Four months ago, our family of five became the family of six we are now. It is tough and exhausting at times, but I am grateful for the five people I have in my life.
Wriggly (4 months)
• You love ‘Bella le Lapin’ your tata Cé gave you. It is your first toy. You like holding it, turning it around and you look pleased with yourself when it makes noise as you are touching it.
• You coo and laugh every time I start singing or humming. They are the most uplifting sounds in the world!
• You are falling into your own little routine, sleeping soundly for seven or eight hours per night.
• You are constantly blowing raspberries.
• You laugh hysterically whenever I kiss your neck.
• You have had your first two baby massage sessions and you have been giggling all the way so far.
• You are starting to get some teething pain and you are dribbling profusely.
Jumpy (1 year 11 months)
• You love taking selfies on my phone saying, “oooh, belle!” (pretty). No self-confidence issues here!
• You are starting to form sentences, and are always wondering where people are. “Where my Daddy?” is the question you ask the most, all day every day. It is very sweet and often comes with a Gallic shrug, which I love.
• You have been ‘off your food’ in recent weeks. I hope your appetite comes back soon.
• You love bouncing up and down on beds.
• You keep stealing your sister’s scooter.
• You are gaining more and more independence and always insist on putting your shoes on yourself, but it seems you prefer wearing them the wrong way round.
• You are a Daddy addict!
• You are now telling us when you do a poo and you have asked to use the potty (pee) a few times.
Beanie (4 years)
• You are back at pre-school and you have been having a packed lunch every Wednesday.
• You really say the funniest things. One of your latest was: “I had a dream about fairies. The baddies didn’t eat the fairies!”
• You turned four, a couple of weeks ago and what a big girl you are!
• Your eczema is coming back with a vengeance.
• You have a new best friend at pre-school. You are inseparable and it is really sweet to hear your little conversations.
• You have a fiery personality and if you disagree with someone, they certainly hear about it!
• You have just started attending ballet classes, and you are in you element there.
• You won the trophy for ‘Best Swimmer’ last week-end, and you were really pleased with yourself!
Crevette (6 years 2 months)
• You have just started football club after school and even though you are not too keen, you scored a goal in the first session!
• You wanted to do some sewing with me, so we used some of your sister’s clothes that were too stained to give to charity to make a teddy.
• You are now swimming whole lengths with ease at the swimming pool.
• Tonight, you are off to see your first England game with your Daddy for his birthday.
Us
• Wriggly and I went to Westminster to talk about Jumpy’s eczema and allergies at a conference for GPs.
• We have been back in our little routine, juggling school, playgroups, play dates, parties, after-school clubs and running from one place to the next most days.
• Beanie and I had a night away from the rest of the family when we went to a party at my friend Cé’s.
• We have just started raising money for Allergy UK.
Another beautiful post Mel, sounds like you have being a mum of four all sewn up! I hope you get Beanie’s eczema under control lovely, I didn’t realise she suffered too 🙁 I love that you have started raising awareness and cash for Allergy UK. Go you!! #supermaman
For Beanie, it started when she turned three. As we had been experiencing it all with her baby sister, we knew straight away it was eczema so it was under control quite quickly, but it does get pretty raw and awful at times. Her skin is very dry at the moment and it is starting to get flaky… As for Allergy UK, I really believe in the work they are doing and I wish someone had introduced me to the charity when we were awaiting allergy testing results.
Oh by the way, did you notice that I used the ‘Family Update’ title you mentioned last time? Thanks my lovely friend. I will stick to that now!
Félicitations pour cette belle famille! J’ai en que deux et parfois c’est beaucoup de travail, j’imagine pour toi…
Merci! C’est du boulot, mais qu’est-ce que c’est beau, une grande famille! J’ai essayé de trouver un moyen de souscrire à ton blog (par email, je m’y retrouve bien de cette façon), mais je ne sais pas comment faire.
I love your family updates – what a great way of keeping track of all those little moments and milestones. Love that Wriggly is cooing and laughing (what beautiful noises), Jumpy asking “Where my Daddy” accompanied by a shrug, well done Beanie on winning the ‘Best Swimmer’ trophy and hope Crevette enjoys going to the England game 🙂
Thanks my lovely. I really enjoy writing them. My boys had a great night!
A part Facebook et bloglovin j’ai ne pas un autre endroit pour se souscrire.
Pas de souci, je te ‘like’ sur Facebook!
Awww such a lovely post. I still remember when you are writing a post about your hospital bag! Had it been 4months already???? #binkylinky
Time flies, doesn’t it?
It’s lovely to read your updates. How quickly they grow #binkylinky
Thanks Louisa. They do grow incredibly quickly!
Wow for some reason I thought you had two littlies, not four like me! Lovely post 🙂 #PoCoLo
Four little monkeys, just like you! I love my large family. x
Aww lovely update on your little family! Such a sweet post! Xx #pocolo
Thanks lovely! I love writing those little updates.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – you are a marvel! So many young children, you must be exhausted. They all sound like poppets though. What a lovely post to read 🙂
Thanks for the compliment, Suzanne. You are making me feel all emotional. They are little poppets (most of the time) but yesterday, the girls were so badly behaved in town I wished I could hide in a hole!
