Day 25 - In the garden

(Friday August 13th)

Hmmmm I hadn't realised it was Friday the 13th until I typed the date above. That might account for why I went into a bit of a shutdown and found it hard to function all day.

Still, we had some fun playing in the sunshine in the garden:

And J-cub once again 'helped' me in the garden. And ate some French beans straight off the wigwam. Yum.

Day 24 - Naps are for losers

(Thursday August 12th)

I hadn't written any notes for today, so had to look back through my emails to Jamie (who was at work) to find out what we'd done. After a very late night last night, J-cub and I got up at 10am. 10! It didn't seem like a longer rest than normal though, as he'd gone to bed past midnight and I surely would have spent some time chilling before I went to bed.

At 12pm, 2 hours after he got up, he looked tired so I put him down for a nap. He gurgled and whinged for a while, I gave up and got him up again for his lunch.

At 2pm I emailed Jamie saying:

I can't actually believe he might have gone to sleep. He finished his lunch, threw the bits he didn't want over his shoulder, had a long drink, then came and climbed on the sofa with me, I read the Gruffalo's Child to him about 6 times, we got scared of all the monsters, then played happy monsters to get unscared, then had some songs and lots of raucous laughter, he got the hiccups, then started swiping at his eyes. Are you tired, my love? I asked. He climbed off my lap, toddled over to the door and grabbed the handle. I swooped him up into the cot and have literally not heard a peep since. Thank heavens for small mercies.

Apparently, he woke again not long after and I was shattered by the end of the day. But he spontaneously signed 'teddy bear' and signed 'crocodile' in imitation of Justin on Something Special. So not all bad ;)

Day 23 - Imaginative play

(Wednesday August 11th)

Another trip to IKEA today (inspired by our fleeting visit on Monday, which I'll write more about later). When we got home, J-cub was playing around when he came across my ring sling, and put it around his neck. He picked up his new IKEA cat and brought her to me, I tucked her in and tightened the sling appropriately.

He wandered off and played with his toys with the cat in the sling for ages, stopping from time to time to give her a kiss:

How cute is that?

Day 22 - Back in cloth

(Tuesday August 10th)

It was such a relief today to reach for the bag of cloth nappies rather than a disposable. Out of necessity, we'd used disposables all throughout our holiday - we knew it was going to be a busy week without much time for laundry, and as my parents had an extra 3 adults and a toddler staying with them the demands on their washing machine would be much higher than normal without the added burden of my fluff.

I have to say that it is easier, and quicker, changing a disposable nappy. Plus there's pretty much no worrying about leaks, and it's much lighter to carry around 5 disposable nappies than 5 cloth. All that aside, I missed the cloth nappies so much! Convenience, speed and lightness of travelling aren't really important to me, and I felt guilty every time we reached for a disposable. I can't believe we took so long to switch to cloth, I'm such a convert now.

Plus, however many disposables you take with you, you can still run out. When we went to the beach, we took 5 disposables and 2 swim nappies. As I was carrying him in the Mei Tai, we elected not to use the swim nappies when we went paddling, as swim nappies just contain solid matter, and the rest just runs right out. I didn't fancy having that running down my back. So by the end of the day we'd worked our way through 4 of the nappies. I lay him down and changed him into the last clean nappy ready for the 2 hour journey home. Once finished, I picked him up and stood him by the car. He took hold of the side of the car, stood on tiptoes, and made his poo face. Oh dear.

A frantic search through the car ensued. Could we put him in a swim nappy and put one of the used disposables on top? Or lay a muslin inside one of the used nappies? Walk all the way back down to Spar and buy a whole pack of Pampers, while he stood around in a filthy nappy?

I eyed the stack of muslins sadly and thought that if we were using cloth, it wouldn't have been a problem. I could have just whipped off the dirty nappy, folded the muslins into a nappy shape and covered them with the wrap.

Thankfully, my ever-trusty swim bag came up trumps again (remember we found a tiny newborn hat to stave off the wind?), and we found a too-small but clean disposable languishing in the bottom of it.

From now on, even if we're on holiday using disposables, I'm going to be lugging a cloth nappy and a wrap around with me, just in case.

Day 21 - IKEA rocks

(Monday August 9th)

Today was the last day of our holiday, and we set off on our journey mid-morning. We were making good time until the middle of Somerset, when the traffic on the motorway suddenly slowed down, then stopped. Jamie hastily found some traffic news on his mobile and it became apparent that 2 bad accidents meant we were in for a long delay. J-cub was already getting fussy so we came off the motorway and found an alternative route so we could at least keep moving. Our route took us through Bristol, and as we emerged from the city around lunchtime we decided to go to IKEA for lunch.

It was a brilliant idea. Not only were children's meals only £1.25, they were also small versions of the adult meals, rather than the usual crap-and-chips options. J-cub had meatballs, boiled potatoes and gravy. Yum. They were offering free fruit with children's meals, and we were given a banana, an orange and 2 apples. And free coffee for us.

There was a children's play area in the food area; an enclosed octagonal area with interactive tactical walls, dioramas set into the floor, and tons of soft toys and balls. Around the outside edge was raised seating for parents. It was fantastic. After our lunch, J-cub played in there while Jamie and I sat and drank our coffee. J-cub made lots of friends and took great delight in playing catch with the soft footballs.

We went for a quick wander through the children's IKEA section afterwards, and J-cub picked up a softer-than-soft cat and begged to take it home. He hugged it all the way to the checkouts, was parted briefly for the lady to scan it and then hugged it back to the car and all the way home. Awwww.

