slowing down for the summer

a week in our house can often feel a bit like a whirl wind... it's all rushing to get to places, rushing back to eat, nap, use the potty... endless to-ing and fro-ing.

the summer holidays are like a big deep breath... a chance to slow down and take a moment.

i really am a keen believer in slowing down ~ seriously. even on the school run i {try to} take a moment to re-group before we rush out the door. i find it gives everyone a chance to catch up. to check themselves. to calm down. 
yep.
calm down. this is a biggie in this house. even when we have nowhere to be or time schedules to keep, we always seem to exude a certain air of mania.

i came across a book online where it teaches children to remember their breathing in times of worry or stress.  it is not a self help book or an educational book, it is a story of a little girl who has a secret. the secret helps her to forget her worries. the secret is her breath. focusing on her breath helps her to clear her mind of anything that is bothering her. it is very sweet ~ http://www.loulourose.net/#/eastward/

we are trying to incorporate a form of basic yoga into our nightly routine as it is becoming more and more of a 'dance' each night! in and out of each of theirs rooms fulfilling umpteen potty, water, itchy bottom requests. until we are almost falling asleep in bed together, crunched up against a wall with no covers and no pillow except a token stuffed animal 'to snuggle'.

so as it goes, we are still working on shortening the nightly rituals from 1.5hrs to 45mins {or thereabouts} i am sure the long summer nights are partly to blame.. or it could be me.
hard to say.

disconnecting to reconnect

it seems a cliche but it is so true... sometimes you really have to disconnect from life a bit in order to reconnect.

every year we try to get away for a few days off the beaten track with little or no electricity and no access to mobile phones or laptops.  it used to be wild camping, just me, my husband and our dog.  then kids started arriving and now it is more glamping than roughing it! but the effect is still the same...

so this year is our ten year wedding anniversary and we decided to do something really special. just the two of us. so the kids and the dog got a lovely spoilt rotten trip to granny and grampas and we headed north...
 

sam found this lovely remote self catering converted wagon on the banks of loch voil in the trossachs - pilot panther

we had all weathers but with our cosy blankets and the log burning stove we barely noticed... even when it started to snow on the last day.

pilot panthers location also has the benefit of being a five minute walk from the amazing monachyle mhor with it's fine dining and luxury accommodation.  so we retreated there one night for our evening meal and again for breakfast on our last morning. delicious.

and okay, a sneaky use of the hotel wifi...

log fires and beds in cupboards

 for the last few months it has been, pretty much, work, work, work. seven days a week. working late into the night. we needed a break. the kids needed a break.  it was a last minute decision: nothing booked into the diary, fair weather forecast and the surf was up! so i did it. i booked two nights in a luxury tent on the dunes of the east coast of scotland.  no electric, no tv and most importantly... no laptop!

i like to think that when i am at home with the kids i am completely present with them.  i play with them, i make food for them and i look out for them. but i am not. not completely anyway... i am often sneaking looks on my phone or trying to tidy the kitchen, hang the washing up or run a cloth around the bath.  i am always thinking about things i could be doing... or should be doing.

this weekend was going to be tough. i am a self confessed, phone addict. i am. and i hate it.

so i paid for the holiday and started to pack as we were heading off the next morning. bright and early.

i was looking forward to the challenge, to be honest, to see if i could be the parent, i so want to be. and do you know what, i did it... and i enjoyed it. okay, so i checked my phone once. okay, twice. but for 98 percent of the time, i was there with them.  i was there digging in the sand with them. i was there when we were pretending to be bears in the woods by the tent. i was there as we splashed in the rock pools.  i was even there when i was feeding my little man down for the night. & this is a big one as i tend to use this quiet, sleepy time to catch up with my texts and emails from the day. i dont feel great admitting that. but it is true, i am on my phone while i feed my baby to sleep.

but not in the tent. here i watched him feeding, i watched him get drowsy and i watched his little eyes fluttering closed. i saw him fall into a deep sleep and i lay there with him and i held him close. and i loved it. i love him.

then i climbed in to the big double bed, quirkily set into a cupboard,
with my little girl and just lay there with her as she fell asleep. another thing i have not done in a long, long time. i usually rush out to get my 'me' time. to get the telly on. to get the biccies out and the kettle on.

and then with the candles lit and the log stove burning (yes, this was a pretty delux tent!) my husband and i went outside and sat and watched the sun set over the dunes and the tide changing under the stars.

caravans and seagulls

well, we are just back from a family holiday to a very well known family holiday caravan park... sounds a bit like heaven!! ahhhh, eight adults, six kids and two caravans... who could ask for more!?!?

