Slice Of My Life - June
Our first month with Evan, spending days with family and close friends, all who couldn’t wait to meet him and spoiled him with many gifts. Finding our feet with parenthood and embracing all the ups and downs of mum life, it’s been a month of firsts, and some of the happiest moments of my life.
Happy Birthday Max!
We can’t start the June summary without starting with Max’s 1st birthday! I can’t believe he is one already. He has been such a good boy this last few weeks with the arrival of Evan. I already can see they are going to be the best of friends growing up together. He has definitely mellowed out this last week as he has been interacting with Evan more, but he is still just as silly and dosy!
Fathers Day
A day which usually brings me a lot of sadness, with my dad no longer being with us, has now turned into a day of so much joy and celebration. It was so lovely to celebrate fathers day with David and treat him with lots of presents from Evan. In the afternoon we headed to Trentham Gardens and had a lovely lunch and walk around the Italian gardens. Evan got dressed up for the occasion in a fancy shirt and trouser set, I can’t believe how old he looked this day!
Tea for Two
I love pottery, museums and afternoon tea, so why I haven’t been to the Wedgwood afternoon tea before now I’ll never know! The selection of cakes and tea was amazing, I especially loved the blue macaron. I loved the floral decor and bold prints, and it gave me lots of home inspiration for if we ever moved.
Team Day Out
Before Evan arrived, I knew my team from work would be getting together for a day out in June. I set myself this day as a goal. A goal to go out the house without Evan, a goal to get all dressed up, to push myself in a way to get back to doing something which I enjoy.
Now dong get me wrong, I checked my phone a million times for updates from David and after a few hours I really missed Evan, but it did me so much good going to Manchester for the day. I of course had to stop for bubble tea and even persuaded my colleague to try his first! I won’t be in any huge rush to have a day away from Evan any time soon, as I did find it really hard. But I am glad I set myself this challenge and did something that ‘old abbie’ wouldn’t have thought twice about doing.
Sunday Routine
I have tried to start implementing some weekly routines and places to go. Just to make sure I’m getting out the house and have things to look forward to each week. Sundays have become a day for getting outdoors (and having ice cream for breakfast!) Also spending time with max whether that be a long walk or going to his social classes. There have been some weeks I have managed to get out the house all dressed up in a nice outfit, and others where I have left the house with my top on inside out (whoops) but I have managed to keep myself accountable to getting out the house each week.
Finally after taking many many photos of everyone with Evan, me and David got a family photo. I am so proud of my little family and sometimes have to pinch myself to believe how lucky I am that all these dreams have come true for myself. I am looking forward to July (as lovely as it has been to see friends and family) but I think July things will settle down and we can really embrace our new family bubble.
Evan Explores!
Okay exploring may be a dramatic word, but Evan has been going to some of our most visited places. Not very exciting heading to Starbucks and Sainsbury’s, but as I mentioned before it’s been really good for us to set goals of places to go with him. I was so worried about going food shopping with Evan, what if he needed changing? screamed the whole time? Got hungry! All of these things seem silly to have worried about now, but at the time the task of going food shopping seemed like a monumental task. Safe to say we are now in a good routine and these things don’t phase me anymore.
Our Bubble
Towards the end of June it was nice for things to slow down with the volume of visitors and finally have time to ourselves and embrace the newborn bubble. We spent a week relaxing, spending most of our time lazing on the sofa and looking after Evan. David also got into cooking and made som lovely dishes, including a sweet potato curry for me. It was nice to have some quality time together before David starts his new job role and finishes his paternity leave.
Looking Forward
June also came with its challenges, mum life comes with so many amazing moments but also it has its hard times. Times when I really doubted myself, got hung up on ‘what ifs’ and felt like I had no idea what to do or who to turn to. I know these challenges will continue, probably for the whole of my life now I’m a mum! But I have been working really hard using the techniques I have from the last 9 months of therapy. I am happy to say I have now been discharged from my anti-natal therapy and I feel really positive and calm about my future being Evan’s mum. I am so proud to have come out of this journey the other side and have the confidence that I can now be the best mum that Evan deserves <3.