Autumn turned 4 on Wednesday this week. Obviously a time for reflection and fun. I've been drawn to thoughts of my first year with Autumn, and I do remember lots of fun, but also a lot of sadness and frustration. Fortunately, her joy and lust for life drew us on through the harder times. We really struggled with the first year, the transition was definitely the greatest challenge of my life. Her first birthday was celebrated with a sense of relief that we had made it through. I am so pleased to say that her fourth birthday was full of fun, family, friends, joy and love rather than relief. You may wonder why the first year was so tricky, well it was a combination of factors, not least of which were the enormous amount of things I did in addition to being Mama to my lovely children. At the time I was running my business as Antenatal teacher (I gave myself 6 weeks Maternity Leave) more than I gave myself from my voluntary position as Coordinator of the local NCT (a mere 2 weeks away from face to face work) - though TBH, I probably set to work only days after the birth. On top of that we were renovating the house with a view to selling, and I was living in a fairly remote village with only access to 6 buses a day, and no car. Then set in a really snowy winter. It was not a good combo, and that is before I even mention that my daughter struggled to feed during the day, I had insane oversupply of milk, leading to lumps. Last thing to mention was my son found the entire experience simply horrendous... he underwent the process of grief of the relationship which we had, and no longer shared. Grief over the arrival of someone who he was made to share everything with, and took over everything, and wasn't even fun. Fortunately, we had a lovely home to live in, enough money to buy food, pay the bills, and a steady income. We continued to have the love of our family, amazing friendships which gave us so much support. Also, by this time Facebook was really coming into its own, and I felt connected with others even when I felt isolated in our home. I am so grateful to everyone who helped us to enjoy this time, and to move on from it in time.
So here we are in 2013, all those difficult things have moved on and are now things that I laugh about now. Evan and Autumn are now very close and particularly good friends, enjoying each others company so much. We got over the breastfeeding issues by about 9 months, the lumps faded by about 2/3 months. We now have another car, and live in a more accessible space. I have rationalised my businesses and ceased my voluntary roles - recognising that my most important role at the moment is being a parent, rather than a supporter of other parents (though I still do that, but not, now at the expense of my own family) I have learned so much in the past four years about my family, myself and how I live my life. I look forward to re-reading this blog in 4 more years time and reflecting on how life has moved on in that time.
So to our week. My mum came to visit from Thursday to Thursday so that she could share Autumn's birthday and take us on a trip to Chatsworth. Our first photo is them sharing a game before we headed off that way.
The Octolab and Octonauts Megapack were complete hits of the day. (particularly with Evan!!!)
Grown up meal in Chatsworth sit down restaurant. I haven't taken the risk of a sit down restaurant (rather than cafe) for a long time, but Autumn's fourth birthday seemed a fitting occasion.. I was glad of the paints that I brought with me though!!
It was pouring it down, so we ventured into the house. True to form Evan and Autumn fully and completely explored the space. Fortunately, the staff were very sweet about this, and offered some interesting snippets to enhance our day.
Bumping down the stairs!
Autumn also enjoyed dancing to my mum playing the Steinway piano, and other people playing the piano. The guide remarked it was very avante-guarde!
To ensure we saw as many friends as Autumn wanted to her party was celebrated on the Saturday, and here is the cake - Tweak Bunny, Engineer.
Autumn was dressed as Dashi Dog, and Evan dressed as Peso Penguin the medic (his usual character). In this photo she said she was going to sit on the cake with her bum!!
We had a staging area in the ahll, in the form of an ocean scene. I took a few photos of everyone here.
I had a number of games organised, and here are photos of the Decorator crab game - you have to hold as many toys as possible for a specifiied period of time. We also had:
Pin the carrot on Tweak.
Decorate a fish
Storys in the Story Reef
Pass the Parcel
Treasure Hunt
Dig your own Treasure (for party bags)
Autumn had some lovely gifts and cards which she was so pleased with. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the day with us.
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