We settled into our house in Sheffield at the start of this year, declaring it liveable but accepting there are still many years of work ahead of us. After a rewire, plenty of power cuts and some stress inducing leaks, we have finally decorated the downstairs this week. It will be lovely getting to hang pictures and do other little bits of delayed personalisation over the Christmas break.
Our beautiful girl Robyn arrived in March, thankfully one day before we would have been snowed in with a breach home delivery on our hands! The 9 months since have been as simultaneously hard and rewarding as we expected "2 under 2" to be. We are incredibly lucky that Sam had 6 months off work for us to find our feet as a family of four.
Robyn is a ball of joy. She has always been a good eater and demands to be carried most of the time. But, like her brother, she has decided to skip crawling, so our backs will have to hold out for another month or two while she develops her balance.
Henry throws new challenges at us every week, testing boundaries and blooming in new-found confidence. He has been loving mornings at preschool but predictably has brought home every cold and bug under the sun. Robyn returned the favour with chickenpox from her baby class, which was an especially frustrating few weeks for us all. Henry is very kind and gentle with his little sister and has especially loved cooking with Mummy and seeing lots of his grandparents this year.
Meg has considerately accepted her back seat in all of this, turning into the tolerant, easy going old dog we desperately need. She is doing well, braving the wind to accompany us on daily buggy walks but otherwise enjoying the under floor heating.
Here are some photos celebrating the times we have managed to make it out of the house or been lucky enough to enjoy visits from some of you. Have a wonderful Christmas and hopefully see you in 2024!
Lots of love,
Sam, Emily, Henry, Robyn & Meg