Well, I’m back! Sorry it’s been a while but I sort of took an unofficial break over Christmas and New Year, strange as that now feels about 6 months ago already. So, what have we been up to? Well, Christmas was amazing. We had my siblings down for a few days over Christmas and just spent the time together, chatting, eating, napping and watching Christmas films. It was perfect. Polly was spoilt rotten with presents and my living room resembles a toyrs r us display shop. One of her favourite presents is a mini Henry hoover, from my siblings. The idea being that it cures her fear of the bigger version that I drag out the cupboard when I can no longer hide the mess on the floor with toys. It worked and I now have a mini me following me around and the poor cat runs a mile as his nightmare has come true with there being 2 of these monsters in his house (the hoovers not the people). It was really nice to spend that time with family and we carried on this theme when we headed to Henry’s family do on Boxing day where we ate too much and chilled out all afternoon. Sorry to get all gooey but it really was a perfect couple of days and in my opinion exactly what Christmas should all be about- family, food and chilling out.

It was the festive period so one of us was bound to go down with some sort of bug, lucky me drew the short straw there! The Thursday after the big day found me literally crawling back in the door after being sent home from work with a horrendous stomach bug that I had at first thought was the return of morning sickness- it was not. Henry still had to work and also cover my shift the next day so it meant CBeebies gave me a hand with Polly as I spent Friday under a duvet or running to the loo, not ideal. He did then come home between shifts to find us both curled up napping on the sofa. Luckily by Saturday I was back to normal and touch wood the other 2 have avoided all the fun.

So, New Year, well it was fairly tame, I mean to be honest we’ve never really done anything major to celebrate so this year with a toddler, pregnancy and working we were fairly content to just be curled up together watching the fireworks on TV with a cup of tea. We headed into Exeter on Tuesday to have a wander around the sales, Henry needed new work shoes and Polly needed new PJs. We’ve also realised there are a couple of bits to buy before Bear-bear arrives so are planning on heading back in at the beginning of next week especially as I’ve hit the waterworks at least twice in the last week as I feel guilty that we haven’t picked anything up yet for the new bundle of joy. Mum guilt strikes again. This week has also seen the return of the sanity saving toddler groups. It’s nice to catch up with the other parents and get the little people back into some sort of routine. It’s amazing how much they all seem to grow when you don’t see them even for a couple of weeks!

This week we also had a big milestone. Henry and I both went out for the evening together and left Polly at home, I mean she obviously had someone with her to be clear! Henry’s Aunite Jen came round for an evening of toot toot playing and bubble blowing before tackling bedtime with a toddler still in the throes of the 18 month sleep regression. Amazingly Jen worked her Mary Poppins magic and had her asleep in 10 minutes, at which point I let her know she’d never be leaving the house! We had a great night at our work Christmas party at one of the local hotels. Henry went from “I’m not drinking much” to several Vodkas as quick as you can say “open bar” and we headed home to relieve Jen just after 1. It was a fun night even though I was on orange juice and cups of tea as it was nice for us to both be able to let our hair down together.

Well, I think I’ve rambled enough and it’s time to go and clean 2 pairs of teeth 16 times as Polly and I have the dentist later this morning. I promise I won’t leave it that long again!