Wow, I can’t believe I’m writing my 2017 review post, already. Where has this year gone? How is Violet nearly a year old? Time has flown by, even more so since having Violet, it seems once you have a baby your life goes in double time. It’s just crazy, but this year has been amazing. Maybe one of the best of my life, it’s certainly been life changing and different to say the least! I’m not sure I remember life without having a baby, what did I do with all that sleep, all that spare time? So, I really wanted to write my annual review so I can capture the memories before they start to fade – it seems my memory doesn’t seem to be as good since having a baby either!
If you fancy a quick jaunt back in time, here are my posts from 2015 (where we bought a house and travelled a LOT!) & 2014 (a year of new beginnings). It seems in 2016 I was too fat and pregnant to remember to write my post. Oops.
JANUARY
In January this year I was 8 months pregnant, so with only a few weeks left of pregnancy I was feeling gigantic, waddling about and as soon as my maternity leave started, I started nesting like a crazy thing too. The freedom of maternity leave was a pretty exciting prospect, I kicked off the first week with coffee with friends, scrapbooking and even a massage at The Grand hotel in Brighton. Shame the rest of maternity leave hasn’t been so luxurious!
We also had our baby shower, which was so lovely. Surrounded by my very favourite people, we drunk tea and ate cake, whilst playing silly games whilst excitedly talking about our new arrival.
FEBRUARY
February was spent getting ready for ‘Baby Peaches’ arrival, putting up the Snuzpod, washing baby clothes, hypnobirthing lessons, NCT classes and such until, on the 24th February….
Violet was born at 02:54, weighing a dainty 6lb 2oz! You can read our full birth story here (things didn’t really go to plan, but do they ever?). From this moment our lives turned upside down and we were parents. We were in hospital for a week with Violet as she had jaundice which was a tiring and difficult time, it’s so horrible watching such a tiny, helpless baby so poorly.
Luckily, she recovered well and we were able to finally go home, taking us into…
MARCH
After the flurry of visitors following Violet’s birth, March looked a lot like this – lots of sitting on the sofa with our new baby, watching box sets as she endlessly cluster fed and fed (and FED). I thought I may never leave the house again. We did however get into town to get Violet registered and celebrated with Afternoon Tea at the Harbour Hotel, which was lovely but our first jaunt into town with a baby was rather daunting, I remember she wouldn’t stop crying and we practically ran through the streets in a panic to find somewhere to sit down and feed her. Thank goodness we are calmer now, those new parent nerves were severe, but we soon relaxed into it all!
APRIL
In April, we had our first family photoshoot, which I’m so glad we did as the photos are beautiful! I started to gain a bit more confidence as a new Mum, taking trips out for coffee with friends on the bus and into Brighton and feeling a bit more like ‘me’ again!
MAY
In May, well and truly on our feet as parents, we did lots of lovely things. We took Violet for her first ever visit to London, we spent the day at the Tower of London and finished with Mexican food at Wahaca, we even made a little video of the day which you can watch here (Violet looks SO small).
I had an amazing Afternoon Tea at The Salt Room with my good friend Andrea and well needed glass of champagne!
We also started Water babies lessons, which we still do now and is one of Violet’s very favourite activities. It’s the highlight of our week, although it took her a while to get used to the water when she was this small!
JUNE
June was a quiet month, Violet practiced her rolling skills at home doing lots of tummy time and eventually mastered rolling from her front to back! For ages she couldn’t roll the other way and would get so frustrated. During this month she also started to ‘chatter’ to herself in a mirror and would spend ages just sitting looking at herself, babbling away. At the very end of the month, Violet tried her first solids, starting with some baby porridge.
JULY
In July, Violet went on her very first holiday! We went to France to visit some of my relatives that live near Bordeaux. It was a lovely trip, but looking back it was a bit too hot for Violet and it was pretty stressful travelling with a baby so young as we drove over 7 hours (broken up into sections) but we did it!
AUGUST
August was a month of fun family days out, we visited the farm, went for Afternoon Tea at Patisserie Valerie and we went to the circus, which I thought Violet would be a bit small for but she LOVED it. Violet also started her weaning journey properly, although the below pictures are not a great example of that!
SEPTEMBER
September was all about the blog events! I went to quite a few, my favourites being the Jo Malone event to celebrate their new English Oak Fragrance and heading up to London with some of my favourite girls to the Ecover Fragrance launch – this photo of Lauren and I sniffing the fabric softener just never stops amusing me!
