Harry Potter ::

Harry Potter hysteria has gripped our household recently. Milo is utterly besotted and so completely engrossed. I am not remotely ashamed to say that I myself am a massive fan of the series.

Please note there are mild spoilers below if you haven't read the books yet.

I actually started reading Milo The Philosopher's Stone a year ago now. It took a bit of time to get him hooked, we dipped in and out a bit, I found myself having to recap what was going on a lot. I think he was probably just a little too young back then (5).  However after my lovely friend Melody visited with her kids a few weeks ago and Milo got talking to her eldest son about his own love of Harry Potter, he decided we should get back to the book. Which we did and to be honest we were pretty close to finishing so finish it we did and moved directly on to The Chamber of Secrets.

Originally I said he couldn't watch any of the films until we finished all the books, but I realised that was a little unrealistic, plus I watched the films as they came out, before the series was even all published. So we borrowed the films from my favourite Harry Potter fan. Watched The Philosopher's Stone one Saturday morning, devoted that afternoon and evening to finishing The Chamber of Secrets in book form, before watching the film the next day.

I did say we would then have a little break from the books, to let Johnny do a little bit of bedtime reading (he's not a Harry Potter fan). However Milo insisted we go straight on to The Prisoner of Azkaban. Part of my reluctance to move straight on was due to being a little uneasy about how Milo might deal with the subject matter in this book. It was the first one of the series that really drew me in and the first one that made me cry. However he loved it all and was totally gripped throughout. Of course, Sirius is now his favourite character and I greatly fear how he'll cope when we make our way to through book 5.
We tend to talk about it a little as we go along, Milo asks questions and I run through parts with him I know are important to make sure he understands. Then over breakfast I ask him to give me a recap of last night's reading. To be honest he's so engrossed at the moment, it's mostly all we talk about all day.

My original plan was to hold off before starting The Goblet of Fire but he was so eager to move on and had dealt so well with everything so far, that we jumped straight in. I completely forgot how terrifying the first chapter was, not to mention the scenes at the Quidditch World Cup. I will say that Milo has never been a sensitive child in terms of fear, he'll cry a lot at the end of 'Up', but he's not one for nightmares. If he was I probably would be less inclined to read this book to him at this young age. I'll talk more about The Goblet of Fire once we've finished it, we're currently about half way through.

I really think that the first 3 books are great read aloud's for a 6 year old. I don't think he could read them to himself yet, I think a lot would get missed along the way and he'd probably get quickly bored, but to be honest, it's an almighty pleasure to read them to him anyway. I would probably be wary about moving on to book 4 with a 6 year old. Obviously you know your child best, but just be warned it can be a little frightening in places.

Other than the joy I'm getting in sharing something so close to my heart with him, the other bonus that has arisen from this is Milo's interest in reading to himself. He is a reasonable reader for his age (probably average) and he has always loved books, but when he goes to bed he would usually write or look at lego books, more than read any stories. However, I think Harry Potter has helped him to really understand how utterly wonderful the written word alone can be and he's taken to reading to himself in bed. Finding something that he could happily read to himself but was engaging enough was a bit of a task. Nothing we had on the shelves already seemed to be up to it so at the weekend we took a trip to the library.
We took home with us, The Worst Witch and Oliver Moon and the Potion Commotion. So as you can see we haven't moved too far from the theme of magic! He's stated on the Worst Witch and loving it so far. Any recommendations for age appropriate read alone books, much appreciated.

Six ::

Last Tuesday, Milo turned six. The passing of time is such a strange thing, in so many ways it seems like yesterday we brought that little bundle home from hospital in others it seems like a million years ago.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered an old video of him, probably around 3, singing and dancing and playing the drums. He was such a little one, super cute and bossy and with the sweetest little baby voice, things change so gradually and yet so quickly, there was never a day when he just stopped talking in that baby voice, I didn't even notice it happening. We celebrate all the firsts in our children's lives, but the last's go by completely unnoticed. Looking up at the sky last week, Milo pointed up and said to his sister, 'Look Effie, there's a helicopter', I don't know when it happened but at some point he said 'hellyhoptaper' for the last time and managed the correct pronunciation without any assistance. They just keep growing and growing and getting better at things and I guess there just isn't anything we can do about it!

