It’s almost October, which means it’s autumn and therefore it means it’ll be Christmas in 5 minutes time! I’m not trying to rush it past anymore than this year already is as it’s gone way too quick for my liking. Buuuut at the same time I’m so excited for the festive season to get going. We are Christmas mad in our family and I’m so eager to see how Seb reacts this year now he’s able to engage in the whole thing a bit more.

Anyhow back to the here and now. I’ve been a bit absent throughout most of this month- oops! In my defence the month has flown by with us getting the hang of the new routine that includes nursery. It’s gone really smoothly (touching wood in case that was a false sense of security!) and Polly loves going, although I still can’t get much out of her except she likes eating her sandwiches and Sam is her bestest friend.

I definitely now feel like I’m parenting 2 toddlers now, there is a lot of silly fighting already (he got too close to me, I want a hug at the same time as her, she looked at me funny, he’s playing with the car I forgot even existed) but there’s also a lot of laughter and the bond they have already is very clear to see.

Seb is getting used to walking about outside now, he particularly loves the seafront. We’ve just got back from a walk along the river though which takes 6 times longer than a normal walk as he has to pick everything up. Sticks, leaves, cigarette buts, branches- anything! It does prove a bit infuriating though when you realise he’s just walked round a lump that looks suspiciously like dog shit (it’s rained so the leaves are mushy lumps in places which is great at disguising wonderful finds like this!)- cue the anti-bac! This is also proving that summer is definitely over and as Polly keeps telling us- “winter is coming”. Seb did also get very excited when I plonked a ladybird on his hand which gives me hopes he won’t have Polly’s phobia of anything small that moves, including babies.

With the weather behaving badly I think we’ve maybe had our last proper beach session and to be honest it was one of the best ones. Last Monday after I finished work for my weekend we wandered down spur of the moment so the kids could dip their toes before the weather turned. We then bumped into 2 of their toddler friends and the 4 of them had a blast on the beach that they pretty much had to themselves. The only thing was the big girls are very at home on the beach and shortly after this photo was taken…

… they were both very naked in the sea! As I say it was very much a spontaneous dip in the sea for everyone which proved great fun when getting them dried up and home, although Polly thought it quite funny wearing my hoody!

We had a fab day last Saturday with a classic car show and the carnival falling on the same day. Both of the kids are car mad so were in their element in the morning declaring which car was theirs. Seb toddled from car to car pointing at each one saying ‘caaaaaar’ (while the owner of each said car flinched at the sight of a sticky fingered snotty nosed 1 year old tottering dangerously close to their freshly polished car that’s been locked away safely in a garage away from terrors like my son).

The carnival then rocked up in the evening, it goes past the road outside our house so we literally fill the porch with cushions and hot chocolate and watch it in our pjs with 2 open mouthed children. Polly got very excited by the firefighters (this is the current big girl dream profession thanks to fireman Sam!) and when one came over for a high five he was greeted by a very enthusiastic 3 year old- “Hello Mr Fireman, how are you today?!”. The giant star who danced past even got a hug!

I’ll finish off with a cheeky tale from the big kid who’s learnt the art of telling porky pies. Seb is teething something chronic at the moment (I mean biting everything- his clothes, the toys, the shopping trolley, my shoulder…) so when he was full of snot and a bit grumpy the trusted pink medicine came out at bedtime, Polly quite likes calpol, cue the cheekiest thing she’s done for quite a while-

Polly (fake coughing): “Mama I really very sick.”

Me (fighting laughter): “I really very don’t think you are.”

Polly: “yes mama, my belly is very sad and I’m very sick, I really need the pink medicine to make my belly happy again.”

She’s since tried this stunt a further 2 times!

Well today was a big day for our little lady. She had her first full session at nursery… and she loved it- I mean when asked what she did in 4 hours all she’s talking about is the sandwiches she ate for lunch, but I’m taking that as a win as she for once ate food I’d prepared without a fight. We had 3 settle in sessions where she slotted in without a fuss but I was still a little taken aback this morning when she ran straight over to play without so much as a backward glance!

This absence of the big one meant that the little one got some one on one time this morning and an actual lunch date, something I don’t think I’ve been able to do. We went to toddler group, the park and then we shared some fries, he also ate the crayons which I declined when he offered to share.

I think he was a bit lost without his big sister about but it was also a chance to just focus on him and marvel at how big he seems to be getting, during song time he surprised me completely when he put his finger to his lips and ‘shushed’ during “hop little bunnies” (don’t worry he’s not just giving me a dose of my own sarcasm it is actually a big part of the song!). He did give us some attitude last week though when we took him to have his feet measured for the first time. He screamed in protest at the first feel of shoes on his feet and spent a full 5 minutes trying to pull them off his feet- to be honest once the assistant said they cost £36 and didn’t even fit him very well I jumped down to help him pull those bloody things off his little feet anyway! Luckily Asda delivery came to the rescue with the help of postman pat (the statement from the 3 year old when 2 new sets of shoes appeared through the letterbox a few days later (of course her feet had grown a full size bigger to coincide with him needing shoes too!)) and now a couple of days in and he’s getting adjusted to being a civilised toddler- he can just be barefoot and feral at home now.

Polly and I did have a little bit of fun last night to mainly distract me from what the morning would bring. Despite the grey skies we ventured to the beach and had great fun playing in the sea, jumping waves and throwing stones.

Then of course the heavens opened so my little companion and I fled the beach for a very very very cheeky pre tea ice cream! Well you only live once!

“You know when you think something’s going to be a beautiful moment and then it’s just not”…..

These are the butterflies we’ve had since they were wriggly little caterpillars that arrived via good old postman pat, after watching them grow, change, hatch and thrive this was meant to one of those beautiful moments. Instead Polly freaked out and thought they were going to come and attack her so she fled back in the house and left me to watch their moment of freedom. The creepy crawly phobia continues.

Other than all that it’s been a fairly typical couple of weeks with the usual mixture of chaos, laughter, exhaustion and joy.