Goodbye Quinny, Hello Office...

After one of the most amazing years of my life, it hardly seems possible, but the big day is drawing near. It’s not long until our little Laila’s first birthday. This means party planning is beginning and, whilst she’ll be pretty oblivious to the whole affair, we can’t wait to celebrate such a major milestone. I want to keep it simple by hosting it at home but, with a family the size of mine, it’s sure to snowball into something bigger! My priority is for Laila to be able to see all her family and to take lots of photos so she’ll have permanent reminders of her nearest and dearest.

Laila does 'ghetto chic'!

My Zapp Xtra also
makes a great
climbing frame!

Laila is still loving the “purposely drop objects for someone to pick up” game whilst her independence is flourishing; she can confidently walk whilst gripping someone’s hand now. She therefore has the ability to quite happily leave my side and explore the world around her. Laila’s also showing signs that she can follow simple instructions, waving hello and goodbye is now childsplay! She evidently understands “no”, and seems to pick and choose when she responds to that one…

As we approach Laila’s birthday, our final QuinnyCasters assignment was timed perfectly to capture how her favourite buggy accompanied her through her formative months. The brief was to say goodbye to our QuinnyCasters experience, so we took the opportunity to have a nostalgic look back – we’ll really miss our monthly tasks as they became a fond part of our life! So, as my Maternity Leave nears its end, may we present our final assignment: “An Epic Tale on a Tiny Scale”.

We hope you enjoyed watching our assignments as much as we enjoyed creating them; we've loved every minute of being a QuinnyCaster - thank you Quinny Team!



Who needs sofas when you have a Zapp Xtra?!

My Sleeping Beauty

When I heard about this month’s QuinnyCasters assignment, I was very excited, as I knew we’d be able to have lots of fun with it! The brief was to take a picture or video of your baby sleeping in the Quinny Zapp Xtra…



Now Laila spends a lot of time in her QZX and likes to fall asleep in it, after she’s exhausted playing with anyone around and taking in everything around her of course. It’s evidently comfortable – you can tell that the footmuff is super warm and cosy.

Spot the baby!

As my baby girl is my special little princess, there was only one way I could tell the story of her sleeping in the QZX: in a fairytale; my assignment is therefore Episode 4 in our QuinnyCasters journey, which took us around the world!



Crawling is SO last season!

"There's no stopping me now!"

I think I may lose a bit more weight this month, as I’ve spent most of it chasing Laila zooming around the kitchen island! My little devil, I mean angel, has perfected crawling and is now fully able to pull herself up to stand and ‘cruise’ along furniture, walk herself when held in a walking position, and feed herself with a fork. Her heightened confidence means that all she wants to do now is EXPLORE! This, I’m sure, all marks Laila’s magical first steps toward independence…


Laila exploring her room during a weekend in London

Every day, we seem to see a new trick from Laila. Since she’s developed what’s called the "pincer grasp", Laila considers herself a human vacuum cleaner; she picks up the smallest strand of hair, that barely visible crumb, a tiny piece of thread... She’s making connections between words and actions now too. If someone says “clap clap!”, low and behold, she claps her hands together! Say “bye bye” and she waves, when Daddy walks into the room, she’ll say Dadda.

It may be bedtime,
but I want to play Mummy!

Laila's personality is very evident already – she’s a little social butterfly, granting broad smiles to everyone she meets. She certainly knows how to get your attention, as well as let you know if she’s being ignored! She accompanied me to a meeting with my boss this week and managed to sit on my lap for a few minutes, until she realised Mummy was getting more attention that she was; after a few noises to my boss, equilibrium returned when my boss just talked to me via Laila instead! Getting ready for a 09:30 meeting was an experience… “Laila, Mummy’s makeup case is not a toy.” On the plus(?) side, I’ve now confirmed my return to work in April which inevitably means my joyous year of maternity leave is coming to an end – boo!



My Little Miss Sunshine!

