hello from San Marino! now I just need to find time to blog about it 🙂
I’ve changed the name of my monthly blog overview post into Life & blog update because that title suits better the actual content of these monthly posts since I share in them snippets of my life and remind you of my published posts in the previous month.
May was a busy month. BBQs with friends, a couple of board gaming nights, drinks with my besties and a first dinner out with our baby. We were so lucky and got a waiter that entertained our baby boy during most of the meal. Our friend became a dad recently so we’re looking forward to meeting his baby girl.
Our baby boy V. is now almost 7 months old and he’s recently started crawling properly. But being a mum isn’t just about happy moments. My first ever Mother’s Day as a mum was a low point.
Our first day trip abroad with our baby was to Udine, Italy
April was quite an eventful month. Easter was as usually spent with the family but on Easter Monday we took our baby boy V. to Krk island for the first time. We walked by the sea and came across a giant Easter Egg (check my Instagram account for a photo) and we also saw some locals dancing and singing to some traditional music. That was an unexpected encounter. My aunt and my cousin came to see our baby for the first time and brought gifts. We finally took our planned day trip to Italy with baby V. and it was such a great day. I’ll blog more about our Sunday in lovely Udine but for now you can check my photo post.
What else happened in April? After putting in the new floors in the kitchen and in the both hallways we decided to put them in the living room too. It amazes me how floors can actually transform the look of the entire house. One of my best friends celebrated her birthday so I finally put on some make-up and a dress and enjoyed a wonderful dinner with my friends without the baby. We ended the month in the same way as we’d started it, on the island Krk, having a BBQ with friends and enjoying a sunny weekend by the sea.
Unfortunately my cat got quite sick. He’s got a serious case of cat’s flu. But after getting several shots at the vet’s and some antibiotics he’s feeling better slowly.
March. It snowed in my seaside hometown on 1st of March. Snowed!!! Of course, I had to take my baby out so I could take his photos with the snow, his first snow 🙂 By the end of the day it started to rain and all the snow melted away. Just like that. My baby was sick also. He had cold and I wasn’t prepared for that, for him to have a fever and all. It kind of shocked me. Nothing during pregnancy and labour frightened me as much as seeing my four and a half month old baby sick. I know, he’s going to be sick a hundred more times but this was the first time and firsts can be scary. On another note he tried his first solid food with success. I was so proud!:) Sorry for all this baby talk.
What else happened this month? We put in the new floors at the end of the month and I finally booked our hotel for our first family trip at the end of May! Can’t wait! We’re going to San Marino! So if you’ve been and have any advice, do share!
On my blog I went down the memory lane and wrote about my visit to Imperial Carriage Museum in Vienna and my day trip to Ipswich among other things. Sometimes I feel like I should stop blogging until I travel again. Well….
How did you spend Easter weekend?
GIVEAWAY of annual subscription of GPSmyCity walking tours & travel article apps
So, I’m sure you’ve already seen/downloaded/ used travel article apps by GPSmyCity. Few of my posts have been converted into such useful travel article apps and if you buy them I get a small percentage (thanks!). If you don’t know anything about these apps, read here. Now, GPSmyCity went one step further and you can get annual subscriptions inside the GPSmyCity app at $12.99/year with full access to all travel articles for 900+ cities worldwide OR at $18.99/year with full access to all walking tours + travel articles covering 1,000+ cities. The subscription offer is currently valid only for iOS (Google Play due to follow suit with Android shortly). Isn’t that something?
February. I started off the month as a co-host for Monthly Travel Linkup run by Emma from Adventures of a London Kiwi, Angie from SilverSpoon London and Polly from Follow Your Sunshine. There’s a new topic and a different co-host every month. I’ve been a co-host once before already. You can check that post here. February’s theme was once in a lifetime experiences. It’s hard not to get jealous when you read about some of the experiences described in those posts. But it doesn’t mean that your experiences aren’t special enough if you haven’t seen the Northern Lights or had a close encounter with a lion. My favourite posts were:Why travelers need to quit the once in a lifetime mentality , Once in a lifetime wildlife destinations and My iconic travel moments.