Talking of firsts, the day before Milo's birthday he lost his first tooth. It had been wobbly for a good 2 weeks and I was doubtful it would ever come out. However Johnny mentioned that the tooth fairy may bring extra treats for those whose teeth fall out on their birthdays and Milo wobbled and wobbled that tooth with sheer force. Our lovely neighbour (Stitch and Spool) gave Milo his birthday gift from her a few days early as it was this tooth pillow. Personalised on the front with his name, in glow in the dark embroidery (so the tooth fairy can see it of course) and a diagram of all his teeth, so we can record when each one falls out, on the back there is a little pocket to store your tooth and for the fairy to leave your money.

So Milo awoke on his birthday to a tooth fairy visit as well as all the usual birthday shenanigans. There were a pile of gifts to work his way through before our birthday tradition of rainbow pancakes and berries. After that his annual lego building marathon, then it was a gorgeous sunny day, so we headed out to the park for some cricket (set from his Dad as a birthday gift). For dinner he requested gyoza and sushi, so we took him to Kibou Sushi. We'd never been there before, but it was really lovely, the food and atmosphere both. I'm sure we'll be adding it to our favourite Cheltenham restaurants.

Print by Happy Cotswold Print Co

All in all it was a perfect way to turn six (move onto another a hand as Milo has been declaring).

I've made a little video of his day as part of the Capturing Time Capsules course I've been taking with Xanthe Berkely. I'm loving making these little videos and already know how lovely they will be to look back over in years to come.


Milo Turns Six from vicki brown on Vimeo.

World Book Day ::

Happy world book day to you, if you don't have children you may not be aware of this momentous occasion, if you do have children you will probably acquaint those words with the dread of having to put together a book themed costume for your little one. I actually really like making costumes, we're just not all that great at getting them ready any sooner than the night before. The other thing is persuading your child to go as a book character, not their favourite T.V. character. I won't lie a lot of mum's break these rules, I expect half the girls will be Elsa today, but I try to stick vaguely to them. 

Previous costumes have included, Charlie Bucket, Batman, one of Captain Hook's pirates and Max (from Where the Wild Things Are and my favourite).

This year Milo wanted to be Harry Potter. I tried to convince him to be the Gruffalo (he has a fab Gruffalo costume) but he wasn't having it.

So in the spirit of previous years we waited until after school yesterday to do anything about it. We collected a stick on our way home to serve as a wand, mended his batman cape and added a ribbon fastener, created a pair of glasses out of cardboard and decorated a t-shirt!

I had intended to hunt out a tie, knit a scarf and get hold of appropriate attire but well, time, baby and all manner of other excuses. However we were recently sent some Fruit of the Loom t-shirts from Buy T-Shirts Online, so I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to put one to good use. Using a lego minifigure of Harry as a guide I drew on the v of his v-neck sweater, the badge and the tie and Milo coloured them in with some fabric paints.

I'm actually pretty impressed with our handy work, yes it could have been better if I had done it all myself, there wouldn't be so many black smudges for a start, but where would be the fun in that? With some lipstick in his forehead he was ready and mightily pleased with himself.  

Weekending ::

It feels like we had a long weekend this week, because Friday seems to have added itself on to the beginning there. As it was half term, Halloween and the mr took the afternoon off work, Friday definitely merged itself into our weekend.
Milo had his best friend stay over on Thursday night for the first time. He's been to others for sleepovers but never had one here before so as you can imagine there was much excitement and not much sleeping. Friday morning I prepared ghostly pancakes for the sleep deprived monsters! I thought they were fab (super simple too, I just made a ghostly shape with the batter and added currants for the eyes and mouth). Cries of 'errr what's the black stuff' were shouted in unison when they were presented and then they both proceeded to remove the eyes and mouths, but it's the thought that counts right?!
Friday afternoon Milo had a Halloween party to attend. So he got to don his 'man eating spider' costume a little early. Not wanting Effie to feel left out I whipped her up a little ghost costume in the morning. The party was great fun. Milo had a fabulous time, lots of halloween inspired party games and sweets!

After arriving home there was just enough time for a bit of supper before heading out trick or treating. We're so lucky to live on a really friendly street with lots of families.

There's always lots of houses taking part and we get together with some of the other boys on the street and they have a great time. I've read a lot this week of people who are really opposed to the whole trick or treating culture. Personally I love it. Having spent every Halloween from age 6-16 in the states for Halloween, it was a big holiday for me growing up. My sister and I dressed up every year and traipsed the streets with hordes of American children, it was so much fun and I felt that sense of community even then.
I understand however that it's not for everyone, as a child the rule was always 'if the porch light is off you don't knock'. It always seemed a pretty strict rule to me, certainly one you didn't break. The rule we give our boys is, 'if it has a pumpkin you can knock'. We never ever knock on doors without. Personally I'm so pleased it's become a bigger thing over here and I hope it stays that way.

