this little house

REMEDY FOR A TIRED FAMILY

Life is crazy. Good crazy, but crazy none the less. From the moment we wake up we do not stop. But then to talk about 'waking up', suggests we sleep. Hmmm, far from it right now.

Archie has hit the four month sleep regression stage with gusto. His growth spurt is having a growth spurt! Yep, last week he treated us to two hourly wake ups in the night, then decided 5.30 am was an acceptable time for a little chit chat. I swear every time I heard him wake I would look at my clock and want to cry, then I'd go to pick him up and there he'd be with his beaming smile. Babies are cute for a reason, people!! It's so you let them away with this sort of shizzle.

Throw in Archie having a bad reaction to his immunisations, and a lack of dirty nappies. Honestly, I've never been so happy when he finally filled his nappy good and proper, I practically gave him a round of applause. Then, there was poor Caleb who was clearly feeding off our tired energy and cried at the drop of a hat. Like, really, he dropped his hat and cried. Oh the irony was not lost, but our sense of humour was waning fast. It was not a good week. All Michael and I both wanted was a full night's sleep. Like, I would pay someone some serious money right now for a full night's kip. Anyone?? You take IOU's, right?! ;)

The weekend, although may not have brought sleep did give us that much needed family time. Oh how life as a four is so much better than a three! That weekend gave me that push to try and shake the negativity that comes with lack of sleep. The toughest point of our day is definitely the witching hour. You know, around dinnertime when everyone is soooo over their day already. Today, instead of tidying up and putting that much needed wash on (who needs clean clothes anyway :/) we decided a trip to the park as a family was in order. I still can't believe how unusually mild it is this time of year, it makes me want to soak up every last bit of that warmth with my boys. This evening we swapped tears and short tempers for laughter and fun (oh and some snoozing for Archie;)).

Just what the doctor ordered this very tired family.

Warning, some of these pictures are completely blurry. Hey, kinda like our life right now!!

Oh you know, that point when you're playing with your kid and then they just ditch you.

Tuesday, 30 September 2014 Comments: 6

This guy. My boy. The big brother of the house. My partner in crime.

I am crazy proud of Caleb. Archie has fitted seamlessly into our lives, and most of this is credit to Caleb. He has nothing but love for his little brother, proudly showing him off at every opportunity he gets. It really is the cutest thing.

His first two words he even used together were, 'Hi, Archie'. Quickly succeeded by, 'More, please'. Food, that is, not babies ;)

Thank you, Caleb. Thank you for making me a mama. Thank you for making becoming a mama of two nowhere near as daunting as I thought it would be. Thank you for having me along on the Caleb & Archie ride, I literally can't wait to see what's in store for us.

Not a lot of sleep, that's for sure!

Wednesday, 17 September 2014 Comments: 0

Archie.

Archie boy.

Archie pants (yep, sorry about that one ;))

Dreamboat.

Wow, you're thirteen weeks old now. Thirteen weeks!! On June 3rd, life started for you, and for us as a family of four. The last thirteen weeks have been a blur of beauty, joy and copious, copious amounts of nappies. Note to self, children to be potty trained before anymore babies ;)

But let's not talk about nappies, because next we'll be talking about poop, and then we'll be talking about the colour of poop. Ah, the life of a parent.

Back to Archie. Oh, Archie. Well first off you have spoiled us. Spoiled us with your chilled, easy going ways. You hardly ever cry, and when you do it's always for the obvious reasons. You feed like a dream, making it such an enjoyable experience for myself. Sleeping comes naturally to you. You go down each night drowsy and happy from your last feed, and then you drift off to sleep by yourself in your moses basket (true story!). My boy, you are a fluke. You are what baby legends are made of, and you are all ours.

Please note, the tone of this post is not meant to be smug, it's shock. Caleb was an amazing baby, but chilled is not a word I would have used, ha! So this is all kind of new to us.

I will now leave you with some baby fingers and toes...

You're welcome ;)

Wednesday, 10 September 2014 Comments: 4

There are many things I thought I would never hear myself say.

I enjoy a caravan holiday, being one off them ;)

Yes, I am a loud and proud caravan convert!

If you had told me a few years ago that I would be holidaying in a caravan I would have laughed at you. I'm outdoorsy without being outdoorsy, if you know what I mean ;). I'm all for the outdoors and adventures, I would just like it to involve a nice hotel room with a warm shower and room service at the end of it.

Well humble pie I did eat. Caravans have come a long way since my childhood. No more walking down to the communal shower block in the freezing cold rain, no people, we are talking en suite bathrooms with the main bedroom!! We didn't actually discover the en suite until later on the first night, I had just presumed it was a cupboard. My, how caravans have come up in the world.

But in all seriousness, the reason I enjoyed it so much (besides not having to pee in a bucket ;)) was seeing Caleb and my nephew, Nathan so happy. They were in childhood heaven, the campsite had plenty for them to do, but as always kids go and forever remind us that it's the simple pleasures in life that are the best. Their favourite thing to do was to play outside the the caravan. Turns out a bucket, some water, a broom and a football is all two boys could ever want in the world...