Age: 6months & 3weeks

Isn’t it cold these days! Gone are the shiny summer sandals and bright colours and out slug the thick heavy jumpers and big winter boots as Christmas creeps ever closer. But I have to say I’m so excited to give the children their first Christmas together as a family and I’m turning into a bit of a weird Elf making homemade decorations and trinkets to add a touch of sparkle to the house. I actually had an excitement fit whilst shopping the other day in town when I bought my first ever power tool – a hand drill to make little wooden signs with, and I’ve spent over £100.00 this week alone at the fabric shop somehow in preparation for making bunting, table runners, advent calendars and such malarky.

I also added a glue-gun, several pens, fabric scissors, bobbins, tapes, ribbons and needles to my collection and it’s fast becoming my guilty pleasure. But I don’t smoke, and I don’t drink (very often) or partake in any drugs so I see my fabric fix as a totally legitimate outlet for my idle hands, and it makes the house pretty along the way which is an added bonus.

Now anybody who knows me will know how much I HATE waste, to the point that I almost shed a tear when I have to part with redundant food tubs and boxes and I start a battle of the wits with my self-conscience over what good it would do keeping such random tat, sometimes I convince myself I could make a money pot or post-box for Santa’s letters from a sweet jar, or a Nativity from a shoe-box and a rocket from a drinks bottle, and other times I ruthlessly stuff it straight into the recycling bin and twitch as I stand in my de-cluttered kitchen feeling a sense of power yet loss at the same time. If I didn’t have Luca in my ear telling me to throw everything out I think I could easily become a desperate hoarder trying to save the contents of the world in my Noah’s Ark of a house!

And speaking of Luca going on about my hoarding, he’s just as bad with energy management around the home. When he (very rarely) attempts to wash the dishes he leaves me with a nervous twitch and throbbing left eye-lid as he stands seemingly innocently blasting the hot tap straight down the plug-hole for forty-five minutes for which I can hear the pennies splashing to their watery doom down the plughole from even the furthest part of the house. And don’t get me started on the heating! Only the other day we had a letter through from British Gas advising of rising gas and electricity rates, and what does the man of the house do? Crank the heating on full and stand in the kitchen in his t-shirt and shorts with the double doors wide open into the garden smoking! Firstly he knows I HATE him smoking, and each time I catch him standing in the doorway I have a coughing fit and chase him into the garden like a naughty dog; it’s dirty, it makes the curtains stink and fills the house with cold and poisonous air.
Secondly we have a year-round on-going battle over heating, I was raised in a home where if you were cold you put on socks and a jumper and don’t dress like you’re going to the beach. And Luca seems to think that everyday should be thirty-degrees, hello, we’re in England here! Fair enough if Gabriele or Millie were fully-clothed and cold then I put the heating on, but if Luca decides to sit in his pants and cry about it being chilly then I have no sympathy. It’s partly about the cost of energy and my attempt to keep bills within reason and not spend to an excess, but if I’m completely honest it’s mostly about my stubborn pride and upbringing that I hate waste and refuse to entertain lack of thought and consideration. And when I hear Luca clicking the thermostat and the pipes churning from the boiler cranking up my ears prick up immediately and I stealth my way into the kitchen shortly after Luca leaves the room to reverse the timer and turn the heating back off again. And although neither of us admits to having switched the heating on or off we are both silently aware of each others actions when we notice the position of the heating panel, but never inform each other that we know that they know we know or the other will reverse our actions without us knowing! You sneaky reciprocating bastard Luca!

We had a lovely night at the fireworks the other day and realised just how old we’re getting after we took the children out for candy-floss, merry-go rounds, music, wine in cups and fireworks at the local rugby club, returning home just after nine for a take away and literally passing out. None of us were able to surface before ten the following morning and even though it was nothing strenuous we all felt broken. So a pyjamas and film day on the sofa was very much welcomed and a lovely way to tie up the end of the half-term holidays.

It was Millie’s first day back to school this morning and it was the usual last-minute chaos of washing P.E kits, checking off reading lists and getting Millie’s uniform in order. It wasn’t until I realised we hadn’t read Millie’s latest book over the holidays that Millie confessed to not knowing where she had put it, so in a last ditch attempt to find it, I emptied the contents of her tardis book-bag and Lord knows what I found! It seems Millie has become quite the wheeler-dealer at school as she’d stashed mobile phones, shiny Princess badges and jewellery in her book bag amongst other paraphernalia that had camouflaged Millie’s reading book and diary! They were all her own belongings from home and I didn’t find any VAT receipts to prove she’d been selling them to her five-year-old peers, but still, why would you smuggle it to school? I would love to be a fly on the wall and she what she says to her little friends over her cheese sandwiches and fruit squash at lunch. The wonders of a child’s mind!

