Candyfloss & Dreams

Author: Kat Candyfloss

Isle of Wight Holiday 2019

Last week we had our usual summer holiday caravan trip at Thorness Bay holiday park on Isle of Wight. It’s our third time there and we still love it. It was really nice to explore a different part of the island too. We had a day out in Shanklin which is a beautiful seaside place to visit and a day out at Blackgang Chine which is a small theme park on the southern part of the Island close to Ventnor.

Thorness Bay had everything you need really but it’s not a park I want to return to. It’s not that anything was bad as such it was just a park in the middle of nowhere. It felt a little bit too quiet for us as a family and I think we prefer the resorts on the eastern side of the Island. However, it was a nice break away and had what you would expect on site including an entertainment lounge, bar and resturant, swimming pool, play park and multisports court. There was also walking access to a private beach and bay.

Driving there from the east cowes ferry terminal was fairly straight forward and took around 30 minutes or so. We got to the park, checked in around 3.30pm and unloaded the car before heading back into Newport and going to morrisons for a quick food shop. We also had some dinner in the cafe there as we were all pretty peckish. We decided to skip the evening entertainment on the Monday night as Felix wanted to move around the caravan. We also had trouble fitting the travel cot in any room other than the living room so we had to co-sleep on the first night then we made a sort of makeshift bed on the floor for him. He actually slept pretty well, it’s just a shame Adam and I didn’t.

The surrounding countryside was beautiful to wake up to I have to say and the whole park was really quiet which was nice. We had an early drive down to Shanklin in the morning for a walk along the beach, had fish and chips for lunch and then spent the afternoon at the Sandown zoo. We got back for some time at the indoor swimming pool which Evie and I did alone as Felix wanted to move around again after lots of time in his car seat and then push chair. We went to the evening entertainment that evening after dinner and it was nice to have a little stroll around the park.

Wednesday was spent on site, we had a pretty chilled out morning and then a late morning swim. Felix had his first time in the pool which was really nice for him. He really enjoyed being in the water. I liked the fact that you could walk down into the pool using steps rather than trying to climb down a ladder with a baby in your arms. He had a lot of fun splashing about so we will be taking him swimming again.

We headed back to the caravan for lunch and some chill out time watching TV and giving Felix some time to crawl around on the floor. Holidaying with a baby requires a lot of chill out time really as they get overwhelmed quickly and where crawling and cruising is so new for him now he’s nine months being stuck in a pushchair is just the worst and I don’t blame him really. We then headed back to the resturant for dinner and a bit of the kids entertainment. Evie spent a lot of time in the park and a bit of time in the arcade too.

Evie struggled this holiday. Her behaviour was not perfect and there was a lot of slamming doors and stomping. It was the worst behaved she’s been on holiday and it sort of ruined it for us actually. We really try and put the most into giving her a good, fun summer holiday every year that’s within our budget and the lack of gratitude was really hard to deal with. I know kids don’t see the behind the scenes stuff like the cost and time and effort planning but she was incredibly vocal about how disappointing it was. I am sort of at my wits end with her extra challenging behaviour these days and I’m not quite sure where to turn.

The last day was spent at Blackgang Chine on the south side of the Island and it is a lovely, fun day out. We got there for 10am opening and started walking around. The backdrop is absolutely stunning views of the sea and there is loads to look at. Evie even braved a few of the rides and Felix had his first Mr Whippy ice cream (well, he finished off mine!) We also purchased Trevor the Sloth.

The holiday was fine but it wasn’t the break I was desperately hoping for if I’m honest. It was nice to get away but the holiday park was too quiet with not enough friends for Evie to make which frustrated her. Our caravan was too far from the park so we couldn’t really let her just go off and play to burn off some steam as it was too far for her to go on her own. The beach area was nice but not really ideal for babies. I think it just wasn’t the holiday park for us really. However, it is always nice to have a break and see a few new things and it was full of plenty of firsts for Felix as well as getting loads of lovely photos. We also got a little video of our time there.

July 11, 2019
The CRUK Advertisement Campaign IS dangerous

As a fat person I am discriminated against. I feel like I have less discrimination than others because I’m not as marginalised as some, I’m a mum that’s had two c-sections and I’ve constantly said how ashamed I am of my body. The truth is if I go to the doctors for ANY reason I will be told I am fat and that will fix my problems. Over the years GP’s have dismissed my health, my anxiety, my post-natal depression, my wellbeing, my contraception choices because I am fat. They have refused to help me apart from telling me to be thin. Even at my cervical screening I was told I was too fat by a nurse. Not for the cervical screening (which was absolutely fine) but just that I was too fat.

