Reward & Recognition

Reward
Way back when I started this blog a year ago, it was for a small number of reasons. It wasn't to become famous, make money, change the world or anything like that. I used it and still do as a sounding board. I enjoy writing (On a keyboard at least) and I had all these thoughts running round my head. Things to say, things to ask and a year on, I still do.
My reward is when I log in and see the page views. My reward is when I see someone has RT'd my blog post on twitter hoping they have read the post and felt it should be read by their followers. My reward is seeing people comment on a post, either with advice, compliments or something else. My reward is YOU, reading THIS post, so for that, I thank you.

Recognition
Everything I have said above is enough, it really is, but when on top of that, your readers and followers feel you should get a little recognition it really is an amazing thing. Well that's exactly what has happened! I have been nominated AND shortlisted in the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging awards under the Dad category.
This is a massive honour to me and although it's cliche it really is cool just to be nominated, so to be shortlisted is truly awesome. Here's what they say about the awards; "BritMums highlights the best of parent blogging in our Brilliance in Blogging Awards – the BiBs. It’s an opportunity to recognise the most creative, inventive and compelling blogging of the year! IN little more than three weeks' time, the BiBs received more than 12,000 nominations for the 12 different categories."

There are 19 other dads that are in the same category as me and I already follow most of them so I know how talented, entertaining and influential they are in the dad blogging community, so I don't expect to get far, but being on a list with them is pretty good for little ol' me!

If you voted for me before and you helped me get shortlisted, thank you so much, but the voting has started again. So if you still feel I am worth a vote, please either click on the picture below, or you can find a link at the top of the blog.

Thanks again and I hope I live up to being a Bibs nominee!

FTD

The TOOTH hurts!

There are some things in a babies life that are pretty big certainty.
A baby, boy or girl is bound to get hair. BB ain't doing too well in this department at the moment, but we hope he catches up soon. A baby will find their voice. They might not be quoting Shakespeare by the time they are in size 3 nappies but they will eventually start giving you their opinion in their own screamy way!

One of the biggest developments is they get teeth. The reason I think this is a biggy is because like Walking and talking, teeth are something that should be around as long as they are!

If we are honest with ourselves, me & The Mrs have used teething as an excuse for endless days of crying, fussing and general grumpyness, but we can say for sure, that 'Calgel' (A UK cream for teething) has definitely helped those situations, so who knows, maybe it has been teething all along!

For parents, teething is a long and a bit of a reward less task. As parents, we gain nothing from our little bundles of joy gaining a nice set of gnashers. They cost money to maintain, they cost us a fortune in 'Tooth Fairy Tax' and if we could feed them blended or baby food all their lives it would save us a fortune. If Robocop can survive on bottles of baby food why cant the rest of us!

Anyway, enough of my post apocalyptic ideas for humanity. This past week Benjamin got his first "Tooth". I call it a "Tooth" because so far we have a very clear cut in his gum and the tip of a Tooth, so it's not quite a fully fledged gnasher just yet, even though it is very exciting. I say this all the time, but he is really growing fast and seeing a development like this shows you how much he has grown!

I am sure before we know it he will have a wonderful set of 'Tushy Pegs' that will cost us a fortune in dental work and when the inevitably fall out, we will have to pay her removal fees and with inflation as it is, we may have to sell the dog to pay for it!

My 1st mothers day by 'The Mrs'

On the 18th March we celebrated mothers day in the UK.

As it was the first mothers day as a family I thought it would be a cool idea to have 'The Mrs' provide a little guest post on her first ever mothers day as a mum!! So let me introduce to you, the mastermind behind our Operation...Christine (The Mrs)

My First Mothers Day

To be honest, I didn’t expect it to be much other than a normal day. We don’t really celebrate occasions like this in our house other than cards....Valentine’s Day, Birthdays (unless it’s a special one), wedding ann etc. Even Xmas was never a big deal until this year when we had Benjamin to spoil.