Speaking of children, our baby boy is slowly en-route to becoming a man, kind of, as he cut his first tooth three days ago and his rubbery hard gums have parted slightly at the bottom to reveal a very small, white rectangle tooth, and I just can’t wait for it to pop out so that he can deliver a cheeky proud toothy grin for his Christmas pictures! I’ve been trying desperately to get a picture of this beautiful milestone in his life but whenever a finger gets near his gums he lunges forward and brings up his hands to catch, trap and stuff it greedily into his mouth for a chew. So I’m trying to catch him unawares and I’ve made it my mission to get a secret snap of his little peg-to-be so watch this space. He is also in his new car seat now, which is forward facing and he just loves to look out of the window and sit proudly upright with his arms on the rests. He looks so grown up and it melts my heart to look in the rear-view mirror and see the two children sitting giggling and holding hands next to each other in the back of the car.

And as it’s Monday it means today is weigh-in day, boo, hiss! Miss Greedy Piggy is still present and I’m surprised my fingers haven’t become trotters this week for the amount of junk I’ve crammed in – an Indian takeaway, chocolate raisins, a selection of cheeses and crackers, chocolate bars from the petrol station, MacDonald’s breakfasts, burger van lunchtime tiger-bread rolls, pringles and cheese sandwiches late at night after dinner. Just typing this I’m drooling thinking about how good it all tasted and if I’d get away with running to Tesco’s Express right now for a junk-up!

So stepping on the weighing scales I only managed a pathetic little kitten wee beforehand and unfortunately no poo in my last ditch attempt to unload any excess weight for my meat check-in! I had no expectations at all and could only hope that I would not have put on any weight, but wouldn’t be shocked if I had.

And I was pleasantly surprised to see a one-pound loss BEFORE POO! And I imagine with the knowledge of how much I can release at a time, please excuse the detail, that I could possibly shift an extra pound down the toilet on top! Looking at my body this week I can very vaguely pick up on the triangle of stomach muscles building along my abdomen. In my mind it feels like such a massive step forward to see my body responding to muscle training, after being a blown out whale for so many months before and after giving birth, and looking at my floppy lifeless pouch that was once a tight and firm stomach, now being able to see the diagonal lines of muscles pointing toward my lady area once again is so exciting! In reality you might look at it and think, err, what lines? But to me every millimeter is in recognition of the time and effort that I put in to feel good.

So I have absolutely kicked my arse at the gym this week, I’m still settling on going four times a week and then building up the toning at home with situps and weights. I’m well and truly addicted to filling up my chart and it’s a great visual and mental aide to keep me on track and make sure that I put in the time and effort to hit my goal of 200 reps/minutes of activity per day.

I could never have imagined that I would enjoy working out so much in the past and I wish I’d have started sooner because it changes everything about my daily life. I can hold all three-stones of Millie without puffing, panting or breaking a sweat, and being able to rock Gabriele to sleep in my arms for as long as it takes at night without breaking and having to put him down is absolutely priceless. I feel so capable and positive about undertaking any task because my energy levels are through the roof and I tackle every activity like a smiley cheesy robot. I’m standing tall and holding my head high because I feel ontop of the world with enthusiasm and physical strength.

And some of my extra energy recently could be down to the fact that Gabriele is now sleeping so much better at night and I almost forget that we have a baby in the house nowadays. He’s come on leaps and bounds since the early days when he was crying for a feed every hour and a half, and it’s hilarious when we try to wake him in the morning for the school run and he grunts and rolls back onto his front trying to nuzzle into his blanket and go back to sleep. He’s so much like Luca it’s unreal!

Everyday life becomes so much easier, so much happier and so much sweeter with the children, every minute is a blessing and I can’t wait for all of the exciting and wonderful moments we have yet to share, yet at the same time I don’t want to wish the time away. It’s like ground-hog day on Christmas Eve, you can’t wait for tomorrow but never want today to end, and this is why I love being a Mummy, for moments and feelings like this! 🙂

So how are you all adapting to the hike in energy prices? And have you got into the festive spirit now that we’re in November or are you still Scrooging it out for another few weeks?