An unexpected moment

I have been going back and forth about this Sunday in my head for over 24 hours now, but it feels right to write about it.

We are members of a large charismatic, evangelical Anglican church, which we have called home for nearly 10 years now.  We walked through the doors in January 2003, with Jack, our new born and knew, in that first service, that we had found the church we were looking for.  Kids Church runs most Sunday mornings, alongside the main service and we are blessed with devoted and able teachers.

This Sunday, we had a family communion service.  At the end of the Eucharistic prayers, Andy our vicar explained that anyone who loved Jesus and wanted to say so was welcome to take communion and that children were also welcome if parents were happy.  As I went forward with the boys, Jack asked me if he could take communion and once I had said yes, Luke asked too.  As we knelt at the rail and the server approached us, Dan put out one confident little hand and was served bread.  So, all three of my boys took their first communion together, clustered around me.  It was utterly unexpected and moving in a way that I just can't put into words.

"By Your mercy, we come to Your table 
By Your grace, You are making us faithful"
Remembrance (The Communion Song) Maher & Redman, Thankyou Music

Happy 8th Birthday, Luke!

Late.  Again.  But, hey, going up before Jack's 10th birthday.

Luke had an epic birthday, full of Lego, Skylanders Swopforce and a pizza hut party which came close to having no pizza at all (long story!).

We also had parents evening recently and Luke and his teacher have clearly hit it off fine.  However, the most interesting comment of the whole evening came not from Mrs R, but from Mrs U, Jack's teacher.  As we wrapped up our meeting with her, about Jack, we said to Dan "come on then, let's go and find Luke" and Mrs U immediately told us how much she enjoys watching Luke in the after school singing club which she helps to run.  Apparently he really enjoys the music and can't stand still - he has the music in him, it seems.

Here he is, with the good behaviour beaver, finally his for the weekend after two years!  Love you, Lukey! xx

We are the pirates, yo ho ho!

It makes me laugh every time I look at it. 

August - summer days

We have had a lovely, lovely summer.  It went so fast, much helped I think by the lovely weather, so different to last year!   It has been most odd to be able to go out without a nappy bag or a pram, very freeing.  We spent a lot of time down at the beach and in the sea.  Dan is turning out to be yet another daredevil - if I turn my back on him, he is in the sea and up to his neck in it. 

He's also learnt the art of cajoling a big brother for a carry.

Dan is FOUR!

Dan was 4 years old yesterday and it was a very pirate-themed birthday.  He had his first birthday party in the church hall, with 11 guests and had a lovely time.  As a total side-note, we had 12 children from 6 different families and of those children, 4 of them, from 3 of the families, were red heads.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Today marks 4 years since I first held Dan, so my apologies for the sentimentality, but here we are having our first cuddle.

 

I thank God every day for sparing him and Colchester SCBU for helping.  There is a little bit of me forever frozen in time, still in the hospital praying and hoping that he will be okay. 

And he is okay.  Noisy and boisterous and okay.  One day I'll maybe get round to blogging about our diversion down the path of early assessment and intervention, but while we're still in the thick of it, it seems a bit raw.  So here's the birthday boy, Capt'm Dan.

July - My Best Friend's Wedding



In July, we went off to Cornwall for my best friend's wedding  We dressed in our best (can you tell?) and had the most amazing day.  Much and many thanks to my Mum for bravely having all three boys for the whole weekend and huge kisses and love to M&M for letting us be a part of their big day. Wishing you long days and pleasant nights.  xx

 

 

April Showers

Dan was 3.5 on April 1st and so off we went for his booster jabs.  As it fell during the Easter holidays, we went mob handed, but despite the best amuse-and-distract efforts of his brothers, he really cried.  Still, as the nurse said to me, that's it now, no more injections until secondary school unless something changes, and they're unlikely to want to sit in my lap for those!

Tiff took the boys away to stay with his Mum and Dad for a few days. The only thing I don't like about working is having to juggle the school holidays.  They had a lovely time and it was nice to have the chance to miss them, if that doesn't sound too awful.