On Saturday we headed up to the grand opening of Cheltenham's new toy superstore 'Smyths'. Milo was so excited by this prospect and I don't think he was disappointed! As soon as we walked through the door he came face to face with a huge wall of lego. He shrieked with excitement. It was nice for him to see all the really big sets he's been adding to his Christmas list, in the flesh. He was physically shaking with pure joy on seeing the Simpsons house!
After that a quick pit stop at wholefoods, where Milo consumed at meringue the size of his head before heading home for a supper of Moules Marineres and left over reheated pizza!

Sunday was super quiet for us, I don't think any of us left our pjs all day. The boys worked hard on sorting the lego collection whilst I baked cookies and attempted to sneak a little knitting in here and there.
All in all it was a lovely one.

This Week ::

A round up of some of my favourite moments from my Instagram this week ::

Breastfeeding ::

I am certainly no expert at the art of breast feeding, but I have had 2 very different experiences of it now. So I'd like to share with you some of what I've learned.

My first was utterly dreadful. I had every breast feeding related ailment going, cracked, bleeding nipples, mastitis (5 cases in all I think I racked up) thrush (both in Milo's mouth and my nipples, a side effect of the antibiotics I was constantly on for the mastitis) and abscesses. Of all the things the abscesses were probably the worst. When I got the first, I dutiful turned up to see my GP only to be quickly sent straight to A and E as soon as he clapped eyes on the angry puss filled lump growing on my breast. Here I had to wait hours for a surgeon who rather painfully removed as much of the puss as he could. Bearing in mind I had been in labour less than 2 weeks prior to this, I declared it the most painful experience of my life. I spent the next few days making daily visits for more puss removal (I asked for anaesthetic injections on all of the following trips). Not long after the first was on it's way to healing (I still bear the massive scar) another little bubble appeared on the other breast. I was back at the hospital later that day, where I would return every day for almost 2 weeks. The second was worse because it was much deeper.

Feeding Milo on our first night at home.

I experienced a lot of awful healthcare professionals during that ordeal, doctors who told me 'it's really time you give up [breastfeeding] now' when I called for yet another antibiotic prescription and another who told me my milk was no good for my baby anyway and he shouldn't be drinking it as it would be full of infections, something that was declared nonsense by the doctor I saw just 10 minutes later (she was my favourite). But there were some lovely ones too, the aforementioned favourite who gave me her direct number and who I saw almost everyday for 2 weeks. The lovely receptionists and nurses who would coo over Milo whilst I was being prodded with needles, the beautiful La Leche League lady on the end of the phone who was the only person to tell me 'yes your baby is latching on incorrectly' everyone else had said 'it looks right'. My favourite GP (now retired) who declared 'of course you're miserable, look at everything you're going through' when everyone else kept telling me I had post natal depression and needed medication, something I wanted to avoid.

By the time all this was over Milo had no interest in feeding from me (I could hardly blame him) but I had kept my milk supply and I pumped and bottle fed him for 6 months, it was exhausting, hard work and my first few months of my baby boys life were not exactly the bliss filled days of motherhood I was expecting!

 bottle feeding Milo in the park

I expect this was part of the reason I didn't think I wanted anymore children and why there is such an age gap between them. Ask any failed breastfeeder, there is no greater guilt than that of not being able to feed your baby. It's meant to be so natural, everyone else manages ok, why am I so useless? The simple truth is it just isn't always as easy as it should be.

When I found out I was pregnant with Effie, the first thing I said to Johhny was, 'if I decide it's best I will feed her formula from the moment she is born and I will not feel guilty for it'. As it was, as the birth drew nearer I realised I really wanted to give it another go. I had learned so much from my experience with Milo and I wanted to implement all that knowledge. You know what, this time it's easy. Yes my nipples were sore to begin, yes I was in agony when my milk came in, but apart from thrush (had to have antibiotics during labour) so far so good. This has taught me that every mother's experience of breast feeding is going to be different as will every baby's. We all have to make our own choices and decide what the best decisions are for us and our individual babies.

breastfeeding Effie - a couple of days old

From my humble experience, here are some of the things I learned, to prepare yourself for what lies ahead if you do decide breastfeeding is for you ::

• Get yourself a tube of Lansinoh. By far and away the best nipple cream! Put it in your hospital and apply after every feed right from the start. The lanolin prevents your nipples cracking and scabbing, plus it's all natural so no need to wash off before feeding.