V also turned 40, so we had a lovely Spa day at the Brighton Harbour Hotel followed by Afternoon Tea at Terre a Terre, which has got to be my favourite restaurant in Brighton!
OCTOBER
Christmas festivities begin early this year with an amazing Secret Santa present of a Kenwood K-Mix! I can’t actually bake so I challenged myself to learn to bake and get busy in the kitchen, actually surprising myself as my first chocolate cake was not that bad, if I do say so myself! So my new years resolution in 2018 is to continue teaching myself to bake and try and to try few more complicated recipes!
Violet and I worked on a really awesome campaign with American Express (which you can see in full here & here). We headed out into town with a photographer (the amazing Kitty Wheeler Shaw, who did our family shoot) and celebrated all things small business in Brighton. It was one of my favourite blog projects so far and I got some lovely photos of us to keep too.
We also had a lovely family day at The SeaLife Centre and Violet LOVED all of the colours, fish and sea creatures!
NOVEMBER
November was a mixed month – usually my favourite of the year as it’s my birthday, but sadly this year my Nan passed away on the day of my 32nd birthday. She was 97 so had an amazing, long, happy life but that doesn’t seem to make it any easier. We still tried to get on with my birthday as I know my Nan would have wanted that, but it didn’t quite feel the same and was a really sad time.
To take our minds from things, we had a weekend away in Odiham which was nice to have a break away from it all and a family day out at Drusillas too.
DECEMBER
December has of course been ALL about Violet’s first Christmas. We put the tree up (which she is fascinated by!) and decorations all round the house. This is the first year in 4 years we’ve gone all out on the decorations so we really went to town for Violet. The weather has been cold and miserable, so we’ve spent lots of days in watching Christmas movies and hibernating.
Violet’s first Christmas was such a lovely day – just a great day of quality time at home with family, lots of food and a LOT of presents (for Violet, not for us!). She was very spoiled by all our close friends and family, lucky girl.
So, that was our year! If you’ve written a post like this, please do leave your link as I’d love to read it, plus you can link up your post over on Lauren’s blog too:
HAPPY NEW YEAR – BEST WISHES FOR 2018 ?
What an amazing year. You did so many things. I love the way you are approaching motherhood. Going with Violet on so many trips even though she is small. I have friends that don’t take their children because they say the children are too small to understand, but it’s not like that. It’s an experience for them, something that makes them think and helps them develop while having fun.
I hope your 2018 will be just as exciting. xx
What a gorgeous post and amazing year! Wishing you all the best for the new year and 2018!
a life of a charlotte
x
Sounds and looks like an amazing year. Sorry to hear about your Nan passing xx #ShareYourYear
What a gorgeous year – Beautiful pics. I love that you have a Violet too – Ours is 11 and they continue to be a joy! Sorry to read about your Nan. Wishing you all the best for 2018 x #Shareyouryear
It has been amazing to see your journey into motherhood and see how much Violet has grown in a year. Can’t believe we are at the end of 2017 already!
Oh gosh! It doesn’t seem two minutes since you had Violet! How time flies….
I’m so sorry about your nan. Sending love and hugs!
Wishing you all the best for 2018 x #ShareYourYear
Such a lovely read, full of Violet joy 🙂 I agree with you about Terre a Terre!
Makes me so emotional looking back at your year! It’s so crazy to think that this time last year we were both pregnant and now this year we have both just had our first Christmases with our babies, eeek! I can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store for you! x
What a busy and wonderful year you have had! How can Violet be almost a year already?! I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your Nan on your birthday xx #ShareYourYear
What a brilliant year! Cannot believe Violet will be one soon! It’s gone so fast! We are attempting a family holiday this year eek!
It sounds like a jam packed year for you! Sorry to hear about your nan – tough at any point but on your birthday must have made it much more difficult.
Happy new year!
What an incredible year. My little man had jaundice too, so tough having to leave them there under the light x
Well you certainly packed a lot into a year and it looked like a good one. Sorry about your Nan though x
What a wonderful year you’ve had! I can’t believe Violet is almost 1!! xxx
What a fabulous year youve had! Such lovely snaps of Violet. In response to your question the age gap between mine is 3 years 4 months, it’s a good age gap in my opinion! (not that i’m biased or anything!) xx
Thanks for linking up! I adore that sunflower photo, and the ecover one is pretty special too!
What an amazing year! The first year of being a parent just brings so many changes 🙂 #ShareYourYear
Gorgeous post – Such a special year, I gave birth to my 3rd child in December 2017 so it was a big year for us also. So sorry to hear about your nan. #shareyouryear