Cranberry and white chocolate muffins (recipe)

Seb had a day out this week with his grandparents and i had pencilled in to do some baking while he was out as much as i love baking with him, it isn't the most relaxing experience! 

I fancied some muffins as i've not made them in forever.

 To make 12 muffins

1 egg

120ml milk

4 tablespoons veg oil

200g plain flour

100g caster sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon of salt

handful of dried cranberries

handful of white chocolate chips

Pre heat your oven to 200C

Beat the egg then add the milk and oil and stir together. Add the sugar, baking powder and salt and then add this mixture to the flour and lightly stir until mixed together. The batter should be lumpy.

Then add the cranberries and chocolate chips and stir through.

Fill your cake cases and pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes.

I didn't have any muffin cases in(i've rectified that now!) so my muffins are a little small but still yummy.

Co-sleeping

Co-sleeping has been a hot topic over the last couple of days.after reports from new research saying that bed sharing raises the risk of SIDS. (article here). Throughout yesterday there was uproar on twitter and on some facebook groups with people being both pro and against co-sleeping.

At some point all parents will have to decide if they are happy to cosleep, be it with a fussy newborn, a teething baby, a poorly toddler or simply a lifestyle choice.

I have always been pro co-sleeping; my mum did it and we did it sometimes with Seb though really he has always been such a good sleeper it was never a regular thing, more when he has been ill, in fact just last week i slept in his bed with him as he was ill and wanted cuddles, though as he is a big strong 2 and half year old i don't worry about sharing with him these days.

Alex is not the best sleeper, he ends up in our bed around 2 or 3 nights a week. Sometimes all night and other times he wakes up in the night and we put him in with us, we know he will settle in our bed and we will all get the sleep that we need and it also means he won't disturb Seb. Though i don't breastfeed Alex, he still likes to be close to us and i always think it must feel like the safest place in the world to a baby and i love having those extra cuddles and waking up to a little smiley face(or a foot in my face).
I have researched into the safest ways to share a bed with a baby in order to minimise any risks and follow them, there is some good information here.



I understand why professionals do not advise co-sleeping and nor would i slate them for doing so but i do think it is unrealistic not to expect parents not to do it. Surely would be far more helpful to advise parents that there are risks involved but if you do wish to bed share then there are ways of making it as safe as possible?

Weaning update

Alex is really getting into the swing of weaning now. Apart from a short blip last week while teething he is doing really well. 

He is in the highchair now and it is so cute seeing him and Seb sat together and they often hold hands, although i do have to make sure Seb doesn't try and give him food. 

As i previously said i am giving him a mix of purees and finger foods and he enjoys both.He still mainly has fruit or veg but now also has snacky bits like rice cakes or carrot puffs, some breads and he has had some fish pie and also some chunks of turkey and pepper when we had a stir fry.

Today he had natural yoghurt with strawberry for breakfast, for lunch he had fingers foods including cucumber and kiwi and for dinner tonight he had brocolli and cauliflower cheese.

He loves mango and melon, particularly watermelon as you can see here in the photos.

 I've lots of purees made up in the freezer already so next week i'm going to make some healthy finger food bits that both the boys can have. I made loads when Seb was small but have been slacking recently! 

What foods did your little one love when weaning?

Messy Monday #8

It's Messy Monday time again, where i invite you all to link up your messy and sensory play posts.

 

This last week we have all been ill and Alex has been teething as well so it's been a bit of a drag to be honest and we haven't been up for doing too much playing. However on Friday i made up a sensory tub for Seb and he played with it for about 2 hours solidly! This was actually amazing as i was struggling to keep my eyes open let alone entertain him.

I half cooked some spaghetti until it started to soften and drained and left it to cool. Meanwhile i filled a tub with some coloured water, lots of foam letters that we found in the playroom(i thought they'd been binned) and then added the spaghetti and a net. Sort of like an alphabet soup. 

 At first Seb ignored the spaghetti and got out all the letters, lined them out and telling what each one was.

 Then he discovered the pasta, he scooped it up in his hands, filling the net up with it all before letting it all drop back into the tub of water.

 

 The finally of course it all had to come out of the tub. I'm glad i put a towel down on the floor!

 Such a simple and super easy to prep playtime!

  So now it's your turn to add your links below

All i ask is that you link back to my blog or display the Messy Monday badge(in my sidebar) on your post, and please try to visit the others who join in. 

If you tweet me your link @sebsmummy i will retweet too :)

Ahoy there me hearties

When we moved into our house i couldn't wait to get the rooms sorted. We rent so decorating is out but luckily the house was newly decorated and cream walls and black carpet are pretty easy to work with! 

 I wanted a room that will easily adapt as he gets older, and figured pirates fitted the bill. There is quite alot of pirate-y decor out there at the moment but i didn't want to open a page in a catalogue and order everything matching and i am not a fan of charectery things so that ruled out quite alot of things too. 

We started off with the vinyl poster above,  we got this for Sebs first birthday party and i stored it away knowing we would use it again one day.

The bed is a basic single from Ikea, i think this is pretty much perfect for a first bed as it is low down to the floor, you can paint the bed frame and i really want too as i hate that the wood doesn't match but Phil isn't keen on the idea. The small chest of drawers were my parents, they match the wardrobe in the room and Seb loves storing random bits in them. The pirate bunting is from ebay, it covers two walls both at the head and alongside the bed.

We currently have 2 sets of bedding for the room, my favourite is the moustache print bedding and the other is black and white stripes. Both look suitably piratey with te addition of the Jolly Roger flag.

 

The blue cushion was homemade made using fabric from Laura Ashley, the Hello cushion is from Primark and the pirate was 99p from ebay!

Seb has a huge wardrobe, this was actually mine in our old flat but we got a new one so the boys inherited ours. I decided to get a pinboard for each boys room to fill with photos, artwork and souviners, it's a bit bare at the moment but it won't take long to Phil and Seb already loves looking at it.

I love these Instagram prints that i ordered, they look fab!

In the other corner of the room we have a toy area. The toybox has his train track, books and a few other bits, he has a megablocks wagon and then his soft toys are on the chair along with another cushion made from Laura Ashley fabric. The chair was a bit of a quirky find, i was orignally going to get beanbags but went to Ikea and saw this reduced to £10 and couldn't resist it. I painted a wooden skull and crossbones and stuck them onto the toybox to make it fit with the theme a bit more, i also have some wooden letters that spell out Shiver Me Timbers to paint and stick on the front.

Above the chair hangs a Japenese paper balloon jellyfish, i love this and it twirls in the breeze. 

The 2 black frames are also Ikea, the pictures inside are wallpaper. I ordered a roll from Laura Ashley(it has the same print as the cushion fabric) and cut it to size to fit the frames. I'm really pleased with how it has turned out, and we have lots of paper left over for colouring in!

And that is pretty much it! I still want to get a rug for the floor, perhaps a red circle one? As there is alot of floor space and i think it'll fill that a little.

How is your little ones room decorated?