Benjamin woke me up as normal, but about 7.30 rather than the usual 6.30-7 wake up call. A nice sleep in. And I had only been up with him twice in the night, which is good.

He had lots of smiles and cuddles. He has become quite cuddly now, puts his arms around you and lays his head on your shoulder.....it’s ace.

We came downstairs to get breakfast and on the table waiting for me were 2 cards, a big bunch of flowers, chocolates, a teddy that says ‘heart’ U Mum (My first mummy related item!) and a personalised phone cover with a picture of our little man.I was really surprised and so happy. A lot of thought and effort had obviously been put in to this.

The cards are fab, one from Benjamin with lots of hugs and drooly kisses and then one from Lewis, which is really nice and says on your 1^st Mothers Day 2012. I like things like this.

I still find it hard to believe I am a mummy, and we have an 8 month old.....I mean I still remember having the ‘im leaking’ conversation with Lewis when my water’s broke.....how can 8 months have passed already.

I loved the fact that this Mothers day, I was the mummy, which was such a great yet, odd feeling. I think I am still getting used to having Benjamin here, but I’m so glad he is and love watching him grow in to the little monkey he’s becoming.

I’m now looking forward to some great art work of homemade cards from Benjamin in the future. Better start practising my gentle ‘is that a ?’ voice whilst trying to work out what he has drawn!

We're doing it all wrong!

8 months ago, I was sat with my newborn son in my arms still wondering what the was in that carbonara The Mrs had the night before that seemingly caused her to go into labour the following day!

I am not sure that a milestone like BB's 8 month birthday will ever go by without us thinking to ourselves how much our life has changed since he made his debut appearance. Everyday is still a whirlwind of nappy changes, tears and tantrums and of course giggles and playtime. All in all (Mostly down to The Mrs) BB is coming on great, He is chattering away, rolling around like a man that's been set on fire and occasionally you can see him contemplate crawling...only occasionally!

So when The Mrs took BB to the doctors for him to have his 8 month checkup and be weighed she didn't expect to receive so much negative feedback. Let me explain....

Firstly, she was asked my the nurse if he was sleeping through the night. BB goes to bed at about 19:15 and sleeps well but wakes once or twice a night. He is easily settled by giving him his dummy and he falls back to sleep until he wakes and realises its fallen out again! The nurses first response was that at 8 months he should be sleeping through the night and we should stop giving him his dummy during the night and eventually he will sleep through. The problem with that is nobody likes to hear their baby crying especially at 3am. This particular nurse was an advocate of letting babies 'Cry it out' which Christine is very much against and surely there must be a better way? I know babies that are older who still use their dummies and I am aware of at least one who still gets a dream feed at 9 months.

The next mistake we are making according to Mrs Nursey is that we are under feeding him!
His current diet looks a little like this:
Breakfast 1 07:30 - 8oz formula
Breakfast 2 08:00 - Porridge made from any formula left over.
Lunch 1      11:30 - 4oz formula
Lunch 2      12:30 - Most likely some veg that Christine has pre-made (Pretty tasty!) and pudding.
Dinner        16:00 - 8oz formula
Supper        19:15 - 8oz formula
According to nursey, we should be giving him at least 3 portions of real food (Not formula) a day.

So even though we thought we were doing a pretty good job, it turns out we have a lot left to learn, at least in that particular health visitors opinions. Even after the lack of foody goodness he weighed in at a very healthy 20lb 4oz! Which for those that know these things means he is about the 75th Percentile. The Mrs tells me that's pretty good. lol

So with the knowledge that everybody is different, have you had similar experiences to us? What would your advice be? Any suggestions for good recipes we can feed our malnutritioned little boy?

As always, thanks for reading.
F-T-D

Winner Winner, chicken dinner!

There is a wealth of choice in the supermarket when your looking to choose some food for you little one. There's Heinz, Ella's Kitchen, HiPP, Little Angels from ASDA (our supermarket of choice) and a favourite of ours Plum.

