A Brief Musing..

Edward and Harriet are now, rather unbelievably, two years old. I cant believe how much they have changed/grown/developed in just 2 short years. Yes some days drag on for what feels like an eternity but by comparison the weeks roll by so fast it really does feel like if you blink you will miss a pivotal moment in their lives.

Most of the time I absolutely love being 'mummy'; its great fun, albeit very tiring, but very rewarding. However, just lately Im finding myself (possibly controversially so) dreaming of escaping for a few days, maybe a week, and just being allowed to be 'Emily' for a little while. Its not possible, at present, which is perhaps why it is occupying more of my thoughts than it should. Ah well, Im fairly sure that if the opportunity arose to escape for a short while I would spend a goodly proportion of the time wondering if E&H were ok, what they were doing, whether they were missing me etc etc...

  

A Very Lancastrian Christmas

So here it is, merry christmas.... or rather, there it was. After 4 long months of festive build up Christmas has been and gone in a flash. We are still opening gifts 4 days later, and still ploughing through the leftovers. We haven't had the traditional turkey curry yet but theres time!

Edward and Harriet have been well and truly spoilt, if anyone has any ideas where we are going to put all their presents, answers on a postcard please! They've had lots of books, dvds, baby dollies with a cot and pushchair, wooden trains, jigsaw puzzles, a music player, Playmobil zoo, mini aquadoodle (so we now have 2 pens! yay!) a tea set, and come New Year they will also have 2 boxes of sticklebricks to keep them entertained. I shall take this opportunity to thank all aunties, uncles, cousins, grandparents and great-grandparents, and of course Father Christmas for all the gifts they have given. Im not sure when all the toys will get played with but Im sure they will eventually.

A very brief round-up of 2012... E&H celebrated their first birthday, in as much as two 1 yr olds know about birthdays and celebrating! We also had our first family holiday to the seaside. P went off to deepest darkest Herefordshire for a week of singing followed by 4 days in Denmark for yet more singing. This was interspersed with some frantic PhD writing and more singing which finally culminated in the submission of the PhD (woooo!) and the recording of a CD in december. My year has been much less exciting in comparison, although Im sure there are many people who would give their left leg to spend their time feeding the ducks or playing on the swings and slide so I wont complain!

And what will 2013 hold I wonder? Hopefully a tonsilectomy for me (what a thing to get excited about eh?!) and maybe a bit of weight loss and a new job..

It may be a few days early but never mind,

Happy New Year!

2012 (so far) In a Nutshell

At some point in late January I seem to have blinked and found myself teleported to mid October. Where have the last 9 months gone? I would love to say that we were having so much fun enjoying a very long and lazy summer that I simply didnt get the chance to post here, but as I now seem to be hallucinating about this fabled 'summer' we are apparently meant to have between June and September every year I must admit that blogging just didnt factor into our daily mayhem-packed lives.

Edward and Harriet are now, quite unbelievably, 4 days away from being 19 months old, so the countdown is well and truly on until they turn 2. They have changed so much in just 9 short months; when I left you all last Edward was cruising around the furniture and Harriet was just starting to wriggle around in a sort of crawl. Now they run everywhere, unless its the direction they dont want to go in. Their first steps came just after their birthday, and surprisingly it was Harriet who decided to stand on her own two feet first. Edward, not to be outdone by his younger sister, followed suit a week or so later.

We've had the excitement (and the financial horror) of buying their first shoes, the joy of their first seaside holiday and the first feel of sand (they didnt like it), we shall gloss over the first long distance car journey as it wasnt a pleasant event.. We've had first words (Im rather ashamed to say I cant remember what they were, their vocabulary has come on so quickly) and also sentences from Harriet who is proving to be a proper little chatterbox, as well as a sponge! Anything we say at the moment is repeated almost instantly, which is fun, but also makes you very aware of what you are saying. Im quite certain we will be having proper conversations very soon.

Those who know us, and see us regularly will probably be tired of hearing us saying how fast Edward and Harriet are growing, how quickly they are changing and developing etc but I cant believe how quickly things are happening. A few short months ago they were babies, who stayed where you put them, and now they are rampaging little people (theres a very good reason why they are known to us as the Mini Marauders) who are eager to get into everything.

