How Stella Got Her Mommy Groove Back

So after a text from my friend Kerri last night, I decided that in the interests of getting E back on his schedule, we'd go swimming this morning. What does swimming have to do with The Schedule? Well, now that we officially have a place in baby group (officially), E has to get used to getting up early on Monday mornings again. So today's play-date of swimming followed by hot chocolate and biscotti at Costa Coffee was just the right way to kick off the routine without the pressure of getting to baby group on time.

In my general autumnal enthusiasm, I decided to make a fresh start at actually making a concerted effort to look like a human being when we go out in the mornings. Witness, the play-date outfit:

It's the little things, like the scarf, that made me feel so much more grown-up and put-together than I usually do. Seriously: find accessories you can work with and embrace the little things. I'm still at the point where I consider how easily I can breastfeed in any top I wear to take E out for the day, so it's much easier to have fun with my accessories and just keep the big pieces relatively basic.

Another little thing? Make-up. For me, this is a very little thing. In my family of 3 girls (me, my baby sister, and my momma), I was always the make-up illiterate. I didn't learn how to put on blush without looking like a clown until I had make-up appointments for my wedding. I didn't learn how to do bold lipstick until I treated myself to 40 minutes in Sephora on our trip to the States back in May. Needless to say, most of my beauty routine still consists simply of:

• moisturizer (when I remember it)
• mascara (when I can be bothered) &
• chapstick (I'm a bit emotionally attached to my Burt's Bees...)

And yet, with an active and attention-hungry 10-month-old, this sort of simple routine is perfect for me. It's nice that this is one of the things about my appearance that has always felt low-maintenance. So this was today's effort:

Blackest Black mascara by Maybelline and Hot Tango lipstick by Sephora

And can I just say, while I love my Longchamp bag, sometimes it's nice to have an easy-to-clean Mommy bag to fill with E's sippy cup and toys for some time out. And this sweet little number from Tesco is not only water-friendly (which was brilliant at the pool this morning), it was only £3 and is made from recycled plastic bottles, so I can feel a bit eco-friendly smug for a minute.

So after a nice swim and a bit of frolicking over hot chocolate at Costa, E is down for a pre-lunch nap and the day is feeling pretty darn successful so far. Maybe we'll even go for a run this afternoon to bask in the nice sunshiney weather...

...ah, Mommy and son time. The best.