This week has been full on busy compared to the last, mainly because I am now back at work! And because I’ve learnt all of the below…
1. 11 weeks might as well have been 11 months! After a day in the office I felt like I’d missed so much and had way too many questions that nobody had time to answer. A week later and in some ways it feels like nothing has changed while I’ve been away but I still best get my head down and catch up quick. (I’ve written a post about going back here).
2. Now I’m back at work I need to balance being a working mum/wife again and now a blogger too! I’m really enjoying writing and I want to build up an audience but I recognise the time I have has now reduced and will reduce even more when back working fully. To try and make life easier I downloaded Hootsuite this week and will be trying to schedule more tweets, and hopefully write blog posts to publish at a later date.
3. My bruv-in-law’s birthday is on steak and blowjob day! I was aware this day existed but couldn’t have told you the actual date. I now know it is the 14 March which also happens to be Mr L’s little brothers birthday. I wonder whether he knows?!?
4. Little miss got into a fight! When I arrived at nursery last week I was asked to read and sign an incident form explaining little miss had been in a dispute with another kid and was now sporting a nasty scratch on her face. I was horrified to learn G had started it but relieved that the other kid was alright and unmarked. We’ve since had a few outbursts over this weekend that have even resulted in Mr L feeling the need to give her a telling off and I’m seriously hoping we can nip any issues in the bud before I have to start keeping her away from everyone.
5. I’m pretty sure Mr L doesn’t realise how much I actually do! I was hoping my being incapacitated from doing most things around the house, doing the food shopping and running around after Miss G would make Mr L realise how much I actually do but instead this week he complained to relatives about not having any clothes to wear because I never do any washing. I wanted to punch him. Needless to say he put his own washing in yesterday and was left to dry it too!! I’m on strike.
6. Shopping with a toddler is now no fun! Shopping with a husband and toddler is even less fun! Little Miss now insists on walking everywhere we go, and despite having ‘reins’ walking translates to running off at every opportunity and touching everything in sight. Although you are saved from having to take chase as Miss G tries to give you the slip, the end result when shopping with both is a screaming child and a very very cheesed off husband (he was already cheesed off about shopping in the first place). It is also always the case that Mr L and little miss walk away with bags of purchases while you give up , admit defeat and order everyone back to the car. Instead of enjoying some retail therapy you feel like you need therapy just to get over the trip. Needless to say I made a hasty purchase in desperation and will now have to endure another visit to the shops to take it back.
7. Next Mothers Day I am going away! With the mother in laws birthday Friday, brother in laws Saturday, and Mothers Day Sunday, presents to think of and buy from little miss as well as from me/Mr L by Sunday I was exhausted. I realise Mothers Day is earlier next year so everything won’t be happening all at once but still. I was lucky to get a lie in until 9.30am but then spent all morning and lunchtime being in a rush and running late for each visit we needed to make. In fairness Mothers Day this year was no different to any day really. No breakfast in bed (in fact no breakfast full stop) and a little girl who only wanted to know daddy. So next year I plan on planning it myself like last year and being somewhere with a hot tub.
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7 Things I’ve Learnt This Week – 2 Mar/8 Mar
This week has been a bit of a strange one and I’ve had days where I seemed to have learnt quite a few things and then a bit of a lull. Its taken a little bit of thinking to come up with 7 but here goes…
1. I had seriously bad hair pre-straighteners! I was sent some pictures by one of my best friends that he had saved from when we finished school at 16 and wow. Why I thought it was a good idea to have my hair cut into a bob when it was thick and very wavy I have no idea. (Evidence below)
2. The same best friend has still not forgotten or forgiven me for a cheeky snog I had while we were out for New Years over 12 years ago and he also kept photos from that night too! Thankfully I had found straighteners by then, however I had dodgy blonde highlights left over from the linpinkk/purple streaks I’d experimented with at university.
