Well look how quickly things change. The whole world seems to have been turned upside down since my last post and honestly I’ve really debated with posting anything at all as everyone has so much going on do they really need to hear another voice in the mix? But then I realise how much writing helps me and I’m not forcing anyone to read it so here goes!

This time last week we were plodding along with everyone else, slightly uneasy but still feeling in control of the situation. On Monday afternoon after doing our usual work swap over, the control was taken completely out of our grasp. Polly had stayed off nursery as she’d woken up with a new cough and come the afternoon she was saying she felt “really very poorly”. I was actually checking her temperature (which was 38.5) as Boris was making his big speech that was about to change our situation completely. Within an hour or so Henry was back home and the 4 of us were facing 14 days in isolation together. This might sound a bit shit as none of us are good with being stuck inside unable to live our normal lives but we realised very quickly that we had to look at it from the other perspective. We have now all got a cough of some sorts, each of us feel fine one minute and a bit shit another minute (we don’t know if we have it as they aren’t testing unless they have too- rightly so at this point as there are others who are way ahead in the priority list) but here’s the thing- we could have it! And in a normal climate we would be out there carrying on as normal, potentially passing on something that we might deem a cough and a fever and someone else deems something they don’t recover from (sorry to be dramatic but that’s the reality). So with this in mind I’ve stolen someone else’s outlook on it, we are not in ‘self-isolation’, we have been ‘exiled for the good of the realm.’

I do just want to give a massive shout out to all our wonderful friends and family who have sent messages of love and support and thank you to the wonderful Hazel who dropped off some supplies last night like some strange new version of knock & run! The fact I was about the run out of white chocolate spread was starting to make me feel anxious! Hopefully once our exile is over then we too can help support all of you.

Although that does bring me into the next part of that Monday moment of madness. 12 weeks. 12 weeks of some form of isolation. I know I won’t be the only one currently screaming a bit on the inside at the thought of 3 months not being able to see family/friends, pop into the shop to buy milk (the dickheads might have stopped buying all the toilet roll paper by then though!), go to a toddler group and eat cake with friends or get that bloody Eggs Royale I’ve been craving for 3 weeks! The smack in the face also being it’ll come to an en end the week I’m due so I do literally feel like the women of the dark ages who were put in confinement for the end of pregnancy! Obviously it’s also making me a bit anxious about what happens when baby decides to actually make an appearance into this strange world we’re currently living in. But that’s the only thing that’s a given- it’s got to come out at some point! So I’ve decided that lots of other people in this ‘at risk’ category have much more pressing worries so I just need to put my big girl pants on and realise that this too is for the good of the realm in the long run.

So, what does ‘exile’ actually look and feel like? Well, we’ve lost track of what day it actually is (not that it matters to us anyway!) but we are ok. Yes there has been a bit of shouting, some tears and the cat is fed up of seeing our faces all day but, there has also been laughter, lots of cuddles and lots of decluttering! Henry has also finally got his wish and turned the conservatory into a gym/office! I’ve got a whole list of activities to fall back on for the kids- from nature collecting in the garden to paper boat races in the bath. At the moment Polly is having hours of fun with a water pen book and Seb has turned my bump into a race track. We are mixing it up with a bit of CBeebies, the greatest showman soundtrack and an occasional dose of the news as we try not to rely on the tv too much- Polly has booked in Moana for this afternoon though (good job it’s a good film!). So my point here is that ‘exile’ in these times is not nearly as daunting as having to battle a dragon or defeat an evil lord.

Finally I just want to give a shout out to another little family of ours. Our Duke’s family. The meme going around about feeling like we were the band on Titanic was so accurate. At the weekend we battled crowds of people together, people who wanted one last weekend of normality and we got through it with our usual dose of support and sarcasm. Then together we’ve faced the next phase as the whole hospitality industry plunged into the Atlantic together. This is the bit that actually makes me a bit sad- that our little work family has been put in such a shit situation and all I want to do is see our team together doing what we do with more sarcasm and plenty of hugs! So I’m sending virtual hugs to all our crew, we love you all and we’ll see you on the other side- you’ll hear us coming, “flake flake” will be the rallying cry from the kids!

We’ve had a fairly busy few weeks so I don’t feel too bad about having a quiet afternoon today with Moana, princess dresses and some sweets. 