I am fairly certain in my January post I said we were already looking forward to Christmas 2012, which considering we were only a month post-Christmas 2011 may have been a little premature. But now we are only 2 months away from said festive holiday I can safely say I am getting more excited every day. Last year was their first Christmas so it will always be special for that reason but this year they will be able to take part in it more, or should that say be able to take it apart..?

Playing Catch-Up.. and Progressing Nicely

Christmas. Seems like a lifetime ago, especially now all the decorations are gone, the tree is smouldering in the fireplace, and we still havent found a home for all the presents. I didnt eat my bodyweight in mince pies, which considering I have a wedding to go to in June is probably a good thing. 'The Santa Clause' trilogy was viewed numerous times over the festive season and has now been put away, albeit reluctantly. 'Get to the important details' I hear you cry! It was, of course, Edward and Harriet's first Christmas, and it passed in a blaze of fairy lights, sparkly tinsel and mounds of screwed up paper. Oh and there may have been a few presents too. Nothing could have prepared us for the piles of gifts they received, we were still opening things 3 days later! I think they enjoyed themselves, they didnt really know what was going on but they got loads of new things to play with and keep them entertained. I would love to say they enjoyed watching Daddy on the telly on Christmas morning but they were otherwise occupied using Mummy as a climbing frame.

We thought Christmas 2011 would be the best one, the first as a family, and I'm sure we will always remember it fondly as the first, but we are definitely (already) looking forward to Christmas 2012!

Aside from Christmas, december was exciting in other ways. Edward decided that, having mastered crawling a few weeks previously, it was time to try something new..

Dec 4th 2011:  Edward pulled himself up to standing for the first time, and after that there was no stopping him. A week later he was confidently cruising up and down the length of the settee but not so confidently landing on his bum when he wanted to get down and chase the cat. A few tumbles later however and he had figured out how to climb down as well as stand up. Clever boy! Harriet discovered she could sit up quite happily without the safety net of the V pillow behind her, although she does still like to fling herself backwards without warning. By the middle of january Edward was trying to stand on his own (he's growing up far too fast). We had come to the conclusion that Harriet wasnt going to crawl, she has always hated being on her tummy, even for a few minutes. New Year saw a new form of locomotion (Little Eva would be proud) as we discovered we had a bum shuffler on our hands (she takes after Mummy). Just when we thought we had her sussed she's apparently decided that crawling isnt so bad after all; for the last 2 days she has put herself on her tummy and happily stayed there for about 20mins at a time, and has even scooted forwards. She's also trying tp pull herself up to standing but once she is standing she can cruise a little along the settee :-) Clever girl! But, as with Edward, she's growing up too fast.

On the 19th Jan Edward and Harriet had their 9-12 month development check, which if I'm honest I was a little worried about. As ever though I needn't have worried as they passed with flying colours. The health visitor couldn't believe that Edward is cruising and trying to stand, or that Harriet stands too, as they are still considered premature; their actual age is almost 10 months, but corrected they are just over 8.5 months old. We dont think of them as prem babies though :-) They are doing well weight-wise too, Edward is now 21lb 9oz and Harriet is 17lb 10oz.

The next milestone is approaching rather too quickly for my liking, 9 weeks and counting..

35+2

Today is quite an important day, Sunday 27th November. It's the first sunday in Advent so I can officially start eating my own bodyweight in mince pies (and since having the Sprogs thats gone up quite considerably), I can also start the official countdown to being able to watch the Santa Clause films (always wait until after 1 Dec for those). But most importantly, at least to us, today Edward and Harriet are 35 weeks and 2 days old. Why is that important? Because they were born at 35 weeks and 2 days gestation, so today they have been outside for the same amount of time as they were inside! And I think thats important.

8 short months ago (short in some respects, tediously long in others) E&H came into our lives as bawling tiny pink and squidgy little creatures. Now they are huge bawling pink and podgy creatures. Both have fully mastered the art of sitting up unaided, although Harriet much prefers to lounge in her large V pillow and watch the world go by (she's going to be big in the sport of people watching I think). Edward has been desperately trying to crawl for about a month, he gets around rather quickly doing a caterpillar-meets-Action Man crawl, although as Im typing he is actually properly crawling across the floor to attack the changing bag!! Clever boy :-) No crawling signs from Harriet, we are fairly sure she will just train Edward up to fetch things for her. They are getting very talkative now as well; standard baby ramblings mostly, dadada, bababa, mumumumum (wow thats made my eyes go funny) but also the occasional waggawaggawagga and quackquack from Harriet. Maybe she was a duck in a former life?

