It’s Christmas next week! Like it’s actually next week! The excitement is definitely building in our house with Christmas films and music channels galore. The landing currently resembles a toys r us stock room and we are planning that last dreaded food shop- Friday morning is when we’ve pinpointed our time to enter Tesco if anyone’s wondering.

Polly and I had fun at a little festive filled playdate on Monday afternoon. We did the same last year and it was fun reminiscing what had changed over the last 12 months- turns out a lot! It was also fun attempting to take the group photo of 5 very active toddlers in front of the tree, The ball pit was a great distraction. It was also fun when we realised that next year they’ll be double the amount of little people. Yup that’s right, all 5 mums gathered are all expecting another bundle of joy in the Spring. At least we’re all doing it together! It’s actually quite reassuring doing the whole second pregnancy with other mummy friends as we all seem to have the same questions, worries and of course excitement.

We then had a little gathering on Tuesday with a couple of friends in Exeter, Polly got to open a couple of presents early and got very excited at the prospect which bodes well for next week. I had 2 moments that are the definition of pregnancy. First I left the secret Santa present in the car- nice one baby brain. Then I scoffed a whole plate of sticky BBQ chicken skewers before anyone else stood a chance and no I didn’t feel bad at all, sorry girls!

What else has happened this week? Polly seems to have settled on a CBeebies programme that actually gets her full attention, ‘the stick badge’ episode secured this high honour and as a reward for an awesome episode that even I secretly like watching it’s been saved to the skybox. And in baby news, we had our 20 week scan, cannot believe we’ve crossed the half way point! Bear-bear is doing well and after being told that an anterior placenta is the reason I’ve not felt much so far he/she decided to demonstrate exactly why I’ve needed to pee approximately 276 times a day by spending most of the scan doing a rendition of Riverdance on my bladder. And in answer to the question that’s followed us since last Thursday- no we haven’t found out the gender again as we enjoy the surprise 🙂

Time to sign off now as it’s time to get ready for bath night. It’s our last evening off together before Christmas so naturally we will be spending it putting together a play kitchen ready for Monday!

So, it’s been a quiet few days with us packing in a few shifts, so we haven’t really done much to write about. Polly though has had a field day with her toddler group Christmas parties, the highlight being todays with an indoor bouncy castle that I didn’t think I’d ever get her off! I thought I’d go into a topic that has been thrown my way a few times since we welcomed Polly into our world 18 months ago…. “How does having children change your relationship?”
It’s the same question that newlyweds get too I suppose and the truth is of course our marriage has changed since we became parents as your relationship changes once you enter wedded bliss. Relationships evolve over time with each new change so sometimes people like to look back and wonder how you got from that to this. And yes, having a child has been the biggest change in our relationship, but you know what- I would never dream of going back as change is usually a good thing.
So, in practical terms how are we different? Well, Henry and I met and fell in love as teenagers just over 9 years ago, so yeah, I’d say we are very different people now. Gone are the days where we laid in bed binge watching episodes of Scrubs, Friends and Will & Grace. Gone are the days where we went to the cinema whenever we fancied and had nights out at the drop of the hat. Gone are the days where we spent a week’s wages on each other for Valentine’s Day. Gone are the days of soppy text messages which always finished with 3 kisses. And in their place? This afternoon while Polly napped we both fell asleep on the sofa while watching Loose Women. The last time we went to the cinema was while I was pregnant with Polly, we saw the Batman v Superman film and she kicked the stuffing out of me at each loud bang (there were a few of them) and the next planned trip to go is next year to see the Peter Rabbit film. I’m not sure what a night out is? I’m not sure what we did for Valentine’s Day this year, Henry thinks we had a steak tea once Polly was in bed, but they would have been a Lidl special and there certainly wouldn’t have been any Hotel Chocolates pulled out a gift bag for desert. And a taster of our most recent text messages to each other….
• “Is she asleep yet?”
• “You can put the kettle on or come up and deal with this.” (This being a Polly who didn’t want to sleep at bedtime)
• “Don’t forget to put your bits in the washing machine”
• “Where’s my chocolate?”
• “I see you now you bum fart, walk faster”
• “If you finish that and get bored there’s always the hoovering to do”
• “McDonald’s”
• “Are you on your way home to give me a hug?” “Yes how did you guess?” “Because you’re texting me you doofus” “Text sarcasm” “Hurry up I want to go to sleep you inconsiderate poo head”
Oh, and a taste of how classy it got when my morning sickness was at its height and Henry had delightfully blocked the toilet…. “Oh and if that shit is still in toilet in the morning and I need to puke, don’t be mistaken- I will use your shoe instead.”
The texts may have lost those 3 kisses at the end but due to the advances of phones they are filled with delightful emojis instead, and you may have guessed the smiling poo one is in my most used section. So, yes, our relationship is different, we basically have an open door policy in the bathroom, we don’t go on expensive dates and we don’t proclaim our love all over Facebook, but what we do have instead is something irreplaceable, sorry to go all sentimental but it’s true. We have respect and love and at the same time we still make each other laugh. This is the man who held my hand during labour and joked about Harry Potter films while helping me sip water between puffs of gas and air. This is the man who makes me laugh every day. This is the man who got me through our darkest days by doing exactly the right thing without being told as he knew what I needed when I didn’t. This is the man who knows if he’s gone to the gym early in the morning then I will expect a sausage and egg McMuffin bought home. So, yes things are different, but this is a case of definitely good different. And right now, I’m going to sign off to go and join my 2 favourite people as they turn my living room into a model railway village, bit different from wild nights out drinking shots, but that was a very different time and I have no intention of going backwards.