Henry’s birthday was last week, it actually feels a month ago already! We celebrated by hitting the soft play (Polly taking this too literally after tackling the death slide!), heading to Nanny & Pops’ for sausage sandwiches then finishing off with a cheeky Frankie & Benny’s. The kids got very excited by the other birthdays being celebrated in there and on the second round of the ‘happy birthday’ cake parade they both jumped onto their seats and did a dance, much to the amusement of the tables around us! Safe to say we decided against bringing any more attention to our table so ate our shared sundae quickly without more singing! 

We headed up to Suffolk later in the week for a couple of days. According to my photos all we really did was eat a lot! We did have a good trip and although we’ve probably each gained a stone in weight it was nice to get away for a bit. Seb decided to let us know he’d learnt a new word and shouted ‘chick-en’ every time we drove past a KFC and Polly put on several dance shows to anyone who sat still long enough. Sadly we didn’t get time to see everyone we wanted and are already trying to plan a summer trip up. 

Finally getting his ‘chick-en’ on the journey home!

We did have a slightly eventful trip home that we could have done without! The car obviously quite liked a certain stretch of the M5 so it thought 11pm in the rain was a good time to get acquainted with this bridge and it broke down. The kids were delighted when a tow truck (a.k.a Paw Patrol) turned up to rescue us an hour later. After several phone calls to the R.A.C we then found ourselves being dropped off 40 miles down the road at the most depressing service station known to man, awaiting a second truck to tow us the remaining 40 miles, thinking it would be a short wait. It was not. At 3:30AM they got annoyed with my phone calls trying to find out how low down we now were on the rescue list and they sent a taxi for the kids and I. Henry and Siegfried (the car) turned up back in Sidmouth at around 8AM. So not the best journey home and not surprising that this was the sight in our house on Sunday morning…

Anyway car mended, sleep caught up on and the usual chaos is restored! 

I was really lucky a couple of weeks ago to attend my friend’s (Pirate Laura!) passing out ceremony from the Navy, the weather may have been awful but it was still an amazing experience and a proud moment for all of us who journeyed down to the base. 

Anyway I kind of want to watch the last bit of the film so I’ll sign off now with one final picture of the sight that might greet you if you leave a play date without realising that one child has snuck the other child a chocolate digestive into the car… 

Well we survived storm whatever her name was, sadly my work shoes didn’t, but the muddy puddles it generated have made for a very happy toddler keen to soak everyone in her wellies. There were moments I felt like I wasn’t going to survive the last two days though! Yesterday morning was the sort of morning where Seb thought breakfast needed livening up by smashing a Pyrex jug in the kitchen while I tried to sort out who wanted toast and who wanted rice crispies. Then Polly took advantage of the clean up mayhem and drew a masterpiece on the wall. She’s also recently discovered the trick of white lies, “it wasn’t me mama” would have been a lot more convincing had she still not been clutching the offending crayon! 
This evening then threw up another parenting delight after Henry took himself off to the gym and I tackled tea, bath and bed. Polly isn’t too long out of nappies (it’s been a delightful ‘journey’ to get the little rascal into big girl pants!) and unfortunately tonight 5 minutes after doing a poo she let off a fart that came with a terrified little face and an “oh no mummy!”. Cleaning up what Polly has christened a ‘fart-poo’ while serving up tea comes with challenges when there’s an arsehole cat on the loose too. He used this opportunity to size up the plates then when Seb decided he too needed to do a poo during food time the cat took his chance and swiped half of Seb’s chicken! Safe to say everyone in Sidmouth probably heard my feelings towards the cat after that stunt.
But here’s the thing about parenting- it can literally flip in the space of a few minutes. So after a spot of cleaning and several tears and cuddles we decided a YouTube dance party would lighten the mood- watching two toddlers dancing and attempting to sing to ‘Dance monkey’ will definitely achieve that!
Polly is now at the age where she asks ‘why’ in response to pretty much anything I say, she is also coming out with some absolute crackers to other people’s questions. While watching Paw Patrol the other day I wondered aloud why the cats didn’t speak… “because they don’t have strong mouths mama” came the reply from the well informed toddler.
She might seriously test my patience at times (like when I found out she could open the kitchen stair gate, climb onto the counter and raid the treat cupboard for herself and Seb in the time it took me to run a basket of washing upstairs!) but she’s also giving us priceless memories- like reading us a story last night involving a very hungry caterpillar who ate an owl before turning into a butterfly (it was a puppet book so we had actions and sound effects!).
Seb is coming out with several words now that range from ‘tractor’ to ‘chocolate’ but the funniest is the simplest one- ‘no’, as it comes with a frown and a firm hand in the air too.
He’s such a little munchkin and loves copying his big sister. When she puts on a princess outfit he goes and gets himself a tiara and wand to join in the fun which is making for some great photo opportunities that I usually miss because I’m being transformed into a princess too! 
On that note I’m going to finish up, get a cup of tea and watch the last part of ‘another stupid murder programme’ (quote husband) while the baby kicks the living daylights out of my belly button- clearly it likes haribo just as much as the bigger kids!

