me and mine {october}

Daddy is loving

* our newest little baby being here.

* a lovely last day out as a foursome.

* celebrating his birthday.

* seeing how gentle the bigger two are with the baby.

* The Walking Dead being back on television.

Mummy is loving

* being a family of five.

* how proud the beautiful boy is of his newest sister.

* autumn adventures in the woods.

* what an adorable little mini mummy the beautiful girl is.

* that newborn smell.

The beautiful boy is loving

* trips to the park after school. 

* his new baby sister.

* going to football training with Daddy.

* practising writing in cursive like he does at school. 

* half term holidays to chill out at home.

The beautiful girl is loving

* being a big sister.

* showing us all she's learning at dance class.

* playing with play dough.

* watching Frozen and singing along.

* apricot yoghurts.

The beautiful little lady is loving

* milk.

* cuddles.

* having warm feet.

* watching her big brother and sister.

* sleep.

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him and her and her {week forty-four}

he has adored having a restful week off to school,

to play lots of fun games with his bigger little sis,

and to get to bond with his littler little sis.

she is enjoying lots of family time over half term,

loves helping to lay the table and make food,

and wishes that babies didn't sleep so much.

she is still a total pro at sleeping,

only waking up Mummy and Daddy once in the night,

and is putting on lots of weight and growing fast.

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sisters

When I was still pregnant I was so intrigued to see how our beautiful girl would take to her baby sister when she arrived. It seemed like the changes would be bigger for her than for our beautiful boy, who was already a big brother and was simply gaining another little sister to look out for. By contrast, for our biggest girl her place in the order of things was about to change dramatically; she would go from being the baby of the family to being an older sibling. But she was also about to gain something very different too... a sister. And the sister thing has always kind of fascinated me.

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capturing the end of an era

We love an adventure. We've had a year packed full of them so far. So when Channel Mum asked us to "capture autumn" and showcase the Panasonic HC-W570 video camera while we were at it, an Autumn adventure in the woods seemed like the perfect thing to do. 

So we donned our wellies, layered up, hopped in the car and we headed to one of our favourite places; Thorndon Park. Home to the Gruffalo trail which the kids adore, and a nice easy going walk for a heavily pregnant mama, plus we know from previous years' visits that it is totally beautiful in the autumn. 

Little did we know that this would turn out to be our final adventure as a four. Because a couple of days later our newest addition made her arrival. And it's strange how weird it already seems to watch footage of us as a four, to see footage of myself pregnant... because that feels like another lifetime now. And I guess it is another lifetime ago really; a certain little lady's lifetime. 

But it makes me very glad that we unknowingly captured that very last 'adventure for four' on video. We had such a fun day out together, meeting the characters from our favourite books, kicking the fallen leaves, and generally enjoying some time together. 

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him and her and her {week forty-three}

he has been counting down the days to his half term holiday,

can't wait to enjoy some family time (especially with his new sister)

and has changed from the world's slowest eater to the world's fastest, seemingly overnight.

she is such a total mini-mummy,

who wants to smother her baby sis with attention and cuddles the entire time, 

and has graduated from babyballet with her final certificate (which she's very proud of.)

she is just, quite simply, the baby jackpot,

a chilled, content little thing who loves watching us all,

nearly as much as she loves milk and sleep.

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a birth story

I will write her birth story. Any one expecting a lengthy multiple part story like I did for our beautiful boy's birth story and again for our beautiful girl will possibly be disappointed. Because this littlest lady of ours didn't hang around making her entrance.

But there is a version of the story that I want to share...

I said to Rich when we first got pregnant with our little Flump, that I really wanted to commit to memory every second of this pregnancy. I know all to well how hazy the memories can get with time, and while I remember how I felt at the birth of my babies, the intensity of those emotions feel as fresh as if it was yesterday, but the details grow a little blurred as the years pass by.

I talked about wanting a birth photographer, or at least teaching Rich to use my camera properly so that he could capture some more photos in the hospital. In all honesty though, he isn't the biggest fan of taking photos, but over the past year he has grown more confident using my camera to video. So I had simply said to him to capture bits and pieces of what happened as and when it seemed like a good moment; not with any particular intentions of making a little video out of it, but just so that we had it for the future. No pressure, just whatever he fancied doing. I didn't want him to be detached from the moment, but at the same time I know that at the previous two births he felt a bit lost at times and didn't know what to do with himself and I thought capturing it might give him a sense of purpose.

When I uploaded what was on the camera I cried.

Because he more than did me proud.

