This week was all about cleaning: Aviya’s first bath, Febrezer’s cleaning my lounge, cleaning the cobwebs from my brain, clearing away the clutter of toys. It was also about a lot of cuddles: between mothers and daughters and sisters (and daddy too!). And then there was Nana… who does a lot of cleaning, and is the queen of Nana cuddles. Oh, and she turned 53 too! Happy Birthday Nana!

89/366 – Febrezers and Aviya’s First Bath

We had a team of people calling themselves the ‘Febrezers’ come round to the house today to clean a room for us. They turned up here en masse (five of them) and whirled through our living room, transforming it from erm… embarrassing, to sparkling.  (Head over to their Facebook page, enter the competition, and if you win, they’ll do the same to yours!) I wish they could pop round every day. They left us some beautiful scents, candles and air freshners that even my baby massage clients commented on two days later! What a treat.

 

Aviya is sixteen days old – I can’t believe it! – and it’s time for her first proper bath, which she shared with Ameli. My lovely girls.

90/366 – Buckler’s Hard Historic Maritime Village

I get really itchy feet, and I just need to see something new, and get out and experience something different. When Ameli was a baby we did a lot of travelling, and even last year her and I saw four new countries together and visited six in total. This year things are a bit different, and our fortunes have changed, as they say, and there’s not much travel in our future for now.  Even so, there’s plenty to see in England, and many places we’ve not been before, so my mother, my girls and I set off for the coast where we found Buckler’s Hard, an old historic Maritime village, where Nelson’s fleet was apparently built.

It was a low key, but enjoyable day out and away from the usual routines.

91/366 –  Creating A Play Corner

Play spaces in our house tend to be a fluid concept.  We had a lovely play corner in our old house, then a gorgeously laid out playroom when we moved in here last summer, but with the winter came cold and mould, and toys moved indoors. We had a beautiful wooden toybox we’d been give by Fairy back during their Winnie the Pooh campaign, but Ameli has so many toys somehow (after her birthday and then Christmas, I guess) that she wasn’t playing with anything as, for the most part, she couldn’t GET to it.

I finally managed to sort all her play things – excluding soft toys and LEGO – and organise a new colder weather play corner for her and I’m much happier with it all now. At least now Ameli can access her toys!  Oh – and don’t worry: the irony of storing wooden, non-gender specific toys in pink plastic tubs is not lost on me, but it cost £8 on Ebay. There’s a very apt adage about beggars and choosers that comes to mind.

92/366 – Nana’s Birthday

My mum’s birthday falls on April 1st, which always seems to be a leaving or arriving date for me. I left her behind in Malaysia on her birthday in 2001, then didn’t see her on the day again until her 50th, when I was pregnant with Ameli in 2009. I left South Africa on 1 April 2011 again leaving her behind, and then got to spend it with her again just after having Aviya.  All the years inbetween we were on different halves of world on her birthday, so it was nice to spend a beautiful day together, in the gorgeous sunshine, having a picnic in the park.

Here’s her birthday cake, Aviya sunning her bum, Martin and Ameli putting bubbles in her Fisher Price Mater Bubble Blower which she received last week and adores and my mother showing off her birthday presents – and Avi hiding in her new handbag!

93/366 – Pillow Talk

I have another photo somewhere else, with Ameli around the same age, also lying prone on the sofa cushion, so small it served as a day time bed.  Here we are two and a half years later, and Avi does the same and it’s still precious.

94/366 – Bed Time Cuddles With Ameli

How lucky a girl (although she’s not looking so sure!) to be so loved by her big sister. What better way to go to sleep than cuddled…

 

95/366 – Morning Cuddles With Nana

And just when you thought it couldn’t get better, you wake up to cuddles from Nana.  This is the life.

Thank you so much for joining us for our week in pictures… check the other participants too see how mamas across the world are spending their days!

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Categories: Mamatography

7 Comments

Mamatography Week 14: Cleaning, Cuddles And Nana

  1. I love the sweet picture of your two girls together. Such sweetness! I’m impressed that you’re so up for getting out and about with a newborn. I suspect it will be work for anyone to convince me to leave the house in the first few weeks! Happy belated birthday to your mum!

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