You burst into our lives two years ago, a much anticipated early Christmas present, a much hoped for healthy baby. And a boy! It was as though we didn't know you could be a boy. Two big sisters - just two, but it could have been a dozen for how it left us feeling - ...
Spring 2011, sitting in Copenhagen airport, sipping a €7 cappuccino and eating a Danish pastry (of course), I browsed through my copy of Marie-Claire, stopping on an article about "Impostor Syndrome" Just the week before, I had been explaining the term to a friend who hadn't heard of it. Many people haven't - it's essentially the ...
As I checked on my almost-two-year old last night, I covered him with a very specific blanket and placed a spare soother right beside his hand. I closed the door rather than leaving it ajar as we usually do. He was wearing two-piece-pyjamas instead of a one-piece sleepsuit, and he had eaten no cheese yesterday. This careful routine ...
"He loves his new baby sister" enthused my work colleague about his little boy, "he's not jealous at all, he's always hugging and kissing her, he's so good" Great so, the upcoming birth of my second child was bound to lead to exactly the same kind of loveliness. I wasn't just basing this assumption on one ...
Mothers: what is the solution? With working outside the home I mean, and the attempts to balance. I have never met a mother with whom I haven't had this conversation - the one about work. All of the below conversations took place over a two week period, just a typical fortnight of interactions: "So you work outside the ...
My third child is discovering nursery rhymes. For the first time ever, I sang Baa Baa Black Sheep for him this week - he will be two years old soon, so this is not something to boast about. I also showed him Round and Round the Garden for the first time - he loves it. And ...
Tongue Tie. Have you heard of it? Most people haven't. I hadn't, when my third baby was born a week before Christmas in 2011. I felt very blessed to have a healthy baby, and excited that we now had a boy. I felt confident about breastfeeding. So very different to how I felt when my first baby was ...
Motherhood can be lonely. Especially the first time. When you don't know anything much, and you're overwhelmed by this small, soft, wriggling being for whom you have suddenly become responsible. When it's your first child, and you have no toddler or pre-schooler to keep you busy, but keep you company and keep you laughing, while you tend ...
This is how homework goes in our house: Me: Clara please can you come and start your homework Clara: (silence) Me: Please, come on, we need to get started Clara: In a minute mum Multiply this and various other responses by well, a lot, and fast forward to half an hour later, when we finally get to opening some worksheets. Me: ...
You stepped silently down the stairs, gliding almost, and quietly joined us in the kitchen. The skirt that grazed your ankles a year ago when you first wore a uniform is now swishing around your knees. You slipped wordlessly into your seat, entirely focused on breakfast to the exclusion of all interruptions it seemed. Including ...