When I grow up...

 Mum I want to be MJ.
Harper's 3 year old kinder party themed, When I Grow Up. There were many fire fighters, police men, construction workers, and princesses. But only one Michael Jackson. Harper don't ever change, seriously you rock my world.

19 month old.

This month I weaned you. For me the time was right, for you the time was never right. But we got through it and it wasn't long before you stopped tugging at my top and started fighting Harper for a bottle. I have mixed feelings about weaning, but I'll save that post for another day when I have time to work my thoughts into words.

There have been no other major changes this month, your speech is limited which is the cause of lots of meltdowns. You've started biting, and hitting. You rip books for reactions. You hate to share and taking turns is a nightmare. All normal toddler behaviour that's quickly forgotten and compared to others.

You have an obsession with planes, you will hear a plane before anyone else, eyes darting around the sky as you scream mane mannne. Watching you at the airport was fun, you loved that.

You still sleep all night with the occasional wake up, but are easily resettled. Even when we went to Perth you slept in the portacot with no worries. It's such a relief to go to bed and know I don't have to get up during the night.

Each month you are more and more into daddy, each night you insist on kissing him at least 5 times before you go to bed. When he gets home you're so excited. You have only just started letting me brush your teeth without tears, the breakthrough was praise from Dada.

You love dancing, and have a crazy sweet tooth.
Love shoes, and playing peekaboo under hats.
Eat random things off the floor, and aren't keen on baths.
You love a good fight, fake cry, and point to your nappy when you want it changed.

You're a perfect toddler, and you're mine. I love you like crazy.

Charlie STYLE

Dress: vintage

BABYBJÖRN Baby Carrier One Review

Testing Particulars:

Product: BABYBJÖRN Baby Carrier One

Colour: Black

Time frame: 1 Month

Testing Location: Melbourne and Perth

Tested by: Charlie at 18 Months Old, weight 10.5 kilos

Product Specifications

Age: From newborn to approx. 3 years

Min. 3.5 kg/53 cm (8 lb./21 in.)

Max. 15 kg/100 cm. (73 lb./39 in.)

Min. age for outwards facing position: 5 months

Max. weight for outward facing position: 12 kg/26 lb.

Lining: 100% cotton. Waist belt lining: 100% polyester

Tested and safe: All fabrics are kind to your baby’s skin and safe to taste. Guaranteed free from substances hazardous to health and approved according to HYPERLINK "http://www.babybjorn.com.au/about-us/our-responsibility/product-safety/safe-textiles/oeko-tex/"Oeko-Tex Standard 100, class 1 for baby products.

Fabric information

Materials: Cotton Mix

Main material: 60% cotton, 40% polyester

Product Care: Machine wash, warm (40 °C). Wash separately. Use an eco-friendly and gentle bleach-free detergent.

RRP: AUD$199.95

The Experience: On opening the box, once again BabyBjörn didn't fail to impress me with their design, there is no denying this is an elegant carrier that will fit with anyone’s personal style. I flicked though the instruction book then decided to watch the online instructional videos. If there's one thing I've learnt during my baby wearing years it's that small adjustments can make or break a carrier, you need to find your “spot.” If it's not comfortable, try tightening or loosening certain straps until you find what works for you. With my last carrier I marked the inside with a pen so I could quickly go back to the same adjustments after my husband had used it.

I decided to use our trip to Perth to review the Baby Carrier One, knowing I'd be using the carrier every day for a significant amount of time in a range of situations.

The first thing I noticed was that there are more clips than I'm used to. It took me a day of putting Charlie in and taking her out before I started to feel really comfortable handling the clips, but, by day two putting the carrier on myself was easier, and by the end of the week it was second nature.

The standout features: I found three major standouts while reviewing the BabyBjörn Carrier One. The first is the option to have Charlie face out. This has never been an option for us in the past, and it's a massive advantage. We spent the day at the aquarium and Charlie could see everything, which I loved (and she loved even more).

The second stand out feature is that you don’t need an infant insert when using the BabyBjörn Carrier One with a newborn, making the carrier a lot more compact to be carried around and cooler in summer.

The third stand out is comfort. I can honestly say the BabyBjörn has been as comfortable as my Ergo carrier to which I had thought nothing else could compare. Day after day I used the carrier walking around for 3+ hours at a time and at no point did I feel like I needed to take it off nor did I have any pain whatsoever. Charlie was as happy as ever and fell asleep multiple times in the Carrier One, reinforcing that she too felt comfortable and enjoyed using it.

Room for improvement: I'd really like to see a sleeping/weather hood added to the design. I loved the sleeping hood on my previous carrier, especially when Charlie was a newborn. I would also love to see a zipped pocket for storing keys, money or a phone.

