I'm back!

Welcome to anyone who is still reading this blog after my long sabbatical! It's been a tough couple of months, but we're on the home stretch now! We are still staying with Mark's mum and dad while the purchase of our new house is proceeding, but my stress levels are back to normal now that the whole 'moving out' thing is over and done with. The move itself was as stress free as these things can be. The packers came in early on the Thursday morning, and by one the following day our entire house was packed, loaded on the back of a truck and on its way to a storage facility in Exeter. I was very impressed with Pickfords, who we chose to do the move, though I thought their main packer was a little over zealous. Having expressly stated that 'this pile is not for packing', I was rather irritated when said pile was packed with a 'sorry I didn't know and I don't know which box its in now'. We are therefore having to do without Lily's favourite story book, Tom's story quilt and my hairdryer, among other things. Thankfully, staying with family means we are far from destitute in the luxury stakes! I will reserve judgement on the quality of his packing until I unpack at our new home.

Tom and Lily were amazing during the move and seemed to take it all in their stride. Lily was completely torn between the wide open front door and the safety gate-free stair case, so we had to trap her in the dining room with some toys. Tom, as usual, happily entertained himself quietly in the corner while chaos erupted around him. I really thought they would have found the whole thing quite traumatic, especially Lily who is shy of strangers and usually very sensitive. Only once did I catch Tom sitting looking at all the boxes with a lost look on his face. A reassuring cuddle from mummy seemed to do the trick though and he was back to himself in a moment. They are now both having a wonderful time with their Nanna and Grandad and are clearly in no rush to go anywhere. I will post some photos when I work out where to plug in my card reader on my mum-in-law's computer!

I won't try and do a full catch up because it has been such a long time since I have been posting regularly. Two really big things that have happened in the past month (not counting the move!) are that Lily turned one and has started walking. We managed to give her a little birthday party despite the moving chaos. I made some decorations and covered boxes with tablecloths. Her Nanny made a birthday cake and we had a proper birthday tea, complete with balloons, jelly and chocolate fingers. If I still have the pictures on the camera, I will post a picture of Lily tucking into her birthday cake...that girl loves home cooking! She took her first independent steps on her first birthday (May 27th) and has been toddling around like a pro ever since. It is just so adorable to see her finally able to follow her big brother around. The down side is that she nows tries to run away when I come to put her to bed!

('The Visitor' by Arthur Hopkins)