Jack is now 2 and Rachel is nearly 5 and at school!
So where should I start and what do I remember of the last 18 months since I last posted.......
A lot of things have changed in our lives in this time. Both sad things and happier things.
Mum sadly finally lost her battle with the brain tumor at the end of November 2011. Sometimes I still can't believe it and I regularly have conversations with her in my head. I am so glad that she got to meet Jack, although whether she was really that aware by the end I do not know. The last 3 months it was awful to witness her going downhill and I did my best to bury my head in the sand. I have no idea how my Dad coped with it as brilliantly as he seemed to. She was bed bound and couldn't feed herself or drink by herself which would she would have hated had she been aware of what was happening. In some ways it was a relief when she finally let go although heartbreaking for us.
I cannot say more about this now and I cannot yet really put down in words how I truly feel as I still find it hard to talk about. Maybe one day in the future I will be able to expand but that day is not today.
We also lost Ben and Tiny within a week of each other a couple of months ago. Ben had been battling repeated bouts of skin cancer which finally spread to his ankle bone and chest and the vets suggested it was time to let him go and Tiny, I guess, finally gave in to old age and Dad found her gone one morning.
On to happier thoughts now as I don't wish to dwell on the sad times we have seen..
Jack now has all his teeth and he sleeps like a dream. He goes to bed at 7.30 and wakes up about 6.30. He also sleeps for2 hours in the afternoons when he is at home which is a godsend to me when I work late shifts. Rachel still does not sleep well. She still comes in to our bed every night and wraps herself around me. However on the plus side she is now finally out of nappies at night and dry every night. We had the loft converted last summer and we weren't sure how Rachel would be with the nights with us up there but she had no problem in finding us in the night and now sometimes its as if she is sleep walking and comes straight up, straight to the loo for a wee then straight in to bed and she's snoring again in seconds! She also still won't go to bed by herself whereas as Jack gets dumped in his cot and settles himself down straight away! We definitely got it right with him although we have yet to move him into a bed which we are planning on doing in the next few months so we will have to see if he then stays in his bed or comes up to get in with us too!
Rachel's bedroom has had a makeover and now the next thing we are going to do in the house is sort out our old room for Jack. The plan is to make him a pirate bedroom with a boat bed... We just struggle to find the time.
Rachel is now just finishing her second term at school. She was a bit clingy for the first week but nowadays just runs in without even looking back and I almost never get a goodbye kiss. She is still friends with jess and Mae from nursery but her teacher says she will play with other people now too. She is doing really well with work at school and at the last parents evening her teacher said she is in the top group for literacy and numeracy and she is a lovely girl and a pleasure to teach. We had to check that she was talking about Rachel as she can still be a she- devil at home at times. Outside of school she has swimming lessons every week and also goes to gymnastics every week. I have also just started taking her for horseriding lessons every other Sunday. She is a natural at this although she cried the first 3 times complaining of the cold but so far we have been 4 times and the first it poured with rain and the other 3 it has been snowing!! She has half an hour and at the same time I have an hour in the more advanced class. The first time we went I couldn't walk til the Thursday but now I have no aches afterwards and I just about remember a lot of the stuff I learnt going back 18 years. Rach is very good too and I am so proud. She was on a lead rein to start with but the 3 rd lesson she rode on her own and this week she even did some cantering on her own whether or not she was supposed to I am not sure!!!
Auntie Sarah got married to Uncle Addy finally and rach and I were bridesmaids.
And they now have their first son Zachary Fred Topping. He is adorable and very like Jack. We are highly amused by the name as it makes life very difficult for grandma who gets even more confused with the names zach and jack :-)
We still see Millie and Becs a lot although its quite rare for us to get the chance to play with them! Now I see Becci at work and all we talk about is work and we see Millie at Mandys but its not the same as the good old maternity leave days!
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