Another week flashes by and there did seem to be a hint of Spring in the air but that seemed to go out the window on Thursday and we are back to bed socks in bed and forcing Polly to keep gloves on for 5 minutes. We’ve had an alright week though. We caught up with our friend Sophie on Tuesday afternoon who Polly adores which made for a nice afternoon. We’ve had fun at the toddler groups and went on a playdate yesterday morning. The highlight of the week was a trip over to Prickly Ball Farm on Wednesday with Pati (one of Polly’s Godmother’s) and her other half George. It was a great day where Polly roamed free in her wellies petting any animal that dared come close to her. She was very unsure about the actual hedgehogs though and much preferred the lively ferrets who she actually told off for some unknown (well only the toddler knows) reason.

We did have one moment of sheer terror though on the outdoor play equipment that she had been confidently playing on supervised by 4 adults until she did something very out of character. Polly has been pretty good about obstacles and will pause at the top of stairs and fling her arms out waiting to be carried or assisted down them, she even demands 80% of the time for you to hold her hand when she goes down slides. I think also having more adults about lulls you into a false sense of security that between you, you can keep said child out of danger as there are always a pair of eyes on her, but this of course means that everyone is thinking the same way. So when Polly went up on the platform for the tenth time we all presumed she would walk across it to the slide where Pati was waiting for her little hands. Parenting mistake #428- toddlers are as unpredictable as the great British weather. She went to the right and walked straight into the abyss of the metal ring tunnel thing that has huge gapping holes between the bars (not sure what it’s technical name is and google doesn’t seem to know either). I have no idea how Pati moved so fast but she leapt round the corner and grabbed Polly’s last disappearing arm, while catching her with the other arm. It was an awkward catch with a metal ring in between the two of them but it was one of those catches worthy of making a YouTube near miss compilation video. I have no doubt she saved us from an afternoon spent in A&E and instead after a quick cuddle on the bench with me she was actually squirming to be let loose on the playground again- which of course we did as we don’t want her developing the fear of anything that scares her the first time. I mean all 4 of us were literally following her every move after this and I definitely got the ok from the universe that following her around the park is very much a necessity still.

I was thinking this week about writing another ‘parenthood reality post’ and I promise I will do another one soon but as I was trying to think of some new ideas for it a little scenario played out that sums it up in one story. I’m not sure of many other reasons why a couple would be working like Henry and I do where we can’t work the same shifts and do a toddler trade off a couple of times a week in the bar. I’ve decided to share with you what happened yesterday afternoon as a taster of what this can really look like in reality. Pre-children if I’d had a text from Henry 45 minutes before I was due to start saying that he wouldn’t be home and we would be swapping at work instead of with an hour’s crossover I wouldn’t have battered an eye much- I had no real reason to. 45 minutes is plenty of time, right? Let’s throw a toddler in the mix and the answer soon becomes a frim no. I was over half way through doing tea for us all thinking we would get a 10 minute window for a meal together at the table. Here’s what actually happened, firstly Henry received an expletive filled reply before I ran upstairs and threw my uniform on, redid my hair and put my contact lenses in when I really should have done a quick oven check. If I had I would have realised the temperature needed to be up a few degrees. Instead when I got in the kitchen to plate up I realised the pork needed another 5 minutes, so I sat down with a plate of new potatoes and broccoli and a very confused toddler at my knees wondering why hers was still in the kitchen. I then ate my pork steak stood up in the kitchen with a wailing cat who suddenly thought he hadn’t been fed in 6 weeks- his emotional blackmail worked and he finished off the bit I didn’t have time to eat as I needed to plate up and foil up the other 2 plates of food. I then headed back into the living room to get the toddler ready for the winter wonderland outside- roll on summer where I don’t need to wrestle gloves and a hat onto a octopus mid exorcism. She shared her frustration by wiping a trail of snot across my work top. A few minutes later we  were actually by the pushchair, sadly as I was putting my shoes on Polly heard the familiar tune of Peter Rabbit coming from the living room and proceeded to run back in to watch it while bouncing up and down like those mischief making bunnies do. I then literally had to run, rugby tackle her and wrestle her into her pushchair before doing a fast walk down into the town. I was fairly impressed at myself for managing to clock in 2 minutes before 5. That story alone pretty much sums up what it’s like having little people in your life- you have to find different ways of doing things! A snap shot of Henry’s experiences trying to do weights for example!

Half term. It’s amazing that even when your child isn’t actually at school yet the school holidays still seem to have a big impact on our normal schedule. The main change being that most of the parent/baby groups don’t run so you have to find other ways to entertain little people and as it’s half term the big soft play centres etc etc are an absolute last resort as they’ll be full of families with the bigger kids trying to do the same thing. This usually means a week of playdates and trips to the park thinking about how in a few short years you wont get a choice on the manic, hyper-children filled soft play centres in school holidays, as that will be the only time to take them and you’ll be counting on that time to let them burn off some holiday steam. Until then we’ll stick with a muddy puddle walk to the park.

