I’m gonna go out there and say it- today has been my favourite day of 2020 (apart from the 3 hours of the 7th June that included a brand new Clara of course!). After a lot of messaging, phone calls, checking restrictions, getting time off for godparents etc, we were able to hold a small christening as part of the Sunday church service at a special little church with a handful of family members and some amazing new godparents.

Clara started the day all smiles, but then refused to have a nap before we left so by the time we were 5 minutes into the service she was getting a bit stroppy- cue me standing up to start the ‘baby sway’ and she miraculously fell asleep… and stayed asleep till we were half way through the photo session! Polly was in her element, wearing the gorgeous dress she donned with wellies to Seb’s christening 2 years ago(!). she got involved with advent candle lighting and water pouring. Watching her face light up as the vicar blessed the water and poured it on Clara was such a precious moment with my girls that I’ll treasure forever. Seb was of course having none of it! He spent most of the service playing with his cars and then stropped through all the photos! It’s definitely given us some funny pictures to pull out when he’s older!

It was a wonderful morning and a huge thank you to those involved. As we couldn’t hold a celebration party afterwards we’re aiming to have a big party for her first birthday, assuming we’re all vaccinated by then- fingers crossed!

We had a quiet afternoon, watching a bit of strictly and playing cars before sacking off the roast dinner plans and instead bundling the kids into the car with blankets to go on a Christmas light hunt. Dancing in the back to Elton John with Seb while he shouted all the colours out was another precious moment to add to the bank. We then snuck in a cheeky McDonald’s before heading home via some more lights. It was such a wonderful day I think it’s given me a smile that’ll last till Christmas.

Ah Christmas- it’s almost here and we can’t wait! We are Christmas fanatics in this house anyway but this year we’ve gone even more so. The tree went up ages ago, there are lights all over the room and we’ve watched all the Christmas films multiple times.

I realise I didn’t blog at all during the last lockdown, instead I tried a thing where I posted something little on social media every day. I actually really enjoyed spreading a little bit of joy each day and it really made me appreciate all those little things even more.

Polly is doing well at school, it’s amazing how quick they pick things up, but more importantly she’s having fun- lots of it! She had a blast this week taking on the role of Mary in the nativity. We’ve not seen it yet (bloody COVID!) but we are going to be able to watch the recording, this does mean that the family can watch it too which is actually really lovely. She’s loving learning different words, her favourite being ‘pop’, she actually spelt it out with cows the other day! It’s also pretty funny when you catch her sitting on the toilet sounding out the words on the shampoo bottle (of course the ‘poo’ bit of that particular word prompted a fit of giggles!).

Seb makes me smile every day as he learns different things about the world and is starting to string sentences together- I could do with a few less tantrums though! I know it’s all part of him learning but it does get a bit annoying when the red cup wasn’t the right cup but when you offer him the blue cup he actually realised he did want the red cup. I do love watching him with Clara though as he absolutely dotes on her and her face lights up when he talks to her- “my Clara bear” he calls her.

And the little koala bear herself- well she’s 6 months old tomorrow which I can’t quite get my head round! We are very excited to get the weaning journey going and just to see her growing in general- she’s definitely the cheeky one out of the 3 and smiles so much it meets my heart.

Well I think I’ll leave it there for now, Henry has just made a cup of tea, Clara has fallen asleep on my boob and the cat has found his way into the cuddle too.