The day after my 27th birthday, this means the blog is celebrating its 1st birthday today! It’s strange to think how much has changed in this one year, the main change is currently sitting on my lap in a fire engine onesie. The second big change is the man in the kitchen getting himself breakfast, this time last year he would have been 3 hours in to a 14 hour day. We’ve had one of those weeks where I’m so thankful he’s working a different job as it means we can do beach mornings, family lie ins (i.e 7AM!) and birthday morning trips to get ice cream in the rain.

Henry is powering through his course and using any opportunity to study, he leaves his mark on the table with a scrunched up chocolate wrapper and the sign that he was interrupted by a toddler sitting next to him playing….

So it was my birthday yesterday and we treated ourselves to naughty ice cream sundaes before Henry had work but I couldn’t help think how birthday celebrations have changed over the years. Henry captured the afternoon perfectly with this snapshot and next to it is the aftermath of my 22nd birthday (21 + 1 as we wrote on the birthday banner I was wearing) where we went clubbing and I finished off the night in style by throwing up in an alleyway and passing out in the car on the way home. Real classy.

Bit of a change but it’s like I pointed out to Henry- plenty of time to go back to a bit of clubbing when I’m 40 seen as 40 is the new 30!

What else has happened in the last week or so? Well Polly got herself stuck in a tambourine which proved fun getting her out of, there was a slightly panicked moment when my sister and I looked at each other genuinely worried this would wind us up in A&E, I mean thinking about it who do you call if your toddler gets stuck in a musical instrument?! She also showed us how helpful she can be on the 2 trips to the shop we’ve made…

In the second picture she emptied the pushchair of all the food and made this heap on the living room floor before running off with the cheese.

She’s also getting so much better with little Seb and although she gets grumpy sometimes she’s also bringing him toys to play with and sharing her ‘food’ with him- a real sign of acceptance from the child who can hear a crisp packet rustle from 3 rooms away.

And wee man himself has rushed another milestone this week, but I’ll let him off as it’s one of the best ones- he’s laughing! Not loads but still it’s a sound that melts my heart.

Finally the cat also clearly wanted a mention this week as he’s done a couple of amusing things. Firstly he’s taken a liking to Polly’s bubble chair but wound up very confused the other day when the chair started playing music to him.

He’s always been a cheeky bastard and spends each of our meal times sitting like a dog waiting for scraps which he usually gets from a feral toddler who eats yoghurt without a spoon, but this weekend he truly outdid himself by actually sitting at her place at the table!

All in all we’ve had an amusing week and an interesting year that is definitely going in the right direction. I just want to say thank you really to you right now reading my crazy ramblings about just an ordinary family life and hopefully it’ll be another memorable year.

I meant to write up a post last night but Polly was a demon at bedtime and decided to argue for half an hour on what setting to have the bloody lullaby machine on so by the time she was settled I was ready for bed. Sadly there was something going on in the town that resulted in a helicopter going round in circles for the next half hour flying so low it was setting off the Baby monitor and provoking the seagulls into thinking they were under attack. The seagulls are bad enough on their own! Yet again we have seagulls nesting on the bathroom roof and yet again they are driving me to almost pulling my hair out! They don’t have an off switch and squawk at all hours and sadly keep waking everyone up at 6AM! The video at the bottom was taken last year when little Polly thought they were pretty interesting, now she just yells at them for being too noisy! The 6AM starts also mean that this scene is being repeated too often.

Polly is insisting on reading car books before either of us is functioning!

We’ve enjoyed a couple of walks together in the Byes this week as this amazing weather has continued. Henry and Polly got very excited when they spotted an eel!

Polly has also developed a quite frankly disgusting new eating style. We’ve started giving her a sippy cup with no lid as part of the whole teaching life skills to raise a tiny person, she’s taking it to another level. She is now dunking whatever she’s eating into her milk and eating it. I’ve just sat next to her eating scrambled eggs out of a cup of milk and caught her eating toast in this way on camera. Toddlers can be disgusting!

Seb has conquered a milestone this week by managing to roll from his back onto his belly. I was quite excited and then got emotional as he’s growing up too quick and I also realised I don’t really want an early mover with a wild toddler already loose in the house. He did also just add to the unusual lunch by exploding his nappy- great fun to deal with as usual, but is now being exceptionally cute by napping across me! He started in the bouncer but Henry woke him up by sitting down too loudly so he’s progressed to my lap with the cat looking on sadly that his spot has been stolen again!

I’m really not sure how he’s comfortable but apparently he must be as he’s snoring- just like his daddy!

It’s been a quiet week really apart from another crazy run around IKEA, this time joined by our friends Pati and George and Pati’s little sister Vicky. We had a lot of fun and Seb added to the craziness by doing the biggest poonami I’ve dealt with yet. In the car. In the car park of Aldi before our food shop. Aldi which sadly doesn’t have changing facilities. But enough about poo, for a minute anyway! I decided this week to do a day in the life blog post, so I picked yesterday and recorded everything I did between midnight Wednesday night and midnight last night. A bit of me was quite intrigued to know where my day goes so here it is.

