At 2 1/2 this is the first year Monkey has really understood that Christmas is coming, and therefore been really excited about it. Because of that we are very much enjoying sharing Christmas traditions with him as his enthusiasm is really contagious! He has been asking basically every day this month whether Father Christmas is coming, so we thought he would love going to visit him. As an aside, he is very much Father Christmas in our house rather than Santa Claus, it seems everyone is adopting Santa these days but that feels so American to me, am I alone in this?
Family
Siblings December
Monkey is really growing to not only accept, but love his baby sister. He includes her whenever he talks about things as a family. When making cakes with Daddy recently he said “One a Mummy, One a Daddy, One a me, One a LM (he uses his actual name for her, not LM but just to avoid confusion).
He has gone from not wanting to look at her or have anything to do with her, to looking at her, and now to actively trying to engage with her. He gives her little cuddles and kisses. He holds her hand. He strokes her head and her arms. In the morning if she is asleep upstairs he asks where she is and wants to wake her up. He pretended to be Dr to her and gave her some “medicine” probably because he sees we are always giving her medicine (infacol, gaviscon, colic calm).
Feeling Festive
With the arrival of December we are well and truly embracing the Christmas spirit in our house and feeling festive! My mum made Monkey this fab advent calender and he is loving finding the number every day and eating a chocolate. The only trouble is reminding him it is just one a day hehe! We also got a gorgeous Christmas Tree from Pines and Needles last weekend which we had great fun decorating. (You can read our review here and find an offer code too!). We don’t normally put the tree up quite this early but Monkey is really happy we have! He’s actually a little obsessed with Christmas and asks about 50 times a day when Father Christmas is coming. He also wants to read his Christmas storybooks every night! Ooh it may be a long month ;).
A Christmas Tree from Pines and Needles
I love Christmas and I love getting into the festive spirit. This year we are getting started nice and early with this fabulous Christmas tree from Pines and Needles.
I have always been a huge fan of real Christmas trees. I love the smell and there’s just something nice about having a real tree rather than an artificial one. There is also something really nice about going to choose a tree yourself. But, I have to be honest, that part has become more of a challenge now we have small children. Fitting the tree in the car along with said children is a bit interesting for one thing and then there is carving out the time to go and get the tree.
Pines and Needles, with their delivery service, take that hassle factor out of choosing a tree as they deliver them right to your doorstep. We chose a Nordman Fir, as the needles are softer than a “traditional” Christmas tree, and they drop less, which means less hoovering, a huge plus.
A wintery family walk
Friday night was a particularly rough night with Little Miss so on Saturday morning both Daddy and I were feeling shattered. But the thing is that when you also have a toddler to look after, life must go on. We still had to be up at a normal time and find ways to entertain Monkey.
Tired Daddy
So after a bit of back and forth about what we should do, we decided to wrap up and go for a little walk to deliver some thank you cards locally to some of the people who had generously given gifts on the birth of Little Miss.
Little Miss wasn’t keen on the idea of being in her buggy so after a false start Daddy popped her in the carrier and we headed out. It was seriously cold and wet and misty but we had a lovely walk and it did us the power of good. That’s the thing about getting out of the house sometimes, just a change of scene and some fresh air can really improve your mood. Especially when you have a toddler who is thrilled to be out for a walk and who takes pleasure in the simplest of things.
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Siblings, November
I have seen the Siblings linky for a while and looked forward to being able to join in. It seems like a lovely way to chart the relationships (and ups and downs) between siblings.
I am a little late to the party (and nearly didn’t join in this month at all) as I didn’t really have any new photos of Monkey and Little Miss together since coming home from hospital. He basically stays well away from her a lot of the time!
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Making the most of the baby days
Little Miss is quite possibly, in fact, most probably the last baby we will have. I will never say never and I am sure many people will say that now is not the time to make the decision about having more children, but I want to be realistic about it. Both hubs and I are the middle of 3 children, so we both carry a certain nostalgia with us about our families, and we are both very close to all of our brothers and couldn’t imagine our families any other way. So I guess it is inevitable that we have been quite undecided about the number of children we would have.
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Masking Tape Picture
It was Daddy’s birthday last week and for a while I had it in my head that it would be nice for Monkey to make him a special picture that he can take into his office. Monkey loves painting and there are lots of pictures around but I wanted to make one a bit special for his Daddy.
Then I saw a post from Iona at Redpeffer who used masking tape to make a masterpiece with paint, and an idea was struck.
I bought some masking tape and then set about taping a message onto a piece of paper with the idea that I could remove the tape after Monkey had had his fun with the paint. ( We tried something similar with wax crayons and watercolour paints a while back which wasn’t particularly successful!)
Daddy’s Birthday
It was Daddy’s birthday on Wednesday and it also marked our first outing as a family of 4! I was feeling like a bit of a rubbish wife in the run up to Hub’s birthday. With Little Miss arriving a week ahead of schedule all my plans basically went out of the window. One of his presents ordered early hadn’t arrived (we knew it was a long lead time so wasn’t a huge shock) and when I eventually got round to ordering the trousers he wanted, they didn’t have his size in stock online :(. I had planned on baking cakes and doing all sorts but none of which happened!
Adapting to life with a newborn
The word of the week this week is definitely “Adapting.” We are all adapting to the changes that bringing our newborn girl home has brought.
Rubbish shot but Monkey going in for a kiss 🙂
Monkey is doing amazingly well at adapting to being a big brother. We have been so proud of him from the get go and he just gets better and better. After a few days of playing up a little more and being more demanding (which is not at all surprising when his little world had been turned upside down and he barely saw Mummy or Daddy for days) he has settled down a lot. We are trying to find the balance between giving him plenty of attention, and not over-indulging him, as he does need to learn that he is not the only one that needs our attention now.
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