NOAH YOU'RE NINE

My beautiful boy, my first love, my first son. Noah, you are nine. I should count myself amongst the luckiest on this planet that I've got to experience nine whole years of you, you light up a room, you're hard working, determined, thoughtful and kind hearted. The past year has been a mixed one for you, a bit of a rollercoaster, so many highs but some scary lows too, I'm glad we're ending it in a really good place for you. Of course, you being you, nothing has ever really tipped you and you've remained your cool, calm and composed self as always, leaving me in awe of you once more. Ever since the moment you appeared earth side, everyone said you looked like a mini me, but this year I really do see it, my little twin!

PUMPKIN PICKING

Would it be Autumn without pumpkin picking? Certainly not in our household, with covid getting in the way the past two years it's been long overdue. Our local patch goes a little bit further than your bog standard, pumpkins in a field, grab one then pay and leave - you can definitely lose a couple of hours there, which is exactly what we did during this half term. The boys are always so excited to go and they couldn't contain themselves when I whispered to them this morning that's what we where getting up to today. 

A GETAWAY FOR MUM | JAVEA 2022

It's no secret this year has been a tough one, and after two years of covid affecting everyones lives I had hoped for good things from 2022 - obviously this wasn't to be. Me and the boys have been through some really tough and harrowing co-parenting issues, we've been plagued with unimaginable concerns regarding Noah's health and of course we lost my amazingly wonderful Nan, a hit you can't even begin to comprehend. We had our family holiday booked for August, but my Nan was diagnosed with a fatal and incurable disease just the month before and with that knowledge it just felt wrong to go away when we could instead spend time with her. Something I'm really thankful for as sadly she passed away just four weeks later. So with that rescheduled for next year, and the boys due to be away with their Dad in October, I decided it would be a great time to retreat to our family villa in Javea, 

LIFE UPDATE

Well, well, well.. It's been a few months since I did one of these hasn't it? I think it's definitely overdue. So much has happened and I thought 2022 may be a little kinder to me but it's definitely been a little challenging. That being said, last year taught me so much that I've handled things so much better than I probably would have if any of the dramas had of happened last year. Looking on the positives though, we're now just over half way into the year and things are improving in some areas, I'm really excited to see what the rest of the year brings, but perhaps not so much that I've turned the big three-oh.

PIP YOU'RE SIX

Oh my little pipsqueak, I cannot believe I've had six whole years of Patrick. I feel so lucky to be able to say that, he's my baby and most definitely always will be. Much to his dismay I'm sure. It sounds so cliche but it doesn't seem five minutes since he was born - and what a whirlwind that was, probably a good indication of what to expect with you over the future. Patrick probably spoke about his birthday every day since Christmas, he wanted it to be perfect and he had high expectations of exactly what he wanted. That being said his party was very him - a disco party. He loves his music and he loves to dance, he's full of energy and we just knew that he would love a disco... we weren't wrong.

SOLO FLYING WITH CHILDREN

Flying abroad alone with my boys for the first time last year definitely made me nervous beforehand. Not just because everything is a little different now (and rightly so) thanks to Covid, but because I had never actually taken them on a flight alone before. I know I'm lucky, the boys are really well behaved but of course you never know what may happen so even knowing that, I was still a little nervy. Our outbound flight to Alicante, was a very early morning flight, 6:20am departure meant that I was going to be waking the boys at around 2am. Now who likes being woken in the middle of the night? Certainly not me. But it did seem the wisest option as it just meant we weren't waiting around all day at home with two very excited boys, waiting to head to the airport. Plus as a child, I always remember feeling so excited when I'd be woken in the night to go on holiday.