A matter of choice

One of the first things asked of new parents seems to always be 'Who does he/ she look like?' I always hated this question as I'm usually unable to see any likenesses in people. It's often been said that I look like my Mum, and try as I might I just don't see it myself.  Many of Aaron's family have said that that Leo looks like Aaron, and occasionally I've been told (mainly by my Mum) that he looks like me.

Again, I've never really thought he looks like either of us, so I had a look through some photos, and this is what I found...

As you probably know by now, I love a good night out and most exciting are the 'posh' ones!  I'm lucky in the fact that Aaron also loves a 'Black tie' event, and constantly despairs of those not doing properly. We love an excuse to dress up and we don't care who else is... New Years' Eve in our local pub Aaron wore his tuxedo and I a cocktail dress even though most other people were in jeans!

Aaron is one of the few people I know who owns his own tuxedo and he loves to have a reason to wear it so as this weekend saw the first Daxi Magazine Business Awards ceremony, and some of our friends nominated for awards we saw the perfect opportunity.  I wore a gorgeous dress, on loan from The Maternity Wardrobe.


Set up by business partners Carine and Uta, The Maternity Wardrobe offers glamorous dresses to own or borrow and offers free delivery and returns all over Cyprus. With fantastic customer service - including not only beautiful packaging (I'm a sucker for …

Taken last night, you can find out why I had such posh nails and read about our evening here.
Taken for Project 52 - a photo a week for a year

Cyprus - an island in the sun, with 340 days of sunshine a year, or so they told us!  So that means only 15 days of rain right?   I think that might be a little bit of exaggeration creeping into that sales pitch as it seems we've certainly had more than enough of this....


On Wednesday this was the view that greeted me as I opened the curtains,  I suddenly had the feeling this day was going to need a bit of effort to survive it. Leo has been suffering from a bad cough which had seemed to be on its way out but has now turned into a streaming cold.  I am amazed at the amount of snot that can be produced by one child!

Because of this, Leo's not feeling his best and therefore is not he's usual happy self. A plan was needed to cheer him up....Let the activity day commence!

First up......
Making biscuits, but not just any biscuits, oh no, a day like this calls for the most exciting biscuits you could imagine if you are 2..... train biscuits!


There was a bit of a meltdown after I…

There's nothing like a very productive week to leave you feeling cheerful is there, and this week has been more productive than most.

After more than two years we* have now painted every wall in our house. Leo's room was finished earlier this year, and this week Aaron's, with a little 'assistance' from Leo been on a decorating mission.  In just three days he has painted the front room, bedroom and bathroom, and it looks great.

In the process we've also had a  rearrange of furniture and a big clear out. It's a perfect Januray activity for me as it's very productive and makes you feel like you're getting somewhere!


The only thing left to be done is one wall in our bedroom which will be our 'feature wall' and then we have a fully decorated house.  I have a sneaky suspicion there will be changes again early next year and more rearranging as I once again lose patience with things being pulled off low shelves and move it all high up again but for…

This week's Gallery prompt is 'My photography resolution'  and can be anything from learning to use a 'proper' camera (which would actually be a good one for me!) to getting yourself in photos a bit more often as opposed to just taking them.  This seems to be a common problem for Mum's as they are usually the one behind the camera all the time.

My resolution for this year is an easy one, to get not just myself in the photos but the also record the progress of 'the bump'. When I was pregnant with Leo, Aaron got some lovely photos right at the end but had he have been on time we probably would have missed out on them. 

I seem to have very few photos of the rest of the pregnancy, this time I'd like to make sure I get some more as I go along, and hopefully some similar photos towards the end with Leo involved as well.  

Unsurprisingly, given the fact that Aaron and I are often online, Leo is very interested in playing with our laptops these days. We use mine to look at 'the engines' on the Thomas and friends website and with Daddy he likes to type his name into Word.  He doesn't realise that he could also do this on mine yet! He's become very good at it in just a few days and goes around spelling his name to anyone who will listen.


It seems that many toddlers are already used to todays technology, (although that could be a slightly false impression I've gained as I read a lot of blogs and bloggers are naturally going to be fans of laptops, smartphones and cameras, so by default their children will want to be!)  and sometimes I feel a bit mean by not letting Leo loose with any of our gadgets.

It's not that I'm against toddlers using them, or that I think they are too young, it's just I don't trust a heavy handed 2 year old with my precious things.... I don't ev…

For other Project 52's and 366 entries head over to The Boy and Me's weekly link up.  

It's cheerful time again!   This week seems to have flown by which must mean I've been feeling more cheerful than I have recently.

1. After more than 2 years we have finally decided to paint our living room and bedroom, I debated if we could afford the paint but with a little assistance from my Mum it turns out we can, and as I justified it to myself - if we had the money to get the paint Aaron wouldn't have the time to actually paint it as he'd be at work so better get it painted while we can!

2. I've discovered Pinterest, this is possibly not a good things as I didn't really need another way to waste time online but finding a lovely new site to play with is the next best thing to getting a new gadget.

3. It looks like Greek4Kids lessons will soon be coming to my area, which I'm really excited about. When they launched last year I really wanted to take Leo but it was just a bit too far to go every week. I think the lessons are a brilliant idea and hopefull…

I know it's often said that kids say the funniest things but I never expected to be rolling about in hysterical laughter as often as I am with a 2 year old. Leo comes out with some absolute classics and often has brilliant (purely coincidental) comic timing. It recently occurred to me that I'm never going to remember later the things he said that I found so funny, until I remembered I had a blog that is....

So I'll apologise now Leo, in advance but try not to look at these as embarrassing in later life, more as cute!

Trying to get cough medicine into Leo has been an absolute nightmare, worked ok for a few days until he just refused until promised chocolate coin afterwards. The other morning he had the medicine and his chocolate and then five minutes later asked for more chocolate.
Leo: Can I have more chocolate please Mummy?
Me: No, you just had some. I told you, you only have one
Leo: Oh please Mummy, I want more chocolate
Me: No, you can't have more chocolate, you we…

What would we do without the internet?   That's not a rhetorical question by the way, I actually have no idea what we'd do!  Clearly I am a big internet user, and can hardly remember a time when I wasn't but since we've lived in Cyprus it really has become an essential. It's been a god-send in helping us to find out about the area and important information on moving to a new country but most importantly for keeping in touch with friends and family back in the UK.

Email and other social network sites are all very well but these days a quick 'Happy Birthday' on someone's Facebook wall does not say (to me at least) that you've remembered and care about their special day, it doesn't take a genius to realise that if you've put your date of birth on your profile then everyone gets a reminder.

The best thing to do is something a bit more personal, something that shows you've actually made an effort.  The problem with being abroad from our love…

My love of photos goes way back, longer than I can even remember, My Dad was a photographer before I was born and therefore we had lots and lots of photos in the house, each with the date written on the back and lovingly put into albums. (Dad was a photographer but Mum is really organised!) 
As I grew up I spent many an hour looking through all the albums and between my Mum and I we have now scanned all the photos onto disc, and backed them up, and uploaded them to two different websites... well you don't want to be losing all those irreplaceable pictures now do you!   
I'm so pleased that I have this lovely record to look back on and share with Leo as he gets older,  and how else could I prove that my eyes were once blue!
These photos were taken in Estepona in 1983...

Growing up, people often said I look like my Mum, and my Mum says she often sees glimpses of her Mum in me but as a child I definitely had my Dad's blue eyes.



I'm linking up to The Gallery - this week'…