• Do some research. I literally knew nothing about breastfeeding before I had Milo. I read a million birth stories and a ton of books on childbirth, yet knew nothing about how to look after my baby. Understanding how supply and demand works in terms of breast feeding, how you produce more milk at night time, the importance of correct latch and how to hand express will all make those first few days a little easier.
• Hot flannels and a little bit of expressing will be super beneficial when your milk comes in. I woke up on the second night with Effie with the most ridiculously huge breasts. They were so painful for the next few days, using Natural Birthing Company's engorged breasts oil (from their lovely Bosom Buddies Breast Feeding Survival kit) with some super hot water and flannels really helped. I did this a couple of times a day, I also expressed a little bit of milk off before and after each feed to ease the pain a little.

• Use YouTube! The day I spent alone in hospital I watched numerous 'latching on' videos, playing them over and over and practicing with my real life baby when she was awake. Getting that correct latch is the most important thing as far as I can tell. If it feels wrong take the baby off and start again.

• Know that it does get easier. Your nipples will get sore, but they will toughen up. It will be, literally, toe curlingly painful when the baby latches on at first (the pain should stop once they are feeding) but that will stop, I don't even remember when it did for me but at some point it did. Once you've done it a couple of times you become quite blasé about feeding in public (two tops one to go up one to go down is my best advice to retain some modesty). Sleepless nights don't get much easier, though you do get more used to the sleep deprivation! 

• Babies have growth spurts. Be warned that there may be occasions where they will feed and feed and feed for what will feel like all eternity. I have never wanted to be able to get off the sofa and do the housework so much! But you know what they aren't tiny forever and you won't always have such a good excuse to sit on your bum eating all the cake (essential breastfeeding nourishment in my opinion) binge watching The Walking Dead. So make the most of it, that and the privilege of being able to demand your other half fetch you food and drinks as required.

I don't know how long I'll feed Effie for, but as far as I can tell right now, it'll be for a long time yet. Everyone talks about the magic 6 week mark. That's the time everything suddenly falls into place, so I've been told. We're not quite there yet, just a few days to go, but I can already see that the longer you stick at breast feeding the easier it becomes, but if it doesn't work out for you and your baby it really doesn't matter. Milo was fed formula (along with my pumped milk) from just a few days old, he's healthy and clever, he's independent and loving, he is the least fussy eater of his age I know and he has no memory of any of those first few months of his life. He literally couldn't care less how he was fed, the main thing is he was fed and he is loved, nothing else matters.

Milo feeding himself - at 7 months

This Week ::

A round up of some of my favourite moments from my Instagram this week ::

Finding Inspiration :: A Room for Milo ::

As I'm pregnant and all, I sensibly decided now would be a good time to give our whole house a bit of a overhaul, because you know heavy lifting and painting are two things you should definitely make sure you're incorporating into a safe pregnancy!

Milo's room is first up, I'm moving him completely, due to some damp issues in his current room. On emptying, what was the spare room, of all it's contents, I thought 'well as it's empty it would be foolish not to paint it', as you do.

Milo decided after much deliberation, that he wanted his room to look like 'Bart Simpsons, from the Lego house'.  So after some consultation with the paint chart we choose 'Natural Twine' from Wilkinson's for the walls.  I'm sure it's not normal for a 5 year old to choose to have a 'beige' bedroom, but I figure it's a good base to add some colourful furniture to.

Of course I since took to pinterest to search out some gorgeous colourful bedrooms and just the right
accessories for the job.

Click the little pictures at the bottom to see the original source of the images above, or click the big picture to see more of my Room for Little Ones pins over on pinterest.

The key points I'm thinking of working with, from Bart's room are the green flooring, red lamp, purple bedding and colourful furniture.  Fortunately Milo has a lot of white furniture already, so painting it up in bright colours shouldn't be a problem.  To replicate Bart's posters I thought I'd get Milo to do some nice pictures for me (maybe even a Krusty the clown drawing!) and put them up in some simple frames.  I also think the addition of a pin board to keep all his school certificates on would be a really lovely idea.

It's all going very slowly at the moment, but I hope to share the finished article with you soon.

three ::

so far three is looking pretty tasty for this little one, who has done little else but eat and play since the celebrations begun yesterday!