 I would highly recommended the BabyBjörn Carrier One for any family with a child aged 0 to 3 years old. Baby wearing has been such a big part of my parenting with Charlie. Long time readers will know that for the first six months of her life she slept in a carrier every day. I've never pretended this was a perfect situation but I would have struggled to survive with a high needs baby without it. For me a baby carrier has been the most essential baby item to date.

Read more about the Baby Carrier One & watch Video information

Buy the Carrier Here

Like BABYBJÖRN on Facebook

Disclosure: BABYBJÖRN provided me with the Baby Carrier One for this review I was not compensated for this post, all opinions are my own.

Charlie STYLE

Dress, Vintage.

Hamilton Island Part 2

We arrived home from Perth Tuesday, we're all still exhausted. I wanted to share the last of Hamilton Island before starting on Perth, for those who are interested you can check out Part 1 Here

Charlie Barley

Everything about this photo is classic Charlie, she's a force to be reckoned with. She doesn't accept the answer no without a fight, and demands your attention (as she should). If she's not happy we all know about it, I hope she never changes. I feel happy thinking she will never blend into a crowd. Charlie I love you and your screaming face.

Harper STYLE

The perfect addition to any wardrobe, a vintage safari suit! Even if it is 4 sizes to big.
We're having a weekend in Perth, the kids woke up at 3am Perth time. I have to wait 4 hours just for the pool to open. Wish me luck, it's gunna be a long day!

Hamilton Island Part 1

Somehow I never ended up posting about our last holiday (in March) to Hamilton Island. It's a great place to travel with kids, safe, beautiful, and super family friendly. We hired the same house we did last time, and had all our food delivered to the Island from Coles online.

Most days we spent swimming, playing at the park, and driving around on our golf buggy. One day Harper was so worn out he fell asleep in the back of the golf buggy. There is a wild life animal park, Matt took Harper everyday at feeding time to visit his friend (the massive crocodile in the photo), he even held a snake.

Charlie was the same age Harper was the first time we went, she loved it.

We were lucky enough to have my mum come for the last few nights, we all know what holidays are like with kids, fun and great yes, but hardly relaxing. Having another pair of hands made everything run smoothly, also it meant Matt and I could have some date nights.
I have a tun of photos to share, I'll break it up over a couple of posts.
Happy Tuesday people.

Vegan Pancakes for Daddy Day.

Happy Father's day to you,
Thank you for getting on the floor to play with our kids,
Thank you for working your butt off 6 days a week to provide for us.
Thank you for doing the dishes every night,
Thank you for taking the day off to go to Daddy day at kinder.
Thank you for loving them as much as I do.
I love you, you're a wonderful dad.

Recipe to come.

Charlie STYLE

Dress: Vintage
Cup: A gift from Paris

And then she started sleeping through the night...

For the last three weeks Charlie has slept though the night, for the first time ever. No really, ever.

If you've landed on this page in hope for a magic answer, I don't have one. I tried so many things over the last 18 months (other than controlled crying or weaning) to get Charlie to sleep though the night.

Nothing worked, so I did what worked for us to get her back to sleep as quickly and quietly as possible, I breastfeed her to sleep and co-slept with her, for most of the night, every night . Sometimes on a bad night she still woke as many as 6 times a night. She went straight back to sleep (as long as I feed her) but still it was exhausting.

In the next few months Matt and I are going to try for another baby, until Charlie started sleeping through the night, the idea of another baby seemed well... terrifying, it doesn't matter how much you love babies or how many you want. One thing remains the same, we all need sleep to function. Lack of sleep makes me fragile, and grumpy. Having another baby when I'm not yet sleeping from my last would be cray, cray, and put our family under unnecessary pressure.

So I decided to move Charlie's cot into Harper's room, I just felt ready to have our room back. It wasn't like when I moved Harper and part of me felt guilty that I wasn't as sad about the change, but I just needed sleep, I thought we haven't tried this, lets. I didn't really have a plan, I just thought when she wakes up I'll feed her and bring her into our room, or put her back in the cot. Simple, maybe?!

The first night she woke up around 10pm, she called out a couple of times but then went quiet, I decided to leave her and she fell back to sleep. She woke again at 1am and this time she cried, I went in and brought her back to our bed. She spent the rest of the night in our bed unsettled feeding almost every hour.

The next night I decided I'd try to feed her in her bedroom and then put her back into the cot, but for the first time ever, she didn't wake up! She slept until 7.20am (unheard of) I was pacing the house worried out of my mind. Of course she was fine.

I thought maybe it was a fluke, but it wasn't! Since then she has continued to sleep and not feed all night. Don't get me wrong she has woken up a few times over the last 3 weeks and called out, but at no point has she been upset crying. When she was sick I went in when she called out and rocked her but I didn't feed her and I put her back into her own bed. I think she feels better because Harper's with her (most of the night).

So there it is, my magic answer was to move Charlie into another room. We've all been sick the last week and I can't tell you how happy I am to be getting some good sleep. The end.