The invasion of the wasps plus some random cuteness

The end of June and beginning of July was pretty busy. Seth was spending pretty much every Saturday studying for his upcoming Masters exams so Caleb and I would pretty much do whatever we felt like doing that day without Seth. One Saturday morning, he went into university to get some studying done and Caleb and I were getting ready to go out. When I went into his room to get some socks for him, I saw a wasp flying around. I absolutely hate wasps, they really freak me out. I think they just look plain scary! So this really wasn't an ideal situation for me. I closed the bedroom door, opened the window and tried to coax it into flying out, which it did, eventually, only for me to then find to more wasps in his room! I was freaking out a little but I managed to get them to leave as well, whilst wishing that Seth were there to deal with it the whole time. Yes, I'm such a girl, I know.

Caleb and I went out for a little while and when we came back, I again went to go into his room to get something. I just walked straight in, as I always do, without even thinking about it. However, this time I was met by loads of wasps! There were loads all over the window, some of them were flying around and some of them were on the floor. If I was freaking out before then at this stage I was going slightly out of my mind! I slammed that door shut, ran into my bedroom and called Seth in tears, telling him what I had found (I wouldn't usually cry over something like that but 1. it was pretty scary and 2. I'm pregnant, I cry at everything these days!). Seth, being the wonderful man that he is, told me not to worry and he would come straight home but told me to go out and get some wasp killer and an electric fly swat thing, so I obeyed!

When Caleb and I went out to the car I looked up at the back of our flat and saw that loads of wasps were flying in through the ventilation brick straight into Caleb's room so there must have been a nest in between those two layers of wall. And even from the outside I could see them all up and the window, in all their waspy glory. Cringe!

Okay, so in this picture you can only see about 4, but there were LOADS!

Seth met me in town and we headed home together, equipped with everything that we needed. (I say we, clearly I wasn't going to be the one going in there and dealing with anything!). When we got home, Caleb and I hung out in the lounge while we sent Seth in to deal with it all. A couple of hours later, he emerged, having killed all of the wasps. All 147 of them. Yes, he counted them all. He's an actuary, he deals with numbers, what can I say?!

So I am glad to report that after that, our waspy nightmare was over, no more came into the house after that, although Caleb slept in our room for most of that week just so that we could be sure!

This is completely unrelated to this post but I just had to put this picture of Caleb on here because seriously, how cute is he?!

We were in Mamas and Papas and he desperately wanted to try on this hat, so I let him. I kind of wish I had bought it now, he is too adorable! Biased Mum, much??

5 years!

So I am a bit late in posting this but it still needs to be documented in my opinion. The 11th July was mine and Seth's 5th wedding anniversary! I cannot believe that it's been five years already, it's gone by soooo quickly. I still think of us as newlyweds but I guess at this stage I should accept the fact that we aren't anymore!

I had a quick look on google to see if we shared our wedding date with anyone I'd heard of (I do the same with my Birthday and I share that with Liszt, the composer and Christopher Lloyd. That's right, I share a Birthday with Doc. Brown from "Back to the Future". That makes me cool, right?) and it turns out that Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan got married on the same day. I really like them both so I'm okay with sharing the date with them ;).

Being as it was our anniversary I thought I would share 5 random facts about us.....

1. I got to know who Seth was as my older sister dated his older brother. She always thought that Seth was really great but I doubt at that stage she thought that he would end up being her brother in law!

2. I am five years older than Seth. I found it a bit weird when we first started dating as I could still remember when he was shorter than me but needless to say, I soon got over that!

3. Seth started to like me when he was 14 years old. At the time, I was a youth leader for our church and he was one of the youth. I thought he was really nice and funny and thought it would be cool if he got together with one of my nieces when they were older, ha ha! Clearly, that didn't happen!

4. Seth froze hell for me. I sing a lot with my sisters and he told me he would love to hear me sing. I was pretty self-conscious about singing on my own and I told him that I would sing for him when hell froze over. When I next went over to his house, he produced a huge block of ice with letters spelling out "hell" frozen inside. Well played.

5. We did ballroom and Latin dancing for 2 years while he was at university. He said that when we got married, I could choose something for us to do together, whatever I wanted, and we would do it. So this is what I chose! We got our bronze and silver awards in Latin dancing and got our bronze in ballroom. I absolutely loved doing it and wish that we had more time now we live in London to do it again.  

So there you go! I love being married to Seth, he's a great husband and I love how much fun we have together and how I can always be completely myself with him. I remember before we got married and I thought that in some ways, being married would be so different. I honestly thought that I would have to go on shopping trips without him so that I could buy tampons without him being there. Within about three weeks of married life I sent him out to go and buy tampons for me, so that quickly went out of the window!

