This weekend my brother came down to go to a gaming festival, Insomnia, with Dan for their birthday presents. It ran from Friday – Monday and Friday was an all day thing with an evening event, so they’d be gone ALL day.
We didn’t have a massive amount planned as we’ve had a crazy summer and I quite fancied some one on one time with Alfie. The only plans we had were a birthday party for one of Alfie’s friends on the Saturday afternoon and soft play with the twins on the Monday morning. I’ll talk about the hell that is soft play another time… Other than that we stayed at home, we had lazy lunches, we ate eggs (Dan doesn’t like them!), we played with lots of toys, we built different Toot Toot tracks, we played with the Bug Building blocks, we did lots of colouring and drawing on the etch a sketch, the list goes on.
Now that may sound like a pretty average day with not very much happening, but it was definitely what we needed!
“It felt like maternity leave all over again”. Is how I described it to some friends. I haven’t been off with Alfie on my own, all day, for a couple of days at once since I was on maternity leave. My maternity leave ended a year ago. So you can imagine how different it was then to how it is now. In the toddler stages a lot changes in a year!
Alfie can now (not so good things!):
- Walk
- Talk
- Be cheeky (okay, he was cheeky then so maybe even cheekier!)
- Refuse to nap
- Refuse dinner
- Answer back
- Ask for daddy over and over and over again!
- Run around soft play like a crazy kid
- Take out from the toy box all of the toys I’d just put in
- Draw on my coffee table
But he can also (amazing things!):
- Walk
- Talk
- Be cheeky (as above)
- Say cheese and let me take pictures of him
- Give the most amazing cuddles
- Ask to play with mummy
- Draw me a picture
- Grab my cheeks and give me a kiss (he calls it piss!)
- Tell me he loves me
As much as its been hard work, and my gosh it really has been with him not napping very well not helping, it’s been totally amazing having some quality one on one time with my boy.
He’s made me realise how loving, caring and generous he is within most of what he does. He’s made me realise that he’s growing up too flipping quickly for my liking and I’d quite happily pause him at this age for a few months! He’s made me realise that I love him more than anything in the world and I’d do anything to spend that much time with him all of the time.
Alfie George, you are cheeky, yet totally adorable. You are fierce yet so gentle and loving. You are mischievous and hyperactive yet you love nothing more than to sit on my knee and give me a big cuddle and I’ll always be there for you to do that.
I love you lots and lots, like jelly tots,
Love Mummy xx