Mr B's special day

We recently had Mr B’s christening and it was a perfect day. My in-laws were visiting from Australia so my little man had a celebration with his whole family, well close enough.

Everyone had a great time and my little man was spoilt rotten by all of our lovely family and friends. I am going to share with you Mr B’s christening breakdown.

Finally, a family shot where everyone is looking the right way and clean. I bought my dress from simply be. I love it, it is sky blue with little seahorses. The downside to my wonderful dress was the seahorse’s eyes. They have small black dot eyes, one of which was precariously placed on my breast, I spent the day with people trying to wipe it off thinking it was a mark. 

Warning...this dress induces groping of breasts.

 

 I loved my hair by the lovely Chelsea. Something about having your hair done makes you feel complete.

Mr B’s outfit was from TK Maxx and was a bargain. I bought it quite a while back so I can’t remember exactly how much but definitely worth looking in there for smart baby outfits they had loads and if you’re willing to have a really good rummage you will find high end designers.

I went for a rustic theme with plenty of hessian, browns and golds. I complimented this with the napkins and a hessian runner on the buffet table. I saved my Mason jars from coffee and then stuck blackboard stickers on them, (from poundworld), saying knives, forks etc.

I bought my hessian christening bunting from eBay it cost me about £10. I think it was worth it as it looked great over the buffet table.

I already had a light board so I thought I would utilise it. Mine was from quality save and cost £9.99. I love mine and my stepson loves writing messages to me on it.

I bought a length of hessian ribbon and hessian bows again from poundworld. I wrapped it around a wicker box I already had so it would fit with the theme. I filled the box with party bag goodies for the kids, you can see it on top of the fire surround. I had about 18 children there, ranging from babies to a 13-year-old and they all had fun with the contents, especially the colouring books.

I had a kid’s buffets table separate, I thought this the best way to stop them attacking the main buffet before I got to it. My wonderful sister made cupcakes, I made sweet bags and there was sticks of rock. The most popular items though were a large bowl of popcorn complete with popcorn bags and a self-serve scoop, all from poundworld, are you starting to see a theme with my shop of choice.

The stickers on the sweet bags were personalised and I had matching cupcake toppers made as well. Thank God for eBay.

I had props on the tables as I think they make great conversation starters and encourage people to take pics, which means I don’t have to walk around all day asking people to smile. I can just tag myself in everyone else’s pic’s. They were £2.99 for a box of 25 assorted props from B&M.

  

The buffet was amazing. It looked good, it was a good price and dammit it tasted good. I had so many compliments on the variety and quality of food. I got my buffet from Danielle at Fat Cats catering, or as I now call it, the greatest caterer in Greater Manchester. Honestly if you need a buffet email this girl fatcatscateringco@gmail.com.

The cake was exactly what I wanted for my boys christening and was even more special as it was made by his beautiful godmother. It complimented my theme perfectly and everyone loved it. I was a little sad when we had to cut it, but I’m glad I did because it tasted as good as it looked. The fruit was so fresh and juicy, well what I had of it, as soon as we cut it children descended upon us, “please can I have a strawberry”, “can I have blueberries on mine”.

Everything came together and we had an amazing day. We had the usual last minute drop outs and worrying that my outfit wasn’t quite perfect, but as hubby says, “why worry it is what it is”, and on this occasion he was right.

Thanks again to everyone who made Mr B’s day special.

 

Good day to you. x

Mr B turns 1

This week my littlest little man, Mr B, turned one. On 29^th September 2015 at 5.52am my chunky baby entered the world. Mr B is both the smilest and teariest baby I have ever known, and I love him for that.

Mr S was given a prescription last week which the doctor informed me was his first prescription ever. Whereas Mr B has had quite a medicine filled 1st year, poor little monkey.

When he was just over a month old he had bronchiolitis and was a wheezy, coughy ball of cuteness for around 3 weeks. His cries became really horse and strained. He still has a sound of Rod Stewart which I blame on the lasting effects of bronchiolitis.

When he was around 5 months old I took him in pets at home to look at the rabbits. He was really enjoying it cooing and reaching out to touch them. I leaned him over the edge of the rabbit enclosure to have a closer look which is when a virus struck his stomach. He vomited on the poor little rabbits and all over the floor as I pulled him away. Considering the staff in there work with animals and animals shit all day, you should have seen the disgust on their faces. I felt like saying “hi, I brought him in here to vomit and ruin your day on purpose”, I wanted the ground to swallow me. This was the start of 2 weeks of diarrhoea and vomiting. Wonderful. 

When he was 6 months old he contracted an eye infection. My poor little chunk could barely open his eye and spent the days till the drops started worked crying and rubbing it. You haven't started a day right till you've started it pinning down a baby, who suddenly develops super human strength, to put drops in.

At around 10 months he had his 1st trip to children's A&E.  He had a non-blanching rash and was very floppy and tired. I was terrified.  It was like that moment at the top of a roller coaster where your waiting to drop. He had to have blood taken while I held him down, which resulted in him crying, me crying and a very comforting nurse promising me it was for his benefit.  It turned out the rash was viral, not meningitis though. I can't explain to you the relief when I knew my boy wasn't as bad as my crazy, over active imagination had decided.

His worst illness has been this week. Ending in his 1st birthday afternoon being spent in hospital with dehydration. While we were on a family holiday last week we noticed something similar to a small graze on his chin. We presumed that his newly walking feet had lost their balance and he must have bumped his chin. A plausible excuse for the mark.  However, the day we got home these 'marks' started appearing on his nappy area. They looked quite sore, and I didn't make the link between these and his chin so I applied nappy cream and went on with my day. Within an hour they were spreading down his legs and looked more like blisters.

My first thought was chicken pox but as he seemed quite unwell, being irritable and off his food, off we went to the docs. By the time we arrived it was on his face, where suddenly the original 'mark' faded in, his hands and feet.

My poor little man had hand foot and mouth.  I had never heard of it and instantly started questioning when my little boy had been near a farm animal. The doctor reassured me that hand foot and mouth is different to the foot and mouth animals get. It is a virus which just has to run its course. It causes blister type spots on the mouth, hands, feet and nappy area. It gives ulcers inside your mouth which obviously make eating and drinking quite painful. It can also cause

 - high temperature (fever), usually around 38-39C (100.4-102.2F)

-a general sense of feeling unwell

-loss of appetite

-coughing

-abdominal (tummy) pain

-a sore throat and mouth

My poor littlest man had all of these. Which led to not eating and drinking which led to the dehydration.  It also didn't help that he was put on strong antibiotics as some of the blisters became infected, which made him feel even worse.

So my boys first birthday was his worst birthday so far, but I have everything crossed that he will be getting better very soon. Then it will be cake and cuddles all round.

Good day to you x

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