We have a new baby in the family! A very fluffy kitten!
We have been researching getting a kitten for a few months now, looking at different breeds. Andre has a bit of an allergy to cats and we found that Siberian cats are one of the best breeds for allergy sufferers as they have less of the allergen Fel-D 1 which is in cats' saliva.
Adrian is 7 months old. This is his registered name, we're still deciding whether that will be what we'll call him or if we'll have a different name we'd call him by. We have a few names in mind but it's not easy finding one all three of us are happy with and that suits him!
I met him at the breeder last weekend and was meant to only collect him this coming weekend, but with the lockdown rules getting stricter we brought this forward a few days. He is staying in the main bedroom for now and his favourite hiding spot has been behind my fluffy dressing gown hanging from the radiator. Andre managed to coax him out before bed time with some cat toys.
When I switched off the bedroom light at bedtime, he started crying and walking around the room. After two hours Andre suggested trying Isabella's sleep stories to get him to calm down. Instead I found this calming music for cats on YouTube. He stopped crying as soon as I put it on and I had it playing throughout the night and only heard one or two more small miaows from him during the night.
Isabella is of course finding it so hard to be patient and just wants him to come out and play. But it will take some time for him to settle in and we'll be keeping him in the one room until he is more at home with us.
Day 4 of Coronavirus Stay at Home. This morning we even received an official text from government saying "New rules in force now: you must stay at home." No more just keeping your distance. Just stay at home.
So we joined Joe Wicks and the nearly 1 million other families at home to do today's PE session at 9am. It's a good workout that. Well for me at least! My legs were definitely aware of yesterday's session.
Then we did what we did after yesterday's PE session: had cake!
Late morning Andre played school with Isabella and they covered a lot of work. I was very impressed by his teaching skills! Big part of it is really also Isabella's eagerness to learn. While they were busy with school work, I did office work.
Andre gave Isabella a word each time to create a sentence with. Next we need to practice joining ideas using 'and'.
In case you missed it, Isabella wrote the previous blog post all on her own. I just showed her how to add pictures, but she did it herself. It took a while, so we need to work on speed.
Isabella and I spent the rest of the day in the garden- trampolining, blowing bubbles. AND we cleaned the greenhouse! I have been wanting to do that for YEARS! And it was so easy to clean actually. You can now see right through the (glass!) greenhouse to the other side! Seeds are getting more sunlight too. The glass was a yucky green before. I should have taken a before picture.
You can kind of still see the 'before' dirty glass to Isabella's right and the clean glass obviously to my left.
We're enjoying three meals a day TOGETHER now too which is lovely. Breakfasts aren't rushed, lunch we never had together before, and dinner we can start earlier, cooking together because we're less rushed to and from activities and Andre's commute is only a couple of steps now instead of 30 - 40 minutes drive!
I know this must be super hard for many people, especially those who had to close businesses and those getting really ill, but we are so thankful for all the good that is coming from this. Time to eat, play, learn and work together. And time to just be at home. It feels good not having to rush anywhere.
I was so looking forward to going out for a cream tea for Mother's Day today, but will have to try that again another time.
We still had a lovely day at home with the sun being out. More gardening: we planted tomato, cucumber, courgette and sweetcorn seeds plus some more sunflower seeds, all still in the greenhouse. We're going to have a full garden!
Isabella has been spending a lot of time on the trampoline.
And instead of scones, Andre and Isabella baked a Mother's Day cake in the afternoon while I relaxed with a book in the sunshine.
Tomorrow it is work and 'school' for us at home. Isabella is actually very excited to be doing school work at home and can't wait to get started. I need to read through the planning her teachers sent home, but I know we'll have more than enough to keep us busy with educational activities. Luckily she enjoys that.
We have a bit of a schedule ready for weekdays, although it will be flexible and is just to help us get back on track if things start getting a bit tricky or if Isabella gets bored. It's something we can then refer back to for ideas.
The sheet at the top is from The Organised Mum Blog and is where we write down things we'd like to do during the day so we don't forget. Also a bit of meal planning. But all open to change. The sheet below is a list of things Isabella can pick from of things to do.
A slightly more detailed routine for the day, but all it basically says is Isabella to try play on her own and once that fails mum or dad to take turns playing and working. With a bit of screen time in between of course to help us out.
It has been strange how quickly life has changed these past four weeks or so. From only hearing about this coronavirus/ Covid-19 starting in China when it felt so far away and not affecting us at all, to hearing about how quickly it started spreading through Italy and then through the rest of Europe and becoming a risk affecting us and everyone worldwide. It's such a strange thing this way we're living now and how quickly we got into keeping our distance from others whenever possible. Becoming suspicious of a cough.
We started working from home on Monday, with Andre still in the office some days. We've set up a second desk at home and it's been working well. This coming week Isabella will be joining us at home so things will change some more once again, but I'm sure we will be keeping it interesting and making it work!
It has been a lovely relaxing day at home today. I am absolutely enjoying not having to rush anywhere. No where to be and no one we need to see.
We started the day playing vets with Isabella's soft toys. ALL. OF. THEM. She has no favourites and loves them all equally. That was what she told me when I asked and it's absolutely true.
(You can click the [ ] at the bottom right of video to see it full screen.)