As he worried about whether he'd got it all in focus enough for me, I just felt speechless at the snapshots of time that he had caught that I didn't know about. The moments and emotions that are captured so that I won't ever forget them. Simple shots of me and my baby girl. And some of the earliest daddy and daughter moments that I grabbed too. All the details of how rapidly our beautiful little newborn changed in the hours from when she was very first born to the time we took her home. Those precious moments when she met her older siblings (and her fluffy siblings too).

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to thank him enough for the memories, or for the beautiful family we've made together.

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him and her and her {week forty-two}

he is just about the proudest big brother that any baby could ever have,

loves whispering to his baby sister that he loves her,

has decided that he loves going to football training with daddy on saturday,

and suddenly loves writing little notes.

she has taken to big sistering just as brilliantly as we knew she would,

is desperate to hold her baby at every possible opportunity,

has started talking about some of her little friends from preschool,

and loves reenacting her dance classes for us all.

she is just the perfect fit,

the most deliciously chilled little baby,

who seems happiest when surrounded by her older siblings' noise,

and smells exactly like heaven.

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siblings {october}

I don't even know where to start this month... I can blame the newborn haze, right? Because our little siblings line up change is still very, very new; and we are still in the very early days of life with three siblings. All I can say is that it is everything I hoped and dreamed it might be, and more. My big two have made me so very proud. 

In the days leading up to their new sister's birth they had both been drawing pictures of the family and were already including the not-yet-born addition. Our little man has talked about us as a five and not a four for quite some time now. And while I was pleased that they seemed to have such a concrete idea about what was about to happen, I worried that maybe the reality of it would throw them.

The truth is that they have embraced her into our family as if she has always been a part of it. For them she just seems to be a late arrival to the party, a part of the puzzle that was always going to be here eventually. They came running into the house to meet her for the very first time with the kind of excited smiles that make you want to cry. And as they crept into our room on that first new morning, their first whispered questions were whether the baby was still here... like they might have dreamt her. Their joy to see her snoozing in her cot was adorable. They want her to be a part of everything and anything... "can she come and see us in the bath?" "can I read to her?" "can she come and say goodbye to me at school?" "can she sleep in my bed?"... she has unquestionably been welcomed into the gang and it is a magical thing to witness.

And while I'm sure the novelty will inevitably wear off when they realise that babies really aren't very fun to begin with, it is plain to see how incredibly proud of her they are. 

You can just tell that they love her already... without question. 

She is their sister, she is their baby.

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a missing piece of the puzzle

At 4.45am on the morning of Tuesday the 13th of October, this little lady came crashing into our world at great speed. And after a day of sitting in a newborn bubble with this beautiful piece of our family puzzle, I thought it was probably time we share her a little bit. 

A definite part of "the set"; with so many features that we can pinpoint to her big brother or big sister, but yet definitely still her in her own right too. 

She is perfect. All 8lb 3oz of her. With the fullest head of hair that any of my babies have had, big dark eyes like her siblings, big hands and long fingers like her mummy, and those trademark long eye lashes that mark her out as her daddy's.

She is so loved, this little girl of ours. 

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catching up {flump}

Okay, so we all know now that our Flump bump made her arrival earlier this week. But because I was preparing myself for an overdue one this time around and thinking I'd have another week or so at least to wait, I still have a couple of bump related things to share; two bump related videos to be exact.

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a labour of love

I don't think anyone can deny that a carefully planned and lovingly handmade gift is the best kind of gift. There is something so special about knowing that somebody spent a lot of time making something especially for you. While I was pregnant with my little Dollop, and then with Splodge, I made patchwork quilts. I wanted my babies to have something special, made by mummy, that marked a special point in time. And I love their quilts so much... because they are full of memories of eagerly anticipating their arrivals, and then of wrapping them up in them for the first time.

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him and her {week forty-one}

he has started going to football training with daddy on a saturday morning,

the jury is still out on whether he is actually 'in' to football or not yet,

but he definitely loves having some boys time each week.

she has got over her little patch of separation anxiety,

and is back to running happily into preschool with a big smile on her face,

although nothing quite beats her adorably excited face when she sees us at pick up time.

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him and her {week forty}

he just seems so grown up of late

with the sensible little things he comes out with,

but he cannot wait to be a big brother all over again

and is counting down the days until his baby sister arrives.

she just loves telling us what she gets up to at preschool each day,

is absolutely adoring both her dancing lessons each week,

and is just about the cuddliest, cutest, funniest little lady on the planet

who is snuggling like a baby one minute and trying to rule the roost the next.

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