A first

This is Maddy's first ever wee in the sea. It's a fairly full beach, so this is us being surreptitious.

Obviously the removal of pants, followed by the five minutes it took to persuade her to crouch fully into the water, whilst Matt takes photos, possibly hindered this aim.

Farm girl chic

Team GB

Only Maddy emerges from this photo with any shred of dignity still intact. The rest of us need to avoid camera and bicycle helmets in the future.

Regardless, I needed to post it as it was our first bicycle trip en famille. We took approximately 2 hours to get ready, and then I curtailed the trip at the end of the road, based on my entirely rational fears of exposing an 8 month old to erratic London traffic. 

All in all, a complete fail.

A Kaleidoscope of colour

There's so much going on in this picture that, like Maddy, I'm also wearing sunglasses.

It's Maddy's third Birthday and she's wearing every single present she ripped open a mere nano-seconds before.

We've put Theo in some jolly red tights and have forced a paper hat on his head, the elastic no doubt cutting into his delicate baby neck, meaning he's probably only minutes away from being garrotted.

It's Christmas...

It's Theo's first Christmas. We have a tree, the presents have been wrapped, there's a joint of beef ready to go in the oven and I've spent about 3 weeks making gravy from cow bones.

Should have been idyllic, really, but this photo masks the fact that I haven't actually slept properly for about two months, and I'm precisely 2 days away from making a call to a hypnotherapist, who will subsequently get me sleeping again.

Anyway, here's a pic from the day for posterity.

Gender non-conformity...

...occurring before our very eyes.

Maddy in blue.

Theo in pink.

A VERY modern family

Four generations

This picture of four generations enjoying Bonfire night in Lancashire is just prior to Maddy projectile vomiting all over the bedroom that we've placed her in.

We were having a nice time.

Halloween

This was worth the £6 we paid for it from Asda. How we laughed at Theo's scary skeleton face.

This is us in Bath. We actually look pretty well. This is surprising as we (I mean me) haven't slept for more than 4 consecutive hours in three months. My eyes are screaming for my eyelids to close.

5 days old and being 'cared' for by his doting sister.

Precarious.