23:48 (I know it’s 10 minutes before I was going to start but I was still doing the activity when the clock struck 12!)- Feeding Seb

02:30- Feeding Seb (bit of cluster feeding going on tonight so not sure how long each feed was)

05:23- Polly awake. I go and scoop her up and bring her in with us as my day is not starting before 5:30. Fingers crossed!

05:24- Polly back to sleep hogging half the bed

06:00- Henry’s alarm goes off. It’s a gym morning so he’s squeezing in a session before he has work. Polly stirs but amazingly stays asleep.

06:20- Feeding Seb

07:35- Polly is awake, this is a very rare lay in! So she’s awake and the first thing she does is chat about Seb who is of course asleep.

07:45- After lots of cuddles in bed with my 2 monkeys it’s head downstairs time. Teaching Polly to shuffle down the stairs on her bum was one of the first things we taught her after Seb arrived!08:15- Breakfast. I’m not sure where half an hour went, I know I needed the loo and I think there was a nappy to be changed and maybe a story to read, anyway it’s our usual of marmite on toast with Seb watching the whole thing from his bouncer.08:30- Feeding Seb while Polly plays.08:50- Back upstairs to get dressed. Always fun and games with a toddler! Today she decided to pull out board games every time I was distracted with Seb.09:15- Feeding Seb (this boy must be going through a growth spurt!)

09:30- clean 2 sets of teeth, shoes on, Seb in the carrier and Polly in the pushchair. We actually bump into Henry as he is coming back from the gym and we are going out.

09:45- Bounce and Rhyme at the library. Polly spends half the time at the computer desk in the corner spinning herself round on the chair and Seb enjoys a nap to the sound of wind the bobbin up.

10:20- We head round the corner to the church toddler group. Polly makes a water/oil sensory bottle and eats half a plate of pancake at snack- of course she ignores the fruit when out in public. Seb wakes up for another feed and Polly gets stroppy during song time so we don’t hang about.

11:45- We get home after a drop in at the letting agent to ask about the dodgy roof tiles we’ve reported.

11:47- toddler tantrum. The sensory bottle wasn’t making as many bubbles as she wanted when she gave it a shake. Seb also needed a nappy change during this and had to be shuffled out the way on the mat away from the flailing legs of a 2 year old doing the classic starfish manoeuvre.

12:00 Lunch time. It’s a snacky sort of lunch today for me too- you’d think this would mean the baby weight was flying off but sadly I keep finding the chocolate during naptime.12:04- toddler tantrum. The orange needed peeling. As Polly takes a week to eat a meal still I do a quick toy round up and feed Seb while she’s finishing up (tantrum as well as the food).

12:45- storytime which follows into naptime as she’s cream crackered so falls asleep as I’m reading. I love these books so I carry on and finish the chapter even though they are both asleep in front of me.13:00- With Polly asleep I head downstairs with the boy and the monitor.

13:10- sneaky chocolate bar time and feeding Seb.

13:30- watch the news while enjoying some Seb cuddles.

13:50- Seb has some time stretching and trying to roll on the playmat while I put the bins and recycling out. 14:00- Hes’s still happy on the mat so I do the washing up and give the kitchen a quick clean.

14:10- A hot cup of tea! Playtime with Seb.

14:30- Seb fell asleep during tummy time- again! Do I sit and relax for five minutes… of course not. I tidy Polly’s bookcase instead.

15:00- I wake Polly up or she’ll be a demon at bedtime and then feed Seb,

15:15- The electrician unexpectedly calls in to tidy up a wire from our recent rewire. Polly chooses this time to do a poo and Seb has a slight breakdown about the whole thing- cue lots of tears.

15:25- Henry arrives home. He’s only got a short break before his next shift so is straight in the kitchen sorting out some tea that he’ll eat early and we’ll eat later.

15:30- Henry has some Seb cuddles and reads to Polly while I hoover the house.

15:50- family time! Polly reads the same book 6 times. Seb feeds and gets more cuddles.

16:50- Henry puts Polly’s tea in and runs out the door back to work for the evening shift.

17:00- Feeding Seb (does this boy ever stop!)

17:15- I sort out some washing but make sure my bum is on the sofa for Go Jetters as requested by Polly- it’s her favourite.

17:30- time for tea. Wouldn’t be complete without a toddler tantrum, she wanted butter on her plate like I had for the potatoes, unfortunately she just eats butter like cheese so I gave her a small bit then said no more, she didn’t approve. Then we had the usual fit about seeing a fly. Tea lasted so long that Seb enjoyed guess what? Yup you’ve guessed it- another feed.

18:15- Seb goes in the carrier and I do the washing up, sort Polly out some warm milk, make myself a cup of tea and we then watch the news.

