Our Anniversay

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My word of the week this week is Anniversary, because we celebrate our wedding anniversary this week! We have been married for 4 years and in early September we will have been together for 5 years. It has certainly been a busy 5 years as we have got married, bought our lovely house, spent a lot of time doing it up, and of course have had 2 gorgeous children.

You can read more about our little whirlwind here but basically hubs and I got set up on a blind date by our mums, moved in together after 4 weeks and were engaged after 5 weeks. Married less than a year later and 1st baby was here less than a year after that. We certainly don’t like to hang around!

It’s been a wonderful 4 years of marriage and I know there will have been some very sceptical people around after we got engaged so quickly (I know I have always been sceptical of similar fast engagements) but I wouldn’t change any of it for a second. Life with small children is hard and certainly tests a relationship… I have never understood why people think having a baby will ‘fix’ a relationship as quite the opposite – it tests even the strongest in my opinion! But we have never faltered or questioned that this is right.

We have a really good, strong partenrship based on mutual trust and respect and having a lot of fun together. We aren’t perfect by a long shot and have to remember to make time for us as a couple. To have fun together rather than just sharing the parenting and housework and cohabiting!

I’m not the soppiest person at the best of times and romance definitely goes out of the window when small people enter our lives, but now that LM is getting a bit older hopefully we will get to remember that we are a couple, as well as parents. We had a lovely day in London last week and a meal out for our anniversary and look forward to more times together to come, as well as watching our gorgeous kiddies grow together of course.

In honour of our wedding anniversary I thought I would share a few pics of our wedding. It wasn’t the most traditional wedding as we had a very late afternoon ceremony followed by a BBQ and disco, so no sit down dinner or speeches. It was a gorgeous day full of lots of colour and fun, we made our own cakes (and our mums made some too) and had lots of fun bits like fortune teller confetti holders and a wedding photo scrapbook rather then guest book. As our wedding was the same year as the Royal Wedding, we even mocked up our own joke wedding memorabilia titled the Real Wedding memorabila! Lots of daft bits but was so much fun putting it all together.

our wedding

Can’t believe it was 4 years ago, in some ways it has gone by in a flash, in others it feels like a whole other lifetime!

Anyway, Happy Anniversary hubs,  looking forward to many more years 🙂 xx

Photographs taken by Chris Boland of Distant Cloud Photography – he is amazing!

Siblings July 2015

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Another month has gone by so time for another siblings update 🙂 LM is getting bigger and more interactive by the day so her and Monkey are having more and more fun together. He loves ‘playing together’ and is generally very good even if she is having a bad morning which disturbs whatever activity he and I had planned.

It’s not all sweetness and light though as there is definitely some jealousy appearing in Monkey too. Nothing major or horrible but he is definitely a bit jealous of the attention his baby sister gets from us and relatives sometimes. Not surprising really as he has had everyone’s undivided attention for the last 3 years but now she is winning people over with her big eyes and sunny smiles!

Her biggest smiles are still reserved for her big brother though so here’s a few shots taken over the last month of our gorgeous pair having fun together.

playing together WP_20150618_10_15_49_Pro

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I just feel so lucky to be their Mummy. It feels so soppy to say that but I look at them playing together, or just alongside each other and my heart melts. Then one of them starts whining or throws a wobbly and normal service resumes once more 😉

dear beautifulNot My Year Off

Our Day ‘Off’ in London

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Mummy me-time is so so important, but can be really hard to come by. Last week I had a very much needed day of Mummy me-time and it really was wonderful. Hubs’ business was up for a Learn Direct award for the number of apprentices they hire, and having won the regional award they were invited to the National Awards at the Kensington Roof Gardens in London. Lovely! Hubs and his business partner thought it was a good opportunity for us wives to have a day in London too and as soon as my parents agreed to babysit both kids, I jumped at the opportunity.WP_20150707_09_24_34_Pro

So I put a pretty dress on and did my make up and we very excitedly headed off on the train down to London, though it was a bit weird too as it was the first time we had left LM with anyone other than one of us, for the whole day. Eek!

We headed straight to the Kensington Roof Gardens and I have to admit I was excited as for a long time I have wanted to see what this place was like, and well, as expected, it was gorgeous. So many beautiful flowers and so serene and peaceful considering we were in central London. Loved it!Kensington Roof Gardens

Unfortunately (Fortunately?) us wives weren’t invited to the awards ceremony so we headed off for a bit of a natter instead. And where better to go for lunch than to the Harvey Nicks roof terrace? If our husbands were having some posh fun, why shouldn’t we? It was lovely to catch up as we never really see each other without kids running around (they have 3 girls), and our husbands are so close that we hear about what each other are up to via them, but not directly if that makes sense!

