Kingdom of You

I swear we have the biggest collection of soft toys ever in our house, and Henry loves them all. I feel like part of his love for animals stems from his stuffed animal collection. And his growing love of books (yay!!) from his rapidly growing library!

I think reading stories with your teddies is an absolute must for little ones, so we're starting early with little help from Wonderbly and the Kingdom of You book*. And I caught him red-handed at story time with his fluffy friends.

Cake and The Birthday Thief

Is there anything better in life than a really good book and a hot cup of tea? Well as an adult, not much beats that chilled out feeling of zoning out with a great story. 

But for a kid, I think the ultimate equivalent is a picture storybook and cake!

If you've read this blog for a while you'll know that we adore books, and as a writer of sorts, and a huge reader, having an extensive library has always been a priority. 

I also really believe that books can make some of the best gifts ever. 

And even more so if they're personalised. 

Enter Wonderbly and their story The Birthday Thief*. 

Recipes for the whole family - The Flavour Led Weaning Cookbook

Our weaning journey has been a pretty great one.
I never realised how much fun meal times could be.Yes I love food and love to experiment with new foods and dishes, but nothing quite compares to seeing your little try and love new foods.

However, sometimes it can be really difficult to make a meal that suits everyone at the table and that can be made relatively quickly and easily.
That's where the Flavour Led Weaning book* comes in handy. It's a healthy guide to introducing your little one to different flavours and textures.

Remember when we lived here - a keepsake to remember

You guys know how much I love books. I mean I've talked about them enough over the last few months haven't I?
The thing is I loved books as a little girl and would literally be reading all the time. It was a running joke in my household that you couldn't get my attention as I always had my nose in a book. And I have so many fond memories of the books that shaped my childhood (some of which you can read about here) that I want to make sure that Henry gets that same experience.

I really think books make the most perfect gifts. Maybe it was your favourite book from when you were little (like when Alice and Arran bought Funny Bones for Henry just because they adored the book as a kid), or it was a book you really wanted to read but never got the chance to (we have the entire Faraway Tree collection from Emily, which I have never read, but am so looking forward to reading to Henry when he is older), or maybe it's a book that they can treasure forever.

Earlier in the month I wrote about Lost My Name and their amazing personalised books. We adored their first book, so were over to moon to receive their second one - The Intergalactic Journey Home*. Whereas the first book talked all about creatures that spelled out your little ones name, The Intergalactic Journey Home is space themed, but ends with your little one coming home - and of course it's personalised to your actual home.

Lost My Name - the perfect children's gift

I love books.
I love children's books.
I love books as gifts.
So a children's book as a gift is like the perfect present to me.

The thing with books,is that can create the most amazing memories - more so than any toy. They're pretty timeless, especially if they're taken care of. They can become hand-me-downs to your children, and kept for nostalgic reasons for decades. You can see some of my own children's books in this post, which I will be reading to Henry.

Anyway, I always like books as a gift. I don't think you can really go wrong with them. You can get classics, or pop-ups or something modern. Or you can get something truly personal.

The Lost My Name books* are pretty much the perfect gift for a little one. Something they can keep forever. A story about them that will stay with them til adulthood.
(there's a 15% off link at the end of this post too so you can get your own!)

Living a life of Hygge #thelittlebookofhygge + microwave mug brownie recipe

Since starting a family a major priority of this is making sure we have lots of happy times. And a major part of this is making family time. This is where hygge comes into play.

Hygge is of Danish origin and kind of means a mixture of different things. 

According to The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking of the Happiness Research Institute, hygge can be explained as 'creating intimacy', 'cosiness of the soul' or 'taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things'. And in the infamous words of Winnie-the-Pooh "you don't spell it, you feel it" - much like love. 

The reason I've found hygge so completely fascinating is that it truly resonates with me, and how I want my life, and my families life to be. I want to create a feeling of togetherness and closeness within my family, and I really feel that hygge is so appropriate for creating this.

Our favourite children's books & bedtime routine

We're a family of book lovers. I've always been a big book reader, though I will admit to having less and less time for it these days. Other things just take priority over sitting in a chair with a book for several hours.

After posting my list of summer reads last month I felt inspired to share more about reading and books here on the blog, in the hope it will motivate me and my family to try and read more. It's so easy to get stuck into a TV series when a book could give us so much more.