Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Easter eats
Obviously there's a much broader reason why we're being treated to a four day weekend, but for me, it's all about the chocolate. And the hot cross buns. And the extra time with my family.
We're actually going to be going out for lunch on Easter Sunday so this past week, I wanted to have an early Easter themed celebration with my two boys. Nothing too fancy, just spring inspired recipes and a few treats too.

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Monday, 30 March 2015
The week that was #10

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Friday, 27 March 2015
To Become Dad

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Why don't we put ourselves first?
When you first start on your journey to become mum, you know that your priorities will need to change and that the needs of another will soon trump your own, every single time.
When that line turns blue and you know that a baby is indeed on its way, you feel different because you know you have this responsibility to nurture and protect.
Suddenly, everything you do has a direct impact on your baby.
What you eat. What you drink. How active or inactive you are. How much sleep you have. Even what you wear ends up being determined by how much stretch it has and if bump feels comfortable.
And of course, you don't complain. Much. You knew you would need to adjust and you're compelled to do all that you can for your baby-to-be.
For me, as soon as I knew that I had a little bean (our nickname for Ethan before we knew who he was) I immediately thought about what I was doing and how that might impact on him. I read up on the nutrients I should be getting from my food, I never missed a breakfast and I always had a snack pack for when I could feel my energy levels dip.
I have never taken care of myself as much as I did when I was pregnant.
Soon after Ethan was born, all my good habits all but dissipated.
No more regular breakfasts. Much more lax about my eating habits. Nothing too bad really but I certainly wasn't a goody two shoes any more.
But why?
Well, yes I had given birth and bean was now Ethan, but why did I take that as a signal to stop caring for myself, my body, so much? I guess that my priorities, rightfully, changed as I adapted to becoming mum and putting Ethan first.
But I'm still doing it. Not necessarily with Ethan all the time, but in general. I am rarely the first in line. And it is my own doing.
I don't make the time to prepare or sit down to eat breakfast. It's never inspired me but I know it's important and I know it can't be good to go without until 1pm, or to rely on a sneaky snack in between if I get desperate.
I don't make the time to take care of myself like I used to when I had bump. Be it having a bath or having a good skincare routine, I was far more religious about these things when bean was in my belly.
Really, it's all too easy for me to let other priorities take over. Ethan. The house. Work. Family. And of course, some of these things should of course come first, be at the front of the line.
But, what if you're always at the back?
Yeah, yeah. I'll do something about it. I will. In a bit. Next time.
There's always a next time, though, so really my point is that we should all try and make a little more room for ourselves. Remember who we were and who we are today. Think about what we need and want.
And try to make the time to move ourselves to the front of the line.
Just sometimes.
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TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Spring cleaning

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Monday, 23 March 2015
The week that was #9

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Friday, 20 March 2015
A roarsome day out
On our last Mummy and Ethan Wednesday, we were invited to go along to a brand new attraction opening at West Midlands Safari Park, one of our favourite places in the Midlands to go to as a family on a day out. The only information we were given in advance was it would be something pretty special and very different to anything else the park had done before.
We were certainly intrigued and had one or two ideas from the invite we were sent but nothing really prepared us for just how special this new attraction was.
When we arrived, we headed for the Discovery Trail, first saying hello to the penguins which we both love, before heading off to explore the Lorikeet Landing, which is a heated indoor home to a flock of 52 lorikeets. Ethan was in awe of these beautiful birds and when two landed on my head, he kept pointing at me saying 'Mama, hat!' which made me laugh no end.
We then wandered down to see the hippos and meercats before arriving exactly as the new exhibit was opening for its previews.
But what was it?
Well, we had a little clue as we walked closer and saw something unusual in between the trees...
Dinosaurs! But not just any dinosaurs, as we were soon to discover.
No, the new attraction, Land of the Living Dinosaurs, features 38 life size dinosaurs that all have moving mouths, necks, eyes and, in some cases, tails.
You may know that we have a little dinosaur fan in our house. Well, it's more a case that hubs and I have loved dinosaurs since a young age, but Ethan too seems to like them, although he calls them 'roars'.
At least, I hope he likes them, seeing as he has a dinosaur themed playroom...
Anyway...
I've seen a few dinosaur attractions before but nothing that's come close to this new feature. Honestly, I thought it was fantastic. Roarsome, you might say (sorry!).
First of all, there are lots of dinosaurs to see. Lots. Not just a handful, well spread out, but lots of different types to see and all done to scale, based on the knowledge archaeologists have, and organised through the four ages that they walked the earth - Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous, for the geeks out there.
Second, there's atmospheric sound effects and music throughout the Jurassic safari which really add to the feel of it all, and the 'caution' signs dotted around really made me smile as they were a funny take on the 'don't feed the animals' type notices you see in 'real' animal enclosures.
Thirdly, this attraction is pretty large so you can really take your time walking around, reading the informative signs and spotting fossils as you go.
When we were there, two school groups were also walking around and it was really good to see the children really so into the feel of the place - they were even hesitant walking underneath the swooshing tails of the large dinosaurs!
Ethan wasn't scared at all, which I did wonder if he would be when I saw how authentic the park was trying to make the attraction feel. Instead, he pointed enthusiastically and kept saying 'rooooaaarrr!' all the way around.
Another great addition was the chance for visitors to interact with 'real' dinosaurs, in the form of a baby velocirapter called George being cared for by a park ranger and another dinosaur that walks about and says hello (forgive me, I forget his name).
Towards the end of the trail, we found an archaeological dig site which looked a lot of fun and we had to make a trip into the Dinosaur Trading Co. to pick a souvenir, which was quite hard to do as there was so much to choose from.
Ethan did manage to pick two friends in the end to bring home with him - luckily, they don't bite.
There was one more dinosaur left to meet before we left, and he was pretty hard to miss...
Ever the hero, Ethan waved goodbye to the big roar as we left.
It was a real shame that hubs couldn't join us on the day we went but we're planning on going back soon. As the Land of the Living Dinosaurs is included within the entry ticket price for the whole safari park (£19.99 adults, £14.99 children 3-15 years, £17.99 concessions, under 3's free), with a free return ticket included also, it makes this an even better value day out for the family.
The investment they made into this attraction (around £2.5m) really shows and whilst the real animals you can visit and tour around on safari are always going to be the stars of the show, the dinosaurs are certainly not to be missed.