I’ve got no doubt that Laila is going to be a strong minded little girl – we’ve seen plenty of signs that she’s developing a mind of her own. Try and strap her into a car seat or restrict her movement and you will be guaranteed a protest… Laila is sure to let you know when she loves something too of course. Last week was her first intermediate Water Babies class after skipping the second half of last term. This was so much better for her as it was much more stimulating, with lots of underwater swims, and it kept Mummy on her toes too!

Lights, Camera, Action Action Action!

Well, what a month it’s been! I’ve been going into work every so often to catch up with the latest goings on while I’m on maternity leave and, I swear, every time I pick up some nasty germs courtesy of that blooming air conditioning in an open plan office… this time, I ended up with the dreaded flu which I subsequently shared with hubby and Laila when I came home. We all therefore spent the entire December ill with the flu (hence the lack of blogging too)! I managed to submit my December QuinnyCasters assignment from my sick bed, albeit a little late, as I was determined to complete it – better late than never!

So here it is – Episode 3: a review of the buggy so far…

Falling ill last month was an apt end to 2010, as it was generally a tough year. Ironically, the pregnancy side of it was pretty easy; the hard part has been living through our ludicrously large scale house renovation. A friend of mine introduced me to Chinese astrology and it struck a chord, as so many of my apparent traits rang true with me. 2010 was the year of the Tiger – exciting yet turbulent… however, 2011 – the year of the Rabbit – is forecasted to be a particularly inspirational year for me, when my creative work will be highly regarded. Good news as it’s almost time for the interior design!

This year kicked off with a fantastic start – a photoshoot with Tesco for their magazine and website. A lovely journalist, Liz, interviewed me and two other models, Claire (founder of ‘Out of Love’) and Lisa (founder of ‘Snug Baby’), about how we run the finances in our respective households. We went to a beautiful £4m house in London for the shoot and filming and spent the day having hair, makeup, and wardrobe done, followed by recording, photographs and interviews. The experience was nothing short of a-maz-ing. I *loved* it.

Filming location in London

The only bit I didn’t love really surprised me as it was the part I was most looking forward to – being done up! I can only suspect that the makeup girl hadn’t worked with Indian colouring before as, by the time she finished with me, I looked like I was ready for bed! She straightened my already straight hair, then hairsprayed it until it looked flat and greasy, and somehow did my makeup to make me look like I had no eyelashes?! Why?! Even my nail varnish was removed and replaced with a nude colour... The stylist was the icing on the cake when he dressed me in something I’d see on a, let’s say, more “mature” lady. Whilst I appreciate it the brief was “Spring/Summer”, I would’ve thought they’d still want to match the wardrobe to the model and her personality… or not as the case may be!

I was in two minds about sharing my concerns as didn’t want to appear diva-esque, but I just didn’t feel remotely myself. Luckily, Tesco’s art director Iona was WONDERFUL. I told her how my “look” was so not me and she was more than happy for me to change whatever I wanted to. Being on location made my capacity to do this myself quite limited but we asked the makeup girl to put some curls in my hair to add my original volume back in. Put it this way, she spent about 10 minutes putting some waves in then bizarrely brushed them out again! I’m therefore expecting my hair to look like I was dragged through a hedge backwards. Wardrobe-wise, they had an alternative top for me to wear, which was a better colour, but would have made a great tent.

Beyonce Knowles knows how to do it!

Despite all of the above, the real nitty gritty of the day – recording the content, was SO MUCH FUN!!! Ian, the photographer, was a great guy, as was his crew. Jo, who looks after the online content was an absolute delight, and she gave us some great questions to spark the debate. We got some great feedback from Tesco too; we were apparently as good as actresses!  What a compliment! What did I learn from the experience? Come prepared with your own backup makeup and clothes, then the rest is easy!

Back home, Project Laila is coming along nicely! She’s developing in front of my very eyes and has just been moved up to intermediate level in her Water Babies classes half way through the term, so she’s definitely a true ‘water baby’! She can almost ‘talk’ now, sounding like she’s actually making read words and sentences (I still love it every time she says Mamma!). By far my favourite thing she does though is laughing. This girl spends most of her life smiling and laughing! It’s THE most satisfying and rewarding part of being a Mummy so far. I have to add that, when she climbed the whole flight of stairs at my Aunty’s last week, it was one of my proudest moments!