I am the most indecisive person in the world and I can't stand having to make big important decisions but I'm so glad that I made the right one in marrying Seth. Life is pretty sweet!

little changes

There have been a few little changes around here recently. Or, more specifically, changes with me. Regardless of how much sleep I get, it never seems to be enough. I look forward to Caleb's nap times as it means that I can get a little shut eye too. I am a lot more emotional than usual and it will just take a slightly sentimental advert on TV to get me welling up. I can't stand savoury food AT ALL. And I pretty much mean, nothing. It literally makes my stomach churn and if I actually manage to eat an entire meal and keep it down, it's a victory. I want to eat sweet things all the time and they are literally the only things I want to eat. Chocolate, ice cream, cake, chocolate milkshakes, you name it, I want it. My nose is so sensitive to smell, it's unbelievable, and it seems that no one else can smell the things I can smell. There is only one obvious reason for all of this, of course......

 Seth and I are so excited, and I'm sure Caleb would be too if he actually understood! He is a little bit obsessed with babies and wherever we go he seems to notice them, so I'm sure he will be thrilled with a little brother or sister.

Being pregnant this time round has been pretty different to when I was expecting Caleb. With Caleb I was pretty lucky, I had a bit of nausea in the morning but no actual sickness, and the nausea would tend to disappear at around 11am. I still liked all of the food I usually liked. Of course, I was still exhausted as I am this time, which is just one of those expected things, growing a baby takes a lot out of you! This time, I am nauseous from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed and as I mentioned previously, I'm having a bit of trouble with managing to eat! Things I usually love, I now can't even stand the smell of. Poor Caleb gets the fright of his life every time he hears me being sick, he gets so scared and we have to cuddle for a little while afterwards to reassure him that everything is okay (and of course, I just hate those cuddles.... ;)). And yet, even though I am feeling pretty terrible, I also kind of like feeling that way too, because it means that I am pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather not be feeling like that and still be pregnant, but it's just one of those things!

I had a scan at 9 weeks and again today at 12 weeks 4 days and we were able to see the baby moving around which is so exciting to see. I wondered if I'd be as excited as I was with Caleb being as this is the second time round and I really am every bit as excited. I'm not wishing time away because I know the baby will be here before I know it (whilst at the same time I know it will feel like I'm waiting forever!) and also, it's just nice to soak up all of the time I have with Caleb until the baby comes. Life is feeling pretty good at the moment!

On feeling sentimental

I was never one of these girls who knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. My sister, Laura, from the age of around 8 new that she wanted to be a lawyer and she did that and more, she's now a senior law lecturer at a university in Liverpool. I always wished that I knew what I wanted to do or be but I seriously had no idea!

When I graduated from university, I was still none the wiser on what I wanted to do. I worked in an insurance company, I then went travelling, came back and worked at BMW, then was an estate agent for two years. See what I mean about no direction? I then applied for a job as an administrator at an art school. It was a complete change and like nothing I'd ever done before. I was fairly in over my head! There was a lot of jargon that it took me a while to learn and I didn't end up being there for very long as during that time, Seth proposed, we got married that summer and we moved to Lancaster. And there I got a job at Lancaster university as the programme coordinator for the MBA programme. I worked in this job for two years and I liked it a lot, I loved working at a university and being around the students (who I didn't always get to see as they were doing the executive MBA and so were part time). I just liked the overall feel and atmosphere of being there.

Seth then graduated from university and got a job in London so we moved here. I decided that working at universities was what I liked and got a job as the undergraduate programme coordinator for the history programme at Goldsmiths. It's funny because when I went for the interview, I didn't like the area of London hat the university was in and so I decided that I wouldn't want the job and I would just treat the interview as good practise. Then I had the interview and immediately liked the people and the place. When they offered me the job I didn't hesitate for a second in accepting the position. I loved it! And I have never really loved any of the jobs that I have done, but this one was different. The staff I worked with were amazing and I loved always being in contact with the students and getting to know them and their stories. Some of these students had been through so much and had so many struggles and they were still at university, doing their degrees. One student who I got on really well with was married with a daughter and she was pregnant with her second baby when she started university. She had him at around Christmas of the first year and was back within a couple of weeks. I really admire students like that who still make the decision to come to university.

I was only at Goldsmiths for a year because then I had Caleb and didn't go back to work. The first years that I started with have now finished their degrees! I'm friends with a couple of them on Facebook and it seems so surreal to be reading their statuses about finishing university and moving on to the next chapter of their lives. I seriously don't know where the time has gone though, when I was at uni, those three years felt like an eternity and yet now those first years have finished! Surely they have only just started?! Although saying that, in that time, I worked at Goldsmiths for a year and have had nearly two years with my lovely Caleb, so I guess that a lot has happened after all. So like I said in the title of this post, I'm feeling a bit sentimental right now and I'm also strangely feeling kind of proud of those students for all that they have achieved. For someone that never knew what they wanted to do career-wise, I never thought that I would actually end up finding a job where I got such satisfaction out of what I did and I am really glad that in that time I got to meet and associate with such great people.