Today we said goodbye to Auntie Georgia and Uncle Gyan for a couple of weeks. They’ve been staying with us since we got back from Suffolk as they had a few issues in the staff accommodation where we all work so they took refuge in our living room while they decided their next move. They are heading back to Suffolk to see all the family for a couple of weeks, then they’ll be back in time for Christmas before flying off to Asia for a couple of months. We will definitely miss them, especially Polly who loves having them around, and it will be strange not having them around after spending so much time together but we understand this is something they want to do and it’s a great opportunity. Plus, March will come round in no time.

We decided to have a drink and bite to eat in one of the town’s many coffee shops before they left. As it was almost 12 I thought I’d be cheeky and make it lunch for Polly and I so she could go down for an early nap as she was a bit tired (I’ll come onto the reason for that later!). We ordered and sat chatting for a while, Polly being a toddler got a bit restless but wasn’t making a scene and was contained in a highchair. Then the food arrived. I’m not sure why the manager thought it was a good idea to plonk the plate straight on the highchair tray but she did. So I presumed the food was ok for Polly to eat straightaway, so I gave her a spoon and she tucked straight into her scrambled egg. I was wrong. The next moment she started screaming and throwing herself back in the high chair clearly upset. I pulled the plate away from her in case it ended up on the walls, only then did I realise it was scalding hot. Like I couldn’t touch the eggs too hot. I pulled her out the highchair and attempted to get her to drink some water which of course she refused to do. She then spent a full 5 minutes on my lap crying and writhing around. Thankfully she let me put a dummy in so she could get some comfort but she wouldn’t take anything else we offered- even the strawberry milkshake on the table- a sure sign she was not happy. Eventually she did calm down and spent the rest of the meal sat of my lap. Gyan was brilliant and started eating the scrambled egg to try and encourage her to try it again now it had cooled down which did work. Once she’s stopped crying one of the waiters came over to check our table so we explained what had happened. He went away and then came back with a simple apology from the manager. Needless to say we will not be returning there after that incident. I probably wouldn’t have been so annoyed when we left if we hadn’t had the add on of an interfering regular customer who thought he’d stick his 2 cents in. For some reason he took it upon himself to go to the counter and tell them that Polly had been upset beforehand anyway, implying that we were making a drama to try and blag a free meal. I can assure you this was not the case, all I wanted to do was make sure they as a business realised that it’s a stupid thing to stick scalding hot food down in front of a toddler without even warning us that it was warm, at the very most I would expect a proper apology after a stupid mistake, yes a gesture of goodwill would have been a free drink but that is certainly not what our game plan was when we sat down (and it wasn’t something that was even offered). It was such a stupid comment from him- I mean if I was walking down the road crying about something and then got hit by a car would he expect the paramedics to just say ‘oh well she can’t be hurt too much as she was already upset’, what bloody difference does it make if she was screaming the place down beforehand (which she wasn’t!) the point is she still burnt herself therefore she cried. This kind of ignorance really pisses me off especially when it’s used to try and shame families who dare to venture out and the get shot down by judgemental people who have no idea what actually happened. Needless to say I was raging slightly as we left and from now on I’ll be checking any food thoroughly that she gets served in a restaurant.

