Half Term - We Survived It!

Long week last week. At 8.55am on Monday I realised it was Coco's half term... I thought it was the following week.
One week, two kids, all day... ON MY OWN!? OMG.

Talk about being thrown in at the deep end! We had our ups and downs - I still feel like very much a novice Mummy, but we managed to keep ourselves entertained.
Coco learned to do self portraits on my phone, the whole memory is now taken up with Coco-close-ups. Dressing up in PJ's is now a popular pastime, masks are optional (note to self, must start a 'proper' dressing up box). As for me, I got lots of practice in managing the sibling hug/maul and I played with Instagram on my iphone (can you tell!?)
There were also some peaceful moments when I got to observe Coco in deep concentration... plus just laughing at the things that three year olds come up with!



Coco loves singing (even my tuneless attempts), so at some point in the week, when she was whingeing and saying 'I want...' I started singing that old classic Rolling Stones number... 'You can’t always get what you want, but you can try, and you may find, you get what you need'

I have to admit it was inspired by this post on Babyccino Kids (I know! I now read blogs with such names - this is how a novice Mummy learns!)

Coco however decided to modify the words - this version suits her better:
'You can't always get what you want, but then you say please, and you get what you want'!

Well - it seems, I've taught her something at least!

Drawers - Before & After

Before Christmas I made several trips to Kempton Antiques Market with a long list of things to get for the house.

It went some thing like this:
- kitchen storage / dresser / sideboard
- bench / chest / storage for the hallway
- fireplace tiles (we need new tiles for our kitchen fireplace as the original ones are broken).
- bathroom cabinet
- chests of drawers for us / Coco / spare room

Considering I was heavily pregnant and only have a small car in which to transport these things plus a very minimal budget the list was pretty unrealistic.
A couple of times I ended up bringing home slightly off-piste impractical things rather than the useful items that we needed, justified by the fact that otherwise it would have been a totally wasted journey - I blame pregnancy hormones!

The only practical thing I managed to procure was this little chest of drawers and cupboard for Coco's room. At £45 it felt like a good option - and with a paint job using up leftover paint from the kitchen I think it does the job? It's very rough-and-ready, not particularly well made but looks ok and was cheaper than going to ikea - plus will probably last longer.

Opening Doors

Our wardrobe doors may STILL have gaffa tape handles, but we (ok, I admit it, Hugh) finally put some door knobs to good use in our bathroom!



These Anthropologie doorknobs have been hanging around since our trip to New York in 2006. I wasn't actually sure about using them, maybe a bit too 'ethnic' for us? They lived in a jar on our mantel piece in our old house for 3 years.



Here they are in situ... (where you can hardly see them)! Amazing how much more straight-forward life is when you can actually open your cupboards without breaking a nail.
Why do these small jobs take soooo long to get around to?

(Am I losing perspective? Is this post just very boring)!?

The day-to-day Vs EVERYTHING ELSE!

Okay - before I launch into how frustrated I am with my ever extending to do list, I need to add this disclaimer.
I have a nearly month old baby, plus a attention-demanding three year old so:
A) I need to enjoy my LAST newborn - this special time won't last forever
B) I mustn't give myself TOO much of a hard time

But, with that said,
Being a mother is so frustrating!!
Everyday I hope I might have the energy to, update my blog, take more photos of Henry, plan our next decorating move - or maybe even DO some DIY, do a bit (just a tiny bit) of gardening, get organised (but, lets face it in 35 years that has never happened, so why now!?), sort out my wardrobe, get rid of some of our clutter, make any of the 1000 things on my fantasy list (blinds for our bedroom, Coco's 'reward chart', kitchen notice board) sit down and do some some drawing/sketching. The list goes on (and on).
There are also some more pressing things, writing thank-you notes for all the gifts that we've been sent for example.

But what actually happens is that each day I have to take a deep breath and accept that I need to focus on the day-to-day. Just getting out of bed, keeping Henry in clean-ish nappies, getting Coco to nursery and back* feeding everyone, blah blah.

I'm proud of myself when I manage to keep on top of housewifely chores, such as washing (so much washing)! What have I become!? And it WOULD be great if I could get it together to cook a healthy supper, rather than wait for Hugh to get home and hope he can magic something out of our bare looking fridge; so add food shopping to this ever increasing list of my not-dones.
And of course I should be spending QUALITY time with my daughter - yesterday that was us watching some tele together and me having to use all my energy to keep my eyes open, hmm, I'm not sure that counts as quality time, will try harder today.

I'm sure this will all get better (I'll update you!) In fact I know it will... but then, I did make the mistake of reading a few bits of the internet about 'typical days' and work life balance.
I warn you, if you have kids, these could seem depressing... but at the same time it's comforting to know that there are women all around the world who are in my boat.

- The daily grind on mumsnet.
- This one... from GOOP why did I read this? I blame the lack of sleep:
- And a slightly more 'realistic' day in Oz.

However as I said in the disclaimer - I am making an effort to let go a bit, not worry and enjoy the little fellow below.
It's top of my to do list.



*Getting Coco to nursery and back - Generally involves an hour round trip even though it's a mere 5 minutes walk - takes 20 minutes for her to get her shoes on after all the 'but I'm just going to...' and there is often some complicated negotiating to do over a piece of pink plastic, or which bag to take. Then on the way home there are melt-downs due to her being starving but when we get home and she spends 45 minutes pushing food around her plate. Urgh.