Dear Darcie,
Today you turn two! (I’m posting this a week late because I’m forcing myself to stop editing it now. It will never be as perfect as I want it to be, it will never be as perfect as you or as perfect as you deserve, but I hope that one day when you read it, you’ll like it anyway).
I just read back over the letter I wrote to you a year ago today on your first birthday. At the end I wrote ‘You will grow and you will change, but please stay sweet, stay kind and stay you.’ That is exactly what you have done. You have stayed sweet, and you have stayed kind and you are still very much the you that you were last year (just with a little bit more sass!). You have changed and grown so much. I can see it happening right before my eyes and yet you are still so similar in so many ways to the person you were a year ago. Continue reading “Dear Darcie, Now You Are Two”
Have you ever noticed how many different ‘types’ of parent out there? The stereotypes. The labels that some people feel the need to assign to themselves or to others. I’ve read so many articles about ‘The Five Different Types Of Mum You’ll Meet At Soft Play’ or ‘Eight Types Of Mums You Want To Avoid’. I’ve never known which box to put myself into and that used to make me feel lost – where did I fit in? Where is my tribe? But then I realised that actually that doesn’t make me lost, it makes me free. It means I’m parenting on my terms and making each decision for myself not because any clique or parenting rule book is telling me to. 
No matter how much you love pregnancy, there will always be some things about life before pregnancy that you really, really miss. Things that you simply can’t wait for once you are no longer pregnant. It goes without saying that the thing I am most excited for after pregnancy is meeting my baby boy, holding him in my arms and embarking on a new journey together. But there are also some other things that I can’t wait for, things that I have sorely missed throughout pregnancy.
If you surveyed a bunch of mums and asked them what they would like most in the world right now, I can guarantee you that the majority of them would wistfully say a Spa Day and then laugh to themselves because, you know, how often do us mums actually get to treat ourselves to that extent? I’ve been longing for a Spa Day since before my daughter was born, nearly two whole years ago, but I’ve never actually managed to find the time to give myself that break and take a day to relax. When Carey’s Manor offered myself and a friend the chance to review the facilities and have a ‘Mums Day Off’, we of course jumped at the chance! After a lot of back and forth we eventually managed to find a day we could both do, when the children would be looked after and we could head off to the Spa and give ourselves the relaxing day that we both needed!
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, but what with being pregnant and looking after a toddler, time has somehow managed to slip away from me in that way that it always does! In a way it is good that I am writing this at 34 weeks pregnant as I have now had almost my entire pregnancy to think about what have been my favourite maternity items and products throughout this time. It’s so easy to spend your pregnancy thinking solely about the arrival of your little one, after all that is the most exciting part! But it’s also important to remember to look after yourself while you are doing the most important job of all – growing your baby. Most of these items are related to being comfortable and treating yourself, which are obviously two very important things for any expecting mum. 
There is so much pressure out there to love your pregnant body. We see it everywhere, from advertising campaigns for maternity wear to the mum you barely know at baby group telling you how marvellous the pregnant form is. And don’t get me wrong, I think it’s wonderful that we are encouraged to celebrate the changes that are happening to our bodies as they grow beautiful healthy babies and prepare to give birth. But what about when you just don’t love your pregnant body? What if no matter how hard you try, you just can’t? What about the days when you feel huge and swollen and yet the world is still insisting that you celebrate? And on those days, funnily enough, having a perfect stranger tell you (directly or indirectly) that you must love your pregnant body -doesn’t help. I hated my body during pregnancy the first time around, and so this time I was more determined than ever to try to celebrate it. Frankly, that hasn’t gone to plan and I’m sitting here feeling as if I resemble a whale and mourning the time when my clothes actually fit me. 
I can’t quite believe that my little baby girl will be turning two next weekend. What I probably should be doing with this little bit of time is organising her party, ordering decorations and thinking about what cake I’m going to make her. But that would make it all seem a bit too real. So, instead of looking forward, I’m going to stick firmly in the present and write down my favourite things about my favourite little person at 23 months old. I haven’t gone back and checked my list from 
Anyone that knows us will know that we love being outdoors. Dan and I are both very outdoorsy people and that has definitely rubbed off on our daughter. Whatever the weather, there will be some activity that Darcie wants to do outside. Whether that’s splashing in the puddles on rainy days or cruising around in her new 
We are walking down the road and Darcie, in all her nearly-two-year-old glory, is waving wildly at the traffic, saying ‘Car!’, ‘Car!’, ‘Van!’. To an outsider it could easily look like my toddler is simply excited to show off some new vocabulary. But to me, and to a handful of others, it looks very different. Darcie is using her magic powers to make the cars move. Obviously. She swipes some of them dramatically over her shoulder as they whizz past us and pushes others away from us using her magical hands, her magical gestures and her magical sound effects. To her, she is moving these cars and deciding which direction they go in, and she’s having the best time! 