Celebrating with food

On Tuesday it was Chris' birthday so I thought it was only fair I treated him. We went to the Grosvenor Pulford for lunch at Nelsons bar.

I had the smoked salmon with asparagus, poached egg and hollandaise sauce to start. It was very tasty!

Chris had the baked nachos, I have to say I helped myself to a few as the bowl was massive.

For main Chris went for the minted lamb steak with spicy wedges and minted yogurt. I've never seen wedges so big in my life.

I went for the chicken fajitas, they were immense. As I was busy feeding Mila Chris had to take a picture of my food, hence the not so great picture.

No lunch is complete without a good espresso, what's even better is it comes with a little cookie : )

If you fancy a visit yourself then check out their website here

To walk off our lunch we popped up the road to the Grosevnor garden centre, I say its a garden centre but it has clothes, books, homeware, food just to name a few. No good garden centre would be complete without a cafe. I opted for a brew and a slice of this gorgeous lavender cheesecake. I was a bit dubious that it might taste well like I had been eating the flowers but I was pleasantly surprised. I would highly recommend trying lavender cheesecake. I may have to try and recreate this one day.

Later that evening I cooked Chris a meal. I bet you're thinking how could they eat a three course meal after having such a big lunch. Well what can I say we both love our food.

To start I made my own sun dried tomato and Parmesan rolls with slices of chorizo and mozzarella, chicken and chorizo pate and of course a glass of prosecco.

For main I did rump steak, baby new potatoes in wild garlic pesto, roasted glazed baby carrots and asparagus.

No birthday is compete without a birthday cake. I opted to make birthday cupcakes, the frosting is lemon with popping candy and hundreds and thousands.

And here is the birthday boy himself.

By the end of the day we were both knackered and had very full bellies.

What my daughter wore...

If baby fashion is your passion then check out what little Miss Mila has been wearing : )

This was the first outfit we put Mila in to bring her home. The hoodie is from F&F and the onesie is from George.

The top and jeggings are from F&F and were an absolute bargain in the sale, it cost a mere £2 for the set! 

The fluffy shoes are a hand me down from her cousin Joesph, whose feet were too big to wear these cosy shoes.

The dress is from Next and was bought for her by her Nanna, Chris' mum and the socks are from a lovely set that was bought by my friend Nicky. She is one spoilt little lady.

This is Mils in her first designer outfit, the pinafore dress and top is Jasper Conran.

The dressing gown is a Cedric the Caterpillar one and was bought for her by my friend Katie.

I love this sleep suit from Next and was one of the many presents from her Nanna, my mum.

This is Mila's tribute to comic books with a Batman sleep suit, its from F&F and is from the boys section but I think it is so cute I don't care that its for boys.

This top and leggings set is from George and was given to me by the lovely Karen, she gave me a massive bagful of goodies that Flo had outgrown. Some of the things still had their tags on. 

She might not look impressed but she does like being in dresses, this pretty floral dress with matching knickers is from George and was bought for her by my friend Jen.

As the weather has been pretty warm recently, its meant I have been able to put her in some pretty dresses. The dress was one her daddy picked out from Debenhams, its a John Rocha one. The headband is from Monsoon and was one of the many gifts she got off Auntie Katrina and Uncle Lee.

Mila loves her labels. This dress is from Ted Baker, daddy picked this baby Baker dress out in the sale at Debenhams.

I'm a little teapot... This top and leggings set is from Tu at Sainsburys and was bought for her by her Nanna. They c have 25% off clothing at currently Sainsburys!

Hello Sailor! I know I am biased as I'm Mila's mum, but how cute does she look in this H&M dress and socks? H&M have some rather cute baby clothes and its quite reasonable too. This was another outfit Nanna bought her. My mum really likes to spoil her grandchildren, plus baby clothes are just so damn cute!

A lot can happen in 36 and a half weeks

 So in August I found out that I was expecting my first baby, I was due at the end of April and was over the moon.

If you read my other blog then you will know that I take pictures of what I wear, I thought I would use that to my advantage to chart the growth of my bump and my changing shape.

Here is baby at 12 weeks, seeing her on the screen for the first time and to see her little heart beating away was such an emotional experience. Words can't express the elation Chris and I felt when we got to see her and knew that it was all going okay.

If you scroll down you will see me getting bigger and bigger and bigger : )

At this point I was nearly 36 weeks pregnant and as you can see I'm huge. My bump really blossomed at the back end of my pregnancy. From behind I apparently didn't look pregnant. 

I had Mila at 36 weeks and 5 days, I developed mild pre-eclampsia when I was around 35-36 weeks and the only way for me to get better was to deliver Mila. As I had type 1 diabetes as well I was what they call a high risk pregnancy. Due to my diabetes I knew I was going to have a bigger baby. She was 7 pounds and 12 ounces, not bad really considering she was 3 and a half weeks early.

Here is Mila Louise only a few hours old.

Having this little pudding has changed my life, its been one of the best things I have ever done. Don't get me wrong it is hard work and a whole nights sleep is a thing of the past but its totally worth it when her little chubby face is smiling up at me from my arms.