Goodbye, 2013!

Last year was a busy year for my little family. When I look back on it, I remember that I was very tired, run down, and stressed a lot of the time. But it’s important to remember that some great things happened in 2013 too; our family became complete with Lydia’s birth, and we had some great trips and family chill out time too.

January

This time last year, I was quite far into the third trimester of my second pregnancy, and spent the month mostly indoors thanks to the snowy and icy weather. Georgie and I both started suffering a bit with cabin fever I think! I was busy nesting, organising the house for the new baby, sorting out handmedowns from Georgie and buying any new bits we needed.

Post of the month – A Snowy Outing

February

Lydia joined our family right at the end of February, and most of the month was spent feeling increasingly uncomfortable with SPD pain! I tried to cherish the last few weeks of my time as a Mum to one, before the new baby was due. We read loads of books from the library to do with becoming a big sister etc, and there were lots and lots of bump cuddles going on.

I gave birth to Lydia on the 27th of the month, and it’s only looking back now that I really register how scary that hour following Lydia’s birth was, for both myself and James. You can read more about that here – or the much shorter “blokes version” here!

Post of the month – Our last little outing, just the two of us?

March

March was a very relaxed month, as I recovered from the trauma of Lydia’s birth and enjoyed my first weeks with my gorgeous newborn baby. Our family now surprisingly felt complete, and we spent James’s paternity leave adjusting to & enjoying our new family unit. We had a few little outings here & there, and got our new baby girl all registered & official!

Post of the month – When Georgiana met Lydia

April

In April we headed down to my parents in Cornwall to introduce our new daughter to her Grandma! My Dad managed to trump Mum by having to stay over at our house a few days earlier on his way down to Cornwall with Mum’s new car. My brother Mike & his fiancee Katie visited at the same time as us, so they got to share Lydia cuddles with my parents. Shortly after returning home we were off again, to spend a week in Suffolk where Lydia met my Sister & family, as well as James’s Dad. It was a busy month!

Post of the month – Easter adventures at Buckland Abbey

May

After the social whirlwind of April we had a much more relaxed May. We celebrated Georgie’s second birthday on the 1st of the month with a trip to soft play with some local friends, and a relaxed evening at home. A few days out saw us headed to the Birmingham Baby Show, and introducing Georgie to the marine world at the Sea Life Centre.

Post of the month – Birthday fun!

June

This year, June was all about moving house. We found a three bedroom house with a lawn (our previous house just had a paved area) to rent that looked perfect for us on paper and was a much nicer house than the one we lived in before. The big move was in June and we had a stressful month packing up, moving in & unpacking. Georgie loved the garden and spent hours playing outside in the sunshine after we’d moved in, much to our delight.

Post of the month – Magic Moments: Sisters

July

We had a fantastic hot July this summer. We spent time at the park, in the garden, enjoying the paddling pool, and took evening walks enjoying the late sunshine. Lydia started wriggling around more & more, and we headed to see In the Night Garden live at Cannon Hill Park, which Georgie adored.

Post of the month – If you can’t get to the beach…

August

A fairly chilled out month with lots and lots of play, August was another sunshiney month. We continued to enjoy the new garden and headed back down to Cornwall for a week or so at the end of the month. The weather stayed fantastic and we had an idyllic summer holiday with my parents, spending time on the beach, visiting Coombe Mill, meeting up with friends, having a proper “date night” and basically having a lovely time. I think August was one of my favourite months this year!

Post of the month – At the seaside

September

The highlight of September was my brother’s wedding, which was a wonderful day and such a happy occasion. This was closely followed (in Georgie’s eyes at least) by our trip to Thomas Land at Drayton Manor – BIG success! We will definitely be revisiting in 2014, I think. The weather started to get grouchy and so we had lots of fun family time inside, with Lydia starting to commando wriggle around the floor happily. Here on Mama Geek I went a little crazy with over 50 giveaways to celebrate the 2nd birthday.

Post of the month – The Ordinary Moments ~ Playing together

October

At the start of the month, we were in North Wales for a lovely short break. We had great fun despite pretty miserable weather, and the girls loved every second. We came home relaxed & happy, until we opened up our waiting post and discovered that our landlord had decided after just four months that he no longer wanted us there, and was booting us out – we had two months to find somewhere new to live, and no money or holiday left to manage a move. Being faced with the horror of packing up, estate agents fees, moving costs, was all a bit too much after a long day coming back from holiday! For the rest of the month we were busy looking at our options and deciding what we would do next. The girls enjoyed playing with the new puppies, collecting lots of conkers, and visiting family for a weekend. Lydia and I headed to London for a day to visit the Baby Show, and my friend D and I had great fun taking the girls to West Midlands Safari Park for a day at the end of the month.

Post of the month – Our haven holiday

November

November was an exciting but stressful month, as the prospect of our possibly buying a home instead of renting again becoming more & more likely. We started viewing houses and had an offer accepted on one! Lydia started to crawl properly, which was very exciting, and we began to prepare for Christmas. A lot of the month was spent packing up our belongings and moving them into storage, and starting on the mound of paperwork that comes with buying a house. We did have some fun mixed in with the stress, with a day to the space centre, puppy cuddles and plenty of playtime.

Post of the month – “Seeing the animals” at West Midlands Safari Park

December

At the start of the month we celebrated some family birthdays with a big meal, and on the 12th James and I went to see Sarah Millican live to mark our 5th wedding anniversary – she was hilarious! I think I have spent half of the last month feeling poorly, as the stress of moving all over the place left me feeling rundown and vulnerable to the nasty flu-type bugs circulating. The good news is the worst is over and our belongings are in storage, myself and the girls are situated safely at my parents with James staying at his Mums. Our house purchase has been ticking along nicely and after a stressful few weeks at the beginning we’ve been settling in well and our Christmas holiday was just wonderful.

Post of the month – Our Cornish Christmas

Hello, 2014!

Looking forward to this new year, we are excited about our house purchase & hoping it all goes through ok! Our mortgage application has been approved and we are really excited about the whole thing. The house we are buying is structurally sound but basically will be a clean slate for us to decorate top to bottom over the coming years, as it is very outdated and each room will need tackling in turn as our budget and time allow.

I am really looking forward to having a home and not having to move again!

Lydia will start walking in the next few months – since she started crawling confidently in November she has been cruising around and using a walker. Georgie is really blossoming at the moment, and I can’t wait to see what 2014 has in store for both our girls.

Happy New Year!!