Saturday was a very special day for our little family. We had Sebastian christened. It was a wonderful day and the perfect excuse to spend time with family and friends. Plus look how cute our not so wee man looks…

It was a long day that started with a fry up at the hotel where some of the family were staying. Polly kept us all entertained with her yoghurt eating antics before we headed to the village hall with Grandpops in tow to do some balloon blowing.

I forgot to bring the carrier with me so Seb spent a bit of time chilling on a blanket while Polly popped several balloons and rearranged the toy corner I’d set up.

Then we headed home to get all 5 of us suited up. It was a bit of a rush which saw scenes like this…

As Seb was desperately in need of a nap, but no such luck even with the hairdryer blasting away!

Shock horror we were actually on time, unlike Polly’s where we turned up in the nick of time! After literally wrestling our chunky little man into the gorgeous family christening gown we wandered over to the church to catch up with everyone.

Sidbury church is where we had Polly’s nearly 2 years ago and has always had a special place in Henry’s family. As we settled into our seats Seb got a bit fussy so I offered him a feed, and he fell asleep! He stayed asleep for the whole thing. Even having the water poured on his head.

He then woke up during the photos, just in time to pose with us and his 2 Godmothers, Polly would not participate of course.

Polly had already made quite a statement by pairing her gorgeous little dress with her doggie wellies that I think might be surgically attached to her feet by now. Her giggling could be heard throughout the day as she played with her cousin Harley and her crew. She was in her element all afternoon and I think she consumed half a tub of clotted cream.

We had a great time catching up with everyone over a cream tea and a special shout out to Lydia for an amazing cake.

Seb did amazing and was fascinated by everything going on.

I’d just like to thank everyone who came along and everyone who sent messages, cards and presents. Especially the 3 Godparents who wrote such lovely words that will be carefully tucked away in his memory box.

It was a team effort to clear away afterwards, this is also the moment I realised I’d forgotten to bring down the toddler snacks- sorry guys!

We headed back to ours with a few extras and ordered a takeaway for a nice chilled evening. Then I think we fell into bed completely exhausted!

We had a nice breakfast with Grandpops the next morning and a walk along the river before he headed home. And Polly had her first nap in a week and a half. Today she also had a nap but after being a monkey about going to bed we’ve decided to enter the new chapter of no-naps without too much fuss even if I am a bit distressed to see them go.

It’s now Wednesday and I think we’re all still recovering a bit after such a full on weekend but it was definitely one we’ll remember.

This week has been a bit full on, it’s been fun and it’s not over yet! Henry has the week off so is doing studying whenever he can while also trying to do more of the hands on stuff with Seb before being handed the baby in a couple of weeks. Somehow our little man is 6 months old on Monday so we’ve started doing a bit of weaning this week in the hope that it’ll encourage him to take a bottle- it’s not exactly going to plan!

He quite likes gumming the high chair and this morning upset himself when he stuck a spoonful of porridge in his own mouth. I do love this stage as it’s a lot of fun, we are doing baby led weaning again, but we aren’t pushing him and it’s more of a pop a bit of our veg on his tray instead of sitting down with food pouches. I still can’t believe 6 months ago he was wriggling around in my belly anxious to escape.

And yes he is in a Christmas onesie- that’s what happens when you go into the next size clothing early and you’re the second born. Poor boy has also spent a few nights in pink onesies but at least they match his dummy.

On Sunday morning we went to the soft play centre with a couple of friends and their gorgeous little girl. Seb had his first taste of the big slides and Polly was as wild as ever!

It was a bit scary watching the toddler coming down sideways occasionally but she was straight back up each time!

It was all a bit much for wee man though and he conked out soon after.

On Tuesday we ventured out of the shire (little private joke there 😂) and headed for Exeter to pick up a few bits. Polly was let loose out the pushchair for the whole afternoon and was scarily well behaved. Well most of the time. I mean she did attempt to open the curtain while I was trying on dresses. And she did lift up a mannequin’s skirt and proclaim “that’s where the poo is!” But all in all she was pretty good

We also got her to pick her new wellies with the choice of Paw Patrol ones, Peppa pig ones or pink flowery ones…The ‘doggies’ one of course!

We’ve spent the last two afternoons with family and there’s been lots of laughing and love. The children have had a blast and the highlight this afternoon involved a car that Polly and her cousin Harley took turns chasing each other down on!

Mind you a shocking discovery in the conservatory this evening makes me seriously question our child’s ability with a moving vehicle…

The fun and the chaos is very much set to continue as it’s Seb’s christening this weekend and we are spending time celebrating with friends and family, let’s just hope he doesn’t repeat his poonami actions from the last one he went to!

Today is a big day in our little family. It’s a very special day. 10 years ago today the boy who’d taken me out on 2 dates text me to ask if I would be his girlfriend. Now a whole decade later that boy and I just enjoyed a cheeky glass of bubbly while we ate crumpets and listened to our little people laughing.

