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September Highlights - Claire Moran Designs
When I first started writing my blog back in January I wrote a weekly highlights blog post, which focused on the highs (and lows) with my daughter. However since going back to work and having less time on my hands, I decided to stop the weekly summary. With it being the end of September tomorrow, I decided that I will reinstate my highlights blog post, but I will write this monthly instead of weekly. So here’s my September highlights. Family The highlight of the month is my brother’s wedding. It was such a lovely day, and the first wedding that I have ever taken a baby too, you can read my hints and tips here. The day was perfect from the service all the way through to the reception, and the reading my sister and I did went better than expected. The hangover the next day, was not so great. We enjoyed a beautiful and very much deserved long weekend in Shropshire with the family staying at Hampton Lodge. Usually the husbands all go away for a weekend golfing in North Wales, and this year we decided that us girls should enjoy a weekend away too with the children and babies. We stayed in a gorgeous log cabin style chalet in the middle of nowhere, with a hot tub. Yes a hot tub! It was so nice to relax in the evening once all the babies had gone to bed with a glass or two of prosecco (or white port and tonic). We enjoyed a visit to Chirk Castle which is a National Trust property, just over the border in Wales. I love being able to visit such beautiful places using our National Trust membership. At the time there was a medieval village and battle re-enactment which kept the children entertainment. The grounds of Chirk Castle are beautiful, nicely landscaped and looking out over the Welsh landscape. A long time ago we booked tickets to go to On Blackheath festival. We spent a few hours here, listening to the music and enjoying delicious food. It was a little too hot that day with very little shade, and our daughter was a grumpy, so we made a dash for home sooner than planned. Me I’ve been lucky enough to have two nights out this month. One with the NCT ladies catching up at a local restaurant, over wine and dinner. It’s been a while since we’ve all got together, so it was very nice to see them all. My second night out was for a friends birthday last Saturday. It’s been a long time since I got dressed up and went to fancy bars for cocktails. We visited the Gilbert and Scott bar in the Renaissance Hotel at St Pancreas Station. The bar is beautiful, and the drinks are superb. We then headed to Vinoteca for more wine and food. It was so nice to be out (out) in central London with friends, I definitely need to do that more often. Our Daughter This month we bought our daughter her very first walking/crawling shoes from Clarks Shoes. They are beautiful with a little mouse face on the front, which seem to attract many positive comments. We had a really good experience choosing her shoes and getting her feet measured. The lady in Clarks was really kind, and distracted my daughter when she measured her feet. I’m not sure if the shoes have helped but we’ve also seen lots more standing from my daughter, cruising, and now letting go for a milli-second. Hopefully soon she’ll be walking soon, and the nursery can stop hassling me about her not walking yet. As well as this, she is obsessed with climbing. She has a vtech toy train which she loves climbing on and off, and then clapping. My husband and I also make pretty good climbing frames too. We also installed her TP toys climbing frame in the garden earlier this month. This took a bit of set-up as it wasn’t the easiest of structures to put together. However I am so impressed with the Quad Pod seat we purchased that adapts as your child gets older. I can see lots of enjoyment and future use now that we have a swing in the garden. Unfortunately we haven’t managed to escape the illnesses this month, after a relatively clean spell recently. This week our daughter picked up hand, foot and mouth, which has not been pleasant at all. She has some pretty bad blisters on her feet, and has been excluded from nursery as it’s so contagious. So this week has a been challenge for us all, with my husband and I tag-teaming the care duties in the day. Blog It’s been a very quiet month on the blog, I’ve had a bit of a blogging break with fewer than normal posts published, less tweets scheduled, and a week away from #fortheloveofBLOG linky. Thank you Fi from A Mum Track Mind for holding the fort. Having said that, I have set-up my Instragram account for The Pramshed, and reached over 4,000 Twitter followers. I have a number of exciting products to review, which I’m looking forward to sharing with you all next month. Now that the weather is turning cooler with the season changing from Summer to Autumn, I’m looking forward to getting my warmer clothes out, and purchasing some new boots. I hope you enjoyed reading. What have you been reading this month, I would love to hear from you. Claire