Well, last week Plum reached their 6th birthday and to celebrate they held a competition to win a selection of foods on their facebook page.


Now, The Mrs isn't the luckiest of women, after all she ended up with my ugly mug, but that doesn't stop her entering any competition she sees. if she sees a chance to win some goodies, then she will happily sit and enter her details and cross her fingers. Unfortunately she didn't win anything as part of the birthday celebrations......BUT, Plum said that if their facebook page reached a certain number of 'Likes', they would draw a name out and that person would also win some lovely food and today it arrived!

Look at all that food!

BB couldn't wait to try some of his new collection..

He also couldn't wait to play in his new toy!

So a big thanks to Plum I am pretty sure BB will love it!


Just in case you haven't read my blog in the past month or you live under a rock you only have until the 15th march to nominate in the Britmums 'Brilliance in Blogging' awards.

You can nominate me for as many categories as possible not just Dad Blogger.
I will be forever grateful, even if I just make it to the shortlist!

Thanks for reading and of course voting..HA

FTD 






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11 Questions - Just a bit of fun!

So, I'm sure we have all seen them. Somebody tags you in a little Q&A blog post where they answer questions about themselves and then ask other people they follow to do the same.

Well Laura over at Tired mummy of two tagged me, so I figured as she asked, I will answer.

First the rules....(I'm scared it will turn into a Saw film if I don't follow them!)

• You must post these rules.
• Each person must post 11 things about herself on their blog.
• Answer the questions the “tagger” listed for you in her post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
• Choose 11 people to tag and link to them in the post.
• Let each blogger know that you have tagged them

The 11 questions are....
NB. Most of my guesses are made with a smile on my face or are a complete guess, so don't be shouting at me ! lol

• Babies wake up almost every two hours or so, then why say, “sleep like a baby”?
• I'm going to go with, they have poo'd and wee'd all night in their sleep and will simply change themselves in the morning. ...Sounds like a plan.
• Why is a round pizza put in a square box?
• Boxes are simply folded cardboard. A circle configuration is weaker in structure than square, so square is used?
• Why is abbreviated such a long word?
• This is because the English language was invented by goblins that lived in pyramids in Egypt. They were funny little fellas and they did it as a joke. Look into it..you can see little drawings of laughing goblin like figures.
• Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
• The inside of the bottle is coated in a substance to avoid the glue sticking.
• Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor and dish washing liquid made with real lemons??
• Simply because in my opinion, Lemons are the fruit of the devil (Not the apple). All lemons should be burned in some sort of celebration and never be grown again.
• Why isn't there mouse-flavoured cat food?
• For some reason, society finds it acceptable to kill and process certain animals and place them in our foods. It appears that Mice are not one of those animals. Here's a question for you, how do you know it's NOT mouse flavoured?
• If you choke a Smurf, what colour does it turn?
• Beige
• Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!
• Pluto was hit by a horse and cart at the age of 6 while going to the shops to buy a packet of space invaders. This damaged the C3 and C4 vertebrae and has since been unable to walk. 
• If Wylie E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?
• Do you actually see any cash exchanged. He buys it all on credit. The money he has was left to him in a will (by Clive B. Acme FYI), which stated, the only way he would receive the money of he killed the damn bird. 
• Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
• A happy accident. 
• Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
• I didn't, I sang 1 and then realised I am a bumbling fool.
• If a cow laughed, would milk come out of it's nose?
• No, because cows don't drink milk. That would be a little strange. It would of course be honey. 

