It’s Wednesday now, so almost a whole week later than I usually like to do these updates! Christmas is like that though, isn’t it? Especially this bit between Christmas and new year. If you don’t have a job to be at its difficult to remember what day it is. I’m not even sure if it’s the weekend or not half the time anymore.
I’ve had a little break the last few days. I didn’t really intend to. I planned to write stuff here all of the way through, but it didn’t really happen like that, and the break has done me good.
In the last ‘Our week in pictures’ post I left you at last Monday, after just getting back from a few days at my mum’s. It’s was so good to be back and to see Trevor. Iris was so excited to be with her daddy and her Christmas tree! She did miss Nanny though, and talked about ‘Nimpty’ rather a lot. We did nothing on Tuesday. Nothing at all. I crocheted a bit with some beautiful yarn from Zanetto Yarns. My lovely Twitter friend Jo hand dyes the yarn in Bristol, and is inspired by the colours of my wonderful hometown. I came home to a parcel from her on Monday, and I can’t think of a better thing to come home to! I’m finding crochet very very soothing at the moment. Not so much Trevor’s cries of ‘there is yarn everywhere in this house!’ but I’m ignoring him.
On Tuesday night the big girls landed for Christmas with us, and Iris was so excited to see them I thought she might pop. Unfortunately Trevor had to work on Wednesday, so I took them all to Iris’s playgroup. Biggest kid wasn’t impressed with being 9 years older than most of the other kids there, but Iris enjoyed showing off one of her favourite places and liked having them dance with her during the songs. Afterwards we popped to the library, had lunch in the cafe and went to the park. Busy day! I’m so grateful to whoever came up with the smart idea to build a cafe within the park play area. Iris fell asleep in the pushchair so I drank hot chocolate and crocheted in the warm while watching the big kids go crazy outside knowing I could see them and they were perfectly safe. We then popped to the brand new Lidl store for some last minute pudding treats for Christmas before Trevor picked us up. We’d managed to fill his whole work day! I was absolutely exhausted though.
Thursday, Christmas Eve, was taken up with a drive over the bridge to Bristol to spend some quality time with my family and exchange gifts. This is one of the best bits of Christmas for me. I love hanging out with my little niece and nephew, but getting all of the kids together for a bit is just the best. They all got a bit overwhelmed and excited, but we had the long drive home to wind down. Unfortunately Iris suddenly seemed quite poorly, and it got worse as the night went on. She ended up fast asleep in bed but with a temperature of nearly 40 degrees. Regular Calpol doses through the night kept her temperature below the dangerous point, but I was too worried to sleep.
By 5am on Christmas morning I was bored and desperate for the kids to wake up and get on with their stockings! I’m sure my family were always up by 5 when I was a kid. This strange bunch slept til 8 though! 8!
We had a really fabulous Christmas morning. Stockings in our bed first. I’ve never seen Iris so happy! Then downstairs in pyjamas to open the other presents. We don’t take it slow on Christmas morning. The girls go back to their mum in the afternoon (we take it in turns to have them on Christmas morning) so we don’t actually have all day, and we like to squeeze in a visit to Trevor’s brothers and mum after dinner. We actually ate Christmas lunch in pyjamas too. Makes sense as Iris always ends up covered in food anyway. After more presents at Trevor’s brother’s house in the afternoon we dropped the girls off, and returned to what seemed like a very quiet empty house! Trevor spent the evening building Iris’s toy kitchen, which is such a hit. We’ve had constant tea parties here since!
Boxing Day was a quiet day at home, just the three of us. Much needed, actually. I was worn out!
Then my mum arrived the next day to stay as Trev had a birthday party to go to. We started sorting the baby clothes out a bit, and spent the next day doing a bit of shopping and getting some fresh air in the park.
Yesterday we picked the girls up again, but after a quick stroll around the shops came home to relax with a picnic tea and play dough fun.
This morning we were up and off to my 38 week midwife appointment. It was weird to have the whole family there to her the baby’s heartbeat. She could be here any day now!
It’s been such a great week and a bit. I definitely feel like it’s long past the point where I need to slow down, nap more, and do less though. I’m so weary I hurt all over!
mousedogbaby 