Author: katchambers

I am a wife and mummy to two gorgeous children, I live in Milton Keynes and I work full time as a Gender Equality expert, and I am a blogger.
Parenting

What’s your weekend bucket list?

katchambers9 Comments

This week, during my lunch breaks, I have been reading a couple of kindle books, from the series: What the most successful people do…

The one I am currently reading is What the Most Successful People do at the Weekend. I found this amazing book through the recommendations of a friend.

working mums successful

This book has some fabulous ideas about what we should be doing at the weekend, and making us look at the weekend in a new light.

For one thing, did you know that we have more awake hours in our weekend then we do hours in the office? (assuming you work a 37 hour week like I do). Therefore, if you are a full-time working mum/parent like I am, there is plenty of time to make our weekends meaningful, AND more importantly even though we are full-time, working life doesn’t actually dominate, we spend more time out of work than in work. It’s good to remember that!

Did you know that we only have about 1,000 weekends with our children at home? (Assuming they stay at home for 18 years). Therefore, do we really want to waste the precious few weekends we have with our children, because currently many of us probably do waste our weekends. By waste I mean spending time not doing something that you are passionate about, or something that makes you very happy.

The book advocates a few things:

  1. Minimise the time spent on chores (at the weekend), chores could take-up the whole weekend if you let them, instead try to do them in discrete blocks of time (perhaps during the week).
  2. Try to minimise time sitting around idly watching TV (unless that is your passion).
  3. Try not to plan your weekend during the weekend, otherwise you would waste a few precious hours doing nothing, instead plan in advance, the author suggests that by planning fun activities in advance we get the added benefit of looking forward to something.
  4. Plan your weekend into 3-6 chunks of activities, importantly: choose something fun for Sunday evening to avoid Sunday evening blues.
  5. Finally, draw up a 100 dreams list, of things to do at the weekend (your bucket list)

The last one I thought was a particularly great idea. The author suggests that each family member write down up to 100 things that they would LOVE to do at the weekend. BUT, it must be something in your price bracket and within a distance from your home you would be happy to travel at the weekend. My husband and I have already started working on our bucket list, and I cannot wait for us to start living our dreams every weekend.

Some highlights from my list, which I haven’t finished yet are:

  1. Rent a narrowboat for the afternoon/day along the Grand Union Canal
  2. Go with a group of friends with all their children to a theme park
  3. Take a picnic and attend the open air cinema
  4. Go with a group of friends/family to a local karaoke, and sing (I love singing!)
  5. In the winter have afternoon tea by the open fire in Whittlebury Hall

I only have about 20 things on my list at present, so I would love a helping hand…what is on your weekend bucket list?

I’m sharing this post as part of the welcome to the weekend blog hop. Please leave a comment for me, then click the link and join in.

You might also like to read:

How often do we do things on the spur of the moment?

12 Classics in 12 Weeks

summer · Uncategorized

How often do we do things on the spur of the moment?

katchambers8 Comments

In thinking about spontaneity I am reminded of a quote from “Will and Grace” (one of my favourite TV shows):

“You’re always saying we should be more spontaneous…” Grace

“I know, I just didn’t expect it to happen so suddenly!” Will

As a full-time working mum with a toddler, I don’t often do spontaneous things, especially those involving said Toddler – I don’t know about you – but it isn’t easy. They often come with a lot of baggage, and there is bed-time, nap-time, food, nappy changes, mood, toys – so many variables that need to be considered!

Bravely my husband suggested that after work we go for an impromptu picnic with Nate and our Border Collie. Great idea – I thought! The weather was lovely, so on my lunch break I ran out to get a few picnic items and then immediately after work, we collected Nate from nursery, rushed home, grabbed our picnic essentials (which included: picnic bag, blanket, food, toys, our dog Cali and some camping chairs). We were able to get out of the house within 10 minutes and drove over to a lovely spot in Great Linford, alongside the Grand Union Canal.

We had a lovely time! It was so nice to be out in the early evening, usually at this time we dash home, one of us cooks dinner, the other tries to entertain Nate while doing other chores round the house, then we eat, Nate has his milk and then it’s off to bed. However, last night we had a lovely picnic together, no food preparation needed, and then we all walked along the canal and followed that by playing football.

Nate is deep in his transport phase right now too, so he was eager in pointing out all the boats, bikes and airplanes that went by.

Please feel free to share with me your moments of spontaneity with your children, did it work out? It is not an easy thing to do, but when it works you get magic moments like this:

father and son laying down by the canal
Colin and Nate at the canal
Parenting

Toddler Splash! (Wolverton Swimming Pool)

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The last few times that we took Nate swimming, he had a bit of a meltdown and was very clingy, which is surprising because we did Waterbabies lessons with him, so anyway we thought we would try something else to help increase his confidence. We decided to the try our new local swimming pool at Wolverton, because they were running a “Toddler Splash” session, which sounded like fun.

