My best mummy tips and tricks

When you're a mum on maternity leave you sometimes feel alone or like you're not doing a good enough job as a mum. You see other mums and think "oh gosh she seems to have it together, clean hair and fashionable clothes and only gives her baby home-made-organic-only fruit and veg purees... And here I am, with greasy hair, bags under my eyes, an ugly but comfy tracksuit on and giving my baby a store bought fruit puree... I suck!"

I am now on my second maternity leave and can comfortably say I feel much more confident this time around. Usually it always seems like other mums have got everything under control and things are always flowing smoothly... They are not! Mums don't always tell other mums what they are struggling with and things just tend to seem rosier than they really are.

But having said all of that, I found a few things that do go a long way in how to feel a bit better about yourself as a mum.

- concealer goes a long way. It can give you the appearance of having slept a few more hours. Not saying looking good will give you more en but it will help you not feel like crap when you don't recognise your face in the mirror.

- buy a nice comfortable mummy outfit for yourself. There are plenty of them out there and they don't all cost a fortune: Primark, H&M, next, M&S etc. Remember, it's supposed to make YOU feel good about yourself, not to please anybody else.

- take what is said on mummy forums or in mummy groups with a pinch of salt. Things aren't always as good as they seem so don't let them make you feel worse about what you're doing. I'm not saying you should stay away from mummy groups, on the contrary, you can find lots of support and helpful advice from other mums, but let them give you strength and not the opposite.

- ask for help when you need it. You don't have to be wonder woman. Being at home with a baby is not a holiday. It's hard work! Some people think that because you're at home you will be able to do lots of housework and they are so wrong! If you need help - ask. Family or friends. They are usually understanding if you explain to them. Maybe someone can help you with dinner once in a while, someone else can pick up some shopping for you or even look after your baby for you while you catch up on some well needed sleep.

- nurture the relationship with your significant other. Try to make sure you get time for yourselves. Happy mum and dads are happier parents. It's the foundation of your family so make sure you give your partner some of your love as well.

- technology can help. If you, like me, have more than one child and struggle to remember all commitments, appointments, birthday parties etc. then there are apps you can download to your mobile for free that will help you keep track of those events and send you reminders to stay on top of things. Also, there are some fun apps that you can use to keep track of your baby's development and photo apps that will make cute baby pics as they grow - it's amazing how quickly one forgets how small they once were...

I hope you find this helpful. These things are what work for me but perhaps another set of things work for You. In any case -  you're doing a great job with your child.

A mother of two

I haven't written many blog posts since I became pregnant with my second child. I think it was mainly due to the fact that I was a bit paranoid about anything happening to the baby prior to being born. The reason for my paranoia is due to a miscarriage we had a few months before. It was a painful experience that made me afraid of being happy too soon. I was cautious the whole pregnancy and also more tired and nauseous in the beginning. Everything wet really well in the end and I had our second son R on November 12th 2015. I can't believe it has been ten weeks already! He is such a sweetheart. So different from K but in a way so alike. 

K is very happy and proud to be an older brother but still doesn't know how to play with him just yet. He always does his best to help out, though. My heart melts when K cuddles little R... Even though life with two kids is a lot more tiring and stressful, they do fill every day with joy and love. 

Another bun in the oven

I haven't written in a long time as I only really had one thing to write about and that thing... I wanted to wait a bit with.the news is that K is becoming an older brother and D and myself parents for the second time. We are very happy and so far, things are going OK. The pregnancy has been very different compared to the one with K with morning sickness and being generally uncomfortable. Now, the worst has passed as I'm in the second trimester.

K doesn't quite understand yet that he will become an older brother. We have tried to explain to him that mummy has a baby in the belly but then he lifts his own t-shirt up and says he also has one in his belly :-) He still think it's a game we're playing. I guess he'll see on the big day!

Another year has passed

So... we have arrived at New year's Eve again. 2014 has come to an end. I don't know if I'm happy or sad or indifferent. Maybe all at the same time. This has been an important year for me and D as we finally took the step and got married. The only witnesses were our closest family members so it was a small and intimate wedding - just as we wanted it to be.

Professionally it was a tough year for me as the year didn't start off in the best way, with my team members not being quite supportive of me being their new Team Leader. I found my way and have finished the year with a happy and productive team with a good reputation, but it was tough and there were times when my family life had to suffer. For 2015 I hope I can get a batter balance between work and life outside of work and still succeed.

My little K has grown up to become an active little toddler that understands three languages: Swedish, Spanish and English. He doesn't speak well yet but knows many important words.

I'm sure 2015 will be a good year - as long as we make it good.