The explanation for the sleepiness is quite simple, we’ve hit the dreaded 18 month sleep regression and guess what? It can kiss my arse already and it’s only been a week! Gone are the nights where she gets laid down in the cot to slip off to dreamland with the help of Frank the bunny and the lullaby machine. Gone are the afternoons where she drifts off to sleep for a nap as you read her a story. Nope instead we now have an hour long battle where she simply doesn’t want to go to sleep. It’s great fun. I know it sounds mean but I’m actually pleased that Henry is getting to have just as much fun with it as me as it means we definitely have more sympathy for each other instead of the old days where he couldn’t understand why I’d snap at him if he came home from work noisily after it had taken me 2 hours to get her to sleep. It’s definitely been a team effort this week in getting through this one and we are naively hoping it’s a very short regression that ends with her going back to being a delight to put to bed, especially as she’d recently started this new thing of sleeping through (I’m trying not to brag I just want it written down in ink that she did do it for a while so if it never happens again I’ll know it wasn’t a figment of my sleep deprived baby brained imagination).

Well time to sign off now as this has been a longer rant than I meant it to be, plus it’s time to have an early time before work this evening, needless to say I’ll be making sure Polly’s food is a sensible temperature before she even catches sight of it.

It’s December! This means it’s almost Christmas! The tree is up, the advent calendars have been started and Henry has turned the living room into a scene from ‘Elf’. Anyone who knows us will know that Christmas is our favourite time of year and we do sometimes get a bit carried away, but hey now we are parents that’s totally acceptable in my book. We took Polly to see Santa on Wednesday which was as fun and memorable as we expected it to be. Last year she was only 6 months old so wasn’t really aware of what was going on, although she did try and pull Santa’s beard off. This year she was definitely much more engaged so it felt like she was really getting something out of it and she gave the ‘elves’ and ‘Santa’s helpers’ a good giggle strutting around in her elf outfit squealing with delight. We took her to the local garden centre, don’t be fooled- this place is a huge collection of buildings where you can buy anything from a new dinner set to a pair of socks and as sad as it sounds is actually a great place to go for a little outing. They also have a legendary Christmas shop which is a great way for little people (and bigger people) to experience the magic of Christmas lights without freezing your nipples off stood behind 6 rows of people while the local ‘celebrity’ presses a button while posing for the local newspaper to try and get 5 more minutes of fame. We saw Santa at a funny time of the afternoon and didn’t expect a 40 minute Christmas extravaganza so decided to have a little tea in the restaurant there. This then provided another Christmas delight as the local brass band were playing much to Polly’s delight who clapped all the way through there performance.

We had another Saturday filled with Christmas when we decorated the house and watched Christmas films. The perfect Saturday in my book! The other big thing this weekend was realising that Polly had reached the huge milestone of 18 months old. That’s 1 and half years old. Where the devil has that time gone?! It seems strange that 18 months ago I would have just had some breakfast and was about to spend my first full day with her and now she’s running around the house stealing everyone’s advent chocolates and wearing a pair of my pants round her neck that she’s pulled off the clothes horse.  They said it would go quick, I just didn’t think they meant it would go that quick. Ok I need to stop thinking about it or I will cry, again.

It’s been a fun week of crazy pregnancy hormones that’s left me in tears at least once a day. The top reasons for me balling my eyes out this week:

•Prince Harry and Meghan got engaged. Just seeing them so in love and the realisation that she is actually living out a Disney movie had me balling at work.

•Polly’s face lit up during the big scene in ‘Elf’ where Santa flies over them as they are singing carols.

•My sister and her husband are going away for a couple of weeks, I realised as I was polishing cutlery that I was going to miss her so had to hide my tears in the kitchen at work.

•The BBC 1 Christmas advert with the Dad and daughter dancing at the end.

Yeah you get the idea that it’s not taking much to set me off at the moment! Well I’m gonna sign off now as the wild child is craving to leave the house and as the toddler group has been cancelled I’m about to wrestle her into a rain suit and wellies for a walk along the river. Now I’m just going to type another sentence to make it look like I’m still in full flow as Henry has just taken up the challenge instead which he’s more than welcome to. This could be a fun few minutes as he’s already uttered the words ‘oh dear what’s going on here’ and she doesn’t have any part of her body in the suit yet!