We didn’t remember that it was Shrove Tuesday, so we had Shrove Saturday instead.

Bub had her first pancake. The only baby friendly topping I had available was peanut butter, and she seemed to like it, husband was horrified, he is not a lover of peanut butter.

We told her about the fillings she could have in the future, not just on pancake day but at regular intervals throughout the year. I told her that next time I’d make her some chia seed strawberry or raspberry 'jam'. We said in a few years she can have chocolate spread. She can try my favourite with topping - streaky bacon and maple syrup. Or ice cream. I love vanilla ice cream wrapped in a hot pancake! Or maybe we could have other flavours. Strawberry or chocolate. Salted caramel or pistachio.

Fillings won’t have to be sweet we told her. A cheese and ham filled pancake is delicious!

I was excited by the idea that one day we could have pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Andy suggested a three course pancake meal with savoury options. He has fond memories of pancakes with bacon and fried onion, accompanied by lots and lots of tomato sauce.

I used to love ordering pancakes with vanilla ice cream and hot cherries in The Little Chef. It used to be a highlight of any long car journey.

I never knew I could get so excited about pancakes!

xx

On Random Act of Kindness Day (I didn’t know this was a thing) Confuzzled Bev (thanks again Bev!) nominated me to receive a prize from Nordic Stork in an Instagram competition!

I could chose anything I wanted from the website. I had a lovely time perusing the site. In the end I settled on some gorgeous wooden building blocks, and came away with a list of things I’d like to go back and purchase. I’m becoming mildly obsessed with wooden toys. These building blocks are just gorgeous.

We’re surrounded by hand me down plastic toys at the moment. I love that we’re reusing these toys, previously played with by nieces, nephews and friends children. But I’m looking forward to gathering a small selection of wooden toys too.

xx

The first Photo An Hour of 2022 was January 22nd

8am I've been up since 6am but forgot it was Photo an Hour day.

I’ve had a bath (bliss), had breakfast, got dressed and I’m on my second cuppa and second feed. Husband is off to work soon and I’m forming a plan for the day, which mainly consists of lots of small naps.

9am When Bub is asleep on the bed and I can’t leave the room, what else can I do but dick around trying to take a half decent selfie? I could’ve tidied up a bit instead but… meh.

So this is me seven months in to motherhood. I rarely wear my glasses anymore as they were mostly for computer work. The eye bags are real (and are far worse IRL). The spot on my cheek is due to going to bed with my make up on (too tired to bother removing it), the scratches on my forehead are from Bub (thanks a bunch, although possibly my own fault for not trimming her nails often enough), hair is passable thanks to dry shampoo, fringe could do with a trim, and my mascara is yesterday’s.

10am Popped to my local charity shop to drop off some donations and picked up a few bits.

Pleased to find Little Big Lies as I’m currently reading What Alice Forgot by the same author (Christmas present from the husband) which is rather good. The Seven Rules has been in my wish list for a while after a recommendation from … somebody (my memory fails me), and how can you go wrong with a book by Ruth Jones?

Also, wooden toy. Obvs not for me (well it is a little bit).

11am Popped in to see husband at the office.

12pm Weaning is messy. The End.

1pm Bit of Daddy time before he heads back out to work.

2pm How fast is the day going?!! Another feed, followed by a nap. It won’t last long, this child seems immune to feeling tired (she didn’t inherit that from me!). I’m on my 4th cuppa of the day. Which isn’t many. Must remedy that as soon as I’m released from under the sleeping little.

3pm Any hope I had of drinking this tea whilst it was still hot are rapidly diminishing. The little saw me settle on the sofa and zoned in.

Ah well, it was a nice idea.

4pm How could we not buy this book? Bub loves it!

5pm Books are for chewing, apparently. I should be preparing food but … tired. Hoping husband will be home soon.

Thanks to Louisa for hosting.

My new blog series didn’t get off to the best start. The details are boring so I'll just say I have no charity shop purchases to share (yet) but I do have witterings, and Photo An Hour blog posts piling up so I'll just get on with it

The witterings…

I joined a dating app for women. Haha! Let me rephrase that. I joined an app that’s like a dating app, for women to meet other women who are at a similar stage in life (fertility / motherhood / menopause - delete as applicable). And I joined in the hope of meeting some local Mums with babies a similar age to Bub.

It has a swipe function just like Tinder. Swipe up if she sounds friendly, swipe down if she doesn’t. It’s hideous when you think about it really. But, my friends kids are all older, all at school, heck some of them are soon to leave school, so no chance of any play dates for Bub there!

Wanting her to mix with other babies is one of the reasons I joined the baby sensory group, which is great fun, but so far no friendships have bloomed. It’s flippin’ hard to make friends as an adult so I thought I’d give the app a go. What have I got to lose, right?

I ‘connected’ with a woman from a nearby village and we’re meeting up soon. First up for a walk at a local beauty spot and then maybe taking the littles swimming. I still haven’t figured out all the logistics for swimming with Bub… I mean, how do you manage a slippery baby in a public space and get yourself dry and back into clothes at the same time??

Anyway, I’m looking forward to meeting this potential new Mum friend. Her little girl is about the same age as Bub and I think it’ll be really beneficial for her to spend time with another child. At some point I’d like her to go to a playgroup a few times a week but that seems like a long way off so this is a good start for the time being.

On another subject entirely, why can’t I buy anything other than high waisted jeans?! Even the ‘mid rise’ I ordered recently covered my belly button. It’s not a style I’ve ever liked and I’m not about to change my mind. I’m not after a pair of hipsters here, I’m not Christina Aguilera circa 2002, I just want a waistband that doesn’t nearly meet my boobs.

I’m in dire need of some new jeans, my favourite pair have lost their elasticity, and others no longer fit well. Finding a decent, well fitting, flattering pair of jeans is tiresome enough without this stupid high waisted trend making it harder. I’ll keep looking… and I’ll keep you updated on my Mum date.

xx