Eating out is also so much easier now that Laila's on solids. I've discovered that Wagamamas is a great place to eat with a bubba - Laila absolutely loved both the food AND the funky little seat they have hanging off the end of the table - so cute! Staff are always lovely and friendly and, most importantly, I can eat without balancing baby on knee - bonus! Who said having a baby was difficult! Famous last words...?

Miss Independent...

I haven’t blogged for a while and that’s testament to me getting more of my life back. Last weekend, I went to my good friend Ushi’s 30^th birthday bash in Reading, and rediscovered what it was like to have girlie fun with great friends and my sister. It was just like old times!

Mummy and Daddy have also rekindled our ‘couple time’ together! There’s definitely merit in date nights and, after testing the waters logistically, we’ve committed to having one a week and it feels great!

The first post-Laila date night was at a Greek restaurant called Entelia and it proved a fantastic choice – impeccable service, romantic atmosphere and… no Laila! Entelia say that “the sharing of food and conversation is a human ritual as old as time. Meze is the ultimate expression of this passion. In the old times in Greece, the offer of numerous small selected dishes was a sign of generous hospitality” - right up our street!

We had a meze feast of halloumi, tiger prawns in white wine, calamari, manitaria fournou, slow cooked pork in brandy, and oven baked red peppers stuffed with feta cheese: A-MA-ZING! Not only was it delicious, but it was so good to rediscover why we fell in love before our little Laila came along. It was also nice to put the cooking utensils away for the night and let someone else sweat it out in the kitchen!

Second time around we went to Bella Italia and tried taking Laila with us. Ok, many lessons were learnt this time! Next time she accompanies us, I’ll also take baby snacks so Laila doesn’t gaze longingly at our non-baby-friendly seasoned food, licking her lips, along with her Bumbo seat and tray to protect her from table germs (and protect the table from Laila!). Miss Independent wants to feed herself lately, especially while we’re eating, and will tirelessly reach for her spoon while she's being fed. She has her own baby spoon which naturally makes an awful mess when in her hands, but Boots do some great plastic bibs which mean I don’t have to wash her fancy ones after each and every use! Much to the entertainment of other diners, I think Laila’s auditioning for her own talk show these days, and she really believes she’s making perfect sense judging by the expression on her face. She’s starting to use consonants now too; the oohs and ahs are suddenly baba and meme. All I keep thinking is "say mamma first, say mamma first”!

Back at home, Laila’s more mobile than ever. Crawling on all fours and attempting to climb onto her legs to walk!

We’ve noticed she can now pass an object from one hand to the other, with a particular affinity to remote controls… It’s obvious that the concept of object permanence is also firmly engrained in her mind since she would once think her Tigger was gone forever when it dropped on the floor and out of her sight, but Laila’s no longer as easily duped. It seems to be great fun, however, to see how many times we can catapult toys over the bed and see how many times Mummy will pick them up and pass them back! Although this is because babies are fascinated by cause and effect, it feels like she’s just testing me! She has one particular toy which seems to indulge her newfound interest in science though – a push-button toy which spins a sphere to reveal different faces. That keeps her busy for at least, well, 120 seconds.

One thing which could keep her entertained for hours is water. After going for a splash in the local pool since Laila was 3 months old, we started swimming lessons with WaterBabies last week, to add more structure to her learning. Once I’d got over the shock of how much they cost (!), I couldn’t wait to get started. The classes are small and intimate, and I’ve met some lovely more like-minded mummies already, as opposed to some of the ones I met at antenatal classes!

In terms of entertaining ME and keeping the old creative juices flowing, I’ve spent the last month recording snippets of Laila in her Quinny Zapp Xtra for our second QuinnyCasters assignment. When I saw the brief, I was raring to go straight away – capturing your child having fun in their Zapp Xtra. Here’s Episode 2 of our QuinnyCasters journey and, when you get over the cringing, hopefully you’ll sense how much fun it was to film!

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!