helping your children organize themselves, PRINTABLE INCLUDED!!

 Organized, no clutter, doing it themselves not always something you would associate with a child, if your child is anything like miss L i spend hours a week folding her clothing and putting it into her room only to find it coming back in the next wash day still folded "dirty".

after talking to miss L we have come to a solution she simply didn't know where to put them even after many many MANY times of showing her and helping her put her clothing away correctly so we needed to find a way to help her remember. one night at my wits end i decided i would make up little picture labels that she could color in and stick to her draws so she knew exactly where to put her folded clothing.

A4 size printable.

By getting Miss L to color in each bit of clothing and cutting ( i would suggest laminating or putting contact over if you have smaller children that will enjoy pulling these off the draws) then blue tacking them to the draws they should be placed into, life has been running a lot smoother with a lot less washing heading my way and Miss L loving that she is able to help out more by sorting and putting her own washing away.

before- random clothing in draw

after- correct clothing placed nicely

if you do something similar with your child/children id love to see by sharing it with us on Facebook or Instagram.

Loving naturally Facebook

Loving naturally Instagram 

MARCH sensory play

For March in the A year of baby play we are exploring sensory play, living by the beach our girls love to explore our beautiful environment around us, BUT in bad weather we arnt always able to get down by the beach so we have brought the beach to us. find out how by following link bellow to our post on Squiggles and Bubbles about creating your own rock pool.

Link to be attacked once blog is posted.

build your own rock pool

A year of baby play ideas.

Through the year of 2017, each month myself and a group of other blogger mummies will be coming together to take you into our families and show you a little into our world covering a different topic each month to give you an ever expanding knowledge of ways to engage your little squish helping them develop and explore safely.

 To read other posts from mummies joining in, follow the link bellow to start following our journey and go in the draw to win one of our giveaways drawn every month. T&C's listed on the post.

A year of baby play

Breast is best, but it isnt always easy.

I 100% agree that breast is always best and that every child has a right to breast milk. BUT that is no way saying that it is always easy! breastfeeding can be hard, it can become one of the hardest things you'll ever do as a parent, but you're not alone and don't ever be afraid to find help!

With Miss L I really, really struggled in the start with long feedings, cracked nipples. When I expressed I was pumping blood, supply issues and overwhelming pressure from people around me to put her onto formula, at 19 I can say I really didn't know what I was doing and with very limited help in regards to breastfeeding, I wanted to make sure I was doing what's best for my baby and following what other mums had suggested seemed like the smartest way to do this as they had done it all before right?

Miss L only days old.

OH, boy was I wrong! We had constant supply issues because I was always told to take her off after however long only feed her every this many hours etc, etc. Miss L was fix fed from 6months and by 9 months was on formula. She slept in her own room down the other end of the house and was fed mush up until about one, looking back now I cringe so bad thinking about how I did it then to how I do things now and also feel a little sad knowing I could have been doing better.

With little A everything is so different, little A was born with a very strong tongue tie making feeding EXTREAMLY painful and difficult for her, causing lots of wind and discomfort. so many people will go on about how it's so natural and easy your body is made for it, yes yes it is but you're still going to have hurdles. the first 8-12 weeks of little A's life I think I spent about 80% of 2-4am in a shower rocking a crying baby because she had so much wind in her tummy she couldn't sleep.

Little A days old

I had pain with every feed even with a nipple shield, applying breast milk after every feed to hydro pads I tried everything. She would be so unsettle and constantly being sick from reflux, we persisted I wasn't giving up knowing the benefits for little A the longer I continued.

At 5 months feeding was lot easier but still had its challenges, sleeping was never alone(i do love them sleepy cuddles though).Struggling with biting and pinching, but we continued.We have just reached our 11th month of feeding and it's like a dream. it's so quick and easy we have both done this rodeo many times and have it down to an art (little A loves to throw a few trick moves in there every now and then to keep it interesting).

I think all mothers that strive to feed their children be it from sourcing donor milk, feeding for a couple days to many years none of it is ever a walk in the park and no matter how many steps you take, you have still done an amazing job.

For anyone struggling to stick it out I implore you, soon today will be a memory the pain will pass the uneasiness will pass and what is left is pure magic. The connection you share can not be matched by any other. Feeding our children is beauty at its finest and don't ever let anyone tell you different.

Holiday fun

So the kids have been home for a little bit now slowly getting bored and over some of the things you had planned? I know in our house miss L is bouncing off the walls wanting something extra to put her energy into.

Last week miss L was really enjoying watching the star wars movies when we decided hey why don't we make dress ups. I got think about it and EVERYONE is always a Jedi so why not change it up and make a droid? hmmm might be a little hard so we found a way to simplify the idea into T-shirts that miss L could paint herself

Miss L waiting to get painting.

Finding a white T-shirt and googling images of R2D2 (miss L liked this one as his blue). I got underway drawing his distinctive patterns onto her Shirt, when doing this it would be great to create a stencil of some sort but hey if you wanna free hand it that's what we did and I LOVE how it came out.

Going nice and slow to make sure she stayed within the lines

Using a glue mix with blue glitter ( we also added cardboard inside the shirt to stop any transfer onto the back of the shirt) miss L got underway filling in. This was great for her concentration and she also had to work out what sections needed to be colored.( the laptop in front of her had a picture of R2D2 for reference). After about 45-60 minutes she was done, she had done an amazing job and was eager to make more so naturally we had to make a matching one for Little A.

Out to dry. we have added pegs so that if there is a gust of the wind it doesn't damage the image

 Taking a total of 2hours and a whole of $18 for both tops ( with leftover paint for another project) one extremely happy miss L, I think these turned out amazing so easy for anyone wanting to give the kids a little something fun to do and bring out their creative side over this school break.

Intro

Welcome, I am pleased that you have made your way to my humble little blog.

In my post i hope to show some insight into how my little family works and things we do to try and make out lives a little less crazy so we can focus on more important things in life.

First I will give a small back story on how we have gotten to where we are today.

In the late night of August 7th 2011 I went into labor, being only 19 at the time I was very worried about the mother I would become and the life myself and my daughter would live. Her birth was very easy by 7:30 am August 8th she was in my arms. We struggled a lot with breastfeeding using nipple shields to eventually get us to 9-12 months between this time she was mixed fed.
when L was around 2 we upped and moved to a small island.

while being on the island the natural way of doing things really strung home for me and my little family moving to a cleaner way of eating and living.During this time Mr M and I decided we wanted to add to our family, After a long 12 months of trying one foot from IVF we finally conceived little A.

Little A's birth was beautiful having miss L and Mr M both there as support people. miss L loved that she was there to help bring her little sister into the world. during the end of labor I was in the shower with miss L in the bath talking and playing helping to take my mind off the pressure while Mr M watch eagerly waiting for his daughter to make her entrance.

once I began to push miss L was taken from the room to go buy a present for her new baby sister with nanny and poppy. Later coming back after we got settled, cooing over the"beautiful little baby" climbing into the bed beside me right away and gently stroking her baby sisters head.

Throughout my pregnancy I did a lot of reading and googling to see what path we would like to take with Little A, we decided on MCN (modern cloth nappies) breastfeeding until self-weaning and a gentle approach to parenting.

miss L is now 5 starting prep in the new year Little A is now 10 and a bit moths old ( still in cloth and still boobing away), Mr M and I and couldn't be happier.