made last week was put up near the entrance.  

I set up a kids play area which included a large wipe down mat, a ball pit and a few large toys.  Given it was a party to celebrate the birth of a baby, it was only fair to ensure all the little ones were catered for! All the babies enjoyed the toy area and it’ll definitely be making an appearance at all future parties! – That means a slightly larger marquee and a slightly larger budget especially as Mr’s social circle increases – he’s a social butterfly!

We had a Lohri cake (as we need any excuse for cake!) - Arjun was more interested in demolishing it!

Arjun with mummy, daddy and his grandparents x

 

The food was all vegetarian as we are vegetarian and there was no alcohol.  The menu included samosas and dokra (Indian savoury cake) for starters with Danish pastries and tea.  We had saag (spinach) and makki di roti which is traditionally what is cooked at Lohri and also paneer (Indian cheese) and dhal (lentils).  For dessert we had kheer (rice pudding) which is another traditional Lohri dish.  We also had out some baby snacks to cater for the little ones :)

We don’t have meat or alcohol at our functions as we are vegetarian and tee total for religious reasons and to be honest, most of our parties are pretty crazy without (our friends and family know how to have a good time!). I often wonder what would happen in the presence of alcohol!!  

There was lots of dancing to Bhangra music (thanks Mr DJ Bob Motion Music) and we also had a little zumba session (thanks Rasna!) which Arjun’s grandmummies and aunties absolutely loved!

 

Arjun loved all the attention – he’s generally a people person (like his mummy!). He had a great play session with his buddies and also had a little boogie (defo doesn’t take after his daddy who doesn’t go anywhere near a dancefloor!).  He loved working the camera; he definitely isn’t camera shy! He wasn’t at all phased by the bonfire which I was surprised about! The cutest was when he fell asleep on his daddy’s shoulder as soon as we’d finished cutting the cake – great timing Arj!

Arjun & his buddy E having a boogie x

 

Oh the excitement!



E having fun in the ball pit - the yellow balls were her favourite!



The gorgeous twins keeping themselves entertained! :)

 

B having fun in the ball pit :)

 



The babies sharing toys x

 

It was our first time hosting a party since Arjun’s birth and wow I didn’t really think about how I took the smallest for granted before Arjun came along and how now those felt like quite a challenge - for example needing to run in and out of the house to drop the centre pieces from inside to the marquee! I didn’t want to leave Arjun inside the house alone. But somehow, we managed to pull it off! I found the experience so rewarding and often mothers lose their identity – we become just “mums” – it was nice to be able to express myself in another way that I love – through organising events! I did whatever I could to ensure my life was made as easy as possible as highlighted above so that I could also enjoy the planning and the day. 

It was a tiring day and a tiring build up – we went to bed at 3am forgetting that there is no such thing as a lie in anymore!  But somehow we managed to find the energy on Sunday to crack on!

It was a great day and we are so grateful for how blessed we are – people made such an effort, we couldn’t have asked for anything more! Thank you to all those that made the effort to be a part of it. Can’t wait for Arjun to be old enough to watch the footage back! – now for planning Arjun’s first birthday! :)