Oh and as an aside, while I'm talking about universities, a couple of weeks ago, part of the next Avengers film was being filmed at my university, UEA. My brother in law works there and he saw Chris Hemsworth. I don't care what you say, I think that's pretty cool!

Positive

A few days ago, my friend tagged me in her status for the "5 days, 3 positive things" challenge. I don't usually like being tagged in stuff that I have to do because half the time I then forget to do them, or it's just things I don't want to do (no make up selfie, anyone? Although I did actually do it!). However, I accepted the challenge.

If you don't know what the challenge is, for 5 days, you have to say 3 positive things about that day and then tag other people to take part and do the same thing. I thought it might be nice to spread a little positivity so I did it. My days went like this:

Day 1
1. Caleb let me sleep until 8am.
2. Seth got home from Hull safely (he had gone up there the day before to see his sister)
3. We had a lovely time playing with a friend and her son at the park.

Day 2
1. Got to catch up with friends at Caleb's toddler group.
2. I bought a new dress and it was on sale! Happy times.
3. Caleb fell asleep within a few minutes of me putting him to bed that evening.

Day 3
1. Had a lovely lunch and catch up with friends.
2. Caleb wanted lots of cuddles that day and I was loving it!
3. I had made extra dinner on day 2 which meant that I didn't have to cook on day 3.

Day 4
1. Caleb and I got to Norwich safely (went to see the fam - more on that in another post!)
2. Went to a brilliant inter-schools concert where my sister was conducting one of the choirs.
3. Got to see the ginger children (Sam and Cait, my nephew and niece).

Day 5
1. Caleb and I had a lovely day with my wonderful family.
2. Mum got up at 6am to be with Caleb and hang out with him so that I could have longer in bed!
3. I arrived home that evening to be with my wonderful husband. 

As you can see, some of the things that were positive weren't particularly spectacular or amazing things and on a couple of the days when things really weren't going that well, I struggled to think of anything positive at all! But in doing this challenge it reminded me of a talk I heard at our church's general conference in April, called "Grateful in any Circumstances". It talks about being positive and grateful, regardless of the circumstances that we might find ourselves in. I have to say, I'm not always the best at that and it can be pretty easy to adapt a "woe is me" attitude when things aren't going brilliantly. However, I'm glad I took part in the challenge as it reminded me to see the positive in things every day and to be grateful for them.

"Carry you!"

Caleb has just gone down for his nap so I thought  would take the opportunity to blog about the cuteness of our morning while it is still fresh in my mind!

It is a gorgeous sunny day today and really warm, so Caleb and I walked into town (I walked, he was in his buggy). It's about a 4.5 mile round trip and when we probably do this walk a couple of times a week. On the way, Caleb is in his buggy and on the way back, he usually walks most of it. We did a few things while we were in town, which included buying him some sunglasses. He is so thrilled with them!

While we were there, I started to not feel that great so decided to head back. It would probably have been easier to keep Caleb in the buggy and just walk home but he knows the routine and obviously wanted to walk! So he did, I put his reins on him and he walked for around 100m. Then he decided that he didn't want to walk anymore. He stopped, turned to me with his little arms outstretched and said, "carry you!" I tried to persuade him to go in the buggy again, but no, he wanted to be carried. Part of me was quite happy because I enjoy carrying him when he asks me to, he's so independent and doesn't really seem to need me that much so I like it when it happens! But the other part of me thought that it is such a warm day, I don't feel great and I don't really want to have to carry him all that way.

The nicer part of me won on this occasion and I'm so glad it did because we had such a lovely time! He kept taking both of our sunglasses off, tapping them against each other and saying "cheers!" like they were drinks. He also wanted to see my eyes so he would pull off my glasses and point at / poke me in the eyes which he thought was hilarious. On a few occasions on the way home I asked him if he wanted to walk and would try to put him down but he would grip on with his legs and say "carry you!". Then I would rearrange him into a position that was comfortable for me to carry him in and he would rearrange himself into a position on my hip that was more comfortable for him! We chatted away and sang songs ("Royals" and "All of Me" in case you were wondering - they're two of his favourites) and I kept telling him that he should carry me, which he thought was pretty funny. During the walk, he took our sunglasses off again and swapped them so that we were wearing each others, then kept saying, "cool!" as he was looking at me / his reflection in the glasses I was wearing. That boy makes me laugh so much.