Well, I’m not really sure where to start with this post to be honest, it’s been a while. So long in fact that I just opened my Wetherspoons app instead of my WordPress app as I’d forgotten which ‘W’ was which. Maybe first I’ll explain the absence? It’s not anything big or dramatic by the way, truth be told the first few weeks of pregnancy had me unable to function very well as a human being so blogging wasn’t top of the priority list, getting through a meal without vomiting was definitely placing higher. Then December hit and the Christmas fog descended which also left very little time for writing anything publishable. Next thing you realise it’s ‘new year, new me’ time and you still haven’t written anything for months and then it starts to become a thing- what am going to write about as too much has happened or changed. And then you finally get an hour as the big kid is at nursery, the little one is having a nap (even after a ‘no no’ nap tantrum on the floor before he realised mummy was right and he was tired!), the husband has been put to work in the garden and the cat has pinned you down for a cuddle and you realise it’s now or never.

So, what’s changed? Well apart from the obvious- I’m growing the third and final baby- not much really. As I said it’s not been the easiest pregnancy (I think my body is confirming to my brain- this has to be it), I don’t want to complain too much as there are a lot worse symptoms than ongoing nausea, it did however have quite a knock on Henry’s studying at the tail end of last year as he was picking up all my slack, including working a few of my shifts! So, yes, he his still studying, but he is close to finishing- which is a good thing as he’s so ready for the next chapter in his career.

The kids are exactly as you’d imagine 2 feral toddlers to be. Polly is carrying on in becoming a fearless independent little monkey who makes us laugh every day (and cry sometimes too!). We’ve just applied for her school place which makes her suddenly seem like she’s 18 and getting ready to leave home, she’s also so excited for another sibling and has requested a sister called Jesus.

Seb is now starting to find his voice, this ranges from the delightful high pitched shriek in Tesco that Polly has taught him to him following me while I hold a packet of crisps saying ‘share share share’ to him declaring ‘peppa ig’ followed by a snort when Henry flicked YouTube on last night.

They’ve also developed a new favourite activity- singing and dancing to music videos courtesy of YouTube, the favourite being George Ezra ‘Shotgun’. placeholder://

I’m not really sure what else to write as this feels a bit like a catch up summary paving the way for more regular blogging starting again soon. We are of course in a new decade now as well as a new year so I know a lot of people have done a lot of reflecting on how much has changed for them in 10 years. 10 years is a long time and our lives are fairly unrecognisable from the start of the decade. Life also tried to finish our decade with a typical bitch slap just before Christmas, however we aren’t the same people as the young naive couple of 2010 who might have let it break us. Instead we are a bit more experienced, a bit more hardened and we’ve learnt enough hard lessons to say this in response to life’s bitch slaps- “fuck you”. I won’t be harping on about these things for long though as we’ve got a life to be living and that’s what I’m going to go and do as I’ve realised that’s the best way of voicing that “fuck you”. So here’s to a new decade- let’s see what adventures this one brings!

Two years ago I unleashed my heart on this blog in respect of baby loss awareness day- this year I think I’d like to do the same again, so here it is again (I’ve quite simply copied and pasted my own words so the dates won’t match to this current year). Sorry to repeat myself, I do however think that this is such an important topic that needs to be spoken about more freely.

I’ve debated long and hard about writing this post. It’s a difficult thing to write about, silly as I’m now at the stage where I can talk to other people about it, but somehow it seems different typing it. I guess it’s mainly due to the fact that you can’t see the reaction of whoever is reading it, whereas face to face I can tell what they are thinking. But, I’ve decided that this is meant to be a day of unity so I’m uniting and telling my story too.

