For me silence is mind-numbing.

Wait. That may not be the right word for it.

There is something about silence that makes the day feel like it’s going on forever and while it’s not anxiety-driven, I do find that I’m a lot more fidgety and I need to find something to occupy my mind constantly, which is usually checking social media.

This is something that is nothing new. I used to hate working in class when we had to be silent. My mind would be half on what we were meant to be doing and half on the clock waiting for the bell to ring.

The only time when I find silence is helpful is when I’ve got writer's block or I’m reading. Otherwise, I have to have some form of noise around me.

This whole thing is one of the reasons why I loved and still love being a nanny. Didn’t matter what was happening there was always some kind of noise happening.

7 Inside Activities You Can Play During Lockdown

Lockdown his well and truly on us here in Victoria, which means that we’re all stuck inside for large amounts of time.

When I was working full time, we would have days where rain would keep us inside or it was too hot to go out and we’d have to make do with just being inside. Those days it was really easy to go stir crazy. No matter how many books you read, pictures you draw, board games you play, you’re always going to have those moments where the kids are bouncing off the walls and telling your that they’re bored.

Which is why I always tried to have some easy and fun activities to do to help get through the day. Most of these use items that most houses have all the time or are pretty easy to get your hands on or require nothing extra at all. The great thing is that they can all be done inside the house and may need a small amount of set up before you can get down to playing them.

Before we get into them, just be aware that some of these may require supervision, especially with young kids.

Preparing Our Dogs For Our Baby

As many of you know, Arlo and Daphne are our first and second-born children. For nearly two and a half years these two were our main priority other than ourselves to the point that our parents have started to call them their Grandchildren. They are such a part of our lives that we made sure that they were a part of our pregnancy announcement. 

You will also be aware that Arlo has anxiety and it can be tough. We have days where every little outside noise triggers him and we're constantly trying to get him to stop continuously barking at them. Whenever something new comes into the house it can take anywhere from a week to a month for him to get used to it. A good example was when we got a new fridge. He refused to walk past it for two weeks without one of us being with him and him skirting around it, which made toilet training him a bit difficult. 

So when we knew that AJ was on the way, we also knew that we were going to have to put a lot of early work in to ensure that Arlo was as calm and untriggered as possible. We also wanted to do the same with Daphne because even though she doesn't have anxiety, she still needed time to be able to adapt to the changes that were happening in our lives. 

Mama Be Kind To Yourself

Yesterday I finally broke. 

I have been isolating at home basically since AJ was born in January. We limited the amount of time we had outside to protect her until she had her six week shots and then waited another 2 weeks. By the end of that I was ready to start getting out and doing things like going to the library, play group, etc.

But by then the COVID-19 pandemic had hit Australia's shores and the social distancing started. 

At first it was ok. I was a home body anyway. Staying at home was totally fine by me, especially as it protected myself from catching this illness that had the potential to do a lot of harm to my body as I'm an asthmatic. Then we moved and suddenly I was in a new town and knew no one except for AJ's Dad. 

DIY Sensory Baby Painting

One of the best things about AJ now having a good grip on tummy time is that I can encourage it through a range of activities now. 

Normally the following activity is something that I do with toddlers when its a wet, rainy and day outside to minimise the amount of mess as I've always done painting as an outside activity. However, this is also great for babies. With both toddlers and babies it helps develop their fine motor skills and it's also a sensory activity for them. Plus at the end you get a beautiful artwork that you can hang on your fridge, send to someone they love or use it for other projects. 

AJ's 5 Month Update

We're back here again and I'm a little more on time with this update. AJ is five months and we're seeing so much of her little personality come out!

Family Life

Things have been very hectic this month. T's work has ramped up which means that I'm home by myself with AJ until he gets home and then he tries to get other things done around the house once he's home. Over the past weekend I was feeling the burn out from being AJ's main carer for the past month and he took over the final bottle and bed routine. Made me feel all kinds of new. 

Arlo's anxiety has also been at a high lately, so we've had to go back to basic's with him once more to try and help him get through things. It's impacted things a little bit as it's been happening a lot more and it's sometimes waking AJ. We're getting there with him, it's just taking some time. 

DIY Sensory Mobile for Play Gym

I've been a fan of Play at Home Mummy on Instagram for a little while as I have loved the activities that she was doing with her 13-month-old. As I was going through her highlights I found a couple that centered on when Miss 13 months was 4 months, the same age as Arielle, and fell in love with the mobile she had made for her. 

It made me want to make my own version of it but the problem was that I didn't know how I could rig it in our house, due to the fact that we rent. It took me a little while but I eventually worked out how to so it worked on our play gym that we got from Kmart. 

It ended up being very simple and easy to make and so I documented the process so I could share it on Instagram. Then realised that some people may want an easier to read version and decided to write it down on here as well.

AJ Four Month Update

I've blinked and already a third of AJ's first year has gone. It seems like this year has been going by so fast, even with the social distancing and the two of us staying mostly at home. This month has been so full of new developments in her life that I feel like I haven't been able to touch on all of them, so I apologise if I have missed any! And like usual I'm a little late getting this update up, so we can't really claim I'm not consistent with that.

Musical Mondays

For about 18 months before moving to Sydney and starting my career as a Nanny, I worked in a library and helped out with the programs like Story Time and Baby Bounce. I loved helping to organise everything and helping out with the programs as it was a lot of fun and I saw how much the parents and the kids got out of it.

One of the things that I was looking forward to the most with AJ while I was home was getting out and going to things like Baby Bounce at our local library. When AJ was 6 weeks old everything with COVID-19 started and two weeks later we were all on lockdown. It sucked. I was looking forward to those groups so much, especially as we were moving and it was going to give me a chance to meet other Mums and potentially make new friends. 

For a while I started to get upset what we were missing out on that and I let myself feel that. I knew I wasn't the only Mum who had had a baby early this year going through the same thing, so I wasn't alone. Then I remembered that this wasn't forever. We did very well at containing the virus early on and we're now slowly lowering restrictions. I'd grown up on a farm, I knew that while interacting with others is important this short period of time wasn't going to be too big of an issue. She'd catch up. 

4 Ways to Use your Breastfeeding Pillow

So you've bought a breastfeeding pillow and you're either no longer breastfeeding or you're looking for other ways to use it in order to get your money back. Well I've got 4 ways that the breastfeeding pillow can be used that can be beneficial for your baby or helpful for you.

Before I begin I'd like to put a warning in here that the uses that I have listed are all uses that you're going to need to supervise bub while doing. I know it should go without saying, but it's just something I want to throw in there just to make sure that no one reads this and thinks that it's ok to just leave your baby alone while doing these things.