Finally as we were walking through an outdoor shopping area to get home, Caleb decided he would walk for a bit and push the buggy as well. I was holding his reins and at one point, he tripped and fell. I tried to stop him falling by pulling on the reins but probably made it worse because he then kind of swung into the side of the buggy and hit his head on the metal frame. Cue lots of tears! He doesn't usually cry when he hurts himself, he just jumps up and carries on so when he's properly crying I know that he is actually hurt. I knelt down to hug him and he wrapped his little arms around me and lay his head on my shoulder. At first, I thought I was the one who was rocking us back and forth and then I realised it was actually him! He finally let go (I never let go of him first when we cuddle, I like to make the most of it! Plus, my sister once told me of a quote that said, "when a child hugs you, never be the first one to let go; you never know how much they need it". I kind of live by that now!) only to go to the changing bag, pull out his muslin (his comforter of choice), come back to me as I was still kneeling on the pavement and continue to cuddle me, even though he had stopped crying at this point. My heart may have melted a bit.

We both carried on walking and when we walked past a bench, he pulled me by the hand towards it and said, "cuddle!". So we sat on the bench, he laid against me and we sang "Annie's song" (one of his favourites if he's hurt or something) as we cuddled. He was singing along too (and in tune with me, I might add! That boy is a musical genius! Either that or we were both horrendously out of tune ;)). After that, I carried him the rest of the way home.

As I said, he's napping now and I'm still not feeling that wonderful but I'm so glad that rather than insisting on him going back in the buggy I carried him because we had such a lovely time and there were so many sweet moments during that walk home that again reminded me how blessed I am to have such an amazing boy.

Disclaimer: In case you're reading this and thinking that I think I'm pretty amazing, I really don't think that at all and I know that there are a million things I could be doing so much better. I have plenty of days where, as lovely as Caleb is, he is really hard work and I feel like I am really not cut out for this motherhood thing, but today it just reminded me to cherish the little things because really, they are the big things!

Developments

Can you believe that Caleb is actually going to be two in less than two months? I'm not sure I'm ready for that, it seriously only seems like five minutes ago that he was born and a cute little new born baby who I could just cuddle lots. And now, he runs around like a mad thing! That boy just loves to be on the move ALL THE TIME. He is just so busy and into everything. I thought I would just blog about some of his recent developments because I think they're cute and even if no one else cares, I know that my Mum at least reads this and she can never get enough of Caleb so at least one person other than myself will find it interesting!

He has started to say "I love you"! It is the cutest thing and it makes me melt every time he says it. Usually he says it in response to me saying it to him first but the other night when I put him to bed, he said it first! It was adorable.

He has recently developed a love for teddy bears. One of them is actually mine, it's a bear wearing graduation robes which my Mum got me for my graduation (obviously) ten years ago. He is obsessed with it. Seth said to me the other day that he is sure that when Mum gave it to me that I wasn't thinking that in 10 years time my son would love to play with it. He's quite right about that! The way he says "teddy bear" is really sweet, he puts the emphasis on "bear" and I love hearing him say it. Yes, I do make him repeat it over and over and pretend that I don't know what he's saying just so that I can hear him say it. I'm a good Mum like that.....

He can count to thirteen and backwards from 10 to 1. He also recognises numbers up to 10 and when we're out and about, he will randomly shout out numbers as he sees them. This worked really well for me when I went to the hospital for a blood test a couple of months ago. You go in and take a ticket and they have the board where your number flashes up. We were waiting there for around 45 minutes but Caleb was more than happy to be there as he was busy calling out the numbers as they came up.

He is beginning to recognise letters and he knows all of the letters in his own name.

He is beginning to get more cuddly! This makes me so happy as he really can't be bothered with cuddles most of the time. When I get him up from his afternoon nap, we will sit on the sofa and watch CBeebies and cuddle for a few minutes. It never lasts more than a few minutes but I'm grateful for what I can get! The other day, he walked up to Seth in the kitchen and said "cubble me!" (cuddle me). Seth bent down to him and Caleb threw his arms around his neck and put his head on Seth's shoulder. I must admit, I welled up a bit.

He has started to tell himself off. A couple of weeks ago I heard him say to himself, "no Caleb, naughty! Get down! Good boy". I went into the lounge to see that he had climbed onto the TV stand and was sitting there. I must admit, it's so hard to try and discipline him when I am trying not to laugh!

He knows the names of everyone in our families. This is not an easy thing to learn as Seth and I are both from big families and we have about 18 nephews and nieces between us. It's really sweet hearing him pick these things up.

He has started to repeat things that we say. Luckily, we never say anything that we wouldn't really want him to repeat but it's so funny hearing it. A couple of days ago, Seth said, "thanks babes" to me (by the way, he never calls me "babes" seriously. Just when he's trying to sound like an east Londoner) and Caleb repeated it. Not quite sure how I feel about my almost two year old calling his Mum "babes" but it was pretty amusing.

Okay, so I actually ended up sharing quite a lot of developments! And I know that there are probably so much more. Caleb is growing up so fast but I love seeing the little person he is becoming.