Things I hope I never forget - but might

There are so many things about little K that I adore. So many funny little things he does that just cracks me up. I take for granted that I will remember them because they are a natural part of our lives, but i know myself - I will probably forget the odd thing here and there. I don't want to forget anything! These are ten things he is doing right now at 21 months:

1. He says "putt" when he farts and then laughs with me - It is for Prutt in Swedish. I don't care if people think it's rude or bad manners - it's funny!
2. He says "Mmm!" when he eats something he likes - just like mum and dad
3. If he spills, he wants to clean up his own mess with a paper towel - such a good boy!
4. He calls all cars and trucks "Nee noo" because we taught him that the fire truck says "nee noo, nee noo" - He took that as all cars are Nee noo's
5. He loves dancing to music - especially music with a powerful base. Eros Ramazotti is also a favourite
6. He always wants to share food. If he can feed you directly - even better!
7. Spices are fun! He will ask me to take down spices from the shelf and then he smells them and lets me and D smell them as well. Everyone has to smell them!
8. His favourite food is Spaghetti Bolognese made by daddy. He also likes our vegetable Paella made in our Thermomix
9. He strokes my cheek when I say "snäll" which means kind in Swedish
10. He knows how to imitate someone who is hysterical. I just say "hysterisk" and he starts waving and shouting hysterically - it's so funny!

The below pictures are from our holidays in Salento, South of Italy a couple of weeks ago.

My August

August went by in two seconds. Lovely month with two trips to Sweden. One longer in the beginning and a shorter weekend one in the end. The first trip was really special because David's family came - his parents, sister, sister's partner and son. We also had amazing weather the whole week. Over 30 degrees every day which is unheard of for that long in summer time. But the best thing of all is that we were all gathered in Stockholm - my family and D's family - for our wedding. Me and D got married in the City Hall in Stockholm on August 2nd. That date is a decade after we first met in Dublin.

After the wedding we all went to Häringe slott which is an old manor house turned hotel. We had the wedding reception there with our families - we were ten people in total. We then stayed at the hotel for 2 nights enjoying the pool, sea, floating sauna, canoes and tennis courts around there. We had an amazing time together.

July is here

We are now in the first week of July! I can't believe how quickly summer came.

We have already had a week of holidays in June, when we went to Mallorca and myself and D went on a 3 day romantic getaway to the lovely island of Formentera. I was really  nervous about leaving our little K behind - not for his sake but for mine. I had never spent a single night away from him. I almost cried when I kissed him goodbye, but after a few hours I was fine. Me and D had a lovely time in Formentera with the pristine beaches and the amazing food. We ate fish every day! Meanwhile, K was having a ball with his aunties going to the beach and the swimming pool. He loved it. He even learned to dive with his head under the water and just kept saying "mas! mas!"(="more! more!") in Spanish. A little dolphin is what he turned into :-)

Now we are in the month  of July and hoping for better weather so we can go to the parks and play with K. Fingers x-ed we get some proper good weather soon!

Selfie

We had a long weekend as the first Monday in May is a bank holiday. So needed. It's been a good few busy weeks at work and at home so we just needed some good family time. We took K took the swimming pool since it's been a while since we last took him. He didn't remember what to do and didn't like it at all at first. After about 10 minutes he started relaxing a bit more and enjoyed splashing around for a bit chasing daddy with me holding him and helping him chase. I'm happy he finally enjoyed it as we'll soon be going to Majorca and there we'll hopefully be able to swim some more with him in the sea.

Another thing we did, that we haven't done in a while is go out for dinner just me and D. We have just had date nights in Spain when the grandparents can babysit. Now we found a babysitter in London who lives close to where we live. Brilliant! So me and D went out on a date. We went to a restaurant that I chose - Arbutus in SoHo with a Michelin star. Food was amazing and we had  great time. K had gone to sleep well with the babysitter. He understood that it wasn't like every other night as someone new was there, but he seemed to have accepted it. Hopefully we can do this more often now, that we can leave K with the babysitter. A big step for all of us!

K is walking

The feeling when you see your child take his first steps... Incredible. You feel happy, proud...amazed. He's now walking everywhere exploring, poking, examining all kinds of things. The ground, holes in the wall, dog hairs, flowers... No discrimination in what gets examined - disgusting or not. This is the time when we as parents get to do a lot of running and yelling - "no, don't put that in your mouth!", "don't touch that!", "stop licking the seats in the tube!" and "don't stick your hands in the toilet!" - in order to try and stop certain undesirable events from occurring. It's fun but quite tiring! Gotta go and put my runners on - to keep up with the little one. Heels? Forget it!

Happy first birthday K!

2 days ago my little boy turned one year old. I can't believe a whole has gone by since he was born. The feeling when I held him in my arms for the first time. Incredible, wonderful, beautiful... All the great adjectives you can think of - that. I still feel like the luckiest woman alive, having such a great family ❤❤❤.

K didn't notice his birthday was different from other days, I think. I banged a cake for him and brought it to his nursery. Hopefully he liked it. We also received so many greetings from our friends and extended family. It made me really happy. Just warms my heart to know that there is so much love out there for my son who is just a year old. Amazing.

The Beatles are right:

All you need is love