It’s strange because 3 years ago I wasn’t even aware that this day existed (I think it’s rightly gained a lot more support since then). I was also pregnant. Pregnant with our first baby. Yup I can see you doing the maths now, Polly isn’t that old, it doesn’t add up. That’s because I wasn’t pregnant with Polly. I was pregnant with a baby we would never meet. Just 9 days later I would wake in the morning to get ready for work to find I had started spotting. Not unheard of in early pregnancy. But I knew. I knew straight away what it meant.

What follows next is something that will stay with me forever. They don’t tell you about this in the baby books. They don’t tell you about this in sex ed classes at school. No-one talks about it. So, nothing can prepare you for what happens next.

They don’t tell you that it will hurt. Not just physically but emotionally it will push you to your limit. There will be a pain in your heart that feels like your soul has been ripped out. Then this pain changes to emptiness. Then hopelessness. Then you realise this is where your baby will live forever. Safe in your heart because they weren’t safe in your belly where they were meant to grow and become your world.

They don’t tell you what actually happens when you lose a baby. You will be thrown many insensitive remarks from people who think they are helping (actually some of them don’t even think that they just don’t understand or care). At least one person will tell you- “It wasn’t a real baby.” I beg to differ. When you pass that ‘bundle of cells’ that’s ‘just like a heavy period’, you soon realise you are very much passing a baby. It is messy. And it will break you.

They don’t tell you that it will nearly ruin you and your husband. That you will cry, a lot. That he will cry. That you’ll turn on each other as that’s your only outlet. That you’ll say things that are unforgivable. That at your lowest you will shout at him ‘that he should leave you and find a real woman who can give him a family’. They don’t tell you that you’ll burst blood vessels in your eyes from crying so much.

They don’t tell you that you will blame yourself. You’ll analyse every aspect of the pregnancy to find out what YOU did wrong. How you failed your unborn child.

They do throw statistics at you. They tell you not to worry, that you’ll likely have a successful pregnancy next time. Well they were wrong again in our case. Just 3 months later, on Boxing Day we found ourselves in the same position.

They don’t tell you how difficult it will be when you do have a sticky bean who makes it past that precious 12-week mark. That every niggle and twinge sends you back to that dark place where you think you’ll never make it to be a mother. That you’ll check your pants 20 times a day to make sure you aren’t losing another one. That when you don’t feel your baby move for a few hours you start envisaging all kinds of horrors. That you won’t truly be relaxed until that baby is out, breathing, in your arms. Safe in your arms because your womb is not a safe place.

They don’t tell you a lot when it comes to miscarriage and infant loss. Instead you come across a lot of insensitivity and callous remarks. Not just out in the world but also in the healthcare system that you find yourself falling on in your most vulnerable and distressed state. Not everyone is bad. Each 111 operator I spoke to each time, they were amazing. The 2 doctors who scanned us during our first loss, they were amazing. The A&E doctor who saw us the day after Boxing Day, he was an arsehole. The problem is many people still don’t think miscarriage is something to get upset about, they think you’re overreacting. These are the people who don’t see what you lost as a baby. These people have no idea- lucky them. In my opinion as soon as you are pregnant, you are just that- pregnant. You have life inside you. As soon as you know it’s in there then all that promise, all that future, starts growing in your mind and your heart. You start thinking names, imagining their first words, first day at school, whether they’ll get married and have babies of their own. Then it’s gone. All gone. You are very much entitled to grieve that loss as it is just that, a loss. A huge loss. So, grieve however you want to. Scream. Cry. No-one has the right to tell you how to grieve your baby.

This is dedicated to all the Angel babies who are sitting in our hearts instead of in our arms.

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.

