Living Arrows 2019: Week Fourteen

After a hectic few weeks it felt like the perfect week to have no plans. Instead, I decided to do something I’m awful at… go with the flow and see what happened. Luckily, the weather gods mostly smiled on us and we’ve had a fab week of slow, lazy living in the Spring sunshine. I’m determined to try harder to find some of that elusive work life balance I keep hearing so much about and rather than sitting at home sorting things all the time, I want to make the most of my days off. That means beach trips after a morning in the office, playgroups or even last minute plans with friends to go out for a few hours. I guess you could say that having no plans led to us being busier than ever but it’s been the nicest sort of busy – expectation free!

This weekend saw us meet up for breakfast with friends (at a place with it’s own soft play… how times change!), followed by an afternoon enjoying our garden for the first real time and then, incredibly, a night out for me. A spate of bugs left me unable to go to any Christmas parties this year and because of that, I’ve not been out without Dave (or for work which definitely doesn’t count!) for a good year I reckon. Cocktails, music and burgers along with lots and lots of chat… just what this tired woman needed. Did I mention I was in bed by 10.30?! The next day, we took that wild wide a little further and joined the National Trust… Is there anything more parent-y in life?! Anyway, here’s what’s been happening with these kiddos this week.

Him

A tricky week for this guy. Over the last little while his sleep patterns have been a bit of a cause for concern but we didn’t really know why. Then this week I was going to bed late (the joys of juggling a full time role in part time hours!) only to hear shouting. A quick check on the monitor that we rarely used saw him stood on the bed, terrified before running off the side. I expected a visitor in to our bed but no-one came. Worried he was sleep walking I went in to his room only to find him sat bolt upright on the bed in silence. Then the same a couple of hours later. And the next night, and the next. Chatting to him and doing a bit research suggests he’s having nightmares; he’ll tell us I was stuck in concrete or a bad man was chasing him. His imagination is so incredible at the moment but it’s clearly filtering in to those sleepy thoughts and waking him in the night. He then doesn’t want to go to sleep, is up in the night and continues to wake ridiculously early, leading to a very tired and emotional kiddo. Thankfully, as I write this, it seems to have slowed again but still… it’s so hard to try to deal with something that you can’t fix or help! Any ideas on how to help him are more than welcome!!

In other news, this week has also been one of my favourites. The boy has a real taking to pink at the moment. Everything pink is his favourite; cup, plate, cutlery, socks… and you know what? I’m cool with that. I struggle so much when people pull a face (or say things like ‘oh dear’), he’s two years of age and it’s his favourite colour. It’s fine for his sister to get dressed in blue so the same applies here. No colour off limits! Thankfully, both Dave and I agree on this one and it’s lovely to see him express himself so openly. We went to buy sunglasses for him this week and from a choice of superheroes, black ones (like ours) or pink ones, can you guess which he went for?! That’s right… and doesn’t he look like a complete dude?! I’m definitely going to try and channel his self-confidence myself going forward!

Her

Have you ever thought about how amazing the world is to a fresh pair of eyes?! We have this week. Why? Someone’s started cracking out some words and her favourite? ‘Look!’ Accompanied by a point, she’s been telling us to ‘look!’ from the moment she wakes up until the moment she shuts her eyes. I swear at times she’ll also say ‘who that?’ or ‘what that?’ at things but that’s probably just a parent interpretation! Either way, it’s wonderful to feel like we can understand more and more of what she’s thinking and wanting. She’s now crawling ridiculously quickly, standing unsupported and can slowly lower herself to the ground with ease. She’ll crawl over to something before standing and walking around it or walking with the wooden trolley. I feel like we’ve gone through a big developmental change this week and here are the outcomes, right in front of our eyes!

In other news, my littlest babe is now a sturdy ten month old. Ten months. I swore that it went quickly the first time but it really does fly with your second, doesn’t it? I was so worried about how she’d fit within our family dynamic but I can’t imagine it without her. She’s super chilled out, rarely cries (although when she does, she really does!) and is a bit of a goofball. She’ll play games, laugh over and over with you and loves to be part of things. I can’t wait to see what the next month holds for her or even what she’ll be like when she turns one. One things for sure though, her brother better watch out, this one is in to everything, especially if it’s his!

This post is linking up with the Living Arrows series over at What The RedHead Said. If you’d like to see more of our weekly updates, you can find them here!