That one time when I fell and nearly broke my neck.....

I know that there are some people out there who enjoy cleaning and even find it therapeutic but it is safe to say that I am definitely not one of them; I never have been and I probably never will be. I hate cleaning. Especially bathrooms. I usually get Seth to do it but I decided that this time I would actually bite the bullet and do it myself. I should probably leave it to Seth in the future!

Last week once I had put the boys to bed, I cleaned the bathroom. I did what I have done a thousand times and stood on the edge of the bath to reach the higher tiles. Our whole bathroom is tiled so there are a lot of them to clean! I then tried to clean the tiles that are above the bathroom window, so I put all my weight on one foot on the sink ready to put the other one on top of the sink unit to walk across and reach the other tiles. I thought the sink was pretty secure, but apparently it isn't (maybe it was just the Universe's way of reminding me that I still have a way to go until I lose all of my baby weight, ha!). The sink moved so I lost my footing and fell back. I was frantically trying to find something to grab onto to break my fall and grabbed onto the shower rail, which I took down with me. My head took the full impact of the fall and then I hit my neck on the edge of the bath and ended up laying in the bath at a bit of an awkward angle. Oh my goodness, it hurt more than just a little bit! My head immediately came up in a huge bump and I may have screamed and started crying! Poor Caleb, he had only been in bed for a little while and wasn't yet asleep so he heard it all. He then started sobbing from his bedroom and called through to me, "Mummy, what did you hurt? Stop crying, Mummy, be happy!". I hobbled out of the bathroom and checked that there was no blood before going into his room to try and comfort him, even though I was still crying myself; I'm not sure who comforted who the most as we were both hugging each other and crying!

I then went into the lounge to phone Seth to see if he was nearly home. He must have freaked out when he heard me as at first he had no idea what was going on, just that I was crying a lot, poor man! When he got home, he said I should probably go to hospital to get checked out, so our neighbour came down to look after the boys and off to the hospital we went!

We arrived at the hospital at around 10pm and it took a while to be seen. I went to the urgent care unit first but they then sent me across to A and E. I saw a triage nurse and then saw a doctor. He poked and prodded a lot (oh, the pain!) and decided that they should probably send me for an x-ray just to make sure everything was okay. He then said that they needed to stabilise my neck so he put a neck brace on me and I had head blocks (is that what they're even called?!) either side of me and taped it all in place. I'm not usually that claustrophobic but I really found it incredibly claustrophobic and I panicked a bit. I had 3 or 4 panic attacks during my course of laying there like that! (I was like that for about 3 hours. I am not usually a panicky person and I thought I would be fine but it was actually pretty scary!). Thank goodness for Seth, I don't know what I would have done without him there to calm me down!

I went for the x-ray and for one of them she said that I had to open my mouth as wide as possible. It was pretty much impossible being as though the neck brace was literally forcing my mouth shut! I have this recurring nightmare of my jaw being clamped shut and not being able to open my mouth at all (I had a jaw operation when I was 16 and my jaws were wired together for 8 weeks so it might stem from that!). The radiographer looked at the x-ray and told me that it looked like I had done some damage to my neck. I then had to go back and see the doctor again, who told me that they were going to send me for a CT scan to confirm what exactly was going on. I hadn't been too scared that I had done any real damage up until that point; I thought that the collar and everything was just a precaution! While we were waiting around, I made Seth take a photo of me in my glamorous state! Who doesn't want photographic evidence of being taped down to a hospital bed?!

Going for the CT scan was fun, about 5 people came with me and lifted me across from the trolley to the table for the scan on the count of three, I felt like I was in an episode of Casualty or something! (is that even still on?! I don't think I've seen it since I was about 15!). It turns out that I hadn't done any major damage, I'm just a freak - my first and second vertebrae are fused together as are the fourth and fifth. Who knew?! It's a congenital thing apparently. So I got to go home 6 hours after arriving at the hospital sans neck brace and all was well! I felt pretty bashed up and stiff for a few days and I have a glorious purple bruise on my thigh the size of a tennis ball (I took a photo of that too. Because I am nice, I will spare your eyes.) which has now faded slightly. My head is still sore and the bump is still there although it's gone down a lot.

