Liam Rides A Pony

Last month we had one of the most memorable adventures with Liam yet. We went pony riding! Recommended age for pony riding starts at 2-3 years old, so off we went! We decided on the Centre d'Equitació Poni Club Catalunya, in Sant Just, as it's right next to Barcelona and that's where my friend Helena's brother keeps his horse, which we visited after the pony ride, too. 

I thought the activity was fantastic, not only because Liam looked like a pro on the pony and really enjoyed it, but because the ride is very well organized. A pony ride costs 7euros, and lasts for about half an hour. That's an approximate timing, because no one from the club comes with you, you just take the pony and go on the signaled path by yourself, which we thought was marvelous. The path is a circuit that leads you back to where you started, and it takes, indeed, around 30 minutes at a slow pace. 

Our partners in crime: my friends Helena and Cristina <3 Also, I love how Liam looks at mommy in this pic!

 

I was truly amazed at Liam and his pose for the whole time, he looked like he was born to ride a horse, ha! A month later, he stills asks me at least once a day to go back to see "Ben", his pony :D  

We went to see Helena brother's horse and Liam fed him so good! I'm so happy he enjoyed this day so much, as we all did! 

By the way, I was 33 weeks pregnant and felt huge already, imagine now at 38! :D

Merry Xmas 2015

Merry little Christmas, everyone! I know this comes a bit early but with these gorgeous pictures I got a couple days ago, I just couldn't wait any longer to show them all to you! I'm absolutely in love with how they came out, such a great memory for years to come of little Liam and his second Christmas. The pictures are by talented Nagira, to whom I'm so grateful for fitting us in even though I arrived when her Christmas schedule was already closed. Yay to these beautiful pictures, I couldn't like them any better!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas 2015

New AMWF YouTube Channel

Some months ago, one of my friends mentioned a YouTube channel to me that, she said, I might be interested in. Knowing as she does that it is my dream to have four kids, she recommended channel Verdeliss, the life of a stay-at-home mom who has four kids and expecting twins #5 and #6, even though she's our age! If you speak Spanish and you're interested in seeing how to run a house with 4 kids, I strongly recommend her channel to you. I myself got addicted to it and have been watching sooo many videos these last few days. I loved the idea of recording the everyday life of our family, so I decided I'd give it a shot, too! That's why I've just opened a YouTube channel, where I plan to feature our life as a (currently) AMWF family of 3, and eventually (hopefully) a family of 6! 

I love going through my old blog posts and seeing what I was up to some years ago, and I think videos get even more personal, and I will enjoy watching them later on even more. I don't have many videos of Liam's first year of life, and it's something I regret deeply. Hopefully this new YouTube project will put an end to the lack of videos! I hope you like this first video I've prepared, in which we feature our 24-hour routine on a regular day. The video was recorded on Tuesday November 10th, and it shows how our family spends a normal school/workday. 

If you do like it, please give it thumbs up, and SUBSCRIBE! <3

Bringing baby to work

I've always known I wanted a big family, and I've always known I didn't want someone else to take care of my baby while I went back to work. This is the reason why a while back, before getting married, I quit my job and set up my own company, Frill Me, which I could run from home. I had it all planned: I would work for my online shop from home while taking care of my children, and the shop would eventually be big enough for my hubby to be able to quit his job as well and stay home with us {or in a small office of our own!}. But then during our wedding, my dad made an amazing speech, in which he asked me to come back home. Five and a half years away from home is a long time, he said. And he asked us both to move back and join the family business in the shoe industry.

We gave it some thought and in November we made up our mind: we were moving to Barcelona. My dad was offering us all we ever wanted: working together for ourselves, with the possibility of bringing our children to the office. No wonder we said yes. I think my idea with Frill Me was a very good one too, but I don't know how long it would have taken for the website to get big enough for the hubby to join the business, so my dad's offer was a godsend.

Liam is 5 months old now, and I started going back to the office part time when he was almost 2 months old. Then when he was 3 months old I finally joined full time, with Liam always next to me. I can't imagine it being any other way. If Liam wasn't able to go to work with me, I would still be on leave. There's seriously no way I'd leave my baby with a babysitter during his first year of life. I don't understand why bringing baby to work seems like such a difficult policy to implement for most companies, specially for those who work in an office. To me it makes perfect sense to bring the baby to work, it allows me to focus on my job knowing my baby is safe right next to me, and it makes the baby feel secure and relaxed knowing I'm right next to him, too. Not only does it make moms happier, it also helps the company's accounts, by avoiding the cost of replacing the employee and being able to retain good employees. I'm not the only one saying this, Forbes says Bringing Babies to Work Is Good Business. 

In today's society, women often find themselves pushing maternity to their late 30s at least, confronted with the reality of having to choose between a career and a family. I think women can have it all. I believe companies should start considering implementing the bringing-baby-to-work policy for the baby's first year of life. When kids turn one year old, they are perfectly able to spend the day in day care, they actually need that extra stimulation and they have fun! But that's not the case for babies under one year old. 

We just decided on Liam's day care starting September and couldn't be more happy about it. We visited the center, and kids have such a great time interacting with the teachers and with each other in all sorts of fun activities. I felt a bit sad for those under a year old, though. They can't really play yet, and I feel like they should be with their mamas. Hopefully companies will start changing their minds about this, although unfortunately I don't think it will be happening any time soon. If you have kids, what did you do with them during their first year of life? I'd love to know.

Liam's 100 days party

Almost 3 weeks ago, on Saturday December the 6th, Liam turned 100 days old, and we invited the extended family for a little get together. It was 25 of us! If you're European or American, you may not have heard of this 100 days party thing, but it's a pretty big deal in Asia. Koreans, Japanese and Chinese consider it their babies first big milestone, and a big party is thrown to introduce the baby to society. This tradition comes from several decades, maybe even centuries, ago, when infant mortality was higher during babies' first 100 days of life, hence hitting the 100th day mark was a major reason to rejoice.

J and I decorated the meeting room of our new office with green and yellow tones. Did I ever mention yellow is Liam's favorite color? It's just SO obvious, he loves to look at all things yellow, it's terribly funny!

I hanged yellow, white and green honeycomb pom poms all over the room, mostly on the sides so that they wouldn't interfere with the big 100 i put on the wall. I did the 100 by crumpling several pieces of yellow silk paper, and then stuck lots of green dots I cut from a cardboard all around it. 

The cake was from Pastisseria Torndelacreu, located in c/Balmes, 59, and which I highly recommend! They specialise in custard and have superb cakes. I love how they decorated this one for Liam, he couldn't stop staring at the cake! Here's a little video I posted on Instagram, just in case you missed it!

I'm glad Liam turned 100 days on a Saturday, so that we could celebrate it on the exact day it was happening! It was a lovely party! P.S. How cute was that crown of his I DIY-ed? :D

Life with Baby

Liam arrived on August 28th, 2014, after a long 32-hour labor, when I was 41 weeks 4 days pregnant. My labor sure does deserves a post on its own, so I'll be writing all about it soon! Today I want to share yesterday's family stroll, when Liam was 5 days old. He is such a good baby, he sleeps and eats a lot, and never cries. Everyone who's seen him says he is so calm, and very handsome, too! Both daddy and I are sooo in love.

Liam is definitely a bright-eyed baby, taking into account he's not even a week old yet! He makes my heart stop <3 Who knew this kind of happiness existed? :)