Homemade Nappy Wipes

So to save us money and protect Billy’s skin I have been making my own nappy wipes and i love them. Our young man has not had any nappy rash yet and I save so much money cause wipes are freaking expensive!

If you want to make your own here is my recipe:

1 cup boiled water ( it’s important to boil it first else they go moldy)

1 Tbl coconut oil (this is a great natural antiseptic which keeps away that nasty nappy rash)

1 tsp organic baby wash

I mix the ingredients while the water still hot so the oil melts a bit. Cut up your wipes, I use a fleece material cause you don’t have to sew the edges, I cut them into squares so they would fit into my plastic huggies dispenser. Soak them in the cooled liquid in a tray so they are equally saturated. Then place them in your container and they are ready to go!

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3 Freaking Months!

How can it be that I am already writing a post about Billy being 3months old!
Well I guess this is all part of him growing up, but sometimes I wish he would stay a newborn forever 🙂
He is definitely growing though, I haven’t had him measured or weighed for a while but I can feel he is getting heavier by the day! He is also getting much stronger and is loving tummy time, he can lift his body up and if I hold his feet he even pushes himself forward. Just recently we noticed that he has discovered his hands, every time one goes past his eyes he notices it and stares at it for ages then happily pops it in his mouth and gives it a good chew. I can pretty much spend the whole day just watching him discover new things and playing with him.

My favourite part of his development is when he recognises my voice or sees me come in a room. His whole face just lights up like a sunbeam and on the odd occasion I might even get a giggle of excitement! It’s magical to see and fills my heart with gooey lovey dovey warmth.

Sean continues to be an amazing, hands-on daddy and I love watching them together. Young Billy has even given Sean a proper full-on laugh when he has been tickling him (which I have never managed to get out if him). They still have their one on one time every evening after I bath him and it works a treat in getting Billy settled for the night and I know Sean loves it too. In fact I can see Sean’s face brighten when Billy wakes up from a nap or in the mornings and he gets the first cuddle.

My love for this little man is growing by the day, I never knew how much I could love someone until he came along to the point where my heart often feels like it will burst or it brings me to tears just thinking about how awesome it all is! i must admit it is such hard work, I am quite tired, my house often looks like a tornado has just swept through and I hate the amount of second guessing I keep doing to myself but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Wine Festival

I have been a little absent here lately because I have had a wonderful visit from my parents!!! WHOOO HOOO

They have been staying for 3 weeks and unfortunately our wonderful guest left today to head back home to South Africa. I will be doing a short blog about their visit overall but I just wanted to do a quick post to rave about the very fun Shoalhaven Winter Wine Festival that we went enjoyed on Saturday.

This is the first wine festival that I have been to and even though I didn’t partake in the actual wine tasting as I was the designated driver, I really enjoyed the whole day. Basically there are 12 wineries in the Shoalhaven that are part of the festival and you can either book tickets on the buses (provided by Stuarts Coaches) to drive you from one winery to another or you can choose your own route and drive it yourself.

We chose to just do a few of the local wineries close to us as we didn’t quite have time to do them all, in fact I am not sure how anyone can actually get round to doing them all.

Our first stop took us to Silos Winery and boy was it an enjoyable start to our tour. Hubby couldn’t rave about the wine enough and considering he doesn’t actually drink a lot of wine that’s quite a compliment. The gentleman behind the bar was fantastic and took time to explain how it all worked and heaps of info about each wine. He was so really good. Their grounds and buildings are beautiful and even though we didn’t do the tours or cellar talks it was really impressive that they had them on. We had the chance to have a taste of some delicious Alpaca meat and yummy chocolates at the stalls they had there. There is even a lovely restaurant which is open 7 days a week (as far as I could tell) but because we arrived there first and it wasn’t quite lunch time we didn’t have a chance to see what the food was like.

At this winery I loved the fact that there was more to do there than just taste wine (mostly cause I didn’t get a chance to have a taste). But they gave you a lovely overall experience and if we had been more organized this would have been the ideal winery to take a picnic too as the lawns are very lush and the views are gorgeous. The only negative thing I have to say is it was a bit confusing as to where to go and what exactly there was on (what time the talks were and if you could use the segways)… maybe a bit of a notice somewhere would have been good and some music for ambience would have been lovely.

Our next stop was the Crooked River Wines. Did not love this winery at all, not that it was a terrible experience. I think we were just expecting more considering how lovely the previous one was. The winery is very modern so not quite what I was imagined it would be, for some reason wineries for me should always be old stone buildings with wood everywhere. The people working behind the bar were a bit sour and the first wine they served wasn’t very tasty, which they then told us was because it wasn’t properly mature yet… not the best way to sell a winery! The views are AMAZING but they had a lovely little café that no one was operating which was disappointing as I think they could have not only made a bit of money from it but it would have encourage people to hang around a bit more and make the whole experience a bit more pleasant. They did have a guys playing the keyboard but to be honest it was not very good and really didn’t add anything to help with the vibe, they would have been better off playing a music off a CD.