The moral of the story? Definitely leave the bathroom cleaning to Seth from now on! I think my "injury" justifiably gets me out of it for at least a few years ;).

The visit

A couple of weeks ago, Caleb had his preschool visit! I'm so pathetic, the morning of the induction I actually felt a little bit nervous, I'm not sure whether I felt that for me or for him! I've mentioned a few times that I have mixed feelings about him getting older, ha! I kind of want to keep him little forever but I also love seeing him grow and develop into the cheeky, fun loving little boy that he is!

When it came to picking a preschool for him, I applied to a few because I wasn't sure where I actually wanted him to go to. I had completely forgotten about the one he is actually going to - they were one of the first ones that I called last summer and was told that they had no spaces! Then they called me a few weeks ago to tell me that a place had become available and when I went to have a look around, I knew that it would be perfect for Caleb and I loved it.

The induction went really well. The preschool leaders went over all of the official stuff with the parents and afterwards, the kids were free to wander around and play. Some of the parents stuck pretty close to their children but I tried to just let Caleb wander off to see how he managed without me being close by his side. He loved it! He was so busy playing and eventually, the only way that I managed to get him to leave was by reminding him that Grandma was at home waiting for us! I really hope that it is a good sign of things to come. He definitely seems ready for preschool now, so I'm hoping that he will adjust quickly and will love it when he starts in September.

The preschool asked for me to send in a photo of him and this was it!

How cute does he look? And when exactly did he grow up?! Surely he was only just born? I'm so proud of this little monkey, I just love him! (had I thought about it, I would have taken his bib off for the photo - he always has them on, he is such a dribbly boy, ha!)

Park life

As it was half term a couple of weeks ago, my sister Lin and my nephew and niece, Sam and Caitlin came down to play with us! I don't really get to see them as much as I would like to, so it's always lovely when we are able to get together. It especially makes me happy to see Sam, Caitlin and Caleb playing together, I love seeing the cousins hanging out and although Caleb is quite a bit younger than them, he just loves being in their company and thinks that everything they do is amazing!

Lin and the family recently went on holiday to Utah and they bought Caleb a BYU t-shirt to match Sam's. When he saw it and saw that it was the same as the one Sam was wearing, he immediately started to try and take his own t-shirt off so that he could put on his new one, it was the sweetest thing!

We did the usual thing we do when we get together and went park hopping. We went to Hall Place first for a picnic. I have so many memories of Hall Place as it's where the family all used to go when I was little. We moved away from the area when I was 8 years old, so it's quite funny that I should end up being back down here and seeing Caleb get to experience some of the things and go to some of the places that I loved as a child. The kids were having great fun playing with a giant frisbee thing and we all had ice creams afterwards. You can just see how much Caleb was enjoying his!

From there, we went to a park in the village where my family used to live and after that, we went to the park close to where we live now. Sam, Cait and Caleb especially enjoyed going on the zipwire, we spent a long time playing on that. Who doesn't love a good zipwire?! It was so great to see how much they were enjoying themselves. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Yes, I know I put in a million pictures but with a family this lovely, it just has to be done, I'm afraid! :)

The day we went to Space

A few weeks ago, Caleb and I walked into town and the whole way there and back, the conversation went a little like this - "I want to go to space Mummy, would YOU like to go to space? I am going to be an astronaut and wear a space suit and see the planets. Can we go to space tomorrow? We can go in a rocket and go high in the sky." Yep, literally the whole way there and back. it's a four mile round trip. That boy really wants to go to space!

