Today I had planned to write a light hearted travel post for a Wanderlust-y kind of Wednesday, but my heart doesn’t feel as light as it usually does – on account of having one sad, sickly little baby in the house.
Of course, it’s just a case of the sniffles – which Annabel brings home from play school about once a month and Ruby then makes it her business to pick up and turn into a full-on cold. And a cold for a baby is the opposite of fun. Annabel was never ill for a day of the first year of...
In the beautiful speech he gave on our wedding day my dad said, “I wonder if you will ever know what a pleasure it has been to be your father.” It was a moving moment that, thanks to his wonderful gift with words, everybody felt, and I will never forget. And yet – I did know. I knew, because my dad made sure I did. Every day, he made sure I knew he loved being my dad.
My childhood is filled with memories of early mornings at the kitchen table as he read to me before school, horsing around the living...
Two nights ago I went out for pizza and wine with some girlfriends.
This is not a phrase I get to say very often. In fact, this was only the second time I’ve had a night out with the girls since Ruby was born. That’s in OVER SIX MONTHS! There have been various reasons for this, but the most prevalent is that with my second (and last) baby, I’ve been reluctant to hurry her to a place where I can leave her and head out for a night on the town. She still feeds to sleep (and doggedly refuses a bottle), she likes...
Our European Summer is taking its sweet time to get going this year… It’s the middle of June and the thermometer is hovering somewhere around 17 degrees with silly statistics on rainfall, and my closet full of summer dresses is screaming out to be worn – having been abandoned last summer in favour of maternity clothes. But as far as I can tell there’s a small silver lining to the long wait for the sunshine and that’s that this year’s hottest trend in footwear, The Loafer, is getting plenty of mileage.
...
“Making the decision to have a child – it’s momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.”
– Elizabeth Stone
Somebody sent this quote to me after Annabel was born, and oh! – how true it is. Since the day she came into our lives I have know fear – real, bone-chilling, heart jolting fear that takes my breath away – on a daily basis, and I think it’s been one of the most challenging things about motherhood.
...
How is it Sunday night already? As I type I’m watching my girls roll around together on the sitting room rug while their dad watches the Brownlee brothers and friends do their thing on TV. We’re all relaxing a bit after a day at Vitam Park – an indoor/outdoor extravaganza of swimming pools and water slides – where Ruby had her first ever dip in the pool and Annabel didn’t stop swimming, running and sliding for over 5 hours. Fun was had by all – apart from lunch, which was a dismal affair of soggy toasted sandwiches and soggier fries. So I feel the...
If you or (maybe more likely) your guy are into motorbikes, then you will know exactly where the Isle of Man is. If you’re not into motorbikes you might be vaguely aware of the island as being a tax haven, possibly somewhere in the Channel Islands (it isn’t – it’s off the north west coast of the UK – but you wouldn’t be the first to make this mistake). But if you pay attention to the news this week you’re bound to hear a mention of it. Because this is the week of the year when the Isle of Man...
About a week ago, I started introducing Baby Ruby to solids. The fact that I say “about a week ago” (rather than being able to recite the exact date and time) really tells a story all on its own… She was 5 and a half months old (how did that happen so fast?!), and I realised I’d better get a move on before I found myself having to explain to the paediatrician at her 6-month check why I hadn’t got round to weaning yet.
...