19:00- Heart radio time and Polly insists on completing the same puzzle on repeat while we drink our drinks. 19:15- Upstairs and it’s bath night. Seb cries through this one and Polly spills a boat full of water over the floor, so a fairly typical bath time.

19:55- dry Polly’s hair while she reads her favourite car books again in the corner of our room and Seb chills out to the sound of the hairdryer.

20:00- Storytime. Polly now knows it off by heart. 20:05- Polly in bed.

20:15- Polly asleep after a slight protest where I gave her the wrong dummy.

20:20- Lots of feeding from Seb and lots of cuddles too.21:05- Seb settles in the moses basket and I stick my head in her room to check she’s definitely asleep.

21:10- I climb into bed as I’m tired after the early morning cluster feeding

During this time I also:

Did 8 nappy changes

Wiped away half a dozen tears

Given countless cuddles

Downed 5 cups of tea

Wiped a snotty nose several times

Read 5 different books

Completed a bus puzzle 4 times

Agreed with a toddler on a hundred vehicle assessments- yes ‘big bus’ went past

Picked up numerous toys

Used wet wipes to clean the table

Tripped over the cat twice

Fed the cat 3 times

Checked Facebook 3 times

Watched 20 minutes of trashy TV (Supernanny USA today)

Went up and down the stairs 30 times

Replied to several messages- lots of build a bear chat today!

Sung a combined amount of 45 minutes worth of nursery rhymes

Chased away the same fly a dozen times, then asked the cat to do his job better

Sworn under my breath only once (at the fly)

Snuck in 2 small chocolate bars and one chocolate rich tea (didn’t know that was a thing till today)

Redone my Mum bun twice.

Now I know where my day goes!

What a contrasting few days we’ve just had! Seb and I are currently on the sofa having a snuggle while Henry puts our little lady to bed, it’s a late one tonight as we’ve been out all day and didn’t get home till late, but we had plenty of fun!

The weekend started great with a lush morning at the beach on Saturday before it got too hot. Polly and Henry dug a huge hole which she was reluctant to leave and everyone had a splash in the sea, well apart from Seb who stayed asleep in the carrier the whole time, I mean why let a little thing like the beach interrupt your 3 hour nap!

Sunday bought the rain which the children and I of course got caught in. Polly lost the plot about the rain cover over the pushchair until it absolutely poured and she saw how wet I was getting and so gave up trying to kick it off, luckily I had my rain coat in the pushchair too so I could wrap this round Seb in the carrier. I must have looked a bit weird pushing the pushchair with a coat tied round me while I got soaked through- the things we do for our kids!

Monday morning was a total opposite again- I woke up feeling horrendous. After avoiding it with Polly sadly mastitis caught up with me- cue sad face! Luckily the doctors saw me straight away and the antibiotics kicked in within 24 hours. I did wind up having a 2 1/2 hour nap on the sofa with Seb on Monday afternoon so Henry actually managed some studying as I wasn’t yapping away and Polly was napping through most of that too.

Then to today, well it’s not that we’ve done much- we’ve been into Exeter for the whole day, but it was a fun day. We caught up briefly with my sister and her husband while pondering lightbulbs in Wilko. Then we caught up with my gorgeous friend Nikki who opened up Seb’s new savings account. We had a cheeky whetherspoons lunch before a spot of shopping. The day was made more amusing by my misjudged choice of footwear, flip flops, which I normally live in but sadly it was raining when we arrived and I forgot a little bit of rain turns Exeter’s pavements into an ice rink! Cue many old lady jokes from my husband as I clutched the pushchair he was pushing to stop me landing on my arse!

Another priceless moment came during lunch. After assuring Nikki that Polly did not have him wrapped round her little finger he found himself outwitted by her (again!). Her meal came with a mystery sauce that he was too chicken to try. Then he started a game pretending to eat her hands and of course she dunked her finger in the sauce so he did wind up trying it anyway! Oh it was a bacon mayo if you were wondering.

One of the jobs was getting little lady’s feet measured again so we headed to Clark’s where she actually picked out her new shoes, it was the first time she’s picked something for herself- luckily for us they were on sale! We also picked up the exact book my mind had created for her to start learning the different names for vehicles so they aren’t all aeroplanes, tract-tees and cars.

After a bit of a longer stay in the city than expected as apparently all black shoes are as rare me being on time we squeezed in a food shop before heading to Ikea to finally pick up a little table and chair set for Polly (a very late birthday present). By this time we realised we needed to eat so we snuck in some meatballs before letting the toddler loose- the pictures speak for themselves as to how much fun she had! Then it was home for a quick bath with lots of bubbles before a slightly later bedtime. I think it’s taken it out of Henry too as he’s not down yet so I’m guessing he’s fallen asleep on our bed waiting to make sure she’s asleep, this means I’ll have to move a fast asleep Seb if I want a cup of tea, dam it!