I know I only have a couple of years of experience of doing the juggling act of working while parenting, so in a few years I might be able to create a longer post! Until then, here’s a few things that it’s taught me and pushed me to:

• Time is everything. When there are 24 hours in the day and you’ll be spending 10 of them at work, the kids will be spending 12 of them asleep and you have 2 precious hours with those beautiful little people, you’ll use up every second on the floor playing, reading, laughing, dancing. On days like that screw the washing up, the laundry- all of it. All of that can wait, dancing along to The Greatest Showman soundtrack is a way more valuable use of time.
• Time (again!). Due to the above you find yourself doing things at ridiculous times (there really are 24 hours in our day!). This is the reason I may be found sorting out washing at 1AM, Henry takes trips to the gym at 4AM and most days dinner in our house gets cooked up at the same time as lunch.
• Multitasking is the key to survival. I’ve found that it is totally possible to fold up washing, cook 2 meals, feed the cat, listen to a 3 year old chat about tractors whilst listening out for the baby monitor, all at the same time, although you don’t want to muddle them up and put cat food in the cooking.
• Couple time is precious. We work back to back 4 out of 7 days (and I work most of Saturday), which means the family day we have (one day off is a full study day) is so important. It also means that on those occasions where one of us creeps in the door to find the other one still awake we will sit and have a cup of tea together and just spend some time together, even if it is midnight and the muppet whose stayed up is back to work in 7 hours!
• You can’t do it all. You really can’t and something has to give. This something changes all the time though as different things wrestle their way up and down the priority list- sometimes it’s the washing, sometimes it’s the garden, right now it’s keeping up to date messaging friends (sorry about that guys! I’ll try and bump you all up this list- the washing can definitely take a hit!). One thing is set though- the kids will always top the list.
• You’ll always feel like you’re not giving enough to each half of your life- home and work. The kids will tug your heartstrings when they ask why you’re leaving the house again and you’ll then feel guilty when you can’t stay those extra 10 minutes at work on a busy shift where everyone else is volunteering. I know it’s that stupid guilt creeping in again. I’ve honestly got a lot better and try not to let guilt sway my emotions but there will always be days where you want to cut yourself in half.
• People love to give you their opinion about the fact that you’re a working mother like we are still in the 1950’s and I shouldn’t have the nerve to be more than 10 feet away from my kitchen. For some reason people also get offended when I ask if they are offering to pay my rent when they tell me it’s shocking I’ve left my children at home- and don’t even get me started on the comments of “daddy being at home babysitting”, like the fact that he has a penis means he’s lowered to a ‘babysitter’ instead of the parent he actually happens to be. The fact is- there is no ‘right way’ of doing this parenting/working thing so I try not to let these opinions bother me too much as everyone’s situations are different- just don’t call my husband a fucking babysitter!
• It’s all for the kids anyway! All this blood, sweat and tears is for our little family to have the best life we can give, so we will always be prepared to give more to all aspects of the home/work balance as you don’t get much more motivation than being solely responsible for tiny humans- they definitely make it worth it though!

One day we will lead a quiet life, but it is not this day! Nor apparently any of the days we’ve had recently. Last week the annual folk festival hit the town with bells, Morris dancers and a whole host of fun. This also meant a fairly flat out week at work between us, some late nights, a wild night for me on Tuesday and Grandpops down to join in the fun all week.

Saturday kicked off the singing and dancing for us with a little wander around after I finished work with Auntie Emily being literally dragged around by Polly. It was also Seb’s first real experience of the whole thing as he was only tiny for last years- safe to say it took him a couple of days to work out what had happened to his little seaside town.

A couple of days later he was definitely getting more adjusted to the volume of bells in the town and started to get his groove on.

And by Tuesday evening it was party time!

Tuesday night was also party time for mummy. It was our only night where both of us were off so naturally I shotgunned. With the help of my partners in crime (cough cough Emily and Laura) I had one of the best nights out I’ve ever had! We drank a bit too much, danced all night and laughed a lot (and I mean a lot!). No video needs to be seen of that night though!

Polly of course truly outdid herself this year. She also did all of the above, including drinking too much juice on Tuesday to the point her nappy leaked and she ended up weeing down my leg at dinner. She got her groove on many times with lots of her little friends including a spectacular session on the seafront during the samba band’s performance on Wednesday evening.

Then there was the face painting incident. She sat beautifully while the nice lady transformed her into a tiger and got very excited roaring at us….

Then precisely 45 seconds after this photo was taken she decided (like any 3 year old would) that she didn’t want to be a tiger any more, so she rubbed a huge patch off her face and burst into tears. Definitely worth the £3 and 10 minute wait for that one.

And who could forget her hijacking the instrument mans performance where she got a bit carried away after being asked to ring one of the bells and decided she wanted to be the star of the show, refusing to move till the man let her have a turn like the big kids. Thankfully she was easily distracted with a horn of all things!

