Me and Mine – January 2017

I have to say I generally love January, not for the cold weather, which I hate and by now I am definitely wishing time away for spring, but for the calm that it always brings. December and Christmas time is amazingly magical and of course with Eva’s birthday straight after, it is wonderful, and busy. January brings an element of contentment and of appreciation for all the little things again now the pressure of having to make every day special has gone – although of course I would always strive to do that! But now, in the most ordinary of ways.

January does seem to have lasted a long time and we have done so much, nothing especially exciting but lots together nonetheless.

I celebrated my blogs first birthday and have really enjoyed getting into writing more. I have started a looking back series to record the time before I started this blog and am absolutely loving re-living all those special moments of when Eva was just a tiny little Dot, and sharing photos I never thought I would. It has sparked my enthusiasm for it even more and I hope to be able to carry that on every Friday-time willing.

I don’t know therefore if it is starting this series or the fact that my baby is going to be turning 2 tomorrow but I am so ridiculously emotional at the moment about leaving those baby days behind. A few weeks ago I wrote about our highchair and that getting rid of it actually made me cry! It seems so silly to say but it seems to have signified so much change here.

I have therefore been distracting myself, meaning we have finally tackled some jobs in the house that have been on the agenda for a while. It’s amazing how that can make you feel. Eddy has finished the cloakroom downstairs and I bit the bullet and painted the tiles and cupboards in the kitchen and now every time I walk in I am so happy with it. Whilst I would love to have been able to have a whole new kitchen, I do think that for now this is enough. It is crazy really how a lick of pain can totally transform a space.

Eddy is enjoying the pedal pro trainer I got him for Christmas which means he can ride his bike statically so he has tried to do that as much as possible, usually whilst I am blogging! He has also played futsal (basically indoor football as I understand it) for the first time in a long while and is loving that the girls like singing Everton songs and playing ‘football time’ with him as much as he does.

As well as Everton chants, Eva has enjoyed getting out and about this month, on her bike, in her wellies and spending quality time together with me. We went on a date last weekend where she got to spend her book vouchers and we had coffee (me not her!) A simple morning but a lovely one. She is having a few sleep issues at the moment and is quite clingy which isn’t like her at all so I am hoping this is just a phase and that bucketfuls of tlc will do her the world of good.

Roma has been soaking up all the joy this month and is really showing that she knows her own mind. She is asking almost every single day to go to nursery school and whilst that makes me a bit sad I know I need to look into it, she is such a sociable little thing that maybe Mummy just isn’t enough all the time, maybe just 1 day a week for now though! She met my friends newborn son last week and was totally and utterly besotted with him and as she hasn’t ever really seen any babies or much smaller than her before. It was the cutest thing to watch and just shows me how much she has grown. She is also loving her scooter, going to the cinema and of course playing and laughing with Eva too.

We have still been through the mill a bit in terms of illness, Roma had a strange allergic reaction to what seems to be a viral infection she had and ended up covered in hives and Eva has been running from one cough to another. Something else I do not thank January for. I also ended up in hospital again and it isn’t the end for me but I am managing to be well enough to be up and about again so I am thankful for that.

At the weekend we decided that even though it had forecast rain we were going to go on an adventure, take our wellies and raincoats and also take my sister along to be our family photographer! Pressing the timer hasn’t been working out so well for us lately and if you saw in Eva’s birthday Vlog the snippet of last months attempts it becomes a bit of a mission to keep grabbing Roma back as she runs around in circles, so you can totally see why!

We had the most amazing day. Both the children absolutely loved the vast amount of puddles and mud there was to squelch in and we all adored the fact that the rain held off so we could take our time wandering around. We explored, stopped for a cup of tea and then explored some more, it wasn’t that far away from us and we will definitely go back as it was just so beautiful and peaceful. With so much going on in life generally and specifically at the moment in my head it was lovely to find some space to get out of that and just enjoy each others company, and that is exactly what we did. A pretty perfect family day out to end this month together.

The end of this month but the start of another year, another year as a family of four, another year together, another year of us.

xx

It’s funny how they pretty much all look like outtakes to me! No-one ever looks at the camera at the same time or smiles at the same time….but here are the actual outtakes because I love looking back through them. I love to see the character they show and that it is clear that Roma will always be the one who runs away and needs chasing, how Eva is almost always in a world of her own and how Eddy needs a hand to get up because of his worn out knees!