February was a fickle month here regarding the weather. It was unusually warm and then it snowed at the end of the month. Luckily, it was sunny and not too cold for the International Carnival Parade in Rijeka so we went with baby V. and saw a couple of masked groups. We didn’t do anything special for Valentine’s Day though. We just ordered in a pizza and gave our baby a bath. We’ve submitted in the papers for baby V.’s ID so we can travel 🙂 As soon as it’s finished we’re taking a day trip to Italy. A proper trip is still being planned, destinations and means of transport weighed in until I can make a final decision.
January. I kept seeing a lot of tweets about how January was the longest month ever. Err..what? Not for me. You know how they say, time flies when you’re having fun. Well, when you’re a new mum time doesn’t fly but it whizzes past you like one of those super-fast Japanese trains. One minute you’re in Tokyo, the other in Osaka. Speaking of Japan, my best friend moved to China. Yes, she and her husband got a job in China and moved there with their baby girl on the last day of 2017. Luckily, they’ll be back for holidays in the summer. But I already miss her so much 😦
What have I done the past month? Spent time with my baby and blogged. Baby V. is changing all the time. He was born with brown hair and then most of his hair fell out and now he’s blonde. And he’s already so big! And he has the most charming smile ever. I thought a lot about travelling as a family. I follow a lot of excellent family travel blogs but to be honest the very idea of travelling with my baby scares me. However, I do plan to travel with baby V. before he turns 1 for sure but all the logistics…omg! I mean, we’ve already been to two Christmas markets and to a neighbouring town (only half an hour drive so..) but longer trips require more preparation.
2017 was a rather different year from 2016. That year had a very dramatic and sad beginning but eventually everything was all right again. 2016 was a year of interesting trips though. Among others I went to London after a three years long pause and I went to Stockholm with my husband. There were a bunch of work trips too. On the other hand 2017 was the year that my wish finally came true. I got pregnant and now my baby is 2 months old. He’s an adorable baby and such a joy to be around.
However, apart from a day trip to Trieste, Italy I did not leave the country last year. Instead we explored more our own backyard and attended several interesting cultural events. There was also a lovely babymoon weekend trip. What that meant to this blog was that I blogged less and differently. I published several photo posts and invited other travel bloggers to write a guest post for my blog. I’d like to thank them all for contributing to my blog. Also, I wrote a couple of posts about my pregnancy and my baby. I’ll probably write occasionally about my baby boy V. in the future:)
from Nice, France for my baby V.
Last year I took a course for a tourist guide. It wasn’t easy to attend lectures and go on day trips and to study for the exams while pregnant but I made it and got my licence. Hopefully I will get to use it this summer.
If I look at my blog goals from last year I am half happy because I didn’t fulfill them all. I did open the Instagram account but I didn’t write much about Croatia. I won’t set any goals for this year because if I just keep on blogging I will be happy. It’s difficult to focus on writing while I’m taking care of my baby. Actually I’m writing this on my phone while I’m holding my baby. 🙂
December. A month of festivities. My friend’s birthday, my 34th birthday, Christmas and now New Year’s..all celebrated for the first time as a family of three ( as a family of four actually, I’m counting the cat too! :)). But it was all a bit exhausting too…I’m still sporting dark circles and under-eye bags due to sleepless nights..However, it’s quite fun to have a baby! We got a lot of cute clothes so I did a proper photo shooting with the Christmas tree and baby V. one day when we were home alone. The photos are so cute! Sorry, I won’t show them to you.
I managed to visit a few Christmas markets! Yay! The most spectacular Christmas lights were on Trsat Castle (see photo in the previous post or on Instagram).
Blog wise, have you noticed that I changed the background colour? I feel like I need to get a new theme but I don’t know which one to use. Also, should I write about my baby? The few pregnancy posts that I wrote actually attracted quite an audience to my surprise so maybe I should write occasionally about baby V. What do you think?