The next day we decided to make it happen for him, or as close as we could. We could have gone to the observatory in Greenwich but figured that might be a little too advanced for him, so we went to the Science Museum in London. They have a space exhibition there, with parts of space shuttles suspended from the ceiling. I have never seen a little boy so excited! He went charging around that place, trying to find the next rocket to look at. I love seeing how animated and excited he gets over things that he loves. I really wanted to get a good picture of him to capture it but it's pretty dark in there and the photos didn't come out very well.

Afterwards, we went down to the children's part of the museum where he enjoyed playing with the water and boats. He had a great time and didn't even get too soaked, surprisingly.

While we were at the science museum anyway, we also went up to have a look at the aviation section. Caleb loved looking at all of the planes with Seth, he was in raptures. Maybe he will be a pilot one day, who knows?!

Of course, one of his favourite things of the day was being on the train. The boy is obsessed with trains and it's the first time he was actually able to sit on a seat on the train instead of being in his pram so he had a great view and gave a running commentary on everything he saw out of the window. I love seeing things through his little child eyes!

There are so many times when I wonder if I'm a good enough Mum and if there is so much more that I could be doing for him. Whilst there may be many more things that I could do, I love it when as a family we're able to go and do things that he loves to do and I'm so glad that we were able to go to "space" with him!

Four months

It's amazing how fast or how slowly time can pass by sometimes. When I was pregnant, especially in the final weeks, even the days seemed to drag because I was so looking forward to having my new baby in my arms. I really can't believe that our little Levi has been with us for four months now. I know that a lot of people always say, "where does the time go?" but seriously, where did that time go??!

Levi is the sweetest, happiest little baby. Except for when he's not smiling; then he has furrowed eyebrows that make him look so grumpy! Every morning when I look into his Moses basket he greets me with the biggest smile and there is never any doubt that he thinks I'm pretty great! He was born with a ton of black hair and he hasn't lost any of it, except for that slight bald spot at the back of his head.

He loves being tickled, especially on his tummy and under his arms.

He loves dancing and music, so I am hoping that he will end up being musical.

He is so sociable. He hates to be left alone in a room for even a couple of minutes and the more people around him, the better.

He loves cuddles. You could literally hold him all day long and he wouldn't struggle to get away. Or maybe he would, I've not yet tried to actually hold him all day long.

He adores Caleb and will always break into the biggest smile whenever he sees Caleb or whenever Caleb talks to him.

He loves to have his hair brushed or have his hair played with.

He likes to be rocked to sleep. He can fall asleep on his own but when I feed him at around 7ish in the evening, I will always rock him until he falls asleep. Or maybe it's me that likes this more than him, who knows??

He chews his hands all the time. Or anything he can find to chew on. I would say that it's a sign that he might be teething but Caleb did exactly the same thing and didn't cut his first tooth until he was a year old!

He is already showing signs of being independent; when I am feeding him, he will have his hand on the bottle or he will try to pull it out of his mouth. I may have fun with his strong will in years to come, ha ha!

I absolutely love this little boy of mine (well, I adore both of them but being as this post is about Levi, I am referring specifically to him!) In some ways I can't believe that he is four months old already but in other ways, it feels like he has been a part of our family forever. He's pretty amazing, even if I do say so myself!

It finally happened!

Last Wednesday, Seth graduated from university with a Masters degree in Actuarial Finance. He has been studying for most of our married life - he had just finished his first year of his degree when we got married so I'm so glad that after six years the studying has come to an end! (well, almost - he has finished his Masters but he still has a couple more exams until he gets his fully fledged actuary qualification as opposed to trainee actuary!).

Mum and Laura came down the day before the graduation - they were coming into London with us the next day to look after the boys there so that we could get family photos together afterwards. When we left to walk to the station the next morning, it was pouring it down with rain. Thank goodness for umbrellas! Caleb was absolutely loving holding on to Grandma's and Laura's hands as he ran all the way there! The weather was pretty lame the entire day, but we still had an amazing day.