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Thursday, 19 March 2015
The perfect lie-in
Even though Ethan sleeps through most nights now without disturbance (touch wood), I still miss out on the chance to lie-in. Getting up at 6am every working day means I naturally wake up earlier when I don't have an office to go into and as soon as I wake up, my mind switches onto autopilot and I start running through all the things I need to remember, arrange, do...
But bed is still one of my favourite places to be and if I can keep myself nice and snug in bed, without work or household chores calling me up and out, then I will.
Just bring me a mug of tea.
And some toast. Soft and fluffy bread. Lots of butter and a smidge of Marmite. Perfect,
I'd prop myself up on some pillows, turn on my iPad and catch up with what's going on over on Facebook and Instagram, catch up on some of my favourite blogs and just generally ease into my day.
Bliss.
It could only be made better by the addition of these two.
Hubs on his handheld games console thing (don't ask me what it's called, he has so many of them) and Ethan taking over my iPad to watch Pumble (Mr Tumble) or Choo Choo (Thomas the Tank Engine).
This is my idea of the perfect lie in and Roberts Bakery has shared their ideas for treating yourself or someone special to breakfast in bed (along with a rather tasty loaf of their Soft & Fluffy bread, which lasted about two minutes in our house).

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
Our weekend in photos

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.
Monday, 16 March 2015
The week that was #8
We were quite snap happy so I've decided to share our weekend in photos tomorrow whilst focusing on a few things from earlier on in the week in today's post.
DOING Ethan and I have been getting back into a routine of having Wednesday's together, just us two, and this week we had a busy day running here, there and everywhere.
The photo below was taken around 3.30pm and was the first time we had both sat down all day.
Here's the moment Ethan looked away from his homemade Shepherd's Pie... and someone else saw an opportunity to be had!
Cheeky kitty.
On Wednesday night, we invited my Mother-in-Law over for dinner. It's been a while since she had come over and we wanted to cook something nice as an early Mother's Day treat.
I had a go at making carbonara for the first time, following this recipe from Jamie loosely, and despite being nervous about scrambling the eggs, I managed to pull this off and wolfed mine down in a matter of minutes. What? I was hungry!
SNAPPING I love the fact that I managed to capture this moment between hubs and sleeping bubs. It's such a simple, sweet photo and I love the way Ste's arms are circling our sleeping little man.
The teddy's name is Tedmond, in case you were wondering.
SEEING This week, for the first time in a very long time, I've been pretty religious with my psoriasis skincare regime. Every night, I spent 20 minutes applying my steroid creams and believe it or not, the pic below shows a big improvement (I've kept it small as you really don't need to see this in full detail).
Trust me, it does look a lot better. It was all thick scaly skin before and now, I have managed to smooth the surface of my skin on all affected areas, just leaving pink or red 'staining'. I just have to keep on top of it so it doesn't start to get sore again.
WONDERING Some of the photos I've taken of this chap this week have had me wondering where time is going and when this toddler-almost-teenager arrived on the sofa.
DRESSING For Comic Relief on Friday, Ethan's nursery had a fancy dress day so it gave us a chance to put him in his spacesuit, all the way from Nasa thanks to his Nanny and Grandad. He kept it on all day and had many an adventure from the sounds of it.
INTRODUCING We have a new member of our family - Sven, the two metre tall cardboard reindeer, a gift from Ethan's Uncle. He doesn't say much but Ethan adores him.
ENJOYING As mentioned, this weekend was about spending time with my family, who I don't really get to see enough. We played, we went to the pub, we feasted on fresh chocolate eclairs as a birthday treat for my Dad and we enjoyed some nibbles whilst watching The Voice.
Ethan loved seeing his Gramps and Nanna and they both marvelled at how much more he has changed in the past few weeks.
On Sunday, Ethan spoiled me with a beautiful card and a Pandora ring featuring his birthstone, and we took my Mum for a meal at Ask. I got dressed up for the occasion, wearing my new Lindy Bop dress and curling my hair with my Babyliss Curl Secret styler for the first time (it took a while to work it out) and Ethan also put on his finest clothes for me.
I think he stole the show, don't you?
It was a lovely visit that went by too fast as always but we enjoyed each other's company and we captured quite a few memories - more photos to come in tomorrow's post.

TBM is a UK based family & lifestyle blog written by Kelly, a mum of two boys, living in the Midlands with her husband and house full of animals. Established in 2012, TBM is a place where Kelly shares her life, loves and adventures in motherhood as she finds ways to put the 'me' in mummy.