We then moved downstairs and Andre built our outdoor chairs which arrived yesterday. We're still waiting on the table and I'm suspecting an issue here so will probably need to contact the supplier on Monday. But so excited that we'll finally be able to eat outside this summer! We went for this cast aluminium set as it seemed the most durable for the shady (damp) spot the table will be spending most of the year.
Isabella started working on a cardboard house for her soft toys using the empty boxes.
We spent some time in the garden, I planted flowers, Isabella went on the trampoline, Andre and Isabella washed the motorbike and then also went for a short ride around the village on it. Isabella also got back on her own bike for a cycle! Something she's not done since summer. I didn't join them, but apparently she was doing well on her two wheels. I will capture some evidence of that next time.
Isabella was excited to start her school pack she got on Friday evening already, but we have decided to keep weekends as weekends and start that on Monday. All of Isabella's after school activities have now been canceled, her two dance classes, gymnastics and ice skating, and restaurants and gyms etc have been told to close too.
Today our schools are closing until further notice. That is for at least the next four weeks as we would have had two weeks left of school before the two week Easter holiday. We're ready to receive a work pack from the teachers this afternoon and look forward to giving home schooling a try. I made sure to get a picture this morning on the way to school, just in case this might end up being Isabella's last day of Year 1! Hopefully they will get to go back for the summer term though.
For my own future reference I should add that this is of course due to the Corona virus or COVID-19 situation. We're all still healthy and hoping to keep it that way for now so will just be trying our best to stay home.
We will try to keep blogging now about our days at home and what we're going to do to keep busy. Andre and I are both still working, and so thankful for that, so Isabella has already been told that she'll be doing some activities on her own at times. I'm planning to try and get her to do some blogging here too!
Isabella and I decided to make a short video and post with some tips of what works best for us when flying. We have done at least 5 long haul flights with Isabella now, she's only 5 years old and while it is still not easy, it does get better!
Before flying:
We always book Isabella a kids meal. You can do this via your airline's website and should find it around the section where you can select your seats. The kids meals usually consists of something like chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and fruit plus child friendly crisps, chocolate treat and a juice/ water bottle. There is no way Isabella would eat any of the regular meals you would receive. Too many different bits touching and strange sauces etc. So this way she usually manages to eat at least something.
The other benefit to ordering a special kids meal is that it is brought to your seat before the rest of the plane is served their meals. This allows you to help your child with his/ her meal, then get them settled with a movie before your meal arrives, allowing you to enjoy your meal in relative peace.
What to pack:
Carry on suitcase
We use one of these once it's sleep time to extend Isabella's seat to a bed. Place it upright at the child's feet with a pillow on top and you have a bed! See photo below.
Pillows and spare clothes
In this suitcase we pack 1-2 pillows depending on space and spare clothes for everyone. We've never needed it, but I'm pretty sure the day I don't pack spare clothes for all of us she will be vomiting all over us or spilling a drink on me. It can also often be quite warm on flights so pack light clothing and layers.
Sleep mask
Isabella sometimes likes sleeping with a sleep mask at home or will drape her comforter over her eyes. We find it definitely helps her to switch off and fall asleep faster. Especially useful on a plane with many distractions and then on the rest of the holiday too. She had a cute reindeer one from Primark for the past Christmas flight.
Favourite toys
Isabella loves her soft toys so we pack about three of these, a few dolls, note pad and pens, stickers, activity books. Any of your child's favourites, although we find these get used minimally on the flight. Do pack lots of toys for the holiday as we found Isabella gets homesick even during the best holidays and it helped having enough bits from home.
She now looks after her own carry-on as you can see below, which also holds her favourite soft toy or doll in a pouch on the outside. She used to have a Trunki which was useful to sit or ride on when her legs got tired, but a pain to pull along as the wheels don't swivel and a pain to open on the flight as it needs to fold completely open.
Tablet and headphones
When Isabella was younger, the angle of the screen and her height meant she couldn't see the built in screen very well so a tablet worked better. Now that she is 5 and taller the screen worked perfectly fine for her and she enjoyed the choice of movies. Having her own comfortable headphones was a must as the adult size in-ear headphones wouldn't have been comfortable for her.
Snacks
Isabella usually ends up not eating a lot of her snacks, but again, should I not pack any she would probably be asking for more snacks. I would pack as many snacks as possible.
Milk
Isabella loves her milk so we pack her empty milk bottle which now is a sippy bottle she loves. Before boarding get some warm milk from a coffee shop. You could even bring a flask to fill with warm milk form a coffee shop. Previously on flights we were told they didn't have enough milk for children to drink and that it was only really for tea/ coffee on the flight.
When she was under a year and drinking formula milk I took pre-made bottles of formula which you are allowed to take for babies. Plus some formula powder in a container to prepare fresh on the plane if needed.
Reward for good sleeping
On our first long flight with Isabella I bought various cheap small toys to have some new things to keep her occupied. This was a mistake as she was so excited to open all of these she didn't want to sleep. Now what we find works better is having one treat which is kept for the next morning, usually very early morning, once your child has hopefully slept at least a few hours during the night. We've had good flights where Isabella slept six hours, and then we had our last flight when she had three hours sleep only.
If you're flying with little ones, may it be as quick and painless as possible! Enjoy your trip!
