Happiness Is...Being On Twitter On A Friday Night

My blog has been seriously neglected lately and, for that, I sincerely apologise to all my lovely readers.

Life with a new baby has been a blur. The past 6 months since his arrival have just flown. I honestly thought time went fast when Mini Cheddar was born over 3 years ago but now, the arrival of Tiny Ched has made each day whizz by in a blur of happiness.

Talking of happiness blurs. I'm very happy today.

I shouldn't be! I only had about 4.5 hours sleep last night. No, TC is still sleeping through.

I didn't sleep because at 9.55pm last night I received this tweet:

I had to pinch myself.

Seriously.

I should have been in a swanky London hotel enjoying the company of some fabulous bloggers and friends but I chose not to go. This was for two reasons if I'm completely honest. I have a baby who is exclusively breastfed (and I live in North Wales)...plus, I never in a million years thought I'd actually win an award.

I'm still shaking.

So, I'm just writing this quick THANK YOU to all my wonderful readers who voted for me. I honestly can't believe my little blog has won an award. I can proudly say I am 'Best Baby Blog'. Also thanks to Sally and the whole team at The MAD Blog Awards and to the lovely team at Emma's Diary for sponsoring the award (and collecting it on my behalf).

The last couple of weeks have been quite up and down for me so I've not been around - I'll be able to blog about it all soon - so this has really made my day (and week, month, year etc.)

A proper thank you post and details will follow but I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive and regular blogging will commence shortly.

Thank you once again - and thank you from this little guy too...

Heather xx

I'm Really MAD...Again!

I took a blog break last week.

Yes, it was only a week but Tiny Ched and I were full of cold and my freelance work had been catching up with me a bit. I've also been off Twitter and Facebook, choosing to lose myself in the escapism of the photographic loveliness of Instagram instead.

I was completely unaware of something major happening in the world of parent bloggers last week.

The MAD Blog Awards finalists had been announced!

I didn't have a clue.

I wasn't expecting to be shortlisted. I thought it was sheer fluke I was up for Best New Blog last year.

So, imagine my surprise when the very lovely Katie from Mummy Daddy and Me Makes Three (she's up for some awards, check her out - she rocks!) wished me congrats on Instagram and asked if I was going to the Awards Ceremony.

I was drinking Yakult at the time (yes, I'm THAT rock 'n roll) and it almost came out of my nose! I headed over to the MAD Awards website, clicked on Best Pregnancy Blog and low and behold there was my name. Wow!

I was over the moon!

Then, almost 24 hours later I got a tweet from the MAD team with a #ff to the Best Baby Blog finalists and mentioning me.

Eh? *confused face*

I went to write a tweet back saying I was 'Pregnancy' but before I did I checked the site as I'd not had chance to go through all the finalists at that point...I'd just headed straight to Best Pregnancy. Sure enough, there I was down for Best Baby Blog too. My baby is only coming up on 7 weeks old. Double Wow!

So, this post is to say a huge....

THANK YOU

to each and every one of you who voted for me.

I only have a very tiny number of close friends and family who know about my blog and a small number of followers compared to my fellow finalists so it means such a lot to me that you guys got me through.

The fellow bloggers in my categories are all amazing and I'm feeling like the donkey in a race of pure thoroughbreds. I'm quite sad that a lot of bloggers that I voted for who I assumed would easily make the finals haven't.

I'm under no delusions of grandeur, I haven't a hope of winning and, you know me, I'm not one for asking for votes but hey I'm ecstatic that I've made enough of an impact in the blogging world to make it through to a second consecutive final. I've only been blogging less than 17 months so you have no idea what it means to me.

I love you guys so much.

Thank you once again for making me MAD. Not often you can say that without sarcasm!

Vote for your winners above

Tiny Ched and I say THANK YOU!