Anyway we opted for some lovely food and a gorgeous bottle of wine, which the waiter clearly thought was a little OTT… “a bottle???” haha. Put simply, it was blimmin’ lovely. I have to admit I felt very decadent and about as far from my normal day to day life as possible. Sipping a chilled Chenin Blanc and eating mussels on the Harvey Nicks roof terrace, getting a little tiddly, sharing stories about kiddies, motherhood, and of course our husbands 🙂 It was lovely to just really relax for a change and get to know each other a little better.Harvey Nicks

Then we heard the good news from our husbands, they won the award! So they came to join us for a little celebration with some yummy petit fours and some martinis to taste, which was great fun.

celebrating

Much as we would have liked the afternoon to continue it was then time to head back across London to get the train home to see our lovely kiddies. We had a fab day in London, both spending a bit of time together and apart, and, much to our relief the kiddies had a wonderful day with their grandparents… and the grandparents loved it too and have said they would do it again! Hooray! Time to book in some more days off 😉

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Monkey says at age 3

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Monkey is at such a cute age at the moment… I think I say that about every age but he really is and is coming out with the cutest phrases! Here are some of our favourite little comments I would like to record for posterity.

Monkey age 3

Walking around our local area he likes to comment on just about everything we see, which thankfully brings smiles from passers by in general. Some examples:

Oh look he’s running
That was a very friendly doggy
I don’t think that doggy will eat me
That was a very friendly man

He also likes to say hello to everyone too which is very sweet, and then tells me “I said hello.”

“I said” is one of my biggest bugbears at the moment actually. I ask him a question or tell him not to do something and am met with “ok, I said OK!” in response, which make sme very cross. I heard you the first time and please do not shout at me! I am not sure where he picks that up from but he is such a sponge at the moment and have to be so careful.

My parents accidentally shouted “oh Bugger” when they went the wrong way in the car recently and of course he repeated it – but I very impressed as they have managed to convince him that they said “bother” and he recently announced “Pops says bother!” so phew to that!

He has also picked up a few things from films that I am not such a fan of. He points and tells us what to do and when we have challenged him on it he says “Woody points” as in Toy Story… hmmm. He also pretends to spit and makes a “ting” noise!! Which we are not exactly keen on and I think that came from Toy Story too….. funny how he manages to pick up bad habits from a seemingly innocent film!

It’s not all bad though, he is a big fan of the Disney Cars film and loves Lightning McQueen & Mater, and comes out with the funniest things, including “I am Focus” which is what Lightning McQueen says. In London a few weeks ago we were trying to get him to go quickly down the stairs to the tube and he shouted “I am focus” making us chuckle a lot bless him!

Our cheeky Monkey would be great at the Yes, No game at the moment as he rarely says yes. We ask him questions and he answers with I did, I have, I don’t, I were, I haven’t etc. Its so funny bless him!

He is getting more and more correct in his pronunciations lately and sounding less and les toddler… But there are still a few which we hope hang around.
“Nockynurs” (Binoculars) and “Serbatry” (Conservatory) for example!

We also adore his version of The Grand Old Duke of York. He is always singing something or other and love hearing his own versions of things!

Oh the grand old dukey north
He had some thousand men
He march them up the top of the hill
And march them down again
And when they up eh up
And when they down they down
And when they up they up they up
And when they down they down

He’s a very loving little boy and always tells us how much he loves us. He has also started saying “I love you soo much” when he is a bit sad or when he wants something. Learning emotional blackmail young! And if he gets told off he does the same. Yes I love you too darling but you must be more careful not to kick your sister in the head!!

I’m probably forgetting a few lovely phrases but that’s enough for now and in the words of Monkey “Goodbye Darlings”

Little Hearts, Big LoveEthans Escapades

Running & Hiding

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Most evenings at the moment, in between tea and bathtime we have been making the most of the warm light evenings and having a short family walk. It’s usually a little cooler out at that time of day so it is nice to get out of the house and get some fresh air – plus it is nice to have a bit of exercise.

We don’t generally go very far, but there is a lot of exercise going on because it is not exactly a gentle stroll. Not with Monkey around. Because his favourite thing at the moment is running and hiding. And, of course, we have to join in.