Great post. Thanks for linking up to the #BinkyLinky
Thanks. x
So great to read! Such a lovely post x
Thanks Kim
What lovely memories and great photos! First time I’ve seen your blog #binkylinky
Thanks! I am glad you found your way to my little blog through #BinkyLinky!
aww beautiful family! xx
Thanks Susan
Oh Mel, what a gorgeous post and what a lovely thing to do on your blog so that you have it for all time for all of you. Your little ones will look back on this in years to come and I think that is a wonderful thing. Thank you for linking to PoCoLo 🙂 x
I love reading these little updates again and again. It reminds me how precious time is and how quickly these little people develop and change.
What busy but wonderful life you lead! Such a good job that Wriggly sleeps so well. Potato loves jumping up and down on beds too. Be bought him a small trampoline for his 2nd birthday which he adores. It’s perfect for bunting off toddler energy when it’s too unpleasant outside! Well done Beanie and Crevette on the swimming too. We love swimming too 🙂
Jumpy would love a small trampoline! We have no space at home so I think we will get her a scooter for her 2nd birthday.
Wow! 4! I’m not sure how you do it but sounds like you do it very well 🙂 xx
I am not going to lie and say it is easy every day… It can be tough when you try to do it all, spend lots of quality time with the children, cook nice meals, have a house in which you can put a foot in front of the other, get some work done. But at the end of the day, it is all about these 4 gorgeous little people and I love them so much!
What a lovely post and you have a beautiful family I am sure you are very proud of them and you should be
Thanks, I certainly am! They are such a bunch of cutie pies!
Sounds like everyone is doing really good 🙂 Shame about Beanie’s eczema, my little boy suffered really bad with eczema where it got red raw and bleeding from the scratching over 80% of his little body, I had used all creams possible with no change, I didn’t like to use steroid creams, but couldn’t use them anyway as his skin was cracked from the eczema. This summer I was advised about amber bracelets that could be used to help eczema, I ordered them – what was the harm – and I haven’t used any cream in the 3 months he has had them on and within a month he was completely clear. He gets the odd patch now and again and I will just use a little moisturiser on the area and its gone by the morning, I wrote a post on it not long ago.
Two of my girls have amber necklaces. I know not everyone likes them, but we have found them brilliant to reduce teething pain and dribbling.
What a lovely family update. It sounds like they are all doing so well. So sorry I didn’t get chance to come and say Hi at #bcuk. Hopefully there will be a next time Zx
Same here! I glanced at you a couple of time during sessions (saying hello across the room at those points would have been highly inappropriate!) and then I forgot (nappies, feeds, no brain cells left!).
What a lovely round up with some gorgeous pictures #magicmoments
Thanks Afra. It was lovely meeting you on Saturday.
A wonderful post on family life, I love the way you write these post, they will be wonderful to look back on one day. Love the purposeful scooting through the autumn leaves. #MagicMoments
Thanks Fiona. She struggled on the grass with the scooter, but she is a determined little thing!
Lovely post Mel. It’s my first visit to your blog which is looking fab. #MagicMoments
Thanks Jo! I have been on yours quite a few times and I love it, too!
What a gorgeous update, remembering the little things that make your family who they are. It was really great to meet you on Saturday! #magicmoments
Thanks Kate. Sorry if I scared you when I shouted, “Oooooh, you’re Kate from Family Fever!”
Hello there, this is a great post and you are such a lovely writer x #magicmoments
That is such a lovely comment, thanks a lot!
It’s a pleasure, I always enjoy reading your blog! x
Thanks! x
My baby is about the same age as your youngest, but she was only my third. Gotta say I’m loving the business and mayhem that comes with a slightly larger family. I reckon 4 kids must be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.
It is a lot of work, but they are so worth it, aren’t they?
My Z loves the scooter right now, and his tricyle and is forever doing it in the house too!! Wriggly looks adorable and sounds even more so with the hysterical laughing 🙂
Jumpy keeps trying to ride her sister’s scooter in the house, but it is really noisy on the floorboards. Poor neighbours!
Hope the eczema clears up soon x My hubby has it and I know how the weater turning has such a big effect on it. He’s using a pure coconut oil right now which is helping soothe it a lot
Coconut oil is great. I use it for baby massage on Wriggly, but never thought of using it on the girls’ eczema. I will give it a go in the morning as it is a lot less thick than their ointment. Thanks for the advice!
I have no idea how you cope with four children! One drives me mad 🙂 Gorgeous photos x #MagicMoments
Most of the time, I am sure I just muddle along, ha ha! x
HI Mel, love this family update, what a lovely idea. That photo of baby Wriggly made me feel broody!!! Gosh, babies are so edible! Good luck with the Allergy UK fundraising. xx
Thanks lovely. Every month, it is my favourite post and I love re-reading the old ones. Little Wriggly really is a ray of sunshine. Happy baby, happy mummy!