Being a new pool the facilities were lovely, clean and modern. There were plenty of changing rooms, and even several giant family changing rooms with a baby change station. The lockers come in varying sizes including some as big as a wardrobe – no seriously! This is a nice step up from my other local pool (Middleton) where you can’t even fit your purse in their lockers.

The most impressive part of the facilities however is the baby pool. It is completely separate from the big pool, a few degrees warmer and has steps leading down, with rails to hold onto. There is a snake running along the side that sprays out water, some buckets and tumblers that intermittently spray or drop water. At one end of the pool, outside of the water are pirate themed games, all in all a lovely pool for little ones.

wolverton baby pool

The toddler splash session included the addition of inflatables, balls and floats – this is what won it over for Nate – he is ball mad (well what male isn’t!) So for the first time in a while he was actually smiling and laughing in the pool, and slowly edging his way down the steps. The distraction of the toys was a good one, so I can definitely recommend that if your child/pre-schooler/toddler is having confidence issues with swimming/water. I will be looking into the toddler swimming lessons in a few months and will report back on them.

In thinking about helping him I did some research and found the following that may be helpful. Toddler swimming tips:

  • Look for specific toddler and parent sessions at your local pool, as they are more likely to be fun sessions
  • At this age swimming is for fun and confidence building rather than learning
  • Singing songs and nursery rhymes can help, particularly ones that incorporate spinning or jumping
  • Water safety is important, one method you could teach: sit down, put your hands on the side, turn over and wiggle in, hold onto the side
  • Show him that it is fun and relaxing, children learn from modelling their parents, and if you feel relaxed they will pick up on that
  • Let your toddler lead the way, even if it means just following them around the sides of the pool
  • Laugh and smile at them every time they get their face wet as if it is the best thing in the world

If anyone lives in or near the Milton Keynes area, they run these toddler splash sessions on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Saturday mornings, and two mornings in the week. As well as many other sessions, including fun swims for older children and swim classes. Current pricing is £3.60 per adult and under 4s are free.

swimming · Uncategorized

Review: Middleton Swimming Pool

katchambers1 Comment

We have been swimming several times at Middleton pool so I thought I would review it for other MK mums who are trying to decide where to take there baby swimming.

First of all, in terms of parking there is only one parent and baby spot right out front, sometimes you get lucky, otherwise parking is just behind, a 1 minute walk.

Current adult prices are £3.50 per adult and under 1 year olds are free.

The unisex changing rooms are a tight squeeze, a single adult will have trouble in the individual changing rooms, but in the middle are 3 family changing rooms which are perfect for a family of 3 or 4. The women’s changing room is open plan and has 2 baby change stations.

The lockers are tiny so take the bare minimum and leave the change bag in the car, lockers take a £1 coin.

There is a small communal shower right before you enter the pool, it is not very private.

In the complex there are two pools, a baby pool that is shallow and has steps leading down into it and a bigger pool. The baby pool is often colder than the big pool which is odd. Last visit Nates teeth were chattering in the baby pool but he was very happy in the big pool.

The big pool is pretty shallow, about 1.5 metres at each end but gets deeper in the middle.

We like the pool and it seems to be frequented by most mums and babies in the area, it doesn’t get too busy even on weekends and it’s warm enough for babies.

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Days Out · Parenting

360 Play Milton Keynes

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Nate is now officially 7 months old, he can sit up unaided, can feed a bottle to himself and loves finger food.

Today we decided to brave the 360 Indoor Play centre for the first time. I was sure he would be too small for everything but I was surprised to find a couple of rides we could take him on.

The place is pretty big, a giant soft play section in the middle, loads of places to sit and eat, two rides downstairs, and upstairs they had role play sections, Lego and messy play. It looks like they have sand and more outside but it was closed.

They have a separated section for toddlers, which is where we took Nate. There wasn’t much he could do since he isn’t crawling yet but he did enjoy the ball pit; of course all balls went in the mouth! There was also a little roundabout that he enjoyed and that about sums up all he could do in the soft play area. However, to the pure delight of my hubby there was a race kart/dodgems type ride that he could go on; they both enjoyed it! I then took him on the carousel.

Not loads but a nice change and a great way to spend 1.5hours! When he can crawl and walk I’m sure we will be there frequently!

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sleep · summer

How to keep your baby cool in the summer

katchambers1 Comment

Since I was trying to find the answer to this myself, thought I would share what I have learned. It has suddenly gotten quite hot, Nate’s room is around 26 degrees and he has already woken twice tonight. So based on what I have read online and in one of my baby books these are some ideas, but please note that I am not a professional so if you don’t feel comfortable with any of these suggestions please don’t do them.

