breath. love. laugh.

This is what I've learnt over the last month. Sometimes change is good.  Sometimes no job might actually be better than a bad job.  Help can come from unexpected places and from unexpected people. Say yes if it's offered. Dust yourself off and keep going. Keep planning, keep dreaming. Sometimes the in-between-not-what-you-really-want might actually be exactly what you need.  Cut yourself a break. Breath. Love. Learn to laugh again. Proper belly laughs. Cry. Feel the frosty mornings and the chilly sea air.  Don't worry too much. It will be okay.

I'm feeling decidedly better again. Truth be told I hadn't quite realised how "not better" I'd been feeling until I actually started feeling again.  I've made a few changes around here. A bit of spring cleaning if you will. In the process I've switched over to Bloglovin' for my feeds. I'm still not entirely sure what the end of Google Reader will mean, but it seems to be important. If you haven't 'crossed over' yet then I suggest you do before the end of the month or you might find yourself without your favourite blogs. Bloglovin' or Feedly seem to be the picks of the blog feeding bunch.

Weekend-ing

I (we) survived a week of me flying solo. Hurrah! In the midst of the week there were two, yes two, sleeps through the whole night. I will not say it loudly but I do believe we may, perhaps, if we are very, very lucky getting semi-close to E feeling safe and secure enough to go it alone between the hours of eight and six. It has been a long journey but she is an impressionable lady and the suggestion that she might be able to sleep through the whole night - just like Otto (her cousin) - seems to have worked where the thousands of other methods we've implemented over the last two years have failed.

So buoyed by two nights solid sleep, M's return and some beautiful winter weather, we ventured to the Zoo and the beach.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend really.

Bathtime

No words for this one. Just E. My loveable, cheeky almost two year old E. 

Can it really be 2 years already?

Solo

I'm solo parenting this week. It's been a while since M has taken a long-ish trip and I admit I wasn't looking forward to it.  This time I decided to just slow down and take the opportunity to just "be" with E as much as possible.  To coax her through this time without her 'Papa' with as much grace and good humour as I could muster. In doing this I've let some things go. We haven't had toilet paper in the house since Sunday. We ran out of tissues yesterday morning. Thankfully we had some hand towels underneath the kitchen sink which seem to work and are not nearly as scratchy as you might initially think. I will make it to the shops before M gets back but so far spending time with E, with space in the between-times for me, has seemed much more important.

Last night E slept through, the whole night - I woke up to hear her singing to herself at 5.45 and my heart nearly exploded with happiness. The whole night! Happy baby sounds! A well rested Mama! These are things I wasn't expecting from the week. Oh happy day!