Thursday actually turned out to be the last day of the festival as Friday was cancelled due to the horrendous weather that battered us at the end of the week. We had a fab morning with Auntie Jen and the kids cousins, with us stumbling on the bubble man and having a cheeky hot chocolate and cake after the rain threatened to end the fun.

With the bells coming to an end though Henry and I are a little bit shattered which has led to a few scenes like these…

And back to today’s dramas. Well we have actually had a nice day, we went on a fun filled play date this morning which was a great return to normality. Then this afternoon we took a trip up to our friends farm where Polly was in her element with the cows and tractors, she loved watching the milking and we also got to meet a calf born in the time we were up there!

We got a bit time lost though and ended up on a mission to find some quick tea which ended up in a trip to the next town along the seafront to the trusted McDonald’s. Sadly a bunch of teenagers added an interesting twist to the evening and we got to witness a 14 year old assaulting an innocent teenager at the next table- a wonderful thing to explain to a 3 old year trying to eat her fish fingers in peace. Polly was fairly excited to meet the policeman who came to chat to us afterwards and Seb even stroked the poor mans beard! Our children are apparently untroubled by events like these though and even watching a teenager being punched in the face wasn’t enough to deter the next Beyoncé

And on that note we’ve decided to have a tame evening watching a bit of tv, sharing a can of Thatchers and eating our weight in chocolate- maybe tomorrow will be a quiet one?!

So I’m now 28, which means the blog turned 2 this week. I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I took the plunge and started documenting our lives. There have obviously been a few changes in that time, one of them being how I actually write these posts- 2 years ago I would have put Polly down for a nap and planned what I was about to post while sipping a cup of tea, whereas right now I’m writing in between breaking up wrestling matches between the little monkeys, I’m ignoring the washing up in the kitchen and a cup of tea is proving a far off dream. So life is fairly full on, slightly crazy but oh so fun.

We celebrated my birthday by heading to the Eden project in the pouring rain during the school holidays, we won’t be doing that again! It was absolutely heaving, but this was the first time that Polly was properly into it and she loved running from plant to plant and puddle to puddle. We’ll also know for next time that if we get put in the furthest car park away then the bus down is actually free (we didn’t have change so wrongly assumed this and definitely made fools of ourselves with a mile long walk in the rain with only one single pushchair and only one umbrella), luckily the girl loves a puddle!

We get told a lot, and I mean a lot, how much both the kids look like Henry, so it was quite a relief this week to see some more of my genes creeping through with the help of food. Polly started the day living her best life with wellies off and a Philadelphia bagel in McDonald’s…

And Seb was living his best life later on in the day with 2 spoons, his hands and a chocolate brownie with ice cream…

Yup definitely my kids…

I also shock horror got dressed up in the evening and went for cocktails which was a lot of fun. There was a lot of laughing which was the perfect way to round off a birthday.

We are now saying that Seb is walking, I mean he pretends he isn’t but I now have too many sneaky videos of him strutting across the room behind my back that his trick of dropping back to crawling when he clocks me filming won’t wash anymore, I’m pretty sure he’s only doing it so he can get carried around now.

Summer is proving very hit and miss so we’ve just been taking any opportunities whenever we can to get outside and enjoy the sun in between showers. The kids had a blast in the river last week with their cousins with Polly using any excuse like this to just get naked and run in the water, obviously Henry’s genes creeping in there 😉.

Polly is definitely getting too smart for her own good and definitely too cheeky, maybe my genes on this instance. She had a great day last week when Henry took them over to the Wiscombe hill climb, she’s still carrying the racing programme round with her chatting about the fast cars that go ‘bang pop’.

And finally the boy, well he’s still doing ridiculous things like getting up at 4 to squeeze in the gym before either of us goes to work and is resorting to all sorts of methods to keep the kids busy while he studies- cars, books, colouring, food, Netflix, letting them chase the cat round the house. The truth is it has taken us a little bit longer to get him to the end but he’s definitely within touching distance of finishing his training which will hopefully see scenes like this…

Time to sign off now as the beach beckons before work later and that washing up sadly won’t do itself (maybe I’ve offended the washing up fairy) and the kids are quickly destroying the house! I’ll try and post again soon as tomorrow is the beginning of folk week which should produce many anecdotes as it has done in the past!