We've been to that IKEA before, but not for several years and I had a bit of a panic attack as I'd never been in one before and I didn't like not being able to see the exit. I'm a bit more seasoned now, having spent a lot of time in IKEA Cardiff, and it was much easier to cope with. At least half of our furniture comes from IKEA, and I fricking love it. If I lived nearer to Bristol, I'd be choosing it over a soft play centre anyday. Thank you, IKEA.

Day 20 - I thoroughly disgrace myself

(Sunday August 8th)

I won't linger on this entry. Suffice to say we checked out of the hotel dead on 12pm, I walked to the car, started to drive, and realised that actually, motion wasn't a very good idea.

An hour later, my fantastic sister had rescued me (on the day after her wedding, oh the guilt) by walking 20 minutes to where we were parked, driving us back to her house, getting me clean clothes to wear and tucking me into her bed. When she returned to check on me, I had a blanket tightly wrapped around my head because "my hair's cold". Oh dear.

About 4 hours later I woke up and felt sufficiently human enough to drive the 5 miles to my parents house. They were surprisingly understanding, had been happy to look after J-cub all day, and reassured me that they'd all been just as ill in their misguided youth (and reminded me of the fact that I've only been out drinking once in the more than 2 years since I found out I was pregnant) and it happens to the best of us. And I went back to bed for another 2 hours.

Silly Beth.

Day 19 - My beautiful sister gets married

(Saturday August 7th)

A day in pictures. A day with no tears at all, not a one. Certainly not a sister-of-the-bride who cried constantly throughout the service and barely stopped for the next couple of hours. And certainly not from all the family and friends gathered when my mum read her self-penned reading about her love for my sister, which was quite simply the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.

And my sister was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And I'm not crying now, remembering it, honestly I'm not.

Sadly, J-cub had a meltdown seconds before the ceremony was due to start, so he was banished to the foyer area with Jamie to watch live on the video link, and I acted as ring-bearer ;)

The ceremony was held at Haldon Belvedere, a stunning tower with views across the whole of Devon. Inside the tower, a spiral stone staircase leads up to the room where the ceremony was held. We were serenaded by music from the soundtrack of Amelie Poulain, which I didn't know about, and was very excited as it's one of my favourite films and it was a perfect accompaniment as Sebastien is half-French.

Photograph © Brendan Barry

By the time the register was signed, J-cub had calmed down (the lovely staff downstairs took time out from preparing the drinks to blow some bubbles for him) and he came back up for the signing and photos. He managed to wander in and out of most of the official photographs.

Photograph © Brendan Barry

My dad's sister Susie came over from Canada for the wedding, she sat next to me during the ceremony and held my hand throughout, which helped stem the tears a little. When we came downstairs again afterwards I kept making my mum and sister cry with my over-emotionalness, and I love this photo of us having a mummy-sandwich ;)

Photograph © Brendan Barry

J-cub was still a bit ratty after the service so we jumped in the car and drove around for an hour, trying to get him to drop off. It didn't work but he did retreat into a restful bubble which seemed to revive him a bit. It meant that again we missed most of the official photographs, but we've had copies of them all and they're amazing. This is one of my favourite shots, on top of the tower. You wouldn't know it was swathed in mist and drizzling up a storm.

Photograph © Brendan Barry

We had pink champagne with raspberries to match the flowers, and non-alcoholic raspberry punch for those of us who were driving. The bride got a little bit tipsy fairly quickly ;)

The wedding breakfast was held at the nearby Cridford Inn, and the food was gorgeous. Our dessert was a chocco cup - an edible plate, spoon and cup filled with the most delicious chocolatey yumminess I've ever tasted. I swear I took about 45 minutes to eat it, I just had to savour every mouthful (plus I had to change a rather disgusting nappy right in the middle of it).

After lunch we returned to my parents' house so J-cub could have a proper nap in his cot (for nearly 3 hours - yay!) and we could all have a rest. Meanwhile, my sister and her new husband went to their hotel in Exeter and quite possibly carried on drinking a fair bit. The sun came out at last, and they had some beautiful photos taken in front of Exeter Cathedral.

Photograph © Brendan Barry

The reception was just across the Cathedral green, at the Royal Clarence hotel, where Seb's uncle (Michael Caines, superstar) has his restaurant. The hotel was sumptuous, and we'd arranged for a cot as we weren't sure where J-cub was going to sleep. He came up to check into our room with us, walked straight over to the phone on the nightstand and picked up the handset. J-cub rocks.

Our bed was massive, and our massive baby was dwarfed by it. He quickly found that it was big enough for him to stand up and run across (*argh!*).

After a bottle break, we joined the reception fun and my slightly-the-worse-for-wear sister happily sat and blew bubbles for J-cub. I'm sad these photos aren't better, as it was beautiful to see.

After more tearful family reunions (most of our extended family didn't come to the ceremony as it was very small, but everyone came to the reception), we sat down and dug in to the buffet while my Uncle Billy's fiancee Sue ran around after J-cub. It was great having so many baby-wrangling hands on tap.

I may have eaten several of the wedding cupcakes, they were AWESOME.

After the dinner we let off fire lanterns on the Cathedral green, and J-cub was transfixed by them.

J-cub then spent about half an hour running around in the dimpsy light on the green in his PJs while dusk fell. We went back in to join the dancing and J-cub danced for the very first time! I managed to get some of it on (very dark) video:

He ran out of steam not long after, and we retired to our room to try and get him down. Less than half an hour later (when he was still bouncing on the bed), my mum rang to say they were going home and they'd take him with him. He happily went off with them and we were left with no responsibility for the rest of the night. We carried on dancing until the end of the reception (and not drinking at all, oh no, as you can see from this photo):

Photograph © Brendan Barry

And after the reception was over, Jamie and I decided to go out for some proper dancing in an Indie club. And that's the last I remember...