Moving home

We’re finally moving house this Wednesday! It’s been a long time coming but we’re nearly there. We’re moving just a five minute drive away to a house… with a garden! The new house will be a labour of love – it needs A LOT of TLC, but I’m excited to start this new adventure with our little family.

I’ll be sad to leave our flat; it will always be our first proper family home together. I remember the first day we moved in and placing a 4-month old sleeping Benedict on the lovely new empty carpet in our bedroom. Now, three and a half years later he is as full of life as ever (while writing this he’s pretending to be a bee and buzzing around the room… now he’s being a tree…)

And Rose! The most precious memory I have is bringing Rose home from hospital on the night she was born and having her sleep beside us in her cot – so beautiful and so so tiny.

Rose having a tea party with her dollies on the balcony:

Benedict and Rose aboard the ‘London Express’:

Some more memories:

 

 

A little catch up

Its getting close to nearly a year since I last posted! I think with everything going on, my blog has taken a back seat. I remembered it yesterday and started having a look at past posts and it brought back so many wonderful memories, so I’m determined to keep it up!

Among birthdays, holidays and Christmas, a lot has happened so the next few posts are a little catch up…

 

Mother’s Day

I was pretty spoilt this Mother’s Day – B and R (and Eoin!) had been busy working hard behind the scenes.  They surprised me with a lovely bouquet of flowers on Saturday, and on Sunday Benedict presented me with my very first hand-made present he’d made at pre-school; a framed-picture with stickers carefully placed around the edge! He’d also drawn a picture of me on the card – if you look closely there’s two eyes, maybe a body, a smile and some hair haha! I was very touched!

I think the best part of the gift was the quote inside the card which read: “I love mummy because of the buttons.” (I gave Benedict chocolate buttons when he first started pre-school as a well done!) That’s definitely a keeper…

Eoin and Benedict disappeared to the car on Sunday after Mass and came back with this lovely mug and a Mother’s day card, and then Eoin cooked the dinner! All in all, I felt very special this Mother’s Day!

24 hours with the McCarthy’s {phfr}

Joining Like Mother Like Daughter for this week’s {pretty, happy, funny, real}.

{pretty}

This lovely vase arrived in the post today –  Anthropologie had a sale and I couldn’t resist… it’s a bit different and adds a lot of colour to the room – very happy with this one!

 

{happy}

Benedict made some welsh cakes with daddy this morning while the girls had a ‘quiet’ morning out!

    

In the week we went to Ikea to get Benedict a table and chair set. I’ve wanted to get B a table for ages so he had somewhere he could stand at to play, and he uses it a lot already – this morning he was busy making play-doh cakes…

{funny}

This afternoon our sitting room turned into an amateur film set for a film my brother was making for his uni course. We had a good laugh with my twin cousins who were playing a future Benedict and Rose, although the whole film was about me and Eoin dying… (!)

{real}

We ended our day by putting up some shelves in Benedict’s room for his books. Eoin and I keep coming back to the same topic of conversation – our lack of storage space. And our solution is always the same – shelves!!! Use every inch of wall space!

Something about Rose

Rose will be four months on the 8th December… already! The time has really flown by and yet it is as if she has always been there.

I have been very lucky with this one – she’s been one of those easy babies that I used to envy when Benedict was a baby! She’s a good sleeper at night and she spends most of the day either in her bouncy chair or kicking away on the rug. I’ve been there with the difficult baby so I know how lucky I am!

Her relationship with Benedict is really growing too. Benedict is so fond of her and he copies the way we speak to her which is really cute. He teaches her things too, for example he’ll turn to her in the buggy and say: “Look, Rose – a nee-nah car!” The funniest one which made me laugh out loud was when I was changing Benedict’s nappy, and Rose was lying nearby and he turns his head to her with all sincerity in his voice and says: “Look, Rose – poo” and he points to the nappy I’m changing! So that’s what big brothers are for…

He loves having Rose in the bath too… I’ve found its a really good way for them to “bond”.

I think Rose will learn pretty quickly how to be a tough cookie as Benedict is not the most delicate when it comes to babies… But then what 2 year old boy is?!  He wants to play rough and tumble with her on the floor, and I sound like a broken record when I hear myself say “she’s too young for that!” over and over again.

I’ve found it’s a real balancing act knowing when to let him “show his love for her” and when he might actually hurt her. I don’t want to be always hovering over the two of them telling him to be more gentle! So I find myself watching from a distance out of the corner of my eye. But it’s so nice to know he’s actually interested in her, and to see him interact with her in a real older brother way.

Funny photo of the week

Pile on daddy time! Although I think Rose is trying to eat Benedict’s face..

Happy photo of the week

I can’t get enough of this happy chappy. Every Thursday I take Benedict and Rose to Wickenden Manor for a meditation and confession, and afterwards we normally stop off at Ashdown Forest for a picnic and run around. Benedict is definitely happiest when he’s outside and free to roam around – probably when I’m happiest too!