First Steps

Last weekend began and ended with probably one of the most momentous stage of your child development. Having spent the last few weeks cruising round the furniture, walking everywhere holding our hands, this week has seen Charlie progress to holding with one hand and then Hurrah! he took his first tentative steps on Saturday. Then that was it, he spent most of the weekend launching himself across his bedroom ending on Sunday night with him walking almost halfway across on his own. He is also chats non-stop in his own language with the odd word starting to become clear. Mike and I were welling up it was so amazing, such a proud moment to watch your baby growing into a walking, talking little boy.

As well as all the excitement of Charlie walking we had a packed social weekend which could have ended in disaster. We had friends over for dinner Saturday night and Mikes mum over for Sunday lunch. So having planned 2 scrumptious menus and splashing out on lots of gorgeous ingredients I was somewhat shocked to find that when I opened the oven the door fell off in my hands. So a dinner party times two and no working oven a disaster surely. Luckily my fabulous husband came to the rescue with a makeshift stick and book combination to prop up our broken door. And voila, we produced our fabulous meals and had a brilliant weekend.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Charlies obsession with cars seems to have branched out into trains now since my mum bought him a wooden train set sometime ago and Mike decided to get it out and put it together. He loves it and together with that and his cars it seems these really are his favourite toys. I was surprised at the skill and dexterity that Charlie showed in pushing the trains round the track and over the suspension bridge, considering it said on the box from aged 3 years. Obviously a child genius in the making.

Party like you just cant stop

Saturday night Mike and I really felt like we had gone back to our heady days of late night partying when we went to our friend Nikki's 40th birthday gathering at her house. We were sent masks to decorate with our invitations and so began the competition between Mike and myself of who could come up with the most original decoration. I went for an arty montage of Charlies face and Mike made his mask into a piece of french polished burr walnut. It was good night of catching up with old friends some we haven't seen in over 2 years, dancing in someones dining room to old house tunes and after many cocktails and glasses of champagne we finally made it back to my parents house at the unearthly time of 3am. Luckily they were on breakfast duty which meant Mike and I could have a lie in and they could indulge Charlie in his morning escapades. We emerged from our bed feeling surprisingly ok but sunk lower and lower into a horrible delayed hangover as the day progressed. Once home from my parents we consoled ourselves with scoffing Easter eggs in the evening before hitting the sack at a very early hour.

The Good life - part 2

Yes, we are onto the second stage on our quest to be Tom and Barbara. Having acquired our allotment some months ago work has begun on cultivating the land in preparation for the inevitable planting. It was a bit of a dumping ground when we got it and after only a few weeks of taking over the tenancy we received a rather officious letter from the Whitstable Allotment Society threatening us with the possibility of redeeming our plot if no action was taken within a couple of weeks. So having to hastily do something about it we paid our lovely gardener friend Lee to clear the site ready for Mike to fit the raised beds. Now those beds have been fertilised and dug over we set off to the local garden centre this weekend to purchase our first batch of seeds. The dining room table has now been turned into the germinating centre as we planted our selection of legumes in little seed trays. We have a busy time ahead but feel confident that we will reap the rewards of our hard labour as the summer progresses. In the meantime I am still busy saving the NHS.

Big Changes

It has been an emotional week or so starting with Charlie having his settling in days at his nursery last week. There were tears when I left him for the first time, with Charlie not even giving me a backwards glance. An hour later and I was back and he had had a wonderful time. The following day he already had his name in the accident book having crawled into a chair. He seems to have settled well so far and is by far the most vocal and adventurous member of the snowdrops room.

Sunday we had a lovely day out for Mothers Day. The sun was shining, the sea looked amazing and we walked down to a beach bistro where we stopped for lunch. Charlie managed to devour a banana and strawberry smoothie taking a particular liking to the straw and had us in hysterics trying to suck up the liquid. Back home we relaxed reading the paper and I started to watch 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' starring Maggie Smith. It is a fabulous film, full of classic lines, a wonderful film.

Then today I returned to work. Having had 13 long and lovely months off, it was time to get back to reality and life in the NHS. It was a day of mixed feelings, I left Charlie at home with Mike having his 'Dad Day' but strangely it was Ruby who was on my mind. Feelings of letting go and memories of returning to work before were surprisingly overwhelming. The day passed ploughing through the ridiculous amount of emails that were sat in my inbox and booking various meetings and then suddenly I found myself whizzing back down the M2 on my way home to see my boys. Its going to be a weird few weeks and will take a bit of time to adjust but we know Charlie will flourish in the nursery and I will eventually clear my emails.