 Now I need to think of 11 questions to ask those lucky people who I choose to tag and because I am boring and mundane, these will probably be fairly easy...yet insightful...most of them anyway

1. If you were to have a meal with 3 other people alive or dead, who would it be. (Anybody famous or not)
2. If you could have chosen your name, what would it have been and why?
3. If you could make one return trip in a time machine, where would you go and why?
4. If you were a darts player, what would be your nickname?
5. If it became possible to live in space and travel to any planet in a matter of hours. Where would you live?
6. If you could make any film storyline true, which would it be.
7. If a film was made of you life, what would it be called and who would star as you?
8. If you won the lottery (Lets say £50 million), whats the FIRST thing you buy?
9. What would be you super power of choice?
10. Which animal would you be and why?
11. What did you want to be when you were 7, 13 and 16?

OK, so after that task is done, I now need to 'TAG' 11 other bloggers for them to answer my question, pose their own and the circle of blog life continues. I don't expect many of these guys to respond after all they have more interesting and pressing things to do other than answer my silly questions.

Here goes....My 11 victims...sorry bloggers are:

@TheCrumbyMummy
@babberblog
@Daley_84
@OurPeaGreenPod
@therookiedad
@MotherhoodTruth
@Baillie_MyLife
@urbanvox
@MisterBee79
 @Living_with_LC
@DaddysinCharge


If you do a post answering my questions, then pop a link into the comments on this post and I will check-em out! Or leave me abusive comments and block from twitter...either way is good lol



Now you didnt think you could get a post out of me and not hear me rattle on about this...

You can nominate me for as many categories as possible not just Dad Blogger.
VOTE FOR ME.
I will be forever grateful, even if I just make it to the shortlist!

Thanks for reading, taking part and of course voting..HA

FTD
 

Benjamins adventures abroad - Part2

Well all in all our first holiday abroad was an amazing success, mostly because BB is such a laid back baby.

As I have said before, my main concern was the flights and both out and inbound he was awesome. Anyway I'll get to the flight later.

In part 1 I told you how much of a great time he was having on his jollies. Well as the week progressed, he enjoyed it even more! From his daily swim in a nice heated indoor pool, to his midnight location change from his cot to mummy and daddies bed! (Officially the first time he has co-slept with me and the Mrs).

Through the whole holiday, he has been a very happy chappy, he has dealt well with many strangers approaching and touching and even got a laugh out of the waiters speaking Arabic. The waiter tried to convince us babies could speak all languages and the way BB responded I couldn’t disagree.

He loved his swimming and he even enjoyed a little a play in the sun after daddy insisted he was absolutely covered in factor 50! Even on days where the sun shone, it was pretty windy so the temperature remained good enough to sunbath for the adults, but not too hot for the smaller people amongst us. Granddad even made a makeshift play pen to keep him out of the wind, luckily there was not many people looking for sun bed mattresses at the time!

Hotel was great, very clean, great service at the bar and the staff always wanted to help. The only down fault was I thought the food was a little lacking especially the hotel being a 4* but gladly, BB was fed well on cartons of formula we took with us and of course mummy's milk a couple of times a day. The rooms were great and the beds were really comfy and massive, which is why we were happy for BB to spend some time in bed with us. It was great waking up with him smiling at your face, but I don’t think it is something we will continue at home.

I mentioned how well he did in the outbound flight and he was nearly as angelic on the inbound. This time he was awake for both take off and landing and after a little fuss here and there he settled back down. One of my proudest moments as a parent so far is hearing complete strangers telling other complete strangers, how amazingly well behaved and great our little boy had been. I am sure that will all change as the years go by! HA

Hopefully we will continue to enjoy holidays as a family both here in the UK and abroad.



PS. I started this blog for myself and I know that it is read by a small amount of people and I am grateful for every page view I get and comment's that are left. With that being said, it is always nice for some recognition and the guys and gals over at BritMums are looking for nominations in their 2012 Brilliance in Blogging awards. If you have enjoyed my blog and you think I deserve the chance at some recognition, then please be kind enough to click on the below badge and fill in the nomination form. You can nominate me for as many categories as possible not just Dad Blogger.

I will be forever grateful, even if I just make it to the shortlist!

As always, thanks for reading
FTD