A Daddy's girl in the making?

How times have changed -
look who had the
SMALLEST suitcase!

Hurray! We (I) survived our first holiday apart from each other! Whilst I had to be practically dragged kicking and screaming to the weekend away that my dear hubby booked for me, it seemed to do us all good... everyone has been advising (lecturing) me to get out and about without Laila, arrange time for adult conversation, treat myself, yaada, yaada, yaada. The truth is, I've not been depriving myself; I've just not wanted to! Perhaps I'm still in the honeymoon period, but I haven't wanted to miss a moment of her. Then I read that there are in fact good reasons to get away from your baby every once in a while, for their sake. Apparently short separations help them to adjust to other people, become more socialised, and possibly help to "inoculate" against full-blown separation anxiety before it hits. Damn. Hence Amsterdam.

 

Vodka
and...
MILK?!

As reluctant as I was to go, I hate to admit it but, I had a blast. Other than retreating to my room every few hours to express milk (an absolute pain in the rear might I add), I felt like I was 'normal' again. Don't get me wrong, I missed Laila like crazy, but it was quite nice to meet people as Anna rather Laila's Mum. In a strange way, I think I'd secretly hoped I'd come back home to cries of "thank God you're back!" and "we couldn't cope without you!" but, quite the contrary! I couldn't believe how well Daddy coped - he even had her sleeping straight through the night, for 12 hours, not even waking up for night feeds... whaaaat?!?!? I walked back through the front door and, much to my despair, Laila carried on playing without batting an eye lid - never mind the dramatic, slow motion, joyous, reunion I'd been imagining throughout my journey home! Although, since I've been back, my poor baby's been teething terribly; her first bottom teeth are now visible so, for the first time, we've had tears upon tears - welcome home Mummy!



Daddy gave Laila her first bath in the "big bath"

 I had some good news before setting sail in Amsterdam - Laila and I were chosen as winners for our first QuinnyCasters assignment! The next assignment is to catch your child in a happy moods whilst in their Zapp Xtra, all happy and smiley entertaining themselves... this is going to be so much fun to do, especially since Laila's developing into such a little chatterbox, trying her best to 'talk' to whoever will listen, babbling away in a lingo that only she can understand...

Ooh!

A new toy!

How do I use this
again Mummy?

I've lost count of how many times I've told her that the telephone isn't a toy or edible, or that rattles aren't for thrashing, or that my hair isn't for pulling. The text books say that, at this age, she'll begin testing my authority by refusing to follow simple directions, but she's not really being disobedient, just curious. Oh, that's ok then! Although, to be fair, they say babies simply can't remember things they're told for more than a couple of seconds at a time; I'm told that the best tactic is to use a simple "no" and then distract her... have these people met my Laila?! 

My first QuinnyCasters assignment - unpacking the Zapp Xtra

Can you believe that, after the excitement of receiving our Quinny Zapp Xtra on my birthday, I had to LEAVE IT IN THE BOX unopened for 3 weeks! It’s been like a prolonged Xmas Eve! Why ever would I do that, you ask? Especially when I'm the kind of girl who can't resist sneaking a peek at my pressies BEFORE my birthday...



How did I resist getting my hands on this?!

Well, to cut a long story short, those who know me are well aware of the major house renovation I’ve been submerged in for almost a year. This means that the majority of my belongings are in boxes, under dust sheets, in the loft, I think you get the idea. As our upstairs flooring is currently exposed floorboards, and the downstairs has been completed, most of our belongings consume the entire lower level, making living space limited. Put it this way, Laila and I live in the dining room at the moment! This also means that having an area to document the momentous unpacking of our Zapp Xtra has been near impossible, especially since I’ve done it all single handedly, hence the delay! I’d originally planned to do this assignment at my parents’ house as the Quinny delivery was due the week prior but, as it came on the following Monday, I missed that window of opportunity. In the end, my unpacking was in the corner of my kitchen!

Having seen various tweets from other QuinnyCasters about how easy it was to put together (and as an Engineer’s daughter!), I thought it’d be a doddle, so I admit I didn’t bother looking at the instructions – I usually figure these things out myself and get a worryingly great sense of satisfaction and fun from doing so! However, as a result of one particular part (which I think is supposed to be pre-assembled) not being attached, I just couldn’t figure out how to get the seat on. There wasn’t any commentary or annotation to the instructions either, so I ended up ditching them. There was a web link cited as an instruction video but, whilst it was lovely and glossy (which, as a consumer, I genuinely do appreciate) that hadn’t helped either. I spent about an hour trying to get the seat on! Frustrated, I ended up going to bed. It niggled at me. And niggled. And niggled some more…

I got out of bed at 01:00 (you may notice the 'straight out of bed' look in the last frame of my video - that's what I call dedication to the cause!), determined not to let our little Zappy defeat me. Low and behold, I discover this missing part in the box. I realised where it was meant to go, but was disappointed that the instructions didn’t indicate where the detachable parts were. Once that infamous part was attached, getting the seat on was easy. If it hadn’t been for that, I’m convinced that it would’ve been amazingly quick to assemble. I assume that this part is usually preassembled though.

So here’s my first QuinnyCasters assignment for your delectation: the unpacking of our Zapp Xtra. I had nothing short of a nightmare trying to get this uploaded, as Windows didn’t like how much was going on in our story when it was trying to save it – at one point, I thought my first assignment wasn’t going to see the light of day! I persevered, cut lots out, reduced the resolution, and finally got this end result...

Now that Zappy’s up and raring to go, I’m in love with it already! It looks divine (high on my list of pushchair priorities I’m afraid) and the reclining and rear facing features are what the youngsters would call ‘peng’! I'm really glad I went for Rebel Red too – looks hot, and I can’t wait to test drive!