At the end of the month, I got an early birthday present.  I have been wanting a new bike for ages. My current mountain bike is not very comfortable to ride with a child seat on the back and, being unisex, has a high cross bar which makes it hard to get on and off, especially in a work skirt.  What I really wanted was a bike with a step over cross bar and a basket for all my bits (Dan gets grumpy at having a rucksack in his face and who could blame him?).  We'd been talking about it for a while, but were spurred into action when we heard that a small road between home and work was to be closed for three weeks from the beginning of May, making it pretty impossible to drive.

 

 

 Preciousssssssss. :)

 

Of course, it doesn't look quite so elegant with a great big plastic toddler seat on the back, but you can't have everything.

 

The other terribly exciting news of the month, which you will be pleased to hear, I shall not illustrate with a photo, is that Dan has started using the potty, mostly reliably.  Let joy be unconfined. 

Marching On

March was taken up with a short, sweet half term leading up to Easter.  My work was very busy, preparing not only for Easter, but re-writing our Electoral Roll and preparing for our Annual Meeting.  I helped with the last bits of these when I first started there last year, so it feels like full circle to be doing them again.

AND, I won something.  One of my favourite blogs is Parenting, Illustrated with Crappy Pictures.  If you haven't read it, you should check it out, because it is so funny and if you're a parent, the "oh YES" moments are great.  The writer, Amber Dusick, has written a book and did a give-away of some signed mini taster copies.  I won one.  Squeeee!!  It's very funny and I can't wait for the full length book.

 

 

We marked Good Friday by going to a family fun morning at church.  It was crazy-busy with lots of children from both the church family and the wider community and we had huge fun.

Easter Saturday, Dan wasn't very well, so on the Sunday, I peeled myself out of bed early-early to go to the Sunrise Service in the Country Park, followed by breakfast in the church hall.  Tiff was playing in the band for the main service, so it fell to me to stay home with the boys.  It was a beautiful service and I was very glad I made the effort to get up.  The clocks changed the night before, so it was a BIG effort.

It was also very cold.  You could see a circle melted in the frost as we left, where our feet had been shuffling about, trying to keep warm!



Fabulous February

February was short and sweet.

I was scheduled to go and see my bestie - we chose the dates before Christmas.  We met in our first term of University, the autumn of 1993 and bonded over our bookshelves full of Stephen King.   Years later, we went to see him speak at the Royal Festival Hall, in London and have (probably consecutively) numbered, signed copies of the book he had out at the time.  I often think we ought to write and thank him.

So, Tiff took some days off work and so did I and I booked the train down.  It's a long way.  If she's reading, she's nodding and laughing - yep, it's a long way, Wendy, and I do it at least once a year.  She met me at the other end and we had a fabulous time.  I can't really put it into words, so I'm not going to try.  I will say though - the new Die Hard was good.  And there's nothing like going to Cornwall if you love Seasalt clothes and want to try half an hour trying them for fit without the bother of having to send them back.  :)

Wannabe pasty-pinching sea gull.  He was disappointed with us.

So what else?  Valentines Day - Tiff got me a new blue glass bead for my Pandora bracelet and I was surprised and delighted (especially undeserved, given that the night before, I'd said "So, I guessed we weren't going anything for Valentine's?). 

Jolly January

Oh, er, hello there.  I thought, you know, six months...maybe I should blog. :-)

A few of the bloggers I read are doing a weekly round up of things that made them happy.  I love the idea and I love reading them, but I think we have seen that I am unlikely to manage that one.  So I thought I'd try a monthly round up - how hard could that be?  And tonight is the perfect night to do it as I have a powerpoint to write for Jack (the modern child, he has delegated his homework to me), a scrapbook layout to do for Dan and I wanted an early night.  And's it's nearly 10pm.  What could be better?

So, let's start with some cheating.  We have a beautiful new niece and we met her just before Christmas.  Jack was smitten with her and spent the whole weekend asking to hold her.  It reminded me of when Dan was born and even when he was screaming and stinky - Jack wanted to hold him.

Moving into January proper, we had some snow, so we wrapped up and went out in it.   Dan was unconvinced of the merits of sledging and stood with me to watch.  Jack and Luke are super confident whizzing down by themselves.

In just over a week, I am off to Cornwall for a long weekend, ON MY OWN, to see The Best Friend.  It will be almost exactly ten years since I landed (literally) in Newquay and told her I was pregnant.  I am super-excited to be going to see her.  :-)