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HOLD CRUK ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR STIGMATISING CAMPAIGN// Reading through the comments on my post from Monday about the new @cr_uk campaign put it into sharp focus how much hurt and pain this campaign has caused. Along with a team of wonderful colleagues across health care, academia and fat activism, we have crafted a considered response to CRUK calling for the immediate cessation of this campaign. We have written an open letter which published this morning on Medium. We also felt it was important to capture how people have been affected by this and to give them something to actually *do* about it. Therefore we have also created a petition that you can sign in support of the 5 action point on the second slide (swipe 👉). You can also leave a comment underneath to share your experiences of this campaign, which we will then pass along to CRUK (as they somehow are still adamant it’s not harmful 🤨). Please share the petition as far and wide as is humanly possible. Link where links go.

A post shared by Laura Thomas, PhD, RNutr (@laurathomasphd) on Jul 5, 2019 at 12:40am PDT

I know I am fat. I have known for a long time. I have known through the starvation, the food deprivation, the binge eating, the yo-yo dieting, the body shame, the body hatred, the self harm, the depression, the tears in the mirror, the guilt for feeling hungry. The well meaning thoughts from family that “if you just lost weight” the “oh don’t say that about yourself” conversations. I am fat and it’s none of your business.

I am fat but I don’t get sick very often. I am fat but I walk plenty, I love swimming and my blood pressure is fine. I am fat but I absolutely hate pizza. I am fat but I’m giving up dairy and cutting down on meat because I don’t like it. I am fat but I love aqua zumba. I am fat but actually I am very capable of making wellbeing choices for myself. It’s only when I stop the guilt and the shame and focusing on the happiness and self love that I make better choices, that I listen to what my body craves.

The thing is though, BMI is a load of crap – you can have a high BMI and be made of pure muscle so how can a BMI accurately detect obesity if it’s to do with fat? It’s an outdated measurement. So how can a high BMI = fat = cancer? Diet can play a massive part in the cell changes that lead to cancer but a thin person can eat junk food? So how can that mean fat = cancer? I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I walk, I swim, my diet isn’t the best but it’s not constantly fueled by junk food & fried food. There are some cancers in my family but it isn’t as rife as it is in others. So my real risk factor is my BMI which I will agree is higher due to fat not muscle, but BMI is one of the lowest “causes” of cancer?

This campaign doesn’t make sense.

I’ve just watched a lovely blogger friend of mine, Emma from Island Living 365 go through chemo for bowel cancer. She’s had two operations in quick sucession. She is a lovely person who from what I can see has a really active, fun lifestyle. She did race for life whilst going through treatment!

It just goes to show that cancer can affect you if you are the healthiest, thinnest person in the world. Cancer can affect anyone. Blaming obesity and comparing it to smoking is dangerous. This campaign will put fat people off from going to the doctors, going to cervical screenings, going for check ups, ignoring their body.

I strongly recommend you read this open letter by Laura Thomas and a group of health professionals, acedemics and people who want to change the stigma on weight. If you agree with the contents of the letter then please sign the petition to get this damaging campaign removed before it ruins lives. Because it will. It absolutely will.

July 8, 2019
Felix at 9 Months

My baby boy is nine months old already. Time is absolutely flying by and his 8 to 9 month of life has brought plenty of changes. He now has his first two teeth and his top two are just there moving down about to break through. We can see them pretty clearly but they haven’t cut through the gum yet.

We have had our first holiday as a family of four where Felix enjoyed ice cream, the sand, the sea, bubbles and swimming. He was constantly crawling and cruising around the caravan and showing us how fast he can go. He’s a real climber and he is just starting to lower himself with some control back down to the floor.

He has been blowing kisses and waving a little bit recently although its more of a hand flop but he will imitate in his own way when we blow kisses and wave at him. Some of his sounds say like he’s saying hello and no but most of his babble is just funny baby speak. It seems he is starting to recognise Adam as dada and me as mumma. He’s also said a little bit of Nanana which is quite cute.

