Well I’m officially back at work. This time last week I was a tad bit emotional setting my alarm for the first time in 7 months but hey, we all survived the first week. I’m back doing the same shifts as before- 2 day shifts and 2 evening shifts to mix it up a bit. It was strange to go back and it’s definitely been a tiring week but it wasn’t as awful as we expected it to be. The main worry was (and still is as we suspect this to be a big case of lulling us into a false sense of security!)- Seb. He still won’t take a bottle after 2 months of us trying, nor the sippy cup for anything but water. The good thing is he’s taken to weaning like a duck to water and as yet hasn’t turned anything down. So at least he won’t starve while I’m away.

Henry has also coped better than I thought he would- it’s ok I did tell him that I was pleasantly surprised. In fact he’s even made me look a bit redundant by doing things like cleaning the kitchen and keeping up with the washing up instead of one huge attack at it after watching The Chase. He’s also keeping me updated on how well it’s going with snaps of the day.

Polly of course has taken most of this new change in her stride. Apart from Monday morning when she pleaded “mummy stay, no work” while I got dressed to leave- cue more tears from me! But all in all she’s been pretty amazing and seems to have had a massive ‘I’m really turning into a big girl’ growth spurt this week. We had her 2 year wellness check on Tuesday where she got a big thumbs up and this week she’s mastered singing nursery rhymes in a way that we can clock which ones she’s singing! Her favourite seems to be old McDonald where she requests animals ranging from a chicken to a green tractor to a man. We’ve still not decided what noise ‘man’ makes so for the moment it’s just ‘hello’ in various funny voices.

With the return to work which includes us doing the children swap when we work back to back shifts we finally got our hands on a double buggy. This of course wasn’t straight forward- when is our life ever straight forward! The first one we bought wouldn’t fit through the front door. Yup even after our measuring we still wound up with the hilarious situation where I was stuck in our porch with a buggy that wasn’t going in or out while Polly cried because I wouldn’t let her sit in it and Henry stood laughing his head off. The second attempt failed too when the seller dicked us about so finally on Tuesday Henry picked up our new wheels. I still can’t steer it very well but at least Polly had fun with the accessories.

Finally I’ll finish with a parenting fail confession that I almost didn’t include as it really is a massive fail that I know some judgy shit will tut at me for but after chatting to other parents I realise we’ve all done something on this level. The last ride in the single pushchair was a bit of a memorable one for Polly at least. We left the house Tuesday afternoon for a play date, the cookies in the trusted hands of the toddler (only trusted as she hasn’t figured out how to open them yet). I dropped the buggy off the curb outside our front door to look down and see my child on her hands and knees in the road- still holding the cookies of course! I guess the tiredness from back to work kicked in and I’d forgotten to strap her in. She was of course absolutely fine, just a little surprised. I, of course looked like a terrible mum as cars then appeared from both sides as I frantically scooped her up and retreated back to the pavement dragging the buggy too. After several kisses and the promise of a cookie when we got to our friends we set off again with me hanging my head in shame. Later that night I confessed my sin to Henry who then admitted that he too had accidentally tipped her out a few months ago when he forgot to strap her in too!

Well I’m checking out now as I really should attempt an early night as the alarm is all set again for tomorrow and I don’t really want another toddler tipping incident again due to lack of sleep.