A lot has happened in 10 years and I know we aren’t one of those perfect families you sometimes see on social media, I like to think that we still keep it real- as the blog states: ‘just a typical family’. I mean just yesterday we had a shouting match over something stupid so we definitely aren’t ‘perfect’- don’t panic it was an argument started because the muppet had dunked my washing up gloves in the sink! But I’m glad we aren’t perfect. In fact I don’t think there’s such a thing as perfect. I know we care about each other. Love each other. Respect each other. Have fun with each other. Most importantly after 10 years I know we still have a future together. As one of my mummy friends and I chatted about just the other week, our other halves might drive us to fantasise about smothering them in their sleep sometimes but we honestly couldn’t imagine life without them.

I know things aren’t perfect right now as we continue on our path (I hate using the word journey!) to changing our lives so we couldn’t do the weekend away we’d wanted but I know they’ll be plenty of opportunities to do those things in the future, and I can’t wait. I can’t believe how far we’ve come and I couldn’t think of a better companion on the road ahead.

10 years ago I had no idea where my life would go but I wasn’t scared as I’d just said yes to the best sidekick I could ever have imagined. You might drive me up the wall sometimes but you also make me cry with laughter. And I love that we have those moments where we don’t even need to make the joke we can just look at each other.

6 years ago you asked me to be your wife, although really you’d already asked me 4 years earlier when you asked me to be yours. In fact you’ve had my heart since that first conversation when we chatted as we stacked baked beans- we met while working in a supermarket if anyone’s not heard that bit and thinks we were just dicking around in Tesco.

You’re now the father to my children and I love watching little examples of our love running around playing with cars.

I know it’s not been a smooth road here and I know we’ve still got a way to go to get our dream life together but right now I’m so thankful for what we have and I’m happy to be happy with what we have. Maybe not a picture of us in a swanky restaurant sipping champagne but instead we have the greatest gift of all- love.

Sorry to get so mushy and I need to stop now before I make myself cry. I’ll leave a little video of the love and happiness I’m talking about- this is honestly all you need in life and it’s all thanks to the man sitting opposite me studying to make our lives better so that maybe next year we will get the swanky restaurant but at least we’ll know that we were already the richest people in the world.

Happy 10 years you old poo head ❤️

Urgh I have a cold, and I’m not happy about it! They just annoy me so much, I hate having to blow my nose every 5 minutes, I hate that my nose goes all red and I hate that I’m sneezing six thousand times an hour. Although it is very cute to hear ‘bless you’ six thousand times an hour from your toddler. However, earlier today I offended her by putting her in her cot for 10 minutes while I had a shower and she was so annoyed that when I sneezed from the bathroom I heard ‘no bless you’ shouted down the landing!

Talking about noses, we just had our first ‘item up the nose’ incident just before bathtime. Polly had her finger up her nose (not an uncommon thing) but something about her cheeky look made me look closer. Good job I did. I’m still not quite sure what she’d stuck up there- it looked like a bit of potato but I’m not sure how she got hold of it as we had them for tea last night and I’d supposedly hoovered the house since then. Luckily she blew it out but I’m thinking I might have to check more regularly now in case she does it again!

Tonight for tea we didn’t have potato, we had one of my pastry fridge surprises. I basically chuck some of the fridge contents onto a sheet of puff pastry and trick the toddler into eating tomatoes as she apparently doesn’t like them anymore. Although she did throw a chunk at the cat who apparently likes avocado…

I’ve also found it’s a good meal for Polly to get involved in making. She loves sitting on the side stealing the cheese and flicking tomato purée at me.

We had great fun last week with a trip to the zoo up at Bristol. It was all flat (perfect for little people and a mummy whose been eating too much chocolate on mat leave so cries a little at walking up hills) and there was plenty there to keep us all entertained. Polly quite liked seeing the ‘dinosaurs’- big lizards and ‘cows’- pretty much anything else that moved. Might need to get the animal books out at home again.

Last week we also had a funny moment during our weekly visit to Henry’s Nanny & Pops’ on Tuesday. Polly was finishing up her lunch when Pops arrived home and she gave him a cheerful greeting of “hello Pops!” He then replied “alright my darling” and of course our little parrot replied straight back with “alright darling”! Since then she’s being saying it several times a day mainly to the cat.

Although today did have a couple of nice moments including this walk back from town where I caught Henry looking like the pack-horse I normally impersonate

The picture is slightly blurred as I was jokingly running away as I felt so liberated with no child strapped to me or hanging off me!

Sadly though we were walking back from my ‘back to work’ chat which I knew was coming but wasn’t looking forward to. It just makes it a bit more real when you pencil it in on your own calendar. I mean I haven’t cried about it today but I have just under 5 weeks for plenty of waterworks as I feel so sorry for myself about it. I’m just not quite ready yet. Neither is Seb. Neither is Henry- no matter how much he tells me he is! But we will all just have to suck it up and get on with it as that’s the decision we’ve made. It’ll be alright when the day actually comes but that doesn’t mean I can’t get a bit emotional about it before it does- so apologies in advance to all who get the blubbering mess, and thank you to the someone who’ll be putting up with my grumpy arse at work who made the meeting a lot better by making me a hot chocolate!