He is a pretty smiley baby and has his own little cackle although he doesn’t really laugh out loud very much. It’s more of a throaty growl noise to be honest which is pretty funny. He loves to kick his legs out when he’s happy. He follows us around a lot too and has a lot of distrust in the hoover.

Food wise he does seem to suffer with constipation from time to time, particularly with heavy fibrous foods like cereals so we are experimenting with getting the right amount of fibre and fruit for him. He is doing a lot more self feeding now too. He is still having around 5 bottles of 6oz milk a day at the moment. I know he will have a 9-12 month review with the health visitor so I will ask about this. We are planning on moving over to oat milk rather than cows milk at the age of 1 but we will see how that goes.

He is an early riser which I am really struggling with now. He is often awake around 5am and it just makes the day feel very, very long. It’s particularly hard on one of Adam’s work days because he is asleep most of the day and I feel like I’m parenting solo a lot of the time. It got to a point where I said that on some of his days off we need to swap so that he gets up with Felix and does the school run in the morning just so I can have a little bit of a break which does seem to help quite a lot.

Most mums would be returning to work around 9 months. I have been working on and off for the last nine months being self employed however I am going to try and put in a proper work type schedule over the next few months and hope to have a good working routine in place by the time he’s one.

July 8, 2019
Cosatto Woosh XL Review

A couple of months ago we purchased a new pushchair for Felix. We originally had a travel system which was great for the birth – six months bassinet type pram but when we flipped it to parent facing Felix looked uncomfortable, the straps were at odd angles and the soft cover foot muff didn’t really stay in place. Getting him in and out for the school runs was becoming an absolute nightmare. So I went back to Cosatto’s website and selected the absolutely beautiful Woosh XL in the Mister Fox design. Both Felix and I absolutely love it!

The Cosatto Woosh XL is lovely and slim. The design is beautiful and Felix fits in it like a dream. He’s a long but slender baby so having something on the narrow side has worked wonders for us as he has plenty of room. Opening the box the pushchair came with a cute Mister Fox soft toy, raincover, cup holder, generous under pram storage and a full hood with sun shade. We decided to purchase the additional reversible foot muff too for the colder weather.

Folding the Cosatto Woosh XL is simple and it folds up quite small compared to other brands we have used which is ideal for taking out and about and will be perfect for our holiday in July. You do need to make sure the shopping basket underneath isn’t extended out to fully fold down. Bringing back up is nice and simple too so we’re no longer stood outside the car in a busy car park setting up a pram for ten minutes.

I am really, really happy with our pram. It’s a great size, folds up well and Felix is comfortable in it.

July 8, 2019
Felix at 8 Months

Felix is now 8 months old. I have no idea what he weighs as I haven’t taken him to the clinic. Now we have a car we may do but he is growing, he’s eating well, he’s moving well, he’s sleeping well so I kind of feel weight shouldn’t be an issue. He is supposed to have the 9-12 month development check soon so I’m sure they will weigh him then.

He’s going to need to move into some of his 9-12 month clothes shortly as he’s just very long. He’s very slender though so things that fit him well over the bottom aren’t really good with the length. Still at least it’s summer now so he can wear a few less layers.

Physically

Felix is commando crawling everywhere now and occassionally gets up on his knees to crawl too. He is starting to take one hand off the floor to reach up to things and pull himself onto things but not quite pulling himself to standing. He now sleeps on his front because he flips onto it as soon as he’s ready to sleep. He sleeps better than when we tried to flip him back as he would just wake up and cry. We’ve also transitioned into a cot from his co-sleeper crib and he’s done brilliantly in there for the last week.

Socially

He is very vocal and chatty now saying mum ma mum ma, dadada and nanana amongst all the other little noises. He has a great cough-laugh which makes me laugh a lot. He likes to look in the mirror and he’s very smiley. He also whines and whinges a lot at this age to get our attention if he wants picking up. It’s different from the cry he would usually do.

Routine

He is now on three meals a day with a variety of purees and finger foods. We offer him water with his meals and he’s still having five bottles of 6oz of formula milk. He wakes up around 5.30 am and is usually ready for bed by 6.30pm. He likes a bit of a change of scenery from time to time but if we go out he can get a bit of FOMO and sometimes won’t nap which can lead to him becoming overtired. We had a night away in half term and he did really well with a different bed so hopefully when we’re on holiday next month he will do well sleeping there too.

June 4, 2019