The one thing they did have going for them is their amazing port. It’s the only thing I did have a very small sip of because it just smelt so delicious and it really was fantastic, we ended up buying the chocolate flavoured one and my parents got the strawberry one. So yummy and definitely worth putting up with the average experience of the winery.

Our 3rd stop took us to Coolangatta Estate, I was expecting great things from this winery due to how well known it is and its lovely history. Again I was a little disappointed, not as much as the previous one though. It has some really lovely old buildings, lots of historical information, an oyster bar and a big restaurant so I was looking forward to experiencing it all but unfortunately when we got there the restaurant was closed and everything seemed to be winding down even thought we arrived just before 4pm (the festival was from 10am – 5pm). It almost made it feel like we had arrived to late and considering how many wineries are in the festival I would have expected them to stay open right till the end to accommodate all those who were still passing through. Plus this place is open 7 days a week and is pretty well established so I really expected more.

On a plus side the husband did seem to like the wine although he didn’t purchase any so it wasn’t the best he had tasted during the festival and the place was beautiful, if we had more time I would like to have had a quick walk around the grounds.

Our last stop was by far my favourite and somewhere I will definitely be going again and taking and visitors to, is the Two Figs Winery! On arriving the first thing we noticed was the magical view and spectacular sunset. But this was quickly interrupted by the festivities, a roving band, The Hot Potato, was getting heaps of attention (mostly cause they were fantastic and their enthusiasm was contagious). This is probably the only winery where people were actually hanging around afterwards buying bottles of wine to enjoy on site and just having a great night without feeling like they have to move on to the next spot. They had also organised a mobile pizza stall and a pie stand so it meant there was something to eat and I could get a nice cup of coffee ( which is always nice for the designated driver). And of course it got freezing cold when the sun set so the fact that they had a fire going made a huge difference too, although they should consider having more around the facilities next year.

But not only was the ambience, food and staff fantastic but the wine was pretty amazing too. So much so that my parents bought a bottle to enjoy right there and then. If u are passing through and enjoy a nice white wine you have to try their “Sunday Afternoon” wine it comes highly recommended. In fact it’s the only place I took photos at because it was so beautiful and so much fun.

But I must admit even though we didn’t get a chance to see all the wineries who were partaking in the festivities this time around we will definitely be doing it again next year and trying some of the other ones instead… But I am sure we will end the night at the Two Figs again 🙂

My never ending story

I found this pic on Facebook recently and it really rang true for me. When I was expecting and planning for our beautiful bundle of joy I imagined teaching him to sit/talk, doing crafts with him, watching him grow and learn new things and basically knowing by instinct what being a mom is all about.
What I wasn’t expecting was the monotony, the same routine day in and day out, the large amount of nappies I would be changing and washing, the forever feeling of tiredness and mostly the cleaning/washing that builds up and then finally gets done only for it to take a few hours to be at a some what critical level again.
Now please don’t get me wrong I love this little man and am enjoying all his milestones and it was me who chose to use cloth nappies and homemade wipes. But dammit I feel like a stuck record lately… Walking round the house thinking “didn’t I just do this yesterday, or was it last week?”

It’s frustrating and annoying. I love being busy and I always thought when I had children I could keep up with my own fun activities (I am a baking, crafting, sewing, creative loving wannabe) and still be a fun, cool kid focused mom. By alas so far that has not wrung true for me at all. I find my days merging into one another and by the time the weekend rolls in I can’t believe a week has passed me by and I haven’t done any of the things i wanted too or even left the house (I am ashamed to say sometimes I haven’t even changed the track suit pants I have been wearing all week… Baby boy is just gonna throw up/pee on the clean pair anyway!)

The saddest part of this monotony is I sometimes don’t feel like I spend enough time teaching Billy what he needs to know to progress, learn and develop as he should. I feel guilty almost everyday that maybe I should have spent more time talking to him or doing tummy time… I blame the internet for this, there are so many articles and advice on what you should do to give your baby/kids the best start they can have and now I compare myself to all those creative, perfect mums who think up all these cool things and do so many wonderful things with their kids! I kick myself and then try do some interacting with him but don’t know what I am doing so feel stupid and inadequate, I then put him to sleep and look round my house and kick myself for not using my time better and cleaning/cooking/fixing.

So does my never ending story end? Who knows, but hopefully as our babies become toddlers and our toddlers become children I can at least add a few more variations to the days and build on my knowledge! I guess that’s the best I can do for now 🙂