1. Strip baby down to just a vest or if very hot just a nappy
2. Cool baby down with a washcloth/flannel that is luke-warm-cool, not too cold as will shock baby
3. Strip bedding down to bare minimum and use cotton where possible as its breathable
4. Remove things like bumpers, cot tidies etc and anything stopping good airflow into cot
5. Open a window or put a fan on but make sure baby is out of direct contact with cool air
6. Give baby some cool water to drink or a cool bottle of milk, make sure baby stays hydrated
7. If breastfeeding you may want to put something in between the skin like muslin or a cool cloth as skin to skin contact can be very warming
8. There is a water spray called Magicool that you can spray on the face to help cool down although I don’t know how suitable that is for babies
9. For older babies/toddlers you can freeze fruit and let them suck on them. It can get quite sticky though.

Hope these ideas have helped.
Happy Sleeping!

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Uncategorized

Cinebabies!

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image of cineworld cinema

So, I don’t know about you guys but I love going to the cinema; pre-baby that was one of our favourite activities…dinner and a movie, post baby the movie part is tricky.

However, my lovely local Cineworld has risen to the occasion and two weeks ago introduced “Cinebabies”! Basically, every wednesday morning, they play a movie aimed at adults but ok for children (therefore nothing over a 12a certifcate), they also keep the lights on (low) and turn the volume down, and baby change is just a few feet away.

So this week, one of my NCT friends and I decided to give it a go. We went to see “Avengers Assemble” (incidentally an awesome movie). Although they could have shown the 3D version of “When the paint dries” and I still would have gone to see it, just to feel like a grown-up again and see an actual movie. It was very quiet in there, only one other mum and baby (cineworld, sort the advertising out!) which was fine with me, but I don’t want them to suddenly stop it due to lack of participation.

The movie is quite long so I though the babies did really well, of course they all cried at a few points, being hungry or needing a nappy changed here or there, they also fell asleep for a significant portion. Nate seemed pretty happy though, it wasn’t too loud to upset him or stop him having his afternoon nap, and he seemed to quite enjoy the pretty colours, but for the most part he wasn’t bothered, which was fine by me. So I can confirm, it is a great way to spend a few hours, and also being on a wednesday means Orange Wednesdays, buy one ticket get one free, even bigger bonus!

Next week they are showing Beauty and the Beast, yey! Have loved that movie ever since I was a kid so am excited to see it on the big screen. I hope this time to encourage more of my NCT friends to be brave and give it a go.

If you want to see if your local cineworld does cinebabies, it may not be advertised online (as ours is not). So give them a call, you may get lucky. I also hear that Odeon do a similar thing, so go for it girls, go see a movie with your babies.

sleep

Helloooooo improvement

katchambersLeave a comment

So last night Nate only woke 3 times and slept from 1:30am-5:30am a total of 4 hours in a row! This has not happened in a very long time so it is lovely to finally see an improvement. I hope he continues to improve although I am prepared if he goes back to waking 5 times a night. It’s amazing how good you feel with 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep. What a good end to Good Friday.

Today we went swimming at the local pool with Nate, Col Little A and her parents and grandparents. They also do Waterbabies so we were all doing the moves and techniques we learned in class. It was fun but also sad because Little A’s mum goes back to work this week, which means we won’t be hanging out every week anymore. It was so lovely spending maternity leave with one of my closest friends.

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sleep · Uncategorized

Sleep deprivation

katchambers2 Comments

Nate woke up 5 times last night, which would be fine if he was sick or not 4 months old or if that were a rare occurrence but non of that is true. I went as usual to bumps to babies and baby massage this morning but I was surprisingly mute during discussions. I was so close to tears that I knew if I spoke I would start crying. Isn’t this supposed to be getting easier?! I can’t remember the last time he slept for more than 4 hours in a row at night and what’s funny is the leader in class today was talking about how sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture and that if you don’t regularly get 4 hours sleep it can lead to depression, well that doesn’t bode well for me 😦

I would feel so much better if I knew other babies were doing the same thing but everyone I talk to says that there baby is either sleeping through or doing at least 6 hours in a row.

sleep

3 months!

katchambers7 Comments

Nathaniel is my beautiful boy and I love him so much! He will be 3 months on Monday!! What is he like… Well he:

  • is jumpy and
  • has cold hands and feet like Colin
  • he has big cheeks, blue eyes and
  • loves music like me
  • he loves it when you play with his hands
  • he smiles a lot and laughs on occasion, mostly when you sing or tickle him
  • he is a very fidgety eater
  • he gets grumpy at bedtime and when naked, and doesn’t enjoy baths that much
  • loud noises upset him
  • he loves watching TV (when given brief opportunities)
  • he will sleep anywhere and will stay asleep often when I take him from car to pram or house
  • he loves looking around at everything, he’s very inquisitive
  • In the morning when I go into him he looks up and gives me a massive smile, he is normally happiest in the morning
  • when col gets home from work another giant smile
  • he sleeps between 4-6 hours in a row (at the moment we are doing dream feeding)
  • he dribbles a lot and usually brings up wind easily
  • he holds on the bottle or my thumb when drinking which makes me happy

That’s my boy!

3 month old baby tummy time
3 month old baby doing tummy time