This week has seen my birthday and then the inevitable end of the summer holidays which meant Mr T returned to work and Tinker and Milly returned to school, leaving me at home with the two littlest and trying to get into a bit of a ‘normal’ routine. It’s certainly been busy but lots to smile about of course!

Trip to Bath – As an early birthday present Mr T booked a lovely airbnb for two nights in Bath, somewhere I had never been but really wanted to visit. Tinker was away for a few days with her dad, Totsy went to Grandma’s which she was very excited about so it was just Mr T, Luna and me. After a lovely but very busy summer running around after the girls constantly it was a really welcome break and the perfect way to spend the last couple of days of the holidays. The weather was beautiful, really warm and sunny, Bath itself was gorgeous (I’m a huge fan of Georgian architecture so it was perfect for me!) and the people were really friendly – twice while we stopped to check google maps for directions people stopped and asked if they could help and one of them, a super nice guy said ‘follow me’ and took us to the Royal Crescent even though it was hugely out of his way! We walked a lot (we stayed about a twenty minute walk from the centre), shopped, ate lots of delicious cake, drank fantastic coffee (I’d highly recommend Mokoko for both their coffee and their cake), drank cocktails, had lovely brunches and dinners and had actual conversations (and occasionally they weren’t entirely about the kids!! Well ok, they were mostly about the kids). We totally lost track of time, Luna was very chilled out and whenever she needed feeding we just stopped for coffee and cake. It was very relaxing and just what we needed.

My birthday – I turned 43 on Sunday, fortunately I don’t really mind getting older, it’s just a number and I see it as a privilege that not everyone gets to enjoy. I was very spoilt (well, there has to be some advantages to having so many kids, right?) and we all went out for a big family Sunday lunch (though with Nathan still in Spain he wasn’t there and I obviously really missed him) and then all came home for birthday cake. It was a lovely relaxed day and one that will probably go down in history as ‘That One Time We Were Actually On Time’ as by some miracle we weren’t even late for lunch!

Flowers and candles – I had lots of lovely flowers and gorgeous smelling candles for my birthday from my lovely family and friends so this week the house not only looks very pretty but smells gorgeous too.

Breastfeeding – At two months old Luna is still exclusively breastfed. I really struggled to get her to latch on for the first three days then the next couple of weeks were really painful and tough but I’m so glad I persevered through the days when I really wanted to give up as it’s so easy now (and thankfully pain free!) She is doing really well, gaining weight nicely and mostly sleeping through the night. It’s so much more convenient than bottle feeding and over the summer there has been plenty of times when we have gone out for a couple of hours and then spontaneously ended up staying out all day, which would have been tricky if she was bottle fed and we didn’t have enough bottles with us. I will feed her anywhere and everywhere, I might occasionally feel a bit self conscious but generally it’s fine and it’s easy to be discreet, I just always wear tops that pull up rather than down (I have never felt the need to be quite as extreme as putting a blanket over my head to latch baby on like I saw a woman do the other day, but hey, whatever you are comfortable with I guess!) Somedays it’s the only time I really sit down, so the enforced chance to put my feet up and have milky snuggles with my littlest is very welcome.

Routine – I was not looking forward to the end of the holidays at all and it’s fair to say that I have been pretty much rushed off my feet with Mr T back at work, but still there is something about getting back to a normal routine that is welcome (that doesn’t stop us from counting down to half term though!) But if you follow me on social media and noticed the distinct lack of an obligatory ‘First Day in Year One’ photo of Tinker, this is why:

Luna’s new mobile – I bought Luna a mobile for her crib the other day and she absolutely loves it. It’s not exactly aesthetically pleasing (more bright coloured plastic than Etsy monochrome) but she loves it, she started to smile as soon as she saw it and whereas before she didn’t really like being put in her crib now she is happy to lie there watching her mobile and smiling and gurgling away to it!

Potty training – we have not fully embarked on potty training yet, but Totsy has had quite a few nappy free sessions at home and has managed both wees and poos in her potty. We are going to give it a proper go this weekend, she has Paw Patrol pants and we are going to stay at home for a couple of days, wish us luck!!

Fitbit Flex 2 – My Fitbit Flex 2 was a birthday present from Mr T and (before you start thinking it was a very unsubtle hint along the lines of ‘time to shift your fat ass’) I absolutely love it! It’s amazing how motivating it is and along with keeping track of my steps I can track calories in vs calories out in the Fitbit app to make sure I eat less than I burn off. I’m so determined to shift the baby weight now and this is really helping keeping me motivated.

Weight loss – I was planning to join Slimming World as soon as Luna was 6 weeks old but I kept a food diary for a couple of weeks beforehand and realised there was only one reason I wasn’t losing weight and that was chocolate. I’d eat healthy meals all day then trough my own body weight in chocolate once the girls were in bed. So I’ve given it up, complete cold turkey. I’ve done it before a month at a time or for Lent and I find it’s the only way for me, I can never have just a little bit of chocolate, I always crave more and I have a seemingly endless capacity to eat the stuff – I just don’t understand the people who say they would feel sick after a ‘sharing’ bag of wispa bites and half a family size bar of Galaxy (ok I eat the whole thing, I just said half so you’d judge me less) and then a couple (4……ok 5, those things are small!) of the kids Kinder bars for good measure. So far I’ve lost 4lbs (even with the trip to Bath and all the cake, cocktails and food I consumed!) and I’m feeling really positive and motivated so fingers crossed I can keep it up!

Keep smiling xx