3. Houses really do not clean themselves! They also don’t get cleaned by husbands or 2 year olds, no matter how much she tries to help. Like most people I hate cleaning, add a sore foot and a nearly 2 year old trying to copy everything I do and it takes even longer and no matter how clean the place is little miss can make a room untidy in seconds.
4. Plaster and black furniture don’t mix! Having blitzed the house on Wednesday by the time Thursday morning came all the furniture in our bedroom was covered in dust again. Beyond making Mr L strip before he enters the house I’m not sure how to get round this, other than by dusting and polishing every day and that is not happening.
5. Little miss now needs her dodie (dummy)! We have gone from wanting it, to her now telling me “I need it”. This is usually met with me asking her if she is going to sleep before saying for the 100th time that day “dodies are for sleepy time”. I have to hand it to her for being clever though because she now goes to lie down in her sleeping spot on the sofa before again telling me “need dodie in my mouth”. Im still working out how to respond to that.
6. Holmfirth is nothing like I thought it would be! Having never watched Last of the Summer Wine that aspect is wasted on me. OK I took a pic of Sid’s Cafe, but I have no clue who Sid is or what significance the cafe had. I was merely taken in by the big sign in the window explaining this was featured in the programme. Being honest I’m not totally certain what I expected but I was surprised by the number of card shops, which also doubled up as gift shops and other than a few nice cafes, the Picturedrome, the usual charity shops and a larger than I’m used to Co-op that was it really.
7. Mr L hates middle lane hogging! I’m not sure whether the OH was a little annoyed anyway but he had full on road rage on the motorway Saturday and it seemed to all be aimed at people who ‘hog’ the middle lane. I don’t remember ever seeing this side of him but he was getting really quite irrate and typically there was a flurry of offenders on the road that day.
Wonder what next week will bring?!?
A Day For All Us Mummys
As 15th March approaches and brings with it my second Mothers Day, I thought I would reflect on the first one last year.
I remember being super annoyed that Mr L had already enjoyed his first Fathers Day way back when Georgia was less than 2 months old and I’d had to wait until she was almost 11 months but I was also super excited. By early February I was already thinking about what we should do to mark the day, I was conscious that we also paid homage to our own fantastic mums and that my mum enjoyed her first Mothers Day as a Grandma too.
After speaking to my mum we decided to spend the morning, weather permitting, going for a walk round Oakwell Hall Country Park. This meant we could take the dog, enjoy an ice cream and get some fresh air before further celebrations in the afternoon. As a special treat since it was ‘my day’ and after asking for 5 months, Mr L finally let me carry Georgia in the baby carrier (he always argued it was too much hassle changing all the straps so it fit me and that as she got bigger he was saving me from back ache). As daft as it sounds I was so proud to have her strapped to me and was determined to make it through the whole morning without proving him right.
In typical ‘Brockman’ style the morning was always going to go downhill literally! Faced with the option of using steps from the hall back to the field area, or a grass slope we chose the slope naturally. With my precious cargo I was very careful to go slowly, with Neil by my side just in case. Mum on the other hand was left to fend for herself and before we knew it there was a thud, and we all turned round to find her sat on the muddy grass in fits of laughter with Buster (the family dog) starring at her. Cue us all bursting out in fits of laughter too.
For the afternoon I wanted to try and get both families together to celebrate so I floated the idea amongst everybody. Before I knew it there was the 3 of us, my parents and sister, Mr L’s parents, his brother, sister-in-law and 3 children and her mum and sister all on board so I booked a table for 15 at a local Italian restaurant. We enjoyed delicious food and had plenty of laughs, in particular about the morning events, which by this time had gone viral around our wider family.
I’ll admit I’ve given less thought to how to mark the day this year. Over the last year theres been lots of special days and I feel very lucky to be a mummy. Having Georgia has made me appreciate my own mummy even more, so I’ll let her choose what we do, as long as it doesn’t involve slopes or mud. Thanks for reading x
A Toddler and a Broken Foot 
