Places we’ve been. The park, the shops, Tappy Toes, Sweaty Mama, church, Formby charity shops (looking for monkeys for Sophia’s party), Lullababy and lunch with four other Mums and babas. We also went to not one, not two, but three family birthday events over the weekend!

The first was what Grandpa thought was his party, fish and chips at his house. The second was Grandpa’s surprise party with loads of our family. The third was a meal out for Nathan’s Mum’s birthday. It was lots of fun, but Aidan and I had to have a nice slow day yesterday to recover!

Milestones. We now have a 10 month old! And he’s managing to get on all fours and rock back and forward, as well as army crawl backwards on his belly.

Food. We’ve been much better at holding off on the sugary stuff with Aidan than we were with Sophia. I have a video of her sat at a table being fed Dandelion and burdock at a very young age and I think – why didn’t I stop that? Anyway, I reckon Aidan has a better balance at this point than Sophia did. That being said… he did take the chocolate wafer off me at group this week and had a lovely time with it!

He also had a try of lemon at Lullababy today, and his little scrunched up face was hilarious!

Sleep. I am saying it quietly… we are seeing some progress! Soph is now settling herself with one check in from a grownup, and in the last three nights she’s woken up 2 times in total! Aidan, because of all the partying and a bit of a sniffle, is still a bit all over the place. But, he will now go down in his cot with one of us singing to him, which he wouldn’t have done before.

What Sophia said. One of the narratives we’ve been encouraged to use with this sleep training goes like this ‘when we have a nice evening routine and a good night’s sleep, we can have a nice day together the next day. When we don’t sleep well, we are sad and grumpy and nobody enjoys the next day as much’. We have a book of photos to remind Sophia of the routine, including pictures of them both asleep, and us all having fun in the sunshine on the back page.

Anyway, Sophia has tried to use this narrative on us. This evening she said ‘it’s not time for bed, it’s time to play a game. When I don’t play a game, I get sad and grumpy’.

Well, it was one of those moments when the grownups collapse into silent laughter and nobody knows what to say! But in the end, she did go to bed, she settled herself and, touch wood, hasn’t woken up so far!

Other observations. There’s a lot happening over the next few weeks. Lullababy, Toddlers and Tappy Toes all finish next week. Nursery graduation is the week after that. Then we’ve six weeks of fun before school, nursery and church start up in September.

I have a pretty deep distrust of change. It’s a long standing thing, and as a child I always struggled with moving on. I was the child crying as we sang ‘goodbye old school, we’re going away’ at the end of year show.

With all this change coming, I know I need to be OK with it. I can’t pass that anxiety or sadness onto my children. It’s hard enough for them as it is without me stressing! So I’m trying to be really kind and gentle to myself, so I can be calm and stable for them. I’m trying to walk more and I’ve rejoined Sweaty Mamas. I’m spending at least 10 minutes a day outside tidying the plants at the front of the house. I’ve cut the huge bushes right down in front of my study window, ready for the light to start shining in. I’ve got this!

More next time x