The Eccentric American Mama in Cumbria

I'm not sure if you noticed by now but surfing is a pretty important part of our lives which is why I present you with some of the cutest surf finds for this little guy! Clothing by Quiksilver  |  Suntent by littletrekers   Sunglasses by RetroBanz  |  Whale by Toys R' Us We cannot wait to get Cyril on a surfboard but unfortunately we'll have to wait a bit longer since they don't make wetsuits capable of withstanding the North Sea temperatures in his size yet! His first experience sitting on Josh's board will have to wait until we're in Santa Barbara and fortunately for our family we have booked our holiday to California and look forward to soaking up the rays on the beach, in fact we might not leave the beach, unless it's to get a taco!

(Photo taken while pregnant in Paris but the background just sums up summer for me! OK so I was desperate for a photo I haven't shared yet because I'm finally finishing up this post that I started 3 weeks ago, as Cyril sleeps on me, and I can't get to my computer where all my summer pics are!) Just upon hearing the word summer my heart skips a beat and butterflies swarm my stomach in excitement. It brings me back to my childhood where I sat with friends sucking on an icy cold Popsicle as we stared at the clock counting down the seconds until that little bell rang signalling freedom for 12 glorious weeks. You see for my brothers and I summer camp, and even worse, summer school didn't exist because the farm was full of enticing activities to keep us occupied with. To my mom, camp was a waste of money and rightly so, why fork over $400 a week when there's always someone around to keep a watchful eye, if not my parents, they'd ask one of the Jamacians ...

1. A crib/moses basket/snuzpod/bassinet are pointless the first 2 weeks. In fact if your pram comes with a bassinet I wouldn't invest in the moses basket, snuzpod, or crib, just use the one your pram has. The reason being that babies hate to sleep apart from  you and it makes complete sense, they've just spent 9 glorious months inside your tummy where all of their needs we're met, they were cozy, warm, and confined to a cramped tiny space so it makes complete sense that when they come out to the big bad world full of lights, noise, and space that they panic. Placing them in their own space probably makes them frightened and lonely. Cyril hated our snuzpod the first month because it was massive compared to his tiny little body and most likely he hated all of that space. Which brings me onto my next point ... 2. Invest in a good quality sling or baby carrier. I loved the original bjorn when he was first born because it was so easy to put on by myself. However, I prefer ...

I can hardly believe my sweet baby is already two months old, it's seems like a lifetime ago that I was sleep deprived, depressed, and in excruciating pain, not to freak anyone out that is about to have a baby! I've actually been meeting up with some new mums and one of the girls had a really easy labour and didn't struggle at all to breastfeed, in fact she was out and about with her baby girl 3 days after she was born. I wish I could say the same, fortunately Cyril and I have made tremendous progress since then and I have one well behaved and content baby, well most of the time. On Sunday a group of girls and I went to a friend's house for a Baby Calm Workshop and Cyril was very content the whole 4 hours, smiling and interacting for a good portion of the time, and sleeping in my arms the rest of the time. From the books I have been reading since Cyril was born I didn't feel the workshop really benefited me, especially since Cyril is already sleeping 7...

Baby Bjorn  |  Tommee Tippee Bibs  |  Avent Pacifiers  |  Born Free Glass Bottles  |  Bamboozle Nappies  | Morherease Wraps  |  Bugaboo Buffalo  |  Chicco Bouncer Seat  |  Hand knit blanket |  Bamboo Wipes |     Boon Grass Drying Rack  | Cybex Carseat 1. The Baby Bjorn has been extremely helpful since day one. Initially it was the only way we could get Cyril to sleep and it's been extremely helpful when I have other things to do around the house as it's hands free and Cyril loves to be close to me, he also enjoys looking around in it now that he's a bit older. Personally we recommend the original, which is the model shown above, as you can put it on in 10 seconds by yourself all while holding the baby. They have 2 newer models that appear to have more back support for the wearer but we're not really interested in those models because Josh and I will be upgrading to t...

  This weekend started off without a hitch, that is until the sat nav took us through Scarborough and we had to endure an extra 15 minutes of crying on our detour, at which point I instructed Josh to put on Iron & Wine which ended up reminding us all of the delivery suite, even Cyril, as his crying escalated the deeper we delved into the album. I actually felt nauseous upon hearing Shepherd's Dog and Josh said he was having heart palpatations. We both envisioned Cyril trying to sort out the familiarity of the song until he came to the epiphany and began wailing louder saying "Good god no, that was the worst day of my life!" Needless to say we arrived at the rental in a somewhat frantic state. However this was soon alleviated by the gorgeous vista on our doorstep, even Hobo was impressed as he enthusiastically marked his territory just beyond the patio. After a few of his signature scratches, which threw grass in Josh's face, he spotted a rabbit in the distanc...