It’s great fun actually, running around trees and bushes, changing direction to try and catch each other out and shouting “Boo!” really very loudly. Then we run to the next tree and the same begins again and this lasts for a lot of our walk.

hiding

Although confined to her buggy, LM really enjoys it too, and giggles away when we jump out from behind the trees!

happy LM

I also just have to share this daft little video with you. When I was a kid these bushes had passages cut throughout them and hours would be spent playing in there and building dens. It has long since overgrown since then and I thought all of the passages were gone but found an opening so couldn’t resist taking Monkey in to hide!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall
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An exciting week..

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My word of the week this week is excitement, as it has been a bit of an exciting week, in more ways than one.

If you follow me on facebook or instagram you may have seen that I had a day off from being Mummy this week, which was very exciting for me indeed. I will go into more detail in another post but it was AMAZING to have a day off from being Mummy. Hubs and I got a bit of time together and then I got to relax with a friend over a glass of wine on the Harvery Nichols roof terrace. Just lovely! I also got to see the Kensington Roof Gardens, which I have always been intrigued by, so that was quite exciting too!

london

In other exciting news, we are making some plans at the moment for a conversion/extension. We currently have a garage and car port, and the plan is to turn the car port into a garage and the garage into an office/playroom/toy storage room and we will gain a utility room too.

We have been talking about it a lot this year and it has been a slow process getting the drawings done and quotes, seeing how we can afford it etc. etc…. But it finally seems to be coming together now. Eek! So last weekend was spent clearing out the garage (a heck of a job believe me!) ripping down shelves and breaking up old furniture, sweeping away hideous cobwebs and horribleness. After 2 days of hard graft and 3 trips to the tip the garage looked like this. So weird to think of this being an actual room one day soon!garage clearance

We have also been talking a lot about layout, colours, styles and all fun parts of interior designing which I love and is very exciting. We keep changing our mind at the moment though over what we want so thankfully we have a bit of time before any building work starts to decide. We are still waiting for the building regs at the moment though thankfully don’t need planning permission. So, well, watch this space as I am sure there will be more updates to come over the next few months!

Another bit of exciting news is that we may have stumbled upon a solution to LM’s sleep regression, or rather my lovely Mum has! I only blogged about it this week but it has been troubling us for some time. When my parents babysat for our day in London Mum mentioned she had got LM to sleep with no fuss at all, because she rubbed her tummy for a few minutes to get her to sleep.

I couldn’t believe my ears! After weeks of fussing a bit of tummy rubbing soothed her to sleep? Apparently my Mum did it with us as babies so it was just a natural instinct for her to rub her tummy. That night I rubbed her tummy but she didn’t seem to want to sleep so I left her to it… and she did then fall asleep by herself, with no tears. No tears! For the first time in weeks!

The next day at naptimes she wanted to sleep on her tummy so I rubbed her back and each time she feel asleep in minutes and slept really well, despite having a cold. I couldn’t believe it!

So far so good but I am excited to think we will have less stressful naptimes and bedtimes… fingers crossed anyway!!

The final bit of excitement, yes there’s more, is getting ready for holidays in a couple of weeks. We are housesitting for a friend in Dorset so yay, free holiday on the south coast! Amazing!! It has come round really quickly all of a sudden so I am excitedly planning where we are going to stop on the way there and what we are going to do while we are down there!

So yes, lots of excitement at the moment, which is really lovely 🙂 How has your week been?

The Reading Residence

Stealth Shuffling & Sleep Regression at 8mths

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We have been having a bit of an interesting time with our Little Miss of late. In many ways she has settled down, her teething and reflux aren’t bothering her quite so much and on the whole she is a very happy, sunny, smily baby and she can be a joy to be around. But she has reached a point where she very much wants to be on the move and that is making things interesting.

For quite a while now she has been really content to sit and play with toys. Honestly it has been amazing as Monkey never really did this. She focuses so intently on toys and can sit for ages and entertain herself while I play or craft something with Monkey or potter about with some jobs.

Now though, she so wants to explore wider surroundings. She is desperate to crawl and making slow progress towards being able to, with lots of rolling onto her tummy and pushing up. She also has quite an amazing skill, the stealth shuffle.

I mentioned a while ago that she liked to bum shuffle in the bath and she now does that in front of her eyes. But the interesting thing is that it is very difficult to detect her movement. She leans forward and sits back up and twists and turns around but seems to be in the same spot… but then all of a sudden she is on the over side of the room and we weren’t really aware of the move happening!

stealth shuffling

Nanny & Pops looked after her today and even they remarked on it. Our little stealth shuffler!

It won’t be long until she crawls either so we need to be even more vigilant about what is on the floor or within reach of little arms. A whole new world 🙂

Blurry shot... but you get the idea!

