Paw Patrol, Tidy Lounges and Exciting Emails #LittleLoves

I hadn’t planned on writing this post, but I had a pang of guilt that I’d not written a #LittleLoves round up for ages whilst making myself a cuppa this morning and figured if I really put my mind to it, I could get it written in super quick speed. I’ve let Pickle entertain himself in front of Paw Patrol, practicing putting on his own wellies (his latest trick). I’m really enjoying the fact he doesn’t need such close supervision anymore – maybe that’s why it’s a bit easier to keep the place tidy now?

I’ve been reading LOTS of arts centre brochures this past week, as I get myself organised making sure we don’t miss out on the best theatre events around here over the Christmas season. Although I’m still working on my Christmas shows blog post, I’ve already published a round up of what I think are the events not-to-be-missed for children this October half term. Last night I read Lucy’s post about how much Erin loves reading through the Smyths toy catalogue, and theatre brochures are like my equivalent to that – including circling the things I want to see the most and book marking certain pages!

It reminds me that I’ve not filled in Pickle’s theatre journal for a while… I started one for him to remember all the theatre events he’s been to. I’ve not done a baby scrapbook or anything for him, so this is my version of that, I suppose! Maybe I’ll get back on that tonight, especially as we’ve got so much booked in over the next few months that I’ll get too behind if I don’t get on top of it.

Erm… Paw Patrol? On repeat, every day for the last week I reckon. I can’t quite believe how much Pickle loves it! I’ll be honest, I put it on for the first time because I was taking part in an ad campaign, and little did I expect it to delight him so much. The grin on his face when he hears the music is just… oh, it’s beautiful. But then, of course he loves it! It has puppies and vehicles in it. Dogs and wheels are his two most favourite things!

I can’t remember if I’ve written about this playlist on here before, but it’s pretty much permanently on in our house… it’s a Kids playlist I found on Spotify called Pop 4 Kids, and it includes pop ‘hits’ (I feel really old saying hits…. is there another way to talk about top tracks without sounding like a 90s radio DJ?) sung by kids – Kidz Bop! I love it! It means any racy or swear-y language has been altered to be child friendly and it’s full of cheery, uplifting tunes (again, I feel really old saying tunes – what’s wrong with me!?). Anyway, I can fully recommend Kidz Bop, and they’ve got loads of albums on Spotify. Pop them on and have a little boogie around with your little ones, you won’t regret it!

This week has been made all the sweeter by how much tidier the downstairs is. Upstairs still needs some work, but having never really had a tidy house before (like, never…), I can’t quite get over the feeling of coming down in the morning to a nice, fresh looking space. I’ve been making sure we do the washing up the night before, and it’s such a treat to make breakfast in a tidy kitchen. I’m going to write more about cleaning in an effort to hold myself accountable, so check out my first mission statement blog post if you missed it this week.

Just to really set out how much of a difference we’ve made… we’ve gone from this:

To this…

What a difference, eh? Oh I just love it. Long may this continue. I think I’ll have a bit of an identity crisis once we sort upstairs out too – but it’ll definitely be a good thing once it’s done.

I don’t feel like I’ve actually worn anything I’ve ‘loved’ this week… and that’s mainly because I seem to be changing shape at the moment. And not necessarily in a good way? As I’ve been cutting down on breastfeeding, there’s been some definite boob shrinkage going on, and I’ve been finding that a lot of my tops are just a bit sagging at the neckline now. Mainly because Pickle’s tugged and pulled on them so much that they’ve all lost their shape. It’s all a bit annoying. I would say it’d be the perfect excuse to go on a shopping spree but… I’d need a bit of financial windfall first! There’s not a lot spare these days. So I’m left trying to figure out how best to dress these new proportions with the random selection of clothes that still fit and look alright. I’ll never be a well put-together Mom at baby class! I’m usually the one rocking up with creased clothes, unwashed hair and an overall bedraggled appearance. No one cares though, right?

And to finish on a positive – this is meant to be #LittleLOVES post afterall – I’ve had some lovely opportunities and emails come into my inbox this week. I’m really excited about what’s in the pipeline, and although it’s a little daunting about how much work I have coming up, I really can’t complain. I don’t know if it’s just a good time of year or whether this little blog of mine has turned a corner and this is a sign of things to come but it’s cool, nonetheless. Now just to get myself way more organised to cope with the workload and make sure I’m still writing lovely, honest and interesting content for the months to come. Here’s to making the last quarter of the year the best yet!