it was actually a very lovely holiday, if not a bit cramped in places! plenty to keep our little bear entertained - from doting cousins to a massive soft play and swimming pool... and it was sunny!  unfortunately, it meant a very tired girl and often a bit of a grumpy one too (and that was just me!) but i would do it again... i think. well, i would do it again but not while pregnant - that i definitely do not recommend!

we mostly ate in the vans, which was a bit of a logistical nightmare but not half as bad as trying to get 16 meals ordered by 5pm on the dot with out one of our little people wandering off somewhere... or one of the older ones sneaking off to the slots with a pocket full of 2penny pieces.

the pool was the best bit, and the soft play - both of which were free! the joys of having an under 5! we did spend a a few pounds on some rides and a swan pedalo (which is essential for any caravaning holiday, i think)

after an entire week of extreme playing and constant attention from numerous adults and older children, poppy is taking sometime winding down now we are home - i am a slave to her pretend play and book demands. for now at least, until she bores of me and wanders off into her own play world again...

weddings and two year olds

we took a wee mini break to the west coast for a friends wedding a few weeks ago... as guests! i clarify this as being photographers we don't often get to be guests at weddings.

anyway, it was poppy's second wedding (she attended her auntie weezees wedding when she was 6 weeks old) and - as opposed to last time - she definitely seemed to enjoy herself... but boy was it hard work! ...missed the vows, the speeches and most of our meal - in fact i am pretty sure we held up the main course being served as they waited for us to return to the table to actually eat our starters.

as a 'fun' gift we gave the couple a photo booth set up with a box of props for their guests to go wild and let their hair down... always, always results in some pretty hilarious shots! and we even got a fun family shot of our own. did i mention it was fun?

poppy actually stayed up until the first dance - although we did get a lot of 'oh, she's done so well!'s and 'awww, she looks sooooo tired's!

well, needless to say we survived it ...and those wellies she insisted on wearing turned out to be the perfect choice as it rained the entire time.

travel tears

it has been over two years and we have tried all the tricks in the book to help poppy travel 'better'.  she was a car snoozer when she was really small so we thought - as we tend to travel about a lot - we were set! but it was not to be... as soon as she stopped the long newborn naps and entered into baby-dom, we hit problems.

big problems.

travelling quickly became a real bug bear of hers. she would moan and cry and whinge for the majority of any journey with the odd exception when she would snack or nap. our first family holiday to tiree will always be remembered by one baby einstein cd on repeat and a whole lot of screaming.

now two years on, we have finally and reluctantly, admitted defeat... we bought... wait for it... an in car dvd player. gasp.  now i would always have been a big childless judger in the past. lazy parenting - yup. spoilt child - yup. but it's really not the case, let me tell you. or not so in this case at least - this case is for the sake of pure safety. driving along a quiet road with a screaming, moaning, whining child is hard enough... add in a whining dog and some manoeuvres and you are asking for an accident! so we did it, and although it has not been needed quite as much as we had originally thought - it has changed car travel for us completely!

so that is why we loved 'going places'!! ahhhh, now i remember.

sun, sand and surf!

well, it was awfully quiet over here for a while there... that's because we just went on a wee last minute holiday to the sun! a week of winter sun, deserted beaches, five course meals, huge luxurious apartment and one happy toddler... don't hate me! it was perfect but it is all down to poppy! any time we have ever tried to go somewhere poppy has determined whether or not it was enjoyable! seriously, i never wanted to be a family that was ruled by the baby ...we are. poppy is not a big traveller, more than twenty minutes in the car and she becomes some sort of baby banshee. she moans. she whines. she shouts. when we arrive she tends not to settle very easily and everyone looses precious sleep! i am not exaggerating here, i promise! she is great in so many other ways (all other ways actually, but I'm biased!!) but she is no traveller!
this week proved us so wrong... she sat for four hours on the plane and read books, stuck stickers and sang songs, she played happily all day with one little pull along dog toy on the balcony, beach and pool side, she ate all her dinner, she slept all night. bliss.

and who do we owe this perfect holiday to??? these lovely people!

red cheeks and gondolas

we have just been on a lovely little jaunt up to the mountains! it was very cold but also very beautiful... i found a pretty little play park for poppy and me... and the dog of course! but our cheeks went white

 it was pretty chilly up there! the gondola ride was the best bit and we even managed to get a bit of skiing in one morning thanks to a willing babysitting/dog walking auntie and uncle!

i love that feeling you get on the way back down when you have been completely blown about by a strong wind... i think it might be 'refreshed' but it feels more like 'cleared out'!

back into the thick of it again now... home and back to working through the nap and late into the evening. so many little things that i keep forgetting to do. why is that? i cant possibly still have baby brain, surely? maybe it has developed into toddler brain.