At the moment we are gearing up for their first Christmas, not by going overboard on presents but with shiny sparkly lights and decorations! They were both mesmerised by the giant foil snowflakes in Sainsburys, even though a) the snowflakes were 3' wide and red and b) E&H have never seen a snowflake before. Maybe thats why they were so fascinated? Because of their reaction we have decided to get some foil decorations to hang around the place :-) Im hoping we will be going Christmas tree shopping in the next 10 days or so too, then we will have to construct the playpen to go around it.. Im looking forward to Christmas this year, not that I dont every year, but to have 2 little'uns around marvelling at everything and playing in mounds of paper, ignoring their presents will be great fun. And they will able to join us in sampling all the food goodies too, well most of them. Not sure how well Edward will do as he hasnt got any teeth yet, but there are still 4wks until the big day. Harriet on the other hand is busy perfecting her chewing skills with her pearly whites; the first came through on 11.11.11 and the second appeared rather aptly when we were at the BBC Good Food Show 13 days later. She's putting them to good use, her scrambled eggs didnt stand a chance this morning.

Right Im off to enjoy a rare moment of peace while they are napping and to make and drink a hot cup of tea. I know, outrageously rock and roll isnt it!

Autumnal Equinox

Friday 23rd September 2011, the autumnal equinox, the first day of autumn (although the MetOffice would have you believe that was 1st September). In our household friday 23rd September 2011 also marked another milestone in the year; Edward and Harriet were 26 weeks old. Today, 2 days later, they are properly 6 months old. I think we timed their arrival very well to have every 6 months marked by an equinox!

Both babies are now rolling, Edward more freely than Harriet. Although they arent crawling yet we can no longer put them on their mat to play and leave the room to put the kettle on, or answer the door, safe in the knowledge that when we come back they will be exactly where we left them... Edward likes to turn through 180 degrees, he can also travel backwards (not quite sure how) and he gets up on his hands and knees but thats as far as crawling goes at the moment. Im sure he practises in his sleep too as we are always finding him at the other end of the cot at an 180 degree angle from where we originally placed him!

Weaning is going remarkably well I think, they seem to like most things that are presented to them, and sometimes the food even makes it into their mouths. Now they are at the 6 month mark the dinner time repertoire can be substantially widened to include such delicacies as scrambled egg, toast, cheese and meat, and in a format that actually resembles the afore mentioned food stuffs and not a generic mush. Happy days. P made the mistake of bringing a yoghurt into their line of sight earlier, he didnt get much of it..

In the words of the cartoons they used to show on a sunday afternoon, that's all folks, at least until the babies are restrained somehow so it doesnt take 4 hours to write one post on here!

365 days

Exactly 365 days ago, 1 whole year to the day, I was sitting on the edge of the bath watching 2 little pink lines appearing on an inoccuous looking little white plastic stick. I had no idea what was to come, which was probably a good thing as P and myself were nervous enough at the prospect of becoming parents to 1 child let alone the duo we were actually going to get!

The babies are 20 weeks and 1 day old today :-) Edward likes to spend whatever time he has on the floor on his belly; he has learned how to roll but Im not sure whether he can control the rolling! Every time we put him down, be it to get him dressed or change his nappy he tries to roll over. He's also trying to crawl, so far he has travelled about 6 inches in an 'Action Man' style tummy crawl but I have a feeling it wont be long before he's off causing trouble at the opposite end of the flat! Harriet prefers to (try to) sit up and watch the world, she's got to perfect her balancing skills but she isnt far off sitting totally unaided. She wasnt interested in rolling until a few days ago, and I think she only does so now because she has discovered her feet/toes and grabs them when she's lying on her back, thus then rolling onto her side. She watches Edward a lot though, picking up tips and hints I reckon.....

Its quite difficult now to think back to when they were newborns, all wrinkled and tiny, let alone thinking back a year to when they were smaller still...