SUMMERTIME FABNESS

Motherhood right now is SUMMER HOLIDAYS. I am crazy in love with all school holidays but the summer has my heart... six weeks. Six weeks without the sodding school run. The school run is, by far, my least favourite parenting chore of all the gazillion parenting chores. It is my kryptonite. Best I stop talking about it... I'm too busy enjoying not doing it to even start thinking about it. Back to all the heart eyes for the summer holidays. We're all loving it. Lazy mornings, late breakfasts, just doing whatever takes our fancy.

This summer has brought a massive shift in where I'm at inside this head of mine. Making plans is my favourite thing to do so that's what I'm doing. Now the offspring are fully functioning, walking, talking actual real beings, I can see beyond the end of each week. I've got three small humans unlocking seat belts, getting in and out of cars completely unassisted. This is cause for celebration indeed. These are the moments I've been waiting for. I should really decorate the car to aid the celebration parties I have in my head. Lets get those parties unlocked for everyone to enjoy! The best bit is, I am recognising it. Fully celebrating and appreciating these days. It's all well and good making plans for the future but not if its to the detriment of the now. 

More cause for summer celebration. Carys taught herself to burp on demand during week one. Week two, both Joseph and Carys perfected the art of finger clicking. Carys's style is questionable but gets good results so who am I to argue. Then came the whistling. We're at week four, they are perfecting and refining their new found talents. It's not in the slightest bit annoying. 

SUMMER HOLIDAY PARENTING TIPS 

If you leave breakfast late enough, you can actually get away with two meals a day. BRUNCH is for winners! 

Willy WINKY might scare the shit out of your kids but your summer nights will not be ruined with kids chiming 'it's still light outside, I don't have to  go to sleep'. It's a win win. Tired kids are impossible to like. You'll like them during the day and at night. And they'll be happy too... the benefits are endless.

Say YES more. It's the holidays, let them have a coke from time to time. Quiet life, happy kid. 

Find your TRIBE. Get out with friends. Going anywhere with friends is a million times easier than going it alone. Set up camp at the beach and let the urchins entertain each other. 

IGNORE the whining. Better still nip it early 'I can't understand you when you speak that way. Come back to me when you're ready to speak like a person.' 

Say YES to going to the park AFTER supper.

Posing with the bodyboard is much easier than the bodyboarding. 

Happiness is losing your first tooth.

FAMILY

Tidying up Lily & Mitch and visited my FAMILY section... wanted to savour it in a post before I update. Oh my, how things change. Obviously written before Darcy was born so we're talking at least seven months ago... Joseph is now far from 'chilled out' and Carys is far from a 'dream'! T3 is here in the form of our very gorgeous girl Darcy and I have since lost myself all over again and currently scramble to pull together the pieces of me. I will, I know that I will but good gracious, its a hard process. 

I threw in a few pictures for good measure down there at the bottom... should you make it that far.

fam·i·ly  {/' fam(ə)lē/}

Noun :: A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household.

Synonyms :: noun. kin - house - household - stock - clan - race - tribe :: adjective. domestic - homely - home -familiar

To me, family is all that matters. It's where most of our days start and end and for me, the past three years my family have been the content of my days too. My nine to five and all the hours around. The baby and toddler years are passing me by so incredibly fast, I'm savouring every moment.

Alex :: Oh, that man! When Alex and I first got together and my friends were doing what girls do, asking me the standard 50 questions in one breath, it was then I realised that this one was different. I didn't have the answers. I didn't feel the need to big him up. He was Alex. For me, all I needed was for him to be Alex. He is still that Alex.

Joseph :: My boy. He has been an easy child since day one. Sure he has the odd 'moment' but on the whole, he is totally chilled out. A really happy and contented little boy. I know because he tells me. In the middle of a game, colouring, watching TV, whatever... he'll look at me with the declaration 'mummy, I'm a happy boy' and it gets me every time. Love it. So my baby {'I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy'} will be three in January. He gets funnier every day. He repeats everything we say. Not in that annoying way a seven year old does... but later, even days after we've said something I'll hear him playing with his HappyLand people and I can hear how he makes conversations between them. It will be exactly something Alex or I have said. And the voices. Oh, the voices! He calls to Carys 'c'mon sweetheart, keep up' exactly as I do when we're out walking. Precious.

Carys :: Carys is a dream. I thought Joseph was easy but this little girl trumped him in the easy baby competition. From the day she was born, she made sense of everything. Life got easier. I don't know how that is possible and I can't explain it but that's how it was. I hadn't realised that I had lost myself in motherhood until she was born. I found myself again without even knowing I had been gone. Saying all that, she's a force to be reckoned with. Carys is similar to Joseph in a lot of ways, calm, content, happy to go with the flow but there is a spark in her that will, without warning, cause utter chaos.

T3 :: Oh, who are you in there? This little mover certainly doesn't let me forget they're in there. I can't wait to have him or her in my arms. We've agreed on names and I'm so excited to know which one will be added to our family.

And now... 

A fairly standard morning scene

Darcy and Sophie la Giraffe

Wearing hangers... as one does.