Blurry shot… but you get the idea!

She is also moving around in bed a lot too and as a result we are struggling a little at nap times and bedtime which, to be honest, is driving us potty. We sleep trained quite young and she has been a fantastic sleeper, as long as she is tired and nothing else is bothering her. But lately even when she is tired and we can find nothing else to be the matter she is miserable about going to sleep and gets very very unhappy.

She also moves herself all over the cot and we come to check on her and find her rolled over, turned sideways, back to front, legs stuck through bars and all over the place. I won’t go into details but it has been stressful and there has been lots of rocking to sleep at a loss of what else to do sometimes.

I’ve read that 8 month sleep regression is common, though again it wasn’t something we experienced with Monkey,and are hoping it is just a phase! Anyone else been through this?

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Once she is asleep she still sleeps well and wakes up very happy… we are just at a bit of a loss as to how we can help her remember how to fall asleep in her bed again!

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Making Music together – 8mths and 3yrs old

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I love it when my two siblings play together. Most of the time they don’t, the play alongside each other or Monkey plays while LM watches adoringly or let’s face it, gets in the way! Pulling up train tracks to chew, pulling her big brother’s hair, crashing into him in the walker. Babies and toddlers are rarely on the same page when it comes to playing. But, just occasionally, they are. Usually because Monkey decides he wants in on whatever it is that LM is up to!

That is what happened recently. LM was in a bit of a grump and to give us a moments peace (?? probably not the best word as you will see) I set her up with a good old fashioned activity. Making “music” with cake tins, wooden spoons and some jangly spoons. She loved it, and as soon as Monkey saw/her what she was up to he just had to join in!

makng musicSuch a simple easy activity, that took very little involvement from me, but kept them both happy for ages! Evn if it was seriously noisy!!

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Rules for Me & Choosing to be Happy

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Regular readers will know that I have recently accepted that I have postnatal depression. I am taking antidepressants and things are definitely improving. The medication isn’t a miracle cure though and I have to play my part too. I need to change the way I think about some things to help get through this and I have come up with some “rules” for me to live by.

I actually came up with a number of these before accepting I have PND and was trying to manage it by myself. I didn’t manage and I did and do need the help but that doesn’t mean that these rules are any less valid.

My rules are:

Stop being mean to yourself. You are not fat and disgusting, stupid or incompetent. (Honestly I am meaner to myself than I ever would be to anyone else!)

Be kind to yourself and make more time for you. 

Take deep breaths when things go wrong (rather than f-ing & blinding under my breath, slamming doors and stomping around like a teenager – this one may be tricky)

Don’t let the fact that one thing has gone wrong ruin the rest of the day or make you forget what a lovely time you were having until that point. It hasn’t ruined anything and won’t last forever.

Have realistic expectations. Both of yourself, your plans and of the children. I need to accept that perfection doesn’t exist and unfortunately things won’t always go smoothly. If LM is off routine then I must take a deep breath and go with it rather than stressing about it.

Be more organised. One of my biggest stresses about 4 times a day is working out what to feed LM, so I have created a meal plan a week in advance to remove the stress of that multiple times a day. (We already meal plan for the rest of the family.)

Set times to do things and make lists so you can feel you have achieved something (rather than just getting weighed down by a seemingly endless mental list)

Don’t try and squeeze things in when looking after the kids – I get so frustrated when I am trying to blog but have a child jumping on my head or kicking me in the ribs, when really they just want my attention

Have two blogging evenings a week. No TV on those days.

Remember that blogging doesn’t have to be a competition. You didn’t start blogging to win awards etc. 

Write and do what makes you happy.

Do more exercise. I have been saying I need to do this for ages but have so far been lazy and not done so! My diet did me well for a while but I have had enough of it for the time being. I am doing lots of walking and that and looking after the kids is helping me maintain my loss but I need to tone up and strengthen my muscles as I am very weak and I have no core strength at all. So I have started some yoga and pilates at home and my brother’s girlfriend and I are starting to play badminton every week next week so that should be fun!

Enjoy the kiddies. Too often I get annoyed when the kids won’t play on their own so I can get on with jobs – when I should be making the most of my time with them and having fun, that is why I am a SAHM after all!

 

Definitely enough rules to be going on with and I have to keep reminding myself at the moment but I do feel like they are helping me …. that and the sheer quantity of chocolate I have consumed in the lately. I am being kinder to myself…. though I really need to keep up with the exercise so that I don’t put back on all the weight I have lost this year!!

Do you have “rules” that you live by?

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