Merry Christmas pigeons.

May you eat, drink and be lovely.

x

Grumpy and hairy.

"They're pretty and furry but you wouldn't want to piss one off.

Also, they have their babies in twos."

Nye, on polar bears and why they might be my spirit animal.*

Bears, by Little Love Blue

*his is the meerkat. Also those monkeys that like swimming. He's a Gemini.

brat and suzie

When my mum was here last week we took the babies on their first shopping trip, it wasn't as painful as I might have expected. Mostly because Nye spent the day standing in doorways with the pushchair while my mum and I squawked over baby clothes and toys and hats and shoes and and and... Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves more than Nye did. And the babies? They slept all day.

Despite all the cuteness and all of the covetables there was very little that I came away well, coveting. These t-shirts (for grown ups, not babies. Ooh, they should make baby ones. Definitely) by Brat and Suzie that I stumbled across in La La Land have been calling to me since I saw them though, especially the motorcycling squirrel. And hello bunny and stripes, I love you.

*images from Brat and Suzie

*t shirts from La La Land Boutique in Glasgow

Sorry.

Did I imply that I have stopped wondering what babies are for because I now know? Uh, no.

I just added them to that list of things that are beyond me. Alongside gravity, inflation and why Nye puts his dirty socks down the side of the sofa.

Sorry.

*N's dad isn't sure what babies are for either.

four weeks

Hello. Babies are hard work, did you know? I thought I knew but I didn't. People told me and I listened, honestly I did, it's just.... well....

It's getting easier though.

The babies sleep sometimes, mostly during the day. Sometimes they sleep at night too. Nye looks after them from 12am until 6am so that I can sleep, which is nice.

They eat a lot. Combined they spend ten hours a day eating. Ten hours!

We go out nearly every day (I would go insane otherwise.) Some days we go to our nearby park with the baby carriers, some days with the pushchair. Other days we go to our far away park and we take them to see the horses. We've also been to the cinema and the shops and the museum and a cafe. We've played in the snow a lot. There have been snowballs and icy toes and snowflakes on the tiniest of noses.

It's been fun.

I ran down a hill last week. My stomach felt like a Shar Pei in a wind tunnel.

My mum has visited, so has my Gran and Nye's parents. We've left the babies with a babysitter and gone out twice now. The first time we forgot to take a phone with us. Or tell my inlaws where we were going. We felt a little like bad parents. But not much.

The second time we went to see Harry Potter at the cinema. I missed my 9pm nap. Come midnight I'm not very nice if I've missed my 9pm nap.

It's been two weeks since I envied people who have no desire to procreate. It's also been two weeks since I wondered a) what babies are for, b) why people want them, c) if we made the biggest mistake of our lives getting pregnant or d) where my passport is.

I have a new-found understanding for women who abandon their children. I don't plan to abandon my children, but I am no longer appalled by those who do. Babies are hard.

The first two weeks are especially hard. And you can't ask your husband where your passport is because then he'll know and he'll lock the door. Or tell the health visitor on you.

But then it passes and one day you realise that you're enjoying yourself and that maybe you don't want to leave any more and the babies look right at you and it's almost as if they can see you. And it's wonderful.

Cactus and Quail

My bestest blog girl Jamie has just launched her new custom stationary website, Cactus and Quail, and you need to be going there right now to admire the pretties, buy the notecards and covet the trinkets. Jamie is offering fully custom designed invitation suites, ready-made illustrations that can be used in a variety of ways and a flea-market where she is selling her small, limited edition creations.

I love.

* images from Cactus and Quail, via A Practical Wedding.