Mum and Laura took the boys to one of our church buildings in South Kensington which is right across the road from Seth's University and Seth and I headed on over to the University so he could get his robes and fun stuff like that. He looks so good in graduation robes, although the photos of him wearing them for his undergraduate degree graduation are in a cupboard somewhere (he won't let me put it on display anywhere! Boo).

The actual graduation ceremony took part in the Royal Albert Hall. It is such a grand and impressive place, I have been to a couple of concerts there in the past and would have loved to have had my graduation there. Seth is so blase about it all, I was so much more excited about it than he was. He said to me that when he walked across the stage to shake the person's hand, he was tempted to sing "Thank you", so that he could say that he had sung on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall. I thought it would have been hilarious had he actually done that but sadly he didn't.

The ceremony was lovely and I felt so proud watching him walk across the stage. He has worked so hard to get to where he is now. When he started his Masters, Caleb was 2 months old. In those two years, we have bought a home, had another baby and he has been working full time. I have to say I am pretty impressed with myself too for handling it all and not having a nervous breakdown, ha ha! Anyone who has a husband who is studying can probably relate to the Saturdays alone with the children and the evenings on their own and trying to always be supportive whilst wishing it was all over with, ha ha! After the graduation there was a canape reception for all of the graduands. We stayed there for about 10 minutes before Seth said that he just wanted to be with the boys and to share the day with them so we met up with the fam and took photos in the pouring rain :).

That evening, Mum and Laura babysat while Seth and I went out for dinner and to the cinema to watch the new Avengers film (Seth's choice, not mine. For anyone who has seen it, you know the new Avengers headquarters at the end of the film? That is part of my university campus in Norwich. I have walked where Thor, Captain America and Iron Man have walked. I know you're impressed). We had a lovely evening and it was a wonderful end to a wonderful day.

(......By the way, I am going to share this blog post on Facebook. If you're going to comment on it, don't tag Seth in it because then he will know that I have written this post all about him and he probably won't love that, he's too humble for his own good, ha!)

What happens in the bedroom....

I'm kind of wondering how many people, having read the title of this post, will think I'm about to blog about something really not blog appropriate, ha ha! Get your minds out of the gutter, people, this isn't that type of blog!

My morning routine goes something like this - I get up, Caleb and I exercise (yep, he joins in, it's the cutest thing ever! He uses his little xylophone beaters as his weights and uses a tea towel as his exercise mat!), we have breakfast, I get Levi up and feed him, we shower / bath and then Levi sleeps and Caleb plays while I get ready. Somewhere within that process, I will have made the bed and yet, by the time I have finished getting ready, the bed will be a complete mess again with the pillows all over the floor and the duvet piled in a heap in the middle of the bed. Many a time if you were in my home you would hear me utter, "Caleb! I have JUST made the bed!". The other day I was putting on my make up and he unmade the bed. Then he went into his room, got his cuddly toys and came back with them. He tucked them into the bed, said prayers with them and said goodnight to them, he made them climb over the duvet like it's a mountain, he hid under the duvet and we played, "where's Caleb gone?" and then he would laugh hysterically whenever I would jump at him jumping out from underneath.

One of his favourite uses for my bed is as a trampoline. He will show me his star jumps and his seat drops, all the while telling me what he is doing. Sometimes he will just lay down in my bed and play CBeebies games on the tablet. If Levi is restless, he will come in to join the party and Caleb will talk to him or make sure he is comfortable. It's at times like these when I realise that - although it can be a little annoying to make the bed multiple times a day - Caleb wants to be with me. I may be doing my hair or my make up which is of no interest to him so he plays around in the room while I do it but all the time, he's with me. And to him, the bed is so much more than just a bed, it's like his own little playground and he is having so much fun with it, he has such a great imagination ans I love hearing some of the things he comes out with. In September, he will be starting pre-school and we won't have time in the morning to play around in our room like that so I just need to treasure these moments and enjoy them while they last!