The library has provided us with 2 mornings worth of entertainment this week. On Thursday they ran their normal singing session- minus the singing sadly as the usual lady was on holiday, so instead we listened to a nursery rhyme CD and chatted about our weeks while the little people pulled out books and instruments. The day before they ran a storytime session that I thought we’d pop along to just to see how long Polly lasted. She surprised everyone by staying put on my lap for over half an hour while the nice man recited various stories. Even more impressive as it was packed (the rain had bought half of Sidmouth out to the only dry family friendly activity in the town that morning!) and the lure to run around with the other kids, most of whom were bigger than her, was very evident in her look of wonder as the other children roamed free and mean Mummy kept her sat still as she is very aware that given half a chance she would cause more mayhem and destruction than the rest of them put together. A photographer then came in and re-jigged us about so we were relegated to the floor for the remainder of the session but luckily this was near the story props so Polly’s attention was still held for the last 10 minutes with help from a bag of vegetables from the story of the hungry caterpillar (going through the ‘won’t eat unusual veg stage’ at home… tries to eat a whole turnip at the library- that’s just toddlers for you).

This morning we are planning on making the most of the nicer weather so it’ll be a walk along the river and a trip to the park, once I’ve done the hoovering that I’ve been putting off for the last 3 days. The trouble is I’m also now very aware that I’ve hit the delightful third trimester. Basically I feel like I’ve been hit by a train. It’s great. The combination of backache, needing to pee 382 times a night, surprise Braxton Hicks, falling asleep at any opportunity and the distinct start of a waddle would be ok to handle if it weren’t for the constant question of “How much longer do you have left?” It would even be fine if you didn’t get the raised eyebrow response when I sigh that I still  have just over 10 bloody weeks left! This does not make me feel any better about my now almost complete resemblance of a whale but thanks for your thoughts on how I look ready to drop at any moment Mr Stranger. Mind you I did get the little reminder last night when I came home from work as to what all this fun is for. Henry’s cousin had her little girl yesterday afternoon. The picture of this new family of 4 smiling from the hospital did come at the perfect time to make the discomfort and interrogations slip to the back of my mind- that’ll be us soon!

Oh and Valentine’s Day was this week too. Obviously Henry surprised me with a romantic boat trip and a dozen red roses. Nah! He did way better than that. First off he bought me back a sausage and egg McMuffin after his early morning gym session. Then during an unexpected nap I took while Polly had hers I woke up in a blurred state of pain at the beloved backache and he fixed me up with a hot water bottle in rapid speed so I then fell asleep again for almost an entire hour! He then cooked me up a steak for tea before I headed to work. Boy definitely did well this year.

Right, now I really do need to drag that hoover out or it’ll be too late in the day so it’ll get bumped onto tomorrow’s to do list, plus Polly has just upturned her entire box of brio so I need to get a move on before the floor becomes completely inaccessible with said hoover.

We’ve had a good week, with the highlight being a little drive up to Dartmoor to find some snow as Polly hasn’t experienced this joy yet. By the time we arrived most of it had melted but the little patches that were left were greatly enjoyed by our wellied toddler. We do love a drive up there especially on a day like that as it was so clear and there were plenty of animals to point out to Polly.
As it’s been a fairly typical week I thought I’d touch on a subject that is close to my heart. This isn’t some big rant or big declaration- hopefully not anyway! But I was chatting to one of my Mummy friends the other day and she asked what kind of a dad Henry was. This got me thinking about what kind of dad he actually is and I thought I’d dedicate a little post to him seen as he has actually started reading the occasion blog post.
I was honest with her and said that it maybe took him a little while to find his groove with parenting but that was probably due to the fact that he was pulling 14 hour days and never had a chance to do much solo parenting. I just want to state that at no point would I have described him as a bad dad, our life just meant he wasn’t getting the chance to let out his full dad potential. That has obviously changed big time over the last few months but now I find myself looking back at all the moments from when Polly first burst into our lives and I have a confession. He was actually doing a lot better job than I realised. Not only was he providing for his family, especially as I took more time off than expected, but also for all the little things. Even that decision when I broke down in tears and told him I wasn’t ready to leave Polly in nursery, he was amazing. He completely supported this choice and told me we would make it work- which we did.
Henry was the one who got her dressed for the first time when I was having my moment after delivery. He took her on her first car journey to meet me at Exeter hospital, doing the first family introduction along the way. He changed her first nappy while I was having stitches. He had the first projectile poo incident fired his way during one of those early nappy changes. He was the one who drove to big Tesco in the middle of the night when we ran out of nappies and then got up 4 hours later to go and do one of those 14 hour days. Yes, he might dress her in some questionable outfits sometimes (honestly boy I’m still baffled by the top and pink tights combo!), he doesn’t understand the concept of a laundry basket and he snores like a bear, but he does so much more to make up for this. He takes her to groups and to the park and actually enjoys doing it. He goes food shopping every Sunday morning while I work and takes Polly along for the fun. He introduced her to hot chocolate froth and pillow fights. He always takes her down the big slides at soft play. He makes her laugh. He taught her to play throw and catch (well throw and chase). He drove to the Lake District and back in one day so Polly and I didn’t miss out on a big family holiday even though he couldn’t make the whole holiday himself. He introduced her to Postman Pat. He dances with her. He has passed on a love of and caring nature for animals. He spent his last birthday at soft play because he wanted to take her and go down those big slides. He taught her to hop while we read her bedtime story of Guess how much I love you. He introduced the concept of a ‘Heart’ (radio) party in the evening to tire her out before bed.
And for all this and so much more, I am so thankful. Thankful I married a ‘good egg’. He is a great dad, like many others out there and the bond him and Polly have honestly brings a tear to my eye (not just because I’m pregnant!). I’m proud of him and the dad he’s become. I’m not really sure if there is a big message I’m trying to get across here (it sort of did accidently become one of ‘those’ posts even though I said it wouldn’t) but I feel like taking a moment to just salute all the good dads out there, all those ‘good eggs’ and to say thank you as I know I for one couldn’t do it without my partner in crime.